A Sky Full of Stars by Dani Atkins

 

The new heart-breaking love story from award-winning romance writer Dani Atkins. 

He'd have done everything differently if he'd known she'd be gone so soon...

When Lisa married Alex, she gave his life meaning. She was a professional astronomer: a stargazer. And when she gazed at Alex, she saw that behind his tough exterior was a man she could love.

Alex, Lisa and their young son Connor made a happy little universe. But when Lisa dies suddenly, their universe is destroyed. Alex is shattered by loss, and overwhelmed by the difficulties of being a single father to a six-year-old boy.

Then Alex meets four strangers. Two men and two women, who never met Lisa, but whose lives changed profoundly because she died. As Alex hears their stories, he begins to realise the world may not be as cruel and senseless as it seems. Perhaps, after all, the future is written in the stars...

Title: A Sky Full of Stars

Author: Dani Atkins

Published By:  Head of Zeus

Publication Date:  4th Feb 2021

Links:  UK:  Amazon   US:  Amazon

WHSmith 

Waterstones

Our Review

You can always guarantee tears with a Dani Atkins novel and this one certainly lived up to expectations, even the stunning cover evokes really strong emotions. 

The story starts with a tragic incident that leaves a family heartbroken when astronomer Lisa is killed and leaves behind her husband Alex and young son Connor. Dani encapsulates raw emotion so effectively that you can almost touch it and you can definitely feel it. 

As Alex tried to come to terms with his loss he feels helpless as he watches his son turn into a shell of his former self. One thing that helps Alex through is when he hears from four people who were recipients of Lisa’s organs and corneas. When Molly, Barbara, Jamie and Mac all meet up there is no denying that they have an unbreakable bond and I loved watching those relationships grow. 

I also loved the characters of Todd and Dee, Alex’s brother and sister in law and the love between them all which was so touching and strong. It was clear that they worried about Alex a lot and weren’t afraid to tell him when they thought he was out of order. 

Eventually as the book comes to its conclusion we find out just how each person fits into the puzzle of life. The author touches on the theory of cellular memory which I find totally intriguing and it was so interesting how it was portrayed in the story too. The ending just sent tingles down my spine as it was so lovely.

I thoroughly enjoyed this gentle glimpse into the lives of Alex and Connor and thought it was lovely how Lisa’s memory lived on in their lives and the lives of so many others. A Sky Full of Stars is wonderfully evocative and a beautiful heart-breaking yet uplifting read about love in all its many forms. 

Sincerely

Book Angel x

About the Author

Dani Atkins is an award-winning novelist. Her 2013 debut FRACTURED (published as THEN AND ALWAYS in North America) has been translated into seventeen languages and has sold more than half a million copies since first publication in the UK.

Dani is the author of five other bestselling novels (THE STORY OF US, OUR SONG, THIS LOVE, WHILE I WAS SLEEPING and A MILLION A DREAMS) and PERFECT STRANGERS, a standalone eBook novella. In 2018, THIS LOVE won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award at the RNA awards in London.

Dani lives in a small village in Hertfordshire with her husband, one Siamese cat and a very soppy Border Collie.

Follow Dani on twitter @AtkinsDani or get in touch on Facebook at www.facebook.com/daniatkinsauthor

The Heights by Louise Candlish

He thinks he’s safe up there. But he’ll never be safe from you. 

The Heights is a tall, slender apartment building among the warehouses of Tower Bridge, its roof terrace so discreet you wouldn’t know it existed if you weren't standing at the window of the flat directly opposite. But you are. And that’s when you see a man up there – a man you’d recognize anywhere. He’s older now and his appearance has subtly changed, but it’s definitely him. 

Which makes no sense at all since you know he has been dead for over two years.  You know this for a fact.  

Because you’re the one who killed him.  It’s time to confess what we did up there.

‘Kieran Watts has been dead for over two years when I see him standing on the roof of a building in Shad Thames…’

 Title:  The Heights

Author: Louise Candlish

Published By: Simon & Schuster

Publication Date: 5th August 2021

Links:  UK:  Amazon      US:  Amazon

WHSmith

Waterstones Signed Edition

Our Review

I've already been blown away with Louise Candlish's previous books, Our House, Those People and The Other Passenger, and The Heights certainly lived up to the high expectations of another thrilling ride from this author.

Normally I find that I actually dislike most of the characters in Louise's books but I still feel compelled to read as I love being infuriated by them followed by an intense satisfaction when they usually get what they deserve, also the plots are brilliant and full of twists and turns.

In the heights I could totally empathise with and feel the fear of the main character Ellen as she talks us through her feelings going back to when her son was asked to befriend a troubled boy at school. As the boy Keiran began to have an affect on her son's behaviour and attitude I found myself feeling more and more tense and enraged. As a mother I could totally get how she was feeling against this boy who was ruining her son's life after her bringing him up as a decent hard working young man. I think all parents at some point wish they could wrap their children up in cotton wool and protect them from the world, but we can't and this was so painfully apparent. The book described her relationships with her current partner and her ex neither of whom seem to fully understand her pain fully. I found the delve into her psyche absolutely fascinating especially as she has to deal with an unbearable loss and I was totally on her side throughout.

I felt sorry for Ellen as sometimes she appeared to be shouting into the void as no one seemed to be listening to her. It was interesting seeing it from her point of view but also from her impression of how other characters saw her which added to the feelings of frustration as it was obvious they thought she was unhinged. I thought she had every right to act as she did especially after the punch-to-the-stomach reveals that take place which just shows how much this book gets inside your head. In real life I wouldn't agree with some of the decisions she made but in the book the pull of revenge is so strong.

This book is cleverly written with unexpected twists, and sensitively but honestly portrays the raw emotion of a mother suffering heartbreak from the worst loss imaginable. I'm sure we will be seeing this on the big screen soon.

Sincerely

Book Angel x

About the Author

Hello and welcome! I am the author of 15 novels, a fact I can't quite believe myself. THE HEIGHTS is my newest - it's a twisty revenge thriller whose narrator, Ellen, has a strange fear of heights known as 'high place phenomenon'. You could say she's my most Hitchcock-inspired character yet! I can't wait for you to read it and share your thoughts.

Out now in paperback, THE OTHER PASSENGER (I call it 'commuter noir') was one of the biggest sellers of lockdown (a dubious honour), selling 250,000 copies in the UK to date. It's my first ever Richard & Judy Book Club pick and was longlisted for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award 2021, which makes me very happy.

OUR HOUSE is the book that turned my career around - right when I was about to give up. It won the 2019 British Book Awards Book of the Year - Crime & Thriller and was shortlisted for the Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award, the Capital Crime Amazon Publishing Best Crime Novel of the Year Award​, and the Audible Sounds of Crime Award. It was also longlisted for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award and the Specsavers National Book Awards. Filming is underway for a major four-part drama by Red Planet Pictures for ITV, starring Martin Compston, Tuppence Middleton and Rupert Penry-Jones. I couldn't have asked for more, really, and feel so proud that readers are continuing to discover it and recommend it far and wide.

A bit about me: I live in a South London neighbourhood not unlike the one in my books, with my husband, teenage daughter, and a fox-red Labrador called Bertie who is the apple of my eye. Books, TV and long walks have been my top sanity savers during recent times. Oh, and wine.

Get up-to-date offers by clicking on the yellow 'Follow' button under my pic. For more book news (and doting pictures of Bertie), catch me on Twitter @louise_candlish, on Instagram @louisecandlish or find out more at louisecandlish.com and facebook.com/LouiseCandlishAuthor. I'd love to hear from you.

Author photos ©Johnny Ring; ©Joe Lord/Archant

I Know What You've Done by Dorothy Koomson

Do you have any idea what the people you know are capable of? Bestselling author of All My Lies Are True, Dorothy Koomson, asks how well you can really know your neighbours. Fans of Lisa Jewell and Louise Candlish will rip through the pages of this addictive new thriller.

What if all your neighbours' secrets landed in a diary on your doorstep?

What if the woman who gave it to you was murdered by one of the people in the diary?

What if the police asked if you knew anything?

Would you hand over the book of secrets?

Or... would you try to find out what everyone had done?

I Know What You've Done is the unputdownable thriller from the Queen of the Big Reveal.

Title:  I Know What You've Done

Author: Dorothy Koomson

Published By: Headline

Publication Date: 8th July

Links:  

UK  Amazon      US:   Amazon

Waterstones

WHSmith

Our Review

The first thing I need to mention is that I would hate to live in Acacia Villas as I just wouldn’t know who to trust. The second is that I'm a huge Dorothy Koomson fan and every time I finish one of her books, after a period of reflection - I still haven't got over some of the shocks from her last book All My Lies Are True, - I am then chomping at the bit for the next one.

I Know What You've Done is Dorothy's 17th novel and begins with an intriguing prologue about a woman called Priscilla who knows that someone is going to kill her she just doesn't know how or when.

Priscilla is not well liked in the neighbourhood as she tends to look down on everybody but while she outwardly appears to be completely uninterested in her neighbours at Acacia Villas she certainly knows a lot about them. When she turns up bleeding on another woman called Rae's doorstep the tension begins, and so does the mystery of who would want to kill her. Rae is tormented because Priscilla had uttered the words 'I know what you've done' and told her that she'd written everything in a book she had in her hands and that she was going to hand it to the police. But then she falls and drops the notebook in Rae's hall. Rae hides the book but is then torn  because she wants to find out what Priscilla knew about her and the other neighbours but she is also consumed with guilt and fear as she knows she should have handed it over to the police. The more time passes the riskier it becomes as she then feels she can't hand it over because she will be in real trouble especially as she needs to know what it is exactly that Priscilla knows about her and everybody else. I found myself shouting to her to hand it in as the tension was mounting and my heart was palpating.

The chapters are headed by the names and house numbers of the neighbours, each one with something to hide and a reason to want to shut Priscilla up once and for all. The tension and intrigue is constant and the story moves along at a really fast pace. Visiting each house through Priscilla's eyes the neighbours stories begin to unravel as Rae reads the book and discovers the secrets and lies and crimes that have been committed between and against them all.

The backdrop to the story mentioned the pandemic without actually mentioning it as such in that it was referred to without too much detail and I think that as in reality everybody's lives had been affected by that and that some of them perhaps weren't acting as they would have done pre-pandemic.

 As with all Dorothy Koomson books there are shocks as secrets from the past are revealed and you begin to realise that nobody really and truly knows what others are capable of.

Can't wait for the next thriller from Dorothy

Sincerely

Book Angel x

About the Author

 Dorothy Koomson is the award-winning author of 15 novels and has been making up stories since she was 13 when she used to share her stories with her convent school friends. Her published titles include: Tell Me Your Secret, The Brighton Mermaid, The Friend, When I Was Invisible, That Girl From Nowhere, The Flavours of Love, The Woman He Loved Before, Goodnight, Beautiful and The Chocolate Run.

Dorothy’s first novel, The Cupid Effect, was published in 2003 (when she was quite a bit older than 13). Her third book, My Best Friend’s Girl, was selected for the Richard & Judy Summer Reads of 2006 and went on to sell over 500,000 copies. While her fourth novel, Marshmallows For Breakfast, has sold in excess of 250,000 copies. Dorothy’s books, The Ice Cream Girls and The Rose Petal Beach were both shortlisted for the popular fiction category of the British Book Awards in 2010 and 2013, respectively.

Dorothy’s novels have been translated into over 30 languages, and a TV adaptation loosely based on The Ice Cream Girls was shown on ITV1 in 2013. After briefly living in Australia, Dorothy now lives in Brighton.

In 2019 Dorothy was awarded the Image Award by The Black British Business Awards to celebrate and honour her achievements.

For more information on Dorothy Koomson visit www.dorothykoomson.co.uk