Million Eyes III: Ouroboros by C.R. Berry

 "Million Eyes - and everything Million Eyes have done - are part of an endless, repeating cycle."

Her words made a chill slither down Harriet's spine. "Endless, repeating cycle."

The ouroboros."

Million Eyes III: Ourboros by C.R.Berry is the final instalment in the Million Eyes series. 

It could be read as a standalone, as there is a short recap at the beginning of the book, but I strongly recommend reading all three books to appreciate the sheer volume of the original framework and system. 

Book blurb:

Time is the Ultimate Deceiver

On a cold morning in 2219, Cara Montgomery and her husband, Jackson, have a frightening encounter on the beach. An encounter that leads to a war with a depraved and relentless alien race, the Shapeless, changing their lives forever.

Three hundred years earlier, Harriet Turner travels to the future to learn the shocking secret behind Victorian London's most notorious serial killer, Jack the Ripper. A mysterious barber, Fred, goes with her, but Fred has a shocking secret of his own.

Hunted by the ruthless Miss Morgan and plagued by the visions of a snake eating its own tail, Harriet discovers that the all-powerful Million Eyes isn't the only one with an agenda. Time itself has one too.

Million Eyes is a fascinating merger of genres, from sci fi to time travel, conspiracy and alternative history. All these elements create a series of gripping What If? scenarios. 

It's impossible to give a short synopsis of the book, as there is so much going on, so many conspiracy threads, historical layers and plotlines in this complex narrative.  You have to admire the author for bringing it all together in such a clever, original way. I can imagine a spreadsheet along the big wall with sticky notes and arrows everywhere, creating one alternative history timeline after another, and balancing the real historical events and characters with fictional.

You think you might have found your footing in the warped reality and just about grasp what's going on, then the next page everything you have accepted, has changed again, like in some Dr Strange's reality falling apart, due to an incursion. You really have to pay attention not to get lost in the complex maze of ideas.

Big kudos also for creating some of the creepiest "alien" creatures ever (definitely not for the faint-hearted!).

Million Eyes is a sinister organisation with an agenda. They can easily justify the murder of innocents to implement their plans.

Most of its members believe in their mission, though some begin to have doubts. "What if it isn't working? What if we can't change the future?" "We can change the future.We've already made changes. We've seen them." "But we haven't changed that future. We haven't stopped the Last war. The Apocalypse. Our destruction at the hands of the Shapeless. The whole reason any of us are even here".

To defeat the Shapeless in the future, they must constantly monitor the timeline to stop the Unraveller, who is travelling back in time to interfere with the events that were supposed to happen and to try to undo Million Eyes' rise to power.

Like in the previous books in the series, we encounter some downright evil baddies, without any pity or remorse.

This series will make you think of the ethics of time travelling and trying to change the past in order to "improve" the present or the future. Whatever period of time you choose, there is an eternal struggle for power. 

Harriet Turner, who we first encounter in the previous books as an eleven-year-old street sweeper in the Victorian London, becomes the main protagonist in Ouroboros. The time travelling gives her a clarity of identity and purpose. "For a long time, I didn't know. Living rough, cleaning the streets for rich folk, I had no idea. A girl out of time. But I know now. I know exactly who I am. I'm the woman who saves the world."

Harriet believes in her mission, but is she deluded? 

When she travels in the future, Harriet is aware of the ominous and forbidding red snake, eating its own tail. "Harriet did some research and learned that a snake swallowing its tail and forming a circle was an ancient symbol called an ouroboros, used to represent infinity. An endless and repeating cycle."

What does the snake signify? Why does Harriet keep seeing it on her travels? Is her destiny truly to save the world, or is there another, sinister reason for her existence and capabilities?

Million Eyes III Ouroboros is a breakneck sci fi caper with non-stop suspence, perfect for fans of alternative history and time travel fiction.

An absolute belter of a book, which pulls you in straight away. Brilliantly plotted, inventive and thoroughly entertaining.

I can absolutely see this trilogy made into a Netflix series. Exciting, pacy and addictive.

Potential triggers: murder, extinction of the human race; it might also be offensive to Christians, as there is an alternative explanation of the life of Jesus and birth of Christiainty.

This post is part of the blog tour for Million Eyes III Ouroboros.

Many thanks to C.R.Berry and Elsewhen Press for my ARC!

You can find reviews of two previous books in the series here:

Million Eyes

and

Million Eyes II: The Unraveller

Author Bio:

C.R.Berry is an ex-lawyer turned full-time writer, whose fiction spans the sci-fi, mystery, conspiracy, historical, fantasy and horror genres - because why have one genre when you can have them all? His favourite characters are usually villains, hence why he likes conspiracy stories, where there are baddies at every turn,

Berry was published in Best of British Science Fiction 2020 from Newcon Press with a short story set in the world of the Million Eyes trilogy. He's also been published in magazines and anthologies such as Storgy and Dark Tales, and in 2018 was shortlisted in the Grindstone Literary International Novel Competition. 

Having completed the Million Eyes trilogy, Berry is working on two further novels. One is a horror called The Puddle Bumps, about a lawyer wo links a mysterious kids' TV show to an old murder case.

The other is a collaboration with his fiancee Katy called Breaching The Wall, a sci-fi adventure about a spaceship tasked with solving the Universe's greatest mystery: why the wall that surrounds it is collapsing.

He lives with Katy in Clanfield, Hampshire, in a house called the Gathered Worlds, named after the intergalactic organisation in Breaching The Wall and, apparently, because they've themed all the rooms.

Their bedroom is a spaceship, their kitchen a 50s diner and their living room a forest. Their office is a nerd's dream, wall to wall with TV and movie memorabilia to fuel the magic that happens there!

Website and social media links:

C.R.Berry - Author of sci-fi & fantasy conspiracy thrillers: 

https://crberryauthor.com

http://millioneyes.co.uk

https://twitter.com/CRBerry1

https://www.facebook.com/CRBerry1

C.R. Berry (@cr_berry_author) • Instagram photos and videos

Arrested Song by Irena Karafilly

 

"I don't know about luck... Sometimes I believe there is such a thing, other times, I'm not sure." She shot Calliope an appraising glance, then smiled obliquely. "I can tell you one thing," she added. "I don't need to look into your cup to know that yours in not an ordinary destiny, my child."

"I believe in education as others believe in the Virgin's powers. It's the only thing that will take us out of the Middle Ages".

Arrested Song by Irena Karafilly is a brilliant historical novel, set in the XXc, during the most turbulent era of modern Greek history.

Blurb:

Calliope Adham - young, strong-willed, and recently widowed - is a schoolmistress in the village of Molyvos when Hitler's army invades Greece in 1941. Well-read and linguistically gifted, she is recruited by the Germans to act as their liaison officer. It is the beginning of a personal and national saga that will last for several decades.

Calliope's wartime duties bring her into close contact with Lieutenant Lorenz Umbreit, the Wehrmacht commander. The schoolmistress is an active member of the Greek Resistance, yet her friendship with the German blossoms against all odds, in a fishing village seething with dread and suspicion.

Amid privation and death, the villagers' hostility finally erupts, but the bond between Calliope and Umbreit survives, taking unforeseeable turns as Greece is ravaged by civil war and oppressed by military dictatorship. It is against this turbulent background that Calliope emerges as a champion for girls' and women's rights.

Arrested Song is a haunting, sumptuous novel, weaving the private and historic into a vivid tapestry of Greek island life. Spanning over three decades, it chronicles the story of an extraordinary woman and her lifelong struggle against social and political tyranny.

Calliope is a free spirit. She is an intellectual who loves books and has a talent for languages. Thanks to her upbringing and access to books, Calliope is different from the women of her village who have no access to education and are expected to marry early and serve the men in their family.

"She was generally considered the most beautiful woman in the village, but, even as a girl, she had never been kept under lock and key". Her father who used to be the headmaster of the local school, mostly educated her at home. As a child, her "nose was always stuck in a book".

As the old fortune teller Zenovia tells Calliope, "Strong-willed women are often thought to be difficult... You were always different from other girls".

When the Nazi occupy Lesbos, Calliope is recruited to be a liaison officer, thanks to her knowledge of the German language. She is allowed to continue teaching a couple of hours a day in the village school.

She also joins the Resistance, keeping the news even from her mother. "She had always thought of herself as a coward - a coward and a wimp... The very idea of someone like her being asked to help the underground had made her laugh when the doctor had broached the subject".

Dr Dhaniel who has known Calliope since her childhood doesn't hesitate, "We need someone like you. Someone strong and decisive and quick-witted. Someone trustworthy".

Working with Lieutenant Umbreit, she comes to realise that he is quite exceptional. Calliope admires his manners, air of competence and quiet authority, "but their budding friendship was contingent upon her own ability to maintain separate mental chambers for her endlessly clashing musings".

There is a mutual attraction between Calliope and Lorenz. "...if human decency seemed surprising in a Wehrmacht officer, Calliope's own feelings were far more perplexing." She begins to admire Umbreit, not just for his intelligence and competence, but also his interest in everything.

"A soldier who might have been a philosopher, a novelist, an explorer. She had long since noted his virtues..."

Calliope is impuslive, and often speaks her mind when she should have been more careful. Umbreit is a charming man, intelligent and even delicate, yet he is the enemy. There is the affinity between them, "stronger than that between many husbands and wives". 

Will their special bond survive all the obstacles, mainly the opposite sides in the war?

When the war is over, the country is soon plunged into the vicious civil war, and later the dicatorship regime. Calliope is stunned to see that her compatriots can be as immoral and horrible to each other as the Nazis. 

Never able to stay still, Calliope has to find a new purpose in life. "Calliope was especially troubled by Molyvos girls' arrested education. Most men didn't want their daughters leaving the village for school". She organises informal study lessons for girls in the library she establishes in the village. Calliope becomes an educator and advocate for battered women.

From a daydreamer with love of books, Calliope becomes a staunch advocate for women, and a talented translator of literary works. 

We watch Calliope's ambitions of encouraging women to get an education and become independent flourish against the resentment of the locals and social struggles of the society in general.

In one of her interviews, Calliope talks about the compromise. "I don't have to tell you it's usually women who have to do all the compromising. In fact, I don't think compromise is the right word. Self-abnegation is probably more accurate." Almost sixty years later, these words ring true, as always. Women are still fighting for their rights against the ruthless patriarchy, and the new age of misogyny.

Arrested Song touched me deeply. 

It felt like a glimpse into my own family history. There's been a doomed love story between the Nazi officer and the young woman who worked as an interpreter in my family, and reading Arrested Song made me think of what it must have been for her. To be torn between the hatred against the occupants and love for the person who you were supposed to hate. Unlike Calliope and Lorenz, the star-crossed lovers of my story parted in 1944 never to see each other again, or know if the other survived or perished. Both were in their early twenties. 

There was a lot of Greek history in this novel that I was unfamiliar with. It makes you think of the current war, and how we as humans never learn from our own mistakes. The references to paidomazoma (forced evacuation of children) are especially poignant. 

This is an emotional and often moving account of the human suffering and tragedy under the occupation, civil war and dictatorship. Themes of love and loss, loyalty and betrayal, despair and strength work well together, set against the picturesque backdrop of the village life. 

There is a whole plethora of supporting characters, memorable and notable, like the eccentric fortune teller Zeovia who lives with her cats, Calliope's mother Mirto who wanted to join the Resistance, the village doctor Dhaniel, kind and thoughtful... 

There are also some minor characters who touch your heart, like Hektor, the village fool who helped Zenovia with the house chores, or the deaf-mute artist Zoe, who loves to sketch the scenes of the village life.

The characters are skilfully portrayed, and are absolutely credible.

Arrested Song is historical fiction at its best. Beautifully constructed, it blends the fictional story with the real historical facts sensitively and compassionately. Irena Karafilly conveys a real sense of the historical upheaval of the Greek history of the XXc. 

Potential triggers: murder, domestic abuse, torture.

About the Author:

Irena Karafilly is an award-winning writer and poet and the author of several acclaimed books as well as numerous stories, poems and articles published in both literary and mainstream magazines and newspapers including the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune.

She was born in Russia, educated in Canada and currently divides her time between Montreal and Athens.

The Summer House by Keri Beevis

 

"The summer house is our special place. This private part of the garden, far away from the main house, is a place of secrets. They are ours alone and no one will ever learn what truly goes on inside this pretty white wooden building..."

Blurb:

Mead House was once our childhood home.

Despite my fears, I always knew we would have to return to face the demons of our past.

Back to the place where it happened, to where, as carefree teenagers, we lost our elder sister in the most brutal of circumstances.

As executors of our grandmother's will, my twin brother, Ollie, and I needed to empty the house for resale.

What I didn't expect to discover was my sister's secret journal that contained her most private thoughts and shocking dark secrets.

Now I am questioning everything that I saw that night. Did I get it wrong, who I saw?

Did my evidence send an innocent man, my then boyfriend's brother, to jail for the last 17 years?

I know I have no choice. If I want to find answer, I will have to go back to that fateful night my sister died. When she made her last visit to the summer house.

The dualtime story moves between the present day and back to 2005.

Lana Hamilton arrives to her late grandmother's house, in order to clear it out before selling. Mead House had been left to Lana and her twin brother, Ollie. Neither of them wants to live in the house. 

"Not since what had happened to Camille. It was seventeen years since their sister's murder, but it never became easier. Camille had been just nineteen when she'd died, the twins two years younger, and her death had changed everything, including their relationship with Mead House".

Lana keeps suffering from troubled dreams, where she tries to warn her sister that last fateful night.

"For a long time, Lana had carried the guilt of believing she could have prevented Camille's death. That night she had seen her crossing the lawn with Sebastian Landry, knowing they were going to the summer house. She remembered thinking it was romantic at the time".

Camille had died a horrible death, and the twins' lives have changed for ever. Now back in the house, they are sifting through the belongings and remembering the past.

Ollie arrives with his fiancee Elise, who is totally insufferable. While Elise does nothing to help, Ollie and Lana work on the house, and discover a hidden journal of their sister. Having started reading the journal, looking for possible clues of the murderer, Lana is shocked at the secret side of her sister's life. "This was not a romance. It was an addiction, an obsession. Her sister had been following a dark path..."

The journal makes Lana re-think what she saw that fateful night. It was her testimony that sent Camille's boyfriend to jail. He has always claimed he was innocent. If he didn't murder Camille, then who did?

Retruning back to the town of her childhood, Lana comes across her first love, Xav. He is a talented artist who prefers to live alone. Xav is embittered and angry. The last thing he wants is to see his former love. It is too painful for him.

As Lana begins to uncover the truth, her own life is in jeopardy. Someone is after her, someone who knows the truth. 

The story is unsettling and painful to read in certain parts. 

What I found slightly difficult to believe is the victim's taste for sadistic sex. As she is hardly out of school, her desire to be humiliated and degraded sounds less plausible, than if she were a middle aged housewife with jaded sexual appetites.

Camille is a less developed character in the book, and it's not clear what made her choose the path which ultimately brought her tragic demise. In a way, we barely see a shadow of her real self. There are little snippets of her thoughts in the diary, but not enough of her personality has been revealed.

The main villain of the book (and there's a few to choose from) is a psycopath of epic proportions. Their motivation feels quite unlikely and far fetched. 

Elise is a caricature, portrayed as a gold digger, with nothing to recommend her. She is rude, self-centred and quite stupid. As a character, she doesn't add much to the main narrative.

The Summer House is a dark psychological thriller, shocking and harrowing. Unflinching, edgy and intense.

Potential triggers: murders; the graphic scene of torture; the sex with the minor.

This review is part of the blog tour for The Summer House.

Many thanks to Keri Beevis and Rachel's Random Resources for my e-copy of the book!

Purchase Link - https://amzn.to/3QgukFa

Author Bio –

Keri Beevis is the internationally bestselling author of Dying To Tell, Deep Dark Secrets, Trust No One, Every Little Breath and The People Next Door. Dying To Tell reached no. 1 in the Amazon chart in Australia and was a top 25 hit in the UK. She lives in Norfolk, along with her two naughty kitties, Ellie and Lola, and a plentiful supply of red wine (her writing fuel).

 

Social Media Links –  

Facebook: Keri Beevis - Author | Facebook

Twitter: Keri Beevis (@keribeevis) / Twitter

Instagram: Keri Beevis (@keri.beevis) • Instagram photos and videos

Bookbub profile: Keri Beevis Books - BookBub

The Cheesemaker's House by Jane Cable: Cover Reveal

 Happy new cover reveal day to The Cheesemaker's House!

The Cheesemaker’s House

A new start means new neighbours, from present and past…

When Alice discovers her husband has been cheating there are just three things she wants; their gorgeous second home in Yorkshire, their spaniel William, and a quiet life.

But no sooner than she arrives in Great Fencote, strange things begin to happen. A skinny-dipping swimmer disappears without trace, only to pop up behind the counter of a local coffee shop. Someone seems to be crying at night, but she can’t work out who. And equally unsettling is the incredibly sexy builder she employs to turn her barn into a holiday let.

Old houses hide old secrets, but is The Cheesemaker’s House ready to share the tragedy in its past? And can Alice, café owner Owen, and builder Richard, find a way to lay its ghosts to rest for once and for all?

The perfect read for fans of Barbara Erskine, Kate Ryder and Jenni Keer.

The Cheesemaker’s House was Jane Cable’s debut novel and reached the final four of the Alan Titchmarsh Show’s People’s Novelist competition. Jane now writes under her own name for Sapere Books and as Eva Glyn for Harper Collins imprint One More Chapter.

“The gift here is to make you want to read on.” Jeffery Archer

Purchase Links

Amazon: amzn.to/3l68jxq

Apple: https://apple.co/3laPr0h

For a very limited time only, The Cheesemaker’s House is only 99p! 

I've just bought my copy to read later in the year.

And now, here is the new cover in all its glory!

Author Bio –

Jane Cable writes romance with a twist and its roots firmly in the past, more often than not inspired by a tiny slice of history and a beautiful British setting.

After independently publishing her award-winning debut, The Cheesemaker’s House, Jane was signed by Sapere Books. Her first two novels for them are contemporary romances looking back to World War 2; Another You inspired by a tragic D-Day exercise at Studland Bay in Dorset and Endless Skies by the brave Polish bomber crews who flew from a Lincolnshire airbase.

Jane lives in Cornwall and her current series, Cornish Echoes, are dual timeline adventure romances set in the great houses of the Poldark era and today. She also writes as Eva Glyn.

Social Media Links –

Twitter: @JaneCable

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

Website & newsletter sign up: http://www.janecable.com

The Last Good Summer by J.J. Green

 

"That summer," Maeveen said, "was the happiest of times. Innocent times, the last of the innocent times". She looked down at her glass. "When we were young with not a care in the world"... "But they're all gone now," she went on. "Fionn. And Mammy. And Daddy. We're the only ones who remember that summer, Belle".

The Last Good Summer by J.J. Green is a psychological suspence novel, with the themes of corruption at the heart of politics and the environmental devastation. 

This gripping dualtime novel is set in Ireland at present, and going back to 1986. The chapters alternate in time, as the story unfolds.

Blurb:

In the summer of 1986, Belle McGee is thirteen. The arrival of Fionn Power at her family home sets in motion a tragic chain of events.

Now a forty-something investigative journalist living in Dublin, Belle returns home one night to find Fionn standing in the hallway before inexplicably vanishing. Unsettled, Belle immediately phones her sister, who tells her that Fionn was found dead that very morning.

In her journey to find answers, Belle exposes corruption and scandal and is forced to stop running from the shameful truth of 1986.

Belle McGee is a successful investigative journalist, a winner at the National Journalism Awards. Belle loves her job, she is single, in an on/off relationship with a colleague. After an evening of drinks at the bar with her co-workers, Belle arrives late to her house, and in a patch of silver light in the shadows sees a shape of someone she has tried not to think of for many years. The figure from her past, Fionn meant the world to her. Belle tries to convince herself that she hasn't actually seen him.

Her sister Maeveen has been trying to talk to her all day, and when Belle finally calls back, it is to find out the distressing news. Fionn is dead. Murdered that morning.

Belle goes back to Donegal, looking for some answers. She arrives to her family home, where her older sister lives now. "She drove through to the cobbled courtyard at the back of the house and her childhood years exploded in her mind like fireworks. The past was in front of her eyes, as real and present as the here and now".

Going back home brings back a lot of painful memories, especially of that not so distant summer of 1986.

"In 1986, a family had lived in this house: Mr and Mrs McGee and their two daughters. And Fionn, too, for a while. Had that been the last happy time, the last truly happy time? That was the tragedy about life. You never knew when you were living your happiest time; you never knew to savour it and make the most of it".

How does one exist, carrying a great burden for the past wrongdoing?!

"Fionn was gone, forever, and she'd missed her chance to put things right. All these years, she'd chosen to say nothing and instead just carry the guilt around like some putrefying corpse that she kept hidden out of sight. Now, it was too late."

Digging for answers about Fionn's murder, Belle comes across the hidden cache of the documents that he kept: ordnance survey maps, lists of names and placenames. Could his research be linked to the murder? The deeper Belle digs, the more dangerous her investigation becomes. 

She realises that big players must be involved, high up officials, councillors. "We could be talking about a multi-million pound racket here... There's a lot at stake here..." It's not safe to continue the investigation.

In order to uncover the outrageous scandal of the present, Belle has to accept the painful truth of her past.

The comparisons with Atonement are inevitable, with the themes of constant guilt and attempts to atone for the past deeds running through. 

The main character is a complicated personality, who is not easy to relate to. Their inner self-punishment does not atone for the hurt caused. My younger son is nearly the same age now, as the main protagonist during that tragic summer. Surely at that age one can foresee that the consequaneces of their actions would bring a disaster. While not mature enough to grasp the enormity of the possible outcome, it's hard to understand how a person of thirteen could be so disloyal to the family and unaware of the political undercurrents, especially in Ireland of that period. 

Growing up under the undemocratic regime, I remember there were things we discussed at home that as children we just knew not to repeat anywhere else. You just recognised the consequences would be dire.

The story is not exactly a love triangle, more of a disturbing confusion of feelings and emotions. The ending is predictable but still giving you a kind of an emotional shock. You know what's going to be revealed, yet hoping against hope that you're wrong.

The Last Good Summer is a thought-provoking read, full of drama and unexpected twists, strong on atmosphere. An absorbing tale of loss, grief, guilt, and redemption, the narrative flits between the present day and the past, weaving together a compelling yarn. Memorable and poignant.

This review is part of the blog tour for The Last Good Summer.

Many thanks to J.J.Green, The Book Guild Ltd and Rachel's Random Resources for my copy of the book!

Purchase Links

UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Last-Good-Summer-J-Green/dp/1915352711/

US - https://www.amazon.com/Last-Good-Summer-J-Green/dp/1915352711/ 

Author Bio – 

J. J. Green is an Irish writer who hails from Donegal and lives in Derry. She’s had a passion for writing fiction from childhood and has honed her creative writing skills throughout her adult life. As a social and environmental activist, she also writes non-fiction in the form of political essays that mainly focus on economic and environmental injustice. The Last Good Summer is her debut novel.

Home Comforts Degustabox

 Degustabox is a monthly food and drink subscription box. It's an excellent way of discovering new products which have only just appeared in the shops, or those which have been around for a while, but you haven't had a chance to try them yet.

Thanks to Degustabox, I have found new favourites to add to our shopping list, including some products which I otherwise wouldn't have tried.

Each time a monthly box arrives, its contents are a total surprise. You get a good selection of foods and drinks.

If you haven't tried Degustabox subscription box yet, and would like to have a go, I have a £3off discount from your first box (and you can unsubscribe any time), just use code DKRLN when placing an order. 

What did we get in the Home Comforts Degustabox box?

Aqua Libra Infused Sparkling Water Blood Orange & Mango/Cucumber, Mint & Lime (£1.15) is a lovely, refreshing summery drink.

Available in three tasty flavours. You will find two items in your box. 

Contains no sweeteners, no sugar, no artificials. Best enjoyed chilled.

Nutritional values: 1 kcal per 100ml.

Available in single 330ml cans and multipacks of 4 cans in all major supermarkets.

B.INK Red Blend (£2.50 for 187ml bottle) is a rich and full-bodied red wine, with flavours of dark chocolate coated raspberries, with gentle oak.

Contemporary and bold in style, this lovely Australian wine is carbon neutral certified.

Typical values: 86kcal per 100ml.

Serve a glass with a cheese board, with fresh figs, grapes and salted nuts.

This is a sample size, and not available for sale. The 750ml bottle is available at ASDA, Morrisons, Tesco and Sainsbury's for £9.

Simply Roasted Sea Salt crisps (£1.19 for 21.5g pack) are made with real sliced potatoes. They are triple roasted and never deep fried, so that you get a satisfying crunch and a superior taste, and less calories, fat and salt.

These are vegan crisps, made with all natural ingredients

Typical values: 50% less fat, 94kcal and 0.16g of salt in a 21.5g pack.

Available at Waitrose, Ocado, WHSmith, Whole Foods Market, on Amazon and simplyroasted.co.uk.

Bio & Me Super Seedy & Nutty Gut-Loving Porridge Pot (£1.50) is based on a recipe, created by Dr M. Rossi, known as the Gut Health Doctor. 

This is a prebiotic porridge with 14 plant-based foods, like almonds, hazelnuts, chia seeds, linseeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and more. Just add boiling water, leave to stand/cook for 3 minutes, stir and enjoy.

Nutritional information: 240kcal and 9.7g of sugar per 158g serving.

Available on the Bio & Me website, Amazon and Boots.

Nescafe Azera Americano (£3.60) is a super premium barista-inspired instant coffee. 

Rich and smooth, this is a blend of instant coffee and finely ground roasted beans. If you enjoy coffee-based desserts, try Azera Americano as an ingredient in a luxurious Tiramisu.

Available in all major supermarket chains.

Coffee and KitKat go nicely together. Every time I have a KitKat, I think of my late friend who insisted that dunking KitKats into a cup of coffee brings out the best flavour of it. While I don't like dunking anything in my coffee, I think my friend would have enjoyed trying this new Caramel flavour.

KitKat 2 finger Caramel (£1.99 for 9x20.7g) is the latest addition to the classic range. Made with sustainably sourced cocoa and Rainforest Alliance certified, these chocolate bars are ever so handy to carry in a bag, whenever you're feeling peckish. In fact, we enjoyed it on the train to London, it was just the right amount to stave off the sweet craving.

You get the same crispy wafer biscuits, covered with smooth caramel flavoured milk chocolate.

Typical values: 103kcal and 10.2g of sugar per 2 finger bar.

Available in all major supermarket chains and retailers.

Heinz Plant-based tomato soup (£1.70) is finally here. This is a variation on an iconic tomato soup, minus milk.

Ingredients include tomatoes, fermented soy, modified cornflour, sugar, rapeseed oil etc. The classic version has dairy milk, which has been removed from this vegan variant. You can taste the difference if you compare the two, but if you follow the plant-based diet, this soup has a rich satisfying taste.

A good base for curry sauces, casseroles or pasta dishes.

Available at online retailers and other major stores.

Heinz Beanz and Vegan Sausages (£2) is another plant-based product from the iconic brand. 

Vegan sausages are made with wheat protein, rapeseed oil, potato starch, wheat starch, stabiliser, natural flavourings, yeast extract, salt, sage, spices etc.

Typical values: 192kcal and 9.1g of sugar per 1/2 can.

Use as a topping for a jacket potato, or serve with scrambled eggs (if you're not a vegan) and fried mushrooms.

Available online and all major retailers.

Zest Vegan Pasta Sauces (£2.99) is a new range of plant-based pasta sauces, gluten free and soy free.

You should receive one item of two in your box. We got Vegan Spinach Mushroom & Ric***a sauce with lentil protein.

Let me just say, I am not a fan of this trend of writing dairy words with punctuation symbols. It makes you think of swear words on certain forums. I prefer proper names for products, none of that M!lk or ric***a. Just say coconut-based product or something else. Please!

A handy product to keep in the pantry, for when you fancy a quick and easy pasta meal.

Nutritional information: 103kcal and 3.9g of sugar per 100g.

Available at Ocado, Morrisons, on Amazon and www.zest.com.

Very Lazy Chilli Boosts (£3) is a range of oil-based condiments, blended with chillies. 

You should receive one of two items in your box. We've got a Very Lazy Smokey Chilli Boost Medium, which is a mix of dried chillies, garlic, red pepper, smoked chillies with smoked paprika in balsamic vinegar and oil. 

You only need a little amount to jazz up a pasta or rice dish. It could also be added to pizza, hummus, and used a dip, swirled into a thick Greek yogurt.

Typical values: 630kcal and 6.5g of sugar per 100g. 

Available at Tesco.

And finally, the Product of the Month, the latest Tilda rice product. We are very fond of Tilda, both raw and pre-cooked ranges. My younger son loves Tilda Masala rice, while I prefer the Coconut one.

Tilda Golden Vegetable rice (£1.54) is the latest addition to the range. This is an all-time family favourite combining long grain rice, carrots, sweetcorn and peas (21% vegetables) - a lovely side dish to roasted fish, chicken, or fried halloumi.

Perfect with halloumi, courgette and cherry tomato skewers, also great with prawns or chicken skewers

Typical values: 164kcal and 0.71g of salt per 125g, nothing artificial, vegetarian and vegan, gluten free.

Available at Sainsbury's, Tesco and Ocado.

What is your favourite product from the latest Degustabox?

Maid of Steel by Kate Baker

 

"You're a bloody suffragette, or have you forgotten? You don't follow rules, remember?"

Maid of Steel by Kate Baker is an intriguing historical novel, strong on atmosphere and well-plotted.

Blurb:

It's 1911 and, against her mother's wishes, quiet New Yorker Emma dreams of winning the right to vote. She is sent away by her parents in the hope distance will curb her desire to be involved with the growing suffrage movement and told to spend time learning about where her grandparents came from.

Across the Atlantic - Queenstown, Southern Ireland - hotelier Thomas dreams of being loved, even noticed, by his actress wife, Alice. On their wedding day, Alice's father had assured him that adoration comes with time. It's been eight years. But Alice has plans of her own and they certainly don't include the fight for equality or her dull husband.

Emma's arrival in Ireland leads her to discover family secrets and become involved in the Irish Women's Suffrage Society in Cork. However, Emma's path to suffrage was never meant to lead to a forbidden love affair.

We meet young Emma as she hurries across Manhattan to the Joseph Cobb factory, where her best friend Martina and she work. "Emma had known little about the American Women's Suffrage Movement until she'd met Martina". Her mother Maggie is horrified and tells Emma to stay away from the growing movement.

The working conditions at the factory are abysmal, and there are no safety procedures. The women who work there are treated with derision and contempt. There is a big sign above the door in capital letters, "BE QUIET AND GRATEFUL".

When there is a fire the floor below, women at the factory are unable to escape. The manager has locked the doors. They try to scramble outside the window to the fire escape. Emma manages to get to the roof , where she is rescued. Emma's friend and many other women are not so lucky. Only Emma doesn't feel lucky. She suffers with a survivor's guilt after this traumatic event.

Her parents hold old-fashioned views on the role of women in family and society. They don't want their daughter to go to rallies and make a spectacle of herself. Perhaps going away to her aunt on the coast would help her recover. Emma, however, has other plans in mind.

"As she went around the corner and slowed to a walk, she thought again about Ireland  and the tales her grandmother had shared. It was there she would tell them she could go. Putting some ocean between herself and her parents seemed like the only chance she'd have to be herself".

Having arrived to Queensland, Emma stays at The Admiral hotel which belongs to Thomas and Alice. Alice is an actress, who believes she is destined to become famous. 

This is a marriage of convenience, and there is a growing resentment on both sides. Alice is a free spirit, who cannot be contained by constraints of any marriage. Staying at home with her "boring" husband is not what she wants. Thomas feels despised, "and the notion was catching".

When Emma arrives to the hotel, Thomas begins to feel appreciated. 

Emma is searching for an information about her family in Ireland, and is brimming with ideas of starting a local suffrage group. She is not looking for love.

Emma, Thomas and Alice's fates get more and more entwined. 

The romance plotline is set against the backdrop of the changing political and societal rules and mores.

This is a well-researched historical novel. The main character's path and the suffrage movement are closely interconnected.

The suffrage movement is as important nowadays as it was a hundred years ago. "The women were getting their message across. They were united in wanting to be taken seriously". 

Over a century passes, misogyny is rife, and women are still fighting to be heard, challenging the new face of patriarchy to get their message across and be taken seriously.

Maid of Steel is an evoctive, gripping story, with multi-faceted characters and a strong feminist streak. It is written with appreciation for the suffrage struggle of the era.

I would also like to mention the stylish and elegant book cover design, reminiscent of the glamorous and modern patterns of art deco.

Trigger alert: Apart from the catastophe of the Titanic story, the novel begins with the graphic description of the fire at the factory which could be triggering, bringing in the thoughts of the tragedy of Grenfell Tower fire and even the events of 9/11, with people being stuck in the upper floors and not being able to escape. 

We lived in the States when 9/11 happened, and I am still haunted by the memories of those tragic events. I remember that day as if it were only yesterday. 

The description of the fire at the factory and the horrible deaths might be too much for someone deeply affected by the tragedies mentioned above.

This post is one of the blog stops on the blog tour for Maid of Steel.

Many thanks to Kate Baker, The Book Guild Ltd and Rachel's Random Resources for my copy of the book!

Purchase Links

Publisher’s link: https://www.bookguild.co.uk/bookshop/book/486/maid-of-steel-SMwd/

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/191535269X/

Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/191535269X/

Waterstones: https://www.waterstones.com/book/maid-of-steel/kate-baker/9781915352699

Author Bio

Kate Baker wrote terrible holiday diaries as a child, which her husband regularly asks her to read out loud for their entertainment. She has since improved and has written with intent since 2018. Maid of Steel is her second novel; the first is lining drawers in the vegetable rack at their farmhouse.

https://twitter.com/katefbaker

https://www.instagram.com/KateFrancesWrites/