Tag: blogtour

#BlogTour #BookReview The Shimmer on the Water by Marina McCarron

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The Shimmer on the Water Blog Tour BannerWelcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for The Shimmer on the Water by Marina McCarron which was published as an ebook on 4th August and will be available in paperback later this year. My thanks to Amy at Head of Zeus for inviting me to take part in the tour and for my digital review copy via NetGalley.  Do check out the post by my tour buddy for today Wendy at Wendy Reads Books.

The Shimmer on the Water Author Square shareable 3About the Book

Three women. Two generations apart. One secret they share.

Maine, 1997. As the people of Fort Meadow Beach celebrate the Fourth of July, four-year-old Daisy Wright disappears and is never seen again.

Maine, 2022. Fired from her job and heart-broken, Peyton Winchester moves back home for the summer. Bored and aimless, she finds a renewed sense of purpose when an ad for a journalism course reminds her of a path not taken. Returning to life in her home town brings back all kind of memories – including Daisy’s disappearance when she was a young girl herself.

As Peyton begins to search for answers about Daisy’s disappearance, she finds that they might be closer to home than she thinks – and their lives become intertwined with irreversible consequences.

Format: ebook (413 pages)             Publisher: Aria
Publication date: 4th August 2022 Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Find The Shimmer on the Water on Goodreads

Purchase links
Amazon UK
Link provided for convenience only, not as part of an affiliate programme

My Review

The Shimmer on the Water alternates between two storylines, one in the present day and one starting in 1966.

The book is not so much about solving the mystery of Daisy Wright’s disappearance, although it does provide a number of connections between the two storylines, as about family secrets and the impact they have when they are finally revealed.  For Peyton, trying to discover the person responsible for Daisy’s disappearance allows her to focus on something other than recent events in her life. ‘Getting dumped. Getting fired. Losing friends. The embarrassment of all her failures.’ Having to return to her parents’ home feels like the final humilation. Peyton feels there is a story to be told about Daisy’s disappearance, one which might help in her ambition to become a journalist.  It’s not a plan that finds much favour with Peyton’s mother whose attitude to her daughter is one of disappointment and often cool indifference.

A separate storyline follows the early life of Euella and her younger sister, Minnie, in 1960s Tennessee. It’s a powerful and moving story which was the standout element of the book for me. Euella’s father and brother are both drunks prone to violent outbursts as a result of which her mother has become absent emotionally, and later literally absent. It is left to Euella to care for and protect her young sister. It’s a struggle to put food on the table and to keep them warm through the harsh winters. The family’s poverty and increasingly dysfunctional nature mean they are ostracised by the local community. Fuelled by anger and an innate fortitude, Euella is determined to make a better life for herself and her sister. ‘A plan is forming. New ideas are coming. She can feel herself changing, becoming something different. Someone different.’

The connections between the two storylines become apparent fairly early on but this doesn’t stop Eualla’s story continuing to be utterly compelling as we see her literally reinvent herself. That’s not to say she doesn’t make mistakes along the way, quite costly ones as it turns out that will have repercussions in the future. Gradually Peyton discovers more about her family, and in particular her mother. It will result in her seeing things in a completely new light and bring about a fundamental change in her relationship with her mother. It also triggers memories of events on the day Daisy Wright went missing. But after so many years can those memories be relied upon?

And the ‘shimmer on the water’ of the title? This early description of what Peyton observes as she gazes out to sea made me think it is the prospect of calm returning after a period of turmoil. ‘The sound of a boat grows louder and she turns to watch as it speeds by, the frothy white wake it leaves disturbing the shimmer on the water before it is absorbed again into the waves and the water is once again flat.’

If The Shimmer on the Water is less of a mystery novel than the book description might suggest, it is still a skilfully crafted dual time novel that explores the impact of fractured family relationships.

In three words: Moving, insightful, intriguing

Try something similar: Only May by Carol Lovekin

Marina Image by Julia HawkinsAbout the Author

Marina McCarron was born in eastern Canada and studied in Ottawa and Vancouver before moving to England. She holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Publishing degree. She has worked as a reporter, a freelance writer, a columnist and a manuscript evaluator. She loves reading and travelling and has been to six of the seven continents. She gets her ideas for stories from strolling through new places and daydreaming. Her debut novel, The Time Between Us, came to her as she stood at Pointe du Hoc on a windy June day and asked the magical question, what if…?

Connect with Marina
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#BlogTour #BookReview Lucky Jack by S. Bavey

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Lucky JackWelcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for Lucky Jack by S. Bavey. My thanks to Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources for inviting me to take part in the tour and for my digital review copy. Do check out the posts by my tour buddies for today, Els at B for Bookreview and Gina at Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers.

WinThere’s also a (US only) giveaway with a chance to win a signed copy of Lucky Jack. Enter via Rafflecopter here.

Terms and Conditions

  • Open to entrants aged 18 or over.
  • The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner.
  • Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data.
  • I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.

Lucky JackAbout the Book

“One of the perils of being a sniper during the First World War was the likelihood of a grenade going off right next to you and burying you alive.”

Meet Jack Rogers. Born in 1894, he once locked eyes with Queen Victoria and was one of the first travellers on London’s ‘Tube’. An early car owner, he had many escapades on his days out to Brighton, including a time when his brakes failed and he had to drive through central London without them!

His skills as an entertainer earned him popularity throughout his life, and kept him out of the deadly mines while a prisoner during the First World War. At the tender age of 103 Jack earned the title of ‘The World’s Oldest Columnist’ as he began dictating his life’s exploits to a reporter from the local newspaper.

Format: Paperback (225 pages)              Publisher: josephtailor
Publication date: 19th November 2021 Genre: Memoir

Find Lucky Jack on Goodreads

Purchase links
Amazon UK
Link provided for convenience only, not as part of an affiliate programme

My Review

In Lucky Jack, the author has used family memories and published anecdotes from her grandfather’s time as ‘The World’s Oldest Columnist’ for his local newspaper to construct a first person account of his life.

In the first section of the book Jack recalls childhood scrapes, mischievous pranks, family holidays and days out, as well as occasions when he was the witness to significant events such as the opening of the London underground. Later he reflects on events such as acquiring his first car, his marriage and the birth of his son. The threads that run through Jack’s life are family, hard work and a sense of fun.

However I’m sure I won’t be alone in finding the sections of the book in which he recalls his experiences during the First World War to be the most powerful. (I believe an expanded version could have made a book in itself.) Like many of the other young men who signed up, he had no idea what was awaiting him in France. ‘Waiting to go over the top was a terrible, gut-wrenching feeling.’ Somehow he survives being buried by debris from an explosion and endures unimaginably harsh treatment during his time as a prisoner-of-war. ‘The hunger and weakness we experienced as prisoners is like nothing else I have ever had to endure in all of my long life.’ He describes some terrible experiences but with a remarkable degree of equanimity, perhaps due to the passage of time or because of his positive approach to life.  Nevertheless it’s clear the memories of those events, and of the comrades who didn’t make it back, stayed with him forever.

Lucky Jack is a remarkable account of a long life well-lived. Although Jack describes himself as having been ‘blessed with good luck’, I’d say that it’s his fortitude, determination and cheeky sense of humour that shines through. You can view many photographs of Jack and his family, including those in the book, on the author’s website.

In three words: Fascinating, honest, uplifting

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Author_pic Sue BaveyAbout the Author

Sue Bavey is an English mum of two living in Massachussetts since 2003 with her husband, kids, a cat named Midnight, a bunny named Nutmeg, a leopard gecko named Ziggy Stardust and occasional frogs and salamanders. Lucky Jack is her grandfather, Henry John Rogers’ biography.

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