Category: reviews

blog tour, books, reviews

12 Days of Clink Street: Olga’s Egg – Sophie Law*

ramblingmads

It’s time for my first post in this annual celebration of Clink Street Publishing’s titles, full list of posts at the bottom. First up a tale of Russian art and Romanovs.

When Fabergé specialist Assia Wynfield learns of the discovery of a long-lost Fabergé egg made for the Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna, daughter of the last Tsar of Russia,

she appears to be the only person with misgivings. On travelling to St. Petersburg to see the egg, Assia moves among Russia’s new rich but finds herself pulled back into a family past she would rather forget.

With news that a friend is missing, Assia starts to dig deeper. But does she really want the answers to the questions she is asking?

Set in today’s glamorous world of Russian art with glimpses into the lives of the last Romanovs as their empire crumbled in the wake of the Russian Revolution,

Olga’s Egg is an enthralling tale of love, family secrets and the artistic treasures that conceal them.

My thoughts:

I went to Russia when I was 18 on a school trip, 3 days in Moscow and 3 in St Petersburg. It’s an extraordinary place with a fascinating and tragic history so I was really excited by the book, I saw a real Fabergé egg in the Hermitage museum at the Winter Palace and it was beautiful.

They are insanely expensive as only a limited number were made for the imperial family, and I can easily see why some people become obsessed with them, as many of the characters in this book do. They’re so rare and so priceless that collectors will pay almost any price.

The story that unravels in Olga’s Egg, supposes an egg made for the last Tsar’s eldest daughter, Grand Duchess Olga, lost following the terrible events of 1918. A supposed Olga’s Egg appears suddenly in St Petersburg, but Assia, an expert in Fabergé like her late mother, believes it to be a fake.

The conspiracy stretches into the very top of the Kremlin and is designed to show Russia’s might and that the Crimea belongs to Russia and not Ukraine. A strange thing for a young girl perhaps.

Assia’s investigation is fraught with danger, some secrets are considered worth killing for, and she risks everything to prove that the real egg is still out there.

Gripping, fascinating and set in the art world the author works in (as an expert on Russian art), this was highly enjoyable and clever.

*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 Cousins – Karen McManus*

ramblingmads

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of One of Us Is Lying comes your next obsession. You’ll never feel the same about family again.
Milly, Aubrey, and Jonah Story are cousins, but they barely know each another, and they’ve never even met their grandmother. Rich and reclusive, she disinherited their parents before they were born. So when they each receive a letter inviting them to work at her island resort for the summer, they’re surprised . . . and curious.
Their parents are all clear on one point–not going is not an option. This could be the opportunity to get back into Grandmother’s good graces. But when the cousins arrive on the island, it’s immediately clear that she has different plans for them. And the longer they stay, the more they realize how mysterious–and dark–their family’s past is.
The entire Story family has secrets. Whatever pulled them apart years ago isn’t over–and this summer, the cousins will learn everything.

My thoughts:

This was a very clever YA thriller, something this author does very well. Her series, beginning with One Of Us Is Lying, is set in a small town and so in a way, is The Cousins.

Small towns, and islands, are hot beds of rumour and gossip. Long time residents know everyone and think they know everything. And so it is here. The island, where the Story family have lived for several generations, is populated by people who either know a lot about them or claim to.

But yet no one can tell the titular cousins, Milly, Aubrey and Jonah, what their parents did that was so bad they were disinherited and banished from the island. And their grandmother won’t even talk to them, even though she invited them there, right?

The three have more questions than answers and mysteries to unravel that seem far from straightforward, also they don’t really know each other, so who can they truly trust?

Families are tricky, and none more so than the Storys, the older generation have never been more distant, so the cousins resolve to find out what happened twenty four years ago and why some people seem very keen on them staying away from the family home, Catmint House.

This was smart, funny, twisted and highly enjoyable. The three cousins were interesting and multilayered, different in ways that made each of them right for the various things they needed to learn, Milly is good at reading people, Jonah is good at research and Aubrey is smarter than people think.


*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: Birth of the Fae – Danielle M. Orsino*

ramblingmads

Ride on the backs of fire breathing dragons with the Dark Fae and watch the Light Fae play in the shadows of primitive humanity as they build their magical world. Abandoned by their creator, two factions of powerful angels remain on earth after the Great War with Lucifer. They struggle to comprehend their Creator’s plan while their angel wings, a symbol of their angelic lineage, slowly and painfully decay.

With no hope of returning to the Shining Kingdom, two groups of angels denounce their angelic lineage and develop into separate factions – the Court of Light, led by Queen Aurora, a former Virtue Angel, and the Court of Dark, ruled by King Jarvok, a former Power Brigade Angel. The two monarchs have opposing views on how to govern their kin, but the one belief they agree on is that human worship equals power.

Abandoned by their creator, two factions of powerful angels remain on earth after the Great War with Lucifer. They struggle to comprehend their Creator’s plan while their angel wings, a symbol of their angelic lineage, slowly and painfully decay.

With no hope of returning to the Shining Kingdom, two groups of angels denounce their angelic lineage and develop into separate factions – the Court of Light, led by Queen Aurora, a former Virtue Angel, and the Court of Dark, ruled by King Jarvok, a former Power Brigade Angel. The two monarchs have opposing views on how to govern their kin, but the one belief they agree on is that human worship equals power.

Birth of the Fae: Locked Out of Heaven is an epic fantasy adventure of heartbreak, rebirth, and hope that examines the bonds of family, friendship, and love. It is a fantastic tale of good vs evil in a beautiful world, where the Light Fae and their potent elemental magick are tested by the raw power of the dragon riding Dark Fae warriors.

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Danielle M Orsino, destined to be a writer from a young age, was working as a nurse and treating a patient who needed some distractions during long I.V. Treatment sessions. So, Orsino reached back to a forgotten skill, a childhood dream. Danielle had wanted to be a writer and so she decided to tell a story. Little did she know the seed would grow into a fantastically epic adventure of heartbreak, hope and rebirth — Birth of Fae: Locked Out of Heaven. Drawing from her passion for comic books, Cosplay and fantasy along with her expert martial arts expertise, Orsino brings forth an electric and hopeful debut.

Danielle had wanted to be a writer and so she decided to tell a story. Little did she know the seed would grow into a fantastically epic adventure of heartbreak, hope and rebirth — Birth of Fae: Locked Out of Heaven. Drawing from her passion for comic books, Cosplay and fantasy along with her expert martial arts expertise, Orsino brings forth an electric and hopeful debut.

Danielle is taking on her biggest challenge to date: taking the story born from the long treatment sessions with a patient into a fantasy book series – Birth of the Fae: Locked out of Heaven. Expanding her love of writing, comics and exploring the world of fantasy novels, she delves into the realm of fairies and retells their origins from a completely new perspective. Orsino has a Bachelor’s degree in Kinesiology and Exercise science and is an LPN with a special interest in Lyme disease research.

Orsino has been widely recognized from her influence and experience in martial arts realm, training for over 20 years and with over 500 tournament wins, and accumulating national and world titles. She has performed for former President of the United States Bill Clinton and has been featured on “Soap Talk, Fox Five news CBS, TLC and E! With this experience, she worked as a Fight Choreographer on ”Wonder Woman: Balance of Power” and has worked with the likes of martial arts legend Vincent Lyn and WWE marvel and action star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

Nothing Danielle ever does is simple, look at what NY times Bestselling author Clete Barrett Smith has to say about her debut endeavor: “After summoning this world into existence through an imaginative force of will, Danielle has scoured every inch of the landscape several times over. Critics often praise a story’s world building by saying that it feels “lived in.” Well, the world of the Fae certainly seems like that because Danielle herself has happily lived there for years as she worked to put all of this together…

My favorite part of this story is that it is gloriously depicted in vibrant images.

Expanding her love of writing, comics and exploring the world of fantasy novels, she delves into the realm of fairies and retells their origins from a completely new perspective. Orsino has a Bachelor’s degree in Kinesiology and Exercise science and is an LPN with a special interest in Lyme disease research.

Orsino has been widely recognized from her influence and experience in martial arts realm, training for over 20 years and with over 500 tournament wins, and accumulating national and world titles. She has performed for former President of the United States Bill Clinton and has been featured on “Soap Talk, Fox Five news CBS, TLC and E! With this experience, she worked as a Fight Choreographer on ”Wonder Woman: Balance of Power” and has worked with the likes of martial arts legend Vincent Lyn and WWE marvel and action star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

Nothing Danielle ever does is simple, look at what NY times Bestselling author Clete Barrett Smith has to say about her debut endeavor: “After summoning this world into existence through an imaginative force of will, Danielle has scoured every inch of the landscape several times over. Critics often praise a story’s world building by saying that it feels “lived in.” Well, the world of the Fae certainly seems like that because Danielle herself has happily lived there for years as she worked to put all of this together…

My favorite part of this story is that it is gloriously depicted in vibrant images.

The Birth of the Fae

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Giveaway:

1st place 1 book (autographed) 1 map of the veil and 1 10 Amazon e card and one birth of the Fae candle

2nd place 1 autographed book and candle

3rd place 1 autographed book.

My thoughts:

This is a beautiful, lyrical tale of how the fae evolve from angels banished from Heaven following Lucifer’s fall and war with God.

The Court of Light is led by a former Virtue, and the Court of Dark by a warrior angel. Both wrestle with anger towards their Creator for abandoning them but channel their emotions in different directions.

Aurora creates a protected realm of beauty and goodness whereas her dark opposition trains his followers as fighters and wrecks chaos on humanity. He challenges the Light Court to war, refusing to allow them to co-exist.

Creative and mythical this is a delightful start to a new series of stories about the fae.

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

Book Tour Schedule

November 30th

Reads & Reels (Excerpt)

I Love Books & Stuff (Excerpt)

Quirky Cat’s Fat Stacks (Review)

@Better_Off_Read (Review)

@bookmarkedwithchris (Review)

Josh Whitworth (Review)

December 1st

Breakeven Books (Excerpt)

@a.p.reading (Review)

@love2dazzle (Review)

Rambling Mads (Review)

Sophril Reads (Review)

December 2nd

@pillowreader (Review)

Ity Reads Books (Review)

@my_fantasy_bookshelf (Review)

@DreaminginPages (Review)

@myyorkshirelitmosphere (Review)

Ma Book Yard (Review)

December 3rd

Dark Whimsical Art (Excerpt)

MyBookishLifeTime (Review)

J Bronder Book Reviews (Review)

Jessica Belmont (Review)

@thecrookedhouse (Review)

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Christmas Cookie Cozies – Anthology of Mystery Stories*

ramblingmads

2020 is going to be the coziest holiday season yet with cozy mysteries from Ava Mallory, Summer Prescott, Jenna St. James, Laina Turner, Gretchen Allen, Laina Turner, Joanna Campbell Slan, S. C. Merritt, Minnie Crockwell, Mona Marple, Rachael Stapleton and Loraine Hudson – along with their favorite holiday cookie recipe!

🎅Gretchen Allen – Lost Claus☃️

Charlotte Moss is one tough cookie, but her new job as Mrs. Claus isn’t what she expected. When Santa goes missing and a body is found, the most wonderful time of the year looks bleak.

🎅Joanna Campbell Slan – How the Cookie Crumbles☃️
Cara Mia Delgatto never met her maternal grandmother. But Nonie Josephina reaches out from the grave with a message for Cara: I left behind a treasure! Can Cara Mia find it before Santa comes to town?

🎅S.C. Merritt – Caramelized Casualty☃️
With the annual holiday unveiling of a giant gingerbread village quickly approaching, Kate Kennedy’s stress level is sky high. When one of the event’s diva celebrity chefs turns up dead, Kate decides she has no choice but to team up with the town’s newest detective if she’s going to pull off the big event. Can she expose the killer in time to save the event?

🎅Minnie Crockwell – Death By Cookie☃️
Widow Sallie Chilcoat decides to get into the holiday spirit by baking up a batch of cookies for her lakeside condominium neighbors only to have one of them turn up dead – with the remains of her cookies! Did Sallie kill her neighbor with her vegan cookies?

🎅Ava Mallory – Christmas Cookie Catastrophe☃️
When Consuelo “Cookie” Alvarez inherits a bakery from her aunt Birdie, she doesn’t expect to take her late aunt’s place in the Christmas Cookie Bake-Off. Now she has two weeks to perfect the super-secret recipe, but there are major obstacles in her way: she can’t bake, the recipe is missing, and her competitors are a who’s who of shady characters.

🎅Summer Prescott – Hang Out The Stalkings☃️
Someone is stealing Nancy’s cookies…will they steal her holiday spirit too?

🎅Jenna St. James – Christmas Cookie Caper☃️
When Ivy O’Brien learns her mother has been injured at the annual Couples Christmas Cookie Contest, she runs to the rescue. Looks like she needs to fill in for her mother and hunky policeman Anthony Romano has to help bake the cookie and question the suspects. Between dough-making disasters, nips of peppermint Schnapps, and rolling pin thefts, the pair slowly whittle down their suspect list.

🎅Mona Marple – The Santa Run Is Murderous Fun☃️
Emily Monk’s run out of excuses not to take part in the annual Santa run, but the festivities are threatened when the long-running Santa Run champ is found dead the day before the race.
With a killer to be caught, and a Christmas dinner to be bought, Emily needs to think fast if she’s going to solve this case before Santa comes.

🎅Rachael Stapleton – Christmas, Corpses & the Gingerdead Flip-Flop☃️
When house flippers Jack Young and Juniper Palmer purchase a colorful Queen Anne home, Juniper assumes the exterior gingerbread trim will be the most outlandish thing to see. That is until a prominent wine merchant dressed as Santa is murdered, and Jack’s mother is caught on the naughty list.

🎅Loraine Hudson – Holly, Jolly Misdeeds☃️
First, it’s a thieving Santa. Next, it’s a prowler that threatens Jenny’s peace. It all seems to revolve around a box of cookies. Why? And what’s next?

🎅Laina Turner – Cookies and Crime☃️
What is supposed to be a joy-filled awards ceremony for the Romero Boy Scouts turns out to be anything but when Jean Sartor, Scout co-leader, drops dead on stage.
Trixie lands herself on the suspect list since she baked Christmas cookies for the ceremony. She knows she didn’t poison Jean, but who did?

US Amazon

UK Amazon

My thoughts:

This were all fun short Christmas themed crime capers, mostly murders with a few thefts and the odd burglary thrown in.

Each story ends with a recipe for festive biscuits (cookies if you’re American), some of which feature in the stories!

A great collection for the season and everything resolved just in time to celebrate.

*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: Deadly Games – Steve Frech*

ramblingmads

I know everything about you.

I know your name, your birthday, your kids’ names, where you live, where you work. I know when you get that big promotion, or when you argue with your spouse.

You tell me all this because I’m your bartender.

But someone knows everything about me too. Someone knows all my secrets and they’re using them against me. They’re setting me up.

The police think I murdered Emily Parker. To prove my innocence I need to find the real killer.

I need to beat him at his own game.

My thoughts:

This was a very twisted thriller, the killer is playing a dark game for his own reasons that aren’t apparently clear to either Clay or the reader.

While Clay was playing with fire sleeping with a married woman, he certainly doesn’t deserve to be framed for murder and forced to go on the run, following the orders of the real killer to keep himself and his friends alive.

A tense cat and mouse game ensues, with Clay determined to find the real killer and evade the police who think he’s the guilty one.

*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: Let’s Talk About Cats – Anita Kelsey*

ramblingmads

Let’s Talk About Cats: Conversations on Feline Behaviour features 16 unique in-depth conversations
with devoted feline experts, each chapter answering a question about our cats.

An abundance of catty conversation points which provide many useful takeaways for cat owners to improve their own every-day connection with their cats.

This book, the first of its kind, presents the combined wisdom of experts from all over add space the
world on the psychology, behaviour, diet and training of cats, in a relaxed and add space conversational style.

Contributors include Jackson Galaxy, star of My Cat From Hell, and composer David Teie, whose ground-breaking album, Music for Cats, was released by the Universal Music Group.

Each illuminating chapter exudes a love for cats and a wealth of fascinating insights.

This book is packed with helpful advice, guidance and true stories from the author’s own professional experience of cat care topics, explaining the most important cat concepts, giving food for thought and expanding on all the most important issues and debates in the cat world.

Amazon UK
Amazon US

Anita Kelsey holds a first class honours degree in Feline Behaviour and Psychology (work based BA
Hons) and runs a vet referral service dedicated strictly to the diagnosis and treatment of behaviour problems in cats.

She is also a qualified cat groomer and specialises in grooming aggressive or phobic cats. Anita writes for Your Cat Magazine and is on their experts panel answering readers questions on cat grooming.

She also advises on feline behaviour for the CFBA (Canine and Feline Behaviour) magazine as well as being a full member.

Anita, a strong advocate of a vegan lifestyle, is based in London but consults all over the UK as well as international requests. She lives with her husband, a music producer, and two Norwegian Forest cats, Kiki and Zaza.

Her debut book ‘Claws. Confessions Of A Professional Cat Groomer’ was published by John Blakes in 2018 and her second book Let’s Talk About Cats, Conversation On Feline Behaviour is due out November 28th 2020.

(I had to include both author photos – the author’s cats are gorgeous!)

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My thoughts:

I love cats, they’re such adorable weirdos, I grew up with them and still miss my childhood chum Tribble (yes, from Star Trek) a lot, even though she crossed the rainbow bridge many years ago.

I currently catsit for friends and neighbours (available to do so across North London and potentially further if you need me!) and my lovely little furry pals always make me smile. I have “shares” in two of my neighbours’ cats as I’ve looked after them and they occasionally pop into to visit.

So, this book was something I was really interested and looking forward to reading – I was not disappointed. Full of useful and interesting information from experts and plenty of advice for cat lovers (not owners, cats have staff!) to help you better understand your feline overlords.

Written in an accessible, friendly and helpful style, with chapters on different areas of cat behaviour, psychology, attitudes, food, training and wisdom, I recommend it for anyone who has cats or is thinking of getting one.

I personally think it will help me get on with my cat clients even better, as they can sometimes be a little tricky to read and it’s helpful to have some ideas about what might be going on in their fluffy little heads.

*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 Trials & Tribulations of a Pet Sitter – Laura Marchant*

ramblingmads

Hilarious and heart warming true stories of a Pet Sitter.

Laura takes us on her journey describing the immense joy that the animals have brought into her
life. But it’s not all fun and games.

With sometimes as many as ten dogs around her home, things
can get a tad hectic. Not to forget the every day challenges faced in keeping the pets happy and safe when out walking. Luckily she is not alone in her quest; her unusually dominant Golden Retriever ‘Brece’ is always by her side. Brece earns her keep
by convincingly playing the part of the alpha female, ensuring harmony amongst the pack.

At times, the responsibility that Laura faces becomes overwhelming. She may think she has everything covered but that hand of fate could quite easily swoop down, creating havoc for her and the dogs. Laura has endured many close calls and teetered on the precipice of disaster may a time.

The longer she continues with her pet sitting enterprise, the more likely hood that total disaster will actually strike. Is she tempting fate?

Laura Marchant is the Bridget Jones of the pet sitting world!

Amazon UK
Amazon US

About the author

Laura Marchant was born in 1959 in the seaside resort of Lytham St Annes, Lancashire, England. Both her parents were born in the same town, so not exactly a family of intrepid travellers!
As a child Laura and her siblings were fortunate enough to own shares in the families pets.

Unbeknown to Laura at the time, her love for the animals formed the blueprint for a large part of her life. In 2011 she finally found her vocation, and in the comfort of her own home, set up a pet boarding business.

For the next 7 years she shared her abode with a pack of dogs. A lot of this time was spent watching over the animals and observing their behaviour, which in turn inspired her to write her first novel ‘Trials and Tribulations of a Pet Sitter’.

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My thoughts:

As someone who has done some pet sitting and dog walking I related so much to the chaos and characters Laura deals with in her book. From crazy dogs to OTT owners, her own dominant Brece (pronounced Bressay) who bosses the guest dogs about, runaways and furniture destroyers. Laura has dealt with a whole host of canines, felines and humans.

This was a fun and funny read, Laura brings her animal clients to life with their adventures and I could really see each creature as she tells the story of how she came to know them and love 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.

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: A Taste of His Own Medicine – Linda Fawke*

ramblingmads

How long can the desire for revenge last?

Kate Shaw, a successful pharmacist, goes to a thirty-year reunion at her old university and uses the weekend to settle some old scores. Her main target is her ex-lover, Jonathan. She decides to scar him for life as he scarred her. Her bizarre plan works but he shocks her with his strange, unwanted reaction.

What is the unexpected link between Jonathan and Kate’s husband?
What is the significance of the ‘Love Bite’ photograph?
What hold does Jonathan have over Kate?

Revenge is never simple.
A darkly humorous story of love, lust, loss and vengeance.

Amazon UK
Amazon US

Linda Fawke is an arts person who studied science but always wanted to write. Now retired, she indulges this passion, writing fiction and non-fiction, even occasional poetry, preferably late at night.

She has now written two novels, ‘A Taste of his own Medicine’ and its sequel, ‘A Prescription for Madness’ using her background in pharmacy as the setting of both. These are easy books to read, suitable for Book Club discussions. ‘ A Prescription for Madness’ is more serious than the first book, dealing with such issues as pregnancy in later life and Down’s Syndrome.
She has been a winner of the Daily Telegraph ‘Just Back’ travel-writing competition and has published in various magazines including ‘Mslexia’, ‘Litro’ online, ‘Scribble’, ‘The Oldie’, ‘Berkshire Life’ and ‘Living France’. She was a finalist in the ‘Hysteria’ short story competition.

Visit Linda’s blog where her ‘Random Writings’ include a range of topics
from travel to ‘Things that pop into my head’.

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My thoughts:

I didn’t really take to the character of Kate, who’s held on to grudges for thirty years and decides to carry out some acts of revenge at her university reunion, both large and small. While her embarrassing of one former classmate was a little funny, some of the other things she does just seem a little mean. She should really have seen a therapist instead to work out her issues.

And it doesn’t go well, the one person she decides to take the most long-lasting revenge on, former boyfriend Jonathan, turns out to be a truly nasty, manipulative man, twisting everything into a cruel game, involving her unwitting husband (who isn’t a particularly faithful one), seemingly planning to toy with Kate’s happiness for the foreseeable future.

It ends on a cliffhanger, with Kate forced to wait and see what Jonathan will do next. Neither of them are particularly good people and maybe they deserve each other.

I did enjoy the book, I just didn’t warm to the characters, either trapped in the past or boastful idiots, I don’t think I’d enjoy knowing them if they were real people. But then that may be the point – who would want to be around this lot.

Revenge is a dish best served cold, so the saying goes, and I think the point of this twisted and well written story is that no one ever gets away with it, you can’t carry out cruel games and expect to walk away.


*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 Extraordinary Hope of Dawn Brightside – Jessica Ryn*

ramblingmads

She’s not lost. She’s just waiting to be found…

Dawn Elisabeth Brightside has been running from her past for twenty-two years and two months, precisely.

So when she is offered a bed in St Jude’s Hostel for the Homeless, it means so much more than just a roof over her head.

But with St Jude’s threatened with closure, Dawn worries that everything is about to crumble around her all over again.

Perhaps, with a little help from her new friends, she can find a way to save this light in the darkness?

And maybe, just maybe, Dawn will finally have a place to call home….

My thoughts:

This was a gentle, sweet portrayal of mental illness, addiction and homelessness, it doesn’t shy away from the ugliness but treats its characters with kindness and compassion.

Dawn and her fellow residents at St Jude’s all have had very difficult lives that they’re finally starting to move on from when their safety and sanctuary is threatened.

Dawn constantly reinvents herself, in her head, each new life more fantastical than before, running from the pain of her real life.

There is real heart in this story of people with less than nothing finding their way in life and building a family.

The characters are well written and empathetic, I especially felt for Grace and Cara, as well as the irrepressible Dawn.

I will admit a little tear in my eye at a few points but the redemptive and heartwarming ending made up for the sniffling.

*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: How Love Actually Ruined Christmas (or Colourful Narcotics) – Gary Raymond*

ramblingmads

RARELY HAS THE POWER OF CINEMA BEEN FELT BY SO MANY, IN SUCH OPPOSING WAYS…

“Love Actually dulls the critical senses, making those susceptible to its hallucinogenic powers think they’ve seen a funny, warm-hearted, romantic film about the many complex manifestations of love. Colourful Narcotics. A perfect description of a bafflingly popular film.”

By any reasonable measurement, Love Actually is a bad movie. There are plenty of bad movies out there, but what gets under Gary Raymond’s skin here is that it seems to have tricked so many people into thinking it’s a good movie. In this hilarious, scene-by-scene analysis of the Christmas monolith that is Love Actually, Gary Raymond takes us through a suffocating quagmire of badly drawn characters, nonsensical plotlines, and open bigotry, to a climax of ill-conceived schmaltz.

How Love Actually Ruined Christmas (or Colourful Narcotics) is the definitive case against a terrible movie. With a foreword by Lisa Smithstead.

Amazon UK Amazon US

Parthian Books WHSmith

Gary Raymond is a novelist, critic, editor, and broadcaster. He is presenter of The Review Show for BBC Radio Wales and editor of Wales Arts Review. He is a regular writer on film, music, literature, and theatre, and can often be heard on BBC Radio 3 and 4 as an arts commentator and reviewer. His novels include For Those Who Come After (Parthian, 2015), The Golden Orphans (Parthian, 2018), and the upcoming Angels of Cairo (Parthian, 2021).

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My thoughts:

Love Actually is the worst Christmas film ever, possibly one of the worst films. So I went into reading this knowing that I already agreed with the title – I refuse to sit through this deeply weird and very rubbish film every year.

Gary Raymond breaks down the film scene by scene and examines its lazy plotting, terrible script, casual misogyny and fatphobia, and the total lack of good jokes. The excellent actors are totally wasted on the ghastly plots, some of which never seem to actually go anywhere (poor Laura Linney).

I found myself nodding along to Raymond’s excellent dissection of this genuinely terrible film and wishing Richard Curtis had just done a Vicar of Dibley special instead.

An excellent book for anyone who likes film, Christmas and would rather poke themselves in the eye with a roast parsnip that sit through the drivel that is Love Actually again this Christmas. 2020 has been bad enough, do yourself a favour and watch literally anything else. Or read this 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.