From the Book Elf

  Beyond Beige  by Sylvia Boulay Beyond Beige by Sylvia Boulay  is published today on 28th February 2024 by Ortus Press My thanks to the author and the publisher for sending me a copy to review and to Literally PR for inviting me to open the book tour on publication day. Synopsis “I am old. There was no warning: one minute I was young and the next I tipped into the world of old women. This book is about the joys and horrors of our old age. It will show you the uncensored reality of my experience and that of women who confided in me. You will find humor, despair, and some gritty bits but absolutely no euphemisms. You will either say 'Yes, that's me!' or 'Thank goodness this hasn't happened to me!” Unflinching, honest, and relatable, this illustrated book is neither a celebration of nor a complaint about old age. It is the simple, unadorned truth of a life. Fully illustrated throughout with cartoons and drawings, this fantastic new title shines the brightest of lights...

 Last Chance in Paris  by Lynda Marron Last Chance in Paris by Lynda Marron  was published on the 8th February by Eriu. My thanks to the author and the publisher for sending me a copy to review and to  Compulsive Readers for inviting me to take part on the tour. Synopsis When her husband suggests a romantic break, Claire feels obliged to say yes but immediately regrets it. After the tragedy they've been through, how can one weekend in Paris save their marriage? Claire and Ronan aren't the only people on a make-or-break visit to the City of Love. There is a big-shot movie producer from Hollywood, full of regret for a life ill-lived; a student from Boston, torn between love and duty; a Ukrainian refugee struggling to protect her little sister; and an old woman from Dijon, hoping to be braver than she has ever had to be before. When their lives briefly intertwine, something extraordinary happens... My Review This is a beautiful story of love, loss and acceptance set in ...

 Tristan /Yseulte  by Harry Bonelle Tristan/ Yseult by Harry Bonelle  was published on 31st january 2024 by Unicorn. My thanks to the author and publisher for sending me a copy to review and to Random Things Tours  for inviting me to take part on the tour. Synopsis Tristan/Yseult is a narrative poem about the yearning for oneness in a world split into fragments. A duel on an empty island sets the course for one of the greatest romances ever told. As the lovers of legend meet, something new is born, and something eternal is revealed. Their names will forever be spoken as one. This modern retelling of Tristan and Yseult sheds a stark light on the beauty of the Celtic tale. “Harry Bonelle’s new version taps into the dark and furious energy of the old saga, surging and juddering with life. Bonelle’s actor’s training has encouraged him to liberate the performance piece that its original author must have intended. Thrilling on the page, but even more so spoken loud....

  An Honest Living  by Dwyer Murphy An Honest Living by Dwyer Murphy was published on 21st January 2024 by Bedford Square Publishers. My thanks to the author and the publishers for sending me a copy to review and to Random Things Tours for inviting me to take part on the tour. Synopsis Brooklyn, mid-2000s. After leaving behind the comforts of a prestigious law firm, a restless attorney attempts to make ends meet by picking up odd jobs from a colourful assortment of clients. When the mysterious Anna Reddick turns up at his apartment with ten thousand dollars in cash and asks him to track down her missing husband, he trusts it will be an easy case. That is until the real Anna Reddick shows up - a magnetic but unpredictable literary prodigy - and he finds himself out of his depth and drawn into a series of deceptions involving Joseph Conrad novels, unscrupulous booksellers and seedy real estate developers. Set against the tail end of the analogue era, An Honest Living is a grippi...

  Mr Magenta  by Christopher Bowden  Mr Magenta by Christopher Bowden was published in September 2022 by Langton & Wood My thanks to the author and publisher for sending me a copy to review and to  Random Things Tours for inviting me to take part on the tour. Synopsis Stephen Marling thought he knew his aunt Flora. But when he inherits her house in a quiet south London square a series of discoveries among her papers brings to light another person entirely. Who, for example, is ‘Mr Magenta’ and what part did he play in her life? In the process of uncovering the secrets of one life, Stephen is forced to re-evaluate his own and decide what he really wants. Was he right to turn his back on Nancy Steiner, the young actress he met in New York, when he came home to take up his inheritance? Interweaving past and present, the story takes him from a Brooklyn bookshop to a theatre in Marseille to a cottage on the east coast of England where the truth about Mr Magenta is fin...

  The Lover of No Fixed Abode  by Carlo Fruttero & Franco Lucentini Translated by Gregory Dowling The Lover of No Fixed Abode by Carlo Fruttero & Franco Lucenti  translated by Gregory Dowling was published on 25th January 2024 by Bitter Lemon Press. My thanks to the publishers for sending me a copy to review and to  Random Things Tours for inviting me to take part on the tour. Synopsis The month, November. Glittering worldliness and dubious shabbiness overlap, passion and suspicion intertwine in a three- day Venetian adventure, bookended by the arrival of a plane and the departure of a ship.   It begins with a troubling encounter on a flight to Venice. She is an elegant Roman signora on the search for undervalued paintings and he a mysterious tour guide. She is invited to cosmopolitan parties by Venetian social and art glitterati. Mr. Silvera, a guide whose erudition and distinction are in sharp contrast with his beat- up suitcase and stain-spotted rain...

  Blunt Force  by Lynda La Plante Blunt Force by Lynda La Plante was published by Zaffre on 20th August 2020. My thanks to the author and the publisher for sending me a copy to review and to  Tracy at Compulsive Readers for inviting me to be a part of #TeamDaniels Things can't get much worse for detective Jane Tennison. Unceremoniously kicked off the adrenaline-fuelled Flying Squad, she's been relegated to Gerald Road, a small and sleepy police station in the heart of London's affluent Knightsbridge. With only petty crime to sink her teeth into, Tennison can feel her career slowly flatlining. That is until the discovery of the most brutal murder Jane has ever seen: Charlie Foxley has been found viciously beaten to death, his body dismembered and disembowelled. As a big-time showbiz agent, Foxley had a lot of powerful friends - but even more enemies. And alongside her old friend DS Spencer Gibbs, Tennison must journey into the salacious world of show business to find the k...