Two Heads Are Better Than One

by Beverly Clarke

BLURB
A short story which introduces young readers to the Digital Technologies shaping today’s society. Follow Ava, Chip and their mum as they explore a Smart city. Readers will gain an understanding of technology; the ways in which it is transforming our society, and how we interact with this emerging world.

Number of Pages: 27

MY THOUGHTS

Thank you Hygge Book Tours and Beverly Clarke for having me along on the tour and for my copy of the book.

The first thing I liked about the book was the cartoon artwork which is attractive to young children but not too babyish so older children would also find it enjoyable.

This lovely artwork continues throughout the book as Ava and Chip take a trip to the Smart City with their mother.

The description of the smart technology was child friendly and I’m sure a few adults will also learn a thing or two. I think it will light a spark of interest in technology in many children. There are plenty of discussion points to expand learning on this very important part of how our day to day activities are bring impacted by smart technology and not just in our homes.

I’d love to see this books available in school classrooms.

Book Links

The Digital Adventures of Ava and Chip: Smart City : Clarke, Beverly, Cooper, Terry: Amazon.co.uk: Books

The Digital Adventures of Ava and Chip: Smart City by Beverly Clarke (goodreads.com)

Additional Free resources available from – AvaChipBooks – Children’s Books

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Beverly Clarke resides in the UK. Born in Guyana, South America, she did not see a computer until she was twelve, but once she did, she embraced computing and technology and has always been fascinated by the impact that tech has on society.  As a child she was an avid reader, enjoying adventure stories such as Asterix, Tintin, Nancy Drew, Hardy boys, Enid Blyton and many more stories! 

She is a former teacher and works in computing education.  Beverly has previously written for adults on different aspects of computing education.  The Digital Adventures of Ava and Chip – Smart City – is her first children’s book, with the aim of helping to “make kids smarter” in understanding how technology is impacting upon their lives in an easy-to-understand way.  Beverly feels that through an understanding of our fast changing world we will all have brighter futures.

by Jayne Cowie

SYNOPSIS

WELCOME TO A WORLD WHERE WOMEN HOLD THE POWER.

They dominate workplaces, public spaces and government. 

They are no longer afraid to cross a dark car park, catch the last train, or walk home alone.

With the Curfew law in place, all men are electronically tagged and must stay at home after 7pm. 

It changed things for the better. Until now. 

A woman is murdered late at night and evidence suggests she knew her attacker. It couldn’t have been a man because a Curfew tag is a solid alibi … Isn’t it?

MY REVIEW

I am sharing my review today for my stop on the blog tour.

This book is going to be brilliant for book groups. There are a lot of discussion points! 

A dystopian novel, set a few years in the future, at a time when society has had enough of the violent attacks on women, by men, after dark. A law has been passed setting a curfew where men have to stay at home after 7pm, and from the age of 10 all have to wear an electronic tag to monitor them. Anyone breaking curfew gets arrested. Women now feel safe walking the streets after dark. Women are now in all the places of power. Women want baby daughters not sons, and the new pregnancy tests can tell them immediately whether they are having a boy or a girl. 

There is a requirement that any couple wishing to move in together must attend counselling to obtain a Cohab certificate which is meant to identify couples with an increased risk of interpersonal violence and prevent them from living together. It doesn’t mean a couple are perfect for each other. 

Sarah works as a tagger, fitting and checking the men’s tags. Sarah’s 17 year old daughter Cass is a troubled teen who blames her mother for her father being caught outside after curfew snd ending up in jail. Sarah kicked him out of the house, but why? She didn’t tell Cass. Cass is very vocal about being strongly opposed to curfew, especially during school classes teaching the history behind curfew. She doesn’t have many friends, just Billy, a boy she has been friends with for a long time.

During a work experience day at the tagging centre with her mother, Cass finds one of the tag keys, which are rigidly controlled and checked and usually locked away, on the floor and after being shocked and upset seeing her mum taser a man for causing trouble she picks it up and walks out with it.

When her father is released from prison, Cass’s mother doesn’t want anything to do with him now that they have moved into a women’s only safe house, where men are not allowed past the gate, but Cass tracks her father down and meets him. Her mother has tried to protect her by not telling her the whole story about her father.

Helen and Tom have just passed their Cohab certificate and Tom immediately moved in to Helen’s flat. But how well does she really know him? 

Then a woman’s body is found in the park and the police cannot easily identify her as she has been so horrifically mutilated. This can’t have been an attack by a man. Can it?

This was such a gripping book. I was flipping between thinking what a good idea, but then how unfair for the innocent men and boys! I’m so interested to read other peoples thoughts on this one. 

I found it very sad that Sarah and Cass just didn’t talk to each other. Cass felt she had no support and her mother didn’t care about her or her feelings. Sarah is working full time then coming home to a miserable daughter but doing her best to protect her by keeping things from her. If only they would both open up to each other and begin to repair their relationship.

Super highly recommended! 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

An avid reader and life-long writer, Jayne Cowie also enjoys digging in her garden and makes an excellent devil’s food cake.

She lives near London with her family. You can find her on Instagram as @CowieJayne

by Scott Kershaw

Publication date: 12 May 2022

Publisher: HQ

Print Length: 400 pages 

My Rating: 5 stars

Synopsis

Across the globe, five strangers receive a horrifying message from an unknown number.

THE PERSON YOU LOVE MOST IS IN DANGER.

To save them, each must play The Game – a sinister unknown entity that has a single rule: there can only be one winner.

IF YOU LOSE, YOUR LOVED ONE WILL DIE.

But what is The Game – and why have they been chosen?

There’s only one thing each of them knows for sure: they’ll do anything to win…

WELCOME TO THE GAME. YOU’VE JUST STARTED PLAYING.

MY REVIEW

This is a read in one sitting thriller! I was  hooked from the first page and I was taken on an adrenaline fuelled ride which didn’t let me off until the very last word had been consumed. I thoroughly enjoyed every twisted word!

We begin by getting to know five people, who appear to have nothing in common, except for the person they love most has been abducted. And they have each received an anonymous text telling them to play The Game to try and save the life of their loved one. They can’t tell anyone, they must buy a burner phone and destroy their own phone, and they have a deadline to get to a pub on Saddleworth Moor, itself one of the bleakest places you could imagine. Two of the players are in America and one is in France. Can they make it in time?

What will they find when they arrive? Well I’m not going to ruin the storyline by giving out any more details.

This is a must read! You can thank me later! Buy it now!

I would like to thank the publisher, HQ, for my advance copy of the book via NetGalley and also for my place on the blog tour.

About the Author

Scott Kershaw lives in Lincolnshire, in a Victorian cottage that was formerly ruled by mice. He likes the crackle of vinyl, the smell of paperbacks, the taste of a stiff drink and the view from a front row barrier. He’s getting too old and heavy for crowd-surfing, but that rarely stops him from trying. His first real love was cinema. His beagle, Darwin, is the one true king of dogs. As a child, Scott believed in monsters. Sometimes he still does. The Game is his debut thriller.

Eve Chase

Publication date: 28th April 2022

Publisher: Penguin Michael Joseph

SYNOPSIS

Lauren, Kat and Flora are half-sisters who share a famous artist father – and a terrible secret.

After years of drifting apart, they are unexpectedly summoned to Rock Point, the cliff house where they once sat for their father’s most celebrated painting, Girls and Birdcage.

Rock Point is a beautiful, windswept place, thick with secrets and electrically charged with the catastrophic events of a summer twenty years before. The day of the total solar eclipse.

It’s the first time they’ve dared return.

When the sisters arrive, it is clear that someone is determined not to let the past lie. Someone who is watching their every move. Who remembers the girls in the painting, and what they did . . .

Set on the rugged Cornish coast, The Birdcage is a twisty, spellbinding novel with unforgettable characters who must piece together their family’s darkest secrets.

MY REVIEW

I am over the moon to be joining the blog tour for this tremendous book! Described as ’Stunning’ and ’Spellbinding’ by the publishers, I would have to agree.

From the first page I was drawn into this story of devastating family secrets, buried for twenty years since the night of the eclipse in 1999.

Lauren, Flora and Kat are half sisters sharing the same father, Charlie, who is a renowned artist and was a bit of a womaniser in his younger days.

The story is told over a dual timeline twenty years apart.

When the girls were young, each summer they would come to their fathers house, Rock Point, high on the cliffs of Cornwall. Each dropped off by their very different mothers. 

Lauren never felt she fitted in, being introduced to the other two after they had already bonded. She was embarrassed about her second hand clothes and was always trying to prove herself. 

The relationship between the sisters was often strained, each trying to find where they fit in. 

When their father invites them back to his home after 20 years for a big announcement, they are initially reluctant to face the house and the memories they have tried to bury. 

The tension in the story builds as the events leading up to that night are revisited, and secrets must be told so the women can try to move forward with their lives.

I was concerned the big reveal of ‘the event’ which the book is written around would be a let down but I was so pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t. It was not out of place and flowed into the story perfectly.

Eve Chase is clearly an exceptional storyteller and author and she is now on my ‘must read everything by this author’ list.

Very highly recommend this book.

Huge thanks to Penguin Michael Joseph for sending me a proof, the cover of which is just as stunning as the story it holds.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Eve Chase is a star on the rise. Her latest novel The Glass House was a Sunday Times bestseller, Richard and Judy pick and has sold nearly 200,000 copies across all formats. Her novels are perfect for book groups, and The Birdcage is her writing at its best.
With wide-ranging reader appeal, Eve’s books have been reviewed in many publications including Heat, Daily Mail and New York Times. Lisa Jewell has called her ‘one of the most enthralling novelists of the moment’.

by Heather Young

SYNOPSIS

A body burns in the desert… Does the boy who found it know more than it seems?

Sal Prentiss, orphaned and burdened with a terrible secret, just wants a place to belong. Sal lives with his uncles on adesolate ranch in the hills, and finds himself at the centre of a brutal murder mystery when he discovers the body of hismaths teacher, charred almost beyond recognition, half a mile from his uncles’ compound.

In the seven months he worked at Lovelock’s middle school, the quiet and seemingly unremarkable Adam Merkel had formed a bond with Sal and was one of the few people to look out for the boy.

Nora Wheaton, the school’s social studies teacher, sensed a kindred spirit in Adam – another soul bound to Lovelock by guilt and duty. After his death, she delves into his past for clues to who killed him. For Sal’s grief seems shaded with fear, and Nora suspects he knows more than he’s telling about his teacher’s death.

MY REVIEW

I loved Heather’s debut, The Lost Girls, so snapped the publisher’s hands off when i was offered an early copy of this. Thank you Lisa at Verve Books!

The book is written in alternating chapters from Nora and Sal, with a few chapters from Jake.

Adam Merkel. Teacher. Loner. Burned to death not far from the Prentiss home at Marzen. He moved to Lovelock 7 months ago to teach maths. Unusual, as it is a small town where everyone knows everyone and new people don’t move in. Existing residents rarely away.

Sal Prentiss. Age 11, finds the body and reports it to Jake at the fire station. There  is no police station in the small town. Jake has looked out for Sal since his mother, Grace, died. Sal didn’t fit in at school and Merkel took him under his wing and they formed a bond, eating their lunch together in Merkel’s classroom and Merkel teaching Sal chess. Sal lives with his 2 uncles off the grid in state of poverty. Underfed, poorly clothed and tired looking his uncles are not taking good care of him. 

Nora is a teacher at the school and looks after her father who is an alcoholic, struggling day to day with the memory of killing his son in a car accident when they were both drunk. She resents her father for her brother’s death and is planning to get away as soon as he dies. Nora was about the closest member of staff to Adam although she didn’t really know him. After his murder she begins her own investigation into his life before he moved to the town. She uncovers a dreadful secret he is living with.

As we are taken back to before the murder, the events are pieced together with a few twists along the way until we reach the reveal at the very end of what happened that night.

A brilliantly dark but compelling page turner. Realistically written characters;  most of them not very nice people. Most of them hiding secrets. There is a drugs theme running through the book which adds to the sense of desperation. I enjoyed learning a few things from Mr Merkel, as well as a little of the history of The First People who moved to the area thousands of years ago.

This is Heather’s second book and I also thoroughly enjoyed her debut, The Lost Girls. Both are a definite recommendation.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Heather is the author of two novels. Her debut, The Lost Girls, won the Strand Award for Best First Novel and was nominated for an Edgar Award for Best First Novel. Her second novel, The Distant Dead, was nominated for an Edgar Award for Best Novel and named one of the ten best mystery/suspense books of 2020 by Booklist. A former antitrust and intellectual property litigator, she traded the legal world for the literary one and earned her MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars in 2011. She lives in Mill Valley, California, where she writes, bikes, hikes, and reads books by other people that she wishes she’d written.

by V L Valentine

SYNOPSIS
Winter 1954, and in a dilapidated apartment in Brooklyn, Sam Cooper realises that she has nothing left. Her mother is dead, she has no prospects, and she cannot afford the rent. But as she goes through her mother’s things, Sam finds a stack of hidden letters that reveal a family and an inheritance that she never knew she had, three thousand miles away in Yorkshire.

Begars Abbey is a crumbling pile, inhabited only by Lady Cooper, Sam’s ailing grandmother, and a handful of servants. Sam cannot understand why her mother kept its very existence a secret, but her newly discovered diaries offer a glimpse of a young girl growing increasingly terrified. As is Sam herself.

Built on the foundations of an old convent, Begars moves and sings with the biting wind. Her grandmother cannot speak, and a shadowy woman moves along the corridors at night. There are dark places in the hidden tunnels beneath Begars. And they will not give up their secrets easily…

MY REVIEW

What the???? OMG THAT ENDING!!!

Sam lives in Brooklyn with her mother. In a run down rented apartment block and with very little money.

When her mother, Vera, dies, Sam begins looking through their apartment for things her mother may have hidden including the box of ‘fake’ jewels she often hid from Sam. Sam is surprised to find a box of letters. It looks like a letter was sent to her mum from a firm of solicitors in England every year, dating back to before Sam was born. 

Sam contacts the solicitor and although they try to convince her not to come, they send her the funds to enable her travel to England. She wishes to visit the house her mother was brought up in and where her grandmother still lives. Her mother had never once mentioned her life before Sam was born.

Sam has a lot of questions she wants answers to. Why had her mother left England when she was only 17? Was her family rich? If so why had Sam and her mother lived like paupers all Sam’s life?

On her arrival in York, Alec, one of the solicitors, takes her to Begars Abbey although it is obvious he detests the place. The snow is coming down heavily and when they approach the house Sam sees a woman walking towards the car. 

Only there was no woman.

The spooky atmosphere continues throughout the book as Sam sees and hears strange things in the house. 

The house is barely habitable. There is no heating and the telephone is not working. There are only a few people now living there. The old housekeeper Mrs Pritchett who appears to be losing her mind, Lady Cooper, Sam’s grandmother, wheelchair bound and unable to speak. A young maid, Ivy and a night nurse, Nesta.

When Sam finds some old diaries hidden in her mother’s old bedroom, she begins to  explore the house, a former nunnery, and piece together the secrets the family are keeping and the reason for her mother’s abrupt departure and years of silence.

She finds a hidden room which was described in Vera’s diary as the chamber used by the prioress. There is access to the very spooky crypt beneath the house, through a hidden panel behind an old tapestry. Where is the ‘cell’ Vera talked about?  Did her grandmother really keep children imprisoned in this cell?

The tension builds and builds as bit by bit Sam unravels the clues to the past found in the diaries.

This haunting tale is a must read. But not in the dark!

I loved the way the tension built and those revelations at the end! I was glued to the pages. Fabulous well developed characters which jumped off the page.  Just brilliant!

Thank you so much Viper Books for letting me take part in the blog tour for this deliciously gothic ghosty tale.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

V.L. Valentine is a senior science editor at National Public Radio in Washington, D.C., where she has led award-winning coverage of global disease outbreaks including the coronavirus, Ebola and the Zika virus. She has a master’s in the history of medicine from University College London and her non-fiction work has been published by NPR, The New York Times, The Smithsonian Channel and Science Magazine. Her debut novel, The Plague Letters, was published in 2021.

by Brian Price

Publication Date: 12/4/22

Publisher: Hobeck Books

382 gripping pages!

SYNOPSIS

DC Mel Cotton is back with a brand new case, the murder of Duncan Bennett. But who would want an unassuming warehouse worker dead?

The case soon becomes far more complex and dangerous, with terrorists, a paedophile network and a hitman in town. And against a background of rising hatred and violence, one woman pursues her deadly revenge.

Mel and her colleagues face their greatest challenge yet. Mel’s own courage will be tested to the limits. No-one is safe.

MY REVIEW

I am posting my review today as part of the blog tour.

The book begins with a prologue, and I do love a prologue, which sets the scene for the book. We begin in 2010 where Jeannie begins her plan to seek revenge against 2 brothers for her sisters death

We move forward 10 years to 2020 and Jeannie has put her plan into action.

At the same time, a man from her workplace is found murdered. DI Emma Thorpe begins an investigation into his death, but has no idea how complicated this investigation will become.

There are many crimes and threads throughout this story, and they do not initially appear to be related, but by the end of the book everything is tied up neatly.

I found this an extremely well planned police procedural. It is not a book which can be read in a hurry as there is a lot to take on board. The book covers many topics including far right groups, terrorism, murder, a hitman, bomb making, child abuse, drug trafficking, money laundering the list goes on and shows how crimes can all be related.

I enjoyed the book and would definitely recommend it to readers who like to get stuck into a complex thriller.

by Anna Enquist

Translated by Eileen Stevens

SYNOPSIS

n internationally bestselling, award-winning novel peering deep into the passions, losses, and reveries of the wife of eighteenth-century explorer Captain James Cook.

After twelve years of marriage to English explorer James Cook, Elizabeth has yet to spend an entire year with her husband. In their house by the Thames, she moves to the rhythms of her life as a society wife, but there is so much more to her than meets the eye. She has the fortitude to manage the house and garden, raise their children, and face unbearable sorrow by herself—in fact, she is sometimes in thrall to her own independence.

As she prepares for another homecoming, Elizabeth looks forward to James’s triumphant return and the work she will undertake reading and editing his voluminous journals. But will the private life she’s been leading in his absence distract her from her role in aid of her husband’s grand ambitions? Can James find the compassion to support her as their family faces unimaginable loss, or must she endure life alone as he sails off toward another adventure?

An intimate and sharply observed novel, The Homecoming is as revelatory as James Cook’s exploration of distant frontiers and as richly rewarding as Elizabeth’s love for her family. With courage and strength, through recollection and imagination, author Anna Enquist brilliantly narrates Elizabeth’s compelling record of her life, painting a psychological portrait of an independent woman ahead of her time and closely acquainted with history.

MY REVIEW

A gripping read. 

Narrated by Elizabeth Cook, we find she has had a difficult life, bringing her children up whilst James is off on his many voyages of discovery sailing the world, charting and naming new countries and picking up foreign items such as materials and plants to bring back to England.

As was quite usual for the time, she lost two babies in infancy which was very sad and then her 4 year old daughter is killed outside their home when Elizabeth isn’t watching her. She is devastated by the loss of her daughter and blames herself. When James returns from his latest voyage he tries to console her by telling her ‘disasters happen. You can’t always anticipate them’ as he has been trying to believe himself having lost 30 men on his latest voyage, blaming himself for an illness picked up when he decided to stop at Batavia.

They have two older sons, both preparing to go to naval college and follow in their fathers footsteps as there is no other option for them.

With the birth of a new baby boy, James tells Elizabeth he will stay at home, but the sea beckons and he finds himself agreeing to one last voyage to explore and chart the northern hemisphere. 

Elizabeth believes he will change his mind at the last minute as her plans are to have him stay at home with his family now he is getting older and not in the best health. 

Sadly this change of mind has devastating consequences.

Elizabeth comes across as a strong woman but does lose her way when her daughter is killed. She had a difficult life, one mirrored by many women who’s husbands went on the voyages with her husband.

The book was well written and translated and I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

I was particularly interested in reading about James and Elizabeth Cook having visited the James Cook museum frequently when I was young as it was just up the road from my nan’s house in Middlesbrough where Cook was born.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Anna Enquist studied piano at the academy of music in The Hague and psychology at Leiden University. She is the author of the novels The Masterpiece; The Secret, winner of the 1997 Dutch Book of the Year awarded by the public; The Ice Carriers; Counterpoint; Quartet; and the international bestseller The Homecoming, which received the Prix du Livre Corderie Royale-Hermione for its French translation. Anna is also the author of A Leap, a collection of dramatic monologues, as well as numerous poetry collections, including Soldiers’ Songs, for which she was awarded the C. Buddingh’ Prize; A New Goodbye; and Hunting Scenes, winner of the Lucy B. and C.W. van der Hoogt Prize.

by Phaedra Patrick

SYNOPSIS

It’s never too late to start a new chapter…

The utterly charming and feel-good new novel from the bestselling author of The Secrets of Sunshine and The Library of Lost and Found. 

Liv Green loves losing herself in a good book. But her everyday reality is less romantic, cleaning houses for people who barely give her the time of day. So when she lands a job housekeeping for her personal hero and mega-bestselling author Essie Starling, she can’t believe her luck.

When Essie dies unexpectedly, Liv is left with a life-changing last wish: to complete Essie’s final novel. To do so, change-averse Liv will have to step away from the fictitious worlds in her head, and into Essie’s shoes. As she begins to write, she uncovers a surprising connection between the two women – and a secret that will change Liv’s life forever…

MY REVIEW

What a pleasure to be joining the blog tour for this wonderful book. It appears to be a book about a reclusive author, Essie Starling, who hasn’t been seen in public for a decade, and her cleaner, Liv but it is so much deeper than it first appears.

Liv, has been a huge fan and has been reading Essie’s books for 30 years. Essie has written 19 so far all centred around her protagonist Georgia Rory. This strong female fictional character has been an inspiration to Liv, as well as Essie’s many fans, helping them through difficult times in their lives. 

Liv has always wanted to write but has put it to the back of her mind. Her father had been an English teacher and always encouraged her writing. Sadly he died in a freak accident many years ago. As a busy mum Liv had her family to bring up and had multiple cleaning jobs to help make ends meet. She left school at 16 to help her widowed mother and has always felt she is looked down on.

One day whilst cleaning, Liz finds a dog eared manuscript of book 20 which has not been published. In fact it hasn’t even been finished. The last few books have not been as good and Liv wonders if Essie had fallen out of love with writing about Georgia. 

When Essie suddenly and unexpectedly dies, Liv finds she has left a note with her solicitor saying she wants Liv to finish her last book. And she wants her death to be kept secret until it is published. Can Liv do that? 

When mooching around the empty apartment, Liv finds a little green box underneath Elspeth‘s pillow and inside is a pair of cufflinks shaped like bees. Who were they for? Who was the secret love of Essie’s life? 

The story toddles along nicely with Liz struggling to finish the book, at the same time questioning her own life and relationship with her husband.

Then boom! A huge revelation happens! Then the book takes a completely different direction.

I enjoyed this book very much. Tugged at the heart strings and oh yes there were tears! 

I was frantically turning the pages towards the end as I couldn’t wait to find out whether Liz would finish the book and also find Essie’s one true love. 

I thought Liz’s character was very well written. She reflected how many women feel after years of ‘just’ being a mum and wife and almost losing their own identity and dreams. Plus the looming despair of the empty nest. Also it touched on society’s tendency to look down on people with what appear to some as ‘menial’ jobs, but these people are actually the backbone of society. 

Thank you HQ for my spot on the tour and my NetGalley copy of the book

by Lizzie Damilola Blackburn

My rating 4 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Due out 31/3/22 in HB and ebook

Published by Viking – an imprint of Penguin Random Hoise

SYNOPSIS

Yinka wants to find love. Her mum wants to find it for her.

She also has too many aunties who frequently pray for her delivery from singledom, a preference for chicken and chips over traditional Nigerian food, and a bum she’s sure is far too small as a result. Oh, and the fact that she’s a thirty-one-year-old South-Londoner who doesn’t believe in sex before marriage is a bit of an obstacle too…

When her cousin gets engaged, Yinka commences ‘Operation Find A Date for Rachel’s Wedding’. Armed with a totally flawless, incredibly specific plan, will Yinka find herself a huzband?

What if the thing she really needs to find is herself?

MY REVIEW

I am posting my review today for my spot on the blog tour.

It was such a pleasure to get to know Yinka. This book was funny, sad but overall a lesson in how to love yourself just as you are and not to change who you are for anyone.

Yinka has been dumped by her long time boyfriend and now she has a problem. Her cousin is getting married in a few months and Yinka needs a boyfriend to take! Her mother and aunties are constantly pressuring her to find a ’huzband’ after all she is 31 now!

To add to her problems she has just been made redundant but accidentally told her mother she has been promoted. How hard can it be to find another job? after all Yinka has an Oxford degree!

Yinka goes on a number of disastrous dates. Sadly, she feels she is too Black for anyone to fall for her. Her ex comes back from America on a visit with his new lighter skinned fiancee. One of her potential dates even said to her he prefers lighter coloured girls. And to add to her negative opinion of herself she has a J shaped bum!

Yinka feels even her friends are starting to turn against her.

In order to find love, she feels she will have to change, all she has to do is love herself exactly as she is. Will she ever realise that?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lizzie Damilola Blackburn, born and raised in London, is a British-Nigerian writer who has been at the receiving end of the question in the title of her novel many times, and now lives with her husband in Milton Keynes, England