#Blogtour Lace by Catrin Kean

It's an absolute pleasure to take part in the Blogtour Lace by Catrin Kean.

Honno, Welsh Women’s Press presents Lace, the “enthralling” sequel to the prize-winning Salt. 

'Landing on shelves on the 18th July 2024, Honno, Welsh Women’s Press will be publishing Lace by Catrin Kean. An emotional and intricate follow-up to her award winning novel, Lace introduces us to a new generation and a dark history stirred by a birth in the family.'

About the Author

Catrin Kean was awarded a place on the Hay Festival Writers At Work scheme for emerging writers from 2016 – 18. Her short stories have been published in Riptide Journal, Bridge House Anthologies, The Ghastling, and Syncopation Journal. Her debut novel 'Salt' won the 2021 Rhys Davies Fiction award,  the Wales Arts Review People’s Choice Award, and the overall Wales Book of the Year Award. Lace is her second novel. She lives in the Garw Valley with her partner and three ridgeback dogs. Follow @kean_catrin on X

About the book

The sequel to the prizewinning novel Salt - Weaving between Cardiff in the mid-1920’s and a Wicklow convent in the early 1900’s, Kean recount’s Mary’s story, a tale inspired by her grandmother.

In the early 1900s in Wicklow, Ireland, the lives of six year old Mary and her siblings are torn apart when their father dies leaving the family penniless. Mary's mother is forced to travel to Dublin to find work. She places her children in an orphanage for a short stay, which turns into years. 

Many years later Mary settles in Cardiff with her Welsh/Bajan husband Louis, and is thrilled at the arrival of their first child, Teresa. But the birth of the baby dredges up long hidden memories that Mary must confront before she can bond with her daughter. 

Review

I'm going to have to read Salt now, not because this is a sequel - it's actually more of a giving readers a more complete picture of the story - but rather because Kean is such an incredible writer. Much like Claire Keegan, there is core talent of encapsulating either a moment or a lifetime of emotions in a short read. Not something every writer can pull off. 

Even without the racial element, the racism, fearmongering and hatred, the story is at the core is one of family. The deconstruction and restructuring of family units, which are constantly interchangeable and a moving living breathing entity. Trauma, grief, love and both new and old dynamics.

In Mary's case the birth of her daughter awakens deeply buried childhood trauma. The kind of traumatic losses, experiences and memories that cause a disconnect and lack of bonding between mother and child. This is an exploration of how the past impacts the present and the future. It determines whether one foot can be placed before the other.

I think it's easy to forget that ancestors, and indeed parents or grandparents, have lived entire lives before we enter the picture. What we as their children or grandchildren experience of them is often the version haunted by or the product of a sum of their prior relationships and experiences.

I hope to see this author receive the recognition they deserve and heading prize lists in the future. Excellent read.

Buy Lace at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Buy at Amazon com. Buy via Honno.

#BlogTour Little Brown Dog by Paula S. Owen

 It's a pleasure to take part in the BlogTour Little Brown Dog by Paula S. Owen

About the Author

Paula is something of an accidental novelist. A scientist, with a PhD in climate chemistry, she has spent her career writing, educating, campaigning and fretting about the state of our planet. Her late foray into fiction was down to a serendipitous encounter with an amateur historian at Battersea Arts Centre. The incredulous, but true, story he told, and the themes it portrays, stole her heart and became an obsession. Hence Little Brown Dog was conceived. Paula is Welsh born and bred and now lives in London with her partner and a menagerie of rescue animals. Follow @paulasowen, Visit littlebrowndog.london

About the book

One nameless stray. Two fearless young women. A heroic fight for justice. - It’s 1903, and Britain is desperate for change, but widespread calls for social and gender reform flounder against entrenched misogyny. Navigating this world are best friends Lena Hageby and Eliza Blackwood – two thoroughly modern young women determined to live life on their own terms.

Rumours abound of barbaric experiments taking place within London’s medical schools, and when the women covertly witness a shockingly brutal procedure performed on a semi-conscious dog, they resolve to take down the perpetrator – renowned physiologist Dr William Bayling.

In their fight for justice, the women are drawn into an increasingly vicious ‘David and Goliath’ battle with an all-powerful male medical establishment who will stop at nothing to protect the status quo. But how much are the women prepared to risk? Their friendship, their loves, their freedom, even their lives?

Based on extraordinary true events that shook Edwardian society, Little Brown Dog is a tale simultaneously heart-breaking and heart-warming. Although a century has passed, it remains a strikingly modern parable of female bravery in speaking truth to power

Review

Lena and Eliza find themselves taking on the machine that is the male dominated society when they try and change the brutal mistreatment of animals in the name of medical science. What seems to them to be a normal reaction to an atrocity, brings forth unlevelled abuse and hatred, and ultimately consequences neither of them are expecting.

I thought was a fascinating story. Kudos to the author for retrieving it from the dusty archives of history, and paying homage to the people brave enough to fight for both regulations and some humanity when it comes to research, vivisection and experiments. Given the vast amount of political changes and fights for independence, and a voice for women, taking place - I suppose it is no wonder that the fate of animals and the statue of the little brown dog have faded into obscurity over the last century.

Owen makes an excellent point about crossing boundaries with animals when it comes to experiments, pain and torture, all in the name of research. If you are willing to do it to a living and breathing being, then you're not far from crossing the boundary when it comes to the human species. If history has taught us anything, then it is that those lines get blurry really quick, both in the name of research for the greater humanity and personal gain.

Personally I found it rather interesting how much skin in the game the power players and string pullers still have when it comes to said statue. It's almost as if losing certain battles over a century ago is still a matter of contention for this patriarchal society, which is still seeped in misogyny.

Buy Little Brown Dog at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher ‏: ‎Honno Welsh Women's Press pub date 15 Sept. 2021. Buy at Amazon com.

#BlogTour Love at Café Lompar by Anna and Jacqui Burns

 It's my turn on the BlogTour Love at Café Lompar by Anna and Jacqui Burns

About the Author

Jacqui and Anna Burns are a mother and daughter writing team. Anna, a doctor and trainee psychiatrist, and Jacqui, an English teacher, visited Montenegro in 2019 and were captivated by its beauty. Living over two-hundred miles apart, they wrote Love at Café Lompar by writing alternate chapters and emailing them to each other, keeping each other’s spirits up through lockdown and fulfilling a life-long dream. This is the first novel for both of them and they are working on a sequel, reluctant to leave the Lompar family they have grown to love. Follow @burns1jacqui on Twitter

About the book

Can a journey that begins in betrayal ever end in joy? Grace believed she had the ideal marriage, but after Dan dies, she finds proof he had another family. Kat can’t admit that her father was less than perfect. Mother and daughter go to Montenegro to find out the truth.

But when they track down Rosa and her son, while Grace is heartbroken, Kat can’t help being thrilled to have a brother. Kat starts helping out ‘just for a few days’ at Rosa’s restaurant, the Café Lompar. Soon both women are torn between their old and new lives, facing impossible choices.

Review

Do you ever really know someone 100% or know all their secrets? The answer to that is no. There is always some element, secret or part of us that we keep hidden from those closest to us. Not opening up completely is one thing, keeping an entire second family hidden away in another country is another thing entirely.

The sudden death of her beloved husband is hard enough to cope with, but finding out that he has another woman and child is enough to break an already grieving heart. A second family, a lifetime of lies and fake moments. Grace finds it hard to reconcile the image of her family she has with the reality she is now presented with. Her daughter Kat however is excited by the prospect of meeting her sibling.

The Burns duo give readers the perfect heartbreaking conundrum. Do you let the disappointment you have with the person who betrayed you overshadow your life and possible future relationships? Or do you make the best of an uncomfortable situation?

I felt as if the authors hit upon an important aspect of Patchwork families and what defines the word family. It's also about picking up the pieces of the fallout caused by people who play fast and loose with the emotions and trust of their loved ones. It's an evenly paced lovely read.

Buy Love at Café Lompar at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher ‏: ‎Honno Welsh Women's Press pub date 15 July 2021. Buy at Amazon com.

#BlogTour Emmet and Me by Sara Gethin

 

It's my turn on the BlogTour Emmet and Me by Sara Gethin. It's truly an incredibly moving story. From the Not the Booker shortlisted author of Not Thomas comes the kind of book you never forget.

About the Author

Sara Gethin grew up in Llanelli. She has a degree in Religion and Ethics in Western Thought and worked as a primary school teacher in Carmarthenshire and Berkshire. Writing as Wendy White, she has had four children’s books published, and the first of these won the Tir nan-Og Award in 2014. 

Her debut novel, Not Thomas, was shortlisted for the Guardian’s Not the Booker prize and The Waverton Good Read Award. While west Wales is still home, Sara spends much of her time in Ireland. Emmet and Me is her second novel for adults.  Follow @SGethinWriter on Twitter, on Facebook

About the book

Summer 1966: When her father comes home with lipstick on his collar, ten-year-old Claire’s life is turned upside down. Her furious mother leaves the family and heads to London, and Claire and her brothers are packed off to Ireland, to their reclusive grandmother at her tiny cottage on the beautifully bleak coast of Connemara.

A misfit among her new classmates, Claire finds it hard to make friends until she happens across a boy her own age from the school next door. He lives at the local orphanage, a notoriously harsh place. Amidst half-truths, lies and haunting family secrets, Claire forms a forbidden friendship with Emmet ‒ a bond that will change both their lives forever.

Review

Sometimes you get a book that has the capacity to smash your heart into a million pieces. I think given the extraordinary circumstances of the past year and a half there will be more open ears and eyes to this story. Dancing with fear, existential worries and our own mortality, and especially because many of us have been forced into spending time with our own thoughts, this story will perhaps garner more of an audience.

It is certainly deserving of it. It's power doesn't draw energy from gruesome details, but rather from the inferred burden of reality. The contempt, the neglect, the hunger, the abuse, the pain and the deaths. The generations of damaged children grown into broken adults. Who bears the guilt, shame or even the moral bill for these heinous acts? Why does the truth still fall on deaf ears and blind eyes even after so many years and testimonies? 

When their family is torn apart by a mother who puts herself first and a father who has been defined by cruelty, Claire and her brothers are sent to Ireland to live with their paternal grandmother. It's there that they learn how generations of adults were molded by sadistic neglect, families destroyed and how it in turn will change them forever too. 

The brilliance of Gethin's story is built within the sparse confines of subtlety and scarcity. The bare landscape, the isolation, the lack of anyone to turn to due to the ingrained indoctrination of religious authority, and the simple gestures and interactions of children.

I remember the sinking feeling of sorrow during the first scene between Claire and Emmet. Knowing even then that fantasy was an escape, conversation a gateway and the friendship a possible glimmer of hope in a preordained future. I knew what would come, and the fact the author was able to convey all of that without actually writing any of it, is a testament to her talent as a storyteller.

I loved it. I think it is an incredibly moving story. It's also a moment of truth, vindication and validation. The voices of many, the silenced and the forgotten, are held within the lines of this multi-generational experience.

Buy Emmet and Me at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher : Honno Presspub date 20 May 2021. Buy at Amazon com.

#BlogTour The Covenant by Thorne Moore

Today it's my turn on the BlogTour The Covenant: The Life and Death of a Righteous Woman by Thorne Moore.

About the Author
Thorne Moore was born in Luton but has lived in north Pembrokeshire for over 30 years. She has degrees in History and Law, worked in a library and ran a family restaurant. She divides her time between running a miniature furniture craft business and writing psychological crime mysteries.

Follow @ThorneMoore on Twitter, on Amazon, on Goodreads, Visit thornemoore.com, Buy The Covenant

About the book
The Owens are tied to this Pembrokeshire land – no-one will part them from it dead or alive. Leah is tied to home and hearth by debts of love and duty – duty to her father, turned religious zealot after the tragic death of his eldest son, Tom; love for her wastrel younger brother Frank’s two motherless children. One of them will escape, the other will be doomed to follow in their grandfather’s footsteps.

At the close of the 19th century, Cwmderwen’s twenty-four acres, one rood and eight perches are hard won, the holding run down over the years by debt and poor harvest. But they are all the Owens have and their rent is always paid on time. With Tom’s death a crack is opened up and into this chink in the fabric of the family step Jacob John and his wayward son Eli, always on the lookout for an opportunity.

Saving her family, good and bad, saving Cwmderwen, will change Leah forever and steal her dreams, perhaps even her life…

Review
What begins as the story of a family bound by love, blood, loyalty and religion soon takes on a more sinister turn when the demands of religion and faith result in the death of a young boy. It destroys the family from within, bit by bit. The father punishes others for his own transgressions, which in turn determines the path of his wife and children. Hate begets hate, violence begets a soul searching for peace in the bottom of a barrel.

This is the prequel to A Time for Silence, both can absolutely be read as standalone novels and to be completely frank I can't decide which one I would suggest reading first. Probably A Time for Silence though, because it sets the scene in a way, whereas The Covenant delivers it's own very specific brand of historically relevant evil or evil as it is perceived and interpreted through the words of the Lord. I find it's usually more a case of the interpretation suiting the needs of the person using it as a tool to rationalise, soothe or punish.

I have to say I am not one for religion, but this has to be read in the context of the era, culture and community. How religion, the word of God drives each action of Tada, regardless of how detrimental it is to his children and wife. Each member of the community uses it to judge everyone else, which is of course the bane of our existence - the misuse of religion, an institution devised by men to control others.

I digress.
This is actually a really compelling dark family saga with elements of mystery and crime. Historical fiction, and yet also a compelling story of family loyalty and a choice between living the life others expect you to or the life you strive to at least work towards.

Moore has a very specific style and voice, the scripture never overpowers the characters or story. Instead it serves to explain the drive, the decisions and enhance the characters.

Buy The Covenant at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Honno Welsh Women's Press; pub date 20 Aug. 2020. Buy at Amazon com. Buy at Honno Press.

About Honno Press
'Honno Welsh Women's Press was set up in 1986 by a group of women who felt strongly that women in Wales needed wider opportunities to see their writing in print and to become involved in the publishing process. Our aim is to develop the writing talents of women in Wales, give them new and exciting opportunities to see their work published and often to give them their first 'break' as a writer. Honno is registered as a community co-operative. Any profit that Honno makes is invested in the publishing programme. Women from Wales and around the world have expressed their support for Honno. Each supporter has a vote at the Annual General meeting. for more information and to buy our publications, visit our website:  www.honno.co.uk'

#BlogTour Wild Spinning Girls by Carol Lovekin

Today it's also a pleasure to take part in the BlogTour Wild Spinning Girls by Carol Lovekin.

About the Author
arol Lovekin is the author of three novels published by Honno, the Welsh Women’s Press. She writes about mother/daughter relationships, family dynamics & her stories are rooted in the Welsh landscape. They touch on the Welsh Gothic & its most powerful motif: the ghost.

Her first novel, Ghostbird (2016) was a Waterstones Wales and Welsh Independent Bookshops Book of the Month, a Guardian Readers’ Choice for 2016 & in the same year was longlisted for the Not the Booker Prize. Snow Sisters (2017), her second novel, was chosen by the Welsh Books Council as their October Book of the Month (for independent shops.) Her third novel, Wild Spinning Girls is published today.

Follow @carollovekin on Twitter, on Goodreads, Visit carollovekinauthor.com, Buy Wild Spinning 
Girls

About the book
If it wasn’t haunted before she came to live there, after she died, Ty’r Cwmwl made room for her ghost. She brought magic with her.

And the house, having held its breath for years, knew it. Ida Llewellyn loses her job and her parents in the space of a few weeks and, thrown completely off course, she sets out for the Welsh house her father has left her. Ty’r Cwmwl is not at all welcoming despite the fact it looks inhabited, as if someone just left..

It is being cared for as a shrine by the daughter of the last tenant. Determined to scare off her old home’s new landlord, Heather Esyllt Morgan sides with the birds who terrify Ida and plots to evict her. The two girls battle with suspicion and fear before discovering that the secrets harboured by their thoughtless parents have grown rotten with time. Their broken hearts will only mend once they cast off the house and its history, and let go of the keepsakes that they treasure like childhood dreams.

Review
Inheriting a house in an isolated area in Wales is one thing, inheriting a house that comes with a built-in ghost and a slightly crazy young girl with a key for every door, is quite another.

At first Ida thinks it is amusing and swipes the constant presence of Heather away like she is swatting a fly, but when Heather appears determined to frighten and threaten her Ida's resolution to stay and make the place her home starts to waver.

Ida is torn between being annoyed at the constant intrusion into her life and worrying about the young girl who at this point is worse than a squatter. Heather insists Ida can't move or change anything let alone touch anything that belonged to her mother. Her sense of loss and grief is palpable. It makes her erratic and often volatile.

Where Heather is comfortable with the quirkyness of the house and surrounding countryside, Ida feels threatened and is often scared by the odd things that happen in the house. Pretty sure the birds have been watching Hitchcock. Just saying.

It's magical realism and literary fiction with a pinch of women's empowerment. Lovekin, who tells a great tale by the way, reminds us how important it is to support instead of judge and ignore. To listen instead of assume, because sometimes the hardest exterior hides the most frightened of hearts.

It's a lovely read. A breath of the unknown - witchcraft, energy and an aura of something watching and controlling the fate of others.

Buy Wild Spinning Girls at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Honno Welsh Women'S Press: pub date 20 Feb. 2020. Buy at Amazon com.

#BlogTour God's Children by Mabli Roberts

Today it's my turn on the BlogTour God's Children by Mabli Roberts. It's historical fiction, a memoir of sorts and a mystery to boot.

About the Author
Mabli Roberts lives in a wild, mountainous part of Wales. She has an MA in Creative Writing from Lancaster University and has worked as a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Wales, Newport. Most of her inspiration comes from her love of history and from long walks in the timeless landscape around her.

Mabli also writes as Paula Brackston, PJ Brackston and PJ Davy. Nutters was shortlisted for the Mind Book Award and The Witch’s Daughter was a New York Times bestseller.

Her work has been translated into five languages and is sold around the world. You can find out more about her books on her website www.paulabrackston.com, her Author’s Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/worldofpaulabrackston/ and YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/paulabrackstonbooks as well as the God's Children Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Gods-Children-1476228589147399/

Follow World of Paula Brackston on Facebook, God's Children on Facebook, Paula Brackston Books on Youtube, on Goodreads, Visit paulabrackston.com
Buy God's Children

About the book
'Kate Marsden: nurse, intrepid adventurer, saviour of the lepers or devious manipulator, immoral and dishonest?'

As she lies on her deathbed visited by the ghosts of her past, who should we believe, Kate or those who accuse her of duplicity? Memory is a fickle thing: recollections may be frozen in time or distorted by the mirror of wishful thinking. Kate’s own story is one of incredible achievements, illicit love affairs and desperate longing; those of her accusers paint a very different portrait – of a woman determined on fame and fortune.

The reader navigates a narrative as fractured as the Siberian ice Kate crosses in search of a cure for leprosy, and as beautiful as Rose, her lost love, as the full picture emerges of a life lived when women were not expected to break the mould.

Review
Who was Kate Marsden? Was she a woman intent on providing care and a cure for those suffering from leprosy, with big plans to build hospitals? Or was she a clever manipulator and con woman? The question that remains in the end is whether Kate Marsden was the woman she wanted everyone to believe she was or just an organiser of a well executed scam.

She uses her professional experiences and extensive travels to make more connections. Her fans include the British and Russian royal family, and a spate of wealthy women. Her benefactors want to see her succeed because she acts in God's name. A little bit like an evangelical tv star, but without the medium of television.

She holds town hall meetings to encourage people to spend money and invest in her very ambitious plans. Of course society wants to be seen helping those less fortunate, because it makes them look like better people.

Kate hints occasionally at some unspoken horror experienced at the hands of certain men whilst travelling the isolated areas looking for people stricken with leprosy. That thought sort of petered out during the tale though.

Her sexual preferences are hinted at, but never go further other than to suggest moments of titillation and flushed cheeks. Love is suggested, but desire remains in the imagination of the beholder.

In retrospect it's hard to be completely clear on the truth. Were her detractors extremely successful in plotting her downfall because they were presenting the sordid truth or because their need for revenge had become an obsession? I suppose it depends on which account you are more likely to believe.

It's historical fiction, a biography of sorts and a mystery to boot. Even towards the end, Kate is uncertain what is truth and what is fiction courtesy of the critics.

Buy God's Children at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads at any other retailer. Published by Honno Press in paperback and ebook format on 11th April 2019. Buy at Amazon com. Buy at Blackwell's. Buy at Hive. At Google. At Foyles. Barnes & Noble. Buy at Honno Press.