Orphan Edwin Hope is dared to climb a tree. He does, falls and is sent away. His relationship with the tree has begun…
The Promise Tree is a mix of history, fantasy, myth and romance.
Young Edwin meets a young girl in the branches of the sycamore tree on his family’s estate. It begins a relationship that lasts a lifetime. The girl is a dryad or tree goddess, or nymph. Edwin names her Drusilla and their friendship, love and passion develop over the years.
The exact description or explanation of Drusilla’s existence is never clearly defined. This made me feel a little disappointed as I like clarity. Myths and legends as well as the supernatural play an important role but this didn’t particularly interest me because I didn’t fully understand it.
I really enjoyed the historical aspects of the book. The horrors of the WW1 trenches felt so authentic and emotional. I also liked the changing friendship with Robert Carfax from bully/bullied to respect and secret keeping. The boys become men and are united by their experience of war and unconventional love affairs. The book deals with class and social expectations as well which seemed properly researched and authentic.
Edwin’s relationship with his grandfather is desperately sad. Both are grieving and Edwin needs the parental love he has lost. But instead he is rejected and sent away. In the later years, the grandfather’s behaviour has not softened. Drusilla offers Edwin the love he craves.The final chapters were sweet about the strength and enduring power of the love between Drusilla and Edwin.
The Promise Tree is a sweet love story with a supernatural element.
The Promise Tree
When does a story begin?
For Edwin Hope, it begins with a childhood dare and a forbidden tree. It begins with him falling … in more ways than one.
Called home from his studies by the grandfather who has always hated him, eighteen-year-old Edwin is once again trapped in a house that is colder than the winds whipping across the fields. Seeking sanctuary, he escapes into the untamed beauty of the Peaks and meets a woman who sparks an old memory. A memory of the sycamore that broke him, and the little girl who saved him.
Drusilla has had many acolytes over the centuries but none like Edwin. With the Great War looming and Edwin’s future uncertain, she knows the right thing to do is to set him free from her spell, but can she do so if it means breaking her own heart?
Author Bio – Elisabeth’s writing career began in 2013 when she entered Harlequin’s So You Think You Can Write contest and it turned out she could. She writes romantic Historical fiction as Elisabeth Hobbes and Historical folklore/fantasy inspired romance as Elisabeth J. Hobbes.
She teaches Primary school but would rather write full time because unlike five year olds her characters generally do what she tells them. She spends most of her spare time reading and is a pro at cooking one-handed while holding a book.
She lives in Cheshire because the car broke down there in 1999 and she never left. Elisabeth has two almost grown kids, two cats, two dogs and a husband. The whole family are on the autistic spectrum and that probably includes the pets! She dreams of having a tidy house one day.
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TRIGGER WARNING: child murder
15 years ago a woman killed herself after her baby daughter went missing, presumed dead. Now a family are murdered on the same property and a toddler is missing. Madison Harper and her team are desperate to find little Annie while her associate Nate investigates the cold case for a killer who claims he was wrongly convicted…
Her Lonely Bones is the 6th book to feature Detective Madison Harper. There are mentions of plot details from earlier book but no spoilers.
A family move in to a delapidated property and are murdered wtihin hours of their arrival. Two adults and two boys, with evidence that a young girl may be missing. Meanwhile Nate is called onto a cold case by a convicted killer who swears he is innocent. The case involved a missing toddler on the same property.
Madison has some big emotional issues to deal with. Her son, who she was separated from while she was wrongfully incarcerated for murder, is heading to college. Her friendship with Nate is threatened by his decision to leave town and their reluctance to address and admit their feelings. Given their pasts, both are affected by the cold case and a potential wrongful conviction.
The emotion of child murder is quite difficult to read at times. It is absolutely heartbreaking that Madison finds one of the boys barely alive but fails in her frantic efforts to revive him. The descriptions of the adult bodies are quite grisly despite being presented forensicially. I did guess a big plot twist but this did not spoil my enjoyment as I watched the plot unfold.
Her Lonely Bones is a disturbing crime thriller.
Her Lonely Bones: A totally jaw-dropping and addictive crime thriller (Detective Madison Harper Book 6)
The house is deathly silent as the summer sun starts to creep in through the dusty windows. The children should be waking up, the parents should be cooking breakfast. But they all lay still, their heads on their pillows, lifeless eyes staring at nothing, their bodies waiting to be discovered…
When a couple and their young twin boys are discovered brutally murdered in their beds, everyone suspects this is a home invasion gone tragically wrong. But as Detective Madison Harper walks into the run-down house that is eerily empty, she isn’t so sure.
Talking to the neighbors, Madison soon discovers that the family only recently moved to the small town of Lost Creek, Colorado. No one has met them, and no one knows their names. With nothing to identify them in the house, or even to show that the house belonged to them, Madison is suddenly faced with not only having to find a cold-blooded killer, but needing to identify the victims too.
Then, Madison’s heart stops in her chest when she discovers a small yellow t-shirt in the back of the family’s vehicle that says Daddy’s Girl. The couple must have had a daughter as well as the twin boys, but where is she? Madison suspects she’s been abducted, and vows to find the missing little girl before it’s too late.
But as Madison makes a breakthrough in identifying the family, she discovers they had a secret that changes the whole course of the investigation. Madison knows with every second that passes the chances of finding the girl alive get smaller, but she’s prepared to risk everything to find her, even her own life…
An absolutely gripping and twist-packed read that will make your jaw drop! Perfect for fans of Lisa Regan, Melinda Leigh and Kendra Elliot.
About Wendy Dranfield
Wendy is the bestselling author of the Detective Madison Harper crime series.
She is a former coroner’s assistant turned crime writer who writes a mixture of standalone thrillers, crime series and short stories. Some of her books have been shortlisted for various writing competitions and awards, including the Mslexia novel writing competition and the International Thriller Writer Awards.
You can find more information on her website: wendydranfield.co.uk
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Instagram: @wendy_dranfield
Mo is a child psychologist but cannot understand her own two children. Dora is full of hormones while her brother Peter is embracing a Victorian persona. Can the family survive the dreaded teenage years?
A Tiny Bit Marvellous is a family comedy novel which made me laugh but I also found it emotional as the family try to negotiate their relationships and feelings.
Mo’s work centres around understanding children and teens but her own offspring are a mystery! I enjoyed this book as both a mum and daughter myself, remembering my hideous teen years and being shocked that my parents put up with me. Also dreading what my own kids will put me through (well, Anya mostly, attitiude and sass at 11, eek!)
There were some real laugh out loud moments in this book. Little dramas become hugely inflated catastrophes. Dawn French has such a turn of phrase and I loved her different narration styles for the three perspectives of Mo, Dora and Peter. The characters are all completely over the top but I loved them!
However, there is also a depth to the characters with their emotions and vulnerabilities. Mo is feeling middle aged and a bit lost now that her children are more independent. Meanwhile Dora and Peter are attempting to create themselves as individuals, making mistakes along the way. All of them want to have a sense of security and belonging as well as be accepted for their true selves.
A Tiny Bit Marvellous is just that: a tiny bit marvellous!
Book blurb
The hilarious number one best seller by comedian and author of Because of You and According to Yes, Dawn French.
Everyone hates the perfect family – so you’ll love the Battles.
Meet Mo Battle, about to turn 50 and mum to two helpless, hormonal teenagers. There’s 17-year-old daughter Dora who blames Mo for, like, EVERYTHING and Peter who believes he’s quite simply as darling and marvellous as his hero Oscar Wilde. Somewhere, keeping quiet, is Dad, who’s just, well…Dad.
However, Mo is having a crisis. She’s about to do something unusually wild and selfish, which will leave the entire family teetering on the edge of a precipice.
Will the family fall?
Or will they, when it really matters, be there for each other?
A Tiny Bit Marvellous is the number one best-selling novel from one of Britain’s favourite comic writers.
TRIGGER WANING : Nazi brutality
1942, Paris. Clarisse is an American photographer living secretly in France under Nazi occupation. She wants to document the horrors she witnesses but she also wants to leave her toxic husband. Both aims are dangerous…
The Secret Photograph is a dual timeline historical novel set in the 1940s and 1980s.
Clarisse is distraught at the terrible sights of children rounded up and separated from their families, violence against Jews, and the terror on the streets of her beloved Paris. She is living under a false identity so is in constant fear of being discovered with forged papers. A chance encounter with the flamboyant ‘peacock’ Louis shows her that she may be able to put her photography skills to good use for the resistance.
I really liked Clarisse’s character. She is passionate and determined about her photography but is being smothered by the tyranny of her husband and the Nazi occupiers. Her false identity means that she is in danger but her humanity means she cannot stand by when she sees the oppression in the streets. Her skill at photography gives her a unique platform for spreading knowledge and awareness of the Nazi atrocities whilst placing her in even greater danger.
The author has researched the experiences of Paris under occupation and the historical and geographical setting bring the characters to life. Clarisse’s first meeting with Louis is really special and I loved his subversion of the enforced wearing of the yellow star. I hadn’t heard of the Zazou subculture before so I enjoyed the inclusion and sympathetic depiction in this book.
The Secret Photograph is an emotional and inspiring historical novel.
Book Description:
Nazi-occupied Paris, 1942. Clarisse clutches her camera as hundreds of police swarm the streets. Through her lens she spots a terrified brown-eyed little girl being carried screaming into a truck, her yellow star hanging crooked from her threadbare coat. Clarisse rushes forward to help, but the truck pulls away…
With a fake name written on the papers in her pocket, American photographer Clarisse Alarie knows the dangers of Paris better than most. Haunted by the sight of children being dragged away and carrying a photograph of the brown-eyed little girl everywhere she goes, Clarisse is desperate to make a difference. Meeting handsome resistance fighter Louis is her chance…
Louis introduces Clarisse to Café Capoulade and his underground network of brave men and women fighting tirelessly to end the occupation. Soon, Clarisse is risking her life every day. Taking photographs of the terror that has overcome the beautiful city, Clarisse follows members of the Gestapo and hides in plain sight in order to gather evidence of their terrible crimes.
But Clarisse soon learns of the over-crowded cattle cars leaving Paris carrying even the smallest children, bound for an unspeakably terrible place… Is she already too late to rescue the little girl with the brown eyes? And when Louis himself is arrested, will Clarisse risk everything the network has worked so hard for to save them both?
Set around true historical events that shook the world, The Secret Photograph is a sweeping and utterly gripping wartime tale of courage and resilience in the face of unimaginable terror. Fans of The Alice Network, The Nightingale and Soraya M. Lane will be totally hooked.
Author Bio:
Siobhan Curham is an award-winning author, ghost writer, editor and writing coach. She has also written for many newspapers, magazines and websites, including The Guardian, Breathe magazine, Cosmopolitan, Writers’ Forum, DatingAdvice.com, and Spirit & Destiny. Siobhan has been a guest on various radio and TV shows, including Woman’s Hour, BBC News, GMTV and BBC Breakfast. And she has spoken at businesses, schools, universities and literary festivals around the world, including the BBC, Hay Festival, Cheltenham Festival, Bath Festival, Ilkley Festival, London Book Fair and Sharjah Reading Festival.
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You can sign up for all the best Bookouture deals you’ll love at: http://ow.ly/Fkiz30lnzdo
Two dead police officers with a connection to the royal family. Lady Bea, the king’s granddaughter, and her nemesis DCI Fitzwilliam believe that there is a murderer on the loose but can they find out the truth?
I Spy With My Little Die is the fifth book in the Right Royal cosy murder mystery series. I have previously reviewed the earlier books in the series: Spruced Up For Murder, For Richer For Deader, Not Mushroom For Death, and A Dead Herring.
One police officer is shot in the line of duty but seems to be recovering before dying of an unexpected heat attack. Another officer dies alone in his office, again a sudden heart attack is suspected. But both men have links to the death of a royal so DCI Richard Fitwilliam is called upon to investigate. There is a strong link to events in the past so I think it would be beneficial to have read the previous books in order to better understand the back story about Bea’s husband.
I really love this series so I was a little disappointed that Lady Bea, Perry and Simon do not feature too much in this book. The focus is upon the police dimension and characters which creates a great tension and mystery. However, I wanted more of the personal touch especially between Bea and Fitzwilliam.
The whodunnit element was full of twists and Fitzwilliam’s investigation makes him reconsider and make discoveries about Bea’s late husband and his death. I did guess who the killer was but this did not spoil my enjoyment of watching events play out and I had no idea of the motive.
I Spy With My Little Die is a solid addition to the series but I hope for more of Lady Bea next time.
Book blurb: I Spy With My Little Die
Uncovering a web of conspiracy that intertwines past and present, can Lady Beatrice and DCI Richard Fitzwilliam catch a killer and unveil the truth of her husband’s death at long last?
BREAKING NEWS Second Senior Police Officer Dies Within a Week
A senior officer from the Protection and Investigations (Royal) Services died unexpectedly yesterday. His death comes hot on the heels of Detective Inspector Ethan Preece (43) from City Police, who died of a suspected heart attack last week. Although he’s not yet been named, the dead officer was a greatly respected public figure, who had served in policing for over thirty years. A PaIRS spokesperson has confirmed that ‘neither men’s death is being treated as suspicious at this time’.
With the senior PaIRS officer dead, so is any hope of reopening the inquiry into Lady Beatrice’s husband’s accident fifteen years ago. Unless, of course, there is something that links the two men to the earl’s fatal car crash?
Can she and Fitzwilliam, along with their friends, work together to unravel the mystery and catch a killer before the truth is buried forever?
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Author Bio –
Hello. I’m Helen Golden and I write British contemporary cozy whodunnits with a hint of humour. I live in small village in Lincolnshire in the UK with my husband, my step-daughter, her two cats, our two dogs, sometimes my step-son, and our tortoise.
I used to work in senior management, but after my recent job came to a natural end I had the opportunity to follow my dreams and start writing. It’s very early in my life as an author, but so far I’m loving it.
It’s crazy busy at our house, so when I’m writing I retreat to our caravan (an impulsive lockdown purchase) which is mostly parked on our drive. When I really need total peace and quiet, I take it to a lovely site about 15 minutes away and hide there until my family runs out of food or clean clothes
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