Gretel On Her Own Review

I was provided Gretel On Her Own by Elna Holst as an ARC through NetGalley in return for an honest review. All opinions are my own and thanks is extended to the author, publishers and NetGalley for allowing me to do so.

Once upon a time, a brother and sister were led away into the depths of the forest. It was only to protect them, their mother explained and the brother concurred; yet he insisted on pebbles, bread crumbs. He insisted on looking back for cats and pigeons and whatnots, brightened by the touch of the sun.

Twenty years later, Gretel Kindermann is on her own: her father has taken himself off to Dortmund, her mother is a fixture at the local mental healthcare institution, and her brother Hänsel, oh— thats a whole other story

At the heart of the matter, like a thorny-rooted weed, is Frau Heckscher, the purveyor of all things sweet in the little village at the lip of the forest. And now, perhaps, also a niece that no one has heard of before, lately arrived from Vienna to wreak havoc on poor Gretel’s nerves and heart.

In Gretel on Her Own, Elna Holst offers a contemporary sapphic twist to your favourite Germanic fairy tale of homicidal arsonists and houses built out of baked goods, trickster witches, and parenting skills that leave a lot to be desired.

I have always loved fairy tales and retelling of fairy tales so this instantly appealed to me. However, to simply say it is just a retelling of Hansel and Gretel is both true and false at the same time.  The author takes the much loved and incredibly well-known tale and puts her own spin on it with twists and turns that will make this a very familiar yet completely new tale.

The one thing that really stood out to me in this novella is the emphasis that is put on the sense of smell and taste, which is no surprise when the original tale is all about sweets, sugar and all things nice, however, it is nonetheless done in a very clever and thought-provoking manner.

The reader is kept guessing even looking through Gretel’s eyes as for the longest time she is unsure of what is happening too. It had a sense of gothic creepiness about it which is everything that a true fairy tale- and truly talented storyteller should invoke.

This is the quintessential bedtime story for adults and I will definitely be looking for more work by Holst. I loved it and will read it time and time again so it is a 5 star read for me.

The Deadening Review

I received an ARC of the deadening by Kerry Peresta in return for an honest review through NetGalley. Thank you so much to the author, publishers and NetGalley for allowing me to do so.

Olivia Callahan’s quiet, orderly life is shattered when she regains consciousness in a hospital and discovers she is paralyzed and cannot remember a thing. The fragmented voices she hears around her help her piece together that an apparent assault landed her in the hospital, but nobody knows who attacked her, or why. After a chilling struggle to survive, she awakens from a coma unable to remember what happened to her or anything at all, except she has been told she is an entirely different person. Or is she? 

Now, in spite of a brain injury that has rewired her personality, Olivia is on a mission to reclaim her life. As clarity surfaces and she starts to understand who she was, she is shocked. Had she really been that person? And if so, does she want her old life back?

This book intrigued me from the very first sentence of the blurb and it kept me engrossed from cover to cover.

In the Deadening, the first instalment in the Olivia Callahan Suspense Series, a suspenseful tale is told that follows the challenges that Olivia Callahan faces as she puts the pieces of her life back together after a traumatic assault.

Olivia is found with a serious head injury on the grounds of Mercy Hospital in Richmond, Virginia. Comatose, blind, with a traumatic brain injury, and paralyzed, Olivia doesn’t have any identification on her, and is classified as a Jane Doe, until a nurse sees a missing person report on the television. Olivia is considered Mercy’s Miracle when she regains consciousness and begins the journey of recovering, but she doesn’t have any memory of her past. Olivia is determined to reclaim her life, but as her memories return via triggers that prompt flashbacks, Olivia is surprised by the way she had lived in the past, and with the help of Richmond Detective Hunter Faraday, they are determined to find the person behind the assault, and deal with the cryptic web of deceit from her past that surfaces along the way.

Told in the present time and intertwined with flashbacks of her past, the reader gets to know Olivia and see things through her eyes as her memories return via triggers. Olivia is no longer who she used to be, and with the help of Detective Faraday, she wants to find the culprit, and move on with her life.

The author created a fantastic mix of drama and suspense that keeps the reader guessing and on their toes throughout the whole novel. I couldn’t tear my eyes away through wanting to find out who had caused Olivia to lose herself and why. The reader goes on a journey with Olivia to untangle the cryptic web within her memory and the trials she faces along the way such as deceit, heartbreak, family issues and much more.

This is another 5 star read for me and I would highly recommend to readers who love a crime/mystery/ thriller genre and anyone wanting to try something new.

The Marriage Mender Review

I received an ARC of the marriage mender by Linda Green in return for an honest review through NetGalley. Thank you so much to the author, publishers and NetGalley for allowing me to do so.

The novel is centred around – yep you got it! – a marriage mender. Alison’s job is to help other couples, to make them understand each other better, to help them to solve their problems, to help them fall in love again, or at least remember what they loved about each other in the first place. She is married to Chris and they have a daughter, a nine-year-old Matilda, who has a very endearing quality of asking the wrong thing at the wrong time and saying exactly what everyone else is thinking but is too afraid to say anything. They are also raising Josh, Chris’s son from his first relationship. Everything looks brilliant, till the day when Chris’s ex Lydia re-appears and wants to renew contact with Josh, who she walked out on when he was a baby. Chris can’t forget her for this, and doesn’t want anything to do with her but leaves the decision up to Josh.

In terms of the protagonist, Alison, she was exceptional at her job as a counsellor and took aspects of this out of the office and into everyday life. It was very easy to warm to her as a character yet at times I found myself frustrated by her and wanted to shout at her to stop being so understanding and to think of her own feelings. In spite of that though I fell in love with her and admired her ability to keep cool in a crisis, even those that were hurting herself and her loved ones.

I totally enjoyed reading about Alison’s clients, they were like a breath of fresh air to the story and made the book much more interesting. It also happened that one couple that Alison was counselling is going to be much more significant than I have supposed and although it was quite a longshot to be reality, I still enjoyed seeing the two stories intertwining and enfolding.

I did sadly have some negatives about this book but they were by no means big things nor did they take away from the story in the slightest.

The first negative is that I could not get my head around the secrets within the family and how Chris could have kept some of the biggest parts about himself from the woman he loves. It all becomes clear in the end what happened and why he kept it from her but for some reason that just didn’t resonate with me.

The second negative was that in between each chapter in italics were extracts that didn’t really have any meaning. I was unsure whether they related to a character in the story (although I don’t think this is the case), or whether they were counselling extracts. Either way they didn’t add anything to the story and I just felt confused by them.

The third negative is the ending which kind of just ended abruptly and felt a bit rushed and left me feeling slightly deflated.

Overall, I adored this novel and in my opinion Linda Green is an amazing author who has never disappointed me yet.  The story deals with issues that many people encounter and deal with throughout their life and it was handled brilliantly. It was written in an engaging way and I couldn’t put the book down. This has definitely been one of my favourite books of the year so far. A great 5 star read that I cannot recommend enough.

The City of Tears (The Burning Chambers #2) Review

“The suffering of those we love is harder to bear than anything we feel on our own behalf.”

I read The City of Tears by Kate Mosse for two reasons. The first because I love her writing and the second because it fulfilled a criteria on my first reading challenge of 2021 which can be found here https://fictionvixenreads.com/2021/04/21/first-reading-challenge-of-2021/, which was read the next book in a series.

The City of Tears is the second instalment in the five-book The Burning Chambers series and continues this enthralling historical fiction saga that explores the history of Huguenot refugees in Europe. It’s ten years after the events in the first book and many things have changed. It’s August, 1572, and Minou Joubert (aka Marguerite Reydon-Joubert, Châtelaine of Puiver) is now married to Piet Reydon, a Huguenot soldier and they have two children – seven year old Marta and toddler Jean-Jacques. The pair leave behind the serenity of Puivert in Languedoc and travel to Paris to celebrate the royal wedding of Charles IX’s sister, Catholic Marguerite de Valois, and Protestant Henry III of Navarre, the first Bourbon King of France, with the marriage intended to bring peace to France after a decade of the brutal and bloody religious wars, to unite the divided country. However, once there they become aware that Piet’s childhood friend turned enemy Vidal, who is now a Catholic cardinal is also in the city. Alongside the Duke of Guise and other renegade Catholics, Vidal is planning to strike when important Huguenot’s are in town to witness the wedding. But the violence spreads into what is now known as the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre in which thousands of Protestant Huguenots were slaughtered in the streets on the orders of the French king. In the chaos and desperation to escape Paris, young Marta disappears. In exile from France, they establish a new life in Amsterdam, but not knowing their daughters fate begins to impact their marriage considerably.

I loved the character portrayal by the author especially of Minou, Piet, and Cardinal Valentin. Minou is a wife,mother and a strong woman who stands up for her beliefs. Piet is a central character to a transition of power from Catholic to Protestant in Amsterdam. The cardinal, a religious person of vile character is hungry for religious relics and relentless in his pursuit for them.

It’s breathtakingly written and the backstories of the characters are given more depth as the narrative continues. Kate Mosse brings to life the terrors and perils of the times with trauma and tragedy present at every turn. Filled to the brim with drama, danger, thrills, emotion, action and much more, I cannot recommend The City of Tears highly enough.

The City of Tears is a well researched, intricate novel that compelled me to keep reading late in to the night. In my opinion it is better than the first installment and the cliffhanger at the end of the book left me frustrated and shouting out loud simply because I know I have to wait to find out the outcome. it is a 5 star read, if I could i would award it more stars I loved it from cover to cover.

The Water Garden Review

I received an ARC of The Water Garden by Louise Soraya Black through Netgalley so extended thanks to the Author, Publishers and Netgalley for allowing me a copy in return for an honest review.

Sarah has given up her career and moved to the countryside to bring up her two young children, while her husband works long hours in London. Alone, she explores the fields and the woods near her home and discovers a lake, a memorial bench for a boy who drowned in mysterious circumstances, and Finn, a beautiful troubled teenager who plays truant from school. As Sarah pieces the mystery together, an uncomfortable attraction between Sarah and Finn builds. She knows that this blossoming relationship is wrong but the chemistry between them is difficult to resist. Their relationship reaches a climax over one hot summer, threatening to destroy everything that she holds dear.

Intertwined within Sarah’s story are the voices of two other women connected to her family – Maggie, the RAF nurse, and Flavia, the Italian girl. As their stories unfold, a secret is revealed, binding Sarah and Finn in a way that they would never guess.

The Water Garden is about family secrets, guilt, and redemption. It tells the story of a 30-year-old full-time mother who becomes attracted to a troubled teenage boy. The novel looks at the challenges of balancing a woman’s loyalty towards, and love for, her family, with her loyalty to herself. It considers motherhood in an interestingly unique way, exploring it in extreme circumstances. The story is sometimes uncomfortable to read – and is meant to be, challenging social norms and expectations.

The characters are relatable and loveable and the story is beautifully written with descriptions really evoking the British countryside, landscapes and the quintessential English garden with a lovely heart-warming approach to family love woven into the narrative.

A solid 4 star read

Porno Valley Review

I received an ARC of Porno Valley by Philip Elliott through Netgalley so extended thanks to the Author, Publishers and Netgalley for allowing me a copy in return for an honest review.

It’s the year 2000 and 78-year-old Mickey O’Rourke has been a Los Angeles PI for a very long time. He’d thought he’d seen it all until the disappearance of porn star Jeffrey Strokes sends him from the sex-filled studios of the San Fernando Valley to the desperate streets of Compton where Mickey’s final case becomes his biggest test.

Flash back to 1998 and struggling hair salon employee Jemeka Johnson, suspecting boyfriend Ray-Ray of infidelity, follows him one night from their East Compton home to what turns out to be a drug deal gone sour where a twist of fate finds Jemeka tossed onto a dark and dangerous path—one that offers huge reward for someone bold enough to seize it.

Meanwhile, in 1999, tired of robbing small-town diners and shooting bad dope in filthy motel rooms, newlyweds Richie and Alabama return to LA in search of the perfect score.

Path’s cross and past meets present as bad decisions hurtle toward worse consequences—and no one will ever be the same.

Porno Valley is the second instalment of his superb Angel City Private Investigation novels. It unfolds like an LA noir novel. It is packed to the brim with diverse characters ranging from the incredibly real portrayed gangsters that rule the cities darkest areas to the 18-year-old porn star who still has a sense of innocence about her. The characters are three dimensional and spend the span of the novel striving to obtain freedom, happiness and money, although not necessarily in that order.

The novel is a fast-paced and constantly changing novel and is superbly plotted. It allows the reader to cast their eye over an LA that is changing with a new century where the shiny surface masks a stagnant desperation, a cruel violence and addiction.

The author is an incredibly gifted storyteller and this is a must read for anyone who loves crime fiction, thrillers or wants to reading something out of their normal genre. A 5 star read for sure.

Baby Factory Review

I received an ARC of Baby Factory by Suleiman Ocheni through Netgalley so extended thanks to the Author, Publishers and Netgalley for allowing me a copy in return for an honest review.

Aleeza Kalu’s story begins with the birth of her child, a little girl she calls Remy. She spends a long time counting and re-counting the baby’s fingers and toes, and notes the cornucopia shaped birthmark on the baby’s big toe. Her ex-boyfriend arrives, as he’s only just been told by Aleeza’s best friend that Remy even exists. He wants to meet his daughter, however, Aleeza refuses, and has the nurse take the baby away, but Richard refuses to leave.

Several hours later, they get the news that every parent fears. Their daughter has died. Though Aleeza’s Nigerian cultural customs say not to look at the baby, she can’t believe that her perfect daughter has died, and she insists on seeing her. When the baby is brought to her, she says Remy looks wrong, and is told that is due to the pallor of death. But when Aleeza spends time looking the baby over, she notices that the birthmark is missing, and she KNOWS that this isn’t her baby.

People, even those closest to her, are insisting that grief is making her paranoid, and after the police seem to agree with them, she decides to handle it on her own. This fast-paced, engaging thriller is full of twists and turns.

The plot of the novel happens organically, and, nothing feels forced or like the author wrote it just for the purpose of keeping the reader in suspense or to put meat on the bones. The plot was fast paced with an important event or piece of information appearing on every page.

The characters were all original and I fell in love with all of them ever the ones that should have been easy to dislike, a rare feat and shows how good the author is at developing characters and storyline. The protagonist Aleeza in particular is a very relatable and human character who makes mistakes, has regrets and has to learn from them in order to grow as a human being and learn to trust others and just believe that that they will come through for her.

All considered I found the book surprisingly good, especially as it was the cover that first attracted me and the blurb secondly. I enjoyed immersing myself into Aleeza’s world and I would often feel like I was racing around the clock with her to solve the mystery before it was too late.

The issues of trust building and learning to trust, love and loss make this a heart-wrenching and painful read and this resonated with me especially as I have lost a child but the moments of hope that shine through like the rays of sunshine through the dark clouds are a perfect representation of the sunshine through the rain that never gets better, but allows a grieving parent to hope.

This is one of the best books that I have read this year and I would recommend this book to readers and I awarded it 4.5 stars.

The Union Of Synchronised Swimmers review

I was provided The Union of Synchronised Swimmers by Cristina Sandu as an ARC through NetGalley in return for an honest review. All opinions are my own and thanks is extended to the author, publishers and NetGalley for allowing me to do so.

It’s summer behind the Iron Curtain, and six girls begin a journey to the Olympics. But will they return?

In a stateless place, on the wrong side of a river separating East from West, six girls meet each day to swim. At first, they play, splashing each other and floating languidly on the water’s surface. But as summer draws to an end, the game becomes something more.

They hone their bodies relentlessly. Their skin shades into bruises. They barter cigarettes stolen from the factory where they work for swimsuits to stretch over their sunburnt skin.

They tear their legs into splits, flick them back and forth, like herons. They force themselves to stop breathing.

Then, one day, it finally happens: their visas arrive. But can what’s waiting on the other side of the river satisfy their longing for a different kind of life?

This novella follows 6 points of view of the different swimmers and has an almost offbeat feel to it that was interesting. I liked the premise of the book and it was readable but I was disappointed that it was so short and that the reader never really got to know any of the characters but rather just had small glimpses into their lives, thus I couldn’t establish a relationship or rapport with any of them and that disappointed me.

Overall it was a good read but not very relatable and for that reason it is only 2.5 stars for me.

My Mother’s Children Review

I received My Mother’s Children by Annette Sills as an ARC through NetGalley and I am so glad that I did, so thanks are extended to the author, the publishers and to NetGalley also for allowing me to review this book.

Irish Mancunian Carmel Doherty’s life is unravelling. She has just lost her mother Tess and brother Mikey, her marriage to Joe is coming apart at the seams and her thirty-year friendship with Karen is on the rocks. While clearing out her childhood home, Carmel discovers that her mother gave birth to a baby in an Irish Mother and Baby home when she was sixteen, a place notorious for its mass burial of babies and illegal adoptions. Carmel goes on a quest for the truth about her troubled mother’s past. Her roller-coaster journey takes her from her comfortable Manchester home to the west of Ireland and to London’s theatre land. It’s a journey that leads her to ask: Can we ever escape our own family history or is our destiny in our DNA?

The story follows the protagonist Carmel Doherty for just over a year while she uncovers the dark secrets from her mother’s past and the reader gets to live through these tragic events reverberating down through generations of families. It is an absorbing and encompassing story that trulky begins with a woman discovering a letter while looking through her mother’s possessions after she has passed away. The narrative is fast paced and includes twists and unwelcomed events as well as soul-destroying and heart-warming moments and revelations.

Although this story is a work of fiction, sadly the period of time and the institution with which it talks about is not. The Magdalene Laundries and Asylums were awful places that abused and destroyed young girls and women and the author encompasses this superbly.

These Irish homes that were established to help unwed mothers for over four decades were extremely harsh and cruel places to be especially the one featured in the story at Tuam. It is hard for us to imagine the pain, sorrow and suffering that went on in these institutions and the neglect and the abuse felt by both the women and the children at the hands of the people that were meant to care for them.

Bon Secours unwed mothers home in Tuam

site marking where the mass graves of children were found in the Bon Secours Magdalene Laundry in Tuam

I found this book heart-breaking and I couldn’t put it down. I would definitely recommend this to other readers and I would award this book 5 stars.

Sankofa: Born Equal Only (Book One) Review

I received Sankofa by Ben Tekle Mel as an ARC through NetGalley and I am so glad that I did, so thanks are extended to the author, the publishers and to NetGalley also for allowing me to review this book.

Before I continue let me first say this book contains misogyny, sexual violence and abuse, extreme war and violence with high body counts and an absolutely soul-destroying cliff-hanger ending, but even with all this I absolutely loved it. It is important to say that I was intrigued by the blurb but in my opinion that did not do the book justice.

Sankofa: Born Equal Only is an Afrofuturism adventure that takes on gender injustice from the perspective of rival fraternal twins, Toomi and Ras, born to be the Guardians of Maat, the first Queen to rise to the throne in the kingdom of Axindar in a post-apocalyptic medieval Africa, where the future of our technology shapes the past of our time.

This book is definitely not for the faint hearted or those that get upset easily.  It has a clear underscore of the representation of atrocities carried out in the name of warfare throughout Africa and the rest of the world and creatively and vividly prehends the mistreatment and injustice suffered by so many people throughout history and in the present. There are also elements of gender domination and violence culture that are disturbing to read but also very significant in current times.

One of the things that stood out for me whilst reading this novel was that it is not like other fantasy novels but more like you are listening to an elder telling the tale through spoken word and I loved that aspect.

Another thing that stood out for me was how well the author had constructed the world and getting that other to the reader it really allowed me to jump inside the story and imagine the world for myself and I genuinely think that anyone who reads it could imagine their own little world and still get the same qualities out of the novel. It was a fantastic mix of fantasy and magical, historical, and science fiction.

Overall, this novel impressed me a lot more than I expected. As someone who has majored in English Literature and History, I appreciate the historical aspects explored in the novel such as on slavery, on sexual violence against those deemed worthless. The writer is able to pull on periods of dark history throughout time and really use that to his advantage in this work.

There is definitely a market for this book especially for those that like their reading on the darker side of the spectrum but I would highly recommend for anyone who wanted to try something or new in genre or a new series. This a 4 star read for sure and I cannot wait to read Book Two.