May 1

My Mother’s Secret – Sanjida Kay

You can only hide for so long…

Lizzie Bradshaw. A student from the Lake District, forced to work away from home, who witnesses a terrible crime. But who will ultimately pay the price?

Emma Taylor. A mother, a wife, and a woman with a dangerous secret. Can she keep her beloved family safely together?

Stella Taylor. A disaffected teenager, determined to discover what her mother is hiding. But how far will she go to uncover the truth?

And one man, powerful, manipulative and cunning, who controls all their destinies.

 

My thanks to Corvus Books for my review copy

Having thoroughly enjoyed the two previous novels by Sanjida Kay I was keen to see what lay in store for readers in My Mother’s Secret.

Family drama from multiple narrators is what I got to enjoy, the story is told from different viewpoints and we can see one incident played out from various perspectives.  One of the main voices is teenager Stella and her contributions are perfectly laced with teenage hormones and anger.

Sanjida Kay gets right into the head of each of her narrators – we read what a wife thinks about her husband, his annoying habits and quirks which irritate her.  Stella’s frustrations at her mother and the lack of respect she feels towards her father who seems too forgiving of others.

Chapters come in small bursts and name the next narrator so you can know who is pulling the story on.  I have a terrible habit of skipping chapter names/numbers so I often found I had to flick my eyes back a page to make sure I knew who was speaking (do not adopt this lazy reading habit!!!)

I am purposefully not speaking too much about the plot for fear of slipping spoilers.  There are secrets lurking in this tale (and I love stories with secrets) but the reason things are kept a secret is that having the information made pubic can create pain or problems for others.  Probably not ideal for the characters in My Mother’s Secret…

Sanjida Kay writes beautifully and I swear that I could smell fresh baking or the countryside freshness as I was reading her latest book. Trials and troubles in this story – well worth your time seeking this one out.

 

My Mother’s Secret is published by Corvus on 3 May 2018 and can be ordered here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/My-Mothers-Secret-brilliantly-deception-ebook/dp/B0785MSQDD/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1525208302&sr=8-1&keywords=my+mothers+secret

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September 29

Bone By Bone – Sanjida Kay

bone-by-boneLaura loves her daughter more than anything in the world.

But nine-year-old Autumn is being bullied. Laura feels helpless.

When Autumn fails to return home from school one day, Laura goes looking for her. She finds a crowd of older children taunting her little girl.

In the heat of the moment, Laura makes a terrible choice. A choice that will have devastating consequences for her and her daughter…

My thanks to Corvus for my review copy

 

If I were to draw up a list of everything that I dislike then this would be the longest book review ever. Future generations of psychology students would have it included in their university set text lists and spend many frustrating hours in tutorials unpicking just how irrationally angry one person can be over very random things.  So we are not going there.

If I were to do a very short list of things that I dislike then I can guarantee that bullying would feature.

I hate bullying. Completely. Totally. An all consuming hatred of bullying.

Bone By Bone is a story about bullying.

So in a departure from my normal style of review I am not going to try to describe how the story unfolds. Nor shall I even give away much about the characters, what form the bullying takes or even who the bullies are.  All I will share is that Laura’s daughter is being bullied.  Laura finds out and does what many parents would do for their child – tries to help and tries to stop the bullying.  Needless to say that in such an emotive situation tempers will flare and there will be consequences. It made for intense reading.

I have to give Sanjida Kay a huge amount of credit for making Bone to Bone so screamingly realistic (my screams). I anguished over what I was reading. I wanted to reach into the book and make the bad things stop.  I hated the bullies.  I hated how they grew in number and I hated how the victim retreated to the safety of isolation. It was too real and I couldn’t stop it.  But I kept reading because I HAD to know what would happen. No spoilers – but I did not expect THAT.

A debut novel which I can honesty say put me through the emotional wringer. Highly recommended.

 

Bone By Bone is published by Corvus and is available in paperback and digital format now.

You can order Bone By Bone by clicking through on this link:  https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bone-Psychological-Thriller-Compelling-Wont/dp/1782396896/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1475183219&sr=8-1&keywords=bone+by+bone+sanjida+kay

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