Three Hours by Rosamund Lupton - very early review

Three Hours
By Rosamund Lupton
Published by Penguin Books UK (17 October 2019)
I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher via NetGalley

I don't usually read and review books this early, but I was told that I MUST read this one by another reviewer (Liz Barnsley of Liz Loves Books) - as it was well worth doing so. I also don't usually read books in one sitting like this, so I have to get my thoughts out of my system now! Apologies for such an early (but spoiler-free) review.

Publisher's description

In a rural English village in the middle of a snowstorm, the unthinkable happens: the school is under siege.

From the wounded headmaster barricaded in the library, to teenage Hannah in love for the first time, to the pregnant police psychologist who must identify the gunmen...

My verdict
Ironically it took me around three hours to read Three Hours. For most of that time, my heart was pounding with a strong sense of fear and dread, my throat tight, my jaw tense. I barely took a breath, occasionally coming up for air. This is a race against the clock – and in various places I wished that I could press a pause button to give the characters extra time.

The writing moves at a cracking pace, switching from person to person, then back again, with some expertly woven twists – so cleverly structured. Afterwards, I couldn’t stop thinking about all the little things that now made sense and slotted into place, that I’d blinked over when I’d read them the first time.

I felt as though as I was there alongside the characters, as if they were my own friends and family – all of it feeling so real and close to home. Yes, the plotting is incredible but it’s the writing that wowed me in particular and wormed its way under my skin.

While there’s a mystery at the heart of the book – who are these gunmen and why are they targeting this remote school in Somerset? – for me, the book was an emotional rollercoaster from beginning to end, fuelled by its human element and exploration of human nature. What drives us to perform immense acts of violence and also immense acts of love? 

Three Hours was a traumatic reading experience in many ways – it challenged me, thrilled me, stunned me and upset me - but I am so glad that I immersed myself within its pages. In several places, I had to pause and take a breath – scared to read on, yet scared not to. My youngest teen came into the room at one point while I was reading and I just wanted to pull him close and hug him, never let him go. This book made me worry about my teenagers, about sending them to school the next day, about the future of society. Yet it also gave me a sense of hope.

Three Hours is a thriller about ordinary people doing what’s right, going above and beyond their natural capabilities and comfort zone. It’s a message about society and vulnerability, love and the importance of community. This will be one of my top reads of 2019.

Skin Deep by Liz Nugent

Skin Deep
By Liz Nugent
Published by Penguin (15 November 2018)
I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher

Publisher’s description

'I could probably have been an actress.
It is not difficult to pretend to be somebody else.
Isn't that what I've been doing for most of my life?'

Cordelia Russell has been living on the French Riviera for twenty-five years, passing herself off as an English socialite. But her luck, and the kindness of strangers, have run out.

The arrival of a visitor from her distant past shocks Cordelia. She reacts violently to the intrusion and flees her flat to spend a drunken night at a glittering party. As dawn breaks she stumbles home through the back streets. Even before she opens her door she can hear the flies buzzing. She did not expect the corpse inside to start decomposing quite so quickly . . .

My verdict
Skin Deep left me cold and shaking - with shock, horror, admiration, or maybe a combination of all three. Every so often, I’ll read a book and discover a protagonist I love to hate. Well Liz Nugent has, yet again, created such a character.

Delia is a monster, that’s the word that popped into my head first when thinking about how to describe her. She is manipulative, self-centred and dangerous. She makes her mark on everyone she comes into contact with. In fact, she leaves disaster and shattered lives in her wake.

Skin Deep is an in-depth psychological character study - a look at whether evil is created or inborn, nature or nurture. I won’t give the plot away, though Delia IS the plot and Skin Deep is as dark as you can get. We know from the start that Delia has killed someone, but who and why?

This multi-layered book is compelling and addictive, macabre and twisted, impossible to put down. It reads like a memoir, in the first person, getting right inside Delia’s mind, something that Liz Nugent does extremely well. I didn’t want it to end - and that ending really was a shocker yet felt totally appropriate.

Skin Deep provided great escapism from my life into someone else’s - and her life will be very hard to forget!

Dinah Jefferies' Writing Toolkit

WRITING TOOLKIT gives you an idea of an author's writing process through the tools they use. The tools can be anything (real or virtual) that they think is essential for their writing - serious, fun or even a fetish (that they're willing to own up to)! 

I am delighted to welcome 

DINAH JEFFERIES

AUTHOR OF THE SAPPHIRE WIDOW

TO SHARE HER WRITING TOOLKIT

FOR HER BLOG TOUR

The Sapphire Widow was published on 5 April 2018 by Penguin. 

A good night's sleep
This is the most useful tool of all, but not something I can always rely on. However, if I have slept well (without waking up in the night with one of my recurring migraines or half a dozen plot ideas) the words tend to flow and I really enjoy my work. Tiredness is my devil, my demon, and my challenge, and coffee is the only answer.

Breakfast
I can’t even begin to think without a mug of tea and a bowl of muesli inside me. We have breakfast in front of BBC breakfast! When I’m writing, this will be my only portal into what is happening in the real world.

Fresh air
I walk the dog in one of Cheltenham’s many beautiful parks before I start writing, or for inspiration when I’m stuck for ideas. If I want to take my mind off the current book I’m writing – something I need to do to let my subconscious mind flow - I love to wander the many Regency streets marvelling at the architecture and imagining how life might once have been.

My writing room
I’ve had a writing room built at the bottom of the garden. It’s a glorified shed really but large, airy, peaceful and, most importantly, entirely mine. I need total silence to work and my shed gives me that in spades.

My audiobooks
Again, these are a wonderful way of taking my mind off my own book so that I don’t obsess. I lie on my bed and escape to someone else’s invented world instead. Heavenly.

My husband
Richard does all the shopping and all the cooking which leaves me free to write. He’s also an ace researcher and I often bounce ideas around with him when I’m in the early stages of plotting. He should really be at the top of the list.

My exercise bike
I like to be warm when I write, so if it’s chilly I get on my bike (in my shed) to get my blood and creative juices flowing.

My mountains of research books and notebooks
I like to be surrounded by these even if I don’t refer to them. Something about them being there makes me feel safe. If my memory fails me there they all are, although with my somewhat haphazard organisational systems the chance of finding what I need is not that great.

Cake
Last but not least. For when I’m having a horrible day and the words won’t do what I want them to, cake is the only solution.

THANKS FOR TAKING PART, DINAH!

About Dinah Jefferies

Dinah Jefferies was born in Malaysia but moved to England at the age of nine, travelling widely throughout her life and always maintaining a love of Southeast Asia. She spent time living in a musicians' commune, and has had work publicly exhibited as an artist. Dinah’s first novel The Separation was published by Penguin in 2014. The Tea Planter’s Wife is her second novel. 

The Silk Merchant’s Daughter, was published in February 2016 and also entered Sunday Times Bestselling list. Before the Rains was published in February 2017. After living in Northern Andalusia for five years, she now lives in Gloucestershire with her husband.

Find Dinah Jefferies on her website, FB page and on Twitter - @DinahJefferies

About The Sapphire Widow

Published by Penguin (5 April 2018)

Publisher's description

Ceylon, 1935. Louisa Reeve, the daughter of a successful British gem trader, and her husband Elliot, a charming, thrill-seeking businessman, seem like the couple who have it all. Except what they long for more than anything: a child.

While Louisa struggles with miscarriages, Elliot is increasingly absent, spending much of his time at a nearby cinnamon plantation, overlooking the Indian ocean. After his sudden death, Louisa is left alone to solve the mystery he left behind. Revisiting the plantation at Cinnamon Hills, she finds herself unexpectedly drawn towards the owner Leo, a rugged outdoors man with a chequered past. The plantation casts a spell, but all is not as it seems. And when Elliot's shocking betrayal is revealed, Louisa has only Leo to turn to...

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Do Not Become Alarmed by Maile Meloy - Blog Tour Review

I am delighted to be today's stop on the blog tour for Do Not Become Alarmed by Maile Meloy. Do Not Become Alarmed was published by Viking (Penguin) on 6 July 2017. 

Do Not Become Alarmed
By Maile Meloy
Published by Viking (6 July 2017)

Publisher's description

When Liv and Nora decide to take their husbands and children on a holiday cruise, everyone is thrilled. The ship's comforts and possibilities seem infinite. But when they all go ashore in beautiful Central America, a series of minor mishaps lead the families further from the ship's safety. 

One minute the children are there, and the next they're gone.

What follows is a heart-racing story told from the perspectives of the adults and the children, as the distraught parents - now turning on one another and blaming themselves - try to recover their children and their shattered lives. 

My verdict
Do Not Become Alarmed is well written literary fiction, focusing on parents' reactions to the disappearance of their children on an excursion trip during a two week cruise. The book highlights corruption, drugs and murder within Central America, so has some dark underlying themes.

The events are told from the perspectives of the parents and the children. I enjoyed the children's version of the events far more than the parents', finding it difficult to sympathise with, and warm to, the adults. I didn't find the book particularly emotional. However, I was intrigued enough to keep reading to find out what happened to the children and families by the end.

The families involved are all wealthy and successful. One key message from the plot seemed to be that wealth can't buy you commonsense, happiness or breeding, judging from the parents' behaviour. I wasn't totally sure why one particular thread was there, other than to show the rich-poor divide.

This book is marketed as a 'heart-racing' story, but I didn't find this to be the case. Instead, I found it to be a slow burner, focusing on family dynamics and changing friendships when dealing with every parent's worst nightmare. It took me a few chapters to get into the story, possibly because I was expecting something else - but once I realised this wasn't going to be a fast-paced read with lots of twists and turns, I focused on the vivid descriptions and atmospheric setting.

I suspect that readers who love fast-paced thrillers may be disappointed. And I also suspect that this could be a marmite book for the summer season - people may either love it or hate it, depending on their expectations.

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All the Good Things by Clare Fisher - Blog Tour

I am delighted to be today's stop on the blog tour for All the Good Things by Clare Fisher. All the Good Things was published by Penguin on the 1st June 2017.

Read my review ...

All the Good Things
By Clare Fisher
Published by Penguin (1 June 2017)

Publisher's description

Twenty-one year old Beth is in prison. The thing she did is so bad she doesn't deserve ever to feel good again.
But her counsellor, Erika, won't give up on her. She asks Beth to make a list of all the good things in her life. So Beth starts to write down her story, from sharing silences with Foster Dad No. 1, to flirting in the Odeon on Orange Wednesdays, to the very first time she sniffed her baby's head.
But at the end of her story, Beth must confront the bad thing.
What is the truth hiding behind her crime? And does anyone - even a 100% bad person - deserve a chance to be good?

My verdict
All the Good Things is a well-written book that highlights thought-provoking issues, particularly those surrounding motherhood.

Beth has done something bad, really bad, which is why she's in prison. She's now ready to give up on life. But her counsellor tells her to write down all the good things that have happened to her over the years, to prove that she's still good deep inside.

All the Good Things isn't about the bad thing that Beth did. It's not about why she's being punished for it either. It's about why the bad thing happened and what led to it. This story of Bethany's life took me on an emotional rollercoaster and made me cry several times. It addressed heartbreaking social issues, and the consequences of NHS cuts - a girl let down by the system, left on her own with serious repercussions.

The book is very moving and felt very real. While it isn't necessarily a book to 'enjoy' due to the subject matter, it's certainly one that leaves a lasting impression.

Highly recommended!

I received an Advance Reader Copy.

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Black Rabbit Hall by Eve Chase

Black Rabbit Hall
By Eve Chase
Published by Penguin (16 June 2016)
ISBN: 978-1405919326

Publisher's description

One golden family. One fateful summer. Four lives changed forever.

Amber Alton knows that the hours pass differently at Black Rabbit Hall, her London family's country estate where no two clocks read the same. Summers there are perfect, timeless. Not much ever happens. Until, one stormy evening in 1968, it does.

The idyllic world of the four Alton children is shattered. Fiercely bonded by the tragic events, they grow up fast. But when a glamorous stranger arrives, these loyalties are tested. Forbidden passions simmer. And another catastrophe looms...

Decades later, Lorna and her fiancé wind their way through the countryside searching for a wedding venue. Lorna is drawn to a beautiful crumbling old house she hazily remembers from her childhood, feels a bond she does not understand. When she finds a disturbing message carved into an old oak tree by one of the Alton children, she begins to realise that Black Rabbit Hall's secret history is as dark and tangled as its woods, and that, much like her own past, it must be brought into the light.

My verdict
Black Rabbit Hall has been sitting on my bookshelf for a while. Now I wish I had read it sooner. It's a beautifully written tale of grief, family secrets, lies and forbidden love.

This is a powerful story of the Alton family in the 1960s and, specifically, teenager Amber. Decades later, Lorna stumbles across Black Rabbit Hall, a large dilapidated house in Cornwall, with her fiancé when they look for a wedding venue.  Lorna feels like she remembers the old house from her childhood, but has no idea why.

Black Rabbit Hall is an emotional read that left me in tears. The wonderful characters and stunning setting pulled me in straight away, with vivid descriptions and powerful dialogue. I loved how the two threads wound seamlessly together, as Amber's tragic story was gradually revealed.

I received an Advance Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.

My Writing Process by Claire Fuller

I would like to welcome Claire Fuller to my blog today, to talk about her writing process. Claire's book Our Endless Numbered Days was published in paperback by Penguin on 31 December 2015. 

My Writing Process

By Claire Fuller

I’m just beginning to write my third novel, and it’s taken until now to work out if my writing process is different for each book, or what similarities there are.

What I’m only just realising is how important it is for me to have an idea of place before I start. Where do my characters live – country, area, type of house, room – I need to be able to see the space they inhabit before I can really get to grips with the story.

And it seems after two and a bit novels, I’m a big follower of the process that E.L. Doctorow talked about in his famous quote: “Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”

I’m not a planner. I have a vague shifting idea of an end point; perhaps who will live and who will die, but no idea how that life or death will happen. I start with one or two characters, drop them into a location, and see what they do. If it’s going well, by about a quarter or a third of the way through the characters take over and will sometimes refuse to do things. This isn’t anything spooky, it’s just that I know in detail the type of people they are, their habits, their likes and dislikes, and this in depth knowledge begins to help the story along. In my second novel, Swimming Lessons, I had two characters who I wanted to get together quickly, but they took chapters and chapters to do it. I’d put them in a room together and they would barely look each other in the eye. In the end I had to let them do it in their own time.

I don’t like writing. Perhaps it would be easier if I were a planner, but because sometimes I really don’t know what is going to happen next, it can be difficult. I treat it like a job; it is how I make my living, so I sit down at my desk at 9am and stop at 6pm. I do lots of other things during those hours, of course – I’m easily distracted – but that is my working day. What I do like however, is editing. Oh, to write The End on a first draft! Once I have 70,000 words or whatever, then I can have fun – cutting, moving sections, working on the structure – and then playing with the words, making sure each one is right, that sentences flow, that it all has a rhythm when I read it aloud.

However, I do edit a bit as I go along. It’s impossible for me to write without going back a short way each day and reworking. My new words are so abysmal that if I didn’t go back and edit a little bit then the writer’s doubt that we all suffer from would be too inhibiting. But I set myself some rules: Whenever I sit down to write I must also add new words to my manuscript. I’m never allowed to just edit until I’ve finished. Even if I only have ten minutes writing time, just three or so of those can be spent editing. If I have a full day available then I aim for 1,000 words (but I’m secretly happy if I get 800 down). At the end of each day I keep a tally of what my new word count is and a line of two of what I did and how it went. Very often I write something like, ‘I can’t do this, why am I doing this?’. And to keep the internal critic at bay while I’m writing I allow it a few words of its own now and again. So, in the middle of a paragraph I might write in square brackets [this is rubbish], and then carry on writing. It’s also reassuring to know that if I’m run over by a bus before the manuscript is finished no one will think that I believed it was any good.

About Claire Fuller

Claire Fuller was born in Oxfordshire, England, in 1967. She gained a degree in sculpture from Winchester School of Art, but went on to have a long career in marketing and didn't start writing until she was forty. She has an MA in Creative and Critical Writing from the University of Winchester and lives in Hampshire with her husband and two children. Our Endless Numbered Days is her first novel, and was awarded the Desmond Elliott Prize for debut fiction in 2015.

Find Claire Fuller on her website, her Facebook page and on Twitter - @ClaireFuller2


Our Endless Numbered Days
By Claire Fuller
Published by Fig Tree (26 February 2015)
ISBN: 978-0241003930

Publisher's description
1976: Peggy Hillcoat is eight. She spends her summer camping with her father, playing her beloved record of The Railway Children and listening to her mother's grand piano, but her pretty life is about to change.

Her survivalist father, who has been stockpiling provisions for the end, which is surely coming soon, takes her from London to a cabin in a remote European forest.

There he tells Peggy the rest of the world has disappeared. Her life is reduced to a piano which makes music but no sound, a forest where all that grows is a means of survival. And a tiny wooden hut that is Everything.

A taster of my review: Our Endless Numbered Days is a beautifully-written tale, filled with mesmerising descriptions and haunting prose... This is a novel that will stay in my memory for a long time.

Read my full review here.

AUTHOR IN THE SPOTLIGHT - Dinah Jefferies - BLOG TOUR

I am delighted that DINAH JEFFERIES is joining me on my blog today. Dinah's second book - The Tea Planter's Wife - was published by Penguin on 3 September 2015. 

So Dinah, what inspired you to write a book in the first place?
I was living at the top of a small mediaeval village in Northern Andalucía. In summer it was too hot to go out and, with time on my hands and missing my own language, I just decided to immerse myself.

Where do your ideas come from?
Tricky. Where do ideas come from? The big wide world is the easy answer, but from the depths of my psyche is the more honest one.

Have your personal experiences influenced your writing? And if so, how?
I’m not sure you can write anything without your personal experiences influencing your work. I am my work and my work is me.

Describe your writing style in 10 words or less?
Atmospheric, tension-filled, intimate and emotional.

Do you have any strange writing habits?
Writing is pretty strange full stop. The usual middle of the night stuff when my brain is firing ideas at me.

Do you plot out the whole book before you start or just start writing and see where it leads you?
A mix of both. I have an outline and some key scenes in mind, then I write. After I while I assess where I am and where I need to go, and then I work out how to get there. I always have a sense of the heart of the story before I begin.

What do you consider to be the hardest part of your writing?
The planning. It gives me brain ache.

Do you read? If so, who are your favourite authors?
I LOVE reading, but it’s really hard to write and read. I read when I can and look forward to it as a treat. I enjoy Sarah Waters and Rachel Joyce but many others too.

You were born in Malaya, which is the setting for your first book, The Separation. What memories do you have of your time living there?
Wonderful memories of sun, sea and freedom. I loved Malaya. It’s in my soul.

The Tea Planter's Wife is set in Ceylon. Why did you choose this as the setting for your second novel?
I wanted to stay with South East Asia and as I knew so little about Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and really wanted to go there, I plumped for that. Since then I’ve been to Vietnam for book three, and I have a trip to India coming up. I NEVER expected all this when I set out to write and I feel incredibly fortunate.

If you were writing a book about your life, what would be the title?
Pass!

What advice do you have for aspiring writers?
Being a published writer is fabulous, but you do need dogged determination and a well-honed degree of obsession.  By writing you learn how, so keep at it and develop a feeling for your strengths and your weaknesses. The way I feel about it is that I can’t not write, and I’m never satisfied with early drafts. That might be the key.

And lastly, why should people read The Tea Planter's Wife?
If you’re looking for mystery, love, heart-break and joy – then it’s for you. But I think Liz Trenow’s words say more than I can.
Liz Trenow author of The Poppy Factory:
‘With a naïve young woman protagonist discovering the undercurrents of a tropical land and a husband haunted by the tragedies of a previous marriage, The Tea Planter’s Wife cleverly melds themes from A Passage to India and Rebecca into a highly engaging story, informed by meticulous research and a real feel for the setting of Sri Lanka, when it was still Ceylon. Dark secrets lie at every turn, hidden beneath layers of 1920s racism and the fearfulness of a crumbling colonial power, making for a thoroughly gripping tale. But what I loved most of all, underpinning the whole narrative, is the moving way in which Dinah writes about the loss of children and the redemptive power of love.’

About Dinah Jefferies

Dinah Jefferies was born in Malaysia but moved to England at the age of nine, travelling widely throughout her life and always maintaining a love of Southeast Asia. She spent time living in a musicians' commune, and has had work publicly exhibited as an artist. Dinah’s first novel The Separation was published by Penguin in 2014. The Tea Planter’s Wife is her second novel. She is currently working on her third to be published in 2016, and is a contributor to the Guardian and other newspapers. After living in Andalusia for five years, she now lives in Gloucestershire with her husband.

Find Dinah Jefferies on her official Facebook page and follow Dinah on Twitter - @DinahJefferies


The Tea Planter's Wife
Published by Penguin (3 September 2015)

Synopsis: 
Nineteen-year-old Gwendolyn Hooper is newly married to a rich and charming widower, eager to join him on his tea plantation, determined to be the perfect wife and mother. But life in Ceylon is not what Gwen expected. The plantation workers are resentful, the neighbours treacherous. And there are clues to the past - a dusty trunk of dresses, an overgrown gravestone in the grounds - that her husband refuses to discuss. Just as Gwen finds her feet, disaster strikes. She faces a terrible choice, hiding the truth from almost everyone, but a secret this big can't stay buried forever . . .

I loved this book - read my review here.

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