Secrets and lies bind three women together.

Jenna, the beautiful yet fragile wife of the heir to the Montgomery fortune.
Bridget, the wily housekeeper who carries out her duties with diligence and guile.
Lucy, the jewellery designer living an almost reclusive life.

#SecretsAndLies @Joywoodauthor #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours #blogtour

Oak Ridge is the mansion where the heinous Montgomery family reside. A place where subterfuge, blackmail and murder have become the order of the day. Challenging the Montgomery family is never an option – defeating them impossible.

All three women are forced to take them on. But only one of them is confident of victory because she’s watched and learned from the masters themselves.

My Review

Got to love a book with characters who are greedy, obsessed, hiding secrets and go round killing people. Otherwise where’s the entertainment value and Secrets and Lies has it in spadefuls.

I love this story. It has all the elements:
Jenna, the beautiful, fragile wife of the heir to the Montgomery fortune.
Bridget, the creepy housekeeper who ‘carries out her duties with diligence and guile’ – I’d say obsessed and with an overinflated opinion of herself. And bonking the boss.
Lucy, a reclusive jewellery designer living in Oban with her twin boys.
Jenna’s husband Leo, cruel and controlling, and on a charge of murdering his chauffeur and about to appear in court.
His domineering father Avery, who is ten times worse and rules the Montgomery roost. Like Teflon, nothing sticks, though the police wish it would.
And Avery’s wife, ‘sickly Susan’ as Bridget calls her, who is getting sicklier by the day.

It’s almost the cast of a Shakespearean tragedy!

Enter Jack. Tall, dark and handsome. Owner of a newspaper and determined to discover any truths that will release his sister Jenna from her suffocating marriage to Leo Montgomery. And write about Leo and Avery at every opportunity. They hate him with a vengeance.

We know there will be danger afoot. We know/hope there will be romance. But the ending was still a terrible shock. Brilliant!

Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours.

About the Author

Joy was born in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire and loves it so much she has returned to spend her retirement there. Joy has a degree in public health and for thirty years has worked as a nurse both in the private sector and the NHS, in a range of positions from ward work, clinics, theatres and the community. Since her retirement, she has written and independently published six novels with a strong romance theme running through them. All are full of twists and turns which she hopes will have the reader eagerly turning the pages for ‘just one more chapter’. More recently, she has interjected a crime/thriller component into her writing.

Joy is a popular public speaker in and around Lincolnshire where she delivers her humorous talk about the transition she’s made from nurse to author (From Bedpan to Pen). She speaks at a range of events such as WI meetings, luncheon clubs, after dinner guest speaker, book clubs and author events. At these events, she sells signed paperback copies of her books and promotes the availability of them electronically.

As Joy watches the tide turn daily walking along the quaint but beautiful seafront, she is able to find writing ideas, whatever the weather. She likes to develop the characters and plot in her head assisted by the melancholy charm of the seafront particularly during the winter months. Despite being offered traditional publishing contracts from smaller publishers, the ones she would truly like to sign with still are proving elusive! Joy’s paperback books are sold locally in her home close to the Cleethorpes seafront which generates footfall for those on seaside trips.

Quote from Joy:

“Writing is my passion. I strive with each novel for a narrative that invites the reader into a world that is captivating, engaging and menacing. Five of the books that I’ve independently published fall into the category of crime, with twists and turns I hope will keep the reader turning the pages well into the night. My greatest desire is to acquire more readers – my driving force is to sell more books!”