#Review by Lou of The Whitlock Close Weddings By Karen Hollis @KarenLNHollis #TheWhitlockCloseWeddings #RomanticFiction #Neighbours #ContemporaryFiction #BookSeries

The Whitlock Close Weddings
By Karen Hollis

It’s time to get all nostalgic for the year, 1982 and meet the neighbours in Whitlock Close. Feel their pain, feel the love and re-live the times of music and more… and join a wedding.
The Whitlock Close Weddings is book 2 in the series, but reads well as a stand-alone too.
Today is my stop on the blog tour and below I have the blurb and written my review.

It’s 1982 and the residents of Whitlock Close have an exciting few months ahead of them. The Lincolnshire village is looking forward to two weddings!
Former school teacher Sarah Willington is set to marry Mark Thomas, guitarist of the successful boy band The Unflappables, and no expense is being spared.
The second wedding will be a quieter one, but who exactly is Norman marrying – Nora or Mabel?
Twelve-year-old Louise has to decide about her gymnastics career, following a shocking development with her friend Jayne’s health. Plus what on earth is going on with her boyfriend Toby?
Meanwhile, there are people moving in and moving out, cats going missing and a big Christmas trip away to the new Silver Sands Holiday Camp.
It’s going to be another eventful few months for the residents of the eight semi-detached houses in Whitlock Close.

Review

You really feel like you’re discovering the neighbours as you’re introduced to them as though you’ve just moved in yourself and someone is giving all the gen on the neighbourhood. It creates a nice, cosy feel, even though some have had hardships, whereas some have made a go at things and others are settling in.

I really enjoyed discovering everyone’s life and how they fit into Whitlock Close, it’s such a realistic community feel and you can visualise it all, without it being overly descriptive. I especially enjoyed following Louise’s life from her being 12 and turning 13 and her family, friends, her love for a boy and her gymnastics.

The nostalgia is fun with the music and films, especially Boy George and Gregory’s Girl that have in some ways stood the test of time and still talked about and played/shown today, which is great, so whether you were around for them the first time around or later, you may well have heard of some of the pop cultural points mentioned and if you haven’t, it’s a fun time to start an acquaintance with this very ‘happening’ year/decade.

There is a real mix of happiness, sadness, challenging times and pop culture that creates a great story that creates the neighbourhood, Whitlock Close and an entertaining, compelling story to read.

#CoverReveal and Blurb of Kill Them With Kindness by Will Carver @will_carver @OrendaBooks #KillThemWithKindness Coming 19th June 2025 Pre-Order Now #CarverCult

I am excited to be on the cover-reveal Orenda Books blog tour for Kill Them With Kindness. I’ve long been a fan of Will Carver’s writing and now he has another thriller that sounds original and taking a different look at the state of the world and society we live in, with many gripping twists and turns. To date, I have found his books to be compelling to the point they’re hard to put down. In my opinion they’re some of the most important, thought-provoking books in the thriller genre at the moment.
Check out the cover and blurb below of what’s coming on 19th June 2025.

Blurb

The threat of nuclear war is no longer scary. This is much worse. It’s invisible. It works quickly.

And it’s coming.

The scourge has already infected and killed half the population in China and it is heading towards the UK. There is no time to escape. The British government sees no way out other than to distribute ‘Dignity Pills’ to its citizens: One last night with family or loved ones before going to sleep forever … together. Because the contagion will kill you and the horrifying news footage shows that it will be better to go quietly.

Dr Haruto Ikeda, a Japanese scientist working at a Chinese research facility, wants to save the world. He has discovered a way to mutate a virus. Instead of making people sick, instead of causing death, it’s going to make them… nice.

Instead of attacking the lungs, it will work into the brain and increase the host’s ability to feel and show compassion. It will make people kind.

But governments don’t want a population in agreement. They want conflict and outrage and fear. Reasonable people are harder to control.

Ikeda’s quest is thoughtful and noble, and it just might work. Maybe humanity can be saved. Maybe it doesn’t have to be the end.

But kindness may also be the biggest killer of all…

Pre-order – Click to link to many bookshops

#Review of The Pearl Button Girl By Annie Murray Book 1 of #NewSeries #ChildrenOfBirmingham #AnnieMurray @PanMacMillan @chlodavies97 #ThePearlButtonGirl #BlogTour

The Pearl Button Girl
Book 1 of Children of Birmingham
By Annie Murray

The Pearl Button is the latest book by Annie Murray. It’s the first in a new set which follows the Fletcher family in industrialised Birmingham, with all the grit and warmth readers have come to expect. It gives me great pleasure to start off the Pan Macmillan blog tour with a review. Discover the blurb and review below.

Blurb

Annie Murray’s The Pearl Button Girl is book one in the Children of Birmingham series, starting in Victorian Birmingham and following the trials and triumphs of the Fletcher family.

Working at the local pearl button factory, Ada Fletcher is doing her best to make ends meet in trying times.

When tragedy strikes and her siblings are taken to a workhouse orphanage, Ada is saved from a similar fate by her neighbour, Sarah Connell.

But the roof over Ada’s head doesn’t come without a price: the Connells have too many children, not enough money, and Sarah’s reliance on drink means that it isn’t long before Ada needs to escape.

Determined to be more than just a factory girl, Ada embarks on a journey to reunite with her siblings. But in a teeming industrial city, will she be able to find long-lost family as well as a home and life to call her own?

Review

A new family and situations written in true Annie Murray style she still keeps to showing a family’s trials and tribulations of their life. This time it’s in a button factory and no matter how hard Ada Fletcher tries, she still faces such hardship and loses her siblings, Elsie, Dora, John, and Mabs to the workhouse. Her troubles don’t stop there as she embarks trying to find her family and create a new life.

Set in industrialised Birmingham, you get the sense of the hard times which some families came up against. The Fletcher family feels like it was a well researched creation of Victorian times when you aren’t living or working in a grand house. Through the Fletcher family, you’re skilfully shown the other side of society and how grim it could be. There’s also a sense of how people try to help where they can, even when their lives aren’t too much better with their own troubles and strife and that’s rather heart-warming.

There are elements of hope and Ada is such a well-drawn character that you want something good to happen to her.
There’s also warmth in Sarah Connell, but you can see she’s got her own family to juggle, although takes in Ada anyway and tries to accommodate her, you can feel her hardship and the toil it takes on the family as well as Sarah herself. She’s quite a complex character with a busy homelife and one that she is struggling to cope with. which adds interest in her and her home as well.
Sarah brings some compassionate feelings, but ultimately the desire is for Ada to be setting up a new homelife in a safe place and for something to happen so her future turns around for the better.

The Pearl Button Girl won’t disappoint and is sure to delight fans of Annie Murray.
It’s a story I recommend and it’s great getting into the grittiness, hardships and plight of a new family.

A Few Buy Links

Waterstones Amazon Bookshop.org

Find out who else is on the blog tour below, thanks to Chloe Davies at Pan Macmillan for inviting me and sending a copy of the book in exchange of an honest review.
Please note, I am not affiliated to any company.

#Review By Lou of The Re-Write By Lizzie Damilola Blackburn @DamilolaLizzie @VikingBooksUK #TheReWrite

The Re-Write
By Lizzie Damilola Blackburn

The Re-Write is an excellent second book. Lizzie Damilola Blackburn’s debut was the much praised, Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband.

Blurb

Two exes. One deadline. Can they make it to the end?

—-
Temi and Wale meet in London. They flirt, date, meet each other’s friends.

. . . Then Wale dumps Temi to go on Love Villa.

Instead of giving in to heartbreak, Temi throws herself into her dream: writing. She’s within touching distance of a book deal that would solve all her problems. But publishers keep passing on her novel and bills still have to be paid. So, when the opportunity to ghost-write a celebrity autobiography arises, Temi finds herself accepting.

And, of course, the celebrity turns out to be Wale…

Has too much time passed . . . or just enough to spark a whole new kind of relationship?

Review

Temi and Wale are interesting characters and have a lot of backstory, which means you really get into them. They both decide to go onto the reality show, Love Villa (I think we can all guess what that’s inspired by, right? And that’s quite clever). It gives quite an insight into reality tv and the goings on, even to the point where the characters do split.

There’s thought to what’s being talked about in the bookish world when Temi wants to write her autobiography, but its passed over so many times, showing it isn’t just as easy to have your name out there. It also talks a bit about what else is discussed in the bookish world, ghost-writers. That aside, there is also a love story and life’s struggles throughout it.

The Re-Write has heart, humour, romance and challenges to overcome with relatable characters and situations. It’s a terrific second book, making this author’s writing one to catch onto, if you haven’t discovered her already or to continue with, if you have already done so.

#Review By Lou of The Cleaner By Mary Watson #MaryWatson @BantamPress @PenguinUKBooks #PsychologicalThriller

The Cleaner
By Mary Watson

Perhaps don’t underestimate The Cleaner in your life, if you have one or know one in this tightly written, page-turning psychological thriller.
Give a cleaner a key to turn to enter your home and give your life…
The Cleaner is a worldwide debut which is perfect for psychological thriller fans and fans of Lisa Jewell and Harriet Tyce.
Discover more as you sweep through this blog post to the blurb and my full review below, then find out a bit more about the author.

Blurb

It’s not dust she’s looking for.
It’s dirt.

Esmie is supposed to be invisible. Just a cleaner with a foreign accent that no one quite has time to place. Her uniform of leggings and a duster allows her to explore the homes of the wealthy, unseen; an outsider creeping around the edges of privilege.

But as she sweeps through the exclusive Woodlands gated neighbourhood, cleaning is the last thing on her mind. Treading silently over the polished wooden floorboards and cloud-soft carpets, Esmie gathers up the mess of broken marriages, quiet deceptions and careless failures. She tucks away their fragments, keeping them safe. For now.

Because one of the residents took from her the person she loves most. She’s not here to clean; she’s here for revenge – and she’ll get it using the weapons her employers unwittingly handed her along with the keys to their homes: their own secrets…

This beautifully sinister, propulsive page-turner that explores themes of identity and privilege is perfect for fans of Harriet Tyce and Lisa Jewell.

Review

A key to someone’s house is like gold. All you have to do is turn the key and you can uncover all sorts of things about a person, including their secrets…
Give a cleaner a key and they are legitimately in your home, but how much can one like Esmie be trusted?

The Cleaner tells the story of Esmie, she’s just another ordinary, rather invisible cleaner, or is she? A crime is committed, but is she innocent or guilty?

If you have a cleaner for whatever reason or are thinking of getting one, this book may make you see this job in a different light. They see and hear everything as they go about their daily business of entering people’s homes to clean them for their clients. There’s no hiding place as secrets are discovered by their all seeing eyes. Esmie is certainly a cleaner who doesn’t just have the task of cleaning focused in her mind, she wants to know so much more by snooping around.
You’ll have to read the book to find out what she does with the valuable information she collects about her clients.

The tension that builds creates a sinister feeling that grows as the plot goes on. It pulsates, getting heavier and heavier in atmosphere, propelling the storyline increasingly onwards into what is a compelling page-turner.

About Mary Watson

Mary Watson is from South Africa and now lives on the west coast of Ireland.

She has a PhD from the University of Cape Town, where she taught for many years.

She won the Caine Prize for African Writing for her adult publishing in South Africa, and in 2014 was named on the Africa39 list of writers under 40 with the potential to define trends in African literature.

Her YA novels have been nominated for the Irish Book Awards and the Carnegie medal.

The Cleaner is her worldwide adult debut.

#Review By Lou of Life Begins by Kate Eberlen @KateEberlen @orionbooks @TracyF3nt0n #LifeBegins #CompulsiveReaders #BlogTour #RomanticFiction #ContemporaryFiction

Life Begins
By Kate Eberlen

Life Begins at 40, so the saying goes. It’s such a loaded phrase. Does it really begin all over again at this age? It’s a thought-provoking question. It’s an emotional, adventurous novel by Kate Eberlen. Find out more in the blurb and the rest of my review below…

What if the life you’re living isn’t the one you want?

Jessica and Robin have been best friends since university. For his fortieth birthday, she plans an elaborate surprise trip to Italy with his closest friends and family. Sometimes it feels like everyone knows how much she loves Robin… everyone except Robin himself.

Laura has two beautiful children, a stylish London home and a thriving career as a deputy headteacher. But she also has a secret. One she’s been keeping for many years. And now it’s time for the truth to come out.

Actor Robin is looking forward to being the centre of attention once more, as those he loves most come together for a week-long getaway. But as long-simmering desires rise to the surface and tensions reach breaking point, he begins to wonder…

Could life really begin again at forty?

From the Richard & Judy Book Club author Kate Eberlen, Life Begins is an emotional relationship drama set in the Italian countryside.

Review

Turning 40 can be exciting in a way, perhaps because of the phrase Life Begins at 40. For a belated 40th birthday Robin is going to be whisked off to Italy for a holiday to remember.

Life Begins is a slow-burn, but slowly but surely you get to really know the characters and really get into it, so this doesn’t detract from the plot nor enjoyment. At the heart of it seems to be the complexities of life and the connections people make with each other as well as the secrets they hold. There are feelings within one of the characters that have been unspoken, but how will they come out and will love be reciprocated?
There’s a lot for the intrepid characters to digest and process and work out what they truly want for the next chapter in their lives as they look introspectively as well as outwardly.
The backstories are emotional and complex and allow readers to see more about who they are and why they’ve reached the grand age of 40 and have now got to a point of reassessing their lives and looking towards evolving. It’s interesting to see just how far people will go for what they desire.

Life Begins quite an emotional read in many respects and all is beautifully written.