Blog Tour : The Art of Baking Blind by Sarah Vaughan

Jaffa and I are delighted to host today's stop

 on 

The Art of Baking Blind Blog Tour

Sarah Vaughan

There are many reasons to bake: to feed; to create; to impress; to nourish; to define ourselves; and, sometimes, it has to be said, to perfect. But often we bake to fill a hunger that would be better filled by a simple gesture from a dear one. We bake to love and be loved.

Hodder
13 August 2015

In 1966, Kathleen Eaden, cookery writer and wife of a supermarket magnate, published The Art of Baking, her guide to nurturing a family by creating the most exquisite pastries, biscuits and cakes.

Now, five amateur bakers are competing to become the New Mrs Eaden. There's Jenny, facing an empty nest now her family has flown; Claire, who has sacrificed her dreams for her daughter; Mike, trying to parent his two kids after his wife's death; Vicki, who has dropped everything to be at home with her baby boy; and Karen, perfect Karen, who knows what it's like to have nothing and is determined her façade shouldn't slip.

As unlikely alliances are forged and secrets rise to the surface, making the choicest choux bun seems the least of the contestants' problems. For they will learn - as Mrs Eaden did before them - that while perfection is possible in the kitchen, it's very much harder in life.

My review :-

The slither of succulent raisins, the piquant allure of spicy gingerbread and the textured bouquet of fresh vanilla pods, infuse this novel with the scents and aromas of exquisite baking. All five candidates who answer the call to find Britain’s Best Baker are adept at grappling with biscuits, they excel at blind baking and their crème pâtissière is enough to make angels weep and yet, their private lives, when held up to scrutiny leave much to be desired. Even the divine Mrs Eaden, the inspiration and legendary face of the competition, had hidden secrets of her own.

The story takes us through the various stages of the baking competition and introduces us to each of the characters. We get to know them all in intimate detail, their lives unfold before us and we begin to realise just how important winning the competition would be to each of them, and yes, dare I say it, we begin to have favourites. In fact, I had to stop myself from flicking through to the end of the story in order to find out who was the winner, as there was one person, for sure, who I didn’t think was worthy to be the new Mrs Eaden.

The story flows deliciously; it wraps around you and enfolds you in a rosy haze of warmth and as the pages fly by, and believe me they really do fly, you find yourself imagining a culinary feast of the most delicious chocolate fondants, exquisite confections of millefeuille and plump and mischievous Chelsea buns.

And yet, beneath the bravado of baking, The Art of Baking Blind is really a story about people. It's about the minutiae of their lives, about their hopes and dreams and of all the reasons why life has sometimes been unkind to them. It's beautifully descriptive and confidently written and a real joy to read from beginning to end.

I loved it and can't wait to see what this talented author comes up with next.

Now where did I put my recipe for ....Tarte Tatin.

Follow Sarah on Twitter @SVaughanAuthor
#ArtofBaking

Find her on Facebook 

Amazon UK

There are still more stops on the Blog Tour....do visit the other blog hosts to learn more about this delightful novel.

My thanks to Emma at Hodder and Sarah for inviting Jaffareadstoo to be part of this exciting blog tour.

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Review ~ When We Were Sisters by Beth Miller

Ebury Press
August 2014

When Miffy's father abandoned his wife and children and ran off with Laura's mum, the effect on both families was momentous and catastrophic, not least because Miffy (aka Melissa) and Laura were the best of friends who shared absolutely everything. Twenty years later, the time has come for them to meet up again, with interesting results. The discomfort of two families meeting again, for a rather sad event, is done with a lightness of touch, with the inevitability of time passing, lying perhaps more heavily on Laura, than on Miffy.

The story unfolds gradually, sometimes in the here and now, and sometimes in the past, but as it starts to combine and coalesce you get a real sense of two families at war with themselves. Much has occurred to cause this rift and no one is entirely blameless. What I loved was the way in which the author made you see all sides of the story and allowed a glimpse into the complexities of modern family life. I particularly liked the clearly defined chapters which allowed both Miffy and Laura the chance to share their own particular version of events.  As victims of circumstance, both Miffy and Laura come across as rather forthright young women, both flawed in their own way and both living life in their own indomitable style. The other characters that flit into and out of the story are entertaining and add real interest; some of them were more likeable than others but all have their own role to play.

I found the book to be an enthralling read, with a confident style of writing and some rather wry snippets of humour which made me smile.

When We were Sisters is an assured début novel by an author who I am sure will continue to go from strength to strength in future novels.

About the Author

Amazon UK

My thanks to the author for running a competition in which I won my signed copy of this book.

Review ~ The Summer of Secrets by Sarah Jasmon

Black Swan
13 August 2015

One day
She was there...
And the next she was gone



The summer of our childhoods are made all the more poignant when our memories are linked to reminiscences of the past.

In 1983 Helen is an introverted sixteen year old living a rather sad existence. Her mother is no longer on the scene having left the family home some time ago, leaving both Helen and her father with a palpable air of abandonment. Helen is apathetic and the ennui of a summer holiday stretching ahead of her offers no charm or promise of anything resembling fun. That is, until, the enigmatic Dover family, move into one of the nearby canal cottages, bursting into Helen's life with a bohemian air of adventure and an overwhelming sense of excitement. Helen is mesmerised by the Dover children, and immerses herself so deeply into their lives that it becomes difficult to imagine her life without them in it. But then, one day something happens, which changes everything and leaves Helen with a sense of desolation which changes the course of her life forever.

The Summer of Secrets is quite unhurried, slow and considered in places, with a real sense of atmosphere. I had a distinct sense of time and place and could picture the canal side very easily. The characters are realistic, both charming and perplexing in equal measure,  and with a distinct air of mystery which is fascinating to observe. I liked the way the story took in two time frames, and whilst the bulk of the story is set in the summer of 1983, the continuation of the story, thirty years later,  in 2013, is done in a sympathetic and entirely appropriate way and very cleverly shows the vulnerability of loneliness and the way in which our memories are often distorted by events of the past.

This interesting coming of age debut story cleverly reflects the weariness which all too often enfolds teenagers, who seem to meander through life with little focus or meaning. All it takes is just one unexpected act to hurtle them out of their supposed apathy and into a world which is far more exciting than their own. 

The Summer of Secrets is a commendable debut novel by a talented new author, and I look forward to seeing what she comes up with next.

The Summer of Secrets is available to pre-order.

Amazon UK

My thanks to Ben Willis at Transworld Publishers

I read this book as part of the Curtis Brown Book Club

The Summer of Secrets was the July 2015 Book Club Read

About the author

Sarah Jason lives on a canal boat near Manchester with her children. She has had several short stories published, is curating a poetry anthology, and has recently graduated from the Creative Writing MA course at Manchester Metropolitan University. The Summer of Secrets is her first novel.

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Review ~ Freedom's Child by Jax Miller

Harper Collins
31 July 2015

Call me what you will: a murderer, a cop killer, a fugitive, a drunk…

Freedom Oliver works in a local bar, where the customers think they know her, but really they don't know the first thing about her, and can't even begin to guess the demons she carries within her, or why she chooses to drink herself into oblivion. But Freedom's had eighteen long years of living under a witness protection programme, forced to endure the knowledge that her two children are being brought up by someone else and having no contact with them brings it own form of torture. When she hears that her daughter has gone missing, Freedom knows that revenge has come a calling and she has little option but to follow her own path of retribution.

This fast paced thriller takes you by the scruff of the neck and hurtles through a story which is quite unlike anything I have read in a long time. The action is fast and furious, the characters are all superbly flawed in their own inimitable style,and the plot has more than enough twists and turns to keep you guessing until the end. There's an exuberance to the writing which I found to be quite refreshing, and an authenticity to the story which makes you believe in the horror which unfolds right from the beginning. You get inside Freedom's character, and start to sympathise with her, and even although she's far from likeable there is a reluctant bravery about her which earns her a grudging sort of respect.

I stayed up long and late to finish the story as it's one of those that grabs your attention, and almost unwittingly you are pulled along into a story which abounds with a charged rawness and which is quite compelling to witness.

About the Author

Jax Miller was born and raised in New York and currently lives in Co. Meath, Ireland. She was shortlisted for the CWA debut dagger for unpublished writers in 2013 under her real name, Aine O' Domhnaill.

My thanks to Jaime Frost at Harper Collins for my copy of this one.

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I'm giving away my proof copy of this one - so leave a comment if you want to enter

Leave me some contact details otherwise I can't get in touch !


 August Pay it Forward Giveaway.

Open to UK only and ends 31st August.


Good Luck

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Review ~ The Penny Heart by Martine Bailey

Hodder&Stoughton
2015

After being arrested for a petty crime, teenager Mary Jebb is sentenced to seven years transportation to the penal colony in Botany Bay. On the surface, she is repentant of her crime, but fearing her disappearance and determined never to be forgotten, she inscribes these words on two silver pennies, which will have repercussions for years to come and which seals the fate of three very different people.

Though chains hold me fast,

As the years pass away,

I swear on this heart

To find you one day

Sweeping across a haunting and brooding landscape, this complex and beautifully written historical crime novel uncovers a myriad of secrets and tells of lives irrevocably linked together by the powerful need for revenge. The story moves along quite quickly, and the introduction of the other cast of characters is done with a subtle hand. The story of Grace Moore and her ill-fated entanglement with Michael Croxon is cleverly controlled, and the introduction of Peg Blissett, as their housekeeper, into the ménage, is filled with both a sense of Gothic gloom, and melodramatic intrigue. And yet, for all the brooding nature of the narrative, there is a hidden subtlety, highlighted in the snippets of wonderful recipes which head each chapter, and which helps to highlight the culinary delights and absorbing mystery which are so much a feature of this author's impeccable writing skill.

The mystery, at the heart of the novel is complex and convoluted , dark and deliciously dirty in places and just so wonderfully contrived and maintained that I really was kept guessing throughout the whole of the story. To say more would be to spoil the effect, but the dénouement which it comes is entirely appropriate and left me shrieking with approval.

There is no doubt that this talented author does an excellent job of bringing eighteenth century history and culture alive in such  a totally believable way, that by the end of the story you really are on the edge of your seat begging for more.

 About the Author

Amazon UK

An Appetite for Violets

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Sunday War Poet ...

The theme for this month's war poetry

is 

Places

Summer in England, 1914

by 

Alice Meynell

(1847 - 1922)

On London fell a clearer light;

Caressing pencils of the sun

Defined the distances, the white

Houses transfigured one by one,

The 'long, unlovely street' impearled.

O what a sky has walked the world!

Most happy year! And out of town

The hay was prosperous, and the wheat;

The silken harvest climbed the down:

Moon after moon was heavenly-sweet,

Stroking the bread within the sheaves,

Looking 'twixt apples and their leaves.

And while this rose made round her cup,

The armies died convulsed. And when

This chaste young silver sun went up

Softly, a thousand shattered men,

One wet corruption, heaped the plain,

After a league-long throb of pain.

Flower following tender flower; and birds,

And berries; and benignant skies

Made thrive the serried flocks and herds.

---Yonder are men shot through the eyes.

Love, hide thy face

From man's unpardonable race.

Who said 'No man hath greater love than this,

To die to serve his friend'?

So these have loved us all unto the end.

Chide thou no more, O thou unsacrificed!

The soldier dying dies upon a kiss,

The very kiss of Christ.




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 Alice Meynell was an English writer, editor, critic, and suffragist. She is now remembered mainly as a poet.

Review ~ The Daughter of the House by Rosie Thomas

Harper Collins
30 July 2015

Meeting up again with Devil and Eliza Wix, from The Illusionists is a real treat, although to be honest you don't need to have read this one, before starting Daughter of the House, but, as with any sequel, it's nice, but not essential, to know what's gone on before.

The story opens in 1910, and focuses on Zenobia, the eponymous Daughter of the House, known to family and friends as Nancy. She is endowed with a rare gift of being able to see visions, small snippets of the past or the future, which Nancy refers to as 'The Uncanny'.  When her unusual skill is spotted by a talented medium, Nancy sees a way to lift her family from their impoverished state and uses her gift to ensure the stability of the family's down at heel theatre, the Palmyra, which featured so prominently in The Illusionists.

The story captures perfectly the momentous changes that were occurring during the early part of the twentieth century. The Great War had changed the status quo, and women were determined to have their voices heard, and Nancy is no exception. Struggling against the constraints of society, Nancy is determined to be independent but her unique gift acts as both a challenge and a curse

The story draws you in from the beginning with an array of characters that are both exhilarating and exasperating in equal measure. Nancy's character is particularly well done and, I think, typifies what life was like for a generation of young people, and young women in particular, who were striving to build a world away from the terrors of the First World War. The gay young things of the roaring twenties, and flirty thirties, come alive in so many ways, from the gin infused gaiety of country house parties, to the lively strength of the suffragist movement. And yet, in contrast is the unbearable collective sadness  caused by the death of so many young men during the war, and of the desperate lengths that people went to in order to make contact with their loved ones beyond the grave.

All these strands combine to make this a memorable story and one that stays with you long after the last page is turned.

About the Author

Rosie Thomas talks about The Daughter of the House here

My thanks to Harper Collins for my review copy of this book.

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