REVIEW: Olga's Egg by Sophie Law #Olgasegg @fayerogersuk @authoright @sophieatbonhams

BOOK INFORMATION

Title: Olga’s Egg

Author: Sophie Law

Release Date: 25^th October 2018

Genre: Contemporary

Publisher: Clink Street Publishing

Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41839253-olga-s-egg

Amazon Link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Olgas-Egg-Sophie-Law-ebook/dp/B07H52VJQJ

Synopsis: When Fabergé specialist Assia Wynfield learns of the discovery of a long-lost Fabergé egg made for the Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna, daughter of the last Tsar of Russia, she appears to be the only person with misgivings. On traveling to St. Petersburg to see the egg, Assia moves among Russia’s new rich but finds herself pulled back into a family past she would rather forget. With news that a friend is missing, Assia starts to dig deeper. But does she really want the answers to the questions she is asking? Set in today’s glamorous world of Russian art with glimpses into the lives of the last Romanovs as their empire crumbled in the wake of the Russian Revolution, Olga’s Egg is an enthralling tale of love, family secrets and the artistic treasures that conceal them.

Review: Sophie Law’s debut novel offers every narrative jewel possible to enthrall the reader.  We travel from London to St. Petersburg and back again in search of the lost Faberge egg made for Grand Duchess Olga Nikolayevna, the eldest daughter of  Tsar Nicholas II.
The heroine of the novel has a less than stellar relationship with her father and her twin sister that is worked into the storyline from beginning to end. My heart nearly broke when the heroine, Anastasia, told her sister, Tatiana, that the reason she is so obsessed with the Tsar and his family is that unlike her own family, they were so full of love for each other.
I enjoyed the mixture of history and present day in this novel, as well as the mystery/conspiracy surrounding the newly discovered egg. I would highly recommend this to everyone.

Rating: Four stars 

About the author

Sophie Law was born in London in 1981 and studied at Oxford University and the School of Slavonic and East European Studies. She began her career as a Russian art expert at Bonhams in 2006. After a number of years heading the Russian department and as a UK Board Director at Bonhams, she now acts as a consultant specialist. She lives with her husband and daughter in Oxford.

Website: http://sophielawconsultancy.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/sophieatbonhams

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=554123034

Instagram: http://instagram.com/sophierussianart

BLOG TOUR: After The Fall, Brad Graber

AFTER THE FALL

BOOK INFORMATION

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

• Paperback: 318 pages
• Publisher: Dark Victory Press (May 9, 2018)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0997604220
• ISBN-13: 978-0997604221

Synopsis: Rikki, a teenager being raised by her grandmother, has a secret. She can’t remember her mother. Whenever Rikki asks the older woman a question, Rita falls apart and refuses to discuss the matter. Desperate to learn the truth, Rikki finds a hidden family album. Is the boy in the photograph with her mother a long lost uncle? Determined to solve the mystery, Rikki embarks on a journey from New York City to Toledo, then on to Detroit and Phoenix to meet Harry, a writer who is struggling with his own issues of identity.

From the award-winning writer of The Intersect, come After the Fall, a fast-paced, engaging read, with twists and turns that will surely surprise. After the Fall: an emotional roller-coaster of a mystery packed with personality and charm. Once you begin the journey, you won’t be able to turn back. 

Review: This was a book full of surprises, both for the main character and the reader. When I realized what had actually happened to Rikki's mother, it was heartbreaking. 

Nearly all of the characters in this story were dealing with some sort of loss, and the author does a fantastic job of showing different ways we handle that situation. While I may not have agreed with some of the ways, they are portrayed extremely realistically. 

The story is presented from multiple points of view, as well as with some flashback scenes, but it is all presented in such a way that the reader is never left confused. The book deals with very timely issues and events in a realistic, compassionate way.

Along with all the stories about the humans, there is a bittersweet subplot woven in about Harry's senior dog, Beetle, which got to me almost as much as the other traumas and tragedies.

Rating: Four stars

About the author

Brad Graber writes novels because he grew up in a family where no one ever listened to him - so he made up stories about them.

Born and raised in New York City, Brad obtained a B.A. in Biology from the State University of New York at Buffalo and an M.H.A. from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. A former healthcare executive, Brad has held a number of management positions and been a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives and a Certified Medical Executive through Medical Group Management Association. Though he no longer works in healthcare, he continues to volunteer with local non-profits.

After the Fall is Brad’s second novel. His debut novel, The Intersect, released in 2016, has won multiple awards and garnered rave reviews.

Brad has lived in Highland Park, a suburb of Chicago; West Bloomfield, a suburb of Detroit; and Mill Valley, a suburb of San Francisco. He currently resides in Phoenix on the grounds of the Arizona Biltmore with his husband Jeff and their dog Charlie.

Twitter: @Jefbra1
Facebook: bradgraberauthor

Website: https://bradgraber.com/

On Amazon: https://amzn.to/2Jk9YuR

What She Left by Rosie Fiore @rararesources

BOOK INFORMATION

Genre: Women's fiction; contemporary fiction

• Paperback
• Publisher: Allen & Unwin; Main edition
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1760292494
• ISBN-13: 978-1760292492

Synopsis: Helen Cooper has a charmed life. She's beautiful, accomplished, organised - the star parent at the school. Until she disappears.

But Helen wasn't abducted or murdered. She's chosen to walk away, abandoning her family, husband Sam, and her home.

Where has Helen gone, and why? What has driven her from her seemingly perfect life? What is she looking for? Sam is tormented by these questions, and gradually begins to lose his grip on work and his family life.

He sees Helen everywhere in the faces of strangers. He's losing control.

But then one day, it really is Helen's face he sees...

Review: This is a very different sort of family story. When Helen disappears, it's not because she's been kidnapped or murdered. She just walks away from her family one morning. The book is told from four different viewpoints: Sam, Helen, Sam's oldest daughter, and Lara (a mother with a child at the same school as Sam's girls).

Through the various viewpoints, we learn more and more about Helen and her life, and how her disappearance impacts her family. When we get about midway through the story, we learn some surprising information about Helen that shows readers a different side of her and of the story.

I was grabbed by this story from the first chapter and could hardly bear the times I had to put it down. Seeing how the family members grew and developed through the story was a joy.

Rating: Four stars

Book excerpt

Lara, a single mother who has a child at the same school as Helen Cooper, is the first person to know Helen has gone missing. We see Helen through her eyes – as someone, not a close friend, who has observed Helen and made assumptions about who she is.

Lara

Every middle-class London school has a Helen. Perhaps the Helen at your school has shining blonde hair or twinkling dark eyes. Perhaps she’s called Sarah, or Rebecca or Shariza. The principle is the same. Our Helen had a clear, bell-like voice, and you had to speak to her for a little while before you picked up the slight twang and upward inflection that told of her Australian origins. She had a smooth, chestnut-brown ponytail, clear, pale skin and wide blue eyes. You would often see the ponytail swinging as she ran briskly through the park, half an hour before pick-up time. But more often than not, you’d see it swinging as she laughed among a bustling group of parents in the playground. She’d be there before school, after school, at every school event, at the school gate collecting for the summer fete which she’d organized. She’d be at the open day, merrily guiding a group of prospective parents from classroom to classroom. Outside the classroom, she’d wink kindly at the harried mothers rushing in late, as her own demure girls, their smooth ponytails equally perfectly brushed, waited by her side. She produced perfect cakes for the cake sale, perfect costumes for the class assembly and perfect financial records after the astonishingly successful Christmas fayre. She was perfect.

And then she vanished.

It turned out that I was the first person at school to know she’d gone missing. Ella Barker did an interview with the Daily Mail and said she was the first to know ‘because Helen was always the first at the school gates, so I noticed immediately when she wasn’t there’. But that wasn’t true. Ella was long gone when we realized, and so were all the other Year Three mothers. Ella didn’t care if what she said wasn’t true. The Mail sent a stylist and took a picture of her in her neat front garden, and said how much her house was worth, so she was thrilled.

Purchase Links

Paperback: https://www.amazon.co.uk/What-She-Left-Rosie-Fiore/dp/1760292494/ref=tmm_pap_title_1?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Kindle: https://www.amazon.co.uk/What-She-Left-Rosie-Fiore-ebook/dp/B07253XZR4/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

About the author

 Rosie Fiore was born and grew up in Johannesburg, South Africa. She studied drama at the University of the Witwatersrand and has worked as a writer for theatre, television, magazines, advertising, comedy and the corporate market. 

Her first two novels, This Year's Black and Lame Angel were published by Struik in South Africa. This Year's Black was longlisted for the South African Sunday Times Literary Award and has subsequently been re-released as an e-book. Babies in Waiting, Wonder Women and Holly at Christmas were published by Quercus. She is the author of After Isabella, also published by Allen & Unwin.

Rosie’s next book, The After Wife (written as Cass Hunter), will be published by Trapeze in 2018, and in translation in seven countries around the world.

Rosie lives in London with her husband and two sons.

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/rosiefiorewriter/

Twitter - https://twitter.com/rosiefiore