Preacher Boy by Gwyn GB - Blog Tour Review

 

Today Life Of A Nerdish Mum I'm taking part in the blog tour for Preacher Boy by Gwyn GB. A big thank you to the author, publisher and Anne Cater of Random Things Tours. 

Preacher Boy 

Dr Harrison Lane is everything you wouldn’t expect from a man with a psychology doctorate. For victims, he’s everything they need.

As Head of the Metropolitan Police’s Ritualistic Behavioural Crime Unit, Dr Harrison Lane knows his Voodoo from his Aum Shinrikyo and a Satanist from a Shaman.

Harrison had an unusual childhood, raised by a bohemian mother and one of the native American Shadow Wolves - the elite tracking squad that works with US Drug enforcers. After his mother’s murder, he dedicated his life to finding those who hide behind spiritualism and religion to do evil. 

Following the discovery of a missing boy’s body in what looks like a Satanic killing, Harrison is called in to help detectives. When a second boy is snatched, it becomes a race against time to save him, and sees Harrison come face-to-face with some dark secrets from his own childhood.

My Review 

Preacher Boy is the first in a new series by Gwyn GB and it's the first book I've read by the author, but it won't be the last. 

The story is fast paced from the start and pulls you right in. I found it hard to put down at times to do adulting when I wanted to know what would happen next. 

The writing is excellent and I really enjoyed Dr Harrison Lane, though I would have liked to get to know him a bit more. There are two more books due out, so I'm sure gaps will be filled in as the series progresses. It certainly makes me want to read the next book to get more information. 

Though kidnapping is a sensitive subject, especially one involving children, the author desks with it in as respectfully as possible. 

Overall a really good read and I look forward to the rest of the series. 

I gave this book 4 stars 

About The Author

Gwyn is an Amazon Top 20 bestselling author. She’s a former UK national TV newscaster and presenter, and journalist for national newspapers and magazines. Gwyn became a journalist because all she wanted to do was write and has finally realised her dream of being a full-time fiction author. Born in the UK, Gwyn now lives in the Channel Islands with her family, including a rescue dog and 17-year-old goldfish.

Gwyn launched her debut novel, Islands as Gwyn Garfield-Bennett in 2016, the romantic suspense book rose quickly into the Amazon top 20. Her first crime mystery series, featuring DI Falle, launched with Lonely Hearts in 2017.

You can find out more about Gwyn at www.gwyngb.com

Or on social media:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GwynGBwriter

Twitter: https://twitter.com/GwynGB

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gwyngb/

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In Other Words: Eight Stories, Eight Unheard Voices - Blog Tour Review

 

Today on Life Of A Nerdish Mum, I'm sharing my review of a very special book - In Other Words. A big thank you to the authors, publisher and Anne Cater of Random Things Tours. 

In Other Words 

A shift in the nature of light reveals an eighth colour in the visible spectrum. A boy befriends the last tree in the natural world. A single mother finds help at the darkest point of her life. A young man finds himself trapped in a university overrun by crows.

These stories and more form In Other Words, an anthology as diverse as the writers themselves. Some cover trauma, societal issues and stigma; others offer fragments of hope and light. Some reach back in time while others transport us to another dimension altogether. There is heartbreak, wit, humour, poignancy and above all a mastery of the imagination.

What these transcendent stories share is that they were created by autistic writers, people often dismissed as unimaginative or incapable of creativity a myth that has persisted for generations. This collection hopes to shatter those stereotypes, those misconceptions and misunderstandings, and the perception that one must be neurotypical to be afforded a voice in the arts.

My Review

What a wonderful and perfect anthology of short stories! Not one story was less than another and each was extremely enjoyable in a different way. 

I laughed, cried and wondered throughout and feel I went through a whole gamut of emotions in between. I've been trying to decide if I had a favourite story, but genuinely I think it'd be unfair to make me choose and as it's my review I decided to say they're all my favourite, just for different reasons. 

The level of writing skill in each story is amazing and some beautiful prose is used. What Mainspring Arts have done to be able for this work to be shared is commendable as we might have missed out on some amazing new authors. 

I absolutely loved reading In Other Words and I will be getting myself a hard copy to keep in my collection. 

100% 5 stars for this anthology. 

About Mainspring Arts

Mainspring Arts, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to making the arts

inclusive, diverse, and accessible to all, was founded in 2015 by Katya Balen and

Miranda Prag. They were frustrated by the lack of diversity in the arts, where

neurotypical and non-disabled actors or writers frequently assume the roles or

voices of neurodivergent people, or those with disabilities. Katya and Miranda

believe those people should be able to tell their own stories, and Mainspring

Arts exists to help them do it. @mainspring_arts

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Finding Freedom In The Lost Kitchen by Erin French -Blog Tour Review

 

Today on Life Of A Nerdish Mum I'm proud to be part of the blog tour for Finding Freedom In The Lost Kitchen by Erin French. A big thank you to the author, publisher and Anne Cater of Random Things Tours. 

Finding Freedom In The Lost Kitchen

Erin French grew up barefoot on a 25-acre farm in Maine, fell in love with food as a teenager working the line at her dad's diner and found her calling as a professional chef at her tiny restaurant The Lost Kitchen, tucked into a 19th century mill--now a world-renowned dining destination.

In Finding Freedom in the Lost Kitchen, Erin tells her story of multiple rock-bottoms, from medical student to pregnant teen, of survival as a jobless single mother, of pills that promised release but delivered addiction, of a man who seemed to offer salvation but ripped away her very sense of self. And of her son who became her guiding light as she slowly rebuilt her personal and culinary life around the solace she found in food--as a source of comfort, a sense of place, as a way of creating community and making something of herself, despite seemingly impossible odds.

Set against the backdrop of rural Maine and its lushly intense, bountiful seasons, Erin French's rollercoaster memoir reveals struggles that have taken every ounce of her strength to overcome, and the passion and courage behind the fairytale success of The Lost Kitchen

My Review

What an inspiring and emotional read. Finding Freedom In The Lost Kitchen, allows you to follow Erin French on her journey from developing her love of food and cooking to the darkest times of Erin's life, to finding herself again. 

The writing is beautiful and flows so naturally, you don't realise how much you've read as it's been so easy to read. If Erin ever decided to become an author of fiction I'm sure she'd be amazing. The way she described experiences and places, really made me feel like I was there and participating. I was really involved in her life. 

There are bits throughout which are hard reading due to the subject matter. Reading about addiction and what it can do to you, especially when you're so involved with the person and are rooting for them so much. Knowing the outcome definitely helped getting through those parts. I feel privileged that Erin decided to share her life with us. 

An absolutely amazing read and one that will stay with me. 

5 stars. 

About The Author

Erin French is the owner and chef of The Lost Kitchen, a 40-seat restaurant in

Freedom, Maine, that was recently named one of the World’s Greatest Places by TIME

Magazine. Booking is by postcard ballot on the first day of spring with over 20,000

postcards received last season. Erin French has written for The New York Times,

Martha Stewart Living and The Wall Street Journal. Her first book, The Lost Kitchen

Cookbook, was nominated for a James Beard Foundation Award and named one of the

best 2017 cookbooks by The Washington Post and Vogue. Erin French will host The

Lost Kitchen TV show on Joanna and Chip Gaines’ new television network, the

Magnolia Network, launching in March 2021.

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She Never Told Me About The Ocean by Elisabeth Sharp McKetta - Blog Tour Review

 

Today on Life Of A Nerdish Mum I am happy to be taking part in the blog tour for She Never Told Me About The Ocean by Elisabeth Sharp McKetta. A big thank you as always to the publisher and Anne Cater of Random Things Tours. 

She Never Told Me About The Ocean

Told by four women whose stories nest together, She Never Told Me About the Ocean is an  epic about a rite of passage that all humans undergo and none remember: birth. 

Eighteen-year-old Sage has been mothering her mother for as long as she can remember, and  as she arrives on the shores of adulthood, she learns a secret: before she was born, she had an  older brother who drowned. In her search to discover who he was and why nobody told her,  Sage moves to tiny Dragon Island where her mother grew up. There, she embarks on a quest to  learn the superstitions of the island, especially its myths involving her mother. Gathering  stories from Ilya, a legendary midwife who hires Sage as her apprentice; Marella, Sage’s  grieving mother who was named for the ocean yet has always been afraid of it; and Charon, the  Underworld ferrywoman who delivers souls to the land of the dead, Sage learns to stop  rescuing her mother and simply let go. But when her skill as Ilya’s apprentice enables her to  rescue her mother one final time, in a way that means life or death, Sage must shed her  inherited fears and become her own woman.

My Review

This is the first book I have read by Elisabeth Sharp McKetta and it definitely won't be the last! I'm going to have to find all her back catalogue to work through I enjoyed She Never Told Me About The Ocean so much. 

She Never Told Me About The Ocean is such a beautifully written book and the language is poetic and pulls you into a world of folklore and myths. I absolutely love learning about both of these things so this really spoke to me and I was fascinated. 

The characters are extremely real and the story is very character driven. I always love reading multiple POV books as you get an insight into more characters than just the main character. 

Overall a very compelling read and one I have recommended to friends. 

I gave this book 5 stars. 

About The Author

Elisabeth Sharp McKetta grew up in Austin, Texas. She holds literature degrees from Harvard, Georgetown, and the University of Texas at Austin and teaches writing for the Harvard Extension School and the Oxford University Department for Continuing Education. She is the author of eight books: We Live in Boise, Energy: The Life of John J. McKetta Jr., Fear of the Deep, Fear of the Beast, Poetry for Strangers Vols. I and II, The Creative Year: 52 Workshops for Writers, and The Fairy Tales Mammals Tell. She Never Told Me About the Ocean is her first novel. 

 elisabethsharpmcketta.com

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