TV presenter Sam Southern meets a dishy doctor on a night out and they end up in bed. But when she leaves the hotel with him the next morning, she has no idea of the disaster which will follow. He didn’t tell her he was married but the newspapers portray her as a scarlet woman. The media camp outside her house and she escapes to her sister’s farm in Greece. Can she get her life back on track?
Going Greek is a feelgood and warm novel about finding love and the right path in life through self discovery and adapting to change. Be warned: there are glorious descriptions of food that will make you hungry!
Sam is a hugely likeable character and the unfairness of the situation really made my blood boil. She is subjected to trial by social media as her personal life is torn apart online. Luckily she is able to escape to Greece to stay with her sister’s family. Here she re-evaluates her life as well as getting a chance at love. But will she choose her first love Aaron or kind local Spyros?
The book is written in the present tense and from Sam’s first person perspective. This allows us to follow events as they occur as well as gain insight into her choices. Her character feels very natural and the situations and dilemmas she faces seem quite naturally realistic.
There are themes of missed opportunities and unrequited love. Sam thought she was perfectly happy until the media storm but now she had time to consider her options for the future. She is successful careerwise but her personal life and lack of love life mean she is not as happy as she could be. Now she has the chance to change but this stepping into the unknown feels risky.
Going Greek is a light hearted read that would be perfect for relaxing in the garden or on the beach. I have previously reviewed A Very French Affair and As Greek As It Gets by Sue Roberts.
Going Greek book description:
Sun, sea and a sizzling romance… the perfect holiday, right? Wrong.
After a work party gone disastrously wrong, Samantha suddenly finds herself jobless and jilted. So when her sister invites Sam to stay at her little whitewashed farmhouse on a Greek island, Sam leaps at the chance to escape. Before long, she’s trundling up the cobbled driveway, almost colliding with sexy neighbour Spyros.
It isn’t all sunshine and smiles though. For every afternoon spent lounging by the pool, cocktail in hand, there is a morning spent adjusting to life with boisterous six-year-old nieces. When Spyros invites Sam to explore the island with him she’s tempted, but with his carefree, live-for-the-moment attitude, he couldn’t be more different to Sam with her five-year plans and high-maintenance hair. One drink, as friends, couldn’t hurt though? Over glasses of fruity Greek wine and honey-sweet baklava, can he – and the other charming locals – help city girl Sam to appreciate the simple pleasures the Greek life has to offer?
Just as Sam is considering ditching her designer gear for good though, she runs in to an old flame from home, and suddenly her London life comes hurtling back. Can her smooth-talking ex convince Sam to return to the concrete jungle, or will the lessons she’s learned from her Greek escape persuade her to stay?
A fun, fabulous and completely laugh-out-loud summer read perfect for fans of Carole Matthews, Jenny Colgan and Sophie Kinsella.
Author Bio:
Sue Roberts lives in Lancashire with her long term partner Derek and has had a lifelong love of writing, encouraged by winning a school writing competition at the age of 11.
She always assumed that ‘one day’ she would write a book, always having a busy household and a job, the idea remained firmly on the back burner but never forgotten.
The inspiration for her first novel came to her on a holiday to a Greek village. Her daughters had left home and suddenly the time had come to write that book!
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A dream trip to Jamaica turns into every parent’s nightmare as a child disappears. Three year old Lily has vanished from the bedroom when her parents check on her. However, there are major relationship strains and secrets which may be relevant to her disappearance…
The Vacation is a tense thriller about the disappearance of a child, which has high emotive power due to the real life Madeleine McCann case.
Lily’s parents Rose and Brandon are obviously distraught and frantic at their daughter’s disappearance. Rose has previous mental health issues which contrasts with Brandon. He is a doctor and used to feeling in control, bordering on arrogance, which makes him not a very sympathetic character.
In fact, each character was portrayed authentically, with positive and negative elements to their personalities. Their motives and behaviours are not always clear cut. Relationships between the adults have multiple layers and secrets threaten to drive the family and friends apart permanently.
The plot is provided via different timelines and perspectives, giving the reader insight into multiple characters and their emotions and memories. We are able to witness events which took place prior to Lily’s disappearance as well as the aftermath.
The Vacation is an enjoyable thriller. I have previously reviewed The Dancing Girls, Taken To The Grave and Her Daughter’s Cry from M.M. Chouinard’s Detective Fournier series.
Title: The Vacation
Publication Day: 27/05/2021
Author: M.M. Chouinard
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Description:
One of them is missing… One of them did it…
The Thanksgiving retreat was meant to be a time for them to get away from it all, miles from the secrets that threaten to tear their family apart. But they’re each hiding something:
Rose hopes the pretty house overlooking the sea is just the break her family needs. But as she gazes at the water and remembers her own childhood, she is utterly terrified.
Brandon knows his wife Rose has barely forgiven him for his affair. He’s started drinking again, a road that led him to disaster once before.
Brianna, Rose’s sister-in-law, is recovering from her fifth miscarriage, and when she looks at her adorable niece, she can’t help but see the daughter she deserves.
Then three-year-old Lily disappears from her bed in the villa. Isolated in what should have been paradise, it quickly becomes clear that one of them took her.
As one by one their secrets are uncovered, who will be destroyed next?
A completely addictive thriller about every parent’s worst nightmare that will keep you guessing into the early hours of the morning. Perfect for fans of The Guest List, One by One and The Sister-in-Law.
Author Bio:
M.M. Chouinard writes crime fiction (including suspense, procedurals, and cozies), and women’s fiction. M.M. Chouinard’s first fiction story was published in her local paper when she was eight, and she fell in love with Agatha Christie novels not long after. While pursuing a Ph.D in psychology and helping to found the first U.S. research university of the new millenium, the stories kept rattling around inside her skull, demanding to come out. For sanity’s sake, she released them.
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On her 40th birthday, Stella is shocked when her husband announces that he wants to separate. He drops her off at a new house but Stella refuses to accept that the marriage is over. There are secrets the couple have kept for 15 years and her husband now threatens to reveal them…
OK, so I am actually reviewing this on my own 40th birthday which is kind of weird: I can’t imagine my day turning out in the same way! OMG the shock that Stella faces after lunch on her special day!
The Marriage Lie is a tense domestic thriller with a psychogical edge. It’s about the disintegration of Stella and Rob’s marriage in tandem with the revelations of the past they share and have concealed. From the start, there is an edginess to their interactions and it is clear that Rob has been controlling the relationship from the start.
Stella is confused and scared about the past, present and future. Added to this is the emotional dimension of wanting to protect their daughter, her stepdad’s cancer, and the tangled relationship with her sister and mother. There are clues throughout the first half of the book as Rob makes thinly veiled threats. I think it was pretty obvious what the big twist would be and I also guessed another secret.
The first person narrative allows us to identify with Stella as her disbelief overwhelms her. There are chapters to show events in the past and how she has allowed Rob to control all aspects of her life. I wanted to shout at her to stand up to him but when she does respond in anger he threatens her with allegations of abuse to force her compliance. Rob is cruel and selfish and had me mad at him from the first page!
The Marriage Lie is a compelling and emotional read that will have you rooting for the lead character. I have previously reviewed other books from Ali Mercer including: My Mother’s Choice, His Secret Family, and Lost Daughter.
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Title: The Marriage Lie
Publication Day: 28/05/21
Author: Ali Mercer
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Description:
My husband is asking me to do the impossible. But if I don’t do what he wants, he will tell our daughter everything…
Stella follows her handsome husband Rob to the beautifully laid-out table in the restaurant he’s chosen specially for her fortieth birthday lunch. As the waiter pops the champagne, Rob proposes a toast and their crystal glasses clink together in celebration. Stella knows how they must look to anyone watching. Two people very much in love, with the perfect marriage and the perfect life.
But Rob is about to drop a bombshell on Stella. He wants a divorce.
If she doesn’t give him exactly what he wants – the house, the money and full custody of fourteen-year-old Georgie – he will tell their precious daughter the one secret Stella has worked so hard to protect her from.
Stella has a choice to make. To fight for her daughter, there is only one person she can turn to for help. Someone she hasn’t spoken to in over a decade. If she doesn’t, Rob will win. But to do it means facing up to her biggest regret, and risks losing Georgie forever, once she learns the truth…
An absolutely heart-breaking and gripping novel about the price of keeping a secret. Fans of Amanda Prowse, Kate Hewitt and Susan Lewis will be gripped by this emotional family drama from the very first page.
Author Bio:
Ali decided she wanted to be a writer early on and wrote her first novel when she was at primary school. She did an English degree and spent her early twenties working in various jobs in journalism, including as a reporter for the showbusiness newspaper The Stage. Ali started writing fiction in earnest after getting married, moving out of London to the Oxfordshire market town of Abingdon and starting a family. She has two children, a daughter and a son who is autistic and was diagnosed when he was four years old.
Ali is fascinated by families, their myths and secrets, and the forces that hold them together, split them up and (sometimes) bring them back together again. She always travels with tissues and a book and has been known to cry over a good story, but is also a big fan of the hopeful ending.
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For updates and pictures, follow Ali on Twitter (@AlisonLMercer) or Instagram (@alimercerwriter), or on her Facebook page (AliMercerwriter)
Newly widowed Margot Renard has moved to live by the sea in southern France. Her quiet life is disturbed by the discovery of two bodies of immigrants. Margot is determined to find justice but finds herself battling with the local police and in danger from traffickers…
Body on the Rocks is an amateur sleuth murder mystery with a gritty gang dimension. The victims take second place to the development of Margot as the main character and the gang as more than merely violent thugs.
Margot is a strong willed woman and aims to fight injustice following the unprovoked and senseless murder of her husband. Her acerbic tongue is witty rather than cruel and she quickly develops a friendship with widower Raul after he almost injures her in his boat. Together they seek answers for the deaths of the immigrant pair.
Margot finds herself in conflict with the local police: the captain is a jobsworth who rejects her concerns and dismisses the call to action. Infuriated, she takes matters into her own hands. In the second half of the book, Margot is in danger and is forced to take action to find answers as well as protect her friend.
The plot is reasonably fast paced as Margot embarks on her investigation. There is very little French in the book despite the setting and characters. Margot is half English which explains the use of English phrases.
Body on the Rocks is an enjoyable murder mystery with a likeable lead character and I look forward to reading more of Margot’s future adventures.
Body on the Rocks
Mourning the death of her police inspector husband, Margot Renard moves to a small seaside town in the south of France. But when the body of a small boy washes up on a beach, Margot is drawn into a dangerous world of drug smugglers and people trafficking, and forced to cross paths with two feuding gangsters.
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Author Bio – Rachel Green is the pen name of a writer from the UK. Rachel has twice been longlisted for both the Bath Novel Award and the BPA First Novel Award. She has also been on the shortlist for the Capital Crime New Voices Award. Rachel lives in a tiny village in England, but travels frequently to the south of France where the stories from the Madame Renard Investigates series are set.
Nicola Dexter has a secure job, loving husband and a gorgeous 6 year old son. But she is haunted by her past, growing up in foster care and getting involved in drug trafficking and sexual exploitation. Now she tries to help other at risk teens but this is putting a strain on her marriage as Ian’s love turns into controlling behaviour. The past also catches up with her and she’ll do anything to protect her son…
A Good Mother is an enthralling thriller which ramps up the psychological tension as we discover more about the characters. The book is written mostly in the present day but there are also chapters from her teenage years leading up to Finn’s birth.
Nicola is a very likeable character, having overcome the trouble of the past. She has been through a series of awful experiences but continues to put others first and has a genuine desire to save others from her own path. I felt so angry at her husband as he erodes her self confidence and tries to control all aspects of her life. He even belittles her son and I was desperate for Nicola to stand up to him.
The book is written from the first person narrative of Nicola so that we better understand the personal dilemmas that she faces. The revealing of her past through the chapters showing her teenage years add an emotional level. Her dedication to creating a happy life for herself and her son (as well as volunteering to help strangers) is so much more poignant when you understand what she went through.
There were plenty of hints and clues about potential twists, and I found myself caught up in the desperation as Nicola’s peace of mind is attacked from different directions. The pace of the book varies according to the events taking place, for example Ian’s insidious undermining is gradual but Nicola has to react frantically to some plot twists.
A Good Mother has plenty of drama, a likeable lead character and a tense narrative as events unfold.
SAM HEPBURN Media Kit:
Title: A Good Mother
Author: Sam Hepburn
PUBLICATION DAY: May 26th 2021
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A Good Mother: description:
I see my son’s scooter lying in the undergrowth. Time stands still. Where is he? Deafened by my own heartbeat, I keep looking but I can’t see him. This is all my fault. My punishment for the things I did, and the things I should have done.
All I ever wanted was to keep my son safe. I married the perfect husband, built the perfect home. I’ve tried to give Finn the life I never had.
Everything was going so well. Until now.
It’s just small things at first – a punctured tyre, an open gate that I’m sure I locked. But then I see the photograph of two young girls, and a night I’ve tried to forget.
I know I have to stop pretending that nothing is happening. I can’t escape the truth.
Someone knows my secret. But what do they want from me?
A gripping and suspenseful thriller with a jaw-dropping twist, fans of Friend Request, The Wife Between Us and The Girl on the Train won’t be able to put this down.
Author Bio:
Sam Hepburn read modern languages at Cambridge University and, after a brief spell in advertising, joined the BBC as a General Trainee. She worked as a documentary maker for twenty years and was one of the commissioners for the launch of BBC Four. Since then, she has written several books, including psychological thrillers Gone Before and Her Perfect Life, and novels for young adults and children. She won the 2017 CWA Margery Allingham Short Story award and has been nominated for several other prestigious prizes, including the CILIP Carnegie Medal for her YA thrillers.
Sam has worked and travelled widely in Africa and the Middle East, and is a trustee of the Kenyan’s children’s charity, I Afrika. She now lives in London with her husband and children.
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