#Blogtour The Blue Hour by Paula Hawkins

It's a pleasure to take part in the Blogtour The Blue Hour by Paula Hawkins.

About the Author

Paula Hawkins worked as a journalist for fifteen years before writing her first novel. Born and brought up in Zimbabwe, she moved to London in 1989. Her first thriller, The Girl on the Train, has sold more than 23 million copies worldwide. Published in over fifty languages, it has been a No.1 bestseller around the world and was a box-office-hit film starring Emily Blunt. Paula’s thrillers Into the Water and A Slow Fire Burning were also instant No.1 bestsellers.

About the book

When a small bone at the centre of a famous sculpture is revealed to be human, three people become intimately connected by the secrets and lies that put it there.

Set on a Scottish tidal island connected to the mainland for just a few hours each day, and home to only one inhabitant, The Blue Hour asks questions of ambition, power, art and perception.

Paula Hawkin’s singular fourth thriller cements her place among the very best of our most nuanced, powerful and stylish storytellers.

Review

Was it just me? The last page - especially the last small paragraph - reads like an epitaph. It resonates hard, perhaps more so after such an introspective and often menacing read.

If this gets made into a visual experience I hope they get the scenery right. In the story the island - let's just call it that - it becomes a  character in its own right. The place that offers isolation, solitude, safety, threat and danger - all in equal measure. A metaphor for self, for the engagement with relationships, and for life.

It's a bit of a broken web story, and at the end I'm not sure the web is restored in its entirety, but I think that might just be the point. Life doesn't always give us a resolution to the threads we encounter. We make choices, judgements, decisions that alter the paths we take.

Thrown into the mixture of this psychological thriller, is the way art is perceived and created. The relationship between integrity, ethics, morals and creativity. Becker is a prime example of integrity of artwork over possible crime, obsession melds with professional interest.

As the layers are unpacked from a variety of directions the reader is taken on a journey of fear vs inspiration, menace vs a search for peace. Hawkins always delivers a fascinating read.

Buy The Blue Hour at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher Doubleday, pub date 10th October 2024 | Hardback | £22.00. Buy at Amazon com.

#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 Imposter Syndrome by Joseph Knox

Absolute pleasure to take part in the Blogtour for Imposter Syndrome by Joseph Knox.

About the Author

Joseph Knox has lived in Stoke on Trent, Manchester and London. In 2020, he became an Irish citizen. His debut novel Sirens was a bestseller and has been translated into eighteen languages. The Smiling Man and The Sleepwalker are the second and third books in the Waits trilogy. His first standalone novel, True Crime Story, was a Times number one bestseller. Follow @josephknox__ on X

About the book

When you’re living a lie, you find it’s best to avoid close attachments…

Lynch, a burned out con-artist, arrives, broke, in London, trying not to dwell on the mistakes that got him there. When he bumps into Bobbie, a rehab-bound heiress - and when she briefly mistakes him for her missing brother - Lynch senses the opportunity, as well as the danger…

Bobbie’s brother, Heydon, was a troubled young man. Five years ago, he walked out of the family home and never went back. His car was found parked on a bridge overlooking the Thames, in the early hours of the same morning. Unsettled by Bobbie’s story, and suffering from a rare attack of conscience, Lynch tries to back off.

But when Bobbie leaves for rehab the following day, he finds himself drawn to her luxurious family home, and into a meeting with her mother, the formidable Miranda. Seeing the same resemblance that her daughter did, Miranda proposes she hire Lynch to assume her son’s identity, in a last-ditch effort to try and flush out his killer.

As Lynch begins to impersonate him, dark forces are lured out of the shadows, and he realises too late that Heydon wasn’t paranoid at all. Someone was watching his every move, and they’ll kill to keep it a secret. For the first time, Lynch is in a life or death situation he can’t lie his way out of.

Review

Reading this made me realise I have to dust off my copy of True Crime Story and read it again, also that I wish I were in charge of a streaming service so I could buy books to develop into screen material, whilst also being aware that there probably isn't enough money in the world to do fair justice to the amount of cracking books there are. This is one of those reads that would be a spectacular on-screen experience - given the right eye for cast and detail.

Lynch is a pinball in a machine without a task or a purpose, just trailing around until the right moment or opportunity comes around. Bobbie enters his universe of lies, convenience and the world of con. It appears at the time, as if two troubled souls in need of support and driven by trauma, need something from each other. Essentially this is what leads Lynch into his next falsity - he becomes the long lost brother of Bobbie.

The more he gets involved the more Lynch appears determined to find out what happened to Heydon, the man he shares a face with. A simple con turns into something closer to - the deeper the secrets the more destructive they are - with a side dish of criminal intent and a smidgen of gangster style justice.

It's riveting piece of fiction, with the kind of ending that makes me hope we see Lynch again in some capacity. The charming con-man with an unhealthy lack of any sense of danger, who is so quick on his feet that the reader can't help but want him to succeed, perhaps because of the sheer audacity at times. It's a great read and I highly recommend it.

Buy Imposter Syndrome at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Doubleday Uk; pub date 11th July 2024 | Hardback | £18.99. Buy at Amazon com.

#Blogtour Go As A River by Shelley Read

 It's a pleasure to take part in the Blogtour Go As A River by Shelley Read.

About the Author

Shelley Read is a fifth generation Coloradoan who lives with her family in the Elk Mountains of the Western Slope. She was a Senior Lecturer at Western Colorado University for nearly three decades, where she taught writing, literature, environmental studies, and Honours, and was a founder of the Environment & Sustainability major and a support program for first-generation and at-risk students. Shelley holds degrees in writing and literary studies from the University of Denver and Temple University’s Graduate Program in Creative Writing. She is a regular contributor to Crested Butte Magazine and Gunnison Valley Journal, and has written for the Denver Post and a variety of publications. 

Go As A River, her first novel, is inspired by the landscape she comes from and will be published in over thirty territories.  

About the book

In this soaring, compassionate novel, a breath-taking picture of our natural world - its trees and mountains and light - emerges. But more than this, it is the tale of female resilience and becoming that gives Go As A River its strength, its soul, and its possibility.

Nestled in the foothills of the Elk Mountains and surrounded by sprawling forests, wandering bears and porcupine, the Gunnison River rushes by the tiny town of Iola.

On a cool autumn morning, seventeen year old Torie Nash heads into her village pulling a rickety wagon filled with late-season peaches from her farm.  As she nears an intersection, a mysterious young drifter with eyes dark and shiny as a raven’s wing, grimy thumbs and smudged cheeks, stops to ask her the way. She could have turned left or crossed over, but she did not.  She stayed.  ‘Go as a river,’ he whispers to her.  

So begins a mesmerising story that unfolds over a lifetime, as Torie attempts to absorb and follow his words. 

Gathering all the pieces of her small, extraordinary life, spinning through the eddies of desire, heartbreak and betrayal, embracing and challenged by the landscape she calls home, Torie arrives at a single rocky decision that changes her life forever. 

 

Review

It's the most fleeting of moments, gestures and meetings that often leave the biggest imprint on our souls. Little does Torie know that a chance meeting with a young drifter is one that will change the course of her life, the way she interacts with her world and how she feels about herself.

In essence the words that remain with Torie, that she go as a river, eventually give her a bigger perspective and better understanding of the fragility of time and life. You're merely a fluid moment passing by in a larger scenario or landscape, leaving behind an essence of your being and nature. Or in this particular case perhaps even leaving behind part of your spirit in another as they flow through their individual landscape. Never the twain shall meet until both rivers merge for some time or flow separately whilst consciously aware of the existence of the other.

The story in itself has a spiritual, philosophical atmosphere to it, a type of metaphor for life itself. Life is a combination of harsh reality and sheer breath-taking moments of tranquillity and beauty. Moments of clarity, epiphanies, and yet skewed with the the painful drudge of daily life.

It's a wonderful read, the author has a beautiful way of making the reader  feel as if they are basking in the comfortable warmth of the sun whilst listening to the sound of leaves rustling and water travelling past. The inevitability, the tragedy, and the unpredictability of life.

Buy Go As A River at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Doubleday pub date 13th April 2023 | Hardback | £14.99. Buy at Amazon com.

#Blogtour The Flames by Sophie Haydock

It's a pleasure to take part in the Blogtour The Flames by Sophie Haydock. The Flames: This is the story of four muses. Let them speak...

About the Author

Sophie Haydock is an award-winning author living in east London. The Flames, is her debut novel. She is the winner of the Impress Prize for New Writers. Sophie trained as a journalist at City University, London, and has worked at the Sunday Times Magazine, Tatler and BBC Three, as well as freelancing for publications including the Financial Times, Guardian Weekend magazine, and organisations such as the Arts Council, Royal Academy and Sotheby's. 

Passionate about short stories, Sophie also works for the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award and is associate director of the Word Factory literary organisation. Her Instagram account @egonschieleswomen - dedicated to the women who posed for Egon Schiele - has a community of over 110,000 followers, and continues to grow. For more information, visit: sophie-haydock.com. Follow @Words_by_Sophie on Twitter

About the book

Every Painting tells a story, but whatt if the women on the canvas could talk...

Vienna, at the beginning of the 20th century, is an exhilarating social whirl, a city of ideas, of music, of ground-breaking art, led by Gustav Klimt until the arrival of his scandalous protegee, Egon Schiele. Into this world come four women, each with their own story to tell:

Adele: passionate, fierce, obstinate. The daughter of a bourgeois family, she rails against the strictures of her class and harbours her own wild fantasies.

Gertrude: spirited, single-minded, possessive. The sister to budding artist Egon Schiele, she longs for an exciting life away from their tempestuous family home.

Vally: determined, independent, proud. A model for celebrated artist Gustav Klimt, she has carved her way out of poverty and is now forging a brave new path for herself.

Edith: quiet, conventional, loyal. Or is she? Younger sister to Adele, Edith is overlooked and wonders if there is another version of the woman she might become.

Four flames, four wild, blazing hearts, longing to be known. In an elegant bohemian city like Vienna, everything seems possible - until an act of betrayal changes everything. For just as a flame has the power to mesmerize, it can also destroy everything in its path.

Review

The story of the women, the muses of Egon Schiele. Set in dual timelines, we meet one of the women as an older woman, desperate to find peace and forgiveness. In moments of confusion it's hard to detect the truth and clarity of the life she has led and the role she played in the world of art.

In the past the reader is introduced to the artist, who in the 21st century would have been embraced for his vision, but in the early 20th century was a scandal unto himself. Egon Schiele, a protegee of Klimt, has no concern for those around him. He wants to paint what inspires him, even if it is considered scandalous in the eyes of society. 

In pre-war and subsequently the duration of the Great War his relationships with the women who inspired such imagery unfold before us, and perhaps give an insight into his process, passion and psyche in a way that helps others to understand the font of creative source.

There is a fine line between genius and insanity, passion and borderline abusive behaviour, between obsession and the embers of mutual attraction. The author captures this untamable wildness of creative passion, and the victims who are left trailing behind in the wake of creation. Although I am certain the majority wouldn't see themselves as such, but rather as the chosen who have been deemed worthy  enough to be the source of said creativity.

Haydock draws readers into her fictional narrative and interpretation, which is supported by historical facts and nuances. The result is a riveting, powerful, passionate and visceral read. It's an excellent story I wouldn't hesitate to recommend and gift this book.

Buy The Flames at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Doubleday Uk; pub date 17 March 2022. Hardback - £14.99. Buy at Amazon com. Buy at Penguin.

#BlogTour London Clay by Tom Chivers

It's a pleasure to take part in the Blogtour London Clay: Journeys in the Deep City by Tom Chivers

About the Author

Tom Chivers is a poet and publisher. He is the author of two pamphlets and two full collections of poetry to date, and is the director of the independent press Penned in the Margins. 

In 2008 he was the Bishopsgate Institute's first writer in residence, and has appeared widely at events and made a number of contributions to radio, including presenting a 30min documentary for Radio 4. He has collaborated with the climate arts organisation Cape Farewell and conducts immersive walking tours of London. Chivers is currently an Associate Artist of the National Centre for Writing. Follow @thisisyogic on Twitter, Visit thisisyogic.com

About the book

Part personal memoir, part lyrical meditation, London Clay takes us deep in to the nooks and crannies of a forgotten city: a hidden landscape long buried underneath the sprawling metropolis. Armed with just his tattered Streetfinder map, author Tom Chivers follows concealed pathways and explores lost islands, to uncover the geological mysteries that burst up through the pavement and bubble to the surface of our streets.

From Roman ruins to a submerged playhouse, abandoned Tube stations to ancient riverbeds, marshes and woodlands, this network of journeys combined to produce a compelling interrogation of London's past. London Clay examines landscape and our connection to place, celebrates urban edge lands: in-between spaces where the natural world and the city mingle, and where ghosts of the deep past can be felt as a buzzing in the skull. It is also a personal account of growing up in London, and of overcoming loss through the layered stories of the capital.

Written in rich and vivid prose, London Clay will inspire readers to think about what lies beneath their feet, and by doing so reveal new ways of looking at the city.

Review

Chivers, perhaps inadvertently, hits on something that is sliding into mythical status - childhood curiosity and exploration of surroundings. The children of the 21st century are so captivated by the world of gadgetry and online presence, that they do not venture outside with the same recklessness and hunger for geo knowledge as previous generations. Go boldly where no person has gone before or you think no one has gone before.

I think it's hard for many to imagine historical footprints in real time, especially under own foot. The concept of others existing, breathing and surviving in the same place or area, whereas when faced in real time with a cultural and historical relic or area of significance you can actually behold, wander around and see - it's an entirely different experience.

This book brings back those feelings of excitement at discovering forgotten buildings, ruins, tunnels, bunkers and just in general the thought of people treading the same path during different centuries. It is very much a book of echoes of energy, shadows of experiences, memories and knowledge gained through oral and written historical narratives.

The prose is an interesting balance between experience and lyrical description. The combination results in a visual journey as you walk along beside him, feel his energy - as if you are the silent observer. The voyeur of time, travel, space and presence.

I wonder if decades or centuries from now others will experience the same hunger for pyscho-geology and the energies that have gone before them and perhaps still linger in an attempt to connect.

Buy London Clay at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Doubleday; pub date 9th Sep 2021 - Hardback £20. Buy at Waterstones.

#BlogTour Diving for Pearls by Jamie O'Connell

 It's my turn on the BlogTour Diving for Pearls by Jamie O'Connell.

About the Author

Jamie O'Connell has had short stories highly commended by the Costa Short Story Award and the Irish Book Award Short Story of the Year. He has been longlisted for BBC Radio 4 Opening Lines Short Story Competition and shortlisted for the Maeve Binchy Travel Award and the Sky Arts Futures Fund. He has an MFA and MA in Creative Writing from University College Dublin. He has worked for Penguin Random House, Gill Books and O'Brien Press. Diving for Pearls is his first novel. Follow @jamieoconnell on Twitter, Visit blackwaterwriting.com

About the book

A young woman’s body floats in the Dubai marina. Her death alters the fates of six people, each one striving for a better life in an unforgiving city…

A young Irish man comes to stay with his sister, keen to erase his troubled past in the heat of the Dubai sun. A Russian sex worker has outsmarted the system so far – but will her luck run out? A Pakistani taxi driver dreams of a future for his daughters. An Emirate man hides the truth about who he really is. An Ethiopian maid tries to carve out a path of her own. From every corner of the globe, Dubai has made promises to them all. Promises of gilded opportunities and bright new horizons, the chance to forget the past and protect long-held secrets. 

But Dubai breaks its promises, with deadly consequences. In a city of mirages, how do you find your way out?O’Connell expertly weaves a delicate web of intertwining stories, combining dark wit, and devastating emotional truth as fates collide and lives are shattered.

Review

What Diving for Pearls most definitely isn't is a crime novel. It's a contemporary read, a bit like a fractured tandem plot - equally weighted stories constructed around a slip of a narrative. The actual catalyst event, which is the death of the young local girl, becomes entirely inconsequential to all the surrounding stories and yet is the reason for all of them. 

Without Hiyam there is no story or connecting thread, and yet she is the least important aspect of the read. I have to admit letting go of the not knowing was a bit of a task, but then I also think that was the point. The lack of closure is synonymous with the lack of power, voice and control all of the characters have in common in relation to where they are and who they are.

A symbol of cultures dividing and simultaneously the acknowledgement that the East will not bend and the West must be submissive to their rules with the West and others bending until breaking point. I often wonder about the Westerners who like to play loose and fast at their own peril overseas - diving for those pearls, they are pandered to until it no longer suits the narrative. 

This is also evident in the stories of Lydia, Siobhan and Aasim. All three of them recognise the danger of being an outsider and being trapped in the claws of a regime that appears to be the picture of opulence, modern society and the face of the future. The truth is its the dark ages hidden behind a layer of gold, diamonds and a fantastical mirage.

It's literary fiction, a snake devouring its own tail, a beginning without an end.

Buy Diving for Pearls at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Doubleday Uk; pub date 3rd June 2021 | Trade Paperback | £13.99. Buy at Waterstones.

#BlogTour Final Cut by S.J. Watson

Today it's my turn on the BlogTour Final Cut by S.J. Watson.

About the Author
S. J. Watson’s first novel, Before I Go To Sleep, became a phenomenal international success and has now sold over 6,000,000 copies worldwide. It won the Crime Writers’ Association Award for Best Debut Novel and the Galaxy National Book Award for Crime Thriller of the Year. The film of the book, starring Nicole Kidman, Colin Firth and Mark Strong, and directed by Rowan Joffe, was released in September 2014. S. J. Watson’s second novel,

Second Life, a psychological thriller, was published to acclaim in 2015. S. J. Watson was born in the Midlands and now lives in London.

Follow @sj_watson on Twitter, on Goodreads, on Amazon, Visit sjwatson-books.com, Buy Final Cut

About the book
S.J. Watson writes: 'In writing Final Cut I wanted to move away slightly from the entirely domestic, urban and claustrophobic feel of Before I Go To Sleep and open the story world a little. I’m returning to my preoccupations of memory, narrative and identity, though bringing a fresh spin and new maturity to them.

The story follows a young ambitious documentary film maker whose first film was lauded and her second less so, and who is struggling with her third film. She hits on the idea of making a film about life in a small, northern village and is persuaded, against her better judgement and for reasons unknown, to film in Blackwood Bay. Once there she discovers a town shrouded in mystery and full of secrets, that threaten to engulf and ultimately destroy her. She has to dig deep to save herself, as well as the lives of others.

In researching the book, I was drawn to the idea of the way we document our lives now, on Instagram and Twitter etc., and the downsides of that, as well as the darkness that can hide in plain sight and the abuses that people can visit on their fellow humans. The sad fact is I had to tone down some of the horrific atrocities I read about, or else the book would’ve been too dark, even for me.

Review
Alex is an ambitious filmmaker, who is under pressure to deliver the same kind of quality work she has previously. Living up to her own hype isn't as easy as it sounds. An anonymous tip-off leads her to Blackwood Bay, and a world of pretence, lies and a very dirty underbelly of such a pleasant place on the surface.

For me this had a Gothika vibe, not sure if anyone remembers that excellent example of small-town gothic horror. This story has the same kind of underlying insidious feeling that seeps through the quaint rural village. Watson combines that with the vulnerability we expose ourselves to with our dependency on social media and digital footprints.

'The sad fact is I had to tone down some of the horrific atrocities I read about, or else the book would’ve been too dark, even for me.' - I thought about this sentence a lot. It kind of captures that baser instinct of humans that we like to overlook, ignore and deny. Powerless to change the fact that some people are willing to cross boundaries without a thought. Be cruel, destructive and intentionally cause pain just because they can. I think it's important to consider that when horrendous acts and atrocities are written about, especially those in an historical context, that the true level of inhumanity is always watered down for future audiences or generations.

On that note I'd just like to add that the fact Watson can inspire dialogue and thoughts of such depth in a mere comment on his own blurb and his work, is a testament to his talents as an author.

Buy Final Cut at Amazon UK or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Doubleday; pub date 6th August 2020 | Hardback | £12.99. Buy at Amazon com.

#BlogTour The Stray Cats of Homs by Eva Nour

It's a pleasure to take part in the BlogTour The Stray Cats of Homs by Eva Nour, translated by Agnes Broomé.

About the Author
Eva Nour is a journalist writing under a pseudonym. She was inspired to write The Stray Cats of Homs, her debut novel, by meeting and falling in love with the real ‘Sami’.

Follow on Amazon, on Goodreads, Buy The Stray Cats of Homs

About the book
Sami’s childhood is much like any other - an innocent blend of family and school, of friends and relations and pets (including stray cats and dogs, and the turtle he keeps on the roof). But growing up in one of the largest cities in Syria, with his country at war with itself, means that nothing is really normal. And Sami’s hopes for a better future are ripped away when he is conscripted into the military and forced to train as a map maker.

Sami may be shielded from the worst horrors of the war, but it will still be impossible to avoid his own nightmare…

Inspired by extraordinary true events, The Stray Cats of Homs is the story of a young man who will do anything to keep the dream of home alive, even in the face of unimaginable devastation. Tender, wild and unbearably raw, it is a novel which will stay with you for ever.

Review
This is a semi-biographical story written for and with the person behind the voice of Sami. The story of a country oppressed, tortured and destroyed by its own regime.

The people, in particular Syrian refugees, are gravely misunderstood. If you haven't lived under a regime that gives you no freedom or rights and any dissent means death, disappearance or worse - it's hard for someone raised in a Western democracy to comprehend the reality of living under a regime like that.

For me the true strength of the story, the message and voice of Sami which permeates through both consciousness and soul, is the way Nour doesn't venture beyond borders and countries. It's a singular experience in their home environment. Sami doesn't experience the world, the political interactions outside of his environment. He experiences the repercussions of decisions made above his head but for the greater part the author has made a smart tactical decision to deliver this story as an encapsulated experience. One of many bubbles floating through the air - each with a different path and outcome. A story from within, about one of the world's toughest dictatorships.

The most poignant point Nour makes is the animal vs human one of course. When presented with the horrendous reality of war and conflict, especially when the outside world is given a window into the inner world of tragedy, trauma and death - how does the majority of humankind react especially those on the righteous pedestals of social media.

Maimed and disfigured man, raped and defiled woman, dead child - oh no wait, save the kitty. Is the kitty safe, show me a picture. In one sentence a decision is made, a judgement is cast, a denial is thrust forth and ultimately a choice is made. In a way an interesting parallel to draw when it comes human reaction, accountability and bystander apathy on a global scale.

It's an incredibly poignant book and a voice that should be heard.

Buy The Stray Cats of Homs at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Doubleday; pub date 13th August / Hardback / £12.99. Buy at Amazon com. Buy at Waterstones.

#BlogTour Miss Benson's Beetle by Rachel Joyce

It's an absolute pleasure to take part in the BlogTour for Miss Benson's Beetle by Rachel Joyce.

About the Author

Rachel Joyce is the author of the Sunday Times and international bestsellers The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Perfect, The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy, The Music Shop and a collection of interlinked short stories, A Snow Garden & Other Stories. Her books have been translated into thirty -six languages and two are in development for film.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Book prize and long-listed for the Man Booker Prize. Rachel was awarded the Specsavers National Book Awards ‘New Writer of the Year’ in December 201 2 and shortlisted for the ‘UK Author of the Year’201 4. Rachel was a Costa prize judge and University Big Read author in 2019.

She has also written over twenty original afternoon plays and adaptations of the classics for BBC Radio 4, including all the Bronte novels. She moved to writing after a long career as an actor, performing leading roles for the RSC, the National Theatre and Cheek by Jowl. She lives with her family in Gloucestershire.

Follow on Goodreads, on Amazon, Visit rachel-joyce.co.uk, Buy Miss Benson's Beetle

About the book
It is 1950, two unlikely women set off on a hare-brained adventure to the other side of the world to try and find a beetle, and in doing so discover friendship and how to be their best of themselves. This is quintessential Joyce: at once poignant and playful, with huge heart and the same resonance, truth and lightness of touch as her phenomenally successful debut, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry.

Britain, post Second World War. I n a moment of madness Margery Benson abandons her sensible job and advertises for an assistant to accompany her on an expedition. She is going to travel to the other side of the world to search for a beetle that may or may not exist.

Enid Pretty, in pink hat and pompom sandals, is not the companion she had in mind. But together they will find themselves drawn into an adventure that exceeds all expectations. They must risk everything, break all the rules, but at the top of a red mountain they will discover who they truly are, and how to be the best of themselves.This is a novel that is less about what can be found than the belief it might be found; it is an intoxicating adventure story but it is also about what it means to be a woman and a tender exploration of a friendship that defies all boundaries.

Review

Miss Benson finally reaches her limit and decides to put all her resources and hopes into finding a golden beetle in the middle of nowhere. It's the last fond memory she has of herself and her father - learning about the beetle. She recruits an assistant, which leads to an unusual pairing and a relationship that teaches her more about herself and life than she ever expected.

I loved this book. It has echoes of Eleanor Oliphant and The Other Half of Augusta Hope, both of which feature women who learn to love themselves as they are instead of being burdened by the way society expects them to look, behave and live. Miss Benson embarking upon her journey and seeking that particularly elusive beetle, thereby discovering herself, her worth, friendship and true sisterhood - it's also a story of a woman accepting herself. 

There is this interesting part of the story where Joyce actually confronts the reader, albeit subtly, with the foursome of roles in regards to being a woman. You have Miss Benson, the worn down spinster. Enid, the loose woman and rule-breaker. Dolly, the subservient woman itching to break free, and Mrs Pope the diplomat's wife - the woman who becomes the foe of other women in an attempt to appease the patriarchal society. Judging other women instead of aiding and understanding, fitting in instead of standing up and being counted.

The quest to find the beetle becomes synonymous with acceptance of self, with a final confrontation with loss and with an acknowledgement of peace. The highest bar set by others takes on a note of irrelevance when the realisation dawns that you, or in this case Miss Benson, should be more interested in what makes you happy.

Joyce is a wonderful storyteller, who has a knack of capturing the absurd, the pain, the honesty and the core of humanity. Life isn't clean - it's dirty and it hurts, but now again we see the joy and feel the peace through the mists of life.

Buy Miss Benson's Beetle at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Doubleday pub date 23 July 2020 | £16.99 | Hardback. Ebook - Transworld Digital; pub date 23 July 2020. Buy at Amazon com. Buy at Waterstones.

#BlogTour Shelf Life by Livia Franchini

Today it's my pleasure to take part in the BlogTour Shelf Life by Livia Franchini. It's an incredibly introspective and clever piece of literary and women's fiction.

About the Author
Livia Franchini is a writer and translator from Tuscany, Italy, whose work has been published in numerous publications and anthologies. She has translated Michael Donaghy, Sam Riviere and James Tiptree Jr. among many others. In 2018, she was one of the inaugural writers-in-residence for the Connecting Emerging Literary Artist project, funded by Creative Europe.

She lives in London, where she is completing a PhD in experimental women’s writing at Goldsmiths.

Follow @livfranchini on Twitter, Buy Shelf Life

About the book

Ruth is thirty years old.
She works as a nurse in a care home and her fiancé has just broken up with her. The only thing she has left of him is their shopping list for the upcoming week. And so she uses that list to tell her story.

Starting with six eggs, and working through spaghetti and strawberries, and apples and tea bags,
Ruth discovers that her identity has been crafted from the people she serves; her patients, her friends, and, most of all, her partner of ten years.

Without him, she needs to find out – with conditioner and single cream and a lot of sugar –
who she is when she stands alone.

Review
I do hope this read gets the recognition it deserves. It's an incredibly introspective and clever piece of literary and women's fiction. Part of me thinks it would make more sense or rather be more self-explanatory if given a visual medium, which probably sounds quite bizarre given the fact it's a book.

Think Eleanor Oliphant with a more keen sense of self and survival. A woman, Ruth, who we follow as she goes through the process of grief and finding herself after the end of a long-term relationship. Franchini uses each relationship and interaction Ruth has - then connects them via the objects, her job and her thought processes to build and create the story of Ruth. Each part becomes a lego brick as they are placed one by one to complete the picture we have of her.

I loved the whole shopping list aspect of the story. It's done in such a subtle way, an afterthought even, you don't realise how clever the concept is until you get to the end of the story. For me the items became the metaphors, coping mechanisms and at times idiosyncrasies.

Sometimes literary fiction can take the path of think more write less and presumes the reader will be able to anticipate meaning and aspiration. The reader can then get lost in the process. I think this verges on the precipice of that now and again.

It's an intriguing and innovative piece of fiction. I expect to read much more by this author in the future.

Buy Shelf Life at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Doubleday; pub date 29th August 2019 | Hardback | £12.99. Buy at Amazon com.

#BlogTour The Body Lies by Jo Baker

Today it is my turn, and also the end of this fantastic BlogTour The Body Lies by Jo Baker. It's a literary crime thriller, but also fits into the category of a contemporary psychological thriller.

About the Author
Jo Baker is the author of the acclaimed and bestselling Longbourn and A Country Road, A Tree.
Her new novel, The Body Lies, is a thrilling contemporary novel that explores violence against women in fiction but is also a disarming story of sexual politics.
Jo Baker lives with her family in Lancashire.

Follow @JoBakerWriter on Twitter, on Goodreads, on Amazon, Visit jobakerwriter.com,

Buy The Body Lies

About the book
When a young writer accepts a job at a university in the remote countryside, it’s meant to be a fresh start, away from the big city and the scene of a violent assault she’s desperate to forget. But when one of her students starts sending in chapters from his novel that blur the lines between fiction and reality, the professor recognises herself as the main character in his book - and he has written her a horrific fate.

Will she be able to stop life imitating art before it's too late?

Review
This was a cracker of a read. It delves into the world of sexual politics in the workplace and in this case specifically in a university environment. The boundaries are clear when you're in a school environment, but what happens when it's consenting adults instead?

There were so many things about this book that I liked. The subtlety, which gave it a more realistic feel. The style and the element of writing as a tool to intimidate, scare and malign. Then having the woman in a position of authority, thereby being in a position to abuse the power in an unequal relationship, but also being a potential target for someone willing to manipulate the system.

The boldest move however was writing the story in first person and leaving the narrator unnamed. In doing so the author allows her main character to become all women, her thoughts and fears are synonymous with women all over the world.

This is especially evident in the first part of the story, when she is assaulted in front of people in a public area. This event sets certain coping mechanisms in motion. Her inability to comprehend her trauma, including the assault, chips away at her life and relationships. Her reaction or lack of it, says a lot about the systemic violence and abuse against women in our society. The reactions of those around her speaks volumes.

It's a literary crime thriller, but also fits into the category of a contemporary psychological thriller. The author gives us the depth and style of literary fiction, and simultaneously the thrill of a more contemporary read. A perfect combination of the two.

Buy The Body Lies at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.Publisher: Doubleday; pub date 13 Jun. 2019. Buy at Amazon com.

#BlogTour The Secretary by Renee Knight

Today it really is a pleasure to take part in the BlogTour The Secretary by Renee Knight. It's a contemporary story with the vibe of a psychological thriller.

About the Author
Renée Knight worked as a documentary-maker for the BBC before turning to writing. She is a graduate of the Faber Academy ‘Writing a Novel’ course, and lives in London with her husband and two children. Her widely acclaimed debut novel, Disclaimer, was a Sunday Times No.1 bestseller. The Secretary is her second novel.

Buy The Secretary

About the book
Look around you. Who holds the most power in the room? Is it the one who speaks loudest, who looks the part, who has the most money, who commands the most respect?

Or perhaps it’s someone like Christine Butcher: a meek, overlooked figure, who silently bears witness as information is shared and secrets are whispered. Someone who quietly, perhaps even unwittingly, gathers together knowledge of the people she’s there to serve – the ones who don’t notice her, the ones who consider themselves to be important.

There’s a fine line between loyalty and betrayal. And when someone like Christine Butcher is pushed to her limit, she might just become the most dangerous person in the room . . .

Review
Even though the reader technically knows who the bad guy is, for me the lines are a little skewed. No matter what separates Christine and Mina, whether it is status, money or goals in life, they also have a lot of similarities. Neither of them recognises that fact in the other though.

Mina is used to being at the top of the food chain and expects everyone around her to act accordingly, especially those closest to her. She also expects Christine to put everything and everyone, including family members, way behind what Mina wants and needs. Of course this leads to Christine neglecting those closest to her.

Christine is meticulous when it comes to the finer details of her work. She is everything a PA is supposed to be; punctual, takes care of things before her employer thinks she needs it and loyal to a fault. She admires Mina, and in a way she perhaps wants to be her.

This story pits two very different women against each other, and yet they are also two peas in a pod. Willing to sacrifice everything to excel at their own personal goals, whilst pretending to the world to be something they are not and never will be. It's an ode to the insincerity in our society, the hunger for fame and the willingness of the public to lap it all up.

Simultaneously it also speaks to the fragile nature of trust and loyalty, and the impact on relationships with an imbalance of power. They become a breeding ground for unhealthy obsessions and accusations.

I particularly enjoyed the ending. It was satisfying, It wasn't what I expected, which is always a plus, but in general it just felt as if the author managed to bring the story full circle. It's a contemporary story with the vibe of a psychological thriller.

Buy The Secretary at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Doubleday; pub date 21 Feb. 2019, Buy at Amazon com
Follow @DoubledayUK @TransworldBooks