Source: Publishers Group Canada

#BookReview The Love of My Life by Rosie Walsh @TheRosieWalsh @PGCBooks @MantleBooks #TheLoveofMyLife #RosieWalsh #PGCBooks

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#BookReview The Love of My Life by Rosie Walsh @TheRosieWalsh @PGCBooks @MantleBooks #TheLoveofMyLife #RosieWalsh #PGCBooks Title: The Love of My Life

Author: Rosie Walsh

Published by: Mantle Books on Mar. 15, 2022

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 368

Format: Paperback

Source: Publishers Group Canada

Book Rating: 8.5/10

From the New York Times bestselling author of Ghosted comes a love story wrapped in a mystery: an up-all-night page-turner with a dark secret at its core

I have held you at night for ten years and I didn’t even know your name. We have a child together. A dog, a house.

Who are you?

Emma loves her husband Leo and their young daughter Ruby: she’d do anything for them. But almost everything she’s told them about herself is a lie.

And she might just have got away with it, if it weren’t for her husband’s job. Leo is an obituary writer; Emma a well-known marine biologist. When she suffers a serious illness, Leo copes by doing what he knows best – researching and writing about his wife’s life. But as he starts to unravel the truth, he discovers the woman he loves doesn’t really exist. Even her name isn’t real.

When the very darkest moments of Emma’s past finally emerge, she must somehow prove to Leo that she really is the woman he always thought she was . . .

But first, she must tell him about the other love of her life.

Review:

Intricate, heart-wrenching and guileful!

The Love of My Life is a meticulous, character-driven, domestic thriller that immerses you into the lives of married couple Emma and Leo as they grapple with weighty decisions, potentially make unforgivable choices, and unearth devastating secrets that could destroy their lives forever.

The writing is tight and edgy. The characters are complex, secretive, and troubled. And the plot told from dual perspectives builds briskly as it twists, turns, shocks, surprises, and unravels all the behaviours, motivations, personalities, and relationships within it.

The Love of My Life at its core is a novel about love, life, loss, marriage, family, friendship, secrets, parenting, expectations, manipulation, deception, depression, and the powerful bonds that exist between a parent and their child. It’s an emotionally compelling, absorbing tale that highlights just how many secrets people keep even from those closest to them.

 

This novel is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

            

 

 

 

Thank you to PGC Books for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Rosie Walsh

Rosie Walsh is the author of the international bestseller, THE MAN WHO DIDN'T CALL (which was a New York Times bestseller in the US under the title GHOSTED). The book was published in thirty-five languages and has sold more than 1.5 million copies. Her next novel, THE LOVE OF MY LIFE, publishes in the UK and US in Spring 2022, with translations following around the world. THE LOVE OF MY LIFE has already spent several weeks in the top ten bestseller list in Germany after an early release. 

Rosie came to writing after a career in factual television, which took her to some of the remotest places on earth. She wrote her first novel while living in South America, where she met her partner, George. They now live in Devon, UK, with their two young children. 

Photo by Verity Rivers.

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#BookReview The Second Cut by Louise Welsh @PGCBooks @canongatebooks #TheSecondCut #LouiseWelsh #TheCuttingRoomSeries #PGCBooks

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#BookReview The Second Cut by Louise Welsh @PGCBooks @canongatebooks #TheSecondCut #LouiseWelsh #TheCuttingRoomSeries #PGCBooks Title: The Second Cut

Author: Louise Welsh

Series: The Cutting Room #2

Published by: Canongate Books Ltd on May 3, 2022

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 384

Format: Hardcover

Source: Publishers Group Canada

Book Rating: 8/10

Auctioneer Rilke has been trying to stay out of trouble, keeping his life more or less respectable. Business has been slow at Bowery Auctions, so when an old friend, Jojo, gives Rilke a tip-off for a house clearance, life seems to be looking up. The next day Jojo washes up dead.

Jojo liked Grindr hook-ups and recreational drugs – is that the reason the police won’t investigate? And if Rilke doesn’t find out what happened to Jojo, who will?

Thrilling and atmospheric, The Second Cut delves into the dark side of twenty-first century Glasgow. Twenty years on from his appearance in The Cutting Room, Rilke is still walking a moral tightrope between good and bad, saint and sinner.

Review:

Dark, sinister, and seedy!

The Second Cut is a gritty, chilling thriller that takes you back to Glasgow, Scotland, and into the life of middle-aged, gay auctioneer Mr Rilke who, after receiving a business tip for a lucrative house auction from Jojo, a long-time friend who merely hours later turns up dead on the street, finds himself inadvertently mixed up in the disturbing criminal underworld and all the immortality, depravity, manipulation, and violence that is found there.

The prose is raw and tight. The characters are lonely, anxious, and vulnerable. And the plot is an ominous tale full of twists, turns, secrets, deception, corruption, desperation, sexual liaisons, violence, mayhem, and murder.

Overall, The Second Cut is an atmospheric, unsettling, taut novel by Welsh that was shocking, sordid, entertaining, and truly an edgy Tartan Noir.

 

This book is available on now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

            

 

 

Thank you to PGC Books for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Louise Welsh

Louise Welsh is an award-winning author of eight novels. The Cutting Room, her debut novel, won the Crime Writers’ Association John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger Award and the Saltire First Book of The Year Award. In 2018, she was named the Most Inspiring Saltire First Book Award winner by public vote. She is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow.

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#BookReview Single Bald Female by Laura Price @LauraPriceWrite @panmacmillan @PGCBooks #SingleBaldFemale #LauraPrice #PGCBooks

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#BookReview Single Bald Female by Laura Price @LauraPriceWrite @panmacmillan @PGCBooks #SingleBaldFemale #LauraPrice #PGCBooks Title: Single Bald Female

Author: Laura Price

Published by: Pan Macmillan on Jun. 14, 2022

Genres: Women's Fiction

Pages: 416

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Publishers Group Canada

Book Rating: 10/10

At thirty-one, Jessica Jackson has it all – the career she’s worked so hard for, the loving boyfriend and a cosy London flat they share with their cat. But a shock diagnosis turns Jess’s world upside down, and her contented life implodes with it.

As Jess juggles her career with chemo, and learns that her perfect boyfriend isn’t quite so perfect after all, her friends’ lives continue to follow the script – the ‘I said yes’ Facebook announcements, the big white weddings and the baby scans. Worrying that she’ll be left behind, she turns to online dating as she figures out what the future holds.

In the midst of it all, she meets Annabel, an enigmatic, enchanting twenty-seven-year-old, with incurable cancer. But while Annabel may be nearing the end of her life, she understands much more about living than anyone Jess has ever met. And Annabel is determined to show Jess how to make every day count . . .

Frank, funny and poignant, Single Bald Female is a completely unforgettable story of love and friendship.

Review:

Poignant, absorbing, and profoundly moving!

Single Bald Female is an exceptionally memorable novel that takes you into the life of Jessica Jackson, a young woman whose life gets turned upside down when she finally gets the promotion she’s always wanted, her boyfriend admits to having an affair, she receives the dreaded diagnosis of having breast cancer and must come to grips with all that entails, and she befriends, Annabel, a fellow cancer patient who quickly teaches her to live life to the fullest every day.

The prose is thoughtful and direct. The characters are strong, genuine, and endearing. And the plot is a compelling, touching tale of life, love, family, friendship, honesty, kindness, humour, contemplation, acceptance, introspection, grief, and loss.

Overall, Single Bald Female is a candid, powerful, beautifully written novel by Price that made me think, made me smile, made me cry, and resonated with me long after I turned the final page not only as a woman, daughter, and mother, but also the sister of breast cancer warrior.

 

This novel is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

         

 

 

Thank you to PGC Books for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Laura Price

Laura is a multilingual journalist who travels the world writing about restaurants. A proud Yorkshire lass at heart, she spent five years living and working in Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and Ireland, and is now settled in South London.

Laura worked for The World’s 50 Best Restaurants, Bloomberg News and Facebook for 15 years before becoming a freelance food, travel and lifestyle writer and consultant. Her work appears in publications including 50 Best, Condé Nast Traveller, National Geographic Traveller and Foodism. She is also project manager for 50 Next and contributing editor for 50 Best.

Laura is a confident public speaker who has presented at culinary events and women’s leadership forums from Bangkok to Bogotá, Melbourne to Milan. She is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese and is a qualified translator.

Her debut novel, SINGLE BALD FEMALE, was published in 2022 by Pan Macmillan in the UK and HarperCollins in Germany. Laura is represented by literary agent Sophie Lambert at C&W. She is also a Faber Academy graduate.

Photo by Sara Beth Turner.

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#BookReview The Murders at Fleat House by Lucinda Riley @lucindariley @panmacmillan @PGCBooks #TheMurdersatFleatHouse #LucindaRiley #PGCBooks

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#BookReview The Murders at Fleat House by Lucinda Riley @lucindariley @panmacmillan @PGCBooks #TheMurdersatFleatHouse #LucindaRiley #PGCBooks Title: The Murders at Fleat House

Author: Lucinda Riley

Published by: Pan Macmillan on May 26, 2022

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 464

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Publishers Group Canada

Book Rating: 9/10

The sudden death of a pupil in Fleat House at St Stephen’s – a small private boarding school in deepest Norfolk – is a shocking event that the headmaster is very keen to call a tragic accident.

But the local police cannot rule out foul play and the case prompts the return of high-flying Detective Inspector Jazmine ‘Jazz’ Hunter to the force. Jazz has her own private reasons for stepping away from her police career in London, but reluctantly agrees to front the investigation as a favour to her old boss.

Reunited with her loyal Sergeant, Alastair Miles, she enters the closed world of the school, and as Jazz begins to probe the circumstances surrounding Charlie Cavendish’s tragic death, events are soon to take another troubling turn.

Charlie is exposed as an arrogant bully and those around him had both motive and opportunity to switch the drugs he took daily to control his epilepsy.

As staff at the school close ranks, the disappearance of young pupil Rory Millar and the death of an elderly Classics Master provide Jazz with important leads, but are destined to complicate the investigation further. As snow covers the landscape and another suspect goes missing, Jazz must also confront her own personal demons . . .

Then a particularly grim discovery at the school makes this the most challenging murder investigation of her career. Because Fleat House hides secrets darker than even Jazz could ever have imagined . . .

Review:

Riveting, meticulous, and unpredictable!

In this latest novel by Riley, The Murders at Fleat House, she transports us to Norfolk, England, home to St. Stephen’s School, an elite boarding school that has all the usual fare, entitled students, unrelenting bullies, ghost stories, favouritism, and a history of scandals, violence, and death that may be about to repeat itself.

The writing is sharp and tight. The characters are vulnerable, troubled, and multilayered. And the plot is a suspenseful, twisty tale filled with manipulation, familial drama, deception, lies, neglect, jealousy, secrets, revelations, vengeance, mayhem, and murder.

The passing of Lucinda Riley in the middle of last year was a tremendous loss for the literary world, and it’s an honour to be able to read anything she wrote. The Murders at Fleat House is not the typical novel we’ve seen from Riley in the past several years as she swept us away into the stories of The Seven Sisters, but it is nevertheless a clever, tortuous, cunning page-turner that kept me guessing from the very first page and ultimately left me surprised, satisfied, and thoroughly entertained.

This book is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

           

 

 

Thank you to PGC Books for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Lucinda Riley

Lucinda Riley was born in Ireland and, after an early career as an actress in film, theatre and television, wrote her first book aged twenty-four.

Her books have been translated into thirty-seven languages and sold thirty million copies worldwide. She is a New York Times and Sunday Times number one bestseller.Lucinda's Seven Sisters series, which tells the story of adopted sisters and is inspired by the mythology of the famous star cluster, has become a global phenomenon. The series is a number one bestseller across the world and is currently in development with a major TV production company.

Though she brought up her four children mostly in Norfolk in England, in 2015 Lucinda fulfilled her dream of buying a remote farmhouse in West Cork, Ireland, which she always felt was her spiritual home, and indeed this was where her last five books were written. Lucinda was diagnosed with cancer in 2017 and died in June 2021

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#BookReview The Last Summer by Karen Swan @KarenSwan1 @PGCBooks @panmacmillan #TheLastSummer #TheWildIsleSeries #KarenSwan #PGCBooks

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#BookReview The Last Summer by Karen Swan @KarenSwan1 @PGCBooks @panmacmillan #TheLastSummer #TheWildIsleSeries #KarenSwan #PGCBooks Title: The Last Summer

Author: Karen Swan

Series: The Wild Isle #1

Published by: Pan Macmillan on May 3, 2022

Genres: Historical Fiction, Women's Fiction

Pages: 496

Format: ARC, Paperback

Source: Publishers Group Canada

Book Rating: 10/10

When the residents of St Kilda ask to be evacuated from their remote island home in the summer of 1930, it’s in search of a better life on mainland Scotland compared to the scratch existence on their mountain in the sea.

For eighteen-year-old tomboy Effie Gillies, it’s a bittersweet departure. She’s the best young climber on the island, as skilled and brave as any of the men. But it is Effie’s expansive knowledge of local bird life that leads her to take up a position as curator of Dumfries House’s ornithological collection – and back into the arms of Lord Dumfries’ son and heir, Sholto.

During her last summer on St Kilda, Effie had been Sholto’s guide, and their attraction had seemed irresistible. But, in the glamorous polite society of Ayrshire, it is clear they are worlds apart. When a body is discovered on the island, soon after the evacuation, a scandal erupts as Effie is implicated. Sholto knows she’s keeping secrets – but are they even her own?

The Last Summer is the first in an epic, sweeping historical series by Sunday Times bestseller Karen Swan, set in and around the Scottish island of St Kilda.

Review:

Enthralling, mysterious, and romantic!

The Last Summer is an absorbing tale that sweeps you away to 1930 and into the life of Effie Gillies, an eighteen-year-old girl who, along with her family and closest friends, is one of thirty-six inhabitants of the isolated St. Kilda archipelago who is content with her isolated existence, living a simple life amongst the birds and the cliffs, until things start to get a little more complicated and she falls for a man way above her station, the government decides to evacuate the island villagers to the mainland, she takes on a new job curating the ornithological collection of Lord Dumfries, the father of the man who stole her heart, and the deserted island is left with more than just empty dwellings and whispered secrets, but the body of a man who wasn’t all that kind or liked and had more than one person who wished him dead.

The writing is eloquent and vivid. The characters are hardy, resilient, and brave. And the plot is an alluring tale of life, loss, family, friendship, community, intrigue, mystery, drama, expectations, angst, social division, heartbreak, and love.

Overall, The Last Summer is a beautifully written, incredibly atmospheric, brilliant start to a new series by Swan that I absolutely devoured, highly recommend, and is hands down one of my favourite reads of the year.

This book is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

           

 

 

Thank you to PGC Books for gifting me a copy 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. 

Photograph by Alexander James

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#BookReview The Boyfriend by Michelle Frances @PGCBooks @panmacmillan #TheBoyfriend #MichelleFrances #PGCBooks

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#BookReview The Boyfriend by Michelle Frances @PGCBooks @panmacmillan #TheBoyfriend #MichelleFrances #PGCBooks Title: The Boyfriend

Author: Michelle Frances

Published by: Pan Macmillan on Mar. 31, 2022

Genres: Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 432

Format: Paperback

Source: Publishers Group Canada

Book Rating: 8/10

Amy is fiercely independent, with a high-powered career, a flat of her own and tight-knit friendships. But as she approaches her thirtieth birthday, she can’t help but rue the one thing she doesn’t have – a relationship.

When Amy comes round following a serious fall, she doesn’t remember anything from the last six months. Not even the week skiing at her aunt’s luxurious chalet in Val D’Isere with her mum and best friends to celebrate her birthday. And she certainly doesn’t remember being swept off her feet by the handsome Dr Jack Stewart . . .

Jack is the full package – charming, caring and devoted to Amy. Everyone is smitten with him, but as the week goes on, Amy begins to find Jack’s presence chilling. Is her broken mind playing tricks? Or is the perfect boyfriend really too good to be true?

Review:

Cunning, ominous, and compelling!

The Boyfriend is an intense, unsettling, crafty thrill ride that takes you into the life of the driven, successful Amy Kennedy who, after suffering a fall shortly before heading to Val D’Islere with her mother and best friends to celebrate her thirtieth birthday, finds her memory of the last six months in tatters and the question of whether the handsome, attentive Dr. Jack Stewart, is really who he claims to be or merely a stranger with malicious intentions.

The prose is eerie and tight. The characters are unreliable, desperate, and deceitful. And the plot is a simmering, engrossing tale full of lies, secrets, manipulation, mayhem, greed, violence, and murder.

Overall, The Boyfriend is another taut, satisfying, sinister tale by Frances that kept me entertained, engaged, and guessing from start to finish.

 

This novel 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 gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Michelle Frances

Michelle Frances graduated from Bournemouth Film School and then from the Masters programme at the American Film Institute, Los Angeles. Returning to London, she has worked for several years in film and TV as a script editor and producer for both the independent sector and the BBC.

Her first novel, The Girlfriend, became an international best seller.

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#BookReview The Midwife by Tricia Cresswell @PGCBooks @panmacmillan #TheMidwife #TriciaCresswell #PGCBooks

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#BookReview The Midwife by Tricia Cresswell @PGCBooks @panmacmillan #TheMidwife #TriciaCresswell #PGCBooks Title: The Midwife

Author: Tricia Cresswell

Published by: Pan Macmillan on Apr. 5, 2022

Genres: Historical Fiction

Pages: 352

Format: Paperback

Source: Publishers Group Canada

Book Rating: 8.5/10

1830. After a violent storm, a woman is found alone, naked, near death on the Northumberland moors. She has no memory of who she is or how she got there. But she can remember how to help a woman in labour, how to expertly dress a wound and can speak fluent French. With the odds against her – a penniless single woman – she starts to build her life from scratch, using her skills to help other woman around her. She finds a happy place in the world. Until tragedy strikes, and she must run for her life.

In London, Dr Borthwick lives a solitary life working as an accoucheur together with his midwife, Mrs Bates, dealing with mothers and babies in both the elegant homes of high society, and alongside a young widow, Eleanor Johnson, volunteering in the slums of the Devil’s Acre. His professional reputation is spotless and he keeps his private life just as clean, isolating himself from any new acquaintances. He is harbouring a dark secret from his past, one that threatens to spill over everything.

A haunting and moving debut, The Midwife by Tricia Cresswell is perfect for fans of The Familiars and The Binding.

Review:

Multilayered, absorbing, and mysterious!

The Midwife is a raw, expressive, compelling tale set in England during the early 1800s when women were forbidden to practice medicine, childbirth still resulted in high mortality rates, and midwifery was grossly underappreciated and frowned upon by the majority of physicians.

The prose is evocative and rich. The characters are intelligent, troubled, and secretive. And the plot is a suspenseful, engrossing tale about life, loss, duty, friendship, family, determination, courage, self-identity, and the evolution and procedures of early obstetrics and gynaecology.

The Midwife is an atmospheric, alluring, beautifully written novel by Cresswell that grabs you from the very first page and does a remarkable job of blending historical facts with captivating fiction that’s both intriguing and exceptionally immersive.

 

This novel is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

                

 

 

Thank you to PGC Books for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Tricia Cresswell

Tricia Cresswell is a retired public health doctor. She temporarily returned to work in spring 2020 in support of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic and volunteered as a vaccinator. She achieved a Distinction in her Creative Writing MA at Newcastle University in 2017. Creative response to the climate emergency has now taken priority in her writing.

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#BookReview Edge of the Grave by Robbie Morrison @robbiegmorrison @PGCBooks @panmacmillan #EdgeoftheGrave #RobbieMorrison #PGCBooks

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#BookReview Edge of the Grave by Robbie Morrison @robbiegmorrison @PGCBooks @panmacmillan #EdgeoftheGrave #RobbieMorrison #PGCBooks Title: Edge of the Grave

Author: Robbie Morrison

Series: Jimmy Dreghorn #1

Published by: Pan Macmillan on Feb. 14, 2022

Genres: Historical Fiction, Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 416

Format: Paperback

Source: Publishers Group Canada

Book Rating: 8.5/10

Glasgow, 1932.

When the son-in-law of one of the city’s wealthiest families is found floating in the River Clyde with his throat cut, it falls to Inspector Jimmy Dreghorn to lead the murder case – despite sharing a troubled history of his own with the victim’s widow.

From the flying fists and flashing blades of Glasgow’s gangland underworld, to the backstabbing upper echelons of government and big business, Dreghorn will have to dig deep into Glasgow society to find out who wanted the man dead and why.

All the while, a sadistic murderer stalks the post-war city leaving a trail of dead bodies in their wake. As the case deepens, will Dreghorn find the killer – or lose his own life in the process?

Scottish Peaky Blinders meets a tartan Untouchables, Edge of the Grave is the searing first book in a standout new historical crime series. If you like William McIlvanney or Denise Mina, you’ll love this.

Review:

Gritty, evocative, and absorbing!

Edge of the Grave is a riveting, slightly gothic tale set in Glasgow in the 1930s at a time when the city was bustling, shipbuilding was the booming industry, poverty was rampant, religious segregation was common, and for retired WWI vet, Detective Jimmy Dreghorn and his fierce partner Archie McDaid ongoing gang violence and vicious murders had to be solved by pounding the pavement, using hunches, intuition, instincts, intelligence, and a little roughing up as needed.

The prose is raw and intense. The characters are complex, flawed, and resourceful. And the plot, including all the subplots, seamlessly intertwine and unravel into a gripping tale of life, loss, duty, deception, manipulation, greed, corruption, mayhem, and the realities of policing in the early twentieth century.

Overall, Edge of the Grave is a dark, menacing, promising debut by Morrison that does a beautiful job of interweaving historical times and compelling fiction into a sinister, suspenseful mystery that is deliciously atmospheric and highly entertaining.

 

This novel is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.

                  

 

 

Thank you to PGC Books for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Robbie Morrison

Robbie Morrison was born in Helensburgh, Scotland, and grew up in the Renton, Coatbridge, Linwood and Houston. On both sides, his family connection to shipbuilding in Glasgow and the surrounding areas stretches back four generations and is a source of inspiration for the Jimmy Dreghorn series. He sold his first script to publishers DC Thomson in Dundee at the age of twenty-three. One of the most respected writers in the UK comics industry, Edge of the Grave is his first novel.

Goodreads

#BookReview Miss Dior by Justine Picardie @JPicardie @FaberBooks @PGCBooks #MissDior #JustinePicardie

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#BookReview Miss Dior by Justine Picardie @JPicardie @FaberBooks @PGCBooks #MissDior #JustinePicardie Title: Miss Dior

Author: Justine Picardie

Published by: Faber & Faber on Oct. 18, 2021

Genres: Nonfiction

Pages: 448

Format: Hardcover

Source: Publishers Group Canada

Book Rating: 8/10

Miss Dior is a story of freedom and fascism, beauty, and betrayal, roses and repression, and how the polished surface of fashion conceals hidden depths.

It paints a portrait of the enigmatic woman behind the designer Christian Dior: his beloved younger sister Catherine, who inspired his most famous perfume and shaped his vision of femininity. Justine Picardie”s journey takes her to Occupied Paris, where Christian honed his couture skills while Catherine dedicated herself to the French Resistance, until she was captured by the Gestapo and deported to the German concentration camp of Ravensbrück.

With unparalleled access to the Dior family homes and archives, Picardie”s research into Catherine”s courageous life shines a new light on Christian Dior”s legendary work, and reveals how his enchanting ”New Look” emerged out of the shadows of his sister”s suffering.

Tracing the wartime paths of the Dior siblings leads Picardie deep into other hidden histories, and different forms of resistance and sisterhood. She explores what it means to believe in beauty and hope, despite our knowledge of darkness and despair, and discovers the timeless solace of the natural world in the aftermath of devastation and destruction. The result is an exquisite and unforgettably moving book.

Review:

Captivating, descriptive, and well researched!

Miss Dior is the sincere, informative biography of the remarkable Caroline Dior, the youngest sister of renowned fashion designer Christian Dior who, after falling in love with a married resistance leader in 1941, spent the next three years reporting to British Intelligence on German operations until July 1944 when she was arrested by the Gestapo and sent to Ravensbrück and other satellite concentration camps before returning to Paris, after surviving a death march in April 1945, where for the remainder of her life she rarely spoke of the horrors she had endured but surrounded herself with her brother’s love and the flowers she adored.

The writing is evocative and expressive. The characters are humble, heroic, and unique. And the novel is an engaging look into how two siblings in a time of upheaval and uncertainty, one in the spotlight and the other in the shadows, made a resounding impact on French history and the world of fashion.

Overall, Miss Dior is a candid, intriguing tale by Picardie with an abundance of beautiful photos and illustrations, and even though I would have liked to learn more specifically about the life of the woman who inspired the perfume, I still found it an insightful, fascinating tale of not only second-hand accounts of the times, events, and situations she would have faced, but the ultimate evolution and rise of the House of Dior and the incredible array of infamous people who over the years have been lucky enough to don their couture.

 

This book is available now.

Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or one of the following links.

                

 

 

Thank you to Publishers Group Canada for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

About Justine Picardie

Justine Picardie is the author of six books, including her critically acclaimed memoir, If the Spirit Moves You: Life and Love After Death, and the international bestseller, Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life. She is a contributing editor to Harper''s Bazaar, having previously been its editor-in-chief. She was formerly an investigative journalist for the Sunday Times, a columnist for the Telegraph, editor of the Observer Magazine and features director of Vogue.

Photo courtesy of Author's Goodreads Page.

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#BookReview A Winter Memory by Lulu Taylor @MissLuluTaylor @PGCBooks @panmacmillan #AWinterMemory #LuluTaylor

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#BookReview A Winter Memory by Lulu Taylor @MissLuluTaylor @PGCBooks @panmacmillan #AWinterMemory #LuluTaylor Title: A Winter Memory

Author: Lulu Taylor

Published by: Pan Macmillan on Jan. 4, 2022

Genres: Historical Fiction, Mystery/Thriller

Pages: 576

Format: Paperback

Source: Publishers Group Canada

Book Rating: 8.5/10

A house full of secrets lies at the heart of this absorbing family drama that is perfect for the winter months, from Sunday Times top ten bestselling author Lulu Taylor.

Where is Sylla? Why will no one tell me where she is?

Helen is married to Angus, the younger of the Ballintyre brothers. They met as students and Helen fell in love, not just with Angus but with the romantic Ballintyre family and their beautiful house on the edge of a loch. But marriage to Angus has not proved happy.

Now, years later and with a family, Helen and Angus have been forced to move back to live at Ballintyre with his older brother, Charlie. Helen is surprised to find that Sylla, Charlie’s wife, has disappeared and no one seems to know where she is. Helen is worried, not least because Charlie and Sylla lost their teenage daughter, Rose, only a year before. Surely someone should be looking for her . . .

Sylla Ballintyre has spent her life ministering to her husband, Charlie, and coping with the presence of his overbearing mother, Josephine, until the tragedy of losing Rose drained her happiness away. When she stumbles on the path to freedom, she knows she must take it, whatever the cost.

As Helen struggles with the fallout of recent events and its effect on her life, Ballintyre House becomes the setting for revelations of love, obsession and betrayal that have resonated beyond the present and into the past, affecting the lives of all those who have called it home.

Review:

Brooding, nostalgic, and heart-tugging!

A Winter Memory is predominantly set in the Scottish countryside during the late 1960s, as well as present day, and is told from two different perspectives, Tigs, a young woman struggling with the feelings she has for her childhood friend even after he goes off and marries someone else, and Helen, a wife and mother who finds her life unexpectedly turned upside down when her husband loses his job, they relocate to his family’s estate, and her sister-in-law seems to have up and disappeared without a trace.

The writing is descriptive and smooth. The characters are multilayered, secretive, and troubled. And the plot, including all the subplots, unravel and intertwine seamlessly into a mysterious tale filled with life, loss, secrets, betrayal, lies, obsession, friendship, misdirection, and unrequited love.

Overall, A Winter Memory is another atmospheric, rich, multi-generational family saga by Taylor that kept me engaged and entertained from the very first page and reminded me that life can be complicated, messy, challenging, too short, and often terribly heartbreaking.

 

This novel 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 Lulu Taylor

Lulu Taylor moved around the world as a child before her family settled in the Oxfordshire countryside. She studied English at Oxford University and had a successful career in publishing before becoming a writer. Her first novel, Heiresses was published in 2007 and nominated for the RNA Readers' Choice award. It was followed by Midnight Girls, Beautiful Creatures, Outrageous Fortune, The Winter Folly, The Snow Angel, The Winter Children, and The Snow Rose. She lives in Dorset, England, with her husband and two children.

Photograph by Alicia Clarke.

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