Blog Tour Guest Post: Becasue Mummy Said So by Shari Low

Because Mummy Said So by Shari Low

Published: 18th September 2018

Publisher: Head of Zeus

Pages: 352

Available on Kindle

Order now from Amazon

Blurb

The era of the yummy mummy has finally gone.

To celebrate this, Shari Low has taken a baby wipe to the glossy veneer of the school of perfect parenting and written Because I Said So to show us the truth about motherhood in all of its sleep-deprived, frazzled glory.

This is a book that every experienced, new or soon-to-be parent will relate to – well, hallelujah and praise be those who worship at the temple of Febreze. For over a decade, Shari wrote a hugely popular weekly newspaper column documenting the ups, downs and bio-hazardous laundry baskets of family life.

Because Mummy Said So is a collection of her favourite stories of parenting, featuring superheroes in pull up pants, embarrassing mistakes, disastrous summer holidays, childhood milestones, tear-jerking nativity plays, eight bouts of chickenpox and many, many discussions that were finished with the ultimate parental sticky situation get-out clause…

Guest Post by Shari Low

In some ways, I feel that the publication of Because Mummy Says So brings my life around full circle.

Way, way back in 2000, when I’d just broached my thirties and still had anatomy that had yet to landslide in a southerly direction, I took an uncharacteristic day off work because I was feeling sick and miserable.

That whole of the previous year had been a bit of a slog. After what seemed like endless rounds of fertility treatments, we were still no closer to having a family. And although I’d finally managed to find an agent, it looked like my first attempt at writing a book was going to languish in the bottom drawers of the publishing world until the end of time. It was definitely an all-time low point.

Late afternoon, I was under my duvet with a packet of Hob Nobs when the phone rang, and I heard my agent announce that an offer had come in for my novel. I was so ecstatic, I’d have done a lap of honour of the room if I hadn’t been feeling so damn nauseous. Instead, on some crazy, hoping-my-luck-had-changed hunch, I did a pregnancy test and there it was – that little line in the ‘positive’ box.

In the space of twenty minutes, my whole life changed and what a brilliant moment that was.

A couple of years later, I was asked to write a weekly newspaper column documenting the funny, embarrassing and very real mayhem of family life.

Time flew by in a chaotic juggle of raising two boys, sharing the funny stuff in newspapers and magazines, and writing twenty two novels about love, loss and friendship. And there were biscuits. Lots of biscuits.

It’s been a blast. And an exercise in sleep deprivation.

Last year, at the age of 16, my eldest left home, trotting off to play basketball in a college down south.

It seemed like the perfect time to look back on all my favourite parenting moments and the result is Because Mummy Said So. All the motherhood milestones are in there, from pregnancy to empty nest. The nursery days. The first days at school. The holiday disasters. The Christmas joys. And every embarrassing, funny, and downright mortifying thing that ever happened to us along the way. I’m not delivering a spoiler when I say that way too many of them include superhero impersonations and incidents involving pants.

The book is a collection of hilarious, toe curling and sometimes tear-jerking tales that I hope everyone from expectant and new mothers to empty nesters will love.

It’s the perfect excuse every mum needs to stop for half an hour, put the feet up, and have a giggle.

Oh and if you’re having a bad day you might take solace in the profound, intellectual lessons I’ve learned along the way: everything can change in one moment, no parent has it all worked out, and there’s no situation that can be improved with a chocolate Hob Nob.

About the Author

Shari Low has published eighteen books under her own name and pseudonyms Millie Conway and Ronni Cooper. She is also one half of the writing duo, Shari King. She lives near Glasgow with her husband, two teenagers and a labradoodle. www.sharilow.com

Follow

Twitter: @sharilow

Facebook: @sharilowbooks

Buy links:

Kobo: http://bit.ly/2x7ctIK

iBooks: https://apple.co/2x7x27T

Google play: http://bit.ly/2p0LdYZ

Amazon: mybook.to/MummySaidSo

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Blog Tour Reiew: The Accusation by Zosia Wand

The Accusation by Zosia Wand

Published: 1st June 2018

Publisher: Head of Zeus

Pages: 352

Available on Kindle

Order now from Amazon

Rating: 5/5

Blurb

Who would you choose if you had to - your daughter or your husband?

Eve lives in the beautiful Cumbrian town of Tarnside with her husband Neil. After years of trying, and failing, to become parents, they are in the final stages of adopting four-year-old Milly. Though she already feels like their daughter, they just have to get through the 'settling in' period: three months of living as a family before they can make it official.

But then Eve's mother, Joan, comes to stay. Joan has never liked her son-in-law. He isn't right for Eve; too controlling, too opinionated. She knows Eve has always wanted a family, but is Neil the best man to build one with?

Then Joan uncovers something that could smash Eve's family to pieces... 

Review

Before I read The Accusation Zosia Wand was an unknown author to me, but now she’s on my radar for writing psychological thrillers which are compelling and sensitive, I had the book devoured in just a couple of hours as it’s so gripping.

Eve and her husband Neil are in the final stages of adopting Milly a four-year-old whose had a very traumatic start in life. Everything’s going well until Eve decides to share their happy news with her mother, a mother they moved away from because she hates Neil a mother she’s had no contact with for two years, a mother who will stop at nothing to get what she wants. The fallout from sending one photo is catastrophic and before long Eve’s left questioning everything she ever knew about her mother and about Neil.

This was a fantastic novel which explores love and control in relationships. Eve believes her mother truly loves her and would do anything for her, but it slowly starts to dawn on her that her mothers form of love is always based on control. What starts out as a gentle story about adoption soon turns into a book filled with malice and deception as Eve is pushed to her limits. But who does she trust most her mother or her husband? The two people who are meant to love her unconditionally and one of them is lying.

Joan is a despicable character who will stop at nothing to get what she wants, even if it means ruining her daughter’s happiness. Although she’s her horrific person and does some truly questionable things I still found her the most interesting character in this book. I liked Eve and Neil but felt they were both a little lacking in gumption. Why Eve couldn’t see what her mother was up to was beyond me and I want Neil to have more balls and take control of the situation and throw her out.

The Accusation is a fantastic read which has explored relationships and how they are viewed by different people, especially the dynamic of a mother’s love, it’s a book about adoption and how one small things can have a massive impact on the whole process, it’s a book about domestic abuse and how not all abuse is physical, mental torment can be just as damaging to a person. This is a book I can highly recommend to anyone who is a fan of psychological thrillers and it’s a book which has made me excited for what Zosia Wand will use her fantastic writing skills on next.

About the Author

Zosia Wand is an author and playwright. She was born in London and lives in Cumbria with her family. She is passionate about good coffee, cake and her adopted landscape on the edge of the Lake District. Her first novel, Trust Me, was published by Head of Zeus in 2017.

Follow Zosia

Twitter: @zosiawand

Facebook: @zosiawand

Buy links:

Amazon: mybook.to/TheAccusation

Kobo: http://bit.ly/2KtZHsK

iBooks: https://apple.co/2J5i5If

Google Play: http://bit.ly/2sps98A

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Twitter: @HoZ_Books

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Blog Tour Review: A Cornish Secret by Emma Burstall

A Cornish Secret by Emma Burstall

Published: 1st June 2018

Publisher: Head of Zeus

Pages: 331

Available on Kindle

Order now from Amazon

Rating: 4/5

Blurb

Be careful what you kiss for...

Esme Posorsky is an enigma. For as long as people can remember, she has been part of community life in the quaint Cornish fishing village of Tremarnock, but does anyone really know her? She is usually to be found working in her pottery studio or at home with her beloved cat, Rasputin. But when an old school friend turns up with a secret from the past, nothing will ever be the same again.

Meanwhile teenager, Rosie, is excited to find a bottle washed up on Tremarnock beach with a message from a former German prisoner of war. While the rest of the village is up in arms about a new housing development, she sets out to find him. Little does she know, however, that her discovery will unleash a shocking chain of events that threatens to blow her family apart. Tremarnock may look like a cosy backwater, but some of its residents are about to come face-to-face with tough decisions and cold reality…

Review

A Cornish Secret is Emma Burstall’s forth book based in the tranquil Cornish village of Tremarnock. I’ve loved all the covers of her books but this one has to be my favourite, how cosy does that cat look at in that window with that gorgeous view, I’m very jealous.

In A Cornish Secret, three storylines are interwoven into the book and at first, I wasn’t sure how everything was going to come together to form a cohesive plot, but it does at the end making for a very enjoyable read.

One of the background characters from previous books Esme becomes the focus in this book. After more than twenty years she’s being reunited with her old school friend Caroline as the two embark on a walking holiday along the Cornish coast. Esme kept her true feelings for her friend under wraps for most of her life but when the two meet is obvious her feelings are mutual, can Esme finally find some happiness being herself? I loved having Esme as one of the main characters, she’s been mentioned in previous books but always seemed a solitary character and a bit flakey, this book explains her history and gives her glimpse at happiness. My only gripe was the storyline between her and Caroline came to an abrupt end with no real solution. I hope this means there is another book coming as I’d love to know if these two manage to work things out.

Alongside this storyline the majority of the Tremarnock villagers are forming a protest group to try and save their local playground from developers. This created some great scenes in the book as residents form a makeshift campsite on the playing field which really highlight the community spirit which has flown throughout all of Emma Burstall’s Tremarnock books. I loved the description of Loveday and Jesse’s treehouse and Audrey’s extravagant marquee and all the camaraderie with the singing round the campfire on a night.

As most of the villagers unite Liz, a main character from previous books notices her husband Robert is becoming more and more distant from herself and from overall village life, burying himself in his work. When her daughter Rosie finds a message in a bottle down on the beach Liz throws herself into helping trace the writer and this only leads to more trouble.

I loved been back in Tremarnock as it feels like I’m getting to know these characters well now after four books with them. My favourite is still Liz and I’m glad this book highlighted that even though you’re married you still need to work at your relationship to keep it sparkling. Emma Burstall’s did a great job of weaving two of the three storylines together but I wish Esme’s was more complete, perhaps in a future book? I’d also love her to write something about Audrey as feel there’s more we need to know about this character.

Overall I found A Cornish Secret a joy to read, it’s the perfect summer read and it will make you long to be in Cornwall just like I do now. Emma Burstall has shown yet again she can create an entertaining story within the beautiful village of Tremarnock with characters that soon feel like friends whether you’ve read the previous books or not.

Thank you so much to Head of Zeus for sending me a copy to review and for inviting me to be part of the blog tour.

About the Author

Emma Burstall was a newspaper journalist in Devon and Cornwall before becoming a full time author. Tremarnock, the first novel in her series set in a delightful Cornish village, was published in 2015 and became a top-10 bestseller.

Follow Emma

Twitter: @EmmaBurstall

Facebook: @emmaburstallauthor

Buy links:

Amazon: mybook.to/ACornishSecret

Kobo: http://bit.ly/2L3ISWI

iBooks: https://apple.co/2M5a1cy

Google Play: http://bit.ly/2JxvYSX

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Website: www.ariafiction.com

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Blog Tour Review: Summer of Love by Caro Fraser

Summer of Love by Caro Fraser

Published: 31st May 2018

Publisher: Head of Zeus

Pages: 512

Available on Kindle

Order now from Amazon

Rating: 5/5

Blurb

The dark days of the war are over, but the family secrets they held are only just dawning.

 In the hot summer of 1949, a group of family and friends gather at Harry Denholm's country house in Kent. Meg and Dan Ranscombe, emerging from a scandal of their own making; Dan's godmother, Sonia; and her two young girls, Laura and Avril, only one of whom is Sonia's biological daughter. Amongst the heat, memories, and infatuations, a secret is revealed to Meg's son, Max, and soon a terrible tragedy unfolds that will have consequences for them all. Afterwards, Avril, Laura and Max must come of age in a society still reeling from the war, haunted by the choices of that fateful summer. Cold, entitled Avril will go to any lengths to take what is hers. Beautiful, naive Laura finds refuge and love in the London jazz clubs, but Max, with wealth and unrequited love, has the capacity to undo it all.

Review

Summer of Love is the follow on from Caro Fraser’s brilliant The Summer House Party from last year. That was a book I adored, and I’ve found Summer of Love to be just as good if not better.

Summer of Love starts in the summer of 1949, a few years after the previous book ended. Meg and Dan Ranscombe have gone to visit their friend Harry Denholm at his new country home in Kent along with son Max and Sonia Hardon’s two daughters Avril and Laura. One fateful day a secret is revealed which leads to a horrible accident which has dreadful consequences for Max, Avril and Laura. As the story unfolds Max, Avril and Laura shake off the bonds of childhood and go their separate ways in life, only to be drawn back together a few times over the years.

This is a beautifully written novel which explores the effects which our parents and our experiences and feelings from our younger days mould us as adults. Max traumatised by his feelings towards his mother leads a sheltered life pouring himself into his work in the hope this will keep his demons at bay. Laura, knowing she was abandoned by her mother as a baby longs to be loved and her naivety leads her into some difficult situations. Avril, always feeling pushed out by Laura takes the ultimate revenge when she has the chance but is still left feeling she’s alone and on the side-lines.

I loved reading how each of these characters changed over the years experiencing love, loss, betrayal, revenge and forgiveness. Caro Fraser has written a novel which is wonderfully character driven and guides us effortlessly from the restrained end of war years to the emergence of the vibrant atmosphere of the sixties. It’s a novel which covers attitudes to many social factors including racism, feminism, homosexuality to drug taking and unwanted pregnancies, all with such eloquent and engaging writing.

This is a novel not to be missed and judging by the way the ending has been left fairly open ended  I’m hoping there is more to come from the lives of Max, Laura and Avril.

Thank you so much to Head of Zeus for sending me a copy to review and inviting me to be part of the blog tour, Summer of Love by Caro Fraser has been a pleasure to read.

About the Author

Caro Fraser is the author of the bestselling Caper Court novels, based on her own experiences as a lawyer. She is the daughter of Flashman author George MacDonald Fraser and lives in London.

Follow Caro

Facebook: @CaroFraserAuthor

Buy links:

Amazon: getbook.at/SummerofLove

Kobo: http://bit.ly/2wIlIC8

Follow Head of Zeus

Website: http://headofzeus.com/

Twitter: @HoZ_Books

Facebook: @HeadofZeus

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Blog Tour Extract: The Room by the Lake by Emma Dibdin

The Room by the Lake by Emma Dibdin

Published: 5th April 2018 (Paperback)

Publisher: Head of Zeus

Pages: 320

Available in Hardback, Paperback and on Kindle

Order now from Amazon

Blurb

Caitlin never meant to stay so long. But it's strange how this place warps time. Out here, in the middle of nowhere, it's easy to forget about the world outside.

It all happened so fast. She was lonely, broke, about to give up. Then she met Jake and he took her to his 'family': a close-knit community living by the lake. Each day she says she'll leave but each night she's back around their campfire. Staring into the flames. Reciting in chorus that she is nothing without them.

But something inside her won't let go. A whisper that knows this isn't right. Knows there is danger lurking in that quiet room down by the lake...

Today for my stop on The Room by the Lake blog tour I have an extract from the first and second chapters of the book, enjoy x

Extract

New York, new start, yes, but why New York? On the tube to Heathrow I’d had a romantic notion of looking up at the departures board and picking a place at random, but this was the only destination I ever really had in mind. I’ve never been here before. No one in my family has been here before, as far as I know. My concept of New York is a charismatic jigsaw made up from fragments of pop culture and my own imagination. I could have gone to Paris or Florence or Berlin, where the language barrier would at least have given me an excuse to isolate myself. I could have gone to Budapest, where my mum spent what she always called the best three years of her life. I could have run anywhere in Europe, except that none of it was far away enough.

There’s rage in the streets here, a general thrum of aggression powering the city through its never-sleeping existence. Earlier I saw a cab drive straight through a red light, side-swiping a cyclist who smashed his palm hard against the driver’s side window, hitting the car again as it drove on past him, screaming ‘Are you fucking serious?’ Nobody around me gave the scene a second look. I assume I’ll get used to sights like this, just as the constant car horns have become like white noise.

The roads and pavements are all wide, the grid system laid out in vast, greedy swathes of right angles, and I’m reminded of colouring books and how I never, ever went outside the lines. How I cried after Natalie Bickers elbowed me while I was colouring in a tree once, my crayon zigzagging into the white and ruining the picture. I’ve been dreaming of kindergarten a lot this week.

Coming to New York for a new start on a visa waiver might be the stupidest, because I know perfectly well that I can’t get a job here, can’t even stay for more than three months. When the border official at JFK asked how long I planned to stay in the US, I told him my flight home leaves on 10th August, a flight I booked with no intention of taking. For once in my life, I’m refusing to think things through too much.

‘You’ve had a tough couple of years,’ the university counsellor told me, a box of tissues placed pointedly on the table between us. I should be crying, the subtext says. The fact that I’m not is suspect, maybe monstrous.

‘Sure.’ I’d promised myself I wouldn’t be snappy, not with this one, but it was better than the alternative of not speaking at all. ‘Could be worse.’

‘The death of a parent is one of the most profound losses a person can suffer. At your age, all the more so.’

‘High up on the stressful life event scale, yeah. Can I ask something?’

‘Of course, Caitlin.’

‘What would you say to someone who’s not only mourning the death of a parent, but sort of mourning the fact that the wrong parent died?’

She didn’t flinch, but I liked to think I blindsided her at least for a second. I knew I should feel disloyal to my dad, and horrified by the idea of my mum looking down from wherever and hearing me say it, but all I felt in that moment was satisfaction, like I’d finally grasped something I hadn’t dared to reach for before.

It’s the same satisfaction I feel now at the thought that maybe, just maybe, my dad will have sobered up for long enough to wonder where I am. Maybe even tried to call. What happens when you call a phone that has been thrown into the canal? Does it go straight to voicemail? Can the network tell when a SIM card is waterlogged?

I’d left a voicemail with my aunt Chloe and another with my best friend Sophie: clipped, utilitarian messages designed solely as insurance. I’m fine, I’m going away, don’t try to contact me and don’t report me as missing. I don’t want to give him a reason to turn this into a police procedural.

I just want to stay. In this lonely five days in New York I’ve been as low and high as I ever have, miserable and exhilarated, drunk on freedom and fear and the city’s collective, propulsive desire for more. In these streets where anger hums in the air, where cars keep driving straight towards you as you cross on a corner, where there’s no real expectation that you’re safe. Here, I can imagine dying, or else living forever.

CHAPTER TWO

As soon as I walk into the house that Friday night, my last night in London, I know I should leave.

I’ll never know exactly what it was about the hallway – the piles of post on the sideboard, neglected for months, the jumble of boots and trainers by the door making a mockery of the shoe rack, the way mundane objects felt overgrown – that gave me pause. Nausea in the pit of my stomach, buried like a bullet. The faint sound of opera reaches me, muffled by walls and a door ajar, and I lean hard against the front door as it closes behind me.

‘Hello? Dad?’

He’s sitting in his armchair, The New Grove Dictionary of Opera open on his lap, and he looks so familiar and comforting and appropriate that something young in me wants to run to him. Curl up at his side and let him read to me about a favourite aria or a composer’s biography, not because I have any interest in opera but because he does, and because I will remember this moment as something true. The knot in my stomach dares to loosen, until I see the glass. Stashed clumsily behind the leg of the side table, empty, because he drained it in a hurry.

We’d had a real afternoon together earlier in the week, a walk around Hampstead Heath, starting at the south-west entrance and skirting the edge of Parliament Hill, passing the ponds as the ground sloped gently upwards.

‘I really feel different about it this time, darling,’ he’d said to me as we passed the model boating pond, heading up towards Hampstead Gate and the dense, soothing forestry beyond. ‘When I think about drinking now, it just feels like some kind of nightmare. What the hell was I thinking, you know?’

I held onto these words like salt and threw them hard over my shoulder, and dared not to worry about him for an entire day afterwards.

Back in the living room, my voice is high and thin as I ask, ‘What are you drinking?’

‘Nothing.’

Almost worse than the lying itself is how bad he is at it. I need to brace for a fight but I’m just too tired, the weight of nausea in my stomach anchoring me in place. I want to join him in his denial, but I can’t do that either, not this time.

‘What are you drinking?’

‘I just said, darling, nothing.’

‘Yes you are. Dad, I can see the glass, okay?’

He looks slowly down at it, back at me, and I can see the lie failing to form, the wheels turning so slowly. It had made him so dull, the drinking, his once-sharp mind blunted.

‘You’re not fooling anyone.’

‘How dare you?’ he snaps, and suddenly he’s not slow any more. A live wire has been sparked and his eyes are wild, and he’s so far away from me now.

‘Dad—’

‘You don’t speak to me that way,’ he says. ‘You’ve always been disrespectful. I didn’t realize it for so long, but with everything happening with your mother, I just saw what I wanted to in you.’

It shouldn’t sting any more, this whiplash shift. My nails are pressing hard into my palms.

‘I’m stating facts, Dad.’

‘Stating facts? Well, yeah, you’ve always been good at that, good brain. Pity about your spine.’

‘What’s that even supposed to mean?’

‘Don’t pretend you don’t know, you little creep.’

I mentally recite the Google results I had spent whole evenings poring over, trying to remember all of the statistics about relapse and withdrawal. All that comes back to me are the facts about long-term liver damage, the early symptoms of cirrhosis, and how death has been hanging over this house for such a long time.

‘You know what the doctor told you,’ I manage, my throat closing up. He stares at me, eyes less wild now than cold, all affect gone.

I’m halfway up the stairs before I know what I’m doing, and in my room I throw clothes into my battered suitcase, grabbing toiletries with a rat-a-tat list of essentials ringing in my head. Toothbrush. Razor. Passport. Leave. Leave. Leave.

I look around the room and don’t feel anything, not even as I look at the childhood teddy bears I used to love so much. All I want is out, and I have just enough resolve left to get me there. As I’m locking my case with steady hands I think I hear him in the doorway and turn, fists tight again. But he’s passed my door, going to his study, a room that has not earned its name in months.

And a minute later, I’m back out in the night air, gasping because I’ve been holding my breath for minutes on end, or maybe that house is just airless. And when I reach the canal almost an hour later, I throw my phone in with such force I think my body may follow.

I really enjoyed reading The Room by the Lake by Emma Dibdin, you can check the review I wrote last year here.