The forgotten sister

One woman’s secret will shape another’s destiny…

1560: Amy Robsart is trapped in a loveless marriage to Robert Dudley, a member of the court of Queen Elizabeth I. Surrounded by enemies and with nowhere left to turn, Amy hatches a desperate scheme to escape – one with devastating consequences that will echo through the centuries…

Present Day: When Lizzie Kingdom is forced to withdraw from the public eye in a blaze of scandal, it seems her life is over. But she’s about to encounter a young man, Johnny Robsart, whose fate will interlace with hers in the most unexpected of ways. For Johnny is certain that Lizzie is linked to a terrible secret dating back to Tudor times. If Lizzie is brave enough to go in search of the truth, then what she discovers will change the course of their lives forever.

Moving between the Tudor era and the present day,The Forgotten Sister draws on one of history’s most compelling mysteries.

About the author

 

International bestselling author Nicola Cornick writes dual-time historical mysteries that draw on her love for genealogy and local history. She studied History at London and Oxford and worked in academia for a number of years before becoming a full time author. Nicola acts as a guide and researcher at the stunning 17th century hunting lodge, Ashdown House and is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Friends of Lydiard Park in Swindon. She gives talks and tours on a variety of historical topics.

Nicola lives near Oxford and loves reading, writing, history, music, wildlife, travel and walking her dog. She also loves hearing from her readers and chatting to them. She can also be found on Facebook, Twitter @NicolaCornick and Instagram.

My Review

I loved the dual stories in this book as we alternate between Tudor times and the story of Amy Robsart and the present day Lizzie Kingdom. This book captivated me from the start as well as throwing light on a period of Elizabethan history that is in itself fascinating. This book is superbly written, highly imaginative and I loved every second of it. 

Chasing Moonbeams in Merriment Bay

Cat has found true happiness in Merriment Bay. Will a discovery in Devon Villa change that? 

Cat Devon is finally with the love of her life – and she couldn’t be happier about that. But discovering the identity of her real dad and the fact she has two half-brothers was a shock. Getting to know her new family is now a priority. 

Kyra Devon is only eighteen, but she’s more mature than her mum in many ways and is coping far better with everything that’s happened. Kyra knows what she wants and unlike Cat, she’s not going to let opportunities slip away. 

Mary Devon has regained her daughter and her granddaughter, but she’s grieving for her mother, and also for the loss of the love she thought she’d found. Putting on a brave face may not be the best way for Mary to get over it. 

When a long-lost painting called Moonbeams Kiss is discovered in a hidden cellar beneath the floorboards in Devon Villa, a story of love, loss and treachery unfolds, bringing with it repercussions for each of the Devon women. 

This is Book Two in Emily Harvale's Merriment Bay series which is interconnected to her Wyntersleap series. Each series can be read alone, but several characters appear in both series. 

About the author

Emily writes novels, novellas and short stories about friendship, family and falling in love. She believes in love at first sight and she loves a happy ending but knows that life doesn't always go to plan. Her stories are sure to bring a smile to your face and a warmth to your heart.

Emily loves to connect with her readers. In addition to her newsletter, she has a readers' group on Facebook, where she shares all her latest news and even gets readers involved in choosing titles, book covers and more. To catch up with Emily, find out about the group, or connect with her on social media, go to her website at https://www.emilyharvale.com

Having lived and worked in London for several years, Emily returned to her home town of Hastings where she writes full-time. She’s a member of the SoA, an Amazon bestseller and a Kindle All Star. When not writing, Emily says she can be found enjoying the stunning East Sussex coast and countryside, but she’s more likely to be found with friends, enjoying a glass of wine or a cup of coffee, and definitely some cake. Emily has two mischievous rescue cats, Beatrix and Portia, who like to sprawl across her keyboard, regardless of whether Emily is typing on it, or not.

Catch up with Emily on her website https://www.emilyharvale.com or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/emilyharvalew... or Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/emilyharvale

My Review

I love how the two series intertwine and characters from one resurface in the other. There is quite a bit of backfilling so if you haven't read the previous books, you can familiarise yourself with who's who. 
I really enjoyed the historical aspect of this one with the discovery of a lost painting that leads to repercussions and difficult decisions for both sides of the family. The style is light and easy to read and this one will keep you gripped. A great addition to the series.

The Island Girls

I guess our life on the island was one which never fit you right. I like to imagine you some days when I look out the window across the harbour, all those miles of sea and land between us. But, sister, we are always connected. 

When young nurse Emer loses her beloved sister, she is haunted by grief and desperate to escape her memories. Taking a job in Vinalhaven, a rocky outpost in the wild Atlantic, feels like the refuge she so badly needs. 

Her patient, Susannah, has lived in isolation for many years, since the tragic death of her sister Kate caused her to withdraw from island life. However, when Emer discovers a bundle of letters in a rainbow quilt in her bedroom and shares the story of her own loss, Susannah opens up. She begins to tell the story of Kate’s brutal and secret past, and her marriage to a man with a heart as cold as the ocean. 

But when Emer starts asking locals about Kate, the island air sizzles with hostility. There are people who would rather that Susannah kept quiet, who have no qualms about threatening Emer. But despite the warnings to stay away, Emer is determined to find out what really happened the night Kate died – and the final secret that is keeping Susannah a prisoner to the past. 


Author bio

Noelle Harrison is the Irish author of nine novels and five plays and has been translated into over 13 different languages. Her short stories have been published in Lines of Vision, Irish Writing on Irish Art, & Gutter Magazine of New Scottish Writing. In 2016, Noelle co-founded Aurora Writers' Retreats building on 20 years’ experience of teaching creative writing in Ireland, Scotland, Norway and England. 

 @NoelleHarrison

Buy Links:

Amazon: https://bit.ly/2VAKYDH

Apple Books: https://apple.co/2KbNElX

Kobo: https://bit.ly/34LhOFW

Google Play: https://bit.ly/3ctnpmW

My Review

An interesting location for this historical dual timeline novel and one that is skilfully evoked. When Emer's and Susanna's lives intertwine, we are led through Emer's discovery of some letters secretly sewn into a quilt into a discovery that will shock.
I enjoyed both stories but there were times when I felt the narrative losing pace a little.  It soon picked up, however, and then I was gripped once again. 
This story gives the readers an insight into island life over a period of decades and the close-knit community that inhabits it. It also explores many themes that are important today, the rights of women, marriage, sexuality, and does it in a sensitive manner. 
This is a book with a difference and as such the characters and location will stay with you.

That night in Paris

Note to self: don’t sleep with your flatmate after a curry and three bottles of wine… especially if he’s secretly in love with you and wants you to meet his mum.

Cat Parsons is on the run. She doesn’t do relationships. After ten years of singlehood even the hint of the ‘L’ word is enough to get Cat packing her bags and booking herself onto a two-week holiday.

A European bus tour feels like a stroke of genius to dodge awkward conversations at home. But little does Cat realise that the first stop will be Paris, the city of love itself. 

Joined by new friends, Cat has got two weeks, eight countries and a hell of a lot of wine ahead of her. As they discover hidden treasures and the camaraderie of life on the road, will Cat find a new way of looking at love? 

Discover the beauty of Europe’s most romantic cities in this uplifting and laugh-out-loud novel for fans of Samantha Parks, Alex Brown and Mandy Baggot.

About the author

I’m a writer, traveller and hopeful romantic with a lengthy bucket list. I love exploring new places, outdoor adventures, and eating and drinking like a local when I travel, and many of my travel adventures have found homes in my novels. I’m also an avid reader, a film buff, a wine lover and a coffee snob.

My first novel, a romantic comedy set in Greece and inspired by my real-life love story, was published in June 2019 by One More Chapter (HarperCollins). Excitingly, in 2020 there will two follow ups to One Summer in Santorini. That Night in Paris in March, and That Summer in Love in June. Readers can also expect a stand-alone Christmas novel in October.

I am repped by Lina Langlee of the Kate Nash Literary Agency.

Website

https://sandybarker.com/

Twitter

sandybarker

My Review

From the title, you might be forgiven for thinking this is a romance set in Paris. What you get, however, is a bus tour around Europe with a cast of unforgettable characters. I must say, I enjoyed Cat's developing relationships with her bus mates just as much as that with the delicious Jean-Luc.

This is just the right pick-me-up for our times and I enjoyed visiting various cities vicariously, some I know well and miss terribly, others I look forward to visiting perhaps one day. One thing is for sure, after seeing the tacky accommodation I won't be going on a bus tour though.

Funny, easy to read and pure escapism - add this one to your happy list.

    

                                             

A Theatre for Dreamers

POLLY SAMSON 

A THEATRE FOR DREAMERS 

Hardback: £14.99 Ebook: £12.58 

Publication date: 2 April 2020 

1960. The world is dancing on the edge of revolution, and nowhere more so than on the Greek island of Hydra, where a circle of poets, painters and musicians live tangled lives, ruled by the writers Charmian Clift and George Johnston, troubled king and queen of bohemia. Forming within this circle is a triangle: its points the magnetic, destructive writer Axel Jensen, his dazzling wife Marianne Ihlen, and a young Canadian poet named Leonard Cohen. 

Into their midst arrives teenage Erica, with little more than a bundle of blank notebooks and her grief for her mother. Settling on the periphery of this circle, she watches, entranced and disquieted, as a paradise unravels. 

Burning with the heat and light of Greece, A Theatre for Dreamers is a spellbinding novel about utopian dreams and innocence lost – and the wars waged between men and women on the battlegrounds of genius. 

About the author

Polly Samson is the author of two short story collections and two previous novels. Her work has been shortlisted for prizes, translated into several languages and has been dramatized on BBC Radio 4. She has written lyrics to four number one albums and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. 

pollysamson.com @PollySamson 

Polly Samson is available for interviews and events. 

For more information please contact Ros Ellis in the Bloomsbury press office at ros.ellis@bloomsbury.com 

My Review

This book is a bit of a mixed bag for me. On the one hand, the sense of place is superbly done so that the reader feels transported back to the summer of 1960; a Greece before mass tourism where artists founded their own community on the island of Hydra. Summer simply seeps from the pages, so tangible you want to touch it, breathe in the scents, listen to the music. It felt like opening a magic box to a bygone time.

On the other hand, whilst I enjoyed being part of Erica's voyage of discovery, where Leonard Cohen and Charmian Cliff are minor characters supporting her story, there were times when I felt the book lost its way and I was torn - part of me wanted to fast forward the story, the other part wanted to wallow in the descriptions of the island and its dysfunctional inhabitants.

If you are a fan of Leonard Cohen, the 1960s or Greece, you will love this book. I don't think it is for everyone but that makes it all the more special.

The forbidden promise

The stunning new story of love and secrets from the Number One bestselling author of The Forgotten Village

Scotland, 1940:
War rages across Europe, but Invermoray House is at peace. Until the night of Constance’s twenty-first birthday, when she’s the only person to see a Spitfire crash into the loch. Constance has been longing for adventure – but when she promises to keep the pilot hidden, what will it cost her?

2020:
Kate arrives in the Highlands to turn Invermoray into a luxury bed-and-breakfast, only to find that the estate is more troubled than she’d imagined. But when Kate discovers the house has a murky history, with Constance McLay’s name struck from its records, she knows she can’t leave until the mystery is solved…

How will one promise change the fate of two women, decades apart?

About the author


I write dual-timeline books that weave secrets of the past with the present. 

My first book The Forgotten Village is a Kindle Number 1 Bestseller. In Canada it is called The Forgotten Wife. Further editions will follow in Germany, USA and The Netherlands. 

My second novel, The Forbidden Promise, is available to preorder on Amazon UK and will be released in March 2020 in ebook, paperback and audiobook.

Sign up to my newsletter via my website to be the first to hear about my book news, blog posts and to gain access to some fantastic giveaways that I'm planning.

Say hi. Join me on social media. I'm on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Just search for @LornaCookAuthor.


My Review

The present-day story and the historical one are so beautifully interwoven that the reader engages equally with both. I have read some similar stories recently but it is the telling of this story that makes this one stand out.
In the historical story of Constance, the era is perfectly captured as we are thrown into WW2. The contemporary story is just as captivating as we follow Kate's attempts to turn Invermoray house into a luxury B&B. As she delves into Constance's story, the lochs and mountains of Scotland provide a fabulous setting so rich in detail that we can almost breathe in the pine-scented air.
The ending provided the perfect finale to this tale and brought the story to a natural conclusion. A great story that is well crafted.

The garden of lost memories

Just because you feel ordinary doesn’t mean you aren’t extraordinary to someone else.

Sixty-two-year-old Elsie knows what she likes. Custard creams at four o’clock, jigsaw puzzles with a thousand pieces, her ivy-covered, lavender-scented garden.

Ten-year-old Billy would rather spend his Saturdays kicking a ball, or watching TV, or anything really, other than being babysat by his grumpy neighbour Elsie and being force fed custard creams.

If it was up to them, they’d have nothing to do with each other. Unfortunately, you can’t choose who you live next door to.

But there is always more to people than meets the eye…

Elsie doesn’t know that Billy’s afraid to go to school now, or why his mother woke him up in the middle of the night with an urgent shake, bags already packed, ready to flee their home.

Billy doesn’t know that the rusting red tin he finds buried in Elsie’s treasured garden is a ticking time bomb waiting to explode her carefully organised life. And that when he digs it up, he is unearthing a secret that has lain dormant for twenty-eight years…

This moving tale is for anyone who has ever felt the pang of loneliness, or worried that their broken heart might never be the same again. Fans of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, The Keeper of Lost Things and The Library of Lost and Found will fall head over heels for this life-affirming novel that shows us that if you’re willing to take a risk, happiness is only ever a heartbeat away.

Author Bio:

Ruby Hummingbird is a novelist based in the English countryside. She loves nothing more than writing uplifting and heartwarming fiction that gets her readers reaching for the tissues. When she isn’t storytelling, she can be found tending to her beloved sunflowers or sipping on hazelnut lattes.  

@HummingbirdRuby

Buying Links:

Amazon: https://bit.ly/2WQVYiJ

Apple Books: https://apple.co/33QZRpk

Kobo:  https://bit.ly/3amwGNh

Google Play: https://bit.ly/3bqY3Wr

My Review

Really enjoyed this insightful story of two ill-matched people, Elsie whose life is perfectly ordered and Billy, the kid who moves in next door. This exploration of loneliness and friendship is moving as against the odd they form a fragile friendship that could shatter at any moment. Slowly, they come to realise that they need each other. This beautifully-written, character-driver story will tug at your heartstrings as we learn through Billy's 'discovery' of a hidden tin in Elsie's garden, the secrets that have lain buried for years.