Author: whatcathyreadnext

#BookReview The Borrowed Boy by Deborah Klée @rararesources

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The Borrowed BoyWelcome to the final day of the blog tour for The Borrowed Boy by Deborah Klée. Do check out the posts of my tour buddies for today, Els at B For Bookreview and Fee at Ebook Addicts. My thanks to Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources for inviting me to take part in the tour and for my digital review copy.

TheBorrowedBoy_coverDesign_finalAbout the Book

A borrowed boy, a borrowed name and living on borrowed time.

What do you put on a bucket list when you haven’t done anything with your life? No interesting job, no lovers, no family, no friends. Believing she has only weeks left to live, Angie Winkle vows to make the most of every minute.

Going back to Jaywick Sands, is top of her bucket list. Experiencing life as a grandmother is not, but the universe has other plans and when four-year-old Danny is separated from his mum on the tube, Angie goes to his rescue. She tries to return him to his mum but things do not go exactly as planned and the two of them embark on a life-changing journey.

Set in Jaywick Sands, once an idyllic Essex holiday village in the 70s, but now a shanty town of displaced Londoners, this is a story about hidden communities and our need to belong.

Format: ebook (319 pages)               Publisher:
Publication date: 1st August 2020 Genre: Contemporary fiction

Find The Borrowed Boy on Goodreads

Purchase links*
Amazon UK| Hive (supporting UK bookshops)
*links provided for convenience not as part of an affiliate programme

My Review

The Borrowed Boy alternates between the stories of two women whose paths cross by chance because of one small Polish boy, four year old Danek.

Angie Winkle dreams of nothing more than making what she fears may be her final visit to the seaside town of Jaywick Sands. It holds happy childhood memories of staying in the chalet of her best friend’s grandparents. Angie recalls a time of simple pleasures: building sandcastles, picnics on the beach, ice cream and toffee apples.

When the chance arises to share the experience with Danek (or Danny, as she calls him) she convinces herself it is a gift of fate. “There was no such thing as coincidence. The universe had heard her heartfelt plea and given her this chance.” She eagerly grasps the opportunity to taste the life she might have had if she’d become a mother or grandmother.  It’s fair to say she’s a natural at it and the relationship that develops between Danny and Angie is heartfelt and touching. It gives Angie a chance to erase dark moments in her life and to distract her from what she fears lies ahead.

Nikoleta’s dream is of a new life in London with boyfriend Kamil and young Danek. But that dream has rapidly turned into a nightmare. She finds Kamil’s refusal to involve the police in the search for Danek and instead use his own network of contacts both frustrating and perplexing. Her trusting nature and naivety makes her ignore the many warning signs that everything is not what it seems.

Initially, Angie is disappointed to find Jaywick Sands rather faded and rundown, not the lovely place she remembers. However, as she and Danny discover, the residents of Jaywick Sands are much more community minded and welcoming than they at first appear. That’s just as well when the story moves in an entirely different and unexpected direction. As certain individuals will find out, “Outsiders didn’t stand a chance when Jaywick came together to protect their own.”

The Borrowed Boy is a touching story about facing up to the future and finding friendship where you least expect it. “Sometimes when you think that you are at the end of a road and have no place to go, a new way opens up to you.”

In three words: Touching, emotional, engaging

Try something similar: Train Man by Andrew Mulligan

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The Borrowed Boy - head and shoulder DKAbout the Author

Deborah has worked as an occupational therapist, a health service manager, a freelance journalist, and management consultant in health and social care.

​Her protagonists are often people who exist on the edges of society. Despite the very real, but dark, subject matter her stories are uplifting, combining pathos with humour. They are about self-discovery and the power of friendships and community.​ The Borrowed Boy, her debut, was shortlisted for the Deviant Minds Award 2019. Just Bea, her second novel will be published in 2021.

Deborah lives on the Essex coast. When she is not writing she combines her love of baking with trying to burn off the extra calories.

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#BookReview The Scarlet Code by C. S. Quinn @CorvusBooks

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20200716_094106About the Book

England’s best spy. France’s deadliest conspirator.

Paris, 1789. The Bastille has fallen and Parisians pick souvenirs from the rubble. A killer stalks the lawless streets. His victims are female aristocrats. His executions use the most terrible methods of the ancient regime.

English spy Attica Morgan is laying low in Paris, helping nobles escape. When her next charge falls victim to the killer’s twisted machinations, Attica realises she alone can unmask him. But now it seems his deadly sights are set on her.

As the city prisons empty and a mob mobilises to storm Versailles, finding a dangerous criminal is never going to be easy. Attica’s only hope is to enlist her old ally, reformed pirate Jemmy Avery, to track the killer though his revolutionary haunts. But even with a pirate and her fast knife, it seems Attica might not manage to stay alive.

Format: Hardcover (400 pages)       Publisher: Corvus
Publication date: 6th August 2020 Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery

Find The Scarlet Code on Goodreads

Purchase links*
Amazon UK | Hive (supporting UK bookshops)
*links provided for convenience not as part of an affiliate programme

My Review

The Scarlet Code is the second book in C. S. Quinn’s Revolutionary Spy series featuring female spy and trained assassin, Attica Morgan. It was published as an ebook on 4th June 2020 and is now also available in hardback. Although I wish I’d had time to read the first book in the series, The Bastille Spy, I’m pleased to say The Scarlet Code works perfectly well as a standalone read.

Attica Morgan makes a feisty and engaging heroine. She’s brave, smart, resourceful and is handy in a tight spot; not surprising when you’ve been trained as an assassin. And believe me, Attica gets herself into plenty of tight spots. Given her African heritage and keen sense of justice, Attica is passionately opposed to the slave trade and committed to doing whatever she can to end it. This includes rescuing abolitionists from the clutches of those whose wealth and power are threatened by the idea of equality for all. Despite her position in English society – she is, after all, Lady Morgan – Attica remains an outsider. “I do not fit anywhere. I am too dark to be English, too fair to be African.”

I really liked Attica’s friendship with dashing pirate Jemmy Avery, himself the product of “dockyard alliances and foreign flings“. It’s a partnership of equals based on mutual regard and fuelled by light-hearted banter with just a hint that something more than friendship could lie beneath the surface. He’s certainly the person who understands Attica best. “Some people are born to talk and flatter, others are bred for action.” No prizes for guessing which category Attica falls into.

Attica’s relationship with mentor and spy-master, Atherton, is equally intriguing. He’s a key figure in an organisation known as the Sealed Knot, “a partially legal hinterland of spies, crooks and thieves” which secretly pursues the interests of the British government at home and abroad. Atherton is an inventor of all sorts of gadgets useful for espionage; an 18th century version of ‘Q’ from Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels, if you like.

Set against the backdrop of revolutionary France, Attica finds herself beset by enemies on every side. Not just ruthless killers on the streets of Paris and those opposed to the abolition of slavery but an old adversary, none other than Robespierre himself. The contrast between the wealth and excesses of the nobility and the poverty of the citizens of Paris is stark, making for exciting scenes as the populace rise in protest. Add to the mix an evil villain described as “A hunter… a man who stalks by night“, plenty of narrow escapes and some fantastic set pieces in locations such as the Louvre and the Palace of Versailles and you have all the ingredients for an exciting page-turner. Or perhaps, on reflection, a white water ride might be a better description, with dangerous undercurrents and treacherous obstacles hidden beneath the surface.

Can Attica turn the tables on those out to thwart her? She’d not be worth her salt if she can’t. Perhaps, though, there is one enemy who knows her weaknesses better than she does herself. The trap is set. Will she swallow the bait? It’s going to be a battle of wits.

From its dramatic opening chapter, The Scarlet Code moves along at a terrific pace. A glorious mixture of intrigue and swashbuckling action worthy of a golden age Hollywood movie starring Errol Flynn, it will delight readers who like their historical fiction to come with a generous helping of adventure. As for me… I may just have found a new series to fall in love with.

My thanks to Corvus and Readers First for my advance review copy.

In three words: Action-packed, thrilling, adventure

Try something similar: Traitor (Mercia Blakewood #3) by David Hingley

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-tjv5EVe_400x400About the Author

C. S. Quinn is a travel and lifestyle journalist for The Times, the Guardian and the Mirror, alongside many other magazines. Prior to this, Quinn’s background in historic research won prestigious postgraduate funding from the British Art Council. Quinn combined this with her first-hand experiences in far-flung places to create her bestselling The Thief Taker series. The Scarlet Code is the second novel in her new Revolutionary Spy series featuring Attica Morgan. (Photo credit: author Twitter profile)

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