Veronika Jordan's Blog, page 85

Sorry, I Love You by Cat on a Piano Productions / Theatrephonic

The true journey of a relationship is never a straight line.

One couple, seen from different timelines. We jump back and forth.
How could it all go so wrong?
It seemed such a perfect relationship, but “the course of true love never did run smooth” as someone famous once wrote.

Heartbreaking and so well acted.

Written and directed by Danielle Lade
Starring:
Ashley Shiers as Him
Danielle Lade as Her
Sam Jordan as His Mate
Emmeline Braefield as That Girl, and Her Mate

Produced by Cat on a Piano Productions

Music:
Lover’s Stripes by ALBIS
Clover 2 – Vibe Mountain

The Theatrephonic Theme tune was composed by Jackson Pentland
Performed by
Jackson Pentland
Mollie Fyfe Taylor
Emmeline Braefield

Cat on a Piano Productions produce and edit feature films, sketches and radio plays.

Their latest project is called @Theatrephonic, a podcast of standalone radio plays and short stories performed by professional actors. You can catch Theatrephonic on Spotify and other platforms.

For more information about the Theatrephonic Podcast, go to catonapiano.uk/theatrephonic, Tweet or Instagram us @theatrephonic, or visit our Facebook page.

And if you really enjoyed Sorry, I Love You listen to Theatrephonic’s other plays and short stories and consider becoming a patron by clicking here…

The Every (The Circle #2) by Dave Eggers

When the world’s largest search engine/social media company, the Circle, merges with the planet’s dominant e-commerce site, it creates the richest and most dangerous–and, oddly enough, most beloved–monopoly ever known: the Every.

Delaney Wells is an unlikely new hire at the Every. A former forest ranger and unwavering tech skeptic, she charms her way into an entry-level job with one goal in mind: to take down the company from within. With her compatriot, the not-at-all-ambitious Wes Makazian, they look for the Every’s weaknesses, hoping to free humanity from all-encompassing surveillance and the emoji-driven infantilisation of the species. But does anyone want what Delaney is fighting to save? Does humanity truly want to be free?

Studded with unforgettable characters, outrageous outfits, and lacerating set-pieces, this companion to The Circle blends absurdity and terror, satire and suspense, while keeping the reader in apprehensive excitement about the fate of the company–and the human animal.

My Review

Is this the future? One where people are happy to give up their freedoms in exchange for a life without crime, false friendships and anxiety. But there’s a catch. Constant monitoring and surveillance. Scared to say anything in case it tips your algorithms into the negative, and never get cross with your kids, it’s all being recorded. There’s no hiding place because the Every have the technology.

The problem is that there is so much truth in what the Every stands for. We know the planet is almost at tipping point. Global warming, rise in sea levels, ice caps melting, plastic filling our oceans. So what’s wrong with no more travel, there’s an app for that known as StayStil – just virtual reality trips from the comfort of your own home. Thoughts Not Things – you have all your possessions photographed and then they are destroyed, but can be recreated using a 3D printer.

Are You Sure is an app that gets you to check before you buy anything, Is it made from ethically sourced products? What’s its carbon footprint? Aren’t we doing that already?

Then there is Friendy – originally called AuthentiFriend and invented by Delaney herself. it can tell you who your real friends are. In other words – are you sleeping with my husband? Of course not. I can tell you are lying. Does my bum look big in this? Of course not, but again you are lying. Obviously not your true friends then.

But it gets worse. Live on site – no travel to work in gas-guzzling cars or dirty trains. No pets – they are a liability. No trips out – by the time they are risk-assessed it’s not worth the hassle or the upset as Delaney discovers. But the planet is being protected, so it’s all good.

At times we go from the ridiculous to the even more ridiculous, like men wearing all-in-ones made of very revealing Lycra. I could go on.

Delaney wants to infiltrate the Every and destroy it from the inside. Best friend Wes is on her side initially. But who can she trust? No-one it would seem.

This book will surprise you, worry you, make you question everything. At times you will even laugh out loud, the trouble is that it’s not really funny. It’s too close to the truth and it scares me.

Many thanks to The Pigeonhole and my fellow Pigeons for making this such an enjoyable read.

About the Author

Dave Eggers is the author of ten books, including most recently Your Fathers, Where Are They? And the Prophets, Do They Live Forever?, The Circle and A Hologram for the King, which was a finalist for the 2012 National Book Award. He is the founder of McSweeney’s, an independent publishing company based in San Francisco that produces books, a quarterly journal of new writing (McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern), and a monthly magazine, The Believer. McSweeney’s also publishes Voice of Witness, a nonprofit book series that uses oral history to illuminate human rights crises around the world. Eggers is the co-founder of 826 National, a network of eight tutoring centres around the country and ScholarMatch, a nonprofit organisation designed to connect students with resources, schools and donors to make college possible. He lives in Northern California with his family. The Every is the follow up to The Circle.

Psychopaths Anonymous by Will Carver

When AA meetings make her want to drink more, alcoholic murderess Maeve sets up a group for psychopaths.

Maeve has everything. A high-powered job, a beautiful home, a string of uncomplicated one-night encounters. She’s also an addict: a functioning alcoholic with a dependence on sex and an insatiable appetite for killing men. When she can’t find a support group to share her obsession, she creates her own. And Psychopaths Anonymous is born. Friends of Maeve.

#PsychopathsAnonymous #Welcometotheclub #blogtour @Will_Carver @OrendaBooks
#RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours

Now in a serious relationship, Maeve wants to keep the group a secret. But not everyone in the group adheres to the rules, and when a reckless member raises suspicions with the police, Maeve’s drinking spirals out of control. She needs to stop killing. She needs to close the group. But Maeve can’t seem to quit the things that are bad for her, including her new man…

My Review

One thing I love about Will Carver is not that he tells it like it is, but more that he tells it like no-one else has the nerve to do. Raw, blatant and unnerving. And then the dreadful things our main protagonist thinks and does makes us laugh out loud, when you know you shouldn’t be laughing at all. And then you recoil with shock horror.

Are we laughing from shock or is it really very funny? I think it’s both combined with the language the author uses to convey it. Maeve’s smart, acerbic tongue. I’m almost ashamed to be laughing but then I think ‘hell no’ it IS funny in a grotesque kind of way.

Maeve is our narrator. She loves to drink. She’s a functioning alcoholic. She likes to attend different AA meetings all over London and give her story when in fact she has no intention of giving up drinking. Anyone who can’t match her gin for gin or wine for wine is a lightweight. And she enjoys sex with strangers – random men she picks up along the way. And she kills people. She totally lacks empathy. In fact she’s really rather horrid. But most of all she hates God, the big man upstairs, in whom you must put your trust if you are to follow the 12 steps to sobriety. Sod that – why does everything involve him? Or that nosy priest.

Because Maeve has set up her own self-help group. No silly names like the other groups – just Friends of Maeve or Psychopaths Anonymous. Then she meets the man of her dreams, if she had dreams about that kind of thing. She needs him. She loves him. But is that enough to give up the other things in her life she loves, like killing people and keeping their heads in the freezer.

‘I will have to slow down a little with the murders. I’m running out of space for my ice cubes. I need them for my gin and tonics.’

One word of warning though. If you don’t like books that contain a lot of swearing, a lot of sex and a lot of violence, then this is not for you. So don’t start reading and then give it 2 stars and say it was full of gratuitous swearing, sex and violence, because that’s the whole point. It’s about psychopaths and Maeve is a serial killer. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours

About the Author

Will Carver is the international bestselling author of the January David series. He spent his early years in Germany, but returned to the UK at age eleven, when his sporting career took off. He turned down a professional rugby contract to study theatre and television at King Alfred’s, Winchester, where he set up a successful theatre company. He currently runs his own fitness and nutrition company, and lives in Reading with his two children. Will’s latest title published by Or Orenda Books, The Beresford was published in July. His previous title Hinton Hollow Death Trip was longlisted for the Not the Booker Prize, while Nothing Important Happened Today was longlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. Good Samaritans was book of the year in Guardian, Telegraph and Daily Express, and hit number one on the ebook charts.

Orenda Books is a small independent publishing company specialising in literary fiction with a heavy emphasis on crime/thrillers, and approximately half the list in translation. They’ve been twice shortlisted for the Nick Robinson Best Newcomer Award at the IPG awards, and publisher and owner Karen Sullivan was a Bookseller Rising Star in 2016. In 2018, they were awarded a prestigious Creative Europe grant for their translated books programme. Three authors, including Agnes Ravatn, Matt Wesolowski and Amanda Jennings have been WHSmith Fresh Talent picks, and Ravatn’s The Bird Tribunal was shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award, won an English PEN Translation Award, and adapted for BBC Radio Four ’s Book at Bedtime. Six titles have been short- or long-listed for the CWA Daggers. Launched in 2014 with a mission to bring more international literature to the UK market, Orenda Books publishes a host of debuts, many of which have gone on to sell millions worldwide, and looks for fresh, exciting new voices that push the genre in new directions. Bestselling authors include Ragnar Jonasson, Antti Tuomainen, Gunnar Staalesen, Michael J. Malone, Kjell Ola Dahl, Louise Beech, Johana Gustawsson, Lilja Sigurðardóttir and Sarah Stovell.

The Red Button by Keith Eldred

The prequel to A Christmas Carol — A sweet Regency Christmas romance

Here at last is the untold story of Scrooge’s doomed engagement

Belle Endicott and Ebenezer Scrooge are young, bookish, hardworking Londoners drawn together by button-making. His brand-new factory threatens her family’s tiny shop, yet they fall in love and start planning their future. When personal and business calamities strike, they confront them vigorously side by side, but ultimately something has to give. We know what it is. They do not.

My Review

Almost everyone has seen, read or heard about the story of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. I read it at school and have seen it countless times over the years. My son has played Bob Cratchit twice, once with Tiny Tim as a puppet on his shoulder. I’ve seen it performed in a church with a ball scene where the audience joined in with the dancing. Played straight, played for laughs – I’ve seen them all.

But what actually happened that turned Ebenezer Scrooge from a love-struck young man, madly in love with his fiance Belle Endicott, into the mean, greedy, miserly old man we see in A Christmas Carol. Scrooge is shown what his life was like when he was happy to what it became and how it would end up if he didn’t change it. But let’s go back now, dear reader, as the narrator tells us Jane Eyre-style from time to time. The narrator in this case is the red button of the book title.

In The Red Button, Ebenezer meets Belle through their button-making businesses. Belle hand-sews fabric on buttons as did her mother Lily – recently departed – and her father Archie, who owns the button shop. Ebenezer has just left the employ of Fezziwig to embark on his own, with a brand new button manufacturing factory which threatens to put Archie – and Belle – out of business.

But Ebenezer falls in love with Belle and for a while all seems well. They become engaged to be married and Belle even helps with suggestions to make the factory more comfortable for the workers.

So what goes wrong and we know from A Christmas Carol that it does. Scrooge is introduced to Jacob Marley (remember him – Marley’s ghost all clanking chains ​'”made of cash boxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers, deeds”, all items connected with his job. Indeed, Dickens clarifies that these are the ​”chains forged in life”‘). Just as Scrooge forged his own destiny, he will pay the price unless he can look back with regret and undo the harm he did.

Poor Belle. Ebenezer has become a monster. A stingy miser.

‘Don’t you know my reputation,’ he says to Belle, ‘I have no soul.’

The story follows the change in Scrooge’s character and what starts out as a cosy romance turns into something much darker. This is a tale of greed and power, of money above all else and how these things will only buy unhappiness and misery in the end. A great read just before Christmas or any time at all.

Many thanks to the author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

About the Author

Keith Eldred created the THIS IS RED project with his wife Janet, a public library director diagnosed with early-stage dementia. With Janet’s condition making every day precious, they decided to make the most of 2020, the year of their 30th anniversary, by publishing 20 books. All profits from these titles go the Hollidaysburg Area Public Library, where Janet works. See more at www.thisis.red.

The Unravelling by Polly Crosby

Tartelin has been employed by Marianne Stourbridge to hunt for butterflies, but she quickly uncovers something far more intriguing. The island and Marianne share a remarkable past, and what happened all those years ago has left its scars.

The island has a strange effect on Tartelin, too, finally allowing her to confront her own, painful, memories. As she does, Marianne’s story begins to unravel around her, revealing an extraordinary tale of two girls, an obsession with pearls, and a truth beyond imagination.

Atmospheric and deeply emotional, The Unravelling is a captivating novel about the secrets we can only discover when we dare to look beneath the surface. 

My Review

‘The sea is made up of unspeakable sadness.’ This is a sentence you will read many times in this extraordinary book.

Tartelin, a young woman who has recently lost her mother, travels to the tiny, remote island of Dohhalund in the middle of the North Sea, to work for Miss Stourbridge. Her job will be to catch butterflies and kill them, so they can be pinned and studied. It’s a strange request and one that Tartelin doesn’t realise will have such a profound effect on her.

‘It’s been 63 years since I left Dohhalund for the mainland,’ Miss Stourbridge tells her, ‘and still this island is changing.’

Initially the relationship between the two women is difficult and strained. There is no common ground between the young girl and this seemingly cantankerous and difficult woman who we know to be very old, frail and wheelchair-bound – I worked it out that she is around 103 years old. Tartelin wants to know the island’s secrets, but Miss Stourbridge doesn’t want to tell her.

But ultimately, this is a story of friendship, love, emotion and ‘unravelling’ – a story that will see new relationships beginning and others rekindled, and the secrets of the past finally revealed, until by the end I was in tears for the ‘unspeakable sadness’.

This is easily my favourite book of the final quarter of 2021 and its beauty and sincerity will stay with me for a long time to come.

Many thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

About the Author

After a whirlwind of a year which saw Polly receive writing scholarships from both Curtis Brown Creative and The University of East Anglia’s MA in Creative Writing, she went on to be runner up in the Bridport Prize’s Peggy Chapman Andrews Award for a First Novel. Read Polly’s piece for the Bridport Prize’s blog here.

Polly’s novel was snapped up by HarperCollins HQ in the UK and Commonwealth in a 48 hour pre-empt, and a few days later by HarperCollins Park Row Books in North America.

Polly grew up on the Suffolk coast, and now lives in the heart of Norfolk with her husband and son, and her very loud and much loved rescue Oriental cat, Dali.

The Illustrated Child is her first novel. Her second novel, The Unravelling, is out on 6th January ‘22.

Man of Clay by Alan Derosby

Retribution comes with a price

1930s Germany
Karl Auerbach escapes Buchenwald concentration camp. Ashamed of the truth of how he fled, Karl vows never to speak of the memories of his imprisonment.

Present Day: Rhode Island
When Karl’s grandson Zachariah is faced with prejudice of his own and a close friend is subjected to a horrific assault, Karl knows he must finally confront the demons of his past before Zachariah sets in motion a deadly chain of events.

#ManOfClay @AlanDerosby @SpellBoundBks @Zooloo’s Book Tours @zooloo2008 #ZooloosBookTours #blogtour

Man of Clay explores the consequences of being held captive by the ghosts of our past, the decisions we make and what happens when someone crosses the line in search of revenge and retribution.

My Review

Wow – what an incredible story! So much sadness and heartbreak. So much cruelty. The story of the Jews in Buchenwald concentration camp and the terrible crimes that were perpetrated against them. It’s also the tale of a family torn apart by prejudice and hatred.

This book is written in two timelines which interweave, the first being the story of 15-year-old Zachariah’s torment as the victim of three despicable school bullies. The second takes us back to his grandfather Karl’s terrible experiences in Buchenwald during Word War Two and the memories that haunt him and he never speaks about, not even to his wife.

This is also a book of magical realism. Now whether you believe in mythology and magic is up to you. You can take this story literally or view it as something symbolic for a time when many Jewish people, who had endured six years of suffering, had reached the end of the road and finally sought revenge and retribution.

It doesn’t really matter which interpretation you choose. What matters is that you understand how despair, grief and starvation can lead to committing heinous acts of your own, which eventually you are unable to control. Or to quote a famous saying, once released you can never put the genie back in the bottle.

Many thanks to @zooloo2008 for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the Author

Alan Derosby, a Maine native, has spent the past several years focusing on his passion: writing. Alan has created original and spooky short stories, having several published in a variety of anthologies. Man of Clay is his debut novel.

When not writing, Alan is teaching history at Messalonskee High School in Oakland, Maine, spending time with his wife and daughter, or watching the New York Mets suffer through another disappointing season.

Follow him at:
Facebook: – https://www.facebook.com/ADerosbyauthor/
Instagram: – https://www.instagram.com/aderosby75/
Twitter: – https://twitter.com/AlanDerosby
Amazon Author Page: – https://www.amazon.com/Alan-Derosby/e/B084LVSRG7?ref_=dbs_p_ebk_r00_abau_000000

Buy Links:
Amazon UK https://www.amazon.co.uk/Man-Clay-chilling-historical-thriller-ebook/dp/B09HPY4J77
Amazon US https://www.amazon.com/Man-Clay-chilling-historical-thriller-ebook/dp/B09HPY4J77

Mari by Cat on a Piano Productions / Theatrephonic

Mari only wanted an easy life.

‘That’s all I wanted. An easy life and a push-up bra.’

Not much to ask is it. Mari works at the library. Does the cleaning, same as she does at home. That’s how she knows her husband Ron of 45 years will never find the things she hides and how she knows where he keeps his girlie magazines.

She didn’t read much when she was at school. Never did much at all really. Unless you were pretty or clever it was best to remain invisible. But now she buys books and hides them. Ron thinks she’s at the bingo. She has 16 books and sometimes she even borrows an audio book from the library.

But what she really wants is a room of her own, just like Virginia Woolf said. And a life, not just one lived through books.

Very clever and sad.

‘Bon voyage Mari.’

Written by Jackie Carreira
Directed by Zoe Cunningham and Emmeline Braefield

Starring
Geraldine Brennan as Mari
Anthony Young as Derek
and
Molly Wilkes and Toby Wilkes as the Youths

Produced by Cat on a Piano Productions

Music:
Greaser by TrackTribe
The Quiet Aftermath by Sir Cubworth
Quiet by The Mini Vandals
Parisian Cafe by Aaron Kenny

The Theatrephonic Theme tune was composed by Jackson Pentland
Performed by
Jackson Pentland
Mollie Fyfe Taylor
Emmeline Braefield

Cat on a Piano Productions produce and edit feature films, sketches and radio plays.

Their latest project is called @Theatrephonic, a podcast of standalone radio plays and short stories performed by professional actors. You can catch Theatrephonic on Spotify and other platforms.

For more information about the Theatrephonic Podcast, go to catonapiano.uk/theatrephonic, Tweet or Instagram us @theatrephonic, or visit our Facebook page.

And if you really enjoyed Mari listen to Theatrephonic’s other plays and short stories and consider becoming a patron by clicking here…

It All Comes Back To You by Beth Duke

Alabama, 1947. War’s over, cherry-print dresses, parking above the city lights, swing dancing. Beautiful, seventeen-year-old Violet lives in a perfect world. Everybody loves her.

In 2012, she’s still beautiful, charming, and surrounded by admirers.

#ItAllComesBackToYou @bethidee Zooloo’s Book Tours @zooloo2008 #ZooloosBookTours #blogtour

Veronica “Ronni” Johnson, licensed practical nurse and aspiring writer, meets the captivating Violet in the assisted living facility where Violet requires no assistance, just lots of male attention. When she dies, she leaves Ronni a very generous bequest―only if Ronni completes a book about her life within one year. As she’s drawn into the world of young Violet, Ronni is mesmerized by life in a simpler time. It’s an irresistible journey filled with revelations, some of them about men Ronni knew as octogenarians at Fairfield Springs.

Struggling, insecure, flailing at the keyboard, Ronni juggles her patients, a new boyfriend, and a Samsonite factory of emotional baggage as she tries to craft a manuscript before her deadline.

But then the secrets start to emerge, some of them in person. And they don’t stop.

Everything changes.

My Review

Veronica “Ronni” Johnson is our hero. That did make me laugh. You see I was Veronika known to many as Ronnie at school, though I was Veronika with a ‘k’ and Ronnie with an ‘e’ on the end. When I grew up I became Vee as Ronnie sounded too 1960s.

The writing in It All Comes Back To You is brilliant and I loved both Ronni and Violet. The men not so much. Johnny has an accident and rejects Violet afterwards. Sam is too weak to stand up to his parents and defy their religious bigotry – is that being unfair? I have personal experience of this so maybe I’m biased. Violet’s husband Tolly is a nasty, horrible man and well we’ll see what happens next. As for Chet – I’d love to discuss, but there would be too many spoilers.

Then there is Rick. I tried to like him but he would not be my idea of a partner. I found him rather overpowering to be honest. I’d have ditched him pretty quick after his ex phones Ronni and dishes the dirt, but there’s no accounting for taste. He makes her feel safe but then so would a bolt on the door and a can of mace and I’d definitely resort to the former if not the latter.

I did love Halle though but then even the cat is female.

There is so much humour in this book as well as sadness and regret. Ronni’s conversations with Kait at the rest home are hilarious and the descriptions of some of the residents are brilliantly funny. And Ronni can be really funny as well.

‘I’d spent a lot of my childhood in Violet’s hometown of Anniston. I despised it, but it was the cradle of all that was dear to her. As soon as she found out I had a car…she asked me to drive her around and reminisce. I’d rather have reminisced about my first root canal.’

It’s such a great story, I really couldn’t stop reading. I can understand that this book is like Marmite but a few of the reviews really shocked me. Sometimes I wish people would remember that this is fiction and it’s not meant to be totally realistic so get over it and enjoy the ride. And I wish someone would offer to leave me loads of money to write a novel based on their life. I wouldn’t hesitate. Any offers?

And don’t you just love the cover of the book. It’s gorgeous. I think it may be my favourite ‘cover of the year’.

Many thanks to @zooloo2008 for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the Author

Beth Dial Duke is an Amazon #1 Best Selling author and the recipient of short story awards on two continents. She is eyeing the other five.

Beth lives in the mountains of her native Alabama with her husband, one real dog, and one ornamental dog. She loves reading, writing, and not arithmetic. Baking is a hobby, with semi-pro cupcakes and amateur macarons a speciality. And puns–the worse, the better.

Travel is her other favourite thing, along with joining book groups for discussion. If a personal visit isn’t possible, she is fluent in Zoom. Please visit bethduke.com for more information, to request a book club visit, and to see photos of the most beautiful readers in the world!

Follow her at:
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5399106.Beth_Duke
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onlythebethforyou/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bethidee
Website : bethduke.com
Twitter : https://twitter.com/bethidee

Buy Links:
Amazon UK : https://www.amazon.co.uk/All-Comes-Back-You-Recommendation-ebook/dp/B07GVN38FX
Amazon US : https://www.amazon.com/All-Comes-Back-You-Recommendation-ebook/dp/B07GVN38FX 

Ghost Hunt – Spirits With Spirits by Cat on a Piano Productions / Theatrephonic

J ust when you thought you were safe from ghosts and things that go bump in the night, £5+ #Patreon members get a spooky bonus episode!

Imelda has gone ghost hunting on her own. She has all the equipment including her phone, a ball to play with any ghost children and an EMF monitor. And a bottle of gin. Unfortunately drinking gin while wandering around a creaky old haunted house is probably not a good idea.

If there are any spirits, knock twice if you want to talk. Hilarious with a shock ending, ‘time for more gin’ maybe…

Written & Performed by @ebraefield

Produced by @coapiano

The Theatrephonic Theme tune was composed by Jackson Pentland
Performed by
Jackson Pentland
Mollie Fyfe Taylor
Emmeline Braefield

Cat on a Piano Productions produce and edit feature films, sketches and radio plays.

Their latest project is called @Theatrephonic, a podcast of standalone radio plays and short stories performed by professional actors. You can catch Theatrephonic on Spotify and other platforms.

For more information about the Theatrephonic Podcast, go to catonapiano.uk/theatrephonic, Tweet or Instagram us @theatrephonic, or visit our Facebook page.

To get this, ad-free episodes, blooper reels, Q&As and more, head on over to www.patreon.com/theatrephonic 

The Midwife’s Secret by Emily Gunnis

A little girl goes missing from Yew Tree Manor – the same house from which a girl vanished decades before. Does the key to the present lie buried even deeper in the past, in the forgotten history of an innocent midwife accused by a family of shocking betrayal? A gripping, heartwrenching story of love, loyalty and family secrets.

When six-year-old Alice Hilton goes missing in the snow on New Year’s Eve 1969 from Yew Tree Manor, suspicion immediately falls on local man Bobby James. James had a grievance against Alice’s father, wealthy Richard Hilton, and he is arrested, tried and found guilty for Alice’s death. Tragically the child is never found.

Decades later, Willow James, an architect working on a development at Yew Tree Manor, discovers that the land surrounding the house is holding a secret. And when another little girl goes missing from Yew Tree, Willow realises the key to her disappearance lies in the history of the house, and the two families attached to it. A terrible wrong needs to be made right…and to uncover it, Willow must unravel events from long ago, when in 1919 a court sentenced a midwife to death, for a shocking crime that happened at Yew Tree Manor…

My Review

I’m glad I had a picture of the family tree as otherwise I would have been totally confused by the two families over five generations. I was still referring to it at the end. However, I loved this book. It’s absorbing and full of the kind of emotions that will make you angry and sad at the same time.

We have two families – the haves and the have-nots. The Hiltons are wealthy, arrogant and downright nasty at times and no-one stands in their way. They live at Yew Tree Manor, but also own The Vicarage nearby which is let to the poorer James family. Tessa James is a midwife, loved and admired by the women who come to her to deliver their babies, but also by those who cannot have another child for many different reasons, all of them sad and none their fault. Tessa is reviled by the medical profession, despised by the church and eventually used as a scapegoat for the tragic death of Evelyn Hilton. Her daughter Bella tries to help her and protect her own son Alfie, but eventually also falls foul of the Hiltons.

It is Richard and Vanessa Hilton’s daughter Alice who goes missing and is never found. On the night of their New Year’s Eve party, everyone is too distracted to realise Alice has gone out in the snow to look for her puppy, Snowy. But who was involved in her disappearance? Where was her brother Leo? Was Bobby James (Alfie’s son) involved as he was the last person to see her alive. Everyone seems to think so. And what about poor Nell, Bobby’s little sister, suffering from TB and sent away to a sanatorium.

In the present, Willow James (Bobby’s daughter) is the architect involved in the redevelopment of Yew Tree Manor, The Vicarage and the surrounding land. Ten houses will be built in their place along with a Community Centre, but what terrible secrets will she discover that involve both families across the generations.

The Midwife’s Secret is an epic tale, revealing some truths that many prefer to stay buried. You will need to read the whole book to find out what they are.

PS the only reason I have not given it 5 stars is because at times I would have liked just a tiny bit of light in the darkness.

Many thanks to The Pigeonhole, the author and my fellow Pigeons for making this such an enjoyable read.

About the Author

Here is Emily’s own introduction:

“Hello everyone,

“Thank you for checking out my author page. Even writing this is a dream come true for me.

“I’ve wanted to be a published author since my mother, Penny Vincenzi, got her first book deal, when she and I would walk and talk about everything plots and stories together.

“Fast forward thirty years and I have discovered it is slightly more difficult than she made it look. But still, I got there eventually, because it is in my blood, and also, because I have always existed, slightly, in a world of my own, and reading and writing books allows me to make a living from that. I still remember my eleven-year-old self, a little at odds with the world, sitting on the cold parquet floor of St Lawrence Junior School utterly gripped as Mr Thomas read us all Boy by Roald Dahl.

“After graduating in Journalism in 1997 I began writing scripts and had two episodes of BBC Doctors commissioned, but I wasn’t keen on all the endless drafts and input from Script Editors and Producers. So, while I worked as a PA at the BBC and the Daily Mirror newspaper I learned as much as I could about storytelling until it all became fodder for my debut novel, The Girl in the Letter.

“I really hope you enjoy it, and my follow-up novel which I am busy researching as we speak. I live in Brighton, Sussex, with my husband Steve, an architect, and my two crazy, beautiful girls, Grace and Eleanor. We read a lot of Julia Donaldson and Roald Dahl, in between walking Merlin our whippet on the beach but when I’ve got a deadline I rely on their tablets rather a lot and feel incredibly guilty most of the time.

“If you’d like to get in touch, please do visit me on Twitter @EmilyGunnis and Instagram @emilygunnis.

“And if you’re really stuck for something to do, feel free to review my book. I would love to know what you think.

“Keep reading!

“Love Emily x”