Doubles by Nora Gold - #bookreview

Wednesday, August 14, 1968

My favourite subject is math. I love math, even though I'm not especially good at it. I'm not good at anything really, or good for anything, as Dad often says...

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I am required to make it clear at the beginning of my reviews that I received this book for free from the author. I have not been paid for doing this and all opinions are my own. I am Bookshop.org affiliated, which means I earn a very small amount of money if you buy from there using my direct link. Although I include purchase links to Amazon, I am not affiliated with them. I include them to make it easy for you to navigate to them if you so wish.

***

The Blurb

Doubles takes place in 1968 in an institution for troubled youth, and is told from the perspective of a brilliant, spunky, 12-year-old girl who is obsessed with math. Engagingly written and often funny, this novella explores how a sensitive young teenager changes over a six-month period from a polite, quiet "good girl" into a delinquent. Although set in the past, Doubles has direct relevance to today, with our recently heightened awareness of the harsh reality in some of our residential institutions during that era (including for Indigenous children, but not only).

My Review

I am not new to this author's work and I will include links to my reviews of her other books at the bottom of the post. When she asked if I would review this book for her, I was delighted to accept as she is a talented author.

This novella exceeded my expectations. It is rare for me to attribute five stars to such a short book, but this is worthy of the sparkle of each of them.

It tells the story of a girl who has been removed from her home by the authorities and placed into a children's home. Needless to say, she doesn't want to be there. She just wants to return home and does not understand why she can't.

Set in 1968, the entire story is told from her perspective through her diary entries. However, this is a multi-faceted novella and what the reader can ascertain from reading between the lines is significant. The reader's adult eyes allow us to understand what this narrator cannot. My heart was breaking for this girl as I read her diary entries and I found it very moving.

The reason for my giving this book five stars is because of the levels within the narrative. It is powerful, heart-rending and thought-provoking, and the author writes with compassion and sensitivity.  I think she has done a brilliant job with this and I cannot recommend it highly enough. 

Publishing tomorrow, I strongly suggest you get your hands on a copy of this novella. I think you will enjoy it every bit as much as I did.

To read my other reviews of Nora's work, please click on the respective titles.

In Sickness and in Health/Yom Kippur in a Gym

The Dead Man

Book Details

ISBN:  978 1778490361

Publisher:  Guernica Editions

Formats: Paperback

No. of Pages:  86 (paperback)

Purchase Links

Bookshop.org

Amazon US

Amazon CA

About the Author

Dr. Nora Gold is a prize-winning author of five books. Her first, Marrow and Other Stories, won a Vine Canadian Jewish Book Award and was praised by Alice Munro. Her second book, Fields of Exile, won the inaugural Canadian Jewish Literary Award for best novel, and was acclaimed by Ruth Wisse and Irwin Cotler. The Dead Man was honoured with a Canada Council translation grant and published in Hebrew. Her most recent book, 18: Jewish Stories Translated from 18 Languages (an anthology of translated works), was praised by Publishers Weekly, Cynthia Ozick, Dara Horn, and Joseph Kertes. Gold's fifth book, In Sickness and In Health/Yom Kippur in a Gym (two novellas), will be published by Guernica Editions in March 2024.

Gold received her PhD from University of Toronto, was a tenured professor for ten years, and left her academic position to write fiction fulltime. Subsequently she was associated with the Centre for Women’s Studies at OISE/University of Toronto, where she was, for six years, its Writer-in-Residence and created and coordinated the Wonderful Women Writers reading series.

In addition, Gold is the founder and editor-in-chief of JewishFiction.net, a prestigious online literary journal that publishes first-rate Jewish-themed fiction from around the world. To date, Jewish Fiction .net has published almost 600 works of fiction that were either written in English or translated into English from 20 languages but never before published in English. These include works by eminent authors such as Elie Wiesel and Aharon Appelfeld, Canadians Gary Barwin, Chava Rosenfarb, George Jonas, Sidura Ludwig, Morley Torgov, David Bezmozgis, and Sonia Zylberberg, and many talented emerging writers. A story from Jewish Fiction .net was selected for the Fall 2023 Pushcart Prize anthology, and Jewish Fiction .net has readers in 140 countries.

You can also find Nora at:

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(ARC and media courtesy of the author)

(author photo and bio courtesy of The Writers' Union of Canada)

(all opinions are my own)

(Bookshop.org affiliated)

Milksop by John Van Rys - #bookreview

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It has come to my attention that I must make it clear at the beginning of my reviews that I received this book for free from the publisher. I have not been paid for doing this and all opinions are my own. I am Bookshop.org affiliated, which means I earn a very small amount of money if you buy from there using my direct link. Although I include purchase links to Amazon, I am not affiliated with them. I include them to make it easy for you to navigate to them if you so wish.

***

The Blurb

The summer of 1979 should have been simple: two months on a dairy farm in rural Ontario to make up for a disastrous winter term. But for seventeen-year-old Evan Mulder—awkward, angsty, and armed only with a gift for running and numbers—nothing about the Logan farm proves simple.

Dumped in a dark laneway by his disappointed parents, Evan finds himself among strangers: the reserved Niall, warm-hearted Connie, their two young children, and one very judgmental farm dog. Between early morning milkings and mucking out stalls, Evan discovers that the Logans are caught between a rock and a hard place—mounting debt, a predatory neighbour circling their land, and farm records buried in desk drawers like secrets no one wants to face.

As Evan learns to navigate life beyond his suburban comfort zone, he also confronts the truth he’s been running from all year. In a summer of chickens and calculations, flower gardens and financial ledgers, he’ll find unexpected ways to belong—and discover that being small in a world of big egos might not be weakness, but wisdom.

A tender coming-of-age story set against the rhythms of rural life, Milksop is about the quiet courage it takes to show up, the healing power of honest work, and learning that sometimes the smallest acts of care matter most.

My Review

This was a moving coming of age story about a boy called, Evan, who is nicknamed Milksop.

Evan is seventeen and has not been doing well at school. He is anxious and worried, and his parents have no understanding of how he feels. He is constantly teased by his older brother, whom Evan feels is the perfect son in the eyes of his parents. In fact, it is his brother who gave him the derogatory nickname of Milksop, due to Evan's perceived lack of vigour and lack of assertion. 

Evan takes comfort in running and mathematics. He likes the certainty of numbers in an erratic world. His parents decide to send him to a country farm for the summer to toughen him up a bit. His brother had been previously, and it quickly becomes apparent that his brother told of his nickname which, to Evan's horror, quickly gets adopted there too.

Evan is a city boy who has spent his life eating processed foods. When he finds himself on the farm, he is confronted with homemade and homegrown food. He is appalled and resists both the food and the work at every opportunity. 

This is the story of a desperately unhappy young person who is on the cusp of adulthood. As the novel progresses, we understand the causes of his anxiety. He is a wonderful character, and I was rooting for him all the way. I enjoyed reading of the lessons he learned, his development, and how he ultimately finds a way to steer himself in such a complicated world.

This was a truly excellent novel which I enjoyed very much. The author understands her characters and the world in which she has placed them very well. She tells her story with skill, and I highly recommend this book.

Book Details

Publisher:  Chicken House Press

Formats: e-book and paperback

No. of Pages:  386

Preorder Links

Chicken House Publishing

Amazon UK

Amazon CA

Amazon US

About the Author

John Van Rys is no longer young, he hasn’t been urban for about thirty years, and he’s never been hip. That makes him old, rural, and pretty square. That said, when he was 61, the Canada Council for the Arts designated him a New and Emerging Artist. Go figure!

John lives on a hobby farm outside Dunnville, Ontario, with his wife April, dogs, cats, horses, free-run egg-laying hens, and Cayuga ducks, as well as two of his adult children, their partners, his two granddaughters—and, just to keep things interesting, his mother-in-law. This life has supplied much of the inspiration for his fiction. People tell John that he has a thing about chickens, so he’s been given chicken mugs, chicken boots, chicken T-shirts, a stuffed chicken, and a chicken lunch bag. Chickens do appear all over the place in his fiction, but he’s convinced that doesn’t mean he has a weird obsession with them.

Until his retirement on July 1, 2025, his day job involved being a mild-mannered English professor, but his passion since late 2016 has been writing stories. He’s had short stories published in The New Quarterly, The Dalhousie Review, Agnes and True, Blank Spaces, and Solum Literary Journal. His story “Excavations” won the 2022 Prairie Fire MRB Short Fiction Contest. His first book-length collection, the story cycle Moonshine Promises, was published in 2021 by Wipf and Stock. He has drafted a second collection of stories, The Healing Arts, through the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and a mentorship at the Humber School for Writers Graduate Certificate. He completed his first novel, Milksop, through The Novelry.

 You can find out more about John’s writing by visiting his website.

 If you wish to stay up-to-date with his writing shenanigans, you can follow him at his Facebook page and at his Substack newsletter, Old Dog Dumps (ODD): Dispatches from a Journeyman Writer.

(ARC and media courtesy of the publisher)

(all opinions are my own)

Love Struck by Ally Bloom - #bookreview

Aiden's mouth is moving, but I can't make out the words. While he goes on about Wall Street like he's some big shot investor, I've been carefully counting the freckles on his face...

***

 I must make it clear at the beginning of my reviews that I received this book for free from Net Galley. I have not been paid for doing this and all opinions are my own. I am Bookshop.org affiliated, which means I earn a very small amount of money if you buy from there using my direct link. Although I include purchase links to Amazon, I am not affiliated with them. I include them to make it easy for you to navigate to them if you so wish.

***

The Blurb

Charlie’s life appears perfectly in place: a gorgeous fiancé, a cozy home, and her dream job as an RN. But when a casual night out ends with her fiancé drunkenly running over a jogger and covering it up, her world begins to unravel.

Riddled with guilt and desperate to forget, Charlie throws herself into her work, only to discover that their victim is now her patient. As he recuperates in his hospital bed, an unexpected bond forms between them, forcing Charlie to question everything she thought she knew about herself—and the man she promised to marry.

With secrets festering and the walls closing in, Charlie must make a terrifying decision: reveal the truth about that night and risk everything she’s built, or bury it deeper to protect the life she thought she wanted.

My Review

Love Struck was an interesting and gripping read.

The main character, Charlie loves her life. She is engaged to Aiden and she loves her work. One night whilst out with her fiance, he drunkenly runs over a jogger and he flees the scene. Charlie rushes back to help, calls an ambulance but does not admit to being in the car which ran him over. 

Whilst at work the next day, she realises her newest patient, Henry, is indeed the victim of Aiden's hit and run. Under normal circumstances she would declare an association with him but she can't do that without implicating Aiden, and even herself.

During his recovery, they become very close. However, I found it hard to believe that anyone in her position would enter into such familiarity with her patient. She vastly overstepped the professionalism of her role, not only by not admitting her part in the incident, but enters into flirting and, over time developing a personal relationship with him.

That said, it was an excellent story which was well written. It was obvious that at some point the truth would emerge and that there would be significant consequences for Charlie. There is a huge moral dilemma for her. I really did not know which direction the book would take once that happened.

There is lots of tension and suspense within the book and it really kept me turning the pages. It offered more than the usual romance novel and I recommend it.

Book Details

ISBN:  979 8249063306

Publisher:  Azala Romance

Formats:  e-book and paperback (currently available on Kindle Unlimited)

No. of Pages:  252 (paperback)

Purchase Links

Amazon UK

Amazon US

About the Author

Ally Bloom is a WFH mom by day and steamy romance author by night. Based in San Diego, she loves sunshine, water, and generally being outside. In fact, she gets all of her best ideas during family beach walks where she can talk through concepts or plot holes with her adoring husband!

Her debut novel, LOVE STRUCK, is a romantic-suspense, but she also loves to write feel-good contemporary romances.

You can also find Ally at:

Author Website

Instagram

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(ARC courtesy of Netgalley)

(all opinions are my own)

Lucie Dumas by Katherine Mezzacappa- #extract #excerpt

I am so pleased to be sharing an extract from this book today. Lucie Dumas by author, Katherine Mezzacappa is an historical fiction novel set in the 19th century.

The Blurb

London, 1871: Lucie Dumas of Lyon has accepted a stipend from her former lover and his wife, on condition that she never returns to France; she will never see her young son again. As the money proves inadequate, Lucie turns to prostitution to live, joining the ranks of countless girls from continental Europe who'd come to London in the hope of work in domestic service.

Escaping a Covent Garden brothel for a Magdalen penitentiary, Lucie finds only another form of incarceration and thus descends to the streets, where she is picked up by the author Samuel Butler, who sets her up in her own establishment and visits her once a week for the next two decades. But for many years she does not even know his name. Based on true events.

The Excerpt

Avant, avant, lion le melhor 

‘Forward, forward, Lyon the best’

 Motto of the city of Lyon 

My parents were what is known as respectable. I know that my mother is dead and assume my father is also. If he were not, I would not wish to see him anyway, so we can say that he is dead to me. I don’t know how much my mother was grieved by my conduct, for no-one ever asked her opinion on anything, and I have not seen her since my flight to Paris with Gaston. My father, I since learned, turned to drink after what happened to me. It had always been his regular solace, but it was to become his life. I want you, my reader, to be reassured that I was not the cause of his descent, but his own greed and foolhardiness. I prefer to think that he drank to smother his own conscience. 

I was brought up in the Croix-Rousse district of Lyon, not amongst the crowded dwellings of the canuts, the silk weavers of the Montée de la Grand Côte, but closer to the foot of that steep quarter, where the traders and merchants lived. The further up in lyonnais society one was, the further down the hill one dwelled – pronounced calf muscles by contrast were a sign of poverty. My father straddled both ends of the silk trade, much as our home did. He was not a weaver, nor a merchant, but built the Jacquard looms that enabled both. Forty thousand looms whirred and clacked in Lyon when I was a child, many of them in the tall buildings marching close to each other up that gradient. If I close my eyes here in London, I can still hear that sound behind the rattle of hansom cabs on cobbles, the clop of their horses. The sticky, cloying smell of silk is in my nose still, as though when breathed in it clotted itself forever in those tiny hairs. 

Father would regale us with tales of the grandeurs of Lyon silk, telling us the brocades of Lasalle adorned palaces as far afield as St Petersburg. I wondered once if those who swathed their vast halls with the work of the canuts ever spared a thought for those who wove it. Now I know that they do not, any more than the respectable ladies of London consider those who trim their bonnets, stitch their ballgowns or accommodate their husbands. Once of Girondist principles, my father had grown to admire Napoleon, for every man can be bought, though not as easily as a man can buy a woman, perhaps. The Directorate effectively brought the heyday of Lyon silk to an end, for dressing sumptuously one’s person or one’s home amounted in some cases to a capital offence and Fouché’s butchery in 1793 is I am sure still remembered. It was thanks to Napoleon that the part of Lyon destroyed in that siege was rebuilt, the silk trade re-established to clothe the new dynasty’s court, and thus Father had money to feed and clothe us. 

It was through Father’s trade that I met Gaston. You do not need to know his real name so I do not supply it, even if he could be dead by now. For years my allowance was remitted. It was stopped when Théodore reached fifteen (if indeed he did, but its regularity until then suggests that was the case). Certainly someone is dead. It may be Gaston, and so his wife has ceased to honour his shabby commitment. It may be that 

she has followed her husband to the grave, and some notary has seen the payment made to the Comptoir in London, shrugged his shoulders and cancelled it. It may be that my child is dead, his grave unvisited because everyone who knew who he was is also deceased, and I am the only one who remains, not knowing it. I wondered often if Gaston and his wife had any children, not because I was allowed any concern in their marriage, but because a woman without children may choose to love another woman’s child, or to hate him. 

In my own case, I keep as far away from children as I can, walking in the opposite direction should I encounter a nursemaid with a perambulator in Russell Square Gardens (but then if the nursemaid knew what I was, she would do the same). Monsieur has a passionate dislike of all small humans, yet he will photograph those he regards as the most peculiar specimens, according to Mr Jones. I have seen some of these plates: barefoot Italian urchins, sturdier somehow than their London equivalent, as though clean air and sunshine nourishes them. Mr Cathie has shown me them, as he assists at the birth of these images in the darkroom. Never does Monsieur photograph the kind of children who have nursemaids or governesses. Sometimes I think his eye is cruel; some of those Italian children are crétins, horribly goitred. Mr Jones said that this is because they live too far from the sea. These poor souls dwell, for the most part, corralled behind high walls with others similarly afflicted. But if their parents do not gaze on them, I do not see why others should. Monsieur could have found a different subject for his camera. 

I have ceased to wonder what my life might have been had I not met Gaston. There is no benefit in regret unless it prevents one from making similar mistakes in future. You see, the problem is that once one falls, one is obliged to keep on in one’s descent, for that precipice is sheer. It isn’t that one doesn’t want to go on making mistakes; the desire to live makes them an obligation.

Sample book of Lyon silk, 1861

(Wikimedia Commons: Prelle livre de patron 1861 La Canute)

Book Details

ISBN: 978 1917334228

Publisher:  Stairwell Books

Formats:  e-book and paperback

No. of Pages:  236 (paperback)

Purchase Links

Bookshop.org

Amazon UK

Amazon US

About the Author

Katherine Mezzacappa is Irish but currently lives in Carrara, between the Apuan Alps and the Tyrrhenian Sea. She wrote The Ballad of Mary Kearney (Histria) and The Maiden of Florence (Fairlight) under her own name, as well as four historical novels (2020-2023) with Zaffre, writing as Katie Hutton. She also has three contemporary novels with Romaunce Books, under the pen name Kate Zarrelli. The Maiden of Florence was shortlisted for the Historical Writers’ Association Gold Crown award in 2025 and has also been published in Italian.

Katherine’s short fiction has been published in journals worldwide. She has in addition published academically in the field of 19th century ephemeral illustrated fiction, and in management theory. She has been awarded competitive residencies by the Irish Writers Centre, the Danish Centre for Writers and Translators and (to come) the Latvian Writers House.

Katherine also works as a manuscript assessor and as a reader and judge for an international short story and novel competition. She has in the past been a management consultant, translator, museum curator, library assistant, lecturer in History of Art, sewing machinist and geriatric care assistant. In her spare time she volunteers with a second-hand book charity of which she is a founder member.

She is a member of the Society of Authors, the Historical Novel Society, the Irish Writers Centre, the Irish Writers Union, Irish PEN / PEN na hÉireann and the Romantic Novelists Association, and reviews for the Historical Novel Review. She is lead organiser for the Historical Novel Society 2026 Conference in Maynooth, Co. Kildare.

Katherine has a first degree in History of Art from UEA, an M.Litt. in Eng. Lit. from Durham and a Masters in Creative Writing from Canterbury Christ Church.

You can also find Katherine at:

Author Website

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Bluesky

(media courtesy of The Coffee Pot Book Club)

(all opinions are my own)

(Bookshop.org affiliated)

The Other Killer by Heidi Field - #bookreview #blogtour

 Standing on the pavement outside the prison is a rush like I haven't felt in twenty years, like someone's been standing on my chest for two decades and they just stepped off...

***

It has recently come to my attention that I must make it clear at the beginning of my reviews that I received this book for free from Zooloo's Book Tours. I have not been paid for doing this and all opinions are my own. I am Bookshop.org affiliated, which means I earn a very small amount of money if you buy from there using my direct link. Although I include purchase links to Amazon, I am not affiliated with them. I include them to make it easy for you to navigate to them if you so wish.

***

The Blurb

You can change your name. Change your life. But someone knows exactly who you are.

Twenty years ago, Mason Tucker was tried and convicted as the teenager who helped lure young boys to the serial killer known as the Pied Piper of Peasedale. After serving his twenty-year sentence, Mason is freed and hopes to remain invisible while he rebuilds his life as an adult, hoping to become a man he can be proud of. A new town, a new flat, a new job and a new purpose.

But living with secrets is challenging, and protecting his anonymity, the woman who stood beside him, and her child becomes impossible when the past pushes back. Hard. Within days of his release, Mason suspects he’s being stalked. He’s threatened and twice attacked. He never imagined being outside would be more dangerous than being in prison. The police aren’t an option. One headline will destroy him.

Someone wants him punished, not redeemed, and as danger closes in, you will never suspect where the next threat comes from.

My Review

Although this book is the third in a series, it also works brilliantly as a stand alone novel. In fact, the author was on the blog last year talking about her first book in this series, The Other Boy, and I reviewed the second book in the series, The Other Mother. Both that and this latest book are excellent and very well worth reading.

This book begins with the release from prison of Mason, also known as the Peasedale Accomplice. He has served twenty years and now wants to live quietly, with a change of name and anonymity. However, within days he realises someone knows about his past and he is being stalked.

The chapters, which are all told from Mason's perspective, flit between past and present. This enables the reader to understand how he was drawn into such wrongdoing in the past. The present day chapters demonstrate to the reader that although he has had a hard life in prison, he shows a level of naivety of life on the outside. Whilst he truly desires to help youngster, Kenny, I couldn't help but think that it would end badly for Mason, whilst truly hoping that it wouldn't.

The author tells her story very well. It is full of twists and turns and kept me gripped from the first page to the last. She knows just how to drag the reader in and how to keep them enthralled. I found myself constantly wanting to get back to this book when I wasn't reading.

She understands her characters well and thus portrays them with detail, understanding and compassion. I was really moved by Mason's story and his desire for a second chance at life. He is a character that will stay with me long after the book is finished.

This is an exceptional series of books which I highly recommend. That said, there are times that this novel is dark and graphic, and readers should be prepared for this. It won't suit everyone and if that is you then I would give this one a miss.

Book Details

ISBN:  978 1970840629

Publisher:  Tule Publishing Group

Formats:  e-book and paperback

No. of Pages:  344 (paperback)

Series:  Book 3 in The Peasedale Wood Killers series

Purchase Links

Amazon UK

Amazon US

About the Author

Heidi Field was raised in the beautiful countryside of the South of England with her parents and her two sisters. In her twenties she was a freelance Sports Massage Therapist. She achieved a Degree in Zoology at the age of thirty and then went on to raise two boys and became the stepmother of three more young children. She still lives near her family home with her partner, their Great Dane and the children that have yet to fly the nest. 

In her early forties Heidi completed a Masters in Creative Writing at Winchester University. She entered the course hoping she would become a children’s fantasy writer and left with a burning desire to write contemporary mysteries and thrillers. 

Heidi wanted to put relatable people in extraordinary situations, challenge them, push them to their limits and watch them fight for their sanity. The Other Boy is her first novel.

You can also find Heidi at:

Author Website

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(ARC and media courtesy of Zooloo's Book Tours)

(all opinions are my own)

The Body That Floats by Jayne Chard - #bookreview #giveaway

A crisp February morning. The sun is shining down on Little Clarsden, an English village nestling in the county of Berkshire. At its heart is the village green,,,

***

It has recently come to my attention that I must make it clear at the beginning of my reviews that I received this book for free from the publisher. I have not been paid for doing this and all opinions are my own. I am Bookshop.org affiliated, which means I earn a very small amount of money if you buy from there using my direct link. Although I include purchase links to Amazon, I am not affiliated with them. I include them to make it easy for you to navigate to them if you so wish.

***

For a chance to win a copy of Jayne's first book in the series, More Than Murder, click on the link below. (open to UK residents only)

Good Luck!

GIVEAWAY of More Than Murder

The Blurb

The mystery’s deep, the water’s cold, and the locals are packing more than just fishing gear...

TWO RETIRED SISTERS. ONE FLOATING DEAD BODY

Julia, a retired head teacher with a fondness for order, and her half-sister Frankie, who believes that rules are more like vague suggestions, are back—this time in the picturesque Cornish village of Portscatho.

Their morning swim off Tatum’s beach is rudely interrupted by a floating corpse. The police declare the death accidental, but the sisters have other ideas.

Soon, they’re knee-deep in smugglers’ tunnels, taking a bumpy ride in the back of a builder’s van, and facing down a gun-toting local with questionable fashion choices.

Can the sisters keep their heads above water long enough to uncover the truth or will the killer make sure they sink without a trace?

My Review

This was an easy and entertaining read and I enjoyed it very much.

In fact, this was my second foray into the antics of the main characters, Julia and Frankie. It is the second book in the series but it works perfectly well as a standalone novel. However, if you would like to win a copy of the first book in the series, More Than Murder, follow the link to my review of that book for details of how to enter.

Julia and Frankie are half-sisters. Having inherited their aunt's cottage in Cornwall, the will stipulated that they must both live together in the cottage for a year before the cottage becomes theirs. However, they are very different and haven't always got along. This book takes place in the latter part of this one-year proviso to their inheritance.

They are fabulous characters and I love the way they have such different personalities yet complement each other very well. Julia, a retired headteacher, is as organised as Frankie is disorganised and impetuous. When they discover a body floating in the lake, they suspect foul play and it falls to them to investigate what happened and to prove that this was murder and not an accidental death.  They are really fun characters and add much humour to the story.

The book has been well written and I felt that the author had portrayed her plot and characters extremely well. The Cornish setting is nicely described and the perfect location for her to have set the books.

The story moves along at a good pace with some twists and turns along the way. It was easy to read and I got through it in a couple of sittings. It is the perfect read for a lazy weekend and I highly recommend it.

Publishing on 7th May, The Body that Floats is the second book in the Julia and Frankie Mystery series. My review of the first book, More Than Murder, can be found here. 

Book Details

ISBN:  978 1068325021

Publisher:  Chapters Crime Press

Formats:  paperback

No. of Pages:  284 (paperback)

Series:  Book 2 in the Julia and Frankie Mystery series

Preorder Links

Bookshop.org

Direct from Author Website

Amazon UK

Amazon US

About the Author

Jayne Chard began writing plays when she was eight years old and wrote her first “book” at fourteen.

 After graduating with a degree in psychology and drama, she went on to win the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Buzz Goodbody Director Award. She directed a number of theatre plays, including shows at the Royal Court and Riverside Studios. During this time, Jayne continued to write, and two of her plays were performed on the London Fringe. Attracted to the small screen, Jayne became immersed in directing TV dramas. Now a multi-award-winning film and TV drama producer, her credits include the BBC flagship brand, Silent Witness and three feature films.

 In addition to her television career, Jayne was instrumental in establishing a veterinary clinic on the remote island of Koh Tao in Thailand and also worked as a radio presenter. Jayne lives in the West Country with her partner and two cuddly cockapoos.

You can also find Jayne at:

Author Website

Facebook

Instagram

Bluesky

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For a chance to win a copy of Jayne's first book in the series, More Than Murder, click on the link below. (open to UK residents only)

Good Luck!

GIVEAWAY of More Than Murder

(ARC and media courtesy of the publicist)

(all opinions are my own)

(Bookshop.org affiliated)

Perotine by Dreena Collins - #bookspotlight #blogtour

I am delighted to be shining the spotlight on this book today. Perotine by Dreena Collins is inspired by the true story of the Guernsey Martyrs.

The Blurb

Abandoned, faithful – and on trial for heresy. 

On a bleak autumn morning in 1555, Protestant Perotine wakes to find her husband packed to leave. Catholicism has returned to Guernsey, and, fearing for his life, he abandons Perotine, her sister and mother to face increasing hostility alone. 

The three women endure a challenging winter of rain, isolation, and poverty – until a dramatic series of events draws unwanted attention. When a local woman asks Perotine to hide stolen goods, what begins as a trial for theft spirals into accusations of heresy. 

Secluded, steadfast, and terrified, the women face their plight with fortitude and prayers. Together.

But Perotine Massey holds a terrible secret. One that could bring a reprieve, or a fate worse than death.

And she’ll do anything to keep that secret safe. 

Book Details

ISBN:  978-1915786357

Publisher:  Blue Ormer Publishing

Formats:  e-book and paperback

No. of Pages:  312 (paperback)

Purchase Links

Amazon UK

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About the Author

Dreena Collins is a multi-genre author. Her short fiction has been listed and placed in numerous writing competitions, such as The Bridport Prize and the Bath Flash Fiction Award. She is also the author of a suspense novel, And Then She Fell. 

As Jane Harvey, Dreena writes commercially successful, feel-good fiction: The Hummingbird House series. Books one and two of the series both won the Eyelands International Awards, Published Novel of the Year (2021 and 2022). 

‘Perotine’ is Dreena’s first full-length work of historical fiction, and a labour of love, retelling the powerful story of the Guernsey Martyrs of 1556. Shortlisted in the Flash 500 Novel Opening Competition, the manuscript was also a top ten finalist in the Marlowe and Christie prize. 

She lives in Jersey with her spouse, a teenage son, and a grumpy white dog, where she also works as the Project Manager for a local charity. 

You can also find Dreena at:

Author Website

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Bluesky

(media courtesy of Rachel's Random Resources)

(all opinions are my own)