Three Things I’d Tell My Younger Self

Author – Joanna Cannon and others.  Joanna has complied this free book of various authors including Fern Britton, Janet Ellis and Mr Kipling.  It was published to coincide with the release of this years exam results, for students to have the benefits of others experiences.  However I think it is beneficial to everyone.

Joanna’s first book, The Trouble of Goats and Sheep won great praise.  Winning the 2016 BAMB reader aware, being longlisted for the Desmond Elliott prize and shortlisted for the Bookseller Industry awards 2017.

Joanna trained as a doctor and specialised as a psychiatrist before writing this book.  Her second book Three Things About Elsie came out in January 2018, and was a Richard and Judy Book Club Pick and was longlisted for The Woman’s Prize for Fiction 2018.  The first chapter is included in this book.

Her website is joannacannon.com and you can find her on Twitter @JoannaCannon.

Publisher – HarperCollins

Pages – 82

The Blurb –

If you could send a message to your younger self, what three things would you want to tell them? This inspiring, moving and frequently hilarious collection includes advice from – among others – authors, journalists, clergy, nurses and doctors; and their words will offer both solace and entertainment to readers at any milestone in life, from exam results and educational choices to love, health, friendship and careers.

I read this book mainly because it is by Joanna Cannon, she is now on my list of I must read everything they do.  Click to read my review of The Trouble With Goats And Sheep, her first novel.

My thoughts –  Firstly I would highly recommend this book to everyone, no matter how old, your gender or position in life, it offers something for everyone.  Secondly grab some tissues.  This book made me cry, a lot, not because its sad but because its poignant and inspirational.

It’s only a short read, I read it in half an hour, but it will stay with me much longer.  I read it while my daughter was getting her nails done, and I sat there trying to hide the tears.  I read it again before I reviewed it and I have never highlighted a book so much. This book is going to be a go to when I need reassurance, guidance and a pick me up.

All the contributors to the book have each written a letter to their previous selves, some are long some are short.  What they all had in common is a lot of their lessons are very similar.  We are all much more alike than we think.  All our hang ups and anxieties that we think are unique to us aren’t.

If you are looking for a book that will make you cry and laugh and provide some great insight, read this.  It’s free and something quite wonderful.

To purchase click here

This book counts towards my British Book Challenge

In keeping with the book I thought I would share my own:

Three Things I’d Tell My Younger Self

1. When you are younger, you ask yourself over and over whether being bullied is part of a test.  Whether it serves a purpose? With hind sight it makes you resilient, life will throw a great deal of crap at you, and you will cope.  Writing this now, there is no stronger person I know, so I know its tough but you survive, not unscathed, but more warriorlike.
2. Know your self worth now.  You sell yourself short so many times and accept far less than you deserve.  Don’t love the wrong people, note to self, no-one has been right so far.  Stick to tea and cats.
3. The computer course at college is the wrong decision, go into sixth form and go to university. Learn as much as you can and if possible read more.  This longing to learn never leaves and I so wish you’d gone to university.

Caroline x

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Cover Reveal – Snowed In at The Little Duck Pond Café by Rosie Green

Author – Rosie Green has been scribbling stories ever since she was little.  Back then they were rip-roaring adventure tales with a young heroine in perilous danger of falling off a cliff or being tied up by the ‘baddies’.  Thankfully, Rosie has moved on somewhat, and now much prefers to write romantic comedies that melt your heart and make you smile, with really not much perilous danger involved at all, unless you count the heroine losing her heart in love.

Rosie’s brand new series of novellas is centred on life in a village café.  The first two stories in the series are: Spring at The Little Duck Pond Café and Summer at The Little Duck Pond Café.

Rosie Green

Social Media Links –

Twitter – @Rosie_Green1988

The Blurb –

The biggest snowfall in years has blanketed Sunnybrook, cutting the village off from the outside world. For Fen, who finds herself snowed in at The Little Duck Pond Cafe, it’s little more than a minor inconvenience. Her love life is finally running smoothly; it looks as if she’s found the perfect man for her.

But then a shocking secret threatens to destroy Fen’s new-found happiness.

Will being snowed in be the final straw? Or will Fen find a way through the snowdrifts to the perfect love?

To pre order click here

 

Cover Reveal – Isolation Junction by Jennifer Gilmour

Author – Born in the North East, I am a young married mum with three children.  I assist in running a family business from my home-base and I have a large readership of other young mums in business for my blog posts.

From an early age I have had a passion for writing and have been gathering ideas and plotlines from my teenage years.  A passionate advocate for women in abusive relationships, I have amalgamated and fictionalised other survivors experiences alongside my own to write my first novel detailing the journey of a young woman from the despair of an emotionally abusive  and unhappy marriage to develop the confidence to challenge and change her life and to love again.  I hope that in reading my debut novel, I will raise awareness of this often hidden and unseen behaviour and empower women in abusive relationships to seek help for themselves and find the confidence to change their lives.

Jennifer Gilmour

Social Media Links –

Amazon Author link: Author.to/JenniferGilmour 

 

My online store: www.jennifergilmour.com/shop 

 

Facebook: www.facebook.com/isolationjunctionbook

 

Twitter: www.twitter.com/jenlgilmour 

 

Instagram: www.instagram.com/authorjennifergilmour 

 

GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/JenniferGilmour 

The Blurb – Rose is the mother of two young children, and finds herself living a robotic life with an abusive and controlling husband.  While she struggles to maintain a calm front for the sake of her children, inside Rose is dying and trapped in ‘Isolation Junction’.

She runs an online business from home, because Darren won’t let her work outside the house.  Through this, she meets other mums and finds courage to attend networking events, while Darren is at work, to promote her business.

It’s at one of these events that Rose meets Tim, a sympathetic, dark-haired stranger who unwittingly becomes an important part of her survival.

After years of emotional abuse, of doubting her future and losing all self-confidence, Rose takes a stand.  Finding her distraught, alone and helpless, Rose wonders how she’ll ever escape with her sanity and her children.  With 100 reasons to leave and 1,000 reasons she can’t, will she be able to do it?

Will Tim help her?  Will Rose find peace and the happiness she deserves?  Can Rose break free from this spiralling life she so desperately wants to change?

This  new edition of Isolation Junction publishes on 22^nd October, and Jennifer Gilmour would love to invite you to the online launch party on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/events/699087493784429/

Pre order links

 

Amazon UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Isolation-Junction-Breaking-isolation-emotional-ebook/dp/B01LX4HLT0/

Amazon US – https://www.amazon.com/Isolation-Junction-Breaking-isolation-emotional-ebook/dp/B01LX4HLT0/

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Fake Date

Author – Lynda is an English author who grew up in the mining village of Bentley, Doncaster, in South Yorkshire.

Her own chaotic life story, along with varied career choices help Lynda to create stories of psychological / romatic suspense, with challenging and unpredictable plots, along with (as in all romances), very happy endings.

Lynda joined the Romantic Novelist Association in 2014 under the umbrella of the New Writers Scheme and in 2015, her debut novel House Of Secrets won the Choc Lit Search for a Star competition.

She lives in a small rural hamlet near Doncaster, with her husband, Haydn, whom she’s been happily married to for over 20 years.

Lynda has written three other novels, House of Secrets, House of Christmas Secrets and Tell Me No Secrets.

Lynda Stacey

Social Medial Links –

Facebook – www.facebook.com/lyndastaceyauthor

Twitter – https://twitter.com/LyndaStacey

Website – www.lyndastacey.com

Publisher – Ruby Fiction

Pages – 314

The Blurb –

Nine hours and eleven minutes…

That’s how long it’s been since Ella Hope was beaten to within an inch of life and left for dead.

She lies, unable to move and praying for somebody to find her, as she counts down the minutes and wonders who could have hated her so much to have hurt her so badly.

Was it the man she went on a date with the previous evening, the man linked to the deaths of two other women? Or somebody else, somebody who wants her out of the picture so much they’re willing to kill?

Whoever it is, they will pay … all she has to do first is survive..!

Today is my stop on The Fake Date Blog tour, many thanks to @rararesources for the opportunity.

My thoughts – This book is a real page turner.  You really want Ella to get justice for her horrific injuries.

When we first meet Ella she is fighting for her life after being left for dead.  She has to find the will to survive and seek the justice she deserves.  After the attack Ella starts to rebuild her life, still scarred both physically and emotionally.  Untrusting of everyone, her home becomes her haven, but her silence is disturbed by a new neighbour, who has a few secrets of his own to hide, and an over friendly farmer that attaches himself to her.

Ella knows who has attacked her and is determined to see that they pay, but when someone is murdered, Ella has to decide whether everything she believed has been a lie.

Lynda Stacey has written a fast paced thriller that hooks you in from the beginning.  All the characters are well written and through them she explores the theme of recovery.  While Ella seeks recompense for her injuries, we see her struggle with human interaction with her friends and family and Will her new neighbour.  In turn Will has his own trauma to recover from and Lynda winds his backstory into the main story of Ella and her attacker.

As both of them try and confide in each other, Ella has more to fear as her attacker realises she survived.

To purchase click here

This book counts towards my British Book Challenge

 

Cover Reveal – Strand of Faith by Rachel J Bonner

Author – Rachel J Bonner is the author of the four book Choices and Consequences series, the first of which, Strand of Faith, is due out in November 2018.
Getting a degree in engineering, followed by a career in accountancy is probably not a conventional path to becoming an author, particularly in paranormal romance. Rachel says that, although accountancy isn’t anything like as boring as everyone thinks, writing is a lot more fun. When not writing, she can be found walking in the beautiful countryside near where she lives, which has influenced much of the scenery in her books, or shooting things with her local archery club. Target shooting only, honest. Nothing to worry about.
She also enjoys swimming, eating chocolate chip cookies and growing aromatic herbs, especially thyme and rosemary. It’s no coincidence that her heroine likes the same things.

Social Media Links –

Website – www.racheljbonner.co.uk

Twitter – https://twitter.com/RachelJBonner1

The Blurb –

When the choice is between love and life, how can anyone decide?

A girl and a monk, both with extraordinary mental powers, have compelling reasons not to fall in love.  But those from whom they expect support are manipulating them both because their choices will have consequences for the rest of the world.

After a stormy youth, Brother Prospero has found comfort and fulfilment in the monastery.  That is, until he discovers something that forces him to reconsider his whole vocation.  To follow his heart, he’ll have to face his demons again, outside the security of the monastery.  Is it worth the risk?  Can he beat them this time? Or will they finally destroy him?

Orphaned and mistreated, Leonie has found sanctuary and safety at the abbey.  All she wants is to learn how to manage her unusual abilities so that she is not a danger to those around her.  When she comes into contact with Prospero everything threatens to spiral out of her control.  Whether she leaves or whether she stays, how can she possibly avoid destroying – yet again – those she has come to care about?

Abbot Gabriel is faced with an impossible choice.  He can do nothing and watch the world descend into war.  Or he can manipulate events and ensure peace – at the cost of two lives that he is responsible for.  He know what he has to do but he is strong enough to sacrifice those he loves?

Preorder here –

Amazon UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Strand-Faith-Choices-Consequences-Book-ebook/dp/B07GKZT8LF

http://www.books2read.com/strandoffaith

This beautiful cover was designed by Oliver Pengilley

Cover Designer’s Social Media

www.oliverpengilley.co.uk

www.facebook.com/pengilleyart

@oliverpengilley  

www.patreon.com/oliverpengilley

www.etsy.com/uk/shop/oliverpengilley

 

 

 

 

Cover Reveal – The Stepsister by Jenny O’Brien

Author – Jenny O’Brien was born in Ireland and, after a brief sojourn in Wales, now resides in Guernsey.
She’s an avid reader and book reviewer for NetGalley in addition to being a RoNA judge.
She writes for both children and adults with a new book coming out every six months or so. She’s also an avid collector of cats, broken laptops, dust and happy endings – two of which you’ll always find in her books.

In her spare time she can be found frowning at her wonky cakes and even wonkier breads. You’ll be pleased to note she won’t be entering Bake-Off.

Social Media Links –

Blog: https://jennyobrienwriter.wordpress.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JennyOBrienWriter/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ScribblerJB

The Blurb

When a stranger leaves step-sisters, Victoria and Ness, a half-share in a house in Holland, they think it must be a mistake.  But there’s no mistake when Ness goes missing.

Desperate for the truth, Victoria heads to Holland to find out what happened to her. Has she, as her texts show, embarked on a whirlwind romance? Has someone abducted her or even worse?

But there’s someone watching, and that person wants her dead.

Can Victoria find out the truth before it’s too late?

Pre-order on Amazon UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07H3TH4HT

The Stepsister Prologue –

I died yesterday, or so I’ve been told.

Yesterday is the day my life changed but how or why is still a mystery. There are things I know and there are things that they’ve told me but I can’t seem to trust any of it.

I know I’m a woman but I don’t know my age. I know how to hold a cup in the same way I know it’s rude to stick the end of a knife in my mouth. So, somewhere along the way, someone cared enough to drill manners into me. Those are the things I know, the things I can trust but as for the rest…

They tell me I’m in Holland but can I believe them? I don’t remember if I’m Dutch but I also don’t remember if I’m not. I can’t speak Dutch. I’ve been trying all morning but can one lose a language overnight? I seem to have lost everything else. Who knows? Maybe I took the wrong train or something and just rolled up in the wrong city. That would make sense except that it’s not just my sense of place that’s missing. It’s my sense of everything. I have no name, no age and no identity. Yesterday I died and today I’m still here.

They’ve left me alone now while they try to puzzle out what to do and in the meantime I’m going to try to remember stuff. I don’t know how long they’ll leave me alone but I need to take this opportunity to come up with some answers to all the questions they’ve been throwing at me like who the hell I am.

Slipping out of bed I recoil as bare feet meets cold tiles, but that’s not going to stop me. Pulling the back of the hospital gown closed in an effort to retain some degree of dignity, I shuffle over to the bathroom and then the mirror only to stare into the face of a stranger.

It doesn’t matter what I look like or that I’m suffering from the worst case of bed-head known to man. It doesn’t matter that my eyes are green or that my hair is that shade of nondescript mouse that keeps colourists in business. The only thing that matters is my reflection, which holds no clues as to my identity. I’m a stranger to them. I’m a stranger to me.

My body holds a clue though – just one.

I push up my sleeve again to stare at the tattoo on my arm. The tattoo puzzles me. It’s not me, or part of me or who I think I am and yet it’s there, a large indelible letter V.

I have no idea what it stands for. Oh, I’m not stupid or anything or, at least I don’t think I am. I can’t quote which exams I’ve passed or if indeed I’ve ever attended school but I do know V stands for victory. But what does it mean to me? Am I victorious? Am I making a statement about something? It must be important because it’s the only tattoo I have. It’s also the only clue.

I’m tired now. My eyelids collapse over my eyes even as I struggle to shift them upwards as I remember the cocktail the nurse told me to swallow like a good girl. I want everything to go away. I want to hide under the blankets and forget. I’ve already forgotten…

Silencing Anna

Author – Sadie Mitchell

This is Sadie’s first novel. She has three children and a rabbit. She works in healthcare. When she’s not writing or working most of her life seems to involve picking up toys and finding things she’d forgotten she has.

Social Media Links –

https://www.facebook.com/sadiemitchellauthor/

Twitter – @sadiedmitchell

Instagram – sadiemitchellauthor

Publisher – 3P Publishing

The Blurb –

Voices surround Anna as she lies on her hospital bed, but she cannot answer them. Her voice has been taken, along with her mobility and her sight. She can hear the nurses chattering and her family that come to visit. Her mum cries a lot and her dad struggles to deal with what he sees. Life used to be good for Anna, but life can change in a heartbeat, as she knows so well.

And then there are the people we think we know. When the smile hides the anger. When the beauty hides the beast.

Only Anna knows the truth, but Anna cannot speak.

I am reviewing this book as part of Rachel’s Random Resources Blog Tour @rararesources   Today is my stop on the tour,  many thanks to Rachel for the opportunity.

My thoughts – This is a excellent debut novel by Sadie Mitchell, and I will definitely read her second.

At the beginning of the book Anna is in hospital, unable to communicate with the outside world.  She can feel, hear and think, and she tells us her story through her thoughts.  An intelligent student Anna is starting her life, in love and with her future mapped out.

Her life changes dramatically and she struggles to carry on with the life she had planned, and she then she meets James.  Handsome and generous, Anna can’t believe her luck, but has her vulnerability led her into something dangerous?

The story flits between Anna’s backstory and her nightmare lying in a hospital bed, as she continues to discover the real James.

This book is similar to a book I previously reviewed Signs In The Rearview Mirror: Leaving A Toxic Relationship Behind, as they both deal with toxic and abusive relationships.  The partnership deteriorates quickly and I felt myself screaming at Anna to see the signs and leave, but life is never as easy as that is it? Some people are good manipulators and Sadie has made James excellent at this.  Narcissists are very good at making the innocent party feel like they are to blame for what they do.

Sadie has written about domestic abuse well, the feeling of guilt and shame, wanting help but not feeling like you can confide in anyone, thinking you are over reacting.  Anna goes through all of these thought processes and its interesting (and infuriating) how she can think her way into excusing intolerable behaviour.

James’ history is discovered and  Anna from her hospital bed could have the last laugh or is she is more danger there than she was before?

The book was not an easy read due to the subject, but it well worth reading.  Please be aware it may contain triggers for some readers and the author has listed some helpline numbers at the end.

Purchase Links:

https://bookshop.3ppublishing.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=77

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Silencing-Anna-disturbing-psychological-thriller-ebook/dp/B07FBN6TP9/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1532520802&sr=8-1&keywords=silencing+anna