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Today is my stop on the blog tour for What Remains at the End by Alexandra Ford thank you to Kelly at Love Books Tours and Seren Books for inviting me to take part! I have an extract for you today.

Synopsis: In the aftermath of World War II, hundreds of thousands of Yugoslavia’s ethnic Germans – Swabians – were expelled by Tito’s Partisan regime. A further sixty-thousand were killed.

Seventy years later, a young married woman travels with her lover to find the truth behind her grandparents’ flight to America. Alternating between the late 1940s and contemporary Serbia, the woman’s story of a dysfunctional marriage and new relationship is interwoven with her growing knowledge of the nightmare horrors of genocide. As her journey unfolds the woman gains connection to the unidentified lost, to the memory of her grandfather, to the man beside her, and to her grandmother suffering from Alzheimer’s back home in America.

What Remains at the Endconsiders what happens when the truth goes unspoken and asks how it can be recovered – if there is anything left to recover in the face of so many secrets. Alexandra Ford has written an intriguing debut novel of personal relationships played out against some of the very worst results of realpolitik, where human life is subjugated to political and national ideology.

Extract: MARIE KOHLER: GREAT EGG HARBOR BAY, NEW JERSEY: 1998 

A GIRL WENT TO THE BEACH with her grandparents when she was twelve. They rented a house past where the boardwalk ends in Ocean City, New Jersey. Oma spent the whole week inside the house, sitting at the kitchen table with her feet on the cold tile floor. She polished spoons and watched a portable television with a screen the size of a toaster, and Opa sat diagonally across from her. He did crossword puzzles. The girl woke up extra early in the mornings to listen for the sound of his pencil on soft paper. There were half-finished crossword magazines everywhere with no earmarks in the covers or the pages—only occasional paperclips marking where he’d left off. The girl liked to fill sloppy letters in the empty boxes when he wasn’t looking. She loved putting letters in tiny homes. A few hours each day, Opa came outside to stand with the girl on the sand. His legs and arms and face and chest were slathered in so much sunscreen his skin was the colour of whole milk—so white it made his teeth look yellow. The girl ran around the surf without any sunscreen. Her hair turned blonde while Opa wore an oversized safari hat to keep his from falling out. He watched his granddaughter carefully while she plucked sand fleas out of the wash and dropped them in buckets. He would line her seashells out to dry on towels. And when they went back to the house in the afternoon, Oma was waiting to scrub the shells clean with soap. She picked out the bits of sea glass and threw them away, and shrieked when her granddaughter showed off the captive fleas. “They tickle your hands,” the girl said.  She opened her palm to show how the tiny crustacean burrowed its way into her skin.

If you like what you read and you think this book is something you’re interested in you can buy it HERE!

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Today is my stop on the blogtour for Four Minutes to Save a Life by Anna Stuart. Thank you to Tracy at Compulsive Readers for organising it and inviting me to take part & to Orion books and Netgalley for my copy.

Pages: 352

Synopsis: Everyone would spare a moment of kindness for a stranger when they were in trouble… wouldn’t they?

Supermarket delivery driver Charlie enjoys his new job, because he doesn’t have to spend too long with people, who, he’s found, are nothing but trouble. But when he’s assigned the Hope Row street, he realises there are a lot of lonely people out there – and for some, he’s their only interaction.

The supermarket boss tells Charlie he’s a driver, not a social worker – but Charlie’s tough exterior begins to soften, and he can’t help show a little kindness to the Hope Row residents, helping them find their place in the world once more.

But will his helping hand make everything worse?

My Rating:🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: I absolutely adored this book, I literally couldn’t put it down, I fell in love with Charlie right from the beginning, there was just something about him, but you could sense the vulnerability that he was trying so desperately to hide.

On his first day of his new job he meets 3 customers who are all lonely and have hidden secrets, Charlie makes it his mission to bring them all together, to ease their loneliness and deal with their issues together.

Whilst he’s doing this we soon learn that Charlie is keeping his own secrets and has his how problems to deal with.

I don’t want to say too much more because I just can’t give any of the elements of the story away. but it was so heartwarming and just shows that taking just a few minutes out of your day to talk to someone can make such a big difference to someone’s life. & the truth is that most of the time you probably wouldn’t even realise it!

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Today is my stop on the blogtour for Moonlight over Mayfair by Anton Du Beke, thank you to Tracy at Compulsive Readers for organising it & to Zaffre books and Netgalley for my copy.

Pages: 352

Synopsis: London, 1937.

With a new king in place, tensions are rising in London and across Europe. Shaken by the Great Depression and with

talk of another war coming, the Buckingham Hotel is trying to regain some stability.

Upstairs, Vivienne Edgerton is desperate to do something worthwhile with her time and her stepfather’s money, rather than spending it on frivolity and debauchery – but will this land her in even more trouble?

And downstairs, chambermaid Nancy Nettleton is finally starting to feel more settled at the Buckingham, and hopes her brother will soon call London home, too. But she misses the man she loves, demonstration dancer Raymond de Guise, who is noticeably absent from the Grand Ballroom dance floor.

The staff and guests of the Buckingham soon discover that in a hotel full of secrets, there’s always someone listening . . .

My rating: 🐧🐧🐧.5

My Thoughts:

When I agreed to be a part of this blog tour, I hadn’t realised that this book was the latest in a series, This sometimes left me feeling a little bit lost as I didn’t know any of the back stories!

However, that being said it still worked as a standalone I thoroughly enjoyed the story and found myself getting invested in the characters lives quite quickly, especially Vivienne Edgerton and Nancy Nettleton, I needed to know wether what they were planning between them was going to work. but also see how Nancy’s future was going to pan out with Raymond!

Because I haven’t read the other books there isn’t really a lot I can say about character development BUT I loved all of the characters for different reasons.

As much as whilst I was reading the book I wondered what I had missed, and also wished I had read the first, I found by the end that although it was an enjoyable read, it didn’t intrigue me enough to go back and read the first book.

I would recommend this book to any fans of Anton du Beke, and/or ballroom dancing. – it was an interesting read with an underlying mystery

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Today Is my stop on the blog tour for The Foundling by Stacey Halls. Thank you to Tracy at Compulsive Readers for organising it and inviting me to take part and to Zaffre Books and Netgalley for my copy.

Pages: 400

Synopsis: Two women, bound by a child, a nd a secret that will change everything . . .

London, 1754. Six years after leaving her illegitimate daughter Clara at London’s Foundling Hospital, Bess Bright returns to reclaim the child she has never known. Dreading the worst, that Clara has died in care, she is astonished when she is told she has already claimed her. Her life is turned upside down as she tries to find out who has taken her little girl – and why.

Less than a mile from Bess’s lodgings in the city, in a quiet, gloomy townhouse on the edge of London, a young widow has not left the house in a decade. When her close friend – an ambitious young doctor at the Foundling Hospital – persuades her to hire a nursemaid for her daughter, she is hesitant to welcome someone new into her home and her life. But her past is threatening to catch up with her and tear her carefully constructed world apart.

From the bestselling author of The Familiars comes this captivating story of mothers and daughters, class and power, and love against the greatest of odds . . .

My Rating:🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: This book had me gripped from the beginning, what would happen to the baby if she wasn’t accepted into the foundling hospital? – how would Bess get the money together to get her back and how would she cope?

I did feel slightly disappointed at the time of reading that there wasn’t much of this period of time told within the story, within 2 chapters of dropping the baby off 6 years had passed and she was ready to pick her up!

However things weren’t as easy at that for poor Bess, when she went to pick her now 6 year old girl up, she was told that she had already been picked up the day after she was dropped off, and so the search for her begins.

With not much to go on Bess is a little bit lost and confused, will she ever find her daughter again?

I don’t really want to give anymore of the plot points away because not knowing what was going to happen is part of what had me so gripped and made it so I couldn’t put the book down.

The book was so atmospheric that I almost felt like I was there, I felt the warmth of Mrs Callards house, but at the same time imagining how cold Bess’ house was actually made my joints hurt and want to get curled up in the blanket.

I loved all of the characters for different reasons, but I did find myself having a soft spot for Mrs Callard.

This story shows that there is no end to a mother’s love and she will go to the ends of the earth to find her again, but also showed the other side that a mother can sometimes do the wrong thing in order to protect her child.

Everyone should read this book, it really was beautiful.

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Today is my stop on the blogtour for The Woman Downstairs by Elizabeth Carpenter, thank you to Tracy at Compulsive Readers for organising it.

Synopsis: Can you ever really know your neighbours?

When human remains are found in a ground floor flat, the residents of Nelson Heights are shocked to learn that there was a dead body in their building for over three years.

Sarah lives at the flat above and after the remains are found, she feels threatened by a stranger hanging around the building.

Laura has lived in the building for as long as she can remember, caring for her elderly father, though there is more to her story than she is letting on.

As the investigation starts to heat up, and the two women become more involved, it’s clear that someone isn’t telling the truth about what went on all those years ago…

Extract: Prologue

She knocks on the door three times, but there’s no reply.

That’s not unusual; it’s just before six in the morning.

This is the best time to catch people at home – not yet

awake, not at work, not off their faces on drink or drugs

(not generally, anyway).

Her colleague taps the window with the knuckle of

his index finger. There’s a glow from the television in

the gap between the curtains, but there’s no movement

or sound from inside.

‘Think we’d better get Doris to work,’ she says, picking

up the door enforcer.

It takes her two smacks of the battering ram for the

door to give way. There’s resistance from the other side.

He pushes the door harder. It doesn’t budge.

‘Want some help there?’ she says, laughing.

‘Fuck off,’ he says, as a droplet of sweat runs down

his left temple.

She puts both her hands on the door at waist height,

standing on tiptoes as she pushes.

Slowly, it opens.

 

The mountain of mail is almost a third of the height

of the door.

‘Shit,’ he says, treading over the pile. ‘It looks like no

one’s opened this door in years.’

‘Or someone’s made it look like that,’ she says, following

him inside.

‘How would they have done that? Jumped out of the

window afterwards?’

‘Just an idea.’ She shrugs. ‘But we’re not paid for our

ideas, are we?’

‘It’s only council tax arrears,’ he says. ‘It’s not like

we’re searching for drugs.’

She sniffs the air. ‘It’s a bit musty in here . . . a really

weird sweet smell . . . like a rubbish dump.’

‘Weird,’ he says, opening the door to one of the bedrooms.

‘It’s pretty tidy so far.’

There are photos on the hallway wall. Various framed

pictures of the same couple. In most of them, they’re

smiling.

She follows him into the kitchen.

‘Jesus Christ,’ he says, walking over to the sink.

There’s a bowl of unwashed dishes covered in cobwebs

– the mould has decayed into dust. A plastic milk

bottle stands on the counter. He picks it up, giving it a

shake; it sounds as though rocks are inside.

‘What’s the date on the bottle?’ she says, looking

around the tiny kitchen.

The clock has stopped on a quarter to twelve; the

shelves above the fridge are also draped in thick cobwebs.

‘Twenty-fourth of March,’ he says, leaning towards

the window for light. ‘Two thousand and seventeen.’

‘Bloody hell,’ she says. ‘How could this place have

been empty for so long?’

He shrugs.

‘I’m going for a look around.’

She ducks her head around the door to a small bathroom.

There are bottles of shampoo and shower gel on

the window sill. The first bedroom is neat, tidy. The

double bed has a navy throw tucked in with hospital

corners. The second bedroom has shoes and women’s

clothes littered on the floor. A sparkly dress hangs on a

metal coat hanger from the curtain rail.

‘In here!’ he shouts from another room.

She recognises the panic in his voice – they’ve

worked together for three years.

‘Though I don’t think they’re going anywhere,’ he

says as she reaches the doorway to the living room.

Lying on the sofa, facing the television, is a body.

Not much of it is left. The face, arms and hands are little

more than skeletal remains. A shroud of black is stained

on the sofa around it.

She drops to the floor, her hand covering her nose

and her mouth.

‘Is it a man or a woman?’ she says, almost breathless.

She wants to be at home, shower the death from her

skin; breathe in the fresh air and be free from the decay

in this flat.

That’s what the smell was: decay.

‘I don’t know,’ he says quietly. ‘I can’t tell from the

clothes.’ He takes out his phone. ‘Police, please.’

She looks around the living room. On the coffee table

are two wine glasses stained red at the bottom. On the

floor, near the settee – inches from the corpse’s dangling

hand – are three wrapped presents.

She glances at the body again.

Its face is lit by the glow of the snow on the soundless

television.

A face that couldn’t be seen from the gap between

the curtains.

A face that nobody has missed for almost two years.

Today is my stop on the Audio blog tour for Never Look Back by A.L. Gaylin, thank you to Tracy at compulsive readers for organising it and inviting me to take part.

Synopsis: She was the most brutal killer of our time. And she may have been my mother…

When website columnist Robin Diamond is contacted by true crime podcast producer Quentin Garrison, she assumes it’s a business matter. It’s not. Quentin’s podcast, Closure, focuses on a series of murders in the 1970s, committed by teen couple April Cooper and Gabriel LeRoy. It seems that Quentin has reason to believe Robin’s own mother may be intimately connected with the killings.

Robin thinks Quentin’s claim is absurd. But is it? The more she researches the Cooper/LeRoy murders herself, the more disturbed she becomes by what she finds. Living just a few blocks from her, Robin’s beloved parents are the one absolute she’s always been able to rely upon, especially now amid rising doubts about her husband and frequent threats from internet trolls. Robin knows her mother better than anyone.

But then her parents are brutally attacked, and Robin realises she doesn’t know the truth at all…

My Rating 🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts:

This book had me intrigued from the beginning, straight away I wanted to know more about how and why 2 teenagers were going out and killing people in 1976!

The story follows Quentin Garrison who has a true crime podcast and is looking into the murders committed by Gabriel Leroy and April Cooper, it quickly becomes clear that he has a connection to the murders and feels that his mum was the way she was because she never got the closure she needed, so 6 months after her death having been spurred in by both his husband and his best friend he goes out in search of answers.

I was sent a copy of the audiobook by the publishers & the fact that I listened to it rather than physically reading it added to the atmosphere of the story.

There were parts of this book that literally had me on the edge of my seat and I found myself holding my breath a few times.

There are so many twists and turns within the story that just when you think you’ve worked it out another spanner gets thrown in.

I’m not ashamed to admit that this book made me cry on more than one occasion too.

Cannot recommend this book enough to anyone who is a fan of the Mystery Thriller genre, it was a real page turner that is packed full of suspense.

Today is my stop on the Audiobook Blog Tour for Perfect Remains by Helen Fields, thank you to Avon Books UK for asking me to be a part of it and providing me with a copy!

Pages: 417

Synopsis: The first in a nail-shredding new crime series. Fans of M.J. Arlidge and Mo Hayder will be gripped from start to finish. 

On a remote Highland mountain, the body of Elaine Buxton is burning. All that will be left to identify the respected lawyer are her teeth and a fragment of clothing. 

In the concealed back room of a house in Edinburgh, the real Elaine Buxton screams into the darkness… 

Detective Inspector Luc Callanach has barely set foot in his new office when Elaine’s missing persons case is escalated to a murder investigation. Having left behind a promising career at Interpol, he’s eager to prove himself to his new team. But Edinburgh, he discovers, is a long way from Lyon, and Elaine’s killer has covered his tracks with meticulous care. 

It’s not long before another successful woman is abducted from her doorstep, and Callanach finds himself in a race against the clock. Or so he believes … The real fate of the women will prove more twisted than he could have ever imagined. 

Fans of Angela Marson, Mark Billingham and M. J. Aldridge will be gripped by this chilling journey into the mind of a troubled killer

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧.5

My Thoughts: I really enjoyed this book. I love a good police procedural thriller.

This one is lead by Luc Callanach a new DI who had been transferred from the Interpol in France, he’s thrown into his new position at the deep end when a body is found and it is believed to be that of a Woman who had been reported missing.

There was more than one crime being investigated in this book to help introduce more of the characters, but I never felt confused as a reader.

As much as this book was gripping and kept my attention I did feel that it was just average for the genre, but I’m thinking that’s because it’s the first book in a new series and it had a lot of introductions to make and places to set, the story has left me wanting to know more about the characters though and to see where their stories go next so I will definitely be carrying on with the series.

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Thank you to Orion and NetGalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review. – the book is available from the 23rd January and can be bought here!

Pages: 416

Synopsis: Welcome to the café that never sleeps.

Day and night, Stella’s Café opens its doors to the lonely and the lost, the morning people and the night owls. It’s a place where everyone is always welcome, where life can wait at the door.

Meet Hannah and Mona: best friends, waitresses, dreamers. They love working at Stella’s – the different people they meet, the small kindnesses exchanged. But is it time to step outside and make their own way in life?

Come inside and spend twenty-four hours at Stella’s Café, where one day might just be enough to change your life . . .

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: I finished this book in one day, it was a delightful journey that felt like I was being indulged in my second favourite hobby of people watching.

The main story is set over a 24 hour period in 24 hour cafe in London and the bulk of the story is told from the perspectives of our main characters Hannah and Mona, Hannah is a struggling singer and Mona is a professional dancer who is waiting for her big break, they’re the best of friends and both work opposing 12 hour shifts in the 24 hour cafe!

Despite its length of over 400 pages this story was very easy to get lost in, we meet some of the regular customers, each one of them important for their own reasons and there to teach you something different. I really felt like I knew them all by the end of the book but I had a soft spot for Dan!

My favourite parts of the book though were the buts of back story that explains how Hannah and Mona came to be such good friends but also why their friendship is the way it is right now. I also appreciated that we got both sides of the story, it made me feel like I was part of the story and not just a reader.

All in all I would recommend this to fans of the Chick Lit genre and will definitely be picking up more from Libby in the future.

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Hiding in Plain Sight by Eoghan Egan – IRISH CRIME FICTION

Today we are celebrating the release of Hiding in Plain Sight by Eoghan Egan. The official launch is on the 11th of January in Ireland and you are cordially invited. Your invitation below, for now here is more information about the book and the author. 

A vicious serial killer roams the Irish Midlands… with his sights set on the next victim. A successful businessman has found the perfect recipe for getting away with murder. No bodies, no evidence.No evidence, no suspect.High art and low morals collide when graduate Sharona Waters discovers a multi-million euro art scam in play. She delves in, unwittingly putting herself on a direct trajectory with danger as the killer accelerates his murder spree. When Sharona gets drawn into the killer’s orbit, she peels away his public persona and exposes the psychopath underneath. Suddenly, the small town has no hiding place…

 

Eoghan Egan

 

A native of Co. Roscommon, Eoghan studied Computer Programming in college, works in Sales Management & Marketing, but his passion for reading and writing remains.

Eoghan’s work got shortlisted for the 2018 Bridport Short Story Prize, and Listowel’s 2019 Bryan McMahon Short Story Award Competition. His novel was a contender in literary agent David Headley’s opening chapter Pitch Competition, and during March 2019, Eoghan’s entry won Litopia’s Pop-Up Submission.

A graduate of Maynooth University’s Creative Writing Curriculum, and Curtis Brown’s Edit & Pitch Your Novel Course, Eoghan’s novel Hiding in Plain Sight – the first in a crime fiction trilogy based around the Irish Midlands – will be available in paperback and audio on January 11th 2020.

www.eoghanegan.com

 

You are invited! 

Buy Link 

https://amzn.to/39WEjdw

 

Connect with Eoghan Egan

 

Twitter handle: @eoghanegan

www.eoghanegan.com

 

Today is my stop on the blog tour for You, Me and the Movies by Fiona Collins. Thank you to Emma from Damp Pebbles Book Tours for Inviting me to take part and to Transworld books for providing me with my copy.

Pages: 350

Synopsis:Product Description

Mac laughed. ‘Do you want to come for a coffee with me? Maybe a muffin?’

The word ‘muffin’ had never sounded so sexually charged before. I liked it.

‘Ok,’ I said, and I knew exactly where it would lead.

When Arden meets Mac she quickly falls for the handsome, charismatic film lecturer. Their love is the sort you see in movies: dramatic, exciting and all-consuming… and complicated.

A love like theirs could never last.

But years later, whilst visiting a friend in hospital, Arden sees the one face she could never forget. Badly injured, Mac can only make brief references to the classic films they once watched together. Which is all it takes for Arden to remember everything…

Will Arden ever find a movie-worthy love again?

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: I absolutely loved this book, it came out of nowhere and I absolutely fell in love, I’m going to be completely honest and tell you this wasn’t the straight up romance I was expecting BUT, that’s not a bad thing, I loved reading about Arden and Mac’s past relationship and the fun element too it, it was a bit of a taboo relationship, but that factor left me event lore invested because I needed to see where/how it ended.

The fun parts to the past, made the current day relationship even more heartbreaking, because I just wanted everything to work out.

The parts where Arden was re-igniting her university friendships with Rebecca and and Dom were my absolute favourite because it brought to the surface that if the friendship is genuine then it can past regardless of what happens.

James was adorable and I adored him from the minute he was introduced.

This was a really hard book to review because the bits that surprised me were the bits that made this a 5 star read and I’d hate to be the one to spoil this feeling for anyone.

Just please please go out and buy this book!

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