#Blogtour Deadly Choice by S. Lee Manning

It's a pleasure to take part in the Blogtour Deadly Choices by S. Lee Manning.

About the Author

An award-winning writer, S. Lee Manning is the author of international thrillers, Trojan Horse, Nerve Attack, and Bloody Soil. In 2023, Bloody Soil won the award for Best Genre Fiction Novel from Independent Publishers of New England. She spent two years as managing editor of Law Enforcement Communications before embarking on a subsequent career as an attorney that spanned from a first-tier New York law firm, to working for the State of New Jersey, to solo practice until retiring from law to write full-time. 

Manning and her husband J. B. Manning—the award-winning author of Richter the Mighty—do talks, presentations, and YouTube videos as A Killing Couple and live in Vermont with their very vocal cats, Xiao and Dmitri. S. Lee Manning is currently working on her next Kolya Petrov thriller. For the latest updates on her novels, follow @SLeeManning1952  on X or visit sleemanning.com. 

About the book

After her daughter bleeds out from a miscarriage in Texas, Patricia Scott kills the doctor who had failed to perform a medically necessary abortion. She then sets her sights on the attorney who’d advised against the abortion out of personal ambition, taking a job as a housekeeper as the first step of her plot.

Hired by the doctor’s widow after police labelled her husband’s death a suicide, Lizzie Vaughn, an investigator with her own dark past, begins the hunt for the killer. But Lizzie’s hunt is side-lined when she is also hired to find a young woman with a heart condition who was kidnapped to prevent her from ending the pregnancy that threatens her life. Patricia not only unexpectedly finds herself bonding with the children of the woman she plans to kill, she also learns that a young woman could die unless someone intervenes. Can Lizzie and Patricia set aside their individual quests to prevent a second tragedy

Review

The core of the story is a hot topic, a controversial one and one that causes great division. In a way the crime element shines a light on the lilt towards a dystopian and backward journey certain countries are currently on in regard to women and the healthcare they need and are entitled to.

The slide back into medieval patriarchal control of girls and women, which follows on with the consequence of a Gileadesque state of affairs. Women, girls will die at the hands of the ignorant, suffer at the hands of laws made based on falsities and misinformation. False and hypocritical people imposing their idea of righteousness on others. 

It is a travesty that the story, and indeed the author, takes inspiration from actual reality. In the 21st century no woman or girl should be made secondary - their life and their choice.

It's understandable the path Patricia takes. Why shouldn't the cruel, inhumane and upholders of intentionally harmful laws and consequences be punished for killing and causing the deaths of the innocents. Equally the storylines allow a glimpse at where logic goes to die and hypocrisy reigns supreme.

I really enjoyed the fact the author doesn't shy away from the reality, which we all need to fight to ensure future generations of women and girls are not burdened by the hypocrisy of the patriarchy.

Buy Deadly Choice at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Buy at Amazon com. Buy via Encircle Pub.

#BlogTour Only the Lonely by Joanne Nicholson

Today it's not technically my turn on the BlogTour Only the Lonely by Joanne Nicholson because I missed it, however I am going to sneak my post in among the others for today.

About the Author
Joanne Nicholson is an Australian author who enjoys boating, exercising, reading, writing, music and spending quality time with family and friends.

Joanne’s career began in advertising and marketing. After a hiatus to raise her four children, she owned an indoor play centre, worked in property management and bookkeeping. Joanne gave these up to focus on her passion for writing.

She has published the contemporary women’s fiction novels: ‘Intuition’, ‘In Another Life’ and ‘Positive’, as well as a YA novel ‘Music Score’ and several short stories. Her latest novel is ‘Only the Lonely’.

Follow @JolNicholson on Twitter, on Facebook, on Instagram, Visit joannenicholsonauthor.com

Buy Only the Lonely

About the book
After Tiffany is orphaned on the night of her 18th birthday, she discovers, as the sole heir to her parents’ estate, she has inherited a frozen embryo from when her parents did IVF to have her. Feeling lost, alone and longing for a sense of family, Tiffany can’t bring herself to destroy or donate the embryo. Instead, she decides to be impregnated with her biological twin.

A legal battle ensues over whether the embryo is a person or property and the ethics of whether it is acceptable to give birth to your own sibling.

Set in Australia, this contemporary fiction novel is full of emotion, dilemmas and unexpected friendships, as Tiffany forges a new life without her parents.

Review

Tiffany has everything you can ask for. Two caring parents, great grades and a plan for the future. All of this comes tumbling to a halt when her parents are killed by a young drunk driver one night. She feels a deep hatred for the perpetrator and is convinced they need to spend their life in prison.

Her fragile state of mind fixates on the embryo left to her in the will. One last link to her parents and the closest genetic link she would have left, surely everyone can understand why she wants dirty nappies instead of creating a life and career for herself. I think in her grief her desperation and selfishness takes over the thought process.

Oh boy, this is definitely the kind of plot that will get people talking. It circles the boundaries of personal beliefs and ethical decisions, but first and foremost it involves a very controversial topic. It's also a question that keeps courts and lawyers in business. If you found out a loved one had left you a frozen embryo what would you do? Would you destroy it, give it to an infertile couple or have it implanted in yourself?

Yeh, those are big choices to make and none of them are simple and without implications. It would perhaps be a whole different kettle of fish if Tiffany were a slightly older woman struggling to conceive, however a very young woman with no fertility issues is a whole other ball game.

Leaving aside the ethical issues, the fact Tiffany is a young woman driven by grief and loneliness has to be the deciding factor. Her need to replicate a sense and feeling of family is the reason she wants to have her biological sibling. It is a selfish choice, albeit one driven by her feeling of being completely alone in the world.

It's a contemporary read. A read driven by ethics, the law and what each person considers to be the right choice for themselves. Although at this point I would point out the fact that pro-life is adverse to choice for the individual or the carrier, and yet in this case it suits the pro-lifer to have a choice.

Along with the question of punishment, guilt and redemption, this story about a girl and an embryo is one that will create discussion, and perhaps somewhere along the line perhaps even understanding for both points of view.

Buy Only the Lonely at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Buy at Amazon com.

#SpotlightTour What They Don't Know by Nicole Maggi

Today it really is a pleasure to shed a spotlight on What They Don't Know by Nicole Maggi. It's an emotional story full of desperation, and unfortunately also a statement about how we treat young girls and women in the 21st century.

Don't forget to enter the Giveaway below to Win 2 Copies of What They Don’t Know (US & Canada only) 
Read an excerpt of What They Don't Know at the bottom of this post!

About the Author
Nicole Maggi wrote her first story in third grade about a rainbow and a unicorn. After working as an actress in NYC, she now lives in Los Angeles with her family and two oddball cats.

Follow @nicolemaggi @SourcebooksFire on Twitter
Visit nicolemaggi.com
Buy What They Don't Know

About the book
Three secrets. One decision. A friendship that will change everything.

Mellie has always been the reliable friend, the good student, the doting daughter. But when an unspeakable act leads her to withdraw from everyone she loves, she is faced with a life-altering choice—a choice she must face alone.

Lise stands up—and speaks out—for what she believes in. And when she notices Mellie acting strangely, she gets caught up in trying to save her…all while trying to protect her own secret. One that might be the key to helping Mellie.

Told through Mellie and Lise’s journal entries, this powerful, emotional novel chronicles Mellie’s struggle to decide what is right for her and the unbreakable bond formed by the two girls on their journey.

Review
It's an incredibly poignant story, and so relevant to our current political atmosphere when it comes to the patriarchal system trying to take women back into the dark ages and keep us there.

Imagine being a frightened teenager growing up in a house where women have no voice and religion dictates her life. In the middle of a family who will force her to make a choice she would rather not make. A family who will blame her for the violation she experienced.

Mellie finds her opinions and beliefs changing as she finds herself in a situation without an apparent solution. Being on the other side of the fence puts an entirely different spin on things. It's also the beginning of new friendship when her religious do-gooder friends turn on her when she starts to rebel against the system. The only light at the end of the tunnel is someone who is the exact opposite of Mellie, but in fact they find they have more in common than they think.

Listen up pro-lifers it is statistically proven that getting rid of abortion clinics, making abortions illegal and taking the choice away from women, does not reduce the number of abortions. It just raises the number of young girls and women putting their lives in danger by seeking abortionists from backstreet abortions or attempting old wives tale remedies.

The story is a series of diary entries written to a teacher by Mellie and Lise. It begins as a school assignment, which leads to a friendship and a salvation. The entries are slotted into the story in a way that is so smooth the reader can almost forget what they are.

It's an emotional story full of desperation, and unfortunately also a statement about how we treat young girls and women in the 21st century. It's a book I would buy for both my sons and daughters. My daughters so they can read and recognise the oppression, and my sons so they will understand how not to treat the women in their lives.

It's sheds a light on the hypocrisy of pro-lifers, especially the ones hiding under the umbrella of Christianity. The people who think Mellie doesn't deserve a choice or a say in her own life and her own body. It's a thought-provoking read.

Buy What They Don't Know at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.

Enter the Giveaway below to Win 2 Copies of What They Don’t Know (US & Canada only)
Runs October 2nd -31st

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Excerpt from What They Don’t Know:

February 13
Dear Ms. Tilson,

You probably think you know who I am, but I’m here to tell you that you don’t. I used to be a bright star of a girl, but that girl burned out of existence, like a fire swept through my life and left nothing but ash and smoke. That smoke is the memory of what I had, so thick I can smell it and feel it in my eyes and ears and nose. But I can’t touch it. Smoke, like memories, will slip through your fingers and disappear as if it never existed at all.
I keep thinking that if I could write down how my life used to be, maybe I could capture that smoke, keep it from drifting away. That’s what made me finally crack open this journal you gave us at the beginning of the semester. Could these pages be some magical vessel to contain that gone-girl? All those bright memories preserved in this one place?
I would write about how on Sundays, after the long hours spent at church, we’d pile into the truck, exhausted, and my mom would say, “I’m too tired to cook,” which is the greatest sin for a woman on a Sunday in our church, but my dad would smile indulgently and order a pizza. “God rested on Sunday; why shouldn’t you?” he’d joke. Then they would kiss, and I’d be reminded that I’m one of six kids, so they must’ve had sex at some point. Which is gross to think about but also comforting because it means there’s some order to the world.
I’d write about how when my youngest sister, Joanie, was a baby and would wake up crying in the middle of the night, I was usually the one who got there first with a bottle of warmed-up breast milk from the freezer. Some nights I’d rock her for hours even after she’d fallen asleep, watching her tiny eyelids flutter as she dreamed. What is she dreaming about? I’d wonder. Sometimes I’d place her gently in her crib and get my sketchbook, draw her in soft, black pencil. Those nights were magical. They seemed to exist in their own dimension, the spell broken only by the rising sun.
I’d write about the day after my older sister, Hannah, got her license. She picked me up from school, and instead of going straight home, we drove and drove and drove. We rode over the mountain passes, twisting along back roads until we came to this hole-in-the-wall dive in the middle of nowhere called the Wooden Nickel. Hannah had read about it in Sunset Magazine, how it supposedly had the best bison burgers in America. We ate them with their secret special sauce dripping down our chins, washed them down with small-batch root beer, and got home hours after dark. Mom and Dad yelled their heads off, and Hannah lost her license for a week, but after they sent us to bed, Hannah turned to me and said, “Worth it.”
I’d write about how I had everything I wanted and didn’t know it. I had a family who surrounded me with love and acceptance. I had a father and mother who stood on such high pedestals that the sun blinded me when I looked up at them. They loved me unconditionally, or so I thought. I never imagined there could be conditions under which they would not love me.
Every night I thanked God for my parents’ love and for my family’s abundance, and yet every day I took each of those things for granted. Now I’m left with the memory of what I once had.
No. These pages can’t contain that smoke, those memories. They’re gone now, destroyed in one irreversible moment.
Maybe I should stop here. Let you go on believing everything you think you know about me. That would definitely be easiest. I could record what I ate for breakfast, what time I went to bed, which TV shows I like to watch. All those myths you have about me can stay intact. You can go on thinking I’m the perfect daughter of Mayor Rivers, the shining example of the family values he talks about in speech after speech after speech. Believe that I never cause any trouble and I’m always a good girl. I’ll probably get a C, but you’ll never know my innermost thoughts. I’ll stay safe.
Except I can’t stay safe anymore.
As of December 21, nowhere is safe.
I would give anything to redo that day.
But I can’t.
And the only place I can talk about it is in these pages.
So let’s start with a pop quiz. True or False: Mellie Rivers is a virgin.
False. As of December 21, at 3:30 in the afternoon, on the floor in the basement of my house, I am not a virgin.
True or False: Mellie Rivers would never have sex before marriage.
True. I made a promise to God and my family, and I wear the ring on my left hand, where, presumably, one day, my husband will place a different, more permanent ring. I would have kept that promise. But the choice was taken from me.
True or False: Mellie Rivers would never, ever get pregnant out of wedlock.
False.
Signed,
Mellie Rivers

A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult

Picoult doesn't shy away from difficult topics or from premises which have the sole purpose of making readers think, talk to and engage with each other. Combined with her excellent writing skills, this is why she is such a popular author.

There is an active shooter in an reproductive health clinic. He isn't interested in the hostages and their personal stories, he just wants an eye for an eye, or perhaps a few eyes for an eye. The hostage negotiator finds out during the negotiations that the shooter has already killed, is willing to kill more people, and that his daughter and sister are two of the hostages.

Every type of situation and woman from both sides of the argument are represented. Not every woman in a sexual health clinic is there for an abortion, which is only a small part of reproduction and women's health. The staff of these clinics and the patients have to run the gauntlet of well-meaning, at least in their opinion, often aggressive and sometimes hypocritical protesters to enter these clinics to be treated. When I say hypocritical I mean the stance of pro-life women who need and get an abortion, then return to protesting against another woman's right to choose.

The greatest paradox is pro-lifers insulting, assaulting, bombing clinics and killing people in reproductive clinics. People who believe that the life of an embryo or foetus supersedes the rights of the woman carrying them. People who believe in the sanctity of life condone killing in the name of their cause.

This book is about one of the most controversial topics and is especially relevant at this moment in time, as abortion laws are being redefined and challenged. It's like two speeding trains moving towards each other on a collision course, as pro-lifers try to take abortion laws back into the middle-ages and pro-choicers are trying to get women the rights they deserve. As I write this the Republicans are trying skew the decision making of the Supreme Court by giving a lifetime appointment to a judge who will most likely tip the scales in favour of overturning Roe vs Wade. (In the back of the book Picoult references some of the narrow-minded abortion laws Mike Pence has been trying to box through in the last few years)

I have to absolutely give the author her dues for presenting both sides of the argument in a calm non-judgemental manner. There is no sway on her part towards either side, and she presents the positive and negative of both pro-life and pro-choice. Right down to the physical medical details and the often convoluted reasoning that comes with this emotional topic.

It is statistically proven that when the laws on abortion become more stringent they do not reduce the number of abortions, instead the amount of women and young girls risking their lives with illegal and dangerous procedures rises. Contraception isn't 100% fail-safe, albeit often because of human error, and celibacy is a nonsensical demand.

Although they demand to control the reproductive decisions of all women, echoing elements of The Handmaid's Tale, the pro-lifers aren't standing in line to adopt unwanted babies and children. They aren't taking foster children into their homes, because this is just about the patriarchal system controlling women and religious beliefs controlling the choices women can make. Why would you insist that a woman give birth to the product of rape? Why would you demand a child burdened with the product of incest give birth? Why would you force any woman to relinquish control of her body?

How about we make vasectomies mandatory for men as soon as they have fathered a certain number of children? Or thinking like a pro-lifer, let's demand each male be subject to a set of laws which determines and controls their reproductive health. What's good for the goose is good for the gander, right?

I will be recommending this book not only because it is a good read, but because it presents the whole picture including the facts and scenarios both sides think are important and those they refuse to acknowledge. It's one of those books I could go on and on about, which is always a sign of a great read. All I can say is once again Picoult touches on the most emotive topics and engages her readers with undeniable expertise.

Buy A Spark of Light at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton, Pub. date. 30 October 2018
Follow @jodipicoult @HodderBooks
Visit jodipicoult.com