ShortBookandScribes Seven Day Spotlight – w/e 21/07/19

Gosh, another week gone. Welcome to this week’s round up post. It’s been my son’s last week in reception at school – I think I was more upset than he was! I also spent quite a bit of time sobbing through episodes 4-6 of Years and Years. Have any of you watched it? I found it the most heartbreaking, searingly honest and scarily foreboding piece of drama I have ever seen. It’s had quite an effect on me.

After my mad reading week last week when I read six books for blog tours, I’ve found it much harder to concentrate this week. It’s not as though the pressure’s off as my diary’s still got plenty in it but somehow I’ve lost a bit of focus. Hoping for a better week coming up although it’s the school holidays so it could all go completely to pot. Wish me luck!

Here’s what I posted this week:

On Monday I shared a guest post by Melanie Blake, author of The Thunder Girls, with a character spotlight and information on the story and her research.

Tuesday’s post was an extract from The Nanny at Number 43 by Nicola Cassidy.

Wednesday’s post was my review of The Girl From the Corner Shop by Alrene Hughes.

Thursday’s post was my review of My Lemon Grove Summer by Jo Thomas.

Friday’s post was my review of Then She Vanishes by Claire Douglas.

And Saturday’s post was my review of Jay-Jay and the Carnival by Sue Wickstead.


And now to new additions to the reading pile which contains a couple of ebook purchases. I’ve been struggling with ebooks lately and just don’t find them as enjoyable to read as physical books. But The Girl at the Corner Shop was an ebook and I enjoyed reading that so I’ve come to the conclusion that the problem is more that if I’m a bit meh about a book then reading it as an ebook makes it even more meh, if you know what I mean. Whereas I might be able to cope more with a meh book if it’s a physical copy. Don’t know if that makes any sense and I’ll stop rambling now and give you the important details.

Lies We Tell Mothers by Suzy K Quinn

Bestselling author of the Bad Mother books Suzy K Quinn reveals the truth behind the lies we tell mothers, one sleepless night at a time.

Suzy and Demi were carefree twenty-somethings. They had fun! They didn’t have responsibilities! And then they decided to have a baby. Goodbye lazy weekends, hello sleepless nights, arguments and an addiction to industrial-strength hot chocolate.

In the midst of this major life change, Suzy discovered that most parenting advice should be taken with a pinch of salt—or ten.

For example:

#1 Lie—Just go with your mother’s instinct. But what if your instinct is telling you to hide under the stairs?

#10 Lie—Your new baby will tell you what it needs. Not if it can’t talk it won’t.

#23 Lie—You should never bribe your children. You will ALWAYS bribe your children.

Follow Suzy on the ultimate make-over—from nervous-wreck new mother to happy families. In this hilarious and refreshingly honest account for parents who prefer the realistic to the utopian, Suzy debunks the myths and takes us all along for the (bumpy) ride.

One Year Later by Sanjida Kay

Since Amy’s daughter, Ruby-May, died in a terrible accident, her family have been beset by grief. One year later, the family decide to go on holiday to mend their wounds. An idyllic island in Italy seems the perfect place for them to heal and repair their relationships with one another.

But no sooner have they arrived than they discover nothing on this remote island is quite as it seems. And with the anniversary of the little girl’s death looming, it becomes clear that at least one person in the family is hiding a shocking secret. As things start to go rapidly wrong, Amy begins to question whether everyone will make it home…

The Hotel Where We Met by Belinda Jones

There’s a very particular reason why Chloe Sinclair has not met her Mr Right – he doesn’t exist.

And the reason he doesn’t exist is because the right couples in history did not get together.

It now falls to Chloe to travel back in time to matchmake like her love-life depended on it

Each of Chloe’s trips revolves around the iconic Hotel Del Coronado – part historic landmark, part Californian fairytale. 

Here she experiences the Victorian era when the doors first opened, the Roaring TwentiesFabulous Fifties during the filming of Some Like It Hot and the Get-Into-The-Groove Eighties!

A very special friendship has guided Chloe to this point but the adventures go way beyond her wildest imaginings and she soon learns that, when it comes to love, it’s all in the timing

Hope by Terry Tyler

‘We haven’t elected a Prime Minister, we’ve elected a lifestyle’.

As the fourth decade of the 21st century looms, new PM Guy Morrissey and his fitness guru wife Mona (hashtag MoMo) are hailed as the motivational couple to get the UK #FitForWork, with Mona promising to ‘change the BMI of the nation’.

Lita Stone is an influential blogger and social media addict, who watches as Guy and Mona’s policies become increasingly ruthless. Unemployment and homelessness are out of control. The solution? Vast new compounds all over the country, to house those who can no longer afford to keep a roof over their heads.

These are the Hope Villages, financed by US corporation Nutricorp.

Lita and her flatmates Nick and Kendall feel safe in their cosy cyberspace world.  Unaware of how swiftly bad luck can snowball, they suspect little of the danger that awaits the unfortunate, behind the carefully constructed mirage of Hope.

Terry Tyler’s nineteenth published work is a psychological thriller that weaves through the darker side of online life, as the gap between the haves and the have-nots grows ever wider.  Whether or not it will mirror a dystopian future that awaits us, we will have to wait and see.

The Song of Peterloo by Carolyn O’Brien

Manchester 1819: Prices are high and wages are low, but as the poor become poorer, the rich are alarmed by their calls for reform.

Mill-worker Nancy Kay struggles to support her ailing mother and sensitive son. Desperate to provide for them, she is inspired to join the growing agitation. But, as she risks everything to attend a great assembly on St Peter’s Field, Nancy is unaware the day will go down in history, not as a triumph but as tragedy; the Peterloo massacre.

This is one woman’s story of belief in change, pieced together by her family and friends and the two men who share her momentous summer. A story of hope, and sacrifice, and above all, courage.

Living My Best Life by Claire Frost

Recently dumped by her boyfriend of ten years, Bell is struggling to move on with her life – and surrender the fleecy pyjamas she’s been living in since January. Haunted by #blessed on social media, she can’t help but compare her life to those she follows online, wondering where she is going wrong . . .

In the world of social media, Millie is the successful online influencer @mi_bestlife. But in real life she’s just a regular single mum trying to make ends meet, while fending off the younger competition and tenacious internet trolls. Her Instagram feed is far more #BestLie than #BestLife, and soon Millie begins to wish her life was more like her filters.

It isn’t until Bell and Millie’s paths cross that they begin to realise what they’re both missing. Can Millie prove to Bell that life online isn’t always what it appears to be? And in return, can Millie learn that she needs to start living for the moment and not for the likes?

 

2 Comments

  • Gosh you are a busy bee 🐝.
    I remember when my son left nursery or in his case the Playbus playgroup.
    School holidays for me mean no teaching work so it will be time for Lego building.
    A bit of writing ✍️ and hopefully a few author bookings.
    Thank you again for enjoying the Jay Jay bus adventure

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