Magic O’Clock

by Lynne Fellows

Goodreads

Amazon  (universal)

Other eretailers (Kobo, B&N, Apple) :https://www.books2read.com/MOC

Archie Royle is a kind, funny, gentle man.

He’s also my dad. My storyteller. My hero.

Except he doesn’t remember my face anymore.

His world, these days, doesn’t include me or his family.

Life may have changed for him, but he hasn’t given up on life.

Not at all.

It’s just different.

Dad still tells his stories, albeit for a new audience.

He makes people smile and chuckle. As he always did.

He’s a fighter, a survivor and maybe sometimes too clever for his own good! He’ll surprise you. I can assure you of that.

Welcome to Magic O’Clock, where time is irrelevant and hope is unlimited.

Magical Memories

Goodreads / Amazon

As Archie Royle takes his final breath, three sisters race to say their goodbyes.

Two don’t make it in time.

I do.

And now, it’s all my fault they’re too late.

Despite him having dementia.

Despite them not visiting in over a month.

But I won’t let anger win.

After all, we’re all grieving, aren’t we?

Surely, as a family, we can let bygones be bygones.

It’s what Dad would want. Expect.

It’s what he deserves.

We have so much to be grateful for.

So many fond and magical memories to share.

Magical Memories is a fictional tale of loss, grief and moving on.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

Magic O’Clock

Every day, without fail, shortly before three o’clock, he stops everything and heads off to his command post ready to enthrall his eager listeners. No watch is needed to tell him when it’s time. It’s purely instinctive and part of the daily marvel I have come to cherish.

 The grandfather clock in the main vestibule strikes once, then again and finally the third chime rings out. Dad is back. Complete with his confident mannerisms and easy charm. The lost soul that inhabits his body and mind for most of the day is vanquished for now and the man in his place is my father of old. My heart skips a beat as the transformation takes effect and the wonderful, self-assured storyteller prepares to weave his tale.

 He is a true word-smith, a man for whom eloquence and diction make pillow talk while he sleeps.

 Audience participation is his specialty. He loves teasing them into a frenzy. The nurses are constantly telling him not to, after all, some of these people have serious conditions, and too much excitement can be dangerous. But Archie’s response is always the same, ‘at least they’ll die with a smile on their face.’

Magical Memories

Where his tales came from, we’ll never know. Like a seasoned bowler, he’d put his own spin on it, launching it at full speed towards his unsuspecting audience.

When he surrendered the battle of the comb-over some years ago, it marked a turning point. It was at that moment I accepted defeat to his dementia. My hopes to avoid admitting him to a private care home waned, and I finally conceded that all the stored memory in my father’s brain was leaking out like a burst water pipe I could not fix.

 To say she blanched would be an understatement, but her complexion made Frosty the Snowman look like he was having a hot flush.

 Diplomacy is the act of thinking twice before saying nothing – not a skill I had ever learnt.

My Review:

While her father may have lost his memories and no longer recognize his family, mercifully, he had not lost his words or the ability to spin a good yarn and entertain his fellow residents at the retirement village.   These were delightfully vivid, tender, and heart-squeezing tales of bittersweet observations and inner musings.  The writing was poignant and emotive and so dear it stung my eyes and put a hot rock in my throat.  L.S. Fellows conjures sharp visuals with her excellent word skills.  She is a master storyteller with immediate engagement and keenly crafted storylines.

Author Bio – Despite being born in England, my heart now lies in Spain. Many moons ago, I was a student in Granada, Spain. I loved it so much and swore I would return one day on a more permanent basis. In 2003, I did just that.

Now, as a fur-mum to two adorable but mischievous mutts, in my free time, I can usually be spotted with my nose in a book, armed with just the teeniest chunk of chocolate and a zillion pomegranates!

Social Media Links –

Facebook: www.facebook.com/LFWrites

Twitter: @lfwrites – https://twitter.com/lfwrites

Website/Blog: https://just4mybooks.wordpress.com

Subscribe:

https://tinyletter.com/lfwrites

Amazon Author Page: amazon.com/author/lsfellows

Title: Pretty Daring

Author: Jenn Hype

★★★Buy Links★★★

Amazon US: https://amzn.to/2QU7swd

Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/2IftLZA

Amazon CA: https://amzn.to/2pzaOZ6

Amazon AU: https://amzn.to/2zt1vQp

Other Retailers: https://bit.ly/2QOkifD

★★★Synopsis★★★

If you ask me, foolishness is like beauty – all about the eye of the beholder.

For instance – I’ve been told the amount of caffeine I consume on a daily basis will eventually kill me, which makes no sense because that caffeine is essential to living. Then I have doctors telling me that I need to get more sleep if I want to live a happy, healthy life. I can easily refute those claims because my life is neither happy nor healthy if I don’t utilize every possible second of each day to ensure my life’s goals are met.

Now I’ve got people claiming that hooking up with the sexy bodyguard I hired after someone tried to kill me in broad daylight is a mistake. And, okay, they might be right about that one. Even I can’t argue that it’s not healthy to sleep with someone you can barely stand to be around outside the bedroom.

But you know what? Life is already short enough. If there’s a chance I might die young, then I’m going to go out with a bang – preferably the kind that comes with an orgasm or twelve.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

That voice. Hot damn, his voice did things to parts of my body that had no business being involved in this conversation.

My eyes rolled so far back into my head I swear I saw my brain.

“I used to think it was hot when guys went all alpha male, but now I just think it’s seriously annoying.” “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Blake deadpanned. “CJ hasn’t had the upper hand since I met him.” “How do you do it? Show me, master. Teach me the ways of the Jedi.”

I’ll admit, New York is a challenge when it comes to my personality. People get more offended by kind gestures than they do if you were to spit in their face. It makes no sense. But I enjoy torturing them with my niceness all the same.

Yeah, well, what about that time you made me wait two hours after a Jason Mraz concert so you could get a picture with him, and then I had to force you to do it because the second he tried to talk to you, you turned into a bitch and told him his moles creeped you out.

I wouldn’t have thought it possible, but he looked even angrier than he had minutes ago. I half expected his clothes to tear at the seams and his skin to start turning green.

My Review:

I am thoroughly enjoying this giggle-snort and smirk-worthy series. The storylines of each were brimming with sassy and feisty characters that bicker and banter like it was an Olympic sport and they were hopeful medal contenders. The main character of Paige was a deeply flawed over-the-top drama queen as well as a hot mess; yet she had a soft heart, clever wit, and compelling history.   Sebastian’s storyline was more poignant for family loyalty and social awkwardness, although his relatives provided considerable levity as well. Penned in my favorite dual POV, the premise was interesting while the writing was entertaining, engaging and well balanced. I’m hoping the third in the series is dished up soon as I am more than eager to spend more time with this lively group.

★★★Excerpt★★★

“After two minutes of awkward silence that felt more like hours, I leaned forward and switched on the radio.

Sebastian immediately switched it back off. We did this four more times before I got fed up. “Quit that!”

“No music.”

“Why!?”

He shrugged one shoulder. That’s it. Just a little shrug. Like that were an acceptable answer.

“Okay, fine. You don’t want to listen to music? Let’s talk, then. Your mom a fan of The Little Mermaid?”

He rolled his eyes. “Good one.”

“So Clara told me CJ only hires vets. What branch did you serve?”

“Marines.”

“Hoo-raha.”

“It’s Oorah.”

I knew that. I’d been trying to get a reaction out of him. It did not work. The less he responded to my poking, the more irritated I became. “You ever kill someone?”

That question earned me a quick side glance. “You always start off by asking extremely personal, inappropriate questions?”

“Oh, my apologies. What’s your favorite color?”

“Blue.”

“Movie?”

“Die Hard.”

“Book?” He paused and I snickered. “Guns and Ammo doesn’t count.”

“Oh, then I don’t have one.”

I bit my lip to keep from smiling. I rather enjoyed his dry sense of humor. Like hell would I ever admit it to him, though. “So. Killed someone? Yay or Nay?”

He sighed but I caught him trying to hide a smirk.”

★★★Other Books In the Jaded Series★★★

Book 1: Simply Crazy

Available Now:

Forget apps, websites and singles events – clearly the best way to meet a guy is to move in next door, accidentally assault him and then demand a job at his company.

If that kind of charm doesn’t totally knock him off his feet, the next step is to build an army. If possible, try to recruit those closest to the target, such as his mom, sisters and closest friends. Sure, it sounds extreme and maybe a little bit crazy, but I’ve always subscribed to the old adage “No one worth having comes willingly.” Okay, I switched out some words there, but you get the point.

Caution: Even the most foolproof plans can have hiccups along the way. I’ve taken the liberty of compiling a list of things you should watch out for: Crazy ex-boyfriends who pop up out of nowhere like an evil jack-in-the-box; Women who think a strategic nip slip is effective at landing a boyfriend; Co-workers who think it’s hilarious to prank you at work and then upload the videos to social media.

Still have doubts? No worries. I’ll show you how it’s done.

Amazon US: https://amzn.to/2NA6BTo
Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/2QVcqsy
Amazon CA: https://amzn.to/2OPG8xN
Amazon AU: https://amzn.to/2Dvo9eS
ibooks: https://apple.co/2xRjwWe
Kobo: http://bit.ly/2N1P9lN

Book 3: Stupid Smart

Coming November 20th

Ever since I was a little girl, all I ever wanted was to get married. To meet the perfect man who’d love me more than life itself and be a wonderful father to all our beautiful children.

I loaded up on chapstick and prepared myself for all the frogs I’d have to kiss to find my prince. But I hadn’t been prepared for just how slimy and gross those metaphorical amphibians could be. And as I got older, the toads got hornier and hornier. (No pun intended, but we’re talking men here, so… yeah.)

Still, I refuse to give up, no matter how many obstacles are thrown my way.

Liam, however, has other plans for my future.

Every inch the bad boy with his leather jacket, dark eyes and tattoos, you’d never expect his personality to be more along the lines of class clown. The combination is oddly sexy. Just ask any woman of legal age in the city of New York, since he’s likely slept with all of them by now.

A simple misunderstanding made us enemies. Now I can’t get rid of him. He’s like a bad case of herpes that just keeps flaring up at the worst of times. And if he sabotages one more of my dates, I’m going to kill him. Or kiss him.

Most days I can’t decide which I’d rather do more.

Add to your Goodreads TBR List: http://bit.ly/2zQqwoz

★★★Author Bio★★★

What’s up world – I’m Jenn Hype.

Author, mother, wife, singer/songwriter, aspiring comedian – I wear many hats. Some of them fit, some of them look ridiculous, and all of them are fun. Life’s too short to take anything too seriously, so I don’t.

Sarcasm is my go-to, especially when it’s most inappropriate. Need someone to make an uncomfortable situation even more awkward? I’m the girl for the job.

I’m ridiculously A.D.D. and I own it. I have a serious addiction to ecards and the majority of my Pinterest account is dedicated to them. The key to my heart is glitter and caffeine – my needs are basic.

I’m a bookaholic and I crush hard on my book boyfriends and their authors. Some might call me obsessive, but I disagree. That word really doesn’t do justice to how crazy I get when it comes to something I’m passionate about. I’m not afraid to go fangirl on you, so don’t test me.

★★★Social Media Links★★★

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/jennhype/

Goodreads –  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14254207.Jenn_Hype

Amazon – https://www.amazon.com/Jenn-Hype/e/B01D8UQIIQ

Jenn’s Hypsters (STREET TEAM)

https://www.facebook.com/groups/236465496731730/

Asylum for Hypermaniacs ( Reader Group)

https://www.facebook.com/groups/EmbraceTheCrazy/

Nameless (Reader Group with Jenn and Mary Frame)

https://www.facebook.com/groups/213252492446817/

Newsletter http://eepurl.com/bPeZa9

BookBub https://www.bookbub.com/authors/jenn-hype

Pinterest https://www.pinterest.co.uk/authorjennhype/

#JennHype #AllAboardTheCrazyTrain #PrettyDaring

#JadedSeries #RomanticComedy #BlogTour

#BookwormPromotions

Christmas at The Little Duck Pond Cafe

by Rosie Green

Amazon US / UK / CA/ AU  

Fen has always hated being the center of attention.

She loves her new job, working behind the scenes at the Little Duck Pond Cafe and baking the scrumptious cakes that have helped its reputation soar. But frankly, she’d rather scrub the public toilet floor with a toothbrush than have to come out and talk to the customers.

She’s always been happy to stay in the background as long as she has a good supply of books to escape into. That’s her kind of romance – the fictional sort where she can read about other people taking a chance on love, but she doesn’t have to risk her own heart.

But that was before Ethan Fox arrived in the village and turned her world upside down. Ethan is a leading light in the local amateur dramatics theatre company and Fen knows he’s way out of her league.

But when the popular village Christmas pantomime hits a crisis, Fen and Ethan find themselves thrown together. Can Fen overcome her shyness and find the courage to step on stage and save the day?

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

I’ve always hated my blushes. You can’t have any secrets if you turn as red as a ripe tomato at anything that’s even mildly unsettling. When I was younger, I used to wear a weird green-coloured cream on my face that was supposed to hide the blushes. Then my latest crush commented loudly, in front of the whole class, that I always looked like Casper the friendly ghost. So the tube of cream went in the bin.

He of the hard muscles yet adorably soft centre.

I prefer muted colours. (Mum describes these colours ‘jokingly’ as ‘shades of sludge’ and is always trying to encourage me to dress more colourfully.)

I wish I had more confidence. So when I’m pitching for an important business contract and I know I’ll be nervous, I do my ‘Superman pose’ before I go to the meeting… It’s a little-known fact that you can con your brain into believing you’re confident, which then makes you feel more confident. And one way to do that is to adopt what they call a “power pose” to make you feel more powerful. In private, of course. They might carry you off if you were to do it on public transport.

My Review:

This was book three in the series and my favorite to date. I continue to adore these quirky characters and have been curious about the excruciatingly timid yet talented Fen since her first introduction. Fen was painfully shy and suffered from feelings of inadequacy and paralyzing anxiety, which was superbly captured and cleverly portrayed by this wily author.   The multiple and equally intriguing storylines were well-crafted and shrewdly paced with equal measures of levity, family drama, and attempts at romance as Fen and company were attempting to push past her restrictive comfort zone as well as deal with the community, work, and family concerns. I enjoyed Fen’s inner musings, confused insights, skewed observations, gradual ripening, and finally her personal shackle shattering awareness and epiphanies.   I was highly amused by the manner Fen drew plot similarities and concepts from her favorite romance novels and beloved heroines to draw confidence, check her deportment, or assimilate her feelings while attempting to interact with men she found attractive. Now that Ms. Green has dealt with the three women working in the café, I am eager to see whom her keen writer’s eye hones in on next.

I’m trying something new – I’m taking part in the lovely Jo Linsdell’s Booktastic link up Thursday – she is such a precious little thing.

Author Bio

Rosie Green has been scribbling stories ever since she was little. Back then they were rip-roaring adventure tales with a young heroine in perilous danger of falling off a cliff or being tied up by ‘the baddies’. Thankfully, Rosie has moved on somewhat, and now much prefers to write romantic comedies that melt your heart and make you smile, with really not much perilous danger involved at all, unless you count the heroine losing her heart in love.

Rosie’s brand new series of novellas is centered on life in a village café. The first two stories in the series are: Spring at The Little Duck Pond Cafe and Summer at The Little Duck Pond Café.

Twitter – https://twitter.com/Rosie_Green1988

Lone Star Christmas:

Cowboy Christmas Eve

(A Coldwater Texas Novel)

by Delores Fossen

Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages

Publisher: HQN; Original edition (October 1, 2018)

Amazon | Books-A-Million | B & N

A family crisis brings him home…

Just in time for Christmas

Cattleman Callen Laramie has no intention of returning to his hometown of Coldwater, Texas until a Christmas wedding and a family secret convince him he has no choice. And when he’s reunited with his childhood crush, the girl who’d always been off-limits, Callen knows leaving might not be so easy this time.

Shelby McCall is as pretty as a Christmas snowfall, and Callen wants to kiss her under the mistletoe…and the Christmas tree…and the stars. But once Shelby knows the whole truth behind this homecoming, will their holiday fling come to an abrupt end? Or will she accept the gift of his heart?

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

It was Gopher Tate, and he threw open his heavily lined raincoat to flash her. He had a blue bow tied around his wrinkly junk that was covered by a pair of whities that weren’t so tight. They were at least three sizes too big, and the elastic in the waist was shot… Shelby gave him a glare that was colder than the sleet pelting his thinly covered privates. “Close your coat, Gopher, before you have to explain to the ER folks why you got frostbite on your wanger.”

She was reasonably sure that had she been wearing toenail polish, it would have melted, too.

Seems a shame to let the pizza go cold after you slaved over the phone to order it…

The cat was there, sitting by a nearly empty food and water dish and glaring at Callen as if he were responsible for multiple crimes against felines and humanity.

My Review:

Delores Fossen has gifted us with the early Christmas present of a new series, and she has started it off with her own special blend of damaged yet sexy and lovable heroes, clever wry humor, heart squeezing storylines, colorful and quirky small-town characters, and a sweet romance with delectably steamy bits. I always look forward to meeting her amusing and uniquely peculiar characters and she didn’t disappoint with the introduction of Rosy – the armadillo obsessed geriatric bride-to-be with a taxidermy shop called Much Ado About Stuffing; and Gopher – the pervy elderly flasher who was well known yet never actually naked under his raincoat. As always, her storylines were engaging, entertaining, and well-paced.   I’m already primed for the next installment.

About Delores Fossen

USA Today bestselling author, Delores Fossen, has sold over 70 novels with millions of copies of her books in print worldwide. She’s received the Booksellers’ Best Award, the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award and was a finalist for the prestigious Rita ®. In addition, she’s had nearly a hundred short stories and articles published in national magazines.

Connect with Delores

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

The Secrets We Carried

by Mary McNear

HarperCollins | Amazon | B & N

 368 pages
William Morrow Paperbacks (September 25, 2018)

Readers who love Susan Wiggs and Susan Mallery will adore New York Times bestselling author Mary McNear newest novel. A young woman travels home to Butternut Lake, confronting her past and the tragedy she and her friends have silently carried with them for over a decade while also facing an unknown future.

Butternut Lake is an idyllic place—but for one woman, her return to the lake town she once called home is bittersweet…

Sometimes life changes in an instant.

Quinn LaPointe grew up on beautiful Butternut Lake, safe, secure, sure of her future. But after a high school tragedy, she left for college and never looked back. Becoming a successful writer in Chicago, she worked to keep out the dark memories of an accident that upended her life. But now, after ten years, she’s finally returned home.

Butternut is the same, and yet everything is changed. Gabriel Shipp, once her very best friend, doesn’t want anything to do with her. The charming guy she remembers is now brooding and withdrawn. Tanner Lightman, the seductive brother of her late boyfriend, wants her to stick around. Annika Bergstrom, an old classmate who once hated Quinn, is now friendly. Everyone, it seems, has a secret.

Determined to come to terms with the tragedy and rebuild old relationships, Quinn settles into Loon Bay Cabins, a rustic but cozy lakeside resort, where she begins writing down her memories of the year before the accident. Her journey through the past leads her to some surprising discoveries about the present. As secrets are revealed and a new love emerges, Quinn finds that understanding the past is the key to the future.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

Northern Superior High School had been built in 1930, when Americans still had a reverence for public education, and the two-story brick building, with a white stone arch over the entranceway and two white stone columns flanking it, spoke to the seriousness of the work to be done inside.

Her closest girlfriend, Katrina, referred to these relationships as Quinn’s “eleventh-month specials.” This wasn’t intentional on Quinn’s part. It wasn’t as if she kept an eye on the calendar as the anniversary of their first date approached. It was more like an inner mechanism of hers sensed a shifting of the light, a changing of the seasons. Either way, she was apt to end things before the earth had made a full rotation around the sun.

My Review:

This is one of those books that is hard to put down as I sense something important to the plot is coming that I really need to know and it is right around the corner, and it was true, but there are several more somethings, and then a few more I wasn’t expecting. I went at this book like an alcoholic on a binge as I couldn’t find a stopping place, nor would I have been willing to stop had I found one. Ms. McNear’s compelling characters and insightful and emotive writing held me in place and while it wasn’t a thriller or a suspenseful read, my curiosity was tripped while my heart was being mercilessly squeezed.   This was the second well-textured and maddeningly paced book of Ms. McNear’s that I have devoured – and in much the same manner. I am greedy for all her words as this talented scribe has strong word voodoo.   I was provided with a review copy of this excellent book by HarperCollins and TLC Book Tours.

About Mary McNear

Mary McNear, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Butternut Lake series, writes in a local doughnut shop, where she sips Diet Pepsi, observes the hubbub of neighborhood life, and tries to resist the constant temptation of freshly made doughnuts. Mary bases her novels on a lifetime of summers spent in a small town on a lake in the northern Midwest.

Find out more about Mary at her website, and connect with her on Facebook and Twitter.

Odyssey In A Teacup

Ruth Roth #1

by Paula Houseman 

Amazon US / UK  / B&N

Author Bio 

 Paula Houseman was once a graphic designer. But when the temptation to include ‘the finger’ as part of a logo for a forward-moving women’s company proved too much, she knew it was time to give away design. Instead, she took up writing.

She found she was a natural with the double entendres (God knows she’d been in enough trouble as a child for dirty wordplay).

As a published writer of earthy chick lit and romantic comedy, Paula gets to bend, twist, stretch and juice up universal experiences to shape reality the way she wants it, even if it is only in books. But at the same time, she can make it more real, so that her readers feel part of the sisterhood. Or brotherhood (realness has nothing to do with gender).

Through her books, Paula also wants to help the reader escape into life and love’s comic relief. And who doesn’t need to sometimes?

Her style is a tad Monty Pythonesque because she adores satire. It helps defuse all those gaffes and thoughts that no one is too proud of.

Paula lives in Sydney, Australia with her husband. No other creatures. The kids have flown the nest and the dogs are long gone.

Social Media Links –

Twitter: https://twitter.com/paulahouseman

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/PaulaHouseman

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

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulahouseman

 I Know You Know

by Gilly Macmillan

HarperCollins | Amazon | B & N

Paperback: 384 pages
 Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks; Reprint edition (September 18, 2018)

From New York Times bestselling author Gilly Macmillan comes this original, chilling and twisty mystery about two shocking murder cases twenty years apart, and the threads that bind them.

Twenty years ago, eleven-year-olds Charlie Paige and Scott Ashby were murdered in the city of Bristol, their bodies dumped near a dog racing track. A man was convicted of the brutal crime, but decades later, questions still linger.

For his whole life, filmmaker Cody Swift has been haunted by the deaths of his childhood best friends. The loose ends of the police investigation consume him so much that he decides to return to Bristol in search of answers. Hoping to uncover new evidence, and to encourage those who may be keeping long-buried secrets to speak up, Cody starts a podcast to record his findings. But there are many people who don’t want the case—along with old wounds—reopened so many years after the tragedy, especially Charlie’s mother, Jess, who decides to take matters into her own hands.

When a long-dead body is found in the same location the boys were left decades before, the disturbing discovery launches another murder investigation. Now Detective John Fletcher, the investigator on the original case, must reopen his dusty files and decide if the two murders are linked. With his career at risk, the clock is ticking and lives are in jeopardy…

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

If you can control where an interview takes place, you are part of the way to controlling the interview itself. Location matters. Fletcher’s wife announced she was leaving him when they were in the Costco car park. He didn’t see it coming. He remembers acutely the humiliation of loading bags into the boot of the car while she explained across the laden shopping trolley that their marriage was over. “Well, why are we buying in bulk then?” was all he could think to ask.

It’s a resting place for cold cases, and Fletcher thinks of it as an archive of failure. For every high-profile solve, there’s an unsolved crime shelved here. In each tidily filed box, Fletcher thinks, there are not just papers, photographs, and other case materials, but other things, invisible things. There are traces of the open emotional wounds an unsolved crime leaves on the families and detectives affected by it. There is also the shadow of something more rotten: the person who got away with it.

Like a nodding dog ornament on a dashboard, she moves her head laboriously to look at Danny. Everything she does is so slow it makes Fletcher’s joints feel as if they’re liquefying under the strain of being patient.

I said you’re a prat, John Fletcher. Always have been, always will be. I’m fed up of you strutting about like you own the place when you passed your sell-by date years ago. The only time I’ll look forward to seeing you will be at your retirement party.

I did a bit of unscientific research on the subject—by which I mean to say that I looked it up on the internet…

My Review:

I was unprepared for the twists and turns of the diabolically clever Gilly Macmillan. Her fascinating yet despicable characters were as compelling as the well-crafted storylines they inhabited. They squeezed then broke my heart while holding me captive to my Kindle as I hissed and huffed my distress. No one was innocent, except for the condemned patsy, and no one was as they had initially appeared, it was brilliant.

Gilly Macmillan has strong word voodoo. Cunningly woven into this adroitly written book were the gut-churning savagery of children, blackmail, police coercion, nefarious manipulations, greed, ambition, corruption, and desperation. The writing was exquisitely nuanced, the wily characters were deeply damaged and irreparably flawed yet keenly described and depicted in a cleverly magnetizing manner. It was riveting, yet tragic and heartbreaking. I was enthralled and even though she turned me inside out, I covet her mad skills and greedily want all her words.

New additions to my Brit Vocab list include tearaways which Mr. Google tells me is a wild or reckless person; bung which is a bribe or payoff; and cobblers which apparently has two meanings as it is nonsense to some, and testicles to the Cockneys – although those two things are pretty much the same thing to me 😉

I was provided with a review copy of this stunningly well-crafted book by HarperCollins and TLC Book Tours.

About Gilly Macmillan

Gilly Macmillan is the Edgar Nominated and New York Times bestselling author of What She Knew. She grew up in Swindon, Wiltshire and lived in Northern California in her late teens. She worked at The Burlington Magazine and the Hayward Gallery before starting a family. Since then she’s worked as a part-time lecturer in photography, and now writes full-time. She resides in Bristol, England.

Find out more about Gilly at her website, and connect with her on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

 The Boy at the Keyhole

by Stephen Giles

Amazon | Books-A-Million | Barnes & Noble

304 pages

Hanover Square Press; Original edition (September 4, 2018)

Nine-year-old Samuel lives alone in a once-great estate in Surrey with the family’s housekeeper, Ruth. His father is dead and his mother has been abroad for months, purportedly tending to her late husband’s faltering business. She left in a hurry one night while Samuel was sleeping and did not say goodbye.

Beyond her sporadic postcards, Samuel hears nothing from his mother. He misses her dearly and maps her journey in an atlas he finds in her study. Samuel’s life is otherwise regulated by Ruth, who runs the house with an iron fist. Only she and Samuel know how brutally she enforces order.

As rumors in town begin to swirl, Samuel wonders whether something more sinister is afoot. Perhaps his mother did not leave but was murdered—by Ruth.

Artful, haunting and hurtling toward a psychological showdown, The Boy at the Keyhole is an incandescent debut about the precarious dance between truth and perception, and the shocking acts that occur behind closed doors.

“A fiendishly efficient, gorgeously written, nasty little thrill ride of a psychological thriller. I couldn’t put it down, and it’s entirely possible that I’ll never sleep again. A true tour-de-force of a debut novel.”–Lyndsay Faye, author of The Gods of Gotham and Jane Steele

“The Boy at the Keyhole is sinister and tight, amusing and intense, an emotional story of a sweet boy in a precarious psychological place. A fun and wicked read that is impossible to put down!”–Matthew Sullivan, author of Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

Ruth could do that. Make a decree, like a queen or something, that certain topics had reached their end and that would be that.

Now that he stood on the precipice of this wrongdoing, he felt the fluttering in his chest that made every breath sound as if he were sitting on a rattling train.

The same wine his mother said made his father prone to unsettling fits of national pride and falling asleep midsentence.

Part of the reason Samuel was sent to the local school and not somewhere more distinguished, like his father and uncle had, was because his mother didn’t want him turning out like his uncle Felix, who she said was a pompous buffoon wrapped in tweed, dipped in gin and rolled in horsehair.

Samuel saw the lies easily enough; they practically leached from her skin like poisonous gas. She twisted everything, turning the truth in on itself until it looked like something else.

My Review:

I am in quite a pique over the ending, or lack thereof, so rating this skillfully crafted book puts me in a quandary. The story didn’t seem anywhere near a stopping point, yet it ended. Gah – I am infuriated as I was riveted to my Kindle while reading and hissed in complaint at any interruption.   Needless to say, adulting did not happen today, as evidenced by my profane and childish reaction to hitting the last page. Yet, I cannot deny that Stephen Giles is a master storyteller who is extremely gifted with the word voodoo. His writing was mesmerizing and laced with observant details and massive insightfulness into the mind of a child. His characters were compelling and deftly written, I was eager to learn every little nuance I could wring from the narrative. His storylines were tautly written and adroitly textured, I was on edge and keenly interested throughthroughout. I couldn’t settle on a theory and developed and cast off several while reading. The housekeeper was vile and monstrous, harsh on a good day; the mother was absent, irresponsible, and self-absorbed; and the child – oh, he squeezed my heart, I ached for him. But that ending – he really left me hanging, would it have killed him to have kept going just a few more pages? It rankles, but I have to give him his due. Sigh, 5-Stars. This would make an excellent movie.

About Stephen Giles

Stephen Giles is the Australian author behind the lauded children’s series “Anyone But Ivy Pocket”, penned under the pseudonym Caleb Krisp. The series, published in the US by HarperCollins/Greenwillow and the UK by Bloomsbury, appeared on the New York Times Best Seller List, has been translated into 25 different languages and was optioned by Paramount Pictures.

Prior to selling his first book, Stephen worked in a variety of jobs to supplement his writing including market research, film classification and media monitoring. “The Boy at the Keyhole” is Giles’ first work for adults and the film rights for this book have been acquired by New Regency.