+ community, Dogs, family, fiction, friendship, literature, loss, love, motherhood, relationships, review
Dog Days by Ericka Waller
George is very angry. His wife has upped and died on him, and all he wants to do is sit in his underpants and shout at the cricket. The last thing he needs is his cake-baking neighbour Betty trying to rescue him. And then there’s the dog, a dachshund puppy called Poppy. George doesn’t want a dog – he wants a fight.
#DogDays @ErickaWaller1 @DoubledayUK @tabithapelly #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours
Dan is a counsellor with OCD who is great at helping other people – if only he were better at helping himself. His most meaningful relationship so far is with his labrador Fitz. But then comes a therapy session that will change his life.
Lizzie is living in a women’s refuge with her son Lenny. Her body is covered in scars and she has shut herself off from everyone around her. But when she is forced to walk the refuge’s fat terrier, Maud, a new life beckons – if she can keep her secret just a while longer…
Featuring an unforgettable cast of characters – joyous, heartbreaking and wise – Dog Days is about those small but life-changing moments that only come when we pause to let the light in.
My Review
First of all let me just say that I LOVE dogs. So when this title came up for review I was a bit biased.
Dogs love us. They trust us, they never question our decisions (unless sausages are involved and they are not going to get any) and they are our best listeners.
Dog Days proves this. George is wallowing in his own grief and filth. Ellen did everything for him until she went and died and left him notes all over the place telling him what to do. She also left him with a Dachshund puppy called Poppy. George is rude to everyone till no-one wants to help him. Apart from Betty that is. She’s made of sterner stuff and can give as good as she gets. George says he hates her, but he likes her food and her help around the house. She just won’t go away no matter how often he shouts and swears at her. And he swears – a lot.
Dan is a counsellor but when he needs talk to someone, it’s always Fitz the Labrador. His only real human friend is his cousin Luke with whom he runs and trains for marathons. Then Atticus comes to one of Dan’s therapy sessions and Dan is lost. In spite of all his experience, he doesn’t understand why Atticus is there or what he wants. Dan needs Fitz more than ever. He can’t talk to Luke about something so personal.
Lizzie is covered in scars. But the scars on her body are just part of the hurt – the mental scars from her abusive marriage haunt her at night. She lives at the shelter with her son Lenny and won’t open up about her previous life. Then Tess persuades her to walk her overweight terrier called Maud and she is forced to go out. That’s the first time she meets Luke and his giant dog Wolfie.
This book is so emotional and heart-warming and at times very sad. It looks at relationships, fear and the human condition. I never wanted it to end. The characters are like old friends and I worry for their future – I hope they can all be happy.
Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours.
About the Author
ERICKA WALLER lives in Brighton with her husband, three daughters and pets. Previously, she worked as a blogger and columnist. Dog Days is the sum of everything she has learned about love, loss and the healing power of dogs.
ERICKA WALLER’S NOTE ON DOG DAYS:
“One of the inspirations for Dog Days came from walking my own dogs. It’s this weird
alternative universe – dog owners could be psycho killers, but we approach them alone on windy beacons, because they have a dog. Dog owners might be battered wives, addicts, cheaters, thieves.
I also wanted to use dogs to reflect how we, as humans, are consumed by things we cannot control or change. Dogs live from one falling leaf to the next. Their emotions are simple. I wanted to set them against the lives of three characters battling with real life issues such as depression, anxiety, OCD and grief.
I wanted to explore how people force themselves into a shape we can understand, that goes along with the stories we tell ourselves. I didn’t want to write a romance, but I did want the book to be suffused with different kinds of love: platonic, sexual, maternal.
I wanted to explore how women are perceived by other women and the way we need to force them into a shape we can understand, that goes along with the stories we tell ourselves. Everything is always about how it makes us feel, so we alter reality or bend truths to make them fit in how we need the world to be.”
Social media:
Twitter: @erickawaller1
Instagram @erickamary
+ childhood, coming-of-age, family, fiction, friendship, girl's school, humour fiction, review, sisters
Good Eggs by Rebecca Hardiman
When Kevin Gogarty’s irrepressible eighty-three-year-old mother, Millie, is caught shoplifting yet again, he has no choice but to hire a caretaker to keep an eye on her. Kevin, recently unemployed, is already at his wits’ end tending to a full house while his wife travels to exotic locales for work, leaving him solo with his sulky, misbehaved teenage daughter, Aideen, whose troubles escalate when she befriends the campus rebel at her new boarding school.
Into the Gogarty fray steps Sylvia, Millie’s upbeat American home aide, who appears at first to be their saving grace—until she catapults the Gogarty clan into their greatest crisis yet.
With charm, humour, and pathos to spare, Good Eggs is a delightful study in self-determination; the notion that it’s never too late to start living; and the unique redemption that family, despite its maddening flaws, can offer.
My Review
Initially when I started reading Good Eggs with my book club, I wasn’t 100% sure if I would like it. But it didn’t take long before I realised how hilarious it was. Millie is a hoot. A kleptomaniac OAP with a penchant for stealing greetings cards, cheese and onion crisps and Hula Hoops, Millie is a liability in her beaten up old Renault, as well as in the kitchen. She is convinced son Kevin wants to put her in a nursing home for her own safety and that of other road users.
But not to worry. Kevin has a solution to her latest shop-lifting escapade and subsequent arrest. He’ll hire a ‘minder’. But oh dear Kevin, how well did you do your research. Glamorous, American, professional home help Sylvia is not what she seems. And to make things worse, she has a nephew Sean with whom granddaughter Aideen falls head over heels in love. Aideen – with her perfect twin sister Nuala who she calls her ‘Nemesis’. Aideen – who has been banished to an all girls boarding school in the hope that she’ll learn good behaviour and respect. What could possibly go wrong? And as for Kevin – who’s a naughty boy then?
Could things get any worse? Yes they can. Much, much worse, but I’m not giving anything else away. Suffice to say, Good Eggs turns into a hilarious romp with moments that are so ludicrous, it’s almost like a French farce. And I loved every crazy minute.
Many thanks to The Pigeonhole, the author and my fellow Pigeons for making this such an enjoyable read.
About the Author
Rebecca Hardiman is a former magazine editor who lives in New Jersey with her husband and three children. GOOD EGGS is her first novel.
’Those who live in the walls must adjust, must twist themselves around in their home,
stretching themselves until they’re as thin as air. Not everyone can do what they can.
But soon enough, they can’t help themselves. Signs of their presence remain in a house.
Eventually, every hidden thing is found.’
Elise knows every inch of the house. She knows which boards will creak. She knows where the gaps are in the walls. She knows which parts can take her in, hide her away. It’s home, after all. The home her parents made for her. And home is where you stay, no matter what.
Eddie calls the same house his home. Eddie is almost a teenager now. He must no longer believe in the girl he sometimes sees from the corner of his eye. He needs her to disappear. But when his older brother senses her, too, they are faced with a question: how do they get rid of someone they aren’t sure even exists?
And, if they cast her out, what other threats might they invite in?
My Review
“Listen. We know there are people who hide in our homes. They crawl into attic spaces….flit between the rooms….just outside the reach of sight.” It’s a terrifying thought.
If I could give Girl in the Walls ten stars I would in a heartbeat. I’ve never read anything like it before. But it’s not just the story, it’s the poetry of the writing. The depth of feeling. The beauty of the descriptions. The family dynamic. The references to the Norse gods. And so much more. I was entranced.
There is a touch of Gothic fantasy in the style that makes you wonder if the girl in the walls is real. Maybe she is a ghost. Maybe everyone else is. I know some of my fellow Pigeons (in my book club) found it a bit improbable that someone could live in the walls of a house. But then I don’t know the type of house which she inhabits. The walls must be double-thickness and hollow in between, unlike my house, which is full of cladding.
The characters are so richly drawn. Elise trying to deal with her grief, Brody just trying to be a friend, Eddie and Marshall, brothers drawn together when only they believe in her and Traust (a name so near to trust) called out in naivety and feared in reality – a terrifying figure who drags them out by the hair because “…you have to find them. You have to root them out”.
It’s hard to believe this is a debut novel. I predict great things to come from this author.
Many thanks to The Pigeonhole, A.J. and my fellow Pigeons for making this such an enjoyable and intriguing read.
About the Author
A native of New Orleans, Louisiana, A. J. Gnuse received an MFA in fiction from UNC Wilmington and was a 2018 Kenyon Review Peter Taylor fellow. His short stories have been published in Guernica, Gulf Coast, Los Angeles Review, Passages North and other magazines. Girl in the Walls is his first novel.
+ abuse, child abuse, childhood, family, fiction, loss, prostitution, Psychological fiction, relationships, revenge, review, secrets, sisters, thriller
The Secret Sister by M.M. DeLuca
Some secrets won’t stay buried…
There are things I want to tell my husband, Guy, about my past. I want to tell him how I bounced from foster home to foster home. I want to tell him that living with him is the first time I’ve ever felt safe and loved. Most of all, I want to tell him about my little sister, who vanished a few years ago.
But even though I can’t stop thinking about her, about everything that happened leading up to her disappearance, I can’t tell him about her. Not yet.
#TheSecretSister @DeLucaMarjorie @canelo_co @damppebbles #damppebblesblogtours Facebook @damppebblesblogtours
Because I don’t know if I can trust Guy – I’m not the only one in this marriage with a past and a complicated family. And I don’t know if I can trust myself – people keep questioning my memories of the past, and I have to wonder whether I’m losing my mind.
As I search for answers, only one thing is clear. When all of our secrets are on the table, the truth will burn through our lives and our families, leaving some of us in ashes.
My review
Anna is not always the kind of character you can empathise with. In spite of her terrible childhood – hungry, deprived, pushed from one foster home to another – she is totally materialistic and a shopaholic. She never wants to be poor again. But when she describes her early life it is the tale of her little sister Birdie that made me cry. The descriptions of this small, thin child trying to please everyone was just so sad, I wept for her.
This is a hard read at times, but by the time I got to half way through I just kept reading to the end. In fact it was way past midnight when I finished. What starts out as a story about childhood abuse and dreadful mistakes on the part of social services, turns into something quite different. I can’t say any more because the twist was a revelation.
The story starts with twins Anna and Birdie living with their father Dennis after their mother has died from a drugs overdose. Dennis tries his best but eventually he hands the girls over to social services. Sometimes they find themselves in a children’s’ home, while at other times they stay with a series of totally unsuitable foster parents – greedy, uneducated, alcoholics and drug addicts. People who just want to get paid for taking on needy children. I can’t believe no checks were made as to their suitability. No-one ever visited their houses. And most of Anna’s social workers seem to be useless.
More and more of the girls’ background is revealed through Anna’s nightmares and flashbacks, but the theme running through the book is ‘where’s Birdie?’ Anna meets handsome Professor Guy Franzen and they marry, but this is just the beginning. In her job as a teacher of underprivileged, broken children, she sees Birdie everywhere. And the more she discovers about the children in her school, the nearer to the truth about Birdie’s disappearance she gets. It appears little has changed in 15 years.
If I had one criticism it would be that there was no light amongst the darkness. But it would be difficult to find any. This is a brilliantly written and well researched novel which I found I could not put down.
Many thanks to @damppebbles for inviting me to be part of #damppebblesblogtours
About the Author
M. M. DeLuca spent her childhood in Durham City, England. After studying Psychology at the University of London, Goldsmiths College, she moved to Winnipeg, Canada where she worked as a teacher then as a freelance writer. She studied Advanced Creative writing with Pulitzer prizewinning author, Carol Shields and has received several local arts council grants for her work. Her first novel, The Pitman’s Daughter was shortlisted for the Chapters Robertson Davies first novel in Canada award in 2001. She went on to self-publish it on Amazon in 2013 where it reached the Amazon Top 20 in the literary bestseller chart. Her novel The Savage Instinct was shortlisted for the Launchpad Manuscript Contest (USA) in 2017 where it was picked up by independent publisher, Inkshares.
Social Media:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DeLucaMarjorie
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marjoriedelucawriter/
Website: https://www.marjoriedeluca.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mmdelucaauthor/
Blog: http://marjoriedeluca.blogspot.com/
Purchase Links:
Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/2PeL9oB
+ art, coming-of-age, family, fiction, friends, friendship, Italy, literature, murder, review, secrets, Venice
The Favour by Laura Vaughan
Fortune favours the fraud…
When she was thirteen years old, Ada Howell lost not just her father, but the life she felt she was destined to lead. Now, at eighteen, Ada is given a second chance when her wealthy godmother gifts her with an extravagant art history trip to Italy.
#TheFavour @LVaughanWrites @CorvusBooks @RandomTTours #RandomThingsTours
In the palazzos of Venice, the cathedrals of Florence and the villas of Rome, she finally finds herself among the kind of people she aspires to be: sophisticated, cultured, privileged. Ada does everything in her power to prove she is one of them. And when a member of the group dies in suspicious circumstances, she seizes the opportunity to permanently bind herself to this gilded set.
But everything hidden must eventually surface, and when it does, Ada discovers she’s been keeping a far darker secret than she could ever have imagined…
My Review
Omg! Omg! What an amazing, intelligent, atmospheric and beautiful book. It surrounded me like the open arms of that claustrophobic summer in Venice. I could smell the heat, the flowers, the sadness, the humid streets, and the clammy perspiration of deceit. I sound pretentious don’t I, but pretentiousness is at the heart of this book.
The so-called Dilettante, a group of posh, rich, public school educated teenagers pay £12,000 each to go on a tour of Venice, Florence and Rome, learning about art and attempting to find the inner beauty that will enhance their lives for ever. But in this group of over-privileged art students, there are two that are different. Mallory is American and Jewish. She is not really accepted by the group, including by our main protagonist Ada, who is the other odd-one-out.
Ada is really rather horrid. Having spent her childhood living in a ramshackle mansion with her mother and published-author father, she loses everything when he dies and they have to move to an ordinary home in London. Her mum finds love with Brian, an ordinary chap with an ordinary name (no Lorcans or Clemencys in their lives), but Ada can’t accept their ordinariness. She wants to be extraordinary and she desperately wants this group of Dilettantes to accept her. But they are hiding secrets and she is barely tolerated by everyone except Mallory, whose friendship she rejects.
But this book is more than that. Ada does some terrible things to be one of the right set, hiding a crime and using it to her advantage, but she also grows as a person and her development is cleverly sewn into the tapestry of the story. Brilliant, beautifully written and thought provoking. I loved it.
Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours.
About the Author
Laura Vaughan grew up in rural Wales and studied Art History in Italy and Classics at Bristol and Oxford. She got her first book deal aged twenty-two and went on to write eleven books for children and young adults. She lives in South London with her husband and two children. The Favour is her first novel for adults.
Genie has everything – a BRIT award, a singing career, the attention of the press and Oliver Fox, a pretty boy who looks good on her arm.
Until he dies.
#Comeback @catmachine @unbounders @damppebbles #damppebblesblogtours Facebook @damppebblesblogtours
His death brings Genie’s long buried feelings bubbling to the surface. Her grief over the death of her lover Wendi who introduced her to this world. Her self doubt and fear that she will be exposed as a fraud.
How far is she prepared to go to fix things?
The afterlife isn’t the most comfortable of places for anyone who’s still alive, but Genie’s not going to take any crap from the dead – she’s got years of experience in the music business.
Sometimes going to Hell and back takes a lifetime…
My Review
There are two separate stories here. The first one tells us all about Genie and her rise to fame, after a chance meeting with Wendi, the lead singer of a band called Beam. It’s a roller-coaster ride through the music business, through a world of alcohol and drugs. Wendi and Genie have a relationship, but it is not enough to prevent Wendi from taking her own life and Genie is gradually discovering how fickle the whole celebrity world can be.
The second story takes us into the underworld as we follow Genie down an escalator into Hell where she meets Wendi and other people she knew who have died. I really enjoyed this part of the story. The descriptions have come from a truly imaginative mind. It is a modern retelling of the Greek myth of Orpheus in the Underworld. It is full of references to myth and fairy tales.
But I have to be honest. I struggled far more with the drugs and alcohol than I did with the premise of Hell and back. I found that part fascinating. The writer can really go to town with the descriptions of the underworld as I assume none of us has been there and lived to tell the tale.
This is an excellent book but I am not the target audience and that is probably why I had problems with the drugs lifestyle and the bad language. For the right audience, this book will be fascinating and insightful.
Many thanks to @damppebbles for inviting me to be part of #damppebblesblogtours
About the Author
Chris is a writer based in UK, who has had a number of short stories published over the past few years, blogs on a regular basis and occasionally reviews books and audios for the British Fantasy Society.
Chris wrote a short pop memoir which was published in 2011 and went down well with its core-audience. It continues to sell at a steady rate to this day.
Chris also plays bass guitar and performs random acts of web and graphic design for a diverse selection of clients.
Social Media:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/catmachine
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/comebacknovel
Website: https://chrislimb.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/catmachine/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5347555.Chris_Limb
Purchase Links:
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08PCM8XXY
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/comeback-chris-limb/1138397379
The Hive: https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/CHRIS–LIMB/COMEBACK/25566980
Blackwells: https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/COMEBACK-by-LIMB-CHRIS/9781789650891
Waterstones: https://www.waterstones.com/book/comeback/chris-limb/9781789650891
Congratulations! It’s the 20th episode!!
Picturing the Past
A brush with the past
What a beautiful, poetic, yet ultimately sad story of commercial success but unfulfilled, suppressed creativity. It takes place in two timescales – nowadays when Amy and Ruth attend an exhibition of paintings by landscape artist Hugo Westfield who died in 1947, aged just 59. The history of the artist is described in the Audioguide. But we also have flashbacks to Hugo and Imogen in 1914, becoming friends and writing to each other until the end of the war, when they marry, in 1919.
Hugo is quite the rebel, with his own style of painting, and once the war is over, he draws graphic pictures of wounded soldiers in devastating circumstances to show the world what war was really like. Imogen, however, says no-one wants to see such disturbing images and persuades Hugo that people want pretty pictures that ‘increase human happiness.’
I was so moved by this story. I understand that Imogen needs Hugo to sell commercial paintings to support his family, but I was also saddened by her lack of understanding. I loved this play.
Written by Barbara Jennings
Directed by Emmeline Braefield
Starring
Jackson Pentland as the Audioguide
Emmeline Braefield as Amy
Chloe Wade as Ruth and Sylvia Westfield
Jasmine Raymond as Imogen Westfield
and Gareth Turkington as Hugo Westfield
Produced by Cat on a Piano Productions
Music:
The Thunderer March by the US Marine Band
English Country Garden bt Aaron Kenny
The Two Seasons by Dan Bodan
Sweetly My Heart by Asher Fulero
Remembering Her by Esther Abrami
In my Dreams by Esther Abrami
The Theatrephonic Theme tune was composed by Jackson Pentland
Performed by
Jackson Pentland
Mollie Fyfe Taylor
Emmeline Braefield
Cat on a Piano Productions produce and edit feature films, sketches and radio plays.
Their latest project is called @Theatrephonic, a podcast of standalone radio plays and short stories performed by professional actors. You can catch Theatrephonic on Spotify and other platforms.
And if you really enjoyed Picturing the Past, listen to Theatrephonic’s other plays and short stories and consider becoming a patron by clicking here…
+ community, family, fiction, friendship, holiday, literature, love, review, romance, seventies
Madame Burova by Ruth Hogan
Madame Burova – Tarot Reader, Palmist and Clairvoyant is retiring and leaving her booth on the Brighton seafront after fifty years.
Imelda Burova has spent a lifetime keeping other people’s secrets and her silence has come at a price. She has seen the lovers and the liars, the angels and the devils, the dreamers and the fools. Her cards had unmasked them all and her cards never lied. But Madame Burova is weary of other people’s lives and other people’s secrets, she needs rest and a little piece of life for herself. Before that, however, she has to fulfill a promise made a long time ago. She holds two brown envelopes in her hand, and she has to deliver them.
In London, it is time for another woman to make a fresh start. Billie has lost her university job, her marriage, and her place in the world when she discovers something that leaves her very identity in question. Determined to find answers, she must follow a trail which might just lead right to Madame Burova’s door.
In a story spanning over fifty years, Ruth Hogan conjures a magical world of 1970s holiday camps and seaside entertainers, eccentrics, heroes and villains, the lost and the found. Young people, with their lives before them, make choices which echo down the years. And a wall of death rider is part of a love story which will last through time.
My Review
Ruth Hogan has done it again! Her fourth novel is brilliant – I read the whole thing in one sitting.
But first let me tell you how I discovered the writer whose books have become amongst my favourites over the last few years.
#MadameBurova @ruthmariehogan @TwoRoadsBooks
I first read The Keeper of Lost Things and instantly fell in love with Eunice and Bomber and the lovely cup of tea. In fact I have read it twice (you miss things the first time – who hasn’t watched The Sixth Sense over and over to look for the clues they missed) which is something I almost never do. Except for The Wisdom of Sally Red Shoes, which I have also read twice. I have only read Queenie Malone’s Paradise Hotel once so far, but only because I haven’t had the chance yet for a second go.
I think it is something to do with the richly-drawn characters that make them seem like old friends. And the dogs of course. There have to be dogs. But it’s also the detail, which is why I have to go back, because in desperation to discover what happens next, it’s easy to miss something important or beautiful. It may only be something little, but it’s still worth a second look.
Like with Keeper, Madame Burova is set in two time periods – now and the early 1970s when I was just 20 years old like Imelda. I only visited a holiday camp once; it was the mid-sixties. We went for the day to Butlins in Minehead – my dad wanted to see the wrestling. I thought it was amazing…the camp not the wrestling.
Nowadays we often go to Brighton – my older son’s family live just down the road. The place has its own special buzz, there is nowhere else like it. “The book’s protagonist was inspired in part by the life of Eva Petulengro, a famous clairvoyant and Tarot reader who lived and worked for many years in Brighton, and whose booth can still be seen on the promenade…..Hogan studied for many months with an expert Tarot teacher until she was able to read to a professional standard.”* I’ve walked past the booth many times. I’d never dare go in.
Ruth has said that: “….The cast of characters became my friends and companions, and in all the strange days of lockdown I never once felt alone.” They became my friends and companions, albeit for only 24 hours but I shall miss them as I still miss Eunice, Bomber and Sally Red Shoes amongst others.
Many thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Madame Burova is published by Two Roads in April 2021.
*Quote from The Bookseller website
About the Author
From Ruth herself: ‘I was born in the house where my parents still live in Bedford: my sister was so pleased to have a sibling that she threw a thrupenny bit at me. As a child I read everything I could lay my hands on: The Moomintrolls, A Hundred Million Francs, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, the back of cereal packets and gravestones. I was mad about dogs and horses, but didn’t like daddy-long-legs or sugar in my tea.
‘I studied English and Drama at Goldsmiths College which was brilliant, but then I came home and got a ‘proper’ job. I worked for ten years in a senior local government position (I was definitely a square peg in a round hole, but it paid the bills and mortgage) before a car accident left me unable to work full-time and convinced me to start writing seriously. It was going well, but then in 2012 I got cancer, which was bloody inconvenient but precipitated an exciting hair journey from bald to a peroxide blonde Annie Lennox crop. When chemo kept me up all night I passed the time writing and the eventual result was The Keeper of Lost Things.
‘I live in a chaotic Victorian house with an assortment of rescue dogs and my long-suffering partner (who has very recently become my husband – so I can’t be that bad!) I am a magpie, always collecting treasures, and a huge John Betjeman fan. My favourite word is ‘antimacassar’ and I still like reading gravestones.’
+ community, Dogs, family, female friendship, fiction, friends, friendship, literature, love, relationships, review
Saving Missy by Beth Morrey
Prickly. Stubborn. Terribly lonely.
But everyone deserves a second chance…
Missy Carmichael’s life has become small.
Grieving for a family she has lost or lost touch with, she’s haunted by the echoes of her footsteps in her empty home; the sound of the radio in the dark; the tick-tick-tick of the watching clock.
#SavingMissy #MeetMissy @BethMorrey @fictionpubteam @HarperCollinsUK #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours
Spiky and defensive, Missy knows that her loneliness is all her own fault. She deserves no more than this; not after what she’s done. But a chance encounter in the park with two very different women opens the door to something new.
Another life beckons for Missy, if only she can be brave enough to grasp the opportunity. But seventy-nine is too late for a second chance. Isn’t it?
My Review
I do love this book. Poor Missy. A domineering husband. A daughter she has fallen out with. A son and grandson who have emigrated to Australia. And a large empty house full of memories and loneliness.
Missy worshipped her husband Leo. A famous academic author, handsome and respected. Maybe not always faithful we suspect. Missy herself obtained a first class degree in Classics from Cambridge, but she gave it all up to be a mother, a housewife and to take care of Leo. But that’s what women did in the 1950s and 60s.
Often told in flashbacks or letters, we learn a lot about Missy’s early life, her mum and dad, Aunt Sibby who kept chickens, gave them names, but still rung their necks and cooked them. And granddad Fa-Fa who told stories and grandmother Jette who sewed things that she never loved.
Then one day Missy meets Sylvie and her friend Angela, and her life is changed forever. Angela has a son Otis, who reminds Missy of her grandson Arthur, who she misses dreadfully, even though they are nothing like each other apart from being the same age. But what really changes her life is when Angela asks her to look after a dog. The dog is called Bob even though she is a girl. It’s from Blackadder she tells her. Missy has never seen Blackadder. The dog will only be there till her owner finds a new home away from her abusive husband. Bob soon becomes Bobby (less explaining) and Missy becomes part of a community of dog owners, who take her under their wing.
It’s hard to put into words how emotional this book is at times. Especially at a time when we are all already emotional. I laughed and I cried and then I cried some more. At one point my tears were falling onto my scampi and chips, while I sipped a small sherry in honour of Missy’s tipple of choice. This is not a book about twists, but there are even a few surprises in store. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours.
Also many thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review and to The Pigeonhole, the author and my fellow Pigeons for making this such an enjoyable read.
About the Author
About Beth Morrey: Beth Morrey is currently the Creative Director at RDF Television where she has been involved in numerous productions – she helped create The Secret Life of Four Year Olds series on Channel 4 and devised 100 Year Old Drivers for ITV.
She was shortlisted for the Grazia-Orange First Chapter competition back in 2011, had her work published in the Cambridge and Oxford May Anthologies, and was Vice-President of the Cambridge Footlights. Bethlives in London with her husband, two sons and dog.
Diana and her sister Antonia are house-sharing spinsters who have never got over their respective first loves. Diana owns a gift shop, but rarely works there. Antonia is unemployed, having lost her teaching job at an all girls’ school following a shocking outburst in the classroom after enduring years of torment. Diana is a regular at the local library, Antonia enjoys her “nice” magazines, and they treat themselves to coffee and cake once a week in the village café.
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Naomi lives alone, haunted by the failure of her two marriages. She works in the library, doesn’t get on with her younger colleagues, and rarely cooks herself a proper meal. Secretly she longs for a Boden frock.
When a body is discovered in the local quarry, all three women’s lives are turned upside down. And when Diana’s old flame Gill turns up unexpectedly, tensions finally spill over and threaten to destroy the outwardly peaceful lives all three women have carefully constructed around themselves.
Helen takes us back to the fictional Shropshire village of Morevale in this, her brilliant second novel which exposes the fragilities and strengths of three remarkably unremarkable elderly women.
My Review
First of all let’s get one thing straight. Sixty is not elderly. Sixty is the new forty. Once in your sixties you can wear what you like, dye your hair pink, go to yoga in leg warmers and be comfortably eccentric. And stop caring what people think of you. Unfortunately none of these ladies got the memo.
They need to loosen up a bit and stop dwelling in the past. Their lives are limited by the experiences they had when they were young.
Diana lives in her mother’s house and also owns a gift shop but she doesn’t work there anymore. Her manager runs it. Diana is not needed. She also rents out the flat above so we can see she is not short of a bob or two. But she never goes anywhere. Her life is stuck in a time warp when she was 21 and fell in love with 18 year old Gillian. That was over 40 years ago. They send the odd postcard but have never spoken since. Until now.
Diana’s younger sister Antonia is a bit strange. She was in love with Phillip when they were teenagers but he went away and she never got over it. She really wanted to be married and have children but instead she went into teaching home economics and was so badly bullied by the students that she left under some sort of cloud. She has never recovered from the experience or from being deserted by Phillip. Antonia and Diana live together but only barely tolerate one another’s company.
Naomi is more interesting. She went to university, is well-educated and married a wonderful, cultured man called Nigel. Unfortunately he left her for Melanie but she still holds a candle. Inexplicably she got married again to the dreadful Brian, the total opposite of Nigel. I’d love to say he was a rough diamond, but in reality he was just rough. No proper job, always in the pub and apparently having affairs left, right and centre. One wonders why she married him. Even more so, why he married her. She’s not exactly one of his glam floosies. She thinks maybe he just wanted her money.
But Brian disappeared 20 years ago and then a body turns up. Why can’t the past just stay buried thinks Naomi.
This is a tale of secrets and people who don’t really know each other. A story of three sixty plus women whose lives have been boxed in by their own fears, prejudices and I hate to say narrow-mindedness. They automatically dislike each other but never really try to give the other some credit. They are all lonely but push each other away. Like three residents in a retirement home who never leave their rooms even though there is a communal lounge and dining room.
This is a brilliant book. As a sixty something myself (lucky to be married with two sons, three granddaughters and a dog) I believe you have to make your own choices in life if you can and leave the past in the past. Many people are not so lucky and are desperately lonely, but these three have decided to turn their noses up at the opportunity to form any kind of bond or friendship. I loved it.
Many thanks to @damppebbles for inviting me to be part of #damppebblesblogtours
About the Author
Helen lives in Worcester with her husband, two teenaged children and two rescue cats. Her first poetry collection was nominated for the Forward Best First Collection Prize. She has published three other poetry collections and her short fiction has appeared in magazines including Ambit, Feminist Review and Stand. She holds a BA (Hons) in Humanities.
Helen’s debut novel The Last Words of Madeleine Anderson was published in March 2019. Her second “Morevale” novel, Old Bones, will be published on 16 January 2021.
Social Media:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Jemima_Mae_7
Purchase Links:
Louise Walters Books: http://bit.ly/37dpwKM
Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/2LPuDKI
Foyles: https://bit.ly/3pdjamn
Waterstones: http://bit.ly/3660WMc
Amazon US: http://amzn.to/365gdwN
Publishing Information:
Published by Louise Walters Books.
A SECRET BEACH. A HOLIDAY OF A LIFETIME.
WISH YOU WERE HERE?
THINK AGAIN…
It should be like any other holiday.
Beautiful beaches.
Golden sunsets.
Nothing for miles.
You’ll never want to leave.
Until you can’t…
My Review
What an exciting book, so full of tension. I just wanted keep on reading till I found out what happened.
Erin and Lori are sisters. They have always been close, even more so after losing both parents. Then Lori’s husband Pete tells her he is leaving to be with someone else and that someone is expecting his baby. Lori wants nothing more that to be a mother, but after several rounds of IVF she realises it wasn’t meant to be. A double blow that Pete is leaving her to have a baby with someone else.
Erin works for a magazine. She has no-one in her life apart from Lori. Lori says her sister still lives like a student and needs to take her life in hand. They decide they both need a fresh start so they book a holiday to Fiji, staying on a beautiful, luxury, island resort. But the night before, they row and when Lori boards the plane, Erin fails to show up.
Then the small plane crashes on a remote, isolated island and the real nightmare begins.
The Castaways is told from two points of view – then and now. It works brilliantly. Two years after the crash, the pilot, Mike Brass, turns up having lived and worked on another small island, but he is sick and dying. It is on all the news. Erin persuades the magazine to fund a trip to Fiji so she can interview the pilot about what really happened, but in actual fact she only cares about what happened to Lori. Erin is the ‘now’.
We hear Lori’s story from the ‘then’ point of view. She tells us exactly what happened while they were on the island. Who died and who survived, if anyone. The idea of being a castaway with limited supplies, food and other necessities is terrifying. Will anyone ever find them? As well the terror of being abandoned, this book examines the relationship between a group of strangers under pressure.
It’s a brilliant book. I had to keep holding my breath while reading. I loved Lori, though not so much Erin at times. I thought she was rather selfish, but I’ll leave you to decide when you read it.
Many thanks to The Pigeonhole, the author and my fellow Pigeons for making this such an enjoyable read.
About the Author
Lucy Clarke is the bestselling author of six psychological thrillers – THE SEA SISTERS, A SINGLE BREATH, THE BLUE/NO ESCAPE, LAST SEEN, YOU LET ME IN and THE CASTAWAYS. Her debut novel was a Richard and Judy Book Club pick, and her books have been sold in over 20 territories.
Lucy is a passionate traveller, beach hut dweller, and fresh air enthusiast. She’s married to a professional windsurfer and, together with their two young children, they spend their winters travelling and their summers at home on the south coast of England. Lucy writes from a beach hut, using the inspiration from the wild south coast to craft her stories.
Social media links:
Instagram @lucyclarke_author
Facebook: lucyclarkeauthor
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The Fractured Globe by Angela Fish
Nature? Nurture? Or just plain luck? Single mums, Tia and Kay, meet when their sons are born on the same day.
Tia is a product of the welfare system but wants a better life for her son. Her entrapment by her manipulative and controlling boyfriend in the world of drink, drugs, crime and enforced prostitution suggests otherwise. Is she a ‘born devil’ or can she change and break free?
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Kay comes from a stable home but sacrifices it all, initially, to live her own kind of life.
Overshadowed by betrayals, mistakes, regrets, and the mystery of an abandoned child, their paths – and those of their families – run parallel or criss-cross over twenty-five years.
Can determination and the power of the snow globe offer a chance of happiness?
My Review
Two girls, both single mothers, but their lives could not be more different. Kay ran away from a loving, stable home and hasn’t contacted her parents since. She is wracked with guilt, having stolen her father’s savings pot in order to survive. She cannot go home.
Tia sees herself as one of life’s victims. Brought up in care, her life has been hard, one of drink and drugs and now an abusive boyfriend called Jake. She’s a thief and a hustler and survives on her wits. Things happen to her. She has no choice. Then she finds herself pregnant and meets Kay in the hospital, when they are both giving birth. Kay just happens to be available and has a flat. Soon they form a bond and a friendship of sorts. Kay risks being thrown out for having a ‘lodger’ but Tia doesn’t care. She steals money and things for the baby and lies to Kay about how she obtained them.
We don’t know at the time who the father of Kay’s baby Adam is. But Kay knows. Tia thinks Luke’s dad might be Jake but in reality it could be anyone. She’s been raped and prostituted more times than she cares to remember. The drink didn’t help either.
Tia’s life is horrendous. The only person ever to show her any kindness is the lady from the charity shop who helped her when she collapsed, Janet, who just happens to be the sister of Kay’s mum Ruth. The ‘coincidences’ will drive the story forward over the next 25 years, as we follow the lives of Kay and Tia and the children and pray for some kind of reconciliation.
Much of this book was bleak and harrowing, so be warned. But everything has consequences and some may be good, rather than bad, so stick with it. There was just one part I couldn’t get my head around. Kay is too ashamed to go home and apologise for stealing the money. But is this still guilt on Kay’s part? I would call it pride. For this reason I probably preferred Tia to Kay. I had some sympathy for Tia. For Kay I struggled to find any. As a grandmother I found her behaviour deeply upsetting and selfish.
On the other hand, Ruth never tries to find Kay – she will wait for Kay to contact her and dad Paul. It’s a long wait. And if I were Ruth I’d have been looking for her from day one.
Many thanks to @damppebbles for inviting me to be part of #damppebblesblogtours
About The Author
Angela worked in medical research, electronic and electrical engineering, and administration. In her mid-thirties, she decided to change direction and returned to university to study Humanities, specialising in Literature and Creative Writing. She then completed an MPhil (Literature) focussing on how women writers in Wales, between 1850 and 1950, portrayed their female characters. Following this, Angela joined the staff the University of Glamorgan where, in 2000, she set up and directed The Wales Centre for Intergenerational Practice. As well as providing training and advice, she worked with local schools and communities, over a period of ten years, to improve communication between the generations. She has been in demand, nationally and internationally, as a conference presenter and an invited speaker in her field.
Her publications include non-fiction, short stories, poetry, and fiction for children. The Fractured Globe is her first full-length novel and explores the nature/nurture question through the lives of two single mums, their sons, and families, over twenty-five years. This debate, together with an interest in mythology and magic, has significantly influenced her writing.
Angela is a member of The Society of Authors [SoA], and the SoA Children’s Writers and Illustrators Group.
She lives in south Wales.
Social Media:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/angelaEfish
Facebook: www.facebook.com/AngelaFishAuthor
Website: www.angela-fish.com
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Angela-Fish/e/B01MPXRE8F?ref_=dbs_p_ebk_r00_abau_000000
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14428605.Angela_Fish?from_search=true&from_srp=true
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/uthors/angela-fish
Purchase Links:
Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/3iLhPRl
Amazon US: http://amzn.to/39Y9JAP
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