Book Synopsis:

From the Polari Prize-winning author of IN AT THE DEEP END

When Lena buys DNA testing kits for her father Tom and her twin sister Alison, she thinks they’ll enjoy finding out where their ancestors come from, and what percentage Neanderthal they are. She has no idea the gift will blow her family apart.

Tom is forced to admit that he isn’t his daughters’ biological father: he and his late wife, Sheila, used a sperm donor. He’s terrified Lena and Alison will reject him, and desperate to win back their trust – whatever it takes.

Alison thinks DNA doesn’t matter. She and her wife are trying to start a family using donor sperm, too. To her, Tom is their dad, and that’s that.

But Lena becomes obsessed with tracking down their biological father. And when she discovers she has a half-brother – an actor with a blue tick on Instagram – she becomes obsessed with him, too…

From the author of the Polari Prize-winning In at the Deep End, this is a very funny and deeply moving novel about identity, donor conception and what it means to be a family.

My Review:

Nuclear Family is an emotional, touching and thought provoking read that I think would make a great book club read as there would be lots to discuss.

The story follows twins Alison and Lena, who find out at Christmas that they are donor conceived. The two girls have very different reactions to this news which causes a few problems to the previously very close knit family. I initially found Lena’s reaction a bit over the top and felt angry with her for dismissing the father that had raised her. However this reaction changed as the story continued and I actually ended up feeling a lot of sympathy for her. Alison and her wife are trying to conceive a baby through IVF which added a different element to the story.  I thought it was very clever of the author to include this into the story as it helped give the reader more of an holistic view of donor conception.  It was interesting to follow the two girls as they try to come to terms with thai news and it was fascinating to explore the argument of nature v nurture alongside them when determining what or who constituted a father.

I loved the vivid descriptions of the family that made me feel like I was a fly on the wall watching all the action unfold.  The relationship between fathers and daughters was beautiful to witches and I loved seeing them try to support each other through the difficult times.  I found it very poignant to follow Tom as he tries to figure out his role in the girls’ lives now and to try and carve out a life of his own now the girls are grown up.  It made me tear up to see him struggle with his loneliness and to see his attempts to try and fit in.  I often wished I could reach into the book and give him the huge hug I felt he needed. 

This book had a great pace to it and there always seemed to be something happening which made the book very difficult to put down.  The author lays bare the emotional impact of ivf and the need to find out who you are which made for very gripping but emotional reading at times.  I soon felt so involved in the characters’ story, almost as if it was happening to me and I wanted to keep reading to find out how everything was resolved.  I think I went through every emotion whilst reading, wanting to cry one moment but laughing out loud the next.  This is the first book I’ve read by this author but I’m very interested to read more from her in the future.  

Huge thanks to Indie thinking and Borough Press for sending me a copy of this book. 

About The Author:

Kate Davies is a novelist, screenwriter and author of children’s books.

She is the author of two novels, Nuclear Family and In at the Deep End, which won the Polari Prize and was shortlisted for the Bollinger Wodehouse Everyman Prize for Comic Fiction.

Before becoming a full-time writer, she worked as a children’s book editor for twelve years.

She lives in East London with her wife and son.

Good evening everyone I was lucky enough to pick up a copy of Anyone’s Ghost by August Thompson at work last week. I’ve been hearing lots of great things about this one and as I love unique love stories I’m very excited to read it soon.

Huge thanks to Picador for sending a copy of this to my work.

Out 11th July 2024.

Book Synopsis:

It took three car crashes to kill Jake . . .

‘An overwhelmingly beautiful love story. This book will make you cry’ Jonathan Safran Foer, author of Everything Is Illuminated

The lonely life of fifteen-year-old Theron David Alden is transformed when he meets Jake. Older, cooler, more confident and startlingly beautiful, Jake likes the same bands, the same drugs, and has the same drive to oblivion.

Over the course of two decades, Theron and Jake get high, drift apart, and are brought hurtling back together, until a final collision tears them apart forever.

Theron wants Jake, and he wants to be Jake. But is Jake brave enough to want him back?

A gorgeous modern love story about the lives that change us, and the loves that haunt us, Anyone’s Ghost will break your heart.

About The Author:

August Thompson was born and raised in the middle of nowhere, New Hampshire. He studied in New York and Berlin, wasted all of his good hearing at metal shows, taught English in Spain for two years, and spent another two on couches across three continents. He returned to New York as a Goldwater Fellow at NYU’s Creative Writing Program. Anyone’s Ghost is his first novel.

Book Synopsis:

One detective driven by instinct, the other by logic.
It will take both to find a killer who knows the true meaning of fear . . .
 
When the body of a man is found crucified at the top of Mount Judd, AIDE Lock – the world’s first AI Detective – and DCS Kat Frank are thrust into the spotlight as they are given their first live case.
 
But with the discovery of another man’s body – also crucified – it appears that their killer is only just getting started. With the police warning local men to be vigilant, the Future Policing Unit is thrust into a hostile media frenzy as they desperately search for connections between the victims. But time is running out for them to join the dots and prevent another death.
 
For if Kat and Lock know anything, it’s that killers rarely stop – until they are made to.

My Review:

Leave No Trace is another gripping, thought provoking book in what is quickly becoming my favourite crime series. It’s going to be a difficult book to review as I really don’t want to give anything away.

Firstly it was great to be back with DCI Kate and her team, especially as I’d grown so fond of them in the first book. The author does a great job of describing the action so that the reader feels like they are actually there as part of the team, watching all the action unfold. I loved following all the characters and discovering more about what had been happening in their lives. All of the team had hidden problems that they were struggling with and it was quite poignant at times to see how much this was affecting them. I especially liked seeing Kat grown in confidence during this book and stand up for herself more.

As with the first book the author sets out a compelling case for the use of AI in police work. I found it fascinating, though a bit frightening, to find out more about what AI could be capable of – especially that it could be capable of human emotions. It was interesting to see it’s limitations too and to understand why it wouldn’t be a good alternative to a real life police officer.

The murder investigation was really interesting and I enjoyed trying to solve it alongside the characters. The investigation throws up some very thought provoking issues which I enjoyed learning more about, especially seeing the different perspectives it throws up which would be very different if it was happening to another group of people. I loved seeing how the investigation unravelled and the reasons for the murders which was different to anything else I’d read before.

Overall, as you can probably tell, I absolutely loved this book and can’t wait to read more in this series. The book is fast paced, with short chapters which make it very easy to read. I quickly found myself hiding away in the kitchen to try and read a little bit more. There were lots of twists to keep me guessing and I liked that I wasn’t able to guess who the murderer was until the end.

Huge thanks to Rhys the rep for Simon and Schuster for sending me a copy of this book. If you’re a fan of crime fiction then you need to read this book.

About The Author:

Jo works full-time as a senior strategist, where she has carried out research into the future impact of AI and genomics on the workforce. After losing her husband to cancer in 2019, she started writing In The Blink of An Eye. She lives with her two children in the Midlands, where she is currently writing the third novel in the Kat and Lock series.

Good morning everyone and happy Saturday. I’ve seen a few people doing a colour challenge on here which looked really fun so I thought I would join in. I’m starting with a green stack as it’s the colour I seemed to have the most of when I looked!

💚The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu
💚A Witch’s Guide To Dating A Demon by Sarah Hawley
💚The Beholder’s by Hester Musson
💚Dead Happy by Josh Silver
💚 Lovelight Farms by B.K Borison
💚The Tumbling Girl by Bridget Walsh
💚The Library Thief by Kuchenga Shenjé
💚In Search Of Ethel Cartwright by Tom Winter
💚Bad Men by Julie Mae Cohen
💚A Lesson In Cruelty by Harriet Tyce
💚The Examiner by Janice Hallet

All of these are tbr apart from A Witch’s Guide which I absolutely loved. Out of these I’m probably going to read The Three Body Problem as I keep hearing lots about it or The Library Thief as it sounds like a brilliant read!

Today I’m hoping for a quiet morning as my youngest two are off to clubs with my husband. My eldest has a friend coming over but I’ll be hiding upstairs to give them some space and hoping to read my book. All the kids are on sleepovers tonight so Stu and I are kid free overnight which will be really weird. We’re hoping to go out for food and some drinks though I don’t want to be too late as I’m working tomorrow.

I’ve tagged a few people who might want to join in and share a one colour book stack but, as always, no pressure.

What are your Saturday plans?

Book Synopsis:

1946: The war might be over but for the Gilby family there are still battles to be fought at home . . .

For Birmingham and the Gilby family the war years have been a time of great change. With her husband having left her for another woman, Ann Gilby is finally free to follow her heart. While the neighbours may be scandalized by having a divorcee in their midst, Ann is determined to rise above the local gossip and make a happy home with her former sweetheart, the father of Ann’s youngest child.

Meanwhile daughters Joy and Sheila are lucky enough to have their menfolk back home, but Joy’s husband has returned from his experiences in a Japanese prisoner of war camp a broken man.

Then there’s Ann’s son, Martin, who is still coming to terms with learning who his real father is, as well as having secrets of his own . . .

From Annie Murray, the bestselling author of Chocolate Girls, Homecoming for the Chocolate Girls is the heartfelt and dramatic conclusion to this gritty family saga series about love, war and chocolate . . .

My Review:

Homecoming For The Chocolate Girls is another fantastic addition to one of my favourite saga series.

Firstly I loved being back with the fabulous characters who I’ve grown very fond of over the course of this series and who have started to feel like old friends. It was great to be able to follow them past the end of the war and to be able to see what happens next for them. I found it quite emotional though to see how changed the returning men where and how little help they got.

The author has obviously done a lot of research and I loved all the little historical details she included in the story. I live about an hour away from Cadbury World so knew a little bit of the history of Cadbury but it was fascinating to learn more about what it was like to work there. I was pleased to learn it was considered one of the better employers who looked after not just their workers but their family too. Throughout the book the reader learns more about societies view on divorce, sexuality and mental health which I found very interesting though it was quite poignant to see how this view affected or restricted people. It made me very glad that we are a more tolerant society now.

Overall I really enjoyed this book and look forward to reading another installment soon. There was always something happening to keep me reading and I quickly found the book hard to put down as I wanted to make sure everything ended well for the characters. I think this might be the last book in the series which I’m sad about as I’m not ready to leave the lovely characters behind.

Huge thanks to the lovely Chloe from Pan Macmillan for inviting me onto the blog tour and for my copy of this book.

About The Author:

Annie Murray was born in Berkshire and read English at St John’s College, Oxford. Her first ‘Birmingham’ novel, Birmingham Rose, hit The Times bestseller list when it was published in 1995. She has subsequently written many other successful novels, including The Bells of Bournville Green, sequel to the bestselling Chocolate Girls, Sisters of Gold and Black Country Orphan. Annie has four children and lives just south of Oxford. She also writes as Abi Oliver.

Good morning everyone and happy Friday. I was lucky enough to receive these three fabulous looking books from the lovely Karen @orendabooks this week.

I absolutely love Orenda thrillers which are always unique, gripping reads so I can’t wait to read these soon. Out of these I’m probably going to read The Betrayal Of Thomas True as I’ve been wanting to read it for ages.

Huge thanks to Karen and Orenda Books for sending these to me!

Have you read many books from Orenda? What’s your favourite book?

Boys Who Hurt by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir

Fresh from maternity leave, Detective Elma finds herself confronted with a complex case, when a man is found murdered in a holiday cottage in the depths of the Icelandic countryside – the victim of a frenzied knife attack, with a shocking message scrawled on the wall above him.
 
At home with their baby daughter, Sævar is finding it hard to let go of work, until the chance discovery in a discarded box provides him with a distraction. Could the diary of a young boy, detailing the events of a long-ago summer have a bearing on Elma’s case?
 
Once again, the team at West Iceland CID have to contend with local secrets in the small town of Akranes, where someone has a vested interest in preventing the truth from coming to light. And Sævar has secrets of his own that threaten to destroy his and Elma’s newfound happiness.
 
Tense, twisty and shocking, Boys Who Hurt is the next, addictive instalment in the award-winning Forbidden Iceland series, as dark events from the past endanger everything…

Out 20th June 2024

Toxic by Helga Flatland

When Mathilde is forced to leave her teaching job in Oslo after her relationship with eighteen-year-old Jacob is exposed, she flees to the countryside for a more authentic life.

Her new home is a quiet cottage on the outskirts of a dairy farm run by Andres and Johs, whose hobbies include playing the fiddle and telling folktales – many of them about female rebellion and disobedience, and seeking justice, whatever it takes.

But beneath the surface of the apparently friendly and peaceful pastoral life of the farm, something darker and less harmonic starts to vibrate, and with Mathilde’s arrival, cracks start appearing … everywhere.

Out 23rd May 2024

The Betrayal Of Thomas True by A.J West

The only sin is betrayal…
 
It is the year 1715, and Thomas True has arrived on old London Bridge with a dangerous secret. One night, lost amongst the squalor of London’s hidden back streets, he finds himself drawn into the outrageous underworld of the molly houses. 
 
Meanwhile, carpenter Gabriel Griffin struggles to hide his double life as Lotty, the molly’s stoic guard. When a young man is found murdered, he realises there is a rat amongst them, betraying their secrets to a pair of murderous Justices.
 
Can Gabriel unmask the traitor before they hang? Can he save hapless Thomas from peril, and their own forbidden love?
 
Set amidst the buried streets of Georgian London, The Betrayal of Thomas True is a brutal and devastating thriller, where love must overcome evil, and the only true sin is betrayal… 

Out 4th July 2024
 

Book Synopsis:

Books can change lives, even in wartime. . .

When World War II breaks out, Carrie Anderson sets up a bookstall at her local train station in the hope of providing a sense of escapism for travellers, troops and evacuees.

Driven by an entrepreneurial spirit and armed with a colourful array of Penguin paperbacks, Carrie’s business soon booms. And when she gifts a book to a dashing officer, an act of kindness becomes the beginning of Carrie’s very own love story.

But as war rages on, and Mike is posted abroad, Carrie’s world is turned upside-down.

With the help of her station community, and the power of her paperbacks, can Carrie find the strength to battle through?

My Review:

I was a huge fan of this author’s previous books so you can imagine my excitement when I found out she had a new book coming out.

This book combined two of my favourite things in a book as it was set in World War 2 and the plot revolved around the main character starting a book shop. I really enjoyed following the characters and learning more about the ordinary people left behind during the war. It must have been so frustrating for women at the start of the war as there weren’t many opportunities for them to help the war effort. It was also quite poignant to see the twins mum struggling with another war after living through the first world war. It really brought home to me how close the two wars were and how difficult it must have been to see another generation affected.

The story mainly follows twins Carrie and Johnnie at the breakout of World war 2 and how different their lives are because of it. I loved following Carrie as she set up the Bookshop and seeing all the fabulous friends she makes through her work there. The author’s descriptions are wonderfully vivid and I often felt like I was actually there experiencing everything alongside the characters which I absolutely loved.

I thought the story had a good pace to it and there always seemed to be something happening to keep my interest. I did guess a few of the twists but I didn’t mind as I was just enjoying hanging out with the characters. The ending was interesting and I’m hoping is a sign that there’s another book coming in the series.

Huge thanks to Aoife from Cornerstone for inviting me onto the blog tour and for my copy of this book. If you’re looking for a compelling, entertaining and heartwarming read I highly recommend this one.

About The Author:

After a career in radio and TV scriptwriting, Jo’s first six saga novels feature a family-owned department store in Britain in the Second World War. With husbands, boyfriends and brothers away, three shop girl friends and their families pull together to battle the bombs as well as their own poignant personal dramas. Jo drew on her family’s war experiences as well as memories of how shopping used to be. Staying with retail, The Little Penguin Bookshop is the first novel in a brand new series.

Twitter @joannatoye

https://www.facebook.com/joannatoyewriter

https://romanticnovelistsassociation.org/rna_author/joanna-toye

Good afternoon everyone I was lucky enough to receive a copy of this fantastic sounding book last week. A dystopian Bridgerton? I love the sound of this and can’t wait to read it soon!

Huge thanks to @scholastic_uk for sending a copy to the Rossiter Book Malvern store.

Out 4th July 2024.

Find out more about the book below!

Book Synopsis:

The world didn’t end all at once but drip by drip…
Manon Pawlak has just turned eighteen – a debutant at the start of The Virtue Season: a process which will result in a match with a suitable genetic mate.

Her best friend, Agatha, has been decommissioned. Her seizures mean that she has been branded with a scar on the crest of her cheek which will forever sit at the corner of her vision, colouring the world in shades of mauve.

This is the story of their ritual year. And the Council is watching…

About The Author:

L.M. Nathan grew up in the East Midlands, moving from there to Bristol where she studied English and Drama and then to Malta where she completed an MA in Literature. She also has an MA in Journalism which she studied for in Manchester.

She now lives in rural Lancashire, in the shadow of Pendle Hill, and teaches English.

Her first novel, The Virtue Season, was inspired by the wild landscape of home and completed when she was selected to be part of the Curtis Brown Creative novel course.

Good morning everyone and happy Tuesday.  Today on Two For Tuesday I’m featuring two books by one of my favourite thriller writers Helen Fields. 

I absolutely love Helen’s books which are always dark, gripping reads that stay with you.  I absolutely loved The Institution and rate it as one of my favourite thrillers ever so I’m very excited to read her latest book Profile K soon.

Huge thanks to @indie_thinking for sending me a copy of Profile K .

Profile K is published on the 25th April 2024.

Do you have a favourite thriller author?

Profile K

He’s going to kill you. He just doesn’t know it yet.

Midnight Jones is an analyst trained to understand the human mind. But everything changes when, in the course of her work, she discovers Profile K’s file – because K stands for killer, and she knows that someone more dangerous than she could have ever imagined walks among them.

Midnight knows what Profile K is capable of before he even commits his first crime. But as the news rolls with the brutal murder of a local woman, no one believes what she tells them: that he is capable of so much worse.

Profile K will kill again – and, terrifyingly, Midnight realises that the moment she found his file was the moment she became his next target. Because Profile K is coming for Midnight – and the only way to escape with her life is to find him before he finds her…

The million-copy bestseller is back with a dark, terrifying journey into the mind of a psychopath that will keep you riveted until the very last page.

The Institution

They’re locked up for your safety.

Now, you’re locked in with them.

How do you find a murderer in a prison full of killers?

On a locked ward in the world’s highest-security prison hospital, a scream shatters the night.

A nurse has been murdered and her daughter has been taken.

And with only five days to find the girl, the clock is ticking for Dr Connie Woolwine to find a killer hiding in plain sight…

Welcome to The Institution. The locked room thriller readers don’t want to leave.

About The Author:

A Sunday Times and million copy best-selling author, Helen is a former criminal and family law barrister. Every book in the Callanach series has claimed an Amazon #1 bestseller flag. ‘Perfect Kill’ was longlisted for the Crime Writers Association Ian Fleming Steel Dagger in 2020, and others have been longlisted for the McIlvanney Prize, Scottish crime novel of the year. Helen also writes as HS Chandler, and has released legal thriller ‘Degrees of Guilt’. In 2020 Perfect Remains was shortlisted for the Bronze Bat, Dutch debut crime novel of the year. In 2022, Helen was nominated for Best Crime Novel and Best Author in the Netherlands. Now translated into more than 20 languages, and also selling in the USA, Canada & Australasia, Helen’s books have won global recognition. She has written standalone novels, The Institution, The Last Girl To Die, These Lost & Broken Things and The Shadow Man. She regularly commutes between West Sussex, USA and Scotland. Helen can be found on X @Helen_Fields