Book After Book

Publication: 5th September 2019 – Trapeze

A locked room. A dead body. A secret that went to the grave.

When retired police officer Finlay Shaw is found dead in a locked room, everyone thinks it’s suicide. But disgraced detective William ‘Wolf’ Fawkes isn’t so sure.

Together with his former partner Detective Emily Baxter and private detective Edmunds, Wolf’s team begin to dig into Shaw’s early days on the beat. Was Shaw as innocent as he seemed? Or is there more to his past than he’d ever let on?

But not everyone wants Wolf back – and as his investigation draws him ever deeper into police corruption, it will not only be his career on the line – but the lives of those he holds closest as well…

**********

I am super excited to welcome you on my stop of the blog tour for ENDGAME, the addictive new novel by Daniel Cole. A huge thank you to Tracy Fenton for inviting me to join the blog tour and to Orion for providing me with a copy of the novel.

William “Wolf” Fawkes is back! His mentor and friend Finlay Shaw is found dead in a locked room in his house and everyone think it’s suicide. So why Will is risking his freedom to prove that it is a murder? Will knows that Finlay would have never left his beloved wife Maggie so, after managing to postpone his arrest, he is determined to find out the truth about his mentor’s death and he is helped by his former partner DCI Emily Baxter, private investigator Alex Edmunds, Police Commissioner Christian Bellamy, detective Jake Saunders, and “lab boy” Joe.

ENDGAME is fast-paced, twisty, clever, and, above all, entertaining. It is hard to find a thriller that it is both suspenseful and funny, but Daniel Cole somehow managed to do that craftily creating a novel that keeps you glued to the pages. Will’s sarcasm and playfulness and his banter with Emily made me laugh out loud (I think I am a bit in love with him) and I found the other characters beyond likable. They are flawed, sure, but they are charismatic, engaging, and I really hope to read more about them in the future.

The narrative runs smoothly with flashbacks that take the reader back to important moments for the members of the team and their relationships. In Glasgow 1979, we see two friends and partners involved in a drug investigation that it will still haunt them almost forty years later; we read about the very complicated relationship between two other partners and its ongoing complications in the present time. Friendship, love, and loyalties are tested, truths come out, issues and murders are solved.

I am addicted to this trilogy and its characters and, even though I couldn’t wait to see how it ended, it left me wanting more and more, especially after reading the last page. ENDGAME, and the whole Ragdoll trilogy, is a must-read, one of my favourite book of the year!!!

At 33 years old, Daniel Cole has worked as a paramedic, an RSPCA officer and most recently for the RNLI, driven by an intrinsic need to save people or perhaps just a guilty conscience about the number of characters he kills off in his writing.

He currently lives in sunny Bournemouth and can usually be found down the beach when he ought to be writing book two instead.

Publication: 6th August 2019 – Headline

A humorous, big-hearted romp through the apocalypse, where even a cowardly crow can become a hero. Perfect for fans of Dawn of the Dead and Isaac Marion’s Warm Bodies.

S.T. is a domesticated crow. He is a bird of simple pleasures: hanging out with his owner Big Jim, trading insults with Seattle’s wild crows (those idiots) and enjoying the finest food humankind has to offer: Cheetos.

But when Big Jim’s eyeball falls out of his head, S.T. starts to feel like something isn’t right. His most tried-and-true remedies – from beak-delivered beer to the slobbering affection of the loyal, but dim-witted, dog Dennis – fail to cure his owner.

S.T. is left with no choice but to venture out into a frightening new world, where he discovers that the neighbours are devouring each other, and the local wildlife is abuzz with rumours of dangerous new predators roaming Seattle…

Humanity’s extinction has arrived, and the only one determined to save it is a foul-mouthed crow.

**********

Shit Turd, S.T. for short, is a domesticated crow who lives in Seattle with his owner Big Jim and with Dennis, a bloodhound with “the IQ of a dead opossum”. One day, one of Big Jim’s eye falls out and from there things go very wrong. The extinction of humanity has arrived and it seems that this domesticated crow is the only one who can save it.

HOLLOW KINGDOM is an hilarious laugh-out-loud novel and its protagonist T.S. is the funniest of all. He is an unlikely hero and not only because he is a crow, but his foul language and a knowledge acquired from watching TV with Big Jim don’t make him the right candidate to save the world from the apocalypse. And yet, he is smart and resourceful and, along with his best friend Dennis, S.T. embarks on a journey to find other domesticated animals who have seen their owners falling victims of the apocalypse.

Congratulations to the author for her superb debut: an original and thought-provoking plot, suspense, a few heart-breaking moments, fantastic descriptions of nature, and vividly drawn and engaging characters work brilliantly together and come to life under her clear and beautiful writing style.

If you are looking for a unique and unforgettable story with an exceptional and unusual protagonist, HOLLOW KINGDOM should be at the top of your list.

A huge thank you to Rosie and Headline for providing me with a proof copy of this captivating novel.

 

 

Publication: 25th July 2019 – Zaffre Books

Seven days. Three families. One killer.

It was supposed to be the perfect holiday, dreamed up by Kate as the ideal way to turn 40: four best friends and their husbands and children in a luxurious villa under the blazing sunshine of Provence. 

But there is trouble in paradise. Kate suspects that her husband is having an affair, and that the other woman is one of her best friends. 

One of these women is willing to sacrifice years of friendship and destroy her family. But which one? As Kate closes in on the truth in the stifling Mediterranean heat, she realises too late that the stakes are far higher than she ever imagined. 

Because someone in the villa is prepared to kill to keep their secret hidden.

**********

I have been hearing so many good things about THE HOLIDAY that I had to read it and I saw why everyone was raving about it. It’s so suspenseful and addictive… luckily I started reading it during the weekend because I devoured it in one day.

THE HOLIDAY is the story of four friends. Kate, Jennifer, Rowan, and Izzy have been best friends since college and to celebrate their fortieth birthdays they decide to spend a week in a beautiful house in the South of France along with their husbands and children, but things go wrong from the very beginning because Kate suspects her husband Sean is hiding something and her doubts are confirmed when she reads his text and she finds out that he is secretly messaging with one of her friends. Should she confront him? Or should she first find out which one of her friends betrayed her?

THE HOLIDAY is a tale of paranoia and suspicions. Like Kate, I found myself suspecting first Rowan, then Jennifer, and lastly Izzy, and then starting all over again. It wasn’t easy to figure out the truth when each woman is clearly hiding something and they are all found whispering with Sean or hugging him. Oh, and let’s not forget their children and all their drama: a 17-year-old girl clearly hiding something, two teenage boys looking for oblivion and with tendencies that border to obsession, a young boy that would do anything to please his sister and the older boys, and a spoiled 5-year-old girl who sees everything that happens among the adults. How couldn’t I be completely engrossed in this novel? The author did a great job building up the suspense and never revealing too much so that I didn’t know the truth until it was revealed.

The characters are not always likable, but they are vividly drawn and it feels like you are inside their head. Most of the story is told from Kate’s point of view and there were times when I found her annoying and I wanted to shake her and tell her to wake up and do something. Rowan was a bit snob while Jennifer was too smothering, and I seriously worried about the children’s mental health after the tragic ending of the holiday.

THE HOLIDAY is a psychologic thriller with capital letters… dark, gripping, and full of twists, it’s a must-read!

A huge thank you to Zaffre Books and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of the novel.

 

Publication: 1st August 2019 (eBook); 8th August 2019 (paperback) – Aria

The sequel to the bestselling phenomenon The Note – based on the true story of one girl and her ‘Train Man’…

A year after the kiss that brought them together in a snowy train-station doorway, Maya and James are embarking on another journey – this time around the world.

The trip starts promisingly, with an opulent and romantic Indian wedding. But as their travels continue, Maya fears that ‘love at first sight’ might not survive trains, planes and tuk tuks, especially when she realises that what she really wants is a baby, and James doesn’t feel the same. 

Can Maya and James navigate their different hopes and dreams to stay together? Or is love at first sight just a myth after all…

Perfect for fans of One Day in December, Our Stop and Marian Keyes. The Postcard continues the once-in-a-lifetime love story that readers so took to their hearts.

**********

My Travels with Train Man

Hi, I’m Maya, I’m 29, and I’m a stalker. Through completely non-grubby means, I have had Bono beckon me for a cuddle, The Hoff has laughed at my jokes, and Tom Cruise has led me by the hand on one of his red-carpet walkabouts. But the stalk of my life, the one I’m most proud of, was the handsome stranger on the train who ended up falling in love
with me.

For almost a year after he started getting the 8.21 a.m. to King’s Cross, I wore that little bit extra mascara and tried not to stare as he read books I loved. He was so beautiful and seemed like a good soul, but we never spoke. I tried to test if he would notice me by ‘accidentally’ dropping my ticket, to see if he would pick it up. My heart sang when he did, but I blushed too hard and squeaked too high to say anything more than an inelegant ‘Ta’.

It took almost a year for me to pluck up the courage to write him a note – on my birthday in May – and another eleven days for me to actually give it to him. When he emailed me at 5 p.m. to say thanks, happy birthday, but unfortunately he had a girlfriend, I was gutted but decided to cling onto the use of the word ‘unfortunately’. Remember, I’m good.

Months passed. Friends told me to move on. I went on the odd date. I even dated the guy I used to slow down for in kiss chase at primary school… but I just couldn’t get past the fact that they weren’t Train Man. My sister called me ‘too picky’. I know I sound like I was taking the fast train to Crazytown, but I really saw myself with Train Man.

Months after I’d given Train Man the note, I was doing a shoot for a newspaper I was working for (you might remember the whole Fifi Fashion Insider furore – yeah, that’s me), and who was the photographer at the studio? That’s right, Train Man. He didn’t get the chance to tell me his circumstances had changed. Stunned in shock and silenced by his beauty, I was too embarrassed to seize the moment. When his ex-girlfriend walked in, I fled the studio with a hot face and a broken heart; I thought they were still together.

Fast-forward a few weeks and I was on the last train home, stuck in the snow at 1 a.m. in a village outpost. I was about to panic, and there he was in the doorway. He told me he was single; he had been for months. He said he’d noticed me – HE’D NOTICED ME?! – way before I dropped my ticket or threw the note at him. He told me he’d noticed my sparkly eyes. We kissed in the doorway of a closed pub and that night I fell in love for real.

We no longer get the 8.21 a.m. to King’s Cross. In fact, we’re about to embark on another, bigger, adventure – my long-held dream of travelling the world for a year. And you, dear Esprit reader, are invited too…

7

New Year’s Eve 2015, Udaipur, India

‘YOU AND JAMES SHOULD GET MARRIED!’ bellows Josie from across the dance floor. She is teetering on skyscraper heels, in the same oyster hue and with the same satin sheen as her micro dress, clutching a bottle of Moët in her left hand. ‘BEING A WIFEY IS AMAAAAAAZING!’

Maya looks at the bright colours and rich fabrics swirling around them, relieved that James isn’t within earshot. It takes a lot of noise to drown Josie out, but the twelve dashing men banging out bhangra beats on kettle drums have spared Maya this time around. Maya doesn’t have to flush a shade of awkward and James doesn’t need to smile uncomfortably and change the subject.

It started three days ago at the mehndi ceremony, when Josie first started asking Maya why James hadn’t proposed yet – and if she thought he might. Maya was relieved to be easily able to change the focus of conversation onto Priyanka and her friends, and to lose Josie in the intricacies of floral and geometric henna.

The cringe factor was upped two days ago, after the cricket match that turned into a black-tie dinner. Josie was so giddy that the gang were back together that she had a bit too much fizz and started crying when she tried to explain how happy she was and that marriage really was the best thing she and Dominic had ever done.

On day three of the festivities – a boating trip followed by lunch at a palace on the lake – a tipsy Josie stood up on the sunset boat back across Lake Pichola and started twerking to ‘Put A Ring On It’, a backing track of which she played on her phone. She even straddled James for part of her routine, shoving her ring finger at him and pointing it in his face. James was not amused. The bride’s grandparents were not amused. Dominic was mortified and pulled Josie back into her seat before she capsized the boat and drowned everyone in it.

This morning, over breakfast of kachori and roti, in the palatial gardens that hugged the still lake, Josie was offering up her Italian wedding villa venue for Maya and James to wed in, even though it wasn’t hers to
loan out.

‘Oh, wouldn’t it be lovely to go back, Dom?’ she mused through faraway eyes.

‘Easy, Joze,’ replied Dominic, rubbing his droopy brown eyes, sensing the change in the atmosphere, while James scrolled through the photos on his digital SLR and Maya thought make it stop.

But it didn’t… Earlier, during the flower-filled Hindu ceremony, Josie had squeezed Maya’s arm as Jeremy and Priyanka took their seven steps around the fire, leaned in and whispered to Maya and James, ‘Oh gawd, you have to do this at your wedding.’

Zoë Folbigg is a magazine journalist and digital editor, starting at Cosmopolitan in 2001 and since freelancing for titles including Glamour, Fabulous, Daily Mail, Healthy, LOOK, Top Santé, Mother & Baby, ELLE, Sunday Times Style and Style.com. In 2008 she had a weekly column in Fabulous magazine documenting her year-long round-the-world trip with ‘Train Man’ – a man she had met on her daily commute. She since married Train Man and lives in Hertfordshire with him and their two young sons.

Follow Zoë:

Facebook: @zoefolbiggauthor

Twitter: @zolington

Website: www.zoefolbigg.com

Pre-order Links:

Amazon: https://amzn.to/2XDiYhJ

Kobo: http://bit.ly/2Cg55hG

Google Play: http://bit.ly/2LMMxLs

iBooks: https://apple.co/2SlqNYt

Follow Aria:

Website: www.ariafiction.com

Twitter: @aria_fiction

Facebook: @ariafiction

Instagram: @ariafiction

 

 

Publication: 22nd August 2019 – HQ

‘I was pregnant with the baby of a man I had met once.
What was one normally left with after a first date? A bad case of thrush?’

After eight years together, Lil Bailey thought she’d already found ‘the one’ – that is, until he dumped her for a blonde twenty-something colleague. So she does what any self-respecting singleton would do: swipes right, puts on her best bra and finds herself on a first date with a handsome mountaineer called Max. What’s the worst that can happen?
 
Well it’s pretty bad actually. First Max ghosts her and then, after weeing on a stick (but mostly her hands), a few weeks later Lil discovers she’s pregnant. She’s single, thirty-one and living in a thimble-sized flat in London, it’s hardly the happily-ever-after she was looking for.

Lil’s ready to do the baby-thing on her own – it can’t be that hard, right? But she should probably tell Max, if she can track him down. Surely he’s not that Max, the highly eligible, headline-grabbing son of Lord and Lady Rushbrooke, currently trekking up a mountain in South Asia? Oh, maybe he wasn’t ignoring Lil after all…  

**********

When I heard that Sophia Money-Coutts had a new book coming out I knew I had to read it. I really enjoyed her debut novel, The Plus One. I found it hilarious and completely captivating. I expected the same from her second book and I wasn’t disappointed.

What I loved most about WHAT HAPPENS NOW? is the protagonist. Lil Bailey is realistic, engaging, and funny. She is honest, loyal, and kind, the type of character that I wish was by best friend. She is a teacher in a prestigious boys school in Chelsea, she has a few good friends, and she has a fantastic relationship with her parents. All in all, she is a normal girl, but her life becomes a bit complicated when, after a one-night stand (with a few sex scenes that made me cry from laughing), she finds out she is pregnant. Handsome and charming Max, the father of her baby, is a famous mountain climber and he comes from a noble family and they don’t have much in common. Lil has nine months to figure out her relationship with Max (does she have feelings for him?), her living situation (she is flat sharing with a couple who does yoga and has loud sex), and how she is going to raise her child (can she really be a single mother?).

As I already mentioned, I loved the protagonist Lil, she is my kind of gal. I liked her at the beginning of the story, but I also liked how she grows and develops, the person she becomes at the end. I also liked her friends, the twins Jess and Clem. This duo created some of the funniest scenes in the book with their witty dialogues and their easy relationship with Lil. Although sometimes I found him a bit snob, Max is a likable character, even if a bit mysterious. Other characters worth of mention are the children in Lil’s class who with their honesty and with their innocent yet embarrassing questions made me laugh quite a lot, and the feared and stern mistress of the school which I found a very interesting character.

Friendship, love, motherhood, and loss are all themes the author addresses with her clear and flowing writing style using humour, but also a few emotional moments that gave the story a more serious tone. I laughed, I fell in love with the characters, I was completely engrossed in the story, and I am hoping that we will get to read more about Lil and Max and what happens next.

A huge thank you to Joe Thomas and HQ for inviting me to join the blog tour and providing me with a copy of this brilliant novel.

Publication: 22nd August 2019 – Manilla

FOR THIS KILLER, IT’S A GAME OF A B C

Criminal profilers Jan Grall and Rabea W yler are assigned the gruesome case of a
man found murdered in a w ildlife park. Later, tw o more bodies are found, both
brutally mutilated, and authorities soon realise that the victims are linked by the
letters of the alphabet tattooed on their skin.

Then the killer strikes again and Grall and W yler receive a mysterious package
containing a blood-encrusted scrap of skin marked w ith a letter. And w hen Grall’s
hotel room is marked w ith a Z, the race is on to find out w ho this vicious killer is.
Before it’s too late . . .

A tense and exciting serial killer thriller by debut author, Lars Schutz.

**********

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for THE ALPHABET MURDERS, the debut novel by Lars Schutz. This dark and gripping novel is published today and I’d like to thank Tracy Fenton for inviting me to join the blog tour and Manilla for providing me with a copy of the book.

I do love serial killers in crime novels. Their minds are so twisted and you never know where the story is going to go. Also, I am a big fan of Criminal Minds and I do enjoy behavioural analysis procedure. In what I hope is the first of many cases, we meet Jan Grall, renowned profiler, and his colleague Rabea Wyler. They are called in the Westerwald area where there is a serial killer who leaves a letter of the alphabet tattooed on his victims together with quotes from famous literary works. For Jan the case is almost personal because he grew up in the area and coming back there means facing the ghosts from his past.

I found the setting claustrophobic and chilling and it perfectly fits with the suspenseful plot and some of the disturbing scenes. The chapters switch from character to character, including one of the serial killer’s victim, Tugba. Her point of view was the one I found more emotionally taut and thought-provoking: a young woman knowing she is about to die and doing everything she can to survive, including scratching her skin to erase the tattoo.

The author created a cast of complex and vividly-drawn characters. Jan and Rabea make a good pair of profilers and they both have a dark secret from their past that still haunts them. These are left a bit unresolved and I hope it means that will get to see more of these characters. They are called to investigate the Alphabet Murders by the local police. Anita Ichagawa is Senior Chief Superintendent, smart, strong-minded, and really good at her job. Stutter is Chief Superintendent, he likes to control and he doesn’t easily accept Anita’s place of command. He also doesn’t believe much in profiling and doesn’t make Jan’s job easy.

THE ALPHABET MURDERS is addictive and haunting, it is an accomplished and superb debut and I really look forward to reading more from this author and about these characters!!!

Follow the rest of the blog tour:

Lars Schütz w as born in 1992. He w orks as a copyw riter for a large advertising
agency in Düsseldorf. The Alphabet Murders is his debut thriller.

 

 

Publication: 11th July 2019 (eBook); 22nd August 2019 (paperback) – Pan Macmillan

Has the killer in DC Maggie Neville’s cold case returned after a decade of silence?

Katy Pope was seventeen when she was brutally murdered on a family holiday in Majorca. Despite her mother’s high rank in the Met and the joint major investigation between the British and Spanish police, Katy’s killer was never caught.

Ten years later, Katy’s family return to the Spanish island to launch a fresh appeal for information, taking with them the now skeletal team of investigating Met detectives, and newly seconded Maggie as the family liaison officer.

But Maggie’s first international investigation quickly goes from being more than just a press conference when another British girl there on holiday goes missing, and Katy’s killer announces that it’s time for an encore . . .

**********

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for DEAD GUILTY, the gripping new novel by Michelle Davies. A huge thank you to Anne Cater for inviting me to join the blog tour and to Pan Macmillan for providing me with a copy of this brilliant novel.

Mallorca is the largest island in the Balearic Islands, just off the Spanish coast. Beautiful, exotic, a fantastic place to go on holiday. But it was also the setting of the kidnapping of Katy Pope, a young English girl on holiday with her family and boyfriend. Her body was found mutilated a week later and her killer was never arrested. Ten years later, Katy’s family is visiting the Spanish island again hoping that the memorial service will draw new attention to the case and it will help the police to find her killer, at last.

DC Maggie Neville has recently joined the Met, but she is not finding it easy so when she is asked to join the team still investigating Katy’s murder as the family liaison officer, she doesn’t have to think twice. Sure, Maggie has to endure the continuous demands of Katy’s mother, her conflicting and unprofessional feelings for Katy’s brother, and the encumbrance of the uncooperative Spanish police, but this is her chance to prove herself. When another woman goes missing, for Maggie and her colleagues is a race against time to find the killer before it’s too late.

So, this is the fourth novel featuring DC Maggie Neville, but it’s my first time reading this series and I loved it. I am definitely going to read the first three books and whatever comes next (especially after reading the shocking revelation at the end). Maggie is determined, intuitive, and good at her job. I can’t say I always liked her because I didn’t like some of the choices she made, but being flawed and making mistakes made her more realistic and relatable.

I loved how the author structured the novel switching the point of view from Maggie to the family of the victims, from the killer to one of his victims giving the reader a 360° view of the story, but never giving away too much so that I didn’t figure out the truth until it was revealed.

DEAD GUILTY is self-paced and with the tension building slowly. The author plays also on the emotions of the characters: Maggie’s insecurities, a family in mourning, a young scared woman trying to survive. These feelings are vividly drawn and make the characters feel more real and the story more intriguing.

DEAD GUILTY is a suspenseful and compelling procedural novel, highly recommended to all crime lovers!

 

Michelle spent the formative years as a reporter on a local newspaper in Buckinghamshire and interviewed many relatives of serious victims during that time.

Later, as a freelance journalist for women’s magazines, she secured an interview with Kerry Needham, whose son Ben Needham went missing in Kos in 1991 when he was a toddler. It was hearing her talk about it that gave Michelle the idea for making her central police character a FLO.

 

Publication: 7th March 2019 (eBook); 22nd August 2019 (paperback) – Orion

Aydin Torkal – aka Sleeper 13 – is on the run.

Hunted not only by the world’s intelligence agencies, but also by the elite brotherhood of insurgents he betrayed, he has lived the past year like a ghost.

Until now.

MI6 agent Rachel Cox knows Aydin better than anyone. The only person who believes he is an ally in the ongoing war on terror, not the enemy.

So when a coded message arrives from him, warning her not to trust her own colleagues, Rachel must choose between her career and the truth.

But as Aydin hunts down those who destroyed his childhood, the trail he follows will lead him closer to home than he ever expected.

He won’t stop until he has his revenge.

He is FUGITIVE 13.

**********

It is my great pleasure to kick off the blog tour for FUGITIVE 13, the new thrilling novel by Rob Sinclair, and the sequel to Sleeper 13. A huge thank you to Tracy Fenton for organizing the blog tour and inviting me to join and to Orion for providing me with a copy of the book.

Last year I had the pleasure to join the blog tour for Sleeper 13 and read this gripping and thought-provoking novel about a MI6 agent trying to find and destroy the Farm, a secluded and remote place where a terrorist group trains children to kill and hate. Rachel Cox is the MI6 agent looking for the Farm. Aydin Torkal is Talatashar, number 13, one of the children who was trained at the Farm. Now, in FUGITIVE 13, Rachel is facing the consequences of the events in Sleeper 13, while Aydin is looking for the truth. Why did his father took him from his home and his family to send him to the Farm to become a terrorist?

Rachel is a strong and smart female character. Her search for the truth is dangerous and unpredictable, but she never backs down. Aydin is smart and determined, a survivor with a hard past, and I really felt for him as he remembers his time at the Farm and regrets the childhood and the family that was stolen from him.

FUGITIVE 13 is a fast-paced and intense spy-story that will take you from Spain to Egypt, from Afghanistan to Syria while Rachel and Aydin look for the truth, question loyalties and choose who to trust.

The world of FUGITIVE 13, and its prequel Sleeper 13, is relevant, realistic, and very scary and Rob Sinclair really knows how to capture the attention of the reader. There is never a dull moment, the tension is always high, and the characters are engaging and well-developed. I really love this series and I was delighted to find out that there is third book coming out next year that I can’t wait to read! FUGITIVE 13 is definitely one of the books to read this summer!!!

Follow the rest of the blog tour:

 

Publication: 11th July 2019 – Trapeze

Straight-laced Jean has always done what’s expected of her. By her traditional parents, her demonic boss and her manchild of a boyfriend, Charlie, who has just heckled her friend’s wedding, set fire to the marquee and then relieved himself on Jean’s stilettos. Jean is done with cleaning up other people’s messes, and done with being the good girl.

Waving goodbye to her comfort zone, Jean decides to be a woman heels-over-head and not head-over-heals in love. A woman who screams ‘YES!’ to life and goes on dates with married-but-open pianists like sexy Gabriel… Jean is exploring all that modern romance has to offer, and finally having a little fun.

But can the fun last without entangled hearts being broken? Jean is about to find out.

Featuring an unforgettable cast of characters, this novel is an homage to female-friendship, empowerment and love, which will have you laughing-out-loud and rooting for Jean all the way!

***********

I’d like to start by thanking Katie Brown and Trapeze for providing me with a copy of STRINGS ATTACHED. It was described as “fun, fresh, feminist fiction that will have you laughing in recognition and yelling in solidarity” and I found myself completely captivated by the story.

Jean has been enduring her drunk boyfriend Charlie’s shenanigans for three long years, but now she has had enough. After breaking up with him, Jean decides it’s time to be more open about her love life and, following the advice of her sister Danielle, she signs up on Thrindel (to meet couples) and travels to Mallorca for an orgasmic retreat with her best friend Tess. And as if her life wasn’t complicated enough, she also falls in love with Gabriel. Handsome, charming, and caring, he is too good to be true, right? In fact, he is married, but his wife lives in New York and they have an open marriage. Will Jean find what she is looking for?

STRINGS ATTACHED is an honest, original, and hilarious novel. Jean gets herself in awkward and laugh-out-loud situations, like going undercover at a sex party, Eyes-Wide-Shut style, or having intestinal problems while attempting to have a threesome. She has a conflicting relationship with her family – not with her sister Danielle, but her parents are a nightmare, I am surprised she still talked to them – and she doesn’t have much luck in love, but her friends are always there for her. I enjoyed reading her group messages with her best friends Tess and Richard. They were so entertaining, sarcastic and sincere.

If you are looking for something refreshing that will make you laugh, then this is a novel I highly recommend!

 

Publication: 8th August 2019 – Trapeze

Two mothers. Two daughters. One school place.

Imogen and Lily are old friends – they’ve shared hangovers, unsuitable boyfriends and wild nights out together. But now they’re mums, and their partying days are behind them.

When a place comes up at one of the best primary schools in the area, both women want it for their daughters. From faking religious beliefs to bogus break-ups, Imogen and Lily will go to any lengths to secure the perfect school for their children – and so will all the other mothers.

Will their friendship survive the strain? Will their marriages take the pressure? And when a sexy new vicar arrives on the scene, will the mothers’ keep focus for long enough to keep their eyes on the prize?

A hilarious, heartwarming read, perfect for fans of Sophie Kinsella and Fiona Gibson.

**********

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for THE SCHOOL RUN, the entertaining debut novel by Helen Whitaker. A huge thank you to Tracy Fenton and Trapeze for inviting me to join the blog tour and providing me with a copy of the novel.

There is nothing more competitive than getting your child into one of the best schools in London, as Helen Whitaker shows in her novel. We have two friends, Lily and Imogen. They used to live together and be best friends. Marriage, children, and career made them lose contact, but now they are both living in the same area and competing to get their daughters into the prestigious St Peter and Paul’s Infant School. The competition is high and all the parents are ready to do anything to get a place for their own children. And while Lily and Imogen try to rekindle their friendship, they also have to face problems at home and with their jobs.

I didn’t know that getting a child into a school could be so stressful. Helen Whitaker portrays a detailed and realistic picture of parents who are willing to pretend they are religious and go to mass every Sunday just to have their child going to the right school. We see them join the organic mothers group, flirt with the hot vicar, hunt for a house by the school to be in the catchment area, and argue over the characters of the Nativity. Some stories made me laugh, some stories were utterly incredible and yet believable.

The chapters alternate between Lily and Imogen. Sometimes I didn’t like them and I found them frustrating, like when Lily kept asking Imogen to babysit her daughter or when Imogen was so keen to live by the school that she would buy a place she didn’t like without asking for the opinion of her boyfriend. I also found them relatable and human. They are mothers trying to do their best for their children, they have to juggle work, house, school, and sometimes with no much help from their partners. They are superwomen and I couldn’t help but sympathize with them.

The story is refreshing and funny, with a few emotional and heart-warming moments while addressing more serious issues. A story not only about parenting and marriage, but also about friendship and loyalty, THE SCHOOL RUN is a compelling read that I highly recommend!

Helen Whitaker is a 37-year-old, journalist and mum-of-one living in Walthamstow. She is the former Entertainment Director of Glamour, and has written for a number of publications including Stella, The Telegraph, Fabulous and Total Film. Helen is currently Acting Deputy Editor at British Airways High Life magazine.