Author: whatcathyreadnext

#BlogTour #BookReview Distorted Days by Louise Worthington

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Distorted DaysWelcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for Distorted Days by Louise Worthington. Do check out the posts of my tour buddies, Julie at A Little Book Problem and Gina at Insatiable Readers. My thanks to Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources for inviting me to participate in the tour and to the author for my review copy.

51l8f8qK2tLAbout the Book

“If she could speak to them, she would say they have exploded her heart, released firecrackers through her senses. She wishes she could call the police, the ambulance, the fire brigade, to arrest and anaesthetise and waterboard the bastards.”

So what happens when your husband runs off with your best friend? When you discover the dead body of an old man halfway through your delivery round? When your house is burgled and you get beaten up? Doris, Andy and Colleen are about to find out. They’re also about to discover that you can find friendship and support in the oddest of places…

Heart-rending, humorous and above all authentic, Distorted Days is an exquisitely written account of the ways in which life can knock you off our feet – and how you can pick yourself up again. If you’ve experienced the fickleness of fortune, this is a book that you’ll never forget.

Format: ebook (164 pages)                        Publisher: PublishNation
Publication date: 28th November 2019 Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Find Distorted Days on Goodreads

Purchase links*
Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

My Review

In Distorted Days the reader follows the fortunes (or misfortunes) of a series of characters connected in one way or another: working in the same place, shopping in the same supermarket, living in the same street.
Given some of the subject matter, I can’t say Distorted Days is laugh out loud funny – with the notable exception of Doris’s rude nicknames for her husband, John, and (former) best friend, Lisa! However, there are certainly moments of – at times, black – humour and some acute observations about how people interact in real life, such as Doris’s preparations for her telephone calls with her mother.

The writing has some quirky touches such as the repetition several times of certain paragraphs in those chapters written from the point of view of Doris. At least, I’m assuming that was deliberate on the author’s part and not just an error with my copy!

As the characters encounter unexpected challenges in their lives – infidelity, bereavement, unemployment, depression, addiction – the interest comes from seeing how they face up to them and how the social connections they’ve made grow from passing contacts to something deeper and more valuable.

In three words: Poignant, insightful, quirky

Try something similar: The Widow’s Mite by Allie Cresswell

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Distorted Days Author PhotoAbout the Author

Louise is the author of Distorted Days and Rachel’s Garden of Rooms. The Entrepreneur will be available later in 2020. ‘The Thief’, a short story published by Park Publications, is available to download from her website.
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Before writing full time, Louise worked mainly as an English teacher after getting a degree in Literature and later, studying business and psychology at Masters level. Louise grew up in Cheshire and now resides in Shropshire.

Connect with Louise
Website | Twitter | Facebook

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My Week in Books – 8th March 2020

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MyWeekinBooks

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Blog posts

Monday – I shared my Five Favourite of the books I read in February.

Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was Single Word Book Titles.

Wednesday – WWW Wednesday is the opportunity to share what I’ve just read, what I’m currently reading and what I plan to read next…and have a good nose around to see what other bloggers are reading.

Thursday – I published my review of The Lost Lights of St Kilda by Elisabeth Gifford.

Friday – I shared my thoughts on The Widow’s Miteby Allie Cresswell as part of the blog tour. I also published my write-up of Waterstones Reading’s event – A Very Tudor Evening – to mark the publication of The Mirror & the Light by Hilary Mantel

Saturday – I took part in the #6Degrees of Separation meme forging a chain from Wolfe Island by Lucy Treloar to El Hacho by Luis Carrasco.

As always, thanks to everyone who has liked, commented on or shared my blog posts on social media this week.

New arrivals

Another crop of goodies this week including ARCs from publishers and the book everyone who loves historical fiction has been talking about…and itching to get their hands on, me included. 

20200229_141812-1The Saracen’s Mark by S. W. Perry (ARC, courtesy of Corvus and Readers First )

Betrayal has many guises…

London, 1593: Five years on from the Armada and England is taking its first faltering steps towards a future as a global power. Nicholas Shelby – reluctant spy and maverick physician – and his companion Bianca Merton are settling into a life on Bankside. But in London there is always a plot afoot…

Robert Cecil, the Queen’s spymaster, once again recruits Nicholas to embark on a dangerous undercover mission that will take him to the back alleys of Marrakech in search of a missing informer. However, while Nicholas hunts for the truth across the seas, plague returns once more to London – ravaging the streets and threatening those dearest to him.

Can Bianca and Nicholas’ budding relationship weather the threats of pestilence and conspiracy? And will Nicholas survive the dangers of his mission in a hostile city to return safely home?

LionheartLionheart by Ben Kane (proof copy, courtesy of Orion)

1179. Henry II’s Norman conquerors have swept through England, Wales – and now Ireland.

Irish nobleman Ferdia has been imprisoned in Wales to ensure the good behaviour of his rebellious father. But during a skirmish on a neighbouring castle, Ferdia saves the life of the man who would become one of the most legendary warriors to have ever lived: Richard Plantagenet. The Lionheart.

Taken as Richard’s squire, Ferdia crosses the Narrow Sea to resist the rebellious nobles in Aquitaine, besieging castles and fighting bloody battles with brutal frequency. But treachery and betrayal lurk around every corner. Infuriated by his younger brother Richard’s growing reputation, Henry rebels. And Ferdia learns that the biggest threat to Richard’s life may not be a foreign army – but Richard’s own family…

20200306_092432-1The Mirror & the Light by Hilary Mantel (hardcover)

‘If you cannot speak truth at a beheading, when can you speak it?’

England, May 1536. Anne Boleyn is dead, decapitated in the space of a heartbeat by a hired French executioner. As her remains are bundled into oblivion, Thomas Cromwell breakfasts with the victors. The blacksmith’s son from Putney emerges from the spring’s bloodbath to continue his climb to power and wealth, while his formidable master, Henry VIII, settles to short-lived happiness with his third queen, before Jane dies giving birth to the male heir he most craves.

Cromwell is a man with only his wits to rely on; he has no great family to back him, no private army. Despite rebellion at home, traitors plotting abroad and the threat of invasion testing Henry’s regime to breaking point, Cromwell’s robust imagination sees a new country in the mirror of the future. But can a nation, or a person, shed the past like a skin? Do the dead continually unbury themselves? What will you do, the Spanish ambassador asks Cromwell, when the king turns on you, as sooner or later he turns on everyone close to him?

On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

  • Blog Tour/Book Review: Distorted Days by Louise Worthington
  • Top Ten Tuesday: Authors Who Have a Fun Social Media Presence
  • Waiting on Wednesday
  • Blog Tour/Extract: The Treadstone Resurrection by Joshua Hood
  • Audiobook Review: Heaven, My Home by Attica Locke
  • Book Review: The Recovery of Rose Gold by Stephanie Wrobel
  • Buchan of the Month: Introducing…A Lodge in the Wilderness by John Buchan