You, Me and Other People by Fionnuala Kearney **** BLOG TOUR *****

THEY SAY EVERY FAMILY HAS SKELETONS IN THEIR CLOSET . . .

But what happens when you open the door and they won’t stop tumbling out?

For Adam and Beth the first secret wasn’t the last, it was just the beginning.

You think you can imagine the worst thing that could happen to your family, but there are some secrets that change everything.

And then the question is, how can you piece together a future when your past is being rewritten?

Welcome to my spot on the BLOG TOUR for You, Me and Other People.

You, Me and Other People was published on 18 June 2015 by Harper and is Fionnuala Kearney's debut novel.


The cover art for You, Me and Other People is so striking, it's clever and very reflective of the story within the pages. I'm a sucker for a beautiful cover and this is one that would certainly catch my eye in a bookshop.

Fionnuala Kearney has given us the story of a broken marriage. There's certainly nothing new about that as the basis for a novel, but this author has cleverly told the story from both sides. The voices of the main characters; Adam and Beth are clear and separate, the characterisation is superb and the dialogue is effective and very authentic.

There is far more to this story than Adam's infidelity. It is a hot bed of secrets, mysteries and long hidden lies, and these are slowly but surely exposed via the author's excellent writing skills.

I didn't like Adam, or what he has done. Not many of the other characters like Adam either, in fact I don't think Adam really likes himself either. Beth, on the other hand, is a strong and determined character.

Despite her heartbreak and feelings of loss towards Adam and her marriage, she is able to realise that she is worth more than Adam. She's also got their daughter Meg to consider, and although it is clear that Adam does love Meg too, it is Beth who deals with Meg's day-to-day sorrow and grief as well as her own.

Most of us will have gone through the heartache of a break-up. Most of us will recognise the feelings and emotions that this author so excellently portrays in her characters. The complexities of modern relationships and the fall-out when they fail are dealt with so well in You, Me and Other People and as certain facts about Adam are slowly uncovered, the reader's feelings about him can change.

You, Me and Other People is a very accomplished and polished debut novel. The story is compelling, the characters are realistic and the writing flows beautifully.


My thanks to the publisher for sending my review copy and inviting me to take part in this blog tour. Do check out the other stops on the tour for more reviews and special features, starting with Leah's thoughts and interview with the author at Reflections of a Reader

Fionnuala Kearney lives in Ascot with her husband. They have two grown-up daughters (both with deliberately simple monosyllabic names). 
One of seven children, Fionnuala likes to write about the nuances and subtle layers of human relationships, peeling them away to see what’s really going on beneath. You, Me and Other People is her first novel. 

Follow her on Twitter @fionnualatweets

Check out her website www.fionnualakearney.com




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Summer At Shell Cottage by Lucy Diamond

A seaside holiday at Shell Cottage in Devon has always been the perfect escape for the Tarrant family. Beach fun, barbecues and warm summer evenings with a cocktail or two - who could ask for more?

But this year, everything has changed. Following her husband's recent death, Olivia is struggling to pick up the pieces. Then she makes a shocking discovery that turns her world upside down.

As a busy mum and GP, Freya's used to having her hands full, but a bad day at work has put her career in jeopardy and now she's really feeling the pressure.

Harriet's looking forward to a break with her lovely husband Robert and teenage daughter Molly. But unknown to Harriet, Robert is hiding a secret - and so, for that matter, is Molly . . .

Summer at Shell Cottage was published by Pan MacMillan in paperback on 4 June 2015, and is Lucy Diamond's tenth novel. I am a huge fan of her writing and reviewed some of her earlier books here on Random Things; The Beach Cafe (July 2011); Me and Mr Jones (May 2013); One Night in Italy (March 2014); The Year of Taking Chances (December 2014).

The Tarrant family have always spent the summer at Shell Cottage. Many years ago, when Alec and Olivia were newly-weds, they discovered this wonderful little spot. They returned year after year, until eventually they bought it. They brought their children, who in turn, brought their own children. Shell Cottage is full of happy memories, a place to be together, to relax and forget about the stresses of everyday life.

This year is different. Alec died suddenly and Olivia is bereft. She has lost her soul-mate, her best friend, the father of her children, her other half.

When Olivia arrives at the cottage, her already upside-down world is shaken once more. She discovers more about Alec than she could ever have imagined. Her memories and beliefs are shattered, she's not sure that she will ever be mended.

Lucy Diamond has, once again, created a cast of characters that the reader can relate to, can love and can empathise with. A family with huge characters and lots and lost of issues. Each family member is precisely drawn, with their own traits and huge personalities. The reader accompanies each one of them as they travel through the summer and deal with a holiday that none of them will forget.

The Devon setting is perfect, described with exquisite detail that made me want to book a week in a cottage on the coastline immediately - and that says so much, as I actually read this novel whilst lying on a sun bed in Corfu!

Lucy Diamond's writing is warm and witty, yet manages to deal with some serious issues intelligently and thoughtfully.

Summer at Shell Cottage is another sparkly, glowing read from Lucy Diamond. Her fans will adore this one, and new readers will be delighted to find her stories too.

My thanks to the publisher, Pan MacMillan, who sent my copy for review.

Check out Shaun's great review of Summer at Shell Cottage over at his blog Book Addict Shaun



Lucy Diamond lives in Bath with her husband and their three children. When she isn't slaving away on a new book (ahem) you can find her;

on Twitter @LDiamondAuthor        

or on Facebook 

and at her website  www.lucydiamond.co.uk







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LifeBlood by Gill Fyffe

Poisoned. Ruined. Silenced. A family story. 

In 1988 Gill Fyffe undergoes a traumatic birth, requiring a blood transfusion. Over the following years, Gill struggles to raise her family as she experiences constant and extreme fatigue, at one point falling asleep at the wheel, crashing her car. 

When her daughter is seven she receives word from the authorities her transfusion was contaminated. 

She has Hepatitis C, a virus that destroys the liver. Gill is treated with Alpha Interferon. The treatment fails because it is too late. Because of the crippling side-effects, including memory loss, photosensitivity with skin that cannot tolerate sunlight, she has to resign from her job teaching in a top private school. She cannot sue, because it is too late. 

Financially ruined, Gill uncovers years of unheeded warnings about the safety of blood donations and a shameless official cover-up.  

LifeBlood is the extraordinary, heart-breaking story of how a woman s life has been affected by one the UK's biggest medical scandals. It is also a remarkable portrait of a family under stress, and how it comes to value what really matters. As a major inquiry is due to report after many years of delays, Gill's story is a timely and explosive reminder of the human cost of placing profit before ethics and the establishment's unwillingness to compensate for its mistakes.

LifeBlood by Gill Fyffe was published in paperback and ebook by Freight Books on 23 March 2015.

Despite the horror of the situation that Gill Fyffe has found herself in the middle of, despite the injustice and the downright lies that she has suffered from, I found myself captivated by this book.

Yes, I wanted to shout and scream on her behalf. I dearly wanted her to be able to expose the terrible cover-ups that went on at Government level, I wanted her and her family to be compensated for the years of hardship they had endured. I wanted her to be angry and fierce, and she is. She's very very angry, and determined and absolutely fearless about dealing with the establishment.

I remember the 80s, when stories of AIDS and HIV dominated the media. The rumours, the misinformation, the total nonsense that we believed. Gill Fyffe gave birth to her daughter in 1988, slap bang in the middle of all of this. The birth was not easy, Gill lost a great deal of blood and needed a transfusion. Despite her protests, her worries about infection, her belief in the AIDS story, she was persuaded by the medics that it was safe.

That day was not only the first day of her daughter's life, it was also the day that would change Gill and her husband for ever. Gill never really felt well again after her daughter was born, and it was seven years later that she learnt that yes, she was infected, but she was not HIV positive. Gill had Hepatitis C and it was going to destroy her liver, it was incurable.

LifeBlood is Gill's story of her battle that has raged for years and years. Her battle to expose the official cover-up about infected blood. Gill battled them all. She lost her job, the medication that was supposed to help her only made things worse, she and her husband had no money, they sold everything, they left their home, they fought on and on.

Gill tells her story in a forthright and honest manner. She doesn't ask for sympathy, she is blunt. She despairs, she asks 'why me?', she rages at the unfairness and through it all she brings up her children and creates a loving family unit.

Gill is often very funny. I don't think we are supposed to find a woman who cannot tolerate any light, who has to smother her face in thick emollient cream and cover her head funny at all, but Gill's writing does evoke laughter.

Gill is not the only person to have been treated in this way. Thousands of people were involved, many died.

LifeBlood is a fascinating insight into how difficult it can be to fight against the establishment. How the ordinary person can be reduced to just a number. It is also a story of humanity and bravery and hope and determination. Written straight from the heart, with passion.

My thanks to the publisher, Freight Books, who sent my copy for review.

Gill Fyffe read English at the University of St Andrews and was awarded an MLitt with distinction for a verse biography of Rose de Beauharnais, the empress Josephine. 

Gill's life has been affected by the consequences of a contaminated blood transfusion. 

She taught at the University of St Andrews and Fettes College, Edinburgh, before side-effects forced her to resign. 

She is immensely proud of her son and daughter who, educated at Fettes College, went on to study at Imperial and RADA, Oxford and LARA. 


Gill now lives in Soho.

The Followers by Rebecca Wait

Judith has been visiting her mother Stephanie in prison once a month for the last eight years. Hundreds of failed conversations, hundreds of topics avoided. She still can't bring herself to talk about what brought them here - or about Nathaniel, the charismatic outsider whose close-knit religious cult high on the moors destroyed their relationship.

Judith's only salvations lies in the loyalty of Moses, a boy who had never known life outside the cult until the horrifying act of violence that changed everything. But who can she truly believe in now?

Powerful, gripping and impossible to forget, The Followers is a novel about love, hope and identity that asks timely questions. Are we still responsible for our actions if we remake ourselves in someone else's image?

And is there any way back? 

The Followers was published by Picador on 21 May 2015 and is Rebecca Wait's second novel. I read the author's first novel; The View on the Way Down back in November 2012 (it was published by Picador in April 2013), and I was totally blown away by her writing. I have thrust so many copies of The View on the Way Down into people's hands and insisted that they read it, I will continue to recommend it to anyone that will listen to me! I was just a little apprehensive about the publication of The Followers, a little worried that the author wouldn't be able to match her first book. I can happily say that Rebecca Wait has done it again, and I'll even go as far as saying that The Followers is even better than her first book, and for me, that's huge huge praise!

The story opens 'After'. After the events that unfurl throughout this incredibly perceptive novel. Judith is visiting her mother in prison. The visit is strained, their relationship is obviously difficult, their conversation is superficial, they never discuss what happened, or why. Judith will return again next month, as she has for the past eight years.

The author then takes us back to 'Before', where the reader meets Judith and her mother as they were. Before the violent and life changing episode that has created the 'After'.

I'm not going to tell the story of The Followers, I'll just say that it is an extremely compelling look at how the most vulnerable can be brainwashed and indoctrinated into believing what another, stronger and totally plausible person leads them to believe.

Rebecca Wait has created a community high up on the Yorkshire Moors that is solitary and lonely, yet secure and rigid. The Ark is the place that Nathaniel has conceived to house his loyal and believing followers. Nathaniel is alluring and charismatic, his followers don't question his ideals, and if they do show the smallest sign of doubt, they will be punished. Punished by Nathaniel, but also by God.

Judith does not trust Nathaniel and rebels from day one. However, her mother, Stephanie, soon falls under his spell. The Ark is so much better than her old life as a struggling single mother, working in a cafe with nothing to look forward to. The community in The Ark will love her and care for her, she feels needed and part of a family, she feels important and special, she is sure that Judith will get used to it.

The Followers is an excellent read. I was totally captivated by it from the very first page. Rebecca Wait writes cleverly and with great authenticity, she gets to the heart of Nathaniel and his followers so well. She describes the control and the manipulation that can only lead to destruction in the end, Whilst the reader can clearly see what is happening, the characters are so cleverly controlled by Nathaniel that they appear blind to his faults.

The wild Yorkshire Moors is almost a character within itself. The author's sense of place is outstanding, she creates the perfect setting for The Followers, living as they do in almost splendid isolation. The winds, the rain, the mist, all complement this story so very well, adding to the tension and the apprehension of what may be to come.

The Followers is written simply, it is incredibly easy to read which only makes it more extraordinary in how brilliant it is. It is gripping, clever, and so brilliantly told. Another triumph for this incredibly talented young author.

My thanks to Francesca at Picador (Pan MacMillan) who sent my copy for review.


Rebecca Wait has been writing for as long as she can remember and has won numerous prizes for short stories and plays. 
She wrote The View on the Way Down in the evenings whilst working as a teaching assistant. 
The Followers is her second novel. 
Rebecca lives in London.

Visit her website www.rebeccawait.com
Follow her on Twitter @RebeccaWait

We Are All Made of Stars by Rowan Coleman *** BLOG TOUR & GIVEAWAY ***

Do not miss me, because I will always be with you…I am the air, the moon, the stars. For we are all made of stars, my beloved... Wherever you look, I will be there.

Stella Carey exists in a world of night. Married to a soldier who has returned from Afghanistan injured in body and mind, she leaves the house every evening as Vincent locks himself away, along with the secrets he brought home from the war.

During her nursing shifts, Stella writes letters for her patients to their loved ones - some full of humour, love and practical advice, others steeped in regret or pain – and promises to post these messages after their deaths.

Until one night Stella writes the letter that could give her patient one last chance at redemption, if she delivers it in time…

I was thrilled to be asked to host the Blog Tour for We Are All Made of Stars by Rowan Coleman, and especially delighted that the Blog Tour starts right here.  I reviewed We Are All Made of Stars  here on Random Things last month, the novel was published in hardback by Ebury on 21 May 2015.

The publishers have kindly offered a prize copy to one of my blog followers - to enter, please fill out the Rafflecopter widget at the end of this article.

I'm so pleased to welcome Rowan to Random Things today. Rowan is going to tell us how she feels about hand-written letters and is also sharing a very special letter with us.

I mourn the passing of the hand written letter. There is something about a letter that is special, indelible. A letter can be tied in ribbon, or folded away into a wallet, between the pages of a book, in a way that a text or tweet never can. The paper, the envelope, the handwriting all means something unique. It puts a person, and their thoughts into one moment in time, and it keeps them there. It captures thoughts, and emotions in the same way that a photograph captures an expression. And that’s why I started to write letters again, and why letters became a very important part of my latest novel, ‘We Are All Made of Stars.’

 This letter is addressed to my Great Uncle.  Like many others, Aubrey enlisted too young, at the age of 16, and was killed two years later very close to his eighteenth birthday. I never really knew anything about him, until, by total coincidence, we decided to call our youngest son Aubrey, and my Mum told us everything she knew about it. It’s been wonderful to find out more, and to know that his name and his memory go on with us, and our children. 

Rowan's Great Uncle Aubrey 

I'm sure that you'll all agree that Rowan's letter to her Great Uncle is beautiful and heart-felt.

I hope that you will follow the Blog Tour this week, Rowan will be sharing more of her letters on each of the blogs that host the tour.  The tour will visit Rea's Book Reviews on Tuesday 26th May, One More Page on Wednesday 27th May, Chicklit Chloe on Thursday 28th May and finishes off at Miss Bookworm on Friday 29th May.

Rowan Coleman lives with her husband, and five children in a very full house in Hertfordshire. She juggles writing novels with raising her family which includes a very lively set of toddler twins whose main hobby is going in the opposite directions. When she gets the chance, Rowan enjoys sleeping, sitting and loves watching films; she is also attempting to learn how to bake.Rowan would like to live every day as if she were starring in a musical, although her daughter no longer allows her to sing...

For more information, visit her website www.rowancoleman.co.uk
Follow her on Twitter @rowancoleman


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Flight by Isabel Ashdown

When Wren Irving's numbers come up in the first ever national lottery draw, she doesn't tell her husband, Rob. 

Instead she quietly packs her bags, kisses her six-month-old daughter Phoebe goodbye, and leaves. 

Two decades later, Rob has moved on and found happiness with their oldest friend, Laura. 

Phoebe, now a young woman, has never known any other life. But when Rob receives a mysterious letter, the past comes back to haunt them all. 

With their cosy world thrown into turmoil, Laura sets out to track Wren down and discover the truth about why she left all those years ago.

Flight by Isabel Ashdown was published in paperback on 21 May 2015 by Myriad Editions. Flight is Isabel Ashdown's fourth novel. I reviewed her last book, Summer of '76 here on Random Things in July 2013.

I really enjoy Isabel Ashdown's writing. Flight is an extremely thought-provoking story that explores the darkest corners of motherhood and friendship.

Told in the separate voices of the main characters, and narrated over many years, this is a book that hooked me in from page one and had me frantically turning the pages as the story unfolded with unexpected twists and discoveries that shocked me to the core.

Rob, Wren and Laura; three friends who love each other dearly. Laura is free-thinking and passionate, Wren is quieter and deeper and Rob is the man who they both adore. Despite Laura's life-long love for Rob, she is delighted when her two best friends become a couple. Laura is never excluded from their life, she seems to be the glue that keeps them all together. When Rob and Wren's daughter Phoebe is born, Laura is the obvious choice as Godmother and relishes her job.

Wren is slowly fading away. She feels empty inside, she feels that Phoebe should have been Laura's daughter. Wren feels trapped. Is this all there is?

When Wren strikes lucky on the Lottery, she leaves everything. Rob, Laura and Phoebe don't hear from her, or see her for twenty years.

Isabel Ashdown has created a complex web of relationships featuring these three characters. Rob, Laura and Wren don't need anyone else in their lives, everything they do is centred around them and their friendship. Parents, fellow students and colleagues are not needed.

When Wren leaves, their whole life explodes. Laura and Rob deal with their abandonment in their own personal ways and Wren creates a solitary, punishing existence for herself. When, twenty years later they meet again, the secrets that have been kept are laid bare, along with the pain and sorrow caused by Wren's disappearance.

Wren is a difficult character to empathise with throughout the story and when all the facts are revealed at the end of the book, it becomes even more difficult to find anything to like about her. Laura, on the other hand, is strong and selfless. She sacrificed such a lot so that her friends could be happy yet is still forgiving and loyal. Rob is a weak man who allowed the women to guide him, yet his vulnerability and sensitivity endears him to the reader.

Flight is exquisitely written, Isabel Ashdown is a very accomplished author and has created a complex, yet beautifully woven story of love and relationships that is both heart-breaking and though-provoking. Her characters are imperfect, somewhat flawed but oh so human. The story flows perfectly, and the ending is unexpected yet quite perfect.

My thanks to the publisher Myriad Editions, and the author who sent my copy for review.


Isabel Ashdown was born in London and grew up on the south coast of England. She is the author of four novels and winner of the Mail on Sunday Novel Competition. Her debut, Glasshopper, was named as one of the best books of 2009 by both the Observer and the London Evening Standard. In 2014 Isabel was Writer in Residence at the University of Brighton, where she now continues to teach on their Creative Writing MA. 

Isabel is represented by Kate Shaw of the Viney Literary Agency, London. Her fourth novel, Flight, was released in May 2015 (Myriad Editions).

You can find out more at www.isabelashdown.com or follow her on Twitter @IsabelAshdown  or Facebook.

Yellow Room by Shelan Rodger

Haunted by a tragic accident from when she was young, Chala's whole life has been moulded by guilt and secrets. 

After the death of her stepfather, who took his own secrets to the grave, Chala re-evaluates her life and volunteers at a Kenyan orphanage. 

There, she gets caught in the turmoil of the country and takes action to help those suffering. 

Chala must eventually return home where she is forced to reveal a truth that may ruin her future, making her realise that maybe some words should be left unsaid ...

Yellow Room is published in paperback by Cutting Edge Press on 18 June 2015 and is Shelan Rodger's second novel.  I reviewed her first book; Twin Truths, on Random Things in May last year

The opening chapter of Yellow Room left me breathless. It is shocking and unexpected and underpins the whole of Shelan Rodger's immaculately written story of dark family secrets and how they can shape a future.

Chala's whole life has been overshadowed by the tragic incident of the first chapter of this story. What happened in the yellow room has haunted her dreams for years and years, she had never been able to escape it, even since she met and married Paul.

When Philip, Chala's beloved stepfather suddenly dies, she feels compelled to visit Kenya. To go back to the lake where she spent happy times with Philip, the lake that she was named after, and the lake that her long-dead mother loved.

Chala becomes embroiled in the problems of the Kenyan people, concentrating more on them than on her own failing relationship with her husband Paul. Volunteering in an orphanage exposes her to more secrets. Secrets kept hidden by the young boys who live there, but whose lives, like Chala's will be affected by what happens to them as children.

Shelan Rodger's writing has a haunting quality, her words flow effortlessly, her story is formed perfectly. Her characters are true to life, they are flawed, at times they are quite horrible, and it is that that makes them human, and real.

Chala struggles with her inner feelings about herself and about those who are closest to her. As the story evolves she discovers that things that she has believed for all of her life and that she has allowed to mould her may not have been what they seemed. She discovers that the people she loved and respected may not have deserved that commitment. She feels shattered, she feels as though she must do something and going to Kenya changes her whole perception of herself, and of others.

The author's depiction of life in Kenya during the turbulent times after the election of 2007 are shockingly realistic; the tensions and horror of what happened are stunningly portrayed.

The real beauty of Shelan Rodger's writing is her ability to connect with the reader so well, Yellow Room is gloriously detailed, beautifully written and extremely memorable.

My thanks, as always to the team at Cutting Edge Press who sent my copy for review.


Shelan's life is a patchwork of different cultures. 

Born in Nigeria, she grew up among the Tiwi, an aboriginal community in Australia, and moved to England at the age of eleven.

After graduating in Modern Languages from Oxford, she travelled to Argentina, where she spent nine years teaching and setting up a language school. 

Another chapter in England was followed by six years in Kenya, where she got involved in learning and development, with an emphasis on anti-discrimination. 

She now lives in Spain, working in international education - and writing.

For more information about Shelan Rodger, visit her website www.shelanrodger.com

Follow her on Twitter @ShelanRodger     Find her on Facebook