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.
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.
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.
‘You must forever watch your back,’ I spoke the words clearly, though he could not hear me. ‘Come what may, I shall avenge my brother’s death.’’
Now: When Sarah’s summoned by her godmother to remote Norfolk, she doesn’t want to go. Crossing the bridges where the two rivers meet, said to be haunted by the ghost of a little boy, a large Tudor house looms in front of her. And Sarah’s instantly reminded her of the summer when she last visited. The summer she would like to forget. Which left her unable to ever move forward… Can a person ever recover from the loss of a sibling?
1571: Anne Howard, newly-made countess of Arundel, has also lost a sibling. And been dragged from the relative safety of her home in remote Norfolk to London, by her overbearing, manipulative, new father-in-law Thomas Howard; the very person she suspects of killing her beloved only brother. The Howards have greater secrets than this though. Secrets that will lead Anne to a tragedy that will echo down the ages…
When Sarah finds a mysterious book of poems in a hidden chamber of her godmother’s house, she is drawn into Anne’s story. Perhaps the mystery will take her mind off her own loss? But – as the flood waters begin to rise under the bridges – is Sarah laying ghosts to rest, or bringing truths to the surface that should stay beneath?
A completely haunting, gripping historical novel, perfect for fans of Philippa Gregory, Alison Weir, and Diane Setterfield’s Once Upon a River.
Growing up in Surrey, Clare always dreamed of being a writer. Instead, after gaining a degree in history and an MA in women’s studies she accidentally fell into a career in IT. After spending many years as a project manager in London, she moved to Norfolk for a quieter life and trained as a professional jeweller. Now, finally writing full-time, she lives with her husband and the youngest two of her six children.
My thoughts: The Howards were an incredibly well connected Tudor court family, through the Boleyns they were cousins to Elizabeth I, through the Seymours, linked to her brother Edward VI, three of the cousins had been married to Henry VIII. But they never seemed to be happy with their lot. The Duke of Norfolk, this particular Howard, schemed to take the throne, marry his other cousin Mary Queen of Scots and crown himself king. Not that it worked out.
In this dual narrative story, that’s because of his furious daughter-in-law, who had also been his stepdaughter for a while (honestly, this probably caused some consternation but was pretty typical of the Howard/Seymour/Boleyns) who blames him entirely for the death of her younger brother, in an attempt to seize the family estate. So she spies on him, uncovers his plot and gives cleverly concealed proof to Elizabeth I’s spymaster, Walsingham.
In the present Sarah is cleaning out her godmother’s sprawling Norfolk home and finds a mysterious book of poetry, the poems seem to carry secret messages. When she finds the remains of a rocking horse hidden in the attic, she pieces together the story of George and Anne’s revenge for his tragic murder.
At the same time she must come to terms with her own long held grief and confront the accident that happened the last time she visited her godmother’s home. Unfortunately her ghastly parents pop by for a visit, opening old wounds, but perhaps it’s time to let go of that resentment and pain…
Cleverly written, weaving the lives of the two women around each other, the grief and pain that both Sarah and Anne carry driving them to see their lives in new light and honour their siblings in very different ways.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Natasha Jones has everything – a successful acting career, an Oscar, a wonderful husband and beautiful kids. But what does she have to go through to get there?
From humble beginnings in a small town, Natasha’s path to stardom is paved with setbacks, heartaches and moments of doubt. In the glittering world of fame and fortune, where dreams are spun from starlight and ambition fuels the relentless pursuit of success, one woman’s journey stands as a testament to the resilience of the human spirit. Beneath the facade of glamour lies a story of unwavering determination and unyielding courage.
Where the Light is the Hottest is a gripping tale of ambition, perseverance and the enduring power of hope. Through Natasha’s journey, we are reminded that the road to success is rarely smooth, but for those who dare to chase their dreams, the rewards are beyond measure.
Catherine Yardley is the author of Ember and Where The Light is Hottest. She’s also the editor-in-chief of Frost Magazine and a freelance writer who’s featured in The Bookseller, Mslexia, Metro, Huffpost, Writing Magazine and Writers’ and Artists’ amongst others. She lives in London with her husband and children.
My thoughts: I can’t say I particularly liked Natasha, the protagonist of this book about an actor’s rise to fame via RADA and small parts in plays and on TV, to Oscar winner and successful founder of a woman led production company.
She’s a bit too charmed and at times her life looks a little too easy to be completely won over by her. She marries a handsome lawyer, they have two children, her career isn’t too badly affected. There are some deeply unpleasant moments, on set with co-stars, off set with sleazy producers, but compared to some of the stories that have come out of #MeToo and similar campaigns, Natasha is one of the lucky ones.
I just didn’t find her very likeable as a character, she just didn’t click for me. However I did enjoy the book, I liked her friend who is very aware of the privileged life she enjoys, and always picks up the bill, trying to balance her family wealth with kindness. I liked Natasha’s husband, he seemed like a genuinely nice man.
Maybe it’s because I have some friends who followed the same path as Natasha but weren’t so lucky. Not because they’re not talented, but just because there are hundreds of talented bright young things pouring out of drama schools every year, and auditioning for the same roles. I don’t know.
Maybe she just wasn’t the character whose story I found most interesting, her friend Scarlet definitely struggled more and yet, wasn’t always the loyal and die hard that Natasha wanted her to be – as changeable as humans often are.
Anyway, I don’t want anyone to think this wasn’t a good read, I found it interesting and the relationships were my favourite bit, how even as you become very successful, it’s the people that matter, the ones who’ve been with you all along.
*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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Aggie has reached that “certain age” – in her case, a thousand years or so, give or take a decade. After centuries of bringing kings to their knees, running a small-town cafe isn’t how she imagined her life would pan out. Now, thanks to the machinations of the false vegan from across the road, she risks losing even that.
And just when she thinks things can’t get any worse, along comes her old friend, Babs, in her House-on-chicken-legs, ready to ruffle some feathers with her unique blend of borscht, tough love and alcohol. But everybody has a secret – the grocer who hides his loneliness behind a cheery smile, the neighbour crippled by debt and grief, and the young woman who jumps at her shadow – and before Aggie can help anyone else, she has demons of her own to lay to rest.
Can she confront her past to save her future? What is the ‘Vegan’ really hiding? Will Babs ever let her have the last word?
Raucous, rowdy, and heart-wrenching and heart-warming in equal measures, Babs and Aggie is a magical tale of love, loss and the comfort of a friendship forged through food, laughter and a LOT of slivovica.
Hazel Hitchins is a writer who spends her days having conversations with her imaginary friends, some of which she writes down. She lives in Wales with her normal family, normal(ish) cat, and entirely abnormal laundry pile.
My thoughts: Growing up the one thing I was genuinely terrified of was the Baba Yaga and her house with chicken legs. My mum had read me a story about her and I was terrified that this Eastern European/Russian witch was going to turn up outside my window in the North London suburbs. I don’t know why, but there you go.
However, the Baba Yaga in this story, known as Babs, is a lot less terrifying, although she still has House with its chicken legs, and she is still a powerful witch. She’s come to help her sister in witchery Aggie, aka Black Agnes or Black Annis (from Leicestershire according to English folklore).
Aggie runs a café, dispensing tasty treats in a little shopping arcade, but she’s been struggling with a nasty bully known as The Vegan. His girlfriend owns a health food shop across the way and he likes to menace the other shopkeepers and seems to be focused on Aggie, maybe thinking an older woman would be the weakest.
Unfortunately for him, ancient sorceresses do not like being bullied. And Babs is here to help Aggie remind him of that. And when they discover the extent of his bullying ways, well, he’s done for. These ladies do not take kindly to his sort at all, calling on some old friends to give them some help to get him gone.
It’s a funny, empowering read, a reminder of the power of women, especially older women, of community, and of how we can stand up to bullies (including the one in the White House, my American chums) and get rid of them. I think I would be ok if this Baba Yaga dropped round with some pierogis and slivovica.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
A brilliant, beautiful story from the bestselling author of A Single Act of Kindness
How far would you go for a perfect life?
Back in her troubled school days, kind-hearted Violet always dreamed of a life where she was happy. Now it feels like she’s just about getting there. She has her dream job working with books, and she’s living with her handsome boyfriend, Lenny.
But when her relationship with Lenny falls to pieces and he moves out, Violet, hurt and alone, decides it’s time to really take her happiness in hand. With help from her new flatmate, Bella, she changes her image and takes control at work, ready to show the world that she doesn’t need Lenny in her life. And when she meets magnetic author Casey, she begins to wonder if all she needed all along was a makeover.
But – with Bella – all is not as it seems. And Violet too has a secret, one that dates right back to her childhood, which could change everything…
IF YOU COULD SEE ME NOW is a powerful story about friendship, trust, and taking control of your life while not being afraid to stand out. Perfect for fans of Shari Low, Milly Johnson and Colleen Hoover.
Samantha Tonge lives in Manchester UK with her husband and children. She studied German and French at university and has worked abroad, including a stint at Disneyland Paris. She has travelled widely. Samantha has sold many dozens of short stories to women’s magazines. She is represented by Darley Anderson Agency & Associates. In 2015 her summer novel, Game of Scones, hit #5 in the UK Kindle chart and won the Love Stories Awards Best Romantic Ebook category. In 2020 one of her novels won the RNA’s Jackie Collins Romantic Thriller Award. Currently, Samantha writes uplifting, emotional women’s fiction for Boldwood Books.
My thoughts: This is not the easiest book to read, it is really good but it does deal with some things that might be hard for certain readers like mental illness, eating disorders and anxiety/panic attacks. So just be prepared if any of those are issues you can’t read about comfortably.
I really empathised with Violet, having a relationship end quite suddenly is very hard and when things go wrong at work on top of that it is easy to fall into less than healthy habits and behaviours to cope. Violet is on anti-anxiety meds and has panic attacks (both things I have dealt with) and that doesn’t help either.
She has a really great group of friends and colleagues but pushes them away because she thinks they’re trying to sabotage her, which is a symptom of how unwell she’s becoming but she can’t see it. Besides, new flatmate Bella says she’s doing great, dropping dress sizes and changing up her look is a good thing. Until it isn’t.
Like I said at the beginning, this is a challenging book to read at points but it also is full of hope. Violet’s real friends rally around her, support her, love her even when she’s being quite unpleasant and want to help her get better and move forward. It’s all very hopeful and once they open her eyes to the damage she’s done to herself, she needs them more than ever, to be there for her when she struggles. It’s a wonderful gift, friendship and the book is decidedly hopeful.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Iceland, 1910. In the middle of a severe storm two sisters – Freyja and Gudrun – rescue a mysterious, charismatic man from a shipwreck near their remote farm.
Sixty-five years later, a young woman – Sigga – is spending time with her grandmother when they learn a body has been discovered on a mountainside near Reykjavik, perfectly preserved in ice.
Moving between the turn of the 20th century and the 1970s as a dark mystery is unravelled, The Swell is a spellbinding, beautifully atmospheric read, rich in Icelandic myth.
My thoughts: A powerful and fascinating story of sisters and family. In 1910 sisters Freya and Gudrun live on their father’s smallholding in Northern Iceland, when they rescue a young man from a sinking ship, his presence changes their lives.
Years later, Sigga, a teenager in a changing Iceland, spends time with her grandmother and learns a bit more about her life. She’s a survivor and raised her son, Sigga’s father, alone, after the deaths of her family, never naming his own father. Could the body recently found on a remote mountain near to where she lived, be someone she knew?
As Sigga struggles with her own brother and makes decisions about her own future, we see how the events of 1910 affect Freya and Gudrun, how their guest’s presence changes things in the village forever.
Moving back and forth, the two narratives, weave an inventive and captivating story of siblings and the complicated bonds between them. There is a third narrative of sorts too – a founding tale of Iceland, that weaves through the other stories. Sigga has won a prize for her version of the story, and the sisters refer to the same tale in their time too, adding to the interconnected nature of the 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.
An atmospheric and captivating old-house mystery, layered with romance and secrets.
Secrets lurk in the shadows at Rookswood House…
When Kate goes to look after her estranged sister’s children in their creepy old house, she takes a photo of what seems to be a ghost. Frightened yet intrigued, Kate undertakes to uncover the secrets of the house and the two mysterious sisters who lived there over a hundred years before.
But like the illusions of light and shadow in the sisters’ strange and disturbing Victorian post-mortem photography, Kate discovers that all is not what it seems. Someone – or something – has their own plans for Rookswood House – and for Kate.
With a potential developer circling around, her teenage niece in danger from an unseen force, and new love on the horizon, Kate must unravel the secrets and lies of her own and Rookswood’s past before she loses everything she holds dear.
If you like historical mysteries by Eve Chase, Rachel Burton and Harriet Evans, you’ll love Lauren Westwood.
My thoughts: I liked Kate, I felt awful bit sorry for her, estranged from her only family, but I know that sisters can be very hard work (personal experience has taught me that!) and that things are not always as they appear. When she steps in to take care of her niblings, while her sister gets better, she’s not entirely sure how to deal with teenagers.
Their dishy headteacher on the other hand, she’s intrigued by. And the crumbling old house her sister bought is also fascinating. Rookswood House was home to an earlier pair of sisters – one of whom was a photographer and worked with early special effects to create some unusual images. Victorians did some pretty weird things – like taking photos with their recently deceased loved ones as though they were still alive, but this early science and imagination also created some incredible things.
Ada might be dead, but part of her remains trapped in her home, unable to move on without her sister, lost to her years ago. Kate picks up on this energy and wants to help Ada move on, so Rookswood can too. Luckily headteacher, photographer and amateur historian Matthew does too. As the pair search for answers, they grow closer. Then Kate’s sister comes home and a few secrets and home truths need to be shared.
Pairing Kate’s story with Ada’s is interesting, the different relationships they have with their younger sisters, the struggles they both share as women who haven’t followed the expected paths in life (both unmarried, both working women) despite their different centuries. I really liked that aspect of the story – things don’t change as much as we sometimes would like.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
A disgraced former MP, Teddy Chesterton, is dying. He wants to put things right with his ex-wife, Laura, the only woman he has ever loved, but who left him after believing he deceived her. Teddy finds out that Laura has recently been widowed and invites her to come with him to Venice. To his surprise, she accepts.
They first meet at a gallery where Teddy’s university friend, Paul Merrick works, and Laura is offered the chance to work in London to help stage an exhibition of paintings by Tiepolo. Paul asks Laura to do him a favour and authenticate a sketch by the younger Tiepolo. She is told subsequently that what she believed to be a genuine Tiepolo was a fake, and her reputation in the art world is ruined. She blames Teddy for his part in getting her involved with Paul. They divorce, and Teddy goes to prison for money laundering.
Upon his release, he visits Paul, who explains that he had nothing to do with the sketch being a fake and that it was copied by a forger to whom he had unwittingly sold the original.
In Venice, Teddy gives Laura a pile of papers that prove Paul did not set out to deceive her about the sketch he asked her to authenticate. Teddy knows that he has done what he set out to do, even if everything is just too late.
Apart from three years studying History of Art and Philosophy at University College London, I have lived my entire life in the North West – born in Warrington, lived and worked in Manchester, and fourteen years ago moved to north Cumbria.
After several years of freelance arts journalism, I ran a NW-based public relations agency called Lawson Leah in the 1990s, then worked for various organisations in the construction industry, as CEO of Construction for Merseyside Ltd and then Director of the Civil Engineering Contractors’ Association. I have been a guest lecturer on urban regeneration and chaired a housing association for three years, and now work part-time as a consultant.
I have had articles on a range of topics, including the arts, construction, engineering, housing and economic development published in numerous magazines, as well as poetry and a guidebook to waterway walks in the NW.
My approach to writing tends to involve identifying a problematic situation and then finding a means of resolving it. I derive particular pleasure from finding the right words to achieve that. I was first inspired to write, as a teenager, after reading The Catcher in the Rye, and latterly find inspiration in the daunting novels of Bellow, Nabokov and Pynchon.
My thoughts: Teddy invites his ex-wife Laura to join him on a short trip to Venice, she is the only woman he’s ever loved and he doesn’t blame her for divorcing him when she did.
The story of their relationship is told in turns by them, the story of how a Jewish New Yorker art historian met a Home Counties Tory MP (as he became). It’s bittersweet as you know from the beginning that they aren’t together any more and that Laura moved on. It’s also the story of an art fraud that they were implicated in, one that could have ended very badly.
Teddy is dying, something he keeps from Laura even as they relive their previous trips to Venice and their life together. He leaves her with the proof that the art fraud that destroyed their marriage was not done with malice towards them, that it was in fact the buyer of the piece that perpetrated it and they were merely caught up in. While we’re not given Laura’s reaction, after everything else we as readers know, it would be a shock.
Once you get into the narrative flow, and the way it passes back and forth between Teddy and Laura, between the past and the present, it’s a well written and quite engaging story, Teddy is a bit of a rogue and Laura slightly naive and unworldly, but somehow it worked and they have two adult children together, keeping them always just in each other’s lives long after their marriage ended. A fascinating and thoughtful read.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
The Midhurst Amateur Dramatic Society are putting on a production of Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit, and Tessa has agreed to play a part. But when she suffers a psychotic episode, Ros, a C-list celebrity and new to the community, takes her place.
In this darkly comic tale of psychosis in the Home Counties, the stage is set for a blistering examination of mental illness, how we treat it and why we don’t. While Tessa is sectioned in a secure psychiatric hospital, the relationships in the community unravel, and by the time she’s released, all that we thought we knew, and all of our judgements, are thrown into question.
Dim the lights, turn off your phones, settle in as the curtain rises…
My thoughts: This was really interesting, mental illness is still so misunderstood, and Ros failed to understand that you can love someone even though their illness makes it very hard to live with them at times, and get frustrated by this but not give up on them. Tessa is ill, she’s not doing this on purpose. Many mental health conditions cause people to stop taking their meds, because the illness lies to you. Tessa felt better, so she stopped taking her pills, then she got worse. So she needs the time as an inpatient to get back to herself.
Ros seemed to think that Tessa was gone for good, stepping into her role in Blithe Spirit, and attempting to step into Tessa’s life too. But as Tessa recovered, and even in her worries, her family and community were still with her.
An interesting study of how mental illness can affect people and how a little knowledge might be useful. Sometimes you hear the phrase “everyone has mental health” which is true but not everyone is genuinely mentally ill, although sometimes it feels as if you’re the only sane one, and everyone else could do with a stay in the psych ward.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 