Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for ‘Shape of a Boy: My Family and Other Adventures’ by Kate Wickers.
Thanks to Claire Maxwell for inviting me onto the tour and for my copy of the book for review – as always, opinions are entirely my own.
Continue reading Blog Tour: ‘Shape of a Boy’ by Kate WickersThanks to Kallie at Penguin Michael Joseph for inviting me on the blog tour for ‘The Birdcage’ by Eve Chase. Thanks too for my review copy of the book – as always, opinions are entirely my own.
This book was published by Penguin Michael Joseph on 28th April, 2022 in hardback, ebook and audio formats.
Continue reading Blog Tour: ‘The Birdcage’ by Eve ChaseI’m so sorry it took me so long to read this!
The story is about a young baronet, Robin Blyth, who takes on a mysterious commission within the British government, not realising that he is expected to be the point of liaison between his world and the magical one. Given that he doesn’t know that magical society exists until he meets Edwin Courcey, his sexy-but-hostile magical colleague, this proves a challenge to say the least. Robin and Edwin find themselves thrown together in some dangerous situations…and working to uncover a plot that threatens the very existence of magical society.
Continue reading (Audio)Book Review: ‘A Marvellous Light’ by Freya MarskeI’ve long been a fan of Gytha Lodge’s crime series featuring DCI Jonah Sheens so awaited the latest instalment with enthusiasm.
Thanks to Michael Joseph/NetGalley for my copy in exchange for an honest review.
The story opens with Jonah having a quiet drink in a pub garden when his peace is interrupted by the arrival of a teenage girl, Keely, covered in blood. She tells a story about her sister, Nina, who is missing. Jonah and his team scramble to find Nina, but Keely isn’t in any hurry to give up any clues. Instead, she relates the sisters’ story very much in her own time – and it is up to Jonah and the police team to work out whether Keely is a killer or a victim.
Continue reading Book Review: ‘Little Sister’ by Gytha LodgeWell, this was an absolute delight! Thanks to NetGalley for my chance to read this book ahead of its publication in April 2022.
I’m so glad that I saw this on ‘Between the Covers’ on BBC2 as I wouldn’t have otherwise picked it up – the cover didn’t immediately call out to me that it was a period murder mystery, but it is. And a good one.
Continue reading Book Review: ‘Miss Aldridge Regrets’ by Louise HareWelcome to my stop on the blog tour for ‘Yinka, Where is your Huzband?’ – thanks to Penguin/Viking Books for inviting me on the tour and for my copy of the book for review. As always, opinions are entirely my own.
The story centres on Yinka Oladeji, a thirty-one year old Londoner who is looking for love. Unfortunately, her extended Nigerian family don’t think she has time to waste and are praying for her – while constantly asking the whereabouts of her ‘huzband’. As her friends, cousins and sister get married and start families, Yinka seems to be treading a solitary path. When her cousin Rachel gets engaged, Yinka sets herself a challenge to find a date for the wedding – with some unexpected results.
Continue reading Blog Tour: ‘Yinka, Where is your Huzband?’ by Lizzie Damilola BlackburnThis book is just so tense! Thanks to NetGalley for my copy in exchange for an honest review.
The story focuses on Chloe Davis, the daughter of a man convicted for the abduction and killing of teenage girls in their small town in Louisiana. Twenty years have passed since the murders and Chloe has built a life as a psychologist dealing in trauma in Baton Rouge. Armed with her first-hand experience of traumatic events (and a slight prescription-drug dependency), she is trying to move on with her life and plan her wedding. When teenage girls start to go missing, it seems that Chloe’s past may be catching up with her…
Continue reading Book Review: ‘A Flicker in the Dark’ by Stacy WillinghamGiven that Aitken’s previous books have been mainly focused on travel, it would seem that a Covid lockdown might put a crimp in his style.
Not so.
This book covers the period of national lockdown when Aitken, in his thirties, ended up living with 84-year old widow, Winnie Carter. She needed a helping hand round the house, he needed a cheapish room to rent – but neither of them then needed a period of national shutdown to be announced that threw these unlikely housemates together even more intensely!
Continue reading Book Review: ‘The Marmalade Diaries’ by Ben AitkenWelcome to my stop on the blog tour for ‘Hotel Portofino’ by J P O’Connell.
Thanks to Random Things Tours and Simon and Schuster for inviting me on the tour and for the copy of the the book in exchange for an honest review.
I am so ashamed that this book sat on my NetGalley shelf for so long! I was missing an absolute treat – and I’m not alone in my opinion as this was recently voted as Bert’s Books’ Book of the Year by readers on Twitter.
The story opens in Belfast in 1914, a city still grieving the loss of the Titanic two years before. A scientist, William Crawford Jackson, is working at the Institute and living in the city with his wife, Elizabeth, and three children. Having suffered a personal loss in the Titanic sinking, Elizabeth is reeling with grief and, like many of the city’s residents, open to the new ideas of spiritualism that oppose everything her sceptical husband stands for. When he hears mysterious voices at one of Kathleen Goligher’s seances, he starts on a quest to discover the truth…
Wow, this is such a cleverly-plotted book! As I followed William on his lengthy journey to find answers, I found myself really unsure what to think about spiritualism – and this is an absolute strength of the novel. Are the practitioners genuine conduits between the living and the dead, or are they frauds looking to play on other’s grief? Are those who attend the seances merely naive and silly, or pitiable figures whose emotions are being manipulated? West keeps his cards incredibly close to his chect until the end of the novel. As William vacillated in his own thoughts, I found myself being pulled along and as keen for answers as he was.
The setting of the book is also a triumph – a perfect historical moment for this story and some genuinely creepy settings, from the Goligher’s seance room to the austere halls of the Institute with their sinister statues. There are some truly frightening elements in play here and West uses them well to create a sense of rising horror – the images of the Titanic victims that keep being recalled are horrific and vivid and the sensory description slightly stomach-churning at times.
William Crawford Jackson is a brilliant choice of narrator – he is both based on a real person (as is Kathleen Goligher) and wildly unreliable as he narrates his experiences. His voice is distinctive and strong – he starts out as a kind of mildly comic Edwardian man in the model of Charles Pooter from ‘The Diary of a Nobody’ and then expands into something much more multi-dimensional and complex. Lady Adelia Carter begins as a snobby Lady Bracknell character, yet also takes quite a journey over the course of the novel. The characterisation is pitch-perfect throughout, and there is the added bonus of cameos by Arthur Conan Doyle (himself an advocate of spiritualism) and Harry Houdini (for the history nerds like me!)
I can also imagine this is a gorgeous book to have a physical copy of as there are some beautiful illustrations that start each of the novel’s main sections.
There is so much to love about this novel and I recommend it highly to all lovers of cleverly-plotted and immersive historical fiction. For me, this is up there with the best writing by authors like Sarah Waters, Laura Purcell and Andrew Taylor. I really wish I had read this sooner and it is one that will stay with me for some time to come. The end – when it comes – is surprising and eye-opening and entirely unforeseen. I defy anyone to predict it – although you will have fun trying.
If you’d like a copy of this book (and you do!), please use my affiliate link below. Thanks for supporting my blog with any purchases.
