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Floating Solo by Shelley Wilson #Review

  Fancy taking a leisurely boat ride along a beautiful Warwickshire canal? Floating Solo by Shelley Wilson was published by Hillfield Publishing on November 5th. Are you single? Have you lost your confidence when it comes to travelling? Would you welcome a few weeks away to find that missing spark? Climb aboard the Creaky Cauldron for an adventure like no other! Budding entrepreneur Kat Sinclair wants to grow her quirky solo narrowboat holiday enterprise but faces rejection at every turn. Until a Hollywood film crew gets in touch with the potential to change her business, dreams, and love life forever. 'Enemies to lovers' 'Small town romance'   My Thoughts   You can't help but fall under the spell of life on the canals when you read this story. Kat has big dreams for her business but seems to lack confidence to put it into action. Her Floating Solo holidays are very successful for her clients and many use the experience to sort out their thoughts and plan their ...

The Golden Orphans by Gary Raymond #TheGoldenOrphans @GaryRaymond_ @parthianbooks ** Blog Tour Review**

Welcome to today's stop on the Blog Tour for The Golden Orphans by Gary Raymond

The Golden Orphans offers a new twist on the literary thriller.


Within the dark heart of an abandoned city, on an island once torn by betrayal and war, lies a terrible secretā€¦

Francis Benthem is a successful artist; he's created a new life on an island in the sun. He works all night, painting the dreams of his mysterious Russian benefactor, Illy Prostakov. He writes letters to old friends and students back in cold, far away London. But now Francis Benthem is found dead. The funeral is planned and his old friend from art school arrives to finish what Benthem had started. The painting of dreams on a faraway island. But you can also paint nightmares and Illy has secrets of his own that are not ready for the light. Of promises made and broken, betrayal and murder...

My Thoughts

The Golden Orphans is one of those books which draws you into its web and slowly paints a picture with some tantalizing details and a few red herrings. Set in Cyprus, we are presented with an island which has been partitioned after warfare and where the locals feel marginalised and as if they are outsiders in their own homeland. This is an atmospheric story where you feel that no one is quite who they seem. It was only after finishing the book and trying to refresh my memory as to the narrator's name that I realised that he is never named. It didn't seem important at the time.  

    It is only halfway through the story that you realise the significance of the title. This sums up much of the story for me. The island is full of secrets and half-truths. You are never quite sure how free the narrator is to move about. Every step he takes seems to be observed covertly. Beautifully crafted with a fluent style, I thoroughly enjoyed the novel which provided surprise after surprise as the story developed.

In short: An atmospheric and mysterious read.
 
About the Author


Gary Raymond is a novelist, critic, editor and broadcaster. He is The Review Show, and is one of the founding editors of Wales Arts Review. He is the author of two novels, The Amazon Author PageGolden Orphans (Parthian, 2018) and For Those Who Come After (Parthian, 2015). He is a widely published critic and cultural commentator.
the presenter of BBC Radio Wales',



You can follow Gary here:  Twitter  |  Amazon Author Page

 Book links: Amazon UK   |  Amazon US   |  Waterstones 
                  |  Barnes & Noble   |  Kobo   |  Book Depository  

Thanks to Gary Raymond, Parthian Books and Emma Welton of Damppebbles Blog Tours for a copy of the book and a place on the tour.

                                                         Check out the rest of the tour!


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