Seven Day Spotlight – w/e 19/11/17

Here we are again on Sunday so it’s time for my weekly round up post. It’s been a fairly uneventful week really but a busy one on my blog. Here’s what I posted this week:

On Monday I shared my review of The Future Can’t Wait by Angelena Boden, which is a really thought-provoking read.

Tuesday saw me posting my review of Wide Awake Asleep by Louise Wise, a time travel story that I loved.

On Wednesday Chris Chalmers, author of Dinner at the Happy Skeleton, was a guest on my blog talking about how travel broadens the plot.

Thursday brought a guest post from Katherine Gerbera, author of Christmas at the Candied Apple Cafe, talking about what makes Christmas magical for her.

On Friday Celia Moore talked about how she keeps track of her characters and her book, Fox Halt Farm. There’s still a giveaway running on that post if you fancy entering.

Saturday was busy with three posts. First up I shared an extract from The Truth About You, Me and Us by Kate Field. There’s a giveaway still running on that post too.

I also shared an extract from Artefacts and Other Stories by Rebecca Burns.

And I posted my review of Away for Christmas by Jan Ruth, a novella which I thought was just fabulous.

Finally, today I welcomed Louise Dean to talk about Losing the Plot. Louise is the founder of KritikMe.com, an online creative writing course and as NaNoWriMo is currently in full swing the post gives some tips for writing your own book.

Not a lot added to my TBR pile this week which is just as well given the size of it.

The Innocent Wife by Amy Lloyd

Twenty years ago, Dennis Danson was arrested and imprisoned for the brutal murder of a young girl in Florida’s Red River County. Now he’s the subject of a true-crime documentary that’s whipping up a frenzy online to uncover the truth and free a man who has been wrongly convicted.

A thousand miles away in England, Samantha is obsessed with Dennis’s case. She exchanges letters with him, and is quickly won over by his apparent charm and kindness to her. Soon she has left her old life behind to marry him and campaign for his release.

But when the campaign is successful and Dennis is freed, Sam begins to discover new details that suggest he may not be quite so innocent after all …

A Very Vintage Christmas by Tilly Tennant

The fairy lights are up and shoppers are flooding the snowy seaside promenade. It’s going to be a busy month at Forget-Me-Not Vintage, a magical shop with a warm heart where every item has a story to be told.

With bright red hair and an infectious smile, Dodie is a hopeless romantic and absolutely one of a kind, just like the pieces in her shop.

When Dodie finds a love letter in the pocket of an old woollen coat, she makes it her mission to deliver it to its rightful owner. Following the address, she manages to persuade the handsome but reluctant new tenant, Edward, to help her with her search.

As the story of the letter unfolds, Dodie is there, as always, to pick up the pieces and make things right. But who will be there for her when her own love story needs a helping hand?

Is it too much to dream of a happy ending like the ones in the black and white movies she adores?

The Boy Made of Snow by Chloe Mayer

In a sleepy English village in 1944, Annabel and her son Daniel live in the shadow of war. With her husband away, an increasingly isolated Annabel begins to lose her grip on reality.

When mother and son befriend Hans, a German PoW consigned to a nearby farm, their lives are suddenly filled with thrilling secrets.

To Annabel, Hans is an awakening from the darkness that has engulfed her since Daniel’s birth. To her son, a solitary boy caught up in the magical world of fairy tales, he is perhaps a prince in disguise. But Hans has plans of his own and will soon set them into motion with devastating consequences.

The Girl in the Green Dress by Cath Staincliffe

How far would you go to protect your child?

Can you really keep them safe? What if who they are puts them at risk?

And what if they have blood on their hands?

Teenager Allie Kennaway heads off for prom night, cheered on by her dad Steve and little sister Teagan. But Allie never comes home, beaten to death in an apparent hate crime because of her transgender identity. As police investigate the brutal murder, a crime that has appalled the country, one parent is at her wit’s end with her son’s behaviour. Are his outbursts and silences hiding something much darker than adolescent mood swings? And if her suspicions are correct, then what does she do? Another parent will fight tooth and nail to save his boy from the full force of the law. After all, blood is thicker than water and everyone should look after their own. But if he succeeds then Allie and her family will never get the justice they deserve.

A groundbreaking story of love and hate, loyalty and betrayal, in a world of change.

A Saintly Grave Disturbed by Nikki Copleston

When archaeologists Beth Tarrant and Josh Good excavate a ruined chapel at Barbury Abbey they don’t expect to uncover a modern mystery too…

Finding the tomb of a medieval abbot would mean a lot to Beth – fifty years ago, her grandfather was forced to abandon his own search for the tomb, but nobody knows why. Can Beth finish what he started?

As one incident after another threatens to sabotage the dig, Detective Inspector Jeff Lincoln is called in, and when a bungled burglary at the museum turns into murder he finds a shocking link to a case he’s already investigating.

Do you like the sound of any of these? Or perhaps you’ve read them already. I’d love to know.