29.8.13

Book Review: The Heart Whisperer by Ella Griffin

On her thirty-third birthday, Claire Dillon decides that it's finally time to grow up. She will give herself twelve months to try to sort her life out. Her mother was thirty-three when she drowned. The accident happened on Claire's seventh birthday and deep down, Claire feels it was her fault. Her mum had everything to live for but Claire's life is a mess...
All her relationships have just fizzled out over the years. Her acting career is going nowhere and thirty-three in acting years, is somewhere between forty-five and extinct. Nothing in her life works. Her locks stick, her pipes howl, her computer has no letter 'p'. Her beloved car, Mossy, which used to belong to her mother, has one wiper and no reverse gear. If it weren't for the kindness of her oldest and her best friend, the gorgeous, charming and once-very-famous Ray Devine, she wouldn't even have a place to live. So she gives herself a year to turn her life around...
I very much enjoyed Ella Griffin's first book Postcards From the Heart so I was really pleased to receive her latest book, The Heart Whisperer.
The book follows Claire who has just turned thirty-three. She doesn't feel like she has much to celebrate, an out-of-work actress, no relationship, a clapped out car and living on the charity of her best friend. So Claire decides to turn her life around in the next 12 months. Her birthday is particularly poignant as Claire's mother drowned in a tragic accident on Claire's seventh birthday. Claire idolised her mother; a successful doctor with a marriage and two children, she had everything to live for.
Claire's brother Nick practically raised her when their mother died but now they barley speak plus Nick is having problems in his own marriage which is a little inconvenient as he has just landed a TV spot as a relationship counsellor.
Throughout all of this Claire relies on her best friend Ray Devine who used to be in a very famous band. Ray is living off the royalties nowadays and looking after Claire but maybe he is doing too much for her; he needs her to stand on her own too feet and this may require him pushing her away.
I really enjoyed The Heart Whisperer and Claire's character in particular. She brings a lot of humour to the book but also a lot of humility and poignant moments. Her relationship with Ray is really interesting and was one of my favourite parts of the book.
I really tried but I couldn't take to the character of Nick. You appreciate

by the end of the book just how much he did for Claire and the things he protected her from but there was something about him that didn't click for me.
 Marian Keyes has been quoted as saying that 'Ella Griffin can make you laugh and then cry in the turn of a page' and I think that is the perfect quote to describe this author. The Heart Whisperer is an entertaining read with many comical moments but it really pulls at the heartstrings too.
Ella Griffin is definitely an author to keep an eye on and I hope she has many more books to offer in the future.

Dot Scribbles Rating: 4/5
Pages: 368
Publisher: Orion

Many thanks to the publishers who sent me a copy of this book to review, The Heart Whisperer is available now.

28.8.13

Winner of Miss Manners

Thank you to everyone who took part to win a Kindle copy of Miss Manners by Iman Sid. I put the entries into a random number generator this morning and the winner is:

HEIDI

Thanks again for taking part and congratulations to Heidi, hope you enjoy the book!

23.8.13

Win a copy of Miss Manners plus Competition Details!!

The very lovely Iman Sid got in touch with Dot Scribbles this week to tell us about her fabulous new book Miss Manners:

Struggling to pay bills, stuck in a dead-end job and no boyfriend, Anna wants more out of life. Could getting fired change her life forever?
The heroine of Iman's debut, Miss Manners, is working as a shop assistant/celebrity mascot at Harrolds' toy department.  
After a shocking public event, 25-year-old Anna Borgström is fired and is soon left with no job, no money and no car. But after being set an assignment to enter - and win - the highly popular and televised Miss Manners contest, which aims to find the next headline-making IT girl, things begin to shine again - especially when handsome Henry appears on the scene.
Anna embarks on a journey that sees her getting a makeover and entering a very different world of primping, pampering and partying. Crises and complications attempt to undermine her endeavours, but with the help of friends and a cute new crush, Anna’s metamorphosis is set to be winningly magical.
Can the girl next door become the next big thing? 

I love the sound of this book and I am really looking forward to reading it! Iman is running a very exciting competition on her blog, you can win Afternoon Tea on the Fortnum and Mason's hot air balloon, how exciting is that! The details for the competition are here but the idea is that you have to review the book in order to enter. To make entering this fabulous competition even easier, Iman is offering one Kindle copy of Miss Manners to readers of Dot Scribbles, simply leave a comment here and a winner will be picked at random
after midnight on Tuesday 27th August.

Good luck everyone and a big thank you to Iman Sid for this lovely competition!

19.8.13

Book Review: Wicked Ambition by Victoria Fox

Some will do anything for fame. Others will do anything to bring the famous down. Robin might come across as feisty and full of attitude but as the tale progresses the reader soon learns her tough exterior conceals a damaged heart , while American megastar Turquoise has a shocking secret that belies a murderous past. And unbeknown to Californian Kristin her boy-band beau is harbouring a dark story that could destroy both their careers. As Wicked Ambition follows the lives of these three ambitious starlets, it soon becomes clear that their rise to the top will be anything but plain sailing. 
I haven't read a good bonk-buster for ages and it is clear that Victoria Fox is one of the best in this genre. Wicked Ambition oozes glamour with a sprinkling of sex and scandal.
The book revolves around three women, Robin, Turquoise and Kristin. They are all huge celebrities at the top of their game but it is their personal lives that threatens everything they have worked for. Robin had an awful start to life and has fought all the way for survival and success. She is used to crazy fans but this one stalker is different and when Robin comes face to face with them she is in for the shock of her life. Turquoise has a huge music career but her first foray into movies brings her past back to haunt her. All she wants to do is make things right but that will put everything she has in jeopardy. Kristin is one of America's sweethearts, a child-star who has grown into a young and inspirational woman. With a stage mother from hell, Kristin clings on to her boyfriend to provide the security and love that she craves. However, Scotty has his own secrets, secrets that will have devastating consequences for himself and those around him.
At 603 pages, Wicked Ambition is long but Victoria Fox keeps up a good pace throughout. The chapters are short and snappy as we delve into the glamorous but murky world of fame and fortune.
Wicked Ambition reminded me of some of the Jackie Collins books I hav
e read. Yet I think that Victoria Fox is more current and her writing more engaging. Wicked Ambition would make the perfect summer read, once you start it you won't want to put it down.

Dot Scribbles Rating: 4.5/5
Publisher: Mira
Pages: 603

Many thanks to the lovely people at Cherish PR for sending me a copy of the book to review.

15.8.13

Book Review: The Unquiet Grave by Steven Dunne

The Cold Case Unit of Derby Constabulary feels like a morgue to DI Damen Brook. But in disgrace and recently back from suspension, his boos thinks it's the safest place for him.
But Brook isn't going down without a fight and when he uncovers a pattern in a series of murders that date back to 1963, he is forced to dig deeper. Howe could a killer stay undetected for so long? Could it be luck or are more sinister forced at work?
Applying his instincts and razor-sharp intelligence, Brook delves deep into the past of both suspects and colleagues, unsure where the hunt will lead him. What he does know for sure is that a significant date is approaching fast and the killer may be about to strike again...
This is the first book I have read by Steven Dunne but I thought it was brilliant. It's the third Damen Brook book but I still enjoyed this one without having read the others.
The Unquiet Grave is set in Derby which made for a refreshing change as I find that most crime novels are set in a large, well-known city. I am from the Midlands myself so it was good to hear familiar names of towns and villages.
DI Damen Brook is an interesting main character, he is obsessed and consumed by his job and he is very aware as to how much his career has impacted on his personal life. I liked the very human aspect of him; he openly discusses the way his job has affected the way he feels towards people and the way in which he views the world.
Brook's work in the Cold Case Unit becomes tangled up in the current investigation of a local teenage boy who is missing. Steven Dunne weaves a highly intricate plot between the past and the present and I was very quickly immersed in the plot and its many characters.
I enjoyed the behind the scenes look at the police force. Dunne does not paint a rose-tinted picture. Brook as to fight against the force's hierarchical structure and the derision from lower ranked colleagues. The loyalty between police officers is also explored in great depth. Brook and his close colleagues look out for each other but it becomes clear that there are situations where this goes too far.
The Unquiet Grave is dark and intriguing. DI Damen Brook is a character you will want to invest your emotions and I'm really looking forward to reading more of this interesting and page-turning series.

Dot Scribbles Rating: 5/5
Pages: 448
Publisher: Headline


9.8.13

Guest Blog Post: Leah Fleming, author of The Girl Under the Olive Tree

Dot Scribbles is hosting author Leah Fleming today, she is the author of The Girl Under the Olive Tree, it’s a gripping story of love, friendship and betrayal set in wartime Crete – based upon the true story of Johanna Stavridi, a British debutante-turned Red Cross Nurse who remained at her post after the fall of Crete in 1941.  It’s also an evocation of the spirit of the Cretan resistance, embodied in the lives of Patrick Leigh Fermor, John Pendlebury, and thousands of Cretans.  And like all Leah’s stories there are fantastic strong women characters, family secrets, and a page-turner of a story.

Leah’s writing has been praised by Rachel Hore and Kate Atkinson and she won the Premio Roma prize for Foreign Fiction in 2012.

Leah has written a really interesting post about heroes, who has inspired her and the type of fictional heroes she likes to write about: 

MY KIND OF HERO…

I thought you’d  like to know my kind of hero. Every author needs them. especially ones like me who set their stories around World Wars so I make no apologies for the fact that the ones in The Girl Under The Olive Tree, both men and women are inspired from real life soldiers and nurses whose exploits would seem fanciful in books today.
 Take one of my all time favourites: Paddy Leigh Fermor who died only recently was handsome, suave, self educated,  a ladies’ man and how…but whose superb prose captured my writing heart many years ago with the wonderful account of his walk to Constantinople from the Hook of Holland in the 1930s as a young student. ;Time of Gifts, Between and Woods and Water and the final volume coming soon.
 His exploits on Crete as a Special Operations Officer are legend. His group galvanized the Cretan resistance, kidnapping General Kreipe in in 1944 ( fictionalized in the film: Ill Met By Moonlight.) This was a man who sat under the stars quoting Ovid to his hostage, a dare-devil who disguised himself as a Cretan shepherd and roamed the streets of Chania, writing slogans on walls even with a price on his head, He lived a full and varied life, a great raconteur,  beloved of correspondent to the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire.(Yours In Tearing Haste) He worshipped women but I suspect was a devil to live with. Do they make them like him anymore?
  There’s also the legendary New Zealand Officer, Jock Lewes, whose secret service exploits in the Egyptian desert commanded such respect. Letters to his fiancée, Mirren Barford  published by her family as : Joy Street are some of the most understated yet romantic love letters I have ever read. He too didn’t survive the war.
 No wonder the lost hero is a theme to which I return time and time again in my novels. I’m sure we must have similar men in this generation, volunteers willing to give their lives to the cause, to sacrifice their own well being and happiness for the greater good. My heroes, Bruce Jardine and Rainer Brecht although enemies would be  educated in the Classics, speak many languages,  natural leaders of men, often driven, sensual beings, who could express their feelings in prose and verse, dare devils in courage, taking risks, playing hard, loving both life and danger.
Cometh the hour, cometh the man, they say. Yes, my heroes were of their time, old school, reticent, chauvinistic perhaps but I find them fascinating if not a little daunting, the yard stick to which all my fictional heroes must be measured against. To be a hero in a Leah Fleming novel, no wimps need apply.
Leah

The Girl Under the Olive Tree is available now from Simon & Schuster, Leah is is currently on a blog tour so check out the rest of her itinerary! 


Leah Fleming
The Girl Under the Olive Tree Blog Tour schedule
9-16 August 2013
Check out Leah’s blog summer tour – and hear about her new book, The Girl Under the Olive Tree, a gripping tale of love, friendship and betrayal in wartime Crete… 
Visit these wonderful book blogs for interviews, guest posts and surprises galore!
9 August  Dot Scribbles
10 August I hearts books 
11 August Mamajhearts 
12 August Reading In the Sunshine 
13 August Fabulous Book Fiend
14 August Tales From the Reading Room
15 August  dizzycslittlebookblog – back by special demand!
16 August Laura’s book reviews
Lap of honour
20 September Jera’s Jamboree
find more about Leah at www.leahfleming.co.uk  @Leahlefleming @simonschusterpr

7.8.13

Book Review: The Vintage Teacup Club by Vanessa Greene

At a car boot sale in Sussex, three very different women meet and fall for the same vintage tea set. They decide to share it- and form a friendship that changes their lives...
Jenny can't wait to marry Dan. Then after years of silence, she hears from the woman who could shatter her dreams.
Maggie has put her broken heart behind her and is gearing up for the biggest event of her career- until she's forced to confront the past once more.
Alison seems to have it all: married to her childhood sweetheart, with two gorgeous daughters. But as tensions mount, she is pushed to breaking point.
Dealing with friendship and families, relationships and careers, highs and lows, The Vintage Teacup Club is heart-warming story-telling at its very best. 
My very lovely friend Kim from Still Reading sent me The Vintage Teacup Club as she enjoyed it so much and I am glad she did as I loved it!
It's a great idea to use a vintage tea set to tie the three characters together. Jenny, Maggie and Alison meet at a car boot sale where they all approach the same buyer of a tea set. Instead of someone missing out, the ladies decide to share it and a new friendship group is borne.
Vanessa Greene writes with great warmth and understanding as she delves into these three women's lives. Each is at a different stage in their relationship and I loved how they all helped each other out and gave advice from different view-points.
Each chapter is written from one of the character's perspectives so we learn a lot about the issues they are facing plus the developing friendship between all three.
Vanessa Greene has written a heart-warming story with a good pace. I could imagine the book being made into a feel-good film, maybe something along the lines of The Calendar Girls. This is the first book I have read by Vanessa Greene, I really hope she writes more soon as I enjoyed this one.

Dot Scribbles Rating: 4.75/5
Pages: 416
Publisher: Sphere

5.8.13

Book Review: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Who are you?
What have we done to each other?
These are the questions Nick Dunne finds himself asking on the morning of his fifth wedding anniversary, when his wife Amy suddenly disappears. The police suspect Nick. Amy's friends reveal that she was afraid of him. He swears it isn't true. A police examination of his computer shows strange searches. He says they weren't made by him. And then are the persistent calls on his mobile phone. So what did happen to Nick's beautiful wife?
There has been so much hype about this book and I am pleased that I have finally got round to reading it. I think the hype is very much deserved and I am extremely excited about the movie being made, especially as Gillian Flynn is on board to write the screen-play.
Gone Girl is about Nick and Amy. Amy disappears on their fifth wedding anniversary. The police suspect Nick and soon the evidence is mounting up; her friends say Amy was frightened of Nick; his Internet search history is highly suspicious and why does he have a secret disposable mobile phone?
Gillian Flynn has written such a clever book, it becomes clear that Amy and Nick are unreliable narrators. I felt like I had just worked everything out when it all changed again and I was just left with more questions. I don't think I have ever read a book with so many twists and turns, the ending completely blew me away.
Gone Girl examined so many different ideas; how well we really know those we love, relationships within a family and how our childhood shapes us plus the lengths people will go to in order to keep a secret.
I found the first third of the book really difficult to get into but it soon became more and more intriguing. I began to enjoy the unreliable narration as it was such a challenge to work out what was real or not.
Gone Girl is a fantastic read, it is dark, gripping and leaves you with a lot to think about.

Dot Scribbles Rating: 4.75/5
Publisher: Phoenix
Pages: 496

1.8.13

Guest Review: The Low Road by Chris Womersley

I have another guest review for you, the lovely Jenny Haddon has reviewed The Low Road by Chris Womersley. Jenny is an author herself so take a look at her website here.

A man wakes up in an unfamiliar motel room. He is afraid, in pain, bleeding. He remembers his night terrors as a child and a teenage sense of ‘the night barrelling through space.’ He does not know how long he has been there. A woman comes in and mutters at him. Lee knows ‘everything was ruined.’ The woman persuades Wild, a doctor who has been struck off, to take charge of Lee. They set out for Wild’s old mentor, so that he may remove the bullet. They take Lee’s suitcase containing a stolen $8,000. Elsewhere, Josef, an ageing low life, has to get that money back or, his (criminal) boss tells him, he is finished, even though they both acknowledge that it is not very much money. It is the principle of the thing. So Josef pursues Lee and the doctor. The rest of the story is their journey and the pursuit.                                              

The publishers describe this as ‘a modern noir thriller’. I expected a neat plot, some fast action, a cool eye for the weaknesses of bad guys. Maybe also a sort of Philip Marlow Code, fastidiousness rather morality, as a man who is not himself mean walks the mean streets, alert, aware and vulnerable. This is not that sort of noir.                                                                   

Here we’re running with the bad guys from the start. Not that they see themselves as bad guys, just the victims of accident and bad choices. ‘Like all people in free fall, Wild had been the last person to realise.’ They are not dislikeable – there is a fascinating absence of malice in all of them and they don’t pity themselves or blame other people much either. (A touch unrealistic, I thought that, to be honest.) Lee and Wild lurch from crisis to crisis with blank acceptance. These are people you do not ask why they do what they do – you ask them (or they ask themselves) how they got there.  Memory and flashback tell that story and which is where the really shocking stuff is to be found.                                                                

The chapters are told from the point of view of each main character in turn. Often they move at the pace of reverie, minutely observed: Lee is losing blood throughout the real time of the story; the doctor, Wade, gets high; it shows. And the unimaginably awful slips through almost unnoticed, along with the smell of apples and the sound of laughter. ‘People will always be as cruel as they are allowed to be,’ says a prison inmate, in passing. And it is only later that you realise the truth of it.

Do I recommend this book?  Um. If you’re a fan of alienation lit, it is probably outstanding. As for me, in spite of its qualities and some enviable writing in places, I just didn’t care about any of the people. Oh, a horse did rouse my sympathy, briefly. My rewards for reading this book did not include emotional engagement or justice served. But it has one great virtue. A gambling boss says at one point, ‘The way people like us survive is that nobody really believes we exist.’ Well, after reading this book, I do. 

Jenny's Rating: 4/5
Pages: 288
Publisher: Quercus

Many thanks to Jenny for taking the time to review this book and to Quercus for sending a copy, The Low Road is out now. 

All change here!

I have made the decision to stop doing written reviews on here for a little while. I shall keep this page open but for the time being I sha...