Book Synopsis:

Secrets of the Jam Factory Girls is a moving saga novel of friendship set in the heart of pre-WWI London from bestselling author, Mary Wood.

Elsie’s worked her way up at Swift’s Jam Factory from the shop floor to the top, and now it’s her time to shine. But when she’s involved in an incident involving her half-sister Millie’s new husband, she is forced to keep it secret – the truth could threaten their sisterly bond.

Dot is dogged by fear, coming to terms with her mother’s rejection of her. She should be enjoying the happiness she craves with her beloved Cess; instead, she’s trapped in an asylum, haunted by the horrifying cries of inmates. All she wants is to get married, but what chance is there for her if she’s locked away?

Millie is trying to build a life with her new husband. But the man she loves is not all he seems . . .

Can the Jam Factory girls create the future they all deserve?

Secrets Of The Jam Factory Girls is available in paperback and ebook now. You can put your copy by clicking one of the buttons below.

My Review:

As regular readers of my blog will know I’m a rather big fan of this author and I always look forward to new books from her. I loved the first book in this series so was excited to be back with Elise, Millie and their friends.

Mary has an amazing way of vividly describing the characters world so that you feel like you are actually there experiencing everything alongside the characters. I felt like I actually knew the characters so cared about what was happening to them. Mary definitely doesn’t give her characters an easy time and I often felt very angry on their behalf about everything they were going through. I wished I could get involve in what was happening and I especially wished I could thump Len who I absolutely hated.

The author has included some great historical details and I enjoyed reading more about what life was like before the first world war. I don’t think I’ve read much about what working conditions were like in factories at this time so I found it very interesting to learn more about this. It was good to see that conditions were slowly changing for employee’s for the better but also frustrating to read that some people were against this.

Overall I really enjoyed this gripping read which manages to be both gritty and uplifting at the same time. This is the second book in the series and although it’s probably best to read them in order it can be read as a standalone as most of what you need to know is explained. I’m now really excited to read more in this series.

Huge thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me onto the blog tour and to Pan Macmillan for my copy of this book. If you like historical sagas then you definitely need to read this series.

About The Author:

Born in Maidstone, Kent, in 1945, the thirteenth child of fifteen children, Mary’s family settled in Leicestershire after the war ended.

Mary married young and now, after 54 years of happy marriage, four children, 12 grandchildren and many great-grandchildren, Mary and her husband live in Blackpool during the summer and Spain during the winter – a place that Mary calls, ‘her writing retreat’.

After many jobs from cleaning to catering, all chosen to fit in with bringing up her family, and boost the family money-pot, Mary ended her 9 – 5 working days as a Probation Service Officer, a job that showed her another side to life, and which influences her writing, bringing a realism and grittiness to her novels

Mary first put pen to paper, in 1989, but it wasn’t until 2010 that she finally found some success by self-publishing on kindle.

Being spotted by an editor at Pan Macmillan in 2013, finally saw Mary reach her publishing dream.

When not writing, Mary enjoys family time, reading, eating out, and gardening. One of her favourite pastimes is interacting with her readers on her Facebook page. http://www.facebook.com/HistoricalNovels
And on her web page: http://www.authormarywood.com
She is also on Twitter: @Authormary

Mary welcomes all contact with her readers and feedback on her work.

Good morning everyone and welcome to another Music Monday. Today I’m featuring Beautiful Tragedy by Josh Taerk.

Josh is a singer songwriter and, you guessed it, twitch streamer from Canada. His streams are always very high energy and I always love how welcoming Josh is, often remembering little details about previous conversations despite having a lot of people in his streams. His original music is very beautiful with some truly amazing, heart felt lyrics which make them wonderful to listen to. He also does some fabulous medleys which I alway enjoy listening to on streams. His whole family is musical too with his dad and brother often joining him for family jam sessions on streams.

If you would like to follow Josh on social media or watch him.on twitch please click one of the buttons below.

Josh’s Music:

As mentioned above Josh has a lot of original music and it was hard to choose which ones to feature. I’ve chosen Beautiful Tragedy as it’s one of my personal favourites and I’m here which is a new original that Josh is hoping to get produced by Mike Shinoda in a competition he’s running at the moment.

Josh’s Music is available on all the normal streaming platforms. To listen simply click one of the buttons below.

Music Monday:

You can now listen to Josh and all previously featured Music Monday artists on a special playlist I’ve created on Spotify. If you like the playlist why not give it a follow?

Book Synopsis:

“Queen Floss lives in a castle grand,The finest one across the land.Sir Lambalot is her busiest knight,With quests to do both day and night…”Queen Floss is determined to rid her land of dragons, giants and trolls so she turns to Sir Lambalot to help. He soon realises they aren’t quite so scary after all. Written in rhyme and full of fun, this lovely story has an important message about kindness, tolerance and acceptance. “Another triumph by the queen of storytelling in Lamby and Flossie’s new adventure, Sir Lambalot. Full of fun and new friends, along with the ever present important message hidden within its pages. Lamby’s best adventure yet!” Cath Roberts”Jude Lennon’s storytelling skills are already legendary, so it’s very fitting that Sir Lambalot now has his own legend” Bob Stone owner of Write Blend bookshop.

Sir Lambalot is available in paperback now. To get your copy click on one of the links below.

My Review:

Sir Lambalot is a charming children’s book with an important message. It has quickly become one of my daughter’s favourite books and she often asks for it at bed time.

The story has a gentle rhyme to it which makes the book easy to read with some parts repeated at times making it easy for my daughter to join in with. There is a lovely message behind the story not to exclude people who are different just from the way they looked which I thought was a nice touch especially as it lead to a few conversations about the subject with my daughter.

There are some beautiful illustrations to accompany the story which are bright and colourful helping younger readers to understand the story. My daughter loves them and uses them when trying to tell the story to herself. They really helped increase her enjoyment of the story, especially finding the little details that she might have missed before.

Overall I thought that this was a lovely children’s book which I’ll definitely be recommending to other parents. Huge thanks to Rachel from Rachel’s Random Resources for inviting me onto the blog tour and for my copy of the book.

About The Author:

“I used to be a teacher who loved writing, now I’m an author who loves storytelling.” Jude Lennon is a former Early Years teacher who now works as a Storyteller under the name Little Lamb Tales. She tells stories at Primary schools, community events, festivals and libraries. Jude is also a children’s author and is the current Disney Winnie the Pooh Laureate for the North West of England. As an official Patron of Reading, Jude works with schools to spread the message about reading and writing for pleasure. Jude published her first book, The Dragon of Allerton Oak in 2015. Set in her local park (Calderstones) it features the real Allerton Oak which has stood there for 1000 years. Since then, Jude has gone on to publish seventeen further books. Her books cover topics as diverse as Mindfulness for children, phonics, dragons, pirates, astronauts and books set in other countries (including two bilingual English/Spanish ones). Jude has written two books for the Bobby Colleran Trust to support their Slow Down For Bobby road safety campaign. As part of the campaign, Jude visits Primary schools across Merseyside delivering funded assemblies to highlight the importance of Road Safety. To date she has read the books to over 150,000 children across the area. Jude is currently working with Will (Hal’s Books) a young man with Autism. Together they have written two books featuring an autistic main character. Jude and Will’s mum provide assemblies for schools to raise awareness about autism. In October 2019, Jude launched her first book for adults – a collection of short stories called ‘A Slice of Lennon’. It was very well received and she is now working on a full length novel.

Book Synopsis:

An attractive student. An older professor.

Think you know the story? Think again.

THE NEW UP-ALL-NIGHT THRILLER FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER CARA HUNTER, PERFECT FOR FANS OF LINE OF DUTY

She has everything at stake; he has everything to lose. But one of them is lying, all the same.

When an Oxford student accuses one of the university’s professors of sexual assault, DI Adam Fawley’s team think they’ve heard it all before. But they couldn’t be more wrong.

Because this time, the predator is a woman and the shining star of the department, and the student a six-foot male rugby player.

Soon DI Fawley and his team are up against the clock to figure out the truth. What they don’t realise is that someone is watching.

And they have a plan to put Fawley out of action for good…

The Whole Truth is available in ebook and paperback now. You can purchase your copy via the links below.

My Review:

The Whole Truth is another compelling and immersive book from one of my favourite authors. It’s going to be a difficult book to review as I don’t want to give away any spoilers.

I’ve always loved this author’s ability to create fantastic plots that quickly draw the reader into the story. Her books are always well constructed and very believable which allows the reader to just enjoy the story. The story has lots of twists to it that kept me guessing and I found myself changing my opinion of what happened throughout. The author kept varying the pace of the story to reflect what was happening, with the author slowing down parts of the story that needed more contemplation but speeding up the more action packed ones which I thought very clever and helped keep me on my toes.

It was great to be back with Adam and solving a case with his fantastic team. As always the author has created some wonderful, believable characters that are great fun to follow, and in some cases catch up with, throughout the book. The author stays away from the normal police stereotypes that usually feature in crime books which is refreshing. There is a little bit about Adam’s personal life but the book is mostly about the case which made for a very interesting read.

Overall I really enjoyed this interesting, fast paced read and can’t wait to read more from her in the future. The book had a modern feel to it with the story being interspersed with social media posts, texts and the new addition of podcasts which I thought was a nice touch. I found this book hard to put down and often found myself reading much to late at night as I had to know what would happen next.

Huge thanks to Ellie Hudson from Viking for inviting me onto the blog tour and for my copy of this book. If you are looking for a new addictive crime book then I highly recommend this one.

About The Author:

Cara Hunter is the author of the Sunday Times bestselling crime novels Close to Home, In the Dark, No Way Out and All the Rage, all featuring DI Adam Fawley and his Oxford-based police team. Close to Home was a Richard and Judy Book Club pick and was shortlisted for Crime Book of the Year in the British Book Awards 2019. N o Way Out was selected by the Sunday Times as one of the 100 best crime novels since 1945. Cara’s novels have sold more than a million copies worldwide, and the TV rights to the series have now been acquired by the Fremantle group. She lives in Oxford, on a street not unlike those featured in her books.

Good Morning everyone and if you’re in the UK happy bank holiday Monday. Today on Music Monday I’m featuring On Your Side the new single by the lovely Charlotte Campbell.

Charlotte is a busker and twitch streamer from London who can normally be found busking by The London Eye. Since Corona hit the country she’s been streaming more on twitch where her upbeat streams never fail to make me smile. When I was up all night with tooth ache recently I joined her stream as I knew it would make me feel better. Charlotte is a talented guitar player and singer/ songwriter and I always love hearing her play her original music. She’s a huge Taylor Swift fan and it’s very interesting to hear her talk about this and her busking stories on stream.

You can follow Charlotte on social media by clicking on the links below.

Charlotte’s Music:

Charlotte has written some amazing music all based on real life experiences which makes them seem more authentic. On Your Side is her latest single and I have included the video for it below as well as the video for Streets Of London which is another firm favourite of mine.

Charlotte has been writing music for 10 years so has an amazing back catalogue for you to listen to and enjoy. Her music is available on all the streaming platforms, available to own on Bandcamp and physical copies are available via her website.

Music Monday Playlist:

You can now listen to Charlotte’s music and all other previously featured artists via a special playlist on Spotify. If you like what you here why not give the playlist a follow.

Happy listening!

Book Synopsis:

Singapore, 1949

When Miranda moves to the Alexandra Quarter with her husband Gerry, she hopes it will bring the fresh start they need.

Though their life in ex-pat society is full of luxury, Miranda can’t help feeling like an outsider, and her relationship with Gerry becomes increasingly distant.

When doctor Nick Wythenshaw encourages Miranda to work within the local community, she finds new purpose away from her protected world that opens her eyes to a new way of life.

But as riots erupt across the region and danger draws close to home, Miranda must make an impossible choice.

Will she sacrifice everything she holds dear to find happiness?

Journey To Paradise is available in ebook now and will be published in paperback on the 30th December 2021. You can get your copy using the link below.

My Review:

Journey to Paradise is a beautifully written, absorbing journey through Singapore which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Firstly I think the thing that most stood out for me about this book was the wonderful descriptions that made me feel I was actually there visiting the country alongside the characters. The author has cleverly written the book so that the reader experiences the country as the characters do so we get access to all of the sights and sounds of the city which was just glorious to read about. I felt like I could smell the food and hear the busy city as I read which helped me get lost in the book for hours.

I didn’t know much about Singapore’s history before reading this book so I found it interesting to learn about the political unrest there and to find out more about the reasons behind it. There is a lot of tension and divides in the country which helped create a bit of an uncertain atmosphere in the book as I wasn’t sure when it was all going to spill over.

I really liked the main character Miranda and felt a lot if sympathy for her . I can imagine how difficult it must be to move to a foreign country, not know anyone and to have a quite distant husband as your only companion. I enjoyed going on the journey with her and found myself reading faster as the story continued as I really cared about what happened.

Overall I really enjoyed this immersive read and can’t wait to read more from this author. I found myself trying to make the last few pages last as I didn’t want the book to end as I didn’t want to leave Singapore behind. It’s definitely a country I’d love to visit in the future.

Huge thanks to Isabelle Ralph for inviting me onto the blog tour and to Arrow publishing for my copy of this book.

About The Author:

Paula has lived in various places, including Singapore, where she was based for three years. It was while living in Singapore that the first seeds of her debut novel, Journey to Paradise developed. The crumbling buildings and the modern high-rises popping up almost overnight seemed to be a metaphor for the social diversity and change in Singapore at that time. However, as a young mother living there, she wondered what it must have been like as a post-war colonial wife living miles away from the familiarity of home. Despite the gloss and glamour of colonial living, women were frequently stuck in unhappy marriages, often unable to follow careers or have the independence to divorce if things went wrong – which they inevitably did.

Her writing, although set against exotic backgrounds, is set on the cusp of change – the shift from colonial dominance to independence. She likes to dig into a variety of issues, and her main protagonist is, in many ways, a metaphor for the events surrounding her at that time. It isn’t always an easy journey, but in the end, success comes her way.