#Blogtour The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson by Ellen Baker

 It's a pleasure to take part in the Blogtour The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson by Ellen Baker.

About the Author

Ellen Baker is the author of Keeping the House and I Gave My Heart to Know This. She has worked as a bookseller and event coordinator at an independent bookstore. Originally from the Upper Midwest, she currently lives in Maine. Follow @EllenBakerBooks on X

About the book

In 1924, four-year-old Cecily Larson’s mother reluctantly drops her off at an orphanage in Chicago, promising to be back once she’s made enough money to support both Cecily and herself. But she never returns, and shortly after high-spirited Cecily turns seven, she is sold to a traveling circus to perform as the “little sister” to glamorous bareback rider Isabelle DuMonde. With Isabelle and the rest of the circus, Cecily finally feels she’s found the family she craves. But as the years go by, the cracks in her little world begin to show. And when teenage Cecily meets and falls in love with a young roustabout named Lucky, she finds her life thrown onto an entirely unexpected—and dangerous—course.

In 2015, Cecily is now 94 and living a quiet life in Minnesota, with her daughter, granddaughter, and great-grandson. But when her family decides to surprise her with an at-home DNA test, the unexpected results not only bring to light the tragic love story that Cecily has kept hidden for decades but also throw into question everything about the family she’s raised and claimed as her own for nearly seventy years. Cecily and everyone in her life must now decide who they really are and what family—and forgiveness—really mean.

Sweeping through a long period of contemporary history, The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson is an immersive, compelling, and entertaining family drama centered around one remarkable woman and her determination to survive.

Review

Hidden within the folds of familial relationships and complexities is the realisation that the parents we know often only allow us a brief look into their lives, before they disappear again. The child, the teen and the young person who came before is often an unknown entity to the family and children they create. Secrets, trauma, mysteries and many a chapter locked in deep vaults forever.

If a DNA project had never opened said vault then chances are Cecily would have taken her past and her memories to the grave. Instead something as simple as a genetic story of connections opens up the door to answers and healing.

I think it's important to note the atrocities committed in the name of profit, of virtue signalling and with a general lack of empathy. Just another massive statistic of children, girls and young women who were left traumatised and maimed in the name of the greater good. Tragic.

It's a story that would work well on-screen and in a sense is written in a way that plays to that thought. Historical fiction with a nod to a contemporary family structure, which includes both flaws and bonds.

Buy The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher ‏: ‎Mariner Books, pub date 20 Feb. 2024. Buy at Amazon com. Via Bookshop org.

#Blogtour The Drownings by Hazel Barkworth

Celebrating the paperback release of The Drownings by Hazel Barkworth - publication date 10th April 2025, published by Headline Review | £10.99 | Paperback.

'From the critically acclaimed author of Heatstroke, The Drownings is a captivating and intoxicatingly atmospheric novel about competition, obsession and influence; about female rage, and how the darkness of the unconfronted past continues to haunt our present.'

About the Author

Hazel grew up in Stirlingshire and North Yorkshire before studying English at Oxford. She is a graduate of both the Oxford University MSt in Creative Writing and the Curtis Brown Creative Novel-Writing course. Hazel works as a cultural consultant, delving into the cultural topics and conversations with most pertinence. This fascination sparked the themes explored in both of her novels. Her debut novel Heatstroke was a Cosmopolitan Best Book of the Summer in 2020. The Drownings was written back in the streets of her own university days, where the ghosts of her student self were lurking around every corner. She now lives in York with her partner.

About the book

University wasn’t in the plan. But when a catastrophic knee injury destroys Serena’s future as an Olympic swimmer, the years of brutal training and spellbinding manifestation lead her to Leysham, a dark and gloomy university campus in the north. 

Walking home at night, Serena stumbles on a young woman floundering in the viscous and freezing waters that snake through the campus. Helped by a mysterious older woman, they drag the student from the water to safety.

Attending an enthralling lecture shortly after, Serena instantly recognises the woman speaking. It is Jane – the woman who helped Serena save a life. And as Jane speaks, Serena’s eyes are opened to the history of witch trials, misogyny and murder that lives in Leysham’s waters, and continues to infect the present day, with drink spiking and sexual assaults rife on campus.

Captivated by the older woman, Serena and her cousin Zara, a rising star of social media, launch a campaign to force the university to confront the misogyny and violence which haunts Leysham. But as protests flare across the campus, a simmering rivalry takes hold between the cousins. And when cracks start to appear in Jane’s motives, everything spirals out of control…

Review

I'm not even sure whether any screen version could do this the justice it deserves. It would take a simultaneous narration throughout to capture the way Serena interacts with her inner thoughts and self. The constant exploration of past, present and future, the way the doubtful introvert blossoms into the uncontrollable extrovert who is set alight by imagined transgressions.

However, the most powerful connection and conversation is the one Serena has with water. It's almost a compulsion and intrinsically linked to her failure, her success, her drive and power. The first chapters highlight this overwhelming obsession with bodies of water - no matter how large and in what setting. 

Alongside this larger than life character, who is for all intent and purposes, the wallflower and the quiet observer; is Zara. Zara is the complete opposite and also the cousin who wants to stand in the spotlight and be heralded as voice of change. 

Set to a background of a long line of past transgressions against women, which emboldens the present population of young men to view women in their vicinity as prey. The two young women become enmeshed in a rebellion of sorts, a fierce stand against misogyny and the patriarchal systems that protect the predators - always.

I really enjoyed this, perhaps because the author has the ability to write with a flair of lyrical prose then flip to social interactions and scenes that have a more abrupt and intense style. It makes the reader wonder whether Serena is on the precipice of something, a cliff or a realisation, then again it could simply be a discovery and regaining of self. Loved it! It's a brilliant read.

Buy The Drownings at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Headline Review - pub date 10th April 2025 | £10.99 | Paperback. Buy via Bookshop.org

#Blogtour The Blackbirds of St Giles by Lila Cain

It's a pleasure to take part in the Blogtour The Blackbirds of St Giles by Lila Cain.

About the Author/s

LILA CAIN is the pseudonym for two authors writing together. 

Kate Griffin won the Faber/ Stylist Magazine competition with Kitty Peck and the Music Hall Murders and went onto to write three more novels in the series before writing her first standalone novel, Fyneshade. Follow @KateAGriffin on X

Born to Windrush-era Jamaican parents, Marcia Hutchinson worked as a lawyer before founding educational publishing company Primary Colours and was awarded an MBE for services to Cultural Diversity in 2010. Her solo debut novel Mercy is due for publication in summer 2025. Follow @marciathewriter on X

About the book

Some things are earned. Some things are worth fighting for…  

It’s 1782, Daniel and his sister Pearl arrive in London with the world at their feet and their future assured. Having escaped a Jamaican sugar plantation, Daniel fought for the British in the American War of Independence and was rewarded with freedom and an inheritance.   

But the city is not a place for men like Daniel and he is callously tricked and finds himself, along with his sister Pearl, in the rookeries of St Giles – a warren of dark and menacing alleyways, filled with violence and poverty.   

The underworld labyrinth is run by Elias, a man whose cruelty knows no bounds. But under his dangerous rule is a brotherhood of Black men, the Blackbirds of St Giles, whose intention is to set their people free.   

Can Daniel use his strength, wit and the fellowship of the other Blackbirds to overthrow Elias and truly find the freedom he fought for…? 

Review

Daniel's story begins with loss and simultaneously the severing of vicious ties to embark on a path to freedom. The version of the freedom he encounters is just another type of oppression and slavery. Tyranny comes in all shapes, sizes and colours, because surviving often means becoming what you despise the most.

It's a story that is sure to anger and infuriate, especially because of the injustice, the threats, the constant state of danger and battle to stay alive. The kindness and friendship that sets Daniel on his path to St Giles is rarely experienced gain after the death of his friend and comrade. The truth is the world is full of racists, thieves and cutthroats.

I couldn't connect to the core atmosphere of naiveté, the lack of self preservation and inability to have a realistic take on the majority of situations. The past experiences of both of them, but especially Daniel, should have instilled a greater sense of survival and definitely a lack of trust. It makes for great drama, but surely prior experience, trauma and life lived under extremely dire circumstances would give the majority of people a better instinct for survival. 

Given the ending I think it's possible we might be hearing more about Daniel and Pearl in the future - The concept would make great tv by the way. Here's to vindication, retribution and a little more justice for Daniel, Pearl and the Blackbirds in general.

Buy The Blackbirds of St Giles at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher ‏:  Simon & Schuster UK, pub date 30 Jan. 2025. Buy at Amazon com.