The Single Mums' Book Club by Victoria Cooke (Read the extract)

 

We can never have enough books about fictional book clubs, can we?! Sharing love of books, and forging friendships along the way could be very rewarding.

The Single Mums’ Book Club

Three friends, three single mums, one quest to find love…

It’s 8:30am and I’m already utterly exhausted. My son has lost his football boots, my daughter is ready for school dressed only in her vest and knickers, and of course, my 1-year-old has filled his nappy for what feels like the tenth time this morning.

As for my husband? He’s decided marriage doesn’t suit him, and well… buggered off.

All hope of ‘me time’ has but dwindled to sipping half a glass of wine whilst shouting after the kids. But everything is about to change.

I’m taking control of my life! I’ve joined… a book club.

Yes, I know what you’re thinking. ‘Wow… live a little.’ But my fellow book clubbers, Amanda and Janey, are my lifelines. They understand the daily struggle because they’re mothers too.

And in between the prosecco, Doritos and googling everything about Mr Darcy on SparkNotes, they’ve convinced me to go on a date with my boss.

A single mum of three looking for romance… what could possibly go wrong?

A gloriously funny and relatable read for anyone who just needs a little more ‘me time’. Fans of Why Mummy Drinks and Has Anyone Seen my Sex Life? will snort with laughter at this utterly hilarious and heart-warming read.

Author Bio – 

Victoria Cooke grew up in the city of Manchester before crossing the Pennines in pursuit of a career in education. She now lives in Huddersfield with her husband and two young daughters and when she's not at home writing by the fire with a cup of coffee in hand, she loves working out in the gym and travelling. Victoria was first published at the tender age of eight by her classroom teacher who saw potential in a six-page story about an invisible man. Since then she's always had a passion for reading and writing, undertaking several writers' courses before completing her first novel, 'The Secret to Falling in Love,' in 2016.

Her third novel, Who Needs Men Anyway? became a digital bestseller in 2018 and her debut, The Secret fo Falling in Love was optioned in 2020.

Social Media Links – 

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16345710.Victoria_Cooke

https://www.facebook.com/VictoriaCookeAuthor/

https://twitter.com/VictoriaCooke10

https://www.instagram.com/victoriacookewriter/

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And now you are invited to read a sample from The Single Mums'Book Club. My thanks to Victoria Cooke for sharing an extract from her book!

This opening scene throws us straight into the chaos of Stephanie’s single mum life.  

 

‘Ava, are your teeth brushed yet?’ I yell up the stairs in vain. When I scoop Henry out of the baby chair, I notice his nappy is swollen and damp. ‘Bugger.’  

‘Coming, Mummy.’ The light thud of Ava’s feet travels down the stairs. I look her over in horror.  

‘It’s half past eight and you’re not even dressed!’ I sound like a banshee as I do most mornings because most mornings, Ava really likes to test my patience and after another sleepless night, I’m on the edge.  

‘I had a cut on my knee so I put some wet tissue on it and—’  

‘And nothing. Get your uniform on now!’  

‘But, Mummy!’  

Give me strength.  

Henry starts to scream. ‘Ava, you have one minute to get dressed or I’m taking you to school in your vest and knickers. I mean it.’  

‘Mum, where are my football boots?’  

‘Oh, Ralph, I don’t know – you had them on in the garden the other day. Try the utility room.’  

Henry is still screaming. It’s now eight-forty. ‘Ava?’  

‘Coming, Mummy.’ She appears in the kitchen, thankfully, for the most part, dressed bar her tie but I’ll tolerate the disapproving looks at the school gate for one day.  

Otis, our dog, is doing supersonic circles at the prospect of a walk to school.  

‘Sorry, Otis, we’re running late today.’ He doesn’t get it; instead, he’s the only one sitting nicely by the door ready to go. ‘Okay, let’s get to the car,’ I say, thrusting a banana in Ava’s little hand.  

‘But I haven’t got my shoes on.’  

‘Put them on in the car,’ I say, shepherding her to the front door. Henry is still screaming – his cheeks red and puffy – but I haven’t got time to change him now.  

‘Ralph?’  

‘I’m here,’ he says, banging his football boots so big clumps of mud fall all over the hallway floor. I sigh but say nothing because I don’t have time to argue.  

‘Take your brother,’ I say, pushing Henry into his arms and scooping Ava into my own. ‘Right, let’s go!’  

The school bell rings as we pull up outside. ‘Ralph, take Ava to her teacher and run – I’ll watch you from here.’  

‘Okay, Mum.’  

‘Love you both,’ I say as they climb out.  

There’s a moment of silence whilst Henry looks out of the window. I sit and breathe for a moment, relishing the tiny slice of tranquillity before the torture of Monday supermarket shopping begins. As I put the car into gear, Henry wails again, prompting me to realise I’ve forgotten the changing bag.  

‘Buggering hell!’ I do a U-turn and a car honks at me because there’s an unwritten rule about not reversing near the school gate. I wave apologetically hoping it’s another bedraggled mother who’ll give me a sympathetic smile. It isn’t. It’s a smart-looking lady in a flashy BMW who looks less than impressed at having to stop and wait for my U-turn (okay, three, maybe five-point turn).  

When I’ve retrieved the changing bag and Henry is changed and happy, I make it to the supermarket. It’s a small victory that I’ve remembered my carrier bags and I’m feeling ready for the challenge of battling with the trolley. As I’m unbuckling Henry’s car seat, my phone pings. It’s a message from school. Hoping there isn’t another outbreak of nits, I open it.  

URGENT REMINDERS  

Please could all parents / carers remember that children must be accompanied onto the school grounds by an adult as per our safeguarding policy. We’d also like to remind you that as part of our commitment to keeping your children safe, cars are not permitted to turn around outside the school gates.  

I chuck my phone into the footwell. ‘Oh bugger off!’  

 

To The Fair Land by Lucienne Boyce #BlogTour

 

"There are dreams that lure men on, rumours of lost lands and hidden cities, hidden treasure, fabled gold. The facts speak against such chimera, and the world labels the man who seeks them mad, but he will not abandon his quest. The thought of wealth or power is too much for him. That is your Fair Land."

To The Fair Land by Lucienne Boyce is a sumptious historical novel, with elements of thriller. 

1789: We meet Ben Dearlove, an aspiring and struggling young writer in the Covent Garden Theatre, attempting to watch The Life and Death of Captain Cook amidst the sounds of cheering and hooting. The theatre goers are fighting for better seats, there is a constant influx of latecomers, when a strange woman sits next to Ben. 

She scorns the action on stage, pronouncing it to be rubbish and gibberish. When she claims that Captain Cook, the nation’s darling of the moment, was a fool, the audience around her doesn’t take it kindly. Ben has to rescue the stranger from the incensed mob and take her home. The woman is ill, and in her delirium cries out the name Miranda. Not only her behaviour is unusual, she also has a tattoo - "the red bird on the woman's shoulder with its high crest and long tail was as delicate as a drawing from a monkish bestiary".

Ben kindly offers some money to the servant attending the gentlewoman, as it's obvious they are in dire straits. He considers what to do next, but then decides that he's not going to do anything else. "...why should he concern himself with these women? They were a pair of curiosities, to be sure, but London was full of curiosities..."

A few weeks later an anonymous novel An Account of a Voyage to the Fair Land becomes a literary sensation in London. What's peculiar is that the ship in the novel is named Miranda. Ben decides to find out who the mysterious author of the novel is, and believes the strange woman he met in the Covent Garden might help him with the information. If only he can find her, as she has disappeared seemingly without a trace.

The search for the anonyous writer proves to be more than Ben has bargained for. The danger seems to follow in his footsteps. While Ben tries to go after the elusive woman, there are menacing strangers shadowing him. How is the Admiralty involved in all this secrecy? 

Before the scandalous truth is revealed, Ben has to get out of prison, catch a thief and try to bring the murderer to justice.

To The Fair Land is a sharp, daring original story of forbidden love, good and evil, betrayal and murder. It dazzles with vigour, holding the suspence from the beginning to the last pages.

It resurrects a historical period and place with an enthralling involvement, and casts a modern angle on the collision of cultures, lambasting the "civilised against primitive society" belief.

This post is part of the blog tour!

Many thanks to Lucienne Boyce, SilverWood and Rachel's Random Resources for my copy of the book!

 

Purchase Links 

Amazon – Paperback and Kindle:-

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fair-Land-Lucienne-Boyce-ebook/dp/B00936U3C2

https://www.amazon.com/Fair-Land-Lucienne-Boyce-ebook/dp/B00936U3C2

SilverWood Books – Paperback - https://www.silverwoodbooks.co.uk/product/9781781320174/to-the-fair-land

Book Depository - https://www.bookdepository.com/Fair-Land-Lucienne-Boyce/9781781320174

Foyles - https://www.foyles.co.uk/witem/fiction-poetry/to-the-fair-land,lucienne-boyce-9781781320174

Barnes and Noble – Paperback and Nook Book - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/to-the-fair-land-lucienne-boyce/1111543434?ean=9781781320174

Apple Books https://books.apple.com/gb/book/to-the-fair-land/id733789778

Kobo - https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/to-the-fair-land-1

Author Bio – 

Lucienne Boyce writes historical fiction, non-fiction and biography. After gaining an MA in English Literature, specialising in eighteenth-century fiction, she published her first historical novel, To The Fair Land (SilverWood Books, 2012, reissued 2021), an eighteenth-century thriller set in Bristol and the South Seas. 

 

Her second novel, Bloodie Bones: A Dan Foster Mystery (SilverWood Books, 2015) is the first of the Dan Foster Mysteries and follows the fortunes of a Bow Street Runner who is also an amateur pugilist. Bloodie Bones was joint winner of the Historical Novel Society Indie Award 2016, andwas also a semi-finalist for the M M Bennetts Award for Historical Fiction 2016. The second Dan Foster Mystery, The Butcher’s Block, was published in 2017 and was awarded an IndieBrag Medallion in 2018. The third in the series, Death Makes No Distinction, was published in 2019 and is also an IndieBrag Medallion honoree, recipient of Chill With a Books Premium Readers’ Award, and a joint Discovering Diamonds Book of the Month. In 2017 an e-book Dan Foster novella, The Fatal Coin, was trade published by SBooks. 

 

In 2013, Lucienne published The Bristol Suffragettes(SilverWood Books), a history of the suffragette movement in Bristol and the west country. In 2017 she published a collection of short essays, The Road to Representation: Essays on the Women’s Suffrage Campaign. 

 

Social Media Links – 

Twitter: @LucienneWrite

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

Blog: http://francesca-scriblerus.blogspot.co.uk/  

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6437832.Lucienne_Boyce

The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner

 

"For many of these women... this may be the only place their names are recorded. The only place they will be remembered. It is a promise I made to my mother, to preserve the existence of these women whose names would otherwise be erased from history. The world is not kind to us... There are few places for a woman to leave an indelible mark... But this register preserves them - their names, their memories, their worth."

The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner is a compelling historical novel, set in a dual timeline. You will be swept away by the vivid details of life in the 18thC London, the food and fashions, dirt and horrid odours, effective remedies and poisons. The narrative is both satisfyingly imaginative and distressing. 

This accomplished debut was published in the US by Park Row Books on 2 March 2021, and Legend Press in the UK. This year the book will be published in 23 different languages.

London, 1791: 

Nella runs a secret apothecary shop for women. She describes herself "not just an apothecary, but a murderer. A master of disguise". She is sitting in her tiny hidden chamber, waiting for her next client who could be anyone. "She could be a victim or a transgressor. A new wife or a vengeful widow. A nursemaid or a courtesan..." All they have in common is that they want someone dead. And Nella sells her well-disguised poisons to eradicate the despotic or brutal men in their lives. She has her own principles which she abides by: her poisons should never harm a woman, and the names of the intended victim and his murderer should be recorded in her register.

Nella wasn't trained to be a poisoner. Her mother's legacy was an affirmative one: to aid women. She believed in "the importance of providing a safe haven - a place of healing - for women. London grants little to women in need of tender care... My mother committed to giving women a place of refuge, a place where they might be vulnerable and forthcoming about their ailments without the lascivious appraisal of women". 

One day the apothecary shop is visited by a precocious twelve-year-old Eliza, who acts on behalf of her mistress. She is an intelligent girl, seemingly mature in her attitude, but at the same time emotionally undeveloped. She is not scared of the task she has to perform, as if it's just one fascinating albeit dangerous game. 

Nella and Eliza begin to form an unlikely alliance. One small mistake will bring the dramatic consequences.

Present time: 

Caroline Parcewell arrives to London to what was supposed to be her celebratory wedding anniversary trip. Only she is on her own, having found out that her sleezy husband has had an affair with a colleague. She is an emotional wreck. "I needed a break from the grief suffocating me, the thorns of fury so sharp and unexpected they took my breath away". While venturing on her own around London, she joins in a mudlarking event and finds an antique vial.

"This was precisely what I found so fascinating about history: centuries might separate me from whomever last held the vial, but we shared in the exact sensation of its cool glass between our fingers. It felt as though the universe, in her strange and nonsensical way, meant to reach out to me..." Little does Caroline know, that the vial will send her on a search not just for the previous owner, but on a quest to discover what she truly wants. 

"I was searching for a lost apothecary, yes, but a sense of sadness came over me as I acknowledged what else I sought: resolution to my unstable marriage, my desire to be a mother, my choice of career".

There is a rudimentary design of a bear scratched on the vial. "I traced the bear with my thumbnail, thinking of all the vial had taught me: that the hardest truths never rest on the surface. They must be dredged up, held to the light and rinsed clean."

We follow the stories of these three women, so different, yet equally unfulfilled and ready to embrace the truth about themselves.

Caroline's story is less engaging, in a way, she is just a tool, a device used to take us back in time to discover the story of the apothecary. She could have easily been erased from the story. Instead I would have liked to read more about Eliza, and women who rebelled against the suffocating restraints of their lives.

There is a definite feminist slant on the plotline. Nella insists on keeping the register, writing the women's names for posterity, but this is not the kind of mark one would want to preserve. In fact, I imagine women who had their names inscribed would see it more as a possible tool for revenge, blackmail and infamy. Powerless women fight men the only way they physically can, by using poison. They are victims and killers at the same time. Those who are forced to obey and conform, rebel and become ruthless.

The Lost Apothecary is a fascinating tale, with an ascending degree of menace, as the hidden door in the Bear Alley reveals its deadly secrets, and real tension builds up. 

Author Bio:

Sarah Penner is the author of The Lost Apothecary, her first novel. She works full-time and is a member of the Historical Novel Society and the Women's Fiction Writers Association. She and her husband live in St Petersburg, Florida, with their miniature dachshund, Zoe.

Social Media Links:

Twitter @sl_penner

Instagram: @sarah_penner_author

Many thanks to Sarah Penner and Legend Press for my e-copy of the book!

Photo Diary: Week 16, Project 365

 It's been one of those weeks, when you feel listless. Thankfully, no drama of any sorts has happened, but I'm just going through a seasonal wave of feeling slowed down and empty, lacking energy and not sleeping well. My blog has been neglected for a week. If someone finds my mojo sauntering around, please send her back to me.

I'm very anxious for my elderly Mum in Russia, where the stats are far from reassuring. I miss her terribly, we haven't seen each other for a year and a half, and somehow it just hit me hard recently. 

We're sorting out Sasha's near future. Thankfully, he's been offered a place in college from September (did I mention that already?!), but as it is out of town and quite a long distance to travel, he would need his transport organised etc.

It's not all gloom and doom. Eddie and I have almost finished reading Hunger Games (book 1). Despite the fact we've only just watched the whole series, we're enjoying the book very much. It's such an original setting, with the most extraordinary characters.

Robins keep visiting me in the garden. I've put a little feeder for them, but of course, the fat chickens aka doves are there are well. They cannot hold onto the feeder, but walk underneath, looking for fallen crumbs.

Last autumn I planted a little Lonicera Japonica (edible honesuckle) in a big tub. It's doing quite well, and the first flower buds have appeared. It's very popular in Russia, and grows in the wild. The berries are sweet, and similar to blueberries. Don't know if I get any berries, as ideally you need two or three plants together for them to cross-pollinate.

Last year Ocado has dumped Waitrose (boo hoo!) and partnered with M&S, which is OK, but I still prefer Waitrose own products. They were running a competition, where you had to take a snap of their new Percy Pig truck. We kept an eye for them, but haven't spotted them anywhere. Of course, now that the competition is over, I had a delivery from Ocado in the Percy Pig truck. I had to take a snap to show Eddie that it actually exists.

I've had emails from Mediterranean Direct for a few years, but haven't bought anything from them recently (I did buy a gift hamper for my friend's 80th birthday once before).

We love Italian food, and they have a great selection of preserves, sweets and cheese. Sadly, I couldn't find any of my favourite Venchi chocolate.

Saffron-flavoured Pecorino is wonderful. I got a Slitti white chocolate bar for my husband, and he ate it in one go. Apparently, it was so good.

After a long time, my friend and I had our first coffee together. We were sitting outside, and my ass was pretty frozen on the icy cold chair. Italy it is not, to drink outside in the morning. Still, it was lovely to see my friend, and I surely enjoyed the latte.

The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner is one of the books I've read recently. I'm still editing my book review, but hope to publish it in a day or so. There's a dual timeline - present day and back to the 18C. The main protagonist is an apothecary who dispenses poisons to women to murder men who make their lives unbearable.

Things that bring me joy - flowers in the garden. The red tulips have such an intense red colour.

And how was your week?

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Click here to enter

Between You and Me by Carol Mason #CoverReveal

 

Between You and Me by Carol Mason is out in June 2021. Check out the exclusive Cover Reveal below, as the anticipation is growing.

Last year I reviewed Little White Secrets by Carol Mason, an addictive domestic noir. When the email arrived, inviting bloggers to join in a cover reveal for her latest book, I was very curious to see what the next story is about.

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Between You and Me

Is her new husband really who she thinks he is?

When young doctor Lauren Matheson meets Joe, an older divorced businessman, at a glittering poolside in California, it’s a chance encounter that seems life-changing for them both. Back home in London, their feelings only strengthen. But Lauren soon discovers that building a happy future with Joe is going to be an uphill struggle…

She’s determined to be a good stepmother to his children, four-year-old Toby and complicated teen Grace. But under the watchful eye of Meredith, Joe’s intimidating ex-wife, Lauren can’t seem to do a thing right. Why won’t Joe ever take her side against Grace? And what really happened between him and Meredith?

As her husband retreats into a cold, secretive version of the dashing man she met in California, Lauren starts to wonder if she’s made a costly mistake. Was Joe ever the man she thought she married?

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Are you intrigued by the blurb? It makes me think of the endless threads on Mumsnet's Stepparenting sub-forum. I can't wait to read the book (look out for my book review by the end of June, when I take part in the blog tour.)

And now are you keen to see the cover of Between You and Me? The cover design is not dissimilar to Little White Secrets which had a broken wooden Russian doll on the cover. Here we see little wooden house blocks, one has fallen down. Is it a symbol of what's to be revealed?

 

Pre-order Link - https://amzn.to/2Pu9BCM

Publication Date – 22nd June 2021

Author Bio –  Carol Mason is the Amazon Charts and Kindle #1 bestselling author After You Left (more than 300,000 copies sold), The Secrets of Married Women, The Last Time We Met, The Shadow Between Us, Send Me A Lover and Little White Secrets which hit the Bookstat digital bestsellers list top 3 in the week of its launch. She was born in the North East of England where most of her novels are set. She now lives in Canada with her Canadian husband, a rescue dog from Kuwait and a three-legged cat. When not writing, Carol loves to read, cook and binge watch Netflix. 

 

Social Media Links – https://www.facebook.com/CarolMasonAuthor

https://twitter.com/CarolMasonBooks

https://www.instagram.com/carolmasonauthor/

Photo diary: week 15, project 365

 Easter holidays seemed longer than usual, but it's back to school today. The morning passed in a blur, nobody was enthusiastic about getting up earlier. Sash was quite excited, as he missed his school, and he kept showing me pictures and PECs of school - his way of asking when he would be going back.

Looking back at the week, we didn't do much. We finished watching all four Hunger Games films, which I absolutely loved, and will be happy to watch again in the future. For some reason it resonated with me. We even started reading the first book together. 

I posted several book reviews, including for The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex, which I found fascinating and beautifully written. It is a ghsot story, set in Cornwall, but it's also much more than that. It's an exploration of grief, and mental anguish. 

Our friends invited us for an hour of tennis at the Leys. I wasn't sure if we would be able to go, as we woke up to a layer of snow on the ground. Not exactly a tennis weather.

We walked to the tennis courts past the church: the daffodils were poking out like yellow rebels from the snow. I didn't realise my iphone touched the drops on the flowers, so the snap appears slightly ghostly, with the flower's stem almost invisible and the flower "floating" in the air.

An hour later it got so hot at the courts, that we had to take off the coats. Utterly crazy weather. On the way home we visited the book shop, where we bought Hunger Games book 1. This was the first and only non-food shop we've visited in a while. 

Eddie spent quite a lot of time, playing in the garden. He loves climbing on the apple tree. This is a snap taken by my husband. 

The red car in the background is an old bed which we bought for Eddie several years ago. It was the worst purchase of my life. He hated it so much, he probably slept only one night through in it. It is made of hard plastic, and when he moved around, it made loud banging noises, and was also super uncomfortable. It's been in the shed for some time, and I am thinking of turning it into a bedding frame for flowers.

This week has seen a caterpillar cake war on social media. M&S is claiming Colin the Caterpillar cake and suing Aldi for the copyright. Except that all the other supermarkets have the same style cakes. Every single store. There are some amusing tweets on the topic.

On Friday Eddie had a friend over for a day. And again, it was one of the firsts in a long while. I didn't mean them to spend just so many hours together, but they had so much fun.

On Saturday the Brits said Farewell to the Duke of Edinburgh. We didn't watch the whole ceremony, as we were out, and only caught the very end. We did observe the minute of silence at 3pm. 

I've read that thousands of people lodged complaints to the BBC about the non-stop coverage of the Duke's life on the day when his death was announced. Could they not have found a different channel among hundreds? With so many good causes to fight for they choose this occasion to complain? 

I'm not a Royalist at all, but reading about these complaints truly irked me. Where is the so called national tolerance? "...send not to know For whom the bell tolls, It tolls for thee".

And how was your week?

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The House of Hidden Secrets by C.E. Rose #BlogTour

 

Manor house with hidden secrets is always a force of attraction for many readers. 

The House of Hidden Secrets by C.E. Rose is a psychological thriller, with the elements of supernatural. It has a striking cover design, which draws your attention, with its dramatic juxtaposition of red and black.

Serena Green accepts the role of a private live-in housekeeper at Ramsay Hall, Grade-II listed farmhouse in Goostrey. It is the home of the wealthy widower Hayden Ramsay who has two grown-up sons. The manor house is a quiet country estate, surrounded by land. As the housekeeper and caretaker for the elderly Ramsay who recovers from a bad fall, Serena is offered a little cottage on the premises to stay in with her little daughter Lana.

Hayden is a charming man who appears to be lonely, he seems to enjoy Serena and Lana's company. Soon enough, Serena becomes part of the household, befriending Hayden's younger son Hugh, another loner, with special needs (high-functioning autism?). Hugh doesn't live in the house itself but visits regularly to help with the chores. He is constantly looking for his father's approval and even a minute level of praise. Charismatic Hayden is not so charming, when it comes to Hugh, if anything, he is harsh and dismissive. 

Serena thinks of Hugh as "so guileless, so childish, so open, showing his heart to the world. The polar opposite of his brother".

Jack is a high-achieving lawyer, working at all hours. He is suspicious of his father's motives of inviting Serena to their house. His aloofness bordering on rudeness hides a big tragedy in his past. Despite the initial coldness, Serena and Jack get more and more attracted to each other. But just what is Jack hiding? His behaviour around Lana is confusing, to say the least. "Jack, lovely Jack. So troubled, so tender, so intense".

Serena is hiding her own secrets. She is clearly on the run from someone.

Slowly Serena unravels the mysteries of the Ramsay Hall and its inhabitants. What happened to Jack and Hugh's mother all those years ago? Is Hugh a gentle, sweet giant or is he more troubled than he appears to be? Are Serena and Lana safe around the Ramsays? Will the events of her past catch up with her?

The House of Hidden Secrets is a gripping read, with a chilling, creepy twist in the end. It is utterly compelling and quite disturbing, with a total shocker of an ending.

The genre of the book is rather inconsistent: it could be a romance which turns into a thriller with Gothic undertones. The story is told from different points of view, and jumps from the present to past and back again.

There are some supernatural elements, like the smells evocative of the people who died in the house, or the invisible friend of the daughter of the main protagonist. While the smells could be attributed to the grief process which affects people differently, the invisible friend has never been explained or explored further. Ambiguous hints and allusions help to build the suspence, but they need to be rationalised later. 

I didn't warm up to any of the characters in the book. Serena is the victim of domestic abuse, and perhaps I should have felt more sympathy for her, but the speed with which she plunges into an affair while still recovering from her wounds left me shaking my head in bemusement.

The motivations of all main protagonists are complex and disconcerting. The book tackles such a serious issue as domestic violence, with different patterns of control and fear, mental intimidation and physical abuse. It is a sinister portrayal of victim's vulnerability, prolonged stress and breaking of mental defences.

Potential triggers: murder, death of a child, domestic violence and abusive behaviour.

This post is part of the blog tour. My thanks to C. E. Rose and Rachel's Random Resources for my e-copy of the book!

 Purchase Links 

AMZ: https://amzn.to/3cWMXN4

Kobo: https://bit.ly/2MN190l

Apple: http://apple.co/3aIeP4I

Author Bio – Caroline England was born and brought up in Yorkshire and studied Law at the University of Manchester. She was a divorce and professional indemnity lawyer before leaving the law to bring up her three daughters and turning her hand to writing. Caroline is the author of The Wife's Secret, previously called Beneath the Skin, and the top-ten ebookbestseller My Husband's Lies. Betray Her is her third novel. She lives in Manchester with her family. The House of Hidden Secrets is the first title written under her pseudonym, CE Rose. 

To find out more about Caroline, visit her website www.carolineenglandauthor.co.uk
or follow her on social media:

Social Media Links –

Twitter: @CazEngland
Facebook: www.facebook.com/CazEngland1 
Instagram: www.instagram.com/cazengland1