Mrs Cooke’s Books

Canongate Blogger of the Month

It’s been a hectic month in the Cooke household and I can’t believe I’ve left it ‘til the penultimate day in July to write a blogpost about the honour of being picked as July Blogger of the Month by the lovely people at Canongate!

I can’t tell you how thrilled I was when Katie Huckstep emailed me at the end of June to let me know – what a lovely surprise! And as for the lovely things they have said about me and my blog! Far too kind!

I keep a particularly close eye on Canongate as they really do release some quite remarkable literature. I’ve recently finished The Little Snake by A.L. Kennedy which is published on 1st August and it is simply wonderful! A veritable fairytale for grownups – there will be more on that when I post my review later this week!

I have just started the Booker Prize long-listed book; Night Boat To Tangier by Kevin Barry and it is SPECTACULAR. I am currently rushing this post just so that I can get back to it – it’s that good!

I’m looking forward to sharing my review of it with you next week but in the meantime, I’d like to say a huge thank you to Canongate for choosing my humble blog to showcase; I am so thrilled and would urge you all to head on over to their website. It contains a plethora of unique and truly fascinating reads; many of which have been nominated for various literary accolades.

I’d also like to thank the lovely book blogging community for the outpouring of messages of love and support. Book people really are the best people!

Now I must get back to my reading!

Until next time!

@mrscookesbooks

Nightingale Point by Luan Goldie

It’s my stop on the #blogtour for Nightingale Point today I am BEYOND thrilled to be hosting some original content by the author herself! SO EXCITED!!! So without further ado, lets find out what happens in the book that EVERYONE is talking about!

Synopsis

On an ordinary Saturday morning in 1996, the residents of Nightingale Point wake up to their normal lives and worries.

Mary has a secret life that no one knows about, not even Malachi and Tristan, the brothers she vowed to look after.
Malachi had to grow up too quickly. Between looking after Tristan and nursing a broken heart, he feels older than his twenty-one years.
Tristan wishes Malachi would stop pining for Pamela. No wonder he’s falling in with the wrong crowd, without Malachi to keep him straight.
Elvis is trying hard to remember to the instructions his care worker gave him, but sometimes he gets confused and forgets things.
Pamela wants to run back to Malachi but her overprotective father has locked her in and there’s no way out.

It’s a day like any other, until something extraordinary happens. When the sun sets, Nightingale Point is irrevocably changed and somehow, through the darkness, the residents must find a way back to lightness, and back to each other.

Luan Goldie’s inspiration for the novel

Nightingale Point is my debut novel and comes out with HQ, HarperCollins this summer. It’s commercial book club fiction, and while the setting of an east London council estate in the nineties may not be that familiar to many, the themes in the book are universal.

Nightingale Point starts on a normal Saturday morning and follows a large group of characters as they go about their everyday lives. So you see them doing really quite normal stuff, like shopping for peanut butter, frying too many spring rolls, arguing with their siblings over smoking weed indoors and so on. Then something happens, something completely out of their control, which first threatens and then changes their lives forever.

The book follows the characters as they face the incident head on and the reader gets to watch them as they escape (or not).

The book was inspired by the 1992 Bijlmer air disaster, in which a cargo plane flying over Holland crashed into a block of flats just outside of Amsterdam. It was an awful, tragic accident in which up to forty-seven people lost their lives. But even all these years, there still remains debate about the official death toll from the accident. Some argue that the flats were home to illegal immigrants and not everyone was officially documented as tenants. The aftermath disaster also sparked controversy, the victims didn’t feel like they had been treated well and rehousing was slow.

I was so interested in how the people of the Bijlmer carried on with their lives after going through such a tragedy. I thought it was completely inspiring to read about how they helped each other in the days, months and years which followed the crash. Surviving the accident was only the first challenge for the residents, for they were now also homeless and without a single possession to their name. Still, when I watched videos of these people they were energised and focused, ready to talk to the media about their treatment and to challenge the authorities who were slow to rehouse them, all this while looking after each other’s children and mourning loved ones. It was completely inspiring.

I love stories about people overcoming difficult situations, we all do, it’s a testament to the human spirit. So once I started looking into the Bijlmer I couldn’t get it out of my head. Then these characters came to me, they just started talking and I could see their whole lives in each of their flats in the tower block. There was Mary, a nurse from the Philippines, who I could see cooking for the husband she couldn’t stand. Then I had Tristan, who is your stereotypical estate teenager, loud, anti-social and rapping along to Tupac in the stairwells. Tristan was a really important character for me because I wanted him to fit a lot of those negative stereotypes about young black males, but also be completely lovable. His brother Malachi was the most challenging character to write, mainly because he goes through so much and says so little. Then there was the hero of the story, and I knew from the start that it would be Elvis, a big, friendly giant. At first he seems needy but you quickly get to see him as brave and strong. Finally, there’s Pamela, the heartbroken teenager with the strict dad. Each of the characters came to me so clearly and I loved them all instantly, but I knew they had to go through this awful thing.

Everyone who has read the book so far has a firm favourite and I love hearing who they like and why. When people talk about the book they talk the characters before they talk about the tragedy and that’s exactly what I wanted. Because it’s not really about the event, it’s about the people.

Wow, thank you so much, Luan for writing such an interesting and informative piece for my blog! Thank you also to Lucy Richardson and HQ Stories for the invitation to the tour and for my proof copy of this gritty and compelling novel.

Nightingale Point has been chosen for the BBC Radio 2 Book Club and is out now in both hardcover and ebook format and you can buy it here

If you enjoyed my post, please do go check out my others and also the other stops on the #blogtour (see below).

Until next time!

@mrscookesbooks

The Holiday by TM Logan

Good morning! It’s my stop on the #blogtour for The Holiday today and I am delighted to share my review with you!

Synopsis

Seven days. Three families. One killer.

It was supposed to be the perfect holiday, dreamed up by Kate as the ideal way to turn 40: four best friends and their husbands and children in a luxurious villa under the blazing sunshine of Provence.

But there is trouble in paradise. Kate suspects that her husband is having an affair, and that the other woman is one of her best friends.

One of these women is willing to sacrifice years of friendship and destroy her family. But which one? As Kate closes in on the truth in the stifling Mediterranean heat, she realises too late that the stakes are far higher than she ever imagined.

Because someone in the villa is prepared to kill to keep their secret hidden.

My Thoughts

What. A. Book. The Holiday has recently been chosen as a Richard and Judy Summer Book Club pick and this is no surprise; I devoured it in no time at all.

Logan’s prose is beautifully written with lush descriptions of the stunning scenery of Provence (the idyllic setting for his story), one could be forgiven for being lulled into a false sense of security and mistaking this book for a gentle, soothing, read. Yet behind every adjective that he uses to describe the sunny south of France and the palatial villa in which our families find themselves there is a dark tension.

Complete with a cast of flawed characters (of whom one could be a killer!) plus some other terrifying dangers to boot (fancy accidentally running off a sheer cliff without any barriers anyone?), it was hard to tear myself away from The Holiday. I was totally hooked.

This book had me on edge. Feelings of doubt and mistrust began to settle around me after reading only a few pages and continued right to the end, culminating in a shocking finale.

Kate’s prevarication over whether or not she should confront them all, together with the quiet yet creepy isolation of the villa created suspense aplenty and it was killing me!

Tense and gripping, with a jaw dropping twist; The Holiday is the the perfect Summer read.

The Holiday is out now in paper back and ebook format and you can buy it here

My thanks go to Tracy Fenton and Compulsive Readers for the invitation to the #blogtour and to Zaffre for my copy of the book which was given in exchange for my honest review.

If you enjoyed my review, please do check out my other posts and also the other stops on the #blogtour (see below).

Until next time!

@mrscookesbooks

The Girl I Used To Know by Faith Hogan

It’s my stop on the #blogtour for The Girl I Used to Know, today and I am thrilled to share an extract of this deliciously heart warming read with you!

Synopsis

Two women. Two very different lives. One unexpected friendship.

Amanda King and Tess Cuffe are strangers who share the same Georgian house, but their lives couldn’t be more different.

Amanda seems to have the perfect life. But the reality is a soulless home, an unfaithful husband and a very lonely heart.

While Tess has spent a lifetime hiding and shutting her heart to love.

But if they can open up to one another, these two women may just learn that sometimes letting go is the first step to moving forward and new friendships can come from the most unlikely situations.

Extract

Oh, God. Amanda could feel the familiar swell of dread in her stomach. Richard would be incandescent if he arrived home to see Tess was hanging out her washing again. They all knew she only did it because Amanda had expressly written it in their residents’ association code of conduct. It was clear as day, residents were not to lower the tone of Swift Square by embarking on any activity more suited to the rear of their properties. It went for barbecues as much as pottering about and, certainly, it went for drying clothes. She made the mistake of mentioning it to Tess, just once, years before, and ever since, as soon as the sun shone, lines of washing were pegged out with spiteful haste at the front of number 4, Swift Square.

It annoyed Richard more than anyone; it was like a rebellious one finger to all the money he had wasted over the years trying to get Tess out. Amanda hated to use the word evicted, it was all too messy and unthinkable, even now. Still, after all these years, Richard could spend an entire evening whining and complaining about Tess. Funny, but in the beginning, Amanda believed it would pass. After all, Tess Cuffe was the reason they picked this place up at a bargain price. Tess knew that too and perhaps resented them all the more for it. Richard did everything he could think of to induce her to leave. When bullying her did not work, he tried money. He offered her enough to put a down payment on a nice cosy flat. She could have her own place in a neighbourhood where her underwear would not be the only washing hanging on clothes lines along a veranda designed for that purpose. Tess had been unyielding. It seemed to Amanda, the more Richard made it plain he wanted her out, the more Tess dug herself in to stay. There had been so many small squabbles over the years, but then in a moment of fury, Richard instigated legal proceedings. He wanted her gone and he could call it anything the judges preferred to hear, but in the end, they lost. Tess was still here; still paying her legally agreed ten bob a week rent. It was a covenant agreement, based on some old law that Tess managed to unearth with free legal aid. The amount meant nothing in terms of financial gain for the Kings but gave immense satisfaction to Tess, who left the old coins on the doorstep each Friday afternoon, just at the end of the working week.

For her ten bob or, in new money, less than two euros a week, Tess had the entire basement of the house. It consisted of a two-bedroom flat, which although it hadn’t been modernised, was very generous by today’s rental proportions in the city. A separate entrance squeezed within a small add-on porch just left of the impressive granite steps to Amanda’s imposing front door. The judge held firm when Richard went back with the second case to increase the rent. Amanda knew there was no repairing the damage the courts had wreaked on what should have been a neighbourly relationship.

If like me, you loved the sound of that, then you can buy The Girl I Used To Know here

My thanks go to Vicky Joss and Aria Fiction for my invitation to the #blogtour and also for my gorgeous copy of the book!

If you liked my post, please do check out my others and also the other stops on the #blogtour (see below).

Until next time!

@mrscookesbooks

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The Night You Left by Emma Curtis

It’s my stop on the #blogtour for The Night You Left by Emma Curtis today and I am delighted to give you my review of this, her third novel.

Synopsis

IT ONLY TAKES A MOMENT TO UNRAVEL A PERFECT LIFE . . .

When Grace’s fiancé vanishes without a trace the night after proposing, her life is turned upside down. But has Nick walked out on her, or is he in danger?

As Grace desperately searches for answers, it soon becomes clear that Nick wasn’t the uncomplicated man she thought she knew. And when she uncovers a hidden tragedy from his childhood, she realises an awful truth: that you can run from your past – but your secrets will always catch up with you . . .

My Thoughts

At well over 400 pages I initially thought this was quite a hefty tome for a psychological thriller and was concerned at how speedily I’d be able to read it given my ever-teetering TBR pile, however it became clear after the first few pages that I needn’t have worried. I was immediately hooked in and quickly became heavily invested in Curtis’s characters and their alarming predicament.

This is a truly engrossing and sinister story, where we flick back and forth between the present and past, with flashbacks of idyllic Summer holidays 18 years ago. The throwbacks are vivid and haunting; setting the scene for a lifetime of secrets and mistrust.

I really felt for Grace; Nick was her rock; her safety net; her everything. In a single instant their cosy life is torn in two, and poor Grace not only has to pick up the pieces for Lottie’s sake, but also deal with her horrendous in-laws as well as her own grief; trying separately to grapple with what on earth happened to her fiancé that night.

With “counting daily steps” fast becoming a normal part of daily life, I was intrigued and impressed by the clever use of health devices in Grace’s detective work – a novel yet (perhaps worryingly) current method to aid a murder investigation!

This novel is a dark page-turner; I read the majority of it with a growing sense of dread, just when I thought it was all over and Curtis would begin to wrap up, she threw in something utterly cataclysmic; a blinding twist that I didn’t see coming! I raced through the remaining pages with my heart pounding and a knot in my stomach. Curtis really ramps up the pace at the end and I was furiously reading in total disbelief.

The Night You Left is a clever, compelling novel with a killer twist; an absolute “must read” for this Summer.

The Night You Left is out now in ebook and in paperback on 5th September and you can order/pre-order it here

My thanks go to Hannah Bright and Black Swan/Transworld Books for the invitation to the #blogtour and for my proof copy in return for my honest review. If you enjoyed my review, please do check out my other posts and also the other stops on the #blogtour (see below).

Until next time!