My Second Life by Faye Bird

The first time I was born, I was born Emma Trees. I was born to Amanda and Richard Trees. I was Emma. I was beautiful. People told me that. I had everything to live for. People told me that too. But I died. It was 18th of October 1994. I was twenty-two.

Published by Usborne in July 2014

Pages – 278

Book Summary

The first time I was born, I was Emma.
I was beautiful. I had everything to live for.
But I died.
Now I have been born a second time, and my previous life haunts me. Because in it I think I did something very wrong. I must find out what I did to Catherine. I must uncover the truth about Emma...
Intriguing, compelling, heartbreaking.
What if your past life could shatter your future

Being an avid reader, I love discovering new talent which can often go unnoticed. The unusual premise of the debut novel really caught my attention. How would you cope if you knew you had a lived before and that your previous family were living close by? Coming highly recommended from well-known author, Anthony McGowan, I couldn’t resist delving further into such an intriguing tale.

The main character, Ana, has grown up with the knowledge that this isn’t her first life. Struggling to bond with the woman who gave birth to her, she constantly yearns for her first mother. As time passes, Ana learns to accept that she can’t return to that life, only to find herself thrust back into it after recognising Frances, (a close family friend from her previous life) while visiting her grandmother in hospital. If that isn’t enough to deal with, seeing Frances brings back a deeply hidden memory, involving the death of a child, that Ana is convinced she is responsible for.

This book catapults you through a range of emotions as the plot heads off in a race to discover the truth. You struggle alongside Ana when confronted with her original parents and feel her pain at the lack of recognition and emotion shown by them. As the story unfolds, Ana’s memories of the events surrounding Catherine’s death are called into question.

The idea of a past life is a mind boggling one and I felt the author dealt with it extremely well, giving the story the believable factor it required. The ending surprised me, but on reflection, there really wasn’t any other way for the story to be resolved. This is an intriguing tale that leaves you questioning the whole concept of reincarnation.

Why? By Tracy Corderoy and Tim Warnes

Archie was a rhino with a LOT of questions.

Sometimes when he was finding answers, Archie made a little bit of mess …

Why does toast make crumbs?

Why is milk splashy?

Why's cereal so soggy, Dad?

Summary From Little Tiger Press

Archie is a rhino with a LOT of questions. He wants to know everything: “Why glue is so sticky? Why do dropped things go SMASH?” If only finding out was a little less messy… 

Everybody’s much-loved rhino returns in this brand-new sequel to No! from the wonderful Tracey Corderoy (Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam and The Little White Owl) and award-winning Tim Warnes (I Don’t Want to Go to Bed). Brimming with gorgeous illustrations, this warm, funny book is guaranteed to become a firm favourite. A must for all families with curious toddlers who just love to ask “WHY?”

*****

Review by Liss Norton

This picture book will strike a chord with anyone who knows an inquisitive toddler. Archie has questions for every occasion and Mum and Dad find the whole thing pretty tiring. Then they take Archie to the museum, where he asks so many

questions that he manages to wear himself out. Mum and Dad begin to hope that he might have run out of questions altogether, but their hopes are soon dashed – in a comical conclusion.

Adults will enjoy the questions that make Mum and Dad squirm, while toddlers will love Tim Warnes's detailed illustrations. There's plenty to talk about here, from the messy breakfast table to the space section of the museum, and probably a few questions to be answered, too! Don't miss this book! 

The Write Way with Kathryn Freeman

Today I am pleased to welcome a Chock Lit author, Kathryn Freeman. Kathryn’s book, Do Opposites Attract? came out with Choc Lit this month.

 

1) Your new novel, Do Opposites Attract? has recently  been published. How does it feel to no longer be a debut author? 

I have to keep pinching myself when I see the gorgeous cover with my name on it. I keep a couple of the books on my desk and I can’t help breaking out into a goofy grin every time I look at them. It’s been five years since I started writing books, but decades since the dream started to germinate in my mind. Of course having my debut paperback is just the start of the journey, not the end, and I still have so much to learn, but I’m loving every minute of it.

2) Can you tell me a little about the book? 

Hey, you won’t be able to stop me! The title and the cover really do give a good insight into the book. It’s a romance (umm, you probably guessed that bit) involving two people from totally different backgrounds who meet in the harsh, emotionally charged environment of a refugee camp. The hero, Mitch McBride, grew up on the wrong side of the tracks but he’s managed in the main to put his past behind him and now works as a doctor for a medical charity where his background doesn’t matter. That is until the patron’s daughter comes to visit for a week. They couldn’t be more opposite. Where Mitch has had a rough, loveless life full of hard work and suffering, Brianna has had a charmed life surrounded by wealth and parents who adore her. 

Not surprisingly, when they meet the sparks really fly and both are guilty of making assumptions about each other. Mitch of assuming because Brianna is rich, she’s spoilt. Brianna of assuming because he comes across as gruff, he doesn’t care. 

Despite their differences – or because of them? – they find themselves drawn to each other. But is their attraction sustainable? That’s the question I hope you’re asking yourself J

3) How does it feel to be published by an award winning publisher? 

I couldn’t have asked for a better publisher. Choc Lit are a highly professional group dedicated to working with their authors to develop their careers. It’s not just the team behind the scenes that are helpful and supportive, either – it’s the authors, too. For a newbie like myself, with no previous publishing experience, parachuting into this group was the softest, most comfortable landing I could have hoped for. I feel so proud  - and more than little gobsmacked, to be honest – to see my name amongst all those other highly talented Choc Lit authors. Of course many of them are crazier than a box of frogs … but maybe that’s why I feel so at home.

4) Do you write full time or part time? 

I write full time, but only half of that is romance! I worked for the pharmaceutical industry for over twenty years but three years ago I became self-employed so I could follow my dream of writing romantic fiction. At the moment I juggle medical writing for half the week and romance writing for the other half. So far I haven’t got the two mixed up, though I have just written a romance based in a pharmaceutical company.

5) Do you try and aim for a daily word target when writing?

No, I just go with the flow. I do have targets in mind for when I hope the first draft will be finished, and then for when I hope to submit the manuscript. I find they wriggle away from me a fair bit though!

6) Do you edit as you go along or do you wait until the first draft is finished?

I wait until the first draft is finished and then I work on something else for a while so that when I read it back again, I’m not too close to it. Rather sadly I do actually usually enjoy reading that first draft. It’s the second draft that’s the killer to me, when I start to realise it isn’t nearly as good as I thought it was.

7) Are you a planner or a pantser?

I think I’m a bit of both. For quite a while I plot out the major parts of the story in my head. If you see me stuck in a traffic jam, smiling to myself, you’ll know what I’m doing! When I’ve really got a handle on my characters and the setting all the ideas start pouring out and that’s when I open the blank sheet of paper and drop everything down. It’s more of a brain dump than a plan but I do end up with some character profiles and the outline of a story that I can then put into chunks. With this loose framework in mind, the panster in me is unleashed!

8) Who are your favourite authors? 

Nora Roberts is my all time favourite but I love to read a whole host of other authors – though generally I stick to romantic fiction. Erica James, Suzanne Brockmann, Barbara Delinsky, Katie Fforde, Wilbur Smith, Jill Mansell, Judith McNaught, Julie Ann Walker, Susan E Phillips, Winston Graham have all been eagerly devoured. I’ve tried so many more new authors since buying my Kindle J

9) Do you have any advice for unpublished authors?

What helped me most was … writing. I know it sounds basic, but I strongly believe the more you write, the better you get. When I look back at manuscripts I wrote three years ago, I cringe. Did I really think that was good enough to submit to publishers? Joining the RNA’s New Writers’ Scheme also helped me enormously. The feedback I was given on a couple of my manuscripts made me take a step back from the detail of each individual sentence and start thinking of my writing as a story. Finally, never give up. If you want it badly enough and are prepared to keep writing despite the inevitable streams of rejections, you will succeed.

******

To find out more about Kathryn:

Website:  http://kathrynfreeman.co.uk Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/kathrynfreeman Twitter:  https://twitter.com/KathrynFreeman1

Blurb copy: 

There’s no such thing as a class divide – until you’re on separate sides.

Brianna Worthington has beauty, privilege and a very healthy trust fund. The only hardship she’s ever witnessed has been on the television. Yet when she’s invited to see how her mother’s charity, Medic SOS, is dealing with the aftermath of a tornado in South America, even Brianna is surprised when she accepts.

Mitch McBride, Chief Medical Officer, doesn’t need the patron’s daughter disrupting his work. He’s from the wrong side of the tracks and has led life on the edge, but he’s not about to risk losing his job for a pretty face.

Poles apart, dynamite together, but can Brianna and Mitch ever bridge the gap separating them?

About the author: 

Kathryn was born in Wallingford, England but has spent most of her life living in a village near Windsor. After studying pharmacy in Brighton she began her working life as a retail pharmacist. She quickly realised that trying to decipher doctors’ handwriting wasn’t for her and left to join the pharmaceutical industry where she spent twenty happy years working in medical communications.

In 2011, backed by her family, she left the world of pharmaceutical science to begin life as a self-employed writer, juggling the two disciplines of medical writing and romance. Some days a racing heart is a medical condition, others it’s the reaction to a hunky hero…

With two teenage boys and a husband who asks every Valentine’s Day whether he has to bother buying a card again this year (yes, he does) the romance in her life is all in her head. Then again, her husband’s unstinting support of her career change goes to prove that love isn’t always about hearts and flowers – and heroes can come in many disguises.

Kathryn’s novels include: Too Charming and Do Opposites Attract? 

You Had Me At Merlot by Lisa Dickenson

‘I’ve done it!’ I paced around in my little flat in my heels, slowing my breathing. ‘Six years after it came out, I’ve finally perfected the ‘Single Ladies’ dance routine.’

‘Congratulations,’ said Laurie down the phone.’Does that mean you haven’t left home yet?’

Published by Sphere in July 2014

Elle and Laurie are the last ones standing: they're single, they're not having babies any time soon and their weekends aren't filled with joyful meetings about mortgages. For Elle, this is fine - she likes her independent life, she loves her job, and she has no desire to walk down the aisle anytime soon. But Laurie wants love and she wants it now.
So when Laurie begs Elle to come with her on a singles holiday to a beautiful vineyard in Tuscany, Elle is reluctant. You Had Me at Merlot Holidays promises crisp sunshine, fun and a chance to stir up some sizzling romance. Elle has no intention of swapping her perfectly lovely life for someone else's idea of her Mr Perfect, but ten days under the Italian sun with her best friend and lashings of wine? How bad could that be?

*****

This book has been published in four digital parts over the next four weeks, which I find rather a fascinating idea, but one  I can’t fathom out.  Each part needs to be purchased separately.You can’t read the parts out of order, so I am hoping someone will enlighten me as to why it was published in this way.

The story gets off to a hilarious start and straight away you warm to the fiercely independent, Elle, who loves being a single woman and would rather pull her teeth out than  fall in love. How on earth would she practise all those dance routines if she had a man lingering around her house? I really liked Elle. She felt a bit like all the main female characters from Friends squashed into one.

Although the humour had me chuckling to begin with, I have to be honest and say that it started to grate on me a little. It felt contrived at times, and I felt relief as the  humour lessened and the story began to unfold.

The book soon whisks us off to the sultry climate of Italy, where Elle and Laurie embark on their first ever singles holiday. The thought of actually attending one of these would fill me with dread. So many people in one room, all looking for romance. I think the author described the situation well, and should I ever become single, I shall steer clear of this type of holiday.

So as this book is described as a romantic comedy, you know that Elle isn’t going to stay single for long and she soon falls for the charms of the rather gorgeous Jamie. For someone so adamant to stay single, it didn’t take long for Elle to fall under the Italian’s spell. But it wouldn’t be a  good romantic comedy without a bit of a disaster and misconception thrown in.

The story lost a little credibility for me when Elle saved the day with her business acumen. She appeared to solve the company’s problems overnight without any challenge or difficulty and I found that a little unbelievable.

Don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy this book. I found the author’s writing style easy to get into and I whizzed through the story in a day. The descriptive passages of Italy and the vineyards were beautifully written.  I also liked all the characters and enjoyed most aspects of the plot.

If you are looking for an easy summer read, with a touch of Catherine Alliott’s humour, then this book is for you.

Faye Bird Talks About Her Writing Process

A little bit later than planned, but better late than never, I am pleased to welcome debut author, Faye Bird onto the blog to talk about her writing process.

I wrote the first draft of My Second Life quite quickly. Once I got the idea for the book I had the opportunity to sit down at my desk every day and simply write, and so I took the opportunity and I did exactly that.

Did I plan? Did I plot? Did I have sticky notes? A pin board or flow chart on my wall guiding me through the journey of my narrative? No. I hate to admit it, but I didn’t. I simply had an idea, an opening line and two or three key scenes in my mind that I knew I was working towards. I was not at all clear about how I was going to get there.

So how did I get there?

 

The simple answer is I got there by writing – just writing – and when I could tell the writing was running out of direction or the words slowed or became thin on the page, I stopped and I picked up my notebook, or as it turned out one of my several notebooks.

In my notebooks I brainstormed where I could go with the story and thought about where I’d got to so far. Sometimes I’d draw crude mind maps, but most of the time I just wrote out all the thoughts as I had them in a stream of consciousness ramble about what I was writing. I’d question myself at all times along the way, refer back to the notes at later dates and ask still more questions each time I revisited them.

 

Inevitably as a consequence of this kind of process, if you can call it that, there were plenty of flawed routes, and not just in the notebooks; sometimes they went into the drafts too. But those flawed routes were never wasted because they often in themselves lead me to the route that worked in the end. There was definitely a layering effect here, in the thinking and the drafting and the rewriting. Each draft built to the next in a way that moved the story on, and not despite the flaws, sometimes because of them.

Without doubt this was an incredibly labour intensive way to write, and as a consequence I wrote a lot of drafts. But it felt like a natural process for me to work this way. I enjoyed sitting down each day and writing and not knowing exactly where I was heading, and I enjoyed stopping when I needed to and taking stock – not of the exact words on the page – but of where the story was going. And I guess it worked. I had the time and I enjoyed the exploration and eventually I got to a draft that I was happy with for submission to agents and to editors.

However, as I now come to write my next book I think I am realising that I need to reassess my method. I simply don’t have the time I had when I wrote My Second Life to write my way into my story in the way that I did back then. I can see that I need to be able to lock down more than just key scenes in my mind before I start writing, and I know I don’t have the time for my instincts to lead me wholly through. I must hold onto my instincts, I know that, but I suspect this time there may the necessity for some serious sticky notes or a well-produced pin board plan along the way…

My Second Life by Faye Bird is out now. Read the first chapter online now at www.usborne.com/readmysecondlife. Follow Faye on Twitter @faye_bird. You can also search for #mysecondlife on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Echo Boy by Matt Haig

Audrey. Mind-log 427

It has been two weeks since my parents were killed.

It has been the longest two weeks of my life.

Everything has changed. Literally everything. The only thing that remains true is that I am still me.

That is, I am still a human called Audrey Castle.

I still look like me. I still have the same dark hair I got from my dad and the same hazel eyes from Mum.

My shoulders are still too wide.

I still walk like a boy.

I still think it would have been cool to live in the past.

Published by Random House 2014

403 pages in paperback review copy

Summary from Guardian Children’s Books website

Audrey's father taught her how to stay human in the modern world; he taught her to love books, music, philosophy and dreams, so that she would never be simply a machine, like the Echoes. Daniel is an Echo – but he’s not like the others. He feels a connection with Audrey; a feeling Daniel knows he was never designed to have, and cannot explain. And when Audrey is placed in terrible danger, he’s determined to save her.

********

Reviewed by K. M. Lockwood

I have to be honest, I am something of a Matt Haig fangirl – you can spot me for a brief moment on ‘The Humans’ trailer. So of course I was itching to read this first YA novel of his. 

As you can see from the extract and the summary, it could loosely be described as science fiction, which is not usually my thing. I review partly to experience work outside my comfort zone, so I plunged in anyway. If you’re not normally a fan of SF, don’t worry. Echo Boy is more of a thriller with a futuristic setting.

Yes, there are references to events that haven’t happened ‘yet’ and a reasonable amount of new technology but they don’t over-dominate the fundamental story. For me, it works best when he just mentions these in passing, and doesn’t really explain the mechanics or back story. That way, the plot zips along and we care about what happens to Audrey and Daniel.

Obviously, the human-android relationships are central to the book and Matt Haig uses these to explore what our humanity is. It is something he really engages with – and so do most YA readers, I would say. Older teens might well enjoy some of his adult work afterwards such as ‘The Radleys’ or ‘The Humans’.

Although it is marketed as a YA book, I think proficient readers of 9+ may well enjoy Echo Boy (not the others yet!). Both violence and romance are portrayed without exaggeration or callousness. Overall, it’s not difficult to read nor over-complicated. The perspective shifts – but you do know who is ‘talking’. There is definite peril and distress, but the feeling I was left with after reading was not oppressive, but hopeful.

So in short, I would recommend this for any competent reader who likes a good thick read with plenty of action and suspense but with emotions at its core. They would be happy with exploring a less-than-perfect vision of the future and intrigued by the implications of thinking androids.

.

The Write Way with Sophie Duffy

Considering author, Sophie Duffy has been reviewing for me for nearly two years, I thought it was about time I interviewed her on the blog. So rolling my sleeves up and adjusting the spotlight, I interrogated her about her writing skills!

1) With two books firmly under your belt, how does it feel to no longer be considered a debut author?  

I feel very lucky as there are a lot of very good unpublished novels out there. Even now I still can’t quite believe I broke through. Winning the Luke Bitmead award was awesome. But I still have all the neuroses of any writer. Will my latest work-in-progress be good enough?

2) Can you give me a one line pitch for both The Generation Game and This Holey Life to give the readers an idea what they are about?

The Generation Game: 40 year old Philippa Smith, newborn baby, childhood in a Torquay sweetshop, a mismatched family, and Brucie on the box. 

This Holey Life: A reluctant curate’s wife, an adulterous brother, a heap of trouble, a dose of grief, all piled into a terrace in Penge. 

3) Can you tell us anything about the book you have been working on recently?

I am editing a novel after an extensive rewrite. My narrator is a Scottish bloke who is reunited with old student friends and has to face the tragedy that blew them apart.

4) With each book, do you find the  writing process gets easier?

It’s always a slog for me, writing a novel. The first draft takes about 18 months and then the rewrites take as long again. I am not a great planner so the novel evolves organically as I get to know my characters. The process doesn’t get easier but I do trust myself a bit more that writing in this unstructured way will work out in the end.

5) Do you try and aim for a daily word target when writing?

I aim for 1000 words when I’m in the groove but I often miss this target as my teenagers and dogs can get in the way somewhat.

6) When is your ideal time to write? Morning, afternoon or evening?

Morning is a good time for me to get down the words. Evening is a good time to do a read through, make notes, and then I have something to start with the following day. 

7) Do you edit as you go along or do you wait until the first draft is finished?

I do edit as I go along. And then after the first draft, I do a substantial rewrite as I know what I am dealing with.

8) Are you a planner or a pantser?

Definitely a pantser. I have a character and I put them in a situation with only a rough idea as to what will happen. Then I plunge in. This means I have to cut a lot of rubbish, but it’s exciting and never boring.

9) Which authors inspired you whilst growing up?

Enid Blyton, Agatha Christie, Jilly Cooper, George Eliot, Sue Townsend, Daphne du Maurier, Thomas Hardy

10) If you could have written any other book in the world, what would it be? 

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 ¾ by Sue Townsend

11) I know that you also mentor writers, so what advice would you give unpublished authors?

Enter competitions. There are a growing number of novel competitions now, including The Yeovil Literary Prize, the Luke Bitmead Bursary and The Exeter Novel Prize which I help to administer as part of Creative Writing Matters.

If you are serious, always be prepared to learn. 

Read shedloads. 

Never give up.

Thank you Sophie for surviving the interviewing process. I f you would like to know more about Sophie, then check out her website here. If you are interested in Sophie’s mentoring services, please click here.

This Holey Life is on offer for  99p on Amazon Kindle this month, so click on this sentence and  go buy it.

The Fault In Our Stars by John Green

Late in the winter of my seventeenth year, my mother decided I was depressed, presumably because I rarely left the house, spent quite a lot of time in bed, read the same book over and over, ate infrequently, and devoted quite a bit of my abundant free time to thinking about death.  

Whenever you read a cancer booklet or website or whatever, they always list depression among the side effects of cancer. But, in fact, depression is not a side effect of cancer. Depression is a side effect of dying.(Cancer is also a side effect of dying. Almost everything is really.) But my mom believed I required treatment, so she took me to my Regular Doctor Jim, who agreed that I was verbally swimming in a paralysing and totally clinical depression, and that therefore my meds should be adjusted and also I should attend a weekly Support Group.

Published by Penguin 2013

Pages – 313

Summary

Despite the tumour-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten.

******

Reviewed by Elizabeth Dale

I first picked up this book before all the hype and adulation now heaped on it. I read the first few pages, and put it down again, thinking I didn’t want to read a depressing book about someone dying from cancer. I was wrong and I’m so glad I picked it up again this year. It is not depressing, it’s uplifting, it’s sad, but it’s also funny, it’s heart-breaking but also heart-warming. And it is written by John Green, who is such an amazing writer, that you want to read it almost as much as for his beautiful way with words, as the story itself. 

Except it’s such a brilliant story, it’s impossible to stop once started. Hazel and Augustus seem so believable and real. They are cancer-sufferers, but so much more than that, they are American teenagers, brought together by their cancer support group, who refuse to be defined by their illness, who share a zest for life, video games and a growing love, despite the turmoil this brings – for how can you possibly allow anyone to get close when your life feels like a grenade that will explode when you die, devastating everyone near you? 

This is a book about life and our impact on the world, about taking responsibility for our own actions and making the most of the hand life deals. Light and witty as well as serious and sad, it delves into the lives of families touched by cancer as well as the sufferers themselves. It is funny, sharp, poignant, irreverent and insightful. Above all, it is life-affirming and achingly beautiful. Do read it, whatever age you are. You won’t regret it.

What’s The Big Idea????

You may not have heard of it, but after today you will be buzzing about the Big Idea. Launched in conjunction with The Blair Partnership and Chicken House Publishing, the hunt is on to find the next big story idea for children. You don’t need to be an aspiring writer to enter, you just need an amazing idea!

The UK is well known for creating awesome characters and inspiring tales that constantly capture children’s imaginations. We have such literary greats as JM Barrie, Roald Dahl, not to mention JK. Rowling. Our stories can change the way the world reads. So now it’s time for a new show stopping story.

The competition will be judged by six well known and respected people from the world of media.

• Tess Daly – TV broadcaster
• · Neil Blair –  J.K. Rowling’s agent
• · Barry Cunningham OBE – Children’s publisher
• · Debra Hayward – Film producer
• · Sonia Friedman – Theatre producer
• · Philip Ardagh – Children’s author and literary critic

Working as a team, the judges will pick out six winners, who will all receive £1000 alongside the opportunity to see their idea materialize into reality, through a range of media platforms, including film, TV and gaming. There will also be one overall winner, who will be offered a publishing contract and the promise of their idea being developed by a well-known author.

So what do you need to do to enter? Well that’s easy. Outline an original idea using up to 750 words to describe what happens in your story, the setting and what audience it is aimed at. If you want more advice, then please click here for top tips on entering.  The competition opens today and will stay open until the 2nd of September. The winning ideas will be announced in November.

Need more information? Then check out the media links below.

URL:      www.thebigideacompetition.co.uk

Twitter: @thebigideacomp

Facebook: The Big Idea Competition

About Chicken House Publishing:

The Chicken House is a small, highly individual children’s book publishing company with an enthusiasm for new fiction. Chicken House books have found huge popularity with children, parents, teachers and librarians around the world.

About The Blair Partnership:

The Blair Partnership is a rights management agency with a strong literary heritage specialising in large-scale commercial properties and projects. They act as J.K. Rowling’s agents and business managers and work in partnership with authors, artists, musicians, entrepreneurs and many other rights owners to develop and manage their properties and ideas globally across all platforms and media.

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Sense of Place By Janet Quin-Harkin/ Rhys Bowen

On the blog today, I am pleased to welcome author Janet Quin-Harkin, who you may also know as mystery writer, Rhys Bowen. Janet’s YA book series, Heartbreak Cafe, which was really popular in the 80’s, is being republished, with the first book No Experience Required coming out today!

I’m the sort of person with a keen sense of place. I was born with a wanderlust. I’m told that when I was two I was taken to the seaside for the first time. I started to walk toward the waves. My mother watched to see what I would do. I kept on walking. When I was up to my neck she rescued me. Who knows where I was heading?

When I was twelve my parents put me on a train in London to travel to friends in Vienna. A train, a boat, and an overnight train by myself. And nobody worried. Since then I’ve travelled the world, relishing in each new place that I visit.

So it’s little wonder that sense of place is an important element of all my books.  And in the case of both my current mystery series I am dealing with not just a place but a time in history.  I want my readers not to be told about early Twentieth Century New York. I want them to be there, to know what the sights, smells, sounds feel like. I go to New York frequently and walk the streets that my heroine, Molly Murphy, walked.  I soak in the atmosphere of the city. I make use of the five senses to recreate my own experiences.

I do the same with my Royal Spyness books, gathering new experiences every time I return home to England. It’s the little things that create a place, not grand descriptions but the sound of a ball on a cricket bat on a summer afternoon, the hum of bees on roses, the smell of newly mown grass . Any of those things and I’m back in the English countryside.

The same was definitely true when I wrote my teenage series called Heartbreak Café. It was the setting that drew me to the story. I remember standing on that beach in California, looking at a couple of surfers walking toward a beachfront café and thinking “wouldn’t it be fun to set a book here? It’s a place outside of society’s rules, its own world, a place one can escape to.”  I’d drive down the California coast

to it, time and time again, feeling the salty breeze in my face and hearing the gulls crying overhead.  I still get chills when I think about it now.  Special places do that to me.

Check out the fantastic website for the book, which goes live today.

Here is the blog tour for the rest of week. So you won’t miss a stop!

Witch Finder by Ruth Warburton

Luke lifted his head and sniffed the dusk. The rich smell of roast chestnuts pierced the cold foggy air, above the more familiar Spitalfields stink: horse manure, coal smoke, rubbish. 

Another day he might have searched his pockets for a farthing, bought a paper cone of hot, burst chestnuts and burnt his fingers as he ate. Not today. Not with his stomach churning like a wash tub and a fluttering sickness in his gut.

Published by Hodder Children’s Books in 2014

Pages – 366

Summary

London. 1880. In the slums of Spitalfields apprentice blacksmith Luke is facing initiation into the Malleus Maleficorum, the fearsome brotherhood dedicated to hunting and killing witches.

Luke’s final test is to pick a name at random from the Book of Witches, a name he must track down and kill within a month, or face death himself. Luke knows that tonight will change his life forever. But when he picks out sixteen-year-old Rosa Greenwood, Luke has no idea that his task will be harder than he could ever imagine.

*****

Reviewed by Jill Atkins

With its sights and smells of London, the opening of this book evokes the atmosphere of late Victorian times. I learned all too soon why Luke has the ‘sickness in his gut’. His initiation is a terrifying experience, but he is compelled to go through with it to avenge the death of both of his parents at the hands of a witch.

Luke has a special power. He can identify witches by the aura that surrounds them. But his mission seems impossible as he learns that Rosa’s family is one of influence, closely linked to the Knyvet family, the most powerful family of witches in the land. 

The odds against Luke succeeding in his mission mount in a thrilling, tense drama which kept me hooked from start to finish.

Ruth Warburton has succeeded in creating some very strong, credible characters: from the naïve yet determined Luke and the beautiful Rosa to Alexis, Rosa’s drunkard yet ruthlessly ambitious brother, and Sebastian Knyvet, whose brutality is enough to make the most hardened reader cringe.

Told in the third person, alternating between Luke’s and Rosa’s viewpoints, I found I could get inside both their heads as they struggle with problems and decisions, both individually and, as the story progresses, together. The story ends in such a way that leaves it open for a sequel. 

A great read that I thoroughly recommend!

Cloud Riders by Nick Cook

"I stared at the coiled vapour revolving around the trunk of the twister, a crazy sculpture come to life. Chunks of earth and trees spiralled around the spout. The destruction echoed through my heart and a single thought filled my head... Beautiful."

Three Hares Publishing 2014

328 pages in paperback

Summary from Three Hares Publishing

Dom lives with his mom in Tornado Alley, where twisters used to be a way of life. After a year long drought, the family diner is about to go bust and Dom feels trapped, torn between supporting his mother and the urge to escape. Even his relationship with best friend, Jules, is beginning to prickle with feelings he doesn’t want. When the first twister in months appears from nowhere and an airship emerges from the spout, Dom’s world is turned upside down. Its pilots are explorers who make Dom an offer beyond his imagination. But the pilots are hiding a terrible secret. Can Dom uncover the truth and make the right decision before everything he cares for is destroyed?

*******

Reviewed by K. M. Lockwood

A first glance at Jennie Rawling’s bold and dramatic cover intrigues – with its swirling background and curious airship. You expect action and, with a title like that, you know extreme weather is in there somewhere.

But it opens with a much more familiar drama: bullies on the school bus.

This appealing mix of Dom’s personal life with exciting large-scale events carries on throughout Nick Cook’s debut novel. There are plenty of dangerous exploits alongside changing relationships with family, friends – and girls. Or rather better, striking and self-determined young women.

It’s ideal for readers who like their sky-borne adventure stories to gleam with a little steam-punk polish, and appreciate the odd waft of romance. There are strange gadgets, thrilling escapes, and more than a little ‘borrowing’ of classical mythology. Told from the perspective of our likeable hero, there are many difficult choices he must make that will challenge both his emotions and his skills. 

Be warned - if you fall for this eclectic story of personal growth set in a huge conflict amongst worlds – you’ll want to follow Dom’s adventures in ‘Breaking Storm’. (I should also mention there will be a third volume!)

Arms Open Wide by Tom Winter

It’s a Thursday afternoon and Meredith is staring at a pot of yogurt.  It’s been in the fridge for almost a year, left there by her husband on the same day he left her too.  It sits unopened and untouched.  Preserved like evidence from a crime scene.  Covered with the invisible finger prints of a man she still loves.

 

Published by Corsair in April 2014

353 pages

Jack and Meredith are non-identical twins; the only similarity between them is their lives rapidly falling apart. Jack’s high-flying career in advertising has crashed and burned. Meredith’s world is also crumbling – a decomposing yogurt in her fridge now a symbol of her failed marriage. Her children, Jemima and Luke, offer little support, too consumed with the worlds of online dating and amateur taxidermy. All their lives, Jack and Meredith believed their father to be dead. One day, a throwaway comment leads Jack to question this, but with their mother fading ever-deeper into the grip of dementia, answers are hard to come by. As revelations start to untangle, the twins soon learn that what you seek is not always what you find… 

*  *  *

Reviewed by Caroline Hodges

Tom Winter’s Lost and Found was my favourite book of last year.  Arms Wide Open is his second novel and he seems to be developing a theme for the bittersweet twists and turns of life.  Adult protagonists Meredith and Jack are non-identical twins, born to an embittered single mother and potentially carrying the gene for early on-set dementia.  

The book is a snapshot of their lives a year on from Meredith’s husband leaving her.  Whilst she pines for a husband so emotionally detached, he barely sees their two children, Jack’s successful career is headed down the pan – and no one knows the real reason why.

The characters are as vivid and absorbing as Winter’s debut (though he’ll have to go a long way to replace Lost and Found’s Albert in my heart!), and there’s a far greater range of personalities.  Meredith’s son is fabulously unique, and as a result, experiencing the inevitable bullying this brings.  Her daughter is at heart insecure but in that well-documented way of teenage girls, possessed of an attitude of indestructibility which leads her into particularly dangerous situations.  I liked that the novel dealt with numerous modern day issues affecting young people in a way which is largely un-judgemental.

I think the best thing about the way Tom Winter seems to write all his characters is with equal measures of good and bad.  No one is escapable of redemption, no one is ever truly one sided, there are reasons behind all their behaviour and so far, it’s never clichéd.   Ultimately this makes him capable of turning books with the ability to be horrifically depressing to actually nurture glimmers of hope.

Winter retains his use of language which is both witty and cutting, and in this novel, we see an outrageous side – multiple strands within the novel combine to an entire series of events which are at best comically unlucky and at worst absolutely ridiculous for our main characters.  Slow down Tom, don’t use all your ideas at once! But then again... whoever wrote a novel about a string of dull everyday happenings?

Overall, it’s another winning novel for me, with an ending which is both devastatingly sad and yet hopeful.