Tag: contemporary fiction

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: In The Time of Foxes – Jo Lennan*

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‘A fox could be a shape-shifter, a spirit being. It could appear in human form if this suited its purposes; it could come and go as it pleased, play tricks, lead men astray.’

A young filmmaker in Hackney with a fox problem in her garden; an actress dealing with a rival and the fallout of a scandal; an English tutor who gets too close to an oligarch; a freelance journalist on Mars, grappling with his fate.

When everyone is trying to make it, what does it take to survive? These men and women have learned to change shape, to adapt – but can they learn to be wise?

Showing the short story collection at its most entertaining and rewarding, In the Time of Foxes is deeply insightful about the times in which we live. With an exhilarating span of people and places, it introduces Jo Lennan as an irresistible new storyteller.

My thoughts: Foxes in folklore around the world are tricksters and magical, they slip through the world with a wink and a grin. They’re survivors, making homes in places that have changed since humans started building cities and motorways.

In this collection of short stories, foxes slip through gardens and under fences, they’re just out of the corner of the eye, as the humans strive and struggle to fit in, and try to find their place. From London to Sydney, Japan to Mars, each story is a tiny novel in itself, some I wanted to know more, others were fine to leave just as they were.

I really enjoyed these stories, snap shots of lives at one moment in time, people dealing with issues that loomed large in their lives but might seem insignificant to outsiders. Intelligent and well written, this book was a pleasure to read.

*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

Book Blitz: Where Are We Tomorrow? – Tavi Taylor Black

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<p style=”text-align: center;”><strong><img class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-12381″ src=”https://rrbooktoursblog.files.wordpress.com/2021/07/wherearewetomorrow.jpg&#8221; alt=”wherearewetomorrow” width=”851″ height=”315″ /></strong></p>

<strong>I am so happy to share this novel with you all today. It’s called <span style=”color: #003366;”>Where Are We Tomorrow</span> by Tavi Taylor Black. Read on for more details!</strong>

<strong>Copies of Where Are We Tomorrow are available in exchange for honest reviews until October. Book reviewers can request a copy <span style=”color: #003366;”><a style=”color: #003366;” href=”https://rrbooktours.com/contact-shannon-r-r-book-tours/&#8221; target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>here</a> </span>or in comments!</strong>

<strong><img class=”size-full wp-image-12299 alignleft” src=”https://rrbooktoursblog.files.wordpress.com/2021/06/56929822._sy475_.jpg&#8221; alt=”56929822._SY475_” width=”317″ height=”475″ />Where We Are Tomorrow</strong>

<strong>Publication Date:</strong> May 31st, 2021

<strong>Genre:</strong> Contemporary Fiction/ Women’s Fiction

<strong>Publisher:</strong> TouchPoint Press

Alex Evans, a thirty-six year old touring electrician, discovers through an accidental pregnancy and then the pain of miscarriage that she truly wants a family. But to attempt another pregnancy, she’ll have to change both her career and her relationship; her partner Connor, ten years her senior, isn’t prepared to become a father again.

When Alex is implicated in an accident involving the female pop star she works for, she and three other women on tour rent a house together in Tuscany. While the tour regroups, confessions are made, secrets are spilled: the guitar tech conceals a forbidden love, the production assistant’s ambition knows no limits, and the personal assistant battles mental issues.

Through arguments and accidents, combating drug use and religion, the women help each other look back on the choices they’ve made, eventually buoying each other, offering up strength to face tough decisions ahead.

<strong>TRIGGER WARNING: MISCARRIAGE/ ADDICTION/ GRIEF </strong>

<strong>Add to<span style=”color: #003366;”> <a style=”color: #003366;” href=”https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56929822-where-are-we-tomorrow&#8221; target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Goodreads</a></span></strong>

<p style=”text-align: center;”><strong>Excerpt</strong></p>

<blockquote>

<p style=”text-align: left;”><em>Inside the concrete arena, programmed lights whirred and spun in rhythm; eleven thousand fans watched, mesmerized, as vibrant magenta and violet beams sliced through midnight black. On stage, the band regurgitated the same set as the night before, and the night before that. They’d performed the set in Mexico City and Guadalajara. As far south as Santiago and Lima. The road crew for Sadie Estrada’s Home Remedy tour knew each dip in volume, each drop in the beat. They knew exactly, down to the second, how much time it required to step outside and suck down a Marlboro. These time-zone travelers planned bathroom breaks by the songs’ measures; no one missed a cue to mute the stage mics, to hand out room-temp bottled water for set breaks, to pull up house lights.</em></p>

<p style=”text-align: left;”><em>Behind heavy velvet curtains, separated from the frenzied pace of the show, Alex unscrewed the cover of a moving light to expose the core: circuit boards and capacitors, motors connected to color wheels. Deep bass, feedback, and the fevered pitch of collective voices penetrated the curtain, the familiar, almost comforting reverberations of life on the road. Alex continued her diagnosis, removing the light harness as a mother removes a soiled diaper— routinely, with a touch of tenderness. While she located and replaced the broken part, she kept an ear to the music, alert to the final measure of the set, ready to repack her multi-wheeled toolbox, move on to the next city, set up again.</em></p>

<p style=”text-align: left;”><em>Alex ran the light through all its functions, testing and retesting once she’d replaced the gobo wheel. The body of the light panned and tilted, working fine. A small victory.</em></p>

<p style=”text-align: left;”><em>“Sure you know what you’re doing, little lady?” Alex turned at the familiar voice of the tour’s production manager.</em></p>

<p style=”text-align: left;”><em>“Funny,” she said. “Very original. For that, you get to help me put it away.” Alex waited for another barb, one about her not being able to lift the seventy pounds by herself, but Joe simply helped her flip and crate the unit, a harder task for him at 5’2” than it was for Alex, a good five inches taller.</em></p>

<p style=”text-align: left;”><em>The arena crackled in anticipation of the show’s climax. Thousands of voices swelled and surged, a unified congregation. The body of the moving light settled into the carved Styrofoam, and Alex tucked its tail inside the handle. As she slammed the case shut, Joe’s laminate got caught inside the box, and he was jerked down by the lanyard around his neck. He freed the latches and yanked it clear, smoothing the wrinkles from the photo of his two young children, a wallet-sized clipping he’d taped behind his backstage pass. Joe caught Alex eyeing the photo.</em></p>

<p style=”text-align: left;”><em>“When are you gonna give in and pop out a few yourself?” Joe asked.</em></p>

<p style=”text-align: left;”><em>Alex breathed slowly, letting a brief sadness settle into her body, though her face wore a practiced, blank expression. She gestured into the smothering dark, into the roar of the crowd and sweat-filled air. “And give up all this?”</em></p>

</blockquote>

<strong>Available on <span style=”color: #003366;”><a style=”color: #003366;” href=”https://www.amazon.com/dp/195281636X/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&amp;keywords=Where+are+we+tomorrow%3F+Tavi+Black&amp;qid=1612297720&amp;sr=8-3&#8243; target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Amazon</a></span>, <span style=”color: #003366;”><a style=”color: #003366;” href=”https://bookshop.org/books/where-are-we-tomorrow/9781952816369&#8243; target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Bookshop</a></span> and <span style=”color: #003366;”><a style=”color: #003366;” href=”https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781952816369&#8243; target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>IndieBound</a></span>!</strong>

<strong>About the Author</strong>

<img class=”alignnone  wp-image-12296″ src=”https://rrbooktoursblog.files.wordpress.com/2021/06/igp6937.png&#8221; alt=”_IGP6937″ width=”218″ height=”273″ />

<b>Tavi Black</b> lives on an island near Seattle where she designs sets for the ballet, works as the tour manager for a musical mantra group, and has founded an anti-domestic violence non-profit organization. Before earning an MFA from Lesley University, Tavi spent 14 years touring with rock bands. Several of Tavi’s short stories have been shortlisted for prizes, including Aesthetica Magazine’s Competition, and the Donald Barthelme Prize for Short Prose.

<p style=”text-align: center;”><span style=”color: #003366;”><strong><a style=”color: #003366;” href=”http://www.taviblack.com/&#8221; target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Tavi Taylor Black</a> | <a style=”color: #003366;” href=”https://www.instagram.com/tavitaylorblack/&#8221; target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Instagram</a> | <a style=”color: #003366;” href=”https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/tavi-taylor-black/where-are-we-tomorrow/&#8221; target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Kirkus Reviews</a> | </strong><strong><a style=”color: #003366;” href=”https://indiereader.com/book_review/where-are-we-tomorrow/#review&#8221; target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Indie Reader</a></strong></span></p>

<strong>Book Blitz Organized By: </strong>

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<span style=”color: #333333;”><strong><a style=”color: #333333;” href=”http://rrbooktours.com&#8221; target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>R&amp;R Book Tours</a></strong></span>

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Couple – Helly Acton*

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Millie is a perfectionist. She’s happy, she’s successful – and, with a great support network of friends and family (and a very grumpy cat) around her, she’s never lonely. She has her dream job at a big tech firm and is on track to become the company’s youngest ever Innovation Director. The last thing she needs is romance messing up her perfectly organised world.
Besides, normal people just don’t have romantic relationships. Everyone knows that being in a couple is a bit . . . well, odd. Sure, everybody has that one coupled-up friend who messes up the numbers at dinner parties, but it’s a bit eccentric. You know, like having a pet snake or living off the grid. Why rely on another person for your own happiness? Why risk the humiliation of unrequited love or the agony of a break-up when you can do everything yourself? No, Millie is perfectly happy with her conventional single life.
So when Millie lands a new project at work, launching a pill that stops you falling in love, it seems like the opportunity of a lifetime. That is, until she starts working with Ben. He’s charming and funny, and Millie feels an instant connection with him. Is this the spark that science and society are trying to suppress?

Will Millie sacrifice everything she believes in for love?

My thoughts: in a world where being single is normal, why would anyone want to be in a couple?

This was a really interesting and thought provoking book. I will admit there are days when I think about what my life would be like if I was single – different definitely, tidier and quieter. I married a very loud, messy man. I can work out what he’s been doing by the trail of chaos he leaves. And I know that my single friends get fed up of being asked when they’re going to meet someone, of being left out of invites because everyone else is in a pair.

Flipping that entirely on its head is really clever and really pushes you to think about why things are the way they are, about why society puts coupledom above any other relationship. Especially as you get older. Especially if you’re female.

I liked Millie and Ben, I was rooting for them, he seemed kind and funny and messy and she needed that in her planned out since she was 16 life. I loved her friends too – June and Al and Ruth. I loved that they were all so supportive and fun. That’s how it should be, your friends are just as important as any romantic attachment.

I didn’t like the word “slide”, after a while I began to react to its use the way some people do to the word “moist”, it made me cringe, hard. I needed Mandy Patinkin as Inigo Montoya saying “I do not think that word means what you think it means” to comfort me.***

However, please don’t think any less of me for that, and the book is a lot of fun. And being single is not a crime, neither is being in a couple or even a throuple. As long as you’re happy, I think that’s what the book wants us to remember – that being happy is the key.

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

***please tell me you’ve seen The Princess Bride? One of the greatest movies of all time. The book’s good too.

blog tour, books

Spotlight: Everyday Magic – Charlie Laidlaw

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EverdayMagic

I am so thrilled to share Charlie Laidlaw’s latest novel with you all, Everyday Magic! Read on for an excerpt and a chance to win a signed edition of the book!

Everyday Magic Front cover FINAL

Everyday Magic

Publication Date: May 26th, 2021

Genre: Literary fiction/ Contemporary Fiction/ Humour

Publisher: Ringwood Publishing

Carole Gunn leads an unfulfilled life and knows it.  She’s married to someone who may, or may not, be in New York on business and, to make things worse, the family’s deaf cat has been run over by an electric car.

But something has been changing in Carole’s mind.  She’s decided to revisit places that hold special significance for her.  She wants to better understand herself, and whether the person she is now is simply an older version of the person she once was.

 Instead, she’s taken on an unlikely journey to confront her past, present and future.

Everyday Magic is an uplifting book filled with humour and poignancy, and reminds us that, while our pasts make us who we are, we can always change the course of our futures.

Add to Goodreads

Chapter One

When Carole was little, she found a magic clearing in the woods near her home.  She had been exploring, surrounded by oak, birch, and hazel trees, picking her way carefully between bramble and nettle.  There was birdsong, squirrels darting across branches, and patterns of sunlight on the woodland floor.  She had been looking for bilberries, and her hands were full of small black berries.  She stopped to sit on an outcrop of rock by a wide stream that, in winter, could quickly become a torrent of brown water.  In summer, it was comforting; in winter, treacherous.  She ate her bilberries, the stream cascading over a small waterfall; the sound of water in her ears.  It was summer and the stream bubbled crystal clear.  The woodland rose in folds from the stream, and she climbed steadily upwards.  Here, the trees crammed in on her; it was darker.  When she looked up, she could only see sunlight trapped on leaves far above.  It was a part of the old woodland that she’d never been to before, but she pushed on, feeling that she was on an adventure and might suddenly come across a gingerbread house or wizard’s cottage. 

At the top of the hill she found herself in a small clearing.  It was only a few yards across, framed with oak trees, and perfectly round.  Sunlight from directly above made the clearing warm, and she stood at its centre, wondering if she was the first person to have ever discovered it.  Each of the oak trees around the clearing seemed precisely set, each one a perfect distance from the next, and she walked around them, touching each one, wondering if someone had planted the oak trees, or if the clearing really was a magic place.  She still sometimes believed in magic.  Then she stood again at its centre, wondering at its symmetry and why a long-dead sorcerer might have planted the oak trees.  Then, realising that the sorcerer might not be dead, and that she had walked uninvited into his private domain, she hurried away, not sure whether to be frightened or excited.  It was a place she often went back to that summer, and on following summers, sometimes alone and sometimes with her little brother.  They would sit in the centre of the woodland circle, eating bilberries, hoping to meet the sorcerer who had built the clearing.  She wasn’t frightened of him anymore; the clearing was too peaceful to have been made by a bad wizard.  It was their secret place, but mainly Carole’s, because she had found it.  It was a comforting place: it was somewhere she would go if she was sad or angry about something, because the woodland circle and its shifting half-shadows offered calm and new perspectives.  She could almost hear the trees speak to her, the wind in their branches making the leaves whisper, but so softly that she couldn’t understand.  She would listen, eyes closed, the leaves rustling, but she never understood what they were saying.  The circle of trees stood solid and immovable, dark and stoic, old and wise, and each one the colour of stone.

Available Here and on Amazon!

About the Author

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Charlie Laidlaw lives in East Lothian, one of the main settings for Everyday Magic. He has four other published novels: Being Alert!, The Space Between Time, The Things We Learn When We’re Dead and Love Potions and Other Calamities. Previously a journalist and defence intelligence analyst, Charlie now teaches Creative Writing in addition to his writing career.

Charlie Laidlaw | Facebook  | Twitter

International Giveaway: Win one of two signed editions of Everyday Magic!

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EverdayMagic

Book Tour Schedule

June 14th

Reads & Reels (Review) http://readsandreels.com

@esmeralda_lagiggles18 (Review) https://www.instagram.com/esmeralda_lagiggles18/

Phantom of the Library (Review) https://phantomofthelibrary.com/

Books, Ramblings & Tea (Spotlight) https://booksramblingsandtea.com/

June 15th

@swimming.in.books (Review) https://www.instagram.com/swimming.in.books/

Jessica Belmont (Review) https://jessicabelmont.wordpress.com/

Books Teacup & Reviews (Review)  https://booksteacupreviews.com/

Rambling Mads (Spotlight) http://ramblingmads.com

June 16th

Nesie’s Place (Spotlight) https://nesiesplace.wordpress.com

@geauxgetlit (Review) https://www.instagram.com/geauxgetlit/

@greeneyedgirl0704 (Review) https://www.instagram.com/greeneyedgirl0704/

@m_books.dogs (Review) https://www.instagram.com/m_books.dogs/

@reads.by.the.sea (Review) https://www.instagram.com/reads.by.the.sea/

June 17th

B is for Book Review (Interview) https://bforbookreview.wordpress.com

The Librocubicularista (Review) https://thelibrocubicularista.wordpress.com/

@theculture.hunter (Review) https://www.instagram.com/theculture.hunter/

Banshee Irish Horror Blog (Review) www.bansheeirishhorrorblog.com

June 18th

The Photographer’s Way (Review) http://www.thephotographersway.org

@jypsylynn (Review) https://www.instagram.com/jypsylynn/

@jenniferclaywood (Review) https://www.instagram.com/jenniferclaywood/

Liliyana Shadowlyn (Review)  https://lshadowlynauthor.com/

@jeyreads (Review) https://www.instagram.com/jeyreads/

The Magic of Wor(l)ds (Review) http://themagicofworlds.wordpress.com

Book Tour Organized By:

R&R Book Tours

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Blog Tour: A Family Affair – Julie Houston*

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Read my review of A Village Vacancy

Joining the family business was never going to be easy…
Frankie Piccione is done running away from her responsibilities, well for now anyway. Having escaped Westenbury after suffering a shattered heart, it’s time to take up her place on the family board. Piccione’s Pickles and Preserves needs Frankie. Frankie knows she can make the business work. But with her brother Luca and the new, rather attractive, Cameron Mancini watching her every move, she’s going to have to come up with something special to get them off her back and
recognising she belongs on the board just as much as they do.
With the help of her Aunt Pam and best friend, Daisy, Frankie is thriving with her new sense of purpose. Until someone from her past walks right back into it…
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Julie lives in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire where her novels are set, and her only claims to fame are that she teaches part-time at ‘Bridget Jones’ author Helen Fielding’s old junior school and her neighbour is ‘Chocolat’ author, Joanne Harris. After University, where she studied Education and English Literature, she taught for many years as a junior school teacher. As a newly qualified
teacher, broke and paying off her first mortgage, she would spend every long summer holiday working on different Kibbutzim in Israel. After teaching for a few years she decided to go to New Zealand to work and taught in Auckland for a year before coming back to this country. She now
teaches just two days a week, and still loves the buzz of teaching junior-aged children. She has been a magistrate for the past nineteen years, and, when not distracted by Ebay, Twitter and Ancestry, spends much of her time writing. Julie is married, has a twenty-four-year-old son and twenty-one- year-old daughter and a ridiculous Cockerpoo called Lincoln. She runs and swims because she’s
been told it’s good for her, but would really prefer a glass of wine, a sun lounger and a jolly good book – preferably with Matthew Mcconaughay in attendance.

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My thoughts: I love this series of books, all set in the fictional village of Westenbury, they’re comforting and funny, and this latest is no exception. Frankie’s heart was broken when she left but she’s come back to take up her responsibilities at the family firm.

The most important relationships in this book, as with the series as a whole, is between the female characters. Their bonds and support keep the plot moving as they laugh and cry and hold each other up. In Frankie’s case it’s her best friend Daisy and Aunt Pam, and these women help her find her confidence and assert herself in the face of male opposition. As always, there’s life lessons to learn and some bumps in the road to happily ever after. Another hugely enjoyable read.

*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 Secrets of Thistle Cottage – Kerry Barrett*

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The truth can be dangerous in the wrong hands…

1661, North Berwick
One stormy night, healer Honor Seton and her daughter Alice are summoned to save the town lord’s wife – but they’re too late. A vengeful crusade against the Seton women leads to whispers of witchcraft all over town. Honor hopes her connections can protect them from unproven rumours and dangerous accusations – but is the truth finally catching up with them?

Present day, North Berwick
After an explosive scandal lands her husband in prison, Tess Blyth flees Edinburgh to start afresh in Thistle Cottage. As she hides from the media’s unforgiving glare, Tess is intrigued by the shadowy stories of witchcraft surrounding the women who lived in the cottage centuries ago. But she quickly discovers modern-day witch hunts can be just as vicious: someone in town knows her secret – and they won’t let Tess forget it…

My thoughts: Drawing on historical records of witch hunts in Scotland during the 1600s, moving between the former and current residents of a small cottage, and exploring the idea of the modern witch hunt as well as the historical ones, this is a clever and compelling story.

In the 1660s Honor and Alice live quiet lives, offering tinctures and basic medical aid to their neighbours, supported by the financial decisions Honor’s late husband made and the land he purchased. They don’t cause trouble but it comes anyway, in the form of a hothead laird, whose wife Honor cannot save from a fever.

In the 2020s Tess and Jem have moved to the same small cottage to escape from press attention over Tess’ ex-husband’s terrible crimes. But someone knows who they are and is harassing them with disturbing graffiti and weird threats left outside their door.

Both plotlines are interesting and thought provoking, there’s a project in Scotland seeking official exonorations for the women and men accused and killed for being witches, and it’s simple, ordinary people like Honor and Alice who suffered but in their case there’s hope for redemption.

Similarly Tess and Jem are targeted for something they didn’t do, something they’ve moved away from their home and friends to try to avoid the limelight. Neither of them is guilty of the crimes they’re accused of but someone wants them to pay a price.

I thought this was really well written and drew parallels in a smart and precise way, it left me with plenty to chew over when it was finished as well as being enjoyable and satisfying a read.

*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: Both of You – Adele Parks*

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Leigh Fletcher: happily married stepmom to two gorgeous boys goes missing on Monday. Her husband, Mark, says he knows nothing of her whereabouts. She went to work and just never came home. Their family is shattered.

Kai Janssen: married to wealthy Dutch businessman Daan and vanishes the same week. Kai left their luxurious penthouse and glamorous world without a backward glance. She seemingly evaporated into thin air. Daan is distraught.

Detective Clements knows that people disappear all the time—far too frequently. Most run away from things, some run toward, others are taken but find their way back. A sad few never return. These two women are from very different worlds. Their disappearances are unlikely to be connected. And yet, at a gut level, the detective believes they might be.

How could these women walk away from their families, husbands and homes willingly? Clements is determined to unearth the truth, no matter how shocking and devastating it may be.

My thoughts: I love Adele Parks’ books and this was no exception. What starts off as a simple crime thriller about two missing women becomes so much more twisted and shocking. I had absolutely no idea who the villain of the piece was right up till the reveal.

Leigh and Kai are very different women, keeping massive secrets. Their husbands, children and friends have no idea about the real them. None whatsoever. Which makes their disappearance and the secrets that are uncovered as the police investigate all the more stunning.

Set just before lockdown last year, Parks weaves the real world events into the narrative, the fears and distractions that could mean the police stop looking as other things rise to the top of the agenda, the shift to being at home all day distracting from the worries about the missing women, how people seem less inclined to report suspected sightings as they prepare for lockdown. Which is all very cleverly done and grounds the story in the real world with a deft touch.

As always the writing is excellent, the characters feel genuine and the plot grips tight. My jaw dropped a couple of times and I genuinely followed every red herring. Very enjoyable.

*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 Summer Seekers – Sarah Morgan*

ramblingmads

Read my review of One More For Christmas

Get swept into a summer of sunshine, soul-searching and shameless matchmaking with this delightfully big-hearted road trip adventure!

Kathleen is eighty years old. After she has a run-in with an intruder, her daughter wants her to move into a residential home. But she’s not having any of it. What she craves – what she needs-is adventure.

Liza is drowning under the daily stress of family life. The last thing she needs is her mother jetting off on a wild holiday, making Liza long for a solo summer of her own.

Martha is having a quarter-life crisis. Unemployed, unloved and uninspired, she just can’t get her life together. But she knows something has to change.

When Martha sees Kathleen’s advertisement for a driver and companion to share an epic road trip across America with, she decides this job might be the answer to her prayers. She’s not the world’s best driver, but anything has to be better than living with her parents. And travelling with a stranger? No problem. Anyway, how much trouble can one eighty-year-old woman be?

As these women embark on the journey of a lifetime, they all discover it’s never too late to start over.

My thoughts: this was a fun and delightful read about finding yourself at any age, whether you’re in your 80s like Kathleen, 20s like Martha or somewhere in between like Liza.

The road trip that Kathleen and Martha embark on brings in an element of adventure, while Liza has some realisations in her childhood home. There’s also a bit of romance along the way. Old relationships are rekindled and new ones begun.

Sarah Morgan’s books are always enjoyable, mixing interesting characters and a lot of heart and this is no exception. Really comforting reading.

*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: Not Exactly Chaucer – Wendy Mason*

ramblingmads

Author of this modern take on Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales loved the stories at school because they were ‘naughty’.

Author Wendy Mason took her inspiration for her novel Not Exactly Chaucer from Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. She first fell in love with the stories at school, ‘because they were naughty’. Wendy adds: ‘Needless to say, my friends at school and I were delighted by these risqué stories of medieval naughtiness. However, over time I realised that Chaucer had so much more to offer, for example, his ability to describe: colourful characters; the complex nature of human emotions and weaknesses, and the situations that arise because of human traits and relationships.’

Wendy also says: ‘I wrote Not Exactly Chaucer because I thought it would be interesting to base my novel on the concept of The Canterbury Tales. My husband and I had recently returned from a three-week tour of Australia, and I decided to use our experiences as a backdrop for the novel. Apart from providing my travellers with a stunning setting, it also allowed me to relive my holiday. ‘Some of the stories in my book are based on personal experience, for example, Professor Harold Reeve’s Tale is based on a true incident from my husband Harold’s childhood. The Ku Klux Klan visited his family home in Arkansas, inexactly the way described in the story – including the burning cross.’

Wendy was born in Queniborough, Leicestershire and enjoyed her careers as a hospital administrator, lecturer and finally as a capital manager for schools in Cornwall. She now lives in Falmouth with her husband, Harold, close to their daughter Rachael, Son-in-law Dan and two grandsons, Hector (5) and Arthur (3). 

She took early retirement in 2011 (she emphasises early) and decided to study creative writing. Her first novel, St Francis – An Instrument of Peace, was published after eight years of research and perfecting her writing skills.Her latest novel – Not Exactly Chaucer – is based on the concept of Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales with a contemporary twist. The setting is a three-week escorted tour of Australia. Bailey, the tour manager, struggles to discover who is a threat to her career, while the 21 travellers each tell their stories, form new relationships and discover things about themselves that will change their lives for ever.

My thoughts: it’s been a while since I read Chaucer’s tales, wading through Middle English takes time, but this modern update inspired by Chaucer’s pilgrims was a fun and funny take on the silly and rude originals.

Set in Australia, not Kent, and narrated by a collection of interesting holiday makers, this was a very entertaining and enjoyable read. I liked Bailey and enjoyed the fact she was investigating her tour group for a corporate spy as well as encouraging the group to bond and tell their tales.

*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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Book Blitz: Everyday Magic – Charlie Laidlaw

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Great news! If you pre-order a copy of Everyday Magic by Charlie Laidlaw and you will receive a signed edition! But you have to order before May 26th!

Everyday Magic Front cover FINALEveryday Magic

Expected Publication Date: May 26th, 2021

Genre: Literary fiction/ Contemporary Fiction/ Humour

Publisher: Ringwood Publishing

Carole Gunn leads an unfulfilled life and knows it.  She’s married to someone who may, or may not, be in New York on business and, to make things worse, the family’s deaf cat has been run over by an electric car.

But something has been changing in Carole’s mind.  She’s decided to revisit places that hold special significance for her.  She wants to better understand herself, and whether the person she is now is simply an older version of the person she once was.

 Instead, she’s taken on an unlikely journey to confront her past, present and future.

Everyday Magic is an uplifting book filled with humour and poignancy, and reminds us that, while our pasts make us who we are, we can always change the course of our futures.

Pre-Order HERE!

About the Author

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Charlie Laidlaw lives in East Lothian, one of the main settings for Everyday Magic. He has four other published novels: Being Alert!, The Space Between Time, The Things We Learn When We’re Dead and Love Potions and Other Calamities. Previously a journalist and defence intelligence analyst, Charlie now teaches Creative Writing in addition to his writing career.

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