Fairytale Nerd

Blog tour - The Changeling by Matt Wesolowski. I'm delighted to have been invited along on the blog tour for the latest in the Six Stories series by Matt Wesolowski and in my opinion even better than it's predecessors, Six Stories and Hydra.  My Review: Being near the tail end of the blog tour, I've had to exercise a higher than usual amount of self-discipline and resist reading too many other reviews in case they influenced my review. I have, however, seen lots of social media posts saying how fabulous this book is and I concur. It is scary and chilling and has a real twist in the tail I didn't see coming, in fact, it swiped me sideways and left me reeling and my ears are still ringing. It is an emotive read, any book about a child who goes, and remains missing is sure to tug at anyone's heartstrings. It is menacing, coercive and really, REALLY, eerie and dark.  Little Alfie Marsden goes missing in the spooky and legend-ridden Wentshire Forest whils...

The Almanack by Martine Bailey My Review The Almanack is a luscious and vibrant journey into the past via the predictions and riddles of an almanack. One of the first things I notice when I sink blissfully into a Martine Bailey book, is how quickly she transports me to another era and how evident it is that she has deeply researched everything to do with the era she is writing about. Which, in this case, is the mid 1700s. The whole book is cleverly constructed around an Almanack of the very year in which the book is set and is so authentically woven I can only surmise that the Author had such a real document in her hands at the time of writing.  An Almanack is a printed yearbook containing dates and events for the coming year, more detailed than a calendar or a diary it would contain notable festival dates, sunrise and sunset times, tide tables and other information invaluable, especially to country folk, farmers and the like. Some are still printed every year to this very day, for...

Ideal Angels - blog tour and Extract: Today I am part of the blog tour for the new book by Robert Welbourn - Ideal Angels. BLURB    Is it possible to keep secrets in the age of social media?  When someone lives their entire life in the spotlight, what could they possibly hide from you?  Ideal Angels explores just that. It s the story of one man, one woman, one week.  They meet, fall in love, and never look back.  Eloise's phone is never far away, furiously cataloguing their ups and downs. But there are always shadows, lurking just out of reach.  The moments after the camera flashes, unseen, uncaptured.  The threat of an inescapable doom.  How much can one person change you?  How much can one person be your downfall? Robert Welbourn ABOUT THE AUTHOR:  Robert Welbourn is Yorkshire born and bred - he's lived there almost all his life, and now written a book set there. He’s had a passion for books as long as he can remember, and has bee...

Wakenhyrst - Michelle Paver My thoughts: Here's a lovely gothic style historical novel to tempt you to stay up late reading under the covers. It's not a horror story as such but a creepy tale of madness and loneliness. I find the cover quite enticing with the silhouette of a Magpie (Oh, Chatterpie!!) and are those drops of blood? Wakenhyrst is the story of a young woman Maud, brought up by her bullying father in a large old house around the turn of the 20th century, after the death of her mother in bloody childbirth. Maud is a very lonely young woman, forced to grow up quickly, she has few real friends. An intelligent young woman, when intelligence is the province of the male members of a family line, this does her few favours, apart from earning her a little grudging respect from the unpleasant and unpredictable father she nevertheless longs to impress. He "allows" her the doubtful privilege of transcribing his historical research into local lore and a book about a w...

Blog Tour - Blackberry and Wild Rose by Sonia Velton Blackberry and Wild Rose was one of those books which could have been written just for me. I read the advance copy I felt so privileged to receive last in 2018 and immediately needed to shout aloud just how much I LOVED it. In fact it made it on to my top ten reads of 2018. I was therefore delighted to be invited along on this blog tour to help promote and raise awareness of this book, which is great as I want EVERYONE to get their own copy and love it as much as I did. Here's my review, again, and I urge you to read it too. My Review Anyone who knows me, even the tiniest bit, will know, as surely as I did the minute I saw the cover of this book, that it is exactly the kind of book I fall head over heels in love with. And I did. For several reasons... (1) I swooned when I saw the absolutely gorgeous cover art. I am loving the current trend for historical novels to have a rich tapestry of all-over design and this one is covered wi...

Review and blog tour The Story keeper Anna Mazzola I’m delighted to be helping kick-start the Blog Tour for The Story Keeper by Anna Mazzola, author of the superb novel  The Unseeing which I read and reviewed last year for my blog. Both are historical novels based around factual events and the author demonstrates her penchant for detailed research and well-honed writing skills in both of these seductively intriguing books. The Story Keeper begins in 1857 with the protagonist, Audrey Hart on a ferry to the Isle of Skye where she is headed to take up a job offering her the only chance of a little freedom, she is to be an assistant to a wealthy woman who is researching folk tales, myths and legends around the island. Following the recent Highland clearances local folk are wary of strangers and reluctant to trust anyone, but they are also keen to pass on superstitions and Anna has family links to the island as her late mother was a Skye lassie so maybe she is not as much a stran...

Review - The Doll Factory - Elizabeth Macneal. Two sisters Iris and Rose work together making dolls. It is the mid 19th century and whilst nearby the great exhibition is being planned, their days are long and repetitive, working for a hard taskmistress the girls dream of escaping to a more congenial life, Rose wants her own genteel little shop and Iris dreams of learning to paint. But both girls bear the scars of living in an era where medical care wasn't great. Rose has lost her beauty to the scarring of smallpox whilst  Iris has a hunched shoulder, due to a break in her collarbone at birth. and both girls fear no man will even look at them now. Iris's beauty, however, attracts the attention of two very different men. She is approached by artist Louis Frost, a member of the burgeoning pre Raphaelite brotherhood who begs her to model for his painting for which she barters art lessons in return.  Whilst in the shadows of the grimiest rookeries of old London, lurks lonely S...