Category: reviews

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Phone Box at the End of the World – Laura Imai Messina*

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A sweeping, moving novel based on an incredible true story.

Picture an old disused telephone box in a beautiful garden, not found easily.

When Yui loses her mother and daughter in a tsunami, she wonders how she will ever carry on. Yet, in the face of this unthinkable loss, life must somehow continue.

Then one day she hears about a man who has an old disused telephone box in his garden. There, those who have lost loved ones find the strength to speak to them and begin to come to terms with their grief. As news of the phone box spreads, people travel there from miles around.
Soon Yui makes her own pilgrimage to the phone box, too. But once there she cannot bring herself to speak into the receiver. Then she finds Takeshi, a bereaved husband whose own daughter has stopped talking in the wake of their loss.
What happens next will warm your heart, even when it feels like it is breaking.

When you’ve lost everything – what can you find?

About the Author

Laura Imai Messina was born in Rome, Italy but has been living in Japan for the last 15 years. She works between Tokyo and Kamakura, where she lives with her Japanese husband and two children. She took a Master’s in Literature at the International Christian University of Tokyo and a PhD in Comparative Literature at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.

She took a Master’s in Literature at the International Christian University of Tokyo and a PhD in Comparative Literature at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. The Phone Box at the Edge of the World has been sold in over 21 territories.
Laura can be found on Twitter and on Instagram, or on her website.
Lucy Rand (Translator): Lucy Rand is a teacher, editor and translator from Norfolk, UK. She has been living in the countryside of Oita in south-west Japan for three years.

My thoughts:

Beautiful and moving, this is a joy to read.

It really captures the terrible loss and pain of those left behind, not just after a major tragedy, like a tsunami, but also after those small ones in people’s lives, the deaths of loved ones.

I liked the little lists of characters’ thoughts and asides, it made them more realistic, as we are all made of those little things. Truly a stunning 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: The Sword in the Street – C.M. Caplan*

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To learn more read this post: Launch of the tour

Trial by battle is a holy rite on Hillside. Hired blades bleed their foes in savage duels, settling everything from petty grievances to the corporate laws that keep their citizens in line. Embroiled in these cutthroat political games is John Chronicle, an impoverished swordsman with no better prospects, seeking the duel that will free him from the Dregs.

Meanwhile, John’s boyfriend Edwin, an autistic university student, befriends a fellow scholar who claims to study the arcane art of thaumaturgy. When she offers to teach Edwin this subtle magic, he hopes that he can use it to bolster John’s skill with a blade. But thaumaturgy is a dangerous magic, and the forces that drive it have other plans.

The couple soon find themselves entangled in the web of intrigue surrounding the swordsmen and their sponsors, and they’re forced to question how bloody they’re willing to get to escape poverty — and they don’t come away with the same answer.

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C.M. Caplan Is the author of The Sword in the Street. He’s a quadruplet (yes, really), mentally disabled, and he spent two years as the Senior Fiction Editor on a national magazine – while he was still an undergrad in college. He has a degree in creative writing from Salem State University and was the recipient of the university’s highest honor in the arts. His short fiction also won an Honorable Mention in the 2019 Writers of the Future Contest.

Caplan’s introduction to fantasy came through J. R. R. Tolkien and George R. R. Martin. He has a tattoo that roughly translates to Valar Morghulis, as written in Tolkien’s Elvish script, in an acknowledgment of that fact. Other influences include Robin Hobb, Ellen Kushner, N.K. Jemisin, Katherine Addison, John Irving, Ann Petry, K.S. Villoso, and Neil Gaiman.

He currently lives in New England, where he works remotely for a social justice theater company.

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My thoughts:

This was a really interesting, fun read, about relationships of all forms, about struggling for financial independence, about learning to understand each others’ differences and adjusting our behaviour when we need to be easier to understand.

John is a quick tempered swordsman, his boyfriend Edwin is quieter and his autism means he finds it hard to read people – especially John. They struggle with their relationship at times – neither are great communicators.

Edwin finds his friendship with fellow student Audrey easier to understand and deal with – she’s better at expressing herself clearly.

John loses his job after losing a duel for his employer and has to make a new life for himself. He mishandles some things and upsets people who considered him a friend. But slowly, and with Edwin and Audrey’s help, he comes to realise the person he’s become isn’t who he wants to be.

He and Edwin have to decide what will make them happier – being together and being poor but decent human beings, or going their own ways and perhaps being less likeable.

I would have liked more on the thaumaturgy that Audrey is studying and that Edwin takes an interest in, but then I’m a sucker for a magic system and I can imagine that in a second book the focus might shift to their studies and investigations into magic as a way of affecting things, rather than John’s brute strength and ignorance style.

Overall this is a really strong first novel and does a nice job of world building, with the Haves living at the top of the hill and the Nots literally living in a place called the Dregs. I liked that there seemed to be more gender parity in this world – the lordess John works for is just as obnoxious as her male counterparts and holds the same power.

To follow the tour please click the poster below ⬇️

*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: Dangerous Women – Hope Adams*

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Nearly two hundred condemned women board a transport ship bound for Australia. One of them is a murderer. From debut author Hope Adams comes a thrilling novel based on the 1841 voyage of the convict ship Rajah, about confinement, hope, and the terrible things we do to survive.

London, 1841. One hundred eighty Englishwomen file aboard the Rajah, embarking on a three-month voyage to the other side of the world.
They’re daughters, sisters, mothers—and convicts.
Transported for petty crimes.
Except one of them has a deadly secret, and will do anything to flee justice.
As the Rajah sails farther from land, the women forge a tenuous kinship. Until, in the middle of the cold and unforgiving sea, a young mother is mortally wounded, and the hunt is on for the assailant before he or she strikes again.
Each woman called in for question has something to fear: Will she be attacked next? Will she be believed? Because far from land, there is nowhere to flee, and how can you prove innocence when you’ve already been found guilty?

My thoughts:

Inspired by real events and real people, the story of the Rajah and its passengers – roughly 200 women condemned to transportation to what is now Tasmania, is beautifully written, told by several different voices – Kezia the warder, Sarah the convict and a few of the others.

During the voyage a terrible crime is committed and the captain puts together a panel to investigate the women and find the culprit.

In-between interrogations, Kezia and her selected group of 18 women work on a patchwork quilt, the real one hangs in the National Gallery in Canberra. It is Kezia’s hope this work will offer something to the women – hope, spiritual salvation, community.

The long voyage gives them all time to reflect on their pasts and the crimes that have led them here. Most are petty ones – thefts to survive the desperate hard lives they lead, but among them is someone fleeing the noose.

This was a fascinating look at a group of women often forgotten by history, women who were required to be incredibly brave as they were taken away from their homes and families, forced into new lives in a strange land.


*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 Fragile Ones – Jennifer Chase*

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Read my review of Last Girls Alive

“Please Mommy, can Tessa and I go play on the swing by the creek?” the little girl begs, pushing a blonde curl from her eyes. “We’ll stay together, and we promise to be safe.” Hours later, their mother waits anxiously for her darling girls to arrive home with a list of reasons why they are late. But the front door never opens…
When the bodies of eleven and twelve-year-old sisters, Tessa and Megan, are found at the bottom of a ravine—dressed in matching pastel summer outfits, their small bodies broken from the fall—Detective Katie Scott is called to one of the most shocking and heartbreaking crime scenes of her career.
Carefully picking through the fragile remains, Katie makes the first of many disturbing discoveries: the girls were not biological sisters. The youngest, Megan, is a DNA match to a kidnapping case years before. The tiny number burnt into her skin the mark of a terrifying killer intent on keeping count of his collection.Her PTSD from the army triggered, Katie is left reeling as she maps other missing children in the local area.

Has this twisted soul found a way to stay nearby his victims? Could he be watching now as Katie hits one dead end after another?
A wild storm building, matching a fiber found during the autopsy to a nearby boatyard is the break Katie needs. But when another girl goes missing, just as lightning strikes and the power goes out, Katie only has her instincts, her team and her service dog to rely on.

As time runs out for Katie to finds the stolen child alive, who will become the next number on this monster’s deadly list?
Fans of Lisa Regan, Rachel Caine and Melinda Leigh, you better buckle-up for the ride of your life! BEWARE – this gripping crime thriller is guaranteed to keep you up all night!

Jennifer Chase is a multi award-winning and best-selling crime fiction author, as well as a consulting criminologist. Jennifer holds a bachelor degree in police forensics and a master’s degree in criminology & criminal justice. These academic pursuits developed out of her curiosity about the criminal mind as well as from her own experience with a violent psychopath, providing Jennifer with deep personal investment in every story she tells.

In addition, she holds certifications in serial crime and criminal profiling. She is an affiliate member of the International Association of Forensic Criminologists, and member of the International Thriller Writers.

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My thoughts:

This was really good, dark and twisted, with a town full of secrets at the heart of the mystery. Detective Katie Scott and her partner Deputy McGaven are asked to help a small police department to solve the disappearance and murder of two young girls; but there seems to be much more going on.

I really enjoyed this book, it’s so well plotted and constructed, the way it all unravels is pleasing and cleverly done.


*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: Sandman – Anna Legat*

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Read my reviews of The End of the Road and A Conspiracy of Silence

The fourth instalment in the gripping DI Gillian Marsh series.

When Christmas shoppers board the 7.15am train to Bath Spa, they don’t expect to never see their loved ones again.

When a co-ordinated terrorist attack derails the train, the passengers are left fighting for their lives. For Andrej the train driver, Harald the Zimbabwean farmer and Oscar the war veteran travelling with his grandson, life will never be the same again.

As the manhunt for the terrorists begins, DI Gillian Marsh must act on her instincts to find the ones responsible for this tragic attack.

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Anna Legat is a Wiltshire-based author, best known for her DI Gillian Marsh murder mystery series. She dabbles in a wide variety of genres, ranging from satire to dystopian. A globe-trotter and Jack-of-all-trades, Anna has been an attorney, legal adviser, a silver-service waitress, a school teacher and a librarian.

A globe-trotter and Jack-of-all-trades, Anna has been an attorney, legal adviser, a silver-service waitress, a school teacher and a librarian.

She read law at the University of South Africa and Warsaw University, then gained teaching qualifications in New Zealand.

She has lived in far-flung places all over the world where she delighted in people-watching and collecting precious life experiences for her stories. Anna writes, reads, lives and breathes books and can no longer tell the difference between fact and fiction.

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My thoughts:

Christmas is coming in this gripping, moving crime thriller that brings global terrorism to the Gloucestershire countryside.

We meet various members of the local area – from Pippa and Harry whose estranged son has finally written to them, to their neighbours, young engineering students, a train driver and his homesick wife, a former Para and the young boy he feels responsible for. All of them will be thrown together in a terrible, tragic way.

DI Gillian Marsh, never call her Gill, is supposed to be on holiday, her daughter’s getting engaged and she’s a bit stressed out. But this case is person and she will find the perpetrators.

Marsh is an excellent protagonist, her determination and experience make her a great detective and its her instincts and drive that mean she’s the best placed person to get justice for the victims.

*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: Captain Clive’s Dreamworld – Jon Bassoff*

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After becoming the suspect in the death of a young woman, Deputy Sam Hardy is reassigned to the town of Angels and Hope, which, within its borders, holds the once magnificent amusement park, Captain Clive’s Dreamworld. When he arrives, however, Hardy notices some strange happenings. The park is essentially empty of customers. None of the townsfolk ever seem to sleep. And girls seem to be going missing with no plausible explanation.

As Hardy begins investigating, his own past is drawn into question by the town, and he finds himself becoming more and more isolated. The truth—about the town and himself—will lead him to understand that there’s no such thing as a clean escape.
When he arrives, however, Hardy notices some strange happenings. The park is essentially empty of customers. None of the townsfolk ever seem to sleep. And girls seem to be going missing with no plausible explanation.

As Hardy begins investigating, his own past is drawn into question by the town, and he finds himself becoming more and more isolated. The truth—about the town and himself—will lead him to understand that there’s no such thing as a clean escape.

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Jon Bassoff was born in 1974 in New York City and currently lives with his family in a ghost town somewhere in Colorado. His mountain gothic novel,

His mountain gothic novel, Corrosion, has been translated in French and German and was nominated for the Grand Prix de Litterature Policiere, France’s biggest crime fiction award.

Two of his novels, The Drive-Thru Crematorium and The Disassembled Man, have been adapted for the big screen with Emile Hirsch (Into the Wild; Once Upon a Time in America) attached to star in The Disassembled Man.

For his day job, Bassoff teaches high school English where he is known by students and faculty alike as the deranged writer guy. He is a connoisseur of tequila, hot sauces, psychobilly music, and flea-bag motels.

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My thoughts:

This got dark super fast – the veneer of happiness in Captain Clive’s perfect small town is so thin it’s virtually transparent. Deputy Hardy is running from his past but the town is riddled with its own secrets – terrible secrets.

The moment he realises there’s nothing he can do, that no one will listen to him and gives in to its fake world is harrowing. It could be read as a comment on our world and when we ignore the things going on around us and just go along with it.

There are some interesting ideas and parallels between the world Captain Clive wants people to live in and the world some people choose to live in in our reality – ignoring the darkness and evil bubbling underneath.

It was an interesting, fascinating and disturbing read that really made me think about things.

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

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Blog Tour: Acts of Kindness – Heather Barnett*

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Dream Job. Fresh Start. Big Mistake.

When Bella Black arrives in a sleepy Wiltshire village, it seems like the perfect place for a new start: a
lovely home, exciting job and an attractive colleague or two to take her mind off her recent divorce.

When people start disappearing, she realises she holds the key to a mystery bigger than she could have ever imagined.

Who is really pulling the strings at the secretive OAK Institute?

Can anyone be trusted?

Will Bella make the right choices before its too late?

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Heather Barnett gained a degree in English and French from the University of Leeds and has written
ever since: from copywriting to stand-up comedy and sketches. She is now focusing on writing novels. Heather’s influences span Jane Austen and Douglas Adams at one end of the alphabet through to PG Wodehouse at the other.

Heather’s debut novel, Acts of Kindness, is an uplifting, light-hearted mystery. It was inspired by witnessing commuters helping a woman who’d fallen down the stairs at Paddington station; intermingled with wondering what was behind some grand stone gateposts that she used to drive past in Wiltshire.

Her second novel, Lord Seeks Wife, is a romantic comedy and will be published summer 2021.

Aside from writing, Heather’s interests are classic literature, cats and comedy.
Heather is head of marketing at an agency near Oxford and lives by the river Kennet in Berkshire.

For more information on Heather and her books, please visit her website or join the discussion on Twitter Instagram

My thoughts:

This was such a fun, quirky, clever book, so entertaining and funny. I wish the OAK Institute was real, but the improved version…maybe it is!

Bella was a great protagonist, determined to help others despite being out of her depth and caught up in kidnap and conspiracy. She just wanted a new job and change of scene! Instead there’s madness and mayhem and a woman called Maggie Thatcher clutching paper bags with pairs of knickers in them (read it to find out why, no spoilers here).

The plot was very good and kept me thoroughly hooked, as Bella and Oscar (and Oscar’s excellent mum) get embroiled in scandal and threatened by thugs.

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

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Blog Tour: The Wedding – Ruth Heald*

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Just four words were printed in the card. He doesn’t love you.

I’ve been dreaming about this day – marrying Adam, my childhood sweetheart, who I’ve loved for eighteen years.

I didn’t realise the perfect day would turn into the perfect nightmare.I was so excited to send out the wedding invitations, carefully writing everyone’s names on thick cream paper in beautiful cursive script.

I had no idea I was inviting someone to destroy our marriage.I couldn’t wait to say ‘I do’ surrounded by loved ones clinking champagne glasses.

I couldn’t imagine that one of them would try to hurt me.It was meant to be the first day of the rest of our lives.I never thought it would be the end of my life as I knew it.We were meant to share our vows, to toast our future.

But when the truth comes out, shocking the onlooking guests and ripping my heart out, is a happy ever after possible?

A completely gripping and totally addictive read that will get your blood pressure rising and send shivers down your spine.

Fans of Date Night, The Sister-in-Law and The Girl on the Train will devour this twisty, dark and gasp-worthy page-turner in one swift gulp!

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Ruth Heald is a psychological thriller writer from a suburban Buckinghamshire town.

She studied Economics at Oxford and then worked in an eclectic mix of sectors from nuclear decommissioning to management consulting.

Seeking a more creative environment, she found a role at the BBC and worked there for nine years before leaving to write full time.

Ruth is fascinated by psychology and finding out what drives people to violence, destruction and revenge. She’s married with one daughter and her novels explore our greatest fears in otherwise ordinary, domestic lives.

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My thoughts:

This was totally gripping, and I could not work out who was stalking and terrifying Lauren leading up to her wedding. There were so many red herrings and suspects everywhere.

I remember planning my wedding, stress central, I can’t imagine doing it while also creeped out of my mind with weird dolls and threatening letters, I’d have just completely panicked. Lauren holds herself together pretty well, but as an A&E doctor I suppose she’s good at controlling her emotions under pressure.

Adam on the other hand is pretty hopeless, he doesn’t really put much effort into supporting her, or dealing with his mistakes. Bit of a wet blanket really.

This was so good and compelling, Ruth Heald is a master at keeping the suspense up and the reader guessing.

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

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Blog Tour: A Song For A New Day – Sarah Pinsker*

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An unnervingly prescient, Nebula-award-winning novel explores life in a world permanently locked down in the aftermath of a pandemic.

BEFORE.
Luce Cannon is on the road. Success is finally within her grasp: her songs are getting airtime; the venues she’s playing are getting larger. But mass shootings, bombings and now a strange contagion are closing America down around her.
The gig Luce plays tonight will turn out to be the last-ever rock show as the world’s stadiums, arenas and concert halls go dark for good.

AFTER.
Rosemary is too young to remember the Before. She grew up, went to school and works in the virtual world of Hoodspace.
Working for StageHoloLive, which controls what is left of the music industry, her job is to find new talent, search out the illegal backroom jams and bring musicians into the
Hoodspace holographic limelight they deserve.
But when Rosemary sees how the world could actually be, that won’t be enough.

Sarah Pinsker is a singer, songwriter and author. Her short stories have won the Nebula, Sturgeon and Philip K. Dick Awards.
Currently finishing her second novel and fourth album, she lives with her wife in Baltimore, Maryland.

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My thoughts:

This book made me cry, I don’t think it meant to but after a year with no live music, no theatre, no mooching round art galleries, no hearing buskers in the Tube stations, no tiny gigs in sticky floored bars, no crowds, no festivals, no hugging friends with shared glee or going a bit deaf from standing too close to a speaker, a book that celebrates the necessity, the essential-ness of music, of art, of crowds, of dancing, of being present hits hard. Really, really hard.

I love music, I love going to gigs, I’ve been to hole in the wall bars with a band in the basement, I’ve been to mega stadiums. I’ve danced in fields, in back gardens and parks, I’ve missed the last train home to hear the second encore. I’ve sat on concrete floors because the singer told us to, I’ve perched on the edge of stages sipping watered down cider in plastic pint glasses while the band tunes up.

And I miss it like you wouldn’t believe. I miss the thrill of a live band, of being squeezed up way too close to other humans, of dancing with strangers, of singing along even though I really can’t sing.

And this is what this brilliant book is all about. After a pandemic and some really brutal violence, people are afraid, they’re staying home and only mingling virtually. And no recording, no live streaming is ever as good as in the flesh. Something Luce knows and Rosemary learns.

I loved Rosemary, I loved Luce, I loved their passion and optimism (R) and defiance and scepticism (L) and the way that both of them are determined that live music, shared experience, the way a bass line can go right through you to your soul if played correctly, should never really be replaced by the hollow virtual kind.

A Song For A New Day is a call to arms, to retain your love, your passion, your joy for making things, for sharing things and for experiencing it right there in front of you. Not through a screen, headphones on, alone.

I cannot wait to go to the theatre, to a gig, to hear someone play an instrument or sing live again. I cannot wait to be connected to a room full of strangers by lyrics, by a guitar riff, a drum beat.

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

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Blog Tour: The Shadowy Third – Julia Parry*

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A sudden death in the family delivers Julia a box of love letters. Dusty with age, they reveal an illicit affair between the celebrated twentieth-century Irish novelist Elizabeth Bowen and Humphry House – Julia’s grandfather.

So begins an intriguing quest to discover and understand this affair, one with profound repercussions for Julia’s family, not least for her grandmother, Madeline.

This is a book about how stories are told in real life, in fiction and in families. Inspired by Bowen’s own obsession with place and memory, Julia travels to all the locations in the letters – from Kolkata to Cambridge and from Ireland to Texas.

The reader is taken from the rarefied air of Oxford in the 1930s, to the Anglo-Irish Big House, to the last days of Empire in India and on into the Second World War.

The fascinating unpublished correspondence, a wealth of family photographs, and a celebrated supporting cast that includes Isaiah Berlin and Virginia Woolf add further richness to this unique work.

The Shadowy Third opens up a lost world, one with complex and often surprising attitudes to love and sex, work and home, duty and ambition, and to writing itself.

Weaving present-day story telling with historical narrative, this is a beautifully written debut of literary and familial investigation from an original and captivating new voice.

Julia Parry was brought up in West Africa and educated at St Andrews and Oxford. She teaches English literature and has worked as a writer and photographer for a variety of publications and charities. She lives in London and Madrid. This is her first book.

My thoughts:

This was utterly fascinating and totally absorbing a read. As someone whose own family has a few mysteries, I could completely relate to the author’s desire to follow in her grandparents footsteps and unravel the complex relationships at the heart of this book.

I read Elizabeth Bowen’s The Heat of the Day at uni, but we focused more on the text than the writer, so it was also interesting to learn more about her life, and its web of affairs, especially the way Parry connects Bowen’s written works, short stories and novels, to the parallels in her own life.

Part biography, part mystery, part memoir, this was a truly brilliant debut, well written and expertly paced, as you travel with Parry to Kolkata, Ireland, and across the UK.

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