Saturday 25 November 2017

Blog Tour & Review : His Guilty Secret by Helene Fermont

The Very Pink Notebook is thrilled to be part of
His Guilty Secret
by author Helene Fermont blog tour. 
With thanks to Natalie at The Book Publicist

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Publisher : Fridhem Publishing
27 November 2017
Copy : Paperback received from The Book Publicist for Blog Tour


The Blurb

When Jacques’s body is discovered in a hotel room his wife, Patricia, suspects he has been hiding something from her.

Why was he found naked and who is the woman that visited his grave on the day of the funeral? Significantly, who is the unnamed beneficiary Jacques left a large sum of money to in his will and what is the reason her best friend, also Jacques’s sister, Coco, refuses to tell her what he confided to her?

Struggling to find out the truth, Patricia visits Malmö where her twin sister Jasmine lives and is married to her ex boyfriend. But the sisters relationship is toxic and when a family member dies shortly after, an old secret is revealed that shines a light on an event that took place on their tenth birthday.

As one revelation after the other is revealed, Patricia is yet to discover her husband's biggest secret and what ultimately cost him his life.

His Guilty Secret is an unafraid examination of the tangled bonds between siblings, the lengths we go to in protecting our wrongdoings, and the enduring psychological effects this has on the innocent...and the not so innocent.

The Very Pink Notebook Review

I loved the settings of this book and enjoyed travelling from the UK, to Paris and Sweden.  His Guilty Secret follows the story of Patricia, wife of Jacques, handsome Air France pilot who dies suddenly in a hotel room in London leaving utter devastation behind his dual-led life.  Patricia, as much as she loves and was devoted to Jacques knows little things he did while he was alive didn't add up and as Jacques sister, Coco, shuts down on her when questioned she knows she must discover the truth.

The interesting thing about this book is the reader knows exactly what is going on right from the outset.  So if you are looking for big plot twists and suspense then this might not be the book for you.  What this novel does is look at the psychological minefield of grief, relationships both romantic and siblings and rivalry in personal and business domains.  It seems that while everyone was drifting along portraying an image of the ideal life, marriage and family, in actual fact, no one knows what is really going on behind closed doors.

There are some beautiful paragraphs in this book, mainly belonging to Patricia, as she tries to describe how she is coping with and trying to understand what is and has happened in her life.  They are wonderfully raw, honest and really paint the picture of how vulnerable and stripped the person left behind is after the death of a loved one.     

There are quite a lot of characters and couples in this book and I found it a bit of a shame that not one set was happy or monogamous.  They are all quite strong in opinions and quick to judge and sometimes I found this made everything a little hard to believe.  However, the author has tried hard to make clear the reasons and history for behaviour of most of them.

If you love a book that is a tangled web of lies and deceit that slowly unpicks through a psychological stand point then you will really enjoy His Guilty Secret by Helene Fermont.

A good and steady read and receives a Very Pink Notebook rating of : 



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Sunday 19 November 2017

Blog Tour & Review : The Man in the Needlecord Jacket by Linda MacDonald

The Very Pink Notebook is thrilled to be part of
The Man in the Needlecord Jacket
by author Linda MacDonald blog tour. 
With thanks to Anne at Random Things Through My Letterbox.

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Publisher : Matador
1 May 2017
Copy : Paperback - Received for blog tour

The Blurb

The Man in the Needlecord Jacket follows the story of two women who are each struggling to let go of a long-term destructive partnership. Felicity is reluctant to detach from her estranged archaeologist husband and, after being banished from the family home, she sets out to test the stability of his relationship with his new love, Marianne. 

When Felicity meets Coll, a charismatic artist, she has high hopes of being distracted from her failed marriage. What she doesn’t know is that he has a partner, Sarah, with whom he has planned a future. Sarah is deeply in love with Coll, but his controlling behaviour and associations with other women have always made her life difficult. When he becomes obsessed with Felicity, Sarah’s world collapses and a series of events is set in motion that will challenge the integrity of all the characters involved.


The Very Pink Notebook Review

The Man in the Needlecord Jacket follows the lives of Sarah and Felicity, two women who lead very different lives but are linked by one huge thing - the attention of Coll (or the man in the needlecord jacket). 

Sarah, placid, sensitive librarian is the 'girlfriend' of Coll.  They have been together for over ten years, but have never moved in to one home, never committed to anything more than a set schedule of when they see each other and a holiday now and then.  Coll is very much the controller and Sarah is of the opinion that as a mid-fifties women her choices are limited and she should be grateful for what she has.

Felicity has just returned to the UK following the breakdown of her relationship with young Italian chef, Gianni, the man for whom she left her husband and children and comfortable life living at Deer Orchard for.  She is confident, a business women who owns her own restaurants and she wants her old life back.  She is of the opinion that as a mid-fifties women she deserves to get what she wants.

The three worlds collide when Coll, part-time artist, decides to try and use Felicity's new restaurant as an outlet for selling his artwork.  A game of cat and mouse begins for the pair, much to the devastation of Sarah, who quickly knows there is another OW (other women) on the scene.

The characters and their involvement with one another in this book are deep.  The relationship between Felicity and her soon to be ex-husband, Edward, have been explored in previous novels, however this didn't affect my ability to get a good understanding of the relationship and form an opinion, the author has done well to ensure this works.

I liked the characters who made up Felicity's family - Edward, her four children and respective partners and Marianne, Edwards new partner.  The same can not be said for Felicity herself.  Her determination to get what she wants in life means she ignores the thoughts and feelings of others - but why would that bother her - she has thought about others for all of her life, it is time for what she wants now!

It was a refreshing change to have the main characters, particularly the females, as mid-late fifties.  It was also good to have the two women coming from very different viewpoints of what it is to be a women in mid-life.  On the whole I liked Sarah, although I did want to shake her.  I believe these reactions to the characters are exactly what the author wanted.

There is no likeability in Coll.  There are several hints as to a traumatic childhood, particularly involving bullying at the boarding school to which he was forced to attend, and a suggestion is made as to him having a narcissistic personality disorder of some sort, and would explain his undeniable controlling behaviour towards those around him, but this is never really fully explored and I think I would have liked more on this.  It would have been nice to have been able to have more of an understanding of this character given how central he is to the story.

I enjoyed reading this book.  Although not a great deal happens as such it is an interesting insight in the minds of men and women as they approach mid-life and can explore their world with hindsight and knowledge - and just how different the approaches with these perspectives can be.  It is a good story about relationships - those with yourself and others - and as I have already said, it was a breath of fresh air for the characters to be more mature.

This novel is well written and nicely paced.  The characters are complex and intriguing.  For me personally, I am not sure the structure of the booked needed to be as complicated as it is - split between voices is fine and works well, but it was also in sections with titles and subtitles - I couldn't see the benefit and felt it interrupted what was a very good flow a little too much.

The Man in the Needlecord Jacket receives a Very Pink Notebook rating of : 

About the Author



Linda MacDonald is the author of three independently published novels: Meeting Lydia and the stand-alone sequels, A Meeting of a Different Kind and The Alone Alternative. They are all contemporary adult fiction, multi-themed, but with a focus on relationship issues.

After studying psychology at Goldsmiths', Linda trained as a secondary science and biology teacher. She taught these subjects for several years before moving to a sixth-form college to teach psychology. In 2012, she gave up teaching to focus fully on writing.
Linda was born and brought up in Cockermouth, Cumbria and now lives in Beckenham, Kent. 
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Saturday 18 November 2017

Blog Tour & Review : White Out by Ragnar Jonasson

The Very Pink Notebook is thrilled to be part of
White Out
by author Ragnar Jonasson blog tour. 
With thanks to Karen at Orenda Books and Anne at Random Things Through My Letterbox.


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Publisher : Orenda Books
November 2017
Copy : Paperback - Provided by Publisher for blog tour

The Blurb

Two days before Christmas, a young woman is found dead beneath the cliffs of the deserted village of Kálfshamarvík. Did she jump, or did something more sinister take place beneath the lighthouse and the abandoned old house on the remote rocky outcrop?

With winter closing in and the snow falling relentlessly, Ari Thór Arason discovers that the victim's mother and young sister also lost their lives in this same spot, twenty-five years earlier. As the dark history and its secrets of the village are unveiled, and the death toll begins to rise, the Siglufjordur detectives must race against the clock to find the killer, before another tragedy takes place.

The Very Pink Notebook Review

White Out is another powerful triumph from Nordic Noir master Ragnar Jonasson and translator Quentin Bates.  With it's trademark policeman, Ari Thor and Tomas, the reader is taken to the dark depths of Iceland to try and get to the bottom of the death of young women, Asta.  

Once again Jonasson uses imagery and the enigmatic beauty of Iceland in winter to really create an almost physical atmosphere - I certainly wrapped the blanket around myself a little tighter every time I sat down to read.  This novel in particular is set in the few days lead up to Christmas, where this year Ari Thor is keen to enjoy it with his beloved and heavily pregnant lady, Kristin.  But even Christmas can't get in the way when an investigation gets under his skin and Tomas's eagerness to make an arrest on this case makes him feel uneasy about too much extra digging around.  

After the second death in the space of a few days however, both men know something sinister is at hand and can not be ignored.  Jonasson creates characters so well, and with the group involved, Thora, Oskar, Reynir and Arnor we soon learn they all have secrets they wish to keep hidden.  But it seems that at least one person is aware of each others secret and it is impossible to tell who can be trusted or what lengths they may go to in order to keep those secrets just that.

Jonasson never produces just a plain old 'who done it'.  It is always multi-layered with a touch of history, personal and paranormal aspects explored.  This always makes it impossible to try and guess the ending.  However, whereas some authors do this and then spoil the result by giving a completely implausible and outlandish ending, in these books it never happens.  The truth is completely believable and realistic and most importantly satisfying.

The final pages of White Out leave the reader as hooked as the first few, with an enticing and tantalising teaser and I for one can not wait for the next instalment of the Dark Iceland series.

White Out receives a must read : 





About the Author





Ragnar Jónasson is author of the international bestselling Dark Iceland series. His debut Snowblind went to number one in the kindle charts shortly after publication, and Nightblind, Blackout and Rupture soon followed suit, hitting the number one spot in five countries, and the series being sold in 18 countries and for TV. Ragnar was born in Reykjavik, Iceland, where he continues to work as a lawyer. From the age of 17, Ragnar translated 14 Agatha Christie novels into Icelandic. He has appeared on festival panels worldwide, and lives in Reykjavik with his wife and young daughters.










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