Emma's Review: Betrayal by Lesley Pearse

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

She committed the ultimate betrayal. Now someone knows the truth . . .

Eve should never have married Don Hathaway. Yes, he gave her two beautiful children - Olly and Tabitha - but he is a bully. Worse than that, he hurts her.

But, after one drunken rage too many, she has the courage to leave him. Eve is warned that it's a difficult path, yet she needs to give her children hope for the future.

Don, however, is bitter. And getting away from him entirely proves impossible.

Until the day Eve tries to teach him a lesson - and it all goes horribly wrong . . .

Eve loves her children, but now she carries a terrible burden that she dares not share.

Can she protect her family from the truth? Or has she betrayed their trust forever? 

Book Links: Kindle or Hardcover

Giveaway: Win a copy of Deception by Lesley Pearse

Today it's paperback publication day for Deception, the 30th and latest novel from bestselling author Lesley Pearse. As Emma reviewed Deception last year when it was published in eBook and Hardcover, you can read her review here, we are joining in publication day celebrations by hosting a giveaway instead.  

No one wants to believe their mother is a liar . . .

After her mother's funeral, Alice Kent is approached by a man who insists he's her real father. Initially upset and disbelieving, Alice soon discovers that tugging at this loose thread unravels the expertly woven tapestry of lies which was her mother Sally's life.

Books I'm Looking Forward to in 2023 by Emma Crowley

2022 was another great year for books and I managed to reach the goal I had set for myself on the Goodreads Reading Challenge. Although there were still plenty of other books that I would have liked to have read that are waiting for me on my ever increasing TBR but life in general can get in the way. But one thing I feel it’s important to do is to always make time for reading. It helps me forget about what may be going on in the world and helps relieve the stress from my work at times when things get a bit too much. I’ve already participating in a number of blog tours this year and I’m sure that number will grow as I see lots of new books published that I wish to read and help publicise. 

But below is a list of some of the books that I am really looking forward to reading this year. Most are publishing within the first half of the year and one or two do not yet have a final cover. One I couldn’t even find a blurb for but I know I want to read them all as lots are trusted authors of mine and one is a new author and the cover just made me want to read it. What are you looking forward to reading in the coming months? Let me know in the comments below.

Atlas: The Story of Pa Salt will be published on May 23rd.

1928, Paris

A boy is found, moments from death, and taken in by a kindly family. Gentle, precocious, talented, he flourishes in his new home, and the family show him a life he hadn’t dreamed possible. But he refuses to speak a word about who he really is.

As he grows into a young man, falling in love and taking classes at the prestigious Conservatoire de Paris, he can almost forget the terrors of his past, or the promise he has vowed to keep. But across Europe an evil is rising, and no-one’s safety is certain. In his heart, he knows the time will come where he must flee once more.

2008, the Aegean

The seven sisters are gathered together for the first time, on board the Titan to say a final goodbye to the enigmatic father they loved so dearly.To the surprise of everyone, it is the missing sister who Pa Salt has chosen to entrust with the clue to their pasts. But for every truth revealed, another question emerges. The sisters must confront the idea that their adored father was someone they barely knew. And even more shockingly: that these long-buried secrets may still have consequences for them today.

Atlas: The Story of Pa Salt I’m sure is on in numerable people’s lists of books they are looking forward to in 2023. It’s the final book in the Seven Sisters series by Lucinda Riley and following her passing, her son Harry Whittaker has written and completed the series. This has to be one of my all time favourite series and I can’t wait to see how everything ties together. In a video I watched recently Harry promised that readers will get all the answers to every single question and they won’t be disappointed. I hope that is the case although I know I will be disappointed as there will be nothing else left to read from the wonderful author that was Lucinda Riley. 

Strange Sally Diamond will be published on March 2nd.

Sally Diamond cannot understand why what she did was so strange. She was only doing what her father told her to do, to put him out with the rubbish when he died. 

Now Sally is the centre of attention, not only from the hungry media and police detectives, but also a sinister voice from a past she cannot remember. As she begins to discover the horrors of her childhood, Sally steps into the world for the first time, making new friends and big decisions, and learning that people don't always mean what they say. 

But who is the man observing Sally from the other side of the world? And why does her neighbour seem to be obsessed with her? Sally's trust issues are about to be severely challenged . . .

I have to confess that I have already read, Strange Sally Diamond, the long awaited new book from Liz Nugent. It was my last read of 2022 because I couldn’t leave it waiting for me on my Kindle and all I can say was it was phenomenal. A five star read all the way. It’s dark, gripping and full of twists and turns and Liz has outdone herself. It will be a huge success upon publication and I urge everyone to read it. 

Extract from Deception by Lesley Pearse

Today as part of the blog tour for Lesley Pearse's 30th novel Deception, it's my pleasure to share with you an extract from Chapter 1 but first a little about the book. 

What happens when the person closest to you has led a life of deception?

After the funeral of her mother, Sally, Alice Kent is approached by a man named Angus Tweedy. He claims to be her father and tells her that he served time in prison for marrying Sally bigamously.

What does he hope to gain by telling her this now, thirty years on?

How can her adored dad Ralph not be her true father?

And why did her mother betray her so badly?

She had accepted Sally's many faults, and her reluctance to ever speak of the past. But faced with this staggering deception, Alice knows she must uncover the whole truth about her mother.

Whatever the cost.

As Alice journeys into the past she discovers her mother may never have been the woman she claimed to be . . .

Spring 2015

Alice Kent turned up the volume on her car radio as Eric Clapton, playing her favourite number, ‘Layla’, came on.

She was speeding down from Bristol to her mother’s funeral in Totnes and she was late, delayed by wafflers at the meeting this morning. Now she’d have to go straight to the church in Dartington instead of meeting up with her family first. As that would give her enough time not to be late for the service, she relaxed a little and sang along with Eric.

Her mother, Sally Kent, had died of cancer ten days earlier. Alice had taken leave from work so she could nurse her mother for her last weeks and, sad as it was for her mother to die relatively young at seventy-five, Alice knew she was glad to go. 

Emma's Review: Deception by Lesley Pearse

Reviewed by Emma Crowley 

What happens when the person closest to you has led a life of deception?

After the funeral of her mother, Sally, Alice Kent is approached by a man named Angus Tweedy. He claims to be her father and tells her that he served time in prison for marrying Sally bigamously.

What does he hope to gain by telling her this now, thirty years on?
How can her adored dad Ralph not be her true father?
And why did her mother betray her so badly?

She had accepted Sally's many faults, and her reluctance to ever speak of the past. But faced with this staggering deception, Alice knows she must uncover the whole truth about her mother.

Whatever the cost.

As Alice journeys into the past she discovers her mother may never have been the woman she claimed to be . . .

Book Links: Kindle or Hardcover

Emma's Review: Suspects by Lesley Pearse

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Welcome to Willow Close, where everyone is a suspect . . .

Nina and Conrad best thought they'd discovered their dream home.

But on the day they move in, a body is found - the victim attacked and killed in the woods.

As police start to question the residents, they discover that they all have their own secrets.

Behind each door, strange and even dark things are happening . . .

Now everyone is a suspect. And no one is safe.

Book Links: Kindle or Hardcover  

Emma's Review: Liar by Lesley Pearse

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

In a Shepherd's Bush bedsit, Amelia White dreams of being a reporter. The closest she's come is selling advertising in the local paper.

Until the fateful day she stumbles on a truly shocking scoop.

Round the corner from her home, she discovers the body of a murder victim, dumped among the rubbish. When the police and reporters descend, Amelia is horrified at the assumptions made and lies soon to be spread about this poor young woman.

Determined to protect the victim from these smears and help her grieving family, she convinces her paper's editor to allow her to take up her pen and tell the true story.

But when another body is found and the police investigation stalls, Amelia - uncovering new witnesses and suspects in her search for clues - discovers that she may be the only one with any chance of learning the truth and stopping more killings.

If only she can work out who the liar is . . .

Amazon Affiliate Links: Kindle or Hardcover

Giveaway: Win a copy of You'll Never See Me Again by Lesley Pearse

Today it's your lucky day as I recently received a paperback copy of You'll Never See Me Again by Lesley Pearse which is published this Thursday but as Emma has already reviewed this book, you can read her review here and I'm not going to be in a position to read this one myself anytime soon, I have decided to run a bonus giveaway instead.

Betty is running for her life.

When Betty's husband returns from the war broken and haunted, she knows her marriage is doomed.

Taking a fleeting chance to escape, she goes on the run armed with a new identity. Yet penniless and alone, Betty quickly finds that starting again is much harder than she thought.

And she never imagined it could end in murder . . .

But sometimes you have to keep running if you want to survive.

Emma's Review: You'll Never See Me Again by Lesley Pearse

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

You have to keep running if you want to survive . . .

When her husband returns shell-shocked and broken from the Great War and his mother makes her life a misery, Betty Wellow discovers how bitter and hard life can truly be. But it is not until a devastating storm sweeps through their small fishing village and endangers her life, that she sees her chance to escape - and takes it.

Fleeing to Bristol, she changes her name to Mabel Brook and takes a position as a maid. But tragedy strikes once more after the sudden death of her mistress and she is cast back onto the streets.

Penniless and alone Mabel suffers a brutal attack before being rescued by a psychic named Nora Nightingale. There she gets her first taste of those who receive messages from the dead and realises she may have this gift herself.

But it isn't long before Mabel receives her own message and is forced back to the very place she has escaped. A place of heartbreak and perhaps even murder - but Mabel realises that to secure her future she must confront her past one last time.

Amazon Affiliate Links: Kindle or Hardcover

Emma's Review: The House Across the Street by Lesley Pearse

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Twenty-three year old Katy Speed is fascinated by the house across the street. The woman who lives there, Gloria, is the most glamorous neighbour on the avenue, owning a fashionable dress shop in Bexhill-on-Sea. But who is the woman who arrives in the black car most Saturdays while Gloria is at work? Sometimes she brings women to the house, other times they have children.

Hilda, Katy's mother, disapproves of Gloria. She wonders if these mysterious visitors have just been released from prison. Is Gloria secretly bringing criminals, or worse, into the heart of the community?

Then one night, the house burns down. In the wreckage, the bodies of Gloria and her daughter are found. Katy is sure the unexplained visitors must be responsible until her father is arrested and charged with murder. Have the police arrested the correct person? Are the rest of the street safe? Can Katy find the truth before it's too late?

Amazon Affiliate Links: Kindle or Paperback 

Emma's Review: The Woman in the Wood by Lesley Pearse

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Fifteen-year-old twins Maisy and Duncan Mitcham have always had each other. Until the fateful day in the wood . . .

One night in 1960, the twins awake to find their father pulling their screaming mother from the house. She is to be committed to an asylum. It is, so their father insists, for her own good.

It's not long before they, too, are removed from their London home and sent to Nightingales - a large house deep in the New Forest countryside - to be watched over by their cold-hearted grandmother, Mrs Mitcham. Though they feel abandoned and unloved, at least here they have something they never had before - freedom.

The twins are left to their own devices, to explore, find new friends and first romances. That is until the day that Duncan doesn't come back for dinner. Nor does he return the next day. Or the one after that.

When the bodies of other young boys are discovered in the surrounding area the police appear to give up hope of finding Duncan alive. With Mrs Mitcham showing little interest in her grandson's disappearance, it is up to Maisy to discover the truth. And she knows just where to start. The woman who lives alone in the wood about whom so many rumours abound. A woman named Grace Deville.

Amazon links: Kindle or Hardcover

Celebrating 25 in 25 with Lesley Pearse

Today it's my pleasure to be hosting the latest stop on the 25 in 25 blog tour celebrating bestselling author Lesley Pearse and her 25 novels.  Each day a fact will be shared about one of Lesley's previous books as well as promoting her 25th novel The Woman in the Wood which is out this Thursday.  Today it's about Lesley's 11th novel Till We Meet Again.

She kills two people in cold blood - why?

Susan walks into a busy doctor's surgery and guns down two members of staff. Then she calmly waits for the police.

Beth is the lawyer assigned to defend Susan. But her client is uncooperative until both women realise that twenty-nine years earlier, they were childhood friends.

As the evidence against Susan mounts up, both she and Beth begin to talk about the secrets and the traumas that sent them down such different paths in life. Their friendship grows stronger. 

But for one of them, there can be no happy ending . . .

Emma's Review: Dead to Me by Lesley Pearse

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Spring 1935. Two girls meet by chance on Hampstead Heath. To an outsider, they could not appear more different. Verity is well-mannered and smartly dressed, living with her parents in a beautiful house close to the heath. Ruby is dishevelled and grubby, used to a life of squalor where she is forced to steal to survive. Yet there's an instant affinity between them, and when their fortunes are shockingly reversed, it is the strength of their friendship that keeps them resilient to the challenges and hardships they face.

As Britain prepares for war, Ruby finds herself in Devon with the world at her feet and enjoying her first taste of romance. Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away, Verity is forced to leave behind everything she has ever known and a shadow from the past threatens her chances of a new beginning. But through it all, the girls are always there for each other. Until the day Verity does the one thing that will break Ruby's heart.

In a country torn apart by fighting, will Verity and Ruby survive long enough to find a way back to each other? Or do some betrayals go with you to the grave...?

Amazon links: Kindle or Hardcover

Guest Book Review: Lesley Pearse - Without a Trace

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Coronation Day, 1953.

In the Somerset village of Sawbridge, young shopkeeper Molly Heywood slips away from the celebrations to her friend's cottage and makes a shocking discovery: Cassie is dead and her six-year-old daughter Petal has vanished without a trace.

In her grief, Molly seeks help from her childhood friend George, now the village policeman, but no one can find Petal. The only clue is a letter from London, where Cassie once lived. Despite George's reluctance and her growing feelings for him, Molly resolves to go to London in the hope of discovering the missing child.

Arriving in the big city, Molly quickly learns it's a dangerous place for a country girl on her own. But there's hope too - in the Blitz-ruined East End, she unexpectedly finds friendship with strangers from Cassie's past and, with handsome, mysterious workman Charley, the possibility of something more.

However, the closer Molly gets to the truth, the more perilous her journey becomes. She has given up everything - her home, happiness and a chance at love - all to find Petal. But is she also risking her life? 

Amazon links: Kindle or Hardcover

Guest Book Review: Lesley Pearse - Survivor

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

It is 1938 and Mariette Carrera is a defiant, strong-willed and selfish seventeen-year-old. And sooner or later, if she stays in the small, gossipy town of Russell, New Zealand, she'll get herself into some serious trouble. Her doting parents, Belle and Etienne, fear for her reputation. So, with the world on the brink of war, Mari leaves home on the SS Rimutaka, bound for her aunt and uncle's house in London.

Armed with the freedom she's longed for since childhood, Mari quickly falls for Morgan, the handsome cockney steward on board ship. But once she reaches London, there are other temptations.

Mari loves her new life - caught up in a whirl of dances and parties in the glittering West End, relishing her freedom as she earns her own money as a typist. Finally, she feels she is mistress of her own future.

Until it is all snatched away by the war.

As London endures the Blitz, Mari's new life is cruelly blown apart. Forced from her loving new home, she ends up alone in the East End, and it's worlds away from the London she knows. But there, even in the face of so much despair, she finds the chance to make a difference. Amidst the destruction, Mari learns that the only way to survive this war is to fight, 
with all the strength, selflessness and compassion within her...and only then will she find true happiness.

Because Mari is a survivor...

Amazon links: Kindle or Hardback 

Books Read: Lesley Pearse - Forgive Me

Cheltenham, 1991

When Eva Patterson returns home from work one day, a devastating scene awaits her. Her mother, Flora, lies dead in the bath. Beside her is a note saying only: 'Forgive Me'.

Until then, Eva always believed her family's life would be comfortable and secure - but Flora's suicide changes everything. And when Eva discovers that in her will Flora left her an artist's studio in London, she realises how little she knows about her mother's past. 

When Eva visits the now derelict studio, she is shocked to find out that her mother was once a successful artist back in the 1960s. A chance encounter leads her to Phil, who agrees to help her restore the studio, as well as offering her the advice and friendship Eva so badly needs. 

In the studio attic she finds a collection of Flora's paintings and old diaries, which Eva believes were purposely left for her to find. Searching for answers, Eva encounters a psychic who mysteriously warns her to beware of a 'sleeping serpent', which she soon discovers refers to a shocking crime in Flora's past.

Will discovering the truth destroy Eva's belief in everything she holds dear? And will Phil stand by Eva even when her journey leads her and those she loves into certain danger?