Messy Wonderful Us by Catherine Isaac

About the Book

In late 1983, a letter arrives from Italy, containing secrets so unthinkable that it is hidden away, apparently forever. More than three decades later, it is found . . . by the last person who was ever supposed to see it.

When Allie opens an envelope in her grandmother’s house, it changes everything she knows about her family - and herself.

With the truth liable to hurt those she loves most, she hires a private detective to find out what happened to her late mother in the summer before Allie was born. Taking leave from her job as a research scientist, she is led to the sun-drenched shores of Lake Garda, accompanied by her best friend Ed.

But the secrets that emerge go far beyond anything they were expecting. Now, Allie must find the courage to confront her family’s tangled past and reshape her own future.

Title: Messy, Wonderful Us

Author: Catherine Isaac

Published By: Simon & Schuster

Publication Date: 28th November 2019

Links:   

UK:  Amazon        US:  Amazon

Waterstones

WHSmith

Our Review

As with Catherine’s previous book You, Me, Everything, this book was filled with emotional upheaval and heartbreak.

At one point I felt I knew what was coming because of the clues that were laid out in the writing but then BAM! In an instant my pre conceived ideas were turned on their head and I was completely shocked. The author exposes a subject that is still quite taboo but handles it sensitively.

Allie has discovered some disturbing information about her past and nobody will give her answers to the questions this has raised. She has no choice but to travel to Italy in search of the truth. She confides in her best friend Ed and he decides to accompany her on the trip. Then she discovers that Ed has been keeping secrets too.

The writing was just beautiful, I felt as though I were traveling round Italy with them and when Ed finally opens up to Ellie it broke my heart and I could feel how badly it affected Ellie too.

I loved Ellie and Ed and really rooted for them throughout. I found the ending heartbreaking and one of the characters made me so angry, namely Ed’s wife, and just when I thought I couldn’t hate her any more she proved me wrong.

I can’t really gush enough about this book because I loved it so much. It touches on hard hitting subjects, was intriguing and gripping throughout and took me on a beautiful journey to sunny climes.

The writing is intelligent and the story heartbreaking but uplifting. I think it deserves a book of the year title. This story would be amazing on the big screen and would certainly rival Me, Before You.

I simply cannot wait for Catherine’s next book to be out.

Sincerely

Book Angel x

About the Author

Hello and thank you for visiting my author page! After ten years of writing romantic comedy under the pseudonym 'Jane Costello', I came up with the idea for ‘You Me Everything’ and knew it would be different from anything I'd written before.
It was my agent who suggested I should change my name to 'Catherine Isaac' but, after building up a lovely, loyal following in the UK, I don't mind admitting that the idea gave me a few sleepless nights.
In the event ‘You Me Everything’ became by far my biggest writing success to date: it’s been translated into 24 languages, won the Popular Romantic Fiction award at the RoNAs and a movie is in development by Lionsgate and Temple Hill. My next book, ‘Messy, Wonderful Us’ will be published in the UK in November 2019 in hardback and ebook, while the paperback is out in March 2020.
The novels I now write are about family secrets, exploring some difficult themes but with compassion and humour. I love hearing from anyone who’s read them, so please do write an Amazon review if you’re so inclined - or get in touch with me direct, on Twitter @CatherineIsaac_ , Facebook @Catherineisaacauthor, or Instagram @catherineisaacauthor
You’ll find those accounts full of book news, but lots about my gang too - me, my husband Mark, our three boys and dog Maisie.
I still live in Liverpool, where I started my writing career as a trainee news reporter on the Liverpool Echo back in the late 1990s, a time when life-long friendships were forged over deadlines and quite a lot of beer. These days, as well as my writing, I also love running, walking in the Lake District and baking cakes of variable quality.

Best wishes

Catherine

The Curious Heart of Ailsa Rae by Stephanie Butland

Ailsa Rae is learning how to live.

She's only a few months past the heart transplant that - just in time - saved her life. Life should be a joyful adventure. But . . .

Her relationship with her mother is at breaking point and she wants to find her father.
Have her friends left her behind?
And she's felt so helpless for so long that she's let polls on her blog make her decisions for her. She barely knows where to start on her own.

Then there's Lennox. Her best friend and one time lover. He was sick too. He didn't make it. And now she's supposed to face all of this without him.

But her new heart is a bold heart.

She just needs to learn to listen to it . . .

Title: The Curious Heart of Ailsa Rae

Author: Stephanie Butland

Published By:  St Martin's Press

Publication Date: 29th October 2019

Link:   

UK:                       US:

Amazon            Amazon

WHSmith

Waterstones

Sincerely Book Angels are delighted to be able to share an extract from the book.

6 October, 2017
Hard to Bear

It’s 3 a.m. here in cardio-thoracic.

All I can do for now is doze, and think, and doze again. My heart is getting weaker, my body bluer. People I haven’t seen for a while are starting to drop in. (Good to see you, Emily, Jacob, Christa. I’m looking forward to the Martinis.) We all pretend we’re not getting ready to say goodbye. It seems easiest. But my mother cries when she thinks I’m sleeping, so maybe here, now, is time to admit that I might really be on the way out.

I should be grateful. A baby born with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome a few years before I was would have died within days. I’ve had twenty-eight years and I’ve managed to do quite a lot of living in them. (Also, I’ve had WAY more operations than you everyday folk. I totally win on that.) OK, so I still live at home and I’ve never had a job and I’m blue around the edges because there’s never quite enough oxygen in my system. But –

Actually, but nothing. If you’re here tonight for the usual BlueHeart cheerfulness-in-the-teeth-of-disaster, you need to find another blogger.

My heart is failing. I imagine I can feel it floundering in my chest. Sometimes it’s as though I’m holding my breath, waiting to see if another beat will come. I’ve been in hospital for four months, almost non-stop, because it’s no longer tenable for me to be at home. I’m on a drip pumping electrolytes into my blood and I’ve an oxygen tube taped to my face. I’m constantly cared for by peo- ple who are trying to keep me well enough to receive a transplanted heart if one shows up. I monitor every flicker and echo of pain or tiredness in my body and try to work out if it means that things are getting worse. And yes, I’m alive, and yes, I could still be saved, but tonight it’s a struggle to think that being saved is possible. Or even likely. And I’m not sure I have the energy to keep waiting.

And I should be angrier, but there’s no room for anger (remember, my heart is a chamber smaller than yours) because, tonight, I’m scared.

It’s only a question of time until I get too weak to survive a transplant, and then it’s a waste of a heart to give it to me. Someone a bit fitter, and who would get more use from it, will bump me from the top of the list and I’m into the Palliative Care Zone. (It’s not actually called that. And it’s a good, kind, caring place, but it’s not where I want to be. Maybe when I’m ninety-eight. To be honest, tonight, I’d take forty-eight. Anything but twenty-eight.)

I hope I feel more optimistic when the sun comes up. If it does. It’s Edinburgh. It’s October. The odds are about the same as me getting a new heart.

My mother doesn’t worry about odds. She says, ‘We only need the one heart. Just the one.’ She says it in a way that makes me think that when she leaves the ward she’s away to carve one out of some poor stranger’s body herself. And anyway, odds feel strange, because even if my survival chances are, say, 20 per cent, what- ever happens to me will happen 100 per cent. As in, I could be 100 per cent dead this time next week.

Night night, BlueHeart xxx

P.S. I would really, really like for one of you to get your- self a couple of goldfish, or kittens, or puppies, or even horses, and call them Cardio and Thoracic. My preference would be for puppies. Because I love the thought that, if I don’t make it to Christmas, somewhere there will be someone walking in the winter countryside, letting their enthusiastic wee spaniels off the lead, and then howling ‘Cardio! Thoracic!’ as they disappear over the brow of a hill intent on catching some poor terrified sheep. That’s what I call a legacy.

From The Curious Heart of Ailsa Rae by Stephanie Butland. Copyright © 2019 by the author and reprinted by permission of St. Martin’s Publishing Group. 

Thank you so much for joining us today Stephanie and good luck with the book.

Sincerely

Book Angel x

About the Author

Stephanie Butland is the author of beloved bookshop tale 'Lost For Words' and her new novel 'The Curious Heart of Ailsa Rae', released in ebook and paperback 19th April 2018 (available for pre-order now).

Stephanie lives in Northumberland, close to the place where she grew up. She writes in a studio at the bottom of her garden, and loves being close to the sea. She's thriving after cancer.
Twitter: @under_blue_sky
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Stephanie-Butland-Author-282828548412029/
www.stephaniebutland.com
#LostForWords #TheCuriousHeart #AilsaRae

Keeper of Secrets by Lynda Stacey

Fabulous new suspense novel from the author of best selling novels, The Fake Date and House of Secrets.

Should some secrets stay buried?
For as long as Cassie Hunt can remember her Aunt Aggie has spoken about the forgotten world that exists just below their feet, in the tunnels and catacombs of the Sand House. The story is what inspired Cassie to become an archaeologist.
But Aggie has a secret that she’s buried as deep as the tunnels and when excavation work begins on the site, Cassie is the only one who can help her keep it. With the assistance of her old university friend, Noah Flanagan, she puts into action a plan to honour Aggie’s wishes.

It seems the deeper Noah and Cassie dig, the more shocking the secrets uncovered – and danger is never far away, both above and below the ground …

Title: Keeper of Secrets

Author: Lynda Stacey

Published By: Ruby Fiction

Publication Date: 22nd October

Links: UK:   Amazon          US:   Amazon

Our Review

Wow! What a book!

 I’ve enjoyed all of Lynda Stacey’s books so far but I have to say this one is the best yet. 

A combination of intrigue, suspense, love and danger makes this a perfect read. My heart was literally in my mouth for the majority of the story.

Cassie is an archaeologist, inspired by her aunt Aggie who adopted her and her sister after they lost their parents. The love between Cassie and her aunt and sister was so strong it was almost tangible and Cassie would do anything she could to help fulfil her Auntie’s dying wish.

The story was set amongst the sand house and catacombs in Doncaster which really exist and I think that Lynda has created an amazing story in a fascinating and very special real life place.

The love interest was the very hunky Noah who sounded absolutely gorgeous and I thoroughly enjoyed their relationship growing from the friendship they had at Uni. The creepy character in the book made my skin crawl and the description of his intimidation meant I could practically feel him, breathing down my neck.

Lynda is fantastic at building suspense and this book was brimming with it on every page. She has cleverly interwoven a brilliant plot with historical facts. I really couldn’t read this book fast enough and couldn’t put it down. I think this would make a fantastic film which along with the book would make a brilliant tribute to the mysterious Sand house especially as it has now been filled in for ever. 

Sincerely

Book Angel x

About the Author

Lynda grew up in the mining village of Bentley, Doncaster, in South Yorkshire and went to both Bentley New Village School, and Don Valley High School.

She is currently the Sales Director of a stationery, office supplies and office furniture company in Doncaster, where she has worked for the past 25 years. Prior to this she'd also been a nurse, a model, an emergency first response instructor and a PADI Scuba Diving Instructor ... and yes, she was crazy enough to dive in the sea with sharks, without a cage.

Following a car accident in 2008, Lynda was left with limited mobility in her right arm. Unable to dive or teach anymore, she turned to her love of writing, a hobby she'd followed avidly since being a teenager.

Her own life story, along with varied career choices helps Lynda to create stories of romantic suspense, with challenging and unpredictable plots, along with (as in all romances) very happy endings.

Lynda joined the Romantic Novelist Association in 2014 under the umbrella of the New Writers Scheme and in 2015, her debut novel House of Secrets won the Choc Lit Search for a Star competition.

She lives in a small rural hamlet near Doncaster, with her 'hero at home husband', Haydn, whom she's been happily married to for over 20 years.

Come and find me at www.lyndastacey.co.uk to hear my latest news. You could follow me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/lyndastaceyauthor or watch out for my tweets @Lyndastacey

Come say hello. I'd love to hear from you. Oh and if you love the book, I'd be really grateful if you'd take the time to leave me a review.

A Deathly Silence by Jane Isaac

About the Book

When the mutilated body of a police officer is found in a derelict factory, the Hamptonshire police force is shocked to the core.

DCI Helen Lavery returns from injury leave and is immediately plunged into an investigation like no other. Is this a random attack or is someone targeting the force? Organised crime groups or a lone killer?

As the net draws in, Helen finds the truth lies closer than she could have imagined, and trusts no one.

But Helen is facing a twisted killer who will stop at nothing to ensure their secrets remain hidden. And time is running out...

A gripping thriller perfect for fans of Gillian Flynn, S.J. Watson, B A Paris and Sophie Hannah

Title: A Deathly Silence

Author:  Jane Isaac

Published By: Legend Press

Publication Date: 15th October 2019

Links: 

UK:  Amazon           US:   Amazon

Waterstones

WHSmith

Author Q and A with Jane Isaac

Welcome to Sincerely Book Angels blog. 
Thank you so much for inviting me onto your blog, it’s lovely to be here!


What was the inspiration behind A Deathly Silence? 
Police officers face more than their fair share of trauma and tragedy in their careers. With A Deathly Silence I wanted to explore how it would feel for an officer to face murder within their own family and how they’d react. The narrative is partly told through the eyes of Detective Chief Inspector Helen Lavery who is investigating the crime, and partly through the eyes of PC Blane O’Donnell whose wife, also a cop, is found brutally murdered in a disused warehouse.

Did you always want to be a writer? 
Not at all. I’ve always been a big reader and a perennial student – interested in everything, which is pretty important for a novelist because of all the research involved. I’ve taken an eclectic mix of different courses over the years including law, sociology, sign language and pottery! It was a creative writing course that introduced me to the world of writing fiction in my late thirties.


What other jobs have you had? 
I was a Civil Servant for the first eighteen years of my working life, and then left to take a job as a part time buyer for an engineering company which I balanced with working on my books. I’ve been writing full time for almost three years now.


How did it feel when your first novel was published?
It was a very special moment. It’s so difficult to attract an agent and a publisher; many of us authors have had long and rocky roads to publication. I feel privileged now to be able to do something I enjoy for a living.


Can you please tell us a little about your publishing story. 
Although I found an agent fairly quickly, they struggled to find a publisher for my first novel and eventually it was released in the US by a small publisher in 2012. Luckily it was nominated for an award and I was able to sign with London based Legend Press with my second offering. Legend have gone on to publish many of my subsequent books.


What other books have you written? 
I have written three books in the DI Will Jackman series, set in Stratford-upon-Avon: Before It’s Too Late, Beneath the Ashes and The Lies Within. Two books in the DC Beth Chamberlain (Family Liaison Officer) series: After He’s Gone and Presumed Guilty.

A Deathly Silence marks the third in my DCI Helen Lavery series, following An Unfamiliar Murder (my debut) and The Truth Will Out.


Have you ever had writer's block? 
Yes, I get little blind spots in my writing all the time. Sometimes, I can’t think how to create a scene, or effect a particular twist in the story. Occasionally, I know how I want a scene to start and finish, but not how it will play out.


If so how did you overcome it?
Usually, I’ll spend a day researching, or I travel out to a location to get a feel for the place. If that doesn’t stimulate the creative juices then I’ll take a few days out and read someone else’s work. Our brains live with our plotlines and characters constantly. Occasionally, mine decides it needs a rest😊


What motivates you to keep writing?
I love the twists and turns of a good mystery and it’s such a buzz working through it all and bringing it to the page. Plus, readers are so lovely and supportive, I always find their messages very motivational.


Where is your favourite place to write? (can we please have a picture)

This is my writing room, it’s very functional. In reality, as long as I have a laptop or a notebook, I can write anywhere.

Do your characters moods ever affect your mood and vice versa? 
I’m not sure their moods have a lasting effect on me but I do feel I have to get ‘into character’, to feel what they feel, in order to bring it to the page. If I’m writing a sad scene, it’s not unusual for me to cry though I am able to detach and the feelings don’t continue afterwards.


What three pieces of advice would you give to an aspiring writer?
Read as much as you can in and around the genre you are interested in. Write something every day, even if it’s a diary entry or just a few lines of narrative. And have fun. Publishing is a tough business, it’s important to enjoy the process of creating your work.


Which authors inspire you?
Goodness, there are so many! I particularly like the early Nicci French psychological thrillers and the police procedural series by Linda Castillo which is based in the Amish community in the US.


What are you reading at the moment?
The Fear Within by J S Law and it’s gripping!


If your book was made into a film what song would you choose for the opening credits?
Every Breath You Take by The Police


Who would you choose to play your favourite character in the film of your book? 
I would love to see Helen Baxendale play DCI Helen Lavery. I can really picture her in the role.


What is your next book about? 
I’m just putting the finishing touches to the third book in my DC Beth Chamberlain, Family Liaison Officer series, due for publication next year, where a body has been buried in concrete. Concrete has preserving properties, so it makes for a very interesting mystery!


Thank you so much for joining us on our blog today and good luck with the book.
Thank you, that’s so kind!

Sincerely 

Book Angel x

About the Author

Jane Isaac studied creative writing with the Writers Bureau and the London School of Journalism. Jane’s short stories have appeared in several crime fiction anthologies. Her debut novel, An Unfamiliar Murder, was published in the US in 2012, and was followed by three novels with Legend Press: The Truth Will Out in 2014, Before It’s Too Late in 2015, and Beneath the Ashes in 2016.

Jane lives in rural Northamptonshire with her husband, daughter and dog, Bollo.

Visit Jane at janeisaac.co.uk or on Twitter @JaneIsaacAuthor

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