You Don’t Need Therapy Alan Lucas Blog Tour

YOU DON’T NEED THERAPY 7 STEPS TO SORT YOUR SH*T OUT BY ALAN LUCAS

PAPERBACK PUBLISHED BY BEAK STREET PUBLISHING 12TH JANUARY 2021

The SYSO System R is a one stop self-improvement system that can be applied wherever you are on your journey. You can change your life by following 7 simple steps, and the book’s 70 practical exercises help you Do the changing, rather than just read about it.

LEARN HOW TO

EXPAND YOUR AWARENESS

MANAGE YOUR MIND

TAKE CHARGE OF YOUR EMOTIONS

MEET YOUR NEEDS IN HEALTHY WAYS

HAVE A CLEAR PHILOSOPHY ABOUT THE PURPOSE OF YOUR LIFE

UNDERSTAND EVERYTHING IS INTERCONNECTED

RAISE YOUR VIBRATIONS

Changing your life isn’t that complicated when you know how, and when you know how, you don’t need therapy.

MY REVIEW

According to the World Health Organisation, there is a suicide every 40 seconds and in the UK alone, 16 people choose to end their lives every day. We have a chronic mental health problem. More and more people report they are struggling, yet therapy and medication, the conventional default solutions, are expensive and don’t seem to be working. You Don’t Need Therapy presents an alternative solution. The SYSO System R an easy digestible and cost efficient one stop system that can be applied by anyone wherever they are on their journey.

Resources available for self-improvement are plentiful, but can be overwhelming and confusing. There are over 160 recognised types of psychotherapy, endless counselling styles, coaching methods, healing techniques, retreats, seminars and book offerings, yet many people simply don’t know where to start or what to do next. You Don’t Need Therapy introduces a one stop solution, the SYSO System R with 7 simple steps and 70 practical exercises so you can Do the changing, rather than read about it.

By following the steps, you will change how you think, which will change how you feel, which will change what you do, all as quickly as you choose. You will create a new filter through which you experience life and by changing the filter, everything will look different.

You don’t need therapy, you can sort your self out when you know how.

INSIDE YOU DON’T NEED THERAPY

The SYSO System R

Sort Your Self Out

Introduction

STEP 1 : Become More Aware

STEP 2 : Manage Your Mind

STEP 3 : Take Charge of Your Emotions

STEP 4 : Understand Your Needs

STEP 5 : Have a Clear Philosophy About the Purpose of Your Life

STEP 6 : Appreciate Your Interconnectedness

STEP 7 : Raise Your Vibration

Summary and Next Steps

Every chapter has been set out extremely well, easy to follow. This is one self help book that I recommend, as this is one of the best self help books that I have ever read. I specially like reading the amazing grid in a box in each chapter that are set out as an easy exercise. Here is the first grid in a box from STEP 1 : Become More Aware.

EXERCISE 1

Appreciate Your Uniqueness

Find somewhere quiet and without distractions. Relax and appreciate the magnificent design you are.

Appreciate Your uniqueness. Be still and breathe deeply and slowly, in through your nose and out through your mouth.

Each breath in is bringing you new oxygen to energies every cell in your body, and each breath out is getting rid of waste in the form of carbon dioxide.

Imagine all the negative thoughts and toxins leaving your body as waste with each exhale. Appreciate the beautiful gifts of your breathing and your heart beating.

Each day you will take about 23,000 breaths and your heart will beat about 100,000 times, without requiring to you consciously do anything. That’s pretty impressive, don’t you think?

Become more aware of the uniqueness of your ears, your eyes, your fingerprints, your tongue, your skin.

ABOUT ALAN LUCAS

Alan Lucas was born and raised in Belfast during the troubles, and wondered from a young age why people would kill others just because they had developed different beliefs.
He studied for a lightweight degree in Leisure Studies, a Master’s degree in more of the same and graduated as a top student of leisure while spending most of the time skiing.
After university, he worked as a ski teacher in the U.S., New Zealand, Australia and Europe. He had proper jobs as a marketing boss at global sportswear brands Nike and Adidas and has founded various businesses.
As an entrepreneur, coach and motivational speaker, Alan is passionate about self-improvement and helping people have more fun and fulfilling lives. He created the Sort Your Self Out system, and the EGO HERE brand which donates much of its profits to the SYSO Foundation, providing personal development resources for young people to help them avoid becoming messed-up older people.
http://www.youdontneedtherapy.com

Saving The World Paola Diana Blog Tour

Saving The World by Paola Diana

Paperback published by Quarter Books 2nd May 2018

ISBN 9780704374515

Women The Twenty – First Century’s Factor for Change.

The status of women is a global challenge; it touches every human being without exception. How is it possible that countries where women have achieved political economic and social rights after exhausting struggles remain seemingly indifferent to the egregiousness of other nations where the status of women is still tragic? The time has come to take a leap and help those left behind.

What has been said about this book

A powerful read. A must for all men! By Ant Middleton

Paola’s innate belief in the strength and absolute sort of women is contagious you should definitely read this book. By Dr Sarah Caddick

I have never thought of myself as a feminist, however, I have now read Paola’s wonderful book and realised that of course I bloody am! By Fru Hazlitt Channel 4 board member and former MD of ITV

Introduction

Saving the world. Karl Marx’s brilliant idea was that working classes, by saving themselves, would save the world. At least in part, the working classes succeeded. The main idea of Paola Diana’s fascinating book is that women, by saving themselves, will save the whole world. They are most likely to succeed.

In 2030, women will live three times longer than men. In the United States they will control two-thirds of all wealth. 60 per cent of university students, 60 per cent of graduates and 60 per cent of Master degree holders will be women. Many women will marry younger men. Many women will have a child without a husband. Whereas men will not be able to have a child without a wife yet. This is why women will be at the core of our social system and therefore potentially tempted to manage power with the toughness that comes from all the wrongs they had suffered during the previous ten thousand years.

Paola’s book, which tackles for key issues women and politics, women and religion, women’s d work, women and society and adds a draft bill proposing a tax intervention for women’s entry and permanence in the job market. Bonus care.

Paola’s strong ideas, far from being utopia or odd, are precisely shared and confirmed by the conclusion of some foresight research which I have just completed. The objective of the survey was to verify how our social system will change from now until 2030. Using the Delphi method. I consulted eleven illustrious experts who agreed with the following summarised in terms of women’s conditions.

ABOUT PAOLA DIANA

Paola Diana is an entrepreneur, author, activist and host of the YouTube show ‘Unleashed. The Game Changers’. She is the founder and CEO of a global recruitment company, leader in the household and secretarial staff sector and she is producing a documentary series based on social issues such as knife crime, domestic violence, racism and homelessness. As a successful female entrepreneur and women’s rights expert, Diana contributes regularly to TV and radio in the UK and Italy. In 2017, 2018 and 2019 she was named on the prestigious Spear’s 500 list.

Return to Virgin River Robyn Carr Blog Tour

   

Return to virgin River by Robyn Carr

Paperback published by Mills and Boon.

The perfect place to find yourself 

Struggling with grief after the death of her mother, successful author Kaylee Sloan needs a distraction, to come to terms with life and meet her looming deadline.

With Christmas approaching, Kaylee rents a cabin in Virgin River. She knows the isolation will help her writing and as she drives north through the mountains she immediately feels inspired. Until she arrives at a building that has just gone up in flames. Devastated, she heads to Jack’s Bar to plan her next steps. The local bar is the heart of the town and once she crosses the threshold, she’s surprised to be embraced by people who are more than willing to help a stranger in need.

Welcomed by those in Virgin River, Kaylee starts to see her life in a new light. And as she becomes more involved in the town and the people in it, especially local artist and dog trainer Landry Moore, Kaylee realises she may have found her peace. As Christmas approaches, Kaylee’s dread turns to wonder. Because there’s no better place to mend a broken heart than Virgin River. 

My review 

My Rev of Return To Virgin River

I read and enjoyed Virgin River, so my next read had to be Return to Virgin River, where strangers become friends. The most exciting news is that Virgin River has all read had multi million copies sold world wide as the bestselling series and it’s gets even more exciting as the Virgin River series is on Netflix. Once you read VirginnRiver It becomes easy to see how such an amazing series has turned into a Netflix series. 

Kaylee Sloan, an fiction author, who had written a word during the first six months of her mother’s treatment and six months after of grieving after her mother’s death. 

Things get a whole lot more upsetting as Kaylee finds her getaway, mountain villia that she is renting in a big smouldering pile of ash. She needed to just get away with a change of scenery for six months. The question Kaylee wants to know is what caused the villa burn up?  She hopes the Cal Fire crew will help figure out how the fire started. 

When she arrives at Jack’s Bar Kaylee is kindly offered a temporary place to stay in a guesthouse. 

Can Kaylee’s broken heart be mended with all what has happened in her life in a short space of time?

Chapter 1

KAYLEE SLOAN TOOK THREE DAYS TO DRIVE FROM Newport,  California to Humboldt County. She could have done it in one change, but she didn’t even try. She visited a couple of friends on the way – Michelle, who lived in San Luis Obispo, and janette, who lived in Bodega Bay. Yes, they were her beloved friends and had been since she was small, except they had really belonged to her late mother. Not only were they each welcome respite in a long drive, she needed some of their nurturing.

Kaylee was headed into the Northan mountains for a six month escape to write. She had packed as much as possible and leased a house in Humboldt County from old school friends of the family. The nearest town was an isolated little burg called Virgin River, a place she knew vaguely. She’d been to this mountain house before, twice with her mother and twice on her own. It promised no distractions. She was a suspense novelist and was facing a hard deadline on a book. 

  

When the recently widowed Melinda Monroe sees an advert for a midwife in the remote town of Virgin River, she decides this is the perfect place to escape her heartache, and to revitalise the nursing career she loves.

However, her hopes are dashed with an no hour of arriving the cabin is uninhabitable, the roads are treacherous and the local doctor wants nothing to do with her. But when a tiny baby is abandoned on a front porch, Mel must decide whether to stay and help or cut her losses and leave.

Helped by her local barman, and former marine, Jack Sheridan, Mel must face her past, and find that there may be a future in Virgin River after all. 

My review 

Both books are a delightful read, any reader can find themselves lost into where the story is going. 

Sometimes all you need is a fresh start. 

Mel was ready to get out of Los Angeles, she had put her resume with the Nurses Registery and one recruiters brought Virgin River to her attention. The town doctor was getting old and needed help. 

Mel sold everything so she wouldn’t be tempted back . In an ideal world Mel wanted to get a new job working in a small private hospital. She had to remind herself of the reasons she wanted this job. In Virgin River Mel was ready to meet her new employer, where  Mel would have a rent-free little cabin in the Woodstock the year of her contract.

The Virgin River after which the  town was named, was deep wide, long, and home to huge salmon, sturgeon, steel fish and trout. 

What happens next will have glued to every character and chapters. 

About author Robyn Carr






Robyn Carr is a RITA® Award-winning, eleven-time #1 New York Times bestselling author of almost sixty novels, including the critically acclaimed Virgin River series. The fourth novel, THE BEST OF US, in her fan-favorite Sullivan’s Crossing Series was released in Jan. 2019. Robyn’s new women’s fiction novel THE VIEW FROM ALAMEDA ISLAND, released in April 2019, deputed on four bestseller lists: The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and Publisher’s Weekly! Robyn is a recipient of the Romance Writers of America Nora Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award 2016, and in 2017, VIRGIN RIVER was named one of the HarperCollins 200 Iconic Books of the past 200 years. Look for the Virgin River Netflix Series coming to Netflix in late 2019. Robyn currently resides in Las Vegas, Nevada. You can visit Robyn Carr’s website at www.RobynCarr.com. 

The Sins of Allie Lawrence by Philip Caveney @Philip_caveney @FledglingPress @lovebooksgroup #lovebookstours

The Sins of Allie Lawrence by Philp Caveney

Paperback published by Fledgling Press

After a blazing row with her mother, sixteen-year-old Allie Lawrence impulsively runs away from the family home in Killiecrankie, with no plan other than to go to Edinburgh to ‘be an actor.’

Then a chauffeur-driven car pulls up beside her and she’s offered a lift by its handsome and mysterious passenger, Nick. Against her better judgement, she accepts – and soon discovers that he is a ‘manager,’ who claims he can make all her dreams come true.

She just needs to sign a contract… The Sins of Allie Lawrence is a tale of temptation, inspired by the legend of Black Donald, and set against the vibrant world of the theatre.

My review

I absolutely loved this story!

When we were younger we all argued with our mother, but mother knows best. Allie Lawrence’s mother wouldn’t let her go to a party, she had to stay in and revise, now her best friend has gone behind her back. And Allie’S mother didn’t think anything their relationship would going anywhere with her boyfriend. With what her mother had just said, Allie only had a few coins, but she didn’t care, Allie packed a few things and left home. Allie was determined to travel thirty miles to Perth somehow. I thought Allie Lawrence was very brave at sixteen and leaving home. This is a very interesting story as we are taken through what happened next through Allie’s travels. I totally recommend this brilliant story.

I would like to say a very big thank you to Kelly Lacey at Love books Group for sending me this fabulous book and for inviting me to be part of this wonderful blog tour.

About Philp Caveney

Philip’s Caveney is an award-winning author whose first novel was published in 1977. Since then, he has published many novels for adults and since 2007, a series of children’s books that have sold all over the world, the Sebastian Darke series and another well-received series – The Alec Devlin Mysteries. He has written the successful Crow Boy trilogy for Fledgling Press and The Calling and The Slithers too. Philip also writes as Danny Weston – winner of the Scottish Book Trust Teen award 2016. Philip now lives and writes in Edinburgh.

Buy Link 

https://amzn.to/2YU7KbZ

The Unraveling Of Maria Blog Tour

The Unraveling Of Maria By F J Curlew paperback published 7th November 2020

Maria’s history is a lie. Washed up on the shores of Sweden in 1944, with no memory, she was forced to create her own. 43 years later she still has no idea of who she really is.

Jaak flights for Estonia’s independence refusing to accept the death of his fiancé Maarja, whose ship was sunk as she fled across the Baltic Sea to escape the Soviet invasion.

Angie knows exactly who she is . A drug addict, a waste of space. Life is just about getting by.

A chance meeting in Edinburgh’s Cancer Centre is the catalyst for something very different.

Sometimes all you need is someone who listens.

First page of chapter 1

Maria 1993

I clambered out the window, mumbled to myself, cursing at the stiffness of my old legs, held on tight to the knotted sheets and slid my way down ungracefully, most likely comically. My room was only on the first floor and really, such a means of escape was unnecessary, but I wanted to do it properly. This was something I would do only once in my lifetime. I had to make the most of it.

Once safely down I took a quick glance back at the building, blew a kiss, took a deep breath, picked up my handbag, and tip-toed across the lawn to the row of pine trees that hid the grounds from the road. I felt like a rebellious teenager sneaking out of the house to meet an unapproved of boyfriend or some such thing. It was so exciting and peculiarly familiar. Ah yes. That time. So long ago. Leave it be. I had no time for dilly dallying around in memories that were no use to me.

My feet reached the gravel of the drive. Crunch, crunch, crunch. It was noisy. Too noisy! I might wake them. Alert them to my escape. Allow capture. That simply wouldn’t do ! Slow down Maria. Slow down. I stepped back onto the grass and padded softly along it until I reached the gate.

About author Fiona Curlew

Fiona dropped out of school age 15, because being the consummate rebel, she hated it. After becoming a single parent she decided to return to education graduating in 1996 with honours degree in primary education. Ah, the irony!
As soon as she graduated she packed everything she owned into her Renault 11, including her daughter, two dogs and a cat and headed off to Estonia to become an international school teacher. After fifteen years of teaching, predominantly in Eastern Europe she returned to the UK to focus on her writing.
She now lives on the east coast of Scotland with a rescued Ukrainian street mutt (now deceased – a heavy sigh) a Scottish Black Labrador, Springer Spaniel and a Portuguese cat who doesn’t like the weather!
She is the author of two novels, Retribution a dystopian thriller and Dan Knew, the semi-autobiographical account her travels through the eyes of Dan, one of her Ukrainian rescue dogs.

You can find Fiona Curlew on her Website

http://fcurlew.com

From Highlights to Lowlifes Alyson Chattoe and Jilly Clarkby @thewritinghall@lovebooksgroup #lovebookstours



  

From Highlights to Lowlifes by A.J. Chattoe and Jilly Clarkby 

Paperback published by TWH publishing 27th October 2017

ISBN 9780993476792

£3.09 from Amazon UK

What had seemed the answer to Tilly’s problems had now turned into her worst nightmare. A happily married mother-of-three, Tilly was not the stereotypical criminal – in fact, she’d barely warrant a second glance if passed in the street.

“No one will stop you, Tilly. You’re Mrs. Average. Why would any­one suspect you?”

She’d only wanted to protect her family. If your whole life was under threat, would you make the same decision?

Based on actual events and real-life diary entries, Tilly’s story shows how quickly life can turn…
My review 

I literally cried while reading From Highlights to Lowlifes, that’s based on actual events and real-life diary entries. I know it was Tilly’s own fault for working  for a friend carrying drugs strapped to her stomach and believing a friend that no one would stop her as she is Mrs Average.  When Tilly is stopped and search she is given a five year sentence in prison. I was glued to Tilly’s own true story I wanted to find out how Tilly would cope inside prison. Tilly takes us through her prison sentence with the other women she has to share her room with. And how her family react through what she has done. 

If you have read any books like Cartel Wives Mia and Olivia Flores who were married to the highest level drug traffickers or Breakfast at Bronzefield about another young  woman Sophie Campbell, who was sent to one of the largest female prisons HMP Bronzefiels you will be gripped into Highlights to Lowlifes.

I would like to thank Kelly at Love Books Group for sending me this book and for inviting me to be part of the blog tour.



Author Bio

Jilly and Alyson are neighbours and good friends, and they’re based in West Yorkshire. Both are dog-lovers and ‘From Highlights to Lowlifes’ was largely created during their daily walks, based on Jilly’s experiences.

As an advocate of rehabilitation and bringing to light the UK justice system’s flaws, Jilly gives talks at schools, universities and various groups across the UK.

Buy Link 

https://www.hallgoodbooks.com/product-page/from-highlights-to-lowlifes

The Haunting at Bonaventure Circus by Jaime Jo Wright @jaimejowright@bethany_house @lovebooksgroup @lovebooksgroup #lovebookstours



   

THE HAUNTING AT BONAVENTURE CIRCUS BY JAIME  JO WRIGHT 

Paperback published by Bethany House 1st September 2020

1928

The Bonaventure Circus is a refuge for many, but Pippa Ripley was rejected from its inner circle as a baby. When she receives mysterious messages from someone called the “Watchman,” she is determined to find him and the connection to her birth. As Pippa’s search leads her to a man seeking justice for his murdered sister and evidence that a serial killer has been haunting the circus train, she must decide if uncovering her roots is worth putting herself directly in the path of the killer.

Present Day

The old circus train depot will either be torn down or preserved for historical importance, and its future rests on real estate project manager Chandler Faulk’s shoulders. As she dives deep into the depot’s history, she’s also balancing a newly diagnosed autoimmune disease and the pressures of single motherhood. When she discovers clues to the unsolved murders of the past, Chandler is pulled into a story far darker and more haunting than even an abandoned train depot could portend.

My review 

Welcome to Bonaventure circus where misfits go to hide. 

A Haunting at Bonaventure Circus is a magnificent story, weaving between  1928, and decades later the present day. The story is so well written with first class imagination by author Jamie Jo Wright, that this story impressed me so much it gave me the shivers. I know this story will put many readers under a magical shivery spell, with the spookiest scene at a graveyard and spirits. The Bonaventure Circus painted a picture in my head of like a ghostly derelict disused old building, that was to be taken down for historical reasons. 

Pippa Ripley received a mysterious letter from the Watchman with the words 

come. 

Elphant Alley 

11am. 

From chapter 5 page 40

There the Watchman stood. A silhouette braving the brush of light that now washed through the windows of the elephant house as the electric lamps were turned up. A burlap sack covered his head, black holes where his eyes should have been. Holes that were ragged and frayed, lessening the distance between them as the empty void became a frightening traverse.

In that moment, pippa was bound to him. More so than she had been before. But it was a binding that imprisoned her, not freed her. The Watchman held captive all her secrets, held prisoner her soul, and she began to drown in the hollowness of his eyes.

I loved this book Haunting at Bonaventure Circus so much, therefore I highly recommend it as a must buy as it messes with your head within the most enjoyable way.

I would like to thank Kelly Lacey at Love Books Group for sending this fascinating book and for inviting me to take part in the blog tour today, for that I’m truly grateful. 

About Jamie Jo Wright

Jaime Jo Wright is the author of five novels, including Christy Award winner The House on Foster Hill and Carol Award winner The Reckoning at Gossamer Pond. She’s also the Publishers Weekly and ECPA bestselling author of two novellas. Jaime lives in Wisconsin with her cat named Foo, her husband Cap’n Hook, and their littles, Peter Pan, and CoCo. To learn more, visit http://www.jaimewrightbooks.com. 

Buy Link 

https://amzn.to/3bzX8UU

Unfollow Me Charlotte Duckworth Blog Tour

UNFOLLOW ME CHARLOTTE DUCKWORTH

Paperback published by Quercus Books 15th October 2020

ISBN 9781787478091

You Can’t Stop Watching Her.

Violet Young is a hugely popular journalist-turned-mummy-vlogger, with three young children, a successful husband and a million subscribers on YouTube who tune in daily to watch her everyday life unfold.

Until the day she’s no longer there.

But one day she disappears from the online world – her entire social media presence deleted overnight, with no explanation. Has she simply decided that baring her life to all online is no longer a good idea, or has something more sinister happened to her?

But do you really know who Violet is?

Told from the perspectives of her most avid fans, obsessed with finding out the truth, their search quickly reveals a web of lies, betrayal, and shocking consequences…

My review

Unfollow me grabbed my attention from page one. The story displays a modern day account of part jealousy of one follower who wants the perfect life that Violet blue tells her followers on YouTube everything. Where a regular has been enjoying and become addicted to everything Violet uploads and has done so for the past three years, until one evening, Violet’s YouTube channel doesn’t exist anymore. What does that mean? A GoMamas social media chat site are all missing Violet Blue and getting concerned the mummy vlogger shut down her all her social media accounts. What’s to look forward to is that pretty much anything can happen, why someone once had so many fans and shut down all social media without acknowledging to her fans why. The story just gets better and better.

You won’t be able to stop reading this book after reading the first page!

From page 1

I know everything about you Violet.

I know your mother’s name is Joy. I know your sister is a paediatric nurse, that she has twin boys. I know you sold your first flat a tiny, one bed in Blackheath with bubbling wallpaper and a illegal roof terrace for £300k. Double the price you paid for it. I know your father gave you the deposit when you moved to London at twenty-one. I know the house you live in now you and Henry almost £3million, and that you also own the villa in Marbella that you pretend belongs to your parents. I know you lie about your age your thirty-eight next birthday, not thirty-six. I know that 2017 was your most profitable year yet; that you’ve set up a trust fund for the children, somewhere to put all the money that keeps flowing your way.

I know you have hair extensions; I know the name of your hairdresser, Pablo, and that his partner is called Ian. I know where they live. I know you’re loyal to him now, that you consider him family, that you always New Year with him and Ian. Drinking champagne out of saucers, wearing an outfit that cost more than I earn in a month. I know that you got into journalism by luck. I know your ex, Angus, now married to Isabella and living in Surrey, got you a job as editorial assistant on his golfing magazine, and that charmed your way across one of the world’s biggest media firms until you were a feature writer for a woman’s magazine.

I would like to thank Quercus Books for sending me this page turning paperback to read and review and for inviting me to be part of the book tour

About author Charlotte Duckworth

Charlotte Duckworth has spent the past 15 years working as an interior and lifestyle journalist. She is a graduate of the Faber Academy Writing a Novel course and has a diploma in screenwriting from the London College of Communication. She lives in Surrey with her partner and their young daughter.

You can find out more on her website: http://www.Charlotteduckworth.com

Helen and the Grandbees Alex Morrall Blog Tour


  

Helen and the Grandbees By Alex Morrall 

Paperback published 28th October 2020 by Legend Press

Forgetting your past is one thing, but living with your present is entirely different.

Twenty years ago, Helen is forced to give up her newborn baby, Lily. Now living alone in her small flat, there is a knock at the door and her bee, her Lily, is standing in front of her.

Reuniting means the world to them both, but Lily has questions. Lots of them. Questions that Helen is unwilling to answer. In turn Helen watches helplessly as her headstrong daughter launches from relationship to relationship, from kind Andrew, the father of her daughter, to violent Kingsley who fathers her son.

When it’s clear her grandbees are in danger, tangled up in her daughter’s damaging relationship, Helen must find the courage to step in, confronting the fears that haunt her the most.

Told in Helen’s quirky voice Helen and the Grandbees addresses matters of identity, race and mental illness.

My review 

Helen and the Grandbees deals with issues of identity, race, poverty, adoption and mental illnesses. A very touching story, Helen is reunited with grown-up Lily, who was taken away from Helen shortly after Lily was born. Lily has a good job as a PA, while her birth mother, Helen is a cleaner. Lily shares her experience her birth mother that she hadn’t ever seen,  by explaining that she was adopted by a Caribbean family, as its a thing the social services do, they want black kids to be brought up in a black family.  And her name is not Lily. The story is deeply moving with Helen and Lily both have their own question getting to know each other again. And there are words that Helen wants to say to Lily, but thinks better not to. What I liked about this adoption story is the author Alex Morrall was passionate about the storyline and the characters.

Part of a chapter by Helen 

How did you learn to cook like this? I ask as dinner is scooped onto primrose coloured plates. Lily calls it jambalaya, which sounds like a tune, and the smell swells and swirls towards me and through my nose and throat. It’s full of prawns and spices, and chilli. From my parents. They wanted me to learn to cook food from around the world.

Parents again I try not to say anything. I keep trying not to say anything, but that must show on my face because I see Andrew and Lily glance at one another as Lily passes around the plates.

I was adopted by a Caribbean family. It’s a thing the social services do. They want black kids to be brought up in a black family and so on. You can see she does not really want to explain all this. She is not looking at me but carefully folding the green checked tea towel down on the pot, even though the tea towel does not need to be folded.

But you’re only half black, Lily.

She gives me a sharp look.

I mean Ingrid. You are half me, half white. And all my eyes. But I don’t say the last bit.

Apparently, it doesn’t work like this. I identify more with being black, she tells me as she passes me some cutlery.

Only because your adoptive parents were black, I seethe inside, but I bite my tongue. It sounds like a phrase she has used before. I’ve noticed that’s its best not to talk about Lily’s other parents. Or are the adoptive parents the real parents?

About author Alex Morrall 

I would like to thank Legend Press @Legend_Times_ for sending me the paperback to read and review and for very kindly inviting me to be part of the blog tour today.



Nine by Rachelle Dekker @RachelleDekker @RevellBooks @lovebooksgroup #lovebookstours #Ninetour



   

NINE BY RACHELLE DEKKER 

Paperback published 1st September 2020 by Revell Books

Paperback 978-0800735968 available to buy on Amazon 

Zoe Johnson spent most of her life living in the shadows, never drawing attention to herself, never investing in people or places. But when a wide-eyed, bedraggled teenager with no memory walks into the diner where Zoe works, everything changes. Now, against her better judgment, Zoe, who has been trying to outrun her own painful memories of the past, finds herself attempting to help a girl who doesn’t seem to have any past at all. The girl knows only one thing: she must reach a woman in Corpus Christi, Texas, hundreds of miles away, before the government agents who are searching for her catch up to them.

Award-winning author Rachelle Dekker throws you into the middle of the action and keeps the pressure on in this page-turning story that, asks Are we who the world says we are–or can we change our story and be something more?

My review 

This story is incredible, it should be made into a film. I was literally holding my breath with the tension at the beginning its so full of scary action, that kept me turning the pages wanting to know what will happen next. With all the scary things that happen, I just simply couldn’t see how this story would be able to have a neat ending. Rachelle Dekker is a gifted storyteller with whole vision of words and page turning scenes characters that grabbed my attention 

This scene is painful and frightening. It all was easy for me to imagine picture the scene and atmosphere, and feeling the fear about what was going to unfold . I wondered where this was leading as Olivia has taken away all of Lucy’s memories for her own protection. Lucy and Olivia are running away from some bad men in a remoteness forest. As the men are approaching their location brave Olivia tells Lucy to run west to Texas to find Summer Wallace her friend, Lucy must tell Summer Wallace, that Olivia has sent her to find the robin. Meanwhile Olivia is going to stay behind while Lucy escapes. Olivia is going to draw all of her strength to try and control the men who are drawing near to her to stop them firing at her, giving Lucy time to head west to find summer Wallace. With Lucy having her memories taken away from her I wondered if Lucy be able to track down Summer Wallace . Unfolding Lucy walks into a diner where Zoe works, can Zoe help Lucy? Reading this paperback Nine, my heart rate must have doubled, it’s quite unlike anything that I have read before. I highly recommend the novel Nine by Rachelle Dekker as its a powerful and delivers taking readers right into the atmosphere!

About Racelle Dekker

Rachelle Dekker is the Christy Award-winning author of The Choosing, The Calling, and The Returning in the Seer series. The oldest daughter of New York Times bestselling author Ted Dekker and coauthor with him of The Girl behind the Red Rope, Rachelle was inspired early on to discover truth through the avenue of storytelling. She writes full-time from her home in Nashville, where she lives with her husband, Daniel, and their son, Jack. Connect with Rachelle at http://www.rachelledekker.com.

Buy Link 

https://amzn.to/2YkyjHl