What started out as a night of celebration for Aimee soon turned into a nightmare. Snatched by cruel, sadistic monsters – the worst creatures mankind has ever produced – she’s thrown into a metal container, among other victims too frightened to make a single sound.
The game-keepers force everyone to play. They deliver torment and pain in equal measure. Every hunter has their own agenda and reasons to maim and torture.
Detective Johnson is one step away from catching the killers. Wrestling with his instincts as a father to serve justice his own way, this is no ordinary case for him. Can he stop the vile sadists before they damage more young girls, as well as his own daughter?
Aimee’s ordeal within the compound brings her to the conclusion that she’s no ordinary girl. But can she hang onto her sanity long enough to escape? And will she find a different way to play?
This crime thriller will keep you riveted. It’s no ordinary story.
Please note: contains graphic content.
Review:
Dark, gritty, and spine-chillingly disturbing!
No Ordinary Girl is a raw, gory thriller full of sadistic violence, abuse, pain, suffering, degradation, exploitation, revenge, sex, and murder.
The writing is macabre and exceptionally descriptive. The main heroine, Aimee, is beaten, battered, resilient and damaged. And the plot, although I think it could have had a little more story between the violence, especially in the second half of the novel, is a gripping, edge-of-your-seat tale that brings every parent’s worst fears to life.
I have to point out that No Ordinary Girl deals with some horrific issues with some explicitly graphic torture and murder scenes so it may not be for everyone. However, saying that, if you’re a huge fan of horror than I think you’ll enjoy this fast-paced, highly imaginative, riveting novel that certainly blurs the lines between victim retribution and callous murder.
This novel is available now.
Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from the following link.
Giveaway:
Giveaway – Win 1 of 3 x Signed copies of No Ordinary Girl (Open International)
Thank you to Cheryl Elaine and Rachel’s Random Resources for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.
About Cheryl Elaine
Cheryl Elaine was born in Germany but moved to Northern Ireland as a young child. She then moved to Yorkshire where she spent most of her childhood and this is where she currently resides with her husband and 3 daughters.
Cheryl Elaine is an avid reader and enjoys watching horror movies – the more gruesome the better! She enjoys travelling and socialising but also loves spending time at home with her family and her ever expanding menagerie which currently includes 2 dogs, a budgie, 2 fish and a rat called Rocky!
Nothing will stop a Cahill cowboy from protecting what’s his
After a rocky marriage and even rockier divorce, Sheriff Flint Cahill finally has something good in his life again. Maggie Thompson’s down-to-earth charm and beautiful smile hooked him from the start. When she disappears on the day they plan to start their lives together, all signs point to abduction—and his ex-wife.
Functioning on adrenaline and instinct, Flint must call on his every resource to bring Maggie home before it’s too late. His past and future are blurred. Maggie’s only chance at surviving her abductor and a raging winter storm depends on an old vendetta that could destroy it all. But the Cahills don’t give up easily, and Flint’s love will have to be strong enough to conquer anything, including the unimaginable.
Review:
Suspenseful, intricate, and action-packed!
Wild Ride Cowboy is a fast-paced thrill ride featuring the desperate and determined Sheriff Flint Cahill as he races against time to find his missing, injured girlfriend Maggie who seems to have vanished into thin air.
The writing is taut and tight. The characters are multifaceted, resilient, and troubled. And the plot, including all its compelling subplots, quickly unravels and intertwines taking you from the snowy hills of Montana across state lines and back again in an engrossing mystery filled to the brim with suspects, clues, red herrings, solid deductions, swirling emotions, and a sliver of romance.
Overall, Wild Ride Cowboy is an enjoyable, entertaining whodunit with a satisfying ending, and even though it’s the third book in the “Cahill Ranch” series, it can certainly be read as a standalone novel.
This book is available now.
Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.
Thank you to Harlequin Books for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.
About B.J. Daniels
B.J. Daniels’ life dream was to be a policewoman. After a career as an award-winning newspaper journalist, she wrote and sold 37 short stories before she finally wrote her first book. Since then she has won numerous awards including a career achievement award last year for romantic suspense.
She lives in Montana with her husband, Parker, two Springer Spaniels, Jem and Spot, and a temperamental tomcat named Jeff. When she isn’t writing, she snowboards, camps, boats and plays tennis.
Helen Cooper has a charmed life. She’s beautiful, accomplished, organised – the star parent at the school. Until she disappears.
But Helen wasn’t abducted or murdered. She’s chosen to walk away, abandoning her family, husband Sam, and her home.
Where has Helen gone, and why? What has driven her from her seemingly perfect life? What is she looking for? Sam is tormented by these questions, and gradually begins to lose his grip on work and his family life.
He sees Helen everywhere in the faces of strangers. He’s losing control.
But then one day, it really is Helen’s face he sees…
Review:
Absorbing, intense, and immensely sobering!
What She Leftis an emotional, character-driven novel that delves into the complex relationship between a husband and wife and highlights the detrimental physical and psychological effects the breakdown of a marriage can have on the whole family unit.
The prose is fluid and well turned. The characters are multifaceted, desperate, determined, and raw. And the plot, using multiple perspectives, is an engaging story about life, loss, love, family, secrets, lies, collusion, selfishness, friendship, and the importance of self-identity.
What She Left is a poignant, clever novel that reminds us that true happiness comes from honesty, trust, and never losing sight of your own desires, needs, wants, and dreams.
This novel is available now.
Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.
Thank you to Rosie Fiore, Allen & Unwin and Rachel’s Random Resources for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.
About Rosie Fiore
Rosie Fiore was born and grew up in Johannesburg, South Africa. She studied drama at the University of the Witwatersrand and has worked as a writer for theatre, television, magazines, advertising, comedy and the corporate market.
Her first two novels, This Year’s Black and Lame Angel were published by Struik in South Africa. This Year’s Black was longlisted for the South African Sunday Times Literary Award and has subsequently been re-released as an e-book. Babies in Waiting, Wonder Women and Holly at Christmas were published by Quercus. She is the author of After Isabella, also published by Allen & Unwin.
Rosie’s next book, The After Wife (written as Cass Hunter), will be published by Trapeze in 2018, and in translation is seven countries around the world.
Rosie lives in London with her husband and two sons.
Alison, Julie, Sarah, Heather. Four friends living the suburban ideal. Their jobs are steady, their kids are healthy. They’re as beautiful as their houses. But each of them has a dirty little secret, and hidden behind the veneer of their perfect lives is a crime and a mystery that will consume them all.
Everything starts to unravel when Alison spots a nasty bruise on Heather’s wrist. She shares her suspicions with Julie and Sarah, compelling all three to investigate what looks like an increasingly violent marriage. As mysterious injuries and erratic behavior mount, Heather can no longer deny the abuse, but she refuses to leave her husband. Desperate to save her, Alison and the others dread the phone call telling them that she’s been killed. But when that call finally comes, it’s not Heather who’s dead. In a moment they’ll come to regret, the women must decide what lengths they’ll go to in order to help a friend.
Just Between Us is a thrilling glimpse into the underbelly of suburbia, where not all neighbors can be trusted, and even the closest friends keep dangerous secrets. You never really know what goes on in another person’s mind, or in their marriage.
Review:
Riveting, sophisticated, and well crafted!
Just Between Us is a character-driven, domestic thriller that delves into the intricate and dynamic bonds between friends and reminds us that everything is not always as it seems and you never really know what goes on behind closed doors.
The writing is precise and taut. The characters are complex, secretive, troubled, and believable. And the plot, told from multiple perspectives, is bursting with suspense and tension as it quickly twists, turns, and unravels all the actions, motivations, personalities, and relationships within it.
Just Between Us at its core is a novel about friendship, secrets, manipulation, jealousy, obsession, abuse, and murder. It’s deliciously dark, intriguing, and a real page-turner you won’t want to miss.
This book is available now.
Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.
Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.
About Rebecca Drake
REBECCA DRAKE is the author of the novels Don’t Be Afraid, The Next Killing, The Dead Place, which was an IMBA bestseller, and Only Ever You, as well as the short story “Loaded,” which was featured in Pittsburgh Noir. A graduate of Penn State University and former journalist, she is currently an instructor in Seton Hill University’s Writing Popular Fiction M.F.A. program. Rebecca lives in Pittsburgh, PA, with her husband and two children.
One step forward. Two steps back. The Tufts scholarship that put Nora Stuart on the path to becoming a Boston medical specialist was a step forward. Being hit by a car and then overhearing her boyfriend hit on another doctor when she thought she was dying? Two major steps back.
Injured in more ways than one, Nora feels her carefully built life cracking at the edges. There’s only one place to land: home. But the tiny Maine community she left fifteen years ago doesn’t necessarily want her. At every turn, someone holds the prodigal daughter of Scupper Island responsible for small-town drama and big-time disappointments.
With a tough islander mother who’s always been distant and a wild-child sister in jail, unable to raise her daughter–a withdrawn teen as eager to ditch the island as Nora once was–Nora has her work cut out for her if she’s going to take what might be her last chance to mend the family.
But as some relationships crumble around her, others unexpectedly strengthen. Balancing loss and opportunity, a dark event from her past with hope for the future, Nora will discover that tackling old pain makes room for promise…and the chance to begin again.
Review:
Mesmerizing, heartwarming, and brilliantly crafted!
Now That You Mention It is a touching story that immerses you in a tale about confronting the past, embracing the future, and discovering one’s true self.
The prose is well turned and fluid. The characters are unique, flawed, genuine, and lovable. And the story is an exceptionally absorbing tale about life, love, forgiveness, familial drama, friendship, courage, community, and happiness.
Now That You Mention It is the perfect mix of hope, heart, grit, and humour and undoubtedly Higgins at her best. It is so much more than expected. It makes you laugh, makes you cry, and leaves you with a smile, and I absolutely loved it!
This book is available now.
Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.
Thank you to Harlequin Books for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.
About Kristan Higgins
Kristan Higgins is the New York Times, USA TODAY, Wall Street Journal and Publishers Weekly bestselling author of 18 novels, which have been translated into more than two dozen languages and sold millions of copies worldwide. Her books have received dozens of awards and accolades, including starred reviews from Kirkus, The New York Journal of Books, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and Booklist. Her books regularly appear on the lists for best novels of the year. Kristan is also a cohost of the Crappy Friends podcast, which discusses the often complex dynamics of female friendships, with her friend and fellow writer, Joss Dey.
The proud descendant of a butcher and a laundress, Kristan lives in Connecticut with her heroic firefighter husband. They own several badly behaved pets and are often visited by their entertaining and long-lashed children.
An invitation to her estranged, wealthy father’s surprise 75th birthday party in New York sees London-based Amelia and her husband, Jack, set off across the pond to meet a whole new world of family politics.
Amelia, now a successful businesswoman, has guiltily never liked her father’s women, but does her upmost to give his new socialite partner, Evelyn, the benefit of the doubt. Wouldn’t it be nice if they could just all get along? But there’s something very dark, determined and dangerous about her…
When Amelia’s father, Roger, becomes ill, Jack grows suspicious that there is more to it. Amelia understands why, but no one else will believe them. They travel back to America to piece together the puzzle, but when Roger goes missing, the couple are driven to their wit’s end. It takes a DEA officer and a secret assassin to bring them any answers. The ruthless truth is something no one expected…
Review:
Compelling, dark, and menacing!
Gilding The Lily is a character-driven novel that delves into the complicated, entangled relationship between family members and reminds us just how deceiving appearances can often be.
The writing is taut and twisty. The characters are determined, troubled, and secretive. And the plot, told predominately from two perspectives, subtly unfolds all the personalities, motivations, and actions within it to create a tense, suspenseful, cautious tale.
Gilding The Lily, at its core, is a novel about family, secrets, manipulation, jealousy, obsession, and murder. It’s an intriguing debut for John, and I look forward to reading what she comes up with next.
This novel is available now.
Pick up a copy now from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.
Thank you to Justine John for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.
About Justine John
Justine John became a full-time writer in her late forties, after a successfully running various businesses in London. Her first novel, Gilding The Lily, is a domestic noir suspense story. Animal lover Justine lives in the beautiful Surrey Hills with her husband, rides her two horses and walks her Dalmatians daily.
Wrong Place is the second gripping crime novel in the DC Maggie Neville series from Michelle Davies, following her critically acclaimed debut Gone Astray.
Two women lie hospital beds, both subjects of police investigations.
One, a vulnerable old lady, has been assaulted in her own home. Suspected to be the fifth victim of a young couple targeting pensioners, her injuries indicate an escalation in violence from the perpetrators. The second, a wife, has been attacked by her own husband, who subsequently fails in his own attempt to kill himself.
Whilst there are no obvious parallels between the victims, DC Maggie Neville, the Family Liaison Officer involved in both cases, begins to question what happened.
Is it simply a case of both being in the wrong place at the wrong time or is something far more sinister at play?
Review:
Captivating, intelligent, and well crafted!
Wrong Place is an elaborately plotted police procedural that highlights how manipulative and devious people can truly be and reminds us that even the darkest, most buried secrets often have a way of coming to light.
The writing is seamless and smooth. The characterization is spot on with all the usual gang back including the hardworking, relentless DC Neville whose greatest struggles involve her guilty conscience and her tumultuous relationship with DCI Umpire. And the plot consists of a multitude of twists, turns, familial strife, murder, violence, and surprises that will keep you engaged from the very first page.
Overall, Wrong Place is an intricately woven, highly entertaining mystery with a nice amount of suspense, good character development, and great pace.
If you haven’t had a chance to read my review for Gone Astray, the first novel in the DC Maggie Neville Series, be sure to check it out below and keep your eye out for the third book in the series, False Witness, due out in Spring 2018.
This book is available now.
Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.
Thank you to Publishers Group Canada for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.
About Michelle Davies
Michelle Davies has been writing for magazines for twenty years, including on the production desk at Elle, and as Features Editor of Heat. Her last staff position before going freelance was Editor-at-Large at Grazia magazine and she currently writes for a number of women's magazines and newspaper supplements. Michelle has previously reviewed crime fiction for the Sunday Express's Books section.
Michelle lives in London with her partner and daughter and juggles writing crime fiction with her freelance journalism and motherhood. The Maggie Neville Series consists of Gone Astray, Wrong Place, False Witness and Dead Guilty.
They were six university students from Oxford–friends and sometimes more than friends–spending an idyllic week together in a French farmhouse. It was supposed to be the perfect summer getaway–until they met Severine, the girl next door.
For Kate Channing, Severine was an unwelcome presence, her inscrutable beauty undermining the close-knit group’s loyalties amid the already simmering tensions. And after a huge altercation on the last night of the holiday, Kate knew nothing would ever be the same. There are some things you can’t forgive, and there are some people you can’t forget, like Severine, who was never seen again.
Now, a decade later, the case is reopened when Severine’s body is found in the well behind the farmhouse. Questioned along with her friends, Kate stands to lose everything she’s worked so hard to achieve as suspicion mounts around her. Desperate to resolve her own shifting memories and fearful she will be forever bound to the woman whose presence still haunts her, Kate finds herself buried under layers of deception with no one to set her free.
Review:
Dark, gripping, and complex!
The French Girl is an intriguing character-driven novel that delves into the dynamic relationship between six friends and their possible involvement in the murder of a young girl ten years prior while vacationing in France.
The writing is clear and precise. The characters are self-involved, secretive, and troubled. And the plot uses a past/present, back-and-forth style to create suspense and tension as it subtly unravels all the actions, motivations, personalities, and relationships within it.
The French Girl at its core is a novel about friendship, secrets, manipulation, jealousy, obsession, and murder with a little paranormal twist. It’s a compelling debut for Elliott and I can’t wait to read what she comes up with next.
This novel is due to be published on February 20, 2018.
Preorder a copy now from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.
Thank you to Berkley Publishing for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.
About Lexie Elliott
Lexie Elliott has been writing for as long as she can remember, but she began to focus on it more seriously after she lost her banking job in 2009 due to the Global Financial Crisis. After some success in short story competitions, she began planning a novel. With two kids and a (new) job, it took some time for that novel to move from her head to the page, but the result was “The French Girl”, which will be published by Berkley in February 2018 – available to pre-order now!
When she’s not writing, Lexie can be found running, swimming or cycling whilst thinking about writing. In 2007 she swam the English Channel solo. She won’t be doing that again. In 2015 she ran 100km, raising money for Alzheimer Scotland. She won’t be doing that again either. But the odd triathlon or marathon isn’t out of the question.
It’s now the late-Summer of 1767. As the eagerly anticipated sequel to Beyond Derrynane opens, having spent almost six eventful years at the court of Maria Theresa, Eileen O’Connell has availed herself of a fortuitous opportunity to travel back to Ireland.
Her vivacious personality matched only by her arresting physical presence, Eileen returns to Derrynane this time not as a teenage widow but, rather, as one of the most recognised figures at the glittering Habsburg court. Before departing Ireland several months later, she experiences a whirlwind romance, leading to a tumult of betrayal and conflict within the O’Connell clan. Once back in Vienna she unexpectedly finds her responsibilities as governess to the youngest Habsburg archduchess now linked to relations between France and Austria.
Abigail, rather than being eclipsed by her colourful younger sister, has instead ascended to the vaulted position of principal lady-in-waiting to Empress Maria Theresa. No longer “just a girl from deep in Kerry,” she is a beloved – and powerful – figure at court.
Hugh O’Connell, the youngest of the large family, leaves behind waning adolescence and a fleeting attraction to the youngest archduchess when he begins a military career in the Irish Brigade of the armies of Louis XV. But, perhaps as a foreshadowing of his adult life and career, more royal entanglement awaits him in France …
In the continuing saga, the O’Connells will confront intrigue, romance – even violence. Despite their innate wisdom, cunning and guile, what their futures hold remains to be seen.
With his uniquely-descriptive prose, Kevin O’Connell again deftly weaves threads of historical fact and fancy to create a colourful tapestry affording unique insights into the courts of eighteenth-century Catholic Europe as well as Protestant Ascendancy–ruled Ireland. Watch as the epic unfolds amongst the O’Connells, their friends and enemies, as the tumultuously-dangerous worlds in which they dwell continue to gradually – but inexorably – change.
Along with Beyond Derrynane, Two Journeys Home – and the two books to follow in The Derrynane Saga – comprise an enthralling series of historical novels, presenting a sweeping chronicle, set against the larger drama of Europe in the early stages of significant change, dramatising the roles, which have never before been treated in fiction, played by a small number of expatriate Irish Catholics of the fallen “Gaelic Aristocracy” at the courts of Catholic Europe, as well as relating their complex, at times dangerous, lives at home in an Ireland still controlled by the Sassenach.
In addition to Eileen’s, the books trace the largely-fictional lives of several other O’Connells of Derrynane, it is the tantalisingly few facts that are historically documented about them which provide the basic facts which give rise to the tale, into which strategic additions of numerous historical and fictional personalities and events mesh seamlessly.
Review:
Fascinating, insightful and richly descriptive!
Two Journeys Home is an intriguing tale that picks up where “Beyond Derrynane” left off, taking us back to the 1760s where family honour and respect are more righteous than love and emotional happiness and the youngest sister Eileen is struggling to fulfill her wishes and dreams amongst an abundance of betrayal and violence.
The prose is captivating and vivid. The characters are bold, resilient, and willful. And the plot takes us from the 1760s through to the 1770s, from the dazzling courts of Austria to the green hills of Ireland where upheaval, acceptance, and familial strife weigh heavily on the heart and mind.
Two Journeys Home is a well written, sophisticated novel that certainly highlights O’Connell’s outstanding research, incredible knowledge, and enormous passion for his family’s history and genealogy.
Two Journeys Home is the second novel in “The Derrynane Saga” and if you haven’t already read my review for Beyond Derrynane (Derrynane Saga #1) be sure to check it out here:
This novel is available now.
Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.
Thank you to Kevin O’Connell for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review. It was a pleasure and honour to read.
About Kevin O'Connell
Kevin O'Connell is a native of New York City and a descendant of a young officer of what had—from 1690 to 1792—been the Irish Brigade of the French army, believed to have arrived in French Canada following the execution of Queen Marie Antoinette in October of 1793. At least one grandson subsequently returned to Ireland and Mr. O'Connell's own grandparents came to New York in the early twentieth century. He holds both Irish and American citizenship.
He is a graduate of Providence College and Georgetown University Law Centre.
For much of his four decades-long legal career, O'Connell has practiced international business transactional law, primarily involving direct-investment matters, throughout Asia (principally China), Europe, and the Middle East.
The father of five children and grandfather of ten, he and his wife, Laurette, live with their golden retriever, Katie, near Annapolis, Maryland
They say that behind every great man, there’s a great woman, and behind London’s most powerful leaders, there stands only one — Alex Hyde, Business Coach par excellence. She’s the woman they turn to for advice and strategy when the pressure gets too much.
So when she gets a call from an esteemed whisky company in Scotland asking for her services it’s business as usual. Only, she’s never met anyone like Lochlan Burr before. CEO of Kentallen Distilleries, he’s also the son and heir of the company’s founder. He’s a maverick, an enigma, a renegade, and Alex needs to get inside his head before he brings the company to its knees. But as she tasks herself with finding a way in, she finds she’s the one being maneuvered; for once, she isn’t in control. And when she stumbles across a chance discovery that changes everything, she’s suddenly not so sure she should be.
Review:
Absorbing, enthralling, and positively addictive!
In this latest novel by Swan she sweeps us away to Isle of Islay where the people are the salt of the earth, the terrain is rugged, the peat is unique, and the whisky is smoky, smooth, and plentiful!
The prose is remarkably well turned and fluid. The characters are unique, flawed, eccentric, and lovable. And the story is an exceptionally compelling tale about life, loss, grief, war, familial dynamics, friendship, forgiveness, courage, community, happiness, love, and good Scotch.
Alternating between the past and the present, The Christmas Secret has it all. It’s humorous and lighthearted, emotional and heartbreaking, mysterious and sweet. It grabs you from the very first page and with its wonderfully blended storyline of historical facts, snappy fiction, and delightful romance it’s truly the perfect holiday treat!
This novel is available now.
Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.
And now a little Q&A with Karen Swan:
The Christmas Secret is set mainly in Islay, Scotland. Prior to writing the novel did this locale have any personal significance for you?
Yes, my father is Scottish so I have spent much of my life in the Highlands and I love it: I was married there, my first born was christened there; it’s very much a part of me and I identify strongly as being of Scottish blood; ‘Swan’ is actually a shortening of my maiden name MacSwan MacLeod. Also, my father knows the Robertson family, whose grandfather, Sergeant Malcolm MacNeill, had the grim task of identifying the bodies of the soldiers washed ashore after the American troopship Tuscania sank. It was a devastating incident for such a tiny, rural community to have the war literally wash up on their sands like that, and tragically it was compounded just a few months later when another American troop carrier, the Otranto, sank in a collision with its own convoy just off Islay’s shores. The Tuscania tragedy was the single largest loss of American lives in one day since the Civil War and was met with national dismay back home. The centenary anniversary is coming up for both events so it felt like an opportunity to remember those who perished.
In the Christmas Secret, as well as some of your other novels, you interweave a historical event, in this case the tragic sinking of the SS Tuscania, with contemporary fiction. Do you find this harder or easier to write than your novels that are purely fictional?
I’m increasingly interested in incorporating a historical element in my stories, for it adds weight but also pathos too. It does make it more complicated though, in this case ridiculously so, as I chose to reveal the backstory through a variety of different sources and characters all of which involved different research and tones of voice. Partly I did this because I wanted the impact of what happened to be spelled out in three-hundred and sixty degrees; it also fractured the telling of the event for the reader, giving a haunting, dream-like quality to the story. I asked myself several times over the course of writing it, whether it was strictly necessary to devote some much time and energy to this thread and those characters, but I think the closing sentences of the epilogue rather sum up why it had to be done. They brought me to tears.
The Christmas Secret is a beautiful story about small-island life, love, forgiveness, community, and whisky, but Is there any sub-plot or chapter that you had to edit out because of the flow that you really wish you could have kept in?
Funnily enough, it wasn’t a matter of cutting anything out but rather, having to refrain from putting too much in. I would have liked to go in closer with some of the characters in the back-story but I had to write very lightly, taking care not to make anything too obvious or heavy-handed. The historical story could easily have overshadowed the present day story if I wasn’t careful and I had to constantly remind myself that it was there to underpin and explain the main action, not overwhelm it.
In The Christmas Secret and all your previous novels you have a strong, independent female protagonist that is often fashion savvy. Do you do this consciously or unconsciously based on your own success as a fashion editor?
Yes, I think I do really. Although I’ve moved on from that world, I still believe that fashion and how we present ourselves is an incredibly – and increasingly – important tool in how we navigate our lives. I tend to use a good sense of style as evidence of an ordered, urban, sophisticated life.
In The Christmas Secret and your previous novels you always have incredible, memorable secondary characters, such as Callum and Louise. Would you ever consider writing a novel featuring one of these characters in the lead?
I would love to, not least because sometimes – not always – I even prefer them to the main characters. There’s a little more freedom that comes with the support cast – they don’t need to be as well-behaved, or even as likeable. I think if I were to do that, it would be with Kitty in The Perfect Present. I took her very much to my heart.
In the past you have written one sequel that I know of, Summer at Tiffany’s which was the sequel to Christmas at Tiffany’s. Do you think we might see more sequels in the future or do you prefer to create new characters and fresh storylines?
It was an interesting exercise writing a sequel to Christmas At Tiffanys, not least because those characters really became very beloved to my readers and it was lovely to revisit them again. The tricky thing for my genre, however, is that the core of my stories is not the actual plot mystery but the romantic element between the characters; I really care about whether their love story feels genuine and authentic and that’s the rub: for a reader to want to turn the pages, a story must be compelling, which means creating tension and conflict; no-one wants to spend 300 pages reading about other peoples’ perfect happiness. But in order to create that necessary tension, I would have to dismantle the very relationship I had spent the previous book building up, and to me, that risks falling into ‘soap opera’ territory. If my books could be based around my characters’ jobs, rather than their love lives, it would be an enticing prospect, not least because I find most of their jobs fascinating: Flora Sykes, the fine art agent for example? She could be my equivalent to Dan Brown’s Robert Langdon! Why not? I can see it!
As many of you already know I am a huge fan of Karen Swan and it’s an enormous honour to have her participate in a Q&A for this blog. I also must thank PGC for their continued support and for providing me with a copy of this story in exchange for an honest review.
About Karen Swan
Karen Swan began her career in fashion journalism before giving it all up to raise her three children and a puppy, and to pursue her ambition of becoming a writer. She lives in the forest outside Sussex, England, writing her books in a treehouse overlooking the Downs.
An internationally bestselling author, her numerous books include The Rome Affair, The Paris Secret, Christmas Under the Stars, and The Christmas Secret.
Title: No Ordinary Girl
