Review: What a Way to Go by Julia Forster

What a Way to Go by Julia Forster
Publisher: Atlantic Books
Release date: 7 January 2016
Rating: ****

Back cover blurb: 1988. 12-year-old Harper Richardson's parents are divorced. Her mum got custody of her, the Mini, and five hundred tins of baked beans. Her dad got a mouldering cottage in a Midlands backwater village and default membership of the Lone Rangers single parents' club. Harper got questionable dress sense, a zest for life, two gerbils, and her Chambers dictionary, and the responsibility of fixing her parents' broken hearts. Set against a backdrop of high hairdos and higher interest rates, pop music and puberty, divorce and death, What a Way to Go is a warm, wise and witty tale of one girl tackling the business of growing up while those around her try not to fall apart.

 

What a Way to Go is a wonderful homage to the 1980s. The decade that fashion most certainly forgot.

Harper Richardson is 12 years old when her Mum invites Kit to live with them.

After the breakdown of her parents marriage, Harper is already feeling different to her friends, in particular her best friend Cassie whose family can afford holidays abroad and private school fees (for Cassie's sister). 

Harper's father is struggling in a mouldy cottage in the middle of nowhere, dragging Harper along to Lone Rangers singles club (which she secretly enjoys)

Then Harper meets a BOY and everything changes.

Suddenly the world isn't all about grown ups and their problems, it is very much about teenagers and their problems!

Set against a wonderful backdrop of 80s music and fashion, What a Way to Go is a beautifully written coming of age story and I hope to read more from this author.

What a Way to Go is available now from  Amazon online and all good book shops.       Thank you to the Curtis Brown Book Group who sent me an advanced copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Review: Landfalls by Naomi Williams

Landfalls by Naomi Williams

Publisher: Little Brown, UK

Release date: 22 October 2015

Rating: *** and a half

Back cover blurb: An epic voyage, undertaken with the grandest of ambitions. When Lapérouse leaves France in the Spring of 1785 with two ships under his command, he knows that he sails with the full backing of the French government. This is to be a voyage of scientific and geographical discovery - but every person on board has their own hopes, ambitions and dreams.  As the ships move across vast distances in their journey of nearly four years, the different characters step forward and invite us into their world. From the remote Alaskan bay where a dreadful tragedy unfolds, to the wild journey Barthélemy de Lessups undertakes from the far east of Russia to St Petersburg, the reader sees the emotional, physical and mental toll exacted by such an endeavour. Landfalls marks the launch of a brilliant new writer, who creates an unforgettable world through a web of voices and narratives.

Landfalls is Naomi Williams' debut, and I have a feeling we will be hearing a lot more from this particular author. 

As any regular reader to my blog will know, I just adore historical fiction, and this novel, whilst a little different from my usual, was still very enjoyable.

The novel, is not all fiction - The Boussole and the Astrolabe were two ships that set sail from Brest in August 1785 upon the orders of Louis XVI with the aim of recording new lands, verifying existing charts and records and making new scientific discoveries.

But the novel itself is a fictionalised account of these ships voyages of discovery.

Told from the perspectives of several onboard both ships, this could easily have been a very confusing novel, but this debut novelist is clearly very talented and keeps the reader captivates throughout.

Clearly thoroughly researched, Landfalls is a wonderful tale of exploration, loyalty, friendship and love. It's a little slow to start, but worth the perseverance.

I look forward to seeing what this author has up her sleeve next!

Landfalls is available to buy now from Amazon online and all good book shops.,

  Thank you to the publishers who approved my request via netgalley in exchange for an honest review. 

Blog tour: Sewing the Shadows Together by Allison Baillie

Sewing the Shadows Together by Allison Baillie
Publisher: Matador Books

Release date: 7 August 2015
Rating: *****

Back cover blurb: Can you ever really know someone? More than Thirty years after Thirteen-year-old Shona McIver was murdered in a Scottish seaside town, her brother Tom and her best friend Sarah meet again at a school reunion. The tragedy has cast a shadow over their lives, but when DNA evidence shows that the wrong man was convicted of the murder, their relationships and emotions are thrown into turmoil. In the search for the real killer, suspicion falls on those closest to them: Tom uncovers dark secrets, Sarah's perfect family life begins to crumble, and they are caught up in a web of death, love and deception before the truth finally comes to light.

Sewing the Shadows Together is essentially a murder mystery novel set in Portobello, Scotland, but it is really so much more.

Tom McIver returns to Portobello from South Africa after his Mother's final request that her ashes be scattered in Scotland. By chance more than anything else, he finds himself at a School Reunion where he meets Sarah, his sister Shona's best friend and her husband Rory Dunbar, an old school friend of his.

Shona McIver was murdered more than thirty years previously, and the locals have always believed that Logan Brodie was responsible for her death, until a local newspaper reporter learns otherwise. Brodie is soon to be released after new DNA evidence proves he cannot possibly have murdered Shona.

But if he didn't - then who did?

Sarah and Tom begin to question everything and everyone around them, drawn together by Shona they are determined to find the truth, no matter how hard it might be for one or both of them to bear.

Sewing the Shadows Together is a fairly dark secretive novel (my favourite kind) that really keeps you guessing until it's final pages. Who can you trust? Who was the murder? Are they still out there, or are they long gone?

An impressive debut, I look forward to the next novel from Allison Baillie...

About the author:

Alison Baillie was brought up in Yorkshire by Scottish parents. She studied English at St Andrews, before teaching English in Edinburgh, Finland and Switzerland. Now she spends her time reading, writing, travelling and attending crime writing festivals.

Don't forget to follow the rest of the blog tour;

Sewing the Shadows Together is available to buy now from Matador and  Amazon online.

    Many thanks to Mike Linane who sent me an advanced copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review.

Review: Burnt Paper Sky by Gilly MacMillan

Burnt Paper Sky by Gilly MacMillan
Publisher: Piatkus
Release date: 27 August 2015

Rating: *****
Back cover blurb: Rachel Jenner turned her back for a moment. Now her eight-year-old son Ben is missing. But what really happened that fateful afternoon? Caught between her personal tragedy and a public who have turned against her, there is nobody left who Rachel can trust. But can the nation trust Rachel? The clock is ticking to find Ben alive. WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON?

Burnt Paper Sky is Gilly MacMillan's debut novel, but you would never believe it.

In fact, Burnt Paper Sky is one of those novels that I’m going to find really hard to review because it was so good. It’s one of those where you don’t want to risk giving away any plot, but equally want to urge everyone you know to read it.

Rachel Jenner is rebuilding her life after her ex-husband consultant paediatric surgeon, John Finch left, leaving her to bring up son Ben whilst he starts a new life with another woman.

Whilst out walking one Sunday afternoon, Ben asks if he can run ahead to the swing, the paths are familiar to them both and she knows it’s not far, so after a bit of deliberation Rachel agrees. It is a decision that she regrets as soon as she gets to the swing and realises that Ben is missing.

At first she thinks he may be hiding or chasing their dog, Skittle. But she soon realises that neither of them are anywhere to be found. Rachel immediately calls upon her sister, for support as well as informing her ex-husband and the Police. 

DI Jim Clemo is assigned to the high profile case, determined to prove himself to his boss he pours his heart and soul into the case from the outset, knowing that the first 24 hours are crucial. A press conference is quickly organised for the family to appeal to the public to help find Ben, and this is where it all begins to fall apart for Rachel. Angry at whoever might have taken her son, she loses it in the press conference. Almost immediately people begin to turn against her.

Burnt Paper Sky showcases the reality of the technological world we live in. Rachel is ripped apart by online trolls and intense press speculation that she is somehow involved with her son’s disappearance. In reality she is torn apart by guilt that she allowed him to walk ahead, out of her sight. Her sister and her best friend rally around her and try to keep her off line and focused on trying to help the Police find her son.

As the investigation progresses there are people who become suspects, and information that comes to light that will leave you reeling, as it does to poor Rachel. Family secrets are uncovered that have been hidden for years and as Rachel reassesses the world around her, she begins to really fear for Ben's life.

Told alternately (and mainly retrospectively) from Rachel and Jim's points of view, Burnt Paper Sky is a novel that you won't want to miss this year.

Burnt Paper Sky is available from 27 August 2015.

You can pre-order it now from Amazon online and Piatkus Books.

    Thank you to the publishers who approved my request via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Review: the Bones Of You by Debbie Howells

The Bones Of You by Debbie Howells
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Release date: 16 July 2015
Rating: *****

Back cover blurb: I have a gardener's inherent belief in the natural order of things. Soft-petalled flowers that go to seed. The resolute passage of the seasons. Swallows that fly thousands of miles to follow the eternal summer. Children who don't die before their parents. A community in shock. When eighteen-year-old Rosie Anderson disappears, the idyllic village where she lived will never be the same again. Local gardener Kate is struck with guilt. She'd come to know Rosie well, and thought she understood her - perhaps better even than Rosie's own mother. A family torn apart. Rosie was beautiful, kind and gentle. She came from a loving family and she had her whole life ahead of her. Who could possibly want to harm her? And why? A keeper of secrets. Kate is convinced the police are missing something. She's certain that someone in the village knows more than they're letting on. As the investigation deepens, so does Kate's obsession with solving the mystery of what happened to Rosie.

 

The Bones of You is Debbie Howells’ thrilling debut novel. An idyllic community is in turmoil when Eighteen year old Rosie Anderson goes missing. Rosie is a beautiful young girl, quiet and shy with a loving family, her disappearance is completely out of character.

Kate is Grace’s Mother, although they are the same age and attend the same school, Grace is barely friends with Rosie but unsurprisingly disturbed when she goes missing. Kate is close to Rosie, through her love of horses and she instinctively feels that something terrible has happened to her. She reaches out to her Mother Joanna, to see if she can help.

Joanna Anderson, Rosie’s mother is fraught with grief and lashes out at those close to her, with the exception of her other daughter Delphine, whom she largely ignores, and her husband Neal.

Neal Anderson is a highly respected journalist whom Joanna describes as ‘amazing’ man, but he has a different side to him that we see mainly through Rosie.

Rosie Anderson is perhaps the most important character in the novel, through her we get to see different sides to different people, particularly her Mother and Father.

Alex is Rosie's secret boyfriend, did he have something to do with her disappearance, or is everyone just suspicious because Rosie wasn't the sort of girl to have a 'secret boyfriend' and therefore logically he must be flawed?

There were so many times during the Bones of You where I thought I had it sussed, particularly as an avid reader of this sort of novel. But I was wrong, so wrong, the author does a remarkable job of drip feeding the reader just enough information to come to a conclusion, before introducing something that destroys that conclusion.

If you are looking for a dark psychological thriller that will make you really think then this is the novel for you. I am struggling to describe just how much I enjoyed it, but it certainly is one of my favourite debut novels this year.

the Bones of You is available TODAY from Pan Macmillan and all good book shops.        Thank you to the publishers who sent me an advanced proof copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review.

Review: Church of Marvels by Leslie Parry

Church of Marvels by Leslie Parry

Publisher: Two Roads Books
Release date: 4 June 2015
Rating: ****

Back cover blurb: New  York, 1895. It's late on a warm city night when Sylvan Threadgill, a young night soiler who cleans out the privies behind the tenement houses, pulls a terrible secret out from the filthy hollows: an abandoned newborn baby. An orphan himself, Sylvan was raised by a kindly Italian family and can't bring himself to leave the baby in the slop. He tucks her into his chest, resolving to find out where she belongs. Odile Church is the girl-on-the-wheel, a second-fiddle act in a show that has long since lost its magic. Odile and her sister Belle were raised in the curtained halls of their mother's spectacular Coney Island sideshow: The Church of Marvels. Belle was always the star-the sword swallower-light, nimble, a true human marvel. But now the sideshow has burnt to the ground, their mother dead in the ashes, and Belle has escaped to the city. Alphie wakes up groggy and confused in Blackwell's Lunatic Asylum contd...

Church of Marvels is a very impressive debut novel and it is particularly exciting for me as a fan of historical fiction to discover a talented new author.

The novel opens in 1895 Coney Island; Odile is missing her twin-sister Isabelle (Belle) who has run off (quite literally) to Manhattan following a fire in the building that housed 'the Church of Marvels' their Mother's spectacular side show.

Odile is working under a new boss, in a new sideshow as the Spinning girl on the Wheel of Death, but she is mourning the loss of her Mother in the fire, and pondering over a letter from Belle. In short, she is not concentrating on her routine. So when she is injured she sees it as a perfect excuse to pack up her things and attempt to find her sister.

When Sylvan, a night soiler, finds an abandoned baby inside one of the privies he is attending to, he is determined to find the child's mother, for he does not believe that she meant to abandon her child, and he is sure that something has happened to make her act in this way.

Alphie upon waking up in lunatic asylum knows something terrible has taken place, something that she can barely remember being a part off. Yet she knows it must have for her to end up there. An encounter will a fellow 'inmate' leaves her reeling, but determined to escape back to normality as she knows she is not insane.

At first you wonder how these characters lives can possibly be linked, but as the novel progresses it becomes much clearer. The descriptions of the less than savoury areas New York/Manhattan and the horrors of the lunatic asylum are vivid, honest and brilliant.

I don't want to give too much more away, as this is most definitely a novel you have to discover for yourself. But I really enjoyed it and I can't wait to see what Leslie Parry has in store next.

Church of Marvels is available from 4 June 2015.

You can pre-order it now from Amazon online.

   

Thank you to the publishers who approved my request via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Review: the Girl in the Red coat by Kate Hamer

The Girl in the Red Coat by Kate Hamer

Publisher: Faber and Faber

Release date: 26 February 2015
Rating: ****

Back cover blurb: Eight-year-old Carmel has always been different - sensitive, distracted, with an heartstopping tendency to go missing. Her mother Beth, newly single, worries about her daughter's strangeness, especially as she is trying to rebuild a life for the two of them on her own. When she takes Carmel for an outing to a local festival, her worst fear is realised: Carmel disappears into the crowd. Unable to accept the possibility that her daughter might be gone for good, Beth embarks on a mission to find her. Meanwhile, Carmel begins an extraordinary and terrifying journey of her own. But do the real clues to Carmel's disappearance lie in the otherworldly qualities her mother had only begun to guess.

 

 

 

 

The Girl in the Red coat is an intriguing debut novel and Kate Hamer certainly knows how to keep the reader engaged. That said, I did find that I had to read the novel in large chunks or risk losing the plot slightly.

Carmel- the eight year old girl at the centre of the story, is a wonderful character, who often seems older than her years. Carmel's mother Beth, is a notorious worrier (in Carmel's eyes) and is often telling Carmel off for going 'missing' (hiding in mazes, under tables etc).

 

Beth is left bereft when her daughter goes missing at a literary festival and fears the worst. Carmel has been persuaded to leave with a man who tells her he is her grandfather and that her mother has been in a terrible accident, and left him to look after her.

What follows is a mother's tale of grief, anger and hope, and a little girls tale of strange new surroundings and lies about her family and future.

I loved that the story was told from both mother and daughter's perspective as it really helps us to get inside the characters heads.

Without giving too much away, the scary thing about the Girl in the Red coat, is that it is entirely plausible. The idea that another human being, male or female becomes so fixated with the crusade that they are on, that they are no longer in touch with the real world.

At first, I thought that the novel was going down a much darker path than I had anticipated, thankfully it didn't. 

 

I was more than happy with the ending (although disappointed that the novel had ended so abruptly) as it gives hope to families with missing children, and reiterates that not all who take children from their families do so with the intent of harming them. 

Indeed some believe that they are taking them for absolutely the right reasons and that they are going to a better place where they can give them a better life than the one they are currently living.

 

The Girl in the Red Coat is available to pre-order now from Amazon online and Faber. 
    Thank you to the publishers who approved my request via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Review: Falling by Emma Kavanagh

Falling by Emma Kavanagh

Publisher: Cornerstone (Random House UK)
Release date: 27 March 2014
Rating: ****

Back cover blurb: 

'Before the plane crash, after the plane crash, such a short amount of time for the world to turn on its head'

I pride myself on keeping as up to date on the latest releases as possible, but Falling, Emma Kavanagh's debut novel somehow passed me by. But as soon as I saw it in a magazine I knew I had to read it.

Not only did it sound like a great crime novel, but it also involved a plane crash... You'll have to bear with me a minute on this one.

So, I'm going to confess something that might make me sound a bit weird/bit of a geek etc... I love books, TV programmes, films that involve Aeroplanes, and particularly those that involve crashes (Final Destination, Air Crash Investigation etc). I find it all so fascinating, but I have no idea why!

I digress...

Falling opens (kind of inevitably) with the plane crash. Here we meet Cecelia, Air Hostess, Mother and Wife. Cecelia however doesn't want to be any of these things, and walks out on her family the very morning of the plane crash, the flight is to her last having already handed in her notice.

Tom her husband is a Police officer on duty when he hears the news about the plane crash and fears that the worst has happened to the mother of his child.

Freya's father is on the plane, her Mother and Brother both devastated by the news, but Freya can't bring herself to be upset for the Father she feels she barely knew. When the press come knocking on the door, instead of turning them away in disgust, Freya is intrigued by the allegations that they make.

Finally there is Jim, retired police officer who's daughter has gone missing, presumed dead.

Links between these characters are there from the very beginning of the novel, but it's only as the story grows that they become stronger.

Despite Falling's satisfying conclusion I do find myself wondering about the characters and what the future holds for them. I think that is due to the subject matter though, and not just how you deal with the initial aftermath of a plane crash/ horrific crime, but also how you deal with it in the years to come. A future sequel maybe? I think I just liked the characters too much to let them go! 

Falling is available to buy from Amazon online and all good book shops.

    Thank you to the publishers who approved my request via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Review: The Visitors by Rebecca Mascull

The Visitors by Rebecca Mascull
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Release Date: 2 January 2014
Rating: ****

Back Cover Blurb: Imagine if you couldn't see. Couldn't hear. Couldn't speak... Then one day somebody took your hand and opened up the world to you. Adeliza Golding is a deafblind girl, born in late Victorian England on her father's hop farm. Unable to interact with her loving family, she exists in a world of darkness and confusion; her only communication is with the ghosts she speaks to in her head, who she has christened the Visitors. One day she runs out into the fields and a young hop-picker, Lottie, grabs her hand and starts drawing shapes in it. Finally Liza can communicate. Her friendship with her teacher and with Lottie's beloved brother Caleb leads her from the hop gardens and oyster beds of Kent to the dusty veldt of South Africa and the Boer War, and ultimately to the truth about the Visitors.

The Visitors is the second historical fiction novel I've picked up in less than a week. It was kindly sent to me by Wish List books, and by the time I'd read the first few lines I was hooked.

The Visitors is a beautiful tale of friendship, romance and learning how to overcome disability. It follows the protagonist, Adeliza (Liza) from birth, right through to adulthood.

Liza is born partially sighted (from what I can gather), but after contracting a fever at the age of Two, she is left both deaf and blind, plunged into darkness and silence. Unable to communicate with her beloved family, Liza becomes increasingly frustrated and angry. Her only communication is with the Visitors, the ghosts that she speaks to in her head.

One day Liza escapes from her monotonous routine with her Nanny and runs out into her Father's hop fields where her hand is taken and drawn on to by a complete stranger, who we learn to be Charlotte (Lottie), a young hop picker whose family help Liza's father out every summer.

Lottie has had tragedy in her own life, her sister died at a young age and was blind, which is how Lottie learned to 'finger speak'. Lottie is taken on to help Liza, and we never hear of 'Nanny' again, as Lottie teaches Liza more and more, their friendship blossoms into something beautiful and she is introduced to the rest of Lottie's family. She is particularly taken with Lottie's beloved brother Caleb. I could almost sense that this would have a major impact later on in the book, but I wasn't entirely sure how. I don't want to give anything away, but Caleb is pivotal to how the story ends and I guess in some way also, to the woman that Liza becomes.

The Visitors themselves are also crucial to how certain events play out, but again I don't want to give anything away. I'm not usually a fan of 'ghost' stories, but this novel was so much more...

I still can't quite believe that this is a debut novel as it is so well written. I can't wait to see what the author comes up with next!

You can purchase the Visitors from Amazon online and all good book shops.