Blog Tour: Maria in the Moon by Louise Beech

I'm delighted to be on the blog tour for Maria in the Moon, by Louise Beech, author of The Mountain in My Shoe. This new novel will be published by Orenda on September 30th, and you can buy it here. 

Thank you to the author and publisher for the advanced reading copy. This review is my unbiased opinion.

The Blurb

'Long ago my beloved Nanny Eve chose my name. Then one day she stopped calling me it. I try now to remember why, but I just can't.' 

Thirty-one-year-old Catherine Hope has a great memory. But she can't remember everything. She can't remember her ninth year. She can't remember when her insomnia started. And she can't remember why everyone stopped calling her Catherine-Maria. With a promiscuous past, and licking her wounds after a painful breakup, Catherine wonders why she resists anything approaching real love. But when she loses her home to the deluge of 2007 and volunteers at Flood Crisis, a devastating memory emerges ... and changes everything. Dark, poignant and deeply moving, Maria in the Moon is an examination of the nature of memory and truth, and the defences we build to protect ourselves, when we can no longer hide... 

My Review

I didn't find Catherine an easy character to like at first. She's abrasive, prickly and doesn't make friends easily. As a reader, I felt I, like character in the book, as if I was being held at arm's length. But as I got to know Catherine, the more I began to understand her.

She has an uneasy relationship with her family; her mother and father are both dead and she is left with a step-mother who, Catherine believes, only puts up with her out of a sense of duty to Catherine's late father. Mother's partner, Graham, is lovely, though his daughter is not quite as friendly. The one constant ally in her life is aunt 'Hairy' Mary.

Catherine's house is still being repaired after flood damage and she splits her time between working in a care home and volunteering. She starts volunteering for a flood helpline, and we learn how being a victim of flood damage can have a serious emotional impact on people as well as the loss of home and belongings. As a volunteer, she adopts a different name, and she is also told not to get attached to the callers, but she finds it impossible to disassociate herself from them. Catherine is not good at following rules.

No one can get to know the real Catherine, with her hiding behind these other names. She's not even sure herself who she is, as her memories of the year she turned nine have disappeared. Gradually these memories are coming back to her. She knows she needs to remember, but she is scared too.

I found the pace of the book quite slow, and a little hard to get into to start with, but as I got to know Catherine and her memories started to come back, I became more involved in her journey. It's dark and murky and by half-way, I was utterly submerged. 

About the Author

Louise Beech remembers sitting in her father's cross-legged lap while he tried to show her his guitar's chords. He's a musician. Her small fingers stumbled and gave up. She was three. His music sheets fascinated her - such strange language that translated into music. Her mother teaches languages, French and English, so her fluency with words fired Louise's interest. She knew from being small that she wanted to write, to create, to make magic.

She loves all forms of writing. Her short stories have won the Glass Woman Prize, the Eric Hoffer Award for Prose, and the Aesthetica Creative Works competition, as well as shortlisting twice for the Bridport Prize and being published in a variety of UK magazines. Her first play, Afloat, was performed at Hull Truck Theatre in 2012. She also wrote a ten-year newspaper column for the Hull Daily Mail about being a parent, garnering love/hate criticism. Her debut novel was a Guardian Readers' pick for 2015. 

She is inspired by life, history, survival and love, and always has a story in her head. Her debut novel, How to be Brave, came from truth - when Louise's daughter got Type 1 Diabetes she helped her cope by sharing her grandad's real life sea survival story. Her second novel, The Mountain in my Shoe, was be released in September 2016 and was inspired by her time working with children in the care system.

When she was fifteen Louise bet her mother ten pounds she'd be published by the time she was thirty. She missed this self-set deadline by two months. Her mother is still waiting for the money.

Link to website - http://louisebeech.co.uk/

Follow Louise on Twitter: @LouiseWriter

Book Review & GIVEAWAY! A Song for Tomorrow by Alice Peterson

The Blurb
Tom fell in love with Alice the moment he saw her. He realises that being with her will not be easy, but she is a force of nature, a burst of sunlight in his otherwise ordinary world. 

Some people might look at Alice and think she has everything, but Alice knows she is not like other women. Her life is complicated, unpredictable, difficult. Alice does not like pity. All she wants to do, has ever wanted to do, is sing.

Alice has been told not to follow her dreams. So has Tom. But when fate has already dealt a tough hand, it’s time to stop listening to everyone else and only follow their hearts.

My Review

Thank you so, so much to the publisher, Simon & Schuster, for an advanced reading copy of this inspirational, amazing book.

A Song for Tomorrow is an incredible story based on an incredible young woman, Alice Martineau, who wants to be a singer. 

She is beautiful, kind, has a fabulous voice, but there's just one thing in her way. She has cystic fibrosis. But Alice is an unstoppable force...

The story is told from three POVs; mostly Alice, but the occasional chapter from Tom, who falls in love with her at first sight in the opening of the book, and also Alice's mother, Mary, via her diary entries. I found these diary entries heart-rending; as a parent we can feel so helpless in protecting our children, so proud of them, and so very frightened for them.

Alice won't let herself be defined by her disease; she hates it when anyone calls her brave or pities her, but she bites her tongue and is patient with them, even when one vacuous girl envies her for being 'so skinny'. She is haunted by the words of school tormentor Daisy, 'She'll be dead soon!' and teacher Miss Ward 'You will never be a singer', and this drives her on to fulfil her dream.

Alice is supported by her wonderful family, doctor and friends, including the fabulous anti-support group. She convinces music mogul Peter Harris to help her, but will her determination to ignore her condition get in the way of her dream?

Seriously, you have to read this inspirational book. I'm desperate to get my girls to read it; to show them there is so much to live for. Life is precious, it's a gift. Don't throw it away.

You can buy A Song For Tomorrow from Amazon or Waterstones or other retailers....

OR

I'm giving away one beautiful brand spanking new copy of this amazing book! To be in with a chance of winning, follow @alicepeterson1 and me @Vikbat on Twitter AND follow and leave a comment (a nice one!) on this blog (it'll be worth it, I promise!). Entries close at midnight on Friday 17th February 2017.

About the Author 

'I have published two non-fiction books, and eight novels, including the bestselling title, Monday to Friday Man. My latest novel, A Song for Tomorrow, published by Simon & Schuster, will be released in paperback 9th February 2017.

My writing is funny, romantic, powerful and emotional. At the heart of each novel is a love story but I always will include hard-hitting and thought-provoking themes within my storylines – such as addiction and disability. My protagonists often have to overcome adversity, based on my own experience of a professional tennis career cut short at the age of 18 when I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. I have never played tennis again, a sadness that will always be with me, but I have very much filled that void with writing. I am drawn to true stories and aim to write with deep compassion, empathy and humour about issues that resonate with my growing readership and that I believe have the potential of reaching and touching millions more.

I live in West London with my handsome Lucas Terrier, Mr Darcy.'

Book Review: You Will Not Have My Hate by Antoine Leiris

The Blurb:

Selected as a Book of the Year 2016 in the Guardian and Observer.

This inspiring and courageous book is a guiding star for us all in troubled times.
One night last winter, Antoine Leiris was at home looking after his son while his wife, Hélène, was at a concert with friends. Suddenly he started receiving text messages asking if he was ok. Turning on the TV, Antoine watched the terrorist attacks in Paris unfolding around him and tried to call Hélène. She didn’t answer. That night Hélène was killed, along with 88 other people, at the Bataclan Theatre.

Three days later, Antoine wrote an open letter to his wife’s killers on Facebook. He refused to be cowed or to let his baby son’s life be defined by their acts. ‘For as long as he lives, this little boy will insult you with his happiness and freedom,’ he wrote. Instantly, that short post caught fire and was shared thousands of times around the world.
You Will Not Have My Hate is an extraordinary and heartbreaking memoir which teaches us how to respond to a world full of hatred with generosity and love. This is the rare and unforgettable testimony of a survivor, and a universal message of hope and resilience.

My Review:

Thank you to Netgalley for giving me the chance to read this utterly devastating account of just one of the deaths caused by terrorists at the Bataclan Theatre in November 2015.

I was in the comfort of my own home, idly flicking from app to app on my phone that Friday evening when stories began to come through on Twitter, closely followed by breaking headlines from the BBC News app. First reports of shootings, a few people shot, then some more, followed by more, and so followed an evening of reports so shocking and terrible I cried.

This is a heartbreaking read, as we all know what happened that horrible night in Paris. Here we are told how the tragedy has affected the family of Helene Muyal-Leiris who was one of those killed in the Bataclan.

It could be any of us, which is a very frightening thing. I've thought of the many times I've been to gigs in similar venues, and have tried to imaging the sheer terror of gunmen bursting in. But they will not stop me from going to other gigs, or to other potential targets.

That's what Antoine is trying to show here. He wrote a now famous post on Facebook, telling the terrorists that he will not afford any more time thinking about them. He has set a standard for us all to follow, in that we should not allow them to terrorise us. Yes, he is mourning his wife and his child has lost his mother, and it is terrible, as is loss for anyone. But he shows a strength in refusing to be cowed by the terrorists.

There's not much more I can say about this book, other than I wish for a peaceful life full of love for Antoine and his family.

You can buy the book from Amazon, Waterstones or other retailers.

Blog Tour & Book Review: Medea's Curse by Anne Buist

The Blurb:

Forensic psychiatrist Natalie King works with victims and perpetrators of violent crime. She rides a Ducati a size too big and wears a tank top a size too small. Likes men but doesn’t want to keep one. And really needs to stay on her medication.

Now she’s being stalked. Could it be a hostile former patient? Or someone connected with a current case?

Natalie doesn’t know. And with another missing child case on her desk, the time for answers is running out.

My Review:

Thank you to the publisher and author for the ARC.

This is a fast paced novel which kept me turning the pages. There were a lot of terms relating to the Mental Health profession which I am not familiar with, and I have to admit I found myself skipping over these parts, but the story is excellent. I did wonder how I was going to cope with reading about women who kill their children, but it was dealt with in a very sympathetic way and shows that no one's story is black and white. The tension builds throughout as we try to work out who is stalking Natalie.

Natalie is a fantastic character, with many flaws. She is a unreliable 'witness', dealing with her own demons, and seeing how her moods affect her and those around her is interesting. She doesn't always make the best decisions, and watching her deal with the fall-out is fascinating.

The other characters in the book are equally as well-rounded, from the love interest to the women prisoners. Seeing how some of these women could be seen as victims themselves is heartbreaking.

I look forward to reading more stories about Natalie King.

About the Author:

Anne Buist is the Chair of Women’s Mental Health at the University of Melbourne and has over 25 years clinical and research experience in perinatal psychiatry working on cases of abuse, kidnapping, infanticide and murder.

She has published ten erotic romance- suspense novels under the pseudonym Simone Sinna. She is married to novelist Graeme Simsion and has two children.

Twitter: @anneebuist

You can buy Medea's Curse here (other retailers are available!).