Emma's Review: The Nurse by Claire Allan

Reviewed by Emma Crowley 

Someone is watching her. She just doesn’t know it yet.

Nell Sweeney has led an ordinary life. Every day she walks to and from the hospital where she works as a nurse, believing that no harm can befall her.

Until one day she is taken.

Because someone out there has a secret. Someone out there has been watching Nell – and they’ve been watching others like her too.

Nell is the unlucky one – she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. And if she isn’t found soon, someone will make sure that she isn’t the last woman to disappear…

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It's my 50th Birthday so let's celebrate with books

They say age is just a number and it's certainly a mantra I believe in the older I have become. But for me birthdays are also bittersweet as they are a reminder that my mum is no longer around as she died suddenly 3 days before my 29th birthday. And now that I've reached the big 5-0 milestone, it's also a reminder as to how young my mum was as I've now only got 2 more birthdays to go until I'll be the age she was when she died.

Sadly with the way life has been for us all in the last 10 months, birthdays, weddings and any other form of celebrations have been rather pared back and mainly celebrated with those in our households or social bubbles so we've certainly got a lot of catching up to do when it is safe to meet up again. Personally I wouldn't have liked a big party or anything but would have liked to have been able to arrange to go out with friends for afternoon tea, instead I'll be celebrating my birthday home alone although will be catching up with friends online. 

But not only is it a special day for me, but it's also a big new books day in the publishing world as there are a LOT of new books out today. Below are just a small selection of some of the books that have caught my eye and made it onto my wishlist. Which ones will you be buying?

Giveaway: Win a copy of Forget Me Not by Claire Allan

Today it's my stop on the blog tour for Claire Allan's latest thriller Forget Me Not which I will be reviewing at a later date as due to time constraints I only finished reading the book late last night so haven't had time to compose my thoughts and finalise my review. So rather than rush it I've decided to run the giveaway that I was planning to run alongside the review as I received a paperback copy of Forget Me Not as well as the eBook via NetGalley which I read for the review.

I disappeared on a Tuesday afternoon. I was there one minute and the next I was gone. They’ve never found my body…

It’s six in the morning during the hottest summer on record when Elizabeth O’Loughlin, out walking her dog, comes across Clare, a victim of a horrific knife attack, clinging onto life at the side of the road.

Books Read: Apple of My Eye by Claire Allan

Just how far is a mother willing to go?

When a mysterious note arrives for seven months pregnant nurse Eliana Hughes, she begins to doubt every aspect of her life – from her mixed feelings about motherhood to her marriage to Martin, who has become distant in recent months.

As the person behind the note escalates their campaign to out Eli’s husband as a cheat, she finds herself unable to trust even her own instincts, and as pressure builds, she makes a mistake that jeopardises her entire future.

Elsewhere, someone is watching. Someone who desperately wants a baby to call their own and will go to any lengths to become a mother – and stay a mother…

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The Write Stuff with... Claire Allan

Over the years I have read all of Claire Allan's books so when I was asked to be on the blog tour for her new book, her first psychological thriller Her Name Was Rose, I didn't hesitate to say Yes. Today I'm delighted to welcome Claire to the blog to talk about this change of direction in her writing.

It’s quite fun to reinvent yourself.

It’s also mildly (read that as very) terrifying to suddenly make a right turn in your career and go off in a direction you never really thought you would, or could.

If I can let you into a little secret, I never really thought I would write a thriller. I didn’t have much of a desire to write a thriller, although I greatly admired those who did. I figured they had to be hugely clued in, super-efficient people who planned all their books to perfection.

I was not that kind of writer. My eight women’s fictions novels were all very much character based. I would start each one with a plot idea, a very strong sense of my key characters and I would let the book develop as the characters did.

Quite frequently my endings would be completely different to those I had originally considered and I was very much a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants writer.