#Blogtour The Lost Ones by Anita Frank @Ajes74 @HQstories @Joe_Thomas25 #TheLostOnes

 

The Lost Ones by Anita Frank   HQ 31st October 2019

Some houses are never at peace.

England, 1917

Reeling from the death of her fiancé, Stella Marcham welcomes the opportunity to stay with her pregnant sister, Madeleine, at her imposing country mansion, Greyswick – but she arrives to discover a house of unease and her sister gripped by fear and suspicion.

Before long, strange incidents begin to trouble Stella – sobbing in the night, little footsteps on the stairs – and as events escalate, she finds herself drawn to the tragic history of the house.

Aided by a wounded war veteran, Stella sets about uncovering Greyswick’s dark and terrible secrets – secrets the dead whisper from the other side…

My Review

There’s something about an old mansion that captures the imagination and its characters. Anita Frank’s debut novel The Lost Ones did just that as she took us back to 1917, the First World War still raging, people lost in grief as they mourned those killed in battle. Stella was one of the unlucky, her fiancée dead and her parents wondering why she can’t just pull herself together and just get on with it. A lot of the English stiff upper lip was evident, Frank perfectly portraying the attitudes of the time, of the unknown psychology behind grief and loss, the older characters harsh and unsympathetic.

You could only feel huge sorrow for Stella, but as she travelled to Greyswick to stay with her sister, Madeleine, there were smatterings of a woman finally coming to terms with her loss and beginning the journey to recovery.

The strange ghostly happenings she encountered were full of intrigue, the lurking housekeeper Mrs Henge, always behind a corner, as she watched and observed Stella and ghost hunter Tristan.

There was always the feeling that there was something tragic about the events, and I loved the slow unfurling of the house’s mysterious history.

You could see Stella grow in confidence, regain her strength and determination to glimpse a world out of her grief and the possibilities of a new life and this, for me, was one of the real highlights of the novel.

When the true events of Greyswick were finally revealed you could not help but feel a sense of shock, of disgust, but also empathy and sorrow.

Franks narrative was wonderful, it immersed you in Greyswick’s myriad nooks and crannies, in the chill and eeriness of its past inhabitants.

It was the perfect novel for a cold autumn evening in front of a warm fire and I loved it.

I would like to thank HQ for a copy of The Lost Ones to read and review and to Jo Thomas for inviting My Bookish Blogspot to participate in the Halloween blitz.

About the author

A farmer’s daughter from Shropshire, Anita studied English and American History at the University of East Anglia before moving to London to work in media analysis and communications.

She left paid employment to become a stay-at-home mum when she had the first of her three children. Sadly, Anita‘s youngest child developed a rare form of epilepsy in infancy which has left him severely mentally disabled and she is now his full-time-carer, but she has begun snatching what time she can to pursue her lifelong ambition of writing historical fiction.

Anita now lives in Berkshire with her husband, her two lovely girls and her gorgeous boy, a fluffy cat with an attitude, and a bonkers Welsh Springer Spaniel.

#Blogtour The Shape Of The Night by Tess Gerritsen @tessgerritsen @TransworldBooks @anncater #RandomThingsTours #TheShapeOfTheNight

 

The Shape Of The Night by Tess Gerritsen  Bantam Press October 3rd 2019

When Ava arrives at Brodie’s Watch, she thinks she has found the perfect place to hide from her past.
Something terrible happened, something she is deeply ashamed of, and all she wants is to forget.
But the old house on the hill both welcomes and repels her and Ava quickly begins to suspect she is not alone.
Either that or she is losing her mind.
The house is full of secrets, but is the creeping sense of danger coming from within its walls,
or from somewhere else entirely?

My Review

Now, I am a huge Tess Gerritsen fan, and i love her crime novels so it was interesting to see what she would do out of her genre.

It was actually a very pleasant surprise, as Gerritsen plunged us into a ghost story with a bit of crime alongside. Ava was our main character and I loved her, even if it was only for her wonderful cooking skills, but it was her relationship with Brodie’s Watch, the beautiful imposing house she rented to finish her cookery book.

As she stepped inside Gerritsen made you feel the tingling tension that Ava felt, the uneasiness and lingering sense of another presence. It was to become a part of the book that surprised me, that didn’t scare me, but was instead just a little bit steamy and slightly erotic! It wasn’t your Five Shades of Grey, it was better than that, and allowed Gerritsen to show the vulnerabilities of a woman at a crossroads in her life, who needed to come to terms with past events and move on.

As she investigated the history of the house, the intrigue intensified and Gerritsen dipped back into her usual crime mode. The crime didn’t take over the story, instead it formed the backdrop, as Ava wrestled with her feelings and emotions.

The imaginary was a real highlight, and painted wonderfully vivid pictures, the atmosphere tingling and eerie.

It was upto you how you interpreted Ava’s ghostly encounters, either at face value or something deeper as it tapped into her subconscious awakening underlying emotions.

I have to say I really enjoyed The Shape Of The Night, a welcome and accomplished departure for an author so often entrenched in the blood and gore of serial killers and crime.

I would like to thank Bantam Press for a copy of a The Shape Of The Night to read and review and to Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for inviting My Bookish Blogspot to participate in the blogtour.

 

About the author

Bestselling author Tess Gerritsen is also a physician, and she brings to
her novels her first-hand knowledge of emergency and autopsy rooms. Her
thrillers starring homicide detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner
Maura Isles inspired the hit TV series Rizzoli & Isles. But Tess’s interests
span far more than medicine and crime. As an anthropology student at
Stanford University, she catalogued centuries-old human remains, and she
continues to travel the world, driven by her fascination with ancient cultures
and bizarre natural phenomena. Tess has sold over 40 million copies of her
books worldwide.

#Blogtour I Wanted You To Know by Laura Pearson @LauraPAuthor @AgoraBooksLDN @TheyCallMePeyto #IWantedYouToKnow

I Wanteded You To Know by Laura Pearson Agora Books October 3rd 2019

 

Dear Edie, I wanted you to know so many things. I wanted to tell you them in person, as you grew. But it wasn’t to be.

Jess never imagined she’d be navigating single motherhood, let alone while facing breast cancer. A life that should be just beginning is interrupted by worried looks, heavy conversations, and the possibility of leaving her daughter to grow up without her.

Propelled by a ticking clock, Jess knows what she has to do: tell her daughter everything. How to love, how to lose, how to forgive, and, most importantly, how to live when you never know how long you have.

From best-selling author Laura Pearson comes her most devastating book yet. Honest, heart-wrenching, and emotionally raw, I Wanted You To Know is a love letter to life: to all its heartache and beauty, to the people we have and lose, to the memories and moments that define us.

My Review

Before you embark on Laura Pearson’s novel, a word of warning, ensure you have a box of tissues to hand as you are definitely going to need them!

I Wanted You To Know was certainly not an easy read. It was both poignant, emotional and heartbreaking. Please, please don’t let this put you off as you will miss out on a wonderful story.

It was the story of Jess, 21, a new Mum, a broken relationship and back living with her Mum. A cancer diagnosis was definitely not on her life plan and it was there that you would expect it to descend into abject misery, and yes at times it was upsetting, but Pearson used a different approach. Instead she alternated her chapters with letters Jess wrote to her daughter, Edie, of her background, her relationship with Edie’s father and the hopes and aspirations she had for her as he grew up.

What made it all the more poignant was Pearson’s own personal experience, an honest, at times brutal portrayal of what it felt like to live with cancer, the effect it had on family and friends. It made you want to put your arms out and hug Jess, you admired her bravery, her matter of factness and ability to be the best Mum she could.

You could sense the anguish of her Mum, her best friend, their helplessness, but also their unwavering support for Jess.

What came across more than anything was cancers ability to make us question our whole life, the decisions we have made, the need to build bridges, restore relationships and generally get your life in order.
It was written without sentimentality, without us wanting to feel pity for its characters, but instead admiration at their bravery and stoicism, and a sense of hope and light in the face of adversity.

As much as I wiped my away the tears, I also smiled and laughed, a sure sign of an author that has got the balance just right.

I would like to thank Agora Books for a copy of I wanted You To Know to read and review and to Peyton Stableford for inviting My Bookish Blogspot to participate in the blogtour.

About the author

Laura Pearson is the bestselling author of Missing Pieces and Nobody’s Wife. Her third book, I Wanted You To Know, was inspired by a letter she wrote to her children after being diagnosed with breast cancer while pregnant. She lives in Leicestershire with her husband and two children, and spends her time writing novels, running The Motherload Book Club, and doing the school run in the rain.

 

#Blogtour Kult by Stefam Malmstrom @kpstefan @silvertailbooks @BOTBSPublicity #Kult

 

Kult by Stefan Malmstrom    Silver Tail Books  September 5th 2019

HE PAST WILL NEVER LET YOU GO…
When a four-year-old girl and her father are found dead in the Swedish city of Karlskrona, the police quickly conclude it was a murder-suicide, a tragedy requiring no further investigation.
But Luke Bergmann, a reformed criminal still haunted by his violent past, believes they are wrong. The dead man, Viktor, was his best friend, and Luke knows he would never commit such a horrific crime.
When more bodies turn up, Luke is certain the same killer has struck again. Alone, he embarks on an investigation which reaches back through decades to his friend’s involvement with a sinister cult and dark secrets are exposed as Luke struggles to keep his own long-buried demons hidden away.
And when Luke finds himself in a killer’s sights, his search for the truth becomes the fight of his life.

Can Luke get justice for Viktor and his daughter and prove his best friend was not a murderer, or will the shadows of the past overwhelm him?

My Review

The secretive world of Scientology was opened up in Malmstrom’s novel Kult. Based on his own experiences it was eye opening, its manipulative tactics shocking, its brain washing techniques horrifying.

It made you wonder how such famous actors and personalities had become so involved.

For those that escaped life would never be as it was, time as a Scientology never forgotten by some. This was the basis of Malmstrom’s novel as Luke attempted to come to terms with the supposed suicide of his best friend and daughter.

Luke was a wonderful character, not squeaky clean, a past embedded in the criminal gangs of America, but now on the straight and narrow. I liked his dogged determination to prove the police wrong that his friend would never kill his daughter.

Trouble was always going to follow Luke and Malmstrom certainly didn’t give him an easy ride and it made for compelling reading, The ease with which he flipped between the past and the present helped fill in the background, until he merged the two strands together to a dramatic conclusion.

Malmstrom didn’t spare any details in the crimes committed and some may find it uncomfortable reading. It was however relevant and timely, never for effect or sensationalism.

Kult was a shocking, compelling read, written with restraint and skill and Malmstrom is another author to add the ever growing list of Nordic writers.

I would like to thank Silvertail Books for a copy of Kult to read and review and to Books On The Bright Side for inviting My Bookish Blogspot to participate in the blogtour.

About the author

Stefan Malmström is a former news journalist who has worked for Sveriges Radio and Swedish TV4. Today he works as a consultant, lecturer and author. At a young age, Stefan was manipulated into the Church of Scientology in Hässleholm, a small town in southern Sweden. KULT, his first book, is based on his experiences in the cult. Stefan lives in Karlskrona in Sweden with his family.

 

 

#Blogtour The Death Of Me by M. J. Tjia @mjtjia @legend_press #TheDeathOfMe

 

The Death Of Me by M. J. Tjia   Legend Press October 1st 2019

The Continent, 1864: Two bomb attacks, three deaths.
 
Clues to an elaborate assassination plot are intercepted in Paris and the authorities believe the assassin’s lair lies in Soho, London. Heloise Chancey, courtesan and professional detective, must go undercover to spy upon the nest of suspects and end their murderous conspiracy.

Meanwhile, her Chinese maid, Amah Li Leen finds herself trapped in a deadly nightmare of deceit and madness. Will she be able to escape before time runs out?

Danger keeps Heloise close company as she hunts evil down to its devilish source.

My Review

Helosise Chancey, the most modern and, in my opinion madcap women of the fictional 1800’s. Once again she was pitted against those who wished her and others harm and oh my goodness did she give them a run for their money.

She had all the guile and intelligence of her first outing in She Be Damned this time Tjia gave us a more rounded Heloise, more of her characteristics on display for us to enjoy. What I loved more than anything was her complete disregard for men, yet maintained her femininity, not afraid to use them to get what she wanted.

If Heloise was wonderful then so was her mother, on her quest to recover what was stolen from her. You could see where Heloise got her bravery and determination from and I loved the separate story Tjia created for her that ran seamlessly alongside that of Heloise.

The settings of Paris and London were vividly portrayed, the simmering dangers lingered in the dark back streets that gave the novel a brooding, tense feel.

Characters were never whom they seemed, as Heloise pitted herself against their manipulative ways , having to use her intelligence and ingenuity to outwit and hopefully succeed against their dangerous intentions.

Once again Tijia has written a fabulous, dark and engrossing historical thriller and I cannot wait for number three.

I would like to thank Legend Press for a copy of the Death Of Me to read and review and to Lucy Chamberlain for inviting My Bookish Blogspot to participate in the blogtour.

About the author

M.J. is a Brisbane-based writer. She has been shortlisted for the Josephine Ulrick Short Story Prize and the Luke Bitmead Bursary (UK), and longlisted for the ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize and CWA (UK) dagger awards. Her work has appeared in Rex, Peril and Shibboleth and Other Stories.

She is the author of She Be Damned: A Heloise Chancey Mystery, (2017) with the sequel to follow in 2018.

Follow M.J. on Twitter @mjtjia