Review : Don't Close Your Eyes by Holly Seddon

Published by : Corvus Books

6 July 2017

Copy : Paperback ARC review copy received from publisher

The Blurb

Robin and Sarah weren't the closest of twins. They weren't even that similar. But they loved each other dearly. Until, in the cruellest of domestic twists, they were taken from one another.

Now, in her early 30s, Robin lives alone. Agoraphobic and suffering from panic attacks, she spends her days pacing the rooms of her house. The rest of the time she watches - watches the street, the houses, the neighbours. Until one day, she sees something she shouldn't...

And Sarah? Sarah got what she wanted - the good-looking man, the beautiful baby, the perfect home. But she's just been accused of the most terrible thing of all. She can't be around her new family until she has come to terms with something that happened a long time ago. And to do that, she needs to track down her twin sister.

But Sarah isn't the only person looking for Robin. As their paths intersect, something dangerous is set in motion, leading Robin and Sarah to fight for much more than their relationship...

The Very Pink Notebook Review

I was a huge fan of Holly Seddon's first thriller, Don't Forget to Breathe, so was really excited to hear another book was on it's way and I was not to be disappointed.

At first glance I could see similarities between this novel and the first.  It focusses on two female lead characters and the narrative is also given similarly in the voices of both. In this case, non-identical twins, Robin and Sarah, in both the present day and in historical flashbacks.  Both have strong and unique back stories which makes you question the reliability of the narration.  It leads you on a twisting and turning path so you are never quite sure - what is the truth?

Starting at the beginning, the twins life as they knew it was torn apart when they were teenagers when their parents decided to separate.  The family was best friends with another family, and both decided they wished to be with each other respective partners.  Robin was left with her dad, her effective step-mother, Hilary, and Callum, Hilary's son but who Robin and Sarah were best friends with for years, and with whom she develops a closer bond than to her own sister.  Sarah was taken by her mother and step-father, Drew, and quickly relocated to Atlanta.  Robin and Sarah maintained contact, but neither were truthful about what was really going on in their lives.

Fast forward the years and Robin, a once well known guitarist in a hit band, finds herself so scarred by what has happened in her life she no longer leaves the house.  Instead she spies on her neighbours and makes sure she does 10,000 steps around the house every day.  She hasn't seen Sarah until the day she turns up on her doorstep amidst her own troubled world and looking for the sister who can help her.

As the two try and heal wounds from their past and present day lives, they slowly reveal the truth about what happened to them all those years ago and things start to make sense for the two sisters.  They must learn to grieve for what they lost and let go of old hurt and resentment.  But they are not the only ones involved in their past and eventually doesn't the past always catch up with you?

With plenty of suspense, Holly Seddon has managed to create a claustrophobic read, with powerful characters and plot, and in true Holly style, if you were a teen of the 90's (as I was) she floods you with nostalgia as she nails the music and popular culture of the time.  As the reader you long to know what they are hiding and Seddon drip feeds this in via short and snappy chapters.  In the author's effortless and flowing style she gradually ratchets up the pace until the very end when she executes a real 'I did not see that coming' killer twist.

With moments of real compassion and emotion, mixed with some gritty and dark scenes this is a must read.

Without a doubt Don't Close Your Eyes by Holly Seddon receives a Very Pink Notebook rating of :

 About the Author

Holly Seddon is a full-time writer, living slap bang in the middle of Amsterdam with her husband, James, and a house full of children and pets.  Holly has written for newspapers, websites and magazines since her early 20's after growing up in the English countryside, obsessed with music and books.  Her first novel Try Not to Breathe was published worldwide in 2016 and became both a national and international bestseller.  Don't Close Your Eyes is her second novel.

Tour and Review : Troll by D.B. Thorne

The Very Pink Notebook is thrilled to be part of the Troll by D. B. Thorne

blog tour.  With thanks to Kate at Atlantic Books (Corvus) for involving me in the tour and for an advance copy of the book.

Published by : Corvus Books

01 June 2017

Copy : Paperback provided by the publisher

The Blurb

Years ago, Fortune gave up on his daughter, Sophie, after a troubled adolescence.  Now she's gone missing, vanished without trace. And after weeks of investigation, the police have given up on her, too.

Driven by guilt, and a determination to atone for his failures as a father, he takes on the search himself. He soon finds that his daughter had been living in fear of a vicious online troll who seemed to know far too much about her. Could Sophie's disappearance be linked to this unknown predator? Fortune is about to discovers that monsters which live online don't always stay there...  

The Very Pink Notebook Review

If you want a psychological thriller of epic proportions then Troll by D. B. Thorne is a must read.

This novel starts unsettling and bit by bit gets darker and more twisted, but in a very real and also moving way.

Told in a two-fold narrative, the story is pinned together by Fortune, a 54 year old successful businessman, but failed father and husband and Sophie, Fortune's daughter who is missing, presumed dead.

It is difficult to try and review this book because I do not want to give anything away, so all I will say is the author has done an amazing job of deconstructing and reconstructing a very intricate and complicated plot in a way that will make it impossible to put down (Case in point - I read this in one day!)  It is so clever and well thought out, I would love to know, from a writers perspective, how the author went about planning and plotting for this one because I am not sure I would have known where to start.

I also said that although dark, this is a moving book.  And it really is.  It looks at the dynamics of dysfunctional families, the relationships between husband and wife, parents and children, in a deep way. 

The novel tackles several difficult themes - again I won't mention specifics because I do not want to hint or reveal anything, but just to say they are handled well, so you can feel the power of them but you are not left with a stomach turned.  Again, this is done through excellent writing by D. B. Thorne.

With it's clear and clever structure, flawless writing, strong characters and excellent use of locations this is definitely one of the best psychological thrillers I have read this year and I will certainly be making a point of picking up the other books by this author.

Troll by D. B. Thorne receives nothing less than a Very Pink Notebook rating of :

About the Author

D. B. Thorne has worked as a writer for the last 15 years, originally in advertising, then in television and radio comedy.  He has written material for many comedians, including Jimmy Carr, Alan Carr, David Mitchell and Bob Mortimer.  He was a major contributor to the BAFTA-winning Armstrong and Miller Show, and has worked on shows including Facejacker, Harry and Paul and Alan Carr : Chatty Man.  Troll is his fourth novel.

Follow the Tour

Review : Amnesia by Michael Ridpath

Published by Corvus (Atlantic Books)

04 May 2017

Copy - Paperback from Readers First

The Blurb

Alastair Cunningham wakes up in hospital with almost total amnesia. But he knows that something terrible happened in his past, something that haunts him still. A young family friend, Clémence is called in to help rekindle his memory. Retreating with Alastair to his remote cottage, Clémence finds a peculiar manuscript hidden away from prying eyes. Reading the prologue, she discovers a murder by someone very much like a young Alastair. The victim? Clémence’s grandmother, Sophie. Could this kindly old man truly be a killer? Clémence becomes determined to find out what happened all those years ago, even if she must risk everything to do so…

The Very Pink Notebook Review

This book starts in the thick of the action, immediately drawing you in and encouraging you to read on. Within the first few chapters the author establishes, very confidently and clearly, the two main characters, Clemence and Alastair who develop a clever and sometimes amusing, relationship.

Trying to regain his memory and piece together his life becomes a novel within a novel as the two read a seemingly autobiographic manuscript they find back at the cottage.  The reader is taken back to Alastair's life as a young man at University and the relationships he develops there which result in long reaching consequences.  A truly tangled web of deceit is woven involving love lost, money and murder.

At first it seems clear, the reader is being told the true story via the novel, but several elements do not quite make sense and Clemence is not convinced things are as straightforward as the book suggests, and indeed they aren't, thus you are then taken on a blind excursion of discovery to find out just what piece of vital evidence has been taken away and why and by whom...

The use of the environmental setting, dark and brooding Scotland in winter, seems to be the perfect backdrop for the tone of the novel, as in looks can be deceiving. The beauty of Scotland can draw you in but be lethal if not handled correctly. Well written and paced this novel is gripping and enticing.  I had my suspicions about half way through of what may happen at the end and although it did there was also so much I did not see coming!  I have to say, the final two pages of the novel were brilliant and I loved what the author has done - it certainly made me smile. 

I will most certainly be reading more from Michael Ridpath.

Amnesia receives a must read Very Pink Notebook Rating of :

Review : If I Forget You by T.C.Greene

Published by : Corvus - Atlantic Books Ltd

01 September 2016

Copy - Paperback - Received from Atlantic Books in exchange for honest review

The Blurb

When Margot and Henry meet, they fall deeply in love.  And then they lose each other.

But Henry can't forget Margot and Margot is haunted by her memories of Henry. They live in each other's minds.

Twenty-one years later, they meet, by chance, on a Manhattan street. And that's where their story truly begins...

If I Forget You is a beautiful exploration of what it means to find the person you are destined to be with, but then spend a lifetime apart

The Very Pink Notebook Review

When any book lands on my doorstep and has the beautiful New York skyline on its cover I am always going to be excited to read it.  If I Forget You did not disappoint me.  A story centred solely on the love story of Margot and Henry, it was gentle but not kitsch. 

T. C. Greene has written in present tense, which puts the reader really up close and personal with the two characters and as I read further along I became more and more involved with them, entangled in their rush of emotions.  The story starts in the present day, when a chance encounter between the two stirs up so much emotion in them it just can not be left.  We are then given chapters, interchanging between past and present, from both points of view - which I liked very much - and we discover the delicious history the two have together.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from the plot.  As I read I thought the book was just going to tell of the love story, a pattern of longing and circumstance, so was quite pleased with the twist in the tale at the end.

I have to say, I loved Henry, but did not care so much for Margot, but I think this is what made it a captivating love story rather than a cringe-worthy one.  I liked that they were flawed characters and the realism that sometimes 'real life' does get in the way of love. 

Beautiful prose paired with exceptional and vivid imagery of New York I thoroughly enjoyed getting embroiled in the world of Henry and Margot, and their love story.

If I Forget You receives a hearty :

With much thanks to Alison at Atlantic Books for a review copy of this book

Guest Post : My Typical Writing Day by Catherine Ryan Howard author of Distress Signals

Distress Signals author Catherine Ryan Howard shares a tongue-in-cheek guest post with The Very Pink Notebook into her writing day...

 

 

MY TYPICAL WRITING DAY

A Guest Post by Catherine Ryan Howard

23:00(ish)    My writing day typically begins the night before, when I get notions about being super organised and doing all those 263 Things Successful People Do Before They Even Wake Up malarkey. I organise my desk, open my WIP on my computer and set the coffee machine to start brewing just in time to have my first cup of coffee at six o’clock the following morning. The smell, noise and promise of caffeine will get me out bed. No, it totally will.

Next day

06:00    Alarm goes off.

06:01    Turn off alarm. Fall back asleep.

07:15    Wake up again.

07:16    Fall back asleep.

08:45    Wake up for real. Ugh, I’ve slept in! AND wasted a bucket of coffee. No point rushing now, I suppose. Find phone. Quick check on Twitter before I get out of bed...

10:30    *buzzer goes* Crap. That’s the postman with the huge amount of superfluous stationery I ordered online a few days ago when I was procrastinating by shopping online. *mad scramble to put on Outside Clothes* Well, at least I’m up now.

10:35    Obligatory playing with stationery.

11:10    Okay, enough messing about. You’ve LOADS to do. Time to get down to work. But first, coffee.

11:25    Finally sit down at desk. But who starts work at twenty-five minutes pass the hour? Only a crazy person! I’ll start at noon. Until then, I’ll just do a quick round of email-Twitter-blog comments-Facebook-Instagram...

12:45    Well, that’s lunch. Practically. May as well watch a couple of Friends episodes while I’m eating.

14:00    Okay, seriously. SERIOUSLY. Work now. Open WIP. Where did I leave off yesterday? There? Are you sure? Better go back to the start, 30,000 words ago, and read it again from the beginning, just to be REALLY sure.

14:30    Hmm… Am I using that big word right? I’ll just quickly check the definition. And now, since I’m online, I may as well just check Twitter...

15:10    Tom Hiddleston is rumoured to be going out with WHO?!

15:15    Tom Hiddleston was in that movie? Really? I don’t remember him at all. Maybe there’s a clip on YouTube..

15:25    Ted Talks and more coffee.

15:45    Back to reading what I wrote so far.

17:45    Finish reading what I wrote so far. Discover I’d left off exactly where I thought I did. There really was no reason to go back and read the whole thing... Now it’s almost Friends re-run o’clock (again), and then I’ve to make dinner, and then Master Chef will be on so... Oh well. Tomorrow’s another day.

23:00(ish)    Tomorrow I’m going to get up early, ignore social media and write 10,000 words. Yes I am yes I am yes I am. Organise my desk, open the Word document that my current WIP is in on my computer and set the coffee machine to start brewing just in time to have my first cup of coffee at six o’clock...

 

 

I think a lot of aspiring writers will be thrilled to read they are not alone in procrastinating!  Also, I must invest in a coffee maker I can programme to start itself in the mornings!  Thank you Catherine for guest posting with The Very Pink Notebook and congratulations on a fantastic novel. 

 

 

 

ABOUT DISTRESS SIGNALS:

 

Standalone crime/thriller

 

Published May 5 by Corvus/Atlantic in Ireland and the UK, June 2 in Australia and New Zealand. Details of North American publication later in 2016 coming soon.

 

Did she leave, or was she taken?

 

The day Adam Dunne's girlfriend, Sarah, fails to return from a Barcelona business trip, his perfect life begins to fall apart. Days later, the arrival of her passport and a note that reads 'I'm sorry - S' sets off real alarm bells. He vows to do whatever it takes to find her.

 

Adam is puzzled when he connects Sarah to a cruise ship called the Celebrate - and to a woman, Estelle, who disappeared from the same ship in eerily similar circumstances almost exactly a year before. To get the answers, Adam must confront some difficult truths about his relationship with Sarah. He must do things of which he never thought himself capable. And he must try to outwit a predator who seems to have found the perfect hunting ground...

 

Advance praise:

 

“Pacey, suspenseful and intriguing … [A] top class, page turning read. Catherine Ryan Howard is an astonishing new voice in thriller writing.” — Liz Nugent, author of 2014 IBA Crime Novel of the Year Unravelling Oliver

 

“An exhilarating debut thriller from a hugely talented author. Distress Signals is fast-paced, twisty and an absolute joy to read.” — Mark Edwards, #1 bestselling author of The Magpies and Follow You Home

 

Read a preview of the first three chapters here:

 

https://catherineryanhoward.com/access-your-exclusive-preview/

 

Amazon.co.uk link:

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Distress-Signals-Incredibly-Gripping-Psychological/dp/1782398384

 

ABOUT CATHERINE:

 

Catherine Ryan Howard was born in Cork, Ireland, in 1982. Prior to writing full-time, Catherine worked as a campsite courier in France and a front desk agent in Walt Disney World, Florida, and most recently was a social media marketer for a major publisher. She is currently studying for a BA in English at Trinity College Dublin.

 

http://www.DistressSignalsBook.com

 

http://www.CatherineRyanHoward.com

 

Twitter: @cathryanhoward

Instagram: @cathryanhoward

Facebook: facebook.com/catherineryanhoward

 

 

 

 

Review : Distress Signals by Catherine Ryan Howard

Published by : Atlantic Books / Corvus

5 May 2016

Copy : Received from publisher for honest review

 

DID SHE LEAVE OR WAS SHE TAKEN?

 

The Blurb

 

The day Adam Dunne's girlfriend, Sarah, fails to return from a Barcelona business trip, his perfect life begins to fall apart.  Days later, the arrival of her passport and a note that reads 'I'm sorry - S' sets off real alarm bells.  He vows to do whatever it takes to find her.

 

Adam is puzzled when he connects Sarah to a cruise ship called the Celebrate - and to a women, Estelle, who disappeared from the same ship in eerily similar circumstances almost exactly a year before.  To get the answers, Adam must confront some difficult truths about his relationship with Sarah.  He must do things of which he never thought capable.  And he must try to outwit a predator who seems to have found the perfect hunting ground...

 

The Very Pink Notebook Review

 

Catherine Ryan Howard has produced a brilliant, clever and gripping psychological thriller in Distress Signals with a high body count, wealth of unreliable characters and clever use of maritime law to muddy the investigative process to such a level I am pretty sure I will never be boarding a cruise ship in my lifetime. 

 

Hooked from the very first page, where our narrator, Adam, is plunged into the dark depths of the sea I found myself needing to continue to read and discover.  I loved the way this novel was written, mostly in the first person voice of Adam, the long term boyfriend of the missing Sarah but punctuated with the third person narrative, almost as a completely separate story, of both Corrine and Romain.  I knew the three would eventually come together but until they did I could only guess as to how.  All three viewpoints were intriguing and at times heart-wrenching - particularly those of Romain and Corrine.

 

Although there are quite a lot of characters within the story it never got confusing, and they all had a hint of the unreliable in them so I was never quite sure who I should be trusting - is Rose really 'telling all' given she is Sarah's best friend and not Adam's, or does Adam's best friend Moorsey have an ulterior motive given he has recently started dating Rose and everyone says how alike she is to Sarah?  Then of course there is the mysterious Ethan and the staff at the cruise company who are clearly lying... let's just say my detective skills were sent in all sorts of directions and I didn't work out what the end result was going to be which made the finale all the better.

 

Beautifully paced and with a fascinating suggestion of the darker underworld of the cruise industry, Distress Signals is a compelling read that not only looks at the 'who done it' but also the 'why'.

 

A must read and therefore I give it ...

 

Tomorrow - Distress Signals author Catherine Ryan Howard shares a guest post with The Very Pink Notebook.

  

 

 

Guest Post by Author Lucy Dawson - Being Popular

As part of The Very Pink Notebook Feature Week, I Sent You a Letter author, Lucy Dawson, guest posts on the need, or not, for likeable characters in novels.

I’m wrestling with a character at the moment. She’s the lead in my next book and I’ve deliberately made her not entirely likeable. Sally has moments where she’s nice, and (I hope) the reader feels sympathy for her, and moments where she’s frankly, a bit of a cow. I did this because something happens to her in the book that I felt would have more power, if the reader felt Sally at least slightly deserved it. Plus, it makes her more interesting to write. But, and it’s a big but: are readers more likely to be swept along by the tale of someone they really like – or really hate – rather than someone who is just ‘normal’ and realistically flawed?

 

It’s certainly true that as a reader you’ve got to care about what happens to the characters in a book. No one is going to invest their time in the story of people they feel nothing for. It’s also less of a risk as a writer to make a character sympathetic, someone your reader can empathise with, and so imagines the events happening to them. In my current book You Sent Me A Letter, Sophie – the lead – is a kind girl who has made a terrible mistake. That turned out to be a fun challenge; creating someone readers identified with, even though she’d done something very unlikable indeed. That’s still different to having a character who is just… not very pleasant, however. Of course, behaving badly didn’t seem to do Amy Dunne any harm, and Hugh Laurie’s Richard Roper in the BBC’s The Night Manager is completely mesmeric. You really can believe that he is ‘the worst man in the world’ – but equally, do you want to know what he does next? Absolutely.

 

Perhaps that means lead characters only really work when they sit definably at either end of the scale. So what do I do with poor Sally? Take the safe option and make her softer, less prone to snappy and arsey comments? Make the reader have no choice but to feel sorry for her? Or do I tough it, and her, out? Some writers would argue that having a likeable character shouldn’t be a conscious consideration at all. The Sunday Times yesterday quoted Charlie Kaufman, the screenwriter of Adaption, Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind as saying “I’m trying to explore a character and maybe, in that process make the character understandable. That’s the goal of dramatic writing. Not to make people likeable. Maybe it doesn’t serve the box office. I don’t know. I can’t think of things that way, so I don’t choose to. It feels like pandering.”

 

In an ideal world, maybe he’s right. But I think perhaps I am going to have to soap Sally’s mouth out a little, because in the world of fiction at least, the nice girls don’t finish last.

Feature Week : New Book Special - I Sent You a Letter by Lucy Dawson

I am thrilled, here at The Very Pink Notebook, to be running my first Feature Week.  This is where the spotlight falls onto one author for the whole week. 

The book and author in question is the very talented Lucy Dawson with her fantastic new novel - I Sent You a Letter, published by Corvus Books.  The book, available from 3rd March 2016, has proven to be a firm favourite of mine so far this year, so I am excited to be able to dedicate this blog to its publication date this week.

Visit back, or sign up by email for special posts throughout the week, including a guest post from Lucy Dawson herself.

 

If you want to find out more about Lucy or Corvus Books you can find them :

 

@lucydawsonbooks / www.lucydawsonbooks.co.uk

@CorvusBooks / www.corvus-books.co.uk

And if you are dying to know more about I Sent You a Letter, here is a little teaser for you :

Published by : Corvus Books

3 March 2016

The Blurb

At 2 a.m. on the morning of her fortieth birthday, Sophie wakes to find an intruder in her bedroom.  The stranger hands Sophie a letter and issues a threat: open the letter at her party that evening, in front of gathered family and friends, at precisely 8 p.m., or those she loves will be in grave danger.

What can the letter possibly contain?

This will be no ordinary party; Sophie is not the only person keeping a secret about the evening ahead.  When the clock strikes eight, the course of several people's lives will be altered forever.