Tag Archives: Jen Gilroy

CARIADS’ CHOICE: AUGUST 2022 BOOK REVIEWS

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Phil Rickman’s The Fever of the World reviewed by Georgia Hill

This is book 16 in the Merrily Watkins series featuring a beleaguered vicar and “Deliverance Consultant” – or exorcist – and set in the Welsh Marches. There’s a mysterious rockfall death, an examination of Wordsworth and his experiences as a young man in the Wye Valley, the odd Druid (a very odd Druid) and it’s all wrapped around with Covid’s cold, clammy hand. Phil has a cult-like following (I’m one) and his Merrily books are a fabulous and impossible to categorise mix of crime, the supernatural and folklore. Go read!

 

Jen Gilroy’s The Wishing Tree in Irish Falls reviewed by Jane Cable

I’ve been meaning to read this book for a long time and I enjoyed it so much I’m disappointed with myself for putting it off. It was absolutely delightful to escape to a small town community in the Adirondacks, the kind of place I suspect many of us have a secret hankering to live.

Jen Gilroy draws both the people and the place so beautifully, even the most minor of characters come alive in her skilled hands. I was pulled into Annie and Seth’s stories from the moment we meet them both. I knew they both had journeys to take and I knew how those journeys would end, but that’s the point of romantic fiction, isn’t it? No huge surprises, but a really interesting and emotional story that felt as though it was about real people. A place and a time to lose myself in with characters who become to feel like friends.

Not trying to be anything fancy, this is feelgood romance at its best.

 

Faith Hogan’s The Gin Sisters Promise reviewed by Morton S Gray

I loved Faith Hogan’s novel The Ladies’ Midnight Swimming Club and that was what attracted me to this title. Having finished this one, I’m off to find her other books.

A story full of love, pathos, family misunderstandings, secrets and laughter. Initially I wondered if I would cope with the three sisters’ storylines, but I soon became absorbed in their lives, loves and losses.

The book made me think about legacies and the family tangles and feuds we get into over the years.

I wanted each of the sisters to get their happy ever after and it seems their father did too. Definitely a thought-provoking novel which made me experience a wide variety of emotions from laughter to tears. Highly recommended.

 

Clare Marchant’s The Mapmakers Daughter reviewed by Kitty Wilson

Probably my favourite book of the year so far. Both timelines fully held my attention and I loved both Frieda and Robyn’s stories. Clare Marchant’s writing is so skilled that she takes you deep into the heart of Tudor London, all the senses stimulated and I really felt if I was there, hearing, seeing, smelling all that was going on around her characters. The detail she weaves though is not merely evocative, her books are so well researched that I learn things that I did not before and she always makes me want to dive into further research the minute I finish reading.

Her writing is taut and deftly woven, everything moves the story on, informs the reader and weaves together a truly spellbinding story. The jeopardy she creates had me gasp out loud, my heart pounding with fear – all whilst safely tucked up in my own bed, such is the skill with which she writes. Honestly, I thought this book was flawless and I suspect it will remain one of my favourites for years to come. Absolute perfection.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SUNDAY SCENE: JEN GILROY ON HER FAVOURITE SCENE FROM THE SWEETHEART LOCKET

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My latest book is The Sweetheart Locket, released in ebook in March from Orion Dash with a paperback following later this year. Inspired by the ‘sweetheart jewellery’ members of the armed forces gave to loved ones at home, it’s a Second World War dual-time novel of love, loss and family secrets, wrapped up in courage, loyalty and hope.

Spanning four countries and two continents, most of the story is set in England in places which have shaped my own life. Although I now live in Canada, I lived in England for many years, first to undertake postgraduate studies at University College London in the heart of Bloomsbury.

From student days long ago, London became my favourite city—the red double-decker buses and black taxis I’d seen in films; buildings, roads and parks familiar from my bookish childhood; and several thousand years of history under my feet.

In both the historical and contemporary strands of The Sweetheart Locket, London, and Bloomsbury in particular, have a starring role. Maggie, the heroine of the historical story lives in a hostel in Bloomsbury near where I once did, and important scenes take place in Russell Square Gardens, Russell Square Underground Station and Cartwright Gardens.

When Willow, the forty-something granddaughter Maggie never met, arrives in London from San Francisco for a work trip, she marvels she’s ‘finally here where her gran had once lived and walking along streets she might have known.’

My favourite scene comes from the historical story. It takes place in September 1939, soon after Maggie, a Canadian who’d been sent to school in England, defies her family, tears up her ticket home and decides to stay in London and ‘do her bit’ for the war effort.

Maggie crossed the road by the stately Hotel Russell and turned towards Russell Square where men piled sandbags around nearby buildings. One of the many signs that London was a city at war.

At eighteen, Maggie finds an office job and makes new friends, Evie and her brother, Will. This friendship sets Maggie’s life on a new path—one that later shapes Willow’s life too.

[Maggie] turned into [Russell] Square and found a bench in a sunny corner near a horse chestnut tree, spiny seedpods almost ready to split and scatter mahogany-brown conkers onto the path below.

…Although she’d escaped from her old life, at night in the hostel she couldn’t escape from herself and the thoughts that swarmed in her head like incessant insects. Unlike the men stacking sandbags, she wasn’t doing something useful for the war…Albeit in a different way, it was a kind of prison like her family and school had been.

As she talks with Evie and Will, Maggie realizes that for the first time in her life she’s an independent adult who can make her own decisions.

Will’s gaze was warm, and Maggie’s tummy lurched in a new but not unpleasant way.

Along with those fragments of her ticket, she’d thrown out the girl she used to be but who was the woman she might become?

Maggie in 1939 and Willow in 2019 are both at turning points in their lives. Connected by Maggie’s wartime Royal Air Force sweetheart locket, they’re on a quest discover who they are, what they want and, ultimately, find the courage to follow their dreams.

‘The three of us will be good friends, I know it.’ Evie tucked her arm into Maggie’s.

Maggie knew it too. Her old story was over and the new one had begun.

 

 

Connect with Jen: www.jengilroy.com

 

 

 

 

 

JANE CABLE REVIEWS TWO STUNNING WORLD WAR TWO DUAL TIMELINE ROMANCES

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I love a World War Two dual timeline novel. In fact I love them so much I’ve written one with my Eva Glyn hat on and it will be out this summer. However this article is not about me, it’s about two excellent writers who have created very different books in the genre, both out this week.

 

The Sweetheart Locket by Jen Gilroy

I love Jen Gilroy’s contemporary romances but this is her first foray into a dual timeline and I enjoyed it just as much. It was refreshing to have a modern main character who isn’t British and it brought an interesting take to the way the story was told, for example Willow’s lack of assumed knowledge about her grandmother’s World War Two story.

Her grandmother, Maggie, wasn’t British either but a Canadian who decided to stay in England to help fight the Nazi threat rather than go home, and this added an extra layer too. Her initial sense of isolation meant that she forged strong bonds and the stories of her closest friends’ wars were skilfully wound through her own, making the novel all the more compelling.

Although there are romances running through each timeline, other important relationships are explored. Willow’s difficult one with her mother Millie added depth to the story and for me it was one of the most important to be resolved, and there was a beautiful echo in Millie’s relationship with Maggie too.

The choices that the women (and men) of each generation have to make are vivid yet relatable and once I had settled into the book I found it very hard to put down.

The Sweetheart Locket is published by Orion Dash on 17th March

 

The Postcard from Italy by Angela Petch

From the moment the airman wakes and remembers nothing of who he is, I was hooked on his story and spent many happy hours wondering how on earth it could be resolved. I like that in a book; I like to be kept guessing, and wishing for the happiness of characters an author is clever enough to make me care about.

I also revelled in being lost in Italy, both in the 1940s and in the present day. Angela Petch has a fantastic knowledge of the country and that means both her settings and her research are impeccable. The wonderful descriptions of the landscape, the people, the food… it drew me in in a way that meant I could feel the sun on my back and a visit to Puglia is now definitely on my bucket list.

Every character is perfectly crafted, even those with little more than walk on parts, such as the village priest who dances the night away at a wedding. Little by little you come to know them as their stories unfold, their misunderstandings play out and ultimately the mystery of exactly how the airmen fits into both his past – and the future – is resolved.

The Postcard from Italy is published by Bookouture on 16th March

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SISTER SCRIBES GUEST: JEN GILROY ON FINDING YOUR WRITING VOICE

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Since Susanna Bavin introduced Canadian romance author Jen Gilroy to us at a Romantic Novelists’ Association conference she has been an honorary Sister Scribe and it’s an absolute delight to welcome her to Frost.

One of the questions I’m often asked when giving talks about writing relates to ‘voice’ and, specifically, how to find it.

For some writers, voice is instinctive. If you’re one of those fortunate people, this post likely isn’t for you!

However, for many others (me included) finding your ‘voice’ isn’t so straightforward.

First off, what is ‘voice?’

For me, it’s what makes one author’s fiction distinctive from that of another. At a superficial level, it relates to word choice, syntax and the mechanics of constructing a story.

Going deeper, though, voice reflects each author’s personal experience—the constellation of factors that make them who they are—as distinctive as their fingerprint.

A tip to identify voice?

Choose books by three favourite authors, set them side-by-side and consider the first few pages. Even if they write in the same genre, it’s likely that in only those early pages you’ll identify major differences in how the writer tells the story and makes you feel.

Those differences are rooted in voice and some authors have such distinctive voices that fans can often identify their work in only a short paragraph—without knowing the book’s title or author.

However, even if you know what ‘voice’ is and can identify it in other writers, how do you find yours?

For me, finding my voice was part of my writing apprenticeship and (as with many other parts of learning the craft) necessitated trial and error.

In the beginning, I sampled genres a bit like food at a tapas bar. From literary fiction through to young adult, historical and more, I tried writing in a number of different areas.

Yet, and like delicious tapas morsels, only one or two genres resonated enough for me to think I’d truly found my own ‘author voice.’

What does ‘voice’ feel like?

I liken my ‘voice’ to wearing my favourite pair of cosy slippers as I snuggle under a blanket by the fire on a cold winter night.

That ‘voice’ is drawn from the innermost part of myself and means I delve into emotions only I feel to express them on the page.

At first, that self-reflection was scary. With career in corporate and technical writing, I was so used to adopting a ‘corporate voice’ that I’d lost my own, and I’d also lost touch with the emotions that are the foundation of fiction.

Yet, with practice and patience—and by reading and writing widely—I dug deep enough to get to that comfortable state of knowing when I was writing in my voice—and when I figured that out, the genres were obvious.

Long before I became a writer, romance and women’s fiction were the genres I read for hope, comfort, escape and more. Not surprisingly, those were also the books that fit my voice and when I started to write from the foundation of who I truly am, the words flowed.

Although finding my voice was one of the most difficult parts of my writing journey, it was also the most rewarding. And, perhaps most importantly, writing with the warmth and intuition that comes from the core of who I am is the most honest gift I can give.

 

Jen Gilroy writes romance and uplifting women’s fiction with happy, hopeful endings. She’s a wife and mum who calls England and Canada home and her latest release, A Wish in Irish Falls, is out now on Kindle (free with Kindle Unlimited).

Connect with Jen via her website: www.jengilroy.com

 

 

SISTER SCRIBES’ READING ROUND UP: OCTOBER

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Kirsten:

I haven’t been reading very much lately – I’ve been wrestling with proposals and second drafts and teenagers – but one book I have read and very much enjoyed is Bonnie and Stan by Anna Stuart.  It’s a story of mature love and the premise is that after over 50 years together, Stan – who still adores his wife – starts dating again.

In a dual time-line. Bonnie and Stan met during the Swinging Sixties, to the soundtrack of The Beatles and the Merseybeat scene. Bonnie’s the only woman on her architecture course and Stan is in a band. This bit is great fun –music and fashion and energy and sex and working out which one of the band members will end being Stan because they all have nicknames.

In the present day, the two have grown old together, had children and grandchildren. This bit happens at the beginning so I’m not giving anything away but Stan has cancer and is running out of time, and can’t bear the thought of leaving Bonnie on her own so, with his teenage granddaughter Greya, he sets out find Bonnie a new love. And it must remain a secret …

I thought it was a fabulous book – ultimately uplifting but with moments of real terror and fury and vulnerability.

 

Susanna:

One of the things I love and admire about books by Carol Rivers is that, while some authors get a bit stale and produce books that feel samey, Carol always writes something fresh, using new ideas, at the same time as remaining true to the drama and strong sense of personal relationships that characterise her books. Christmas Child is a story for any time of year, not just for the festive season.

An emotional and enthralling tale, it follows Ettie as she faces up to life’s dangers and challenges and learns the hard way that not everyone deserves to be trusted. I love stories set in Victorian times and I’m delighted that Carol Rivers has, for this book, left behind her customary 20th century setting and moved into the 19th century. I hope there will be more Victorian stories to come from this wonderful writer.

 

 

Jane:

I went on holiday last month and as such had a little more time than usual to read, so a couple of books I’d been wanting to get my teeth into for a while came to the top of my TBR pile.

The first was Liz Fenwick’s The Path to the Sea, a truly absorbing book, well researched with the strands of the story pulled beautifully together. It is set in 1962 and 2018, with a clever structure that means the action is set over the same three days of both years, flipping between them, but taking events sequentially in both. It must have been an absolute sod to write, but it’s so beautifully managed it never feels contrived and I was caught up in the story rather than the way it was told, which is exactly how it should be.

Three generations of women come together at Boskenna for the last time, both bound together and torn apart by the secrets and lies between them. It’s a fabulous story, but what I loved the most was that important thing wasn’t what had happened, but why.

The second book was Jen Gilroy’s The Cottage at Firefly Lake. Far more of a traditional holiday read, it’s a heart-warming small town romance set in Vermont and featuring realistically scarred characters you want to alternately hug then knock their heads together. Two sisters return to Firefly Lake after eighteen years to sell their late mother’s cottage and more than just old passions are ignited in this beautiful place. The book’s just perfect for readers who love a truly emotional romance.