Good morning everyone. Today on Two For Tuesday I thought I’d share the first books I’ve bought from Rossiter abusing my staff discount.
I actually ordered these in for myself as I’ve been wanting to read them for ages. Gytha Lodge is a favourite author of mine so I’m always excited to read her books. Our Hidden Progeny is a book I’ve seen lots of great reviews for which made me very intrigued and I knew I had to get a copy.
Yesterday we had a great opening day for Rossiter books in Malvern. It was so amazing to see so many people coming in the door, especially all the enthusiastic younger readers which I loved to see. It was especially nice to see so many familiar faces so thanks to everyone who came and said hi.
Have you read either of these?
A Killer In The Family by Gytha Lodge
Someone in your family isn’t who they say they are . . . THE PAGE-TURNING NEW THRILLER FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF SHE LIES IN WAIT
Aisling’s two sons, Ethan and Finn, mean everything to her.
Ever since becoming estranged from her own parents, though, she’s always felt like a piece of her is missing.
Desperate to find answers – about her family, and herself – Aisling uploads her DNA to an ancestry website, and is thrilled when it finds a match.
But instead of finding answers, she comes face to face with a detective. Aisling’s DNA is a match for a recent crime scene – the latest in a string of murders by a dangerous serial killer, known as ‘the bonfire killer’. And the police have three lead suspects: her father, or one of her two sons.
Aisling would do anything for her family – but can she protect a killer?
Our Hidden Progeny by C. E. McGill
Mary is the great-niece of Victor Frankenstein. She knows her great uncle disappeared in mysterious circumstances in the Arctic but she doesn’t know why or how…
The 1850s is a time of discovery and London is ablaze with the latest scientific theories and debates, especially when a spectacular new exhibition of dinosaur sculptures opens at the Crystal Palace. Mary, with a sharp mind and a sharper tongue, is keen to make her name in this world of science, alongside her geologist husband Henry, but without wealth and connections, their options are limited.
But when Mary discovers some old family papers that allude to the shocking truth behind her great-uncle’s past, she thinks she may have found the key to securing their future… Their quest takes them to the wilds of Scotland, to Henry’s intriguing but reclusive sister Maisie, and to a deadly chase with a rival who is out to steal their secret…
Good morning everyone and happy Bank Holiday Monday! I know I’ve already done this challenge but when I was looking for titles last time I kept finding dark titles that I thought might work, so I thought I’d do a dark edition this bank holiday 😂
Where? – Dead Man’s Creek
When?- (When there’s) A Sliver Of Darkness
What’s In The Sandwiches? – Bright Shiny People
What’s the weather like? – The Whispering Dark (dark & windy)
What can you hear? The black eyed children from Hydra
Who’s joining you? Her Majesty’s Secret Coven
In other news Rossiter books is opening today at 10am so if you’re local do come say hi! We have a visit from the Gruffalo at 11, 1 and 3 so do bring the kids too.
Good morning everyone I was tagged by the lovely @always_need_more_books to take part in the #bookscavengerhunt challenge. The idea is to find a face, a flower, a car, an animal, a book and a house on a book cover.
Here’s the covers I found: 😁The Weather Woman by Sally Gardner 🌷The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell 🚗The Do Over by Lynn Painter 🦥 Chicken Wars by Adam Leigh 📚The Book Lovers Retreat by Heidi Swain 🏠Night Will Find You by Julia Heaberlin
I had great fun going through my books trying to find things. Some books could have done for two things, like The Marriage Portrait could have been flowers and animals, but I thought that was cheating. Surprisingly the thing I found most hard to find was a book on a cover. I also found it interesting that when I tried to take a picture of the covers I found my camera actually picked up the face on The Weather Woman’s cover.
I’ve tagged a few people who might want to join in on Instagram but no pressure. Have a great Sunday!
Good morning everyone and happy Coronation Day! It seemed fitting to share a red, blue and white stack today.
💙Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice For Murderers by Jess Sutanto
💙The Expectant Detectives by Kat Ailes
❤️End Of Story by Louise Swanson
❤️ The Minuscule Mansion Of Myra Malone by Audrey Burges
🤍The Atlas Paradox by Olivie Blake
🤍The Snow Hare by Paula Lichtarowicz
These are all books i still need to read. Miniscule Mansion and Expectant Detectives are for blog tours next month but the rest are all books I’ve heard lots about and really want to read soon.
I’m working until 2 today so will miss the coronation but I’m looking forward to watching the historic event on iPlayer later with the kids (who I have bribed with popcorn to watch with me).
Noelle is an efficient and friendly hotel cleaner, a model employee. Or so she’d have you think. The trouble is that she can’t help taking little ‘souvenirs’ as she cleans. Nothing of value, just tokens of happy, normal lives: a lipstick, a hair clip, some tweezers. And by the time the guest has noticed, she’s long gone.
As she starts at her 21st hotel, she’s determined to beat her record of one month in a five star hotel before suspicion falls on her. But when she meets her new colleagues, her plans are complicated. These women aren’t just hands pushing carts down lonely hotel corridors: they are women with lives full of happiness and worry, pain and joy. The kind of lives Noelle has never known how to live. They make her wonder what it might be like to have real friends, people to stick around for.
Will the women at Hotel 21 give her the courage to claim the life she deserves, or will her old habits come back to haunt her?
My Review:
Hotel 21 is a heart warming story that manages to be both funny and heart breaking at the same time.
The story is told from the point of view of Noelle, a hotel cleaner who has just started working at her 21st hotel as she has to keep moving hotels due to he’d habit of collecting ‘souvenirs’ from hotel guests. Throughout the book we learn more about Noelle and her past including the sad impact it’s had on her life. Some of the events in her past are very sad and really made me feel sorry for Noelle. I wished I could give her a hug I felt she really needed.
The other cleaners at the hotel are a lovely bunch that I enjoyed getting to know over the course of the book. I really liked how the author manages to make them all so individual with their own back stories which helped the reader get to know them better. It was really lovely to see how they all were so close and how they helped each other.
This book does start off a bit slow as the author sets in scene but soon gets going to become very addictive. I enjoyed watching Noelle work through her problems with her friends help and how she comes to terms with her painful past. This is the author’s debut novel and I look forward to reading more from her in the future.
Huge thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me onto the blog tour and to the publisher for my copy of this book.
About The Author:
Senta Rich began her career as an advertising copywriter. During this time, she also wrote radio plays and magazine articles, before moving into the world of screenwriting. She now writes regularly for film and TV. Rich lives in Dublin with her husband and son.
Good morning everyone and happy Friday! It’s nearly another bank holiday weekend. I thought I’d do a reading update today to show what I’m reading this weekend.
⭐Last – The Last Passenger by Will Dean
⭐Now- The Royal Correspondent by Alexandra Joel
⭐Next – Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld
I loved The Last Passenger and shared my review of it on my blog yesterday. I’m currently reading The Royal mail for the blog tour next and thought it was a great book to read over the Coronation weekend. I’m then hoping to read Romantic Comedy which is a book I’ve been hearing lots about.
This weekend I’m actually working Saturday which will be weird as I haven’t worked a weekend in years. It’s also the opening of Rossiter books in Malvern on Monday which I’m excited about as it will be good to see everyone’s reaction to all the amazing things we have on sale there.
Caz Ripley, a cafe owner from a small, ordinary town, boards the RMS Atlantica with her boyfriend Pete and a thousand fellow passengers destined for New York. The next morning, she wakes to discover that everyone else on board has disappeared. And that’s just the beginning. Caz must prepare for a crossing that will be anything but plain sailing …
My Review:
Will Dean is one of my favourite authors so you can imagine how excited I was to be invited onto the blog tour for The Last Passenger, his latest book.
Firstly this is going to be a hard book to review as I really don’t want to give anything away as I feel this is a book that’s best to read blind. The story is told from the point of view of Caz who, after an amazing first night on board the cruise ship, wakes up to find herself alone. Completely alone- with even her partner gone. I think I’d find this utterly terrifying and the author does a great job of describing Caz’s feelings in the situation with her fear almost palpable at times. It was very difficult to put the book down as I was so absorbed in the story and wanting to find out what was happening.
I thought this book has a great pace to it as there always seemed to be something happening to keep me glued to the page. The tension in the book increases until it becomes almost unbearable, with the locked door scenario of the cruise ship making things very interesting. At times the ship seemed almost like a prison and my mind raced with possibilities about what might be going on. I had lots of different theories which kept changing as the story developed, keeping me in suspense which I always love.
The ending was incredibly clever and dramatic but also a bit scary as it seemed quite realistic too.
Huge thanks to Alainna Georgiou for inviting me onto the blog tour and for my copy of this book. If you’re a thriller fan or loved locked door mysteries I highly recommend this book!
About The Author:
Will Dean grew up in the East Midlands, living in nine different villages before the age of eighteen. After studying law at the LSE, and working many varied jobs in London, he settled in rural Sweden with his wife. He built a wooden house in a boggy forest clearing and it’s from this base that he compulsively reads and writes.
Good morning everyone I hope you’re having a good week so far. Here are some of the books I’m hoping to read this month. I haven’t got many book tours so I’m hoping to catch up on some of the books I’ve been looking forward to.
These are subject to change as I’m a bit of a mood reader, plus I have two books on order from work that I’m also hoping to fit in.
What book are you most looking forward to this month? Do we have any books in common?
The Book Lovers Retreat by Heidi Swain
One long summer. One perfect setting. Can fiction inspire real life…?
Sometimes a book grabs you by the heart and grows to mean everything to you. That’s what Hope Falls is to friends Emily, Rachel and Tori. So, when they get the chance to spend a whole summer at the cottage in Lakeside where the film adaptation was located, they know it is going to be the holiday of a lifetime.
Spending six weeks away will give them a chance to re-evaluate their life choices. For Emily to decide which way her career will go – the safe route, or the more risky creative option? And for Rachel to decide whether to move in with her partner Jeremy. Then Tori has to drop out at the last moment, and her space is offered to another Hope Falls afficionado, Alex.
But when Alex turns out not to be who they expected, the holiday takes an unforeseen turn. And as the summer develops, so does their friendship. Could this be where they uncover their future selves, find love in all its forms and where their lives will change course forever…?
Conviction by Jack Jordan
TO STEAL A MAN’S FREEDOM ALL IT TAKES IS . . . CONVICTION
Wade Darling stands accused of killing his wife and teenage children as they slept before burning the family home to the ground.
When the case lands on barrister Neve Harper’s desk, she knows it could be the career making case she’s been waiting for. But only if she can prove Wade’s innocence.
A matter of days before the case, as Neve is travelling home for the night, she is approached by a man. He tells her she must lose this case or the secret about her own husband’s disappearance will be revealed.
Failing that, he will kill everyone she cares about until she follows orders.
Neve must make a choice – betray every principle she has ever had by putting a potentially innocent man in prison, or risk putting those she loves in mortal danger.
For fans of Steve Cavanagh, Linwood Barclay and Gillian McAllister, introducing the latest novel from the master of the moral dilemma, Jack Jordan.
The Forgotten Garden by Sharon Gosling
A novel of second chances and blossoming communities from the author of The Lighthouse Bookshop.
Budding landscape architect Luisa MacGregor is stuck in a rut – she hates her boss, she lives with her sister, and she is still mourning the loss of her husband many years ago. So when she is given the opportunity to take on a parcel of land in a deprived area, she sees the chance to build a garden that can make the area bloom.
Arriving in the rundown seaside town of Collaton on the north-west coast of Cumbria, she realises that her work is going to be cut out for her. But, along with Cas, a local PE teacher, and Harper, a teen whose life has taken a wrong turn, she is determined to get the garden up and running.
So when the community comes together and the garden starts to grow, she feels her luck might have changed. Can she grow good things on this rocky ground? And might love blossom along the way…?
The Memory Of Animals by Clare Fuller
But she isn’t here, no one is here. And I have a terror of being alone, in this building, in London, in the world.
Neffy is a young woman running away from grief and guilt, and the one big mistake that has derailed her career. When a debilitating new virus sweeps across the globe, volunteering in a vaccine trial offers her a way to make up for her past. But then, the virus mutates, and the future she had dreamed for herself is gone.
As the London streets outside the medical unit fall silent, and food begins to run out, Neffy must decide where safety lies. Might she find solace by revisiting her own heady memories of the past? Can she trust the strangers trapped inside with her – despite her growing suspicions? Or is her best chance of a future to be found in the terrifyingly unknown world outside?
Haunting and compelling, The Memory of Animals is a novel about freedom and captivity, survival and sacrifice, and what we cling to when everything else has been taken away, from the Costa Award-winning, Women’s Prize-shortlisted author of Unsettled Ground.
In Memoriam by Alice Winn
In 1914, war feels far away to Henry Gaunt and Sidney Ellwood. They’re too young to enlist, and anyway, Gaunt is fighting his own private battle – an all-consuming infatuation with the dreamy, poetic Ellwood – not having a clue that his best friend is in love with him, always has been.
When Gaunt’s mother asks him to enlist in the British army to protect the family from anti-German attacks, he signs up immediately, relieved to escape his overwhelming feelings. But Ellwood and their classmates soon follow him into the horrors of trenches. Though Ellwood and Gaunt find fleeting moments of solace in one another, their friends are dying in front of them, and at any moment they could be next.
An epic tale of the devastating tragedies of war and the forbidden romance that blooms in its grip, InMemoriam is a breathtaking debut.
Tomorrow And Tomorrow And Tomorrow
This is the story of Sam and Sadie. It’s not a romance, but it is about love.
When Sam catches sight of Sadie at a crowded train station one winter morning he is catapulted back to the brief time they spent playing together as children. Their unique spark is instantly reignited.
What comes next is a story of friendship and rivalry, fame and creativity, betrayal and tragedy, perfect worlds and imperfect ones. And, ultimately, our need to connect: to be loved and to love.
Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld
Life is (not)* a Romantic Comedy…
With a series of heartbreaks under her belt, Sally Milz – successful script writer for a legendary late-night TV comedy show – has long abandoned the search for love.
But when her friend and fellow writer begins to date a glamorous actress, he joins the growing club of interesting but average-looking men who get romantically involved with accomplished, beautiful women. Sally channels her annoyance into a sketch, poking fun at this ‘social rule’. The reverse never happens for a woman.
Then Sally meets Noah, a pop idol with a reputation for dating models. But this isn’t a romantic comedy – it’s real life. Would someone like him ever date someone like her?
Skewering all our certainties about why we fall in love, ROMANTIC COMEDY is a witty and probing tale of how the heart will follow itself, no matter what anyone says. It is Curtis Sittenfeld at her most sharp, daring and compassionate best.
The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff
For Geeta, life as a widow is more peaceful than life as a wife…
Until the other women in her village decide they want to be widows, too.
Geeta is believed to have killed her vanished husband – a rumour she hasn’t bothered trying to correct, because a reputation like that can keep a single woman safe in rural India. But when she’s approached for help in ridding another wife of her abusive drunk of a husband, her reluctant agreement sets in motion a chain of events that will change the lives of all the women in the village….
A darkly irreverent and fresh take on a feminist revenge thriller, perfect for readers of My Sister the Serial Killer, How To Kidnap The Rich and the Sharon Horgan series Bad Sisters.
Dublin. The 1920s. As war tears Ireland apart, two young people are caught up in events that will bring love, tragedy – and the hardest of choices.
In a country fighting for freedom, it’s hard to live a normal life. Winnie O’Leary supports the cause, but she doesn’t go looking for trouble. Then rebel Joseph Burke steps into her workplace. Winnie is furious with him about a broken window. She’s not interested in romance. But love comes when you least expect it.
Joseph’s family shelter fugitives and smuggle weapons. Joseph would never ask Winnie to join the fight; but his mother and sisters demand commitment. Will Winnie choose Joseph, and put her own loved ones in deadly danger? Or wait for a time of peace that may never come?
Ireland’s tumultuous independence struggle is the backdrop for an unforgettable story of courage and heartbreak, in which heroes are made of ordinary people. Inspired by the story of Sheila O’Flanagan’s grandmother, The Woman on the Bridge is the unmissable, compulsive new novel from a bestselling author.
My Review:
The Woman On The Bridge is a beautiful written, compelling and emotional read that will stay with me.
Firstly the author does a great job setting the scene in this book so the reader feels completely transported to Ireland in the 1920’s. I liked learning a little bit more about Ireland’s struggle for Independence as it was fascinating to see how it affected ordinary people’s families and friendships. I liked that the story didn’t just focus on this though as the author highlights other things that were happening in Ireland at the time too, especially women’s fight for independence. It was quite emotional to see families fighting for independence and to keep their families alive at the same time.
The characters were all brilliant creations that I grew fond of throughout the book. I did enjoy the love story that develops between Winnie and Joseph, though knowing a little bit about this period I felt a sense of trepidation too as I didn’t think it would have a happy ending. For me the love story was secondary to the historical events that were happening in Ireland at the time and I felt more caught up in those stories instead.
I thought this book had a great pace to it and there always seemed to be something happening to keep my interest. I soon became really invested in the characters and their individual struggles which made the book hard to put down at times as I really wanted to find out what happens. I felt there were a few unfinished threads in the story and I’m really hoping that there will be a sequel to this book as I’d love to learn more about them and see what happens next for the characters.
Huge thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me onto the blog tour and to Headline for my copy of this book.
About The Author:
I’ve always loved reading and when I was a child I used to write stories for my younger sisters as a bribe to make them do my share of the housework. It usually worked!
Ireland is famed for its writers, but for me growing up most of the novels were rural in both their settings and their points of view. I wanted to read books about people like me, who lived in the city and struggled with the chaotic bus timetable and had dreams and ambitions that had nothing to do with the farm.
I also wanted to read novels in which the women were the heroes of their own stories. Too many women in the novels I read were there as a wife, mother or daughter and their role was to develop the storyline for the male character. I wanted to hear those women’s stories and tell them myself.
Although I was constantly writing, the idea of being a novelist was a bit of a pipe dream. I had to earn a living and so I got a job in finance. It was the complete opposite of anything I’d ever expected to do but – at least for a time – I enjoyed it and I did well.
Nevertheless the dream wouldn’t go away and in my thirties I decided that I would make a real effort to write my novel. Eventually, after a couple of false starts, Dreaming of A Stranger was written and published and became an Irish bestseller.
Since then I’ve written more than 25 novels as well as 3 collections of short stories and 2 novels for children all of which have been bestsellers both in Ireland and overseas. They include The Hideaway, What Happened That Night, Isobel’s Wedding and Suddenly Single and my sales have topped 9 million copies around the world.
In most of my books, I put women in situations where they have to dig deep inside themselves to find their inner strength even though sometimes they struggle to realise it’s there. Readers often ask who my favourite characters are, but every one of the women in my books is as close to me as a member of my family. (For the time when I’m writing a book they’re even closer because they’re in my head 24/7. At least with the family I can walk out of the room or put the phone down!)
Regardless of who my readers are, I always try to do three things when I’m writing:
Tell a good story
Make the reader feel like they know the characters
Make each book better than the last
I’ve been very lucky in having so many books published and hearing from readers all around the world. And I’m glad that, when times were tough, I remembered the quote that ‘a professional writer is an amateur who wouldn’t quit”
I’m a passionate avocate for increasing literacy and helping people who have come to reading late in life so that they can find the same pleasure in reading as I’ve had. I’ve taken part in a number of different televised projects to help people who’ve struggled with reading and writing and I’ve contributed to both the Quick Reads and Open Doors series of novellas for new readers. I’m also a board member of Fighting Words, the creative writing centre set up by Booker prize-winner Roddy Doyle where I’ve worked with teenagers to write their own published stories and retired people who are working on their memoirs.
Good morning everyone I treated myself to this beautiful book a few weeks ago but haven’t managed to share it yet.
I’ve only recently discovered this author but absolutely loved Under The Whispering Door when I read it. I knew I had read more of his book so when I saw this special edition of his newest book I knew I had to get it! As I might have mentioned a few times I love books with beautiful sprayed edges and I think these spredges are stunning!
Have you read anything by this author? Which book is your favourite?
Book Synopsis:
From New York Times bestselling author TJ Klune, In the Lives of Puppets is a queer retelling of the Pinocchio tale, inviting you deep into the heart of a peculiar forest and on the extraordinary journey of a family assembled from spare parts.
In a strange little home built into the branches of a grove of trees live three robots – fatherly inventor android Giovanni Lawson, a pleasantly sadistic nurse machine, and a small vacuum desperate for love and attention. Victor Lawson, a human, lives there too. They’re a family, hidden and safe.
The day Vic salvages and repairs an unfamiliar android labelled ‘HAP’, he learns of a shared dark past between Hap and Gio – a past spent hunting humans.
When Hap unwittingly alerts robots from Gio’s former life to their whereabouts, the family is no longer hidden and safe. Gio is captured and taken back to his old laboratory in the City of Electric Dreams. So together, the rest of Vic’s assembled family must journey across an unforgiving and otherworldly country to rescue Gio from decommission, or worse, reprogramming.
Along the way to save Gio, amid conflicted feelings of betrayal and affection for Hap, Vic must decide for himself: can he accept love with strings attached?
Inspired by Carlo Collodi’s The Adventures of Pinocchio, In the Lives of Puppets is a masterful standalone fantasy adventure from the author who brought you The House in the Cerulean Sea and Under the Whispering Door.
About The Author:
TJ KLUNE is a Lambda Literary Award-winning author (Into This River I Drown) and an ex-claims examiner for an insurance company. His novels include the Green Creek series, The House on the Cerulean Sea and The Exraordinaries. Being queer himself, TJ believes it’s important—now more than ever—to have accurate, positive, queer representation in stories.
Over The Rainbow Blog 