Author: Trisha Ashley

Publisher: Bantam Press/Transworld Books

Available: 22^nd June 2023 in Hardback, eBook & Audiobook

Thank you to Emma Fairey, Bantam Books and Transworld Book for my lovely gifted copy. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone.

Book Details:

Can her heart be mended too?

After losing her fiancé and her dream job in the same week, Garland Fairford’s life is turned upside down.

Having recently met a long-lost relative – Honey Fairford – through her work as a historical costumier, Garland is intrigued when Honey reveals she is opening a Wedding Dress museum in Lancashire. With nothing to lose, Garland accepts the offer of a job there.

What she doesn’t expect is to come face-to-face with a ghost from her past – her old friend, Thom, who mysteriously disappeared years ago.

As Garland begins reading the stories behind each of the beautiful wedding dresses, and sets about repairing both them and her relationship with Thom, could this finally be the chance for her own happy-ever-after?

My Thoughts:

I have been a book blogger for a few years now and most of the time, I still can’t believe that it is my pleasure and privilege to read and review the works of some wonderful authors. When I embarked on my book blogging adventure, I was deeply concerned that I would not be up to the task, because as a dyslexic, writing has been my bet noir, my stumbling block and herculean task to date. Since I was at school, the act of putting pen to paper (yes, I am that old) …filled me with unutterable fear, I just couldn’t get down in a cohesive manner, what I wanted to say…everything I wrote seemed confused and jumbled and because of it I was never able to attain the full scope of academic success, that I might have had without it but I have gained success in a different way instead

I like a challenge, so when the pandemic took hold, I decided that after decades of fearing writing anything, I was going to start book blogging, as books have always been my greatest love (sorry fur beasts and the Big Man) and I wanted to share my love of books and reading on a wider scale than I had been doing. I remember thinking to myself, that I would know that I was truly a book blogger when I got sent a proof of a Trisha Ashely book to review and here, we are today, for I did indeed get a copy of Trisha’s latest book to read and review.

I am truly honoured to be sharing my thoughts on Trisha’s latest book The Wedding Dress Repair Shop with you today, as Trisha’s writing has engaged, encouraged, enlightened, and egged me on, through some very dark moments and you cannot fail to love and relate to any of her characters, but in this book Garland is probably my favourite character, after all she’s a petite, fierce, red head who is determined and dedicated to her chosen profession, which sounds rather like me, bar the fact I am considerably rounder than her!

Let me share a little about the story; Garland Fairford is talented costumer, working at a prestigious London firm Beng & Briggs and responsible for making detailed replicas of historic clothing/costumes for the theatre and films. She is in-line for promotion to head of her department and in her spare time and there isn’t much of that, she creates exquisite, scaled down replicas of dresses, which are sold at the V&A. Garland is engaged to Marco, a playwright and producer, it all sounds like a script for success, doesn’t it?

Until a series of both fortunate and unfortunate circumstances change the trajectory of Garland’s life. On her afternoon off, Garland is at the V&A, studying the exhibition of dresses/costumes once owned and worn by the actress Rosa-May Garland. When she is introduced by her lovely friend George (Museum curator) to the renowned crime writer Honey Fairford who lent Rosa-May’s costumes to the museum and as it transpires, is related to Garland but the how’s, whys and wherefores of this connection are yours to discover and not mine to reveal but I did enjoy their getting to know each other at Claridge’s (because their high teas are so delicious and who can resist a spot of bubbly) and it was lovely to watch their developing familial relationship grow and you can’t help but be intrigued by Honey’s Wedding Dress Museum plans, Garland certainly is!

But Garland is happy in her work, life and comfortably at home in her cosy flat, until she accidently overhears a conversation, when delivering a costume to the theatre where Marco’s play Mid-Summer Madness is about to be performed and let’s just say, that the costume she was delivering wasn’t the only thing left in tatters!!!

And so, Garland, relocates to a small market town in Lancashire, to join Honey and take over the reins at the museum and once again can focus on the restoration, repair and rejuvenation of vintage clothes or rather Wedding Dresses with stories of their own. Garland falls in love with her new surroundings but not before she experiences a shocking discovery and her past resurfaces but of course, I am not telling you the specifics, because those are for me to know and you to find out! One of the many elements, I love so much about Trisha’s books, is the way she writes such a delightfully detailed and tangible atmosphere of a place, be it Garland’s new home or Pearl’s bookshop or the pink Elephant Café, as a reader you feel as if you are part of this fictional world and walking in the character’s footsteps.

Another element, that makes Trisha’s novels such favourites of mine, are her characters, the supporting characters all have stories and quirks of their own and the heroines are completely relatable, and the villains are completely hateable! Making for an irresistible combination, you live through all Garland experiences and cheer her on, when she succeeds and finds happiness and I found myself grinning smugly when Marco got all he deserved! Trisha’s cast of characters also have a few twisty little surprises to throw your way as well!

One of the absolute stars of this novel is feline protagonist, Go Lightly, who is the yowling, howling master of all he surveys, and he has taken on Garland as his human missive, but she’s not fully aware of her impending life of servitude, until they make the move to Lancashire when Garland believes she now has ownership of this grumpy, gurning feline, but as all cat owner’s will confirm, this is never the case!

This intriguing, imaginative and ultimately uplifting story is one of fierce felines who protect you from your exs; of friendships, new and old; of family, those you are born into and those you make for yourselves and the stories behind the misadventures of wedding dresses! Plus, the historic element, that ties together Garland and Honey, their relative, Rosa-May…what did actually happen to her all that time ago? Well, if you want to know more, you’ll have to read the book and find out because I don’t do spoilers!

I am a huge fan of Trisha’s books, as they make the world into happier place with their humour, joy and realistic optimism that they bring to everyone who reads them. I completely devoured this latest novel; I just adored it and simply couldn’t put it down and I hope you love it as much as I have and in the words of another of my favourite author’s the delightful Heidi Swain, this novel is ‘Trademark Trisha’ and I couldn’t agree more.

Happy Reading Bookophiles…

About the Author:

Sunday Times Top Ten bestselling novelist Trisha Ashley writes romantic comedies and her latest book, The Wedding Dress Repair Shop, will be published in 2023 by Transworld.

Her novels have twice been shortlisted for the Melissa Nathan Award for Romantic Comedy, and Every Woman for Herself was nominated by magazine readers as one of the top three romantic novels of the last fifty years.

She is from St Helens in West Lancashire and believes that her typically dark Lancashire sense of humour in adversity, crossed with a good dose of Celtic creativity from her Welsh grandmother, has made her what she is today… whatever that is.

Several of her novels are set in rural West Lancashire, West Yorkshire, and Wales. They frequently explore aspects of the three F’s that are a constant in her own life: Food, Flowers, and Friendship, and include delicious recipes at the back.

Nowadays she lives in North Wales and is the founder member of Novelistas Ink, a group of novelists, several of whom are bestselling, who meet regularly in North Wales.

She is a long-term member of the Society of Authors.

Trisha has a Penguin webpage at http://www.trishaashley.com where you can sign up for her newsletters and find all the latest book news.

And on this official fan site at www.trishaworld.com you can find out more about her, check her forthcoming events, or see a complete list of her books.

You will also find her on twitter as @trishaashley.

Author: Natali Simmonds

Publisher: Headline Review

Available: 22^nd June 2023 in Hardback, ebook & audiobook

Thank you to The Squadpod Collective and Headline Review for my gifted copy . My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone. 

Book Details:

Today, nothing is going right for Em. And it’s about to get much worse.

Heartbroken by a recent split, with her 30th birthday looming, she loses her job and her home in the same morning because of two swaggering, dishonest men – the boss who sexually harassed her and the flatmate sleeping with her behind his fiancée’s back. But all Em can think about is catching a flight to attend her sister’s wedding and see her dying mother.

With a record-breaking heatwave, and a serial killer making the streets unsafe, London is completely gridlocked. Em’s life has always been full of men getting their own way, and today the scorched city teems with them standing between her and home. As Em’s troubled past returns to haunt her, she refuses to let them win. Her defiance leads to shocking consequences that soon spiral wildly out of control.

In a world where men don’t listen, and girls have no voice, one woman can change everything.

Today, no one will be staying silent.

My Thoughts:

Today I am sharing my thoughts with you on Good Girls Die Last by Natali Simmonds, firstly Happy Publication Day!

Honestly, this book blew my mind because is just so…MAGNIFICENT, MONSTROUS and MONUMENTAL! Yes, I know I’m shouting…I can’t help it…praise for this novel, should be shouted.

And while I wished at this point to elucidate why, I feel this way, the most astute adjective, I can find at this very moment and for all of this past week since I finished reading it is…WOW…oh my goodness….WOW x 1000….yes books are for everyone, or whoever chooses to read them…but if you are female and want to read a novel that could relate to your own life experiences (bar any murders), then this book is IT!

Natali’s novel is punchy, powerful, pertinent, prophetic, and poignant read. She is a writer, who has her finger on the hammering pulse of socio/political observations, experiences and captures the essences and nuances of what it can be to a woman, living and working in the world today. I have no doubt, many will label it a feminist read, which it is because it is by a woman, about a woman but it is so much more than just a label. Natali has imagined a woman who has to face circumstances, that the #MeToo movement finally brought in the public conscious and this book, will absolutely make you want to raise your fist in solidarity with all women or prompt you into acting out of character and go on a taser welding rampage, zapping every man you come across, in the groin …personally, I think both options could work for me!

When I started reading Good Girls Die Last, I thought, it looks like a perceptive crime thriller with feminist edge but in reality, it’s not, it is a Russian Doll of a book! By this, I mean as you start to read it and the shock revelations occur in increasing enormity, with every chapter, you begin to comprehend the complexity of its message and Em’s role and feel the gut wrenching familiarity of a young woman attempting to deal with beastly morons, the blight of inequality, endless sexual harassment and the being subjected to a myriad of seemingly harmless but utterly inappropriate, physical and verbal utterances that come her way (and more than likely have come your way too). It is those small things, the supposedly ‘funny’ comments, that we women brush off but when you put them all together, their never ending re-occurrences in your life or Em’s…just thinking about the smarmy….’Go on Smile love, it may never happen’ type of comment, makes you grit your teeth and start to seethe! Ladies, this book is going to make you rage, roar and grind your teeth because though it is fictional, you cannot fail to see how based in reality it is, specifically of the social environment and work atmospheres, where most of us will have experienced or are experiencing now, similar issues (and that is putting it mildly and politely) possibly for the last time in this review!

Let me give you a little taste of what to expect when you read this novel; Em could be any of us, She’s approaching 30, she is half English, half Spanish and an attractive, creative, intelligent woman, with a zest for living life to full, finding love and making a success of her career. Sounds familiar doesn’t it. But like most of us, Em’s formative years have shaped her perspective and emotions, enduring the irrational rages of drunk father and the ineffectual passive responses to this unstable and unsavoury environment from her mother. Whose entreaties to stay quiet and not make a fuss in the face of abuse, have etched themselves into Em’s conscious and hold a level of responsibility for how Em reacts to her spiralling circumstances in this story.

At the start of the book, it is a relatively normal day in London, bar the fact the city is grip in the worse heat wave ever with temperatures hitting over 40* (quite frankly, if I ever experienced that I would just die, I would lie down on the street and wait for death, as I can barely function when the weather hits 26*!) But this stifling, restrictive, oppressive heat, is the perfect foil for Em’s story to unfold in! Her day starts with her sneaking out of her male flat mate’s bed and you become instantly aware that as fabulous as Em is, she doesn’t always make wise choices…she has been sleeping (well that is my euphemism for bonking like bunnies) with him (but as you’ll find out) it’s more a case of her accepting and tolerating his attentions, because she’s got an itch that needs scratching, her relationship has failed, she’s feeling sad and sex like this, take the edge off a little.

But Matt (the flatmate) – is the epitome of a gormless, philandering, entitled cockwomble (sorry but he is, and I’ve slept with a few myself…so I can see him clearly…ugh) he’s the male equivalent of an evening bag; pretty, might coordinate with your shoes, useful for about 30 minutes and then the moment’s over and you just need to change bags and shoes! Now before you think, I am being harsh, I promise you, I’m not…but his actions and behaviours towards Em…will confirm, what I’ve said, when you read the book! Yes, I am doing my level best not to give anything away here, so no details!

Em, gets ready to leave for work and she’s packed a suitcase, because she is off back to Spain for her sister’s wedding and it is the first time she will be reunited with her mother and sister in a long time (and there is a whole other plotline here, that explains why Em is the way she is and a whole batch of secrets as well) but they will unfold before you as you read and there will be more than one light bulb moment for you to experience!

 Today is an important day for Em’s career as graphic designer, she has worked hard to be a success and hopefully today, will cement her efforts. But of course, today does not go to plan in any way imaginable – huge understatement!

Instead of securing her job, she is fired,  all because her male boss is hacked off that she rejected his slimy, intrusive, coercive sexual advances and compounds his utter vileness by telling HR that Em’s behaviour towards him made him uncomfortable, as though she’s the one trapping him in toilets and trying to feel him up! Honestly, you want to make this turd in a t-shirt, pay for his lechery and lies…. turning his testicles into earrings, would be too good for him!!! I’m on a ranting roll now, this I blame on Natali, because her characterisations are just exceptional. You cannot fail to react to the circumstances, the plot, the dialogue…all of it showed me, what a work of genius this book is, that it prods and provokes you so much and that as a reader your mind is a blur of eviscerating resentment about the unfolding story, and you can’t help but put yourself in Em’s shoes! As you can see, I may have forgotten Em was fictional, so involved in the plot had I become!

As if the Em’s situation isn’t complicated enough, the heat wave has stymied public transport and there is a serial killer, strangling women in parks across London, take note of this  fact as it will play a part in Em’s downward spiral!  Em has no way of getting the airport except to walk there and we are talking 14 miles here folks! If she is going to catch her plane and reunite with her family! At this stage of the story,  I am once more back to lying on the floor, waiting for death here as the mere idea of walking in heels, in 40 degrees…with your period…just no, no, no, no…I simply couldn’t do it…but Em does and we follow along her travails and her meeting up with Rose…who I just loved as a character and the fact, that Natali uses their coincidental meeting to show the varying degrees of friendship, solidarity and support that can develop quickly between two vastly different women is glorious and is a redemptive element of this tremendous tale.

Now if you want to find out, if Em makes it to the airport, what happens if/when she does, what ends up happening in another park on this hot London night, the impact of social media and how all that has transpired up to this point leads to utter carnage and calamity, and the liberation and destruction of a life or several lives…then get yourself to a bookshop or click online and get this book as fast as you can, as there is so much more to come. I have only skimmed the surface of this novel!

Quite frankly bookophiles, I may never recover from reading this book! EVER…it is just that phenomenal! I am quite sure; I haven’t done it justice in my review. I will say, Natali’s book, is one I will never forget, it will be top of my list of gifts to friends and family this year and for several years to come. Please, Please, just go and get a copy, pour yourself a HUGE G&T, ignore your phone and just read it and then I hope you will see exactly why I am so enthusiastic, enraged, and excited about this book. Natali you have blown me away with this novel, I applaud your imagination and sublime writing skills…whatever you create next, I will be at the front of the queue to buy it.

Happy Reading Bookophiles!

About the Author:

Natali Simmonds began her career in glossy magazines, then went on to manage marketing campaigns for big brands. She’s now a creative brand consultant, freelance writer, and fiction author, writing gritty and unflinching stories full of complex women and page-turning suspense (and sometimes a little magic).

Simmonds’ dark, feminist thriller debut, Good Girls Die Last, has been optioned for a television series by STV. As N J Simmonds, Natali penned the fantasy trilogy The Path Keeper and Son of Secrets, and in 2022 was shortlisted for the RNA Fantasy Award for the last book in the series, Children of Shadows. She’s one half of paranormal romance author duo, Caedis Knight, and has also written for manga.

When she’s not writing or consulting, she’s a columnist for Kings College London’s ‘Inspire The Mind’ magazine, and lectures for Raindance Film School. Originally from London, Natali now divides her time between Spain, the UK, and the Netherlands where she can be found drawing, reading in her hammock, or complaining about cycling in the rain.

Author: Essie Fox

Publisher: Orenda Books

Available: 22^nd June 2023 in Hardback & eBook

Thank you to Anne Cater, Random Things Tours & Orenda Books for my lovely gifted copy and for having me on the blog tour for this book. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone.

Book Details:

Twin sisters Keziah and Tilly Lovell are identical in every way, except that Tilly hasn’t grown a single inch since she was five. Coerced into promoting their father’s quack elixir as they tour the country fairgrounds, at the age of fifteen the girls are sold to a mysterious Italian known as ‘Captain’.

Theo is an orphan, raised by his grandfather, Lord Seabrook, a man who has a dark interest in anatomical freaks and other curiosities … particularly the humankind. Resenting his grandson for his mother’s death in childbirth, when Seabrook remarries and a new heir is produced, Theo is forced to leave home without a penny to his name.

Theo finds employment in Dr Summerwell’s Museum of Anatomy in London, and here he meets Captain and his theatrical ‘family’ of performers, freaks, and outcasts. But it is Theo’s fascination with Tilly and Keziah that will lead all of them into a dark web of deceits, exposing unthinkable secrets and threatening everything they know…

My Thoughts:

I am beyond delighted to be sharing my thoughts with you today on Essie Fox’s book, The Fascination. If there was ever a book to judge by its cover, Essie’s book would definitely be a front runner, it is as glorious on the inside as it looks on the outside. This is a sumptuous, scintillating, and stunning read. Rich with historic details and atmosphere, which envelops and compliments the sublime story Essie has crafted. If you don’t get hold of a copy of this book, any FOMO (fear of missing out) you may possess will indeed be realised!

In this novel, we are not transported to into a whirl of ballrooms, ladies at tea or the pristine echelons of Victorian polite society. Instead, we are dropped into the underbelly of the beast, with all its riotous, raucous, raw, rambunctious reality, where survival by any means is the common trait. Where physical difference can lead to cruelty and exploitation and a life unlike any we readers can truly comprehend, as it is so far removed from the world we now inhabit. Yet, despite the privations of birth, social status and disability our protagonists, persevere.

What I loved about this book, is how Essie brought the extraordinary lives of her characters to life so exquisitely, her love and knowledge of the Victorian age, leaps off the pages of her book and completely ensnares her readers, right from the first line of this book. You literally become an omnipotent element to the novel, you are drawn into the dark murky, mysterious corners of this Victorian drama.

So let me give you a small taste of the book; Keziah and Tilly are identical twin sisters, they are mirror images of each other except for the one difference, Tilly has not grown in height since they were 5 years old! Their nefarious father has sought to exploit their uniqueness for his own profit by forcing them to promote his fraudulent ‘miracle cure’. On the move constantly, they have never had a place to call home! Until their obnoxious father, sells them (I know just writing this sentence makes me quiver with rage, that anyone should be sold as a commodity, is beyond modern comprehension but this was not the case during this historic period!)  I had to hold my indignant horses at this point and read on…the girls are sold to the enigmatic ‘Captain’ and find themselves part of a ‘family’ of human curios, collected by the Captain for their physical differences to the accepted societal norms, to be put on show, as exotics or wonders because such performances were accepted and expected forms of entertainment. I was in a bit of intellectual quandary at this point, had the twins gone from the proverbial frying pan to the fire here or could their circumstances be somewhat improved despite being sold…all I have to say now, is wait and see!

Our other protagonist in this intriguing story, is Theo, who aspires to be a doctor. His life has been in complete contrast to that of the twins, stable and moderately comfortable. Raised by his grandfather Lord Seabrook, a man of contradictions, with his virulent dislike of all things medical but also is obsessed with physical anomalies! I confess, he was a truly vile character in my eyes! Even more so, when he re-marries and gets his new wife with child as soon as possible. And once the new heir is in place, poor Theo is surplus to requirements and is effectively abandoned but instead of focusing on this loss.

Theo turns his attention on finding a way to become a doctor, by answering an advertisement placed by Dr Eugene Summerwell (definitely a case of creepy by name and by nature!), who requires a ‘gentleman anatomist’…this very job title did indeed give me the shivers, as it sounds very macabre! But it is through Summerwell’s ‘Museum of Anatomy’ that Theo crosses paths with Tilly and Keziah, as it is also the home to the Captain and his troop of physical outcasts. However, all is not what it seems…beneath the veneer of their new homes/family, something sinister lies and they become enmeshed in others dark deceptions but of course, if you want to know more then you will have to buy the book and find out, what precisely I am referring to as I have no intention of spoiling the trajectory of the plot!

Essie Fox’s The Fascination is really the most aptly named novel, as every element provokes fascination from its readers. From her ability to vividly conjure a world of dark performances, filled with mystery and the macabre from show grounds to anatomist theatre, the atmosphere is tangible and tainted, yet you cannot look away or stop reading! Essie’s ability to write authentic and engaging characters is superb, from the intrepid, innocent, and vulnerable to the downright dastardly. Essie does not pull her punches, as she leads us on the journey of her novel, the characters endure the complexities of society at the time, where disability, domestic abuse, coercion, exploitation to name but few, were not recognised or accommodated in any way and yes, they are horrendous, unacceptable behaviours for anyone to endure but they are historically accurate and dealt with as sympathetically as possible. I admired the unflinching and yet careful way these elements have been included in this story. Essie’s knowledge and research of this period is outstanding and I applaud her talent for mixing fact and fiction together so seamlessly, I quite forgot I was reading a novel!

 For me, The Fascination is a masterful, magical, menacing, and magnificent novel and one I have completely adored reading, it is beautifully written and has eloquently educated me in elements of the Victorian period, that I was only marginally aware of. If you, like me, love mystery mixed with your history, then this book, needs to be on your bookshelves, it is as far as I’m concern literary gold…so I enthusiastically suggest, you get hold of a copy ASAP, you will not regret it!

Happy Reading Bookophiles…

About the Author:

Essie Fox was born and raised in rural Herefordshire, which inspires much of her writing. After studying English Literature at Sheffield University, she moved to London where she worked for the Telegraph Sunday Magazine, and then book publishers George Allen & Unwin, before becoming self-employed in the world of art and design.

Essie now spends her time writing historical gothic novels. Her debut, The Somnambulist, was shortlisted for the National Book Awards, and featured on Channel 4’s TV Book Club. The Last Days of Leda Grey, set in the early years of silent film, was selected as The Times Historical Book of the Month. Essie is also the creator of the popular blog: The Virtual Victorian. She has lectured on this era at the V&A, and the National Gallery in London.

Please do read some of the other reviews available on this blog tour.

Author: Jane Corry

Publisher: Penguin/Viking Books

Available: 22^nd June 2023 in Paperback, eBook & Audiobook

Thank you to Ellie Hudson and Penguin/Viking Books for my gifted copy and for having me on the blog tour for this book. My review is based on my experience of the book and any thoughts expressed here are solely mine alone.

Book Details:

You can run away from your life.

But you can’t run away from murder.

When her family tragedy is splashed across the newspapers, Nancy decides to disappear. Her grandmother’s beautiful Regency house in a quiet seaside village seems like the safest place to hide. But the old house has its own secrets and a chilling wartime legacy . . .

Now someone knows the truth about the night Nancy’s mother and stepfather were murdered. Someone knows where to find her. And they have nothing to lose . . .

So, what really happened that night? And how far will she go to keep it hidden?

My Thoughts:

Today is my turn on the blog tour for Jane Corry’s latest domestic noir, Coming to Find You. Now I have to confess it has been a while since I’ve read one of Jane’s books and more fool me, I have clearly been missing out! I had completely forgotten how thrilling, twisty and taut they are! The premise of this book, really jumped out at me and the confluences of murder, history, mystery, and emotional mayhem roll off the pages of this absorbing, atmospheric and addictive thriller and reading it, certainly sated my crime/thriller addiction!

The novel opens in dramatic style; when a birthday celebration leads to a violent altercation in a farmhouse and results in death and these events completely changes the trajectory of our protagonist Nancy’s life; her family decimated and her stepbrother Martin, convicted of killing her mother and stepfather! But the truth of what really happened that night…. only those involved know what actually occurred!

Left alone, facing a monstrous onslaught of intrusive public and press attention. With no escape from this pernicious and horrified fascination with her family, their lives, and their deaths. Nancy has no respite from the situation, from their hounding of her and no time or space to grieve her losses or even to begin process all that has occurred.  Leading to her decision to flee, to go somewhere familiar, somewhere safe…her grandmother Adeline’s former home Tall Chimneys, set in the rural idle of Sidmouth, Devon…far, far away from all the urban clamour and nosy Exes!

One of the elements of this novel that peaked my attention so much, was Jane’s clever focus on the convergence of complexities that arise from the circumstances of murder. The focus of everyone’s attention and sympathy, is towards the victim/s and their relatives, who have had loved ones snatched from them for seemingly no reason or at least not one they can comprehend. And yet there are the invisible victims of such a crime as murder, those who purely by circumstances of familial relationship to the perpetrator are persecuted for that connection. Who suffer furiously subjective public speculation and negative perceptions about them, despite their innocence of any crime in reality, a truly fascinating area for contemplation and an interesting point of view within this novel.

The other element of this book, that I thoroughly enjoyed, was its dual timeline; Nancy in the present day attempting to live through death and social destruction and then the story dips back to her Grandmother and Tall Chimneys with its war time (1940s) residents and who is also trying to survive a similar but different situation to her granddaughter. Experiences of life changing events, the turbulence of being an evacuee, the overwhelming impact of the loss of loved ones killed in battle or by falling bombs, this book is awash with multiple plot threads that cover everything from spies to sex and back again. Every aspect of these highly dramatic and emotional elements evolves naturally and gives the book very tangible human aspect, that every reader can relate to.

The turn of events both in the past and in the present cannot fail to prompt you as a reader to ask questions about the ethics of choice; of right and wrong decisions, the wrong decision for the right reason or the right decision for the wrong reason and how when we as people are faced with such adversity and in dreadful situations, the heart overrules the head and reacts and not always with the best result!

Coming to Find you is a sensational story of scandalous and sinister secrets, of family drama, dilemmas, and dynamics; of heartbreak and healing woven in this tale. The perfect book to tuck in your beach bag, if you are heading on holiday or if you are whiling away the hours tucked in the shade of your garden, this is book that will keep you enthralled and entertained…so top up the ice trays, hide your phone and enjoy it…I did immensely.

Happy Reading Bookophiles. 

About the Author:

Jane Corry is a former magazine journalist who spent three years working as the writer-in-residence of a high security prison for men. This often hair-raising experience helped inspire her Sunday Times-bestselling psychological dramas, My Husband’s Wife, Blood Sisters, The Dead Ex, I Looked Away, I Made A Mistake, The Lies We Tell, and We All Have Our Secrets, which have been translated into over 16 languages and sold over a million copies worldwide. Jane was a tutor in creative writing at Oxford University; an RLF Fellow at Exeter University; and is a regular contributor to the Daily Telegraph and My Weekly magazine. Her eighth novel is set for publication in summer 2023.

Please do read some of the other reviews on this blog tour.