Today I am excited to share my Feature Post and Book Review on the Blog Tour for THE LIBRARY MURDERS by M.R. Mackenzie.
Below you will find a book description, my book review and the author’s bio. Enjoy!
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Book Description
Alyssa Clark is about to find out that reading really can be murder.
She thought her new job in Thornhill Library would be safe and uneventful. Boring, even. But on her first day at work, a masked gunman storms into the building and blows away every member of staff on duty. Alyssa barely escapes with her life.
The police are satisfied they’ve got their man, but Davy, Alyssa’s colleague and the only other survivor of the massacre, is convinced the real killer is still at large. Alyssa – trying to move on with her life while dealing with traumatic flashbacks and the unwanted advances of an obsessive ex – is sceptical. However, when she stumbles across damning evidence of a cover-up, she agrees to join forces with Davy to help track down the real culprit.
But in her pursuit of the truth, will she find the closure she desperately craves… or provoke the wrath of a killer with unfinished business on his mind?
If you like twists, turns and compelling, conflicted characters, you’ll love this gripping new mystery from the McIlvanney Prize-nominated author of In the Silence.
THE LIBRARY MURDERS by M.R. Mackenzie is a murder mystery that begins with a graphic murder of librarians in a small satellite library in Glasgow and then becomes a twisted search for the murderer by two of the survivors. This is a new to me author who was able to immerse me in his narrative and I did not put it down until “The End”.
Alyssa Clark is late for her first day on her new job at the Thornhill Library. As she and her new colleagues are behind the main desk a masked man dressed all in black walks right up to the desk and proceeds to shoot everyone. Alyssa and one other, Davy survive the nightmare.
Davy is not satisfied when the police arrest a down and out patron of the library. He has the gun when taken down weeks later, but he swears it is not his. When he tells Alyssa about his doubts, she finds it difficult to believe until she finds some damning evidence of a cover-up. The two begin to work to uncover the real murderer.
This book surprised me, not only with the revelation of the murderer, but also with the multiple revelations about Alyssa’s past and the reasons for her prickly and off-putting personality. Usually I have difficulty with a book which has a protagonist that I do not like, but Mr. Mackenzie deftly kept me interested in why she is the way she is as well as spinning the twists and turns of the murder mystery around her and Davy. This book is as much a study of human interactions with others and the repercussions as well as a deftly plotted murder mystery.
I highly recommend this mystery and look forward to more from this author!
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Author Bio
M.R. Mackenzie was born and lives in Glasgow, Scotland. He studied at Glasgow University and has an MA in English and a PhD in Film Studies.
In addition to writing, he works as a Blu-ray/DVD producer and has overseen releases of films by a number of acclaimed directors, among them Dario Argento, Joe Dante, Hideo Nakata and Jacques Tourneur. Writing as Michael Mackenzie, he has contributed chapters to books on cult cinema and regularly provides video essays and liner notes for new releases of celebrated films. He used to work in a library, before leaving to spend more time with books.
In 2019, his first novel, In the Silence, was shortlisted for the Bloody Scotland Scottish Crime Debut of the Year and longlisted for the McIlvanney Prize.
Author Website: https://www.mrmackenzieauthor.com
Praise for M.R. Mackenzie
‘Writes with precision and passion’ – Caro Ramsay
‘Brings a fresh new voice to the field of Tartan Noir’ – James Oswald
‘Up there with the best contemporary authors working today’ – David B. Lyons
Today I am excited to be sharing on the September 2020 Harlequin Category Romance Blog Tour. I chose the Harlequin Intrigue for my Feature Post and Book Review – HIS BRAND OF JUSTICE (Longview Ridge Ranch Book #4) by Dolores Fossen.
Below you will find a book description, my book review, an excerpt from the book and the author’s bio and social media links. Enjoy!
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Book Description
USA TODAY bestselling author Delores Fossen does it again, with a romantic suspense book that forces a US Marshal to confront his past—and the woman who might hold all the answers…
Can he help her recover her memory before they are both killed?
The only person who knows who killed Marshal Jack Slater’s father is Caroline Moser. But the Texas profiler has no memory of the murder, her abduction…or Jack. And her witness-protection safe house has just been compromised. Now in Jack’s protective custody, Caroline must trust her ex to help her recall her past before a murderer steals their future.
HIS BRAND OF JUSTICE (Longview Ridge Ranch Book #4) by Delores Fossen is the final romantic suspense in this series. Ms. Fossen does give enough backstory that you can read this as a standalone, but I would recommend you at least read book #1 first. These four books are about four modern day law enforcement cowboy brothers and the women they meet under perilous circumstances.
Caroline Moser was a profiler and computer wiz working on a program for law enforcement to identify serial killers spearheaded by Gemma Harrison. Their research assistant, Eric Long was a serial killer who almost killed both women. Caroline escaped with a severe head wound causing amnesia and she was placed in the WITSEC program under the protection of Marshall Jack Slater.
Marshall Jack Slater is determined to keep Caroline safe at all costs. Their relationship was lost when Caroline lost her memory as well as any clues to the murderer of the Slater brother’s father who was killed trying to save the women.
Eric Long might be dead, but someone does not want Caroline to get her memories back. As Jack tries to keep Caroline safe, he races to find the threat before even more people turn up dead.
I really enjoyed this conclusion to the Longview Ridge Ranch series. Ms. Fossen does a great job of bringing together all the threads of this plot and the overall arc of the series. I was bouncing back and forth between the suspects and for such a limited number of characters, I was still surprised. I always know that I am going to get an alpha cowboy hero and a strong heroine to match in any of Ms. Fossen books I pick up. I was excited to read Jack and Caroline’s HEA and it did not disappoint. There are explicit sex scenes, but they are not gratuitous or dragged out.
The Intrigue series always gives me a great romantic suspense or mystery that I can read quickly and be completely satisfied with the HEA. I recommend this book, this series and any book by Ms. Fossen!
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Excerpt
“I nearly got Lucille and you killed,” she said, and Caroline cursed her own voice. It was shaking, too.
Jack lifted an eyebrow. “Funny, I thought it was the shooter who nearly killed us.”
“The shooter wouldn’t have been firing those bullets if it hadn’t been for me.” She expected him to give her some sugarcoated answer, but she’d obviously forgotten this was Jack.
“That’s true.” With that hanging in the air, he waited a heartbeat. “And since I’d rather not have any more attempted murders, that means you’re going to have to let me help you.”
“You mean I’m going to have to trust Kellan,” Caroline blurted out. She was feeling a lot less shaky now.
Jack shrugged, took his hand from his pocket so he could tap the badge on his belt. “Every lawman in Texas isn’t tainted, and if you dig beneath all the anger, fear and whatever else it is you’re feeling, you’ll remember that I’m the best shot you’ve got at keeping us both alive.”
He followed that too logical minilecture with a long stare. Jack was obviously waiting for her to come to the only conclusion that she had right now.
“I’m not going to trust your brother,” she insisted, but left the rest of it unspoken—that she would trust Jack. Again, it was the only choice she had.
He nodded as if they’d just hashed that out with a heated argument. “I’ll do whatever it takes to keep you safe.” He paused. “Want me to take a bullet for you to prove it?”
Jack didn’t wink, but he might as well have, because he was obviously trying to lighten things up. Trying to bring her back down and ease some of the still raw adrenaline. It was working, sort of, since it was something he’d said to her in jest when they’d been lovers. A way of letting her know that he cared that much for her.
“No,” she said, drawing out the one-word answer to emphasize it. There was a lot more emotion in her voice than she wanted as she stared at him.
Thinking.
Remembering.
Yes, definitely remembering.
That helped more than his lame attempt at cop humor. His being there helped, too, and despite everything she’d been through—or maybe because of it—Caroline wanted to step right into his arms. Those strong arms with their toned muscles. She wanted to feel the heat, and the comfort that she’d gotten there before. Jack had tugged and pulled at her in a way that no man ever had before.
Or ever would again, she was forced to admit to herself.
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Author Bio
USA Today bestselling author, Delores Fossen, has sold over 70 novels with millions of copies of her books in print worldwide. She’s received the Booksellers’ Best Award, the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award and was a finalist for the prestigious Rita ®. In addition, she’s had nearly a hundred short stories and articles published in national magazines. You can contact the author through her webpage at www.deloresfossen.com
Today is my turn on the blog tour and to share my Feature Post and Book Review for HERE TO STAY by Adriana Herrera.
Below you will find a book description, my book review, an excerpt from the book, an about the author section and the author’s social media links. Enjoy!
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Book Description
Award-winning, highly-acclaimed author Adriana Herrera delivers the sexy, modern enemies-to-lovers romance you’ve been waiting for.
Starting over is more about who you’re with than where you live…
Julia del Mar Ortiz is not having the best year.
She moved to Dallas with her boyfriend, who ended up ditching her and running back to New York after only a few weeks. Left with a massive—by NYC standards, anyway—apartment and a car lease in the scorching Texas heat, Julia is struggling…except that’s not completely true. Running the charitable foundation of one of the most iconic high fashion department stores in the world is serious #lifegoals.
It’s more than enough to make her want to stick it out down South.
The only monkey wrench in Julia’s plans is the blue-eyed, smart-mouthed consultant the store hired to take them public. Fellow New Yorker Rocco Quinn’s first order of business? Putting Julia’s job on the chopping block.
When Julia is tasked with making sure Rocco sees how valuable the programs she runs are, she’s caught between a rock and a very hard set of abs. Because Rocco Quinn is almost impossible to hate—and even harder to resist.
Format: Ebook (Trade Paperback & Audiobook formats also available!)
Ebook ISBN: 9780369700926Ebook Price: $3.99 USD
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My Book Review
RATING: 4 out of 5 Stars
HERE TO STAY by Adriana Herrera is a contemporary romance that brings the heat. This is a standalone which could easily become a fun series with ethnic New Yorkers coming together for support and fun in their new surroundings of Dallas.
Julia del Mar’s year did not start out well, but she loves her new job running a charitable foundation and she is making her life in Dallas work. The foundation is run by one of the most iconic high fashion department stores in the world and which was family run, but the siblings have decided to go public.
Rocco Quinn is sent by his New York based consulting company to ready the chain to go public. Rocco is trying to stay above the family feud and do his job. The twins want the foundation to continue, but their younger brother wants it gone. And if the brother gets his way the beautiful Julia will lose her job.
Julia is tasked with introducing Rocco to all the programs the foundation runs. The heat generated between these two is explosive, but both know they are on opposite sides and in a no-win situation.
I was completely drawn into Julia and Rocco’s lives. Ms. Herrera made them come to life with not only their business dilemma, but all the family and friends that were a part of their lives. I feel Julia and Rocco’s romance built at a realistic pace as they both tried so hard to fight their attraction, but the chemistry is just too hot.
I thoroughly enjoyed this contemporary romance and its glimpse at Dominican culture.
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Excerpt
Julia
I stepped into the elevator and shoved my phone into the pocket of my dress, took a moment to send a prayer to the employee discount that let me buy bomb clothes on a nonprofit worker budget, and did some mental math of what could be going on.
Was the program really in trouble? Could we actually get shut down?
Nope, I would not go there. I would not think about what it would be like to get on a plane back to New York dumped and unemployed. Not happening.
A distraction. That’s what I needed. Just as the door to the elevator was about to close, someone got in. The fact that I was eye level with the base of his throat was a good clue as to who it was, but when he opened his mouth and the now familiar knee-weakening baritone echoed off the walls of the elevator, I got my confirmation.
“Morning, Ms. Ortiz.” That voice could be used for interrogation tactics. Every muscle in my body loosened at the same time whenever I heard it.
I squeaked out a “Morning” and took my time lifting my head all the way up to look at the last person in the world I wanted overhearing my conversation with my mother.
Him.
Rocco Fucking Quinn, otherwise known as the “Team Leader” for the consulting firm looking to bag my job. The guy with the New York City-est name on the planet. I hadn’t exactly gotten personal with Mr. Quinn, but I picked up on that accent the first time we met.
“What’s good?” I really tried to sound polite, but my Queens jumped out in situations like this. I did not gulp, because I could not let this fucker see me sweat. I managed not to cut my eyes at him, but it was a close call.
I took him in, ramrod straight, every hair in its place, not a wrinkle in sight, and decided he could not be the proprietor of the laugh-choke from before. The man seemed to be completely lacking a sense of humor. I knew he must have teeth but I’d never seen them.
Yeah, definitely not him. That fact rallied my spirits a little bit as I stood close enough to pick up on how he smelled. Like the ocean and something woodsy. That was not helpful information.
Without saying another word, I ran my eyes over him. It struck me that he was not wearing something bespoke like pretty much everyone here. Don’t get me wrong, he still looked good enough to eat, but he was clearly on a budget. And at a place where everyone looked like they were heading to a New York Fashion Week photo shoot, it was sort of jarring. Still, the suit fit him well. And there was no question, this guy could wear the fuck out of a suit. I held back a whimper when I envisioned him in a Brioni or a Zegna. They’d have to put out a heat advisory for the building if that ever happened.
“I thought I could detect a familiar accent when I was coming down the hall.” His perfectly blue eyes twinkled at what I was certain was an expression of utter mortification on my face. He sounded pleasant enough, but he was also alluding to the fact that I was yapping on my phone. This wasn’t the first time he tried to be cute. Rocco Quinn seemed to like fucking with me. And it was only a matter of time before he stepped on my last nerve and I reamed him out.
Thankfully, just as I was scrambling to respond to his comment, the elevator got to my floor. I was planning to just leave him hanging and run off, but he was hot on my heels.
Dammit.
“Sounds like your mom misses you.”
Oh, for fuck’s sake. Why did he have to act all fake nice?
I nodded without looking at him. “She does. Listen, Mr. Quinn—”
“You can call me Rocco.”
Nope, that was not happening. I was not letting this sexy bastard talk me into getting all chummy with him. I was already on thin ice as it was. He could keep his pheromones and his slick-as-fuck expressions to his damn self. I came to a dead stop a few feet away from the conference room door where my boss—and whatever shitty news she was about to give me—was waiting.
When I turned around, Rocco was looking down at me with an expectant smile. God he was handsome, that jet-black hair so dark it almost had a tinge of blue and those eyes, piercing. And I guess he had teeth after all, and of course they were perfect. Asshole. I shook my head hard when my traitorous brain started wondering what Pantone color his eyes would be.
Get your head in the game, Julia del Mar.
I straightened my back, determined to fight off the debilitating effects of those gleaming teeth and perfectly pink lips. I had to remember this niceness was probably his way of getting us to let our guard down. He was here to find ways to cut jobs. I was not about to mouth off and get myself fired, but I needed to get some things clear.
“Look.” I was proud of myself for not rolling my neck or pointing at his face. “I know you’re trying to be nice, but you make me nervous.” I pulled on the hem of my blue polka-dot dress and smoothed my yellow cardigan, avoiding eye contact at all costs.
“Why do I make you nervous?”
Uh, maybe because you’re here to close down as much of the foundation as you can.
I refrained from actually saying that because I had not been raised by a Puerto Rican man and Dominican woman just so I could act like I had no home training with the guy who could get me fired. But it was a close call.
“I’m sorry for saying that. You don’t make me nervous.”
Lies.
Rocco Quinn didn’t just make me nervous. He made me want to run my hands all over that big-ass body and moon over his almost but not quite curly hair and blue eyes, in spite of the fact that I knew he was out here gunning for my entire program. And yet, I still wanted to kiss the hell out of him while I climbed him like a sequoia.
Adriana was born and raised in the Caribbean, but for the last fifteen years has let her job (and her spouse) take her all over the world. She loves writing stories about people who look and sound like her people, getting unapologetic happy endings.
When she’s not dreaming up love stories, planning logistically complex vacations with her family or hunting for discount Broadway tickets, she’s a trauma therapist in New York City, working with survivors of domestic and sexual violence.
Her Dreamers series has received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist and has been featured in The TODAY Show on NBC, Entertainment Weekly, NPR, Library Journal and The WashingtonPost. Her debut, American Dreamer, was selected as one of Booklist’s ‘Best Romance Debuts of 2019’, and one of the ‘Top 10 Romances of 2019’ by Entertainment Weekly. Her third novel, American LoveStory, was one of the winners in the first annual Ripped Bodice Award for Excellence in Romantic Fiction. Adriana is an outspoken advocate for diversity in romance and has written for Remezcla and Bustle about Own Voices in the genre. She’s one of the co-creators of the Queer Romance PoC Collective. Represented by Taylor Haggerty at Root Literary.
I am so excited to be sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for the Release Blitz for REVEALING ANNIE (Police and Fire Operation Alpha / On Call Book 5) by Freya Barker. This is great series filled with mature alpha male heroes and intelligent heroines finding their HEAs in a time of danger.
Below you will find a book description, my book review, an about the author section, the author’s social media links and a Rafflecopter giveaway. Enjoy!
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Book Description:
As the fire department’s joker, Kyle (Sumo) Matsumoto, loves nothing better than ribbing the guys at the station. However, he’s all business when he’s on a call, and when he tries to snag the attention of a cute little baker.
Then life takes a more serious turn when he’s plunged headfirst into fatherhood—of a teenage boy—giving his teammates the last laugh.
For almost a year, Annie Flowers has been tucked away in plain sight. It’s amazing what a pair of colored contacts and a different haircut can accomplish. She likes her new, simple life in Durango with her only concern getting up on time for her morning shift at the bakery.
Yet she’s not as invisible as she thinks. Not to the creep who chased her into hiding, and definitely not to the charming EMT with a penchant for sweets .
Annie trusts only one person, her friend, Erin Gardner, but she’s in Texas, so when she discovers someone has been leaving her unwanted gifts, she has no choice but to put her faith in Sumo.
REVEALING ANNIE (Police and Fire Operation Alpha / On Call #5) by Freya Barker is another great addition to this romantic suspense series revolving around the men and women who serve the public in and around the beautiful city of Durango, CO.
Annie Flowers is hiding in plain sight. She may have dyed her blond hair brown and made her blue eyes brown with colored contacts, but she lives a routine of working as a baker in the local grocery store and living in the local trailer park. She is comfortable with her low key, simple life in Durango.
Kyle “Sumo” Matsumoto is one of the Durango fire station’s EMTs and he lives for the chance to rib the other members of the station. He is completely dedicated to his job and just has not found the right woman to share his life with yet. Then, he notices this cute little baker and he decides he wants more than just her tasty baked goods.
Life suddenly becomes very serious when Kyle finds out he is the father of a fourteen-year-old who knows nothing about him. Kyle is not only thrown into the deep end of fatherhood, and he is getting a return ribbing from his teammates, but that will not stop his pursuit of Annie.
Annie finds she is no longer as invisible as she thinks. While she is receiving unwanted gifts and threats again, which sent her into hiding in the first place, she finds she cannot push away the one man she is coming to trust. Will putting her faith in Sumo and his friends be enough?
Once again, I am completely sucked into the lives and loves of Durango. Ms. Barker’s characters always feel so real and I feel like I know them personally. I also appreciate that Ms. Barker writes mature characters with realistic problems. The pairing of Sumo and Annie is a great match! Sumo is facing adjusting to fatherhood and finding a woman he cares for who is in danger all at the same time, but he rolls with it all. Annie has found not only a man she can trust and love, but a whole town she can feel safe in. This book not only has the romantic suspense plot of Annie’s stalker, but also the subplot of Sumo fighting for his newly found son. This book does have some crossover with other characters from the series, but I feel it can be read as a standalone. I feel once you do, you are going to want to go back to read them all.
I highly recommend this romantic suspense, all the books in this series and all the books written by Ms. Barker!
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About the Author
USA Today bestselling author Freya Barker loves writing about ordinary people with extraordinary stories.
Driven to make her books about ‘real’ people; she creates characters who are perhaps less than perfect, each struggling to find their own slice of happy, but just as deserving of romance, thrills and chills in their lives.
Recipient of the ReadFREE.ly 2019 Best Book We’ve Read All Year Award for “Covering Ollie, the 2015 RomCon “Reader’s Choice” Award for Best First Book, “Slim To None”, and Finalist for the 2017 Kindle Book Award with “From Dust”, Freya continues to add to her rapidly growing collection of published novels as she spins story after story with an endless supply of bruised and dented characters, vying for attention!
Today I am very excited to be sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for EPITAPH by Anita Waller. I love all this author’s books!
Below you find a book description, my book review and the author’s bio and social media links. Enjoy!
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Book Description
Pensioner and Private Investigator Doris Lester has taken a well-deserved break from work. She’s planned a holiday with her best friend Wendy on a journey across the Yorkshire and Derbyshire Dales. But before they depart a letter arrives, and the contents stir up trouble and memories of the past.
Soon Doris and Wendy are drawn into the mystery surrounding a troubled family, a missing person and gruesome murder.
When Doris and Wendy join the investigation, intriguing revelations about Doris’s past and present surface, which shock even those closest to her.
Step by step they uncover familial secrets that could tear a family even further apart. Together can Wendy and Doris solve the mystery and if they do, will their lives ever be the same again?
EPITAPH by Anita Waller is mix of cozy mystery and British police procedural that is perfectly blended and I could not put it down. This story features pensioner and P.I. Doris Lester from the Kat and Mouse Mystery series and while it is an offshoot of the series and can be read as a standalone, I was happy I already had background and a love of this main character from the series.
P.I. Doris Lester and her best friend of 40 years, Wendy Lucas are beginning a long-deserved vacation travelling throughout England visiting the graves of historically famous people. After only the very first outing of their trip, Doris tells Wendy about a disturbing letter she received. The letter is from a woman claiming to be the daughter of her husband, who has been dead for fifteen years. Wendy knows her friend well and they delay their trip and detour to meet this woman.
Doris and Wendy discover not one, but two unknown daughters. Doris becomes involved in the sisters’ families, when one goes missing and her almost sister-in-law is discovered dead. Secrets, lies and infidelities lead to another murder. When the authorities become involved, Doris once again finds herself connecting with local law enforcement, but she and Wendy are also following the clues and are one step ahead.
I love Doris so much! She is seventy, a black belt, a P.I., an IT wiz, has a past she cannot tell you about or she will have to kill you and a loving grandmother. In this book we also get to see what a close friend she has in Wendy. Even with such a small cast of characters, Ms. Waller skillfully keeps the reader guessing with plot twists and red herrings. This mystery has a steady pace as it intertwines Doris and Wendy’s investigation with the police investigation up until the climatic resolution.
I highly recommend this book and all of Ms. Waller’s books. She never disappoints.
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Author Bio
Anita Waller was born in Sheffield, South Yorkshire in 1946. She married Dave in 1967 and they have three adult children.
She has written and taught creative writing for most of her life, and at the age of sixty-nine sent a manuscript to Bloodhound Books which was immediately accepted.
In total she has written seven psychological thrillers and one supernatural novel, and uses the areas of South Yorkshire and Derbyshire as her preferred locations in her books. Sheffield features prominently.
And now Anita is working on her first series, the Kat and Mouse trilogy, set in the beautiful Derbyshire village of Eyam. The first in the series, Murder Undeniable, launched 10 December 2018, and the second in the series, Murder Unexpected, launches 11 February 2019.
The trilogy has now been promoted to a quartet following the success of the first book; she is currently working on book three, Murder Unearthed. Book four doesn’t have a title, a plot, a first sentence… but she remains convinced it will have!
She is now seventy-three years of age, happily writing most days and would dearly love to plan a novel, but has accepted that isn’t the way of her mind. Every novel starts with a sentence and she waits to see where that sentence will take her, and her characters.
In her life away from the computer in the corner of her kitchen, she is a Sheffield Wednesday supporter with blue blood in her veins! The club was particularly helpful during the writing of 34 Days, as a couple of matches feature in the novel, along with Ross Wallace. Information was needed, and they provided it.
I am very excited to be sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for Ciara Geraghty’s new book – RULES OF THE ROAD. I absolutely loved this thought provoking book of friendship, family and love! (Please Be Advised: The story does contain an assisted suicide.)
Below you will find a book description, my book review, an about the author section and the author’s social media links.
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Book Description
The simple fact of the matter is that Iris loves life. Maybe she’s forgotten that. Sometimes that happens, doesn’t it? To the best of us? All I have to do is remind her of that one simple fact.
When Iris Armstrong goes missing, her best friend Terry, wife, mother and all-round worrier, is convinced something bad has happened.
And when she finds her glamorous, feisty friend, she’s right: Iris is setting out on a journey that she plans to make her last.
The only way for Terry to stop Iris is to join her, on a road trip that will take her, Iris and Terry’s confused father Eugene onto a ferry, across the Irish sea and into an adventure that will change all of their lives.
Somehow what should be the worst six days of Terry’s life turn into the best.
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My Book Review
RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars
RULES OF THE ROAD by Ciara Geraghty is a beautifully written and poignant women’s fiction story of friendship, family, and love. It is an emotional journey from start to finish and I was in a complete book hangover/coma when I hit the end. (Have some tissues handy for not only the sad tears, but the happy.)
Terry is a wife, a mother of two grown daughters, the rock of her family and an all-around worrier. Everything must be in its place and every precaution must be taken. The girls are gone now, but she has found out she needs to pick up her father, who has Alzheimer’s from his care home for the week.
When they return home, Terry realizes she has not seen her best and basically only friend and neighbor, Iris recently. Iris loves life. She is bold, says anything and is willing to try anything. But since Iris was diagnosed with primary progressive MS, Terry worries. Iris has been dealing with her disease, but it is and will get progressively worse. When she checks out Iris’ home, she finds her friend has made plans for a journey that will be her last.
Terry knows the only way to stop Iris is to join her. Terry, her father, Eugene and Iris take off on a six-day road trip from Ireland to Switzerland that will change all of their lives.
For me, this book is written with some of the most realistic and memorable characters of any women’s fiction book I have read so far this year. A friendship that at first glance seems strange, but then you realize their friendship is based on a deep love and caring that may not always be spoken, but it is heartfelt and strong. Iris had decided on her path and she enjoys the trip to its fullest, but in the end, she discovers she needs her friend to be with her and she does not want to be alone. Terry is the character that grows and blooms the most along every hour of their trip. Her interactions with her father, her wanting to change her best friend’s mind, the discovery of her own freedom and strengths, all converge in an emotional awakening that this author was able to capture beautifully with the written word. All the secondary characters were also fully fleshed and add an additional depth and realism to the story.
I cannot say enough about this beautiful story!
I highly recommend Rules of the Road!
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About the Author
I was born and reared in Dublin. My mother took one look at me and decided to call me Ciara (pronounced Keira as in Keira Knightly but with lower cheek bones…). When pressed, she said it was because she ‘liked’ the name. From that moment, until I turned thirty-four, I wrote not one word, discounting the diary I kept as a teenager, full of angst and regret and heartache and bitterness; the usual.
Then, when I was 34, I signed up for a creative writing nightclass in Plunkett’s College in Whitehall where I started writing stories. I haven’t stopped since.
I love writing and I hate writing. I love having written. I hate looking at the blank page or the blank screen and knowing that I have to fill it up with words that mightn’t be any good. It’s a bit like going to the gym. You hate going. But you feel great on your way home. Sweaty, with a face like a beef tomato. But great all the same.
I have three children and one husband and have recently adopted a dog who is the same age as my youngest daughter. Together, they are in charge of pretty much everything.
When I was growing up, you could tell the days of the week by the dinners we had. The worst day was Thursday when my mother made us eat liver. She made it worse by serving the liver with lovely homemade chips and sausages and rashers and egg; she called it a ‘mixed grill’. The blood from the liver ran across the plate and tainted everything. One of the best things about being an adult is that I don’t have to eat liver. Or peas. Or semolina.
My favourite time of the day is the night. Or very early in the morning. I wrote my first book, Saving Grace, mostly at night and in the early morning. Now, I write at nine o’clock in the morning and knock off when the children come home from school. I miss the night. And the early morning. But I’ve learned that writing is work and you have to be able to do it during the allocated hours and I suppose I’ve gotten used to it. The best bit about writing a book is the two words ‘The’ and ‘End’. It’s a bit like finding a pub in Ireland where you can smoke after hours – it’s that good.
Writing is addictive, probably because you feel a bit better about things when it’s done. It’s like drink that way, except it won’t give you a hangover or cirrhosis of the liver or anything nasty like that. You might get a stiff arse (that’s bottom in Irish) from sitting in the one place for too long but that’s about it. And even though stiff arses can be uncomfortable, they’re completely worth it when a reader tells me that they’ve read my book and that they liked it. That makes me feel like one of the Whos in Dr. Seuss’s Horton Hears a Who when they shout I am here. I am here. I am here. I am here.
