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Maddy's Christmas Wedding by Rosie Green #LittleDuckPondCafeBook37#review

  Here we are at Book 37 in the Little Duck Pond Cafe series! Maddie's Christmas Wedding is the latest novella by Rosie Green.   With the wedding of the year approaching, excitement is running high at the café! But there's just one problem. Maddy is grappling with a secret. Could it derail all of hers and Jack's glorious plans for their big day? Will there actually be a wedding?   My Thoughts In this latest festive story, we are taken out of Sunnybrook, in fact, out of the country and taken for a wintry stay in Lapland. It is Maddy's hen party gathering so some of the Little Duck Pond characters are along too. The story continues on from the earlier Cosy Nights and Snowball Fights . The setting is idyllic and so different to life at home. Everything shimmers and shines in the snow and the temperatures are extreme. Maddy should be having the time of her life but she finds that she has a lot on her mind and a heartbreaking decision to make.     With the men le...
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Whisper of the Seals by Roxanne Bouchard translated by David Warriner #Review #Giveaway #DetectiveMoralesMysteryBook3

 

 It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to my stop on the blog tour to celebrate the publication of Whisper of the Seals by French Canadian author, Roxanne Bouchard.  This is a sequel to We Were the Salt of the Sea and The Coral Bride and you can read my reviews of the books here and here.

I also have a great giveaway for you to enter for the chance to win a print copy of Whisper of the Seals. Details are at the foot of this post. 

 

There’s only one thing more deadly than the storm…

Fisheries officer Simone Lord is transferred to Quebec’s remote Magdalen Islands for the winter, and at the last minute ordered to go aboard a trawler braving a winter storm for the traditional grey seal hunt, while all of the other boats shelter onshore.

Detective Sergeant Joaquin Moralès is on a cross-country boat trip down the St Lawrence River, accompanied by Nadine Lauzon, a forensic psychologist working on the case of a savagely beaten teenager with Moralès’ old team in Montreal.

When it becomes clear that Simone is in grave danger aboard the trawler, the two cases converge, with startling, terrifying consequences for everyone involved…

The award-winning author of The Coral Bride returns with an atmospheric, race-against-the-clock thriller set on the icy seas in the midst of a brutal seal hunt, where nothing is as it seems and absolutely no one can be trusted.

For fans of Louise Penny, Ann Cleeves, Emma Stonex and Annie Proulx


My Thoughts

 The tension is set from the start and there is an ever-present sense of impending danger. Isolation and the feeling of being cut off fill the atmosphere and you absolutely fear for the characters. The sea seems a cruel and dangerous place. From the start, the story is chilling and full of atmosphere. Written with a poetic feel for language, it is suspenseful and in line with the first two in the series. 

    The barbarity of the seal culling is told in graphic detail and the fate of some characters is equally grisly. There is powerful imagery and you can really picture the icy waters, the ice itself and the red blood of the seals. The two storylines come together as the full truth of the reason for the seal hunt becomes apparent. It seems the seals are not the only quarry on the boat. You can almost taste the fear and the claustrophobic nature of life on the boat, isolated as it is from everyday life.  As events speed up, you are carried along, fearing for what can happen and marvelling at the courage and determination of Simone who turns out to be such a complicated character. 

In short: devastatingly tense

About the Author


Over ten years ago, Roxanne Bouchard decided it was time she found her sea legs. So she learned to sail, first on the St Lawrence River, before taking to the open waters off the Gaspé Peninsula. The local fishermen soon invited her aboard to reel in their lobster nets, and Roxanne saw for herself that the sunrise over Bonaventure never lies. Her fifth novel (first translated into English) We Were the Salt of the Sea was published in 2018 to resounding critical acclaim, sure to be followed by its sequel, The Coral Bride. She lives in Quebec.

You can follow Roxanne here: Twitter   |  Website

Book links: Amazon UK  

Thanks to Roxanne Bouchard, and Karen Sullivan and Anne Cater of Orenda Books for a copy of the book and a place on the tour.


                                                     Check out these great bloggers!
 

Giveaway (UK only)  


 


To win a print copy of Whisper of the Seals just Follow and Retweet the tweet at @bookslifethings Closing Date is 21st August 2022 and there is one winner.  Good luck!  
 
*Terms and Conditions – UK only.  The winner will be selected at random via Tweetdraw from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then I reserve the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over.  Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize. I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.

 

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