#TheHome - Sarah Stovell - Blog Tour and Review @OrendaBooks

The Home - Sarah Stovell - Blog Tour and Review 

I am delighted to be part of the Blog Tour for the latest psychological chiller by Sarah Stovell.

I loved this twisty psychological masterpiece brimming with terrible secrets and desperate lies.

My Review

The Home is a compelling story of 3 teenage girls, Hope, Annie and Lara, living in a care home for deeply traumatized youngsters from difficult backgrounds, in the Lake District. They are the forgotten girls, the unwanted girls, the tragic product of families broken beyond repair.

We learn right at the beginning of the storytelling that one of them is dead. Pregnant and Dead - a tragic shame. 

In a series of flashbacks, and sometimes in the dead girls own voice, heard from beyond the grave as if there is something or someone she just can't let go, we learn the terrible tragedies which have befallen them. 

The main two characters the story focusses on are Hope and Annie, they are in an intense and passionate relationship with one another. As all 3 girls stories and tragic backgrounds unfold, it becomes apparent that none is a reliable narrator, and even their well-documented backgrounds of abuse and terror are rather subjective. 

There are some pretty graphic scenes of child abuse and trauma, yet despite the girls obvious fragility and unreliability I grew to like them, they are survivors. But mystery surrounds the murder or possibly suicide and only one girl can reveal exactly what happened in the youngsters tragic final moments, but she’s not telling.

It’s hardly surprising, given their abusive and violent backgrounds that each girl has secrets she wants to keep hidden but maybe one of them is covering up even more than you could possibly imagine.

It is an utterly gripping book, told with style and panache and with the brooding fells of the Lake District as a backdrop it captivated me entirely.

Following the authors remarkable debut – Exquisite which also focuses on flawed relationships and unreliable narrators, this is a slick and tension filled drama/ mystery with a creeping sense of menace and dread throughout and a superb twist in the tail, which I love in a psychological thriller.

I received my review copy of #TheHome by @sarahlovescrime through #Randomthingstours @OrendaBooks 

Want to buy your own copy? try here

The Blurb

When the body of pregnant, fifteen-year-old Hope Lacey

is discovered in a churchyard on Christmas morning, the

community is shocked, but unsurprised. For Hope lived in The

Home, the residence of three young girls, whose violent and

disturbing pasts have seen them cloistered away.

As a police investigation gets underway, the lives of Hope, Lara

and Annie are examined, and the staff who work at the home

are interviewed, leading to shocking and distressing revelations

… and clear evidence that someone is seeking revenge.

A dark and devastating psychological thriller, The Home is also

a heartbreaking and insightful portrayal of the underbelly

of society, where children learn what they live … if they are

allowed to live at all.

The Author

Sarah Stovell

Sarah Stovell was born in 1977 and spent most of her life in the Home

Counties before a season working in a remote North Yorkshire youth

hostel made her realise she was a northerner at heart. She now lives in

Northumberland with her partner and two children and is a lecturer in

Creative Writing at Lincoln University. Her debut psychological thriller,

Exquisite, was called ‘the book of the summer’ by Sunday Times.

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Call Me Star Girl by Louise Beech - Blog tour and Review

Call Me Star Girl Louise Beech

This week sees the launch of a new title by Louise Beech whose previous books have been fab and this one is too.

I'm delighted to be part of the blog tour for this super thriller and my review follows.

My Review:

Call me Star Girl is a slightly new direction for Author Louise Beech whose wonderful books are full of heart and emotional punch. Star Girl is not lacking in these elements but it is much more of a psychological who-dunnit thriller.

Stella McKeever is the Star Girl of the title, even her name Stella means star and stars have played a big part in her life, from the star emblazoned vintage perfume bottle she has carried around all her life as a memento of her Mother who left 12 years ago when Stella was a child, to her job as a radio presenter and it's even her nickname used by her boyfriend Tom.

Most of the book takes place one evening at the radio station where Stella works. She is presenting her very last programme as she prepares to leave her job. She presents the late night show where regular listeners often phone in whilst she plays music and talks about different subjects and between songs her thoughts stray to the past and as she reminisces we get to know her character and her life, a past which has made her mistrustful of people and fearful of being dumped again, the little details of her home life. 

The claustrophobic feeling of being alone in a silent workplace whilst the stars twinkle outside in the inky night sky which cocoons the place in darkness feels oppressive and made me nervously peer behind me if I heard a noise, it’s tense and yet quite comfortable as it is so familiar to Stella.

One subject has loomed very largely around the radio station recently – the recent murder of a young woman whose blood-soaked body was discovered in an alley very close to the Radio Station building.

As Stella entreats her listeners to caller her by phoning in and sharing their deepest secrets, it becomes apparent that she has plenty of secrets of her own. From the deepest hurt, she carries from being abandoned by her Mother, to the naughty and sometimes disturbing sex games she plays along with her partner Tom, her desperation to keep the man she adores from growing bored with her. 

Tonight she is hoping that the caller who has been ringing and telling her he knows who killed the girl in the alley will call again and divulge what he actually knows. Will he reveal the killer or is he a liar who really doesn’t know what happened?

As the layers of deceit and secrets are peeled away I began to mistrust almost everyone in the book, someone is hiding something, but who can be fully trusted and who is hiding far more than they are letting on?

Secrets …. Stellas Mother Elizabeth who has recently, suddenly reappeared in her life, obviously has plenty of secrets. Stella has yet to really discover why she left and what kept her away for so long. 

Her own father is part of a murky mystery, about to be disclosed in snippets.

Boyfriend Tom seems to have plenty to hide, is he the Mr Right Stella has waited so long for?

Fellow radio presenters Maeve and newsreader Stephen play a part in the unfolding mystery, there is taxi driver Bob and of course there is the mystery caller, could he be a threat to Stella, does he wish her harm and is she herself at risk, alone in a dark building with a still unrevealed murderer not yet caught.


The whole book is absorbing and intriguing, the characters are superbly written and the mystery is twisty and complex. I had to gallop through it as I needed to know just what the heck was going on and what I was heading towards. An enthralling story told with utter panache made this the perfect holiday read for me, with characters who remain on the periphery of my memory, taunting me with the secrets I didn’t guess ‘til the end.

My thanks go to Orendabooks for inviting me on the Blog Tour.

The Blurb

Tonight is the night for secrets…

Pregnant Victoria Valbon was brutally murdered in an alley three weeks ago – and her killer hasn’t been caught.

Tonight is Stella McKeever’s final radio show. The theme is secrets. You tell her yours, and she’ll share some of hers.

Stella might tell you about Tom, a boyfriend who likes to play games, about the mother who abandoned her, now back after twelve years. She might tell you about the perfume bottle with the star-shaped stopper, or about her father …

What Stella really wants to know is more about the mysterious man calling the station … who says he knows who killed Victoria, and has proof.

Tonight is the night for secrets, and Stella wants to know everything…


With echoes of the chilling Play Misty for Me, Call Me Star Girl is a taut, emotive and all-consuming psychological thriller that plays on our deepest fears, providing a stark reminder that stirring up dark secrets from the past can be deadly…

The Author

Louise Beech is an exceptional literary talent, whose debut novel How To

Be Brave was a Guardian Readers’ Choice for 2015. The follow-up, The

Mountain in My Shoe was shortlisted for Not the Booker Prize. Both of her

previous books Maria in the Moon and The Lion Tamer Who Lost were

widely reviewed, critically acclaimed and number-one bestsellers on

Kindle. The Lion Tamer Who Lost was shortlisted for the RNA Most

Popular Romantic Novel Award in 2019. 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. Louise lives with her husband on the outskirts of Hull, and loves her

job as a Front of House Usher at Hull Truck Theatre, where her first play

was performed in 2012.

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The Conviction of Cora Burns - Carolyn Kirby - Blog Tour and Review

The Conviction of Cora Burns - Carolyn Kirby - Blog Tour and my Review.

Hello readers, have I a treat in store for historical fiction and mystery enthusiasts. I'm chuffed to be part of the Blog Tour for the brand new novel by Carolyn Kirby, The Conviction of Cora Burns, which I hope you'll enjoy as much as I have.

Review:

No Exit Press has dished up an absolute corker of a book with the Conviction of Cora Burns. It drew me in right from the beginning and was as unputdownable as any reader could hope to find. A mix of history, mystery, psychological twists, and emotion there is something in Cora's story for everyone.

Cora herself is an extremely complex and unpredictable character, yet I grew to like her and be rooting for her despite the knowledge almost from the start, that she was involved in a heinous and inexplicable crime one could not possibly condone.

She has already led a pretty grim life, abandoned at birth by her convict mother, brought up in a series of institutions, from workhouse, to prison, to asylum she has never known any affection or love, apart from a childhood friend whom she regarded as a sister, with whom she has lost touch and longs to be re-united with. In fact, this mission becomes her obsession and her search for the missing girl is what drives cora.

Poor Cora, she has a lot of anger and bewilderment in her, but as her story begins to unfold within these pages, she is setting out alone, in Birmingham, with few belongings just a half medallion engraved with a few enigmatic letters tucked inside her bodice which she is sure holds the key to her own past. Hoping to build a new future for herself, she suddenly finds herself alone, needing work and a roof over her head and everything in the outside world into which she is released is unfamiliar and confusing.

It is 1885 and a woman has few rights and very little chance of earning a decent living even if she is of good character. But Cora, eventually manages to secure a domestic service position in the rather strange household of a strange and troubled scientist. Thomas Jerwood is conducting a series of experiments on whether criminal traits and insanity are inherited or can be learnt. In his household where Cora gets a somewhat dubious job as a tweeny, a maid of all work, she struggles to fit in with the other servants. She discovers he has a mad wife locked away in an upstairs room and meets his ward Violet a young girl who seems to grow attached to Cora, whilst also being the subject of his experimental research. Cora begins to wonder if she is also being studied.

Reminiscent of the wonderful book “The Observations” by Jane Harris, and with an undercurrent of wonderful recent books by Laura Purcell, Anna Mazzola and Ruth Wade this is a gripping and scary search by one woman for her own past. As Cora’s history is somewhat fractured so are her reactions to everything she discovers. 

Nobody has ever shown her how to do things and from being asked to wash dishes, never having done anything like this before, tries to wash them in cold water to sharing a room with a fellow servant, she seems to get everything she tries, wrong and you can feel her utter frustration at trying to get things right and again and again misjudging people and events.

This is a wonderfully entertaining and thought-provoking book, with a narrator whose reliability is questionable and whose behaviour can be both shocking and at times amusing.

Her story has left a lingering impression me and a couple of weeks after having read the book little snippets keep returning to me. It has the literary depth to bear multiple readings as different layers are unpeeled throughout, revealing Cora's personality and longings. With unexpected little Oh's and Ahh's around each corner.


Is Cora an inbred criminal? A lunatic? Or a misunderstood young woman desperately seeking only someone or something to love? Her story had me in tears at several points.  I really loved this book, which if you like similar books to those I read and the authors mentioned above, will completely enthral you. 

Published by No Exit Press
Available here on Amazon or Waterstones and your favourite bookshops.

The Blurb

Set in 1880s Birmingham, Carolyn Kirby’s stunning debut The Conviction of Cora Burns tells the story of Cora, a young woman born in a prison to a convicted criminal she never knew but from whom she fears she has inherited a violent nature. Perfect for fans of Sarah Schmidt, Anna Mazzola and Hannah Kent.

Cora was born in a prison. But is this where she belongs?

Birmingham, 1885.

Born in a gaol and raised in a workhouse, Cora Burns has always struggled to control the violence inside her.

Haunted by memories of a terrible crime, she seeks a new life working as a servant in the house of scientist Thomas Jerwood.

Here, Cora befriends a young girl, Violet, who seems to be the subject of a living experiment. But is Jerwood also secretly studying Cora…?


With the power and intrigue of Laura Purcell’s The Silent Companions and Sarah Schmidt’s See What I Have Done, Carolyn Kirby’s stunning debut takes the reader on a heart-breaking journey through Victorian Birmingham and questions where we first learn violence: from our scars or from our hearts.

The Author:

Originally from Sunderland, Carolyn Kirby studied history at St Hilda’s College,
Oxford before working for social housing and then as a teacher of English as a
foreign language.

Her novel The Conviction of Cora Burns was begun in 2013 on a writing course
at Faber Academy in London. The novel has achieved success in several
competitions including as finalist in the 2017 Mslexia Novel Competition and as
winner of the inaugural Bluepencilagency Award. Carolyn has two grown-up

daughters and lives with her husband in rural Oxfordshire.

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The Forgotten Secret - Katherine McGurl - Review and Blog Tour

Please join me today on the Blog Tour for an enchanting Dual-Timeline story set in Ireland which I have been fortunate to receive an advance copy of and am thrilled to share my thoughts here in my review.

The Forgotten Secret - Katherine McGurl - My Review


The Forgotten Secret is a captivating dual time-line story which follows the fascinating lives of two women living a century apart, each battling for independence, which mesmerised and thrilled me throughout.

In the present we have middle aged Clare, a somewhat downtrodden wife and mother, who seizes the chance of escape from her humdrum life which has suddenly been provided by a surprize inheritance, a rather dilapidated farmhouse in Meath Ireland. She is married to an utter stinker of a husband and personally, I find it virtually impossible to believe anyone would have stayed with him the length of time she has! Having brought up 2 delightful sons, now both adults has been one of her greatest achievements and one result of the marriage she doesn’t regret.

This made me view her as a total doormat to begin with but she actually grew on me a lot and as she grows the strength to stand up for herself, I began to understand why she didn’t want to rock the boat until she was handed a lifeline. It also made me think how many women today must remain stuck in a pretty dire marriage, just because they really haven’t had the chance to break free and fear their own inability to cope alone.

Anyway, Clare moves to Ireland and into the run-down old building she has inherited, alone, with the plans to begin to renovate it, little by little. As she gradually begins to blossom and make new friends she also makes a discovery of some old hidden documents which make her wonder about past occupants of the farm and she begins to do a little research.

Meantime we have a charming parallel story running. 100 years earlier, also in County Meath, lives Ellen. She too gets a chance to break free from her humdrum existence with her grumpy and unappreciative Dad, as she takes a job in service in the Big House. But this is 1919 in Ireland and the country is divided, trouble is brewing and Ellen, young and in love, falls foul of the conflict and finds her life changed beyond recognition.


The two stories are both superb in their own right. The young woman and the somewhat older one both wormed their way into my heart as I read late into the night finding the book so captivating I couldn’t bear to put it down. It flows effortlessly in an appealing style to intrigue readers of all ages. 

A completely engrossing drama that had me in its clutch throughout with a heartbreaking core and a little twist about how the two women's stories are linked which surprised and delighted me. 

The Forgotten Secret

The Blurb:

A country at war

It’s the summer of 1919 and Ellen O’Brien has her whole life ahead of her. Young, in love and leaving home for her first job, the future seems full of shining possibility. But war is brewing and before long Ellen and everyone around her are swept up by it. As Ireland is torn apart by the turmoil, Ellen finds herself facing the ultimate test of love and loyalty.

And a long-buried secret

A hundred years later and Clare Farrell has inherited a dilapidated old farmhouse in County Meath. Seizing the chance to escape her unhappy marriage she strikes out on her own for the first time, hoping the old building might also provide clues to her family’s shadowy history. As she sets out to put the place – and herself – back to rights, she stumbles across a long-forgotten hiding place, with a clue to a secret that has lain buried for decades.

For fans of Kate Morton and Gill Paul comes an unforgettable novel about two women fighting for independence. 

Buy your copy here or from your favourite bookstore:

UK  - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Forgotten-Secret-heartbreaking-gripping-historical-ebook/dp/B07H2PMPR3

US  - https://www.amazon.com/Forgotten-Secret-heartbreaking-gripping-historical-ebook/dp/B07H2PMPR3 

About the Author and where to find her

The Author - Katherine McGurl

Kathleen McGurl lives near the sea in Bournemouth, UK, with her husband and elderly tabby cat. She has two sons who are now grown-up and have left home. She began her writing career creating short stories, and sold dozens to women’s magazines in the UK and Australia. Then she got side-tracked onto family history research – which led eventually to writing novels with genealogy themes. She has always been fascinated by the past, and the ways in which the past can influence the present, and enjoys exploring these links in her novels. @

Social Media Links –

Website:  https://kathleenmcgurl.com/

Twitter: @KathMcGurl  https://twitter.com/KathMcGurl

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

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

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