The Engagements by Courtney Sullivan ** BLOG TOUR **

I'm really thrilled to be a host for J Courtney Sullivan's blog tour celebrating the paperback release of her novel The Engagements, published by Virago (Little Brown) on 2 January 2014.
The hardback was published back in July last year, and I reviewed it here on Random Things in August.

Moving from a Harvard swim-meet in 1927 to the three-martini lunches of 1940s advertising, from the back streets of 1980s Boston to an exquisite Parisian music shop in 2003, The Engagements is a novel about love, marriage, commitment and betrayal; it is as sharp,  as fiery and as beautiful as the stone we have taken to represent our dreams.

‘The Engagements convinces and, in the final section, packs a powerful emotional punch that keeps sentimentality at arm's reach. Here is an absorbing read that will move you and make you think.’ The Independent on Sunday

The Engagements is currently being made into a film by Fox 2000 with Reese Witherspoon producing.

Courtney Sullivan (32) published her first book at the age of 25, was assistant editor of Allure magazine before becoming a staff writer at The New York Times and now writes novels full time and writes freelance for the New York Times Book Review, New York magazine, Elle, Glamour, Allure and the New York Observer, among others. Courtney is the New York Times bestselling author of Maine and Commencement.

I'm delighted to welcome Courtney to Random Things today, and thank her for answering my questions;

Do you read reviews of your novels? Do you take them seriously?

I read a lot of reviews that run in newspapers and magazines and on blogs, but not all of them. I avoid
anonymous Amazon reviews, since they rarely contain constructive criticism and sometimes tend toward comments like “I didn’t care for the paper stock.” I’m always suspicious of authors who say they don’t read their own reviews, in the same way I don’t trust people who say they dislike chocolate. How can one possibly resist?

It sometimes takes a thick skin to read what others have to say about your work. I’ve read reviews that really upset me, because I felt the reviewer was unfair or sexist or hadn’t read the book very closely. But I’ve also read intelligent so-so reactions to my own work that led me to a greater understanding of how to do better next time.

How long does it take to write a novel?

I’ve written three so far, and each one was different. My first, Commencement, took about three years, but while I was writing it I didn’t yet have a publisher or a book contract. And I still had a full-time job, working as a researcher and freelance writer at the New York Times.  My second novel, Maine, took two years. TheEngagements—which was the most complex and research-heavy—took just a year and a half, but by the time I started writing it, I no longer had another job.

Do you have any writing rituals?

I need tea. And I need to be alone in a room that’s completely silent. I could never write in a coffee shop, as many of my friends do. I’d be too tempted to eavesdrop on all the strangers around me.  When I’m working on an essay or an article, I’m less particular. But with fiction, I need to be able to immerse myself in the world of the characters with no distractions.

What was your favourite childhood book?

There were so many. I loved The Secret Garden.  Anne of Green Gables.  Tuck Everlasting.  Stuart Little. Mr. Popper’s Penguins. Harriet the Spy. And anything by Beverly Cleary, Judy Blume, Laura Ingalls Wilder and Roald Dahl.

 

Name one book that made you laugh?

This past summer, while traveling on book tour, I read an early copy of a memoir called Love, Nina. I have never laughed so much reading a book. I was in hysterics on multiple flights. I’m sure my fellow passengers thought I was nuts.

Name one book that made you cry?

A collection of journalism by the late Marjorie Williams, called The Woman at the Washington Zoo. Williams was so sharp and funny when she wrote about politics. This book combines her political observations with the story of the cancer that eventually took her life. I remember wanting to speed through because it was so good. But I was crying so much I could barely see the pages!

Which fictional character would you like to meet?

Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables.

Which book would you give to your best friend as a present?

Truth and Beauty by Ann Patchett. Or A Gift From The Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh.

Are you inspired by any particular author or book?

As a novelist, I am eager to get the plot and characters down on paper as quickly as I can. I return to the poems of W.H. Auden to remind me to look at my writing at the level of the sentence and the word. His use of language is so exquisite and precise. I’ve loved his collected poems since high school, and I still find myself discovering and relating to new ones every time I open the book.

What is your guilty pleasure read?

I tend to feel guilty about any number of things at any given moment (thank you, Catholic upbringing!) But I never feel guilty about books. My guilty pleasure reading is limited to US Weekly magazine, which I only allow myself to look at on airplanes and at the dentist’s office, lest I develop an actual need to know more about the Kardashians.

Who are your favourite authors?

Kate Atkinson, Nora Ephron, Charles Dickens, Meg Wolitzer, Joan Didion, Dorothy Parker, Ethan Canin, Edith Wharton, Maile Meloy. To name just a few!

What book have you re-read?

My favorite novel is A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley. I’ve read it more times than I can remember.

What book have you given up on?

Lots of them. I have no qualms about putting a book aside if I don’t like it. Sometimes it’s just an issue of timing—there are books I’ve started that I didn’t connect with, but a few years later I might pick them up again and fall in love.

For more information about Courtney, and her books take a look at her website www.jcourtneysullivan.com    Check out the Facebook page, follow her on Twitter @jourtsull

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

Alice is twenty-nine. She adores sleep, chocolate, and her ramshackle new house. 

She's newly engaged to the wonderful Nick and is pregnant with her first baby.

There's just one problem. All of that was ten years ago . .  

Alice has slipped in a step-aerobics class, hit her head and lost a decade. Now she's a grown-up, bossy mother of three in the middle of a nasty divorce and her beloved sister Elisabeth isn't speaking to her. This is her life but not as she knows it. 

Clearly Alice has made some terrible mistakes. Just how much can happen in a decade? 

Can she ever get back to the woman she used to be?

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty was originally published in 2010 and the special reissue is being released here in the UK by Penguin on 16 January 2014.

I read Liane Moriarty's last novel; The Husband's Secret last year and really enjoyed it, so I was interested to see how this one would compare.  

Set in Australia, we meet Alice just as she is coming round from a nasty bang on the head after falling during her weekly exercise session at the gym.   Alice really doesn't have a clue what she is doing in a gym of all places, and how on earth did her stomach get so taught and flat.   Who are these women surrounding her who all seem to know her, and oh God - is the baby that she's expecting still OK?  
But Alice isn't pregnant with her first baby at all.  She's not twenty-nine, passionately in love with her husband Nick and in the process of renovating their new home.

It appears that Alice is in fact thirty-nine, the mother of three children and a gym regular.  She's also a control freak, she's on almost every committee in town and is also in the process of getting a divorce.

Alice has lost the last ten years, totally forgotten everything.  She can't believe that she and Nick hate each other, she doesn't understand why her beloved sister seems so cold towards her and hasn't a clue who this person called Gina that everyone talks about is, or what an impact she's had on her life.

Liane Moriarty is a very funny, very clever author.  What Alice Forgot is frightening in that it really could happen - to any of us.  All the way through this story I couldn't help but put myself in Alice's position.  How awful to all of a sudden be an almost-divorced mother of three.  How awful to find that you have become one of those women that years ago you would have laughed at.  How bloody awful to find that you don't like yourself at all, and those that you love don't like you any more either.

The observation of life and how people can change is excellent and so very well done.  The glimpses into Alice's new life which she compares to her old life and her old personality are tantalising and I was so desperate to know why and how Alice and her life had changed so much.

Sometimes the plot is just a tad predictable, and maybe just a little over the top at times but this honestly didn't spoil my enjoyment of the novel in any way.   What Alice Forgot is an entertaining read, a story that makes you think about life, extremely well written - I thoroughly enjoyed it.

My thanks to Katie from Penguin who sent my copy for review.

Liane Moriarty is an Australian author and sister of author Jaclyn Moriarty. In its review of her 2013 novel, The Husband's Secret, she was referred to as "an edgier, more provocative and bolder successor to Maeve Binchy" by Kirkus Reviews.

Liane Moriarty began work in advertising and marketing at a legal publishing company. She then ran her own company for a while before taking work as a freelance advertising copywriter. In 2004, after obtaining a Master's degree at Macquarie University in Sydney her first novel Three Wishes, written as part of the degree, was published. 

She is now the author of several other novels, including The Last Anniversary (2006) and What Alice Forgot (2010), The Hypnotist's Love Story (2011), and The Husband's Secret (2013). She is also the author of the Nicola Berry series for children.

Liane Moriarty lives in Sydney with her husband and two children. 

Find more information about the author and her novels on her website www.lianemoriarty.com.au  and on Facebook

Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, & Me by Ellen Forney

Shortly before her thirtieth birthday, Forney was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Suffering from (but enjoying) extreme mania, and terrified that medication would cause her to lose creativity, she began a long struggle over many years to find mental stability while retaining her creativity. 

Searching to make sense of the popular idea of the 'crazy artist', she finds inspiration from the lives and work of other artists and writers who suffered from mood disorders, including Vincent van Gogh, Georgia O'Keeffe, William Styron, and Sylvia Plath. 

She also researches the clinical aspects of bipolar disorder, including the strengths and limitations of various treatments and medications, and what studies tell us about the conundrum of attempting to "cure" an otherwise brilliant mind. 

Darkly funny and intensely personal, Forney's memoir provides a humorous but authentic glimpse into the effects of a mood disorder on an artist's work, as she shares her own story through black-and-white graphic images and prose.

 Marbles is a graphic memoir by American cartoonist Ellen Forney and was published here in the UK by Constable & Robinson on 15 August 2013.

The saying goes; "A picture paints a thousand words", and this book is the perfect example of that saying, but the words alongside the cartoons that Forney has drawn to describe her battle with bi-polar add another dimension to the pictures.  Alone, the cartoons are brilliant, they express her innermost feelings perfectly, but add her words and you are taken to the very extremes of her illness.

Ellen Forney started to write Marbles in 2008, ten years after the events that she tells about actually took place.  She has been able to look back, with honesty, and with a little humour on what was an extremely difficult, challenging time in her life.   Her pain and distress are captured in the cartoon images of herself.  Her usually bright face with the Betty Boop eyes changes as the illness grips her, and at times she depicts herself so vividly that it is almost painful to see how she imagined herself, and her life.

Her battle against the medication regime, worrying that pills would kill her creativity.  Her research into other artists through the years who have suffered, and her comparisons to their lives.  Her discovery of yoga, her conversations with her psychiatrist, with herself, with her family and friends.   All of these are here, in full detail and the pain shines through.

Marbles is a wickedly funny, yet painfully truthful look at how bi-polar affects a person, and those around them.  Ellen Forney has not hidden anything, and faced her challenges head-on.  The book is frank, honest and funny.  The illustrations are hard-hitting and at times, desperately sad.

A book that pulls the reader in from the very first page, it is an illuminating read that looks honestly at bi-polar and how one extraordinary woman coped.

Cartoonist Ellen Forney is the author of NYT bestseller Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me, and the 2012 “Genius Award” winner in Literature from Seattle's The Stranger. She collaborated with Sherman Alexie on the National Book Award-winning novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, created the Eisner-nominated comic books I Love Led Zeppelin and Monkey Food, and has taught comics at Cornish College of the Arts since 2002. She grew up in Philadelphia and has lived in Seattle, Washington since 1989. Ellen swims and does yoga, and fixes things with rubber bands and paper clips.

For more information about the author and her work, visit her website www.marblesbyellenforney.com.   Find her on Facebook, or follow her on Twitter @ellen_forney

Season To Taste or How to Eat Your Husband by Natalie Young

Always let the meat rest under foil for at least ten minutes before carving...

Meet Lizzie Prain. Ordinary housewife. Fifty-something. Lives in a cottage in the woods, with her dog Rita. Likes cooking, avoids the neighbours. Runs a little business making cakes.

No one has seen Lizzie's husband, Jacob, for a few days. That's because last Monday, on impulse, Lizzie caved in the back of his head with a spade. And if she's going to embark on the new life she feels she deserves after thirty years in Jacob's shadow, she needs to dispose of his body. Her method appeals to all her practical instincts, though it's not for the faint-hearted. Will Lizzie have the strength to follow it through?

Published on 16 January 2014 by Tinder Press, Season To Taste or How to Eat Your Husband is Natalie Young's second novel.  I read and reviewed her first book We All Run Into The Sunlight in April 2011 and I said that I thought Natalie Young was an 'author to watch', and described her novel as 'strange yet compelling'.  I stand by all I said!

There is a real ingenuity to Season To Taste.  The idea behind it, the writing, the subtlety, the horror, the black humour, and yet it is quite sedate, almost staid - very steady.

I am giving nothing away by telling you that the story begins just as Lizzie has murdered her husband Jacob. She battered him around the head with a garden spade on on ordinary Monday morning.  Lizzie has endured a long and miserable marriage, and she certainly does not intend for anyone to make her suffer now that Jacob is finally gone.  So, her idea to make sure that she can get away and start her new life in Scotland is that she will chop up Jacob into sixteen pieces, bag and label each part of him, freeze the parts and eat them over the next few weeks.  She'll cook them in different ways; grill, stew, barbeque, grill.  She'll season him well with; lemon juice, garlic, herbs and spices.   Then she will leave, and then she will be happy.

This story is told in a very matter-of-fact way, don't expect a fast and furious read, and don't expect to read of Lizzie's sorrow or regret, or panic, or dismay.  Lizzie knows what she is doing, and how she will do it, and focusses entirely on her freedom.  Be prepared though for some stomach-churning descriptive prose when reading about the process of dismembering the body and the cooking of each part.  Natalie Young has a wonderfully macabre imagination that transposes to her writing quite beautifully.

Not everything goes quite as Lizzie plans; enter the character of Emmett, a old, wandering, senile man who poses a threat along the way.

Ultimately, underneath the horror of what Lizzie has done, is a story of a very broken relationship.  The reader is given an insight into Lizzie and Jacob's marriage, and it is not a happy place to be.  Lizzie is a woman whose mind is teetering on the edge, driven to do something so awful, and writing her own guide on how to cope along the way.   The insight into marriage, and into a broken mind is chilling.

There are times when the story feels a little disjointed (no pun intended!), but overall, this is a very cleverly written novel with touches of very very black humour, and an overwhelming feeling of sadness and pity.




Natalie Young was born in 1976. She studied English at Bristol University and published her first novel, We All Ran Into the Sunlight, in 2011 while working as the Arts and Books Editor of ProspectMagazine. For several years before that she worked on The Times and contributed regularly to the Books section and to the Saturday Review. She has lived in France, Italy and Australia. She currently lives in London with her two children.

Follow her on Twitter @natalieyyoung

Finding Mother by Anne Allen & Interview with the Author

Three women. Three generations. Sacrifices for love…  

Who is she really? Nicole is about to find out as she searches for her real mother; the woman who gave her away at birth. With her marriage in tatters, she sets out from England: travelling to Spain, Jersey and Guernsey before the extraordinary story of her real family is finally revealed.  

Nicole becomes an unwitting catalyst for change in the family. Two women are forced to reveal long-buried secrets. One going back as far as the Second World War. Lives are transformed as choices have to be made and the past laid to rest… 

Successful TV journalist Nicole seems to have it all, from the outside her marriage to Tom appears to be perfect.  They are both doing well in their careers, their house is beautiful, they have the world at their feet.  When Nicole discovers evidence that Tom has cheated on her yet again she makes a decision that will alter her life.

Nicole tells Tom that their marriage is finally over, she can't take any more of his cheating and his lies. She flees to Spain to visit her parents in their retirement villa, and to decide what she is going to do next.

Nicole was adopted as a baby, her adoptive parents gave her a loving home and she wanted for nothing, she was a happy child.  Nicole wonders just who she really is, and whether her real parentage has any bearing on her life today.  With her parents' blessing she decides that it is time to return to the Channel Islands to  find out more about her background.

Jersey and Guernsey are small islands made up of close-knit communities, and it is not long before Nicole has the details of her birth mother.  Events move quickly and before she knows it, she has discovered not just her birth mother, but a whole set of relatives. Her new family, however, is not very straight forward and Nicole's reappearance rakes up old secrets, betrayals, lies and heartache that goes back many years.

Anne Allen's writing is warm and appealing.  Her characters are well rounded, and the plot moves very quickly.  For me, the most enjoyable part of this novel was the Channel Islands.  Life, culture and the beauty of the surroundings are drawn so well.  The reader really begins to feel as though they too are travelling the roads of Guernsey, visiting the bays and drinking in the assorted bars and coffee shops.  Anne Allen brings these places to life.

Finding Mother is a novel that deals with sensitive issues very well.  The heartbreak of giving away a much-loved baby, the despair of losing a cherished lover and the difficulties of living in a very close community are handled very well.

I enjoyed the novel very much.  My one criticism is that the story is a little too well tied up for me, things seem to fall into place for Nicole quite effortlessly, personally I'd have liked a little more angst and drama - but that's just my opinion!

Finding Mother was published in paperback on 21 November 2013.

Anne Allen, the author of Finding Mother has kindly visited Random Things today and has answered a few questions for us.  I'd like to say a huge thanks to Anne for taking the time to talk to me, and welcome to Random Things Through My Letterbox. 

For more information about Anne and her novels, visit her website www.anneallen.co.uk and follow her on Twitter @AnneAllen21

Do you read reviews of your novels? Do you take them seriously?  Is there an author out there who doesn't read their reviews?! Particularly for a new author or book, it's the confirmation – or otherwise! - that your book was found to be worth reading by someone you don't know. It's hard not to take them seriously, particularly if the review is very critical. Oddly enough, poor reviews stick with you much longer than good ones. I've hit myself over the head a few times after reading the odd negative review. However, one reviewer of my first novel, Dangerous Waters, listed a few things she didn't like about it, but still ended up saying that in spite of her comments she enjoyed it and gave it 4 stars! Perhaps I should stop reading them and save myself some angst J

How long does it take to write a novel?    Depends how you measure the process. I took six months to write the first draft of Dangerous Waters, but then several years, on and off, re-writing and editing. I managed to speed up with my second, Finding Mother; completing the various edits and re-writes within a year. I'm now writing the third, Guernsey Retreat, which I plan to publish in 2014; meaning a further increase in writing speed. I'm never ceased to be amazed that some writers can produce several books a year. I wonder when they sleep!

Do you have any writing rituals?   Until a few months ago I would always write in longhand before typing up what I'd written. But then I had problems with arthritis in my thumb and had to lessen the impact on my hand and now type from the beginning. I always found it easier to let my thoughts flow when writing with a pen so still plan the novel and write character bio's by hand. The advantage of using a pen and paper is that you can write anywhere and I love sitting outside on a warm, sunny day with a pen and pad.

I do like to 'clear my desk', so to speak, before settling down to write. If I have any outstanding chores or emails I find it difficult to concentrate until they are out of the way. Mind you, I can quite happily write while a pile of ironing awaits J

What was your favourite childhood book?  A difficult one! I loved reading so much as a child that I devoured several a week from the town library. I do remember enjoying the Mallory Towers series by Enid Blyton, desperately wanting to go off to boarding school for the adventures Blyton convinced me would be mine. Coming from a working-class family, it wasn't an option!

Name one book that made you laugh?   'Driving Over Lemons' by Chris Stewart. It's the true story of an expat family who buy a farm in a remote part of southern Spain. I'd recently moved to Spain myself at the time and could really relate to it. And Chris's story was extremely funny as he described various mishaps that overtook the family.

Name one book that made you cry?   'One Day' by David Nichol. I hated the ending!

Which fictional character would you like to meet?  Mr D'Arcy 

Which book would you give to your best friend as a present?   You mean apart from one of mine?! Probably 'Quincunx' by Charles Palliser. It's a Dickens/Trollope kind of book, brimming with fascinating characters and convoluted plots, displaying more than a passing nod to 'Bleak House'.

Are you inspired by any particular author or book?   Not one author, no.  But I think several writers have inspired me, including Erica James, Katie Fforde, Maeve Binchy and Mary Higgins Clark.

What is your guilty pleasure read?   A light-hearted Georgian romance from Georgette Heyer. Bliss!

Who are your favourite authors?  Apart from those mentioned above, I enjoy books by Robert Goddard, C J Sansom and Robert Harris.

What book have you re-read?  One or two by Georgette Heyer!

What book have you given up on?  There's been a few. I did once start reading 'A Brief History of Time' by Stephen Hawking but…!

Many thanks Anne!

G I Brides by Duncan Barrett & Nuala Calvi

The ‘friendly invasion’ of Britain by over a million American G.I.s caused a sensation amongst a generation of young women deprived of male company during the Second World War. With their exotic accents, smart uniforms and aura of Hollywood glamour, the G.I.s soon had the local girls queuing up for a date, and the British boys off fighting abroad turning green with envy.
But American soldiers offered something even more tantalising than a ready supply of chocolate, chewing gum and nylon stockings. Becoming a G.I. bride provided an escape route from Blitz-ravaged Britain, an opportunity for a whole new life in America – a country that was more affluent, more modern and less class-ridden than home. 

Some 70,000 G.I. brides crossed the Atlantic at the end of the war to join the men who had captured their hearts – but the long voyage was just the beginning of a much bigger journey.
Once there, the women would have to adapt to a foreign culture and a new way of life thousands of miles away from family and friends, with a man they hardly knew out of uniform. Some struggled with the isolation of life in rural America, or found their heroic soldier was less appealing once he returned to Civvy Street. But most persevered, determined to turn their wartime romance into a lifelong love affair, and prove to those back home that it really was possible to have a Hollywood ending.

Back in August of last year, I read and reviewed The G I Bride by Iris Jones Simantel, this is Iris' own story about how she met and married her own GI and went over to America to start a new life with him. Not long after my review was published, I was contacted by Duncan Barrett who told me about his own book; G I Brides which was published by Harper Collins on 29 August 2013.   I read G I Brides over the Christmas break, and have enjoyed this story so much.

This book concentrates on four young English women; Gwendolyn, Rae, Margaret and Sylvia, just four amongst the thousands that left Britain at the end of World War II to follow their new husbands home to the United States.  The authors have carried out many many interviews and have put together a wonderfully informative, entertaining and poignant look at what life was really like for these women.  Duncan Barrett's co-author; Nuala Calvi is the granddaughter of Margaret, which just makes her particular story even more compelling.

Life in the United States wasn't easy for any of the four women.  They were all young, fairly inexperienced and found themselves in 'the land of plenty' after living through the tough war years, on meagre rations, dodging the bombs and generally living life from day to day.  Arriving in American after what was often a horrendous journey across the ocean was not always the beginning of a dream life for them, in fact it is fair to say that a couple of these brave women actually found themselves in a living nightmare for a time.

Racial inequality, language differences, hostile parents in law, gambling, alcoholism, pregnancies, the weather, personal illness .. the list goes on and on.  Despite the almost never-ending problems and some extremely challenging times, these women pulled themselves through it all and made lives for themselves that were fulfilling and productive.

This is not all 'happy ever after', this is real life, real women and real hardship.  What it is though is a uplifting book filled with stories that show the strength of these four incredible women.   It is essential that stories like these are recorded as sadly it won't be long until there are no living memories still with us.

I enjoyed every page of this touching book, it is well-written with warmth and at times, humour.

For more information about the book, and the women visit the dedicated website www.gibrides.com and visit the Facebook page and Twitter @gibrides

My thanks to Duncan Barrett and Virginia from Harper Non-Fiction who sent my copy for review.

Jellybird by Lezanne Clannachan

'I'm good at secrets,' Libby says. Yes, thinks Jessica, I bet you are . . .

Jessica should have everything to make her happy: a loving husband, a growing reputation as a jewellery designer, hope for a family of her own in the future. Then she meets Libby - flattering, attentive - and believes she has found the friendship she missed out on as a child. Until Jessica catches her husband and Libby alone, heads together in whispered collusion. 

With her life unravelling, Jessica flees home to the seaside town where she grew up. The discovery of an old postcard among her childhood belongings sends Jessica in search of her first love, Thomas, 'the ghost boy' who disappeared one night seventeen years ago. The last time Jessica saw Thomas he was covered in blood and begging her to hide him. Now to find him, Jessica must confront the secrets that link her to Libby, the missing boy and a brutal murder.

Jellybird is the debut novel from Lezanne Clannachan.  The hardback edition was published by Orion in March 2013, the paperback will be published on 13 February 2014.

Jessica is a woman who appears, on the surface, to have it all.  A successful career creating jewellery from everyday items, a husband Jacques who adores her, a nice home.   She also harbours secrets.  Secrets from her childhood, when her father abandoned the family and then her only friend Thomas disappeared suddenly one night.  To remind herself of how worthless she really is, Jessica hurts herself - in secret.

Then Libby appears.   Bright, loud, spontaneous Libby who wants to be Jessica's friend.  Jessica is soon swept up in Libby's life, brushing aside Jacques' concerns, just delighted to have a friend.  When Jessica sees Jacques and Libby together one day, all of her insecurities rush back. She remembers her mother Birdie - how she would question Jessica's father about where he had been, who he had seen - until one day he left and didn't come home.  Jessica doesn't want to be like Birdie, so instead she flees back to her childhood home - the seaside caravan park and memories of Thomas.

Jellybird is a dark and quite unsettling story, and although it's not a long book at just over 350 pages, it took me quite a while to read it.  There is an air of menace around Jessica's back story, the caravan park and surrounding area are described so perfectly that their bleakness and desolation resounds through the story.

Jessica is a complex character and her story is complicated.  Lezanne Clannachan is very subtle in her writing, and the story is slowly revealed.

Uncovering secrets, revealing betrayals and looking deep into family relationships, Jellybird is a fine debut novel.  The writing is stark yet powerful, the story is gripping and powerful.  

Lezanne Clannachan was born in Denmark and moved to England when she was 14.  After university, Lezanne lived in Singapore for several years before moving to London to work in marketing and event management.  Married with three children, Lezanne Clannachan lives in West Sussex in a haunted house.


For more information about the author visit her website www.lezanneclannachan.co.uk.  
Find her on Facebook and Twitter @LezanneClan