Giveaway: Win a #TeamOrenda bundle

If you're a regular follower of the blog you will know that I'm a huge supporter of Karen Sullivan and Orenda Books. Over the years I have had the privilege to read so many of the fabulous books that have been published and it's so exciting to see this independent publishing company grow from strength to strength, initially publishing just a select handful of books a year to now publishing multiple books each month. 

This month has been billed #JubiliantJune by the publisher with 5 books being published, 2 eBook first being published on 19th June, The Great Silence by Doug Johnstone and No Honour by Awais Khan, as well as 3 paperbacks, This is How We are Human by Louise Beech and Everything Happens for a Reason by Katie Allen on 10th June followed by One Last Time by Helga Flatland on 24th June. All links above are to the Orenda Books website where all the books are on offer in the sale. 

I'm currently reading One Last Time which I'll be reviewing next week and will also be reading Everything Happens for a Reason soon as reviewing for the blog tour towards the end of the month. I also subscribe to the monthly Orenda Books subscription box at Berts Books so have already had an email to let me know that I'll be getting This is How We are Human as this month's selection (I chose the 1 book option but there is also a 2 book option available). 

To join in the #JubiliantJune celebrations I have decided to run a couple of giveaways this month, the first of which is for this #TeamOrenda bundle. 

Blogiversary Giveaway #14: Your choice from Louise's top 4 this year

As regular followers of Sharon’s blog will know, she has kindly hosted many of my book reviews on her blog which has been a wonderful experience for me where I’ve managed to discover so many amazing books and their authors and also develop a friendship with Sharon which at times has been a life line to me on dark days. 

I know social media can be a scary and sometimes threatening place (luckily I have only been witness to this so far) but I am so thankful that discovering Sharon and her blog has meant that there has always been a friendly place on the internet where I can go and surround myself with good thoughts and books so thank you very much Sharon.  I’ve also been lucky enough to meet up with Sharon a few times in real life and our friendship is testament to the fact that you don’t have to see someone every day for them to be an important part of your world. 

Anyhoo in celebration of five years of the wonderful place that is Sharon’s blog I have rounded up the books this year that I have rated five stars and am offering one person the chance to win one book of their choice from my selections below. 

Good luck and has Tess and Claudia would say “Keeeeeeep reading!” 

Louise's Review: The Mountain in My Shoe by Louise Beech

Reviewed by Louise Wykes 

A missing boy. A missing book. A missing husband. A woman who must find them all to find herself.

On the night Bernadette finally has the courage to tell her domineering husband that she's leaving, he doesn't come home. Neither does Conor, the little boy she's befriended for the past five years. Also missing is his lifebook, the only thing that holds the answers. With the help of Conor's foster mum, Bernadette must face her own past, her husband's secrets and a future she never dared imagine in order to find them all.

Amazon Links: Kindle or Paperback

My Favourite Book is... from Joanne, Kim Nash & Louise Beech

Joanne from Portobello Book Blog

It’s always hard to pick a favourite book when you’re an avid reader but one that has made a big impression on me is Birdsong by Sabastian Faulks. It’s not a perfect book – I don’t particularly like the contemporary ending – but there is so much in it which spoke to me. I have since watched the TV adaptation which, much though I like Eddie Redmayne, I felt did not capture the passion between Stephen and Isobel. I saw a stage adaptation earlier this year which I thought was excellent. But it is the book which stays with me. I think I just read it at the right time. 

When I read it, I had been doing a lot of family history research including into relatives who had fought and died in WW1. As much of the book is set in northern France where I had holidayed and where I knew my ancestors had fought, I had a sense of familiarity with the settings. The way the horrors of the war were so vividly described made me feel I had a better understanding of what my ancestors and so many others had gone through. As the attraction between Stephen and Isobel grows in the first section of the book, Sebastian Faulks creates tension as the anticipation builds. When they eventually get together, it is beautifully and sensuously told. Stephen’s feelings throughout the book are movingly portrayed and I felt I could really understand the emotions he experienced.

There is a quote in the book which moved me a lot, so much that I noted down at the time. To me, it must sum up what so many of the men and women who fought in the war must have felt.

“When it is over, we will go quietly among the living and we will not tell them. We will talk and sleep and go about our business like human beings. We will seal what we have seen in the silence of our hearts and no words will reach us.”

A poetic and poignant novel, a modern classic which I love.

Kim Nash, Publicity Manager at Bookouture and reviewer at Kim the Bookworm

A book that changed my life and is therefore my favourite was A Spring Affair by Milly Johnson.  While reading it, around 5 years ago, I spent most of the book saying “OMG that’s me!”.  The main character really resonated with me.  She read an article about clutter and started to clear out her house, but then realised that it was her life she was unhappy with and not her house and she started to make some massive changes.   I too realised through reading this book, that at the time I was so similar to the main character and was desperately unhappy in a life where I did everything to please others and did nothing for me.

Louise's Guest Review: Louise Beech - How to Be Brave

Reviewed by Louise Wykes

This is a novel about how stories bring magic to our lives. 

Natalie and Rose are transported to the Atlantic Ocean in 1943, to a lifeboat where an ancestor survived for fifty days. Natalie struggles when nine-year-old daughter Rose is diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes and refuses her life-saving injections and blood tests. When they begin dreaming about and seeing a man in a brown suit who feels hauntingly familiar they realise he has something for them - his diary. 

Only by using her imagination, newspaper clippings, letters and this diary will Natalie share the true story of Grandad Colin's survival at sea, and help her daughter cope with her illness and, indeed, survive. 

Amazon links: Kindle or Paperback

Debut Spotlight: Louise Beech

Today it's my pleasure to introduce to you writer Louise Beech whose debut novel How to Be Brave was published as a paperback last week, eBook earlier in the year.

Louise Beech has always been haunted by the sea, and regularly writes travel pieces for the Hull Daily Mail, where she was a columnist for ten years. Her short fiction has won the Glass Woman Prize, the Eric Hoffer Award for Prose, and the Aesthetica Creative Works competition, as well as shortlisting for the Bridport Prize twice and being published in a variety of UK magazines. Louise lives with her husband and children on the outskirts of Hull – the UK’s 2017 City of Culture – and loves her job as a Front of House Usher at Hull Truck Theatre, where her first play was performed in 2012. She is also part of the Mums’ Army on Lizzie and Carl’s BBC Radio Humberside Breakfast Show. This is her first book, based on her experience with her own daughter’s diagnosis and the true story of her grandfather, Colin. She has beautiful photos to support!

Your novel How To Be Brave is based on a true story – or at least, a series of true stories. Can you tell us a bit more about that?
When my ten-year-old daughter Katy, who has Type 1 Diabetes, began rejecting her life-saving insulin injections it was a horrendous time for all of us.  I had no idea what to do.  Then I began telling her stories in exchange for her having an injection.  When we ran out of tales, I told her the true story of my grandfather, a merchant seaman called Colin Armitage, who was lost at sea for fifty days during the war.  His bravery inspired Katy’s and she has never rejected her regime since.  In the novel I created a fictional mum and daughter, but I tried to stick to the truth when telling Colin’s amazing story.

Was it difficult to use personal experiences, or did it make the writing easier?
It was incredibly emotional.  I faced many tears that I hadn’t realised I’d kept bottled up since Katy was diagnosed with her condition.  It made the writing therefore both easier (since the material was so close to my heart) and harder (for the same reason.)