Tag: relationships

Posted in Squad Pod

After the Fire by Charlotte Rixon 

Posted on by thelotusreaders

This is the story of girl meets boy.

And then everything goes wrong . . .

Ever since they first met at university, Beth and Nick have circled in and out of one another’s lives: supporting each other through grief, marriage, divorce, career crises and family dramas.

Fourteen years ago, when they were on the cusp of adulthood, they both survived a devastating fire that sent their lives in different directions. And they’ve been running ever since: from the pain, from the memories, and most devastatingly of all, from the guilt.

But no matter how hard they try, there’s something else they can’t run from. The inescapable, terrifying truth: they’re in love with each other.

But how can they move forward, when neither of them can stop looking back?

I always say I don’t like romance, then a book like this comes along and I’m all in. Maybe it’s being over 50, but stories of first love grab me in the feels. Especially tragic first love. The thing is we’ve all had the experience of love that’s come at the wrong place or the wrong time, so reading a love story like Beth and Nick’s brings up memories and feelings of nostalgia. Our first love experiences are so intense and when feeling are unrequited or interrupted they can stay with us for the rest of our lives. Beth and Nick have a brilliant first meeting. They’re placed in the same flat at university and Beth walks into the shared bathroom and gets an eyeful! Beth is the last person to join the flat because she’s been ill so relationships have already been established. The other two girls, Rosa and Anna, were best friends before university and Nick is already in a relationship with Anna. Beth senses some chemistry between her and Nick, but she tries hard to ignore it. Nobody wants to be the girl who steals their flatmate’s boyfriend in the first weeks of the first term. When he turns up to watch her in drama club she thinks he must feel the same. 

It’s Nick who takes action. He breaks up with Anna and invites Beth on a late night walk. As they walk there’s just so much anticipation. The author builds to their first kiss with all that yearning and tension around who will make the first move. When they spot the fire in their building it’s already well ablaze and Anna is killed. 

Wracked with survivor’s guilt, Nick leaves university. Beth struggles to cope, feeling like Nick has abandoned her. She decides to stay and finish her drama course. Lives move on. Yet feelings for each other and about the tragic start to their time at university, still linger. The author tells the story through both characters and over 15 years as they build careers and relationships. They both think of each other. They try to keep in touch as friends and their paths do meet from time to time, but they’re always held back by the past. They do try to support each other, so when Beth’s long-term relationship breaks down, she finds herself wanting to talk to Nick. I really felt their longing for that first love and their thoughts that maybe it could have worked. Then reality crashes in and those feelings of guilt cloud their hopes. Yet the novel isn’t schmaltzy. There are meaty issues here like domestic violence and mental health, not to mention those trauma related feelings they’ve never really shared with each other.  

If there was ever a book to emphasise the importance of counselling or simply talking to each other, it’s this one. Until Nick and Beth talk through what happened and how it’s affected them since, they will always be haunted by Anna’s death. When trauma is left unresolved people find unhealthy ways to deal with those hidden emotions. Nick has a rescuer personality, developed because he never again wants to feel like he did back then as the cause of Anna’s sadness in her final hours. I love that Beth writes about what happened and her feelings for Nick because at least she’s processing the trauma, because the more we talk about it the less power it has. The tension in the novel comes from wondering if this pair will ever come together at the right time and place. Will they get the chance to put things right? Can they ever find their way back to each other? I was deeply invested and filled with hope for them. The author has written a beautiful love story, but it has impact because it isn’t a fairy tale and these two characters feel absolutely real. At the end I felt like comparisons to One Day, the archetypal friends to lovers classic, are entirely justified. 

Out now in paperback from Aria.

Meet the Author

 

Charlotte Rixon is the pen name of Charlotte Duckworth, USA Today-bestselling author of suspense fiction published by Quercus. Charlotte studied Classics at Leeds University and went on to gain a PGDip in Screenwriting. She worked for many years as a magazine journalist, and is a graduate of the Faber Academy ‘Writing A Novel’ course. You can find out more about her on her website: charlotterixon.com.

Posted in Random Things Tours

Black Woods Blue Sky by Eowyn Ivey

Posted on by thelotusreaders

“Now are the woods all black, but still the sky is blue. May you always see a blue sky overhead.”  Proust. 

I was utterly mesmerised by this unusual grown-up fairy tale. Having read the author’s work before I was expecting a certain strangeness and this story definitely delivered. It’s hard to write about without revealing anything and you need to go into this book without spoilers. The story is told through the eyes of Birdie and her little girl Emmaleen. Birdie is a young, single mum. She’s living in a cabin out behind the bar where she works for Della. Birdie is just getting by. She has a wild spirit and although she loves Emmaleen, she’s not the most consistent parent. We meet her on a beautiful morning where she has woken up from the night before relatively unscathed. Yes, she’s a bit hungover and she knows Della is going to have words for her when she goes into work. For now though, the woods and creek are calling her, so she takes her fishing rod and leaving Emmaleen asleep and alone she walks through the trees and down to the water. She rationalises that she won’t be long and Emmaleen will sleep for a while yet. She catches a rainbow trout, guts and cleans it in the creek, before setting off back to the cabin. When she gets there, Emmaleen is gone. Birdie goes into panic mode, desperate to find her daughter but terrified to admit to Della that she’s left her alone. It’s a man called Arthur who eventually emerges from the woods with Birdie’s daughter on his shoulders and she’s never been more relieved. She knows Della will have something to say about this, but for now she’s just happy that Emmaleen is safe. When Della moves her onto the day shift, it’s a comment on her partying and parenting lifestyle. She has to bring Emmaleen into the lodge with her, but she sits colouring and doesn’t pester while she’s trying to work. 

Arthur comes in most mornings, he sits through the bar side of the lodge alone and orders toast. She’s fascinated by this strange, wild man. He has scarring and only the remains of an ear one side of his face. Birdie thinks he smells of wild places, never artificial scent. He smells mossy and like earth. From time to time she brushes his shoulder and if Della is out getting supplies, she might take a moment and sit with him. He’s so natural and gentle with Emmaleen too. He’s quiet and when he does say something it’s strangely, always in the present. She asks him why and he tells her that for him the world is like that. He’s always in the here and now. He understands the wildness in Birdie and her yearning to be out in the mountains. His parents have had a cabin in the woods since before he was born and it’s become his more or less. For several months of the year he takes himself up into the mountains and lives off the land and whatever supplies his dad flies in. It’s total isolation, off grid and without comforts. When he asks Birdie if she and Emmaleen would like to make a home out there in the mountains, there is only one answer. Yes.

“That’s how it was with Arthur. Getting close to him, feeling his eyes on her – like touching something dark and wild, then watching it dart away.’

Between the pages of this book I was totally lost in the wildness of Alaska. The author’s descriptions are vividly beautiful and I found myself wondering about a place I’d imagined as being full of snow. All of my senses were engaged and I became entranced by Emmaleen’s discovery of nature as Arthur shows her the forest floor with it’s springy moss and tiny wildflowers. There’s a strangeness and even a danger to being so far away from civilisation. Arthur’s cabin has been needing a woman’s touch for a long time. The floor is covered with leaves and dirt from the forest and mosquitoes are squeezing through the gaps round the windows. Birdie sets about cleaning the cabin and Emmaleen gets used to her environment, playing with her gnome friends and tasting bluebell flowers. The days are harsh, but Birdie’s enjoying the challenge of cooking and laundry out here without heating or electricity. She likes not knowing what time it is and working to her own body clock. She feels like part of the place. Yet underneath these drowsy and idyllic warm days, there’s a sneaky sense of unease. Arthur’s father Warren seems reluctant to leave the woman and her daughter alone in such a secluded place with Arthur. He’s never seen his son  be so tender as he is with this little girl. He even flies over 48 hours later and sees all three of them hiking up one of the mountains and they wave to him. Maybe he’s worrying about nothing. Yet Arthur does disappear and reappear without warning and sleeps on the floor. He seems curiously unsure when it comes to sex. There’s a mound near the cabin where Arthur yells at Emmaleen, telling her not to play there.
There’s a hidden animal pelt under the earth and caribou bones under the bed. How long before Birdie and Emaleen learn the terrifying truth about Arthur? 

This incredible story fits it’s unusual background perfectly. I loved how accepting Birdie was, despite the fact that she’s making risky decisions she doesn’t doubt Arthur for a moment. She accepts his unusual and seemingly inexperienced caresses without question. I didn’t know what to expect from the sections where we’re in Emmaleen’s world, but they are really strong, with bags of imagination and inventiveness. She’s so innocent and precious. I’ve lived in rural Lincolnshire as a child, mainly on farms so her wanderings and imaginary games reminded me of being small. I used to draw flowers and bark patterns or lie in a willow tree that hung over the water and read all day while my brother fished. I was fascinated with wild flowers so the details of plants and berries, which to eat and which were poisonous are so familiar. I also grew a strong stomach, having sat and watched my Dad gut rabbits and pheasants. I loved that Birdie could do these things, she has basic survival skills but that’s for expected dangers. I had a feeling that the potential threat would be out of the ordinary. Even though she makes mistakes I had a real maternal fondness for this young woman and her acceptance of this taciturn young man. Love comes in so many different forms and even though I could feel something looming on the horizon for this new little family I was hoping against hope for the transformative power of love. 

Out Now from Tinder Press

Meet the Author

Eowyn Ivey’s debut novel, THE SNOW CHILD, was published in twenty-six languages, and became an international bestseller. It was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize 2013, and Eowyn won the International Author of the Year category at the 2012 National Book Awards. A former bookseller, Eowyn lives in Palmer, Alaska, with her family.

Posted in Squad Pod Collective

Every Move You Make by C.L. Taylor 

Posted on by thelotusreaders

Alexandra, Lucy, Bridget, River and Natalie. Five friends who wish they’d never met. Because the one thing they have in common is the worst thing in their lives: they are all being stalked.

When one of their group is murdered, days after their stalker is released from prison, time stands still for them all. They know their lives could end just as brutally at any moment – all it takes is for the people they fear the most to catch up with them.

When the group receive a threat that one of them will die in ten days’ time, the terror that stalks their daily lives becomes all-consuming. But they know they don’t want to be victims anymore – it’s time to turn the tables and finally get their revenge.

Because the only way to stop a stalker is to become one yourself…

After starting the novel with a tense and terrifying narrative of a woman being stalked, the author jumps forward and shows us how the loss of Natalie has affected those around her so deeply. For a handful of mourners, her loss is a terrible reminder of how they met and increases the fear of their own fate. Natalie’s friends tell their stories through the WhatsApp group they share. Alex, Lucy, Bridget and River are all victims of stalking. They formed their group to support each other and as a way of looking out for each other, using it to check in when outside their homes and when they return. However, when a very clear threat is made against them, they have to protect themselves. What lengths will they go to? The structure takes us between characters giving us a little bit of their story each time. Each of their stories slowly weaves together to create a whole; the phrase ‘one more chapter’ is very apt for this book. Sometimes you get caught up in a particular story, reach a cliffhanger and realise you have to read through three more chapters to find out what happened. It’s a interesting mix of characters, choosing women of different ages and a man shows us that it’s not only young women who are victims of stalking. I could sense that there were secrets to unearth with all of them and I found myself unable to fully trust anyone. They were complex and I thought the author explored their character and the group dynamics really well. I found myself switching between who I mistrusted and why. This suspicion did ramp up the tension not to mention the thrilling action scenes. 

The other aspect of this novel that is brilliantly executed is the description of the psychological impact that the stalking has on each character. We can see each character dealing with their situation differently, based on their personality, past experiences and who is stalking them. Some know exactly who their stalker is, while others are stalked by a complete stranger. The author manages to put across the constant vigilance, that feeling of always looking over your shoulder and the fear of what the stalker might do next. She shows how some stalkers escalate, keeping their victim behind closed doors, terrified to venture into the outside world alone. There’s also an element of victims taking their power back and carrying out acts of retaliation. The remaining four of the group do this by tagging their stalkers so they can monitor their whereabouts at all times. To do this without the stalker realising is incredibly dangerous. As each chapter counts down to the potential murder of one of the victims, the sense of fear really does set in and keeps those pages turning. 

Reading this in the same week that Louise, Hannah and Julie Hunt’s killer was found guilty of their murder really hit home. Misogyny and violence against women seems to be on the rise at the moment. Often violence follows months or even years of abuse, coercive control and stalking. It also seems that women are losing trust in the system that’s designed to protect them, especially since Sarah Everard was killed by a serving police officer. Here the characters are avoiding telling the police and I was left wondering it was disillusionment with the police force or whether some characters had something to hide. For the person who once professed to love you, to exhibit such abusive behaviour, must be terrifying. In fact it is often walking away from the relationship and cutting off communication that leads to escalation, just when the victim is settled and starting to feel safe again. The author’s writing brings the truth of this issue to light, because it shows how important it is to have all the parts of a story. The problem is, stalking is often a case of one person’s word against the other. The book’s structure shows how one person’s account either illuminates or throw suspicion on someone else. Whether they’re guilty or not can depend upon their eloquence and ability to charm others. This is such a timely novel and it was interesting to read how the author’s research and personal experience informed her story. For me it was this personal insight that made her story feel so authentic.

Available now. Published by Avon Books

Meet the Author

C.L. Taylor is an award winning Sunday Times bestselling author of ten gripping psychological thrillers including EVERY MOVE YOU MAKE, a Richard and Judy Book Club pick for autumn 2024, THE GUILTY COUPLE, (Richard and Judy Book Club 2023) and SLEEP (Richard and Judy Book Club 2019).

C.L. Taylor’s books have sold over two million copies in the UK alone, hit number one on Amazon Kindle, Audible, Kobo, iBooks and Google Play, and have been translated into over 30 languages and optioned for TV.

Her books are not a series and can be read in any order:

Posted in Squad Pod Collective

Leaving by Roxana Robinson. 

Posted on by thelotusreaders

For years and years, when I’m asked the question which book has hit me hardest emotionally I’ve always had to say One Day by David Nicholls. It’s the last book that made me cry spontaneously for one of the characters. I still remember the exact line. Now I’ll be able to say Leaving was the last book that absolutely tore my heart out. Sarah sees Warren, who she dated for a while in their college years. She had ended it, unsure whether they were a good fit. Yet they never stopped thinking about each other. Sarah is divorced now and lives alone in her country home with her dog Bella for company. She has a daughter who’s married and lives a distance away with her husband and two children. Sarah works at a gallery, currently putting together an exhibition about the Bloomsbury Group. Warren lives just outside Boston and has his own architectural practice in the city. He’s married to Janet, exactly the sort of wife he has needed: attractive, a good hostess and great mum to their daughter Kattie who is an older teenager. However, his wife is also a snob, very aware of who should be in their social circle and how things should be done. They don’t talk about current affairs together, listen to an opera or read the same books. Perhaps their marriage has always been like this, but it feels empty since he saw Sarah again. Can he spend the rest of his life in this marriage as he promised or can he be with Sarah? If he leaves what price will he have to pay? 

This novel is so clever in the way it engages with your morals and emotions. I was so caught up with the romance of Sarah and Warren, so much sweeter because it is second time around. I felt their urgency. It’s unthinkable thar they shouldn’t grab, what feels like, a last chance of happiness. I felt so much for Sarah, who is an intelligent and self-sufficient woman post divorce. She has such a solitary life, seemingly with a handful of friends. Her life is made up of her job, her home with poodle Bella and occasional visits with her daughter and son-in-law. I loved the tender moments she has with her dog, something I understand completely and just as important as anyone else when considering big life decisions. It feels like she’s where she belongs on the edge of the reservoir walking with her canine companion, so in tune together. She does feel a little remote from her daughter, wanting to be like other grandmothers who look after their grandchildren regularly and have one multi-generational family. Sarah doesn’t quite feel invited into her daughter’s life. I didn’t feel any dislike for her or begrudge her happiness with Warren, even though it comes at the cost of his wife’s happiness. They felt easy and uncomplicated together. Sarah thinks of his wife but doesn’t feel like the other woman because he was hers first. Their relationship is a continuation of something started long ago, or is this simply their justification for something outside their normal moral code. The author beautifully captures those heady romantic moments of a new relationship with simple moments, the joy of receiving flowers or the secret smile that comes from a loving text in the middle of a working day. Sarah doesn’t lie to her own children, she tells them she’s seeing someone from her past. That he’s married. They are happy for her. 

Warren’s life is more complicated. The author takes us between his and Sarah’s inner thoughts seamlessly. They are two halves of a whole. By comparison his married life feels mundane and rather one note, but it’s unfair to compare a new love or even a recaptured love with thirty years of married life. A few deft touches show us a marriage that’s become routine, Janet’s red house dress being just one. The reappearance of a frozen chicken pot pie is a beautifully used example. It appears early on, only to be replaced with a beautifully cooked beef bourguignon as Janet tries to win her husband back. It promises so much, this is how it will be from now on. Only to revert to chicken pot pie again, but it isn’t just a pie, it signifies a marriage that’s fallen back into a well worn groove. It screams ‘is this it?’ Janet has done nothing wrong, they haven’t had a bad marriage and when Warren feels the weight of those years there’s a fondness, a gratitude for all those shared moments that make up a marriage. He is both grateful for them and buried beneath them. Does he deserve to climb out from underneath them? Or is it an unforgivable betrayal of everything they’ve shared as a couple and a family? 

I loved some of the subplots to the main love story. I found Sarah’s work fascinating. I remember talking to someone ar the V & A about one of their fashion exhibits and the process of creating something with such impact. I hadn’t known a job existed where you could sit and discuss a artist’s work, then choose the pieces you want to tell a story. I thought the quandary over whether to go with a well- known scholar on the Bloomsbury group versus a newer academic voice echoed the love story so completely. The best known scholar may promise something new but will likely deliver something competent but safe. The newer voice might offer something dynamic and new but they aren’t a very big name yet, is newer always better? Sarah’s daughter’s third pregnancy isn’t easy and terrible news brings Sarah deeper into their lives and closer to her grandchildren. I also loved how Kattie’s wedding placed stress on her whole family, especially where Janet wants the big, formal society wedding and her daughter starts to feel overwhelmed. The wedding planner tells them that a wedding is basically a microcosm of society, the one of which their family is a part. People aren’t perfect, so weddings never are either. Neither is marriage.

Everything about this novel rings true, from the details that set each scene to the love story that binds everything together. It’s exquisitely written, drawing you in so very slowly, then unravelling quickly to it’s emotional conclusion. There’s a point in the book where I have never wanted to slap a character more! Even though their actions are understandable and possibly morally justified, I was still absolutely furious and had to share the story with my husband whose immediate response was exactly the same. Once an affair starts to turn into something more, so many decisions have to be made and the sacrifices those choices will create become stark and very real. Sarah has imagined living with Warren, but she’s always thought of them at her home. This is where she rebuilt herself after her divorce. It’s a place she loves and doesn’t think she can give up. Arguably, Warren’s choices are even more difficult. He knows if he does this, his relationship and happiness with Sarah will come at the cost of someone else’s feelings. On the scales does one happiness outweigh another? Or are some costs simply too great? I simply loved this book and although it’s only January but I have no doubt this will be in my best books list come the end of the year. I would happily read everything else the author’s ever written.

Published by Magpie Feb 2024

Meet the Author

Roxana Robinson is the author of eleven books: seven novels, three story collections, and the biography of Georgia O’Keeffe. Four of these were New York Times Notable Books. 

Robinson was born in Kentucky, but grew up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She attended Bennington College and graduated from the University of Michigan. She worked in the art world, specializing in the field of American painting, before she began writing full-time. Her novel, Cost, was a finalist for the NEBA, was named one of the five best fiction books of the year by the Washington Post and received the Fiction Award from the Maine Publishers and Writers Association.Her novel, Sparta, was named one of the ten best books of the year by the BBC, and won the James Webb Award for Distinguished Fiction from the USMC Heritage Foundation, and the Fiction Award from the Maine Publishers and Writers Association. Her fiction has appeared in The Atlantic, The New Yorker, Harper’s, Tin House, Best American Short Stories, and elsewhere. Her non-fiction has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Bookforum, Harper’s, and elsewhere. She was twice a finalist for the NBCC Balakian Award for Criticism and has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. She teaches at Hunter College, has twice served on the board of PEN, and was President of the Authors Guild, where she continues to serve as a member of the Council. She lives in New York and Connecticut, and spends as much time as she can in Maine.

Posted in Throwback Thursday

The Appeal by Janice Hallett

Posted on by thelotusreaders

I came late to Janice Hallett with her novel The Alperton Angels so it’s taken a hiatus from blog tours to finally catch up with her debut novel The Appeal. If you’ve been wondering whether it lives up to the hype? It definitely does. We’re taken to the world of the Fairway Player, an am dram group in an affluent village. It’s time for the players to put on a production of Arthur Miller’s All My Sons and the usual suspects are readying themselves for auditions. Two events will affect the run: founder members Martin and Helen Hayward find out their granddaughter Poppy has a brain tumour and a new couple move into the village. Sam and Kel Greenwood are nurses and have completed years of aid work in Africa. As fundraising begins for Poppy to have experimental treatment in the USA everyone in the friendship group commits themselves to helping. All except one villager, who is suspicious and starts to make enquiries about the Hayward family. Someone within the players loses their life and another is already in prison on remand. QC Roderick Turner assigns law students Charlotte and Femi to the case. As they review the evidence they start to wonder if the right person is in prison and if even darker secrets lurk beneath? 

The first thing that’s different about this book is the structure. We’re told the story through the WhatsApp messages of Femi and Charlotte as they review the evidence in the form of texts, emails, letters and other documents. At first it’s a bit disorienting because there are so many characters and it’s hard to remember how they’re all related. Luckily there’s a good glossary of characters and they do simply ‘click’ after a while. It’s a bit like dropping into a conversation half way through but Femi and Charlotte act as a pit stop where the case so far is reviewed and the relationships clarified. There are two main strands to the story and they concern the alpha family, the rich and established Haywards and new recruits the Greenwoods. The Haywards own The Grange, a venue for events and health treatments and their family home. Sam and Kel are the latest Fairway recruits, championed by Isabel Beck who they know from work and is a rather lowly member of the group. They are an unknown quantity and could easily upset the dynamic, especially since they’ve been used to a very different and dangerous environment.

Isabel felt to me like the character who holds everything together. Not only does she link old and new residents, she is the most prolific email and text writer. While her output suggests she is a very popular resident who’s at the centre of everything that happens in the village, there doesn’t seem to be much correspondence the other way. In fact other residents ignore Isabel, bitch about her behind her back or are directly snappish and rude. She’s fascinating because the relationships you’d expect her to have from her constant communication don’t seem to exist. She pays court to Sam Greenwood who works alongside her on the geriatric ward, but there’s no real evidence that they’re friends. She feels like a child in the playground that no one wants to play with. She’s on the periphery of groups, desperately laughing at their jokes and joining their events, but is never the focus of their interest. She doesn’t seem to have a solid sense of who she is, bending to the whims of whoever she’s with desperately wanting to be liked. It’s painful to read about her planning to do things with people who have no intention of doing them – she mentions her and Sam going out to Africa but theres no correspondence to show this was ever a shared plan. She reads like a borderline personality and while I felt sorry for her she also made my skin crawl a little. She’s desperate for any sort of attention and people who are desperate do desperate things. I was also a little suspicious of Poppy’s oncologist, especially when a potential donor turns up who’s happy to give 100k to the appeal but wants assurances, such as the actual supplier of the drugs? Also he doesn’t understand why he’s paying the doctor in the UK when the treatment is in the US. The doctor’s replies are vague and I wondered who was trying to benefit – the doctor, the Haywards? 

Just as we settle into the community the author throws in a new variable, such as Kel and Sam’s friend who’s arrived on a break from his own work in Africa. He creates a disturbance at the yoga fundraiser giving Poppy an African doll that he claims has curative properties. He seems drunk and is possibly a drug user too. Could he have committed the murder? We really don’t know who the murderer is, even if we can work out a few of the reasons why. The most fascinating part to me is the psychological make-up of the characters and the dynamics between them. Aside from Isabel’s potential personality disorder, there’s the Greenwood’s PTSD from their aid work and the sad fact that the Haywards lost a child years before. The dynamics are clever with Alpha family The Haywards at the centre of the community, backed up by those who police the community and make their ideas happen. A new couple changes and disrupts the group dynamics where existing people know their place and dutifully follow the group rules. Then there’s those who think they’re in the community, but aren’t. Once you’ve started this novel you won’t be able to put it down. Im laid up in bed or the couch at the moment, so I read this straight through and loved every minute. 

Out Now from Viper Books

Meet the Author

Janice Hallett is the author of five best-selling novels. Her debut, The Appeal, was awarded the CWA Debut Dagger of 2021 and was a Sunday Times’ Bestseller, Waterstones’ Thriller of the Month and Sunday Times’ Crime Book of the Month. Her second novel The Twyford Code was named Crime & Thriller Book of the Year in the British Book Awards 2023. It was also a Sunday Times’ Bestseller and a Financial Times book of the year. The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels was an instant Times and Sunday Times bestseller on its launch in January 2023 and a Richard & Judy Book Club pick.

The Christmas Appeal, a fast, fun and festive novella, was launched in October 2023. It was a Times and Sunday Times bestseller.

Her latest novel The Examiner, was an instant Times and Sunday Times bestseller on its launch and is out now.

Her first novel for children aged 8-12 is A Box Full of Murders, out in June 2025.

Janice is a former magazine editor, award-winning journalist, and government communications writer. As a playwright and screenwriter, she penned the feminist Shakespearean stage comedy NetherBard and co-wrote the feature film Retreat.

Posted in Netgalley

Into the Storm by Cecilia Ahern

Posted on by thelotusreaders

One wild night in the middle of December, local GP Enya is driving home from a house call in a dreadful storm and visibility is poor. She comes across a taxi parked in the middle of the road and a boy lying motionless on the wet ground. Oscar, the taxi driver, tells her he has just found the boy like this and he doesn’t know if he’s breathing. As the rain pours down Enya kneels in the road and performs CPR, desperately hoping she can save his life. After she’s questioned by the police and returns home she sits in the car for moment, soaked to the skin and thinks about her mother. Brigid, a rather eccentric and free-spirited woman, died at the age of 47 while swimming in the sea. For a while, as Enya battled to save the teenage boy’s life she felt the water running down her face and wondered if this was how her mother felt? Enya struggles in the aftermath of the incident and can’t seem to put it out of her mind. Is it because the boy was so like her son, of a similar age and wearing the same clothes? The storm propels her into huge life changes as she walks away from her loveless marriage and takes a job in the small town of Abbeydooley. There she lives in a remote spot, but with a rag tree in the garden that brings people from far and wide to tie their ribbons and fabric to it’s branches. Even though her days are filled with patients and she starts to make friends, that night in the rain just won’t leave her. As she looks out of the window at the sacred tree she is faced with the stories of all the people who’ve tied a memento there. Could it be time to face the truth of her own story as well as the memory of her mother? 

We meet Enya in the middle of a crisis and the night of the storm is really the breaking point of that crisis. Enya is 46 and the day after her 47th birthday she will be older than her mother ever was. She has always had the sense that her mother was still going before her but from that day it’s only her. Alone. The grief hits her like a tsunami wave. There’s also the matter of her marriage and living situation. Xander made me feel cold. He comes across as clinical and controlling. The house they live in doesn’t feel like a home to Enya. Their home was the new build that she poured all her effort into, it’s where she had Ross and where she learned him to ride a bike in the garden. Now it’s their GP surgery and they’ve lived in Xander’s inherited family home ever since his parent’s death. There is nothing of Enya in the house and every ornament and painting is exactly where it was when Xander was a boy. If she moves the coat rack slightly or repositions an ornament it is soon quietly placed back where it should be. He even controls her relationship with Ross, having chosen his boarding school and at home telling her not to disturb him when all she wants is to spend time with her son. There’s an invisible barrier there and I could feel her sense of powerlessness. Enya has been struggling for some time: feeling overwhelmed at work; making small mistakes with forms and requests; desperately trying to find an escape, somewhere she can breathe. She has also struggled to let the injured boy go and has visited the hospital and made contact with the boy’s mum. When the offer comes to relocate to Abbeydooley she jumps at the chance. 

Her introduction to Abbeydooley life isn’t a smooth one. The tree is baffling to her. It has filthy and torn rags all over it and completely obstructs her view from the window, taking all her light. She sees it as an eyesore and asks the maintenance person to come out and remove it. Margaret is a brilliant character and the women don’t get off to the best start. Margaret has assumed the tree is damaged and turns up the next morning with a chainsaw, but when she sees the tree is intact she refuses to touch it. Doesn’t Enya realise this is a rag tree, a sacred tree that’s watered by a spring from the site of the original abbey? People believe it’s a sacred site, that their prayers will be answered if they leave something to represent the person or problem they’re facing. It seems ridiculous to Enya, especially when a tour mini-bus arrives with a group of pensioners excited to see this symbol of pagan traditions. Alongside this observance of pagan religion, Enya also has to contend with the church. A visit from the parish priest makes her realise that traditionally the GP and priest have worked quite closely together, sharing information and forming a team to help parishioners and patients. Enya is reluctant, but is starting to learn that in these remote rural areas being a GP is a very different thing to the app led computerised system she and Xander used. Maybe she will have to adapt to a new way of working and living. 

The whole book is a combination of a woman trying to find her way in the world and navigate emotional challenges, with a darker mystery woven in. The backdrop of Abbeydooley is almost like the light relief in the story, with it’s old-fashioned ways and humorous characters like Handyman Willy. I wondered whether it would be a redemption arc, where the town’s quirky ways would win Enya over and change her life. However it’s more complex than that. Abbeydooley becomes a space for Enya to breathe and think, but her demons have definitely followed her. We’re not sure whether she’s a narrator we can rely on. It’s not Xander’s opinion or the little slips at work that concerned me, it’s more about her rising paranoia and the small reveals that prove she isn’t telling us everything. When an agitated man turns up at the surgery to confront Enya we have no idea who he is or what bearing he might have the story. She sees another man through her window late at night, are they the same man or is someone making a late night visit to the tree? All this time Xander keeps her from her son so she’s reduced to leaving voice notes for him in the hope he’ll listen to them alone. Xander claims he’s protecting their son, but from what? I really enjoyed Margaret because she sees Enya at her worst and remains her friend. Margaret knows what it’s like to make a mistake and blow your own life apart. So she’s the best person for Enya to spend time with. What I found sad is that Enya has had support there all along. Although Xander has slowly controlled her, she has allowed her life to restrict her to the point where she felt her only choice was total escape. Yet she has her sister and brother-in-law, they are warm and welcomed her into their home when she first left. She could have made changes, been closer to her son and faced up to everything. Enya seems like a person who runs away: from grief, from her marriage, from the truth. I didn’t always understand her as a character, but her journey was fascinating. With my counsellor head on I wanted her to find a way to break free from all the restrictions she placed on herself. She would certainly make a fascinating client.

Meet the Author

Cecelia Ahern is an Irish novelist who wrote her debut novel PS, I LOVE YOU at the age of 21 years old, which was published in 2004. It became one of the biggest selling novels in recent years and was made into a hit film starring Hilary Swank, as was her second novel LOVE, ROSIE starring Lily Collins. She is published around the world in 40 countries, in over 30 languages and has sold over 25 million copies of her novels. She has published 19 novels, including a Young Adult series FLAWED and PERFECT, and the highly acclaimed collection of short stories ROAR. Her 20th novel INTO THE STORM will be published in October 2024.

She is the co-creator of TV comedy series SAMANTHA WHO? starring Christina Applegate and ROAR, the TV series, is streaming now on Apple TV+ starring Nicole Kidman.

Posted in Publisher Proof

The Lifeline by Libby Page

Posted on by thelotusreaders

Libby Page novels always touch on interesting and difficult subjects, but through a very cosy lens – a balance that’s very hard to achieve. Her focus is women’s lives and here our main characters are Kate and Phoebe, both of whom are going through big life changes. Kate has recently given birth to daughter Rosie and moved from London to a small village, nearer to her family. Kate and her husband wanted Rosie to grow up with a garden and to spend time with her wider family. While her husband sets up his photography business, Kate has found the first few months of motherhood hard and hasn’t bonded with her daughter in the way she hoped. She’s also missing her job in journalism, her best friends and the buzz of her London life. Phoebe has lived in the village for a while, in a flat above some shops with her boyfriend Max. She is a mental health nurse with flame red hair and visits her patients on a motorbike. It’s all change when Max decides he’s leaving and takes all the furniture. Phoebe doesn’t give herself time to process the break-up and keeps pushing herself to visit patients. She doesn’t realise that right now, she also needs help. Could the village’s wild swimming group be what both women need to restore them back to themselves? 

I was immediately attracted to the character of Phoebe, having worked in similar roles most of my life. I thought this was a slightly sugar coated version of mental health work, that touched some of the realities without changing the feel of the book. It did show that no two days are the same and the difficult juggling act of seeing regular patients when another has a crisis and needs to seen immediately. Phoebe is very conscientious and usually ends up working longer hours and eating into her own downtime to ensure everyone is seen. I could see Phoebe was heading for burn out, always putting her own needs last and missing the people and activities that restore her soul. Ive never had a baby, but I have seen what a seismic change it is from my friend’s experiences. Their world’s shrink because they’re so overwhelmed by this small person who is so dependent on them. I didn’t always understand why friends hadn’t called or couldn’t come to events, but having stepdaughters has made me realise how all consuming parenthood is. I’ve definitely seen less of friends and sacrificed my own needs for theirs, and babies need so much more. What I noticed about both women was how difficult it was for them to admit they’re struggling. Phoebe is conditioned by her job to always put someone else first. Kate has been influenced by the Instagram yummy mummies and the perfection of her sister’s life. She feels inadequate next to them, not realising that social media is edited to show the best photos and most interesting experiences. It’s a case of comparison is the thief of joy. Could both these women change their lives by finding a moment for themselves by the river? 

The story is set in an idyllic little village with cozy details like a coffee and cake van down by the river, an Italian deli under Phoebe’s flat and picturesque stone cottages. It’s clearly affluent but as Phoebe’s clients show, sorrow and illness can come into any home. It’s these cute and cozy details that make the book feel like a warm hug. I loved the camaraderie of the wild swimming group and the way they all pulled together when their swimming spot is threatened due to contaminated water. There’s a touch of romance too, in the rather gorgeous shape of Italian Luca from the deli. I enjoyed the humour too, especially the bridal boutique incident – the most disturbing boutique incident since Bridesmaids. Above everything it’s the female friendship that absolutely sings in this novel, confirming something I know to be true; it’s the women in our lives that hold us up when we fall, celebrate when we’re happy and stick with us through the seismic changes women experience in life. 

Meet the Author

Libby Page is the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Lido and four other warm-hearted novels. She lives in Somerset, England with her family. Before becoming an author she worked in journalism and marketing. When not writing she can be found reading, and swimming outdoors.

Posted in Netgalley

The Salt Flats by Rachelle Atalla

Posted on by thelotusreaders

Fin and his wife Martha are travelling in South America. Their eventual destination are the salt flats in Bolivia, an other worldly natural phenomenon where the horizon becomes endless and you’re standing in the sky. Martha and Fin are not just sight-seeing, although the urge to take photographs and capture the illusion is strong. Having been together for 11 years, lately they’ve struggled as Martha has been in the grip of an obsessive anxiety over the climate crisis. They are booked into a retreat on the salt flats, found by Martha and extortionately expensive, it promises a transcendent experience using salt to purify mind and body. So the couple find themselves crammed into a pick-up truck alongside Rick and Barb, a middle aged and out of shape American couple, and partners Hannah and Zoe. They are now in the hands of their driver who doesn’t speak a word of English and an elusive shaman called Oscar. They will spend the next few days meditating, relaxing in warm salt pools and participating in a series of salt ceremonies where hallucinogenic visions bring them face o face with their subconscious reality. Yet the final ceremony descends into chaos, Martha and Fin need to grapple with Martha’s anxiety and the moral implications of their trip. As for their marriage, could this nightmare bring them together or are some wounds too deep to heal?

I’ve been fascinated with the salt flats after seeing them on an episode of World’s Most Dangerous Roads. It was incredible to see the sky reflected in the shallow saltwater surface, giving the impression of standing in the sky. It’s an image recently repeated on Race Across the World and even on a small screen it’s an incredible landscape. The author recreates that otherworldly and alien environment so well, creating an atmosphere of dislocation from the normal world even before any hallucinogens. It struck me as an odd place for a spa or well-being centre, something I always imagine as comfortable and with lush surroundings. This landscape is hard and barren. It left me dubious about the benefits of such a place and how professional it would be. As they’re collected by a taciturn driver I half expected him to rob them and leave them in the middle of nowhere. When they break down en route it doesn’t help, giving an impression of something run on a shoestring in a very inhospitable place. The building is much less luxurious than the group imagined, considering the high price they’ve paid to be there. It’s an igloo type structure built from blocks of salt. Even the beds in the dormitory have salt bases and the group are less than impressed to be sleeping in the same room. Each of the group have personal reasons to be there and the first salt ritual brings up themes of infidelity, assault and intrusive negative thoughts about the future. By confronting these issues, Oscar tells them they can process the trauma and move on. Trust has to build very quickly between the group who are letting each other into their personal spaces, both physical and mental. They’re baring their souls to each other. It’s clear that none of them will come out of this experience unchanged. Whether that’s a negative or positive change is hard to say. When Fin wakes up with a blooded face he is completely confused about how he got there. He knows he interacted with Zoe and that Barb had an accident, but the rest is fluffy and unclear. Where is the blood from and what horrors has he blacked out from his memory. 

I didn’t bond with all of the characters but I was definitely intrigued by them. I could understand why all of them needed change in their lives. It was easy to understand Martha’s concerns about the direction the world is taking. Although her preoccupations are with climate change, Brexit, Covid and wars breaking out across the world have left me with anxieties about the future, especially for the younger members of our family. It only takes a few swipes of the iPad to see how climate is changing the lives of those in low lying countries. However, that proximity to information can radicalise people as the most extreme viewpoints shout loudest online and I felt this had happened to Martha. Finn couldn’t keep living with constant anxiety about the future and needed Martha to meet him in the present every so often. The author’s depiction of their relationship felt very real, showing how people in long term relationship can change over time. Sometimes out takes a conscious choice to re-commit to that person or a bit of compromise that reminds why you committed to each other in the first place. Agreeing to the salt spa was Finn’s act of commitment, to show that he can give Martha a little of what she needs in the hope it will be enough. However, he ruins that a little with his scepticism and his shock at how spartan the spa is for the money spent. As horrors start to unfold will he blame Martha or will everything they’ve experienced bring them closer together? That’s if they both get out alive. The monumental stupidity of allowing themselves to be taken into the middle of nowhere at the mercy of people who don’t speak their language and have taken a huge chunk of their savings, starts to sink in. As things start to unravel you won’t be able to put this fascinating debut down.

Out Now from Hodder and Stoughton

Meet the Author

Rachelle Atalla is a Scottish-Egyptian novelist, short story writer and screenwriter based in Glasgow. Her debut novel The Pharmacist was published by Hodder & Stoughton in May 2022.

Posted in Netgalley

Lights Out by Louise Swanson

Posted on by thelotusreaders

The Government have declared a state of emergency in this tense and thought provoking thriller from Louise Swanson. They’re introducing a temporary policy of electricity rationing, so at 8pm every night the lights and all other electrical power will turn off. For Grace this is her worst nightmare, because she’s terrified of the dark and no reassurance or safety measure from her husband is going to change that. She knows that at some point she will be forced to face the dark alone. An experience of being enclosed in the dark as a child has left it’s mark. All she can do is take as many night shifts at the hospital as possible, where they’re exempt from the switch off. In the house she will have to carry a torch and try to be alone as little as possible. When the switch off comes it’s effects are worse than she could possibly have imagined. Someone is coming into her home. Late at night when she’s shivering under the covers, too scared to move. Someone is leaving behind strange gifts – a third goldfish is swimming beside Brad and Jennifer in the bowl, a horrible painting of a dragon has replaced her own photo on the stairs, a pair of candlesticks in the kitchen. With them he leaves a strange and unsettling note: 

‘I have you in my sights. Love, the Night.’

Where can Grace feel safe if not in her own home? She’s an interesting character, clearly badly affected by childhood trauma and the memories of her previous, abusive relationship. The author opens with a first person account of being locked in a small pitch black space, it’s so vivid I could feel her fear. Grace tells us she was locked in a cupboard by the other children at school, where they continue taunting her until she wets herself. Since then she has always kept the lights on after dark and her partner sleeps in an eye mask to avoid the constant light. She also works at night where she can and sleeps in the day at home. She works as a carer in the hospice, spending a lot of time sitting beside those who are close to death, once her other tasks are completed. She didn’t go to university because she had a baby boy while very young and he has recently left home to live with his partner. Grace moved in with her own boyfriend and he has promised to be home in time for first big switch off. However, when she’s counting down the minutes, torch in hand, her partner is nowhere to be seen. 

The author shows brilliantly how even a strong and capable woman can be triggered by something that others barely notice. She touches on how the lights out policy affects the wider population – hypothermia in the elderly, rotting food defrosting and causing waste, a rise in crime. For others the lack of power has some positives, people can’t hide or be distracted by screens and communication within families will improve. Grace has been a single mum and she works well with people who are dying, so we know she isn’t scared of the big stuff. So why has one experience from childhood left such a huge impression? Her mother had always hoped she’d grow out of it and now the twelve hours of darkness must surely mean she must face the fear? It’s like state sponsored exposure therapy. Then ‘the night’ starts visiting and suddenly the dark covers up worse fears, new ones that are very real indeed. Even worse, her night visitor isn’t breaking in, so surely they must have a key. She is unsure how to deal with it and ringing the police is pointless when they’re dealing with a darkness induced crime wave. 

In between Grace’s sections of the story we meet a man who is in therapy. He left me feeling very on edge and I found myself wondering how I’d react if he were my client. He seems very unaware how counselling works, despite it being a fairly common concept these days. He also responds strangely to the therapist’s standard introduction. He fidgets, stands and paces round the room and I was uneasy on the therapist’s behalf. He seemed agitated. He’s convinced that his girlfriend is seeing another man. Is he paranoid? We have no idea how he fits into the story, but I was intrigued by him. Grace’s world becomes even more confusing when someone from her past turns up at the hospice as a patient. She knows she should disclose their connection, but if she does she knows she won’t be able to work with them. She decides to keep it to herself so she can sit with them. What clues, if any, might they have about her childhood and could what they know help her fear of the dark? As the pages turned I became more and more suspicious of her partner. Never home when he says he will be, distracted and very unsympathetic. I didn’t like him from the start and wondered if he was exercising coercive control over her. The moments when she’s under the covers with her heart racing as she hears her intruder moving around downstairs are truly terrifying. Yet he doesn’t seem malicious. He seemed to enjoy her fear and I even wondered if the night was closer to home than she thought. The truth was even stranger than expected and I found myself rooting for Grace, wanting her to get some resolution about her night visitor but also more long term relief from her phobia. That could only come from openness and facing the truth of her childhood and that time in the pitch dark cupboard. This is an enjoyable thriller with interesting insights on how childhood trauma affects us and how early relationships can inform the attachments we form in later life. 

Out Now from Hodder and Stoughton

Meet the Author

Louise Swanson’s debut, End of Story, was written during the final lockdown of 2020 – also following a family tragedy, it offered refuge in the fiction she created. The themes of the book – grief, isolation, love of the arts, the power of storytelling – came from a very real place. The second Swanson book will arrive in hardback and eBook spring 2024. Watch this space. 

Swanson, a mother of two who lives in East Yorkshire with her husband, regularly blogs, talks at events, and is a huge advocate of openly discussing mental health and suicide.

She also writes as Louise Beech. Beech’s nine books have won the Best magazine Book of the Year 2019, shortlisted for the Romantic Novel of the Year, longlisted for the Polari Prize, and been a Clare Mackintosh Book Club Pick. Her memoir, Daffodils, was released in audiobook in 2022, and the paperback version, Eighteen Seconds, in April 2023..

Posted in Publisher Proof

The Secret Orchard by Sharon Gosling 

Posted on by thelotusreaders

I’ve really enjoyed Sharon’s last couple of novels, because I love their mix of strong female protagonists who are facing challenges and growing into themselves. This novel focuses on sisters Nina and Bette, set on their family’s farm in Scotland. When their father dies they have no choice but to be under the same roof for the funeral. The sisters are very different, Bette is ten years older than Nina so the age gap meant they weren’t very close anyway, but when Bette left for university she never came back to the farm. Living in London, Bette is a sought after divorce lawyer and her work is her life. She flies back to Scotland the day before the funeral and aims to leave the next day. Nina is hostile towards her sister, she has the opinion that Bette left the farm and never looked back. As their mother tries to smooth things over, Nina is shocked to discover that Bette and her father kept in regular contact by email and that Bette paid for the new roof on the barn. Both sisters are shocked at the will reading when they find out that their father left them both the farm in two equal shares. However, there are massive debts to manage and Nina has always left the finances to their father, preferring to do the farm work than sit in the office. This is the only safe place Nina and her son Barnaby have ever lived. Could they be about to lose it? When getting the farm valued, Bette and the agent walk the perimeter on the land and stumble across a secret orchard, tucked away with it’s entrance concealed off the coastal path. Could this hidden fruit be the answer to their money woes and possibly a mystery to bring both of them together? 

We’re drawn in by an intriguing prologue that suggests an historic love story between two local but rival families. I was dying for Bette and Nina to do some digging on this story and unravel their orchard’s complex back story. The author leaves the crumbs of this story to tantalise us while we move through the present day and the emotional aftermath of Nina and Bette’s father’s death. It’s clear from the outset that these two sisters could be an incredible team. Nina is good at the day to day farming work, rushing between baling and milking while also being there for her son Barnaby. I was on board with Barnaby straight away because he wears his Spider-Man costume everywhere, possibly even to his grandfather’s funeral. This titbit of character and humour reminded me of a little boy who always attended our church for Saturday evening mass and would go up the aisle during communion dressed in costume. Watching his long tail wend it’s way up the aisle so the priest could give a blessing to a mini dragon absolutely made my week. His mum made him take the head off for the blessing, but it was straight back on as he skipped back to his seat. Barnaby is a delight and I enjoyed watching him build a relationship with his Aunt Bette. Bette is brilliant with the financial and legal details, something nether Nina or their father has been able to do. She sets herself the task of working methodically through their chaotic office and showing the bigger picture; they might have been working themselves to the bone, but was all this work actually generating profit? 

Bette understands legal procedures and processes too. When she explains they’ll have to get the farm valued Nina immediately flares up, she doesn’t want to sell the farm. She assumes Bette is looking to cash in, but when Bette explains it’s just the first stage in any plan they make whether that’s to sell or to finance the farm better for the future. She’s calmer and more patient with the process and because Bette’s less attached to the land she can make sensible, dispassionate choices which is just as vital for the farm’s survival. Added to the main plot of saving the farm there are a couple of sub-plots. Nina is often helped out around the farm by neighbouring farmer Cam, who is very capable and good with Barney, not to mention easy on the eye. What would I take for friendship to turn into love. There’s also the mystery of why Bette left the farm so definitively all those years ago and when Ryan enters the picture her reaction left me wondering if he was involved. Cam suggests a visit from an expert he knows, to see if the orchard is viable and what would be the best way to bring some income from it. Nina has never known why her sister left, so her reaction to Ryan is puzzling for her. He has great ideas for the apple trees, some of which appear to be very old species that are rarely grown. He sets them on a programme of managing the trees, pruning and grafting them to enhance their health and yield. There isn’t an off putting amount of detail on how to turn the orchard into a cider business, but there’s enough to pique the reader’s interest and I was rooting for the sister’s success. 

The sisters have such depth to their characters and their lack of communication with each other has led to so much misunderstanding between them. Nina comes across as quite bitter towards Bette and to some extent she sees her sister as someone who has everything: the job, the money and the fancy London lifestyle. Actually it’s Nina whose had everything – a wonderful relationship with her father and precious time working together. She has Barnaby and although her relationship with his father broke down, she loves her son more than anything. With her mother living abroad with her new husband, Nina has taken on the lion’s share of the work around the farm and keeping an eye of their father but Bette has never expected any financial gain from the business, assuming that it belongs to Nina. I could see how the new plans might bring about a better personal relationship between them and I was kept reading by the promise of a warmer relationship between them, the makings of a new generation of the family. There’s a lot of forgiving to do here, but once they’d discussed why Bette left in the first place I could see another life opening up, one in which she might stay. As always with this author, this was such an uplifting and heartwarming story. The potential for both sisters to have their own love stories was also joyous to read, especially if you’re a sucker for an ‘enemies to lovers’ scenario. There are setbacks of course, some of them natural disasters and others caused by deep-seated rivalry. Sharon Gosling writes this type of story beautifully, as she weaves the threads of the sister’s story and the mystery surrounding the orchard’s origin, not to mention why it had been hidden all these years. The setting is wonderful, particularly the orchard with the salt air and the sounds of waves crashing against the cliffs. It’s so romantic and I loved the detail of how the salt permeates and changes the taste of the fruit making it so unique. This was a wonderfully escapist novel, driven by the character’s of Bette, Nina and of course, Barnaby. I thoroughly enjoyed being in their world for a while and I’m sure you will too.

Out 12th September from Simon and Schuster

Meet the Author

I’ve been writing since I was a teenager, which is now a distressingly long time ago! I started out as an entertainment journalist – actually, my earliest published work was as a reviewer of science fiction and fantasy books. I went on to become a staff writer and then an editor for print magazines, before beginning to write non-fiction making-of books tied in to film and television, such as The Art and Making of Penny Dreadful and Wonder Woman: The Art and Making of the Film.

I now write both children’s and adult fiction – my first novel was called The Diamond Thief, a Victorian-set steampunk adventure book for the middle grade age group. That won the Redbridge Children’s prize in 2014, and I went on to write two more books in the series before moving on to other adventure books including The Golden Butterfly, which was nominated for the Carnegie Award in 2017, The House of Hidden Wonders, and a YA horror called FIR, which was shortlisted for the Lancashire Book of the Year Award in 2018. My last children’s book (to date) is called The Extraordinary Voyage of Katy Willacott, and was published by Little Tiger in 2023.

My debut adult novel, The House Beneath the Cliffs, was published by Simon & Schuster in August 2021. Since then I’ve written three more: The Lighthouse Bookshop, The Forgotten Garden, and The Secret Orchard, which is out in September 2024. My adult fiction tends to centre on small communities – feel-good tales about how we find where we belong in life and what it means when we do. Although I have also published full-on adult horror stories, which are less about community and more about terror and mayhem…

I was born in Kent but now live in a very small house in an equally small village in northern Cumbria with my husband, who owns a bookshop in the nearby market town of Penrith.

Taken from Sharon’s Amazon Author Page.