The Cottage of Curiosities - Celia Anderson

 

Description

Come home to 59 Memory Lane with a new novel from the Kindle Top Ten bestselling author Celia Anderson!

’A brilliantly original and enchanting tale’ Sun
‘Wonderful characters make this a great read’ Good Housekeeping

‘One of the most charming books I’ve ever read’ bestselling Cathy Mansell

‘Clever storytelling with a dusting of magic’ bestselling author Jenni Keer

Tucked away amongst the winding, cobbled streets of Pengelly, the old stone cottage on Memory Lane is full of secrets. Brimming with trinkets and treasures, there are thousands of stories hidden within its walls.

Fifty-four-year-old Grace Clarke arrives in Pengelly determined to uncover the secrets of her past. Standing outside the little cottage, she feels sure that the answers she craves lie inside. The truth about her mysterious long-lost mother and the even more mysterious gifts she was born with…

Review

I listened to the audio version of this book. I didn't like the narrators voice for some of the characters. At the times the book fell into descriptions of what was happening, this sounded like I was listening to the audio subtitles you find on TV. I think in this instance I would have preferred to read this book rather than listen to it.

The story itself was intriguing. Would Grace find her past in the village and how would the villagers react to her? It turned out that Grace found a lot more in the village and it was a nice gentle story to listen to. The subject of memory loss was dealt with very sympathetically and I liked how Grace used her gift in this respect.

I hadn't read the previous book in this series and at times did think maybe I was missing something. Perhaps the characters would have had more depth if I had read it. The village certainly felt like somewhere you would want to live and I did enjoy the descriptions of village life. Overall a nice cosy read.

I'm giving this book 3 out of 5 stars. My thanks to netgalley for the audio copy to listen to. 

337 by M. Jonathan Lee @mjonathanlee - #337LEE @HideawayFall @lovebooksgroup #lovebookstours

 

Please note the double-ended upside-down opening for this book is available in books ordered in hard copy from UK booksellers only.

337 follows the life of Samuel Darte whose mother vanished when he was in his teens. It was his brother, Tom who found her wedding ring on the kitchen table along with the note.

While their father pays the price of his mother’s disappearance, Sam learns that his long-estranged Gramma is living out her last days in a nursing home nearby.

Keen to learn about what really happened that day and realising the importance of how little time there is, he visits her to finally get the truth.

Soon it’ll be too late and the family secrets will be lost forever. Reduced to ashes. But in a story like this, nothing is as it seems.

 I'm delighted to be able to share an excerpt from 337 with you today...

“I suggest you do,” he says in a voice which suggests there may be ramifications if I choose not to.

My only remaining thread of control is severed when he hangs up the phone. I take a deep breath and wait for him to call back, which is something he does when he feels he may not have made his point as clearly as he might. I lay there staring at the dust that has collected in the corners of my phone. The screen stays black, and after a minute or two passes I feel safe again. I place the phone on the duvet and turn my face into the darkness of the pillow.

For a moment I am gripped by anger, a feeling that twists in my chest like a coiled rope. I have spent a good part of the last ten years trying to remove this feeling from my life. I have been told on a number of occasions that if I cannot leave it behind, it will eventually consume me. I’ll be tossed into the black hole of its throat like Jonah and his whale. Gobbled up in one. My final resting place will be the belly of the giant beast and, unlike Jonah, I’ll never be seen again.

The last person who told me this was Sara. In fact, she told me plenty of times that I needed to change aspects of myself. For some time I listened to her, convinced that my macabre back story was reason enough to be the person I’ve become. It was only latterly, when I had an awakening, that I realised that her criticisms of me were actually a product of her own insecurities. Her insecurities moulding me into an angry and self-pitying person. A person I never used to be, nor ever wanted to be. And so, over the last year or so, the words I had listened to so attentively were rubberised and deflected, unheard, back to where they came from.

And of course, as I am sure you can now guess, Sara is gone.

And I feel the real me returning.

Slowly.

Author Bio

M Jonathan Lee is a nationally shortlisted author and mental health campaigner. His first novel The Radio was nationally shortlisted in the Novel Prize 2012. Since that time he has gone on to publish five further novels with ‘337’ being his sixth novel. Jonathan is a tireless campaigner for mental health awareness and writes his own column regularly for the Huffington Post. He has recently written for the Big Issue and spoken at length about his own personal struggle in the British national press on the BBC and Radio Talk Europe.

Endlessly fascinated by the human condition and what leads people to do the things they do to one another, Jonathan is obsessed with writing stories with twists where nothing is exactly how it first appears. 

Buy Link 

https://amzn.to/2JG2Nz1

The Truth About The Harry Quebert Affair - Joel Dicker

 

Description

August 30, 1975. The day of the disappearance. The day Somerset, New Hampshire, lost its innocence.

That summer, struggling author Harry Quebert fell in love with fifteen-year-old Nola Kellergan. Thirty-three years later, her body is dug up from his yard, along with a manuscript copy of the novel that made him a household name. Quebert is the only suspect.

Marcus Goldman - Quebert's most gifted protégé - throws off his writer's block to clear his mentor's name. Solving the case and penning a new bestseller soon merge into one. As his book begins to take on a life of its own, the nation is gripped by the mystery of 'The Girl Who Touched the Heart of America'.

But with Nola, in death as in life, nothing is ever as it seems.

Review

I'm not sure how I missed reading this book when it came out. I may still not have read it until I saw a really strong recommendation. This is a very long book at 600+ pages so it was a commitment to read it, but I am so glad I did.

I've seen some reviews that don't rate this book at all, and to begin with I was unsure where 600+ pages was going to take me. I'm so, so glad that I stuck with this book as it was unlike anything I have ever read before. The nearest thing I can equate it to is the TV series How To Get Away with Murder as it has a similar way of twisting what you thought you knew and going back and forth over the events of 1975.

I've also read that some people think it's repetitive, that didn't bother me. One thing this does ensure is that you become fully immersed in this book - I can't stop thinking about it now. It's also translated from French and at no point did I ever even think of that - the translation is just superb. 

To me the plot was just genius, something I never expected from the description of the book. There is no way to say much more, as to do so would give something away. If you enjoy Agatha Christie I would say that this is a book you would enjoy also. A little bit like the Mousetrap - a secret you just have to know about to appreciate it and I am so glad someone let me know it was a book I needed to read.

Unusually for me I bought this book as a paperback instead of on kindle. I think it added to the experience and helped me to better see my progress through the pages.

I'm giving this book 5 out of 5 stars.

Cover reveal - The Happy Family - Jackie Kabler #TheHappyFamily @jackiekabler @OneMoreChapter_

 

pre-order https://amzn.to/3f8UMyh

The Memories We Bury by H.A. Leuschel @HALeuschel @lovebooksgroup #lovebookstours

I'm so pleased to be on the Book Tour today.

Description

An emotionally charged and captivating novel about the complexities of female friendship and motherhood

Lizzie Thomson has landed her first job as a music teacher, and after a whirlwind romance with Markus, the newlywed couple move into a beautiful new home in the outskirts of Edinburgh. Lizzie quickly befriends their neighbour Morag, an elderly, resourceful yet lonely widow, whose own children rarely visit her. Everything seems perfect in Lizzie’s life until she finds out she is pregnant and her relationship with both Morag and Markus change beyond her control.

Can Lizzie really trust Morag and why is Markus keeping secrets from her?

In The Memories We Bury the author explores the dangerous bonds we can create with strangers and how past memories can cast long shadows over the present.

Review

This book on the surface appears to be a tale of complete domesticity. A young married couple with no close support and a neighbour who longs to be able to be helpful, especially when a baby arrives. For a while I felt nothing untoward was going to happen, and the book was really more about the relationships past and present of the the two women; but then the drama unfolded.

Lizzie has her baby and some things start to appear strange to her, she harks back to her own childhood a lot and her beloved Grandad. As a reader I began to wonder if it wasn't just fatigue from the birth and coping with a baby virtually on her own. Her husband Markus quickly becomes quite frankly a waste of space and no support with the baby. What was he up to when he wasn't around?

I realise looking back that there was a huge clue dropped in by the author early on, I remember reading it twice and thinking it strange, but couldn't understand how it fitted in. To say anymore would ruin the book for you. So I will just say that the tale of domesticity that began the book becomes a phycological minefield and the tension just grew and grew. I think the fact that it was such an ordinary scene of everyday life made it all the more frightening and worrying. 

The writing is so very clever. Towards the end of the book, just when I had begun to decide on my own truth of what had happened, a seed of doubt was sown again. Then the very last line of the book - well - it was just genius, maybe a little dark humour? That last line keeps coming back to me time and time again.

I'm giving this book 5 out of 5 stars. My thanks to Love Books Tours for the ARC to review. 

Author Bio

Helene Andrea Leuschel gained a Master in Journalism & Communication, which led to a career in radio and television in Brussels, London and Edinburgh. She later acquired a Master in Philosophy, specializing in the study of the mind.

Helene has a particular interest in emotional, psychological and social well-being and this led her to write her first novel, Manipulated Lives, a fictional collection of five novellas, each highlighting the dangers of interacting with narcissists.

She lives with her husband and two children in Portugal. Please find out more about Helene at heleneleuschel.com or on Facebook and Twitter.

http://www.heleneleuschel.com

https://twitter.com/HALeuschel

https://www.facebook.com/HALeuschel

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15337013.H_A_Leuschel

Buy Link 

https://amzn.to/2EcmFHy

Be Careful What You Wish For - Vivien Brown

 

Description

Two strangers.

Two very different lives.

A chance to escape…or is it?

Her life isn’t as perfect as you think…

Former actress Madi needs to escape from her lonely London life.  She’s started to forget things and has the strongest sense she is being watched…

Prue feels suffocated by her claustrophobic village life, especially when she is humiliated in the most public way.  Now Prue is desperate for anonymity –whatever the cost.

Review

This book had two distinct threads to it. One was a seemingly cosy feel plot of two strangers who swop residences with one another. The Londoner goes to the countryside and into a village where she feels out of place. In return the country girl goes to London and experiences a big city for the first time. 

Then begins a rather creepy dialogue interspersed within these two tales. It's of someone who is entering the London property and seems to have a vendetta against the original occupant. 

To me this switching between the two genres felt a little like Jekyll and Hyde, you never knew which one you would end up with when you re-joined the book. Lulled along with the cosy life swop suddenly you would be faced with the ramblings of someone - you know not who - and their obvious dislike of the London actress. It then turned into a bit of a whoisit as you tried to second guess who this intruder is.

A clever twist to the end of the book and the "whoisit" kept me reading until the end. But I was never quite comfortable with the cosy comfort book meets Psycho!

I'm giving this book 4 out of 5 stars. My thanks to netgalley for the ARC to review.

Forgive Me - Susan Lewis

Description

I can’t forgive myself. Not after what I did.  Could you?

 
This is Claudia Winters’s last chance for a fresh start. Changing her name and leaving her old life behind, she has fled to the small town of Kesterly with her mother and daughter. Here, she hopes they can be safe for the first time in years.

But the past can’t stay hidden forever. And even as Claudia makes new friends and builds a new life, she can’t help feeling it’s all about to catch up with her… Until one disastrous night changes everything forever.

Tense, emotional and gripping, Susan Lewis’s latest novel is a spellbinding story of love, family, and the price of forgiveness.

Review

I'm not sure what I was expecting from this book but it certainly wasn't the very emotional story that unfolded before me.  I think the book has a unique storyline that gives food for thought. This is the third Susan Lewis book I have read and her plots are far from formulaic. 

On her second marriage Claudia thought her new husband was a caring man and a step father for her daughter, unfortunately instead it turned out to be a living nightmare. She has a chance for escape and takes it, changing her name and taking both her daughter and her Mother with her to begin a new life.

I really enjoyed reading about Claudia and her new life, but I was on a bit of a knife edge the whole time, expecting her past to catch up with her. I became suspicious of every new person she met and feared she was walking into a trap.

Letters began to be interspersed into the chapters from an unknown author and to an unknown person. It was intriguing - how do they fit into the story? Meanwhile Claudia and her Mother attract new romantic partners - but are they ready to trust anyone again?

Once the author of the letters and the recipient became clear I couldn't put the book down. The letters had a unique voice and felt different to the other voices in the book. How was this all going to end, and what would I do in this situation? As I finished the book the subject stayed with me and the questions I asked myself are still hanging there...

I'm giving this book five out of five stars. My thanks to Random Things Tours, netgalley and HarperCollins publishers for the ARC to review. 

 

Susan Lewis is the internationally bestselling author of over forty books across the genres of family drama, thriller, suspense and crime, including One Minute Later and Home Truths and My Lies, Your Lies. Susan’s novels have sold nearly three million copies in the UK alone. She is also the author of Just One More Day and One Day at a Time, the moving memoirs of her childhood in Bristol during the 1960s.  

Susan has previously worked as a secretary in news and current affairs before training as a production assistant working on light entertainment and drama. She’s lived in Hollywood and the South of France, but now resides in Gloucestershire with husband James, two stepsons and dogs.