Review - The mountain in my shoe by Louise Beech

The mountain in my shoe by Louise Beech

Publisher: Orenda Books

Release date: 30 September 2016 (Paperback)

Rating: ****

Back cover blurb: 

 A missing boy. A missing book. A missing husband. A woman who must find them all to find herself …On the night Bernadette finally has the courage to tell her domineering husband that she’s leaving, he doesn’t come home. Neither does Conor, the little boy she’s befriended for the past five years. Also missing is his lifebook, the only thing that holds the answers. With the help of Conor’s foster mum, Bernadette must face her own past, her husband’s secrets and a future she never dared imagine in order to find them all. Exquisitely written and deeply touching, The Mountain in My Shoe is both a gripping psychological thriller and a powerful and emotive examination of the meaning of family … and just how far we’re willing to go for the people we love.

Bernadette Shaw is leaving her husband...

She knows it isn't the 'proper' thing to do, and she was bought up properly... 

But she is also at the end of her tether.

On the very same evening that she finally plucks up the courage to leave, her husband doesn't return home from work. 

This in itself is strange enough, for your can set your watch by him usually. But there is something else- an important document is missing from the house, one that Bernadette really needed to pack.

Bernadette decides to leave anyway - perhaps she has already packed the document and forgotten that she has done so...But just as she is about to leave, a telephone call changes everything.

Conor, a young boy who Bernadette has been volunteering for and befriended under a local scheme, has not returned from school.

Suddenly her husband's disappearance seems insignificant and Bernadette rushes to be with Conor's foster parent Anne's house to offer her support in looking for him.

As they search for the young man, Bernadette finds herself the subject of some very important and some very awkward questions, and she realises that her links to Conor are stronger than she ever dared to imagine.

The mountain in my shoe is a beautiful and emotive novel that will leave you wanting more.

The mountain in my shoe is available to buy now via Amazon online and Orenda Books.

Thank you to the publishers who sent me a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

The mountain in my shoe blog tour:

Blog tour: How to be Brave by Louise Beech

How to be Brave by Louise Beech

Publisher: Orenda Books    
Release date: 17 September 2015
Rating: ****

Back cover blurb: All the stories died that morning … until we found the one we’d always known. When nine-year-old Rose is diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, Natalie must use her imagination to keep her daughter alive. They begin dreaming about and seeing a man in a brown suit who feels hauntingly familiar, a man who has something for them. Through the magic of storytelling, Natalie and Rose are transported to the Atlantic Ocean in 1943, to a lifeboat, where an ancestor survived for fifty days before being rescued. Poignant, beautifully written and tenderly told, How To Be Brave weaves together the contemporary story of a mother battling to save her child’s life with an extraordinary true account of bravery and a fight for survival in the Second World War. A simply unforgettable debut that celebrates the power of words, the redemptive energy of a mother’s love … and what it really means to be brave.

How to be Brave is a beautifully written debut novel detailing a young girl's diagnosis of a life long medical condition and how her family cope with the changes suddenly thrust upon them.

Rose and Natalie are preparing for Halloween when Rose suddenly collapses, after being rushed to hospital, Natalie faces an agonising wait to discover what is wrong with her only daughter, and if her house has burnt down (she can't remember extinguishing a candle in her haste to leave).

Rose is subsequently diagnosed with Diabetes, a condition at first, that both Mother and Daughter struggle to cope with. Particularly with the absence of Natalie's husband and Rose's father, who is away serving with the Military.

There were times during the novel where I wanted to shake Rose a little and tell her that she should be grateful that her Mother cared for and was concerned for her, but I couldn't help but wonder what it is like to be diagnosed with such a condition at such an age.

I myself suffer with a chronic (life long and incurable) medical condition, but I was diagnosed in my late twenties, having suffered symptoms since my early twenties, at that age, you what life throws at you, and learn to get on with things. If you don't, no body else is going to do it for you - but I couldn't help but wonder if I might have behaved liked Rose had I been diagnosed at a younger age.  

But How to Be Brave is much more than just a story about how to deal with the cards that life dealt you, there is a true family mystery at its heart.

I am the last stop on the blog tour, but you can check out the others here;

 

    How to be Brave is available from Amazon online and all good books shops.        Thank you to the publishers who sent me an advanced copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.  

Review: Snowblind by Ragnar Jonasson

Snowblind by Ragnar Jonasson (translated by Quentin Bates)
Publisher: Orenda
Release date: 20 April 2015
Rating: ****

Back cover blurb: Siglufjörður: an idyllically quiet fishing village in Northern Iceland, where no one locks their doors -accessible only via a small mountain tunnel. Ari Thór Arason: a rookie policeman on his first posting, far from his girlfriend in Reykjavik with a past that he’s unable to leave behind. When a young woman is found lying half-naked in the snow, bleeding and unconscious, and a highly esteemed, elderly writer falls to his death in the local theatre, Ari is dragged straight into the heart of a community where he can trust no one, and secrets and lies are a way of life. An avalanche and unremitting snowstorms close the mountain pass, and the 24-hour darkness threatens to push Ari over the edge, as curtains begin to twitch, and his investigation becomes increasingly complex, chilling and personal. Past plays tag with the present and the claustrophobic contd...

Snowblind is the first in a series of novels, labelled as 'Dark Iceland'. Read the first page and you will immediately understand why - it is dark, it is gripping and it is fascinating. 

Snowblind is a novel about what happens in a small community where everyone knows everyone and nothing ever happens. 

Nothing ever happens - those three words are supposed to make our main protagonist Ari Thor feel welcome when he arrives alone in Siglufjorour and Tomas his senior colleague in the local Police force tells him he doesn't need to lock his door. 

Ari Thor does anyway. Feeling completely alone in this isolated, claustrophobic and judgemental community, Ari feels anything but safe.

When an elderly novelist, a local celebrity is found dead in suspicious circumstances, Ari is quick to voice his suspicions, eager to investigate and make a good impression on his new boss. Unfortunately his opinions are unwelcome and Tomas is quick to shoot him down insisting that the death was an accident. 

Ari stays quiet but continues to investigate without his superiors knowledge convinced that the old man was murdered. Circumstances change rapidly when a woman is found in the snow, blood all around her. Siglufjorour is not so dull after all!

Ari suspects the two 'incidents' could be connected - he just doesn't know who or what connects them. As he continues his investigations, this time with Tomas' help, he begins to uncover a deep web of secrets and lies, and it seems that no one in Siglufjour is exactly who they claim to be.

An excellent novel that will keep you guessing throughout, Snowblind deserves all the advance praise it has had and more...

  Snowblind is available to buy now from Amazon online.       A huge thank you to the Book Club on Facebook and Orenda books for my copy of the novel.