#Blogtour Heart, Be at Peace by Donal Ryan

It's a pleasure to take part in the Blogtour Heart, Be at Peace by Donal Ryan.'

'A stunning lyrical novel from the Number one bestselling author Donal Ryan about love, loss, hope and connection.'

About the Author

Donal Ryan is an award-winning author from Nenagh, County Tipperary, whose work has been published in over twenty languages to major critical acclaim. The Spinning Heart won the Guardian First Book Award, the EU Prize for Literature (Ireland), and Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards; it was shortlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Desmond Elliott Prize, and was voted 'Irish Book of the Decade'. 

His fourth novel, From a Low and Quiet Sea, was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award 2018, and won the Jean Monnet Prize for European Literature. His novel, Strange Flowers, was voted Novel of the Year at the Irish Book Awards, and was a number one bestseller, as was his most recent novel The Queen of Dirt Island, which was also shortlisted for Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards. Donal lectures in Creative Writing at the University of Limerick. He lives with his wife Anne Marie and their two children just outside Limerick City.

About the book

2019. Small town rural Island. 21 voices. - A standalone novel that can also be read as a companion to Donal Ryan's multi-award-winning bestseller, The Spinning Heart, voted ‘The Irish Book of the Decade’.

‘I said it before. Madness comes circling around. Ten-year cycles, as true as the sun will rise…’ Some things can send a heart spinning; others will crack it in two.

In a small town in rural Ireland, the local people have weathered the storms of economic collapse and are looking towards the future. The jobs are back, the dramas of the past seemingly lulled, and although the town bears the marks of its history, new stories are unfolding.

But a fresh menace is creeping around the lakeshore and the lanes of the town, and the peace of the community is about to be shattered in an unimaginable way. Young people are being drawn towards the promise of fast money whilst the generation above them tries to push back the tide of an enemy no one can touch…

Review

I highly recommend not only reading this, but also giving the audio version a twirl. It gives the read/listen a slightly more in person cultural feel. The ingrained identities that can be accurately experienced, the individuality of characters and personas more accurately felt - I can imagine this being a great theatrical experience.

Although this can be read as a standalone, it is a follow-up to The Spinning Heart, I am of two minds whether to suggest reading one before the other. I think the two books work both in tandem and as solitary experiences, not sue whether that was intentional or it's just a case of whatever takes your fancy when it comes to the happenstance of literary beauty that captures people, thoughts, culture and country in such an intensely personal way.

Ryan certainly knows how to sit inside his characters heads, hearts and souls - and equally how to place the reader beside them as they rage, toil, reminisce, regret, weep and sometimes wander to a point called peace. In a sense the word peace, and indeed this book, becomes an exploration and even explanation of living, of life and both the inner and outer daily barter we have with ourselves.

The whole book is also a six degrees of separation woven web of human interactions and reactions. How each person responds and reacts differently depending on on their own frame of reference and subsequently can have a completely different response someone else. That sounds like something or nothing, but when told with such an eloquence and insight it becomes an amazing read. 

Buy Heart, Be at Peace at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Doubleday; pub date 8th August 2024 | Hardback | £16.99. Buy at Amazon com.

#Blogtour Fire and Bones by Kathy Reichs

From the Sunday Times bestselling author of the Temperance Brennan series - Fire and Bones by Kathy Reichs, Temperance Brennan book 23. It's a pleasure to take part in the Blogtour!

About the Author

Kathy Reichs’s first novel Déjà Dead, published in 1997, won the Ellis Award for Best First Novel and was an international bestseller. Kathy was also a producer of Fox Television’s longest running scripted drama Bones, which is based on her work and her novels. 

Kathy uses her own dramatic experiences as a forensic anthropologist to bring her mesmerizing thrillers to life. One of very few forensic anthropologists certified by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology, Kathy divides her time between Charlotte, North Carolina, and Montreal, Québec. Follow @KathyReichs on X

About the book

It's never easy working fire scenes. - Called to Washington, DC to analyse the victims of a mysterious arson attack, Tempe quickly finds her misgivings justified. The fire site is in Foggy Bottom, a neighbourhood with a colourful history, and as the pieces start falling into place, the property’s ownership becomes more and more suspicious.

Sensing a good story, Tempe teams up with a new ally, telejournalist Ivy Doyle. Delving into the past, the duo learns that back in the Thirties and Forties the home was the hangout of a group of bootleggers and racketeers known as the Foggy Bottom Gang. Though interesting, this fact seems irrelevant – until the son of one of the gang members is shot dead at his farm in Virginia.

When another Foggy Bottom Gang-linked property burns to the ground, claiming one more victim, what might have been coincidence starts to look more like targeted attacks. As she and Ivy dig deeper, Tempe’s instincts point towards the obvious: somehow, her every move since coming to Washington has been anticipated in advance. And every path forward brings with it a lethal threat.

Review

Might just be me, but I find some of the shorter Tempe books tend to pack more of a punch, especially when it comes to core issues incorporated into the story. Often ends up being an interesting learning experience, despite the gruesome murders along the way. I still occasionally whip out what I learnt about Burmese Pythons and the Everglades in one of said shorter books.

Tempe is drawn into a string of fire related deaths, the place and property seem to to play an important part in the solution. In a tense exquisitely detailed venture into forgotten crimes and the waves they often create far into the future, this crime takes a bite out of history to weave an unforgettable tale.

This one is also a testament to what a talented storyteller the author is - it ends with mixed feelings of nostalgia, helplessness and the realisation that sometimes there is no such thing as justice for the most heinous of crimes.

Still going strong after all these years, with no sign of the popularity of this fan favourite diminishing, the Tempe series is the gift that keeps on giving. Always an auto-buy author for me, because Reichs always delivers a great read.

Buy Fire and Bones at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Simon and Schuster Uk; pub date 6th August 2024 | £20.00. Buy at Amazon com.

#Blogtour Costanza by Rachel Blackmore

It's an absolute pleasure to take part in the Blogtour Costanza by Rachel Blackmore. This book is going on my favourites of the year list.

About the Author

Born in Birmingham, Rachel spent her childhood in the Northeast, then the Midlands. She studied history at King's College London, where her fascination for women's history took root. After a brief stint in politics, Rachel built a career in corporate communications. In 2021, she was runner-up in the Harper's Bazaar Short Story Competition and won the Irish Writers Centre 2022 Novel Fair. Rachel lives in London with her three teenagers, two cats and one dog. Follow @rjblackmore1 on Twitter

About the book

History calls her a Muse. Temptress. Fallen woman. This is her story.

It’s 1636 and Rome hums with gossip and sin. Costanza Piccolomini is a respectable young wife - until she meets world-famous sculptor Gianlorenzo Bernini, whose jet-black gaze matches his dark temper. From the second they set eyes upon each other, a fatal attraction is born.

Their secret love burns with a passion that consumes them. But with every stolen kiss and illicit tryst, Costanza's reputation is at stake. And Bernini has a more dangerous desire: he wants to immortalise Costanza in marble. When Bernini unveils his sculpture of Costanza it marks the beginning of a scandal which will rock Roman society. For Bernini would rather destroy Costanza than let her go.

Betrayed. Abandoned. Banished. This was meant to be the end of Costanza’s story. But Costanza is no ordinary woman: from the ashes, she will rise …

Costanza is a dizzying and sensual historical novel that brings to life a feminist icon who has been written out of history.

Review

I came away from this story, a retelling of a moment in history captured in art, with the feeling that the winner tells the history and it's always men doing the writing. Also that great art, memorable deeds and life-changing moments in history always excuse the misdeeds and whitewash the crimes.

Seen from the perspective of Costanza the Bernini brothers emerge as the predators they most certainly were. Passion, muse, inspiration all sound rather romantic and exciting for all parties involved, right? It sounds a little different when those words are exchanged for coercion, blackmail, non-consensual acts or possessive behaviour. Having someone carve up a women's face to deconstruct the beauty at the core of said inspiration is unforgivable, to try and destroy her reputation and life equally so.

It all sounds so reminiscent of the kind of misogynistic and abusive crimes we see in modern times, which of course just proves endemic and ingrained the violence and mistreatment of women and girls is in all societies. Interesting how everything is framed with such a dainty brush of romanticism. Oh how the great man was tortured, inspired and captivated by insert any woman/girl - poor man couldn't control himself and wasn't to blame for insert crime against woman/girl.

Loved this book. Brilliantly written with a touch of historical nuance, a deep sense of poetic beauty and both the consumerism and power of artistic talent. The author bows to the lasting legacy of creativity whilst simultaneously asking whether the legacy and talent should ever warrant erasing the truth.

Give this a Medici or Rome tv series development and it is guaranteed to be a hit, between the visual beauty of the art and the passion of the characters - it would be an intriguing venture. Equally important would be taking the core of this retelling and giving the power back to Costanza - where it belongs.

Buy Costanza at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Renegade Books; pub date 1st August 2024 / HB / £18.99. Buy at Amazon com.