It was supposed to be Christy Sullivan’s perfect Christmas getaway — a trip to Lapland with her family and best friend, Alix. But facing a make-or-break marriage crisis, Christy desperately needs time alone with her husband. Her solution? Alix can take Christy’s little daughter to Lapland, and they will reunite there for Christmas Day. It’s a big ask, but what else are friends for?
There’s nothing Alix won’t do for Christy. But Christy’s request to save Christmas is giving Alix sleepless nights. She knows something is wrong, but for the first time ever, Christy isn’t talking. And even the Arctic temperatures in Lapland aren’t enough to dampen the seriously inconvenient sizzle Alix is developing for Zac, a fellow guest and nemesis from her past.
As secrets unravel and unexpected romance shines under the northern lights, can Christy and Alix’s Christmas escape give them the courage to fight for the relationships they really want, and save the precious gift of each other’s friendship?
My thoughts: this was a lovely festive tale of love and friendship, family and speaking the truth. Christy and Alix have been friends since they were small but somewhere along the way they stopped talking properly, a trip to Lapland to meet Christy’s estranged aunt, celebrate Christmas and see Santa, means the chance to straighten a few things out and fix their friendship.
Plus love is in the air, as Christy and husband Seb reconnect and Alix and Zac finally confess their feelings. Little Holly causes chaos as only a 4 year old tornado can, there are beautiful huskys and snow too.
Sarah Morgan once again wraps some big issues in a soft festive blanket, time to get cosy and open a book.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Surprised by how few literary references exist for the Spanish ‘Flu pandemic of 1918/19, Man Booker Prize-nominated Irish poet William Wall decided to turn his remarkable talents to creating a poetry anthology inspired by ‘the strangest year we have lived’. Published by Doire Press, Wall’s hauntingly beautiful poetry will be available from Thursday 28 October. In Smugglers in the Underground Hug Trade: A Journal of the Plague Year, Wall captures the roller-coaster of emotions from the first terrible days in Italy to the highs and lows of the lockdown in Ireland, culminating in the frightening increase in numbers at Christmas 2020. But this is not just a book about the plague: Wall turns to nature, to love, to his beloved Cork coast and sea-swimming for solace. There are many tender memories, moments of personal inspiration, humour and hopefulness—the whole suffused with an acute awareness of the historical context. There have been other plagues and pandemics, the poems say, and we have survived: we will survive this too.
A sample from Smugglers in the Underground Hug Trade: A Journal of the Plague Year.
The Silent Road the road that passes our gate has fallen silent all our days in this house thirty years and more we have wished for this moment and now we are bereft
WILLIAM WALL is the author of four novels, including This is the Country (Sceptre), longlisted for the Man Booker Prize; three collections of poetry; and one volume of short stories. He is the first Poet Laureate of Cork, his home city (2020/2021) and was the first European to win the Drue Heinz Literature Prize in the USA (2017). He has also won the Virginia Faulkner Award, The Sean O’Faoláin Prize, several Writer’s Week prizes and The Patrick Kavanagh Award. He was shortlisted for the Young Minds Book Award, the Irish Book Awards, the Raymond Carver Award, the Hennessy Award and numerous others. His work has been translated into many languages, including Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Latvian, Serbian and Catalan. In 2014 William was part of the Italo-Irish Literature Exchange, organised through The Irish Writers’ Centre, which toured Italy with readings in Italian and English. In March 2010 he was Writer in Residence at The Princess Grace Irish Library, Monaco. He was a 2009 Fellow of The Liguria Centre for the Arts & Humanities. He lives in Cork. You can see more readings from William through his YouTube page here.
My thoughts: this is not an easy, comforting collection of poems, 2020 was a terrible year for many, but it is strikingly honest and powerful. From the deeply personal to poems inspired by the news and politicians. The use of quotes from plague literature (e.g Samuel Pepys’ diaries, The Decameron) reminds us that this has happened before – many times, and will most likely happen again.
Charting the long lockdowned year, from its early moments to Christmas, the strangest festival in our homes, the poems explore the feelings and concerns of each troubled season, putting context into a frightening time. The use of images brings the eye to the accompanying text, a flash of life, startling against the stillness of the words.
There is probably much more to come as writers gather their thoughts and put pen to paper over the next few years but this collection feels of the moment and explains how so many felt faced with a year unlike any other in a century.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
What makes life perfect? Insurance mathematician Henri Koskinen knows the answer because he calculates everything down to the very last decimal. Until he is faced with the incalculable, after a series of unforeseeable events. After suddenly losing his job, Henri inherits an adventure park from his brother – its peculiar employees and troubling financial problems included. The worst of the financial issues appear to originate from big loans taken from some dangerous men who are very keen to get their money back. All improbable and complicated problems. But what Henri really can’t compute is love. In the adventure park, Henri crosses paths with Laura, a happy-go-lucky artist with a chequered past, whose erratic lifestyle bewilders him. As the criminals go to increasingly extreme lengths to collect their debts and as Henri’s relationship with Laura deepens, he finds himself faced with situations and emotions that simply cannot be pinned down on his spreadsheets…
ABOUT ANTTI TUOMAINEN Antti Tuomainen was an award-winning copywriter when he made his literary debut in 2007 as a suspense author in 2013, the Finnish press crowned Tuomainen the ‘King of Helsinki Noir’ when Dark as My Heart was published. With a piercing and evocative style, Tuomainen was one of the first to challenge the Scandinavian crime genre formula, and his poignant, dark and hilarious The Man Who Died became an international bestseller, shortlisting for the Petrona and Last Laugh Awards. A TV adaptation is in the works, and Jussi Vatanen (Man In Room 301) has just been announced as a leading role. Palm Beach Finland was an immense success, with Marcel Berlins (The Times) calling Tuomainen ‘the funniest writer in Europe’. His latest thriller, Little Siberia, was shortlisted for the CWA International Dagger, the Amazon Publishing/Capital Crime Awards and the CrimeFest Last Laugh Award, and won the Petrona Award for Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year. In total, Antti Tuomainen has been short- and longlisted for 12 UK awards.
My thoughts: this is a very funny book, I giggled all the way through. My sense of humour is a bit weird. I think Henri would be confused as to why I found his misadventures so funny.
Henri is part of what makes it so entertaining, he has a very precise way of seeing the world, he is an actuary after all. Everything he does he weighs up and runs the numbers.
Having worked at an indoor soft play centre (known as Hell to staff) I could picture the adventure park Henri inherits from his financially disastrous brother very well. The hordes of screaming children, the deeply obnoxious parents, the dead eyed staff. I doubt our bosses ever had the bright idea of turning it into a bank though. Or getting involved with criminals who like to bake. Mostly because I’m pretty sure they were the criminals.
But Henri decides to save the park, his oddball employees, and the giant rabbit by the entrance with his rather crazy idea, and that means getting involved with loan sharks, avoiding the police inspector who’s showing a keen interest in the park, and generally trying not to panic.
It’s all utterly hilarious and charming, especially as his only ally is Schopenhauer the cat, who can’t exactly help out. And maybe Laura, who he’s rather charmed by. But Henri is determined to prevail and win the day. It’s that or a rather ugly death at the hands of the baking loan shark. I loved this book, it was over far too quickly and I need to know what became of Henri and Laura.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
She can’t hit the snooze on her biological clock forever… Love, career, kids—Brooklyn Monroe wants it all. Her beauty company? A triumph. Her love life? Total fail. At 42, that makes motherhood her top priority. With no man in her life, she’s prepared to fly solo, but her plan is derailed when a mailing list mishap turns Brooklyn into a someone-get-me-pregnant internet meme. Making her PR nightmare go away entails a soul-baring interview on national TV. And the guy asking the questions? Her all-too sexy ex. Talk show host Alec Trakas is the king of bad timing. Case in point, his heartbreaking romance with Brooklyn. Alec was all about commitment but Brooklyn was launching her start-up, and forever wasn’t in the cards. Now a shot at his ultimate dream job depends on convincing Brooklyn to spill the secrets leading to her viral celebrity. It sets Alec’s star rising, but puts Brooklyn in a sea of flirty men. Fate has thrown them back together. Sparks are flying. But is the timing finally right? Because having it all might not be worth the risk of losing each other again.
Karen Booth is a midwestern girl transplanted in the South, raised on ’80s music and repeated readings of “Forever” by Judy Blume. Karen writes contemporary romance and women’s fiction, almost always about the dreamy guy you never thought you’d get. Her stories are full of breathless kisses, tearjerker moments, family dynamics, and more than a few things she’s glad her grandmother never read.
My thoughts: I was talking to a friend the other day who desperately wants to be a mum, and is putting the things in place that could lead to that happening. I’ve never wanted kids so I don’t fully understand the desire. But I know it means a lot when it happens. And Brooklyn Monroe is running out of time.
One of the cruelties of being female is that you’re born with all the eggs you can ever have, so the older you get the harder it is to conceive. Which is making things tricky for a single woman like Brooklyn. All the business success she’s achieved means little to her without anyone to share it with, and reconnecting with her ex, Alec, doesn’t help – he doesn’t want kids.
But things have a way of working themselves out and Brooklyn might just get what she wants in this fun and thought provoking rom com.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
A chilling look into an alternate near future where a woman and her daughter seek refuge in a women-only colony, only to find that the safe haven they were hoping for is the most dangerous place they could be.
Miranda Reynolds always thought she would rather die than live in Femlandia. But that was before the country sank into total economic collapse and her husband walked out in the harshest, most permanent way, leaving her and her sixteen-year-old daughter with nothing. The streets are full of looting, robbing, and killing, and Miranda and Emma no longer have much choice—either starve and risk getting murdered, or find safety. And so they set off to Femlandia, the women-only colony Miranda’s mother, Win Somers, established decades ago.
Although Win is no longer in the spotlight, her protégé Jen Jones has taken Femlandia to new heights: The off-grid colonies are secluded, self-sufficient, and thriving—and Emma is instantly enchanted by this idea of a safe haven. But something is not right. There are no men allowed in the colony, but babies are being born—and they’re all girls. Miranda discovers just how the all-women community is capable of enduring, and it leads her to question how far her mother went to create this perfect, thriving, horrifying society.
My thoughts: this is not a feminist utopia. This is a nightmare. Honestly, what Miranda finds in her mother’s idealised world is shocking and grotesque, a perversion of a man-free place. In doing so she almost loses her daughter, who seems ripe for the brain washing the Femlandia leaders specialise in. But when you have nowhere else to go, you go home.
Clever, twisted and very reminiscent of our current times, with supermarket shortages and people losing their minds over stupid things (petrol, KFC chicken, loo roll, pick any recent insanity), despite being set in the US, this could be the UK in a few years time. Where people have reverted to their worst kind.
Christina Dalcher seems to specialise in these worst extreme dystopias, Q, her last book, really shocked me, but I could see exactly what she was getting at, and the same for this book – taking everything to the most extreme, twisted point of misandry and TERFy-ness, what’s supposed to be a safe harbour becomes a horror show.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
For fans of Veronica Mars and Stranger Things comes an all-new YA mystery about a girl whose desperate search for her missing friend unearths dark secrets, preternatural threats, and a truth that could ultimately tear her family, friends, and town apart.
Welcome to Twentynine Palms, where nothing is what it seems.
Rylie hasn’t been back to Twentynine Palms since her dad died. She left a lot of memories out there, buried in the sand of the Mojave Desert. Memories about her dad, her old friends Nathan and Lily, and most of all, her enigmatic grandfather, a man who cut ties with Rylie’s family before he passed away. But her mom’s new work assignment means their family has to move, and now Rylie’s in the one place she never wanted to return to, living in the house of a grandfather she barely knew.
At least her old friends are happy to welcome her home. Well, some of them, anyway. Lily is gone, vanished into the desert. And Twentynine Palms is so much stranger than Rylie remembers. There are whispers around town of a mysterious killer on the loose, but it isn’t just Twentynine Palms that feels off—there’s something wrong with Rylie, too. She’s seeing things she can’t explain. Visions of monstrous creatures that stalk the night.
Somehow, it all seems to be tied to her grandfather and the family cabin he left behind. Rylie wants the truth, but she doesn’t know if she can trust herself. Are the monsters in her head really out there? Or could it be that the deadliest thing in the desert . . . is Rylie herself?
INTL Tour-wide Giveaway! – 1 winner will receive a signed copy of NO BEAUTIES OR MONSTERS (open US) – 1 winner will receive a $10 gift card to Book Depository (open internationally) This ends on November 5th, 2021 at 11:59pm EST.
Tara Goedjen adores anything mysterious. She is the author of THE BREATHLESS (Delacorte Press, Random House Children’s Books) and NO BEAUTIES OR MONSTERS, forthcoming Fall 2021.
Tara wrote her first story at age ten about children who disappeared at midnight, and she’s been writing fiction ever since. Mostly raised in Alabama, she played college tennis in Iowa and then moved to Alaska and Australia before heading back to the continental US.
While completing grad school, Tara worked as a tennis coach, a yoga instructor, a university writing teacher, and as an editor for a publishing house. These days, when she’s not making up stories, she’s probably chasing after two small monsters or hiking through an enchanted wood while dreaming up her next book. Website | Instagram | Twitter
My thoughts: deserts are weird places, liminal places where things can change suddenly. I drove through the desert from California to Nevada once, my aunt was driving and it was strange. I slept most of the way in the van. Couldn’t touch the windows as the glass gets too hot.
I understood Rylie so much in this book, how weird this huge dry place can be. How it can change so quickly, it’s cold at night as the sand and rocks don’t retain heat. But there’s something even stranger at twentyninepalms, a crossing over place, a world similar to ours but also very different. Rylie’s grandfather knew about it and tried to help those who crossed the line. Now it’s her turn to try to solve the disappearances of so many people once and for all. Luckily she has friends to help her, she’s not alone like her grandpa was.
The writing gives you the same sense of woozy dislocation that Rylie feels, you’re there with her in the desert fog and the odd out of place sense her memory loss creates. It’s cleverly done and keeps you guessing at what’s happening and what role different characters play in it. I really liked Owen too, Rylie’s brother and her anchor, he’s very smart and his constant desire to be with her helps keep her sane.
This was a clever, compelling and occasionally confusing (as it needed to be on the way to some answers) book.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
You can cover up the truth, but every murder leaves a trail…
The rain was relentless. It stung Ruth Prendergast’s face as she dashed towards her house, desperate to escape the cold and settle down for an early night. But upon entering her bedroom, she finds a man, lying on her bed – a knife buried in his chest.
When Detective Isabel Blood and her sergeant arrive on the scene, Ruth claims she’s never laid eyes on the victim before. But with no sign of a break-in, how did the killer gain access to the house?
Then Ruth disappears, leaving Isabel and her team to fear the worst. Has their lead suspect escaped, or is Ruth in danger herself?
Forensic evidence at the crime scene is sparse, and it’s proving impossible for Isabel to make a breakthrough. With Ruth still missing, time is running out.
But how can you catch a killer that doesn’t leave a trace?
Uncover the mystery and solve the crime alongside Derbyshire’s best detective. This utterly gripping, unputdownable whodunit will have you hooked and reading long into the night! Fans Val McDermid, Elly Griffiths and ITV’s Vera will love Without a Trace!
My thoughts: this was a great police procedural, a man’s body found in a stranger’s bed, a man no one seemed to have a serious problem with. How did he get there and who killed him? DI Blood is supposed to be on leave as her estranged father has come to town. Instead she has to juggle dealing with her own family and its secrets as well as those surrounding the deceased.
The case was clever and I liked the way it slightly reflected Isabel’s own family, with some crucial differences. Her dad has a lot of explaining to do, as he hasn’t come alone and is playing her off against her half brother.
The team in the police station spend a lot of time eating and Zoe’s hot chocolate habit had me putting the kettle on and reaching for the marshmallows! Do not read this book while hungry! But they’re also good investigators and put the pieces together. In the end they discover that terrible mistakes have been made (though not by them).
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Set in a fictional area of Cork City from 2016-2020, Liberty Terrace captures the highs and lows of everyday life from both before and during the Covid-19 pandemic, prompting readers to consider what it means to be human and to live within a wider community. A former solicitor with experience as a Census Enumerator in 2016, Cork native Madeleine D’Arcy took inspiration from the Irish Census originally scheduled in April 2021 but now postponed until 2022 for Liberty Terrace. D’Arcy has created a rich tapestry of stories all set in and around the fictional street; the residents of Liberty Terrace come and go over the years – their lives ebbing and flowing around each other in ways that are sometimes funny, sometimes dark and often both. The cast of characters includes retired Garda Superintendent Deckie Google, a young homeless squatter, the mother of an autistic child working part-time as a Census Enumerator, the dysfunctional Callinan family, an ageing rock star, a trio of ladies who visit a faith healer, a philandering husband, as well as a surprising number of cats and dogs.
MADELEINE D’ARCY is an Irish fiction writer. A former solicitor, she lived in the UK for 13 years before returning to live in Cork City with her husband and her son in 1999. Madeleine’s first Doire Press short story collection ‘Waiting for the Bullet’ was awarded the 2015 Edge Hill Readers’ Prize’ from Edge Hill University in Ormskirk. In 2010 she received a Hennessy X.O Literary Award for First Fiction as well as the overall Hennessy X.O Literary Award for New Irish Writer. Her stories have been short-listed and commended in many competitions, including the William Trevor/Elizabeth Bowen Short Story Competition, Fish Short Story Prize, the Bridport Prize and the Seán Ó Faoláin Short Story Competition. Madeleine has been awarded bursaries by the Arts Council of Ireland and by Cork City Council. Madeleine was a scholarship student on the inaugural MA in Creative Writing 2013-2014 in University College Cork. Waiting for the Bullet is Madeleine’s first collection of short stories.
My thoughts: this was a clever and moving collection of stories about moments in the lives of the residents of Liberty Terrace, a fictional street in Cork. Each story focuses on one household and their lives. From a family of immigrants still finding their feet at the beginning of lockdown, to older residents trying to help their lonely friend. Each story reminds you of the kindness and community that can be found around you.
Well written and very enjoyable, I loved seeing into these characters lives, even if only briefly, the glimpses of families, both born and built, the generosity of others, the ways in which we all live quietly alongside each other but every now and then connect.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Ékleipsis: The Abyss is the second short story collection by the award-winning author.
Tales of depravation and insanity are woven together with unrelenting style and depth, scrutinizing human nature’s degeneration when compromised by tragic, vicious circumstances.
These complex, wretched individuals and the irremediable conditions they are desperate to claw out of—or into—invoke the unfathomable question: What devastation are we truly capable of when left with no way out but down . . . into the obscurity of the abyss?
” It is at times appalling, strange and outright frightening, but Wino’s way with character development is outstanding. The display of artistic creativity and character creation really sets “Èkleipsis: The Abyss” apart in the field of short story collections.” ― Reader Views
“The stories are well-packaged and generally have the feel of watching a syndicated crime drama. Fans of this form of entertainment will likely enjoy these well-crafted stories about everyday people whose lives are shattered by lunatics.” ― The US Review of Books
“Wino’s writing is vivid, unsettling and filled with brilliant hints that contribute to the exhilaration of its pacing. Ékleipsis: The Abyss is a clever and creative horror offering worth checking out.”
―Independent Book Review
” Tamel really captured that essence of society and the dark side of people. Readers will appreciate the dark undertones of this horror anthology. Ekleipsis: the Abyss will surprise you more that you can imagine.”
Tamel Wino is a Canadian fiction writer from the resplendent British Columbia whose works focus largely on degeneration of sanity and morality. He studied Health Sciences and Psychology, which only furthered his interest in human nature.
With inspirations including Alice Munro, Joe Hill, Stephen King, Margaret Atwood and Edgar Allan Poe; Tamel’s expositions are strongly grounded in traditions of dark fiction. Yet, with his bold narrative voice and incisive plot construction, Wino is paving a new movement within the space.
When he’s not reading or scribbling away on his laptop, Tamel loves listening to jazz, rewatching good ol’ classic shows and traveling. Ekleipsis | Facebook | Instagram
My thoughts: this collection of short stories explores the horror of humanity – ordinary horror, not monsters from beyond, but the ways in which human beings inflict terror and trauma on one another. From kidnapped wives and hitchhikers, lovers who kill and domestic psychopaths. Every terrible thing here is caused and created by a person not a creature of nightmare. Which makes them all the more sinister and insidious. Some of the victims are easier to empathise with than others, particularly the sadistic prison guards dished out some ice cold revenge. A clever and chilling collection examining the worst of human behaviour.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
’It was a rainy day that the magic came, and once magic has entered your life, you stay in its glittering clutch forever’
Nottingham, 1906
Marietta Stelle longs to be a ballerina but as Christmas draws nearer, her dancing days are numbered. At the wishes of her family, she will be obligated to marry and take up her place in society in the New Year. But when a mysterious toymaker, Dr Drosselmeier, purchases a neighbouring townhouse, it heralds the arrival of magic and wonder in her life. Although Drosselmeier’s magic is darker than Marietta could have imagined…
When he constructs an elaborate theatrical set for her final ballet performance, Marietta discovers it carries a magic all of its own. As the clock chimes midnight, Marietta finds herself walking through a land of snow-topped fir trees leading to a frozen sugar palace silent with secrets and must find a way to return home.
In the darkness of night, magic awaits and you will never forget what you find here…
My thoughts: inspired by The Nutcracker, this is a magical fairy tale fantasy for adults. Perfect for a winter’s evening reading, we follow aspiring ballet dancer Marietta through a magic clock into another world, one fraught with dangers but also where she’ll find friendship and love.
Rejecting the strictures of early 20th century society, refusing marriage to the frightening Drosselmieir (named for Clara’s godfather in the ballet, and the book that inspired it) and his magical creations, Marietta wants to choose her own path and not the one of marriage and obedience her father expects of her. She’s an inspiring and brave character, fighting back against Everwood’s evil king, gaining freedom for herself and her friends, then exerting that strength of will to set out on her own road, not wanting or needing her family’s money.
Lyrical and beautifully written, this is a Gothic delight with its fairy tale land of sugar hiding the bitterness beneath.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 