Summer at my Sister's by Emily Harvale

Summer at my Sister’s

Twin sisters. One scorching summer.

A bucketful of secrets.

Diana’s life is perfect. Her twin sister, Josie’s – not so much. 

Diana has a rich and successful husband, two talented youngsters and an adorable dog. She always looks as if she’s stepped from the cover of a magazine. Her immaculate second home by the sea, for idyllic summers with her perfect family, was actually featured in one.

Josie has a messy, compact flat, dates, but not relationships, and she can’t even keep a houseplant alive. She moves from job to job, goes clubbing with her friends and often looks as if she’s fallen through a hedge.

Although Josie loves Diana deeply, each year she declines the invitation to spend the summer with her sister. Or any other family holiday. Because Josie has a secret.

But is Diana’s life so perfect? Or is she also hiding something? When secrets are revealed this summer, everything will change. Josie could finally have the life she’s always wanted … if she’s brave enough to take a chance.

Purchase Link - mybook.to/SummeratmySisters

An exciting update from Emily Harvale:



"I apologise if you haven’t seen me on social media very much recently but I've been exceptionally busy working on lots of exciting stuff (technical term) 😂🤩 for my new book, my website ... and a map for my new series of standalone stories set in the tiny village of Seahorse Harbour.
 

The map will 'go live' on July 31st, publication day for the first in the series, which is ... yep, you guessed it, Summer at my sister's.

Let me explain a bit more.



Summer at my sister's was originally a standalone, but then I had an idea for a Christmas book, so it became a two-book series, with Book 2 featuring a couple of new characters and most of the characters from Summer at my sister's (with me so far?) ......



Then .... I had an idea for another completely separate story set in the same village (which I'm writing at the mo.) This one has new characters.

So now, each story in this series will be a standalone with new characters ... but as each book is set in Seahorse Harbour, you'll be able to 'see' what's going on with the characters from the previous books, because you can't help but bump into people in a tiny village, can you?



I have to say, I LOVE THIS SERIES!!!!😍🤩💖🥰 I've got so many story ideas, although I've only written 2 of the books so far, Summer at my sister's and the Christmas book, which is called .....



Wait for it......(no, that's not the title)



Christmas at Aunt Elsie's



This Christmas book will be available for pre-order from early August. 💖🤩🥰😍



Did I mention that I love this series? And yes - I'm just a little bit over-excited. I can't wait to share these fabulously feel-good stories with you. I hope you're a little bit excited too. 🤩💖 xxx"



Author Bio –

Emily writes novels, novellas and short stories about friendship, family and falling in love. She loves a happy ending but knows that life doesn't always go to plan. Her stories are sure to bring a smile to your face and a warmth to your heart.

Emily loves to connect with her readers and has a readers' group in which many have become good friends. To catch up with Emily, find out about the group, or connect with her on social media, go to her website at www.emilyharvale.com.

Having lived and worked in London for several years, Emily returned to her home town of Hastings where she now writes full-time. She’s a member of the SoA, an Amazon bestseller and a Kindle All Star. When not writing, she can be found enjoying the stunning East Sussex coast and countryside, or in a wine bar with friends, discussing life, love and the latest TV shows. Chocolate cake is often eaten. She dislikes housework almost as much as she dislikes anchovies - and will do anything to avoid both. Emily has two mischievous rescue cats that like to sprawl across her keyboard, regardless of whether Emily is typing on it, or not.

Social Media Links – 

 https://www.facebook.com/emilyharvalewriter

https://www.twitter.com/emilyharvale

https://www.instagram.com/emilyharvale

This book sounds like a perfect summer read, and if you fancy to read an extract, the author has shared a little extract from Summer at my Sister's. Enjoy!

This is from Chapter One and is part of a video call that Josie Parnell is having with her twin sister, Diana Dunn. Their mum has told Josie to go and visit Diana because, “something isn’t quite right”, so Josie is calling Diana in the hope of finding out what could possibly be wrong in her sister’s perfect life.

When she sees Diana’s face and hears that Diana’s husband, Alex isn’t driving the family down to Seahorse Harbour and won’t be joining them there for a while because he’s, “too busy”, Josie realises their mum was right. Perhaps Diana’s perfect life isn’t quite so perfect at the moment.

I hope you enjoy reading this.

‘Are you okay, Di?’ I asked, peering at her face. ‘I mean, are you ill? You said you haven’t been feeling well lately. Is it something to worry about?’

‘No, no.’ She shook her head. Almost violently. ‘It’s nothing like that. Honestly. I’d tell you if it was. I think I’m just … a little out of sorts. A bit run down maybe. Nothing a sea breeze won’t cure.’

‘Cocktails always make me feel better so I’m with you on that.’

Now she did laugh. ‘I meant the sea air, not the drink. You know I don’t drink … anymore.’

‘And I don’t drink any less.’ I sniggered. I love those old jokes. ‘So it’s just you and the kids then?’

She looked anxious. ‘Me and the kids?’

‘Going to Seahorse Harbour.’ This conversation was definitely weird.

‘Oh yes. For now. And Henry of course.’

‘Ah yes. Henry. Who could forget that lovable hound?’

‘You could. Obviously.’

‘Yeah well. Dogs aren’t my thing. You know I don’t do well with living beings. With living anything, really. Which reminds me. I’m really sorry but that gorgeous plant you bought me a few weeks ago seems to have … er … decided it didn’t like living in the City.’

‘Josie, no!’ She shook her head and laughed, although it wasn’t a particularly happy sound. ‘Please don’t tell me you’ve killed it already.’

‘Okay. I won’t tell you that.’

‘But you have?’

‘I think it took its own life. I didn’t do anything, honestly.’

‘But you watered it, didn’t you?’

‘Er. I think I did. Once or twice. Possibly not. I meant to.’

She sighed and shook her head again. ‘Oh, Josie. What am I going to do with you?’

Don’t ask me why I said it. I had no intention of doing so. None whatsoever. But I did.

‘You could ask me to come and stay with you for the summer. Or at least until Alex is free to come and join you.’

She blinked a few times and stared at the screen, her perfectly arched and shaped brows raised skywards.

‘In Seahorse Harbour?’

‘No. Mars. Of course in Seahorse Harbour. That’s where you’re spending the summer, isn’t it?’

‘It’s where we spend every summer,’ she said, somewhat wistfully I thought.

I gave a little cough and she smiled wanly.

‘Do I have to ask twice?’

‘What? Are you serious? Are … are you actually asking if you can come and stay? You never come and stay with us.’

‘Well, I’d rather stay with that sexy hunk who now owns The Seahorse Inn but as I don’t know him, I’ll have to stay with you until he asks me. What did you say his name was again?’

‘Mikkel. Mikkel Meloy.’ She lowered her gaze.

‘I still think that sounds more Irish than it does Norwegian. But he does look like a Viking and he could ravage me anytime he likes.’

‘You’ve only seen him once, Josie and that was via my webcam at Easter.’

‘Okay. Don’t get snippy. You sounded just like mum.’ I laughed. ‘You only have to see a man like that once for him to make an impression. Is he still single?’

She looked away into the distance. ‘As far as I know he is.’

‘Hi, Josie!’ My niece Becca appeared in the background, waving frantically. ‘You two talking about Mikkel? He’s sooooo gorgeous. Everyone’s in love with him you know. Even though he’s old.

‘Hey you! He’s only a couple of years older than me and your mum, you cheeky minx.’

Becca giggled. ‘Yeah. Old. But not as old as Orla’s dad. He used to be the heartthrob in Seahorse Harbour until Mikkel moved there. He’s still hot, although Orla hates it when I say her dad is sexy – but he is. Not quite as hot as Mikkel though. Orla’s crushing on him too. We’ve been reading Georgette Heyer books. One of the women in Mum’s book club loves them. Most of the heroines marry guys much older, so we’re sort of getting into the whole, older men thing, even though it still seems a bit gross. They’re sexy to look at sometimes but to have actual sex with them.’ She shivered dramatically. ‘Makes me want to heave just a bit.’

‘You’re not having sex with anyone, young lady. You’re only fifteen.’ I tried to sound stern but I think I failed because I was laughing.

I tried to picture Liam’s face. That’s Orla’s dad. He’d love to know that the thought of having sex with him made someone want to heave. Personally, when I was younger, I quite liked the thought of having sex with Liam Fulbright. Mainly because he was such a nerd, especially with his huge glasses, and I wondered if, like a super hero, he had a far, far sexier alter ego. I definitely got the impression there was something bubbling just beneath his lightly tanned skin and that long, lean body. But I hadn’t seen Liam for years. The last time I saw him was when he was nineteen. He was getting married to Una Cole – the most beautiful girl in the world.

***

Happy publication  day, Emily Harvale!

Yogurt oat cookies with saffron icing

The thing about home-baked cookies, it's hard to stop at one. Especially if you have a cup of tea and are enjoying a good book. I've just finished The Hopkins Conundrum by Simon Edge the other day (which I absolutely loved), and having looked at the big stash of paperbacks on my working table, decided to start The Surplus Girls by Polly Heron. A new book and freshly baked cookies is a lovely combination.
I often bake different variations on the plain oat cookies recipe. Having rummaged around the kitchen, I assembled a small pot of Greek style yogurt, a couple of sachets of oats, a small phial of saffron strands as well as the usual flour, oil, egg etc.

There were several mini-sachets from Skinny Food Co in the latest Degustabox delivery. One 10ml sachet of white chocolate syrup (flavour syrup with sweetener and zero calories) was neither here nor there, but as a flavouring for cookies it works well. As an ingredient in this recipe it is optional, you can add a little bit of grated/chopped white chocolate, or skip altogether.

Yogurt oat cookies with saffron icing (makes 15 cookies)
Ingredients:
100g demerara sugar
50g Greek style yogurt
50ml vegetable oil
1 medium egg
60g oats (2 sachets of porridge oats)
200g plain flour
1tsp baking powder
1/2tsp ground cinnamon
a pinch of saffron
icing sugar, enough to make the icing

Cream together the sugar with yogurt and vegetable oil, beat in the egg, add the oats, sift in the flour, baking powder and cinnamon. Mix until well-combined.
Dust hands in flour, so that the dough doesn't stick. Pinch a big walnut-sized piece of cookie dough and roll into a ball, then flatten and place on a tray lined with parchment paper, foil, or on a silicone baking sheet. Place the tray in the oven preheated to 180C.
Bake for about 15 minutes until slightly golden.
If you keep cookies until browned, they will be crispy. We like cookies with a softer centre.

Take the tray out, and put the cookies on the cooling rack.

In the meantime make some saffron icing.
Take a pinch of saffron strands and add freshly boiled water. Leave to steep for a minimum of five minutes. The longer you leave the saffron in the water, the more intense the colour you will get.

In a small mixing bowl or cup, add saffron water to the icing sugar (make sure that the strands don't get in). Mix until you have a smooth icing. Spread it over the cookies and leave to set.

Eat with tea or coffee, or with a glass of cold milk.

Saffron gives not only the colour, but a special flavour to the cookies. You can use a food colouring of your choice, if you don't have saffron. Ground turmeric mixed into the icing could also add a golden colour, but it has an acquired taste, and my guys are not big fans.

Apple yogurt cake

My funny guy Sash loves watching cooking shows on YouTube, especially the cake-decorating videos. There is one particularly annoying creative lady who loves adding chocolate ganache to everything. And tons of frosting. Her cakes might look pretty, but the amount of sugar is staggering. Anyway, as long as it keeps my child happy, he  can watch any cake videos to his heart's content.
I prefer to bake easy cakes, with a minimal amount of frosting, or none at all.

Any bake with an added fruit or vegetables is a bonus for me. The last fruit and veg box had several green apples, not sure of the variety, but like small sized Granny Smith, i.e. sharp and sour. I know green apples are supposed to be better for you, as they have health benefits - more fibre, minerals, vitamins, blah blah. But my guys would only eat pink/red apples.
 A cake with apples is a perfect solution, and a crowd pleaser.

An apple yogurt cake is very easy to make, and doesn't use any fancy ingredients.

Apple Yogurt Cake
Ingredients:
180g sugar (I used a mix of demerara and caster sugar, 90g each)
2 medium eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
1tsp ground cinnamon
125ml Greek style yogurt
2tbsp polenta (optional)
190g self-raising flour
1tsp baking powder
2 medium apples

In a medium sized mixing bowl beat in the sugar and eggs, add the vanilla, cinnamon, yogurt, polenta, sift in the flour and baking powder and mix until well combined. The cake dough is quite thick.
Spoon it into a pre-oiled spring cake tin.
Peel two apples, core and slice into crescents. Arrange the slices on top of the cake.
Place the tin in the oven preheated to 180C.
Bake for about 50+ minutes. You might want to put a foil over the cake, so that the top doesn't brown too much.
Once baked, take out of the tin and place on a cooling rack. Add a sprinkle of sugar or icing sugar.
Serve warm or cold, with tea or coffee.

You can use either caster or demerara,or a mix of both. I've read somewhere (not sure who the celeb chef was) that adding demerara to caster sugar makes for a fudgier taste.
If you don't have polenta, it's not a must ingredient. I like to add a little bit to cakes for an extra texture, and it also helps with the soggier ingredients like apples, carrots etc.

I baked this cake in the evening, when the light wasn't the best for taking photos, and thought I'd take more pictures of the sliced cake the next day. By the time I realised I haven't taken any pics, the cake was almost all gone.

Photo diary: week 30 project 366

Last week was all about Eddie's birthday, discussion of merits of this possible gift or that, new books and Baby Yoda. It was also the first week of summer holidays. We didn't miss home-schooling one little bit.

I have mentioned before that Eddie is a very big fan of Liz Pichon's Tom Gates series of books. Last Sunday he finished reading the last book in the series, and I tweeted to Liz, saying how excited Eddie is about the new paperback's release in February. She replied, saying that the newest Tom Gates activity books would be released later in the week.

We walked to Sainsbury's, hoping to buy a birthday cake. Since our local Waitrose has removed its cake counter, the choices of cakes is rather pathetic. Again, we discussed the merits of Spiderman versus Hogwarts cake, but ended up buying a chocolate cake, which Eddie enjoyed in the past. His choice entirely.
On the way back home, we spotted those huge sunflower plants.

Last week I was reading an article about recipes which are supposedly misleading about the timings. Several famous chefs and cook book writers were bashed for being careless with the timing.
One of the author's grudges was the description on how long it takes to cook the onion until translucent.
They claimed there was no way the onion would be translucent in 5 minutes. I thought I'd see for myself, whether it's true.
I put a 5-minutes timer, and set on frying a diced onion in a mix of olive oil and butter. After 5 minutes I turned down the heat and added the courgettes.
I think the onion is pretty much translucent. OK, it's not golden brown but when I write in my recipes - cook onions for about 5 minutes, I mean this stage. What do you think?

You might remember me mentioning in the previous week's photo diary the skirt and top I fancied in the window display. Well, I was paid my carer's allowance, and decided to treat myself. The top is a bit too warm for the current warm weather, so I've been wearing my new skirt with several old tops (this one, for example, is at least two years old).

Tom Gates Big Book of Fun Stuff was out, and according to my son, it was a must for his birthday.
Apparently he needed something jolly and cheerful, as he's reading a very sad book at the moment, The Boy At The Back of The Class.

Eddie's birthday was a quiet one. We went out to the Milkshake shop to get a strawberry milkshake with whipped cream, and then ventured towards the Church Green. As soon as we sat on the bench, it started raining, and we had to hide under the roof of the Butter Cross, 17th C market shelter.
My child pronounced it the saddest birthday ever. Yes, he's got a flair for dramatics.
He's got lots of gifts (books, Funko Pop Baby Yoda, Lego Star wars set etc), a cake with candles, but obviously no party with friends. I told him he'd always remember his 10th birthday as a different one.

And that's Baby Yoda with big soulful eyes. He's kind of cute but also slightly creepy. I told Eddie I wouldn't want to see him first thing in the morning, when I open my eyes. But Eddie put him on the book shelf next to his bed.

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Hannah the Spanner (book giveaway)

Many of us enjoy reading to our children at bedtime.
I have read a vast amount of books to each of my sons. I still do. Those evening hours are our special time. With my younger son, we have moved now onto Middle Grade/Young Adult fiction, but I still remember the picture books and simpler stories with great fondness.
Certain stories delight our kids even more, when they feature characters with the same name as a child you are reading to. My younger son loved stories where the characters were named Eddie. I also used to tell stories about him, which I invented (How Eddie got his name, etc).

Stuart Simmonds took his love of story-telling to the next level, and wrote a whole series of books which take their name from Stuart's eldest daughter. Hannah the Spanner series is written for parents reading to their children at bedtime.

Stuart comments, "Reading to Hannah and Lucy every night was one of my favourite parts of their childhood, it's something that both of them remember and talk about often. With a long summer break ahead of us, I hope these books give parents and children alike the opportunity to enjoy reading together. I have done my best to ensure they are entertaining for parents, as well as the kids - I know parents often have to read the same book to their children many times!"

Stuart is spot on when he talks about reading and re-reading the same stories. There are some books I can easily recite by heart, without looking at the lines, since I've read them so many times.

If you're looking for books that are ideal for reading together with your children, as part of home schooling or as a bedtime story, or just to keep youngsters aged 4-9 occupied, then we'd like to suggest the Hannah the Spanner series of illustrated children's books.

There are seven books in the series. Each book follows a different adventure for Hannah and the dreadful Aubrey:
- Hannah The Spanner and the Dancing Bear
- Hannah The Spanner and the Robot
- Hannah The Spanner and the Circus
- Hannah The Spanner and the Trip to the Moon
- Hannah The Spanner and the Diamond Robbery
- Hannah The Spanner and the Racing Car
- Hannah The Spanner and the Polar Bear.

The Hannah the Spanner paperback books are full of colourful imagery to keep little ones entertained, funny engaging stories to win the hearts of older kids, and a storyline that adults will appreciate too.
Each full colour book is illustrated by Bill Greenhead, who has previously worked on Charlie Smith Super Kid (Emma Lynch) and Animal Avengers (Malorie Blackman).

The books have proved to be such a great way to get children interested in reading, that Stuart has been inundated with bookings from schools in the UK and abroad asking him to visit to read the books and run workshops encouraging children to read.

Stuart Simmonds is an accomplished cricketer and sports coach, he now runs a property business from his home in East Grinstead, Sussex. Prior to writing the Hannah the Spanner series, he wrote an autobiography on a life in cricket, titled Watching With My Heroes, which was widely sold through all major retailers.

The Hannah the Spanner series is available from Waterstones and all good bookshops, Amazon and direct from the Hannah the Spanner website - www.hannahthespanner.com

Social Media Links:
Twitter: @StuheadLtd
Facebook: @stuheadltd
Instagram: @studheadltd

GIVEAWAY:
If your children haven't discovered yet the world of Hannah the Spanner, you have a chance to win two books from the series - Hannah the Spanner and The Dancing Bear and Hannah the Spanner and The Robot (first two books in the series).

T&Cs:
The giveaway is open to the UK residents only.
Please enter using the Rafflecopter box below.
The winner will be selected at random by Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email.
If no response is received within two weeks, then Chez Maximka reserves the right to select an alternative winner.
Open to all entrants aged 18 and over.
Any personal data given as part of the giveaway is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with 3rd parties, with the exception of the winner's information.
This will be passed to the publisher's PR and used only for the fulfilment of the prize, after which Chez Maximka will delete all data.
Please note, I am not responsible for dispatch or delivery of the prize. I'm only hosting the giveaway on the blog, for free.



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Photo diary: week 29, project 366

All the excitement about the last week was it being the end of the strange school year. I sighed with relief that we don't have to do home lessons for several weeks. On the other hand, it will be more upsetting for Sasha, who likes his school routine. He has another couple of days at school, and then we're all officially school-free until September, and then who knows?!

I was trying to find a jar of vanilla paste in the baking section in Waitrose, when I spotted a new product - an Italian cake mix for Torta Caprese (basically, an almond cake). The cake mix inside includes roughly chopped almonds, to which you need to add butter and eggs, and a bit of milk. It was utterly uncooked by the suggested time, so I left it in the oven for longer.
It tasted better the next day. I'm glad I've tried it, but I won't rush to buy it again, unless it's on offer, and then I will add some ingredients to it, to make the texture less coarse and grainy. As a cake mix, it has potential.

I'm cheating with the next photo, as it's pinched from a WhatsApp's chat.
My brother and his family spent Sunday in Ust'-Kachka, by the river Kama, an hour's drive away from the city where I was born and lived until my mid-20s. This photo made me quite nostalgic, as I haven't visited those parts of the world for many-many years.

There are not that many flowers in the garden at the moment, apart from a few phloxes, hollyhocks and echinacea. Almost all the roses are gone, though you can see several white roses up high in the branches of the plum tree (the rose has climbed up the plum).

The wild plum is laden with fruit which is still super sour. I'm not sure which variety of the plum that is, but it's not a sloe. I don't know whether to keep the fruit on the tree until it's ripe and then pick it up, or pick it now and let it ripen in the bowl at home, so that the squirrel thugs won't destroy it. Last year they ruined most of my plums, they just bite the fruit off and drop on the ground.

One of the last school tasks on Thursday was a story of Mary Anning. You had to watch a video about her, answer a short questionnaire and do four drawings, based on the fossils she has found, imagining what they would look like. Eddie spent two days, drawing four creatures, but of course, Friday was the last day, so nobody bothered to actually check what he has done. That's a disappointment.

I needed to pop to M&S to return a belt I bought the day earlier for Sash, as it was too short. Got the next size, and it's huge, and I need to add more holes. Not sure how I'm going to do that, worried that the knife will make ugly cuts rather than neat holes. Eddie was doing his best ninja impersonation.

Have you seen today's shit-storm on Twitter, caused by some journo from The Times, who compared the obligatory wearing of the masks to Nazism. How can she equate masks to gas chambers?!

I don't like wearing a mask, I don't think anyone does, and as a parent of a son with severe autism, I appreciate that not everyone is capable of wearing one, as it might cause a bout of stress.

Passing by one of the shops in High Street, I took a snap of the mannequin, wearing a skirt and top which I really like. I'm very tempted to buy them (minus the scarf, as I have plenty of those). They are rather plain, but I could style them with lots of other bits and pieces.

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Homeward Bound by Richard Smith #BlogTour

"Well, if there's one bit of advice I can offer," George continued, "it's make the most of your talent. If you don't, no one else will. The world is too full of missed opportunities."

George, 79-year-old protagonist of Homeward Bound by Richard Smith, knows about the missed opportunities only too well. In his younger years, he played in bands and supported some of the biggest acts from the sixties until he retired. He had a great potential but never made it as a rock star.
Recently bereaved, he's been living for the last several months with his daughter Bridget and her family, including a rather nasty, bullying husband Toby and teen granddaughter Tara.

We first meet him as a reluctant visitor to the Lastdays Rest Home. The problem is, it was not his idea in the first place. He doesn't feel ready to move to a retirement home, and on top of that, what would he do with his much played and well loved piano and his vast collection of records, neither of which would be welcome at the Lastdays. Mrs Williams, the proprietor at the rest home, is talking to George as if she's addressing a class of under fives.
In a defiant mood, George offends Mrs Williams, who promptly withdraws an offer of a place.
George meets one of the "birthday boys" in the nursing home, called Bernard, who warns him, "Don't listen to them. they take everything away from you. Your possessions. Your freedom. Your life..."

Toby is fuming. He doesn't want George to stay with them any longer, "Neither your mother nor I can nursemaid him", he tells Tara.

On the spur of the moment, George offers Tara to come and share his house in London, when she starts Uni. The arrangement would be - she will look after her Grandfather, and live for free in his house.
She is going to study Modern History and Politics, the last fifty years, or as George says, "The last fifty years? That's not history. That's my life."

He comes up with an idea of doing a musical induction for Tara, a history of the last fifty years through his records. "He was excited by the idea of playing his favourite music to her, about how much music spanned the generations. The thought of it made his stomach churn. It was unmistakably a yearning, a longing to create, to be heard, to perform. He knew he wasn't so much a has-been as a never-was".

Tara is an aspiring musician as well, though her idea of music is different from her grandfather's. Their musical tastes clash.

Her boyfriend Mark is another musical prodigy, who thinks he's going to find fame with his original scores. "Mark's music was - how did Tara describe it to her parents? Individual. His uni course encouraged experimentation, and Mark had embraced the concept wholeheartedly".
Tara is unsure about her relationship with Mark, in fact, she is not sure about anything. She seems going with the flow, rather than having any particular ideas of what she wants to do.

Slowly, Tara and George begin bonding over the music, and discovering each others' dreams and aspirations.
George is living in the past. He missed his chance of becoming a famous musician, but when an opportunity is presented to him to make a proper recording in a studio, he grabs it, even if it sounds super dodgy. "His longing to be heard, to be noticed and acknowledged may have dimmed and suffocated over the years, but at least... he still had it".

George is a very likable character. He has never revealed the reason why his musical career hasn't taken off. You can't but admire his spark of defiance, loyalty to his family and love of music.

The title of the book is inspired by the title of Simon and Garfunkel's 1966 hit. There is a lovely anecdote which George tells about the inscription on the cover of the record he owns.

As George gets more frail, and his health suffers, it is obvious that Tara cannot cope with looking after her Grandfather and studying at the Uni. There are inevitable decisions to be made, and George decides to start looking for a new place for himself.

Homeward Bound is a beautiful and life-affirming story, touching and warm, interweaving loss and regrets with second chances, heart-breaking and hopeful at the same time.

The beginning of the book made me think about my late friend A, who wouldn't consider the idea of moving into a retirement home. I can see why she defiantly stayed at home until the very end. There she was surrounded by her vast collection of books, and pictures and all the mementoes, and not put into a sterile, cold environment, where carers treat you with indifference (and I've seen places like that too).

It's not surprising that I found this book emotional and endearing. It is a heart-warming story of the power of music and family bonds.

P.S. I like the book cover, with its deceptively simple design of the piano keyboard, with George leading the way, and Tara following in his footsteps.

Purchase Links 

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/homeward-bound-richard-smith/1136313433?ean=2940163088645

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Homeward-Bound-Richard-Smith/dp/1838591591/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

https://www.waterstones.com/book/homeward-bound/richard-smith/9781838591595

https://www.ink84bookshop.co.uk/product-page/homeward-bound-by-richard-smith

Author Bio

Richard Smith is a writer and storyteller for sponsored films and commercials, with subjects as varied as caring for the elderly, teenage pregnancies, communities in the Niger delta, anti- drug campaigns and fighting organised crime. Their aim has been to make a positive difference, but, worryingly, two commercials he worked on featured in a British Library exhibition, ‘Propaganda’.

Twitter: @RichardWrites2    

richardsmithwrites.com

This review is part of the blog tour for Homeward Bound.

Many thanks to Richard Smith, Matador and Rachel's Random Resources for my copy of the book!

The Sewing Room Girl by Susanna Bavin

"She examined fabrics, making notes on colour, texture, weight and width. She used a few precious coins to purchase samples of ribbon, braid, piping and lace trim. She drew a selection of buttons, then went into Ladies' Accessories to make more notes. She already had one costume pretty well complete inside her head. Before she left the shop, she bought some offcuts so she could start work on new samples".

The Sewing Room Girl by Susanna Bavin is a compelling story, a powerful portrayal of the women's lot in the late 19C - early 20C. It brings to light the struggles which women faced during not such a distant past.
It is deeply moving and perfectly paced.

We first meet Juliet Harper in 1892, at her Pop's funeral. Juliet and her mother Agnes are left to fend for themselves. Having heard of Agnes's reputation with a needle, Lady Drysdale offers her a job of a personal seamstress, a live-in position. Juliet moves with her mother to Moorside.
There she is immediately accosted by one of the maids who's got a chip on her shoulder, begrudging Juliet's position in the manor house's hierarchy.

Agnes is torn between feeling proud of her new position as a personal seamstress and resenting her cramped room which she has to share with her daughter.
The villagers are half-expecting her to move back to Manchester to her estranged family, but Agnes knows that her mother - who happens to be a factory owner - would never let her go back.

All her married life she's been malcontent with her lot, as she sees her marriage as a mésalliance.
"The life I could have had, the career Mother planned for me, is going to happen, in a different sort of way, of course, but it feels as if I yearned for it for so long that I've made it come true. But what a price to pay".

There is a difficult dynamics between the mother and daughter. Juliet is showing a great talent in drawing, and is taking lessons to improve her artistic skills. Agnes is jealous of her daughter's success, and takes credit for her work.

In the meantime Juliet meets Hal Price, the head gardener's grandson, whose dream is to become a garden designer.

Tragically Agnes is dying of cancer, leaving Juliet to fend for herself. She's young and pretty, and a fair game for the local predators. His Lordship's agent, Mr Nugent, is relentless in his pursuit. Juliet is aghast but endures his advances for the sake of her mother. When her mother dies, she is totally defenceless.

Hal is not there to help, he pursues his dream, working on the garden designs elsewhere.
There is an immediate bond forged between the two, but now Agnes hides a dark secret. As they grow closer, a sequence of harrowing and traumatic events brings them apart.
(Having reached this point in the novel, I stopped reading for several days, as I found it quite hard to read. I needed a pause to get back to it. This is a testament to the power of writing, and not a criticism).

Agnes flees to Manchester, hoping to find her grandmother and aunt and seeking their support. The grandmother is a cruel, bullying termagant, who is prepared to "provide a stable background" for Juliet, suffocating her psychologically and keeping her as a slave.

Her grandmother would stop at nothing to crush Juliet's spirit, bend her to do her bidding and keep Juliet and Hal apart.

Juliet is a great protagonist, she is intelligent, creative and strong, we watch her personality develop from a vulnerable child to an accomplished businesswoman. Her dressmaking business is growing into a success, despite all the difficulties thrown at her.
Her best friend and confidante Cecily - who used to work in the same manor house, as young Juliet - is another woman of great courage.

This is a great period drama which depicts the challenges of life for women at the beginning of the 20C.
The historical background is well-researched and gives a great insight into the times, social division and rigid mores. I enjoyed all the details and setting of the dressmaking business, from drafting a future piece on paper to choosing fabrics and accessories.

The Sewing Room Girl is a gripping tale of a young woman's plight to overcome her social circumstances and obstacles to make a career and find love. It's one of those stories which stays in your memory long after you finished the last page.

Potential triggers: rape/sexual abuse, death from cancer, forced adoption.

Many thanks to Susanna Bavin for my copy of the book!

P.S. The embroidered sachet in the photos was a gift from my late friend Anne, who worked on it when she was about 12 years old, so before WWII. The yellowed silk handkerchief is a gift from her as well, and goes back to the Victorian times.

Photo diary: week 28, project 366

Did you notice that the days have got just a tiny bit shorter?
I know it's only minutes, but it feels like we're already getting less of sunlight.

I love watching bees in the garden, they are so full of energy and seem to be working hard all the time. In July they seem to be enjoying the potted lavender.

Mondays are Eddie's favourite days of home-schooling because they have new art tasks.
This time one of the tasks was to write your own name in five different styles/fonts.

For the last few summers I've been picking bunches of spiraea which grows in abundance in the flood fields and drying it for my Mum. She likes adding it to her tea. The plant has medicinal properties and a pleasant taste when brewed as a tisane.
This year I picked a bunch, but my Mum and I won't be seeing each other this year.

Meeting Suzanne who blogs at Expat Life with ChickenRuby was the highlight of my week. It was also the first time I dared to visit a café at Blue Boar to have a coffee. It's been one of my favourite haunts pre-Covid, as it's in a convenient location not far from the school, and I would often pop in there for a quick cup of latte before rushing to do my chores. It was nice to be back.

It's kind of strange meeting with someone whom you only know from reading a blog, but I felt like I've known Suzanne for a long time, and it was so lovely to finally meet in person. And then there was the adorable Bob as well. My son who stayed at home, was disappointed that he didn't come with me. I know he would have loved Bob.

Another first after the easing of the lockdown was going to M&S. I ordered some swimming trunks for my guys and went to pick them up, plus visited the food court to get some Percy pigs (oh, we missed them so much), some of their delicious ginger cookies and salted caramel cookies. Then I spotted the mini cucumbers and chuckled, seeing the name of the grower.
I love Inspector Montalbano books and TV series, and yes, his name is Salvo, not T, but this pack made me smile. They were tasty crunchy cucumbers as well, with a thin skin and oodles of flavour.

Sasha's favourite place in town is Cafe Nero, he loves sitting by the window and watching people passing by. He missed the cafe, which has re-opened recently. The social distancing arrangement works fine, but they could do better with cleaning. When we arrived and found a spot for Sash to sit with his father, I had to clear the table and use their disinfectant to wipe the table. The cafe wasn't busy at all, so they could have really done it.
Anyway, my boy was ecstatic to be back, he couldn't believe his eyes when he realised where he's going.

Today we received Eddie's school report, and I was delighted for him. He got 6 Es and 8Gs. It's been such a stressful year, with the lockdown, and Sasha turning 18 and trying to sort out his future respite visits and college in a year's time, his medication issues, etc etc.
I'm cherishing this moment of joy and feeling proud of him.

I've been reading on Mumsnet (where else?) just yesterday how some people scorn these announcements of school reports on Facebook. One parent said that she has a special needs child and this type of posts makes her feeling sad and inadequate as she cannot share the joy. I know where she comes from.
I have a severely autistic child, but I would never begrudge anyone feeling proud of their children's achievements, even if sometimes these posts make me sad as well. I'm glad for these children and their parents, but I'm also sad it would never happen to my boy, that he would never have a girlfriend/boyfriend, wouldn't be able to have a driving lesson, hold a job, be independent.

I love my boys, and I'm proud of both of them, for different reasons.

Today was Eddie's day, and I rejoice with him.

I'm too tired today to take any photos, so here is another picture from yesterday. On top of our lovely noisy neigbours', we also have an additional pleasure of the roadworks in the street, which start late in the evening and go on until 1am. The noise is horrible, and the flashing lights are abysmal.

We have one more week of school, and then the summer holidays will start.
As Lensky sings in Eugene Onegin, "What does the coming day have in store for me? It escapes my eyes, it is hidden". Who knows what the coming summer holidays will bring?

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Deadly Secrets by Ann Girdharry #BlogTour

Why had he not broken the silence? Why had he been such a coward? It was simple. He wanted to live. And he knew for certain that if he failed to keep the pact he would end up dead. there was a deadly spider at the middle of the web and it watched everything he did.

Deadly Secrets by Ann Girdharry is a police procedural/psychological thriller. This is the second book in the series, a sequel to Deadly Motives, which reads as a standalone.
Past is never far away, and some secrets are too deadly to keep.

An elderly patient, Mr Quinn, is agitated on his deathbed. After a distressing visit from a menacing stranger, he tries to confess the sins of the past to the nurse who's caring for him in his last days. His deadly secret has to do something with the word "boys" which he whispers to Nurse Michelle Dixon.
Hours later, the kind-hearted nurse is found brutally murdered.

Mr Quinn is not a harmless old gentleman. Years ago he was the headmaster of Bladen School, an Approved School for young male offenders which was a dreadful institution, with harsh regime and brutality dispensed to its victims by the merciless masters.
Twenty years earlier, two boys, Kevin and Barry, went missing from school. The official version was that they managed to run away. Nobody was making a great effort to find them.

Quinn knew what has happened, he "had spent the rest of his life trying to pretend that night never happened. He had terrible nightmares and he hated the smell of fresh earth to this day and, like the others, he swore he would keep the secret or pay a terrible price."

Now, with the death of Quinn and savage murder of Nurse Dixon, the cold case comes back into the spotlight.

Detective Inspector David Grant and his team at the Himlands Heath office begin their investigation of the nurse's murder, which quickly escalates into a killing spree.

A rich local family appears to be heavily embroiled in the tragic events, both past and present.
"Sir Paul (Watson) was the local magistrate and was responsible for sentencing offenders.
The Watsons' family wasn't simply rich, it was wealthy beyond most people's imaginations."

Is he the culprit? Grant and his team have to track the killer, who's been getting away with murder for many years. The pacing is picking up speed, soon the team has to deal with not one but several murders. While some victims seem to be connected to the disappearance of the two boys twenty years earlier, the killer is also targeting ordinary people who have nothing to do with the school.
Just who is this criminal who takes a sadistic pleasure in watching his victims drown?

As a profiler, it is Ruby's job to get inside the killer's mind.
"Her past and the children's home had left scars which meant she wasn't used to letting people past her barriers.
Ruby Silver was a shared resource across Sussex Police but he (Grant) was proud to be the one who discovered her. Ruby was a top-notch criminal psychologist. She'd proven her worth on his last serial killer case."

Ruby recreates the psychological profile of the killer. Why would they want to attack "nice ordinary girls with a happy life and a loving family?"

She is also watching her team mate and potential love interest Tom.

Sergeant Tom Delaney has dyslexia and "he rarely wrote up his notes, preferring to use voice-to-text software to dictate them. One day he wanted to be as good as Grant."
The aftereffects of Tom's childhood trauma - he discovered his father's body when he was 10 years old - shape his current state of mind, and his investigation skills. He still has flashbacks from that terrible day. Tom's issues are acutely observed and sympathetically portrayed. The challenges he faces are described realistically, without a melodrama.

This chilling tale, gripping and bursting with twists, will appeal to the fans of authors like Angela Marsons, Robert Bryndza and Helen H. Durrant.

There are several chapters, written from the point of view of the killer, which are insightful into the mind of the sadist, but could also be distressing to read.
While the team members are portrayed realistically, some of the characters, like the Watsons, are a pure caricature.
And without going into details so as not to give away any spoilers, I found it difficult to believe that the criminal mastermind was so omnipotent. It is understandable why they would keep the first of their abused victims under their thumb and make them do their bidding, but the others? Like the headmaster, why would he obey in the first place?

Potential triggers: child abuse, sadistic murders.



Purchase Links

UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Deadly-Secrets-must-crime-thriller-ebook/dp/B08BLNV9LM/

US - https://www.amazon.com/Deadly-Secrets-must-crime-thriller-ebook/dp/B08BLNV9LM/

Author Bio –

Ann Girdharry is a British, crime thriller author.
She's a trained psychotherapist and worked as a manager in the not-for-profit sector for many years.
​
Ann is an avid reader and her favourites are crime and suspense. She regularly talks about her favourite reads to her newsletter subscribers. She enjoys travelling and apart from the UK she’s lived in the USA (where her first daughter was born), Norway (where her second daughter was born) and she currently lives in France.

She was an ERIC HOFFER BOOK AWARD Finalist 2017.

Social Media Links:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AnnGirdharryAuthor
Website: https://anngirdharry.weebly.com/my-readers-group---free-gift.html
Twitter: @GirdharryAnn
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14179591.Ann_Girdharry

Many thanks to Ann Girdharry and Rachel's Random Resources for an e-copy of the book!

This post is part of the blog tour for Deadly Secrets.