Blogiversary Giveaway #11: Win a copy of The Island Escape by Kerry Fisher

This afternoon I have another fab giveaway prize for you which has been generously donated by Sophie at Reviewed the Book who has recently been celebrating her own 2nd blogiversary with some fantastic giveaways and who took part in the My Favourite Book is... feature earlier today.  Sophie has offered me a paperback copy of The Island Escape by Kerry Fisher for one lucky follower to win,

Octavia Shelton thought she’d have a different life. One where she travelled the world with an exotic husband and free-spirited children in tow.

Instead she’s married to safe, reliable Jonathan, and her life now consists of packed lunches, school runs and mountains of dirty washing. She’s not unhappy. It’s just that she can barely recognise herself.

So as Octavia watches her best friend’s marriage break up, it gets her thinking. What if life could be different? What if she could escape and rediscover the person she used to be? Escape back to the island she visited years ago? And what if the man she used to love was there waiting for her?

My Favourite Book is... by Sophie Hedley, Katie Marsh & Linda Hill

Sophie Hedley from Reviewed the Book

I haven’t been reading for more than a few years so I don’t have a childhood favourite or a book that turned me into a reader. But picking a favourite book was an easy choice for me and that book is The Judas Scar by Amanda Jennings. 

I’d loved lots of books before reading The Judas Scar of course but this is the one I’ve obsessed over the most and recommended the most. It was a step up from all the books I’d read before that were entertaining, compelling and well written. When you read lots of books, the stories don’t necessarily stay with you for that long but The Judas Scar has a story that I still regularly find myself thinking about now. I’m not sure I’ll ever forget it. 

The writing was brilliant and intelligent – Amanda has a great way of hooking you into a story until you’re at the stage you need to remember to take a breath. But what turned The Judas Scar into THAT book for me was how raw and personal the theme of the story was to Amanda and then realising just how much she had put into the book, where the inspiration had come from and how real the subject matter could be. 

It’s the only book that has moved me yet turned me into even more of an emotional mess when I read the Author’s Note afterwards.

Guest Book Review: Taylor Stevens - The Informationist

Reviewed by Sophie Hedley

Vanessa Munroe deals in information: covert information. With an extraordinary intellect and ruthless fighting skills, she will work for anyone - government or individual - who'll pay her.

Now a Texas oil billionaire has hired her to find his missing daughter. Where international investigators have failed, Munroe follows a trail deep into lawless central Africa.

And then things spin out of control.

Soon Munroe finds herself cut off from civilisation and left for dead. Her only hope of discovering the truth - and of getting out of Africa alive - is to face up to the violent past that she's fought so hard to forget.

Amazon links: Kindle or Paperback

Guest Book Review: Sue Monk Kidd - The Invention of Wings

Reviewed by Sophie Hedley

Sarah Grimké is the middle daughter. The one her mother calls difficult and her father calls remarkable. On Sarah's eleventh birthday, Hetty 'Handful' Grimké is taken from the slave quarters she shares with her mother, wrapped in lavender ribbons, and presented to Sarah as a gift. Sarah knows what she does next will unleash a world of trouble. She also knows that she cannot accept. And so, indeed, the trouble begins...

A powerful, sweeping novel, inspired by real events, and set in the American Deep South in the nineteenth century, THE INVENTION OF WINGS evokes a world of shocking contrasts, of beauty and ugliness, of righteous people living daily with cruelty they fail to recognise; and celebrates the power of friendship and sisterhood against all the odds.

Amazon links Kindle or Hardcover

Guest Book Review: Caroline Sandon - Burnt Norton

Reviewed by Sophie Hedley

1731: When his youngest son is killed in a tragic accident, Sir William Keyt, master of Norton House, buries himself in his fortune. He builds a second vast mansion on his grounds, squandering money he does not have on luxury his family does not want.

Keyt has long been blind to the desires of others. His eldest son has fallen in love with their young maidservant, Molly Johnson, a ray of light in a household dimmed by tragedy. Keyt wants Molly for himself and, driven mad with lust and jealousy, he will do anything to have her...

Amazon links: Kindle or Paperback