Book Review: Queen Bee by Nina Manning
I am pleased to be welcoming Nina Manning back to Novel Kicks with the blog tour for her novel, Queen Bee.
In the quiet village of Helesbury, Miranda Wallace prides herself on being the most popular member of her small social circle; the perfect friend, the best mum – the queen bee.
Until one day, Verity arrives. Cool and indifferent, Verity is everything Miranda isn’t, but she threatens to shatter Miranda’s picture-perfect life.
Suddenly plagued with insecurities, Miranda is certain Verity is hiding something. And Miranda knows all about secrets and the damage they can cause, because she’s hiding some of her own.
So when Verity threatens to reveal the truth about Miranda and destroy the perfect life she’s built, Miranda knows she has to act to protect the people she loves – even if the results are deadly.
*****
Miranda is enjoying her new life, away from all the mistakes in her past. What’s more, she feels as though she has a true friend in Evie. Life for Miranda is bordering on perfect.
However, the arrival of Verity starts to pull Evie away from her. Who is this woman? Why is Evie interested in being her friend? Soon, Miranda finds life getting out of control, like it was before.
I had previously read The Bridesmaid by Nina Manning and loved it. I was excited to read her latest novel, Queen Bee.
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Book Extract: Storytellers by Bjørn Larssen
I am very pleased to be welcoming Bjørn Larssen and the blog tour for his novel, Storytellers.
Would you murder your brothers to keep them from telling the truth about themselves?
On a long, cold Icelandic night in March 1920, Gunnar, a hermit blacksmith, finds himself with an unwanted lodger – Sigurd, an injured stranger who offers a story from the past. But some stories, even those of an old man who can barely walk, are too dangerous to hear. They alter the listeners’ lives forever… by ending them.
Others are keen on changing Gunnar’s life as well. Depending on who gets to tell his story, it might lead towards an unwanted marriage, an intervention, rejoining the Church, letting the elf drive him insane, or succumbing to the demons in his mind. Will he manage to write his own last chapter?
Bjørn Larssen’s award-winning, Amazon #1 best selling novel is an otherworldly, emotive Icelandic saga – a story of love and loneliness, relief and suffering, hatred… and hope.
Bjørn has shared an extract today. Grab that hot drink, a comfortable chair and enjoy.
*****beginning of extract*****
Like most writers, I have certain subjects that are dear to my heart. Three of them are neurodivergence, mental illness (not the same thing), and addiction.
My protagonist, Gunnar, is on the autism spectrum and has a generalised anxiety disorder accompanied by depression, self-medicated with alcohol. He is also living in the year 1920, before the word “depression” came into use at all. He’s an uneducated blacksmith in a society where showing feelings – revealing that you had them – outside your diaries or poems you wrote was impossible. It wasn’t seen as cynical to say there was no time for grief or melancholy. It was simply the truth. There was too much work to be done.
It’s not just the external world that doesn’t understand Gunnar’s different mind. He has no words to express how he feels. All he knows is that he “shouldn’t” be like this, that “normal people” aren’t. During Icelandic prohibition, the only way to acquire alcohol was to visit a doctor and get it “prescribed” – Gunnar’s whisky is, ostentatiously, medication for his non-existent lung problems. A bottle of whisky a week isn’t enough anymore, though, so he makes moonshine… which is, of course, illegal, which makes his anxiety worse. There’s only one way he knows to feel better – he carries a flask wherever he goes.
There was a time in my life when I went through a long period of depression. Everything was grey. I didn’t even remember how to laugh. I was ashamed of admitting it. I “knew” that depression was a made-up thing that the educated members of the middle-class came up with to justify their laziness. Gunnar doesn’t have the words to express that, but if he could, he’d be thinking the same. There was one medication that calmed me down, even sent me into euphoria. It came in bottles.
*****
by Book Review: Before We Grow Old by Clare Swatman
I’d like to welcome Clare Swatman to Novel Kicks today and the blog tour for her latest novel, Before We Grow Old.
When seven-year-old Fran first met Will they knew instantly that they were made for each other. For eleven years they were inseparable, but then, at the age of eighteen, Will just upped and disappeared.
Twenty-five years later Will is back.
Is fate trying to give them a second chance?
Still nursing the heart break from all those years ago, Fran is reluctant to give Will the time of day. The price Will must pay is to tell the truth – the truth about why he left, the truth about why he’s back…
And Fran has her own secrets to hide. The time has come to decide what Fran and Will really want from life – before it’s too late.
*****
Will was the love of Fran’s life. Having been friends since childhood, she thought they would always be together.
When Will then leaves, leaving Fran a letter, she’s heartbroken, thinking she will never see him again.
So, bumping into him twenty five years later is a shock.
Can they pick up where they left off? Is Will hiding something? Worse still, will he find out Fran’s secret?
From the moment I started reading, I knew this book was going to make me cry. I can’t give you a solid reason how I knew, but I did.
Fran is a relatable character in many ways. She’s a single parent, trying to do the best she can for her son and when Will returns, she gives herself hope that she can be happy. Of course, life sometimes has other plans. I really felt a lot of love and empathy for her and Will at multiple points in the novel.
The other characters in the novel are wonderful; Kieran and Elodie especially. Clare Swatman does a really good job of pulling the reader into the story and making them feel like they are a part of this family, going through all these adventures and emotions.
by Book Review: My Heart Went Walking by Sally Hanan
I am pleased to welcome Sally Hanan to Novel Kicks today and the blog tour for her upcoming novel, My Heart Went Walking.
Kept apart by their love for one man, two sisters embark on their own paths towards survival, love, and understanding, until all three finally meet again in the worst of circumstances. And the reality might break them all.
My Heart Went Walking is a heartbreakingly beautiful novel that sweeps from the small Irish town of Donegal to the “big smoke” of Dublin City; a book that celebrates the pull of family and the chance of redemption. It is a novel for everyone who feels connected to the Irish approach to life-that of grit and laughter-and also for everyone who loves an overriding message of hope and restoration in all things.
***
Una doesn’t want to leave her family, especially her sister, Ellie. It also means saying goodbye to the boy she loves. However, she holds a secret and so must make a choice..stay and reveal her secret or leave everything she’s ever known.
So, she goes to Dublin to seek a new life, with no plan and little money.
Back in her hometown, Ellie has no idea why her sister left. Even Una’s best friend, Cullen doesn’t seem to know where she is.
These three people will be reunited through the most tragic of circumstances. Secrets will be revealed that have the capacity to change their lives forever.
Set in Donegal and Dubin in 1983, My Heart Went Walking is told from the point of view of three people; Una, Cullen and Ellie.
All three are well written and develop in interesting ways. They all have to deal with pretty intense situations and it was easy to forget as I progressed through the book that they were all still teenagers, having to navigate their way through some heartbreaking and difficult circumstances.
Una has to especially grow up incredibly quickly when she finds herself in Dublin, away from home and alone. She seems very strong but when you begin to get to know her, you see that she is just a young girl who has so much fear and doesn’t want to face it. I think a lot of people can relate to that. Whether, as a reader, you agree with certain decisions she makes will be up to you to decide but I felt that she, like Cullen, was trying to do the best she could and do right by the people she loved.
Cullen is a confused guy who doesn’t understand why the girl he loves suddenly disappears. He’s very much a good guy. I really felt for him through this story as he is, in a way, stuck in the middle between his past with Una and his potential future with Ellie.
by Book Extract: A Stranger’s Revenge by K.J. McGillick
A big welcome to K.J. McGillick and the blog tour for her novel, A Stranger’s Revenge.
When art law attorney Abigail Clarke is mistaken for the murdered twin sister she never knew existed, will she be able to outwit a man determined to kill every member of her treacherous family.
Thirty years ago, during a thunderstorm, on an isolated street in South Boston, an unidentified two-year-old girl was discovered, abandoned, shot, barely clinging to life. After a thorough investigation, the case was eventually designated to the cold case files until Abigail Clarke, now an astraphobic art law attorney, is mistaken for the murdered twin sister she never knew existed.
What the FBI Art Crime Division cannot determine is if Abigail is an innocent bystander or a co-conspirator in her sister’s art fraud crimes.
Compelled to uncover all her family’s secrets, nothing prepares Abigail for the disastrous meeting with her murderous brother and crime boss father. Her life is irreversibly changed the more she becomes mired in her family’s treachery. She soon finds herself drawn into a game of cat and mouse by the vengeful killer who methodically plans to execute every member of her family, holding each one of them ultimately responsible for the murder of his own family thirty years ago.
K.J. McGillick has shared an extract with us today. Enjoy.
Warning: Language.
*****beginning of extract*****
March 2021
An explosive streak of white lightning splayed its arthritic fingers across the gray sky, threatening to snatch me through my windows. However, it was the explosive thunder bomb which shook my windows that almost sent me under my desk. Shot and then left for dead when I was two years old, thunderstorms still scared the hell out of me and left me paralyzed with fear. Maura called it astraphobia. I called it self-preservation.
“Abigail Clarke, you are not listening to a word I’m saying,” Maura said, slapping her chair to get my attention. “I could use a little legal help here.”
“Of course, I am listening. I just want to scream at the top of my lungs that Clarisse Taylor is batshit crazy. Can we at least agree that she is a master manipulator well versed in the art of gaslighting? You’ve asked my legal opinion. I can’t help it if it’s not what you want to hear.”
Was it wrong of me to hope right now a bus was plowing into Clarisse, leaving her splattered on some street like roadkill?
“I have to admit that in the last two months, her stories have become more laced with violence.” She sighed.
“There you go. What if this is just an attention-seeking device? I know as a psychiatrist, head games and personality puzzles fill your day. Please don’t think I am minimizing your concern. But maybe this is one of those moments that you can’t see the forest for the trees.”
“No, this time it was different. You had to see her wickedly satisfied expression as she boasted she stabbed him fifteen times.”
As if channeling Clarisse, Maura gritted her teeth and slowly lifted her arm, then plunged an imaginary knife up and down. As her arm arched back, I could not help but visualize the drops of blood, as they must have sprayed across the walls with each fresh assault. The room must have looked like a Jackson Pollock canvas, splattered in various hues of reds and browns as the blood dried. That visual did the trick of interrupting my obsession with the storm.
She suddenly sprang to her feet, almost dazed, glanced at the floor, and then at me.
“And, Abby, she said that the puddle of blood looked like an oil slick. It was so widespread that when she tried to stand, she slipped in it and bashed her head against a table. Slipped… In… His… Blood…”
“Oh, for the love of God, enough.” I raised my hand for her to stop. I had reached my limit.
She dropped back into the chair and took a deep breath.
“Okay, take a minute, and let’s walk through this. Did you see any signs of an injury to her head to corroborate the story?” I asked, determined to debunk this lunatic’s musings.
“Yes. Well… she had a bandage across the corner of her forehead. Whether there was an injury there or it was for show, I don’t know. However, she never came to the office before with even a Band-Aid.”
by Book Club
