Blog Tour and Review : The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena

The Very Pink Notebook is thrilled to be part of Shari Lapena's new crime thriller,

The Couple Next Door, blog tour this week.  With much thanks to Becky Hunter, at Transworld Press for involving me in the tour and for a copy of the book, in exchange for an honest review. 

 

Published by : Bantam Press

14 July 2016

Copy : Received in exchange for a fair and honest review

The Blurb

You never know what's happening on the other side of the wall.

Your neighbour told you that she didn't want your six-month-old daughter at the dinner party. Nothing personal, she just couldn't stand her crying.

Your husband said it would be fine. After all, you only live next door. You'll have the baby monitor and you'll take it in turns to go back every half hour.

Your daughter was sleeping when you checked on her last. But now, as you race up the stairs in your deathly quiet house, your worst fears are realized. She's gone.

You've never had to call the police before. But now they're in your home, and who knows what they'll find there.

What would you be capable of, when pushed past your limit?

The Very Pink Notebook Review

There has been a huge buzz about this novel so I was thrilled to get my hands on an early copy.  During the first chapter or two I wasn't sure about the style or tense of writing being used, I think it being third person and a thriller is quite unusual, but I quickly realised that it was helping hugely to keep the suspense, tension and pace going at a rate of knots, so swiftly got my head around it. 

Thrown into the thick of the action from the very first pages, the reader is taken on the heart-wrenching journey of a child going missing from their home, with parents Anne and Marco.  Shari Lapena flawlessly conveys all the emotions expected, shock, anger, guilt, fear, determination to catch the criminal.  I didn't automatically like the parents, or, in fact any of the characters.  This was cleverly done by the author because I was willing to suspect foul-play from any of them and soon discovered secrets were being hidden here, there and everywhere...

I was pleased that the plot wasn't inundated with police procedure, the story really is tracked through the eyes of baby Cora's parents and merely has the detective on the case, Rasbach, as a secondary character to help keep facts on track, which was quite helpful.  Taken through multiple trails of discovery by the parents, I happily followed after the scent of the missing baby without once guessing what the ending would be - and personally, I thought it was a fantastic finish to the novel. 

Throughout, I was kept engaged and enthralled, with no idea of what was going to transpire next.  I didn't know who the bad guy was or wasn't, who was a reliable narrator or who was lying through their teeth.  With a pacey, twisting plot and well developed characters this has 'killer thriller' stamped all over it.

Follow The Tour

Be sure to check out what other reviewers thought of the book

  

COMING SOON : Blog Tour - The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena

Review : Love, Nina by Nina Stibbe

Published by : Penguin

Date : 3 April 2014

Copy : Reviewer Purchased

The Blurb

In 1982 Nina Stibbe, a twenty-year-old from Leicester, moved to London to work as a nanny for a very particular family.  It was a perfect match : Nina had no idea how to cook, look after children, or who the weirdos who called round were.  And the family, busy discussing how to swear in German or the merits (or otherwise) of turkey mince, were delighted by her lack of skills.

Love, Nina is the collection of letters she wrote home gloriously describing her 'domestic' life, the unpredictable houseguests and the cat everyone loved to hate.

The Very Pink Notebook Review

Love, Nina - and I honestly do love Nina!  I purchased this book after attending a workshop at the Festival of Writing in which this book was used via audio-book.  I loved the snippets we heard and bought my copy as soon as I could.  When I saw they had adapted it for a TV programme, I knew I must read the book before I set out to watch the show.

   

A collection of letters, written by Nina Stibbe to her sister back in Leicester after she moves to the bright lights of London to become a nanny, are entertaining and thoroughly enjoyable.  The simplicity of the letters are what I loved the most.  The snippets of conversation between her two charges, Mary-Kay and the cast of people who become her world had me laughing out loud on many occasion.  It also gives a good dose of nostalgia for the 1980's in the good old south, when polytechnics were everywhere.

I love the bluntness of the letters to her sister, it's lovely that there is clearly no censorship.  I didn't care that there was no replies back with answers to the questions because that is just not what the book is about, it doesn't need them. 

I was able to dip in and out of this book as I pleased and able to read other novels alongside it.  Each letter was its only little story in itself.  With the wonderfully colourful characters that Nina lived alongside she didn't need to do anything to embellish life as she told it.  It was just, life.  And I am glad she told it.

Love, Nina gets

    

Review : Blood Wedding by Pierre Lemaitre

Published by : MacLehose Press

Date : 7 July 2016

Copy : Received from Real Readers for honest review

The Blurb

Sophie is haunted by the things she can't remember - and visions from the past she will never forget.

One morning, she wakes to find that the little boy in her care is dead.  She has no memory of what happened.  And whatever the truth, her side of the story is no match for the evidence piled against her.

Her only hiding place is in a new identity.  A new life, with a man she has met online. 

But Sophie is not the only one keeping secrets...

The Very Pink Notebook Review

Billed as 'The New Noir' - this book is certainly noir...

From the very first pages Lemaitre had the hairs on my neck standing up and I raced through this novel.  I was taken on a journey of murder, revenge, obsession, mental illness and battle of psychological wits.

I am not usually a lover of very dark plots, and this one certainly is, but Blood Wedding is so well written and balanced I didn't feel it was ever superfluous in its death count or details.  It is just so very clever... and chilling.

Lemaitre has created amazing depth in the two main characters, Sophie and Frantz.  Both damaged and devious it is difficult to either like or hate them because they are so well presented to the reader.  Written in three parts; Sophie, Frantz and then a combination of the two, the book is well structured and what could be a very complicated plot is deconstructed very clearly.  The pacing of the plot is excellent, with key and significant discoveries made often enough to keep you satisfied, but never so much that it spoils the mystery.

I think what makes this novel work well, because at times some of the bigger events could be seen as a little far-fetched, is that for the most part the things that happen are so very believable, subtle and real.  Sophie calls herself 'mad' but as you start to unravel why she started to think this, it is quite un-nerving - I mean who hasn't mislaid a birthday card or present, or sworn you put something in one place for it to turn up in another...

This book is nothing short of brutally brilliant and the ending of this book, for me, was satisfactory. However, it did pull at my moral conscience somewhat after I put it down.  Although some form of 'justice' is served on the perpetrator in one respect, I was left knowing the trail of victims and their families would never know the truth or have closure.  On the other hand it is made very clear why this can not be so.

I highly recommend this book if you want a gritty, twisted and dark psychological thriller and as such I award Blood Wedding :

  

Review : That Girl From Nowhere by Dorothy Koomson

Published by : Century

9 April 2015

Copy : Paperback - Reviewer purchased

The Blurb

Can you have a future without knowing your past?

Clemency Smittson was adopted as a baby and the only connection she has to her birth mother is a cardboard box hand-decorated with butterflies.  Now an adult, Clem moves to Brighton, where she was born, and meets someone who knows all about the butterfly box and what happened to her birth parents.

As the shocking secrets about her adoption and childhood start to unravel, Clem has to decide if the cost of having contact with her first family is a price too high to pay...

The Very Pink Notebook Review

This is the second Dorothy Koomson book I have read and I was glad to find it was as beautifully written and plotted as the first.  The heart of the story is about family, the one Clemency, our young protagonist, has been gifted with via adoption and the discovery of her biological one.  Within this, the author looks closely at the myriad of relationships one has going on in life. 

For Clemency this is the one with her adoptive family; her mother (that provided, for me, quite a source of light humour in what could have been a very intense book), the memory of the one with her beloved late adoptive father and the stressful one with her adoptive uncle, aunt and cousin who can't seem to look past the colour of her skin which has really affected Clem, because she already feels like 'the girl from nowhere'. 

Then of course there is the building of a relationship with her newly discovered birth family, the parents, siblings and grand-mother and all the highs and lows it brings.  Add to this a complicated love-life, including a secret marriage and you have quite an emotional web to untangle. 

Of course, families are notorious for causing the most happiness, but equally can cause the most pain and Clemency soon discovers all families have secrets and her entry into her biological world soon presents her with mysteries to solve and dilemma's to challenge her, particularly as Clemency is a people-pleaser, and she slowly finds herself isolated in who she can talk to about anything which make already complex situations even more complicated.

I found this book very well written and easy to read with a host of colourful and interesting characters.  I also liked the reference to Clemency's childhood, which took me back to my own with a nostalgic recall of longing for pink roller skates or the most up-to-date Girls World.  I also loved the way Koomson made Clemency, almost fanatical, about photographs - proof that she was really with people and in places - proof she does exist.  I thought that was very touching.  

It did take a while to complete as it was quite lengthy.  On occasion I felt a little too much detail was given than strictly necessary, but this would be my only mildly negative comment on the book as a whole.

As such I give this book a well rounded :

  







Review - What a Way To Go by Julia Forster

Published : Atlantic Books

7 January 2015

Copy : Paperback - Received signed copy from author

The Blurb

1988.

Twelve - year - old Harper Richardson's parents are divorced.  Her mum got custody of her, the mini and five hundred tins of baked beans.  Her dad got a mouldering cottage in a midlands backwater village and default membership of The Lone Rangers single parents' club.  Harper got questionable dress sense, a zest for life, two gerbils, her Chambers dictionary - and the responsibility of fixing her parents broken hearts...

Set against a backdrop of high hairdos and higher interest rates, pop music, puberty, divorce and decrepitude, What a Way To Go is a warm, wise and witty tale of one girl tackling the business of growing up while those around her try not to fall apart.

The Very Pink Notebook Review

I didn't know what to expect from this book, but I was looking forward to reading it and taking a little break from psychological thrillers.  I wasn't to be disappointed, I found it to be a gentle, beautifully written story, with really likable and funny characters.

 

The reader is told the story through the eyes of the eyes of twelve-year-old Harper, who I adored.  Julia has managed to bring to life a real character here - capturing perfectly a 1980's 'nearly' teenager.  There was no cartoon-like mannerisms to her, everything Harper says and does I could really relate to someone of her age thinking and believing.  Her personal little asides made me laugh out loud, quite literally, probably more so because I would have been about her age when the novel is set, 1988, so many of the things she mentions, longs for, does I was mentioning, longing for or doing. 

I loved how 'ordinary' the other characters were and what they were doing too.  The story covers normal, everyday life, very realistic (ok - so maybe I personally have never known anyone to buy their coffin, put shelves in and use it as a book case until they need it - but, that isn't to say it doesn't happen!) and all of it a nostalgic nod to the grand old 1980's when chain smoking indoors was quite accepted, booze runs to France were the highlight of the year and shell suits were cool, although ridiculously flammable.

Although there are no big showdowns, explosions or highly gripping cliff-hangers, what this book is full of is emotion.  Harper is highly sensitive to the feelings of everyone around her and goes to great lengths to protect others, from her parents to the elderly neighbour in the village. This is mostly done quite humorously, after all a lot of people cope with stress this way, but the plot is piqued with one or two sad and serious issues and as much as I did laugh with this book I did also shed a tear (or two hundred) towards the end and that was when I knew how involved with the book and its characters I was. 

I can only imagine this book was a real joy for Julia Forster to write and I hope, one day, we might see how Harper is doing as a grown up...

I give this book a thoroughly well deserved

and highly recommend everyone spends time in the company of Harper and her, slightly mad, family.

 

 



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