Book Review: Playing Nice by JP Delaney

Book reviews By Aug 09, 2020 2 Comments

When Pete and Maddie discover that the child they brought home from hospital two years ago is not the same one as Maddie gave birth to, an already fraught situation rapidly blows up into something altogether more dangerous and frightening in JP Delaney’s latest novel Playing Nice. Pete Riley answers the door one morning to a parent’s worst nightmare. On…

Book Review: Just Like the Other Girls by Claire Douglas

Book reviews By Aug 06, 2020 1 Comment

Claire Douglas sets her latest novel Just Like the Other Girls in one of Bristol’s more affluent suburbs, showing us how the enviable and charming, outwardly respectable facade of a Georgian townhouse on Clifton’s leafy streets and crescents offers no protection against dark secrets, family dysfunction and danger finding their way in. Una Richardson is devastated after the death of…

Book Review: Feathertide by Beth Cartwright

Beth Cartwright’s debut novel Feathertide is an enchanting tale of one young girl’s quest to find the father she’s never known. Born covered in the feathers of a bird, and kept hidden in a crumbling house full of secrets, Marea has always known she was different, but never known why. And so to find answers, she goes in search of…

Book Review: All Adults Here by Emma Straub

Witnessing a fatal accident involving an acquaintance of hers, on the same day that her granddaughter arrives for a prolonged stay, proves to be a watershed moment not only for Astrid Strick but also her family in All Adults Here, the latest novel from Emma Straub. Astrid Strick has always tried to do her best for her three children. Now,…

Book Review: Lost Souls by Jonathan & Jesse Kellerman

In Lost Souls Deputy Coroner and new father Clay Edison’s latest case triggers two parallel investigations into long-buried family ties and secrets, against a backdrop of halted construction work, activists and protestors, court hearings, missing records and more personal threats, in this new novel by father-son duo, Jonathan and Jesse Kellerman. Deputy Coroner Clay Edison is juggling a new baby…

Cow Girl: Q&A with Author Kirsty Eyre, 2019 #CWIP Prize Winner

Authors By Jun 21, 2020 No Comments

I’m wearing my Comedy Women In Print (CWIP) hat and sharing Q&A duties with Helen Lederer today. While she puts much funnier questions to Kirsty Eyre over on the CWIP blog, I’m posing some of my own to the inaugural (CWIP) Unpublished Novel Prize Winner. Congratulations on your win, Kirsty, and Happiest of Publication weeks to you with the audiobook…

Book Review: To Tell You The Truth by Gilly Macmillan

Gilly Macmillan’s latest novel To Tell You The Truth features the ultimate in unreliable narrators, as past and present events in Lucy Harper’s life seem to align with disturbing similarity, when an unsettling house move forces her back to the scene of a traumatic childhood event. Lucy Harper has a talent for invention… She was nine years old when her…

Shortlist of Seven from #CWIP completes my #20BooksOfSummer

Books By Jun 12, 2020 3 Comments

Comedy Women in Print announced its shortlists on Monday, choosing seven shortlisted titles for its Published Comic Novel Prize category, rather than the expected six. Luckily, I’d read one of the books, The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman, which I absolutely loved and recommend – so my remaining #20BooksOfSummer slots have been filled by the shortlist. It…

The Lonely Fajita: Q&A with author Abigail Mann

Authors, Blog tour By May 14, 2020 1 Comment

Welcome Abigail. First of all, congratulations on being runner-up in the inaugural 2019 CWIP Prize for an Unpublished Novel but also Happiest of Publication Days to you! The Lonely Fajita is out as an ebook today with audiobook and paperback following later this year. You’ve had quite a year. Can you give us an idea of what it’s been like?…