Category: Blog Tour

#BlogTour #BookReview The Glittering Hour by @Iona_Grey @simonschusterUK

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I’m delighted to be co-hosting today’s stop on the blog tour for The Glittering Hour by Iona Grey, alongside my tour buddies, Kate at Portable Magic and Joules at Northern Reader. The Glittering Hour is now available in paperback in the UK.  (The hardcover edition is available to pre-order in the US).

Thanks to Anne at Random Things Tours for inviting me to participate in the tour and to Simon & Schuster UK for my digital review copy via NetGalley.

The Glittering HourAbout the Book

1925. The war is over and a new generation is coming of age, keen to put the trauma of the previous one behind them.

Selina Lennox is a Bright Young Thing whose life is dedicated to the pursuit of pleasure; to parties and drinking and staying just the right side of scandal.

Lawrence Weston is a struggling artist, desperate to escape the poverty of his upbringing and make something of himself. When their worlds collide one summer night, neither can resist the thrill of the forbidden, the lure of a love affair that they know cannot possibly last.

But there is a dark side to pleasure and a price to be paid for breaking the rules. By the end of that summer everything has changed.

A decade later, nine year old Alice is staying at Blackwood Hall with her distant grandparents, piecing together clues from her mother’s letters to discover the secrets of the past, the truth about the present, and hope for the future.

Praise for The Glittering Hour

‘An epic story of joyous hedonism and desperate heartache. Just beautiful’ CATHERINE ISAAC
‘Stunning’ VERONICA HENRY
‘Gorgeously written … I loved it’ JILL MANSELL
‘An enchanting, evocative read’ THE SUN

Format: Paperback (496 pp.)                     Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
Publication date: 17th October 2019      Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance

Find The Glittering Hour on Goodreads

Pre-order/Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com | Hive (supporting UK bookshops)
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

My Review

Although the title of the book is The Glittering Hour, it’s the glittering few hours I spent reading this book that is uppermost in my mind at the moment.

Events unfold over the course of a decade with the story alternating between 1936, as nine year old Alice embarks on a treasure hunt of a kind to uncover the secrets of her mother’s past, and 1925 in which Selina recalls her heady days as one of the ‘Bright Young People’ and the chance meeting that changed everything for her.  Interspersed are insights from other characters, such as Selina’s faithful maid, Polly, and Alice’s governess, Miss Lovelock.

The main characters are so sensitively and vividly drawn it feels as though they could step right off the page. However, I also fell in love with some of the minor characters, such as Patterson the gardener at Blackwood Hall. I admired the way the author conjured up with equal ease 1920s London and the excesses of the ‘Bright Young People – extravagant parties, a never-ending stream of cocktails and champagne, wild late night treasure hunts – and the faded grandeur of Blackwood Hall in the 1930s with its overgrown gardens, chilly rooms and echoing corridors.

The legacy of war, in this case the First World War, is another theme explored in the book: the traumatic memories and survivors guilt of those who came back, and the ghostly presence of those who didn’t such as Selina’s brother Howard. The latter is cleverly connected with the art of photography through Lawrence Weston’s current occupation painting portraits of young men lost in the war based on photographs of them provided by their grieving families. Photographs – what they say and don’t say, the capturing of a likeness or of a moment in time – will play an important part in the book.

There are many more things I could say in praise of this book but I’ll confine myself to merely recommending that you read it for yourself. Be prepared for The Glittering Hour to take you on an intense but spellbinding emotional journey, some elements of which you may find confound your expectations. And definitely have a box of tissues handy.

In three words: Emotional, intense, heart-breaking

Try something similar: The Winter Soldier by Daniel Mason (read my review here)

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Iona Grey Author PictureAbout the Author

Iona Grey has a degree in English Literature and Language from Manchester University, an obsession with history and an enduring fascination with the lives of women in the twentieth century.

She lives in rural Cheshire with her husband and three daughters.

Connect with Iona
Website | Twitter | Goodreads

The Glittering Hour BT Poster

#BlogTour #BookReview Don’t Get Involved by F J Curlew @fjcurlew

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DON'T GET INVOLVED BLOG TOUR

Welcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for Don’t Get Involved by F J Curlew. My thanks to the author for inviting me to take part in the tour and for my review copy.

Dont Get InvolvedAbout the Book

A missing shipment of cocaine. Three street-kids fighting for their lives. A mafia hit-man intent on killing them. A naive expat who gets in their way.

Who would you bet on?

Ukraine, 2001. A time of lawlessness and corruption. Three street-kids stumble upon a holdall full of cocaine belonging to the Mafia. Mafia hitman, Leonid, is given the job of retrieving the cocaine and disposing of the street-kids. To do so he is forced to step back into his old life and he doesn’t like it. The children run on their wits. Leonid hunts them down.

Nadia, a young woman with her own dark past, arrives in Ukraine looking for a fresh start. She wasn’t expecting this! “She had no idea of what, or who, she was supposed to be running from. Right now everything was a threat. Definitely militsiya, but who else? Everyone. Right now it felt like everyone.”

Format: ebook (255 pp.)                       Publisher:
Publication date: 7th October 2019  Genre: Thriller

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

Find Don’t Get Involved on Goodreads

My Review

Having read and reviewed the author’s previous book, Dan Knew, I was pleased to receive her invitation to read her latest book, Don’t Get Involved, and take part in the blog tour.

The events in Don’t Get Involved unfold over the course of a year with the book frequently switching points of view and timeline, the latter in sections entitled ‘Winter’, ‘Summer’ and ‘Autumn’. I’ll confess it took me a while to get to grips with the narrative structure and work out the order in which events were occurring.

The street-kids – Dima, and brother and sister, Sasha and Alyona – eke out a hand to mouth existence on the edge of Ukrainian society, living in dilapidated buildings and being drawn into illicit activities that bring them into contact with unsavoury individuals. Just how unsavoury becomes increasingly apparent as the book progresses. The streetwise Dima is the de facto leader of the trio. Sasha is very protective of his sister, Alyona, who possesses a sixth sense for danger and has a curious affinity with animals. Alyona’s instincts will prove pivotal in events towards the end of the book.

The reader gradually learns about the traumatic events in Nadia’s life that have caused her to seek a new start in Kiev. There she meets Artem and we see their relationship gradually develop. One very moving episode – a detour from the main storyline – is when Artem takes Nadia to visit his grandfather, Bogdan. The story Bogdan tells is a harrowing insight into Ukraine’s troubled history during Stalin’s rule. I did think it would make superb material for a book in its own right.

The author has a distinctive writing style characterised by the use of short sentences, often only a few words long. This certainly helps to create a sense of urgency and tension in some of the action scenes and to emphasise the confused thought processes of key characters.

The book provides a fascinating insight into Ukraine – its culture, food, music – and the city of Kiev in particular with its streets full of cafes, bars and street kiosks. I do think a glossary would be a useful addition to the book.

Don’t Get Involved combines elements of a thriller with an insight into the history and culture of Ukraine…and a dash of magical realism. You can find out more about the inspiration for the book in the author’s guest post hosted by Mairead at Swirl and Thread earlier in the blog tour.

I received an advance review copy courtesy of the author.

In three words: Intriguing, dramatic, atmospheric

Try something similar: The Good Father by S. R. Wilsher (read my review here)

brockie-on-my-shoulderAbout the Author

Fiona spent fifteen years working as an international school teacher, predominantly in Eastern Europe. Much of her inspiration comes from her travels. Her writing has been described as, “Human experience impacted upon by political situation, interwoven with a love of nature.”

She now lives on the East Coast of Scotland with Brockie the Springer and Fingal the rescued Portuguese street-cat. Her days are divided between dog-walking in beautiful places and working on her stories. Not a bad life! Don’t Get Involved is her third book.

Connect with Fiona
Website | Twitter | Facebook