#BlogTour The Woman Who Got Her Spark Back by Fiona Gibson

 

Synopsis

Is it ever too late to bloom?

Meet Celia. Life hasn’t worked out quite how she’d planned.

Since her son left for university, Celia has felt stuck at home – battling with her husband Geoff over control of the thermostat, and without the merest glint of a social life. Her only joy comes from the plants she nurtures in her makeshift plant hospital in their Glasgow flat.

Then three unexpected things happen:

1. She catches Geoff in bed with a secretary from his sausage factory (no pun intended).
2. Her high-flying best friend Amanda arrives on her doorstep without warning (but with a very large suitcase).
3. A tall handsome French teacher asks her to tend his daughter’s cactus back to health.

Suddenly, Celia finds her life in freefall, but she makes a decision: she won’t let this be the end of her. She’ll bring herself back to life, just like the plants she works her magic on. But just how do you change the habits of a lifetime?

My Review

In The Woman Who Got Her Spark Back by Fiona Gibson we are introduced to Celia, a hardworking wife and mother. Her marriage is plodding along, mainly because her husband doesn't like change, and since her son went to university the only things that really bring her any joy are the houseplants she nurses back to health in her "Houseplant Hospital". Celia is one of those characters who would willingly continue with the status quo, despite the lack of joy in her life, simply to keep everyone around her happy. It is only catching her husband in flagrante that causes her to take a close look at her life.

Celia is aided by the unexpected arrival of her childhood friend Amanda. Amanda left Glasgow as soon as she was old enough and went to London to study fashion but eventually became a TV presenter. The only problem is that Amanda is now at that age where she's no longer considered "right for TV". Fleeing London to lick her wounds, she ends up on Celia's doorstep, something completely unforeseen as they've barely kept in touch.

Amanda and Celia are like chalk and cheese and this is why the pairing works so well. Amanda is polished and self-assured, she loves performing makeovers. Celia is downtrodden and timid, she reluctantly becomes Amanda's pet project. It is lovely to see Celia slowly blossom, particularly as the changes made are only small tweaks, it's more about the newfound confidence Amanda inspires. Watching Celia embrace her new life is a catalyst for Amanda to make some changes too.

The main characters are engaging, along with a handsome romantic interest and a precocious child. There is a smattering of humour; I'll never be able to look at a butternut squash in the same way again and will consider pink wafer biscuits to be dangerous weapons from now on.

Everything is presented at a brisk pace which keeps you engaged and turning the pages. Avoiding dragging the conclusion out, the author wraps everything up quickly with an uplifting ending showing us how the characters have adapted to the changes in their lives.

The Woman Who Got Her Spark Back by Fiona Gibson is available in paperback, ebook and audio format. My thanks to Boldwood Books and Rachel's Random Resources for a review copy.

Purchase Link - https://mybook.to/GotHerSparkBack

Author Details

Fiona Gibson writes bestselling and brilliantly funny novels about the craziness and messiness of family life.

The Protest by Rob Rinder

 

During a protest by an anti-war group of activists, a prominent artist is killed. The young activist responsible is charged with murder and fledgling barrister Adam Green is part of her defense team.

The Protest by Rob Rinder is the third book in the Adam Green series and works perfectly well as a standalone legal thriller. However, if you want to have a better understanding of the role of a young barrister and the relationships between the different characters he works alongside I would recommend reading the first two books in the series, The Trial (you can read my review here) and The Suspect (my review is here).

The story opens with the shocking murder of the country's greatest living artist during the opening of a retrospective of his work. A young woman, part of an anti-war group, sprays the artist in the face with blue paint. While the incident is shocking, initially everyone assumes it is simply another protest by the Stop The War group. The sudden collapse of the artist, followed by his death, is quickly revealed to be a result of the spray paint being poisoned.

Adam Green, working with a more experienced barrister, is part of the defense team for the accused, Lexi Williams. We're given a glimpse into how legal proceedings work, including the amount of pressure placed on trainees and newly qualified barristers - I'm not sure the author is really selling the profession! Those at the start of their career seem to be juggling numerous cases while burning the candle at both ends simply to keep up. More experienced colleagues are able to leave most of the work to their junior colleagues, yet take all the glory when a case is successful. A prime example of this is Adam's ex-pupil master Jonathan Taylor-Cameron. Jonathan is still an absolute letch, the mere mention of his name is enough to make me cringe, and he's now making life difficult for his new pupil Stacey.

Stacey is a breath of fresh air. She's not intimidated by the more experienced barristers and shows Adam that you don't have to work 24/7. Their budding friendship has a positive influence on Adam, making him reflect on his current lifestyle. Another colleague, Georgina, who started at the same time as Adam, reinforces this. I began to wonder if romance was on the horizon for Adam, it would certainly please his mother.

The defense team is hampered by the attitude of the accused. Young Lexi Williams comes across as a petulant young adult filled with conspiracy theories, all she seems concerned about is how many followers she's got on social media. This is juxtaposed by the defendant in another case Adam is working on, a young soldier facing a military court. Both young people are accused of murder, one during a protest against war, the other as a soldier fighting the same war. The contrast between the two different courts is an eye-opener, as is the way in which both accused carry themselves.

Adam is constantly looking over his shoulder as he investigates both crimes, the threats from a previous case still loom large and you get a real sense of menace. Shadowy figures and echoing footsteps had my pulse increasing as I became more and more worried for Adam's well-being. With two major cases to conclude you begin to wonder not only about success but also about survival. As for the outcome of the trials - I'm not going to spoil anything, but the ending was very unexpected.

The Protest by Rob Rinder will be published on 19th June 2025 in hardback, ebook and audio format. My thanks to NetGalley and Century for a review copy.

Author Details

Rob Rinder is a barrister turned broadcaster and Sunday Times No. 1 bestselling author. Called to the bar in 2001, Rob went on to specialise in cases involving murder, international fraud, money laundering and other forms of financial crime, while working in media to make law more accessible. He started his broadcast career with Judge Rinder for ITV winning a Royal Television Society Award before going on to host his own BBC 5Live series Raising the Bar.

Rob’s participation in Who Do You Think You Are? retraced the story of his Holocaust survivor grandfather and received a BAFTA. The BBC series he presented, The Holocaust, My Family and Me, was aired to wide critical acclaim and he has gone on to curate and present notable documentaries on a range of topics, from international conflict to medieval history and, recently, the history of prisons. In 2020, Rob was awarded an MBE for his services to Holocaust education and an honorary doctorate for his legal work.

A regular host on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Rob co-hosts BBC Two’s Amazing Hotels: Life Beyond The Lobby and recently appeared in a new show about art and travel, The Grand Tour, which saw Rob and his co-host Rylan retrace the footsteps of cultural greats around Italy.

Rob’s novels The Trial and The Suspect are inspired by his experiences as a barrister.

Isabella's Not Dead by Beth Morrey

 

Forty years after playing hockey together at school, a group of women hold a reunion. However, one of their number is missing, Isabella hasn't been seen or heard from in fifteen years. Lots of rumours swirl, from living abroad to being dead. Her best friend Gwen sets out to discover what really happened to Isabelle.

I've loved Beth Morrey's style of writing since I stumbled across the wonderful Saving Missy. Her books are filled with wonderful characters and a real sense of community, stories that lighten your heart and leave you with a smile on your face. In her last newsletter, the author said that her next book, Isabella's Not Dead would be a little different, so I was very keen to see how different.

There is a definite mystery element to the storyline. The get-together weekend ends up with some of the women using an Ouija board. As the board begins to spell out a name, I.....S.....A.....B, talk among the group turns to the missing Isabella. It becomes clear that none of them have had contact with Isabella in years, although there have been possible sightings in various towns and cities, even as far away as Italy and America. Isabella has simply fallen off everyone's radar and as a result, they begin to wonder if she's dead. Isabella's best friend, Gwen, is convinced she's still alive but is a spy, hence being incommunicado, and decides to track her down.

Gwen obviously feels guilty about letting a friendship slip away. There is lots of reminiscing as Gwen tries to focus her search, deciding where would be the best place to start her mission. Gwen realises that she has a lot to do with the friendship fizzling out, life got in the way and communication dried up. Before Gwen knew it a long time had passed and she felt too embarrassed to try and reconnect so didn't bother. I'm sure lots of us will know that feeling. What makes things different this time around is that Gwen is drifting. Having lost her job she's passing the time by making mosaics to sell on Etsy but feels very aimless. Tracking down Isabella gives her a goal, a purpose in life.

Trying to track down Isabella isn't easy, responses to Gwen's queries are vague at best, adding to the air of mystery. Even among all the questions and doubt, Beth Morrey's humour is evident. Gwen is all too well aware of the pecking order in her husband's affection (Mabel the Labrador comes first) and her mother-in-law is unbelievably contrary. The mother-in-law, Morag, provides some of the best scenes in the book; an over-the-top eighty-two-year-old with money to burn and absolutely no filter, comedy gold.

Through all the ups and downs of the search I kept willing Gwen on, I was fully invested in her quest. I had a vague inkling surrounding the whole disappearance and was eager to know if I was right. By the end, Gwen finds the answers she was looking for, although not necessarily the happy-ever-after she'd assumed would come with those answers. What she does find is a new sense of purpose and the realisation that life, like friendship, requires effort. Fans of the author won't be disappointed by this slight diversion in style.

Isabella's Not Dead by Beth Morrey will be published on 19th June 2025 in hardback, ebook and audio format. My thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for a review copy.

Author Details

Previously Creative Director at RDF Television, Beth Morrey now writes full time. Her debut novel, Saving Missy, was a Sunday Times bestseller and longlisted for the Authors' Club First Novel Award. Beth lives in London with her husband, two sons and two poodles.

Some Of Us Are Liars by Fiona Cummins

 

A close-knit family is rocked to its core when one of them is held responsible for the death of a child. As the circumstances around the death are investigated shocking secrets are discovered.

Author Fiona Cummins has written another sure-fire bestseller with Some Of Us Are Liars. I was immediately gripped by the intriguing opening pages and then found I couldn't put the book down, I had to know what had transpired. Obviously, with a title including the word liars you know that there will be secrets people are desperate to stop being uncovered, the enjoyment is in trying to spot them. Skilled writers like Fiona Cummins have this knack of keeping you dangling until the very end.

Jen Miller is close to both her elder sister Winter and her younger sister Alyssa. Not only do all three share a strong bond but their homes are close together and Jen and Alyssa's husbands work together. Life is perfect, and much of that is thanks to the fact that there are no money worries as the eldest sister Winter is a successful actress who has shared her success with her family.

Jen and her husband Phil snuck away and married in secret, much to the annoyance of the rest of the family. Winter insists on throwing a lavish party so they can reaffirm their vows in front of friends and family. It is during this party that disaster strikes and Jen's young son, Teddy, is killed, with Alyssa being held responsible. How does such a devoted family come to terms with such a tragic event?

The story is told from different perspectives, and time periods, with the majority of the story focusing on Jen and Alyssa. It is incredibly easy to understand Jen's emotional state as she swings from the excitement of being centre of attention on such a momentous day to dealing with the agony of losing a child. Alongside this, we see the guilt both Winter and Alyssa feel. As the story moves between the different characters it becomes clear that quite a few of them are hiding secrets and you begin to wonder if this ideal, loving family is as perfect as it initially seemed. There is also the intrigue as to how the seemingly unrelated and disturbing events from the past fit into the tale.

DS Saul Anguish does feature quite a bit as he deals with his own relationship and a secret investigation the Chief Constable has asked him to carry out. The two threads do combine but Saul isn't the main part of this story as the focus is primarily on the three sisters and how they struggle to come to terms with the harrowing event and its aftermath, a situation that has the ability to tear apart families.

Secrets, grief, murder and a stalker all combine to keep you gripped. I did manage to figure out one of the secrets but that really only scratched the surface in this complex and shocking story. 

Some Of Us Are Liars by Fiona Cummins will be published on 19th June 2025 in hardback, ebook and audio format. My thanks to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for a review copy.

Author Details

Fiona Cummins is an award-winning former journalist and a graduate of the Faber Academy Writing a Novel course. Rattle, her debut novel, was the subject of a huge international auction and has been translated into several languages. It received widespread critical acclaim from authors and reviewers. She has since written bestsellers The Collector, The Neighbour, When I Was Ten and Into the Dark in which she introduces DC Saul Anguish, a brilliant young detective with a dark past. Fiona lives with her family in Essex.

May 2025 Reads

 

I have no idea where May went, one moment I was posting a round-up of my April reads and the next it's June. The month started well with a holiday. I used the holiday as an opportunity to catch up with a few books on my TBR pile. Returning home was a shock to the system as I felt as if I was chasing my tail trying to catch up. Unfortunately, this means I've fallen a little behind with reading review books. June is going to be all about getting up to date.

The month began with the incredibly creepy We Live Here Now by Sarah Pinborough. Emily and Freddie buy a remote country house and Emily is convinced it’s haunted. Freddie tries to pass the events off as post-sepsis hallucinations following a traumatic accident that saw Emily in a coma for months. As Emily investigates you wonder if there is a supernatural element or a serious case of gaslighting taking place.

My Twitter/X feed was filled for months with pre-publication praise for The Midnight King by Tariq Ashkanani. I’m pleased to say that the book lives up to the hype. Nathan Cole returns to his childhood home following the suicide of his writer father. Discovering a manuscript that tells the story of the exploits of a serial killer brings back troubling memories for Nathan and leads the reader along a dark and sinister path.

A cheating husband forces Celia to re-evaluate her life in The Woman Who Got Her Spark Back by Fiona Gibson. An accidental pregnancy at the age of seventeen has resulted in Celia accepting that “good enough” is all she’s entitled to. Discovering her husband’s affair and the sudden reappearance of a long-lost friend sees Celia embrace a new, but not drastically different, life. A change in her self-esteem and a hint of romance make Celia realise what she is missing.

Lots of review books meant that I’d kept putting off my next visit to Slough House but I’m desperate to get up to date for the new book due to be published in September. My holiday resulted in me reading Joe Country by Mick Herron, book 6 in the Slough House/Slow Horses series. The ominous opening makes it clear that lives will be lost as the failed spies find themselves in unfamiliar terrain trying to rescue the teenage son of Min Harper. There’s also a new face at Slough House causing problems for Jackson Lamb.

The Countdown Killer by Sam Holland is the fourth book in the Major Crimes series and feels very much like the conclusion of a storyline. DCI Cara Elliott and her team, still reeling from their dealings with the serial killer known as The Puppet Master, find themselves dealing with a new foe. Someone is kidnapping and carrying out gruesome acts of retribution against individuals who seem to have gotten away with their crimes. It soon becomes clear that there are links to a previous killer.

I’d heard so much praise for Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall that I wanted to see what all the buzz was about but was a tiny bit hesitant that it might be a bit literary so saved it for my holiday when I’d have plenty of time to devote to reading. I needn’t have worried as this wonderful love story has got to be one of the easiest, and most absorbing, books I’ve read this year. A love triangle, with devastating consequences, had me completely captivated. I so wanted a happy ending for everyone.

Births, Deaths And Marriages by Laura Barnett is likened to Four Weddings And A Funeral and One Day. Twenty years after meeting at university, six friends are brought together over the space of a year and we learn if their lives have gone as they had hoped. All of the characters are perfectly likeable, I just didn’t really engage with any of them. I did recognise the feeling that at twenty you assume you’ll have your life sorted by the time you are forty. This is a book that will probably resonate more with millennials.

My next read was for my new book group. Stolen by Rebecca Muddiman is set in the northeast and starts with a young mother being assaulted on a lonely country road and her baby goes missing. A police investigation draws a blank. While an easy read and filled with emotion I found the lead detective (this is the first in a series) to be one-dimensional.

I was over the moon to get a review copy of my next read, The Killer Question by Janice Hallett. Being a fan of the author and hearing her talk about the book at Bay Tales 25 I had a vague idea of what to expect. Fans are in for a treat, this is her best yet. Based around a regular quiz night at an isolated country pub, there’s murder, deceit, blackmail and, possibly worst of all, cheating! All told via emails, texts and WhatsApp messages. You won’t want to put this down once you start it.

Another exciting review book was Some Of Us Are Liars by Fiona Cummins which opens with a court case following the death of a four-year-old child. The person on trial is the child’s aunt. Over the course of the book, we learn about the events leading up to the tragedy, events which tore apart a close-knit family. Another of those books that is impossible to put down once you start reading.

I rounded off the month with Isabella’s Not Dead from Beth Morrey. There is a mystery involved in the story when a group of women meet up forty years after playing hockey together at school, but one of them is missing. Isabella simply disappeared fifteen years ago, even her best friend lost touch. Some people think she’s dead, however, her best friend is determined to track her down and find out what happened. The book is filled with all the humour and charm you would expect from the author.

Only one audiobook this month, The Antique Hunter’s Death On The Red Sea by C. L. Miller. Freya Lockwood and her aunt find themselves on a cruise for antique collectors as they try to track down the mysterious “Collector”, someone who trades priceless antiques on the black market. Aunt Carole is as hilarious as she was in the first book, however, she couldn’t save the story which just seemed to keep going around in circles.

Publication dates to watch for:-

We Live Here Now by Sarah Pinborough will be published on 5/6/25 in hardback, ebook and audio format.

The Countdown Killer by Sam Holland will be published on 5/6/25 in paperback, ebook and audio format.

The Woman Who Got Her Spark Back by Fiona Gibson will be published on 7/6/25 in paperback, ebook and audio format.

Births, Deaths And Marriages by Laura Barnett will be published 12/6/25 in hardback, ebook and audio format.

Some Of Us Are Liars by Fiona Cummins will be published on 19/6/25 in hardback, ebook and audio format.

Isabella’s Not Dead by Beth Morrey will be published on 19/6/25 in hardback, ebook and audio format.

The Killer Question by Janice Hallett will be published on 4/9/25 in hardback and ebook format.

Stolen by Rebecca Muddiman

 

Abby Henshaw and her eight-month-old baby Beth are traveling to visit a friend when Abby's car is forced into a ditch by a van on a country road. After being sexually assaulted Abby struggles back to her car to discover her daughter missing. 

I've recently joined a book group and Stolen by Rebecca Muddiman is the first book I've read for the group. We've not met yet to discuss the book so all thoughts are my own. I am interested to find out what the rest of the group thought about the book though. The group meets in our local library and I don't know who decided on this book for the group to read. I can understand the choice however, we're based in the northeast and the book is set around Redcar and Middlesbrough.

Abby and her husband Paul are happily married and both are devoted parents. Following a routine visit to the doctor, Abby sets off to visit a friend. The trip turns into a nightmare when her car is forced off the road by a van. After being sexually assaulted Abby discovers her daughter has disappeared from her car. 

DI Michael Gardner, recently transferred to Middlesbrough police station, is in charge of the investigation, a dedicated officer, he refuses to give up even when the case runs out of clues. Gardner is the biggest issue for me in the book. Apart from one small instance, he is a very one-dimensional character. Considering this is the first in a series of four books I do hope that some character development has taken place.

The author keeps the pace moving by the use of short chapters and portrays the emotional state of Abby Henshaw well. I'd guessed one of the storylines as it takes inspiration from a real-life case that garnered much media coverage, however, I didn't have a clue regarding the main storyline.

Author Details

Rebecca was born and raised in Redcar. She has lived and worked in Holland and London, and travelled across America on a Greyhound bus in 2002. She won a Northern Writers' Award in 2010 and the Northern Crime Competition in 2012. When not writing she spends her time watching Game of Thrones and dealing with her two unruly dogs.

#BlogTour The Woman Who Met Herself by Laura Pearson

 

Synopsis

What would you do, if you met your double?

Debbie Jones thinks life is an adventure. Even having lost her husband a year ago, she’s ready for whatever the world might throw her way. Being in her sixties doesn’t mean it’s all over for her yet, and she loves her new job doing neighbourhood support for a charity. Then she knocks on a stranger’s front door.

Ruth Waverley doesn’t like surprises. Her life isn’t perhaps all she once dreamed off, but what other options are there for a woman in her sixties? She’s proud of her home and children. And she likes her life well enough. Then she hears someone knocking at the door.

As the door opens, both Ruth and Debbie get the shock of their lives. As their eyes meet – the recognition is instant. Not because they’ve met before. But because they have the same face. They’re completely identical.

And everything is about to change, for both women. In ways they couldn’t possibly imagine…

My Review

I am delighted to be taking part in the blog tour for The Woman Who Met Herself. Laura Pearson has written some wonderfully heartwarming novels. The last two novels have had a slightly mystical theme, with The Woman Who Met Herself the author is firmly back to reality. 

The reader is quickly introduced to the two protagonists. Debbie Jones and her husband Richie relocated to Loughborough and then Richie died of a heart attack. Feeling lonely she's signed up to work for a mental health charity trying to encourage people to make regular donations. Ruth Waverly is also sixty-two, is married to Nigel and has two grown sons. Ruth runs a small bakery business from her own home.

It's the knock on the door that sets everything in motion. When Debbie knocks on Ruth's door both women are shocked to see their own faces looking back at them. Unable to process what she is seeing Ruth closes the door, leaving Debbie floundering. 

The women are obviously related, and when we learn that Ruth's sons are twins it is clear that the two women must also be twins. The big questions are why didn't they know about the other's existence and why were they separated? It's impossible to turn to family for answers, Debbie's mother died when she was a teenager and she never knew her father. Ruth's father is dead and her mother has Alzheimer's. Working together Ruth and Debbie unearth the mystery of their past and find out about each other.

The Woman Who Met Herself is a story about motherhood and identity. It is easy to understand the confusion both women feel as they wonder about the mothers who raised them. My heart went out to Debbie who didn't have an easy childhood and looks at Ruth with a hint of, understandable, jealousy. Ruth seems to have it all, a comfortable home, a loving husband, healthy and happy sons, and a family she knows. Meeting Debbie forces Ruth to question her life, realising that she can do more, be more. It was encouraging to see each woman inspire the other to step out of their comfort zone. 

The Woman Who Met Herself by Laura Pearson is available in paperback, ebook and audio format. My thanks to Boldwood Books and Rachel's Random Resources for a review copy.

Purchase Link - https://mybook.to/WomanWhoMetHerself

Author Details

Laura Pearson is the author of the #1 bestseller The Last List of Mabel Beaumont. She founded The Bookload on Facebook and has had several pieces published in the Guardian and the Telegraph.