#BlogTour: Shame by Elizabeth Forbes @lizzieforbes @RandomTTours #Shame

 

Shame by Elizabeth Forbes was independently published on 30th May 2021. My thanks to the author for the review copy and Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for the blog tour invitation. 

George and Martha have things they’d rather keep hidden from each other: private thoughts, desires and secrets which, if discovered, could cause untold shame. But to an outsider they appear to have a happy, contented and conventional family life. At their twins’ Fred and Delilah’s twenty-first birthday party events conspire to uncover disturbing emotional connections, and threaten to reveal a past that has long been concealed.Soon after, a holiday designed to repair the damage exposes further rifts that could spread beyond the family and possibly change their futures forever. As a GP, Martha is used to helping her patients mend physically and mentally, but can she do the same for her husband and children, or will the ensuing damage leave wounds that will never heal?

 

My Thoughts: 

I am just going to start by saying that Elizabeth Forbes is one of my favourite authors. Her writing is intelligent and consistent and always leaves me scratching my head and with my thoughts and expectations of people in tatters. 

I have reviewed the authors previous books, Nearest Thing to Crazy and Who Are You? You can read my reviews by clicking on the titles. 

 

The author has really excelled herself with Shame. If you are expecting something with the pace of a steam train then this might not be the book for you. It is however an exploration of a marriage and how it is possible for everything to slowly unravel, particularly when you start to peel back the layers and start to put people under a microscope.

 

George and Martha have been married a long time. On the outside everyone would say they are the perfect couple but just lately Martha has been feeling like her and George and drifting apart. She feels dissatisfied and under appreciated. 

 

She even feels distanced from her grown up children, especially Delilah. So when their 21st birthday is coming around perhaps it is a chance for Martha to bond with her children and husband. Things are complicated as they always are and it transpires that the kids 21st is to be organised by Georges Brother and Sister in Law.  This is due to family history that means George and his brother live very different lives. 

 

The party and a family holiday is the catalyst really for events going forward and slow unfolding of a truck full of family secrets, lies and shame. The reader is drip fed little morsels here and there and I must admit I was shocked at the full scale of the cover ups etc that were involved. 

 

What I love about Elizabeth Forbes is the depth with which she writes her flawed characters and the unapologetic way the readers loyalty is challenged. I constantly flitted between agreeing with more than one character or the other. In families and love there are no sides only people. 

 

I will read everything this author writes. If you were to push me I would probably say that Shame is my favourite one so far. Beautiful writing and an accomplished plot that got right underneath my skin and as always left me wanting more when the final page turned. 

 

Definitely not to be missed. 

 

About the Author:  

Elizabeth Forbes was born and raised on the Isle of Wight and now lives in Herefordshire with her husband, two dogs and two hens. She published three romantic thrillers under the name Elizabeth Harrington: The Corporate Wife, Making Up and Daddy Darling. She then took a break from writing and enrolled with the Open University to study for a degree in Literature. She completed her BA with First Class Honours, and also achieved the OU's Diploma in Creative Writing. Her first psychological suspense novel, Nearest Thing to Crazy, was published by Cutting Edge Press in 2013. BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour and the Mail Online featured the novel because of its gaslighting subject matter. It was a bestseller in Amazon UK's psychological thriller charts. Her second novel published by Cutting Edge Press in 2014 was Who Are You? which is a dark and twisty tale focussing on the stormy marriage of two people affected by PTSD and childhood trauma. Elizabeth has recently re-published these novels independently with Amazon KDP.

 You can find the author on Twitter: @lizzieforbes

Please do have a look at the other stops on the blog tour: