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Today is my stop on the blogtour for The Girl in The White Dress by Paul Barrell, thank you to Anne Cater from Random Things Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part.

Pages: 185

Synopsis: Every Family has secrets. Imagine discovering you were guilty of something you can’t remember.

1974
A young family from London take a trip of a lifetime to the Caribbean aboard the cruise liner Oriana.

2002 The Peak District.
Following the death of his wife, Paul finds a menu card from the Oriana covered in personal messages from the ghosts of his childhood.

One particular address catches his eye , and memories are stirred as he begins to dream about a girl in a white dress.
Gradually with his mothers help he starts to unravel the identity of a long forgotten childhood sweetheart, and the disturbing truth about an incident that took place on the ship. Something that would implicate his whole family, a Pandoras box of lies and deceit.

Paul never saw the girl again after the cruise . Their shared guilt had remained hidden for 30 years. That was until today…

It is a remarkable story about loss and grief, and one persons quest for the truth. Sometimes in life things happen to us that are beyond our control; you don’t need to believe in ghosts or the supernatural, just believe in the Universe and the threads of random chance that link us all together.

My Rating:🐧🐧🐧.5

My Thoughts: when I went into this book, I knew absolutely nothing about it, I just saw the cover and was instantly intrigued.

I wrongly assumed that it was a thriller, but it was more of a mystery and I really enjoyed it, I especially loved the fact that Paul was a single dad to a little girl, as someone who was raised by her dad, along with her brothers I really connected with that part of the story, seeing them adapt to a new situation and witnessing their relationship grow was something beautiful to behold.

The mystery in this story was a real slow burner, which isn’t something I expected with it being a really short book, but it really worked and kept me turning the pages to find out what was going to happen.

It starts when Paul finds a menu from a cruise he went on as a childhood, there’s just something about it, a feeling he gets that he can’t shake, it starts affecting his sleep and when he asks his mum what she remembers she’s totally vague and not much help at all. What did they get up to on the cruise? why does this menu give him a bad feeling?

The story was was so much more than a mystery though, it covers a lot of important topics. loss, grief and also about the importance of moving on.

This is one of those books that I wish I could go back and experience for the first time all over again!

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Today is my stop on the blogtour for Breaker by Annemarie Allan. Thank you to Kelly at Love Books for organising it and inviting me to take part & to Cranachan Publishers for my copy.

Pages: 256

Synopsis: AN ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTERAN UNDERSEA ADVENTURETom and Beth are not happy when they move to North Berwick in Scotland and find themselves facing a rainy, windswept beach, a house that’s falling to pieces and a school full of strangers. But when an oil tanker crashes into the Bass Rock, the small seaside town is shaken to its core and Tom and Beth suddenly find themselves in a race to rescue the local sea life and save their new community from environmental catastrophe…Tom and Beth must save the Firth of Forth from environmental disaster in this timely underwater adventure with community activism at its heart.

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧

My thoughts: for a middlegrade book this story really packs one hell of a punch, we follow Beth and Tom who along with their parents have just moved to Scotland to a place that is rather run down and needs a lot of work, they’re sharing a room whilst the work gets done in the other one and just generally not overly happy about the whole thing, so because of this they spend a lot of time outside of the house, walking the dog and exploring the local area, it’s on one of these walks that they find a POP (people opposing pollution) meeting happening in the town hall. because they have their dog Toby with them they are not actually allowed in and end up going round the back of the building and bumping into Professor Angus MacBlain, he seems like a bit of a strange one inviting the children in to take part in all sorts of fun experiments, but what they don’t realise that meeting him will be the highlight of their move and he will take them on the adventure of a lifetime.

The story involves a tanker that is threatening to leak oil, a quirky professor who will do anything to stop it and twins who unknowingly (to begin with) become his sidekicks, but will they be able to fix the problem in time?

For me the story took a while to get started, it wasn’t until I got to roughly 100 pages that I felt I couldn’t put it down and needed to know what happened, but given that I’m an almost 30 year old woman and definitely not the target audience of the story I kind of expected that.

In no way did it take a giving away from the fun and exciting elements to the story and it definitely got its important message across, its one I will be keeping hold of and reading to my godson when he’s a little bit older.

Thank you Annmarie for writing such a beautiful story and allowing me to review it for you.

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Today is my stop on the blogtour for Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell, thank you to Anne from Random Things Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part.

I am coming at you with a giveaway today, it will be on my Twitter which I will link below! – the prize will be a Hardback copy of this beautiful book. (UK only I’m afraid guys)

Enter the giveaway here!

About Hamnet and Maggie O’Farrell

Synopsis: On a summer’s day in 1596, a young girl in Stratford-upon-Avon takes to her bed with a fever. Her twin brother, Hamnet, searches everywhere for help. Why is nobody at home?

Their mother, Agnes, is over a mile away, in the garden where she grows medicinal herbs. Their father is working in London. Neither parent knows that one of the children will not survive the week.

Hamnet is a novel inspired by the son of a famous playwright. It is a story of the bond between twins, and of a marriage pushed to the brink by grief. It is also the story of a kestrel and its mistress; flea that boards a ship in Alexandria; and a glovemaker’s son who flouts convention in pursuit of the woman he loves. Above all, it is a tender and unforgettable reimagining of a boy whose life has been all but forgotten, but whose name was given to one of the most celebrated plays ever written.

About the Author: Maggie O’Farrell is the author of the Sunday Times no. 1 bestselling memoir I AM, I AM, I AM, and eight novels: AFTER YOU’D GONE, MY LOVER’S LOVER, THE DISTANCE BETWEEN US, which won a Somerset Maugham Award, THE VANISHING ACT OF ESME LENNOX, THE HAND THAT FIRST HELD MINE, which won the 2010 Costa Novel Award, INSTRUCTIONS FOR A HEATWAVE, which was shortlisted for the 2013 Costa Novel Award, THIS MUST BE THE PLACE, which was shortlisted for the 2016 Costa Novel Award, and HAMNET. She lives in Edinburgh.

If this interests you but you can’t enter the giveaway you can buy the book HERE!

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Today is my stop on the blogtour for Mummy Needs Help by Susan Edmunds, thank you to Anne Cater at Random Things Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part. Thank you to One More Chapter and Netgalley for my copy.

Pages: 400

Synopsis: Can you go mad from sleep deprivation? Will my mother ever leave? Will the baby sleep through the night before she turns twenty-one?
Renee is struggling to get to grips with having a totally dependent new-born. Luckily for her there is a Facebook group of new mums who welcome her with open arms and assurances that she might sleep again … one day.

Whilst Renee finds a safe space for questions and confessions, all hubby Nick can see is how easily she seems to be adapting to parenthood: a world in which he still feels adrift. Work is beginning to be the place he feels most at home.

As her daughter reaches the age where she can finally have a solo shower, Renee realises it’s been months since she’s had a baby-free discussion with Nick, let alone a date night. The question remains: will their marriage survive the storm?

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧.5

My thoughts: I will start by saying that as someone who doesn’t have children, I’m not sure I was the target audience for this book, however that being said I still thoroughly enjoyed it I just couldn’t ‘relate’ to the story in the way that parents would be able to. I will say though as I was reading it all I could think was “I have all this to look forward to at some point in the future”

The story’s told from two different perspectives and follows Renee and Nick who have just become parents for the first time & couldn’t have been more excited, they soon learn that it’s nowhere near what they expected it to be & it’s left them feeling separate and like they’re living their own lives.

Renee is going everything for the baby, not letting Nick so anything because she feels it’s her job as the mum which leaves Nick feeling like he’s not wanted/needed. He finds solace and comfort in talking to his work colleagues about how he’s feeling instead of Renee

Nick goes out to work to provide for his family, which leaves Renee feeling like her and her daughter aren’t important too him. She finds comfort and support in a Facebook page for parents that she helps admin instead of talking to her husband.

The whole story is just a load of crossed wires and miscommunication between the two of them and it was brilliant! It had me feeling a whole array of emotions it made me laugh, it made me cringe, it made me shout “why would you do that?!” out loud and some of the silly things the characters did. Some parts even made me sad!

I won’t say much more because I don’t want to give any of the story away! but if this appeals to you please, please go and pick it up!

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Today is my stop on the blog tour for Summer of Reckoning by Marion Brunet, thank you to Anne from Random Things Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part & to Bitter Lemon Press for my copy.

Pages: 276

Synopsis: A psychological thriller set in the Luberon, a French region that evokes holidays in magnificent pool-adorned villas. For those who live there year-round, it often means stifling poverty and boredom. Sixteen-year-old Céline and her sister Jo, fifteen, dream of escaping to somewhere far from their daily routine, far from their surly, alcoholic father and uncaring mother, both struggling to make ends meet. That summer Celine falls pregnant, devastating news that reopens deep family wounds. Those of the mother Severine whose adolescence was destroyed by her early pregnancy and subsequent marriage with Manuel. Those of the father Manuel, grandson of Spanish immigrants, who takes refuge in alcoholism to escape the open disdain of his in-laws. Faced with Celine’s refusal to name the father of her child, Manuel needs a guilty party and Saïd, a friend of the girls from an Arab family, fits Manuel’s bigoted racial stereotype. In the suffocating heat of summer he embarks on a drunken mission of revenge.

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: The synopsis for this says that it’s a psychological thriller but to me it felt like more of a contemporary crime story with a little bit of mystery.

Please don’t see this as a bad thing because I thoroughly enjoyed the book, I read it in one sitting I was gripped and couldn’t put it down!

The story follows 16 year old Celine & it opens with her parents finding out she’s pregnant and being furious with her because she won’t tell them who the father is.

The main crux and mystery of the story is exactly that, there are hints made to who the father is, but with us being introduced to a few male characters and really it could be any of them.

We also follow Celine’s younger sister Johanna who sometimes gets overlooked due to al the attention being on her older sister, but it turns out Jo isn’t as innocent as the family believe.

There are strong themes of violence and racism that are sometimes hard to read but are integral to the story.

I would definitely recommend this book, I feel it covers a lot of important topics in a really impactful way.

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Today is my stop on the blog tour for mine by Clare Empson, thank you to Tracy from Compulsive Readers for organising it and inviting me to take part, and to Orion and Netgalley for my copy.

Pages: 352

Synopsis: ‘Who am I? Why am I here? Why did my mother give me away?’

On the surface, Luke and his girlfriend Hannah seem to have a perfect life. He’s an A&R man, she’s an arts correspondent and they are devoted to their new-born son Samuel.

But beneath the gloss Luke has always felt like an outsider. So when he finds his birth mother Alice, the instant connection with her is a little like falling in love.

When Hannah goes back to work, Luke asks Alice to look after their son. But Alice – fuelled with grief from when her baby was taken from her 27 years ago – starts to fall in love with Samuel. And Luke won’t settle for his mother pushing him aside once again…

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: This book is listed as a psychological thriller, and although it did have the elements of a thriller, to me it seemed like so much more than that, this had me feeling a whole array of emotions that I didn’t know wether I was coming or going.

The book opens with Luke meeting his birth mother Alice for the first time and the story follows them getting to know each other.

The book is told from two perspectives in two different timelines, you get the ‘Then’ chapters which follows Alice from the age of 18 and you get to see how she came to the decision of putting Luke up for adoption. The ‘Now’ chapters are told from Luke’s perspective & you get to see things from his side, how it feels to meet his mother & watch her bond with his young son Samuel.

All seems perfect right? You soon learn that all is not always as it seems on the surface and that everyone has secrets and a past that they can’t always deal with.

There were some twists that I didn’t see coming and others that I predicted, but I couldn’t put this book down and had it finished within a few hours!

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Today is my stop on the blogtour for Coming Up For Air by Sarah Leipciger, thank you to Anne at Random Things tours for organising it and inviting me to take part.

Pages: 320

Synopsis: THREE EXTRAORDINARY LIVES INTERTWINE ACROSS OCEANS AND TIME

On the banks of the River Seine in 1899, a young woman takes her final breath before plunging into the icy water. Although she does not know it, her decision will set in motion an astonishing chain of events. It will lead to 1950s Norway, where a grieving toy-maker is on the cusp of a transformative invention, all the way to present-day Canada where a journalist, battling a terrible disease, risks everything for one last chance to live.

Taking inspiration from a remarkable true story, Coming Up for Air is a bold, richly imagined novel about the transcendent power of storytelling and the immeasurable impact of every human life.

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: this book felt like a beautiful piece of art right from the beginning, the writing flowed really well and just felt magical, we follow 3 different characters all from different times, but the crux of each story is water.

The main story line was that of L’Inconnue de la Seine, the woman who’s face is well known to us all as Resuscitation Annie, the author did a fantastic job of imagining what her life would have been like and turning it into a gorgeous story that left me unable to put the book down.

We also follow a young girl with cystic fibrosis throughout her life, who finds water to be quite relaxing and freeing despite knowing that it could kill her, and a gentleman, who makes plastic toys for a living who endures a horrible tragedy and learns how devastating and life changing water can be.

This isn’t my normal kind of book, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and can’t recommend it enough to everyone.

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Today is my stop on the blog tour for magic unleashed by Devri Walls, thank you to the Write Reads Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part!

synopsis: The dark unknown beckons.

Rune Jenkins has a long-standing infatuation with anything from the supernatural world, and she’s trying to hide it. If she doesn’t, she angers her reckless twin brother Ryker, and starts feeling like her own sanity is slipping. But the closer she gets to Grey Malteer – an old friend who waves his fascination with fantasy like a flag – the harder it becomes to stifle her own interest.

The supernatural suddenly invades their reality when other-worldly creatures come hunting for the three college students. With help from a mysterious savior Rune and Grey escape, but must follow Ryker’s abductors into an alternate dimension, Eon, and discover their true identities. They are Venators, descendants of genetically enhanced protectors and sentries between Eon and Earth. In this world of fae, vampires, werewolves, and wizards, power is abundant and always in flux. Ryker is missing, and Rune and Grey are being set up as pawns in a very dangerous game. The three must find their way through – and out of – Eon, before it consumes them.

My rating;🐧🐧🐧🐧

My thoughts: this story had everything I love in a fantasy novel and more, characters that you instantly fall in love with, as well as characters that I initially hated but grew to like and actually became worried for by the end.

Rune and Ryker and Reina who along with Grey are thrown into a world where all the stories they were told as children have come to life!

Ryker is taken by the ‘villain’ of the story and the whole crux of the story is Rune and Grey trying to work out where is he and what’s happened to him whilst also learning everything they can about their new future as “venators”.

The story was action packed and kept my attention throughout I just NEEDED to know what happened, I cannot wait to dive into the second book when I get chance

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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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