Friday 24 June 2016

Blog Tour ~ Valentina by S E Lynes




Jaffareadstoo is delighted to be hosting this first stop


 on the exciting Blog Tour 


for 


Valentina by S E Lynes







Blackbird Digital
1 July 2016




A bit of book blurb

When Glasgow journalist Shona McGilvery moves with her partner Mikey and their baby to an idyllic cottage in rural Scotland, they believe that all that lies ahead of them is happiness.

But with Mikey working offshore, the frightening isolation of the Aberdeenshire countryside begins to drive her insane...

That is, until she is rescued by a new friendship with the enchanting Valentina. 

She has the perfect home, the perfect man, and a charismatic new best friend – or does she?

As her fairytale life begins to unravel, the deep dark wood becomes the least of her fears...



My thoughts

Shona McGilvery is like the girl you meet on the bus, she's funny and feisty, not afraid to stand up for what she believes in and she loves her man, Mikey and their tiny daughter, Isla. But when they move to an isolated cottage on the outskirts of Aberdeen, Shona is left alone whilst Mikey works as an engineer on an offshore oil rig. For the two weeks each month that Mikey works away from home Shona is really lonely, so when she meets the enigmatic Valentina, who also has a baby son, you can imagine that Shona is only too keen to make friends, and Valentina quickly adapts herself to Shona's life and very soon becoming everything that Shona thinks she needs in a friend.

What then follows is a very clever psychological thriller which lulls you into a sense of security only to rip the comfort blanket away from you in a story which literally had me on the edge of my seat. Such was the compulsion to read just a little bit more, I literally carried my kindle from room to room and read and read without a break until I had finished the story in one sitting.

I was lulled and beguiled by the relationship between Shona and Mikey and Valentina and Shona, I wanted to like them all, but before too long I had misgivings about one of them, which then made me question what was happening, made me seek answers and had me flipping back in the story to see if I had missed anything vital ....I hadn't. And the fact that the book kept me guessing right until the end is where the absolute strength of the story lies.

What happens throughout the whole of this clever novel is not for me to divulge as that would be to do both book and author a complete disservice, but what I will say,  is this, that such is the emotional pull of this intelligent and finely observed domestic noir, I would argue that no-one who reads the story will be disappointed.


Without doubt, one of the best debut novels I’ve read this year.



Best Read with….A fish and chip supper and a bottle of Sancerre..



About the Author

After graduating from Leeds University, S. E. Lynes lived in London for a couple of years before moving to Aberdeen to be with her husband. In Aberdeen, she worked as a Radio Producer at the BBC before moving with her husband and two young children to Rome. There, she began to write while her children attended nursery. After the birth of her third child and upon her return to the UK, she gained an MA in Creative Writing from Kingston University. She now combines writing with teaching creative writing at Richmond Adult Community College and bringing up her three children. She lives in Teddington, SW London.



Visit her on her Facebook page

Follow her on Twitter @SELynesAuthor




My thanks to the publisher Blackbird Digital for my e-copy of this book and of course, to the author for writing such an addictive and compelling psychological thriller.



|Do visit the other stops on this exciting blog tour.








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2 comments:

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