Month: June 2021
The Blue Hour by MJ Greenwood
The Blue Hour – two love affairs and two summers, 75 years apart Damaged by a toxic relationship, Ava Westmorland flees the ruins of her life in London for a carer’s job in a Cornish village. She hopes a combination of countryside and coast will heal her shattered heart. But she has yet to face tyrannical Tilly Barwise; the 89-year-old she will be looking … Read More The Blue Hour by MJ Greenwood
+ abuse, child abuse, childhood, family, family drama, fiction, journal, literature, loss, memoir, relationships, review, sisters
The Lost Girls by Heather Young
In the summer of 1935, six-year-old Emily Evans vanishes from her family’s vacation home on a remote Minnesota lake. Her disappearance destroys her mother, who spends the rest of her life at the lake house, hoping in vain that her favorite daughter will walk out of the woods. Emily’s two older sisters stay, too, each keeping her own private, decades-long vigil for the lost … Read More The Lost Girls by Heather Young
+ abuse, child abuse, childhood, coming-of-age, fiction, friendship, literature, Psychological fiction, revenge, secrets
Fragile by Sarah Hilary
Nell Ballard is a runaway. A former foster child with a dark secret she is desperate to keep, all Nell wants is to find a place she can belong. So when a job comes up at Starling Villas, home to the enigmatic Robin Wilder, she seizes the opportunity with both hands. But her new lodgings may not be the safe haven that she was … Read More Fragile by Sarah Hilary
+ abuse, child abuse, childhood, family, fiction, friendship, motherhood, murder, review
The First Day of Spring by Nancy Tucker
“So that was all it took,” I thought. “That was all it took for me to feel like I had all the power in the world. One morning, one moment, one yellow-haired boy. It wasn’t so much after all.” Meet Chrissie… Chrissie is eight and she has a secret: she has just killed a boy. The feeling made her belly fizz like soda pop. … Read More The First Day of Spring by Nancy Tucker
Work in Progress by Dan Brotzel, Martin Jenkins and Alex Woolf
Work in Progress: The untold story of the Crawley Writers’ Group, compiled by Peter, writer In December 2016, Julia Greengage, aspiring writer and resting actor, puts up a poster in her local library inviting people to join a new writers’ group. The group will exchange constructive feedback and ‘generally share in the pains and pleasures of this excruciating yet exhilarating endeavour we call Literature’. … Read More Work in Progress by Dan Brotzel, Martin Jenkins and Alex Woolf
+ autism, childhood, coming-of-age, family, fiction, friendship, love, motherhood, review
This Is How We Are Human by Louise Beech
Sebastian James Murphy is twenty years, six months and two days old. He loves swimming, fried eggs and Billy Ocean. Sebastian is autistic. And lonely. Veronica wants her son Sebastian to be happy, and she wants the world to accept him for who he is. She is also thinking about paying a professional to give him what he desperately wants. Violetta is a high-class … Read More This Is How We Are Human by Louise Beech
The Last Minute Play by Cat on a Piano Productions / Theatrephonic
When you are really busy it’s time for the actors to improvise. And they really do. Absolutely hilarious The Last Minute Play has some of my favourite lines. “Is that a new car…”“….lime green….really brings out your eyes Pitrum.”“Shame I’ve only got the one really.”“Beautiful eye though.” “It’s always easier to recover from grief when it makes you filthy, stinking rich.” And of course … Read More The Last Minute Play by Cat on a Piano Productions / Theatrephonic
+ childhood, coming-of-age, family, fiction, folklore, friendship, loss, love, magic, Magical realism, motherhood, mythology, review, supernatural, superstition
She Never Told Me About The Ocean by Elisabeth Sharp McKetta
Told by four women whose stories nest together, She Never Told Me About the Ocean is an epic about a rite of passage that all humans undergo and none remember: birth. Eighteen-year-old Sage has been mothering her mother for as long as she can remember, and as she arrives on the shores of adulthood, she learns a secret: before she was born, she had … Read More She Never Told Me About The Ocean by Elisabeth Sharp McKetta
A Little Chicken by Cat on a Piano Productions / Theatrephonic
Mary had a little chicken. Mary is eight years old and she doesn’t eat meat or so she claims. And anyway she has a pet chicken who is not a little lamb. Chicken soup isn’t meat is it and it’s her favourite. The Pot Chicken likes people soup. It’s his favourite. And The Pot Chicken is quite big and not like other chickens. Written … Read More A Little Chicken by Cat on a Piano Productions / Theatrephonic
+ adventure, art, coming-of-age, female friendship, feminism, fiction, friendship, Italy, literature, love, relationships, review, World War Two
Still Life by Sarah Winman
By the bestselling, prize-winning author of When God was a Rabbit and Tin Man, Still Life is a beautiful, big-hearted, richly tapestried story of people brought together by love, war, art, flood… and the ghost of E.M. Forster. We just need to know what the heart’s capable of, Evelyn.And do you know what it’s capable of?I do. Grace and fury. It’s 1944 and in … Read More Still Life by Sarah Winman
Put to Sea by Cat on a Piano Productions / Theatrephonic
There once was a boat. Hilarious short audio drama as Mils and Shan are out at sea in a boat that they ‘commandeered’ in order to make a TikTok film. But will they survive the ordeal with no snacks and only themed beverages and nowhere to pee? The GPS is being weird, it’s a bit foggy and they don’t know where they are. And … Read More Put to Sea by Cat on a Piano Productions / Theatrephonic
Matilda Windsor is Coming Home by Anne Goodwin
In the dying days of the old asylums, three paths intersect. Henry was only a boy when he waved goodbye to his glamorous grown-up sister; approaching sixty, his life is still on hold as he awaits her return. As a high-society hostess renowned for her recitals, Matty’s burden weighs heavily upon her, but she bears it with fortitude and grace. Janice, a young social … Read More Matilda Windsor is Coming Home by Anne Goodwin
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