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Tag: sheffield

ShortBookandScribes #BookReview – Cold Reckoning by Russ Thomas

Posted on 9th May 2022 By Nicola

Cold Reckoning is book 3 of the DS Adam Tyler series by Russ Thomas. My thanks to Jess Barratt from Simon & Schuster for the […]

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ShortBookandScribes #BookReview – Women of Steel by Michelle Rawlins

Posted on 28th September 2020 By Nicola

I’m so happy to be sharing my thoughts on Women of Steel by Michelle Rawlins today. I enjoyed this book so much. My thanks to […]

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Ad/PR product. New review: The Sinner by Caroline

Ad/PR product. New review: The Sinner by Caroline England. Published by Piatkus and out now.
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Dee Stephens is the vicar’s wife. She’s married to Vincent and they have a teenage daughter, Abbey. To all intents and purposes her life is good but behind the façade Dee is unhappy. A chance meeting with Cal, who remembers Dee from school, sets in motion a passionate affair. Dee narrates her own strands of the story and we also hear from her sister, Mari, and Cal, both in the third person.
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What I really enjoy about Caroline England’s writing is the way she gets to the heart of human emotions, human desires, and complicated and intricate family dynamics. Whilst Dee feels she should be grateful for what she has got, she is unfulfilled and stifled, not only by Vincent but by her mother-in-law, Harriet, and even by Abbey, who adores her father to the detriment of her mother. These tangled relationships make for a brilliant and twisty read.
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I’d call The Sinner a cross between a psychological thriller and a domestic noir, with more emphasis on the latter. I do love a good domestic noir and England really excels at them. There are several unexpected developments in this story, especially in the second half, and they really did take me by surprise, settled as I was into the complex and messy lives of Dee and Mari. The reason for Mari’s presence in the story didn’t really become clear until much later but I enjoyed her strand in its own right and even more so when everything slotted into place.
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I really liked how the author wove the Christian calendar into the story, taking us from New Year’s Eve to Easter, and provided a juxtaposition of religion and sin, illustrating how even the most pious can have something to hide. I thought The Sinner was a fabulous read, with short chapters that kept me turning the pages as quickly as I could, and well-written and interesting characters.
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Thank you to the publishers for the review copy of the book and Caroline for asking me to be a part of the #blogtour.

@cazengland1 #TheSinner #bookreview

SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES… I'm so excited

Ad/PR product. New review: Just Got Real by Jane F

Ad/PR product. New review: Just Got Real by Jane Fallon. Published by Michael Joseph on 23rd June.
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All hail Jane Fallon, the queen of the revenge novel. She’s back with another fantastic story, this time focusing on the perils of online dating. When Joni joins a dating app she, in a panic, uses a fake photo. She’s planning to confess all to Ant, the man she’s been happily dating for a few months, but then she finds out that he’s in the midst of a much bigger indiscretion when she discovers messages from other women, ones he’s communicating with at the same time as seeing her.
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I absolutely loved Just Got Real. It’s modern, it’s relevant, it’s funny, and I was completely hooked from start to finish. Whilst the dating story is the primary storyline, it’s very much Joni who is the main focus of the story, as she moves on with her life after a divorce, the loss of a friend and her daughter leaving home. She takes comfort in her routine but there’s no real joy there. I won’t go into what happens along the way but by the end I was full of hope for her in the future.
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Fallon describes Joni’s job-sharing down to a tee, that slight resentment of the other person and any work they didn’t manage to get to. She also does a brilliant job with the online dating world. More than anything though, I think I just found Joni and her life really relatable, and I enjoyed all the details of her life, her flat, her job and her love of the gym. I was sad to leave her behind and I feel like I got to know her really well.
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Just Got Real is a book I didn’t want to end but it had to, and like another book I’ve read recently, although there is romance in there, it’s very much about female empowerment, with or without a partner in tow. Fallon is a supreme observer of human nature and dynamics between women, and a fabulous writer of fresh, contemporary fiction. I loved it!
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Thank you to the publishers for the proof copy of the book.
@janefallon2 @michaeljbooks
#JustGotReal #bookreview
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#bookblogger #booksofinstagram #readersofinstagram #instabooks #instareads #ilovebooks #lovereading #lovebooks #booklover #booklove #bookworm #bookishlove #bookish #shortbookandscribes

Ad/PR product. New review: Whisper Cottage by Anne

Ad/PR product. New review: Whisper Cottage by Anne Wyn Clark. Published by Avon and out now.
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A new start in the country for Stina and Jack takes them to Avoncote and Wisteria Cottage. Their only neighbour is Mrs Barley at Rose Cottage and naturally they become friends. As time goes on, however, Stina, being at home all day, starts to hear things and see things that make her wonder if Mrs Barley is all she seems to be and the rumours in the local village about her don’t help.
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Stina is an unreliable narrator. It’s clear her past has been a bit troubled and I was constantly wondering if she could be trusted. The same goes for Mrs Barley who seemed very nice but was there something malevolent lurking under the surface? Anne Wyn Clark does a great job at keeping the reader guessing and all the way through I had no idea how it was all going to turn out in the end.
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The setting is strong and although the book is largely character-driven, I felt like the setting was almost another character in its own right. The two cottages are quite remote and I could absolutely picture them in my mind’s eye. The whole small village feel and mentality is captured really well.
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The pacing is very good too and I found myself looking forward to picking it up and reading a bit more. I found the story to be engaging and well thought out with a couple of nice surprises near the end. In short, I thought Whisper Cottage was an excellent psychological thriller debut, eerie and twisty. I shall look forward to Anne Wyn Clark’s next book.
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Thank you to the author for sending me a copy of the book.
@eaclarkauthor @avonbooksuk
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#bookreview #WhisperCottage #bookblogger #booksofinstagram #readersofinstagram #instabooks #instareads #instathrillers #ilovebooks #lovereading #lovebooks #booklover #booklove #bookworm #psychologicalfiction #psychologicalthriller #shortbookandscribes

#CoverReveal! 🎉👀 This New Year, Old Secrets

#CoverReveal! 🎉👀

This New Year, Old Secrets Will Have Deadly Consequences

Happy New Year by Malin Stehn will be published by @MichaelJBooks on 24th November 2022.

Available on Netgalley and for pre-order now.

@michaeljbooks

Ad/PR product. New review: Meredith, Alone by Clai

Ad/PR product. New review: Meredith, Alone by Claire Alexander. Published by Michael Joseph and out now.
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Meredith hasn’t left her house for 1,214 days. She is alone although she has her cat and her best friend who visits her as often as she can. She’s cut herself off from the outside world. The story is perfectly formed and it’s only as we bear witness to Meredith’s isolation that we are drip-fed the reasons why she’s unable to venture beyond her front door. Two new friends, Tom and Celeste, come into Meredith’s life and it seems like for the first time in a long time she might have a reason to take a step further, but it’s not going to be easy.
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I found this book absolutely heartbreaking in places and felt so sorry for what Meredith had to deal with. Being written in the first person, both in the current day and in her memories, made it a very powerful read. She’s wonderful, brave and kind, and she’s an unforgettable character for me. I loved her for her inner strength, her care for others, her baking and her jigsaw abilities.
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This is a book I wanted to pick up and read at every opportunity. You might think a book about a woman not leaving her house would struggle to engage a reader but that is most definitely not the case. Although it’s sad at times, it’s still uplifting and inspirational. Claire Alexander gets the tone exactly right, always providing lightness to counteract the darkness, whilst staying sensitive to the difficult topics that are covered.
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At every stage I was engrossed in the beautiful writing and rooting for Meredith in this relatable and tender character driven story. I can’t believe this is a debut novel. This has the hallmarks of an author who has spent years honing their writing skills. Meredith, Alone easily makes it into my favourite books of the year. It’s a very special novel indeed, with fabulous characters, a warm-hearted feeling and a story that blew me away.
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Thank you to the publishers for the proof copy of the book.
@claireawriter @michaeljbooks #MeredithAlone

#BookPost 📚 I received this gorgeous package in

#BookPost
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I received this gorgeous package in the post today. Thank you @alexiathomaidis @penguinfigtree for #TheWhaleboneTheatre by @joannabquinn which I've heard so many wonderful things about already.
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I shall enjoy reading it whilst supping my @jimmysicedcoffee drink and listening to the accompanying playlist which is available on Spotify.
📚
What a treat!

Synopsis:
'Maudie, why are all the best characters men?'
Maudie closes the book with a clllump. 'We haven't read all the books yet, Miss Cristabel. I can't believe that every story is the same'

Cristabel Seagrave has always wanted her life to be a story, but there are no girls in the books in her dusty family library. For an unwanted orphan who grows into an unmarriageable young woman, there is no place at all for her in a traditional English manor.

But from the day that a whale washes up on the beach at the Chilcombe estate in Dorset, and twelve-year-old Cristabel plants her flag and claims it as her own, she is determined to do things differently.

With her step-parents blithely distracted by their endless party guests, Cristabel and her siblings, Flossie and Digby, scratch together an education from the plays they read in their freezing attic, drunken conversations eavesdropped through oak-panelled doors, and the esoteric lessons of Maudie their maid.

But as the children grow to adulthood and war approaches, jolting their lives on to very different tracks, it becomes clear that the roles they are expected to play are no longer those they want. As they find themselves drawn into the conflict, they must each find a way to write their own story...
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#bookblogger #bookreviewer #booksofinstagram #readersofinstagram #instabooks #instareads #ilovebooks #lovereading #lovebooks #booklover #booklove #bookishlove #bookish #bookworm #shortbookandscribes

Ad/PR product. New review: This Time Tomorrow by E

Ad/PR product. New review: This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub. Published by Michael Joseph and out now.
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Alice Stern lives in New York, works in a job she likes but finds unfulfilling, and hasn’t managed to find a relationship that is right for her yet. Her father, Leonard, is in hospital and may not wake up again. About to turn 40, she stays the night at her old home, her father’s home, and wakes up there the next day, not as a 40 year old but as a 16 year old.
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I came to This Time Tomorrow for the time travel element. I love the genre and whilst I didn’t necessarily understand why it had happened for Alice, I just loved that it did happen and she got to see her father again as a younger man. The beginning of the book drew me right in and this was before the travel back in time. I enjoyed the scene-setting, getting to know Alice and her life before it was turned upside down. Even though I feel like the reader was supposed to think her life was flat and empty, it didn’t really feel that way and I think Alice had a pretty good life apart from her father’s ill-health.
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After she went back in time I did feel like it lost something along the way and my interest started to dip a little. Maybe I was just confused. This is quite a complex and poignant story of emotions and nostalgia, and I wasn’t entirely sure what Alice was doing, although I knew what she was aiming for: more time with her father.
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I thought This Time Tomorrow was a touching story of revisiting the past and I liked the father/daughter relationship between Leonard and Alice which felt really special. For the most part I enjoyed this book but I think it lacked the emotion I craved to really make me empathise with Alice’s predicament.
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Thank you to the publishers for the proof copy of the book.
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#bookreview #bookblogger #booksofinstagram #readersofinstagram #instabooks #instareads #timetravelbooks #timetravel #ilovebooks #lovereading #lovebooks #booklover #booklove #bookishlove #bookish #bookworm #shortbookandscribes

Ad/PR product. New review: The Girl on the 88 Bus

Ad/PR product. New review: The Girl on the 88 Bus by Freya Sampson. Published by Zaffre tomorrow.
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Back in 1962 Frank met a girl on the 88 bus. They hit it off and he asked for her number….and then lost it! He’s spent the last 60 years travelling on the 88 hoping to see her again. In 2022 Libby unexpectedly finds herself in London travelling on the 88 bus when she meets Frank and they get chatting about his girl. They become friends and she pledges to help him find the ‘girl’ before time runs out.
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This is an absolutely charming book in every way. It has a lightness to it that makes it so easy to read but it does cover some more emotional issues too, managing to be both moving and witty in equal measures. The characters are just wonderful. I loved Frank who, now well into his 80s, is suffering the ravages that age often brings. Libby, too, is such a perfect creation, and helping Frank brings changes to her life that she never expected, including new friends, Dylan and Esme.
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I particularly liked the parallels between the girl and Libby. Freya Sampson did a wonderful job with this gorgeous story, taking events full circle with subtlety and care. This book is full of warmth and is so touching and uplifting, a tale of chance encounters and their life-changing effects.
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With The Girl on the 88 Bus, Sampson has cemented her place in my ‘authors whose books I would read without knowing anything about them’ list. Just as with The Last Library, this is a book where I wanted to jump between the covers and be friends with Frank, Libby and Dylan. It’s a story of what might have been, but also celebrates what there already is.
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I strongly recommend you stick your hand out and get on the 88 bus with Frank and Libby. You won’t regret it.
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Thank you to the publishers for the proof copy of the book.
@freyasampsonauthor @zaffrebooks
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#bookreview #bookblogger #TheGirlOnThe88Bus #london #londonbus #booksofinstagram #readersofinstagram #instabooks #instareads #ilovebooks #lovereading #lovebooks #booklover #booklove #bookishlove #bookish #bookworm #shortbookandscribes

Ad/PR product. New review: Madwoman by Louisa Treg

Ad/PR product. New review: Madwoman by Louisa Treger. Published by Bloomsbury on 9th June.
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“After all, what was sanity, except being able to contain the madness inside yourself?"
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Nellie Bly. It was a name I’d heard but I knew nothing about this woman and that is a travesty as, having now read Madwoman, I know she was an incredibly brave, trail-blazing woman.
🗝️
In this fiction based on fact, Louisa Treger tells the story of Nellie’s early life living with her family in 1870s Pittburgh, through some bad times until she decides she wants to make her living as a journalist. At the time, women journalists were virtually non-existent but Nellie was determined, and to make a splash on moving to New York she comes up with the idea of faking insanity to get herself sent to the notorious Women’s Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell’s Island, and to write about what she experiences there as an exposé.
🗝️
Madwoman is a brilliant book, beautifully written with empathy and care. I found it completely gripping and utterly compelling. Treger paints such a vivid and disturbing picture of life in the asylum that it was actually genuinely quite disconcerting and I wish I hadn’t read the asylum scenes just before bed. It’s made all the more powerful because not only did this happen to Bly but this was happening to so many women, many of whom were not actually mad but had perhaps been indiscreet in their marriage or found themselves in poverty with nowhere else to go.
🗝️
This is a fascinating story in every way. This is a woman who has pulled herself up by her bootstraps and despite opposition has made her mark on history. I found Madwoman to be not only heartbreaking and shocking, but also inspirational. Louisa Treger has taken the facts and weaved them into a spellbinding account of a distressing, but ultimately life-changing episode, both for Bly and for the women who came after her. I thought it was superb and unforgettable. This is historical fiction at its very best.
🗝️
Thank you to the publishers for the proof copy and the author for the finished copy of the book.

@louisatreger @bloomsburypublishing
#Madwoman #bookreview

#JubileeBookStack - Part 2 👑 Simple reds, white

#JubileeBookStack - Part 2
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Simple reds, whites and blues today. 🇬🇧
Hope you've all had a lovely weekend.
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#PlatinumJubilee #royalty #redwhiteandblue #stacksunday #sundaystack #bookstack #bookblogger #bookstagrammer #booksofinstagram #readersofinstagram #instabooks #instareads #ilovebooks #lovereading #lovebooks #booklover #booklove #bookishlove #bookish #bookworm #shortbookandscribes

#JubileeBookStack - Part 1 👑 To celebrate the #

#JubileeBookStack - Part 1
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To celebrate the #PlatinumJubilee weekend I thought I'd share my (sort of) Jubilee Book Stack. I've always loved the Royal Family, right from being little and it's been so lovely this weekend to see our amazing and inspirational Queen celebrating 70 years on the throne.
👑
The books here are a mixture of fiction and non-fiction. The fiction are:

#TheWindsorKnot and #AThreeDogProblem by @sjbennettbooks

#TheJourneyAfterTheCrown by @andrewmackie

#TheGown by @authorjenniferrobson

#BetsyAndLilibet by @sophieduffy05

#BeforeTheCrown by #FloraHarding

I've read the first three and loved them all. They're all novels either featuring the Queen or with a link to the Queen.
👑
The non-fiction are:

Queen Elizabeth II: The Oral History by Deborah Hart Strober and Gerald Strober

#OurRainbowQueen by @salihughes

and then there are two souvenir books from the Diamond Jubilee. I'm hoping to get a similar souvenir book for this jubilee.
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I'd love to know if you have read any of these or if you have any other recommendations for Royalty/Queen related books.
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#bookstack #saturdaystack
#stacksaturday #royalbooks
#royalty #royalbookstack #redwhiteandblue #patriotic #royalfamily
#royalfiction
#royalnonfiction
#bookblogger #booksofinstagram #readersofinstagram #instabooks #instareads #ilovebooks #lovereading #lovebooks #shortbookandscribes

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Today Week Month All

ShortBookandScribes #BookReview - Just Got Real by Jane Fallon
ShortBookandScribes #BookReview - Thea and Denise by Caroline Bond
ShortBookandScribes #BookReview - Madwoman by Louisa Treger
ShortBookandScribes #BookReview - Meredith, Alone by Claire Alexander
ShortBookandScribes #BookReview - The Girl on the 88 Bus by Freya Sampson

ShortBookandScribes #BookReview – The Sinner by Caroline England #BlogTour
ShortBookandScribes #BookReview – Just Got Real by Jane Fallon
ShortBookandScribes #BookReview – Whisper Cottage by Anne Wyn Clark
ShortBookandScribes #BookReview – Meredith, Alone by Claire Alexander
ShortBookandScribes #BookReview – This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub

Today Week Month All

ShortBookandScribes #BookReview - Thea and Denise by Caroline Bond

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