Novelicious.com | The Women's Fiction Blog for Readers and Writers

Review - Every Vow You Break by Julia Crouch

REVIEWED BY DEBS CARR

The book begins with the Wayland family arriving in Trout Island in upstate New York. They're on their way to take up residence in a rented house for the six-week summer break where Marcus Wayland, a mediocre actor and father of the teenage twins, Bella and Olly and their younger brother Jack, is to take on the lead in a small theatre production. His wife Lara is recovering from an abortion that Marcus persuaded her to have and mentally and physically she’s still reeling from allowing herself to be talked into something she didn't want to do. She’s hoping that this sojourn away from their home in Brighton will allow her time to find a way to learn to love her husband once again.

Unfortunately the house the theatre company finds for them is filthy. Thick dust pervades the air and the the rancid smell in the house that Lara can't quite trace makes her feel ill. Lara resents that little or no preparation has been carried out for their arrival and soon starts to regret her decision to move her family to the States for the summer.

You can’t miss the dust in this book, it swirls around the family like an underlying malevolence. Each member of the family tries with differing dedication to settle in to their new neighbourhood and temporary lifestyle. The heat, seemingly vacant neighbourhood, and the mysterious woman who makes crude gestures to Lara and Bella as she almost mows them down with her car gives you a creeping sensation that an invisible danger is lurking around the next corner.  Lara makes unwelcome discoveries in her home and Bella falls in love, while Olly tests his mother’s patience with his integration with the local louts and his return to bad habits. Only Marcus seems oblivious to any discourse as he studies his lines and rejoices in his lead role.

Review - Revenge of the Tide by Elizabeth Haynes

REVIEWED BY DEBS CARR

Genevieve is enjoying every moment of her new life on the barge that she bought with her hard earned savings. Months before she walked away from her two jobs, salesperson by day and pole dancer at the Barclay Club by night. Dylan, a minder from the club, gave Genevieve a mysterious package and paid her to hide it somewhere safe. He also gave her a mobile phone and told her never to call him, but to wait for him to make contact with her when he would let her know what to do next. She’s losing patience and is beginning to feel uneasy about the package stashed in a box with a false bottom that she’s marked Kitchen Utensils.

 

Since leaving London behind to work on the refurbishment of her new home, she’s slowly begins to move on from everything that happened in her past. One night, she invites some friends, old and new to a party, but after they’ve all gone she’s woken by a thumping sound on the side of her boat. Going out to investigate, she discovers the murdered body of one of the other lap dancers from club.  It’s then that Genevieve suspects that her past is catching up with her and she has no idea what to do about it.

Review - Never Coming Home by Evonne Wareham

REVIEWED BY DEBS CARR

All she has left is hope. When Kaz Elmore is told her five-year-old daughter Jamie has died in a car crash, she struggles to accept that she’ll never see her little girl again. Then a stranger comes into her life offering the most dangerous substance in the world: hope. Devlin, security consultant and witness to the terrible accident scene, inadvertently reveals that Kaz’s daughter might not have been the girl in the car after all. What if Jamie is still alive? With no evidence, the police aren’t interested, so Devlin and Kaz have little choice but to investigate themselves. Devlin never gets involved with a client. Never. But the more time he spends with Kaz, the more he desires her – and the more his carefully constructed ice-man persona starts to unravel. The desperate search for Jamie leads down dangerous paths – to a murderous acquaintance from Devlin’s dark past, and all across Europe, to Italy, where deadly secrets await. But as long as Kaz has hope, she can’t stop looking…

Devlin and Kaz can’t help their mutual attraction for each other. There is so much about him he can’t tell her and the more she discovers the less she seems to know. His past is not something he discusses with people and as Kaz slowly learns more about the man she’s trusting to help her, she has to decide if she can hold this knowledge against him. She also has secrets from her past that quickly catch up with them both and as the two realize just how much danger they’re in, each has to make decisions about their own lives and what they’re getting into.

Devlin is a darker character than usual for Choc Lit heroes, but exciting, exuding danger and very attractive. Despite his need to protect Kaz, he also wants to be as honest with her as he can possibly allow himself to be. What starts out as a problem she’s paying him resolve, turns into a cat and mouse chase across Europe and USA where no one seems to be safe from the underworld the threatens to swallow them whole.

I began the novel thinking it was an enjoyable romantic tale, only to quickly discover that this story gets darker and more tense as you read on. It’s violent, but realistic and thoroughly satisfying. Devlin is everything you want in a hero, flawed, but tough, resilient and above all, sexy. Loved it.

8/10

Never Coming Home is published by Choc Lit Publishers and as this review is part of the 'Wispa It ...' blog tour they're offering a free copy of the book together with a Wispa to one lucky winner. Please leave a 'Pick Me' comment below to be in with a chance of winning. Winners will be announced next Thursday.

You can find out more about Evonne Wareham on her blog and follow her on Twitter @evonnewareham

Review - The Hanging Shed by Gordon Ferris

REVIEWED BY DEBS CARR

Glasgow 1946. The last time Brodie came home it was 1942 and he was a proud young man in a paratrooper's uniform. Now, the war is over but victory's wine has soured and Brodie's back in Scotland to try and save childhood friend Shug Donovan from the gallows. Everyone thought Donovan was dead, shot down in the war. Perhaps it would have been kinder if he had been killed. The man who returns from the war is unrecognisable: mutilated, horribly burned. Donovan keeps his own company, only venturing out for heroin to deaden the pain of his wounds. When a local boy is found raped and murdered, there is only one suspect. Donovan claims he's innocent but a mountain of evidence says otherwise. Despite the hideousness of the crime, ex-policeman Brodie feels compelled to try and help his one time friend. Working with advocate Samantha Campbell, Brodie trawls the mean streets of the Gorbals and the green hills of western Scotland in their search for the truth. What they find is an unholy alliance of troublesome priests, corrupt coppers and Glasgow's deadliest razor gang, happy to slaughter to protect their dark and dirty secrets. As time runs out for the condemned man, and the tally of murdered innocents rises, Brodie reverts to his wartime role as a trained killer. It's them or him.

This dark, brutal story shows Doug Brodie working as a journalist until his nemesis, Shug Donovan, calls him, asking for his help. I loved the vivid descriptions of the Gorbals in the 1940s where nothing seemed easy and life could be one long struggle. Brodie reluctantly returns to his childhood home where long-buried emotional wounds are re-opened and where he discovers that he has to be the bigger man if he’s going to help someone he’s resented for years. This book reminded me of black and white film noirs of the 1940s, it was dramatic, fast-paced and at times exceedingly violent, but somehow it all seemed to fit well into the story. It’s not an easy ride and you certainly don’t get what you assume will be the outcome, which was a little shocking at first and then ultimately very satisfying.

This story depicts a past that I know nothing about, but one which nonetheless fascinates me. I can imagine that this is one of those books that you either love or hate and for me it was the former. I enjoyed the tense discomfort endured by the protagonist and the way he had to work tirelessly with only Sam on his side. Her upbringing is completely different to Brodie's, but she's also had to put tragedy behind her to fight for what she wants out of life. This book shows a stark cruelty that people can be capable of towards others less fortunate, or at least different to themselves. There are quite a few shocks along the way, some I guessed and others I didn’t see coming. I’ll definitely read any future Gordon Ferris books.

8/10

You can find out more about Gordon Ferris on his website here.

Review - There's Always Tomorrow by Pam Weaver

REVIEWED BY DEBS CARR

It doesn’t seem to matter what Dottie does, or how devoted she is to her husband, Reg, she never manages to please him. Reg isn’t the same man she married. He’s changed by his terrible experiences during World War II and far from being the kind, loving husband she remembers, he’s now violent and spiteful. Dottie has been brought up by an aunt who taught her that you have to find a way to live with your choices and marriages are supposed to be worked at and not given up on.

Desperate for a baby, Dottie knows that she is never going to experience motherhood with her relationship the way it is with Reg. One day Reg receives a letter and Dottie learns that he has fathered a child during the war. Reg decides to take on his newly orphaned daughter and whether Dottie likes it or not, she is forced to accept his eight-year-old child into her home. Things don’t turn out how Reg expects them to and it soon dawns on Dottie that the care of this child is going to be down to her. There are many aspects to Reg’s nature that she is oblivious to and as time goes on Dottie realizes that the man she thought she married is capable of cruelty she could never have imagined.

Review - The Apothecary's Daughter by Charlotte Betts

REVIEWED BY DEBS CARR        

It’s 1665 and Susannah Leyton quietly works behind the scenes in her father’s apothecary shop in Fleet Street. She would love to be a recognized apothecary like her father, but the idea of a woman doing something so outrageous makes this dream an impossibility. Susannah likes nothing better than trying out new concoctions from the vast array of ingredients her father stores in his shop. Her mother died tragically years before giving birth to Susannah’s brother and since witnessing that horror, she’s always insisted that she doesn’t wish to marry, but is happy spending the rest of her life working with her father.

One day, Dr William Ambrose, a serious, unsmiling man, comes into the shop and asks to speak to her father. Susannah explains that he’s out and when Dr Ambrose tells her he urgently requires a potion for one of his patients, she offers to make it. He is not impressed with the notion and Susannah can’t help feeling insulted by his abrupt reaction. 

 Susannah’s orderly life is changes beyond recognition when her father falls in love with a young widow and marries her. Abigail and Susannah soon fall out when Abigail starts ordering Susannah around and expecting her to look after her three young stepsiblings. The two women become increasingly antagonistic towards each other, upsetting Susannah’s father, who, much to her distress, takes the side of his spoilt, lazy, bride.

Review - The Fall by Claire McGowan

REVIEWED BY DEBS CARR   

Charlotte arrives home to the minimalist, tastefully decorated Belsize apartment she shares with her handsome, banker fiancé, Dan. She might look immaculate with her shiny, blonde hair and perfectly manicured nails, but she’s stressed out from phone calls about her wedding the following week. The last thing she needs to do is go out that night, but when Dan tells her there’s problems at the bank and suggests going out to a Jamaican club in Kingston Town for some fun, she reluctantly agrees.

Dan offers Charlotte cocaine and for the first time in her life she accepts it. Their evening doesn't go well and Dan angrily confronts the owner, Anthony, when he laughs at him and tells him that Dan’s business card has been cancelled and he has to pay for his drinks. 

Keisha Collins has a very different life to the one Charlotte enjoys. She lives in a run-down, rented flat with her temperamental boyfriend, Chris Deans. Chris is her daughter, Ruby’s, father and also the reason the little girl has been taken from Keisha. She wants her daughter back, but has loved Chris since she first saw him at school when she was twelve and can't imagine her life without him in it. Thankfully, Ruby is being looked after by her mum, Mercy, so Keisha can visit her and knows she’s well loved and properly cared for.

Novelicious Chats To...Louise Voss and Mark Edwards

INTERVIEWED BY CESCA MARTIN

Wannabe writers might already have heard of this duo.  They chose to self-publish their thriller books and they soared up the Kindle charts earning them critical acclaim and an enormous amount of publicity.

Sam Copeland, an agent at RCW, saw their potential, offered to represent them and HarperCollins then offered them a publication deal.  Sam says, ‘I’m hugely excited to represent Mark and Louise. Apart from being a delight to work with, together they are a frighteningly talented pair of writers. Their books are breathlessly paced and unputdownable, and with a hugely enthusiastic team behind them at Harper Collins, there really should be not stopping them’.

Read their fascinating story here…

You write together.  That must be stressful, wonderful, intense, exhausting...  So how did you two meet?

I love the story of how we met - about 13 years ago I watched a BBC documentary about aspiring writers and was glued to the tales of their struggles and successes. Like one of the featured writers, a certain Mark Edwards,  I too had written a couple of (in fairness, not very good) manuscripts and managed to snag an agent, but was getting rejections from publishers. Mark’s experiences so resonated with me, and his burning desire to be a writer shone through so strongly, that I couldn’t resist writing him a brief email to wish him luck, via his agent.  It was a very out of character thing for me to do, but I’ve never regretted it - Mark wrote back, and we immediately struck up an email correspondence, discussing our respective works-in-progress.  We didn’t meet for at least 18 months as we lived a long way away from one another.  Eventually I invited Mark to one of my birthday parties, and we were both relieved that we got on as well in person as we did via email. Soon after that, we decided to write something together.  He then promptly moved to Japan for a year, so Killing Cupid was written entirely by email across two continents!

We’ve almost finished our third novel together now and, yes, it’s wonderful, and intense, in a good way.  But I would say it’s a whole lot less stressful and exhausting than being on a deadline for a solo novel, though.  You have someone to bear 50% of the responsibility!

Review - To Love and To Cherish by Lyn Andrews

REVIEWED BY DEBS CARR   

Gloria and Betty Jenkins have a simple, but ordered life at the home they share with their mother, Sal, and father, Harry, in 1920s Liverpool. Harry is away at sea for months at a time as Chief Steward on the SS Amazonia. Whenever he arrives back in Liverpool the family host an extravagant party for their neighbours and Harry’s sister and her husband. Harry has a good job and is proud to show those around him that his family want for nothing.

When the next-door neighbour dies leaving a young daughter, Rose, alone with no family, Sal takes her in. Rose's old home is soon rented by a new family and when their eldest son, Alfie, notices Gloria, it’s not long before the two begin courting.

However, Harry listens when his pretentious sister insists that Gloria can do far better than end up with Alfie. She asks Gloria to join her on a transatlantic trip to New York and it’s during the voyage that Gloria meets and falls in love with Grant, a wealthy New Yorker. On the last day of her trip, Grant asks Gloria to marry him and much to her aunt's delight, she accepts.

Harry is thrilled that his daughter will be mixing with high society and enjoying wealth his own wife could never imagine. As Gloria and Grant bid farewell to her family, no one can imagine the future she has to look forward to. Artie is left heart-broken, but knows he can't compete with someone as sophisticated and wealthy as Grant. Betty decides that she wants to follow her father's example and go to sea, but she has to wait until she's eighteen before she can follow her dream. Gloria loves her new life and her husband ensures she has everything she could wish for, that is until 1929 when the stock market crashes and everything changes for them all.

Lyn Andrews has written many wonderful books and this story was everything I’d hoped it would be. From the difficulties of living in 1920s Liverpool to the excitement of New York high society, it brings the characters and places to life beautifully.

8/10

You can find out more about Lyn Andrews here and buy a copy of her book here and here.

Review - The Courtesan's Lover by Gabrielle Kimm

REVIEWED BY DEBS CARR

It’s 1564 and Francesca Felizzi, a beautiful and talented courtesan, entertains her patrons in one of the two homes she owns in Naples. Her loyal servant, Modesto, a castrato, sits outside her bedroom door ready to defend her should it be necessary. He is determined that a repetition of the violence that Francesca endured from a previous patron that left her scarred both physically and emotionally, will never happen again.

Francesca writes about her encounters and any information she gleans from the men who visit her into a journal she calls, The Book of Encounters. Modesto insists that this is her insurance for the future should she ever need it. Her patrons are not allowed to visit her at the home she shares with her beautiful twin daughters and Modesto, and it’s here that she is able to enjoy precious time alone with them.

Francesca is popular and expensive, her clothes are exquisite and her lifestyle lavish, but it’s only when, Gianni, a shy, virgin, is sent to her by his brother and friend and treats her with a sensitivity she hasn’t seen before that she realizes she’s never truly been loved. Gianni changes the way Francesca sees herself and her career and she begins to question what she wants out of life. Then, when her young daughters’ lives are threatened, Francesca knows she has to start making changes.

Review - The First Wife by Emily Barr

REVIEWED BY DEBS CARR

Lily Button has had a strange upbringing. She’s spent her teenage years looking after her grandparents and having been happy cosseted away in their cottage since they took her in when she was eight, she’s seen no reason to make any friends. Now they’re both dead, within months of each other, and she’s discovered that the cottage she assumed she’d always live in has to be sold to cover huge debts. Lily can’t imagine what her grand parents could ever have spent their money on. They always took care to live as frugally as possible, without televisions, holidays and even growing and eating their own vegetables, but despite their unextravagant way of life, she still ends up without any money, or home, and no one to turn to for help. 

She moves into the garden shed, but is eventually forced to move out and try to plan some sort of future. Lily is befriended by Al, who it turns out knows better than most what it’s like to hit rock bottom. He saves her from drastic action and through his advice she ends up taking a room in a house with a friendly family. She initially finds it strange, but gradually becomes used to the way the couple and their children live. Lily wants to go to university, but first she needs to make some money. She takes on cleaning work and her favourite job is cleaning the beautiful home of ex-soap star, Harry Summer and his beautiful wife, Sarah.

Novelicious Chats To...Victoria Fox

INTERVIEWED BY CESCA MARTIN

The lovely Victoria Fox, author of the sizzling bonkbuster Hollywood Sinners, is here to get us in the festive mood. 

 I hear on the grapevine that you are being Miss Christmas this week, what is going on? 

Indeed I am! Christmas is my favourite time of year – I love the cold nights, the warm fires, the smell of satsumas (and the built-in excuse for lots of parties) – so when my publishers suggested writing a seasonal short story I jumped at the chance. Tinseltown is available on the Kindle now and the best bit is that it’s ABSOLUTELY FREE! This festive frolic follows gorgeous Brit actor Dom Judd, who’ll do anything to get out of wearing a mortifying Santa suit at the Hollywood Christmas Parade; waitress Clare who’s just been dumped and is dreading facing the big day with a broken heart – until she agrees to a gig that will change everything; and Laney Allen, fresh from winning America’s number one talent show and who is concealing a shocking secret that only Santa Claus can cure . . . It was a challenge sewing Santa and his reindeer into the glitzy bonkbuster world (is it possible to make a chortling sherry-quaffing bloke who climbs down chimneys sexy? It’s creepy when you think about it) but it was also masses of fun. I hope you enjoy it – and a happy Christmas to everyone.

What was your favourite Christmas memory when growing up? 

I was six, and I’d seen her in the John Lewis toy department a couple of months before . . . a polar bear, snow-white, in a red sleigh, and almost as big as me. I’d wanted her so much (don’t know why she was a girl: she just was), with her squidgy belly and cuddly fur, but Mum steered me away with the customary, ‘You’ve got too many soft toys already.’ But I never forgot the polar bear. Then, after lunch on Christmas Day, as full of anticipation as I was on lunch and the net of chocolate coins I’d snarfed out the foot of my stocking as soon as I’d woken up, my dad left the room. Moments later, the doorbell rang. The world outside was quiet and cold; we’d heard no crunch of gravel or no footsteps approaching. It was suggested I went to answer it, and, when I did, who should be sitting on the doorstep but my beloved polar bear, as lovely as I remembered her. I embraced her like we were long-lost friends. She’d come all the way from her sleigh in John Lewis and found a home with me. I didn’t let her go all afternoon. That was the best Christmas. 

Have you got any traditions that must be rigorously observed?

 Christmas is all about tradition: you’ve got to do it in the way you always have – because what other way is there? Each year we’ll get out the same decorations (cue tatty crafts I made with Mum when I was nine), have the same argument about the tree (my guilt over an angel whose face I chewed so she has to go on the top – not a popular choice) and everyone will get annoyed by rudimentary (by which I mean crap) carol-playing on the piano. There’s comfort in tradition, warmth in familiarity, but for me it’s something more. I’ll probably be getting that poor angel out in twenty years’ time and having an identical debate with my children, in the same way my dad sets the lunch table a particular way because that was how Christmas was when he was young. It’s all about memories re-conjured and passed down, so Christmas becomes this magic amalgamation of Decembers past and future.

Review - Watching Willow Watts by Talli Roland

REVIEWED BY DEBS CARR  

Willow Watts was happy with her life in London working as a florist at Liberty's and spending time with her handsome boyfriend, Alex. Then her mother died. Her father, Dickie becomes ill and she immediately leaves behind her dream life to return to her ugly, dull hometown of Belcherton. Discovering her father has business debts, she decides to stay and try to find a way to recoup funds to get his everything back in order.

She jokingly agrees to dress up as Marilyn for Simpson Dyer, head of the town's tourist board, who is determined to put his town on the map and generate some much needed funding for the area. He films her and superimposing a picture of Marilyn above Willow's head, he uploads the film to YouTube where it soon goes viral and she becomes a worldwide sensation. Willow/Marilyn is suddenly famous and fans start arriving in Belcherton from all over the world to see their idol's reincarnation. Jay Bellamy, a down-on-his-luck agent, immediately sees an opportunity to make money and rushes to Belcherton to persuade Willow to sign up with him. Willow falls for Jay's charm, falling out with her best friend in the process, and believes him when he insists he can make her rich. 

Novelicious Chats To...Helen Simonson

INTERVIEWED BY CESCA MARTIN

Who is the inspiration behind the central character Major Pettigrew?

When I sat down to imagine a simple story – just for me – the Major just appeared at his rose covered door, wearing his dead wife’s floral housecoat.  There are many inspirations for such a character in my own life, including my old English teacher who loved Kipling and three piece brown suits. I also have a curmudgeonly pug, Sir JJ, who has the crankiest frown but most loving heart.  I think I was trying also to take the old stereotype of an English army man (does anyone remember Colonel Mustard from Cluedo?  Dr. Who’s Brigadier? Captain Mannnering?), and peel away the layers to show that even we English are not stereotypes, but individuals to the core.

He's quite prickly, why do you think people warmed to him?

Major Pettigrew appears prickly, but underneath he is decent, fair, compassionate and, most importantly, he doesn’t go through life thinking he’s right all the time.  It has been amazing to me how many people, who have lost someone, have written to tell me how he reminds them of their own father, brother, husband... it has been a humbling experience to hear from such readers.

You are currently living in America, but the book is set in England, why is that?

Kipling left India at twenty five and never returned, yet many of his most evocative Indian stories were written later in life.  India always remained in his imagination.  Similarly, I am an ex-pat, yet England, and especially the Sussex countryside, remains right behind my eyeballs!  I don’t spend as much time at ‘home’ in Sussex as I would like and this book was a way to spend further hours up on the South Downs – at least in my imagination.

How did you secure that first book deal?