One Night On The Island by Josie Silver

 

One Night on the Island by Josie Silver.

Published 17th February 2022 by Penguin.

From the cover of the book:

One cottage. Two strangers.
Every great love story starts somewhere...

Cleo writes about love stories every day. She just isn't living one of her own.

When the editor of her dating column asks her to marry herself on a remote Irish island - a sensational piece to mark Cleo's thirtieth birthday - Cleo agrees. She's alone but not lonely, right? She can handle a solo adventure.

Cleo arrives at her luxury cabin to find a tall, dark, stubborn American who insists it's actually his. Mack refuses to leave, and Cleo won't budge either. With a storm fast approaching, they reluctantly hunker down together. It's just one night, after all . . .

But what if one night on the island is just the beginning?

***********

Cleo writes a dating column called "Finding my Flamingo' for an online magazine, following her exploits to find the man of her dreams, but so far her soulmate has been conspicuous in his absence. With her 30th birthday looming, her editor asks her to write a piece about 'marrying' herself instead, and books her into an isolated lodge on the remote Irish island of Salvation for her undertake the 'ceremony'. Cleo is unsure about the whole thing, but when she finds out it will mean avoiding the surprise birthday party her family have planned for her, she decides to give it a go. Maybe this is just the opportunity she needs to find her inner solo adventurer?

When Cleo arrives at her windswept cabin, she discovers that there has been a mix-up on the booking front and a tall, handsome, and rather grumpy American called Mack insists the lodge is actually his for the next few weeks. With a storm approaching, they are forced to share the tiny holiday cottage for the night, keeping as far away from each other as they can in the confined space. It's only for one night, right? But neither of them know what this one night will bring...

One Night on the Island is one of those stories that works its way into your heart right from the start, and well and truly makes its home there. Told in alternating chapters from Cleo and Mack, this is essentially about the love that blossoms in this little cottage away from their world-weary cares, with each of them gradually opening up to each other and sharing their hopes, dreams, sorrows and secrets in the weeks they spend together. Obviously the course of true love does not always run smooth, and the real world will keep insisting on throwing obstacles in the way, but that's all part of the fun!

On the island there is a lovely cast of characters to help the story along, and I adored them all - especially the wonderful women of the knitting circle. Josie Silver writes them with such warmth and personality, revelling in their quirks and and the wisdom they have to teach both Cleo and Mack about life, relationships and community.

This book was an absolute joy to read, with some beautiful reflections on family, parenthood, love and loss, and having the courage to make a change. It has the perfect recipe of heart, humour and hot-under-collar-moments that makes it one to go back to again and again when you need a little comfort in your life. I laughed and cried my way through it (sometimes at the same time), working up to a full on sob session at the end. What more do you need?

One of my favourite books of the year! Josie Silver you have a new fan!

One Night on the Island is available to buy now in paperback, ebook and audio formats.

Thank you to Penguin for sending me a proof of this book in return for an honest review, and for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

Josie Silver is the Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author of One Day in December and The Two Lives of Lydia Bird. She has been published in 31 languages (and counting) and has previously been featured in Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine Book Club. Josie is an unashamed romantic, and lives with her husband, their two teenage sons, and an ever-growing cast of animals in a little town in the Midlands. One Night on the Island is her third novel.

Edgware Road by Yasmin Cordery Khan

 

Edgware Road by Yasmin Cordery Khan.

Published 3rd March 2022 by Head of Zeus. An Apollo book.

From the cover of the book:

A wide-ranging and affecting debut novel about family and identity, from an award-winning historian.

1981. Khalid Quraishi is one of the lucky ones. He works nights in the glitzy West End, and comes home every morning to his beautiful wife and daughter. He's a world away from Karachi and the family he left behind.

But Khalid likes to gamble, and he likes to win. Twenty pounds on the fruit machine, fifty on a sure-thing horse, a thousand on an investment that seems certain to pay out. Now he's been offered a huge opportunity, a chance to get in early with a new bank, and it looks like he'll finally have his big win.

2003. Alia Quraishi doesn't really remember her dad. After her parents' divorce she hardly saw him, and her mum refuses to talk about her charming ex-husband. So, when he died in what the police wrote off as a sad accident, Alia had no reason to believe there was more going on.

Now almost twenty years have passed and she's tired of only understanding half of who she is. Her dad's death alone and miles from his west London stomping ground doesn't add up with the man she knew. If she's going to find out the truth about her father – and learn about the other half of herself – Alia is going to have to visit his home, a place she's never been, and connect with a family that feel more like strangers.

***********

Our story begins in 1981 with Khalid Quraishi, a man who considers himself lucky in more ways than one. He has a beautiful wife and daughter, and a job he loves rubbing shoulders with the high and mighty in the glitzy Playboy casino in London's West End. It's a world away from his upbringing in Karachi, and he sees bright things ahead for him and his family. But Khalid is also a gambler, and his compulsion to play the odds in pursuit of that tantalising big win leads him into trouble. 

1987 finds him with a broken marriage and desperate to recapture his dreams. When he is offered the chance of a lifetime to get involved with a business deal involving the creation of a new bank, he is sure that this will be the big break he needs. But appearances can be deceptive and this time the gamble involves some very dodgy business partners.

In 2003, Khalid's daughter Alia has only hazy memories of her father, as she saw little of him after her parents' divorce, beyond infrequent meetings at Underground stations around London. When he was found dead in 1987, after failing to turn up to one of their father-daughter Tube meetings, the police put his death down to an accident - although the fact that his body was dragged from the Solent was rather odd for a man who lived in the Edgware Road. This loss has always left Alia feeling that she knows little about the Pakistani half of her heritage, and how this impacts her own sense of identity. The time has come for her to find out what sort of man Khalid was and why he ended his days in a watery grave...

This is a book full of delicious surprises! It starts with the slow-burn of a domestic drama of a family torn apart by one man's ambition and inability to control his gambling addiction, and then heads off into a glorious twisty and expansive mystery thriller that delves into corruption, ineptitude, and very dark deeds.

Although the novel begins way back in 1981, the story primarily consists of two timelines - 1987, with Khalid's tale, and a parallel thread from a new MP in the House of Commons, Mark Denby; and 2003 when Alia is compelled to find out more about her father. The timelines swap back and forth building layer upon layer, until we begin to see the truth about Khalid's foolish naivety, and how he gets himself mired in underhand deals on a global scale through a chance meeting with Saudi businessman and arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi. 

Alia's detective work drives the story, ratcheting up the tension and pulling you in as she tracks down the clues, confronts the complicit, and reels from the impact of what she finds out. The significant emotional impact of what she discovers is really interesting, affecting not only her view of her father, but also the way she sees herself and what she is due. I also thoroughly enjoyed how Mark Denby is used as a story device to shed light on the truly shocking scale of the corruption Khalid unwittingly becomes involved in, and adds a very cleverly worked element of tangible menace and very believable conspiracy to the piece.

The scale of this novel is immense in the way it brings in themes of identity; the driving ambition of immigrants desperate to leave their old lives behind, and yet tied to their heritage; the complexities of family dynamics; and a whole raft of political and societal issues. I was especially struck by the way Cordery Khan does such an impressive job conjuring the perfect feeling of time and place for every single part of this truly stunning debut. It's not just that she takes us from London to Pakistan and back again and across the different timelines so well, but the way she brings the complicated and contradictory sides of the late 1980s alive in these pages so authentically, recreating the brashness, the clash of cultures, the tense political atmosphere under Thatcher, the endemic racism and sexism yet to be addressed, while at the same time blending real and fictional characters, and pervading this all with the unmistakable sense that change is coming. As someone old enough to remember all this first hand, I am in awe!

This is a book that easily makes it onto the pile of my books of the year. Definitely one you do not want to miss!

Edgware Road is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats.

Thank you to Head of Zeus for sending me a proof of this book in return for an honest review, and for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

Yasmin Cordery Khan is an historian and broadcaster. She is the author of The Great Partition (for which she won the Gladstone Prize for History), and The Raj at War, and has written for the Guardian and the Observer. Edgware Road is her first novel.

A Night Of Flames (A Time For Swords Book Two) by Matthew Harffy

 

A Night of Flames ( A time for Swords Book Two) by Matthew Harffy.

Published 3rd March 2022 by Aries, Head of Zeus.

From the cover of the book:

A wild land. A lethal fanatic. A violent revolt.

Northumbria, AD 794. Those who rule the seas, rule the land. None know the truth of this more than the Vikings. To compete with the seafaring raiders, the king of Northumbria orders the construction of his own longships under the command of oath-sworn Norseman, Runolf.

When the Vikings attack again, the king sends cleric turned warrior, Hunlaf, on a mission to persuade the king of Rogaland into an alliance. But Hunlaf and Runolf have other plans; kin to seek out, old scores to settle, and a heretical tome to find in the wild lands of the Norse.

Their voyage takes them into the centre of a violent uprising. A slave has broken free of his captors and, with religious fervour, is leading his fanatical followers on a rampage – burning all in his path. Hunlaf must brave the Norse wilderness, and overcome deadly foes, to stop this madman. Can he prevent a night of flames and slaughter?

***********

AD: 794. Welcome to the next instalment of cleric-turned-warrior Hunlaf's memoir. This sequel to the cracking A Time for Swords follows closely on from the success of Hunlaf and his companions to save Werceworthe from the marauding Vikings, but the threat of attack for the coastal communities of Northumbria remains high, and Hunlaf and oath-sworn Norseman Runolf have unfinished business that calls them to the wild Norse lands across the sea - Runolf to hold his wife to account for her betrayal with his own brother Skorri, and Hunlaf to rescue his cousin Aelfwyn from her fate as a Viking thrall and to track down the mysterious book called The Treasure of Life.

Now they need transport, and master-shipbuilder Runolf promises a ship the like of which they have never seen. The next part of their quest gets underway once they have secured the funds to build this sea-going marvel from King Aethelred himself, although their negotiations bring with them the added requirement to take along the King's man Lord Mancas on their journey to establish a peace treaty with the Vikings - nothing like adding to their already substantial burden.

After much trial and tribulation, and a little serendipitous push from the hand of fate, Runolf's ship Brymsteda is ready to sail. The crew is made of companions old and new and this will be a new adventure for them all. Their journey is perilous, with many hazards to overcome, but these are nothing compared to what faces them when they reach Runolf's homeland. An escaped thrall is rampaging through these lands gathering a hoard of murderous religious fanatics who call him Ljósberari, the Lightbringer, and there are rumours of terrible slaughter in his wake - it is a name Hunlaf has heard before, in the pages of the book he seeks. What darkness awaits them in these wild Norse lands?

The first book in this series, A Time for Swords, introduced some wonderful characters in Hunlaf, Runolf and their companions, binding them together through adversity against the Viking raiders, and then promising an intriguing adventure to come in the pages of this second book. Knowing this starts with established characters and an impending journey means this volume of the series has a different feel right from the off.  Here you are aware that you are embarking on a quest of epic proportions with old friends, and Harffy not only fulfils this brief in spades, but he surpasses every expectation by taking you on a gripping adventure that encompasses the very best of immersive historical fiction, weaving in threads of mystery, fantasy and bloody horror along the way.

The story is more or less split into parts of a saga, which works beautifully in this setting. There are many trials to be undergone in the course of their quest, and each one calls on the members of our fellowship to use their various skills to propel the story onwards - a ship must somehow be built; a suitable gang of compatriots must be gathered together; a dangerous sea journey must be undertaken; and the perils of the Norse wilds must be overcome; not to mention that both Hunlaf and Runolf have personal business of their own to take care of. I love how Harffy threads the various stages of the adventure together, leading you onwards to what always promised to be difficult tasks and then throwing in a darkly delicious curve ball that channels Joseph Conrad's The Heart of Darkness in all its macabre glory. No spoilers from me dear reader, but I cannot remember the last time I was so terrified reading a work of historical fiction - the way Harffy builds suspense, ramping up to a tense and heart-in-the-mouth climax is impressive in the extreme. Would all our heroes survive? I was genuinely frightened for them all!

But of course, this is not just all about blood, guts and the clash of iron, even those these parts are hugely entertaining. Many of the players in this saga undergo some interesting character development this time around. Hunlaf in particular is forced to confront exactly what it means to be a warrior; to find a way to reconcile love and loss with a sense of purpose; and to look at people in a different way. Runolf too shows his hidden depths, and he is not the only one. This brings a real poignancy to the story, and really tugs on the old heart strings - tears were shed...  

Oh, and there are maps, dear readers... maps!!!

In what I now recognise to be classic Harffy style, there is a seductive pull into the next book in the series that suggests many more adventures for Hunlaf await - this time in much warmer waters. I cannot wait!

About the author:

Matthew Harffy lived in Northumberland as a child and the area had a great impact on him. The rugged terrain, ruined castles and rocky coastline made it easy to imagine the past. Decades later, a documentary about Northumbria's Golden Age sowed the kernel of an idea for a series of historical fiction novels. The first of them is the action-packed tale of vengeance and coming of age, THE SERPENT SWORD.

Matthew has worked in the IT industry, where he spent all day writing and editing, just not the words that most interested him. Prior to that he worked in Spain as an English teacher and translator. Matthew lives in Wiltshire, England, with his wife and their two daughters.

Sell Us The Rope by Stephen May

 

Sell Us the Rope by Stephen May.

Published 2nd March 2022 by Sandstone.

From the cover of the book:

‘When it’s time to hang the capitalists, they will sell us the rope.’ 

May 1907. 

Young Stalin – poet, bank-robber, spy – is in London for the 5th Congress of the Russian Communist Party. As he builds his powerbase in the party, Stalin manipulates alliances with Lenin, Trotsky, and Rosa Luxemburg under the eyes of the Czar’s secret police. 

Meanwhile he is drawn to the fiery Finnish activist Elli Vuokko and risks everything in a relationship as complicated as it is dangerous.

***********

It's 1907 and an extraordinary conference is being held in the East End of London - the 5th Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Party. An unlikely happening for the streets of Stepney, the conference is gathering together delegates from many different parts of the Communist movement, including guiding lights from within the Bolshevik and Menshevik factions, to discuss matters of policy and how to take their cause forward - even such luminaries as Lenin, Trotsky, Rosa Luxemberg, Maxim Gorky, Maria Andreyeva, and a young Josef Stalin.

The Congress is viewed with interest by opponents and sympathisers to the cause alike, especially by Okhrana agents from the Tsar's secret police force, who have their own devious ways of manipulating what happens inside the conference hall. The days pass slowly giving time for Stalin to have a few adventures in the grimy streets of London, and he finds himself drawn to a feisty young delegate from Finland, called Elli Vuokko, who is also taken under the wing of Rosa Luxemberg. This is an attraction that puts them under the shadow of suspicion, and as the fractures in the Party begin to show, very real danger lies ahead for them both...

Sell Us the Rope is a reimagining of the factual events of the 1907 5th RSDP Congress, which really did take place in the unlikely quarters of down-at-heel Stepney, in the East End of London. As bizarre as this sounds, some very famous names from the Communist movement spent the days of the conference arguing matters of policy and intent, and the resulting shenanigans provide an intriguing backdrop to this story.

May shines some fascinating light on Stalin in these pages, making his portrayal of a character we normally think of as a monster surprisingly human. There is certainly good in the character at this point in time, which we see through his interactions with Arthur, the son of his London landlord; his relationship with Vuokko; and his reflections on his wife and son; but May does not shy away from delving into the darkness that lies at Stalin's heart too, especially the way he broods on his difficult upbringing, and how the resulting resentment festers at his core.

There are many surreal moments in this novel that make it a very entertaining read, but it is actually the way May casts a prophetic eye on what is to come in the years that follow, while offering a satirical snapshot of the rise of Communism, that make this such an impressive book. You cannot fail to be aware of the conflict between the soft-handed intellectual and calloused-palmed worker elements of the Party, particularly through the eyes of Stalin and I really enjoyed how May uses these threads to examine how this shapes him into the man he becomes. It's evident that few realise quite how dangerous Stalin will be in the future - how their high-handed manipulation and contempt for a seemingly lowly player in the game affects the course of his ambition. This adds a real feeling of menace throughout - despite the glimpses of Stalin's still present softer side. In many ways, it reminds me of Armando Iannucci's cracking film The Death of Stalin in the way it combines humour with poignancy, whilst flooding the piece with transfixing history. And while we are on the subject of humour... oh my, the Okhrana spies, the Bunins - a simultaneously humorous and chilling combination!

Beyond the central theme, there are some cracking female characters in this story. I loved how May gives them centre stage on and off through Vuokko and Luxemberg, the one all keen and feisty, and the other older, wiser and much more jaded - both of them looking at the prospect of freedom and equality under Communism from different stand-points. Their developing relationship was rather lovely, and their communal bathing episodes so very touching. The cameo by Maria Andreyeva, as she shares her valuable pointers on how to form a connection with potential donors, was brilliant too. Kudos to May for highlighting the role of women in history here.

This really is a stunning read, with a rather brilliant title, and I might add a timely one given the historical perspective it offers about the complex history of Russia. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Sell Us the Rope is available to buy now in ebook and paperback, from your favourite book retailer, or direct from Sandstone HERE.

About the author:

Stephen May is the author of five novels including Life! Death! Prizes! which was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award and The Guardian Not The Booker Prize. He has also been shortlisted for the Wales Book of the Year and is a winner of the Media Wales Reader’s Prize. He has also written plays, as well as for television and film. He lives in West Yorkshire.

The Embroidered Book by Kate Heartfield

 

The Embroidered Book by Kate Heartfield.

Published 17th February 2022 by Harper Voyager.

From the cover of the book:

‘Power is not something you are given. Power is something you take. When you are a woman, it is a little more difficult, that’s all’

1768. Charlotte, daughter of the Habsburg Empress, arrives in Naples to marry a man she has never met. Her sister Antoine is sent to France, and in the mirrored corridors of Versailles they rename her Marie Antoinette.

The sisters are alone, but they are not powerless. When they were only children, they discovered a book of spells – spells that work, with dark and unpredictable consequences.

In a time of vicious court politics, of discovery and dizzying change, they use the book to take control of their lives. But every spell requires a sacrifice. And as love between the sisters turns to rivalry, they will send Europe spiralling into revolution.

***********

If ever there was a sweeping story, then this is certainly it! Kate Heartfield takes us right into the very centre of court politics in Europe in the mid-eighteenth century, through the experiences of two daughters of the Habsburg empire - Charlotte and Antoine, daughters of Empress Marie Theresa. Charlotte is headed to Naples to become the wife of Ferdinand, a man she has never met, and Antoine to France to become wife of the Dauphin and be renamed Marie Antoinette.

The sisters embark on their marriages with uncertainty, but they do not go unarmed, because each has the power to wield dangerous magic - a magic learned from the pages of a secret book of spells with an embroidered cover, given to them by their governess before she was brutally murdered. A gulf opens up between them as they become wives and mothers with kingdoms to protect and nurture, and their former closeness becomes rivalry as they try to take control of their own destinies by using all the skills at their disposal. However, the magic takes its toll each time it is used, and the sacrifices that have to be made are sometimes overwhelming...

Heartfield has taken on an ambitious task by delving into the lives of the Habsburgs, one which she clearly relishes and does with considerable skill. There is everything you could possibly want in terms of expansive history, tricky politics, and a delicious exploration into how women wield power, through the experiences of two daughters born to be used as pawns in the complex game of thrones playing out in central Europe in this period. 

However, this is no ordinary historical fiction tale - here there be magic. For me, this makes this novel something of a game-changer, asking some interesting questions about the lives of these women and the fates that consumed them. At every turn, what you think you know about the events that history records takes on an intriguing twist once the seductive whisper of magic enters the arena, bringing in some real menace, with a thread of a secret underworld of magisters with their own dark, mysterious purpose. This makes it a gripping, speculative novel, as every motivation, action and outcome suddenly becomes one you look at in a different light.

There is so much history here, laid out in an engaging way that draws you into the lives of some very famous names, and Heartfield writes them as vivid characters with hopes and dreams, and qualities to be both admired and loathed, making them so human. Right from the start there is a prickling at the back of your neck as you cannot fail to know what will happen to Antoine when she becomes Marie Antoinette, making her story so poignant. I did not know all that much about the life of Charlotte (also known to history as Maria Carolina) though, and found her side of the tale completely fascinating, and almost as tragic in many ways.

This is certainly a chunky book at over 650 pages, and there are a lot of characters with important parts to play that you need to keep track of (I am very thankful to the detailed list of characters at the start of the book for helping with this), but at no time does this feel over-long. You become so totally invested in the lives, loves, triumphs and tragedies of the characters that this is one of those novels that sweeps you along on a tide of intrigue and adventure, and takes you through practically the whole gamut of the emotional range. One to satisfy your cravings for glorious period detail, and magical happenings in one very pretty package!

The Embroidered Book is available to buy now in ebook, hardcover and audio formats from your favourite book retailer.

Thank you to Harper Voyager for sending me a hardcover copy of this book in return fr an honest review, and to Random Things Tours for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

Kate Heartfield is the author of The Embroidered Book, a historical fantasy novel out in February 2022. Her debut novel won Canada’s Aurora Award, and her novellas, stories and games have been shortlisted for the Nebula, Locus, Crawford, Sunburst and Aurora awards. A former journalist, Kate lives near Ottawa, Canada.

 February 2022 Reading Round-Up

Fifteen books on the menu this month, and it's been a voyage around the world, through time, and across the genres! All my reviews can be found by clicking on the captions below the relevant photo.

Open by Rachel Krantz

Dalvi by Laura Galloway

We Know You Remember by Tove Alsterdal

One Bad Think by M.K. Hill

Sugar and Snails by Anne Goodwin

Off Target by Eve Smith

12 Hours to Say I Love You by Olivia Poulet and Laurence Dobiesz

The Gifts by Liz Hyder

Putting the Rabbit in the Hat by Brian Cox

The Killing Crew by Murray Bailey

The Dictator's Wife by Freya Berry

Unhinged by Jorn Lier Horst and Thomas Enger

Parker Pyne Investigates by Agatha Christie

Game of Hearts by Katy Moran

My Last Supper by Jay Rayner

More great books next month!

If you have enjoyed my photographic efforts, please head to my Instagram page

@brownflopsy for more!

My Last Supper by Jay Rayner (Audio Book)

 

My Last Supper by Jay Rayner.

Narrated by Jay Rayner.

Released 3rd September 2019 by Faber Audio.

From the cover:

You're about to die. What would your final meal be?

This question has long troubled Jay Rayner. As a man more obsessed with his lunch than is strictly necessary, the idea of a showpiece last supper is a tantalising prospect. But wouldn't knowledge of your imminent demise ruin your appetite?

So, Jay decided to cheat death.

The plan was simple: he would embark on a journey through his life in food in pursuit of the meal to end all meals. It's a quest that takes him from necking oysters on the Louisiana shoreline to forking away the finest French pastries in Tokyo, and from his earliest memories of snails in garlic butter, through multiple pig-based banquets, to the unforgettable final meal itself.

My Last Supper is both a hugely entertaining account of a life built around mealtimes and a fascinating global exploration of our relationship with what we eat. It is the story of one hungry man, in eight courses.

***********

As a food critic, Jay Rayner is often asked about the dishes that would make up his final meal, should he be about to shuffle off this mortal coil - a question he admits to having dodged many times over. However, it is one which has set him thinking over the years. He eventually decided to take the question and bit more seriously and consider the dishes that would take pride of place in his terminal banquet - and then give the whole concept a radical twist by putting together this feast without the need to wait for his demise.

In this book, Rayner takes us through the various courses that would make up his meal to end all meals, incorporating such delights as oysters, snails, pork, bread and more, and tells the story of his quest to visit restaurants and food producers the world over in pursuit of the finest examples of each of his dream dishes. What follows is a foodie's delight, as he delves not just into the dishes themselves, but the highs and lows of his search for the kind of perfection that makes his taste-buds sing.

But this book is also so much more. Woven into chapters that are headed by the foodstuffs he is focusing on for each course, there is a wealth of anecdotes and personal stories about his life, touching on his childhood, family, career as a journalist, and musical diversions, and it's all fascinating - in turns intriguing, humorous and deeply touching. These chapters also incorporate a very diverse playlist to accompany the banquet, and tasty recipes to try out yourself too. The book concludes with the account of Rayner's last meal surrounded by friends and family, with a very poignant thread that brought a tear to my eye.

I thoroughly enjoyed this audio book, especially since I am very interested in food and cookery, but there is also plenty here to entertain if you are not fixated on eating - although I defy you not to feel hungry as Rayner tells of one delicious morsel after another! His narration is natural and engaging too, which makes this very easy and relaxing to listen to. This was just my cup of tea, if you will pardon the refreshment pun!

My Last Supper is available to buy now in paperback, ebook and audio formats from your favourite book retailer.

About the author:

Jay Rayner is an award-winning writer, journalist and broadcaster with a fine collection of floral shirts. He has written on everything from crime and politics, through cinema and theatre to the visual arts, but is best known as restaurant critic for the Observer.

For a while he was a sex columnist for Cosmopolitan; he also once got himself completely waxed in the name of journalism. He only mentions this because it hurt. Jay is a former Young Journalist of the Year, Critic of the Year and Restaurant Critic of the Year, though not all in the same year. In the 2016 British Press Awards he was shortlisted for both Critic of the Year and Specialist Journalist of the Year. In 2018 he was restaurant writer of the year in The Fortnum and Mason Food and Drink Awards.

Somehow he has also found time to write four novels and six works of non-fiction. His latest book is Wasted Calories and Ruined Nights, a second collection of his most negative restaurant reviews. His next book will be My Last Supper: one meal a lifetime in the making, which will be published in September 2019.

He chairs BBC Radio 4’s The Kitchen Cabinet, and is a regular on British television, where he is familiar as a judge on Masterchef. He performs live all over the country, both in his one man shows, and with the Jay Rayner Quartet, a jazz ensemble in which he plays piano. He likes pig.

Game of Hearts (The Regency Romance Trilogy Book One) by Katy Moran

 

Game of Hearts (The Regency Romance Trilogy Book One) by Katy Moran.

Published 3rd February 2022 by Aria.

From the cover of the book:

1817 Cornwall and London.

Heir to an aristocratic family scorched by scandal and scarred by war, the Earl of Lamorna (known to friends as Crow) is as dangerous as he is self-destructive. As a spy, he treads a fine line between loyalty and treachery, with a haunting secret in his past that threatens to destroy not only Crow himself, but those he loves. It's only going to take a single spark to set his world aflame. So when Crow's wild and impetuous young brother catches him in flagrante with their widowed stepmother, a lethal chain of events is set in motion.

Heiress Hester Harewood has problems of her own, on the run from the men who shot her father. The last thing she needs is to get involved with a complicated aristocrat, even if he does offer her his unconditional protection. But who is more dangerous? Those she is running from? Or Crow himself: charismatic, unpredictable, and yet with the capacity for such tenderness that Hester's heart is in just as much danger as her life.

Game of Hearts was previously published as False Lights by K.J. Whittaker and on Kindle as Hester and Crow by Katy Moran

***************

It's 1817, but this is an England rather different to that of the Regency period we normally read about, because in this timeline Napoleon achieved a narrow victory at Waterloo in 1815, sending Wellington packing with his tail between his legs. England is now under occupation, with Napoleon's brother Jérôme sitting on the English throne, and the former empress Joséphine in charge of court matters. England is under blockade, the French are cruel taskmasters bent on revenge, and the poor are starving in the streets. Wellington has been imprisoned for more than a year, and no one is quite sure where he is.

In the Isles of Scilly, mixed race heiress Hester Harewood is taken captive and her freed slave father Captain John Harewood, a hero of Trafalgar, is murdered in front of her. Contemptuous of the colour of her skin, her captors debate selling her at one of the underground markets that have sprung up since the abolition of slavery as they sail back to the mainland, but they underestimate her courage and cunning and she manages to escape. She is now on the run, seemingly without a friend in the world - until her flight takes her into the path of the handsome and brooding aristocrat the Earl of Lamorna, who is known to his friends as Crow.

Crow is a complicated man, with problems of his own. Haunted by the things he has seen on the battlefield during the long running wars with Napoleon's armies, and tortured by his own role at the Battle of Waterloo and the aftermath, he does not know what to make of the brave and resourceful heroine now under his protection. He is already walking a fine line between the French, English and the people of his Cornish homeland, and needs to come up with a plan to keep them all safe - and to rescue his younger brother Kitto from the clutches of the French authorities after an impetuous act of insurrection.

Danger and treachery lie all around them, and Crow's solution to the conundrum of Hester sets sparks flying between them, but hate and love are two sides of the same coin. Romance lies as thick in the air as peril... will they survive what comes, or will the secrets Crow holds bring everything crashing down?

I came to this story, the first in Katy Moran's Regency Romance Trilogy, prepared to have a rollicking time, which I certainly have, but did not expect to find this quite so bursting at the seams with such wonderful characters, storylines and a cracking spin on the historical front. It wasn't long before I realised that this was going to be a rare and beautiful thing, and settled in to immerse myself completely in the world that Moran has created.

There's all you could wish for on the Bridgerton front, with lashings of scandal, players to both love and hate, and threads of sex, race and class woven tightly into the fabric of the story, but by bringing in the historical twist of an England under occupation by the French, Moran has also created quite a different sort of beast here, with real menace that heightens the experience beautifully. At its heart, this is a marvellous bodice-ripping romance, but it draws on so many other elements too - shades of the Poldark books by Winston Graham; of Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe books; of Du Maurier; and even the complex machinations and intrigue of Tolstoy's War and Peace, all combine with sweeping storylines that get the blood pumping and grip you emotionally.

The characters are so vivid, jumping right off the page and immersing you in their triumphs and tragedies. The women are particularly entertaining, painted in shades of grey that make them pleasingly authentic: Hester is fierce and capable, chaffing against the limits of patriarchal and prejuducial bonds, and she works herself right into your heart, but she's not the only feisty female in this story. Moran's firebrand women came from all walks of life, and love or loathe them, they are complex and engaging- I found Moran's portrayal of Joséphine particularly interesting and surprisingly poignant.

I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed this swash-buckling adventure, following the story with my heart in my mouth and shedding tears at the end. I have moved straight on to book two Wicked by Design, which is shaping up to be every bit as good, so keep your eyes peeled for my review soon!

Game of Hearts, the first book in the Regency Romance Trilogy, is available to buy now in paperback, ebook and audio formats from your favourite book retailer. It is followed by book two Wicked by Design, and book three Scandalous Alchemy.

Thank you to Aria/Head of Zeus for sending me paperback copies of this trilogy in return for honest reviews.

About the author:

Katy Moran writes romantic historical fiction filled with adventure, sizzling chemistry and political intrigue. Her books are set in an alternate universe just a step away from our own. She lives in the Welsh borders with her family and four miniature sheep.

Happy Birthday To The Poetry Cove

 

The Poetry Cove
The World’s Most Extensive Poetry Community Shaking the Poetry Underground Scene

· A hub of over 2,500 poetry lovers from 61 countries

· Encompassing a forum, drop-in classes, virtual events on Second Life, a poetry radio station and a new literary magazine

· Members report gaining confidence, growing as poets, increasing readership, forming friendships

· Celebrating first anniversary on 27 February 2022

The Poetry Cove, one of the world’s most extensive and accessible online poetry communities for aspiring poets across the globe, is marking its first anniversary on Sunday 27th February, celebrating the successes of just one year of activity.

Founded in February 2021 by Adam Gary, a self-taught poet with a background in acting, who trained at National Youth Theatre, in its first year of life The Poetry Cove has gained over 2,500 “Covers” between members, forum participants and followers, hailing from 61 countries, including the UK, India, Australia, South Africa, Uganda and the US.

From first-time poets to established authors, the hub calls itself “the world’s most extensive poetry community” by virtue of its rich offer, which includes both free tools and a membership scheme.

The ethos of The Poetry Cove is to create an interactive, supportive and accessible platform where anyone looking to dive into the world of poetry can get involved. On the platform, poets of varying knowledge and ability can share their work, promote themselves, gain constructive feedback, meet and discuss with like-minded people, and make friends.

Ken Merchant from Maine, US said: "This is a community of individuals whose kindness and charm have elicited numerous moments of happiness since I joined in May 2021. Since joining, I have increased my readership, received peer feedback for future publications, formed new friendships and received a new sense of purpose. All of which wasn't easily accessible or achievable before.”

The beating heart of The Poetry Cove is its Forum, a free platform for people to share poetry and receive feedback on their work. With several members joining the community having never shared a poem in their life, the Forum has given hundreds of writers the confidence they needed to make their work more known.

Suchita Senthil Kumar from India said: "Finding The Poetry Cove was one of the best things that happened to me in 2021. As someone who mostly used to write prose, I was quite apprehensive with my poetry in the beginning. After being a part of the conversations on the Forum, poetry seemed less daunting. Now, I'm slowly beginning to understand the craft of writing poetry. I was one of the first 100 members and now watching the Cove enter a year of honing poetry, it gives me a sense of immense joy. I've found some of my best friends there, so for me, the Cove extends even beyond poetry. It feels home.”

The Poetry Cove also offers an online Academy to its members, with Saturday School drop-in classes. Open to anyone aged 16+ and from all backgrounds, all classes are held online, to enable attendance from members worldwide, and are aimed at training the next generation of poets, not just through their writing, but helping them become the best, most well-rounded professionals within the industry.

Many members are vocal about how being part of a community of like-minded people in the Academy and through the Forum has helped them not only to grow as writers and increase their confidence as poets, but also at those times when they were struggling with their mental health and wellbeing.

Rob Edwards from Yorkshire, UK said: "Almost two years ago as the pandemic was starting I fell ill with Sarcoidos. It affects the muscles of my torso so I can't do much physically, that I was used to as an active person. My muscles are in constant pain, thankfully controlled somewhat with strong painkillers. As an outlet I started writing more poetry, I had plenty of time on my hands and inspiration around me, living in the Yorkshire countryside.

In March last year I was looking online for somewhere to share my poetry and a safe encouraging space to connect and learn from, and with fellow poets. I stumbled over The Poetry Cove Instagram account and my hopes were answered. Adam Gary the founder and architect of The Poetry Cove seemed to genuinely want to start that very thing I was looking for. In the Forum, my fellow poets have been very supportive and constructive. I've gained so much more confidence in my poetry in sharing and learning from their counsel.”

Using the power of digital media to bring people together, The Poetry Cove has a significant plot of virtual land, with a Virtual Café and Performance Space where they hold regular open mics and other style events on Second Life. Participants can chat with each other “in person” over a drink, write poetry together, and read their poems out loud in a cosy, dimly lit ambience.

In its first year of life, The Poetry Cove has been organising events in partnership with other organisations, including a fundraising virtual open mic on Second Life as part of HopeFest, to raise funds for the American Cancer Society, and a pioneering initiative to promote National Poetry Writing Month last November, posting daily prompts and encouraging different discussions and support around NaPoWriMo as well as raising awareness across the internet.

Launching on the platform’s first birthday, the brand-new Poetry Cove Magazine is a quarterly-issued literary magazine edited by Poetry Cove member Sophie Scarlette, featuring original poems, short stories, essays, reviews, opinion pieces, games, contests, as well as news and listings of poetry events worldwide. The submission-based nature of the magazine will ensure priority is given to debut poets, in line with The Poetry Cove’s mission to celebrate raw talent and give everyone a platform to showcase their work. The magazine will be available for purchase exclusively on The Poetry Cove’s website.

Adam Gary, founder of The Poetry Cove said: “The Poetry Cove came about having spent a lot of time sharing my work and talking about poetry on YouTube. It very quickly became apparent that there are so many out there yearning to get into poetry writing but lack the confidence, direction or platform that will gently ease them into it. As someone who has been in their shoes, and always gone about things unconventionally, I felt akin to my followers and went about creating a place for them that encompassed everything they may need to push on in their endeavours.

I can't believe we're now approaching our first birthday. We have laid an incredibly solid foundation for our big vision, and I am always so humbled when I read messages from Covers about what The Poetry Cove means to them. We have big plans for what lies ahead, from having top poets host our Radio shows, to giving voice to exceptional undiscovered poets through our Magazine, and of course continuing to strengthen our community within the Forum and help as many more poets around the world as possible!“

Additional initiatives under development include: The Poetry Cove Radio, a 24hr poetry station with poetry tracks from independent poets across the globe; an in-depth Podcast, with a first episode already ranking on Apple Podcasts in the U.S and South Africa; an upcoming Talent Agency for literary, performance and spoken word poets, as well as influencers specialising in the poetry niche and leading industry practitioners working in publishing, film and television, theatre and arts festivals.

Happy first birthday to the @poetrycove, the world’s most extensive poetry community! You can find out more about their birthday celebrations, as well as their poetry classes, open mics and forum here: https://www.thepoetrycove.com/

Parker Pyne Investigates by Agatha Christie

 

Parker Pyne Investigates by Agatha Christie.

This edition published 20th April 2017 by Harper Collins.

From the cover of the book:

A collection of short stories featuring the ‘heart specialist’, Parker Pyne.

Mrs Packington felt alone, helpless and utterly forlorn. But her life changed when she stumbled upon an advertisement in The Times which read: ‘ARE YOU HAPPY? IF NOT, CONSULT MR PARKER PYNE’.

Equally adept at putting together the fragments of a murder mystery or the pieces of a marriage, Mr Parker Pyne is possibly the world’s most unconventional private investigator. 

Armed with just an intuitive knowledge of human nature, he is an Englishman abroad, travelling the globe to solve and undo crime and misdemenour.

***********************

My choice for this month's Read Christie 2022 challenge to choose an Agatha Christie featuring travel and romance is the short story collection Parker Pyne Investigates.

Parker Pyne is a genial, retired government statistician who is dedicated to helping people lead happy lives, using the considerable experience about human nature that he has gained over his working life. He offers his services via an advertisement in The Times asking 'Are you happy? if not consult Mr Parker Pyne', and promises an almost perfect success rate at providing satisfaction for his clients - crimes of the heart are his forté. 

The collection comprises fourteen stories, and it is really a book of two halves. The first part of the book revolves around stories which focus on what seems to be the original concept behind the character: that there are a specific number of reasons why people are unhappy, and specific remedies to their problems. Parker Pyne claims that there are only five reasons, and he has the cures to them if his clients are willing to submit to his recommendations and pay the required fee - if they are willing then comes up with a plan and sets it in motion using his faithful team of employees, while he oversees the schemes from his office in Richmond Street, London. The second half of the book, contains stories which are quite different in nature, as they are cases almost entirely foisted upon him during his attempts to get away from it all in exotic locations and, in all but one, he is the sole operative in putting things to rights.

The stories are so distinctly disparate in nature that I did wonder if Christie got a bit bored with Mr Parker Pyne and decided to take him a completely different direction halfway through the life of his character, because he changes from being the mastermind behind helping his clients to find happiness through some very amusing schemes, while he stays put in a single location; to more of a conventional private investigator who solves crimes in far-flung destinations, despite claiming to not be a detective. I wasn't quite sure what to make of this, as he suddenly becomes the centre of the stories as a crime sleuth, which was a bit odd. There is no real character development for Parker Pyne himself and you are left knowing little more about him at the end of the book as you knew at the beginning - and I was a little frustrated that you never find out what all the five causes of unhappiness are.

The cases which involve his delightful gang of accomplices are by far the most enjoyable, as they are such a great assortment of characters, including the deliciously smarmy lounge-lizzard Claude Luttrell, and the beautiful queen of vamps Madeleine de Sara, who could both be called upon to incite jealousy in the cases of marital disharmony. There are also a couple of faces familiar to fans of the Poirot books, with Miss Lemon taking the role of highly efficient secretary to Parker Pyne (before her days in charge of Poirot's files), and the enchanting Mrs Ariadne Oliver supplementing her income as famous novelist to help out when more creative game plans are required to bring about a successful result.

Overall, I did find this collection enjoyable. The stories are light, fun and entertaining, with a nice balance of romance, mystery and crime, and the foreign locations are very 'Christie', which made this book a fitting choice for the brief. I found them rather humorous too, as there are plenty of chuckles to be had. There are flashes of Poirot about many of these adventures (interestingly the final two stories, Problem at Pollensa Bay and The Regatta Mystery, were originally written for Poirot), but for me, they lack the personality and substance that a well developed main character brings. Definitely examples of Christie's more frivolous side!

Parker Pyne Investigates is now availanle to buy in paperback, ebook and audio formats from your favourite book retailer.

Note that the audio version of this collection, read by the wonderful Hugh Fraser, does not include the later stories Problem at Pollensa Bay and The Regatta Mystery.

About the author:

Agatha Christie is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies in English with another billion in over 70 foreign languages. She is the most widely published author of all time and in any language, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. She is the author of 80 crime novels and short story collections, 20 plays, and six novels written under the name of Mary Westmacott.