Boy On The Beach by R D Maddux + #Giveaway

Boy on the Beach by R.D. Maddux

Category: Adult Fiction; 304 pages
Genre: Mystery / Thriller
Publisher: Ezekiel 12 Publications
Release date: March 11, 2017
Content Rating: PG-13 + M (There are implied sex scenes but no graphic descriptions of lovemaking. There is one scene with some violence.)

Where to buy this book:

	The Book Depository
	Wordery
	Waterstones (unavailable)
	Amazon

Add Boy On The Beach to your Goodreads

Andrew Foster, a real estate developer in San Diego, is a man suddenly haunted by his past. Memories, like specters from his former life of sex, drugs and rock and roll have come crashing into his current world of business in this sunny coastal city. The ominous, repeated appearance of a black SUV at the beach where he meets his sister each week, has triggered fears that it’s payback time for a bad choice he made years ago.
​
To add to his frustrations, his hopes of a big breakthrough in the San Diego real estate market haven’t come to pass. He’s starting to wonder if his visions of success will ever come true when an investor offers to finance his dream project. Soon things start to fall into place for Andrew in business, life, and even love. He starts dating the beautiful and business-savvy Nicole but even with her at his side he can’t seem to shake the ghosts of his past. As the relationship with Nicole deepens, Andrew opens up to her about the many loves and adventures that have taken him from the crazy days of living in Big Sur and Joshua Tree to business success in San Diego. Her wise insights help him face the character flaws that have caused him to fail in his past relationships.

Rounding out his social life is his once-a-week task of assisting his sister with her nanny job watching a young boy named Chandler. They build sand castles on the beach and enjoy the beauty of nature together. But the now ominous weekly appearance of a strange car at the beach has awakened Andrew’s fears. Is the boy in danger? Or worse, has an enemy from Andrew’s past come seeking revenge and now Chandler’s caught in the middle?

A strange twist of events threatens to destroy Andrew’s dreams, but as he searches for answers, a sudden revelation offers hope of a future he never imagined.

To follow the tour and read reviews, please visit R.D. Maddux's page on iRead Book Tours.

Watch the book trailer:

Meet the Author:

R.D. Maddux has story telling in his blood. Since he was young he’s always loved a good tale. He’s been writing seriously since he was in high school and college. His novels range from Mystery and Intrigue to Sci-fi/fantasy. With Boy On The Beach he’s set the story in modern America, to be exact, on the West Coast of California. He’s a native of the golden state and has been a resident of San Diego since 1987. Before that he grew up in northern California and lived in the Sacramento Valley and Bay Area with sojourns in some of the beautiful parts of our state.

Living in California for over 60 years he couldn't help but watch the way things have changed in our culture and the impact this coast makes on the rest of America and the world. So even though Boy On The Beach is fiction, like most serious novels, it is not without a context and comment on issues we all face in our changing world. It takes place in real locations that are very familiar to him and its characters, which are fictional, no doubt have their counterparts in the real world. Boy On The Beach is a story of intrigue, suspense, revenge, love and redemption with flashbacks to the era when sex, drugs and rock and roll set our culture on it's inevitable journey to our present day. This idea has been rattling around in his heart and mind for a decade and it's finally coming to the page.

Connect with the author: Website ~ Twitter ~ Facebook ~ Instagram

Enter the Giveaway!

Win a print or ebook copy of Boy on the Beach by R.D. Maddux (print for USA only, open internationally for ebook and GC - 5 winners will also get a $15 or $10 Amazon GC - 7 winners total)
Ends Aug 25, 2018

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Giveaway listed @ Stephanie Jane!

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Identity Unknown by Karolina Wojciak

Identity Unknown by Karolina Wojciak
Published by Rozpisani in Polish as Tożsamość nieznana in Poland in June 2017. English language translation by Anna Basara published by Karolina Wojciak in February 2018.

Featured in Cover Characteristics: Blood and WorldReads: Poland

How I got this book:
Received a review copy from the publisher via NetGalley

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Where to buy this book:

	The Book Depository
	Wordery
	Waterstones (unavailable)
	Amazon

WARNING: This story contains graphic content that may be disturbing to some readers, reader discretion is advised.

The bestselling novel by Polish author Karolina Wojciak is now available in English. Two contrasting but mysterious, twisted and touching stories about love, sacrifice and second chances.

After the tragic death of his mother, sixteen-year-old Krystian lives in poverty in Warsaw, Poland, with his violent, alcoholic father. Their fights grow more intense until finally his father throws him out. Homeless and fighting for survival, Krystian has to put aside his sensitive nature and become a criminal.

Lena, after a freshman year spent away from home, returns to the seaside town of Sopot between semesters, convinced that it will be another boring summer with her despotic father, a powerful lawyer. Instead, new friends show her what it feels like to make her own choices.

Can Krystian escape his difficult start in life? Will Lena choose her family or her freedom? Do youthful mistakes mean there’s no chance for a good life?

I didn't realise until I came to write up this review that Identity Unknown is self-published. I love the cover art which is what first attracted me to the novel, and the whole publication is very professional. What let this book down for me though is, unfortunately, Wojciak's writing style. One the one hand, this is a thriller so I expected lots of action which we do get, however I also wanted at least a little description and this is almost completely absent.For example, I have no idea what most of the locations looked like. I also struggled to understand much of the main characters motivation. Identity Unknown is written from three points of view, with two of these - Krystian and Lena - taking it in turns to speak directly to us for the majority of the story. Lena is a spoilt, bratty rich teenager who frequently irritated me with her entitled attitude and complete lack of empathy. Krystian is harder to pin down. He finds himself drawn to a criminal life but, even despite his own experience, seems not to have any understanding of the consequences of his actions. In a lot of ways, I found both as exasperating as each other!

The narrative keeps up a good pace throughout so I easily read the whole book in an afternoon. This isn't an especially pleasant read, but it did keep my attention. There are lots of violent scenes including rapes and child abuse, most of which aren't graphically described but the callousness of most of the characters does make such episodes difficult to stomach. I didn't like the flippant way violence, particularly sexual violence, was often dismissed and grossly sexist remarks don't seem to warrant notice. If I had been reading a fifty-year-old novel, I could have perhaps have understood such attitudes, but instead I felt quite angry. For example, at one point a young girl has been repeatedly sexually assaulted. We learn that she will be put into foster care, at which point Kristian sees fit to tell us that she will get therapy so everything will be okay and that's that. Subject changed!

I think people who like pacy action stories and aren't prone to asking 'how' or 'why' as they read will probably enjoy Identity Unknown. Despite the violence, it is very readable - up until the point where the two stories intersect anyway (After that it does get less believable). I wanted more details though, especially regarding why Krystian and Lena behaved as they did. There's a lot of telling in this book, but not much in the way of showing or explaining so I'd advise  potential readers to go along for the ride, and read fast enough that you don't find yourself questioning the whys!


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The Girl In The Gallery by Alice Castle + #Giveaway

The Girl In The Gallery by Alice Castle
Published in the UK by Crooked Cat Books in December 2017.

Where to buy this book:

	The Book Depository : from £6.49 (PB)
	Wordery : from £7.63 (PB)
	Waterstones : unavailable
	Amazon : from $1.30 / £0.99 (ebook)
Prices and availability may have changed since this post was written

Add The Girl In The Gallery to your Goodreads

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to Dulwich…
It’s a perfect summer’s morning in the plush south London suburb, and thirty-something Beth Haldane has sneaked off to visit one of her favourite places, the world-famous Picture Gallery. 

She’s enjoying a few moments’ respite from juggling her job at prestigious private school Wyatt’s and her role as single mum to little boy Ben, when she stumbles across a shocking new exhibit on display. Before she knows it, she’s in the thick of a fresh, and deeply chilling, investigation. 

Who is The Girl in the Gallery? Join Beth in adventure #2 of the London Murder Mystery series as she tries to discover the truth about a secret eating away at the very heart of Dulwich. 

I appreciated being able to return to Beth Haldane's Dulwich in this second volume of the London Murder Mysteries. Alice Castle again vividly evokes the affluent and entitled 'village' with its cliques and fashions. Characters such as Belinda - who must always be at the very centre of everything - are fun to read about although in this story a similarly self-proclaimed arbiter of taste performs a much more cynical function. I like how Castle engineers her stories to show both sides of a coin. The Girl In The Gallery has social media as both a benefit and an evil. The way in which the teenage group that are the story's focus are manipulated reminded me very much of another recent read - H A Leuschel's Manipulated Lives - and it was scary to see again just how vulnerable people can make themselves simply for the sake of fitting with the In Crowd.

I didn't feel that the murder plot here was quite as strong as for Death In Dulwich and I would have liked more believable policing from Harry Yorke. His role as Beth's romantic interest is still cute but I did wonder at some of his professional decisions! There were perhaps too many convenient coincidences for my taste, but overall The Girl In The Gallery is an entertaining story with a great sense of place.

Meet the author:

Before turning to crime, Alice Castle was a UK newspaper journalist for The Daily Express, The Times and The Daily Telegraph. Her first book, Hot Chocolate, set in Brussels and London, was a European hit and sold out in two weeks.

Death in Dulwich was published in September 2017 and has been a number one best-seller in the UK, US, Canada, France, Spain and Germany. A sequel, The Girl in the Gallery was published in December 2017 to critical acclaim. Calamity in Camberwell, the third book in the London Murder Mystery series, will be published this summer, with Homicide in Herne Hill due to follow in early 2019.  Alice is currently working on the fifth London Murder Mystery adventure. Once again, it will feature Beth Haldane and DI Harry York.

Alice is also a mummy blogger and book reviewer.

Author links: 
Website ~ Facebook ~ Twitter


And now for the Giveaway!

Win signed copies of Death in Dulwich and The Girl in the Gallery (UK Only).
Ends 30th July 2018.

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Giveaway listed @ Stephanie Jane!

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Lightness by Catherine Meurisse

Lightness by Catherine Meurisse
First published in French as La Legerete by Dargaud in France in 2016. English language translation by James Hogan and Matt Madden published by Europe Comics in June 2018.

How I got this book:
Received a review copy from the publisher via NetGalley

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Where to buy this book:

	The Book Depository : unavailable
	Wordery : unavailable
	Waterstones : unavailable
	Amazon : from £8.99 (ebook)
Prices and availability may have changed since this post was written

In the aftermath of the murderous attack on the Charlie Hebdo offices on January 7, 2015, cartoonist Catherine Meurisse struggles with the trauma of losing her friends and looks for a way to move forward with her life and her art. She soon enters a dissociative state where she loses her memories, especially those associated with esthetic experiences. This leads her on a quest to seek beauty and lightness in the world around her with the help of guiding lights including Proust, Stendhal, Baudelaire, and two provocative graffiti artists. Throughout the book, Meurisse uses her limber cartooning and dynamic writing to weave a tapestry of raw emotion and philosophical reflection laced with a strain of wry humor.

I vividly remember the proliferation of 'Je Suis Charlie' in the months immediately following the massacre at the Charlie Hebdo magazine offices and still sometimes spot the slogan as we travel in France. For those of us not directly affected, life has moved on. Catherine Meurisse however, would probably have been killed in her Charlie Hebdo offices on that day had it not been for the chance combination of oversleeping and a missed bus. In this graphic novel memoir, she shows us her immediate shock and her lengthy process of attempting to come to terms with both the loss of her long-time colleagues and her own survival.

At the beginning of Lightness, I was disappointed by the simplistic cartoon self-portraits of Catherine. I hadn't seen any of her work before so was expecting a richer style - more common to graphic novels - rather than that of a newspaper cartoon. As the story progresses, I felt the flexibility of this simple style did suit the tale especially when it contrasts with detailed representations of classic artworks or embellished with colour sweeps that beautifully evoke the natural world.

Lightness is a memoir about struggling through grief so it is never a light read, even though there is humour dotted through its pages. Meurisse drew me into her experiences and I felt more emotionally involved than I had expected. Where I felt disconnected though was in a lack of knowledge about classic literature and art. I haven't (yet!) read Proust or Stendhal and I am not sure if I have ever studied a Caravaggio painting either. I understood how these works were vital to Catherine's personal journey and recovery, but did find myself distanced her memoir at those points. I think Lightness is an important addition to our understanding of survivors' experiences, especially in this genre where it is likely to appeal to people who might not read a traditionally written memoir.


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He Kills Coppers by Jake Arnott

He Kills Coppers by Jake Arnott
Published in the UK by Sceptre in January 2001.

How I got this book:
Borrowed from my partner

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Where to buy this book:

	The Book Depository : from £8.99 (PB)
	Wordery : from £7.63 (PB)
	Waterstones : from £7.99 (PB)
	Amazon : from $2.99 / £0.01 (used PB)
Prices and availability may have changed since this post was written

During the long hot summer of 1966, a senseless murder shocks the nation and brings the World Cup euphoria to an abrupt end. Yet it marks a beginning for three men, who are inextricably linked to the crime and its consequences: an ambitious detective struggling with his conscience; a tabloid journalist with a nose for a nasty story; and a disaffected thief, haunted by his violent past.

Spanning three decades of profound social change, this gripping novel explores corruption on both sides of the law and at the very heart of the state.

(I read this book in Dec 2014.) I loved both The House of Rumour and The Long Firm by Jake Arnott and so had high hopes for He Kills Coppers. Unfortunately I was disappointed. The novel has a similar London underworld setting to The Long Firm and a few characters make cameo appearances, otherwise it could have been written by a completely different author. The claustrophobic atmosphere of the previous book is absent as mostly are Arnott's descriptions and interesting characterizations. Two main characters, a journalist and a policeman, take turns speaking through first-person viewpoints but their voices are so similarly portrayed that I frequently had trouble trying to distinguish which was which. Much of their language is incredibly hackneyed and there are a lot of unexplained acronyms and jargon words that don't add authenticity, merely irritation. There is also a third-person viewpoint of a murderer on the run. His odd actions are often not really explained so it was difficult to try and build up any sense of him as a person.

He Kills Coppers is a particularly blokey book I think. Attempts at atmosphere and describing emotion are haphazard and often missing altogether leaving the emphasis on action alone. Therefore during later chapters where not much happens, it all got a bit dull. I also noticed spelling and typo errors increasing towards the end of the novel suggesting that perhaps the proof reader had gotten bored by then as well!

Apparently the overall story arc is based on true events - I haven't googled to confirm this - but, if so, the blend of imagination and realism that Arnott pulled off so well before just didn't work for me this time around.


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May We Be Forgiven by A M Homes

May We Be Forgiven by A M Homes
Published in the UK by Granta in October 2012.

How I got this book:
Borrowed from my partner

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Where to buy this book:

	The Book Depository : from £7.71 (PB)
	Wordery : from £8.99 (PB)
	Waterstones : from £8.99 (PB)
	Amazon : from $1.00 / £0.01 (used PB)
Prices and availability may have changed since this post was written

Harry is a Richard Nixon scholar who leads a quiet, regular life; his brother George is a high-flying TV producer, with a murderous temper. They have been uneasy rivals since childhood. Then one day George loses control so extravagantly that he precipitates Harry into an entirely new life.

In May We Be Forgiven, Homes gives us a darkly comic look at 21st century domestic life - at individual lives spiraling out of control, bound together by family and history.The cast of characters experience adultery, accidents, divorce, and death. But this is also a savage and dizzyingly inventive vision of contemporary America, whose dark heart Homes penetrates like no other writer - the strange jargons of its language, its passive aggressive institutions, its inhabitants' desperate craving for intimacy and their pushing it away with litigation, technology, paranoia. At the novel's core are the spaces in between, where the modern family comes together to re-form itself. May We Be Forgiven explores contemporary orphans losing and finding themselves anew; and it speaks above all to the power of personal transformation - simultaneously terrifying and inspiring.

(I read this book in Dec 2014.) I have awarded May We Be Forgiven three stars overall, but I would actually like to give the first half four stars and the second half just two. Initially the novel is a pretty fast paced descent into horror as our narrator, Harold Silver, finds himself in a family maelstrom caused by his own adultery with his brother's wife and the extreme violence that this unleashes. I enjoyed the drama and pace of these first 250 or so pages. There are darkly humorous passages and the bewilderment of our hero is both real and poignant as he attempts to repair his own life and that of his nephew and niece.

After around about the half way point though, the novel takes a bizarre shift into a surreal fantasy world which sees the introduction of international terrorism, swathes of Nixon-era political blathering, and the sort of saccharine-sweet schmaltz that the Americans can do so well but which I absolutely loathe! Logical plot progression is thrown out the window in favour of stereotyped flat characters and choreographed set pieces that don't bear much relation to each other. Our hero suddenly becomes apparently irresistible to women, patronises both needy American immigrants and South African villagers by throwing vast sums of cash at both, and finds time to adopt an extra child and an elderly couple. The pre-teen nephew and niece seem to mature by at least a decade in a couple of months and there's a lot of description of bodily functions, mostly diarrhoea and belching, but with a truly cringe-inducing phone call about a tampon. I can only think that it's all meant to be funny in a kind of Sex And The City 2 fashion. It isn't.

A very odd book that's about twice as long as is good for it.


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Hold by Michael Donkor

Hold by Michael Donkor
Published in the UK by Fourth Estate on the 12th July 2018.

How I got this book:
Received a review copy from the publisher via NetGalley

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Where to buy this book:

	The Book Depository : from £8.94 (HB)
	Wordery : from £10.34 (HB)
	Waterstones : from £10.99 (HB)
	Amazon : from $4.79 / £3.94 (used HB)
Prices and availability may have changed since this post was written

Moving between Ghana and London, Hold is an intimate, powerful coming-of-age novel. It’s a story of friendship and family, shame and forgiveness; of learning what we should cling to, and when we need to let go.

‘You have to imagine. That’s how I told myself.’
‘Imagine what?’
‘Imagine that you are the kind of girl that can cope with it, even if you are not.’

Belinda knows how to follow the rules. She has learnt the right way to polish water glasses, to wash and fold a hundred handkerchiefs, and to keep a tight lid on memories of the village she left behind when she came to Kumasi to be a housegirl.

Mary is still learning the rules. Eleven years old and irrepressible, the young housegirl-in-training is the little sister Belinda never had.

Amma has had enough of the rules. A straight-A pupil at her exclusive South-London school, she has always been the pride of her Ghanaian parents. Until now. Watching their once-confident teenager grow sullen and wayward, they decide that sensible Belinda might be just the shining example Amma needs.

So Belinda is summoned from Ghana to London, to befriend a troubled girl who shows no desire for her friendship. She encounters a city as bewildering as it is exciting, and as she tries to impose order on her unsettling new world, Belinda’s phonecalls back home to Mary become a lifeline.

As the Brixton summer turns to autumn, Belinda and Amma are surprised to discover the beginnings of an unexpected kinship. But when the cracks in their defences open up, the secrets they have both been holding tight to threaten to seep out.

Hold is a difficult book for me to review because there are some aspects of it that I absolutely loved, but other aspects that didn't work for me at all. It is a novel in three sections - two set in Ghana with a London section in between. I loved Michael Donkor's depictions of both locations. Each is vivid and exciting and we get to see, hear and even smell Daban and Brixton. The linking character, Belinda, is new to each place so I liked the details she observes and the glaring contrasts, especially her shock at how successful Ghanaians live in London compared to their lives 'back home'. Donkor scatters Ghanaian expressions and phrases throughout the story - there's  glossary at the front - which strongly adds to the authenticity.

I was interested to note that the majority of Donkor's characters are female - and believably female at that - which is unusual for a male author. Belinda especially is wonderfully complex. She has had to learn quiet repression as her survival strategy and struggles to impart this lesson to either exhuberant Mary or westernised Amma. I wasn't convinced by the idea that two teenagers from such different backgrounds and temperaments would gel so deeply and so swiftly so the intense denouement of their coming together felt forced to me although I could see why it was portrayed in this way. I didn't like the open-endedness of the stories either. To me, Hold felt like it left important ideas unresolved, for two of the three girls anyway. Donkor cleverly explores ideas of belonging and identity, but then leaves his characters seemingly stranded without giving readers a sense of conclusion. I appreciated being able to share in their physical and emotional journeys, but need to know what happened next!


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Books by Michael Donkor / Contemporary fiction / Books from England

The Collision Of Grief And Gratitude by Rosanne Liesveld + #Giveaway

The Collision of Grief and Gratitude: A Pursuit of Sacred Light by Rosanne Liesveld

Category: Adult Non-fiction, 468 pages
Genre: Self-Help, Death & Grief, Grief & Bereavement
Publisher: Illuminatio Press
Release date: May 16, 2017
Tour dates: July 16 to Aug 10, 2018
Content Rating: PG (The subject of loss is explored and some of the emotions may be too raw for young children.)

Where to buy this book:

	The Book Depository : unavailable
	Wordery : unavailable
	Waterstones : unavailable
	Amazon : from $32.95 / £57.01 (HB)
Prices and availability may have changed since this post was written

Add The Collision Of Grief And Gratitude to your Goodreads

Day 209
"And so each day goes; the grief and the gratitude fighting for the bigger spot in my heart. The tug of war between these emotions exhausts me most days. If you see me in the grief mode, you'll think I'm a wreck. But if you see me in gratitude mode, you'll think I m doing well. Neither is 100 percent true. I am what I am most days, leaning toward finding more gratitude than grief as the days turn into weeks and the weeks into months."

After the unexpected death of her husband, Rosanne Liesveld felt a desperate need to communicate gratitude to those who helped her through the shock that death left in its wake. The day of Curt's funeral, Rosanne wrote a Facebook post expressing how, in the midst of profound grief, she found a space in her heart for gratitude. The next day, she wrote another post; then another.

Rosanne's daily posts throughout her first year of widowhood attracted hundreds to follow along on her journey. Her words inspired those who were not only grieving in some way, but those who wanted to build stronger relationships or live life with more intention and gratitude. It was messy. It was raw. And it was healing.

Rosanne's posts have been compiled into this 366-day journey and are accompanied by beautiful photos taken by Curt.

To follow the tour, please visit Rosanne Liesveld's page on iRead Book Tours.

Meet the Author:

After the unexpected death of her husband, Curt, Rosanne Liesveld went on a year-long quest to find a glimmer of gratitude each day. She posted her daily journey on Facebook. Those posts become her book, The Collision of Grief and Gratitude: A Pursuit of Sacred Light.

As a coach and teacher for more than thirty years with the Gallup Organization, Rosanne has helped people discover and lean into their strengths. She now speaks to groups about how to build stronger relationships, and live life with more intention and gratitude.

Connect with the author: Facebook

Enter the Giveaway!

Win a paperback copy of The Collision of Grief and Gratitude
(3 winners / open to USA only)
Ends Aug 18, 2018

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Giveaway listed @ Stephanie Jane!

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Notes From A Big Country by Bill Bryson

Notes From A Big Country by Bill Bryson
Published in the UK by Doubleday in November 1998.

Featured in Cover Characteristics: Aeroplanes

How I got this book:
Borrowed from my partner

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Where to buy this book:

	The Book Depository : from £6.99 (PB)
	Wordery : from £6.97 (PB)
	Waterstones : from £6.99 (PB)
	Amazon : from $0.03 / £1.01 (used HB)
Prices and availability may have changed since this post was written

Bill Bryson has the rare knack of being out of his depth wherever he goes - even (perhaps especially) in the land of his birth. This became all too apparent when, after nearly two decades in England, the world's best-loved travel writer upped sticks with Mrs Bryson, little Jimmy et al. and returned to live in the country he had left as a youth.

Of course there were things Bryson missed about Blighty but any sense of loss was countered by the joy of rediscovering some of the forgotten treasures of his childhood: the glories of a New England autumn; the pleasingly comical sight of oneself in shorts; and motel rooms where you can generally count on being awakened in the night by a piercing shriek and the sound of a female voice pleading, 'Put the gun down, Vinnie, I'll do anything you say.'

Whether discussing the strange appeal of breakfast pizza or the jaw-slackening direness of American TV, Bill Bryson brings his inimitable brand of bemused wit to bear on that strangest of phenomena - the American way of life.

I thought Notes From A Big Country was my very first Bill Bryson book, but Goodreads tells me I had previously read At Home way back in October 2011. That was before I started reviewing everything I read and, I have discovered, if I don't write my thoughts about a particular book then my having read it often fails to lodge in my brain. Does anyone find this or is it simply a personal weirdness to me?

I'm supposed to be reading a literary novel at the moment, but it is just so hot on our campsite that I struggled to focus on it. Glancing around for an alternative, Bryson's volume of collected newspaper articles seemed to be a perfect fit for my attention span! Originally written twenty years ago, Notes From A Big Country is now a fascinating snapshot of American life at the end of the twentieth century and also, in several aspects, a prophetic glimpse of what British life would become. Articles about ridiculous displays of choice in supermarkets, creeping obesity, ubiquitous effort-saving devices that are anything but, and practically-fraudulent advertisements, all seem uncannily familiar.

I love Bryson's dry humour which frequently struck me as very unAmerican - did this develop during his British years? He is endearingly inept with a great eye for a self-depreciating tale and I often giggled out loud at his observations and mishaps. There's nothing like schadenfreude to make a Brit laugh! If your reading mojo is suffering from heat overload too, I'd recommend a few of Bryson's short essays to revive you!


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Books by Bill Bryson / Biographies and memoir / Books from America

Wilderness Tips by Margaret Atwood

Wilderness Tips by Margaret Atwood
First published in Canada by McClelland And Stewart in September 1991.

How I got this book:
Bought at the Hope Association book sale in Clussais la Pommeraie

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Where to buy this book:

	The Book Depository : from £8.99 (PB)
	Wordery : from £7.66 (PB)
	Waterstones : from £8.99 (PB)
	Amazon : from $0.50 / £2.37 (used PB)
Prices and availability may have changed since this post was written

A leathery bog-man transforms an old love affair; a sweet, gruesome gift is sent by the wife of an ex-lover; landscape paintings are haunted by the ghost of a young girl. This dazzling collection of ten short stories takes us into familiar Atwood territory to reveal the logic of irrational behaviour and the many textures lying beneath ordinary life.

I've enjoyed several Margaret Atwood novels over the years, but didn't realise she had also published short story collections until I spotted this one at a charity book sale. It was only a Euro and is even signed! Then ten stories are, as I would expect from Atwood, wonderfully well written and I enjoyed reading them all. Often I find short story collections to be a bit hit and miss, but that was absolutely not true in this case. Now, a couple of days after finishing the book, that I have come to write this review however, I realise that I can't actually remember all the stories individually. Instead, some of the storylines are memorable in their entirety - particularly True Trash, Isis In Darkness and the title story, Wilderness Tips - whereas the others for me have already receded to snapshot moments and images. I can recall the historical aspects of Age Of Lead for example, but have forgotten how it related to a present day situation. Don't let that discourage you though - this one is well worth picking up! I just needed to refer back to it to make sure I was connecting the right images with the right tales.

Atwood's imagery is frequently bizarre and unsettling - Hairball for example is essentially about a woman who displays her removed tumour in a jar. Her characters are slightly skewed versions of truth though I did appreciate her brief rant about how you know if an Englishman really cares about a woman - he'll start whinging at her because he believes he trusts her enough to reveal his inner self. That's so true!


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Death In Dulwich by Alice Castle + #Giveaway

Death In Dulwich by Alice Castle
Published in the UK by Crooked Cat Books in May 2017.


Add Death In Dulwich to your Goodreads

Thirty-something single mum Beth Haldane is forced to become Dulwich’s answer to Miss Marple when she stumbles over a murder victim on her first day at work. 

To clear her name, Beth is plunged into a cozy mystery that’s a contemporary twist on Golden Age crime classics. But can she pull it off? She already has a bouncy young son, haughty cat, a fringe with a mind of its own and lots of bills to pay, as she struggles to keep up with the yummy mummies of SE21.

Join Beth in #1 of the London Murder Mystery series, as she discovers the nastiest secrets can lurk in the nicest places.

As regular Literary Flits readers will probably have spotted, I am not a frequent reader of cosy mysteries, but I was particularly attracted by the striking monochrome and red covers of Alice Castle's London Murder Mysteries series. I'm very glad that I was! Having enthusiastically devoured Death In Dulwich during a single afternoon and evening, I am now looking forward to returning to Beth Haldane's company for The Girl In The Gallery.

Death In Dulwich owes its driving narrative to the unfortunate coincidence of Beth discovering, on her first day in her sought-after new job, that her new boss is no more. Spotting his lifeless blood-soaked body abandoned not entirely inappropriately behind a row of bins, is understandably shocking - all the more so when Beth deduces that she must be the prime suspect for his murder. I liked Beth a lot. A single parent after the untimely death of her husband several years ago, she has somehow managed to afford to continue living in genteel Dulwich while raising her cute son, Ben. Beth and Ben are refreshingly normal and I loved that Castle didn't continually direct her readers to admire some brand-name outfit or aspire to fashionable home decor items. Beth is surrounded by people for whom appearance is everything - and having visited this part of London myself I could easily envisage every aspect of Castle's wickedly accurate descriptions - but she isn't blinded by that social anxiety herself. As readers looking through her eyes we get a good outsider's view.

The story itself is exciting and engaging. I appreciated that it always remains completely believable and Castle refrains from having Beth run around in silly escapades. There's a hint of romantic attraction that, again, feels realistic and although the denouement wasn't exactly what I had foreseen - and I had changed my minnd a few times on the way there too - it was convincing and satisfying. The excellent London scene portrayals briefly put me in mind of Helen Smith's Emily Castles Mysteries series. If you like those, give Alice Castle's London Murder Mysteries a try and vice versa.

Meet the author:

Before turning to crime, Alice Castle was a UK newspaper journalist for The Daily Express, The Times and The Daily Telegraph. Her first book, Hot Chocolate, set in Brussels and London, was a European hit and sold out in two weeks.

Death in Dulwich was published in September 2017 and has been a number one best-seller in the UK, US, Canada, France, Spain and Germany. A sequel, The Girl in the Gallery was published in December 2017 to critical acclaim. Calamity in Camberwell, the third book in the London Murder Mystery series, will be published this summer, with Homicide in Herne Hill due to follow in early 2019.  Alice is currently working on the fifth London Murder Mystery adventure. Once again, it will feature Beth Haldane and DI Harry York.

Alice is also a mummy blogger and book reviewer.

Author links: 
Website ~ Facebook ~ Twitter


And now for the Giveaway!

Win signed copies of Death in Dulwich and The Girl in the Gallery (UK Only).
Ends 30th July 2018.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Giveaway listed @ Stephanie Jane!

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	Best Of Dulwich  art print by Lucy Loves This in London, England Click pic to visit Etsy Shop

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Read, Write, Love At Seaside by Addison Cole + #FreeBook

Read, Write, Love At Seaside by Addison Cole
Published in America by World Literary Press in May 2017.

Literary Flits Spotlight Giveaway Winner

Where to buy this book:

	The Book Depository : from £14.99 (PB)
	Wordery : from £10.23 (PB)
	Waterstones : unavailable
	Amazon : from $Free / £Free (ebook)
Prices and availability may have changed since this post was written

Add Read, Write, Love At Seaside to your Goodreads

Sweet with Heat: Seaside Summers features a group of fun, flirty, and emotional friends who gather each summer at their Cape Cod cottages. They're sassy, flawed, and so easy to relate to, you'll be begging to enter their circle of friends! 

Read, Write, Love at Seaside by Addison Cole is the sweet edition of New York Times bestselling author Melissa Foster's steamy romance novel Read, Write, Love. The stories and characters remain the same, and convey all of the passion you expect between two people in love, without any explicit scenes or harsh language.

In READ, WRITE, LOVE at SEASIDE...

Bestselling author Kurt Remington lives to write. He spends twelve hours a day in front of his computer, rarely leaving the seclusion of his beach-front property, where he's come to finish his latest thriller -- that is, until free-spirited Leanna Bray nearly drowns in the ocean trying to save her dog. Kurt's best-laid plans are shot to hell when he comes to their rescue. Kurt's as irritated as he is intrigued by the sexy, hot mess of a woman who lives life on a whim, forgets everything, and doesn't even know the definition of the word organized.

Leanna's come to the Cape hoping to find a fulfilling career in the jam-making business, and until she figures out her own life, a man is not on the menu. But Leanna can't get the six-two, deliciously muscled and tragically neat Kurt out of her mind. She tells herself she's just stopping by to say thank you, but the heart-warming afternoon sparks an emotional and unexpectedly sweet ride as Kurt and Leanna test the powers of Chemistry 101: Opposites Attract.

SWEET WITH HEAT: SEASIDE SUMMERS SERIES

Read, Write, Love at Seaside
Dreaming at Seaside
Hearts at Seaside
Sunsets at Seaside
Secrets at Seaside
Nights at Seaside
Seized by Love at Seaside
Embraced at Seaside
Lovers at Seaside
Whispers at Seaside

Meet The Author

Addison Cole is the sweet alter ego of New York Times and USA Today bestselling and award-winning author Melissa Foster. She writes humorous and emotional sweet contemporary romance. Her books do not include explicit sex scenes or harsh language. Addison spends her summers on Cape Cod, where she dreams up wonderful love stories in her house overlooking Cape Cod Bay.

Addison enjoys discussing her books with book clubs and reader groups and welcomes an invitation to your event.

Visit Addison Cole's website


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Books by Addison Cole / Romance fiction / Books from America

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
Published in America by Shaye Areheart Books on September 26, 2006.

How I got this book:
Borrowed from my partner

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


When two girls are abducted and killed in Missouri, journalist Camille Preaker is sent back to her home town to report on the crimes. Long-haunted by a childhood tragedy and estranged from her mother for years, Camille suddenly finds herself installed once again in her family's mansion, reacquainting herself with her distant mother and the half-sister she barely knows - a precocious 13-year-old who holds a disquieting grip on the town.

As Camille works to uncover the truth about these violent crimes, she finds herself identifying with the young victims - a bit too strongly. Clues keep leading to dead ends, forcing Camille to unravel the psychological puzzle of her own past to get at the story. Dogged by her own demons, Camille will have to confront what happened to her years before if she wants to survive this homecoming.

This review was written in November 2014 when recently having seen Gone Girl at the cinema reminded me that I still had Sharp Objects languishing unread on our Kindle. It's the third Gillian Flynn novel I read but apparently the first she wrote.

The storyline here is definitely not for the fainthearted and at points I felt quite queasy reading it. The central theme of two girls in a small town in Missouri being murdered is obviously horrific, but having read several crime thrillers over the years, I have pretty much become immune to the emotional pull of murdered young fictional women and girls. It feels bizarre writing that but so many novels start with such a death that it is almost a prerequisite. Where Sharp Objects differs is that our viewpoint into the story comes via Camille, a journalist sent back to cover the story unfolding in her hometown. Camille not only has self harmed and in plenty of detail, but leads us into the bosom of her cold, dysfunctional family as she tries to come to terms with her personal past and the death of her younger sister. The relationships within her home and trailing out across the town are cleverly included in the story, explaining why she is as she is.

I don't think Sharp Objects is as good a story as Gone Girl and it doesn't have the former's intensity, but I appreciate that they both have unusual central female characters who are damaged and bizarre, yet memorable and definitely never stereotypical.

Etsy Find!
	Sharp Objects  pin badge by Nacho Kid in Inverness, Scotland Click pic to visit Etsy Shop

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Bottled Goods by Sophie Van Llewyn

Bottled Goods by Sophie Van Llewyn
Published in the UK by Fairlight Books today, the 11th July 2018.

My Book Of The Month for July 2018!

How I got this book:
Received a review copy from the publisher via NetGalley

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Where to buy this book:

	The Book Depository : from £7.99 (PB)
	Wordery : from £7.65 (PB)
	Waterstones : from £7.99 (PB)
	Amazon : from $6.76 / £4.99 (ebook)
Prices and availability may have changed since this post was written

When Alina's brother-in-law defects to the West, she and her husband become persons of interest to the secret services, causing both of their careers to come grinding to a halt. As the strain takes its toll on their marriage, Alina turns to her aunt for help - the wife of a communist leader and a secret practitioner of the old folk ways. Set in 1970's communist Romania, this novella-in-flash draws upon magic realism to weave a tale of everyday troubles, that can't be put down.

Fairlight Moderns is a collection of short modern fictions from around the world. I was attracted by their interesting cover designs and chose Bottled Goods as my first Fairlight Modern because I haven't, I don't think, read any other books with a 1970s Romanian setting . Sophie Van Llewyn's style is unusual, but it works perfectly within the context of this novella. She writes flash fiction vignettes and scenes which are beautifully evocative and detailed and, here, they link together to tell Alina and Liviu's story. I understand that some of the flashes have been published as individual pieces and I can see that they would independently although I did like having the longer complete tale here.

Van Llewyn combines magical realism elements with all-too-real scenes to portray the stifling oppression and poverty experienced under Ceausescu's regime in Romania. Alina, as her mother repeatedly reminds her, has married beneath herself but this allows us as readers to learn about ordinary lives as well as those of the former elite. The 'bottled goods' theme recurs throughout the novella both in the context of aspirations - bottles of imported perfumes or soda drinks are only available in the restricted Western shops - and emotionally - any dissent must be bottled up to avoid attracting security police attention. Bottling also occurs magically and I do encourage you to read the novella to discover this!

Bottled Goods has dark scenes of sexual assault and torture which, while brief, are distressing to read so be aware of this content. I loved the ever-present sense of menace which steadily grows after Liviu's brother defects from Romania. Despite having had no idea of his plans, Alina and Liviu find themselves effectively being punished in his stead and the psychological strain slowly begins to destroy their marriage. I empathised strongly with these characters. Van Llewyn's prose is rich with detail without having a single unnecessary word and I felt this novella, despite its unsettling moments of course, was an absolute joy to read.


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Books by Sophie Van Llewyn / Novellas / Books from Romania