BLOG TOUR: Greta Garbo and the Rise of the Modern Woman - Scott Reisfield

Hollywood Made Her a Star.

What she did for women made her a Legend.

Greta Garbo dominated European cinema and Hollywood in the 1920s and 1930s. With discipline and fearless self-belief, she transformed screen acting into something intimate, modern, and psychologically real. She fought studio control... and won. She challenged censors, defied social expectations, and refused to compromise her independence.

More than a movie star, Garbo reshaped what it meant to be a woman on screen-self-possessed, mysterious, and unapologetically autonomous. She redefined the power a woman could hold in Hollywood.

In this intimate biography, her grandnephew Scott Reisfield reveals this disciplined artist, strategic thinker, and the fiercely private woman who helped usher a closed culture into the Modern Age.

 

What did I think?

I didn't know a lot about Greta Garbo before I picked up this book, apart from the phrase "I want to be alone" that is attributed to her, but I feel like I know her intimately now.

Greta Garbo is Scott Reisfield's great-aunt so he is well placed to research her life as it's part of his own family history.  There is a lot of information in the book and it has clearly been meticulously researched.  The text is enhanced by myriad illustrations such as tables, photos and adverts that I found added interest to what otherwise might have been a dry subject.

It does take a while to read the book as it's quite chunky with 618 pages but it's worth taking your time to fully appreciate the depth of research that has gone into writing it.  As Greta Garbo is his own ancestor, I completely trusted the accuracy of all of the details that Scott Reisfield shares in the book.

Interesting and informative, Greta Garbo and the Rise of the Modern Woman is the definitive guide to one of the most iconic actresses of the The Golden Age of Hollywood. 

I received a gifted paperback to read and review for the blog tour and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

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BOOKSTAGRAM TOUR: The Mini Breakers - Lucy Kennedy

Five women.

Twenty-two years of friendship.

One annual holiday that promises escape, connection and chaos in equal measure.

No matter how hectic their careers, relationships or family lives become, they keep their tradition alive: one week away together EVERY year. This time, the Mini Breakers are heading to Portugal.

But as the sun comes out, so do the secrets.

Between complicated love lives and the messy realities of middle age, this getaway might just be their most dramatic yet.

Scandals, revelations and questionable decisions are guaranteed when this group of gloriously imperfect, perimenopausal and fun-loving friends reunite.

THE MINI BREAKERS is a warm, sharp, wickedly funny story about the friendships that shape us.

 

What did I think?

I really enjoyed my virtual mini break to Portugal with The Mini Breakers and it was a pleasure to meet Kate, Georgie, Beth, Sam and Dee.  This is Lucy Kennedy's debut adult novel and it's an absolute cracker. 

This group of five women have been friends since their school days and, although they may now live miles apart, they all gather together for a holiday every year.  It's so lovely that they have remained firm friends, although it is sometimes challenging with Diva Dee in the mix.

They each have something going on in their lives and, whilst their problems may be quite heavy, Lucy Kennedy's natural Irish wit adds a lightness to the storyline.  Prepare for lots of laughs when you pick up The Mini Breakers as there are some hilarious scenes in store for the reader.

Filled with Irish charm, The Mini Breakers is a witty and entertaining novel that would be a fantastic holiday read, although you might get some funny looks from people around the pool when you laugh out loud.  A highly recommended read.

I received a gifted paperback for the Love Books Tours bookstagram tour and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

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BLOG TOUR: Love, Grief & More Sex Than Pinot (Soho Summers Series Book 1) - Sacha Hughes

Soho’s life was perfect, until it wasn’t.

The youngest of three girls, growing up on the Essex coast, she had love and laughter… until her mum lost her battle with cancer.

At 24, grief hit hard. With pinot grigio as her go-to painkiller and the belief that only Mr Right can fix her broken heart, Soho dives headfirst into love’s messiest lessons.

With her recruitment career in London a comical shit-show, Soho’s nights with her five best friends, the Wino Worms, are fuelled by cocaine, cocktails, and chaos. Hundreds of men later, hope never lasts past hangovers and sunrise.

That is, until a disastrous bedroom incident sparks a painful journey of healing she’s been running from. But not for long! Enter Warren Williams: the irresistible Aussie with endless champagne and sweet nothings. Could he be the Mr Right she’s been chasing all along? She’s not ready… Or is she?

Full of heartbreak, hilarity, and a hint of redemption, Love, Grief & More Sex Than Pinot is a gloriously human, raw, and riotous journey through love, loss, and learning that the only person who can save you… is you.

 

What did I think?

Wow!  What an amazing debut novel from Sacha Hughes!  I expected to like Love, Grief & More Sex Than Pinot, which is why I chose to read it, but I absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVED IT!!!

Soho Summers is such a realistic and relatable character.  The 28-year-old has been searching for her very own Mr Right but every one she picks turns out to be Mr Very Wrong.  Summer may laugh off all of her dating nightmares in front of her friends but it really stings when her friends return to their partners and Soho goes home alone to her cute cat Pickle.

When Soho's mother dies she spirals dangerously out of control with a cocktail of drink, drugs and sex but she continues to tell her friends and family that she's 'fine'.  Isn't that so true?  We use 'I'm fine' so often that it almost has the opposite meaning to what it should convey.  Now, I would like to say that I couldn't put this book down but I had to at the end of a couple of chapters to gather my emotions as it is heartbreaking reading at times.  Soho's grief is palpable and I just wanted to reach into the book and give her a massive hug.

I've seen readers talking about book hangovers before but I had never had one...until now.  I didn't want the book to end and I'm already looking forward to the next one.  There's a sneaky peak of book two in the back of the book and I don't usually read these excerpts but I just had to see what was next in store for Soho.  I can't wait for more!!

Entertaining, laugh out loud hilarious and incredibly poignant, Love, Grief & More Sex Than Pinot made me laugh and cry so have your hankies at the ready when you read it.  It's an unmissable and unforgettable emotional rollercoaster of a rom-com and an easy five stars.

I received a gifted paperback to read and review for the Online Book Review Tour and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

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BLOG TOUR: 27 Church Street: The Gathering Storm - A. J. Hobart

Kidderminster Town Hall, July, 1910

A glittering family celebration

The Stretton family spare no expense as the heads of their medical dynasty, Samuel and Kate, mark their golden wedding anniversary at Kidderminster Town Hall. Daughter Katie fights to ensure everything goes to plan. But family divisions soon come to the fore in a very public way, fuelling gossip that will keep the town talking for weeks.

A transatlantic threat

Meanwhile, the social fabric of this famous carpet-making town is being threatened by a surprise arrival. Ambitious American carpet-tycoon Calvin Whitmore has designs on disrupting the established order. Whitmore’s son Charles is far from convinced about his father’s plans. Can Katie support him to find the courage to finally face down his father?

A lethal epidemic

As the future of Kidderminster is being fought over, the town’s population is threatened by a deadly outbreak of smallpox. Principal surgeon Lionel Stretton, son of Samuel, must inspire his hard-pressed team at the infirmary to save as many people as possible. Under the strain, more buried family secrets emerge, secrets that threaten to destroy the family’s unity and reputation forever. 

What did I think?

Hobeck don't just publish good books, they write them too!  27 Church Street: The Gathering Storm is Adrian Hobart's (the Ho in Hobeck) debut novel and it is absolutely brilliant.

Set at the beginning of the 20th century in Kidderminster, I was immediately transported back in time and across the miles by the evocative and atmospheric writing.  It's quite a busy novel with a lot of characters and a setting that takes the reader on a trip to the carpet mills and the town's hospital but I was completely invested in the Stretton family's story and couldn't put the book down.  I did sometimes mix up the characters though, as the upper class did like to use the same names and I often mixed up Katie with her mother Kate.

I love that some of the characters are based on real people and I enjoyed learning about the Stretton family.  I hadn't heard of the Stretton surgeons (Samuel, Lionel and John) before but what an amazing legacy they have left the medical world.  Lionel introduced the use of tincture of iodine for skin sterilisation and anyone who has had surgery and been left with yellow-tinged skin has Lionel Stretton to thank for keeping their skin clean and germ-free.

As well as being a medical drama with an outbreak of smallpox, it's also very entertaining with the arrival of a brash American carpet-tycoon who plans to take over all of the mills and even smallpox isn't going to get in his way.  Calvin's antics really did make me laugh out loud - what a fabulously bonkers character!

Atmospheric, evocative and moving, 27 Church Street: The Gathering Storm is an outstanding debut novel and a fantastic start to an exciting new series about the Stretton family.  It's a must-read for fans of historical fiction and I can't wait to read more.

I received a gifted paperback to read and review for the blog tour and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

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BLOG TOUR: Festival Days (The Clapham Trilogy book 3) - Julie Anderson

May 1951

Celebration is in the air with the Festival of Britain and for the first time in years the mood is one of hope rather than hurt.

For Detective Constable Faye Smith, London is not as safe as it seems. The criminal underworld is gaining strength, enjoying a lively existence below the surface. Then two bodies are found in the war-time shelters, a man and a woman. Who are they?

What’s their story? Why were they murdered and how did they end up in the shelters?

Meanwhile, Ellie Peveril is busy with a celebration of a different kind. Ellie does all she can to support her friend but has her own worries, with ex-fiancé Patrick Havistock looming in the shadows. Faye, keen to unravel the mystery of the double murder, finds herself tangled up in crimes that stretch far beyond a simple killing.

Faye and Ellie must face their toughest case yet as their lives change, irrevocably, for the future.

What did I think?

Festival Days is the third and final book in The Clapham Trilogy and it's a real firecracker.  I only joined the series at book two so I enjoyed catching up with DC Faye Smith again but you can definitely read it as a standalone and still enjoy it.

Set in 1951, Faye is a woman in a man's world and it's unheard of to have a woman on the force in the 1950s but her colleagues are more accepting of her now.  Faye's latest case that this book centres around is quite tricky as it looks like a gangland execution so she needs all the help she can get.  

Faye's friend Ellie should be looking forward to her wedding day but she is convinced her ex-fiancé will turn up to ruin her day.  Even with all her own worries, she finds a way to help Faye but it puts her in grave danger.  What a wonderful friendship they have!  It makes me quite sad that this is a trilogy and not a long-running series as I could read more about these amazing characters.

Incredibly atmospheric, gripping and tense, Festival Days is a fantastic conclusion to an outstanding trilogy.  Whilst I'm sad it has come to an end, it does give me the opportunity to read book one for the first time and experience the trilogy in its entirety.  This is a highly recommended read that is sure to pick up new fans to the series.

I received a gifted paperback to read and review for the blog tour and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

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BOOKSTAGRAM TOUR: Fablenoir - Vic Sinclair

Fifteen years after climbing the beanstalk, giants are the least of Jack’s concerns…

Twisted fairy tale figures roam our world in this deliciously dark, exhilarating new Urban Fantasy series, featuring familiar characters from mythology and fables clashing and conniving in a metropolitan cesspit that runs on chaos.

Amid rumors of necromantic cults, children vanishing from the city's streets and men crying werewolf, down-and-out Detective Jackson Slade of the NYPD is at his lowest. Blacklisted by the corrupt department he works for, he finds himself winding up in the same grimy bars every night, nearly drinking himself to death and relying on mysterious magick beans to pick himself back up.

Until, one night, he stumbles upon a gruesome crime scene that will change the course of his life dramatically. When he finds the shattered corpse of egg-shaped billionaire media mogul Dick Dumpty, Jack finds himself reluctantly teaming up with the notoriously cold-blooded outlaw Goldilocks, and together they spiral into the horrifying magickal underbelly of New York City, caught in the middle of a war between the corrupt and the even more corrupt.

Coming up against forces such as the grizzly gang leader Papa Bear and the crooked giant-descendant head of the NYPD Chief Cole, Jack and Goldilocks set in motion an explosive chain of events that will change the world, for better or for so much worse…

What did I think?

Whoa! What have I just read?  Fablenoir is an urban fantasy fairy tale and I've never read anything like it before - I loved it!  This isn't a retelling but it is filled with recognisable characters from fairy tales, nursery rhymes and children's literature as you've never seen them before.  Prepare to fall down the rabbit hole into Fablenoir.

Jack (of beanstalk fame) is a detective in New York but his addiction to magick beans sees him fall from grace.  Talking of falls, that's what happens to Dick Dumpty and Jack is first on the scene.  It should be Jack's case but Chief Cole sends him packing...right into the path of Goldilocks who is doing her own unofficial investigation.  Jack and Goldilocks are such a great team and I loved how their (non-romantic) relationship developed over the course of the book. 

The writing is incredibly atmospheric and it's like watching an old black and white detective movie coming to life before my eyes as I read Vic Sinclair's evocative and immersive words.  I absolutely loved the refreshing and unique take on such well-known characters as they are rewritten very firmly into the dark side.

Dark, imaginative and atmospheric, Fablenoir is impossible to put down once you pick it up.  I was completely mesmerised from the very first page and loved ever second of this original, bumpy and wild ride.  I can't wait to continue the adventure in book two, Rose Red Undead.

I received a gifted paperback to read and review for the LBT bookstagram tour and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:

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About the author:

Vic Sinclair is a writer from the north of the UK. He spends most of his time curating ridiculously intricate character playlists and thinking up plotlines for them on long walks. This is how the grimdark epic urban fantasy series FABLENOIR was born.

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BLOG TOUR: The Strange Lives of Eleanor Teague - M K Hill

There's something wrong with Haddon Hall...

In 1876, Eleanor Teague lives in a lonely house far from the glamorous London Society she once knew. Confined to Haddon Hall by agoraphobia, bedevilled by nightmares of the death of her daughter, and haunted by the guilt of a terrible crime she committed, Eleanor depends on the household servants and on her husband Ezra, who is kind, patient… and controlling.

But when an apparition appears at her bedside, and mysterious voices urge her to find the 'Shadow House', she’s convinced an uncanny presence dwells within the walls of Haddon Hall, and that the staff are lying to her – they, in turn, fear she’s descending into madness.

As Eleanor’s world starts to fracture, the very foundations of Haddon Hall seem to shake. Why is the attic room locked? What is the Shadow House? Who is the strange woman in the woods?

The shocking truth will shatter everything Eleanor thought she knew about her life.

A haunting, high-concept thriller with a jaw-dropping twist, The Strange Lives of Eleanor Teague will enthral readers of John Marrs, Gillian McAllister and Stuart Turton. 

What did I think?

Wow!  What an absolute corker of a book!  It's not a spoiler to mention the jaw-dropping twist as it's stated in the blurb but it is MINDBLOWING!  

The main character of Eleanor Teague is complex and I really felt for her.  Not only is she grieving for her young daughter but she is filled with guilt over her death.  It's no wonder that she's frightened to leave the house.  Luckily for Eleanor, she lives in a large house with servants and her doting husband Ezra so she is well looked after...or so it would appear.

Mental health wasn't even considered in Victorian times so Eleanor is just seen as a weak and hysterical woman.  Haddon Hall is both her sanctuary and her prison and now it looks like it's haunted too.  Eleanor doesn't know what to believe or who to trust and the suspense and tension ramps up with every turn of the page.

Mind-bending, addictive and highly original, The Strange Lives of Eleanor Teague is completely unpredictable and incredibly suspenseful.  I was already hooked on the book when M K Hill delivered an ingenious twist that really pulled the rug out from beneath me and I take my hat off to you, sir!  The Strange Lives of Eleanor Teague is unmissable and highly recommended.

I received a digital ARC to read and review for the blog tour and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:

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Waterstones

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About the author:

M.K. Hill was a journalist and an award-winning music radio producer before becoming a full-time writer. He's written the Sasha Dawson series - The Bad Place, The Woman In The Wood - and the Ray Drake series - The Two O'Clock Boy and It Was Her - as well as acclaimed psychological thriller One Bad Thing, and the espionage thriller Zero Kill. He lives in London.

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