Even in your hometown, you can feel like an outsider …
In the close-knit community of Carrenporth in Cornwall everyone knows everyone else’s business. Luke Carrack is only too aware of this. He’s been away for two years but nothing has changed – from the town gossips who can’t see past the scandal of his childhood, to the cold way he is treated by some of his so-called family.
The only person who seems to understand is local hotelier’s daughter Cat Trevelyan, although even Luke’s new friendship with her could set tongues wagging.
But Carrenporth is about to experience far bigger scandals than the return of Luke Carrack – and the secrets unearthed in the process will shake the sleepy seaside town to its core …
Coming soon… a modern saga set in a Cornish seaside town with family drama, a hint of mystery and romance.
What if our lives were mapped out before birth? Does anyone have the power to change their destiny?
Ella hates London. She misses her old life in Spain and is struggling to get over her past—until she meets Zac. He’s always loved her but isn’t meant to be part of her story. Not this time. Not ever. Little does she know that his secret is the one thing that will tear them apart and force her to live in a world that no longer makes sense. A world full of danger, lies and magic.
The Path Keeper is a passionate tale of first loves, second chances and the invisible threads that bind us. Can love ever be stronger than fate?
ABOUT N J SIMMONDS
Natali Drake, who writes under the pen name of N J Simmonds, is an accredited member of the Society of Authors.
When she’s not busy working on her YA fantasy romance series she is also a freelance writer and brand consultant. She has written articles for various UK newspapers and online publications with two of her essays appearing in The Mother Book published by Selfish Mother. In 2015 she co-founded online magazine The Glass House Girls and is a regular contributor.
Originally from north London, Natali studied Feature Writing at City University and began her career in corporate publishing and marketing before moving to Spain to write and to raise her family. She now divides her time between her two homes in The Netherlands and Spain with her husband and two daughters.
You can find all Natali’s social media links on njsimmonds.com.
REVIEW
When Ella finds herself having to get off her bus earlier than planned she is not in the best of moods. However, as she struggles onto the pavement carrying two bags of books destined for the nearest charity shop, she is not expecting assistance from the tall attractive stranger standing there…
I was glued to this book from the very beginning, in the same way I had been back in 2012 when I began reading the first book in George R R Martin’s Game of Throne series. I love fantasy and from the very start I knew this book was going to be a totally magical experience.
This first novel of three, The Path Keeper not only brings Ella and Zac together, it lays down the back story which has led to present day events. It finished on a total knife edge, leaving me desperate for book two. I loved Ella, adored Zac and know after reading The Path Keeper this is going to be a hugely successful series.
A feel-good holiday read you will not want to put down. Highly recommended!
Could one summer change your life? When high-flying American lawyer Samantha Muir finds out she’s lost her partnership whilst on an assignment in London, she has a dramatic reaction. Rather than returning home, she resigns, leaves her business suits behind and jumps on the first train to Cornwall at the encouragement of a friendly stranger. The village of Little Penhaven, where Samantha eventually ends up, is a world away from her life in Knoxville, Tennessee – and local farmer Cadan Day is certainly a world away from any man she has met before. But could the Cornish village and Cadan play a part in Samantha’s summer of self-discovery?
Angela grew up in Cornwall and returns frequently from her new home in Nashville, Tennessee to visit family and friends, drink tea and eat far too many Cornish pasties!
A lifelong love of reading turned into a passion for writing contemporary romance and her novels are usually set in the many places she’s visited or lived on her extensive travels. Thanks to over three decades of marriage to her wonderful American husband she’s a huge fan of transatlantic romance and always makes sure her characters get their own happy-ever-after.
She is a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, the Romance Writers of America and the Music City Romance Writers.
This was the
first dance at our wedding so it has to be included. I don’t think many of the
wedding guests had a clue what the song was! We both really like Christy
Moore’s music and have been to see him several times in concert. The words of
this are particularly appropriate, describing the journey of a relationship.
Zanzibar – Billy Joel
Billy Joel
is my all time favourite singer/musician and I’ve been lucky enough to see him
three times. I like so many of his songs but have picked this one to show
there’s more to his music than Uptown Girl! It has a brilliant trumpet solo in
it.
Don’t Stop Me Now – Queen
Surely the
ultimate feel-good start of the weekend song? I’m a big fan of Queen and wish I
could have seen them live. Freddie Mercury was such a huge talent, a real
performer.
Morningtown Ride – The Seekers
This is a
song which takes me back to my childhood. Now it came out several years before
I was born so I must either have heard it on the radio or maybe my mum sang it
to me. I used to sing it to my girls when they were little as a bedtime song
and I sing it now to my much younger nieces when they come to stay.
She – Elvis Costello
This is such
a beautiful song. I like the particular version because when it’s used near the
end of the film Notting Hill, it’s at a part which always makes me smile – any
maybe cry a little. It’s also a song which I can play on my flute as part of a
small music group and I get a wee solo bit.
About Me
Joanne Baird
I can’t remember not being a reader and always have at least one book on the go. I started my blog, Portobello Book Blog, in April 2015 to share my love of the books I was reading and it’s been great fun. I’m a busy wife and mum to two lovely girls, an avid book reader of course, a nature watcher, a keen cook and baker, always on the go and I love living by the sea.
Under one cover for the first time a collection of crime shorts from Jane Risdon with more twists and turns than Spaghetti Junction – a must for those who enjoy gripping yarns.
Undercover: Crime Shorts features new short stories written with strong female protagonists at its heart and includes Sweet Sable – a redheaded nightclub singer with sex appeal and a sting in her tail, and The Look – a hit woman with an agenda for revenge and a talent for hire.
There is an extract form the first novel in the series Ms Birdsong Investigates Murder in AmpneyParva: Operation Matryoshka – where former MI5 intelligence officer, Lavinia Birdsong, is asked to look for a missing woman and finds herself embroiled in murder, the Russian Mafia, and Ukrainian gun-runners.
My readers say:
Roger A Price: former detective and crime author says: Crime Shorts is a wonderfully satisfying anthology of seven short stories which transcend above the crime fiction genre providing a ripping yarn irrespective of the reader’s crime fiction preference. Jane Risdon has cleverly stitched together a mix of tales to suit all fans of the genre.
Gloria Clulow: reader says: As with all Jane’s stories I find them intriguing and unpredictable, leaving me wanting more; I don’t want them to end.
Professor Margot Kinberg: Associate professor and author of the Joel Williams crime novels says: Undercover, what a gripping story, so well written. You’ve packed so much ‘punch’ into it, loved it. I really felt the rising tension and suspicion! You’ve captured the suspense of it beautifully and it is such a great set-up with good characters.
Charlie Plunkett: reader says:
Fast-paced, well written, page-turner that had me so engrossed my train journey flew by. The author clearly has done a lot of research, these short stories all felt very authentic and each had me gripped and on the edge of my seat wondering how they would play out. It’s been a long time since I read anything quite so intriguing and twisty. It certainly got my heart beating faster and I’d highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a great murder, mystery.
Jane Risdon – my pleasure lovely, praise where it’s due, you have written a fabulous selection of short stories and I will definitely look out for Ms Birdsong.
ABOUT JANE
Jane Risdon began her working life in the international music business where she managed recording artists, songwriters, record producers, and where she has been instrumental in placing music on to soundtracks of many TV series and Movies, working alongside her musician husband.
After years of promoting talented young artists Jane decided it was time to do what she’s always wanted to do: write. She began writing in earnest some ten years ago starting with flash fiction and short stories – mostly crime/thrillers – and her writing was soon included in various anthologies – to date 15 different publications, some award winning. She has written for numerous online newsletters and magazines and is a regular blogger.
She has also written a best-selling novel with author and lifelong friend, best-selling, award-winning author, Christina Jones, set in the UK music scene of the late 1960s. Only One Woman is published by Accent Press with whom Jane signed in 2014.
With over 100 short stories needing a home, Jane has recently published Undercover: Crime Shorts with Plaisted Publishing House, which went into the UK Amazon ratings at #18 and into the USA Amazon ratings at #333 upon publication.
She is writing the sequel to Only One Woman and is completing a series of novels about a former MI5 intelligence officer; ‘Ms Birdsong Investigates.’ These crime/thrillers are set in the Vale of the White Horse, Oxfordshire, and Jane digs into her early career with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office at the height of the Cold War for her inspiration and knowledge of Britain’s Security Services.
Jane’s interests include photography, history, and science, and she and her husband enjoy walking and visiting places of interest – something they never had time to enjoy when ‘baby-sitting’ singers and musicians whilst travelling all over the world.
For Jane’s Books: most digital platforms incl. Amazon worldwide, and in paperback Undercover: Crime Shorts https://books2read.com/b/4jD0wo https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/under-cover-crime-shorts-jane-risdon/1130007355 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07RFRVL4P http://www.lulu.com/…/under…/paperback/product-24082039.html ISBN: 9780359397839
I suspect everyone knows by now about my love of books – and the way I get palpitations whenever anyone asks for “my favourite”, together with the agonies I go through coming up with a different book every time, after hours of deliberation. But that’s nothing compared with the sheer torture of choosing five music tracks for this feature – I really should have made it easier for myself by just choosing some of the R&B and soul tracks that I’ve always loved. But this is such a wonderful feature Jo – thank you so much for inviting me!
Between you and me, I did fall out of love with reading for a while – in my 20s and 30s, when my social life seemed somehow more important. But I’ve never fallen out of love with music.
Motown, rock, crooners, power ballads, glam rock, New Wave, New Romantics, Brit Pop, acid jazz, trance, garage – you name it, I guarantee it’ll be a phase I’ve passed through, and I’ll be able to lay my hands on a CD that’s still in my collection. My tastes continue to change – I stay up to date by listening to Jo Whiley on Radio 2, but my real comfort zone is perhaps more Trevor Nelson. My current favourites? Christine and the Queens, Janelle Monae maybe? No, I think I really must choose a track from Jack Savoretti…
My passion for music goes back a long way – as indeed, do I. The first record I ever bought was the EP of All My Loving by the Beatles, and I remember playing it – over and over – on my aunts’ gramophone. I was quite late getting my own record player – the first record I bought for that was Edison Lighthouse’s Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes), so forgive me for not choosing that one. I can always remember there being music at home, mainly the radio – coming home from school to my mum, always ironing, listening to Mick Luvzit (“your mad dad with the groovy turntables…”) in the afternoon on Radio Caroline.
A little later on, I vividly remember Sunday evenings with the microphone of my tape recorder against the radio speaker, recording my favourites from the Top 20 show, because Alan Freeman never talked over the songs (a radio cassette player changed my life). School days too – performing the dances to the Supremes and the Elgins in the playground to a friend’s battery record player. And later still there was the music we played constantly in our sixth form study – particularly Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust, and all that Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin. But I think I must choose a playground dancing song, because I still love it – the Velvelettes’ Needle in a Haystack.
You’ll know how important my family is to me, and I think my next two choices have to be inspired by and dedicated to mum and dad. I’ve mentioned elsewhere that I just can’t listen to the music of Chris De Burgh any more because of memories of my dad, and the fact that he never realised his ambition to see him play in Phoenix Park. I know though that some people have an aversion to Lady in Red for quite different reasons. But dad’s favourite song was actually Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton. I always remember him asking for it to be played on hospital radio when he was there on one of his frequent stays – tuning in excitedly, to hear “we don’t have that one – but instead here’s I Shot The Sheriff.” This one’s for you, dad…
Music also features heavily in my life with mum – even more so now that her dementia is worsening. I’ll admit I’m tiring a little of Michael Buble – but, while she might mistake me for her sister, she still remembers every word of every song by Nat King Cole and Matt Munro, and sings along whenever Alexa plays them for her. It has to be Unforgettable really, doesn’t it?
In recent years, I’ve been surprised to discover that I love classical music too – and I regularly go to concerts by the wonderful orchestras who regularly visit Leeds. I’m still learning – I love just about every Russian composer (well, maybe not Shostakovich, eh?), and like whatever I try to be a tune I vaguely recognise. This, I think, might be my favourite ever piece, because it makes me smile and feel emotional all at the same time – from Khachaturian. No, it’s not the theme from The Onedin Line – it’s the waltz from the Masquerade Suite.
And my goodness, I can’t believe I’ve managed to do this without including Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, Anita Baker or Mary J Blige…!
About me
Anne Williams is a book blogger and reviewer, at Being Anne (http://beinganne.com). She lives in Wetherby in Yorkshire, and took early retirement five years ago to do everything she enjoys, including reading as many books as she can and indulging herself with exotic holidays. Life changed a little a couple of years ago, when she became carer for her mother, who has dementia: the travel has had to stop for a while, but nothing can come between Anne and the reading. Her blog has won the Best Pal award at the Annual Bloggers’ Bash for three years running.
I was delighted when Jo asked if I’d like to take part in her fabulous blog series, Life’s Playlists, but it’s been very hard to whittle down my choices to just five songs. Here are the ones that survived the final cut.
The first musician that made a real impression on me was Kate Bush. I was 14 when she appeared on Top of the Pops singing ‘Wuthering Heights’ and she instantly became my idol. I saved up the money I earned from my Saturday job on a market stall to have a Kate Bush perm. It took an awful lot of conditioning! I bought her album ‘The Kick Inside’ (on vinyl, of course) and adored the cover; but most of all I loved the way her songs inspired me to be creative myself. Over forty years later, her music still has that effect on me.
With my new Kate Bush hairstyle, I caught the eye of a boy at school I’d fancied for a while ‒ to be honest, that perm was hard to miss. I couldn’t believe my luck when he rang and invited me round to his house to listen to a new record he’d bought. That album was ‘Born to Run’ by a singer I’d never heard of but I was extremely impressed with the record ‒ so much so that I paid the music far more attention than the boy. The boyfriend lasted only a week but I fell head over heels for Bruce Springsteen that night, and I’ve been a fan of his ever since.
Like most people who grew up on the coast, I miss the sea when I’m away from it. My husband, children and I have lived quite happily in Bracknell and in Brussels in the past, but I always yearned to return to the coast. ‘Talk to Me of Mendocino’ by the McGarrigle sisters conveys that strong sense of longing for a beloved place, and even though we settled close to the sea more than 20 years ago, this song can still move me to tears.
From a song that makes me cry to one that never fails to lift my spirits ‒ Sia’s ‘Chandelier’. I love the video too. I always wanted to have dance classes as a child but there was only enough spare cash for piano lessons ‒ with a very strict woman who hit my knuckles with a ruler whenever I made a mistake. Had this video been around when I was 11, I’d have watched it on repeat and tried to master all of Maddie Ziegler’s moves. I might have had a bit of trouble doing the splits, though.
Finally, I’ve picked the song my husband and I chose for our first dance at our wedding in Wiltshire 27 years ago. A friend recommended a local jazz band and we happily booked them without checking what they were like. When they arrived at the village hall in Trowbridge for the evening do, they turned out to be pretty elderly. But the moment they began playing our song, Louis Armstrong’s ‘What a Wonderful World’, we knew they were the right choice. They were brilliant. And it’s such a beautiful song, full of joy and hope.
Thank you so much for inviting me to share my choices, Jo ‒ I’ve really enjoyed reminiscing.
Tomos is five years old and lives with his teenage mother, Rhiannon, who’s hiding a drug addiction. He longs to return to another place, the place he thinks of as home and the people who cared for him there, but he’s not allowed to see them any more. At his new school, Miss takes him under her wing, finding him a warm coat in the lost property box and sharing her sandwiches with him. But his teacher can’t look out for Tomos in the school holidays, and at the start of the Easter break he’s caught up in the violence of his mother’s drug dealers. How will he survive on his own when Rhiannon takes off and leaves Tomos behind?
‘Not Thomas’ Extract:
‘The lady’s here. The lady with the big bag. She’s knocking on the front door. She’s knocking and knocking. And knocking and knocking. I’m not opening the door. I’m not letting her in. I’m behind the black chair. I’m very quiet. I’m very very quiet.
I’m waiting for her to go away.
‘Not Thomas’ Buy Links:
‘Not Thomas’ is available to buy in paperback direct from the publisher Honno Press:
Sara Gethin is the pen name of Wendy White who grew up in Llanelli, an industrial town on the west coast of Wales with a beach that gazes longing over the sea to the Gower. All her jobs have revolved around children ‒ she’s worked on a stall selling toys and in a children’s library; she’s been a childminder and worked for ten years as a primary school teacher. She now writes for children and her first book ‘Welsh Cakes and Custard’ won the Tir nan-Og Award in 2014. Her debut novel for adults, ‘Not Thomas’, written in the voice of a neglected five-year-old boy, was shortlisted for The Guardian’s Not the Booker prize 2017 and the Waverton Good Read Award. Her children are grown up now and home for Sara and her husband is still west Wales, but they spend much of their free time across the water in Ireland.
Natali Drake, who writes under the pen name of N J Simmonds, is an accredited member of the Society of Authors.
Jane Risdon began her working life in the international music business where she managed recording artists, songwriters, record producers, and where she has been instrumental in placing music on to soundtracks of many TV series and Movies, working alongside her musician husband.
Anne Williams is a book blogger and reviewer, at Being Anne (
Sara Gethin is the pen name of Wendy White who grew up in Llanelli, an industrial town on the west coast of Wales with a beach that gazes longing over the sea to the Gower. All her jobs have revolved around children ‒ she’s worked on a stall selling toys and in a children’s library; she’s been a childminder and worked for ten years as a primary school teacher. She now writes for children and her first book ‘Welsh Cakes and Custard’ won the Tir nan-Og Award in 2014. Her debut novel for adults, ‘Not Thomas’, written in the voice of a neglected five-year-old boy, was shortlisted for The Guardian’s Not the Booker prize 2017 and the Waverton Good Read Award. Her children are grown up now and home for Sara and her husband is still west Wales, but they spend much of their free time across the water in Ireland.
JO LAMBERT 