Category: Reviews

My Week in Books – 26th July 2020

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MyWeekinBooks

On What Cathy Read Next last week

Blog posts

Monday –  I shared my review of Paris Savages by Katherine Johnson as part of the blog tour.

Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was Literary Festivals & Events I’d Love to Attend. Since that’s not likely to be possible for a while, I looked back at some Henley Literary Festival events I’ve attended in past years.

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. I also shared my review of The Young Survivors by Debra Barnes as part of the blog tour.

Thursday – I published my review of a book from my 20 Books of Summer list – Munich by Robert Harris. 

Friday –  I reviewed another book from my 20 Books of Summer list, The Storm by Amanda Jennings, a psychological drama set in Cornwall

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

New arrivals

9781786696366Fortress of Fury (The Bernicia Chronicles, #7) by Matthew Harffy (eARC, courtesy of Head of Zeus via NetGalley)

AD 647. Anglo-Saxon Britain. War hangs heavy in the hot summer air as Penda of Mercia and his allies march into the north. Caught unawares, the Bernician forces are besieged within the great fortress of Bebbanburg. It falls to Beobrand to mount the defence of the stronghold, but even while the battle rages, old and powerful enemies have mobilised against him, seeking vengeance for past events.

As the Mercian forces tighten their grip and unknown killers close in, Beobrand finds himself in a struggle with conflicting oaths and the dreadful pull of a forbidden love that threatens to destroy everything he holds dear.

With the future of Northumbria in jeopardy, will Beobrand be able to withstand the powers that beset him and find a path to victory against all the odds?

9781912987054The Bitch by Pilar Quintana, trans. by Lisa Dillman (advance review copy, courtesy of World Editions)

Colombia’s Pacific coast, where everyday life entails warding off the brutal forces of nature.

Damaris lives with her fisherman husband in a shack on a bluff overlooking the sea. Childless and at that age ‘when women dry up,’ as her uncle puts it, she is eager to adopt an orphaned puppy. But this act may bring more than just affection into her home.

The Bitch is written in a prose as terse as the villagers, with storms – both meteorological and emotional – lurking around each corner. Beauty and dread live side by side in this poignant exploration or the many meanings of motherhood and love.

cover180777-mediumKatheryn Howard: The Tainted Queen by Alison Weir (eARC, courtesy of Headline via NetGalley)

A naive young woman at the mercy of her ambitious family.

At just nineteen, Katheryn Howard is quick to trust and fall in love. She comes to court. She sings, she dances. She captures the heart of the King. Henry declares she is his rose without a thorn.

But Katheryn has a past of which he knows nothing. It comes back increasingly to haunt her. For those who share her secrets are waiting in the shadows, whispering words of love… and blackmail.

On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading

Planned posts

  • Book Review: Belladonna by Anbara Salam
  • Top Ten Tuesday
  • Waiting on Wednesday
  • Blog Tour/Book Review: The Miss Graham’s Cold War Cookbook by Celia Rees
  • Buchan of the Month/Book Review: The Gap in the Curtain by John Buchan
  • #6Degrees of Separation: From How To Do Nothing by Jenny Odell to…

#BookReview The Storm by Amanda Jennings @HQStories

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9780008287061About the Book

To the outside world Hannah married the perfect man. Behind the closed doors of their imposing house it’s a very different story. Nathan controls everything Hannah does. He chooses her clothes, checks her receipts, and keeps her passport locked away. But why does she let him?

Years before, in the midst of a relentless storm, the tragic events of one night changed everything and Hannah has been living with the consequences every since. Keeping Nathan happy. Doing as she’s told.

But the past is about to catch up with them…

Format: ebook (412 pages)            Publisher: HQ Stories
Publication date: 23rd July 2020 Genre: Contemporary fiction, thriller

Find The Storm on Goodreads

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

My Review

I really enjoyed Amanda Jennings’ previous book, The Cliff House, and her beloved Cornwall is once again the location for her latest novel, The Storm. Set mainly around the fishing village of Newlyn and moving between the present day and twenty years earlier, the reader witnesses how the lives of a number of people were changed by the dramatic events of one night in 1998. Fragments of that eventful night are glimpsed in the prologue but the full picture will not become clear until the end of the book.

For Hannah, the events of that night led to her marriage to Nathan, a kind of Faustian bargain she entered into to protect others. Nathan’s obsessive jealousy has seen him control every aspect of Hannah’s life. She steels herself to complicity in this out of guilt – “Our marriage is punishment for what I did” – and for the sake of their son, Alex. So she plays the part expected of her and recites her lines in order to keep the peace. Alex is pretty much the only source of joy in Hannah’s life along with her best friend, Vicky.

Nathan is one disturbing individual. Outwardly he’s a model citizen and pillar of the community, but inside he’s something quite different. As Hannah remarks, he’s “my very own Jekyll and Hyde”. A damaged individual, a traumatic event in Nathan’s childhood explains, if not excuses, his actions towards Hannah.

In the scenes set in 1998, the author vividly depicts the back-breaking work of the six-man crew aboard a small trawler and the dangers they face on a daily basis. Taking such risks out of economic necessity, a safe return to harbour is never guaranteed but when it occurs, the crew seek release through drink, and sometimes drugs, in the local pub. When the Atlantic storm of the title hits the trawler, the awesome force of the sea is evident. “Six men, no more than specks of dust on an ocean so powerful and unpredictable, so savage, they could be swallowed up in the blink of an eye.” The consequences of the storm will change lives forever.

I’m not sure which element I found more compelling: the chilling portrait of Hannah and Nathan’s toxic relationship or the scenes set on the storm-lashed trawler.  The Storm is an intensely atmospheric and compelling drama that shows even the most carefully guarded secrets have a way of coming to the surface. The final lines sent chills down my spine.

I received an advance review copy courtesy of HQ Stories via NetGalley.

In three words: Dark, intense, gripping

Try something similar: The Other You by J. S. Monroe

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Amanda JenningsAbout the Author

Amanda Jennings lives in Oxfordshire with her husband, three daughters, and a menagerie of animals. She studied History of Art at Cambridge and before writing her first book, was a researcher at the BBC.

With a deep fascination for the far-reaching effects of trauma, her books focus on the different ways people find to cope with loss, as well as the moral struggles her protagonists face. When she isn’t writing she can usually be found walking the dog. Her favourite place to be is up a mountain or beside the sea.

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