Category: reviews

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Republic of Love – Carol Shields*

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Read my review of The Stone Diaries

A celebration of love in its many guises, The Republic of Love recounts the heartfelt tale of two of life’s unlucky lovers: Fay, a folklorist whose passion for mermaids has kept her from focussing on any one man; and, right across the street, Tom, a popular radio talk-show host who’s been through three marriages and divorces in his search for true happiness.

Touching and ironic, The Republic of Love flies the flag for ordinary love between ordinary people.

‘Vividly fresh, glittering and spangled with fabulous surprises.’ —The Sunday Times

‘The Republic of Love marries a wide diversity of elements, mythical and modern, ironic and moving, exhilarating and melancholy … a love-surveying story that is enticingly seductive.’ —The Times Literary Supplement

Carol Shields (1935–2003) was born in the United States, and emigrated to Canada when she was 22. She is acclaimed for her empathetic and witty, yet penetrating insights into human nature. Her most famous novel

Her most famous novel The Stone Diaries was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, along with the Governor General’s Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Happenstance was praised as her tour de force, masterly combining two novels in one.

The international bestseller Mary Swann was awarded with the Arthur Ellis Award for best Canadian mystery, while The Republic of Love was chosen as the first runner-up for the Guardian Fiction Prize.

In 2020, the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, a North American literary award dedicated to writing by women, was set up in her honour. Her work has been published in over 30 languages.

My thoughts:

I enjoyed this rumination on the subject of romantic love (although it also takes in a few other kinds) through the lives of Tom and Fay, who live across the street from each other. Tom has been married three times, and Fay has had a string of failed relationships.

Both are still looking for the perfect, lifelong love. The one person above all others.

Shields writes with honesty and a clear and concise tone. She had a strong understanding of people and their complexities and simplicities. Buried within the framework of Tom and Fay are lots of other love stories – those of their friends, colleagues and family members. A thousand tiny romances, some that last and some that don’t.

Fay’s godmother, Onion, and her longterm partner only marry as he lies slowly dying in a hospital bed. All those years together and it is only when time is short they make that final commitment. There’s something terribly sad about that but also oddly beautiful.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Raft of Stars – Andrew J. Graff*

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One summer night in Wisconsin, the lives of two ten-year-old boys are changed forever…

Tired of seeing his best friend Dale Breadwin abused by his alcoholic father, Fischer Branson takes action. A gunshot rings out, and Bread and Fish flee into the woods. They build a raft, but the river quickly leads them into even greater danger.

In their wake travel a group of adults – each determined to save the boys from the terrors of Ironsford Gorge.

The further they go, the more the wilderness starts to change them in profound and unexpected ways. And when they reach the edge of the Gorge itself, they begin to understand the true violence and beauty of the natural world, and its ability to heal.

No matter where you run danger will always follow…

My thoughts:

This was a beautifully moving, sad book about love, friendship and the unbreakable bonds between people.

Fish and Bread are each other’s best friend and closer than brothers, when Fish rescues his friend from his abusive father, the boys go on the run, thinking only of the nightmare of punishment, not the fact that they are in fact, loved.

The people who love them follow, Fish’s grandfather Teddy, the sheriff Cal, Fish’s mum and Tiff. These adults fight through rapids and hostile forest to find the two boys and save them from further harm. Along the way the disparate pairings bond and develop deeper understandings of themselves.

I’ll be honest, I was pretty close to tears towards the end, the writing is so moving and fraught with emotion. Fish and Bread are so innocent and brave and deep down kind, gentle boys that the world will try to break. The adults are also decent, loving, good people who want only to protect the boys so much they’re willing to risk everything for them.

Elements of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, other young boys out in the wilderness, abound. An elegy for the innocence of boyhood. Tender and bittersweet.


*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Girls Are All So Nice Here – Laurel Elizabeth Flynn*

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Two former best friends return to their college reunion to find that they’re being circled by someone who wants revenge for what they did ten years before–and will stop at nothing to get it–in this shocking psychological thriller about ambition, toxic friendship, and deadly desire.

A lot has changed in the years since Ambrosia Wellington graduated from college, and she’s worked hard to create a new life for herself. But then an invitation to her ten-year reunion arrives in the mail, along with an anonymous note that reads “We need to talk about what we did that night.”

It seems that the secrets of Ambrosia’s past–and the people she thought she’d left there–aren’t as buried as she’d believed. Amb can’t stop fixating on what she did or who she did it with: larger-than-life Sloane “Sully” Sullivan, Amb’s former best friend, who could make anyone do anything.

At the reunion, Amb and Sully receive increasingly menacing messages, and it becomes clear that they’re being pursued by someone who wants more than just the truth of what happened that first semester. This person wants revenge for what they did and the damage they caused–the extent of which Amb is only now fully understanding. And it was all because of the game they played to get a boy who belonged to someone else, and the girl who paid the price.

Alternating between the reunion and Amb’s freshman year, The Girls Are All So Nice Here is a shocking novel about the brutal lengths girls can go to get what they think they’re owed, and what happens when the games we play in college become matters of life and death.

My thoughts:

There’s a reason so many of my friends are male, and it’s girls like this to be honest. The bitchy, clique-y girls, the ones who think they’re better than anyone else. The nasty girls. That’s not to say I don’t have female friends, I do, but I shy away from women who have never grown out of their mean streak a mile wide.

Amb and Sully are those girls, Amb thinks she’s moved on and grown up but a reunion weekend at college shows she’s still the same. I felt sorry for her husband, a puppy dog of a man, so eager to please, and her other supposed friends as she and Sully basically rewind ten years in no time at all.

They did something awful to another girl, and someone wants the truth to come to light. But who? They’ve finally met their manipulative match in this shadowy figure, someone’s who has been planning this for a long time.

Twisted, dark and compelling, this is what Mean Girls can really be if left to their own devices.


*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Iron Raven – Julie Kagawa*

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Wicked faeries and fantastic danger… Welcome to book one of the new trilogy in New York Times bestselling author Julie Kagawa’s Iron Fey fantasy series, as infamous prankster Puck finally has a chance to tell his story and stand with allies new and old to save Faery and the world. For fans of Holly Black and Cassandra Clare!

‘You may have heard of me…’

Robin Goodfellow. Puck. Prankster, joker, raven, fool…King Oberon’s right-hand jester from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The legends are many, but the truth will now be known as never before, as Puck finally tells his own story and faces a threat to the lands of Faery and the human world unlike any before.

With the Iron Queen Meghan Chase and her prince consort, Puck’s longtime rival Ash, and allies old and new by his side, Puck begins a fantastical and dangerous adventure not to be missed or forgotten. Filled with myths and faery lore, romance and unfathomable dangers, The Iron Raven is book one of a new epic fantasy trilogy set in the world of The Iron Fey.

My thoughts:

I hadn’t read the Iron Fey books (something I’m correcting now) but I do of course know Robin Goodfellow aka Puck, from his most famous appearance in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

This was a really fun new fantasy book from the excellent Julie Kagawa, a writer whose Japanese inspired series Shadow of the Fox was a real treat.

I love fairy tales, folklore and old stories given new skins and this ticked lots of boxes for me – and I was really pleased to be reading it. I am already desperate for the next 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.

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: What Beauty There Is – Cory Anderson*

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What Beauty There Is is Cory Anderson’s stunning YA novel about brutality and beauty, and about broken people trying to survive—perfect for fans of Patrick Ness, Laura Ruby, and Meg Rosoff.

To understand the truth, you have to start at the beginning.
Winter in Idaho. The sky is dark. It is cold enough to crack bones.
Living in harsh poverty, Jack Dahl is holding his breath. He and his younger brother have nothing—except each other. And now Jack faces a stark choice: lose his brother to foster care or find the drug money that sent his father to prison.
He chooses the money.
Ava Bardem lives in isolation, a life of silence. For seventeen years her father, a merciless man, has controlled her fate. He has taught her to love no one. Now Victor Bardem is stalking the same money as Jack. When he picks up on Jack’s trail, Ava must make her own wrenching choice: remain silent or speak, and help the brothers survive.

Choices. They come at a price.

My thoughts:

You know you come across books sometimes that are sad and beautiful and there’s probably a German word for that. Well this is one of those books. It’s heartbreaking and moving and lovely.

Jack just wants to take care of his little brother, he will do anything for Matty. And then he meets Ava, who wants to take care of him. But the world is a cruel and dangerous place and neither Jack or Ava are safe.

The adults in this book are all pretty awful human beings, except Doyle, and they keep letting Jack and Ava down. His parents, his uncle, her father.

Keep some tissues handy if you’re a crier, this book will break your heart and then try to fix it. The imagery is stunning, the writing poetic and the story utterly wrings you out. A wonderful, powerful debut.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Into The Fire – Rachael Blok*

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Eleven guests. Three nights. One murderer… This is the haunting and atmospheric new thriller from rising star of crime fiction, Rachael Blok.

In a gorgeous mansion in the Hertfordshire countryside, sisters Lois and Ebba prepare to launch their new venture. Archipelago is an exploitation-free tech company whose virtual reality game promises to unite the worlds of technology, politics and the environment.

Invited to the launch party are their investors: current and ex-politicians, international business moguls and activists, one of whom – Marieke – has been receiving online abuse and death threats for her views on eco-politics.

DCI Maarten Jansen has been summoned to join the house party. He is sure the threats are from online trolls with nothing better to do – he’s only offering police protection because his boss wants to put the VIP guests at ease. But when eight of the guests are involved in a suspicious helicopter crash, Maarten starts to uncover long-buried secrets – and a murderer in their midst…

My thoughts:

This was an interesting book, with the terrible helicopter accident acting as a sort of central point and the plot moving back and forth from that moment. Slowly people’s secrets and lies are revealed, the killer’s motivations start to become apparent and guilt makes people act suspiciously.

DCI Maarten Jansen has history with one of the guests and is reluctant to engage with these uber wealthy people. But as he investigates them, he uncovers hidden corruption, these victims aren’t so innocent.

Well written and constructed, with different narrative strands building together to give a complex picture of the company and the characters, especially Iqbal – who deserves his own book. An interesting take on the classic country house mystery.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Invitation – A.M. Castle*

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Thirteen guests. One killer. No escape.

On an island on the coast of Cornwall, cut off from the mainland by the tides for most of the day, thirteen old friends meet at Tregowan Castle for a weekend of revelry.

By the next evening only twelve are still alive.

Amongst them is a killer – but who? As a storm traps them on the island and past betrayals and grievances are revealed, nerves fray and friendships begin to fracture.

But with no escape and no way of calling for help it’s only a matter of time before the killer strikes again. And when everyone is keeping secrets, anybody could be the next victim…

My thoughts:

In the And Then There Were None mold, this takes place on an isolated island akin to St Michael’s Mount, off the Cornish coast.

Invited by their old uni friend, the new Lady Tregowan, this group of people are all hiding secrets that are about to surface. And then the first body drops.

I really enjoyed this, all the incestuous relationships and complicated back stories that entangle this group who maybe should have gone their separate ways years ago.

And I was completely wrongfooted by the reveal – I had no idea that the killer was who it was. Really liked that nice twist.


*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Perfect Nanny – Karen Clarke & Amanda Brittany*

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You trust her with your home, your husband, your baby… but she is about to destroy it all.

Sophy Pemberton is struggling to cope with the pressures of becoming a new mother. Her nine-month-old son never settles in her arms and the unrelenting tiredness from late night feeds is all consuming.

So, when Liv Granger from the mother and baby group offers her services as a nanny, Sophy is overcome with relief. Now she can finally get some sleep… She can stop failing at being a mother.

But Liv has a secret.

She is convinced that Sophy was accountable for her brother’s tragic death and she has been searching for her for years.

And now that Liv’s found her, she’s outraged Sophy seems oblivious to the pain she has caused her family.

Sophy’s perfect house, perfect husband and perfect baby are too much for Liv to bear… and she’s going to make her pay.

My thoughts:

This started off like it was going to be a dark domestic thriller but as it evolved it became much more sympathetic and instead of Liv being the villain, she’s much more understandable – she’s grieving and has been misled.

Sophy also isn’t a bad person and deserves sympathy. In fact the person who has caused harm is a surprise in a way; their behaviour is completely shocking and not really understandable.

There are quite a few dubious characters, people whose behaviour is questionable and odd. It made Sophy’s fears understandable.

I just wish the babies had been the bad guys, now that would be the twist!


*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Nighthawking – Russ Thomas*

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Read my review of Firewatching

After the gut-punch ending of Firewatching, DS Adam Tyler returns to another shocking cold case…

A body has been discovered in Sheffield’s beautiful Botanical Gardens. A young woman, dead from a stab wound, buried in a quiet corner. Police quickly determine that the body has been there for months, and would have gone undiscovered for years – but someone has dug it up.

Who is the victim? Who killed her and buried the body, resting two ancient Roman coins over her eyes? And who dug her up? DS Adam Tyler will find himself drawn into the secretive world of nighthawkers: treasure-hunters who operate under cover of darkness, seeking the lost and valuable, and willing to kill to keep what they find…

Russ Thomas was born in Essex, raised in Berkshire and now lives in Sheffield. After a few ‘proper’ jobs (among them: pot-washer, optician’s receptionist, supermarket warehouse operative, call-centre telephonist, and storage salesman) he discovered the joys of bookselling, where he could talk to people about books all day.

His highly-acclaimed debut novel, Firewatching, is the first in the DS Adam Tyler series and published in February 2020. Nighthawking, the second book in the series, will publish in February 2021.

My thoughts:

This was really good, a mix of crime procedural, personal drama and an alternate version of gentle comedy The Detectorists.

When a body is found buried in the Botanical Gardens, a series of dodgy dealings starts to unravel. The nighthawkers have found some treasure but instead of declaring them they tried to sell them and now someone wants them all. Is that person responsible for the dead woman? Or does it have something to do with her PhD in botanical science?

DS Tyler is distracted by his personal stuff, his dad’s murder, his brother’s reappearance, his faltering relationship, will this affect his ability to get the crime solved?

I felt sorry for his DC, Mina, who ends up doing the brunt of the investigation, carrying two sergeants who are busy thinking about something else, but not getting the respect and acknowledgement she deserves. In a way this is her book, I learnt a lot about her, whereas in Firewatching she was in the background a lot more.

Tyler is a mess, despite his supposed brilliance, he’s all over the place and the case seems like the least important thing to him.

I was completely gripped by the story, it was very clever and each new fragment of information added complications and new suspects to the case. The ending was shocking and I didn’t have a clue who the villain was, I was blindsided by the reveal. Really, really good stuff.


*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Horsey Mere & The Wherryman –

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HORSEY MERE
The remains of a 17th Century witch, an MP found hanging above a five-pointed star, and three girls with powers beyond anyone’s control.
As DI Tanner and DS Evans endeavour to make plans for their big day, the chance discovery of Norfolk’s last known witch, tried and hanged by Norfolk’s infamous Witchfinder General, sparks a chain of the most horrific events, none of which Tanner seems able to stop.
Purchase

THE WHERRYMAN
Four missing children, three murdered men, and the helm of a boat with a blood-red sail, hiding a
secret only he can tell.
Returning to the Broads after nearly two years at sea, Tanner moors up next to a boat to find the body of a man whose five-year-old daughter is nowhere to be seen. As a torrent of unwanted memories begins flooding through his mind, an attractive Broads Ranger arrives at the scene with a disturbing tale; one of children being taken by a ghostly figure, standing at the helm of an old wooden boat.
Purchase

Consistently ranked within the top 30 most read authors on Amazon.co.uk, David Blake is a full-time author living in North London. To date he has written eighteen books along with a collection of short stories. He’s currently working on his nineteenth, The Wherryman, which is the next in his series of crime fiction thrillers after Broadland, St. Benet’s, Moorings, Three Rivers and Horsey Mere. When
not writing, David likes to spend his time mucking about in boats, often in the Norfolk Broads, where his crime fiction books are based.

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My thoughts:

These were both excellent, slightly macabre, crime novels, set amongst the Norfolk Broads, drawing on folklore and history, strange figures among the reeds.

Horsey Mere concerns witchcraft and the fact that in the 17th Century more women were executed as witches in East Anglia than anywhere else in England. A suspected witch’s skeleton is found on the mere and it unleashes a spree of madness, with supposed modern witches targeted and attacked. It also comes with a body count; starting with the local MP. Local detectives race against time to stop more people dying, but for Tanner and Evans they might just run out of time.

The Wherryman takes place two years later, as the next in the series, so there’s some character changes at the police station. Someone is abducting children and then a man is found murdered and his daughter gone. Tanner starts to investigate and it all seems linked to some unpleasant London gangsters who’ve moved east.

Both clever and well written, with spots of genuinely amusing humour and also terrible darkness inside people, I’m going to be catching up on the previous titles in the series.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.