Feral Snow by Mark Lowes @MJLAuthor @RandomTTours #BlogTour #FeralSnow

 

Feral Snow was published on 1st October 2020. My thanks to the author for the review copy and Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for inviting me on to the blog tour. 

 

Alone and stranded in the Arctic wasteland, would you risk your life to save a stranger or try to get home?

Paul is a father-to-be; traumatised by his past, he's terrified of becoming a father after his own beat him until he was unilaterally deaf. While working as a freelance cameraman in the Arctic, he's caught in a blizzard, separated from his crew, and falls into a chasm. Alone, and waiting for death to come, personal demons plague his mind.

When a young native girl falls into the chasm with him, Paul must learn how to accept responsibility and what it takes to give your life for a child.

FERAL SNOW, while a tense and action-packed story, is an intimate journey between two polar opposites and how love can be forged in the unlikeliest of circumstances.

It has been compared to The Revenant, 127 Hours, and The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

 

Behind FERAL SNOW:

I began writing FERAL SNOW with the idea of writing a commercial thriller. Slowly, over time, it morphed into something more though. Paul’s layers began to unravel and his true colours came to the surface. His history of abuse became so much more important than I had first intended. I fell in love with all of the characters and I’ll admit I had a tear in my eye while writing the ending.

My Thoughts:

I was tempted in to reading this book by the blurb of course but also the fact that The Road by Cormac McCarthy is one of my favourite books. I can understand the comparisions, whilst Feral Snow doesn't have the sparsity of language that The Road did, the landscape and environment have been perfectly captured. Even I felt a bit chilly whilst I was reading. So engrossed was I that I curled up under a blanket and read this in one sitting. 

 

At the outset Paul is arriving in the Arctic to do some filming. A blizzard means one thing and that is danger. Paul becomes separated from the rest of his colleagues and he falls in to a chasm. He finds himself alone and with only his thoughts for company and most of them aren't good. It doesn't look like he is ever going to see his child now.  He is struggling to grasp for the best ways to keep himself alive when a native girl Nanny falls into the chasm too. 

 

Nanny seems to be completely different to Paul personality wise. She seems strong where at first Paul seems weak. Can they find a common ground and ultimately is it going to become clear who is helping who. It has taken a lot of skill from the author to make these characters so engaging as for the most part it is just them. 

 

There are important points to be take from reading this book surrounding the environment and global warming and the author has layered these points in well. There is also a theme of abuse that threads through the story. This is a survival story with a difference. 

 

I quite simply found this book stunning. I thought it was original, with a setting that is brought to life with the effortless descriptive nature. There is a lot of monochrome in this book with the amount of snow etc but the writing here is not one shade it is kaleidoscopic. Riveting stuff and a richly rewarding read.

About the Author: 

Mark Lowes is a former teacher, current early childhood educator, and future dad. He lives in Cardiff, Wales, UK, and is sometimes found lamenting over how awful his football team is. While he's not working with deaf children and their families, he's writing dark and twisty fiction.

His writing, so he's told, is a mix between Chuck Palahniuk Josh Malerman and Ernest Hemingway (although Mark retains, all this praise is too much too high). He loves edge-of-your-seat fiction, novels that make you think deeper about the world but will also terrify you and live the world through the protagonist, experiencing every detail. He’s a fan of description, somewhat a lost art nowadays, and has a soft spot for a dark, unreliable narrator.

You can find him on Twitter @StrugglingMJ where he would be excited to hear your views.

Mark is the winner of Litopia's Pop-Up Submissions and of a pitch contest at the Cardiff Book Festival. Publication Date: 1^st October, 2020

Format: Both e-book (£2.99) and print (£8.99), available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Feral-Snow-Mark-Lowes-ebook/dp/B08FTFSG7Q/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=feral+snow&qid=1599121120&sr=8-1

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Open House by Jane Christmas #JaneChristmas @RhodaPR2013 @Harper360 #OpenHouse #BlogTour

 

Open House was published by Harper 360 on 12th November. My thanks to the Publisher for the review copy and Rhoda Hardie PR for the invitation. 

 
Jane’s reflections on her 32 house moves explore what ‘home’ really means to us today, with themes including restlessness, parenting, friendship, marriage breakdown, xenophobia, rape trauma, and more

 

 ‘I love moving house. I love the search for a new house, the packing up and the subsequent assessment and decluttering of all that I am, when old and new face off in a fight to survive the charity shop box. I love planning a new space, designing and styling the interior, thumbing through stacks of paints and fabric swatches. I love the ruminating, the budgeting, the logistical organisation… I love the pulse-quickening chaos of the move, the settling in and discerning if, finally, this is the right place. The words ‘in need of improvement’ are click bait to me. Buying a home has never frightened me or kept me awake at night; buying a car, yes; perhaps an item of clothing; but never a house… I have sat on the sofa in a home I have just moved into and immediately started swiping left and right on Rightmove.’ Jane Christmas

 

 Studies have consistently reported that moving is one of the most stressful life events. On average, Britons move house 3 times in their lives, Canadians move house 7 times in their lives, and Americans move house 11 times in their lives. At the age of 63, Jane Christmas has moved house an incredible 32 times! She admits to being a ‘serial adulterer’ when it comes to homes. ‘To some people, 32 house moves looks like recklessness; to me, 32 moves looks like life,’ she writes in her new book Open House. ‘Houses and renovations and moving are an addiction to me; I desperately want to settle, but as hard as I try, I just can’t.’ 

 

By the age of 9, Jane had lived in 3 different houses and attended 5 different schools. Her mother was the driving force behind the constant uprooting. ‘People are important but they will not get you ahead in life,’ she told Jane. ‘Only property can do that. Property first, people second.’ Open House explores Jane’s childhood as a ‘property nomad’ and how this pattern continued into her adult life. She reflects on marital homes, homes where she has lived as a single parent with her children, and most recently, on her search for the elusive ‘perfect home’ with her third husband - ‘a creature of routine and stability’ who lived in the same 2 bedroom flat in London for 25 years before he met Jane. After viewing 60 potential homes, Jane describes how she and her husband succumb to emotional fatigue and buy an overpriced house in Bristol in dire ‘need of improvement’, which requires more money to renovate than they can afford and that neither of them really even like. As Jane’s nightmare renovation begins, memories of her past resurface - a strict and peripatetic childhood, lost friends, rape trauma, divorces, suicide attempts - and threaten to shake the foundations of her marriage. As she contemplates her life and her many homes along the way, ultimately Jane realises that our loved ones are ‘the vital joists that underpin our lives’. Hilarious, moving and thought-provoking, Open House: A Life in Thirty-two Moves wanders through the front door for a peek into the places we call home. 

 

My Thoughts

I was initially completed intrigued when Rhoda Hardie contacted me about Open House by Jane Christmas. I mean how many times have I used the expression 'I would love to be a fly on the wall of that house', and here I was being given the opportunity to be a fly on the wall not once but thirty-two times. You see thirty-two moves is the number of times that Author of this memoir Jane Christmas has moved house. 

My intrigue was piqued straight away and my initial thought before diving too deep was that it is surely more than a little frivoulous and disruptive to move house so many times and surely a life of such transcience and disruption is damaging in some way. I mean when I was a child I moved a few times too as my father was in the Army. Upon reading this book I firmly conclude that the moves were essential and necessary and culminate in making the author Jane Christmas who she is today. 

 

You might think that this is all going to be about cushions, applicances and trips to Ikea but this couldn't be further from the truth. This is about the author and her life across the house moves, the good, the bad and the indifferent. Jane Christmas candidly discusses trauma and the nuances of a life being lived. 

 

I feel that there is a certain parallel in the need to find the perfect home and one's expectation of oneself and of course parental expectations too.  The need to always be better, the need to appear better. The desire and ambition to not settle is admirable. 

 

Of course there is no such thing as a perfect life, the ups and downs are to be expected but is there such a thing as a perfect home or is it the people that are in it that make it perfect. 

 

Jane Christmas writes with a warmth and an underlying core of strength and humour that I found infectious and even sometimes a hint of sarcasm that I found endearing. She and her writing are certainly memorable. I would love to read some of this authors other works in the future and I am thankful that I have been introduced to her books. 

About the Author:

Jane Christmas is the author of several bestselling books, including Incontinent on the Continent and And Then There Were Nuns. Born and raised in Toronto, Jane moved to the UK in 2012. She has lived in Walthamstow, Brixham and Longwell Green, and now lives in Bristol with her husband. Jane’s website can be found at www.janechristmas.ca.

 

You can also find the author on Instagram @janechristmasauthor.

 

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The Creak on the Stairs by Eva Björg Ægisdóttir @evaaegisdottir @OrendaBooks @RandomTTours #TheCreakontheStairs #IcelandNoir #BlogTour

 

Published in paperback on 1st October 2020 by Orenda Books. My thanks to the publisher for the review copy and Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for inviting me on to the blog tour. 

 

The first in the electrifying new Forbidden Iceland
series, The Creak on the Stairs is an exquisitely written,
claustrophobic and chillingly atmospheric debut thriller by
one of Iceland’s most exciting new talents
When the body of a woman is discovered at a lighthouse in
the Icelandic town of Akranes, it soon becomes clear that
she’s no stranger to the area.
Chief Investigating Officer Elma, who has returned to Akranes
following a failed relationship, and her colleagues Sævar and
Hörður, commence an uneasy investigation, which uncovers
a shocking secret in the dead woman’s past that continues to
reverberate in the present day…
But as Elma and her team make a series of discoveries,
they bring to light a host of long-hidden crimes that shake
the entire community. Sifting through the rubble of the
townspeople’s shattered memories, they have to dodge
increasingly serious threats, and find justice … before it ’s too
late.

 

My Thoughts: 

The Creak on the Stairs is the first in a new series Forbidden Iceland and has been wonderfully translated by Victoria Cribb. Nordic Noir and most certainly the nordic countries are fast becoming an obsession of mine. The settings somehow provide so much atmosphere and tension and this one was no different. This is definitely a series I am going to be hooked to. 

Elma is a Chief Investigating Officer and she has left the city of Reykjavik behind to return to her hometown of Akranes. She feels out of place and at odds with those around her, the breakdown of her relationship has perhaps made her wary and the return home not entirely wanted. 

 

Elma is thrown in at the deep end with new colleagues to contend with, the feeling of being an outsider. So when a body of a woman turns up at a lighthouse, it is all hands to the deck. Somebody in the town must know what happened to her. 

 

The woman found at the lighthouse is called Elisabet and Elma must unravel who she is and about her past in the search for answers. The Creak on the Stairs is told across two timelines and was a great way to allow the story to unravel bit by bit. 

There are some particularly serious and extremely dark themes but none of this is gratuitous. It is woven into the plot like the many years of secrets of the people of Akranes. I am looking forward to reading the next in the series immensely, the character of Elma shone and I am intrigued to see how she develops in the next book. 

There are red herrings here to keep the sharpest of readers guessing but for me the biggest sellling point was the place, atmosphere and the sense of claustrophia and darkness that crawled across every page.

Wonderful writing that cannot be ignored.

About the Author:  

Born in Akranes in 1988, Eva moved to Trondheim, Norway to study my MSc
in Globalisation when she was 25. After moving back home having completed
her MSc, she knew it was time to start working on her novel. Eva has wanted
to write books since she was 15 years old, having won a short story contest
in Iceland.
Eva worked as a stewardess to make ends meet while she wrote her first
novel. The book went on to win the Blackbird Award and became an
Icelandic bestseller. Eva now lives with her husband and three children in
Reykjavík, staying at home with her youngest until she begins Kindergarten.

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Metamorphosis by Sara Madderson @saramadderson @RandomTTours #Metamorphosis #BlogTour

 

Metamorphosis by Sara Madderson was published 11th February 2020. My thanks to the author for the review copy and Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for inviting me on to the blog tour. 

Do you ever feel as though you’re sleepwalking through life? Awake, but not fully conscious? Surviving, but not thriving?
So many of us have built ourselves cocoons that, while comfortable, limit us from living fully. Cocoons can be either a form of confinement or, as nature shows us, an incubator for transformation. In Metamorphosis, Sara Madderson lays out a two-part framework for making changes in our lives that will bring us greater joy, consciousness and wonder, and that will elevate both our human relationships and our perceptions of the world around us.
Part I focuses on the metamorphosis process itself, providing six steps to shrug off our cocoon and awaken to our own limitlessness. Part II is devoted to navigating our external world, and helping us to understand exactly what we want in life. When we invest in our own transformation, and we transform our perceptions of the world around us, then we can emerge from our cocoon and truly embrace our own magnificence.

In this book, you will learn:

why we build cocoons for ourselves, and how to use our cocoons as incubators for growth and transformation

·             the 10 faces of unconsciousness and their nemeses: the 10 faces of consciousnesswhat taking responsibility really means, and why it is the single biggest step in any transformational process

·             why self-discipline is the key to metamorphosis, and how to turbo-charge your motivations to make it easy to make the changes that you want to make

·             how to upgrade the inputs that you feed into your brain to gain clarity, peace and wisdom

·             what steps to take to transform your health so you have the energy that you need for this journey

·             how to call out the unconscious limiting beliefs that we all accrue over time, and what it feels like to discover your real limitlessness

·             why our lives are far better than we think, and how to instantly transform our reality by upgrading our perception of it

·             why we need human connection, why we so often mess it up, and how to elevate our human relationships

·             how to identify what we really want, and don’t want, from our lives

·             the empowerment that comes when we reframe ‘luck’ and take control of our destiny

·             clarity around the law of attraction, and the most effective manifestation techniques

By the end of this book you will be transformed, viewing life from the liberated perspective of the butterfly while knowing that your cocoon is there for you whenever you need to recharge and regenerate on your lifelong journey.

 

My Thoughts: 

I want to start by saying that self help books are not really my forte, any that I have come across have left me feeling sceptical and that the information contained often seems inaccessible. So it was with some trepidation that I approached this book. Something about the points covered hooked me in and I am so pleased that it did. 

I have long held a fascination with butterflies and transformation, you would only need to look at my blog header to see that so this books offering was genuinely interesting to me. I found it wholly readable and largely relatable with enough examples thrown in to ensure that the reader doesn't feel like they are being preached to. 

There were so many salient points here and more than a few times a nerve was touched, such was the way that I was able to apply this to my own life and thinking. Hopefully going forward I will be able to emerge as a butterfly. I have come to the conclusion that I have spent far to long in the safety net of my cocoon. 

Readable, enjoyable and the writer and her style was really engaging and likeable. It could be read as a whole or dipped in to and out of. 

It is most certainly a book I will return to time and time again.

About the Author: 

Sara Madderson is an author, entrepreneur, wife and mother. She was born in Ireland and moved to the UK with her family when she was ten years old. She lives in London with her husband Chris, their two children, Paddy and Tilly, and their cocker spaniel Charlie.

Before turning to writing, Sara worked in finance for a decade and then ran her own fashion brand, Madderson London, for eight years. She earned her MPhil in Early Modern History from the University of Birmingham.

Metamorphosis is Sara's first book. Given that she spent most of her childhood writing and designing clothes, she's now seen both of her childhood career dreams come true! She's enjoyed the adventure of publishing independently as much as she's enjoyed the writing process itself. She's now completely hooked on writing!

 

Twitter @saramadderson

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The Nesting by C.J. Cooke @CJessCooke @fictionpubteam @RandomTTours #TheNesting #BlogTour

 

The Nesting by C.J. Cooke was published by HarperCollins on 15th October 2020. My thanks to the publisher for the review copy and Anne Cater of Random Thing Tours for inviting me on to the blog tour. 

The grieving widower.

The motherless daughters.

A beautiful house in the woods.

Deep in a remote Norwegian forest, Lexi has found a new home with architect Tom and his two young daughters. With snow underfoot and the sound of the nearby fjord in her ears, it’s as if Lexi has stepped into a fairy tale

But this family has a history – and this place has a past. Something was destroyed to build their beautiful new house. And those ancient, whispering woods have a long memory.

Lexi begins to hear things, see things that don’t make sense. She used to think this place heavenly, but in the dark, dark woods, a menacing presence lurks.

With darkness creeping in from the outside, Lexi knows she needs to protect the children in her care.

But protect them from what?

My Thoughts:

First of all I just wanted to pass comment on the absolutely stunning and bewitching cover of The Nesting by C.J. Cooke. 

The Nesting is a gothic tale of the finest proportions, perfect for the nights that are now drawing in. I recommend hunkering down and getting totally swept up in this often bleak and brutal story of Norwegian Fjords, folklore and psychological suspense. Although I would personally recommend leaving a light on. 

Lexi is a complex character and has been having a tough time so when by chance more than anything she stumbles across a job as a Nanny it seems like the perfect escape and an opportunity for reinvention. Lexi is feeling that she might have bitten off more than she can chew when she realises that the job is in fact in Norway and she is leaving virtually straight away. 

The job will be challenging that is for sure the two young girls have recently lost their mother Aurelia and husband Tom is grieving and on the surface seems more interested in money and work than his childrens well being. 

 

So when the atmosphere around the house and strange things seem to be going on Lexi puts it down to herself and her current state of mind at her recent events. Although it transpires that she might not be the only one that is finding things a little strange and unusual. 

 

Tom is an architect and he is building a house for his wife Aurelia, when she passes away he decides to finish it anyway. I found the landscape took on a character and a life of it's own. I could hear the noise of the fjords and sense the vastness and the great beauty. Also the fact that some things are way bigger than us as humans and that we should often have more respect for what is around us and our environment. Some things and places are meant to be wild and not tamed. 

 

The Nesting is told in the present by Lexi and also other chapters revert back to the past and events that have led up to the present. I found these particularly moving and a sense of foreboding was screaming out across the pages like a howl in the wind.  At points a shiver ran down my spine as if I was standing underneath the snow covered trees.

 

I found The Nesting completely unsettling, incredibly compelling and an ode to Norway, to the landscape and the vastness of nature and also a nod to the folklore that features. 

 

Beautiful and bewitching in equal measure. 

About the Author:

C.J. Cooke is an acclaimed, award-winning poet, novelist and academic with numerous other publications under the name of Carolyn Jess-Cooke. Born in Belfast, she has a PhD in Literature from Queen’s University, Belfast, and is currently Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow, where she researches creative writing interventions for mental health. She also founded the Stay-At-Home Festival. 

 

#TheNesting @CJessCooke

 

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Left Hanging by Maria Frankland #LeftHanging @writermaria_f @RandomTTours #BlogTour

 

Left Hanging by Maria Frankland was published by Autonomy Press on 16th September 2020. My thanks to the publisher for the review copy and Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for inviting me on to the blog tour. 

Two's company in a marriage. How do you cope when there's three?

Ed and Kerry Huntington-Barnes have an idyllic life, with their five-year-old twins, successful careers, a luxurious house and an affluent lifestyle. Yet the secrets they’re harbouring force their separation. Kerry is fighting her own demons, amongst which is the knowledge that she is the wrong gender for her husband to ever truly love her.
Parallel to this is the death of a local man, Russell Lawson, which affects both Ed and Kerry in different ways. Will his widow Davina, and the other shadows that surround their separation and Russell’s death, destroy their lives, and their sons’ lives even further?

 
This is a story that portrays the darkness that can exist inside marriage and the hatred that can linger amongst families that are supposed to love each other.

 

My Thoughts: 

Well, what can I say! Left Hanging was something of a surprise. A claustrophobic and intense domestic thriller that I raced through in one sitting. Such was the way that I was sucked in to the story, the characters and their lives. 

 This book tells the story of Ed and Kerry Huntington-Barnes who on the surface really are living the dream life but as with most things if you scratch a little below the surface there are secrets and things are not quite as they seem. 

 When Russell Lawson is found dead in a hotel, this is something that affects Ed and Kerry for different reasons and I guess the question is why? Suspicion is that Russell was meeting another man and the gossips are out speculating as to who that was. This showed that people are not very nice and often think that their lives are perfect when looking in upon others.

Left Hanging is full of pace and it surprised me the more I read, the characters are well drawn and there is intrigue throughout that just made me keep turning the pages. I thought I had it all worked out, but I didn't. Themes tackled include; marriage, family unit, homosexuality, secrets and lies.

I very much enjoyed the pace and the writing style of the author. Left Hanging was compelling and accomplished, I really enjoyed it. 

About the Author: 

Maria Frankland's life began at 40 when she escaped an unhappy marriage and began making a living from her own writing and becoming a teacher of creative writing.

The rich tapestry of life with all its turbulent times has enabled her to pour experience, angst and lessons learned into the writing of her novels and poetry.

She recognises that the darkest places can exist within family relationships and this is reflected in the domestic thrillers she writes.

She is a 'born 'n' bred' Yorkshirewoman, a mother of two and has recently found her own 'happy ever after' after marrying again.

Still in her forties, she is now going to dedicate the rest of her working life to writing books and inspiring other writers to also achieve their dreams too!

 

Twitter @writermaria_f

http://www.mariastephenson.com/ 

 

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The Coffer Dams by Kamala Markandaya #KamalaMarkandaya #TheCofferDams @hoperoadpublish @RandomTTour #BlogTour

 

The Coffer Dams was published by Hope Road on 30th September 2020, having originally been published over 50 years ago. My thanks to the publisher for the review copy and Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for inviting me on the the blog tour.  

Clinton, founder and head of a firm of international engineers, arrives in India to build a dam, bringing with him his young wife, Helen, and a strong team of aides and skilled men. They are faced with a formidable challenge, which involves working in daunting mountain and jungle terrain, within a time schedule dictated by the extreme tropical weather. Setbacks occur which bring into focus fundamental differences in the attitudes to life and death of the British bosses and the Indian workers. A timely reminder of the British contempt for Indian lives and for nature. 

 

My Thoughts: 

When being invited to take part in the blog tour I choose to read this book on the summary alone as embarassingly I have never heard of Kamala Markandaya before. The Coffer Dams was indeed first published more than 50 years ago. Despite this it still reads like it is current, a timeless and classic piece of writing and it deserves to be read more so I am thrilled that it has been republished. 

The Coffer Dams is set in Southern India after partition and tensions are understandably still running high. When Clinton and his colleagues are to build a dam the differences between East and West come to the fore. Hellbent on modernisation and what they want to do. There seemed to be little respect for the Indian workers and their safety and thoughts. There is also the battle with the environs ongoing but it seemed that nothing would stop the dam being built. The British seemed to view and value themselves more highly than the Indians.

 

I enjoyed the character of Helen and her ability and desire to learn from the people and thrive in the environment she is in. She seemed to be at a complete juxtaposition to Clinton, who I did not really like at all. 

 

This book was expertly written, there is no shying away for events and there is racism and bigotry here and something for the reader to take away and learn from. For me it made for uncomfortable reading at times. The writing though was elegant and the characters perfectly written. 

This was thought provoking and memorable. I really recommend it.

About the Author:

Kamala Markandaya (1924 – 2004) was born in Mysore, India. She studied history at Madras University and later worked for a small progressive magazine before moving to London in 1948 in pursuit of a career in journalism. There she began writing her novels; Nectar in a Sieve, her first novel published in 1954, was an international bestseller. Reviewing the republication of The Nowhere Man in 2019, Booker prize-winner Bernadine Evaristo wrote; ‘For the last 20 years of her life, Kamala Markandaya couldn’t get published and went out of print. Generations of readers lost out in reading this gem. Now I hope it will find its place in literary history.’

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