Emma's Review: The Birthday Weekend by Zoe Miller

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

It was a celebration to die for . . .

What happened on holiday was supposed to stay on holiday - but that was before a body was found . . .

Socialite Lucinda Oliver planned a lavish celebration for her fortieth birthday - a weekend escape at an Irish coastal town with her sister Stella and her closest friends. The weekend was to end with a blow-out party and a special announcement, one Lucinda had been dropping hints about for weeks.

But before Lucinda could reveal her secret, she went missing. And now, six months later, her car has been found submerged in the Atlantic Ocean.

Devastated, Stella decides to gather Lucinda's friends once more, in that same coastal town - the first time they've all been together since her disappearance. But soon she starts to suspect that one of the group knows the truth about Lucinda's accident.

Which one of them is lying? Stella vows to find out, discovering that what happened to her sister links back to another birthday celebration, ten years ago...

Book Links: Kindle or Paperback

Emma's Review: The House in the Woods by Zoe Miller

Reviewed by Emma Crowley 

When actress Evie Lawrence is injured in a shocking hit-and-run accident, she wants nothing more than to retreat to her woodland home in Wicklow to recover. But when she's forced to admit that she needs help, she reluctantly opens up her solitary life to allow her grand-niece Amber, practically a stranger, to move into Heronbrook to take care of her.

Evie, who has been estranged from her sister's family for many years, vows to keep Amber at a distance so her secrets - and the truth of what happened at Heronbrook years ago - stay buried.

Amber is initially preoccupied with the recent implosion of both her career and her love life, the details of which she's keeping to herself, but soon becomes very curious about the rift in her family. And when unsettling incidents begin to make Evie's secluded home feel less peaceful and more dangerously isolated, Amber starts to suspect that what happened to Evie wasn't an accident at all - and the person responsible still has Evie in their sights. But can Amber persuade Evie to confront the past and get to the truth before it's too late?

Book Links: Kindle or Paperback

Emma's Review: The Visitor by Zoe Miller

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

Is he who he says he is?

Izzie Mallon is looking forward to celebrating Christmas on a relaxing yoga retreat. At least, that is what she's telling her mother and colleagues. In reality, she will be shutting herself away from the festive season, and the snowstorm that has brought the city to a standstill, in her apartment on Henrietta Square -- the beautiful home she shared with her beloved husband Sam until his tragic death a few months ago -- with only her grief for company.

Then, there's a knock at the door -- a stranger, stranded by the bad weather.

He tells Izzie that he's Eli Sanders, her husband's long-time friend. Izzie has never met him in person, but feels she owes it to Sam to welcome Eli into her home. Even though her instincts say that she should do otherwise...

As Izzie tries to reminisce with Eli about her husband, cracks in his story begin to show. But will she be able to see clearly through her grief before it's too late?

Amazon Affiliate Links: Kindle or Paperback

The Write Stuff with... Zoe Miller

Today it's my pleasure to welcome Zoe Miller back to the blog and to kick off her A House Full of Secrets blog tour.

I’d like to say a big thank you to Sharon for hosting me on her wonderful book blog. It’s a pleasure to be featured here. Today is the first post on the blog tour and it’s about divided families, one of the central themes in A House Full of Secrets. I hope you enjoy, Zoë x

Families: they can be united by a shared history, or divided by secrets, eccentricities, or skeletons buried deep in the closet. At the heart of A House Full of Secrets is a divided family at odds with each other.

The Blake family, Alex, Lainey and Niall, grew up in the remote and beautiful county Mayo, an unspoilt landscape rimmed with blue grey mountains, and abundant with gorse covered hills, deep, silent forests and glinting rivers. They enjoyed a happy childhood where they ran free in those forests and mountains, coloured by escapades such as midnight feasts, treasure hunts, swims in a crystal clear lough, and trips to Infinity Hill where they could see for miles and paddle in mountain streams that carried the imprint of their feet down to the sea and across the ocean to America.

What could be more perfect?

Guest Post: Writing the Book by Zoe Miller

Over the years I have become a fan of Zoe Miller's writing having read most of her books, still have a couple in my toppling TBR piles to read.  I've also had the pleasure of welcoming Zoe to the blog for a couple of Q&A's in the past so when I was approached by Joanna at Hachette Books Ireland about being a host for Zoe's blog tour for the paperback of hew new book Someone New, which Emma reviewed here earlier in the year, I didn't hestiate to say yes.

I’d like to say a big thank you to Sharon for hosting Day 2 of the Someone New blog tour. I’m delighted to be featured as a guest post on the book blog, and today it’s all about Writing the Book.

Starting out to write a book can be exhilarating, exciting and terrifying in equal measure. It is the beginning of a new adventure that will last almost a year. That’s roughly how long it takes to fill 300 pages with 100k words.  Any story at all is possible depending on the arrangement of those words and the grouping of sentences you make on the page. 

I’m not usually one of those authors who find ideas for the next book pouring in when they’re three quarters of the way through their current work in progress. I have to wait until a script is well and truly consigned to my editor and I have some head space before I can start to think of a new story. Someone New started life in the most innocuous way possible – a few doodles of names, circles, and shapes in different coloured felt pens scrawled across the pages of a bumper-sized blank A4 pad. This is the fun part, you’re only starting out, you could be writing any kind of book, because everything is possible before you commit your ideas and characters and get to the 30K- 40k word watershed. By then the story is taking on a distinctive shape and life of its own. 

Emma's Review: Someone New by Zoe Miller

Reviewed by Emma Crowley

In her heart, Grace knows the perfect, reliable, good-looking Gavin isn't right for her. Then she meets Danny. Unpredictable and spontaneous, he turns her world upside down. All of a sudden, Grace is seeing life differently and doing things she never thought she'd do.

But tragedy strikes when Danny dies in a motorbike accident, shattering Grace's world. As she struggles to come to terms with her loss, she becomes more and more convinced that she's being followed - sighting a motorbike exactly like Danny's everywhere she goes. And she starts to wonder if Danny's death was really an accident.

When she finally voices her suspicions to her family and the police, though, no one seems willing to believe her.

Meanwhile Grace feels ever more under threat as sinister things begin happening to her. What was Danny hiding from her? And what kind of danger is she in now?

Amazon links: Kindle or Trade PB

Guest Post: Ideas and Inspirations behind A Question of Betrayal by Zoe Miller

Today it's my pleasure to welcome Zoe Miller back to the blog to kick off the blog tour for her latest book A Question of Betrayal which was published last Thursday.

I’ve stopped panicking when I hear some writers announce that ideas for the next book stream into their head while they’re halfway through writing their current book. I know by now that I need to have a book all wrapped up and consigned to the care of my editor before I can start thinking about the next. Besides, I’m usually so drained after typing ‘The End’ that I need time to recharge the writing batteries. I’ve come to trust in the process and know that happily enough, I’m never waiting too long for new ideas to arrive or characters to appear - they usually spill into that space between sending off a script and waiting to hear word back from the editor.

And so it was that on a holiday in the Algarve, shortly after sending in book six, I was relaxing on a sun lounger reading a newspaper article when I felt the familiar tingle that many writers will identify with - the tingle that announces the flicker of an idea for a story. It’s something that flutters through your veins, images that flit through your head, and with that comes a kind of recognition, as though you already know that you will be spending a lot of time with this germ of idea in the coming months, teasing it out and unravelling what it really means.

Countdown to Christmas Day 4: Festive Fun Q&A with Zoe Miller plus giveaway

Today's it's the turn of Irish author Zoe Miller to take part in my Countdown to Christmas feature by doing the festive fun Q&A so here's what Zoe had to say...

What’s your earliest or favourite Christmas memory?
My earliest and favourite memories are of my lovely dad calling me and my younger siblings to look out the kitchen window on Christmas Eve, just in time to see Santa’s sleigh shooting through the dark night skies. Sometimes we thought we actually saw it, and we even heard the tinkling sleigh bells. A lifetime later, I still look out the kitchen window on Christmas Eve and smile…

What are you looking forward to most this Christmas?
The warm glow of the family being together on the day, sitting around the candlelit table, relaxing after the dinner.

Author Interview & Giveaway: Zoe Miller

Today I'm delighted to welcome Zoë Miller, one of the authors I'd featured in my Irish Fiction feature month last month, to the blog for a bit of a chat.  As well as agreeing to the interview Zoë has also offered one lucky reader the chance to win a signed copy of her latest book, The Compromise. 

Can you tell us a little bit about The Compromise?
The Compromise spans forty years, from the early 1970’s to present day. It’s about a group of friends and the secrets and lies, intrigue and passions that have shaped their lives, until a crisis helps them to realise what’s the most important of all. It starts off in the present day, when Juliet, one of the main protagonists, finds herself trapped at the bottom of a cliff, clinging to life, and scenes from her past flash in front of her as she tries to work out if she fell or was pushed…
 
Which came first, the characters or the plot?
The characters came first, I had the idea of three friends who were teenagers back in the early 70’s when things were so much different for women in Ireland. Quite by chance, and during a colourful moment in Irish history, rebellious Juliet met shy, reserved Rose and her sister, the loyal and loveable Rebecca. After that fateful encounter, their lives spun in an unforeseen direction and for each of them, there were plenty of unexpected twists and turns along the path!

Irish Fiction Month Sneak Peeks: Zoe Miller - The Compromise & A Family Scandal

I've had lots of fun looking for books by Irish authors to promote during this feature month but one that particularly caught my eye was Zoe Miller’s next book, The Compromise, which is due out next month.

Wealthy privileged Juliet Jordan lies trapped on a ledge at the bottom of a cliff, not knowing if she fell or was pushed.

What enemy would go so far to get her out of the way? Or what friend ...

Juliet was about to go head to head with Matthew Moore in the country's latest Presidential Election contest. Matthew and Juliet have often clashed but now she stands squarely in the way of his power-hungry ambition.

Matthew's wife, the wealthy but insecure Rose, has her own reasons for not wanting Juliet to contest the battle and her sister Rebecca, Juliet's best friend, grows increasingly alarmed that the ruthless campaign could destroy all their lives. 

When Juliet is found, no one escapes the emotional fall out, not even the beautiful Danielle, Rebecca's daughter, who has fled Dublin after the fraught break-up of her engagement. 

Books Read: Zoe Miller - Rival Passions

Source - Received from publisher to review

Brother and sister Jack and Serena Devlin are the owners of Tamarisk Manor, a chic, luxury hotel, ranked as the ultimate Irish retreat for socialites and celebrities.

But behind the indulgent facade, the privileged Devlin family is in turmoil ... 

Serena's commitment to the hotel is taking a toll on her once-perfect marriage.  She finds it easier to run a multi-million euro business than to be the kind of wife that her husband expects, or the mother that her daughter deseves.

Jack, struggling to come to terms with the shocking death of his wife, takes refuge in La Mimosa, their sister hotel in France. Until a chance encounter forces him to re-evaluate his whole existence ...

Will Serena sacrifice her marriage for the sake of success?  And will Jack give up his birthright for the sake of love?