Tag: contemporary fiction

#BookReview Before We Were Innocent by Ella Berman

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About the Book

The truth depends on who you ask…

Ten years ago, after a sun-soaked summer spent in Greece, Bess and Joni were cleared of having any involvement in their best friend Evangeline ‘s death. But that didn’t stop the media from calling them everything under the wild, promiscuous, liars, guilty .

Now Joni is tangled up in a crime in LA eerily similar to that one fateful night, and when she turns up at her old friend’s doorstep asking for an alibi, Bess has no choice. She still owes her.

They say the truth will set you free but can Bess face up to what happened that night?

She should know by now… you can’t be an innocent woman when everyone wants you to be guilty.

Format: eARC (384 pages) Publisher: Head of Zeus
Publication date: 13th July 2023 Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Thriller

Find Before We Were Innocent on Goodreads

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My Review

To quote Joni, Before We Were Innocent is ‘the story of three perfectly imperfect women who hurt each other in all the most obvious ways, but who loved each other enough for a lifetime.’ Well, that’s how she chooses to frame it.

Moving between 2018 and ten years earlier, the book gradually reveals how a dramatic event on the island of Tinos changed Bess and Joni’s relationship from that of inseparable best friends to virtual strangers. And how it changed them as individuals too. Whereas Bess has retreated into self-imposed isolation, punctuated by episodes of risk-taking behaviour, Joni has seemingly put the past behind her, reinventing herself and using her experiences as a springboard for her career. But although Bess and Joni may have become estranged they are bound together forever by a lie. ‘Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive’ as someone once said…

Although narrated almost exclusively from the point of view of Bess, this isn’t a case of being either ‘Team Bess’ or ‘Team Joni’ because we’re never quite sure about the reliability of what we’re being told. While I didn’t find either Bess and Joni particularly likeable or their actions laudable (perhaps because my wild – if they ever were – teenage years are well behind me), they’re definitely nuanced characters and the author skilfully ensures your empathy moves back and forth between them.

Three into two don’t go, there’s always one left over. This is definitely Evangeline to whom Bess and Joni are actually quite horrible at times. Some of this ganging up comes back to haunt them. For me, Evangeline always remained a rather hazy character and I didn’t get any sense of the strong bond that supposedly existed between her and Joni before Bess came on the scene.

Before We Were Innocent is part coming-of-age story, part depiction of the complexity of friendships, and part intriguing mystery. It also exposes the impact of intrusive media attention on individuals and their families and the toxic nature of online discourse. Although it has plenty of twists and turns, for me it simmered but never really reached boiling point.

I received a digital review copy courtesy of Head of Zeus via NetGalley.

In three words: Intense, intriguing, twisty

Try something similar: Sister of Mine by Laurie Petrou

About the Author

Ella Berman grew up in both London and Los Angeles and worked at Sony Music before starting the clothing brand London Loves LA. She lives in London with her husband, James, and their dog, Rocky.

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#BlogTour #BookReview Before the Swallows Come Back by Fiona Curnow @FJCurlew #BeforeTheSwallowsComeBack

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Welcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for Before the Swallows Come Back by Fiona Curnow. My thanks to Fiona for inviting me to take part in the tour and for my digital review copy. You can read my thoughts below but here are just a few of the things others reviewers have said about the book . . .

‘an absolutely heart-filling and lyrical novel’ – Carol McKay (I can definitely recommend reading Carol’s full review here)
‘A beautiful, emotional read. Sensitive topics, delicately tackled‘ – Kayleigh at Books with Kayleigh
‘A heartbreakingly beautiful read with the most exquisite descriptions of nature’ – Karla at Bookish Life

About the Book

Tommy struggles with people, with communicating, preferring solitude, drifting off with nature. He is protected by his Tinker family who keep to the old ways. A life of quiet seclusion under canvas is all he knows.

Charlotte cares for her sickly father. She meets Tommy by the riverside and an unexpected friendship develops. Over the years it becomes something more, something crucial to both of them. But when tragedy strikes each family they are torn apart.

Charlotte is sent far away. Tommy might have done something very bad.

Format: eARC (358 pages) Publisher:
Publication date: 1st July 2023 Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Find Before the Swallows Come Back on Goodreads

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My Review

I’ve read two of the author’s other books, Don’t Get Involved and Dan Knew (links from the titles will take you to my reviews) and both involve the building of close relationships, often in times of turmoil.

The same is true in this book, with the story being structured around some wonderful relationships that help to see the characters through challenging times. Firstly there is the beautiful, gentle friendship that forms between Tommy and Charlotte. Through their friendship Charlotte learns to appreciate the natural world and acquires some skills that will prove useful later in the story. And, for Tommy, the quiet blossoming of their relationship is something he finds unthreatening. ‘This didn’t happen to him. He didn’t make friends. He didn’t chat away to people. He didn’t play with other people. He didn’t really like them. But this girl? This girl did something to him.’ The relationship between Charlotte and her ailing father is moving beyond words, partly because you are always aware of its fragility. I found it heartbreaking to see their attempts to put a brave face on things, Charlotte downplaying the burden she has taken on and her father downplaying the effects of his illness.

Friendship is a strong theme of the book with both Tommy and Charlotte forming positive relationships with others in addition to the bond that exists between the two of them. For example, young Em whom Charlotte meets later in the book and the lovely Dougie, the manager of the local estate, who befriends Tommy at a crucial point in the story. As in Dan Knew, the bond between humans and animals is a delightful feature of the book. I’m thinking of the relationship between Tommy and his family’s two horses and with his dog, Rona but Charlotte also gains her own animal companion later in the book.

There is an unexpected shift in tone when two events change Charlotte’s and Tommy’s lives forever, in the most dramatic way. For me, the change in tone was a little too extreme and I found some of the events implausible but I appreciate other readers may feel differently. It certainly introduces a sense of jeopardy to the story as both Tommy and Charlotte find themselves alone and having to fend for themselves in an often unfriendly world. Tommy’s upbringing makes it easy for him to live off the land as he journeys from one stopping place to another, often places that had been used year after year by his family. ‘In his mind Tommy could see the trail through the trees that he had followed the year before. The season was different. The air different, but it was the same place. The same feeling. Something deep and ancient like he was walking with generations who had walked here before. Like he belonged.’ However, he experiences hostility in his encounters with the outside world. Some is prejudice, some is more malicious. Meanwhile Charlotte has, through circumstances, become a kind of traveller too but is often lost – quite literally – as she attempts to return to a place of sanctuary.

One of the standout parts of the book for me was the evocative descriptions of the natural world and the changing seasons. ‘The leaves turned and fell. Glowing golds and crimsons curled and died on the ground; the forest stripped bare, skeletons scrambling up the hill, huddling against the cruel winds of winter.’ And the message that we should embrace nature rather than trying to control it really chimed with me.

After all the turmoil in Tommy’s and Charlotte’s lives, the book’s ending seemed absolutely the right one to me.

I received a digital review copy courtesy of the author.

In three words: Lyrical, moving, dramatic

Try something similar: Ghosts of Spring by Luis Carrasco

About the Author

Fiona is a Scottish writer who spent fifteen years teaching in international schools, before becoming ill and having to return home. Not one to remain idle, she turned to the Open University where she studied creative writing, completing both courses with distinction, and discovering a new passion.

She has since written five books and finds it difficult to be content without a work in progress. That escape into a world of her own making is something very special! Before the Swallows Come Back was sparked by a meeting she had with a Tinker family many years ago, in rural Perthshire. They invited her to sit by their fire, outside their bender, and listen to stories. It was fascinating, inspirational and never left her.

The conservation of natural habitats and their wildlife is hugely important to her (yes, she is a bit of an eco-warrior!) and the Tinkers and their way of life seemed to lend themselves to carrying this theme.

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