Susan Lewis - Don't Let Me Go ~ 5* Review!

Charlotte Nicholls has a secret that haunts her.

She and three-year-old Chloe have left their home and friends, and are now building a new life for themselves elsewhere.

All Charlotte wants to do is to forget the past, to blot out what went before, and to look only to the future.

At last she and Chloe feel safe.

Then, suddenly, their nightmare returns, and Charlotte finds she has no power to prevent what comes next . . .

We meet up again with Charlotte Nicholls and little Chloe in New Zealand, where they have started their new life with Charlotte's recently re-acquainted Mother, Anna and her extended family.

Chloe is beginning to find her confidence and come out of her painful shell after the horrendous sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of her now imprisoned father, Brian Wade and his paedophile ring. She is still understandably wary of men but is beginning to come round.

Charlotte has given everything up for Chloe, her house, job, life and friends back home in Kesterly-on-Sea in  England, but she really would not have it any other way as Chloe brings a whole new purpose and meaning to her life, and she is unrelentingly smitten with her and they are beginning to build the perfect new life.

The only thing Charlotte would change is the fear and paranoia of looking over her shoulder all the time, and of severing any links she has back in England as Chloe isn't a lovingly adopted child, but an abducted one.

We learned the story of little Ottilie Wade and her abusive parents in the prequel, No Child Of Mine

(It would be a perfectly understandable stand alone book, but ties in nicely if you have already read the first. I would imagine in would put a really interesting and intriguing spin on it if you hadn't though?)

It's really difficult to go into any of the storyline without giving any spoilers away, the plot is so mind blowingly good it would be a crying shame to ruin it, suffice to say that I actually woke up in the night last night as I knew I would finish Don't Let Me Go today and I was panicking about how it would end!

The story is a tragic one, the abuse storyline is just horrendous - not terribly graphic but the picture you build up in your mind is seriously bad enough. The focus on the care system in the UK is also a worrying and sickening read, and at some points I felt as though I were actually living Charlotte and Chloe's nightmare which was truly terrifying.

The blossoming relationship between Charlotte and her knight in shining armour, Anthony Goodman is one of the diamonds in the dark of this story, as is Charlotte's structure of loving and supportive family and friends.

I liked how the relationship between Charlotte and ex-boss Wendy played out, but would have like to have seen a more sticky ending for Katie's character, although revenge and retribution really wasn't the whole ethos of the book.

I loved the ending and how everything was tied up, but I am such a HUGE Susan Lewis fan, every since I first read The Mill House, and have read every one since, one of my favourites being Forgotten obviously before I read these two as they are definitely on my keeper and read again pile!

A very secure and well deserved 5 stars! 

Carol E Wyer Cover Reveal - How Not To Murder Your Grumpy

Cover Reveal!

http://www.carolewyer.co.uk/

a Rafflecopter giveaway

My hubby is often the butt of my jokes and certainly a lot of the inspiration for my writing. What has amazed me though, is how many other women say, after reading a blog post or my books, that they are married to his twin brother.

If that is the case, then you too will often wish to murder him!

Last week hubby cheesed me off big time by insisting on washing the car. No, that shouldn’t be a problem, but the weather forecast was for rain. I knew that because hubby told me he had heard it and was grumpy about it all morning mumbling about living in “the rotten UK”.

He spent an hour washing it, drying it, shining it and generally admiring it. He came in, got changed to go out and as we left, the heavens opened.

We got no further than one hundred yards down the lane before a tractor went past splattering us with muddy water. Hubby was furious and ranted for the rest of the journey, during which the car got dirtier and dirtier. When a lorry overtook us and coated us with large lumps of mud, I thought he would explode.

I sat back and bit my tongue, hard. What had he thought would happen? Black clouds had been looming all morning. 

I think he washed it deliberately so he could complain.

The car got filthy. Hubby grumbled, swore and had a mood blacker than the skies above. Guess what he did the second we got back home? Yes, he washed the darn thing again!

Some days I feel like walloping him with a heavy-duty saucepan.

In the spirit of the new book How Not to Murder Your Grumpy, which will give you alternatives to whacking him over the head and burying him under the flowerbed, let me know what your husband does that needles you.

Come on. Don’t be shy. Let it all out. I’m revealing my How Not to Murder Your Grumpy cover, so why don’t you reveal your pet hates about your grumpy old man?

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Dots and Spots GIVEAWAY! National Stationery Week!

The lovely bods over at Dots and Spots are having a giveaway to celebrate National Stationery Week, the best week of ALL!

Just hop over to their blog and leave a comment stating which colour you would prefer - difficult decision, they're both gorgeous!

http://www.dotsandspotsdesign.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/national-stationery-week-giveaway.html

Things Are Going To Slide - Rangeley Wallace

Buy HERE from Amazon.co.uk

A law professor at a university in south Alabama, heroine Marilee's life quickly begins to disintegrate when her husband leaves her - pregnant- for a man. A cheating former lover steals the prestigious law chair from under her nose. And, to make matters worse, at the law clinic she runs, an indigent high school girl who she's known since childhood is accused of murdering her newborn. 

One reviewer described Things Are Going to Slide as "smart chick lit, mom-lit, and law-lit."  Midwest Book Review called Things Are Going to Slide "a powerful novel of chaos and recovery that will attract any interested in strong stories of professional women."  A romantic, smart page-turner, steeped in the tradition of southern literature, Things Are Going to Slide is "the kind of book that makes you keep reading long after you meant to turn out the light."

Well, firstly I have to say - I really enjoyed this book! It had me fascinated from the first few pages for as much as I love chick-lit (I mean really love it!) this had a little more substance.

It is the story of a hard working and exhausted single mother, Marilee, who is eight-and-a-half months pregnant with her second child, conceived as her marriage ended with her husband leaving her for another man (this all happens before we pick up Marilee's tale so that's not a spoiler!). She is a professor at a Southern legal school and is in line to receive a huge promotion. This has not been made easy for her as one of the Dean's of the college, Sue Scanlon, seems out to get her - whether it is out of jealousy or sheer spite, we don't know.

Marilee tries her utmost to hold down her career, which seems to be spiralling away from her, and take care of her small daughter, Ellie and her unborn child at a time when she should really be on maternity leave and resting, this is all testimony to the lengths Marilee will go to for her students and clients.
The clients that the legal clinic sees are varied and all equally dramatic - none more than the case of the local teenager Cindy, who is accused of murdering her young baby.

I love the 'will they, won't they' romance that is woven into this book when Marilee's childhood sweetheart returns to town - even if he did break her heart a decade previously, it is not too sickly sweet but is a lovely plot to the story.

I plundered through the book as it is a real page turner and it was a satisfying read and left all the ends nicely tied up.

I would like to thank the author for providing me with a copy of Things Are Starting To Slide in exchange for an honest review.

http://fictionaddictionbooktours.com/

GIVEAWAY!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Storyteller ~ Jodi Picoult 5* review

Sage Singer has a past that makes her want to hide from the world. Sleeping by day and working in a bakery by night, she kneads her emotion into the beautiful bread she bakes.

But when she strikes up an unlikely friendship with Josef Weber, a quiet man old enough to be her grandfather, and respected pillar of the community, she feels that finally, she may have found someone she can open up to.

Until Josef tells her the evil secret he's kept for sixty years.

Caught between Josef's search for redemption and her shattered illusions, Sage turns to her family history and her own life for answers. As she uncovers the truth from the darkest horrors of war, she must follow a twisting trail between betrayal and forgiveness, love and revenge. And ask herself the most difficult question she has ever faced - can murder ever be justice? Or mercy?

I'm really not sure how to do this book anywhere near justice. I thought I had reached my limit with Me Before You ~ Jojo Moyes, but The Storyteller has even exceeded that.

You meet baker, Sage Singer in her workplace 'Our Daily Bread', it sounds a wonderful café, owned and run by an ex-nun and the barista speaks only in haiku! Sage likes working nights, staying in the shadows, as she has extreme self confidence issues about scars she has after she was involved in a tragic car accident.

The only place she seems to have any interaction with the outside world is the grief group she attends to help deal with the loss of her mother. 

There she meets Josef Weber...and her life will be changed forever.

In true Picoult style, the story is told from the different perspectives of all the main characters. Again this gives the wonderful depth and diversity needed to draw you into the story, which it really does.

I loved all of the characters, especially Minka, Sage's grandmother. The depictions of her experiences during the holocaust were the most shocking things I have ever read, so descriptive I felt nauseous and completely harrowed, but I was compelled to keep turning the pages just to see what became of Minka and her family. In fact this was my favourite part of the book, the storyline was simply amazing. I also loved the character of Josef, I couldn't comprehend the secret he bestowed upon Sage, and as awful as it was I just couldn't hate him. His relationship with his dog Eva was so touching and 'real' it choked me to read.

The ending of the book was just brilliant and completely blew me away, I never had the slightest idea what was about to happen and could have cried several buckets. If there was ever one of those 'turning the clock back' moments, it was then. I was sat just going over the facts for at least an hour before I could even take pen to paper to review.

The Storyteller is a most powerful tale of love, loss, betrayal retribution and redemption, but more so strength, determination and honour. 

The backbone of this book is World War two and the holocaust, I would advise caution before reading, it can be quite graphic.

I would give it the most well deserved five stars I have ever given!

The Fallen Stars ~ Stephanie Keyes

The Fallen Stars (The Star Child #2)

by Stephanie Keyes

Paperback, 530 pages| Expected publication: April 12th 2013 by Inkspell Publishing

Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Book Depository | Trailer | Add to Goodreads

When all is lost, he will have to make the ultimate decision.

Kellen St. James was just your average seventeen-year-old prodigy, until he eighty-sixed the Lord of Faerie and proposed to the Celtic Goddess, Calienta. But then everything in Kellen’s life gets turned upside-down when he and Cali end up on the run from a seriously irritated group of faeries. The worst part? They have zero idea why they’re being hunted.

Suddenly, Kellen is stuck in the middle of another prophecy that foresees him turning away from Calienta and embracing the dark. He’ll be forced to take sides in a struggle to claim his birthright, while discovering secrets about his father’s past. Meanwhile, his passion for Cali grows stronger, even as the prophecy threatens to tear them apart.

In the end, will Kellen and Cali survive the fates? When the ultimate power is within reach, which side will he choose?

Also available: The Star Child (The Star Child, Book #1)

Meet the Characters

What's Your Name?  Kellen St. James 

Where are you from?  Upstate New York. 

What's your favorite piece of clothing that you can't live without? My old beat-up jeans. I refuse to throw them away. 

You have to pick one type of food to live on for a month, what is it? Snicker's bars. 

Do you work out? Running from rogue Faeries across multiple continents is enough of a workout for me. 

What was your first date like? When I go on one I'll let you know. In the meantime, I'd just like to focus on getting a date with Calienta. 

How did you meet Calienta? She haunted my dreams for eleven years before turning up and pulling me into this twisted prophecy. We thought everything was going to work out fine until they came for us. We've been on the run ever since. 

What song is queued up on your iPod right now? Fortress Around Your Heart by Sting 

*Photo of Kellen St. James licensed through Can Stock Photo.

Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Follow the Tour

Want to know where the tour is heading next? Check out the entire schedule here! Click to view the schedule.  

About the Author

Stephanie Keyes has been addicted to Fantasy since she discovered T.H. White as a child and started drumming up incredible journeys in her head. When she's not writing, Stephanie is also a graphic designer, international speaker, teacher, musician, avid reader, and Mom to two little boys who constantly keep her on her toes. In addition, she's best friend to her incredible husband of eleven years. Keyes is the author of the YA Fantasy series, The Star Child, which currently includes The Star Child (September 2012) and The Fallen Stars (April 2013), both released by Inkspell Publishing. She is currently hard at work on the third book in the trilogy, The Star Catcher. (Author photo courtesy of Kristina Serafini Photography)

 Follow @StephanieKeyes

Meeting Lydia Guest Post

I am very excited today to welcome author, Linda MacDonald to talk about Meeting Lydia!

The Psychology behind Meeting Lydia

School bullying and internet relationships are two of the major psychological themes in Meeting Lydia. In this guest post, I shall share with you a smattering of what research shows us about each.

If you’ve been bullied, you’ll know it doesn’t take much to feel terrible. If someone makes fun of you often enough, you begin to believe it. In schools, bullying has always been widespread and in the past it was accepted as a rite of passage, even ‘character building’. But does it really help children to cope better as adults? The Kidscape children’s charity thinks not. In a survey of 1000 adults, they found early bullying experiences often led to a lack of self esteem. Some reported depression, shyness, and less likelihood of success in education or the workplace, or in social relationships. 

Most said they felt bitter and angry about their experiences. But research on the long-term effects of bullying is as yet sparse. Retrospective studies suffer from potential flaws in memory or lack of accuracy in reporting. Only more recently have researchers started following individuals from childhood to adulthood.

For those who have been bullied, the long term effects may vary depending on other life circumstances. In Meeting Lydia I wanted to explore the possibility of feelings of victimisation and low self-esteem resurfacing at a time of life when a woman is vulnerable again – the menopause – and particularly if she finds her partner befriending a younger and attractive woman. Some who have read the book said they were waiting for a much more serious incident of childhood bullying to occur in order to justify the main character’s insecurities. But as most bullying seems to take a low-key form, I wanted to reflect the view that even this could have major consequences for a person.

In my own life I was able to let go of the past when I found an ex-classmate on Friends Reunited. The contact acted like therapy and inspired the plot for Meeting Lydia, prompting me to research another thorny issue: that of internet relationships.

Before social networking, it was most unlikely we would have contacted someone we hardly knew by phone or letter and it certainly wasn’t the thing to phone or write to an ex. If our marriage or relationship has lost its excitement, finding a lost love can be very compelling. We reminisce, we remember the laughter, the awakening of passion, and email may stray into flirting. Teenage memories are intoxicating and any confirmation that we are still attractive and desirable is extremely powerful and can be addictive. The contact then becomes an escape from our dull midlife world. We might suggest meeting. This may of course burst the bubbles because emails present an artificial view of the real person and are an unreliable indicator of whether we would really get on. But once the old flame is rekindled, where do we go next?

Some rekindled relationships are successful and if the individuals involved were single or perhaps bereaved, then this is wonderful. But the flip side is of broken relationships that were otherwise steady and heartbreak for partners and children. Sometimes these newly kindled affairs are wonderful in the short term but once the magic of love has worn off and real life sets in, they break down – often for the same reasons as they did in the first place.

In the case of Marianne and Edward in Meeting Lydia, there was no previously existing romantic relationship. In situations like this, mailing and even meeting carries less risk, but is not risk free. Flirting can still start by email or during a meeting, and even if there is no threat of attraction or infidelity, problems can occur because partners feel excluded and can feel threatened or jealous.

So the advice seems to be, if you are in a relationship you value, don’t contact former lovers and be very careful if contacting anyone else!

What very wise words and sentiments from Linda! 
Huge thanks to her for joining us today x

Linda is offering a giveaway of 2 signed copies of Meeting Lydia throughout the tour. Just leave a comment and click on the rafflecopter giveaway : 


a Rafflecopter giveaway

You can find her on Twitter here - @LindaMac1
On Facebook here - Lydia
and buy 'Meeting Lydia' here - Meeting Lydia on Amazon.co.uk