BLOG TOUR: Death at the Caravan Park - Susan Willis

Clive Thompson heads for Whitley Bay caravan park to finish writing his novel. He’s never had a caravan holiday before and is warmly greeted by the manager, Liz Mathews, who lives on the park. She is single and cares for her ninety year old mother who has Alzheimer’s Disease. Clive meets the people in neighbouring caravans and has an amazing view from his veranda over the sea to St. Mary’s Lighthouse. However, Audrey goes missing during the night and Liz is beside herself with worry.  The police are out looking for her, but disillusioned by their efforts, Clive begins his own investigations.  

 

What did I think?

I love books set in the North East and Whitley Bay is such an idyllic setting for a holiday...and a suspected murder.  Susan Willis paints a vivid picture of the area with her carefully crafted words and I think even if you've never been to Whitley Bay, you could quite easily imagine St. Mary's Lighthouse and causeway.

Clive is writing a book set in neighbouring Durham and he thinks that a holiday on his own will help him finish his book.  He ends up investigating a death in real life when one of the owners of the caravan park is found dead on the causeway.  This might make him sound like a bit of a busybody but I actually think he is just really helpful and kind.

The caravan park setting creates a wonderful mini-community and there are some colourful characters among Clive's temporary neighbours.  I loved delving into their backstories and I felt like I was peeking through their caravan windows.  One of the neighbours is hiding a huge secret but if anyone can get to the bottom of it, Clive can.

Death at the Caravan Park is a very entertaining cosy mystery in a fabulous setting.  It's like a soap opera in a book with lots of secrets, a mysterious death and a bucketful of drama.  A very enjoyable read and one to recommend to fans of cosy mysteries and North East based fiction.

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

My rating:

Buy it from Amazon

About the author:

Susan is a published author of eight novels and six novellas with short stories published in Women’s Weekly magazines. She is now retired from Food Technology and scribbles away in County Durham. Writing psychological suspense and cosy-crime novels with strong, lovable North East characters, is her passion. Last year, she brought us, Clive’s Christmas Crusades, set in York. Following the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival, Susan wrote six Curious Casefiles which is now published by Northodox Press. She has incorporated up-to-date issues: poor mental health in a kidnap scene, the perils of social media, and an intruder on Skype.

Follow Susan Willis: www.susanwillis.co.uk 

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BLOG TOUR: The Hive - Jane Holland

It's a fabulous Rachel's Random Resources blog tour today!  You know what that means?  You not only get to read my review of an amazing book, but you also get the chance to enter a giveaway to win your very own paperback copy of the book!  So get clicking after you've read my review!

Scarred by fire from infancy, with a persistent stammer, Charlotte has always been in the shadow of her glamorous theatrical parents. So it's a shock when her mother commits suicide.

Left to care for her sick father in the dark maze of her childhood home, Charlotte begins to unravel. First, there's the mysterious arrival of a box of dead bees. Then buzzing noises in the attic. People are watching her. Listening to her.

Everyone thinks she's losing her mind. But an old photo suggests another, more sinister possibility ...

What did I think?

Anyone who enjoyed Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine will know what I mean when I say that the magic of a book is so often in the quirkiness and originality of the character; a character who is not the most popular in real life but one who finds a special place in the heart of every single reader who picks up the book.  This is how I felt about Charlotte in The Hive, the likes of which I have only ever experienced before in Eleanor Oliphant.  Don't mistake The Hive as being similar to Eleanor Oliphant as quirkiness aside, Charlotte's life is about to get very bad indeed.  

Charlotte is a character who I understood immediately as we share many of the same anti-social traits.  Charlotte is definitely not a people person, although this is more due to her circumstances than an inbuilt character trait; she avoids people in an attempt to avoid attention being drawn to her facial scars caused by getting burnt in the fireplace as a young child.  She works as a data analyst and has an affinity for number patterns but she doesn't think she can progress in her job as she says: 'Numbers, I can handle. People, I can't.'  I'm right there with you, Charlotte!  Numbers and I...we go way back!

Charlotte returns from holiday with her boyfriend to discover that her mother has committed suicide.  Charlotte's father is suffering from Alzheimer's and thinks his wife is still alive, so he can't help Charlotte put together the missing pieces to find out what led up to her mother's death.  The key to the puzzle seems to lie in a mysterious parcel that was delivered on the day of Charlotte's return: a display case of dead bees.  As disturbing as this is, it becomes even more scary when Charlotte starts to hear the buzz buzz buzz.

Creepy right?  I'm not a huge fan of stripy flying insects so it had my skin crawling at not only the thought of the dead bees in the house but the buzzing noises.  I could imagine the house tumbling down around Charlotte and a million bees swarming out from the rubble.  She's a braver gal than I when she ventures into the loft with her boyfriend; of course I have a ladder phobia so I couldn't have gone up there anyway.  The mystery of the bees deepens when she finds an old photo of her father in a beekeeper's outfit with the name 'Bee Hive Cottage' on the back.  To find out what happened to her mother, she must go back to her father's past but what she finds there is more horrifying than a gigantic swarm of bees.

What an outstanding book!  It really kept me on my toes and kept me constantly guessing as it went in a completely surprising direction, making it a lot darker than I expected.  Jane Holland is a new author to me and one I definitely plan to read more from.  I don't know how I haven't come across her before now; I must have literally had my head in a book!

The Hive is as creepy, terrifying and dark as it is compelling, gripping and impossible to put down.  As scared as I was at times, I couldn't take my eyes off the page and found my eyes trying to sneakily jump ahead as my brain wasn't reading fast enough.  A bee-rilliant thriller (I had to get a pun in somewhere) that had me on the edge of my seat and scratching my crawling skin.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:

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About the author:

Jane Holland is a Gregory Award-winning poet and novelist. Her thriller GIRL NUMBER ONE hit #1 in the UK Kindle store in 2015, and again in 2018, catapulting her into a life of crime. She's published dozens of novels with major publishing houses under various pseudonyms, including: Beth Good, Victoria Lamb, Elizabeth Moss, Hannah Coates, and JJ Holland, and also self-publishes.

Social Media Links –

Twitter: https://twitter.com/janeholland1

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JaneHollandAuthor/

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Together - Julie Cohen

Is this a great love story?

Or a story about great love?

You decide.

On a morning that seems just like any other, Robbie wakes in his bed, his wife Emily asleep beside him, as always. He rises and dresses, makes his coffee, feeds his dogs, just as he usually would. But then he leaves Emily a letter and does something that will break her heart. As the years go back all the way to 1962, Robbie's actions become clearer as we discover the story of a couple with a terrible secret - one they will do absolutely anything to protect.

What did I think?

I received a copy of Together along with an envelope stating that it should only be opened when instructed.  Needless to say, with such an intriguing package, Together didn't have long to wait on my TBR pile before curiosity got the better of me.  Once I opened the book, I became lost in Emily and Robbie's story and would have raced through it at the speed of light even without the added intrigue of the mysterious envelope.

The story of Emily and Robbie is told in reverse from 2016 to 1962.  Now anyone who knows me would think that I would struggle with this back to front timeline, but Julie Cohen's writing is so flawless that the story flows so effortlessly and it feels completely right to start at the end.  In 2016, Emily and Robbie have been together for 54 years, although they aren't married.  Robbie wakes up one morning and makes a difficult decision that will break Emily's heart, and left me wide eyed with shock.  You find out early on in the book that the pair are hiding a secret, although you have no idea what it could be, and I wondered if Robbie's decision had something to do with this.  I couldn't have been more wrong.

As time flips backwards, we go back through 1990 when we find out that Emily is estranged from her family, through 1975-77 when Emily and Robbie adopt their son Adam, through 1972 when they are both married to other people and back to 1962 when their eyes meet for the first time across a crowded train platform.  Then finally, it was time to open the envelope containing the final few missing pages that I read in stunned silence as tears welled in my eyes.  

I feel privileged to have shared such intimate moments with Emily and Robbie.  They haven't had a smooth ride in their life as the drove down several rocky roads but what they did have was each other.  When reading Together, we are asked whether we think this is a great love story or a story about great love.  I can't choose one over the other so in my opinion, it is both.

Together is completely mesmeric and totally unique in its telling of this beautiful love story.  I urge you to read this book, even if it's not your usual genre.  A beautiful captivating story of love against the odds.  It's certainly not your traditional love story of moonlight and roses, more warts and all under the microscope on the front page of the newspaper.  With shocks at the beginning and the end, read it and weep; I certainly did.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:

Buy it from Amazon

A Life Without You - Katie Marsh

Can you ever outrun the past?

It's Zoe's wedding day. She's about to marry Jamie, the love of her life. Then a phone call comes out of the blue, with the news that her mum Gina has been arrested. Zoe must make an impossible decision: should she leave her own wedding to help?

Zoe hasn't seen Gina for years, blaming her for the secret that she's been running from ever since she was sixteen. Now, Gina is back in her life, but she's very different to the mum Zoe remembers. Slowly but surely, Gina is losing her memory.

As she struggles to cope with Gina's illness, can Zoe face up to the terrible events of years ago and find her way back to the people she loves?

A Life Without You is a stirring and poignant novel about the power of the past - and the possibilities of the future.

What did I think?

As soon as I saw there was a new book out by Katie Marsh, I just knew I had to have it so I snapped one up from Amazon for my kindle.  I read and absolutely adored Katie's first book, My Everything, and didn't think it could be bettered - but I was wrong!  A Life Without You is impeccably written, it is completely flawless and I am sure it will be listed in many readers' top books of 2016 - it's definitely in mine!  Katie Marsh really knows how people tick and understands the complexity of the heart which make her novels stand head and shoulders above the rest.

What an unusual start to a book - it certainly grabbed my attention.  Zoe is embarking on the happiest day of her life as she prepares to marry Jamie.  Then she gets a phone call from her mum's friend asking her to come and help as her mum is in trouble with the police. Wearing her wedding dress, Zoe takes a trip to the police station instead of down the aisle.  Hold on a second you say, why wasn't her mum sitting in the church with the other members of Zoe's family?  Zoe hasn't spoken to her mum in years - what could have happened that was so bad for a mother to not even be invited to her daughter's wedding?  So begins the story of Gina and her daughter, golden girl Zoe, told through heartbreaking letters that Gina has written to Zoe on each birthday.

These emotional and candid letters are placed at the end of each present day chapter, chapters filled to the brim with emotion as we see the effects of Gina's memory loss on herself and her family.  At a time when Gina really needs the support of her family, Zoe steps up to the mark by burying old grudges and sweeping aside feelings about her abandoned wedding to concentrate on looking after her mum.  With so much on her mind, it naturally starts to affect her work and she realises that she can't do it all on her own.  Time for hurt and resentment to be brushed aside and for people to show that they really care about Zoe.

Losing your memory must be such a devastating event and so difficult for friends and family to deal with.  It really hit home for me, as a book lover, when it was mentioned that Gina had a pile of books by her bed, but there was no point reading them as she would forget what she had read when she put the book down each night.  It must be so difficult to actually admit that you can no longer look after your loved one and have to look at other options available.  As Zoe struggled with feelings of betrayal and guilt, it was completely understandable and virtually palpable, but clear that she had to put those feelings to one side and do what was best for Gina.  

A Life Without You is a stunning and compassionate story of family, forgiveness and unconditional love.  It is a stark reminder that we shouldn't dwell on negative events in the past but concentrate on what is left of the future.  Katie Marsh has such emotive writing, evoking both laughter and tears, ensuring that A Life Without You is a book that will remain forever in my heart.  No words will ever do this book justice - you simply must read it for yourself.

My rating:

Buy it from Amazon

Waiting for Doggo - Mark Mills

No-one ever called Dan a pushover. But then no-one ever called him fast-track either. He likes driving slowly, playing Sudoku on his iPhone, swapping one scruffy jumper for another. He's been with Clara for four years and he's been perfectly happy; but now she's left him, leaving nothing but a long letter filled with incriminations and a small, white, almost hairless dog, named Doggo. So now Dan is single, a man without any kind of partner whether working or in love. He's just one reluctant dog owner. Find a new home for him, that's the plan. Come on...everyone knows the old adage about the best laid plans and besides, Doggo is one special kind of a four legged friend...and an inspiration.

What did I think?

This was a really quick read but I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Doggo is certainly the star of the show from beginning to end.  He's such a quirkly little character, despite being the ugliest dog in the world but don't let him hear you say that!  Doggo certainly knows his own mind and doesn't do anything he doesn't want to do.

Dan was a bit of an odd character - I didn't really warm to him at first and I probably defrosted around the same time as Doggo - I think Dan was hurt and confused after coming out of a relationship and it takes a little while to let people (or dogs) back into your heart.  I thought it was brilliant when Dan defended Doggo's honour during Turdgate and it was positively tear jerking when Doggo visits his former owner.

The book also touches on Alzheimer's with Dan's Grandad.  It's so hard to see your loved ones fade away infront of your eyes and deal with the frustration of being unrecognised.  I loved how Doggo interacted with Grandad and how he helped Dan cope when Grandad slipped up and unearthed a family secret.

As Bryan Adams once sang, "it's not how you look, it's what you feel inside" so put a little love in your heart and read this!  I'll be reading it again.  

I received this book from the publisher, Headline, via Bookbridgr in exchange for an honest review.

My rating:

Buy from The Book Depository with free delivery
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