Book Synopsis:

Inspired by a real-life case and winner of the Bloody Scotland Pitch Perfect Award, Kate Foster’s The Maiden is a remarkable story with a feminist revisionist twist, giving a voice to women otherwise silenced by history.

“In the end, it did not matter what I said at my trial. No one believed me.”

Edinburgh, October 1679. Lady Christian is arrested and charged with the murder of her lover, James Forrester. News of her imprisonment and subsequent trial is splashed across the broadsides, with headlines that leave little room for doubt: Adulteress. Whore. Murderess.

Only a year before, Lady Christian was newly married, leading a life of privilege and respectability. So, what led her to risk everything for an affair? And does that make her guilty of murder? She wasn’t the only woman in Forrester’s life, and certainly not the only one who might have had cause to wish him dead . . .

My Review:

The Maiden is a gripping, absorbing book which I really loved and is one of the best pieces of historical fiction I’ve read.

The story is told from the point of view of two very different women. Lady Christian who has lived a comfortable life of privilege and Violet an orphan who works at the local whore house. The two women have the rather dubious honour of knowing James Forrester and through the book we learn more about their experiences with him as well as the events leading up to James’s murder.

The author does a great job of setting the scene so I often felt I was actually there observing everything alongside the characters. I felt that I could almost smell the stench of Edinburgh and see the grime of Violets world. The different between the rich and poor are starkly highlighted with it being quite difficult at times to read about Violets often horrific experiences at the whore house.

Overall I really enjoyed this book and will be recommending it to everyone. I was immediately drawn into the story and quickly found the book hard to put down as I wanted to find out what happens next. This book is based on a real life case and characters which I always love as it’s always great to learn about a new period in history. At the end of the chapters there are newspaper articles from the case which gives the reader an insight into what happened. It made my blood boil to see how women were treated by the court, with James’s behaviour being excused because he was a rich man while the women were shamed for their actions.

Huge thanks to Chloe from Pan Macmillan for inviting me onto the blog tour and for my copy of this book, though as you can see from the pictures I did buy my own copy too as I couldn’t resist those gorgeous spredges. If you’re a fan of historical fiction I highly recommend this book!

About The Author:

Kate Foster has been a national newspaper journalist for over twenty years and is the Health Editor for the Scottish Daily Mail.

She won the Bloody Scotland Pitch Perfect 2020 prize for new writers for her debut novel The Maiden, which she wrote on a Curtis Brown Creative six-month novel writing course. The Maiden will be published in April 2023. 

She lives near Edinburgh with her two children.

Good morning everyone and happy Bank Holiday Monday!

One of the kids and my favourite activities is going on a picnic so when I was tagged by @might_read_until_i_feel_better on Instagram to share a picnic stack I knew I had to join in. One thing this challenge has highlighted is that I really don’t have any books with food in the titles 🤣.

Where? – The Forgotten Garden

When? – One Enchanted Evening

What’s in the Sandwiches?
Little Wings

What’s the weather like?
Peach Blossom Spring

What can you hear? The Nightingale

Who’s joining you? The Bandit Queens!

I’ve still can’t figure out how to tag people on here but Claire knight, Nicki Mags and the lovely Joanne Portobello Book Blog who loves a book challenge might want to take part but as always no pressure! Here’s hoping the sun comes out so we can go on lots of picnics soon.

Good morning everyone I hope you’re all having a great weekend? I’ve been lucky enough to get some fantastic book post this week:

⭐The Murder Of Anton Livius by Hansjörg Schneider
⭐The Führer’s Prophecy by Brian Klein
⭐The Royal Correspondent by Alexandra Joel
⭐Bad Men by Julie Mae Cohen
⭐More Confessions Of A Forty Something f##k Up by Alexander Potter
⭐The Last Passenger by Will Dean

The first three are new authors for me but sound very intriguing! The last three are all authors I’ve loved before so I’m very excited to read these.

I’m hoping for a quiet day today. My other half is taking the boys out so I’m looking forward to reading more of the fantastic The Maiden today which I’m really enjoying. My daughter is coming back from a two day brownie camp later and, while it looks like she’s had fun, I’ve missed her so I’m excited to see her later. Then… It’s our 13 year wedding anniversary tomorrow so we’re off out tonight to celebrate with a curry and a few drinks.

Any of these books on your radar?

Good morning everyone and happy weekend! It’s been a while since I’ve done a reading update so here’s what I’m currently reading:

⭐Last – Preloved by Lauren Bravo

⭐Now – Camp Zero by Michelle Min Sterling &

The Maiden by Kate Foster

⭐Next – Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld

I really enjoyed Preloved which I reviewed on my blog Wednesday. I’m currently reading Camp Zero as part of the Tandem Collective read-along and I’m really enjoying it so far. It’s actually quite hard to stop myself at the end of the reading schedule for each day. I’m also starting The Maiden today which I’ve heard great things about. I’m then hoping to read Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld which is another book I’ve been hearing lots about so I’m very excited to start it.

In other news, I’ve finished my first full week at the bookshop and …..I’m absolutely loving it! It’s so much fun to see it all come together and to see all the books we have on stock. I have a feeling most of my wages will be spent there. We’re hoping to open the Monday after the Coronation so if you’re local do come and say hi!

Do you have any plans for the bank holiday weekend?

Book Synopsis:

Robin Hood, Dick Turpin, Ronnie Biggs, the Krays … All have become folk heroes, glamorised and romanticised, even when they killed. But where are their female equivalents? Where are the street robbers, gang leaders, diamond thieves, gold smugglers and bank robbers?

Queens of the Underworld reveals the incredible story of female crooks from the seventeenth century to the present. From Moll Cutpurse to the Black Boy Alley Ladies, from jewel thief Emily Lawrence to bandit leader Elsie Carey and burglar Zoe Progl, these were charismatic women at the top of their game. But female criminals have long been dismissed as either not ‘real women’ or not ‘real criminals’, and in the process their stories have been lost.

Caitlin Davies unravels the myths, confronts the lies and tracks down modern-day descendants in order to tell the truth about their lives for the first time.

My Review:

Queens Of The Underworld is a fascinating, informative read that I really enjoyed.

Firstly I hadn’t heard of many of the people in this book so found it very interesting to learn more about them. The author has written this book to shine a light on their lives which have previously been overlooked or altered. These are strong women who chose to live outside of what society expected of them and as such experienced some discrimination as people couldn’t believe that women were capable of such crimes. This meant their stories were often altered or adjusted to fit into societal norms, meaning the truth had been lost.

The author dedicates a chapter to each of the female criminals and I enjoyed learning more about their lives. Most of the woman came from poor, abusive backgrounds which was sad to read about and was often their reason for turning to crime. The author does a great job of highlighting their lives while not glorifying their crimes or forgetting about their victims which I thought was very clever.

Overall I thought this was a brilliant read that I will be recommending to all true crime fans. I found the book easy to read as the author had a great writing style and I found the book surprisingly gripping. I’ll definitely be reading more from this author and researching more into the women featured in this book.

Huge thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me onto the blog tour and to the publisher for my copy of this book. If you like true crime or non fiction books I highly recommend this book.

About The Author:

Caitlin Davies was born in London in 1964. She spent 12 years in Botswana as a teacher, human rights reporter and newspaper editor, during which she was twice arrested and put on trial. Many of her early books are set in the Okavango Delta, including a critically acclaimed memoir Place of Reeds, described by Hilary Mantel as ‘candid and unsentimental’.

She is fascinated by the buried stories of women from the past, which feature in several of her books – The Ghost of Lily Painter is based on the arrest and execution of two Edwardian baby farmers, while Daisy Belle: Swimming Champion of the World is inspired by the lives of forgotten Victorian aquatic stars.

Her non-fiction books include Taking the Waters: A Swim Around Hampstead Heath, Downstream: a history and celebration of swimming the River Thames, and Bad Girls: The Rebels and Renegades of Holloway Prison, which was longlisted for the 2019 Orwell Prize for Political Writing.

Caitlin’s latest book is Queens of the Underworld, a journey into the lives of female crooks from the 17th century to today, to be published by The History Press in October 2021.

She is a teacher, social historian, and freelance journalist, and was a regular feature writer for The Independent’s education and careers supplement. As a Royal Literary Fund Fellow she has worked at the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Science Museum and the University of Westminster. She is a mentor with StoryBoard, https://www.storyboardwriter.com/, which offers writing help for both fiction and non-fiction.

Book Synopsis:

Four lives, entwined forever by decisions made in a time of conflict. But what happens decades later when they unexpectedly converge once more?  

Trang and Quynh: sisters who leave their rural village for the bustling city of Saigon, desperate to find work to help their impoverished parents. When they take jobs as ‘ bar girls’, paid to flirt with American GIs, they must decide whether they are willing to turn their backs on the people they used to be.   

Phong: one of the thousands of mixed-race children abandoned by their American fathers and Vietnamese mothers. Phong grows up surrounded by rejection, insulted as a ‘Black American imperialist’, and a ‘child of the enemy’. But he never gives up hope of finding his parents and proving he is more than a ‘bui doi’: more than the ‘dust of life’.  

Dan: A former American helicopter pilot still plagued by regrets about his actions during the Việt Nam war. Now he has returned in the hope of confronting the demons that refuse to fall silent.  

Set between the Việt Nam war and the present day, Dust Child is a sweeping epic of family secrets and hidden heartache, from an internationally celebrated author. 

My Review:

Dust child is a beautifully written, emotional and harrowing book that has stayed with me long after reading it.

The story is told in two timelines. One, set in 1969, follows two sisters Trang and Quynh as they live through the Vietnam war. While the other set in 2016 follows Phang, a dust child, who is hoping to travel to America to find his father and Dan a Vietnam war veteran visiting the country to try and help his PTSD. The three stories blend together well and there is a real sense of connection between them as all have experienced the same thing. Unusually for me I didn’t have a favourite timeline but instead just enjoyed being taken along in the story and watching everything unfold.

As you can imagine this book really packs an emotional punch as we learn more about how innocent people suffered and how people were treated. It always amazes me how humans can treat each other so cruelly at times and my heart absolutely broke whilst reading some of the characters stories. I liked that the author doesn’t just make this a sad book though as there is a feeling of hope in the book too and I loved to see the strength some of the characters showed.

Huge thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me onto the blog tour and to the publisher for my copy of this book via Netgalley.

About The Author:

Born and raised in Việt Nam, Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai is the author of the international bestseller THE MOUNTAINS SING, runner-up for the 2021 Dayton Literary Peace Prize, winner of the 2020 BookBrowse Best Debut Award, the 2021 International Book Awards, the 2021 PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award, and the 2020 Lannan Literary Award Fellowship for Fiction. She has published twelve books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction in Vietnamese and English and has received some of the top literary prizes in Việt Nam including the Poetry of the Year 2010 from the Hà Nội Writers Association. Her writing has been translated into twenty languages and has appeared in major publications including the New York Times. She has a PhD in Creative Writing from Lancaster University. Quế Mai is a tireless advocate for the rights of disadvantaged groups in Việt Nam and has founded several scholarship programs. She was named by Forbes Vietnam as one of 20 inspiring women of 2021.

Book Synopsis:

On a cool autumn day in 1948, Victoria Nash delivers late-season peaches from her family’s farm set amid the wild beauty of Colorado. As she heads into her village, a dishevelled stranger stops to ask her the way. How she chooses to answer will unknowingly alter the course of both their young lives.

So begins the mesmerising story of split-second choices and courageous acts that propel Victoria away from the only home she has ever known and towards a reckoning with loss, hope and her own untapped strength.

Gathering all the pieces of her small and extraordinary existence, spinning through the eddies of desire, heartbreak and betrayal, she will arrive at a single rocky decision that will change her life for ever.

GO AS A RIVER is a heart-wrenching coming-of-age story and a drama of enthralling power. Combining unforgettable characters and a breathtaking natural setting, it is a sweeping story of survival and becoming, of the deepest mysteries of love, truth and fate.

My Review:

Go As A River is a beautiful, absorbing and thought provoking read that I thoroughly enjoyed.

The reader is quickly drawn into the story and into the world Tori lives in. We are introduced to a small, backwater town where prejudices run deep and nothing much has changed for generations. It’s a way of life few of us have experienced, living off the land and being beholden to the weather for the crops to grow or fail.

Tori’s world is small and she’s busy from morning to night with hardly any rest or time for fun. I really felt for her and wished I could somehow help her and be her friend. The roles she fulfils in the house are ones that the women of the house have fulfilled for generations and as such I really admired her strength to want more for herself. The terrible choices she’s forced to make were very emotional to read about and made me cry as I read. However I loved that she follows her heart and finds her way back to where she’s mean to be.

I thought this book has a great pace to it and I found it very hard to put down in places. There were parts of the story I wished would go on forever and others which I felt went on a tad too long but maybe if other parts had been embellished it would have made it a completely different story. It was lovely to see Tori grow up, stand up for herself and get the ending I really wanted for her.

Huge thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me onto the blog tour and to the publisher for my copy of this book. If you’re looking for a beautiful coming of age story, that stays with you I definitely recommend this book.

About The Author:

Shelley Read is a fifth generation Coloradoan who lives with her family in the Elk Mountains of the Western Slope. She was a Senior Lecturer at Western Colorado University for nearly three decades, where she taught writing, literature, environmental studies, and Honors, and was a founder of the Environment & Sustainability major and a support program for first-generation and at-risk students. Shelley holds degrees in writing and literary studies from the University of Denver and Temple University’s Graduate Program in Creative Writing. She is a regular contributor to Crested Butte Magazine and Gunnison Valley Journal, and has written for the Denver Post and a variety of publications.

Book Synopsis:

Gwen is coasting through life. She’s in her mid-thirties, perpetually single, her friends are busy procreating in the countryside and conversations with her parents seem to revolve entirely around the council’s wheelie-bin timetable.
 
And she’s lonely. But then, isn’t everyone?
 
When she’s made redundant from a job she hardly cares about, she takes herself out for a fancy dinner. There she has the best sticky toffee pudding of her life and realises she has no one to tell. She vows to begin living her life fully, reconnect with her friends and family, and finally book that dentist’s appointment. 
 
Gwen decides to start where all things get a second chance: her local charity shop. There, with the help of the weird and wonderful people and donated items bursting with untold stories, Gwen will find a way to move forward with bravery, tenacity, and more regular dental care.
 
Dazzlingly witty, Preloved is a tale about friendship, loss and being true to yourself no matter the expectations. Lovingly celebrating the enduring power and joy of charity shops.

My Review:

Preloved is a beautiful, heartwarming and relatable read that I really enjoyed.

Firstly I absolutely loved the main character Gwen. She was so quirky and relatable that I couldn’t help but warm to her instantly. I loved following her through her new start as she makes new friends, goes on job hunts and gets into some awkward situations. I grew very fond of her as the story progressed and wished I knew her in real life so I could help her with a few thing or just give her the cuddle I felt she needed sometimes.

Gwen’s story is interspersed with stories behind some of the items you might find in a charity shop which I really loved. These stories were very interesting and quite emotional at times. It’s definitely made me think about where some of the items in charity shops come from and has made me look more closely at the items in the shops I walk past on my way to work.

Overall I absolutely loved this book and will be recommending it to everyone. The story had a lovely pace to it and there always seemed to be something happening to keep me glued to the page. Even in the slower moments I was just happy hanging out with Gwen, wondering what would happen next.

Huge thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me onto the blog tour and to the publisher for my copy of this book. If you’re looking for a fun, quirky read I highly recommend this one!

About The Author:

Lauren Bravo is a freelance journalist who writes about fashion, popular culture, food, travel and feminism, for titles including Grazia, Stylist, Cosmopolitan and Sunday Times Style. She volunteers in a charity shop once a week (partly to get dibs on all the best clothes).

Book Synopsis:

Summer, 1943. Daniel Berkåk, who works as a courier for the Press and Military Office in Sweden, is killed on his last cross-border mission to Norway.
 
Demobbed sailor Kai Fredly escapes from occupied Norway into Sweden, but finds that the murder of his Nazi-sympathiser brother is drawing the attention of the authorities on both sides of the border.
 
The Norwegian government, currently exiled in London, wants to know what happened to their courier, and the job goes to writer Jomar Kraby, whose first suspect is a Norwegian refugee living in Sweden … a refugee with a past as horrifying as the events still to come … a refugee named Kai Fredly…
 
Both classic crime and a stunning exposé of Norwegian agents in Stockholm during the Second World War, The Lazarus Solution is a compulsive, complex and dazzling historical thriller from one of the genre’s finest writers.
 
For fans of Sebastian Faulks, Lars Mytting, Mick Herron and Robert Harris.

My Review:

The Lazarus Solution is a tense, atmospheric thriller that I really enjoyed.

Firstly I loved the author’s fabulous descriptions of Wartime Sweden that made me able to visualise it in my mind. It was definitely an interesting country to be in during the war as although it was neutral it still had evidence of the war in its daily life It also had to deal with the constant threat of attack or infiltration of Nazi or communist forces which made for a very intense atmosphere. I’d previously assumed that life had just continued on as normal so found it fascinating to and slightly shocking to see otherwise.

The two main characters were very intriguing and I enjoyed getting to know them throughout the book. Kraby was my favourite character as I liked that he initially seemed like a stereotypical character down on his luck with a drinking problem and a slightly dodgy past but was actually a very competent guy. I felt very sorry him as he obviously felt regret for some of his past actions. Fredly on the other hand seemed a very suspicious character who I wasn’t sure I could trust. As the book continues it becomes apparent that he’s not telling the truth about something which got me very intrigued about what might be revealed.

This book did start of slowly but soon became very gripping indeed. I loved discovering more about the background of the characters and how it was influencing current events. The ending was very exciting and unexpected which I always love. I’m very excited to read more from this author soon.

Huge thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me onto the blog tour and to Orenda for my digital copy of this book.

About The Author:

Kjell Ola Dahl was born in the city Gjovik, in Norway in 1958, but grew up in Oslo. Dahl was a teacher and social adviser in High school when he started to write the Oslo Detectives series. Two times Dahl has won the Riverton-prize, the Norwegian National prize for the best novel of crime fiction (in 2000 and in 2015). He won the prestigious Brage-prize for the Courier, a standalone novel of crime fiction set in Norway and Sweden during World War II and in 1967. The first book in the series of the Oslo Detectives – Lethal investments – was published in in Norway 1993. Dahl lives on the farm Torgunrud in Feiring, by the lake Mjosa.

 

Book Synopsis:

When a daughter is born to the King of Arcadia, she brings only disappointment.

Left exposed on a mountainside, the defenceless infant Atalanta is left to the mercy of a passing mother bear and raised alongside the cubs under the protective eye of the goddess Artemis.

Swearing that she will prove her worth alongside the famed heroes of Greece, Atalanta leaves her forest to join Jason’s band of Argonauts. But can she carve out her own place in the legends in a world made for men?

My Review:

Atlanta is another beautifully written, compelling and gripping read from this fantastic author.

Firstly the author is clearly very knowledgeable about Greek mythology and I loved how her enthusiasm for it shines through in her writing. I didn’t know there was a female Argonaut before reading this book so I found it fascinating to learn more about Atlanta and that the author had chosen to highlight her absence from the traditional re -telling.

Atlanta was an inspiring main character who I loved following throughout the book. I loved how strong she was and how she challenged typical female stereotypes with her brave adventures. It was great fun watching her stand up with the men and prove her skills alongside them. I liked how the author shows that she is still vulnerable at times though as it made her seem more realistic and more human.

I thought this book was fairly fast paced and there always seemed to be something happening to keep me gripped. I loved the fabulous descriptions of the ancient world that the author has created which made it seem so real and really helped me to imagine it in my mind. It’s a world that I would have loved to be able to explore myself as I think it would be so interesting.

The ending was brilliant with the final sentence, “I am Wild, I am Free, I am Atlanta”, sending shivers down my spine. I can’t wait to read more from this talented author soon.

Huge thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me onto the blog tour and to Headline for my copy of this book via Netgalley though, as you can see, I did treat myself to the Waterstones Special Edition too.

About The Author:

Jennifer Saint grew up reading Greek mythology and was always drawn to the untold stories hidden within the myths. After thirteen years as a high school English teacher, she wrote ARIADNE which tells the legend of Theseus and the Minotaur from the perspective of Ariadne – the woman who made it happen. Her second novel, ELEKTRA, explores the curse upon the House of Atreus, giving voice to three women who are caught up in its shadows: Clytemnestra, Cassandra and Elektra whose lives are shattered by the Trojan War and who seek to find justice at any cost. Jennifer Saint is now a full-time author, living in Yorkshire, England, with her husband and two children.