When Only Pride Remains by Natalie Kleinman #BlogTour

 

"Only pride stopped her from breaking down. Pride and anger towards her closest friend. It seemed Jack didn't suspect her father's suicide... She would not burden Jack with the knowledge, she could not be so cruel, but neither could she forget he had been unwittingly instrumental in her father's death. This man who she looked up to as a brother, the man she had considered near perfect, had flaws after all".

When Only Pride Remains by Natalie Kleiman is an utterly charming Regency romance, so evocative of time and place.

When Major Angus Fairham returns home from the Napoleonic wars, his daughter Prudence is happy to have him back at Fairham Manor. Major has neglected his estate, spending more time away from home than at the manor. The estate needs means and organisational skills to reach its full potential. 

Captain Jack Staveley is a longtime friend to both Angus and his daughter. Having inherited a sizeable fortune from his grandfather, he is estranged from his father and older brother. Angus is a father figure to him.

Jack enjoys visiting the Fairhams, and is very fond of Prudence. They are good friends, and have few secrets from each other. 

Pru asks Jack to talk to her father about his gambling habits, which are a great concern, "you must know our circumstances almost as well as we do, that with my father's predilection for gaming, the funds available to use are irregular to say the least". Angus is addicted to gammbling, for him it's more than the game alone.

Jack promises to help to try to curb her father's tendency to play above his means. 

One evening, when both men have had too much to drink, Angus challenges Jack to a game of cards, staking his manor house, and loses everything. Jack is too inebriated to think straight, and promises himself to return the promissory note the next morning. Only the next morning the tragedy strikes. Angus takes his own life, thinking his daughter would go along far better without him.

Jack is not aware of how the Major died, and believes it was an accident. Pru doesn't disabuse his notions.

Pru's future is quite secure, as she has her late mother's legacy. However, her childhood home is lost on the turn of a card. Jack tries to restore the manor to Prudence, but her pride is in the way of accepting it back. She decides to stay with her aunt's family at Bath and distance herself from her old friend.

"At four and twenty years old she remained single, and her aunt had all but given up hope of a match for her". While enjoying her aunt's company and everything Bath has to offer, she also finds it lacking in stimulation and hopes to build her own future elsewhere, on her own terms. She wants to set up an establishment of her own

Jack accepts the fact that he's now the owner of the Fairham Manor. "A man of action, he had realised since that he needed a purpose in life if he was to find happiness. That purposes, he had decided, would be to restore Fairham to its former glory and in that way pay homage to the major. But would it be enough?" 

As time passes, Pru's anger subsides, and she begins to take interest in the restoration and re-organisation plans of the manor. Jack is building a small hospital on the grounds of the estate which will provide refuge for wounded and disabled soldiers. For some of them, their physical and mental pain will always be part of their lives, but rehabilitation is a possibility for many. 

The title of the book is very fitting, though it's not just about pride, but also about forgiveness. How do you forgive someone whose foolish actions have caused the death of your parent? 

Will Pru be able to put aside her pride and forgive Jack? Will the worthy cause re-unite the old friends and allow them to reveal their true feelings for each other?

When Only Pride Remains is an elegantly woven tale, that both entertains and educates. The plotline, dedicated to the rehabilitation of the soldiers who are left on their own to live with their physical and mental wounds is thoughtful and meaningful. And the love story provides a much-needed dose of escapism.

While reading more on the subject of rehabilitation of the soldiers in the Regency/Victorian times, I've come across a fascinating paper called Disability in time and place by Simon Jarrett. If you find this topic interesting, I recommend reading this paper.

This post is part of the blog tour for When Only Pride Remains.

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

Purchase Link  - 

https://amzn.to/3w0s60Y

Author Bio

 

Natalie’s passion for reading became a compulsion to write when she attended a ten-week course in creative writing some sixteen or so years ago. She takes delight in creating short stories of which more than forty have been published, but it was her lifelong love of Regency romance that led her to turn from contemporary romantic fiction to try her hand at her favourite genre. 

Raised on a diet of Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer, she is never happier than when immersed in an age of etiquette and manners, fashion and intrigue, all combined into a romping good tale. She lives on the London/Kent border, close to the capital’s plethora of museums and galleries which she uses for research as well as pleasure. A perfect day though is when she heads out of town to enjoy lunch by a pub on the river, any river, in company with her husband and friends.

Natalie is a member of the Romantic Novelists Association, the Society of Authors and the Society of Women Writers and Journalists.

 

Social Media Links –

 https://nataliekleinman.com/

https://www.facebook.com/NatalieKleinmanAuthor/

https://twitter.com/NatKleinman

https://www.instagram.com/nataliekleinman6279

Photo diary: week 41, project 365

 

We have a new cafe in town - Coffee #1. Apparently, it's a chain, though I haven't heard of it before. My kid was very eager to try it. Don't know if we really need yet another cafe in town, but as the building at the Market Square was empty for a long time, it's better than nothing.

I liked the décor, with mismatched tables and chairs, funky murals depicting the local history, and especially the big book shelves at the back of the cafe.

Eddie pronounced his hot panino edible but not particularly exciting. He loved the Halloweed crunch, which was like a heavy wet brick with icing and decorations (it was awful, honestly). And the coffee was not very good. A mixed bag - we liked the location and interior but food and drink, not so much.

On Monday I spent a long time, traipsing from one shop to another to try to find a winter coat. I don't want a parka or a long puffer coat which makes you look like you are wearing a duvet. I also don't want a winter coat with only one button - perhaps OK, if you step out of the car straight into your office, but for someone who walks everywhere in town, I need a coat that would protect me from the gusts of wind, and thus needs to have several buttons. I am not over-keen to buy a coat online, as I'd like to try it on before buying. 

For example, this coat from Phase Eight looked good on the hanger (love the 1940s shoulders), and was OK from the front. Sadly, from the back it bubbled up, so I looked like the Hunchback of Notre-Dame. Back to square one. 

For Tuesday's evening, when Eddie and I watch the GBBO and have a good giggle at the bloopers, I baked some spicy almond butter cookies. They were supposed to be gingerbread men, but I forgot to buy the ground ginger, oups. Talking about the bloopers...

I used a coconut almond butter from Pip & Nut, and quite a lot of spices - cinnamon, vanilla etc. 

It was also the birthday of my late friend Anne, who would have been 95 this year. She was the most wonderful, loyal, caring friend, and I miss her so much. 

I walked into town, and saw these white doves by the museum. It looks like one of them has three wings, but actually that's just two doves on one perch.

That's one of the thugs from the neighbourhood who thinks our garden is his personal toilet. The amount of expensive plants those thugs have dug out, the ruined vegetable seedlings, the killed birds left on the lawn, and of course, the smelly deposits all over the place, from the vegetable patch to the path, from the back door, to everywhere else. 

Nothing deters them. I tried coffee granules scattered around the garden, lots of orange peel, they don't care. I don't want to instal the ultrasonic repellent, as our direct neighbours have little dogs, who would suffer. And I can't put anything on the stone walls either, as we have a big garden. 

Spider webs always fascinate me, with their intricate designs and fragile beauty. As long as the spiders stay outside. Indoors, I'd rather not see them. The other day there was a huge one scuttling along the bed, eeek, I felt like burning the duvet and the whole bed.

On Monday I visited a new charity shop, and found a brand new, still sealed Ravensburger Send off for the Queen 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle for a fiver. I'm not in a hurry to finish it, working on it a little bit at a time.

And finally, my red orchid started to bloom. It was given to me by one of the ex-neighbours who moved to Oxford a few years ago.

In the last week I finished reading The girl from Bletchley Park by Kathleen McGurl. It is set in dual timeline: 1942 and present day. I found the WWII storyline more gripping than the modern one, but overall, it is an intriguing and emotional read.

Last night I started reading The forgotten maid by Jane Cable. It's another dualtime story, set in Cornwall. The Cornish setting is so beautiful, vivid and evocative. I wish I could jump on the train and travel to my favourite destination.

How was your week?

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The Room in the Attic by Louise Douglas #BlogTour

 "There it was, in full colour: the same long, forbidding building with the bell tower at its centre that I revisited in my nightmares".

Lewis Tyler is perturbed, and can't sleep. His firm has asked him to go to Dartmoor to look at the old derelict building for the rare redevelopment opportunity. The building is All Hallows, Grade II listed Victorian asylum/boarding school with 50 acres of walled grounds. For the American company which specialises in converting abandoned country piles into luxury living accommodation, the All Hallows it is a prime countryside location and a possible money-spinner, but for Lewis, it's a stuff of nightmares.  

He has to revisit his old haunts (literally) and scope the site. "No matter how I tried to put the name All Hallows and all that it represented out of my mind, like shame it clung to me".

All Hallows was built in 1802 as a lunatic asylum, and 150 years later refashioned as a boarding school for boys. When Lewis walks the grounds, the place is falling down inside a thick wall. Its disintegration is clear. 

As he walks, memories flash into his mind, and he sees things that are not there, and hears footsteps behind him, a child's laughter. While taking a panoramic video of the building and the grounds outside the church, he notices something odd in the shot - a woman appears in the image, once at a distance, as if standing in the lake, then again, closer, and almost behind him. 

Looking up, he sees the woman in a long wet dress, with hair dripping, and her eyes fixed on him. "I knew who she was and why she lingered. It was because of Isak and me, and everything that happened in those last months of 1993 when I was thirteen and Isak was fourteen and we shared the same bedroom at All Hallows. The time that began at the very point when my whole world had fallen apart".

The narrative goes back in time to 1903, when Nurse Emma Everdeen starts to take care of a little girl, rescued from a wrecked lugger containing a comatose woman with the child next to her. They are barely alive. Two survivors are taken to All Hallows, the formidable asylum. For the head of the asylum this is not an altruistic act. "He was a businessman whose priority was money and, having been made aware of the quality of the woman's clothing and jewellery, it was evident that money was connected to these patients".

Emma Everdeen is almost seventy years old, and is the longest-serving nurse at All Hallows. To protect the child from the asylum inmates and help the recovery process in a peaceful location, the unknown child and Emma find themselves in a room in the attic. It is sparsely furnished, with a rocking chair for the old nurse to sleep in. "It was many years since she had had any dealings with children... Having once being a mother herself, Nurse Everdeen had been certain that she would remember how to speak to the child".

While the woman, named Mrs March by the fishermen who found her, remains in coma, Nurse Everdeen tries to establish a relationship with a scared little girl. She offers a knitted rabbit to the child. It belonged to her late son Herbert who died aged 5. This simple gesture brings to the discovery of the girl's name - Harriet. She doesn't seem to know her surname.

Little Harriet reminds Nurse of her own darling Herbert. "Two five-year-olds, fifty years apart, who had no connection with each other save this woman, Emma Everdeen, who had promised to do the best by them".

1993: Lewis Tyler is 13 when his father and stepmother send him to All Hallows boarding school on Dartmoor. His Mum died 18 months earlier in a riding accident. "Losing Mum was like having my anchors cut. I felt as if there was so little of me left that a puff of wind might blow me away".

Lewis is angry and unhappy. And rightly so: his father is indiffirent to his suffering, and quickly re-marries. His step-mother who detests his Goth looks, calls him a delinquent. On her prompts, the father decides to dispatch Lewis to the boarding school which has been "marketed as having no-nonsense, no-frills approach to "character education", i.e. not much better than a prison.

Lewis meets another lost soul in the school. Isak has also lost his mother, and is sent to the school by his obnoxious father. Two motherless boys slowly drift towards each other. While the refurbishment of the dormitories is carried out, the boys are assigned a bedroom at the top floor in the old wing, just under the attic. It feels oppressive and claustrophobic. In the late evening and night there's a creaking, rocking sound from the room above. But the attic is supposed to be uninhabited...

All Hallows is full of memories, cries and whispers from the past. As Lewis and Isak try to find out who Nurse Everdeen was, and what's happened to the little child in her care, it becomes obvious the ghosts are not laid to rest. They want to tell their story. 

Will Lewis and Isak be able to discover the fate of the unquiet souls from the asylum? Is there a chance of peace for the All Hallows ghosts?

There are two main storylines running through the book, motherhood (or parenthood) being one of them. There's nurse Everdeen who mourns her precious little Herbert. Lewis's mother who has accepted his individuality and filled her children's lives with love and laughter. The wicked stepmother who does everything in her power to antagonise her husband from his children. Harriet's mother who has cherished her daughter...

The story of the asylum is still relevant today. Though we should have moved from the savage treatments of the patients with mental health problems of the Victorian/Edwardian periods, sadly there are still numerous cases of mis-treatment of people with special needs nowadays. Only a couple of weeks ago there was an article about the abuse of vulnerable people in County Durham. And if you google the topic, this is not a single case. As a mother of a severely autisic son who is not capable of looking after himself, this is my biggest fear, that when I am no longer able to look after him, he might get sent to one of those horrible institutions and be at the mercy of cruel people.

The ghostly apparitions and the supernatural elements could be explained by the trauma of the children who lost their mothers and have been ruthlessly abandoned by their fathers. It's a bit like Life of Pi: did it happen, or has it been imagined by the distressed mind? 

The Room in the Attic is a fascinating Gothic tale which ends with a twist that makes it even more satisfying. It is eerie and evocative, and will send shivers down your spine from the very beginninng. It is an absorbing story which kept me flipping the e-pages to the end.

This post is part of the blog tour for The Room in the Attic.

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

Praise for Louise Douglas

'A brilliantly written, gripping, clever, compelling story, that I struggled to put down. The vivid descriptions, the evocative plot and the intrigue that Louise created, which had me constantly asking questions, made it a highly enjoyable, absolute treasure of a read.' Kim Nash on The Scarlet Dress

'A tender, heart-breaking, page-turning read' Rachel Hore on The House by the Sea

'The perfect combination of page-turning thriller and deeply emotional family story. Superb.’ Nicola Cornick on The House by the Sea

‘Kept me guessing until the last few pages and the explosive ending took my breath away.' C.L. Taylor, author of The Accident on Your Beautiful Lies

‘Beautifully written, chillingly atmospheric and utterly compelling, The Secret by the Lake is Louise Douglas at her brilliant best’ Tammy Cohen, author of The Broken

‘A master of her craft, Louise Douglas ratchets up the tension in this haunting and exquisitely written tale of buried secrets and past tragedy.’ Amanda Jennings, author of Sworn Secret

‘A clammy, atmospheric and suspenseful novel, it builds in tension all the way through to the startling final pages.’ Sunday Express, S Magazine

 

Purchase Link - https://amzn.to/3kWii6u

Author Bio –

Louise Douglas is the bestselling and brilliantly reviewed author of 6 novels including The Love of my Life and Missing You – a RNA award winner. The Secrets Between Us was a Richard and Judy Book Club pick. She lives in the West Country. Louise’s first book for Boldwood, The House by the Sea was published in March 2020.

 

Social Media Links –  

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Louise-Douglas-Author-340228039335215/

Twitter  https://twitter.com/louisedouglas3

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/LouiseDouglas3/

Newsletter Sign Up Link https://mailchi.mp/boldwoodbooks/hfpo47db7v

Bookbub profile https://www.bookbub.com/authors/louise-douglas

Photo diary: weeks 39 and 40, project 365

If I had to choose a word of the month, it would be "tired". I'm feeling tired, both physically and psychologically. Sasha's college only offers two sessions per week. That meant just six hours per week in September, which left me with hardly any time to do anything. The rest of the time my boy is at home, and he finds it difficult, being used to going to school every day in the past. 

But now that he is 19, there is not much on offer. On top of that, the transport was routinely late every single time, making excuses about traffic and lack of staff. Half an hour of waiting for the transport meant half an hour less in college. 

Thankfully, his hours increased from six per week to ten per week, but that's it. We haven't had any respite for over a year and a half, and I'm not sure if it's going to happen any time soon, certainly not this year.

I find the idea that not much is going to change in the near future quite depressing.

It was such a hot Sunday, we were wearing t-shirts and tops with short sleeves on our walk in town. A few days later, I felt like walking around home, wrapped in a blanket, as it turned so chilly. Our house is over 300 years old, with the flagstones on the ground floor, and could get pretty cold.

I enjoy walking through the flood fields, bordered with hawthorns and blackberries. The branches laden with berries look so pretty and festive. 

When my Mum was visiting us for the last few times, we picked bunches of berries to dry, and she made an infusion with them. The hawthorn berries and leaves are supposed to be good for people who have high blood pressure. 

I wish my Mum were here now, I miss her so much. I call her every day on the phone, but it's not the same. I want to hug her and never let her go.

My elevenses - a toast with Pip & Nut coconut almond butter with berries. Handsome Jake was a bonus.

The reflection of the sun rays on the Windrush river was almost blinding.

I enjoyed Carnovsky jigsaw puzzle the week before so much that I've dug out the puzzle my guys gave me as a present for Christmas - Ravensburger The Greatest Book Shop 1000-piece jigsaw. It's been in the sealed box ever since. It was high time to open it and have a go.

While my guys were in school and college, I switched on Netflix, made myself a cup of coffee and opened a bag of Fazer Lakritsi. I don't even like liquorice as a rule, but this one is so tasty, I can hoover the whole bag in one go. You can find it in Lakeland at £4.99. I'm kind of glad they only sell it on the run to Christmas, or I would keep buying it to the detriment of my waist size and pocket. 

I was recently asked to review a book called The Witch's Feast/ A Kitchen Grimoire by Melissa Jayne Madara. It is a curious book, a mix of information on traditional feasts, witches' rituals and recipes. I have bookmarked a few recipes to try. 

This book will make a lovely gift for anyone who enjoys all things Halloween and witchy.

On Saturday Eddie and I were catching up on the last couple of episodes of What If? on Disney +. We haven't watched the very last one, as our subscription expired, and we decided to stop paying for a while. There is not much we want to see, as we have all the Marvel collection on DVDs. We might go back to it in December when Hawkeye series will be released.

What if? is a bizarre series, some episodes were totally from the WTF-variety. I'm not the biggest fan of all the multiverse-concept, that's why I didn't like the ending of Loki either.

I've read almost eighty books this year. Advent by Jane Fraser is a superb novel set in 1904. It is easily one of my top three choices of the year, if not the most favourite. I loved everything about it: a rural Welsh setting, the slow-paced narrative, the spirited and passionate main character, Ellen. 

It is a modern classic.

I love this little corner of Witney, next to the former blanket factory. It might not have the splendour of canals of Venice, but it's still lovely.

One of the books I reviewed last week - The daughter's choice by S.D. Robertson. It's a modern domestic drama, which deals with themes of love and loss, secrets and lies, personal strength and compassion.

The sky looked like someone above there has taken a big brush and did a few smudges of white on blue, as if checking the colour. 

Every time we walk into town centre, we pass by the lighting shop, which has these quirky lamps in the window. I think I might get one of them for Eddie as a Christmas gift, we just cannot decide which one we like more: a sloth or a koala. There's also a toucan and a kangaroo. Which one would you pick?

Last week I made a batch of Cookies of Joy from The Witch's Feast book. The original recipe is ascribed to Hildegard von Bingen. There is a lot of spices in the cookie dough.

My cookies were quite mishapen, they lost their definition in the oven, but tasted lovely.

You might not recognise the shape of the cookies, but they were supposed to be cups of tea. I got the cup cookie cutter in Lakeland. I think something like gingerbread dough would work better with this cutter.

What else did we do in the last couple of weeks? We watched Thor Ragnarok (again), started watching The Green Knight on Netflix (or is it Amazon) but couldn't get into its very sloooow pace. 

GBBO is OK, but would have been so much better without the puerile humour. I just find the sex-related jokes by Noel and Matt so tedious and not funny at all.

Read Fear Street/Overnight with Eddie and started Eight Pieces of Silva.

Otherwise, just surviving the monotony... 

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Family Sharing Degustabox

 It seems unbelievable that only a couple of weeks ago we walked in town in t-shirts. This week the mornings are so chilly and grey with drizzle, that I want to hide under the duvet for the rest of the day. Hot cups of tea and coffee all around, and proper comfort food for dinner... It's time to take stock of the season and start planning ahead for colder months. 

Family Sharing is the theme of the latest 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.

Let's have a look at what we got in the Family Sharing box.

Eat Real Snacks Hummus Tomato and Basil Chips (£1.80) have been selected as the product of the month. These are gluten free (certified by Coeliac UK), vegan, 40% less fat chips made with chickpea flour, rice, potato starch, rapeseed oil, corn flour, tomato and basil seasoning and more.

Nutritional values: 481kcal, 2.8g of salt and 2.6g of sugar per 100g.

These lovely snacks have a satisfying crunch. They make perfect little boats for dips like hummus or salsa.

Available in all major supermarket chains.

Brioche Pasquier Brioche Rolls with Chocolate Chips x 6 (£1.50) are traditional French bakes from a well-known and much loved brand. Gabriel Pasquier first opened his boulangerie in 1936, and since then his products have acquired an iconic status around the world.

Brioche rolls are soft and light. Chocolate chips make them extra indulgent. Brioche Pasquier rolls are a wonderful ingredient for a bread and butter pudding. These tasty rolls are free from preservatives. Nutritional values: 119kcal and 6.1g of sugar per brioche roll.

Available in all major retailers including Tecso, Ocado, Sainsbury's, Co-Op and Budgens.

Prince Chocolate and White Chocolate (£1) are lovely sandwich biscuits filled with chocolate/white chocolate flavour filling. They are suitable for vegetarians.

Prince proudly partner with farmers who grow wheat in a sustainable way that helps conserve water, cares for the soil, protects biodiversity and reduces carbon emissions. Learn about the programme on www.harmony.info

The biscuits in the packs have different patterns, which remind me of the biscuits I enjoyed eating as a child. 

Nutriitonal information: 93kcal and 6.3g os sugar per biscuit.

You will receive two items in your box. Available at ASDA.

Toffifee (£1.43 for 100g) always make me smile. I have lovely memories of my student days in Canterbury, and the German boy who first introduced me to Toffifee. As this was a long time ago, and Toffifee wasn't widely available here, he used to send me the boxes all the way from Germany. Ever since then I have a special place in my heart for the tasty hazelnuts in caramel with creamy nougat and chocolate. I love hazelnuts and chocolate, it's a delightful combination of flavours and textures.

Nutritional information: 522kcal and 48.9g of sugar per 100g (12 pieces).

Available in all major supermarkets.

Jaffa Cakes Jonut (£0.50) are a fun twist on the iconic Jaffa Cakes.

Launched back in May, Jonuts have all your favourite ingredients from the classic Jaffa Cakes - dark crackly chocolate, light sponge and tangy orange filling.

Nutritional information: 167kcal and 14.8g of sugar per donut.

Available in all major supermarkets chains (in multi-packs).

Nature's Heart Almond, Peanut & Double Choc Protein Bar (£1.59) is a tasty snack. If you love assorted nuts, you will enjoy the combination of crunchy creamy almonds and peanuts, smothered in dark chocolate from certified sustainable cocoa. 

Each bar contains 10g of plant protein, powered by pea and nuts. They are gluten free, suitable for vegetarians and high in fibre.

Available in all major supermarket chains.

Carr's Ciabatta Original (£1.59) - for an Italian-inspired meal, use ciabatta crackers as a perfect base for a plethora of tasty toppings. Experiment with flavours and textures, the possibilities are endless. I love eating them with Paysan Breton cream cheese topped with olives and Santa Maria jalapenos.

Check out Carrs_Uk Instagram for a snacking, lip-smacking inspiration.

Available in most major supermarkets.

Santa Maria Medium Fajita Seasoning Mix (£1.05) is equally great for chicken dishes or plant-based protein. It's a tasty seasoning made with chilli pepper, spices and herbs (cumin, paprika, oregano, coriander leaf, cinnamon), salt, onion, garlic, sugar, lime juice powder, lemon juice powder etc. 

This fajita recipe is a classic from the Northern Mexican border.

Mix & match with Santa Maria tortillas, toppings and accompaniments (I've already mentioned Santa Maria jalapenos - look for the jars of jalapenos and pineapple pieces, utterly delicious!).

Available at Morrisons, Home Bargains, B&M, Budgens, Londis, on Ocado and Amazon.

Santa Maria Chicken Taco seasoning (£1.05) is a seasoning mix speficically developed for chicken with flavours of oregano, mild chilli garlic and cumin. It doesn't contain any added sugar. 

Perfect for Taco Tuesdays. Mix and match with Santa Maria range of tortillas, toppings and accompaniments. I know it's created for chicken tacos, but has anyone tried it with tofu?

Available at Ocado and Amazon.

Kelly Loves Katsuo Udon (£2.90) is a posh take on pot noodles. Kelly selected this Korean recipe for its authentic taste of Katsuo broth with a generous helping of Udon noodles and its katsuoboshi (dried bonito flakes) topping, which promises an extra umami to the dish.

Kelly Choi was born in Korea, spent a decade in Japan and raised family in Europe. Kelly enjoys introducing the real flavours of her childhood to her friends.

Just open the noodles, sauce and vegetable sachets and pour into the cup, then pour hot water, close the lid and cook in microwave for a minute and a half. Just before serving, add the bonito flakes.

As the product contains fish extract and seafood seasoning, it is not suitable for vegetarians or vegans.

Available in Sushi Daily kiosks at Waitrose and ASDA. Find your local Sushi Daily at https://sushidaily.com/gb-en/our-kiosks.

The noodles are silky smooth, and the broth is flavourful, with the green pieces of seaweed. I was less enthusiastic about the contents of one of the sachets - tofu (?) pieces, as their texture was a bit like soggy soft shreddies.

Moving onto drinks:

Compal Orange Algarve (£1.99) offers an unmistakeable taste of the freshly squeezed fruit. This lovely drink is made with the sweetest and juiciest oranges.

Drink it neat with ice, or create a delicious Mimosa, Hurricane or Campari Cosmo cocktail.

Available at Portuguese stores and delicias-uk.com

Sumol Passion Fruit (£0.99) is a refreshing drink, which is lightly carbonated, with real fruit juice and pulp. Sumol offers unique flavours with a tropical vibe: passion fruit, pineapple and orange.

Maximum 25kcal per 100ml.

Available at Portuguese stores and delicias-uk.com.

And finally, there is a fully redeemable voucher for Richmond Frozen Ready Meals worth £4. Available at ASDA, Morrisons and Iceland.

Nation's favourite is expanding its range - adding family sized ready meals for those quick and easy mid-week dinners. Just pop them in the oven and enjoy. You can choose between Sausage Casserole, Sausage Hotpot or Sausage and Tomato Pasta (each pack offers 4 servings).

We don't have any of the above stores in town, and I don't plan travelling to just redeem the voucher. 

I'm happy to offer it to the first person who wants it and leaves me a comment below (with your Twitter name so I can contact you, or an email address for me to get back to you for the address details), and I will post it to you.

The Daughter's Choice by S.D. Robertson #BlogTour

 "She's getting anxious. Scratch that. She's been fearful the whole time - before she and Rose even had their first conversation. But now she's way past the point of no return. All those years to prepare for this moment, which part of her always suspected would one day come to pass, and still she doesn't feel ready..."

The Daughter's Choice by S. D. Robertson is a modern domestic drama which explores the high cost of living a lie.

It's a week before Rose's wedding, and she and her bestie Cara are off to a spa to enjoy the last weekend before the big day together. They've been BFFs since they were tots, and Cara is Rose's maid of honour. While they are getting ready for the spa day, Cara receives a phone call from her Dad, summoning her back home with a family emergency. Rose is left to enjoy the spa on her own.

Cassie has been watching the girls' arrival to the spa. Her plan is to get Rose to talk. As Rose feels lonely and miffed with the whole situation, she is quick to accept the company of the older woman. To pass the time on the spa tour, going through all the facilities together, they decide to swap life stories What Rose doesn't realise at first is that Cassie has a specific agenda on her mind. Their meeting is not due to pure chance. Two women spend the whole day together, with the bride to be pouring her life story to the attentive mysterious stranger who intriguingly promises to share her own story later.

Rose is an only child of a very devoted, doting father whom she idolises. Her mother died when she was a baby, and Rose has no recollection of her. Dave is a reclusive writer who wrote one book in his teens which proved to be a best seller. He hasn't written anything since, instead dedicating his life to bringing up his child.

"They've always had a special kind of father-daughter relationship. It no doubt stems from the two of them living alone together for so long".

When it's Cassie's turn to tell her life story, we learn that she has travelled the world and lived in many countries, finally settling in Ireland, with a husband and four step-children. Her story sounds exotic and vibrant, but also sad. She had very tough childhood, her parents were drug addicts who neglected her.

Cassie is meant to appear an intriguing lady, but she is a master at manipulating. As the story unfolds, you are left with an uncomfortable feeling. Rose is too naive and trusting, and watching her open her heart to the complete stranger feels like prying into an unsavoury situation. Cassie knows her story will have a devastating effect.

"Cassie feels a stab of pain every time she sees her like this - radiating happiness. It's exactly what you'd expect of a bride-to-be a week before her wedding. And yet soon she'll have to burst that bubble... Her entire world is about to come crashing down around her, through no fault of her onw, and she doesn't have a clue".

The ultimate reveal is easily predicted, but there is a final twist which you might not expect at all.

Rose's life is crumbling. Everything she knew seems to be a lie. The man whom she's trusted all her life has been keeping the biggest secret of all. What choices does she have now?

Cassie is a complicated character. Her own actions left her with a broken heart, but she has also bullodozed through the lives of the others and damaged them. She is clearly on the run from herself. Though there is a refreshing honesty in Cassie's admission of her own faults and flaws, there is also a partial guilt-shifting on her horrible parents, and tragic childhood. 

I couldn't relate to any of the characters. Rose appears very immature and babyish in her enthusiasm. When Rose and Cara arrive at the spa, they behave like five-year-olds who are promised to meet pink fluffy unicorns, over-doing the bubbling-giggling act.  Cassie is quite calculating, and even "perfect" Dave is sly. The whole orchestrated melodramatic reveal of lies and secrets is overly devious and Machiavellian. 

The daughter's choice deals with love and loss, secrets and lies, personal strength and compassion. This book explores the themes of ethics, forgiveness and the ultimate redemption found in understanding each other. Entertaining, intriguing and engaging.

Purchase Link - smarturl.it/TheDaughtersChoiceEB

This post is part of the blog tour.

Many thanks to S. D. Robertson, Avon and Rachel's Random Resources for my copy of the book!

Author Bio – 

Former journalist S.D. Robertson quit his role as a local newspaper editor to pursue a lifelong ambition of becoming a novelist. He lives in a village near Manchester with his wife and daughter and now writes full-time – and it’s safe to say the career move paid off! Stuart is a USA Today and Kindle Top 100 bestseller.

Social Media Links – @SDRauthor (Twitter), @sdrobertsonauthor (Instagram), S.D. Robertson/@sdrobertsonauthor (Facebook).

@AvonBooksUK (Twitter, Instagram and Facebook).