To the Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey @EowynIvey Guest Review from Author Jo Worgan @mummyworgan

  

Lieutenant Colonel Allen Forrester receives the commission of a lifetime when he is charged to navigate Alaska's hitherto impassable Wolverine River, with only a small group of men. The Wolverine is the key to opening up Alaska and its rich natural resources to the outside world, but previous attempts have ended in tragedy.

Forrester leaves behind his young wife, Sophie, newly pregnant with the child he had never expected to have. Adventurous in spirit, Sophie does not relish the prospect of a year in a military barracks while her husband carves a path through the wilderness. What she does not anticipate is that their year apart will demand every ounce of courage and fortitude of her that it does of her husband.

To The Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey was published in hardback by Tinder Press on 2 August 2016 and is the author's second novel.



I'm pleased to welcome Jo Worgan as a guest reviewer to Random Things today. Jo writes as Jo Hollywood, and her novel  An Unextraordinary Life is available in paperback and ebook, The ebook is currently on offer for just 99p.

Jo is a married mother of two boys, her youngest has Autistic Spectrum Disorder. In her spare time she writes for her local paper on the subject of autism and is currently writing her second romantic novel. Jo loves to read books of any genre. You can find Jo over on twitter at @mummyworgan and she also blogs at Brew and Books Review

Jo's review of To The Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey

I quite literally jumped at the chance when I was given the opportunity to review this book. I had read The SnowChild by Eowyn Ivey back in 2013 and fell in love with all the magical characters in its tale of bittersweet love set in the harsh Alaska wintertime. Therefore I was hugely excited to read To the Bright Edge of theWorld, and wondered if it would enthrall me in the way in which TheSnow Child had. Well, it did. This book is so many things. It is an adventure story, a love story and a tale of magical happenings all rolled into one. I'll try to capture how much I adored this book that is a magical and breathtaking read.

So, to the bones of this book. The main story is that of a journey down the Wolverine River in Alaska during 1885. Previous attempts of this journey had failed, with many casualties and, so it was with great excitement and trepidation that Lieutenant Allen Forrester set off on his adventure with his small group of men. Their planned route is beautifully shown in the map that is at the beginning of the book, and this I found very helpful in following the progression their journey. Now, the descriptions of their journey, the unusual people that they meet and the stunning scenery are quite simply poetic. There is a gentleness to the writing, that is not rushed, but rather the reader is urged to savour the story that unfolds before them. We learn of the journey through the private journal that Allen keeps, as well as a few official reports. It is Allen's journal that fascinated me. Here we learn of his deepest thoughts and feelings. It is these journals that we learn of his love for his new wife, Sophie, and that there is something deeply touching and genuine about the love that they have for each other. 

It is Sophie that I most connected with while reading this beautiful novel. She is left behind at home, while Allen goes off on his adventures. She is not your typical lady of the time, as she is not content to sit around the house, entertaining the other ladies and behaving as an officer's wife should. Instead, she is far happier rambling around the forest of the Vancouver barracks where she lives alone while he is gone, finding the local wildfire, climbing trees and enjoying the fresh air. She is a strong-willed woman and when Allen is off on his wild adventure, she too has an adventure of her own, one that will change her life forever. Just as we read Allen's journal entries, we read Sophie's journal and letters to Allen, which are heartfelt and loaded with emotion and longing for her husband to return safely home. I loved Sophie, mainly I think because she reminded me very much of Jo from Little Women. She is rebellious, witty and utterly charming.

Although this novel is about an adventure into the unknown Alaska of its day, it also leads us onto an adventure of love, relationships and magical happenings that lie deeply within the mountains of the Wolverine River. I cannot praise this book highly enough. If you enjoyed The Snow Child, then you will enjoy this book just as much. If you are new to the writings of Eowyn Ivey, then you are in for a wonderful treat. Grab a warm drink, wrap yourself in a blanket and enjoy this tale of adventure, magic and long lasting love. 

My thanks to Jo for this terrific review, and to the publisher who sent the copy for review.

Eowyn Ivey's debut novel, The Snow Child was published in twenty-six languages, and sold over 350,000 copies in the UK alone.

A former bookseller and journalist, Eowyn lives in Palmer, Alaska, with her husband and two daughters.

To The Bright Edge of the World is her second novel, and once again set against the backdrop of Eowyn's home state.

For more information, visit www.eowynivey.com

Find her Author page on Facebook

Follow her on Twitter @EowynIvey

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My Life In Books ~ talking to author Cassandra Parkin @cassandrajaneuk

My Life in Books is an occasional feature on Random Things Through My Letterbox

I've asked authors to share with us a list of the books that are important to them and have made a lasting impression on their life.

I'm thrilled to welcome Cassandra Parkin to Random Things today. Cassandra is a Yorkshire-based writer with Cornish roots and a passion for fairy-tales. She’s inspired by the hidden magic that lies beneath the surface of everyday life, and loves exploring the dark places of the human heart. Her short story collection “New World Fairy Tales” won the 2011 Scott Prize and her debut novel “The Summer We All Ran Away” was nominated for the Amazon Rising Stars award. “Lily’s House” is her third novel.

I reviewed Lily's House here on Random Things as part of the Blog Tour arranged by her publisher, Legend Press.

Find out more at cassandraparkin.wordpress.com

Twitter @cassandrajaneuk

My Life In Books ~ Cassandra Parkin

The Tale of the Pieand the Patty-Pan by Beatrix Potter

I was a huge, giant fan of Beatrix Potter’s books growing up (she’s the reason I knew the word “soporific” before I was five, and I still think “Ginger and Pickles” is the most lucid explanation of the risks inherent in any system of credit that I’ve ever come across). But The Pie and the Patty-Pan really got to me. I think it was because for years and years and years, I didn’t really quite understand that there were two pies, and Duchess ate the wrong one, but did not actually wolf down a patty-pan. The contrast between the exquisite watercolour paintings of genteel interiors and pretty bakeware, and the creepy story of a dog that eats a metal patty-pan but somehow doesn’t die, had me absolutely hooked. Also, Doctor Maggotty is terrifying. What kind of a doctor spends his time putting screws into ink-pots, and has to be sent outside into the garden? 

Alice’s Adventures InWonderland And Through The Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll

The landscape of Alice is one of those places that feels as if it was always there, just waiting to be discovered. I don’t think there’s any creative field that hasn’t been touched by these books. Alice turns up in other books, of course, but also in paintings and sculptures, and in mathematics, and evolutionary biology, and isometric chemistry, and political science, and high-concept sci-fi, and recipe books, and porn, and theatres…I still find it mind-blowing that every single part of the Alice books came out of the head of just one man. She’s in everything I’ve ever written, one way and another. I was lucky enough to do a talk for TEDx Hull a couple of years ago – you can check it out here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrwgMOpBG-4

Kiss, Kiss byRoald Dahl   I read this when I was about sixteen and my (absolutely brilliant) English teacher put a copy on my desk and said sternly, “You need to read this. You’re welcome.” It was the first time I’d ever read a short story collection, and until that moment, I’d vaguely imagined “short stories” meant books for children. Ha.

Vanity Fair by WM Thackeray    I love everything about “Vanity Fair”. I love its heroine; I love the gigantic scope of it; I love its lack of moral centre; I love its gorgeous freewheeling energy. Most of all, I love it because there are places where you can see Thackeray’s writing process at work. He wrote it in instalments to an insane monthly deadline, and as a result there are all sorts of little artefacts scattered throughout the text where he didn’t quite have time to go back and reconcile everything. Minor characters fade in and out again, or change their name between chapters, or suddenly have about six fewer siblings than they seemed to have originally. What amazes me is how few of these there are, and how little it matters to the book. I have no idea how Thackeray held this entire book in his head, but he clearly most have done. 

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen       It’s really hard to pick just one of Austen’s books, but if I could only take one to a desert island, it would be Mansfield Park. It has the darkest storyline, the most sinister subtext (what did Fanny ask Sir Thomas about the slave trade? And how could he possibly have wanted to be enquired of further?), the bestest, bestest villains and the most beautifully ambiguous ending (a lot of people think Fanny ends up living at Mansfield Park, but of course she doesn’t – it’s the Vicarage, where Mrs Norris and then Miss Crawford previously reigned supreme). Absolutely brilliance.

Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann     Sometimes, I have days when I wish I’d written “Valley of the Dolls”. Or maybe I just wish I was the kind of person who could write “Valley of the Dolls”. Jacqueline Susann had such a strange life – incredibly glamorous but also incredibly tough – and when she finally got her moment in the sun, she worked her socks off, took no prisoners and couldn’t care less what anyone thought about her. And she changed the face of publishing for everyone (especially the women) who came after her. She’s like a terrifying New York auntie who flies in for your birthday and gives you a brutal but brilliant make-over, then lights you your first cigarette and lets you swig from her hip-flask while she snogs your boyfriend over the punch-bowl.

Cassandra Parkin ~ November 2016

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Fallow by Daniel Shand #BlogTour @danshand @sandstonepress

At the heart of this tense and at times times darkly comic novel is the relationship between two brothers bound by a terrible crime. 

Paul and Mikey are on the run, apparently from the press surrounding their house after Mikey s release from prison. His crime child murder, committed when he was a boy. 

As they travel, they move from one disturbing scenario to the next, eventually involving themselves with a bizarre religious cult. 

The power between the brothers begins to shift, and we realise there is more to their history than Paul has allowed us to know.

Fallow by Daniel Shand is published in paperback by Sandstone Press on 17 November and is the author's debut novel.

Fallow is a novel that takes the reader on a journey, accompanying two brothers as they flee from the a situation that has consumed both of them for much of their lives.

Paul and Mikey are travelling light, with just a tent and a few clothes, they've camped out in the hills. Paul leads and Mikey follows. Paul buys the food, calls the shots and makes the decisions.

It is quite a while before the reader realises that Mikey has spent the past ten years in prison, we are teased with Paul's memories of the day that changed their life. The day that Mikey was annoyed with his teacher and the two boys skived off school. The day that they came across a small girl; Gail Shaw, and tempted her into the woods. The day that Gail Shaw didn't return to her family.

It is clear that Paul does not want to lose Mikey again, and he convinces himself, and the reader that it is because he cares. He doesn't want Mikey to undergo more interviews, and tests. He wants them to put things behind them, to start again. Paul will stop at nothing to make sure that this happens.

Some of the people that the brothers meet on their travels are friendly, some are not. Some are suspicious, some want things from them. Most of them are dealt with by Paul. Coolly, calmly and with no hesitation. Until the day that they find themselves amongst a strange collection of people who follow a bizarre cult leader, this is when Paul falters and Mikey strengthens.

Tense, brutal, threatening and with sparks of deeply black humour, this is a story unlike any other that I've read. The author has written a novel that is deviously chilling, he has picked apart this intense relationship between two brothers and inspected each part, exposing the hidden and revealing the truth.

Fallow is compelling, convincing and incredibly accomplished. At times it is unflinchingly violent, yet there is a compassion and vulnerability woven into the madness. Chilling and powerful, Daniel Shand is a talented new author, certainly one to watch.

My thanks to the publisher who sent my review copy and invited me to take part in this Blog Tour.

Daniel Shand was born in Kirkcaldy in 1989 and currently lives in Edinburgh, where he is a PhD candidate at the University of Edinburgh and a Scottish literature tutor.
His shorter work has been published in a number of magazines and he has performed at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.
He won the University of Edinburgh Sloan Prize for Fiction and the University of Dundee Creative Writing Award.

For more information visit www.daniel-shand.com
Follow him on Twitter @danshand

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Lyrebird by Cecelia Ahern #BlogTour @Cecelia_Ahern #Lyrebird @fictionpubteam

She will change your life forever…

In the south-west of Ireland, rugged mountains meet bright blue lakes and thick forests. Deep in the woods, a young woman lives alone, forever secluded from the world, her life a well-kept secret. She possesses an extraordinary talent, the likes of which no-one has seen before: a gift that will earn her the nickname Lyrebird.

When Solomon stumbles into Laura’s solitary existence, her life is turned on its head. Pulled from her peaceful landscape to the cacophony of Dublin, she is confronted by a world desperate to understand her.

But while Solomon knows the world will embrace Laura, will it free her to spread her wings – or will it trap her in a gilded cage? Like all wild birds, she needs to fly free…

Lyrebird is a thoughtful, deeply moving love story; a story of the wild heart in us all and the quiet that lies underneath the world’s noise.

Lyrebird by Cecelia Ahern was published in hardback by Harper Collins on 3 November and is the author's fourteenth novel. I'm delighted to host the #BlogTour for #Lyrebird here on Random Things today.

I have to admit that it's been a long time since I read a novel by Cecelia Ahern, but the premise of
Lyrebird intrigued me, I'm really happy to report that I was totally entranced by this book. I'm not sure quite what I expected if I'm honest, but I enjoyed every single page of what can only be described as an intriguing and wonderfully thoughtful story.

Solomon and his girlfriend Bo, along with their colleague Rachel, have returned to Gougane Barra, a small, quite isolated settlement in the Cork countryside. They've returned to attend the funeral of Tom Toolin. Tom and his twin brother Jack were the subjects of their award-winning documentary where Bo and Solomon spent a year following and filming them. Tom has died and Jack is now alone.

Whilst in Gougane Barra they discover a young woman living in the forest in a hidden cottage. None of them, including Jack, had any idea that Laura existed. She's lived there, in secret for the past ten years. The discovery is startling and shocking, but when it becomes apparent that Laura has a very special gift, and can mimic any sound that she hears, Bo seizes the opportunity for an even greater documentary. They will take Laura and show her to the world.

Nicknamed Lyrebird, after the Australian bird, that just like Laura, can mimic the sounds that surround it, Laura is whisked away to the city. Away from everything that she knows, unable to properly process and deal with her losses, and thrust into the bright lights of celebrity as the stand-out contestant on Ireland's biggest TV talent show.

What follows is an extraordinary time for Laura, but also for Solomon and for Bo. Cecelia Ahern has very cleverly exposed the dirty side of TV celebrity, she does not shy away from the selfish and corrupt behaviour that goes into making an unknown person into someone who is then owned by the production company, and the public.

Lyrebird is very well written. The author excels with her characterisation; gently exposing their layers as the story progresses. There are touches of humour and great dollops of sadness, but this story is, at its heart, a love story. From large Irish families, to small isolated communities. From celebrity nightclubs to the vulnerabilities of Laura's co-contestants on the talent show; all of these are portrayed so beautifully and so vividly.

Lyrebird is a novel that shows us who are really are, and how we can become that person. There are secrets and family bonds, it is up to the minute and totally relevant. A wonderful read, I enjoyed it so much.




Cecelia Ahern was born and grew up in Dublin. She is now published in nearly fifty countries, and has sold over twenty-five million copies of her novels worldwide.
Two of her books have been adapted as films and she has created several TV series.
She and her books have won numerous awards, including the Irish Book Award for Popular Fiction for The Year I Met You.
She lives in Dublin with her family

For more information visit www.cecelia-ahern.com
Find her Author page on Facebook
Follow her on Twitter @Cecelia_Ahern

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My Life In Books ~ talking to author Daniel Pembrey @DPemb #MyLifeInBooks @noexitpress

My Life in Books is an occasional feature on Random Things Through My Letterbox

I've asked authors to share with us a list of the books that are important to them and have made a lasting impression on their life.

Please join me in welcoming crime author Daniel Pembrey to Random Things today. I read and reviewed Daniel's book The Harbour Master here on Random Things a few weeks ago.

Daniel says; the books below mark out not only the stages of my life but also the building blocks towards writing my own novel. The Harbour Master is now out with No Exit Press, available at a special introductory price on Kindle here, until Tuesday 8^th November, and also in print edition from 10^th November. The DailyMail has just reviewed it 

For more information visit www.danielpembrey.com
Follow him on Twitter @DPemb
Find his Author page on Facebook

My Life in Books ~ Daniel Pembrey

Sons and Lovers by D H Lawrence    I hail from a small village near Sherwood Forest. My school, Nottingham High School, was previously attended by D.H. Lawrence. I vividly recall Mr Matthews, my English teacher, reading D.H. Lawrence in the dialect of the mining country that Lawrence grew up in. Sons and Lovers (1913) is his first great novel – heavily auto-biographical – and for me his best.      

Black and Blue by Ian Rankin   Next I went to Edinburgh University, where I studied Social and Economic History, so I had an appreciation for Ian Rankin’s use of the Scottish capital early on. Black and Blue (1997) takes a more panoramic view of Scottish society. It won a CWA Gold Dagger, and its use of multiple narrative strands would become a key inspiration for the structure of my Harbour Master series.

Passage to Juneau: A Sea and Its Meanings by Jonathan Raban    I’ve always been a fan of travel writing and indeed, I’d consider my own work to be a blend of travel writing and crime fiction. Travel writing doesn’t come much better than Passage to Juneau: A Sea and Its Meanings (1999), which recounts a personal voyage by Jonathan Raban along the ‘inside passage’ from Seattle, where both he and I were living when this book was published. Passage to Juneau works on multiple levels – retracing Captain Vancouver’s historical voyage, and the author’s navigation of midlife challenges … He broke off the journey to visit his dying father in England (all described in the book), which had an added poignancy because I gave the book to my father when he visited me in Seattle. Dad enjoyed it enormously too.

The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connolly  does not feature Michael Connelly’s famous Harry Bosch detective character, however it does tell one of the most engaging stories I’ve read. In fact I was so wowed by the story telling that I spent two weeks writing a synopsis of it, trying to understand why it works so well. Like all true art, it defies rational anaylsis beyond a certain point. I had the good fortune to interview Michael Connelly recently in London

Double Barrel by Nicolas Freeling    And finally, when I began living in Amsterdam a few years ago, I looked for the kind of crime fiction that I love to read, set there – namely, the maverick, highly effective cop as exemplified by John Rebus or Harry Bosch, only operating in the Dutch capital. I didn’t find that, but I did find Nicolas Freeling’s Van der Valk, written in the ‘60s. Freeling had a major influence on me as a British author writing a Dutch character, and Double-Barrel (1964) is a masterly examination of small town Holland, packing an ending deserving of the title. For more about Freeling and Double-Barrel, please come along to a Dutch Detectives Book Club event at UCL (Central London) on 30^th November: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/dutch-detectives-book-club-tickets-28552161283. 

It would be great to see you there!

Daniel Pembrey ~ November 2016

                                                              

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The Last Night by Cesca Major @CescaWrites @CorvusBooks

In a quiet coastal village, Irina spends her days restoring furniture, passing the time in peace and hiding away from the world. A family secret, long held and never discussed, casts a dark shadow and Irina chooses to withdraw into her work. When an antique bureau is sent to her workshop, the owner anonymous, Irina senses a history to the object that makes her uneasy. As Irina begins to investigate the origins of the piece, she unearths the secrets it holds within...

Decades earlier in the 1950s, another young woman kept secrets. Her name was Abigail. Over the course of one summer, she fell in love, and dreamed of the future. But Abigail could not know that a catastrophe loomed, and this event would change the course of many lives for ever...

The Last Night by Cesca Major is published by Corvus on 3 November in trade paperback and eBook, and is the author's second book.  I read and reviewed her first novel The Silent Hours here on Random Things in March last year.

I adored Cesca Major's The Silent Hours and have been looking forward to The Last Night for a long time. I'm delighted to say that it is everything that I hoped it would be, and more.

Once again the author tells her story using different voices, set in different eras, this worked so well in her last book and it really is a clever way to tell this multi-layered, moving and quite gripping story.

Two women with two stories, and inspired by true events.  The modern-day thread centres around Irina, a furniture restorer, living on the coast and doing her best to avoid the world. Irina is a rich and complex character who keeps her secrets very close. Her face carries scars from a tragic accident that happened many years ago. This incident has not only scarred her face, she bears the inner scars heavily too. The reader is left wondering just what happened to Irina, why she cannot bring herself to talk about it, even to those that she does allow to get close to her.  When a client sends a bureau to Irina for repair, she begins to feel a presence. Strange things begin to happen. She hears things, and sees thing and becomes obsessed with discovering more about the history of this piece of furniture.

Meanwhile, back in the 1950s, young Abigail's mother has died and she goes to live with her sister and her husband. As children, they were close, but have drifted apart over the years and Abigail is surprised by the luxury they live in. She's also surprised by the actions of her brother-in-law, and spends as much time away from the house as possible. She meets and falls in love with a local fisherman. When a devastating incident happens, Abigail's life will change once again.

Cesca Major's writing is so so powerful, her imagery is beautiful. The descriptions of the landscape and the overwhelming presence of water is masterly done. Both Abigail and Irina are characters that the reader will support and empathise with, and the supporting cast are excellently created too. It can't be easy to incorporate true events into a fictional story, but the author manages it beautifully.

The themes of love and secrets, and the dual time story work wonderfully, the links are seamless and the story is haunting and evocative. The Last Night is another very special novel from a very talented author.


My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy of The Last Night for review.

Cesca Major read history at Bristol University. She went on to work in television before becoming a history teacher. In 2005 she was runner up in the Daily Mail Writing Competition for the best opening paragraph to a novel and had a short story published in the Sentinel Literary magazine.
She has written regularly for the website www.novelicious.com and films writing videos for www.writersandartists.com
She currently works as a housemistress at a boarding school in Berkshire.

Find out more a www.cescamajor.com
Follow her on Twitter @CescaWrites

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Beneath The Ashes by Jane Isaac #BlogTour @JaneIsaacAuthor @Legend_Press

The floor felt hard beneath her face. Nancy opened her eyes. Blinked several times. A pain seared through her head. She could feel fluid. No. She was lying in fluid.

When a body is discovered in a burnt-out barn in the Warwickshire countryside, DI Will Jackman is called to investigate.

Nancy Faraday wakes up on the kitchen floor. The house has been broken into and her boyfriend is missing. As the case unravels, DI Jackman realises that nothing is quite as it appears and everyone, it seems, has a secret.

Can he discover the truth behind the body in the fire, and track down the killer before Nancy becomes the next victim?

Welcome to the BLOG TOUR for Beneath The Ashes by Jane Isaac, published by Legend Press on 1 November 2016. This is the second in the DI Will Jackman series, the first; Before It's Too Late was published in June 2015.


I haven't read the first book in this series, but that really doesn't matter as Jane Isaac gives enough background information about her leading man, DI Will Jackman to enable the reader to feel very familiar with him. However, I am intrigued by his back story and have bought a copy of Before It's Too Late so that I can catch up.

Beneath The Ashes is an intelligently written crime story, packed with police procedural and
brimming with tension, I was engrossed throughout.

The story begins with a short, but startling prologue - an unknown woman stumbling through a graveyard, police sirens in the distance, and a shocking final sentence. This is a terrific opener and it lingers in the reader's mind throughout the rest of the story, it's not until the final pages of the story that we understand the relevance of it.

The main story opens with DC Jackman attending a call out. He and his colleagues find a burnt-out barn down a little used, isolated track. Inside the barn, they find the body of a man. This becomes a murder investigation and Jackman and his team really do have their work cut out, right from the beginning. Not only do they have a body with no name, or is it two names, they also have pressure from the higher authorities to get the case solved, and quickly. Jackman also has his own personal issues to deal with. The looming interview with Thames Valley Police, and the devastation he feels about his wife who suffered life-changing injuries in a car accident - an accident that Jackman feels responsible for. Added to this, his daughter has flown the nest. He's lonely, and his work has become his whole life.

Jane Isaac has written an exceptional story with real depth and some wonderful characterisation. Her plot is complicated yet thrilling, with twists that are unexpected and an ending that I certainly didn't see coming.

Beneath The Ashes is absorbing, with a lead character who I fell a little in love with. This is clever and the plotting is fiendishly good. I'm looking forward to reading more by Jane Isaac.


With thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review and invited me to take part in this blog tour.

Jane Isaac lives with her husband, daughter and dog, Bollo, in rural Northamptonshire.

Her first novel, An Unfamiliar Murder, was published in the US in 2012 and nominated as best mystery in the 'eFestival of Words Best of the Independent eBook Awards 2013'.

The Truth Will Out, was selected 'Crime Thriller of the Month' by E'Thriller.com and 'Noveltunity Book Club Winning Selection.

Jane studied creative writing with the Writers Bureau and the London School of Journalism. Jane's short stories have appeared in several crime fiction anthologies. 

Visit Jane at www.janeisaac.co.uk 
Follow her on Twitter @JaneIsaacAuthor

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