Category: childhood
+ childhood, family, fiction, friendship, humour fiction, love, motherhood, office drama, relationships, review, secrets, sisters, World War Two
The M Word by Eileen Wharton
Roberta Gallbreath is middle aged and menopausal. She dislikes her children, detests her ex-husband and despises her colleagues. When her mother dies, Roberta is left with a pile of letters and a mystery surrounding her son. The letters reveal Roberta’s heritage is not what it seems and she is soon on a mission to become a better person. #TheMWord @WhartonEileen @SpellBoundBks @Zooloo’s Book Tours @zooloo2008 #ZooloosBookTours #blogtour … Read More The M Word by Eileen Wharton
+ adventure, childhood, coming-of-age, crime fiction, family, fashion, female friendship, fiction, forgiveness, friendship, haunting, humour fiction, List, literature, love, metafiction, murder, mystery, police drama, review, supernatural, witchcraft, witches
My Top 8 Books of 2022 – Part Three
Here are my favourite eight books of the third quarter of 2022. I should have published this at the beginning of the month but I am in Gran Canaria and to be honest, what with the sunshine, the sea and the vino, I totally forgot. Apologies all round and here goes. Still Water by Rebecca Pert What a stunning book. Beautifully written and so … Read More My Top 8 Books of 2022 – Part Three
+ childhood, crime fiction, fiction, Gothic mystery, grief, lies, loss, love, mental health, mental illness, murder, review, Scotland, Scottish Highlands, secrets, superstition, thriller
The Blackhouse by Carole Johnstone
From the author of the “dark and devious…beautifully written” (Stephen King) Mirrorland comes a richly atmospheric thriller set on an isolated Scottish island where nothing is as it seems and shocking twists lie around every corner. A remote village. A deadly secret. An outsider who knows the truth. Robert Reid moved his family to Scotland’s Outer Hebrides in the 1990s, driven by hope, craving safety and … Read More The Blackhouse by Carole Johnstone
+ childhood, coming-of-age, family, feminism, fiction, girl's school, Historical fiction, literature, London, love, music, piano, relationships, review, sisters, twins, World War Two
The Crooked Little Pieces: Volume 1 by Sophia Lambton
Lost are the creatures destined never to be understood. 1926. Professor Josef van der Holt obtains a post at an all women’s college overseas. Stuffy London suddenly becomes the site for the unseemly exploits of his half-Dutch and half-German daughters Anneliese and Isabel. When tragedy carves out a hollow in their lives, an ailing soul sends the sororal twins along a jagged path: while … Read More The Crooked Little Pieces: Volume 1 by Sophia Lambton
+ childhood, family, fantasy, female friendship, feminism, fiction, forgiveness, friendship, grief, haunting, loss, love, magic, review, sisterhood, supernatural, witchcraft, witches
The Witches of Moonshyne Manor by Bianca Marais
The House in the Cerulean Sea meets The Golden Girls in this funny, tender, and uplifting feminist tale of sisterhood featuring a coven of aging witches who must unite their powers to fight the men determined to drive them out of their home and town. A coven of modern-day witches. A magical heist-gone-wrong. A looming threat. Summoned by an alarm, five octogenarian witches gather … Read More The Witches of Moonshyne Manor by Bianca Marais
The Turkey Shed Gang by Ruth Young
Joe had a bad day at school. Everything went wrong…FIRSTLY, he had to read to the class and that was his worst nightmare, reading in front of everyone. THEN, he scored an own goal in football. LATER, after eating three chocolate eclairs at Gran’s house, she tells him about a raid in the bank this morning. The robbers had guns and monster masks! To … Read More The Turkey Shed Gang by Ruth Young
+ child abduction, childhood, community, fiction, forgiveness, loneliness, loss, love, motherhood, review
Safe With You by RM Ward
It used to be more of a community round here. I was going to say something like this wouldn’t have happened then, but it would, wouldn’t it? Maybe a lot of it was kept quiet. But was it really any safer? Is anywhere safe? Kath has lived on the same London estate for decades. Lately she’s become friendly with the little girl next door, … Read More Safe With You by RM Ward
+ abuse, child abduction, childhood, eighties, family, fiction, Ireland, kidnapping, lies, loss, motherhood, mystery, relationships, review, secrets, thriller
Hide and Seek by Andrea Mara
The game of hide and seek is over, everyone has gone home, but little Lily Murphy hasn’t been found. Her parents search the woods and tell themselves that the worst hasn’t happened – but deep down they know this peaceful Dublin suburb will never be the same again. #HideAndSeek @AndreaMaraBooks @TransworldBooks #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours #blogtour COUNT TO TEN Years later, Joanna moves into a new house. It … Read More Hide and Seek by Andrea Mara
+ brothers, childhood, coming-of-age, family, fiction, friendship, grief, loss, love, mid-life crisis, motherhood, relationships, review, sisters
The Wilderness by Sarah Duguid
Once it was a family home. Now they are all at sea . . . When Anna and David receive a phone call late one evening, their lives are upturned. Within minutes, they are travelling to the west coast of Scotland, preparing to care for two young sisters, tragically and suddenly orphaned. #TheWilderness @SarahDuguid4 @TinderPress #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours #blogtour It’s a beautiful place, the heather is in … Read More The Wilderness by Sarah Duguid
+ abuse, child abuse, childhood, coming-of-age, community, cult, family, feel-good, female friendship, fiction, friendship, germany, grief, Historical fiction, holocaust, jewish history, jews, lies, List, literature, loss, love, motherhood, murder, music, nazi germany, piano, rape, relationships, religion, review, secrets, sisterhood, suffragette movement, whimsical
My Top 8 Books of 2022 – Part Two
Here are my favourite eight books of the second quarter of 2022. You will notice that it doesn’t include any crime dramas, detective novels or serial killer thrillers. While I love those genres, they rarely bring something totally new to the table and my favourites tend to be feel-good, whimsical or magical realism. Or totally original or make me cry. There are a couple of … Read More My Top 8 Books of 2022 – Part Two
+ childhood, depression, Devon, diary, family, family drama, fiction, literature, loss, mental illness, motherhood, postpartum psychosis, Psychosis, review, Scottish Highlands, secrets
Still Water by Rebecca Pert
When Jane Douglas returns to the Shetland Islands, she thinks she has escaped the dark shadows of her childhood. She carves out a simple life on the bleak, windswept island, working at the salmon fishery and spending quiet evenings at home. And for the first time in her life, she’s happy. #StillWater Twitter @Rebecca_Pert Instagram @rebecca_pert_author @BoroughPress #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours #blogtour Then the body of Jane’s long-missing … Read More Still Water by Rebecca Pert
+ abuse, childhood, domestic noir, family, fiction, grief, literature, loss, love, music, piano, review, secrets, sisters
Nothing Else by Louise Beech
Heather Harris is a piano teacher and professional musician, whose quiet life revolves around music, whose memories centre on a single song that haunts her. A song she longs to perform again. A song she wrote as a child, to drown out the violence in their home. A song she played with her little sister, Harriet. But Harriet is gone … she disappeared when … Read More Nothing Else by Louise Beech
