Thursday 30 April 2020

The Perfect Couple by Jackie Kabler @rararesources #BlogTour #Review @HarperCollinsUK #ThePerfectCouple

The Perfect Couple by Jackie Kabler
Published by HarperImpulse, Killer Reads
Publication Date: 17th April 2020

My thanks to Rachel Gilbey, blog tour organiser and all round amazing lady for the opportunity to read and review this book as part of the blog tour.

Book Description:

The perfect couple … or the perfect lie?

A year and a half ago, Gemma met the love of her life, Danny. Since then, their relationship has been like something out of a dream. But one Friday evening, Gemma returns home to find Danny is nowhere to be seen.
After two days with no word from her husband, Gemma turns to the police. She is horrified by what she discovers – a serial killer is on the loose in Bristol. When she sees the photos of the victims she is even more stunned … they all look just like Danny.
But, the police aren’t convinced by Gemma’s story. Why has no one apart from Gemma seen or heard from Danny in weeks? Why is there barely a trace of him in their flat? Is she telling them the truth, or are there more secrets and lies in this marriage than meets the eye?
My Thoughts:

As I have never read any of this author's work before I wasn't sure what to expect regarding what her writing style would be. There are many crime writers on the market and not all of them work for me, but my first observation of this book was how well thought out the plot is.

Gemma and Danny O'Connor have just relocated from London to Bristol in an exciting new  chapter of their lives. Busy professionals, Gemma is looking forward to a quieter life in a smaller city as a freelance lifestyle journalist while IT whizz Danny will be moving in a week later as he has to finish up a work project before he can move lock, stock and barrel to the new house.  However things don't go according to plan when Gemma returns home from a work related night away to find no sign of Danny. She tries not to jump to any conclusions however time moves on and he's still not come home.

Gemma eventually goes to the police to report Danny missing - and that's where things start to get interesting. The police somehow make a connection between Danny and 2 men who have been murdered in the area recently. They are concerned for Danny's safety but are reluctant to share information with Gemma. Their questioning of her gets more intense but their attitudes towards her are getting cooler by the day. Why aren't the police listening to the theories she is suggesting? And why are Danny's family not more concerned for his whereabouts?

The plotting and pace of this book are excellent, the characters are very real, down to earth, fallible people. My understanding is that this is a standalone novel however I think there is so much more this detective team could offer and I would be very interested to follow them into a series of books. I did unfortunately guess the twist quite early on but the storyline is so well written that I wasn't 100% sure I was right and with several alternative possibilities creeping in my attention was held right the way through to the end.
About the Author:


Jackie Kabler worked as a newspaper reporter and then in television news for twenty years, including nearly a decade on GMTV. She later appeared on BBC and ITV news, presented a property show for Sky, hosted sports shows on Setanta Sports News and worked as a media trainer for the Armed Forces. She is now a presenter on shopping channel QVC. Jackie lives in Gloucestershire with her husband.

Monday 20 April 2020

The Wives by Tarryn Fisher #NetGalley #review #TheWives @DarkMarkTarryn @HQstories

The Wives by Tarryn Fisher
Published by HQ
Publication Date: 30 April 2020 (paperback) 
30 December 2019 (ebook)
Genre: Womens Fiction

My thanks to the publisher for the opportunity to read this title via Netgalley. All opinions are my own and unbiased.


Book Description:

You’ve never met the other wives. None of you know each other, you see your husband only one day a week. Thursday. But you don’t care, you love him that much. Or at least that’s what you’ve told yourself…
And then, one day it all changes.
You thought you were fine with this, with only having a fraction of a husband. But you can’t help yourself, you start to dig. Begin tracking them down, the other days… Who is Monday and why does she have bruises on her arms? Is she being abused? By who? Her husband? Your husband?
What else is he keeping from you?
And who is he, really?


My Thoughts:

This is the most unusual book I have read for a long time. The narrator of the story is a young lady named Thursday who tells us she is the legal wife of Seth. She is his second wife yet he has married another lady named Hannah since she is unable to provide him with a child.  Seth is a polygamist as his father was before him. Thursday comes across as a confident woman who finds herself in a position she had never imagined, having to share her husband's time with 2 other women. As she describes this, we gradually learn that she is not as accepting of the situation as we are first led to believe and when she discovers a receipt in her husband's pocket she decides to start looking for the other wives.
Little by little she discovers names and places, snippets of information which lead her to the women who share her life. Then she starts to discover that Seth is not the man she thought he was.  She convinces herself that Hannah - or Tuesday as she knows her - is in danger from Seth and that she needs to help her get away from her husband.

From hereon, things begin to get complicated. Facts don't add up, Seth starts to get angry with Thursday and tells her she is making things up and that she shouldn't meddle with other people's relationships. Thursday's life spirals out of control and this is the point where I couldn't decide who was telling the truth. Everything Seth said kind of sounded more convincing than Thursday's version of things but I couldn't trust either of them.With few friends and family in their life together there weren't many other people chipping in with their opinions however it's not til virtually at the end that we really understand what has been going on.

This is a very cleverly written book, and while I couldn't have sat and read the whole thing in one sitting - it is far too emotionally draining for that - I did find myself thinking about the storyline while I was away from it and was drawn strongly to pick it back up and continue with the tale.

There are several triggers in this book which some readers will find upsetting.
About the Author:


Thursday 16 April 2020

The Flat Share by Beth O'Leary #Review #TheFlatShare @OLearyBeth @QuercusBooks



The Flat Share by Beth O'Leary
Published by Quercus
Publication Date: 10th April 2019
Genre: Romantic Comedy


Book Description:


Tiffy and Leon share a flat
Tiffy and Leon share a bed
Tiffy and Leon have never met...

Tiffy Moore needs a cheap flat, and fast. Leon Twomey works nights and needs cash. Their friends think they're crazy, but it's the perfect solution: Leon occupies the one-bed flat while Tiffy's at work in the day, and she has the run of the place the rest of the time.
But with obsessive ex-boyfriends, demanding clients at work, wrongly imprisoned brothers and, of course, the fact that they still haven't met yet, they're about to discover that if you want the perfect home you need to throw the rulebook out the window...

My Thoughts:

This book is one of the most successful debut novels I have read recently, alongside Ruby Hummingbird and Libby Page. I don't know why but I have put off reading this book for months, but when I found myself wanting to read something light during the Easter bank holiday lockdown this seemed the ideal book to choose.  I have to admit to reading it far quicker than I expected to, but Beth's easy writing style welcomed me in and I was soon engrossed in the life of Tiffy and Leon.

Both main characters are fairly eccentric in their own ways. Tiffy is a messy, creative ball of energy who has a wacky dress sense. Leon is the opposite; quiet, introverted and doesn't like change. For Leon to make the decision to share not only his flat but his actual bed is a HUGE issue, everyone thinks both and Tiffy are making a massive mistake but one needs the extra cash and the other needs somewhere cheap (but still habitable) to live following a nasty break up.  We follow the pair as they settle in to their new living arrangements, the chapters alternating between each of them so we get a good balance of viewpoints.

There is a good mix of practical scenarios which present themselves and funny moments to raise a smile. I can't say that I had any proper laugh out loud moments but the whole book was extremely enjoyable from start to finish - although it did take me a few chapters to slot into Leon's unique style of delivery - no pronouns, almost bullet point statements. This changes gradually as he picks up on Tiffy's easy going nature and he relaxes into being around her, even though they've never met. They communicate by post-it note messages and I loved seeing their friendship build via these notes. 

Inevitably the two of them do bump into each other when their best-laid plans take an alcohol induced hit however I don't want to give too much away as it's what this book is all about. Suffice to say that when Tiffy discovers that Leon's brother Richie is imprisoned for a crime he insists he is innocent of she feels that she needs to do something to try and help. Then when Leon discovers that Tiffy has put Richie's case to her best friend Gerty (who just happens to be a criminal lawyer) his respect for her steps up to a new level. Equally, when Tiffy discovers that in his spare time Leon is trying to trace a long lost love of one of the patients in his care at the local hospice where he works she sees what a caring person he is and can't help comparing him to her abusive ex boyfriend.

Would the pair of them heed the first rule of house sharing? Well, you will have to read the book to find out. Beth O'Leary's second book The Switch is due out 16th April and we are lucky to get a taste of the new book at the back of The Flat Share - as if we need the temptation?!

Congratulations to the author on a fantastic debut novel. I have pre-ordered book two already, but ssshh! don't tell my partner!

About the Author:




Beth studied English at university before going into children's publishing. She lives as close to the countryside as she can get while still being in reach of London, and wrote her first novel, The Flatshare, on her train journey to and from work.

She is now writing novels full time, and if she's not at her desk, you'll usually find her curled up somewhere with a
book, a cup of tea, and several woolly jumpers (whatever the weather).

Monday 13 April 2020

Rabette Run by Nick Rippington #BlogTour #Extract @nickripp #RabetteRun @BOTBSPublicity

Rabette Run by Nick Rippington
Publication Date: 21st February 2020
Psychological Thriller

My thanks to Sarah Hardy of Books on the Bright Side Publicity for the opportunity to be part of this blog tour for Nick Rippington's book Rabette Run. My apologies for not being able to provide you with a review as originally planned, however Nick has generously offered an extract of the book for you to get a taster.


The story so far...
After being involved in a nasty car accident, graphic artist and father of one Emerson Rabette has been forced to confront his biggest fear and take the underground to an important meeting in London.
   Pretty soon Emerson’s OCD kicks in and he is faced by an angry crowd of commuters, only for the mysterious glamour model Winter to come to his rescue and help him onto the train.
   So far so good, until Emerson begins to suspect his fellow passengers – including a soldier – are watching him. When he sees some graffiti scrawled on the ceiling of the tube saying Run Rabette Run he can stand no more, and flees the train.
    Catching a bus, he starts to believe he can relax until he realises the driver is the same soldier he saw on the underground and they are being pursued at speed through the streets of London by the police. Now the soldier makes a strange request of him:

Extract:

I look helplessly at the gear stick then try to shift it, but it’s stuck fast. ‘What the hell!’ says Tank. ‘Don’t tell me you can’t even drive a flamin’ bus.’
‘That’s what I was trying to tell you!’ I protest like a child arguing with a parent over school dinners. The last vestiges of calm and control are rapidly draining from my body. ‘I’m a soddin’ graphic designer not Emerson Fittipaldi.’
As soon as the words tumble out of my mouth, a vision shoots into my brain – my father watching his hero on TV, the Brazilian racing driver from whom I got my name. I feel my eyes welling up.
‘Oh, for fuck’s sake, are you blubbing, you snowflake?’ barks Tank, raising the gun and pointing it in my face. ‘Start that business and I’ll drill a nice king-sized hole in your head.’
As I brush a tear from my cheek with one hand, I raise the other in a submissive gesture aimed at warding off my gung-ho ‘bodyguard’. He drops the murderous weapon to his side as quickly as he’s raised it, as if his brain has belatedly informed him it’s folly to wave a loaded gun at the person you’re supposed to be protecting.
‘You see what happens, Rabette?’ he says, turning the blame on me. ‘You’re getting me wound up, and I can’t think straight when I’m wound up.’
Suddenly the sirens, ear-shredding in their intensity, change pitch, slowing down as they’re replaced by an out-of-tune wail that sets my teeth on edge. It’s the same sort of musical torture I experience when listening to those odious Scottish musical instruments, the bagpipes. The bus lights up like Blackpool during the illuminations, searchlights circling the interior.
‘Here they come, y’all,’ says Franklin, holding a pair of spherical objects in his hand. ‘Shall we do this?’
‘Too right!’ says Tank and the two of them charge down the aisle like a latter-day Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the rest of us gawping in their wake. I realise that if they’re here to protect me the least I can do is fulfil my part of the bargain. After crunching the gear lever around and pressing my foot to the floor, I manage to persuade the huge monstrosity to lurch forward.
‘Hey, steady bud!’ shouts Franklin, ‘You don’t want me to drop these do ya?’
He holds up the objects so I can see them in the mirror. Grenades. I recognise this particular type from an army feature I’d designed at work. Before I’m able to respond, he turns back to face the pulsating lights behind us, pushing open the emergency door at the back and shouting, ‘Geronimo!’
Launching one of the items airborne like an All-Star outfielder at a baseball match, it sails in a high arc just as a crackly voice on a megaphone announces, ‘Please put your hands on your heads. There needn’t be any trouble. We just want to speak to Mr Rabette, please, Mr...’
Kaboom!
The massive explosion is accompanied by a blinding, bright flash, the combination pummelling my senses. My vision is shrouded in a sea of white, my ears assaulted by a tinny, ringing sensation. Time seems to pause for a moment before resuming at double speed. People are diving for cover as glass and loose bits of mangled metal fly everywhere, threatening to rip holes in any human flesh with which they come into contact. Tank and Franklin are sprawled on the floor, hands covering their ears, staring out of the back door of the bus and waiting for the fog to clear. An old man who has been sitting near the back moans, and the woman beside him cries as she fusses over him. ‘His leg!’ she shouts to anyone prepared to listen. ‘It’s gone straight into his leg. Help us! Help! We need a doctor!’
Shaking myself from my paralysed state I realise similar appeals are going up everywhere. Passengers lucky enough to avoid the flying debris are attending those who haven’t been so lucky, the whole surreal episode being played out to a background of moans and groans. One of the little girls I had noticed earlier is lying across a seat, her hair matted with dust, as her mother dabs at a cut on her arm with a tissue from a small pack she has liberated from her coat pocket. The scene resembles something you might see on a late-night TV documentary focusing on the aftermath of a natural disaster.
As I look around, I’m becoming increasingly aware something is missing. The picture isn’t right. Then I understand. It isn’t something that’s missing, it’s someone.
Where the hell is Winter?





About the Author:


NICK RIPPINGTON is the award-winning author of the Boxer Boys series of gangland crime thrillers.
     Based in London, UK, Nick was the last-ever Welsh Sports Editor of the now defunct News of The World, writing his debut release Crossing The Whitewash after being made redundant with just two days notice after Rupert Murdoch closed down Europe’s biggest-selling tabloid in 2011.
    On holiday at the time, Nick was never allowed back in the building, investigators sealing off the area with crime scene tape and seizing his computer as they investigated the phone-hacking scandal, something which took place a decade before Nick joined the paper. His greatest fear, however, was that cops would uncover the secrets to his Fantasy Football selections.
    Handed the contents of his desk in a black bin bag in a murky car park, deep throat style, Nick was at a crossroads – married just two years earlier and with a wife and 9-month-old baby to support.
    With self-publishing booming, he hit on an idea for a UK gangland thriller taking place against the backdrop of the Rugby World Cup and in 2015 produced Crossing The Whitewash, which received an honourable mention in the genre category of the Writers’ Digest self-published eBook awards. Judges described it as “evocative, unique, unfailingly precise and often humorous”.
    Follow-up novel Spark Out, a prequel set at the time of Margaret Thatcher and the Falklands War, received a Chill With A Book reader award and an IndieBRAG medallion from the prestigious website dedicated to Independent publishers and writers throughout the world. The novel was also awarded best cover of 2017 with Chill With A Book.
      The third book in the Boxer Boys series Dying Seconds, a sequel to Crossing The Whitewash, was released in December 2018 and went to the top of the Amazon Contemporary Urban Fiction free charts during a giveaway period of five days. A digital box set, the Boxer Boys Collection, came out in September last year.
       Now Nick, 60, is switching direction feeling that, for the moment, the Boxer Boys series has run its course. His latest novel, Rabette Run, will be released in the Spring and Nick says, ‘It is a gritty psychological thriller with twists and turns galore. Think Alice in Wonderland with tanks and guns.’
    Married to Liz, When Nick isn’t writing he works as a back bench designer of sports pages on the Daily Star. He has two children – Jemma, 37, and Olivia, 9. 
Social Media Links:

Twitter: @nickripp
Instagram: @nickrippingtonauthor
Where to find Nick’s books…
Amazon Author Page in the UK: 
Amazon Author Page in the US:



Thursday 9 April 2020

Spider Games by KJ McGillick #BlogTour @rararesources

Spider Games by KJ McGillick
Genre: Legal Thriller
Published Independently 27th January 2020

After having read and reviewed two previous books by this author this year,  I was delighted to be approached by Rachel Gilbey to be part of the blog tour for Spider Games. Kathleen's books are always gritty and explore the murky world of organised crime.
My thanks to Rachel for providing me with the ebook to review, all opinions here are my own and unbiased.

Book Description:

Kate O’Brien is pure dedication; she believes in the justice system. This feisty, no-nonsense attorney works herself to the bone every day, tirelessly building her reputation and career. She is on the path to being a legal star. That is until her corrupt law partner, Bill Brown, a criminal defense attorney, achieves a degree of notoriety which attracts the interest of the Drug Enforcement Administration.
When the inconceivable happens, Bill is arrested, charged with multiple counts of drug trafficking and money laundering leaving the law firm in chaos. As Kate slowly digs her way out, what she finds sends her down a dark path that could lead to her imprisonment or death. Bill has meticulously set her up to pay for his malevolent crimes. His cohorts, fearing she knows too much, have marked her for death. Can she stay ahead of the FBI and unravel crimes that reach as far as China and Russia? Or will she need to assume a new identity to save her own life?
A fast-paced thriller that keeps you guessing until the end. Suspenseful crime fiction with twists and turns throughout this masterfully plotted novel keeps you on the edge of your seat. It may be read as a standalone and serves as the first book in the series, A Conspiracy of Betrayal.
My Thoughts:

One of the things I love about Kathleen's books are that they take you bang! straight into the action.  In this case we meet Kate O'Brien as she is roped into the defence of a woman, Alexis Mayhew, who has been found at her home with a man who has a fatal gunshot wound. The gun is not in her hand and she appears to be in a state of shock, unable to speak to explain the events which led up to the man's death.  Kate is not primarily a criminal lawyer - she specializes in family law cases - but her partner at the law practice Bill Brown is being elusive and has essentially dropped her in at the deep end to represent Mrs Mayhew while he completes another court case.

This is the point life takes a rapid downward spiral for Kate and her paralegal Norma. They end up being investigated by an increasing number of law enforcement agencies, their offices raided by the Drug Enforcement Agency and the FBI. Life gets increasingly surreal when the search turns up drugs and guns in Bill's safe, then Kate and Norma get moved to a safe house for their own protection, complete with their own FBI bodyguard.

Just what was Bill involved in - and how had his dodgy dealings gone unnoticed by both Kate and Norma?  I began to get my suspicions regarding Norma as she seemed to know a lot of legal procedures and the intricacies of criminal law far more so than I suspect a regular paralegal secretary would in their daily work. Was she in league with Bill and more importantly could Kate trust her? Information as to their whereabouts seems to get into the wrong hands too easily which also raises red flags to the FBI agent providing their protection.

This is a fast paced thriller with some shocking scenes which kept me thinking even when I was forced to put the book down. The consequences of getting tangled up with organised criminal gangs are clearly represented in this book - certainly made me think about the fact that it is not necessarily those directly involved who have to pay the price.

Buy your copy via Amazon here

About the Author:


Kathleen McGillick is a fiction writer in the Mystery Thriller Suspense genre. She was born in Manhattan and lived in Florida while she attended the University of Miami School of Nursing. After twenty years of teaching nursing in New York, she headed south leaving the snow behind. She has lived in Georgia over thirty-five years and is a practicing attorney in Cherokee County.

Her passions are international travel and art. And much like a CIA agent she has a "GO" bag packed to leave for a trip whenever possible. It's not a reach to realize her stories are culled from her travel adventures and there are tons of adventures to share. Her favorite place outside the US is the UK but her love of art was born at the Louvre requiring return pilgrimages to rejuvenate her soul. You can follow her travels at travelingesquire.smugmug.com/
A grandmother of two and lover of her cats she enjoys writing her books much like Lee Child, by the seat of her pants. Her characters are flawed, her plots twist and turn and the endings you never see coming.




Monday 6 April 2020

The Prison Doctor by Dr Amanda Brown #Review @HQstories

The Prison Doctor by Dr Amanda Brown
Published 13th June 2019
Published by HQ 
288 pages

Book Description:

Horrifying, heartbreaking and eye-opening, these are the stories, the patients and the cases that have characterised a career spent being a doctor behind bars.
Violence. Drugs. Suicide. Welcome to the world of a Prison Doctor.
Dr Amanda Brown has treated inmates in the UK’s most infamous prisons – first in young offenders’ institutions, then at the notorious Wormwood Scrubs and finally at Europe’s largest women-only prison in Europe, Bronzefield.
From miraculous pregnancies to dirty protests, and from violent attacks on prisoners to heartbreaking acts of self-harm, she has witnessed it all.
In this eye-opening, inspirational memoir, Amanda reveals the stories, the patients and the cases that have shaped a career helping those most of us would rather forget.
Despite their crimes, she is still their doctor.


My Thoughts:

I am not a regular reader of non-fiction, but when a friend offered me the chance to read Amanda Brown's prison memoir I was interested to know what makes a regular GP move across into the prison service.

I was impressed with the leap of faith that Amanda took to step well and truly out of her comfort zone to leave the general practice she had spent so long building up and move into the prison service.

It is heart warming to know that the staff in our detention centres and prisons are concerned not only with the physical health of the inmates but also their mental wellbeing.  The constraints which restrict just how involved they can get are proven in Amanda's description of the doctor-patient relationship she built up with a young man at the detention centre, Jared. She gained his confidence sufficiently to find out what his passion was: writing and poetry. Knowing that he was moving to another facility Amanda wanted to expand Jared's vocabulary, buying a dictionary and thesaurus for him to take with him.  Unfortunately the rules state that she could not give him the book as staff are not permitted to gift anything to inmates and with no family to support him she watched him leave the detention centre with her hopes for his writing talent in tatters.

With language barriers, social and emotional walls which the individual has built up for self preservation plus the necessary rules of the prison system there are so many reasons a huge proportion of people entering these establishments fail to pull themselves out of the unfortunate cycle they find themselves in. The hurdles they have to overcome must feel like too much effort for many of them, when the draw of drugs and integrating into the right social group in prison must seem a much easier option.

I love the fact that Amanda and the others in her team do their utmost to not judge any one of the inmates. They all receive the same high standard of treatment no matter what their past has thrown at them. Every effort is given to help them escape the prison system and better themselves in the outside world, whether that be medical help or emotional support to identify with the inmate. It's not all about physical health but to help someone find it in themselves to be the best they can comes across so strongly in this book and I admire Amanda and every one in the prison system who is helping people when they are at their lowest point.

I learned a lot from this book and I recommend everyone reads it as I feel it will change your view of everyone on the other side of the bars, whether they be staff or inmate.


About the Author:

Dr Amanda Brown is a GP at the largest women-only prison in Europe, Bronzefield. She was a regular NHS GP for a number of years, until she gave up her practice to move into the prison service.  She worked at a teenage detention centre, before moving on to Wormwood Scrubs and the finally to Bronzefield where she continues to practice to this day. The Prison Doctor is her first book.

Wednesday 1 April 2020

The Garden of Lost Memories by Ruby Hummingbird @bookouture @HummingbirdRuby #BlogTour #Review

The Garden of Lost Memories by Ruby Hummingbird
Published by Bookouture
Published 1st April 2020
310 pages
Genre: Womens Fiction

My thanks to publisher Bookouture for the opportunity to read this title ahead of publication and post my review as part of the blog tour.  All opinions are my own and unbiased.

Book Description:

Just because you feel ordinary doesn’t mean you aren’t extraordinary to someone else.

Sixty-two-year-old Elsie knows what she likes. Custard creams at four o’clock, jigsaw puzzles with a thousand pieces, her ivy-covered, lavender-scented garden.

Ten-year-old Billy would rather spend his Saturdays kicking a ball, or watching TV, or anything really, other than being babysat by his grumpy neighbour Elsie and being force fed custard creams.

If it was up to them, they’d have nothing to do with each other. Unfortunately, you can’t choose who you live next door to.

But there is always more to people than meets the eye…

Elsie doesn’t know that Billy’s afraid to go to school now, or why his mother woke him up in the middle of the night with an urgent shake, bags already packed, ready to flee their home.

Billy doesn’t know that the rusting red tin he finds buried in Elsie’s treasured garden is a ticking time bomb waiting to explode her carefully organised life. And that when he digs it up, he is unearthing a secret that has lain dormant for twenty-eight years…

My Thoughts:

Picking up a book by Ruby Hummingbird is like coming home and settling in to your favourite armchair. You know you're going to get comfortable and warm and everything will be okay by the end of the night.

Ruby's debut novel The Wish List of Albie Young was one of my favourite books of 2019 and it will stay in my heart for a very long time, so when the opportunity arose to read her next book I was keen to see whether she would be able to hit the bar again.  To put it quite simply, yes she has.

62 year old Elsie Maple is very set in her ways. She's prickly,  has routines and lists which keep her on track and safe in her every day life. Change is not welcome in Elsie's world and the easiest way to avoid change is to not let anyone in to her life which might upset her routine.  But 10 year old Billy comes crashing into her life when he and his mum move in next door, there's something about him which knocks down Elsie's defences and she finds herself offering to babysit Billy while his mum goes to work.  She can't explain it, but she feels she needs to help. They appear to have little in common - Elsie was home schooled so she can't even compare stories as to how school life may have changed over the years. They struggle to find common ground for even the most basic of conversations. The author describes brilliantly the awkward silences between the two characters and as the story is told from both perspectives we get an insight into what each of them is thinking.  Then one day Elsie takes Billy outside to see her garden - her life's work where she spent many an hour alongside her mother then many more after her mother passed away, finding solace in the tasks around the garden. Much to her surprise Billy comes alive out there, showing a passion to learn all about the different plants and jobs which need doing. In his enthusiasm Billy discovers buried 'treasure' in one of the flower beds, a battered old tin which looks like it has been covered for years.  The last thing Billy wants is to upset Elsie, especially now they've formed a tentative friendship so he is shocked and upset at Elsie's reaction when he shows her what he's found.

The story which follows puts Elsie and Billy's friendship to the test - and even Billy's mum starts to mistrust the older lady after some of the things Billy tells her. I really enjoyed reading about how despite how their relationship had faltered, they had built up such a nice respect for one another that they subconsciously wanted to still look out for each other. They each had to dig deep inside themselves and change how far they would go for an 'outsider' - neither of them had really had much experience of this before and I felt proud of each of them as they pushed themselves out of their comfort zone. Billy's cheeky personality began to reappear over the weeks and brought out a glimmer of Elsie's younger, more rebellious self which had been hidden away for years, much to Billy's amusement.


This is another fine example of 'up-lit' at its best and okay, the ending may have been a little bit fairytale 'happy ever after' ish, but I personally would have been heartbroken had it ended any other way. And who would have thought the humble custard cream could steal the show?

Thank you Ruby for another wonderful story. 5 twinkly stars from me. Buy your copy here:

Google Play: https://bit.ly/3bqY3Wr

About the Author:


Ruby Hummingbird is a novelist based in the English countryside. She loves nothing more than writing uplifting and heartwarming fiction that gets her readers reaching for the tissues. When she isn’t storytelling, she can be found tending to her beloved sunflowers or sipping on hazelnut lattes.

Social Media:  

Twitter: @HummingbirdRuby