Monthly Archives: February 2022

CARIADS’ CHOICE: FEBRUARY 2022 BOOK REVIEWS

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Paula Brackston’s The Little Shop of Found Things reviewed by Georgia Hill

Paula Brackston’s The Little Shop of Found Things appealed straightaway. Xanthe and her mother escape a troubled past to open an antiques shop. Xanthe is able to ‘read’ objects and a silver chatelaine reaches out to her with its story. She is compelled to travel back in time to 1605 in order to solve a cruel injustice. Paula throws a lot into the book: time travel, psychometry, antiques knowledge, ley lines, some gentle romance and a truly terrifying ghost. The depiction of the turbulent early seventeenth century is gritty and unflinching in all its misogynistic, violent glory and some parts of the book aren’t for the faint-hearted. The historical detail is superb, and the writing is richly detailed. I galloped through it. Recommended, especially if you are interested in early seventeenth century history.

 

Amanda James’ A Secret Gift reviewed by Jane Cable

Now who can resist a bit of Cornish magic? I certainly can’t but when Amanda James’ heroine, Joy, is first given the secret gift she really thinks she can. But meeting a young homeless man on the verge of suicide changes that, and begins to change Joy too.

This is a colourful book with an engaging cast of characters and a Cornwall I recognise. And as a resident of the county, that is a rare thing to find. It’s a place where real people live, and for me that gave the story a fantastic grounding, an effective counterpoint to the mystical, magical elements. But hey, this is Cornwall after all, so they could very well be real too. Read it and find out.

 

Emily Blaine’s The Bookshop of Forgotten Dreams reviewed by Angela Petch

Like eating whole bars of chocolate with whipped cream, I read this book as a kind of guilty pleasure. But how ridiculous is that attitude?

We all need love stories brimming with frisson and impossibility. And as an author, having a heroine who “thought about books every minute of the day… and talked about them just as much…”, who owns a quirky bookshop in a little town in France, and is a feisty heroine, … what’s not to like? She wraps books up as little mysteries and sells them as little temptations. I want to go to her town and buy several.

Enter the dastardly hero – a man who is a film idol, a heart throb, “the mad dog of the movies…” unstable with a fiery temper – is masterful – but a bit too much… and who is exiled to Sarah’s town by legal requirement.  Will 1 + 1 = 2??? Highly unlikely. Sarah thinks of men as “a little bit like heights. I knew they existed, and they fascinated me, but as soon as I got anywhere near them, vertigo would throw me so off balance…”.

It’s a steamy book – oo la la! I had to fan my heaving bosom several times and it’s very enjoyable. A glorious escape.

 

Georgia Hill’s On a Falling Tide reviewed by Natalie Normann

This is my first book by Georgia Hill, and it won’t be the last. I absolutely loved this book, and couldn’t put it down. It’s a dual time line story, following Lydia in 1863 and Charity in the present. The changes between the two time periods works seamlessly. The story kept surprising me. Every time I thought I had figured out what was going on, there was another twist, and I did not see the last one coming at all. That’s some seriously good writing. Highly recommend this book.

 

 

 

 

The Girl With No Soul by Morgan Owen Book Review

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I always remember how much I loved YA books when I was growing up. They meant so much to me and made me the woman I am today. On the note I can confirm that Morgan Owen is a new outstanding YA talent. The Girl With No Soul is an exciting book. It takes an original and exciting concept, a glorious love story, and amazing world building all in once exciting novel.

The writing is flowing and engaging in that way that is so hard to write but makes reading it so compulsive. I may be older than the market for this book, but I will definitely recommend it to any teens that I know. You cannot beat this book for sheer imagination, passion and excitement. I loved it. Pre-order now, it’s out in March.

Perfect for fans of Alice Broadway and Leigh Bardugo

How can you find your soul mate, when you don’t have a soul?

Iris lives in a world ruled by The Order. Inspectors police the population by keeping careful watch over people’s souls. If they shine their lanterns on you, your soul is projected for the world to see… and judge.

But Iris has a deadly secret … she is a hollow, a person with no soul. She must hide from the Order at all costs, scraping a living in the shadows.

When she’s sent to steal a ring said to hold the memory of a soul’s destruction, she is reunited with her Spark – one of the five parts that make up her own missing soul.

Now she must rely on the help of a young scholar named Evander Mountebank to track down the other four missing pieces of her soul, all the while evading The Order.

Will she be able to protect her heart as well as find her soul?

 

Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka Book Review

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The cultural obsession with serial killer’s, and the glamorisation of them has always sat uneasily with me. Add on the objectification of the victims and I start to feel angry. Women deserve better.

When I read the press release for Danya Kukafka’s book Notes on an Execution I was bowled over. A novel about a serial killer, told through the women left behind. It is a smart idea and the way she has written it is just superb. I was left in complete awe. I am not sure exactly how Danya Kukafka managed to write such a perfect book, but I will be reading it again to try and find out.

The subject is met with feminist delicacy and outstanding talent. What a combination. This is the book that women deserve. There is so much compassion in this book, and once you have read it you will not forget it. A completely triumph.

Ansel Packer is scheduled to die in twelve hours.

He knows what he’s done, and now awaits the same fate he forced on those girls, years ago. Ansel doesn’t want to die; he wants to be celebrated, understood.

But this is not his story.

As the clock ticks down, three women uncover the history of a tragedy and the long shadow it casts. Lavender, Ansel’s mother, is a seventeen-year-old girl pushed to desperation. Hazel, twin sister to his wife, is forced to watch helplessly as the relationship threatens to devour them all. And Saffy, the detective hot on his trail, is devoted to bringing bad men to justice but struggling to see her own life clearly.

This is the story of the women left behind.

Blending breathtaking suspense with astonishing empathy, Notes On An Execution presents a chilling portrait of womanhood as it unravels the familiar narrative of the American serial killer, interrogating our cultural obsession with crime stories, and asking readers to consider the false promise of looking for meaning in the minds of violent men.

 

Hive by April Doyle Book Review

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hive April Doyle

Every now and then a book comes along that feels timely, Hive is such a book. The bees are dying and the world is struggling. Food is scarce and people are desperate. Commercial bee farmer Victor Martin and research entomologist Dr Annie Abrams team up to stop people starving.

April Doyle takes a subject that is worthy and turns it into a brilliant book that is entertaining and riveting. I hated putting this book down to return to real life. I would have read it in one sitting if I could have. I want Hive to be turned into a film because what a film it would be. I did not see the ending coming, and how clever that twist is. I really loved this book. Hive is destined for classic status.

Near-future Britain.
Climate change has led to food shortages and civil unrest.
Pollinating insects are in steep decline.

Commercial bee farmer Victor Martin travels around the farms of Kent with his hives to pollinate fruit trees and crops.

Local research entomologist Dr Annie Abrams is devastated when she’s ordered to give up her captive bee colonies – her life’s work – to join forces with Victor and ensure a harvest.

But the bees are dying.

Their only hope seems to be an experimental alternative to insect pollination: robot pollinators called nanodrones. But why does the drone designer seem so familiar? And who is behind the shadowy organisation intent on sabotaging their vital work?

Can Annie and Victor win their battle to save the bees… or is it too late?

Ooh, some rather scrummy books from Joffe this week

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Joffe’s  book of the week this week is MIDNIGHT LIES, the utterly gripping new detective mystery from #1 bestselling author Chris Collett.

Secrets, lies, bodies. Nothing stays buried forever . . .   On an abandoned campsite in Norfolk, developers unearth a human skeleton. The remains are those of an eighteen-year-old girl. Her name was Robina Scanlon — a blast from the past that shocks Detective Tom Mariner to his core.   Back in the summer of 1976, a teenage Mariner fell in love with Robina. He thought she was the one who got away. Now he realises she never even left. What happened to his his first love? As midnight approaches, someone out there will do anything to keep the past buried.

This really is an intensely gripping book.

CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR COPY OF MIDNIGHT LIES BY CHRIS COLLETT FOR JUST 99P | 99C.

            

Murder under the Palms by Paula Lennon 99p/99c

The beautiful Caribbean Sea laps lazily against the verandah where Jamaican Supreme Court Judge Everton Wrenn lies dead. Someone strangled him with their bare hands.  But who wanted to squeeze the life out of him? Detectives Raythan Preddy and Sean Harris are determined to find out . . .

A TIMES AND SUNDAY TIMES CRIME CLUB PICK.

A Welsh Murder Mystery Box set 1-4 by Cathy Ace for just 99p/99c

This appealed to me enormously. So, let’s meet the women of the WISE Enquiries Agency . . .
in  FOUR brilliant cozy mysteries set in Wales, filled with humour, suspense, and brilliant characters, in one great value box set. Just what we need to lift us at this dramatic moment in world events.

The Langstone Harbour Murders  by Pauline Rowson  99p/99c

The headmistress of a school is found brutally murdered in Portsmouth’s Langstone Harbour. The evidence points to a killer who wanted to leave a very clear message.  Renegade detective Andy Horton finds himself in a race against time to stop the killer. As the clock ticks, he is forced to make a decision that will put his life on the line . . .

Heavens, Langstone Harbour used to be an old stamping ground of mine – if only I’d known what lurked beneath the surface!!!

And finally, exciting news from team Joffe.

Joffe announces  the acquisition of four gripping psychological thrillers from Amazon Top Ten bestselling author Patricia MacDonald, author of From Cradle to Grave, Cast Into Doubt, and Missing Child. They will be sharing them with us soon.  Can’t wait.

Honestly, Joffe is a force of nature as it brings us such a wide selection of new books each week. Those I have picked are just a few. Go to Joffe Books for more.

A Dangerous Riddle of Chance by F L Ying is as unputdownable for Adults, as it is for Young Adults

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A highly  imaginative  mystery-thriller that sees a group of friends set out on a mission to unite the Three Kingdoms – one of animals, one of flora and one of humans –  to fight the terrifying threat from the sinister Dr Slatane De’Aff and his master Qnevilus, the evil  ruler of the Alterworld, who are intent on destroying planet earth and any gainsayers.

There are twists and turns galore, imaginative leaps to land the reader on another level of understanding, with yet another open door to enter. A  tour de force of improbable happenings, or are they improbable?  You decide. Aimed at Young Adults but works for the adult reader too.

This is a meaty book, and a journey, and a great idea for holiday reading.

F.L Ying was inspired by his daughter Tanya, who designed and built the main characters of the story in the first place.

‘The idea happened purely by accident, maybe by chance! A long time ago, my daughter Tanya desgned and  made several life-size figures at Art College as  film/stage props. One of them – her favourite, was a harlequin with a happy cheerful face… She called the figure Chance – a figure full of fun and laughter.’

Read and enjoy. A Dangerous Riddle of Chance by F L Ying.  £8.99

ISBN 9781913551988.

 

SUNDAY SCENE: KENDRA SMITH ON HER FAVOURITE SCENE FROM EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED

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I enjoyed writing one of my latest protagonists, Victoria, in my fourth book, Everything Has Changed. She’s been in a car accident and ‘lost’ six years of her life due to amnesia. When she wakes up in hospital, she remembers her children as adorable 10-year-old twins. They’re not. They are 16 and sulky. And her marriage is dangling by a thread.

Last thing she remembers is that she was a fun-loving mum. As she says, ‘where had the chaotic, popcorn-in-her-bra mum gone?’ Some parts of the book poke fun at who she’s become, other sections are more reflective.  I posed the question: what would it be like to be catapulted into ‘your’ future with no warning. Especially if you didn’t like how the ‘future’ was looking – and moreover, what if you didn’t like your new self very much? And (let’s turn up the heat) what if your husband didn’t like you. This is a scene just before a family gathering. Victoria is remembering a holiday in Greece and how her husband James used to feel about her. Will he ever feel like this again?

Victoria clasped the brooch tightly in her fist. The pin at the edge pierced her skin and she flinched. She was setting the table in the kitchen. James had given her the brooch when they were on holiday in Greece. Since she’d found those photos and that list, more had come back to her. ‘It’s beautiful like you’. It was a white pebble polished till it gleamed and there were tiny pearls surrounding it. She remembered the beach, Izzy and Jake had run into the waves and then come out and rolled in the sand. They must have been about five. And then James, holding a squealing twin under each arm, armbands bulging out the sides as he plunged into the water. She’d watched, her sarong gently flapping across her legs. There were flashes of vivid memory.

Life had been uncomplicated, hadn’t it? They loved each other. James was trying for a promotion and they were trying for another baby – or were they? It was a bit fuzzy. And then what? Had all the wet towels on the floor, the unanswered text messages, the late hours at the office, the headache of bringing up twins with two sets of everything from homework to nits – had that all seeped into the fibre of their marriage like rain soaking through a faulty roof, until the rot had set in?

Not us, she’d thought. The twins will never tell a counsellor, ‘Mummy and Daddy have fallen out of love.’ Or will they?

Victoria moved round the table and mechanically placed knives and forks opposite one another. The napkins, the salt and pepper, it was all new to her. Household items were a surprise every time she opened the cupboard.

‘You’re wearing the brooch?’

She abruptly turned round as James walked towards her carrying a dish of salad.  ‘Yes.’

He glanced at it and she stared at his jaw, at his shirt collar and tried to remember how many times she might have lain against the crook of his neck, crying sometimes, laughing perhaps, sharing a secret? Where had his passion for her gone? The spark? She could feel it, she couldn’t miss it, fizzing up inside her. What about him? She studied his mouth. It was moving. ‘Where do you want these?’ He stared at her.

 

Find out more about Kendra and her other books on Facebook at Kendra Smith Author and on Twitter @KendraAuthor

 

 

 

Matt Bell’s March craft book, REFUSE TO BE DONE: an accessible, practical guide to writing and revising a novel—for writers of any genre and level

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“I can’t imagine anyone setting pen to paper, or fingertips to keyboard, who won’t want to keep this book permanently close at hand.”
—Benjamin Dreyer, New York Times bestselling author of Dreyer’s English
 We all need help to be the best writer we can be. This brilliant book from Matt Bell not only does that, but it also teaches you have to be efficient, something that is a must as writing becomes a career. I loved this book and I cannot recommend it enough. I will definitely keep it close to hand. — Frost editor, Catherine Balavage.
Acclaimed author Matt Bell draws from years of writing and teaching experience to deliver an accessible, direct, and concise guide to novel-writing full of concrete tips meant to guide writers of any genre, at any stage of their career, from first to final draft.
Matt Bell | Refuse to Be Done: How to Write and Rewrite a Novel in Three Drafts | Trade Paperback Original | $15.95 US/$21.95 CAN |
ISBN: 9781641293419 | ON SALE: March 8, 2022 | Soho Press
Refuse to Be Done is intensely practical, focusing always on specific tasks, techniques, and activities for writing a novel, from the first draft all the way through final revisions. Divided into three main sections—each containing numerous subheadings and detailed items—the book is easy to use at any and every stage of the writing process, whether one is starting from scratch or already has a full draft to revise. Concrete examples from published fiction and media, as well as Matt Bell’s personal experiences, bring further meaning to the tips included, showing how they were developed and how they come to fruition in existing works.

In the first section, Bell shares a bounty of tactics to get through perhaps the most daunting stage of novel-writing: actually writing the book. Intended to push writers through the initial conception and get words on the page, this section includes strategies for process (such as how to regiment one’s writing and track progress), the writing itself (e.g. how to develop characters and determine which scenes to write next), and overcoming writer’s block.

Next, with a complete draft in hand, the second section focuses on reworking the narrative through outlining, modeling, and rewriting. This includes such tasks as fleshing out characters, scrutinizing the plot, and reshaping a manuscript into a more polished form.

The final stage captures Bell’s philosophy to “refuse to be done,” encouraging writers to stay in their novel for as long as they’re able by working through a checklist of revisions. In this layered approach, writers fully work through the text multiple times, focusing on a specific, achievable task through each pass. Whether it’s revising the prose or scrutinizing the structure of each scene, every pass brings the manuscript closer to accomplishing the writer’s ambitions and becoming the greatest it can possibly be.

Written for novices and veteran writers alike, Matt Bell’s accessible, practical guide to novel-writing offers an abundance of strategies to motivate writers and invigorate the revision process, empowering novelists of all genres to approach their work with fresh eyes and sharp new tools to produce their best work yet.