Tag: contemporary fiction

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Marriage Monitoring Aunties’ Association – Ola Awonubi

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Friendships – fantastic. Family – getting better. Career – promotion on the cards.
Romance – seriously delayed Sade Sodipo is ready to meet ‘the one’ and finally fulfil the Nigerian Dream. So far God hasn’t
performed that little miracle quite yet, but it’ll happen this year for sure. Especially if her mother, two best friends, younger sister and all those in the unofficial Marriage Monitoring Aunties Association, have anything to say about it.
She might love her job, have great friends, and even own her own home, but according to the meddling aunties, this is why she’s still single at 50. Not wanting to turn into a bitter aunty herself, Sade knows it’s time to get serious, but the options aren’t looking great – zero potential at church, work or in her social life.
What if her prayers for the perfect man have got lost? Or maybe Sade’s happy-ever-after is right on time…

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Author Bio –
Ola Awonubi is an award-winning author, creative writing tutor, and speaker, known for her compelling storytelling that bridges cultures and histories. Born in London to Nigerian parents, she spent part of her childhood in Nigeria before returning to the UK, where she pursued her passion for writing.

At the age of 40, Ola rekindled her dream of becoming a writer and earned an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East London. Her talent quickly gained recognition—her short story The Pink
House won first prize in the National Words of Colour competition (2008), and The Go-Slow Journey secured first prize in the fiction category of Queen Mary Wasafiri’s New Writing Prize (2009). She was also honored with the Best Author CA Award (2019).

Ola has authored eight books, including Love’s Persuasion, Love Me Unconditionally, and the anthology Naija Love Stories. Her historical fiction novel, A Nurse’s Tale, published by One More Chapter Books (HarperCollins) in July 2023, became a bestseller in Canada, earning a spot on The Globe and Mail’s historical fiction chart. It was also recognized by the Brown Girl Collective as a favourite historical fiction book of 2024.
Her upcoming romantic comedy, The Marriage Monitoring Aunties’ Association, is set for release in Summer 2025, as part of a two-book deal. She is also working on a Jane Austen adaptation set in Lagos, currently under consideration by publishers and agents.

Beyond her writing, Ola is a creative writing tutor and speaker, sharing her expertise at prestigious events such as the Black British Book Festival, Meet-Cute Romance Festival, and London Festival ofWriting. She will also be speaking at The London Writers Festival, Jericho Writers Conference,  inspiring aspiring authors with her insights on storytelling, publishing, and book marketing.
Ola’s work has been featured in Afreada, Brittle Paper, Story Time, Woven Tale Press, and  NaijaStories.com, with over 15 short stories published across various literary platforms.

Through her Substack newsletter, “The Resilient Writer,” she provides actionable writing guidance,  digital resources, and industry insights, helping fellow creatives refine their craft and build their
author brands.

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Giveaway to Win a Paperback copy of The Marriage Monitoring Aunties Association (Open to UK only)

My thoughts: I really like Sade, she’s a successful woman, owns her own home, has a nice group of friends, is an active member of her church and a loving daughter, sister and auntie. She’s also single at almost fifty.

And while she’s not especially worried, it seems to be causing concern for her mum, and the infamous Marriage Monitoring Aunties Association, who always have plenty to say on the matter.

When she does meet the rather nice Jimi Taylor, there’s an instant attraction, but she wants to keep things professional and her mum isn’t too keen as he has an ex-wife and son. But Sade is a woman who knows her own mind and after a series of dates involving some very delicious sounding food (I wasn’t hungry before I read this book, I was after), things start hotting up, but can Sade keep things secret from the MMAA or will they be sticking their oars in?

Funny, wry and with a lot of heart, this is a great later in life love story.

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

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Dead as Gold – Bonnie Burke-Patel

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Adam Conlan has made a new life for himself in Morrow-on-Sea. After a wild youth, the goldsmith had settled down, determined to be around for his young son.

But now Ophelia Richards appears at his studio door, asking if he will buy her gold. The writer entices and unsettles him; he sees she is adrift in the same cold pain and loneliness as he is. At the same time, faces begin appearing at the studio window, an unwelcome gift arrives in the post, gold goes missing.

Then comes death, then comes Detective Inspector William Kent.

Woven through with Morrow’s fairy tales, Dead as Gold is a modern gothic crime novel veined with love, violence, family, and desire. Humans still use fairy tales to explore their deepest truths. So who is a wolf, and who is a sparrow?

Born and raised in South Gloucestershire, Bonnie Burke-Patel studied History at Oxford. After working for half a decade in politics and policy, she changed careers and became a preschool teacher, before beginning to write full time. She lives with her husband, son, and dog in south east London.

My thoughts: The use and retelling of fairy tales and folklore is actually my academic catnip (and the focus of my current PhD research) but I won’t bore you with theory, this is a really good book.

Interwoven with the story of goldsmith Adam and writer Ophelia, both very interesting names to choose, and the crimes that bring DI Kent into their lives, is a fairy tale featuring gold, chosen family, fathers and a child with a silver tongue and a heart of gold, deep in the forest.

Adam’s small shop is robbed and Ophelia is the first on the scene, there’s blood but no body, that comes later, pulled from the sea. Adam is alarmed, more about the safety of his son in the flat above the shop than the actual robbery. His slow-burn relationship with Ophelia feels almost secondary to the other ones he has – with his agent, his brother, his son, his son’s mother.

The police interview all of the adults around him, unravelling some other concerns that Adam isn’t entirely aware of, circling him, is this an insurance job?

The writing is lush and the small coastal town of Morrow feels ripe with its own stories, both dark and light. Ophelia visited as a child and it has drawn her back, despite the events of her last visit. Her Own familial relationships are strained, she’s not close to her parents and her first meeting with Adam was to sell him gold jewellery they gave her, devoid of the sentiment they imagine she will feel for it (being previously owned by her mother and grandmother).

A fascinating, dark and enjoyable book about stories, family and the ripples small events cause in our lives.

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

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Kill Them With Kindness – Will Carver

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The threat of nuclear war is no longer scary. This is much worse. It’s invisible. It works quickly. And it’s coming…

The scourge has already infected and killed half the population in China and it is heading towards the UK. There is no time to escape. The British government sees no way out other than to distribute ‘Dignity Pills’ to its citizens: One last night with family or loved ones before going to sleep forever … together.

Because the contagion will kill you and the horrifying news footage shows that it will be better to go quietly.

Dr Haruto Ikeda, a Japanese scientist working at a Chinese research facility, wants to save the world. He has discovered a way to mutate a virus. Instead of making people sick, instead of causing death, it’s going to make them… nice. Instead of attacking the lungs, it will work into the brain and increase the host’s ability to feel and show compassion. It will make people kind.

But governments don’t want a population in agreement. They want conflict and outrage and fear. Reasonable people are harder to control. Ikeda’s quest is thoughtful and noble, and it just might work. Maybe humanity can be saved. Maybe it doesn’t have to be the end. But kindness may also be the biggest killer of all…

Will Carver is the international bestselling author of the January David series and the critically acclaimed, mind-blowingly original Detective Pace series, which includes Good Samaritans (2018), Nothing Important Happened Today (2019) and Hinton Hollow Death Trip (2020), all of which were ebook bestsellers and selected as books of the year in the mainstream international press.

Nothing Important Happened Today was longlisted for both the Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award 2020 and the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award. Hinton Hollow Death Trip was longlisted for the Guardian’s Not the Booker Prize, and was followed by the literary thrillers, The Beresford, Psychopaths Anonymous, The Daves Next Door, Suicide Thursday and Upstairs at the Beresford.

Will spent his early years in Germany, but returned to the UK at age eleven, when his sporting career took off. He and his partner run their own fitness and nutrition company, and live in Reading with five children and a tortoise.

My thoughts: This was suitably weird and intense for a Will Carver book. There’s a genius scientist in Dr Ikeda, who just wants people to be a bit nicer to each other, and a complete idiot in the British Prime Minister who cares more about getting away with all his indiscretions than the country.

Dr Ikeda finds a secret file that suggests someone, but not the Chinese government, plans to release a deadly virus, Tau, on the world. His team have developed a vaccine for this virus, but millions will still die. So being a brilliant scientist and a genuinely nice person, he engineers an alternative – a virus that behaves a bit like the flu but leaves the sufferer kinder, nicer, and hopefully makes the world a bit better.

He secretly releases his virus, watching it slowly spread from China to the rest of the world. Sadly there are some deaths, but nowhere near what Tau would have done.

Unfortunately for the British people, one of the people who was involved in the plot to release that virus was the PM. He’s a nasty, slimy man (I imagine him with a thatch of blonde hair that needs a good brush for some reason) who can’t seem to stop cheating on his wife and getting caught.

Despite being the perfect person for Ikeda’s virus, he doesn’t contract it, instead pretending he has been hospitalised. He really is the worst.

Then a deadly cloud of some sort is seen over China, it appears to be acidic in nature, melting flesh from bone and leaving behind millions of dead. Now it’s on a collision course for the UK. So of course the government issue suicide pills to the populace and tell everyone to say goodbye. As the world watches, what will happen to us?

I’m a bit torn as having lived through the delights of Covid-19, lockdown and the horrors of 2020, I don’t really like any sort of pandemic fiction, and there’s a lot of it about. But I really like Carver’s darkly funny, macabre and peculiar books. There were certainly bits of this book I enjoyed, and even found very funny, but I just don’t know if we need more books about pandemics and corrupt politicians doing dodgy deals behind our backs.

It wasn’t my favourite Will Carver book but it was enjoyable and clever, and I did really like Dr Ikeda and his wife, two truly good souls in a Sisyphean struggle. If you read it, let me know what you think, I’d love some different perspectives.

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

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Woman Who Got Her Spark Back – Fiona Gibson

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Is it ever too late to bloom?

Meet Celia. Life hasn’t worked out quite how she’d planned.
Since her son left for university, Celia has felt stuck at home – battling with her husband Geoff over control of the thermostat, and without the merest glint of a social life. Her only joy comes from the plants she nurtures in her makeshift plant hospital in their Glasgow flat.

Then three unexpected things happen:

  1. She catches Geoff in bed with a secretary from his sausage factory (no pun intended).
  2. Her high-flying best friend Amanda arrives on her doorstep without warning (but with a very
    large suitcase).
  3. A tall handsome French teacher asks her to tend his daughter’s cactus back to health.

Suddenly, Celia finds her life in freefall, but she makes a decision: she won’t let this be the end of her.
She’ll bring herself back to life, just like the plants she works her magic on. But just how do you change the habits of a lifetime?

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Fiona Gibson writes bestselling and brilliantly funny novels about the craziness and messiness of family life.

Facebook: @fionagibsonauthor
Twitter: @FionaGibson
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My thoughts: I really liked Celia, and I love the idea of a plant hospital, as someone who is only able to grow succulents and cacti successfully but loves plants, I need a plant doctor on standby to help me keep the silly things alive.

She’s surrounded by people who love her, despite her deeply rubbish husband in his mouldy caravan. Even though things get a bit chaotic with Amanda crash landing in her spare room, her son home from uni, her mad neighbour bringing cake over and trying to get herself in gear, she’s a good person who deserves to be happy.

The book made me laugh out loud at times and I really liked Enzo and Mathilde too. Geoff the rubbish husband can get in the bin, along with his haggis en croute (yuk). This is feel good fiction at its best.

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

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Lessons in Life – Julie Houston

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The Yorkshire village of Beddingfield is home to the wonderful women of the Allen family: teacher Robyn, wannabe chef Jess, teenage tearaway Sorrel and matriarch Lisa, who holds the whole family together. But underneath her warmth and brilliance, Lisa has a secret – she longs to know who she really is.

In Hudson House, the grand manor on the edge of Beddingfield which is now a care home, lives seventy-something Eloise Howard. With film star beauty but memories fading fast, Eloise is slowly
taking one foot at a time back into her past. Born into a prestigious family, her father the owner of the local Hudson’s Mill, Eloise’s life was destined to be one of finishing schools and balls. But when
her path crossed Junayd Sattar’s, the most striking and kindest man she had ever met, nothing would ever be the same again.

When Lisa begins to spend time at Hudson House and befriends Eloise, the two women form an unbreakable bond. But unbeknownst to them both, they share secrets that, once uncovered, will
change everything they believed about their own lives.

In her unmatched warm and uplifting voice, Julie Houston’s funny and profoundly moving tale of forbidden love, friendship and family ties will stay with you long after you’ve turned the last
page…

Perfect for fans of Jenny Colgan, Fiona Gibson and Cathy Kelly.

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Julie Houston is the author of thirteen bestselling novels set in and around two fictional West Yorkshire villages.

Facebook: @JulieHoustonAuthor
Twitter: @JulieHouston2
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My thoughts: Yay! We’re back in Beddingfield in another fun, heart warming, enjoyable book from Julie Houston. Picking up a short while after the last book, we find Robyn still teaching at the worst school in Yorkshire, and all loved up with former barrister turned hopeful restauranteur Fabian.

Her mum, Lisa, is doing much better now under the care of her doctors and at a bit of a loose end volunteers at the care home where eldest daughter Jess works. There she meets Eloise, who used to live in Hudson House when it was a private home. Lisa is also wondering about looking into her biological parents, even if that means tackling her awful adoptive ones.

With the help of her girls, and a few friends, she starts to piece the past together, but what she uncovers is not what she was expecting at all. A love story across class and racial lines, heartbreak and tragedy, but in piecing it all together, she might just find happiness of her own. As long as none of her daughters have a crisis…

Funny, warm, witty and wise, this is a great book to curl up with of an evening, or out in the sun. Whatever the weather feels like doing really!

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

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Happy is the One – Katie Allen

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Imagine you knew exactly when you were going to die…

Robin Edmund Blake is halfway through his life. Born in 1986, when Halley’s Comet crossed the sky, he is destined to go out with it, when it returns in 2061. Until that day, he can’t die. He has proof. With his future mapped out in minute detail, a lucrative but increasingly dull job in the City of London, and Gemma to share his life with, Robin has a plan to be remembered forever.

But when Robin’s sick father has one accident too many, the plan starts to unravel. Robin must return home to the tiny seaside town of Eastgate, learn to care for the man who never really cared for him, and face the childhood ghosts he fled decades ago.

Desperate to get his life back on schedule, he connects with fellow outsider Astrid. Brutally direct, sharp-witted and a professor at a nearby university, she’s unlike anyone he’s ever met. But Astrid is hiding something and someone from Robin and he’s hiding even more from her.

Katie Allen was a journalist and columnist at Guardian and Observer, starting her career as a Reuters correspondent in Berlin and London. Her warmly funny, immensely moving literary debut novel, Everything Happens for a Reason, was based on her own devastating experience of stillbirth and was a number-one digital bestseller, with wide critical acclaim. Katie grew up in Warwickshire and now lives in South London with her family.

My thoughts: I am the same age as Robin, we’re both 1986 babies, but the comet didn’t cross the sky on my birthday. Robin believes he is destined to live until Halley’s Comet returns in 2061. It’s very specific, and Mark Twain-ish. He’s got spreadsheets and everything.

But then his plans are knocked off course by his father requiring more care than the local council can provide, and he returns home to the small town he couldn’t wait to leave. His best friend Danny is still there, and as the two men reconnect, Robin has a lot to think about.

He also meets Astrid, who teaches German literature at the university, and who he forms a connection with, from rude garden gnomes to Kafka. She’s got a few secrets and doesn’t believe in pre-destination. So it’s not all smooth sailing.

Robin starts asking people what they’d do if they knew exactly when they were going to die. The answers range from the obvious – holiday of a lifetime, splurge, quit my job, to the more insightful. As he explores ideas around death and living, Robin stops keeping his spreadsheets and perhaps finally starts living in the moment.

Moving (there are some very sad bits), thought provoking, challenging but also very readable and enjoyable, this was an interesting and engaging book.

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

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Blog Tour: One More Day of Us – Shari Low

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Would you give up your dreams for love?

1990: In a hot, humid Hong Kong summer, three young singers are loving life, performing to packed crowds every night in a swanky hotel bar. Twenty-three-year-old Scottish songbird, Moira Chiles is living the dream alongside Carina Lloyd and Lisa Dixon. They work hard, play hard, and always stick together… until one day Moira has to make a choice that changes everything.

Fast forward to…

2025: In a wet, chilly, Glasgow summer, Moira has just retired after singing in Glasgow pubs and Caribbean cruise ships for three decades. Now she’s ready for a new adventure – one that takes her to Hong Kong to revisit a world she left behind. Moira hasn’t seen Carina or Lisa for over thirty years, but will an invitation to join her on a holiday of a lifetime rekindle the friendships that changed her
life? Or will stepping back in time expose secrets that could break their hearts?

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Shari Low is the multi-million copy bestselling author of over 30 novels, including the #1 bestsellers One Day with You and One Midnight with You.

Facebook: @sharilowbooks
Twitter: @ShariLow
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My thoughts: I love it when I get to read a new Shari Low book, set in her interconnected world, and this one was a delight. Moira is about to open the drama school her movie star son has named after her, but she’s just got time to squeeze in a trip down memory lane.

At 23 she was singing in a night club in Hong Kong, living the life of an ex-pat, which wasn’t as glamorous as she’d hoped, but she’d found love and more importantly, friendship. And now, years later, she’s hoping those friends will join her in one last hurrah before she takes up teaching.

However, things have gone very differently for the three women who once dressed up as Fleetwood Mac and Cher to entertain crowds, and their very separate paths might not lead back to Hong Kong in quite the way Moira hopes…

Moving between the past and present, we get to see the glory days of Moira, Carina and Lisa, as well as see the more mature, but none the less fun seeking trio as they hunt out their old haunts, and maybe an old flame or two.

Tremendous fun, with lots of heart and plenty of laughs along the way. Moira is very entertaining and the reunited pals get up to all sorts as they relive their youth. A delight.

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

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Marriage Vendetta – Caroline Madden

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A darkly funny feminist debut about a resentful stay-at-home wife and her vindictive marriage therapist

Revenge is in session.

Eliza Sheridan is at her wits’ end with her husband, Richard. Not only did he uproot her and their daughter Mara’s lives for his career, but he also hasn’t honored the one thing he promised before moving to Dublin: that he’d make more time for his wife and daughter.

So when Eliza receives an anonymous photo of Richard with another woman, she’s just about ready to file for divorce. As a last resort, she pays a visit to a marriage therapist, Ms. Early, who Eliza quickly learns is a bit…alternative in her approach. As their sessions unfold, Ms. Early spurs her on to commit a series of vengeful acts against Richard—each more bizarre than the last—all in the name of “re-training” her husband. But when therapy takes a risky turn, suspicions grow and alliances shift… How far is Eliza willing to go to save her marriage?

My thoughts: This was very funny, in a very dark way. Eliza carries out the strange Ms Early’s “therapy” techniques, while also getting sucked into the world of the “Chickadees” as she calls the group of mothers at her daughter’s school.

Her husband Richard is a bit odd, remote and distant, controlling but in a way that she hasn’t even really noticed until someone points it out. She’s obsessed with her daughter’s safety, to a slightly ridiculous degree – literally spending her days in a cafe across from the school playground just in case.

As things progress, instead of growing closer, she and Richard appear to be growing apart, she’s received an anonymous photo of him with another woman and has taken to spying on him, trying to catch him out. Who is Lady Languish in his diary?

Eliza is deeply unhappy, she misses her concert pianist career, even if she’s reluctant to admit it, she’s still reeling from loss, estranged from her family. Ms Early exploits that, manipulating her, much as Richard does. I liked Eliza, she badly needed a good friend – not the yummy mummies at the school, but someone like George (another mum at the school), who despite complaining about her husband and kids, is actually very happy with her life and tells Eliza the truth. 

Richard is pretty awful, gaslighting and controlling Eliza since they met, he dictates where they live, what she does, the money she spends, belittling her in subtle ways, jealous of her talent and previous success.

This isn’t a happy book, it’s a marriage in free fall, and a woman on the edge after all, but it is compelling reading, a clever and enjoyable book. 

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

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Blog Tour: Seven Days in Tokyo – José Daniel Alvior

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Two strangers meet in Manhattan and spend a perfect night together. In Tokyo, they have seven days to see if that one night might mean something more.

Landon’s living alone in Tokyo as a British ‘expat’, Louie’s visiting while he anxiously waits for approval on his US visa. Against the backdrop of a misty Tokyo Spring, their precious time together is spent wandering into side streets and coffee shops, sharing unmade beds and plates of food. But as the days tick by, Louie’s expectations start to overtake reality and he falls too deeply for a life that’s not yet his.

Breathtakingly tender, Seven Days in Tokyo is an astonishing debut about the intricacies of desire and a search for belonging. It is a lyrical, immersive portrait of how some things, however beautiful and profound, are destined to be as short-lived as the cherry blossoms.

My thoughts: This is a lyrical, but rather melancholy book, Louie is in Tokyo for a brief few days, where he sees friends, the cherry blossom and tries to fathom out Landon, the Brit he met in New York, but who never really shares much of himself.

Louie doesn’t want to go back to the Philippines for good, but if his American visa doesn’t clear, he will have to, and his brief relationship with Landon, with its deadline of a week, both captures him and confuses him. Landon pushes him away, treats him so casually, but yet, sleeps soundly in his presence and cooks for him, sharing a single plate.

The relationship Louie has with Tokyo, how he falls for the neighbourhood he stays in, with the things he discovers and learns, the beauty of the place, feels much deeper and on leaving, more heartbreaking than leaving Landon. He might well return to Japan, but not to the man.

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

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Book Review: Damaged Beauty; Joey Superstar – Margaret Gardiner

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Set in 1980s America, Damaged Beauty: Joey Superstar is the story of supermodel Joey Superstar.  But underneath her glossy veneer, Joey hides a traumatic past. Joey sets out to confront the roots of her wildness – but must admit to a youthful act that haunts her. As she moves from addiction to redemption, can she change the course of her life, deal with her dark past and become the superstar she was always destined to be?

Damaged Beauty: Joey Superstar is not just a work of fiction, but a narrative that sheds light on issues that often remain hidden in the shadows. With her unique perspective and rich storytelling, Gardiner addresses these themes in a way that is both engaging and deeply impactful.

The author now and in her modelling days

Margaret Gardiner, in her 60s, became an international cover-girl at 16 and at 18 she was the first woman from Africa to be crowned Miss Universe. She ultimately became the fashion editor at GoldenGlobes.com and works with A-list stars from Angelina Jolie to Zendaya. Her debut novel explores the seedy underbelly of the high-octane world of 1980s fashion modelling. While her book is not autobiographical, it is inspired by the people of the time and events she witnessed. Margaret saw extremes in various forms: the dreaded scales being used to weigh models in the 70s, the coping strategies of other models and friends including drug and alcohol abuse. As a model for almost 50 years, and a fashion editor, Margaret has an insider’s knowledge of the industry. She knows what it is like to be on the red carpet, in the spotlight – and what goes on behind the scenes. With a degree in psychology, and a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion, her debut novel is for every woman who has ever been made to feel less. 

website  (where readers can buy the book) Instagram  

My thoughts: The author’s first-hand knowledge of the modelling industry and the pitfalls some young women sadly fall into shape the story of Joey, who battles with addiction and self-destructive behaviour while working in the notoriously cutthroat world of the supermodels.

Joey leaves a failed marriage and enters the House of Rest, a mental health unit to detox and recover her equilibrium. Checking out, she heads to New York, planning to revive her modelling career and reconnect with some old friends.

Her friend Fran let’s her back into her life, but Joey’s self-destructive behaviour pushes them apart again, and she ruins their friendship. The book chronicles the up and downs of Joey’s life, the traumatic events in her teenage years that led to her running away from home and becoming a model in the first place. The spiralling mental health issues she chooses to self-medicate and how her painting helps soothe her troubled soul.

Joey is a damaged person, she’s not been given much love in her life and struggles with her relationships. Her recovery ebbs and flows as she wrestles with her demons, but she’s resilient and determined to overcome her struggles.

The book is out now from all the usual places and the author has more planned.

I was sent a copy of this book to read and review but all my opinions remain my own.