30th Sep 2019 – White Tulip Candles

PUBLISHERS BLURB

A brilliant novel about our neighbours and the secrets we keep from one another, from the bestselling and award-winning author of Grace After Henry.

One happy street. Three pretty houses. So many lies…

Martha used to be a force of nature: calm, collected, and in charge. But since moving her husband and two daughters to Dublin under sudden and mysterious circumstances, she can’t seem to find her footing.

Robin was the “it” girl in school, destined for success. Now she’s back at her parents’ with her four-year-old son, vowing that her ne’er-do-well ex is out of the picture for good.

Edie has everything she could want, apart from a baby, and the acceptance of her new neighbours. She longs to be one of the girls, and to figure out why her perfect husband seems to be avoiding their perfect future.

Three women looking for a fresh start on idyllic Pine Road. Their friendship will change their lives, and reveal secrets they never imagined. Liane Moriarty meets Lisa Jewell in this story of the love affairs, rivalries and scandals that hide behind every door…

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MY REVIEW

This is the story of Pine Road in Dublin and its residents.

Robin has returned to her parents’ home with her son after a relationship breakdown.

Edie, married and desperately wants a baby, but her husband doesn’t seem so keen. Why?

Bernie, the ‘matriarch ‘, the top woman who rules the Road.

These are the three main characters and the story revolves mainly around them with hilarious asides from other residents WhatsApp messages. There’s a rat hole, stole newspapers and wheels. We hear gossip and secrets, affairs, petty minded people and neighbourhood disputes but also a close community, love, laughs and family.

Thank you to Anne Cater and Random Things Tours for the opportunity to participate in this blog tour and for the promotional materials and a free copy of the book. This is my honest, unbiased review.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

EITHNE SHORTALL studied jouralism at Dublin City University and has lived in London, France and America. Now based in Dublin, she is chief arts writer for the Sunday Times Ireland. She enjoys sea swimming, cycling and eating scones.

Grace After Henry is her second novel. Shorthall’s bestselling debut novel, Love in Row 27, has been optioned for a TV series by NBC Universal Studios International, the production company behind Downton Abbey.

PRAISE

Liane Moriarty meets Maeve Binchy meets Marian Keyes. I laughed, I cried, I shuddered, I was agog.’ Jo Spain, author of The Confession

‘Eithne Shortall writes a community of neighbours so vividly that I feel like I’m one of them, adjusting my telescope and keeping a glass to the wall for fear that I’d miss anything. Funny, endearing, mysterious and outrageous, this book is wildly entertaining and hugely enjoyable.’ Liz Nugent, author of Unravelling Oliver

three little truths

Eithne Shortall

Praise for Grace After Henry

‘Beautiful and moving’ Good Housekeeping

‘Poignant, funny and deeply satisfying’ RED

‘A tender, warm-hearted read’ Prima

‘A moving exploration of what it means to lose your love… and if it’s wise to try to recreate what you once had.’ Daily Mail

‘Grace After Henry is sometimes heartbreaking and sometimes very funny as Eithne Shortall mixes humour and tragedy with a deftness reminiscent of Marian Keyes.’

Irish Times

‘A bittersweet story that tackles grief, love and moving on after a partner, and keeps readers guessing until the final page.’ Irish Independent, Book of the Year, 2018

‘Grace After Henry made me WEEP… it was so moving – but also witty and well written. I loved it.’ Louise O’Neill

‘I really enjoyed it – satisfying and warm, and written with humour and heart.’

Sheila O’Flanagan

‘Grace After Henry is an engrossing, surprising, and empowering story about the complexities of love, grief, and family. The characters were so beautifully developed that by the time I finished reading, I felt like I’d known them forever.’

Jill Santopolo, bestselling author of The Light We Lost

‘This book is an emotional rollercoaster of the very best kind. Sad, funny, touching and ultimately uplifting, Grace After Henry is simply wonderful.’ Chrissie Manby

Winner: The Big Book Awards: The Best Page Turners, 2018
Shortlisted: Popular Fiction Book of the Year: The Irish Book Awards, 2018
An Irish Independent Book of the Year, 2018

PUBLISHERS BLURB

Sound

Can you hear it?

A professor of psychoacoustics is found dead in his office. It appears to be a heart attack, until a second acoustician dies a few days later in similar circumstances.

Meanwhile, there’s an outbreak of mysterious illnesses on a council estate, and outbursts of unexplained violence in a city centre nightclub. Not to mention strange noises coming from the tunnels underneath Liverpool. Can it really be a coincidence that death metal band Total Depravity are back in the city, waging their own form of sonic warfare?

Detective Inspector Darren Swift is convinced there are connections. Still grieving his fiancé’s death and sworn to revenge, he is thrown back into action on the trail of a murderer with a terrifying and undetectable weapon.

But this case cannot be solved using conventional detective work, and D.I. Swift will need to put the rulebook aside and seek the occult expertise of Dr. Helen Hope and her unlikely sidekick, guitarist Mikko Kristensen.

MY REVIEW

This is #3 in the Reprobation series by Catherine Fearns. It can be read as a stand-alone. But I am a fan and have read the previous books, so may be a little biased.

This begins with a Professor, who has synesthesia, so sees sounds as colours and has found a new frequency being transmitted. He has been warned off and then he dies in an unusual way. He was troubled by something and had arranged to send information to the police.

DI Darren Swift is still grieving the death of his fiancé, Matt during events in the previous book, but is at work and needing something to investigate again. With his colleague, DC Colette Quinn they are looking into this case while awaiting the start of a big trial. Again they are joined by Helen Hope, the ex-nun and now partner to guitarist Mike to uncover the mystery.

They find the USB left for them by the professor and find the word Napier…is this relating to the Napier Estate. What is causing the illnesses on the estate?

And so the story begins…..there are weapons of sound, death metal bands, the mysterious Adramelech and books with human skin bindings, religion, more murder and even a peacock!.

Just what is Shawn Forrest up to ? And are Justine and her baby in more danger?

Creepy, gripping and totally entertaining from start to the rather menacing end. Brilliant….I’m already waiting for Book #4.

Thank you to Rachel’s Random Resources for the opportunity to participate in this blog tour and for the promotional materials and a free copy of the ebook. This is my honest, unbiased review.

Purchase Link – mybook.to/sound

Author Bio –

Catherine Fearns is a writer from Liverpool. Her novels Reprobation (2018) and Consuming Fire (2019)

are published by Crooked Cat and are both Amazon bestsellers. As a music journalist Catherine has written for Pure Grain Audio, Broken Amp and Noisey. Her short fiction and non-fiction has appeared in Toasted Cheese, Succubus, Here Comes Everyone, Offshoots and Metal Music Studies. She lives in Geneva with her husband and four children, and when she’s not writing or parenting, she plays guitar in a heavy metal band.

Social Media Links –

Twitter: @metalmamawrites

Website: https://www.catherine-fearns.com/