Blog Tour – March 2023 – The Ugly Truth – L.C. North

This was a book to be absolutely gobbled down…

I grew up in the era of celebrity magazines, one of which was Heat. Starting of as more of a film/TV review magazine, it quickly saw the way things were going as regards the consumption of everything even the most Z-list celeb was up to, offering £250, if I recall correctly, for the best photograph of a celeb going about their business. As cameraphones were now becoming ubiquitous it turned their readers into cheap paparazzi, and if you didn’t have a cameraphone, well, you could just text whatever your local Big Brother/X Factor/whoever contestant was up to and get it printed in the “Spotted!” section.

Some people doubtless loved the attention that a brief spell in the flashlight of the cameras got you, but as this new book adeptly examines, fame is very much a double edged sword…

This book is written in the form of blog posts/diary entries/Twitter posts and comments/transcripts of YouTube videos and a Netflix documentary, adapting with the times and the favoured technology.

It’s about a girl called Melanie Lange, daughter of a hotel tycoon, who finds fame as a model for a short time before an arrest for a driving offence brings that to an end. She becomes a notorious figure, before she manages to find some happiness with a marriage, children, and her own business empire. But poor mental health and a seemingly controlling – or caring – father figure – the reader is left to decide whether the father is villain or saviour – means a happy ending may be quite an ask for Melanie. But she’s skilled at reinvention, so who knows…?

It’s compulsive reading, and names from the past flick through your mind as you read…

Paula Yates, to go right back to my teenage years. Britney Spears, and her father’s controlling grasp on her business empire. Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie’s legal problems for driving offences and drugs. Lindsay Lohan. Jade Goodie. Meghan Markle. Caroline Flack, who killed herself a fortnight before Covid knocked her off the pages of every newspaper…all women, interestingly enough. All darlings of the press, before they turn round and kill their darlings.

It’s such a simple idea…

…that I actually wondered why someone hadn’t done this before. It’s brilliantly executed by L.C. North, who clearly was devouring the same sort of stuff as the rest of us weekly. She superbly mimics the tones of social media commentators, blog posts and celeb mags, as well as the Netflix-tell all favoured by Harry and Meghan. Women are too thin, and on a crazy diet and/or drugs. A month later they’re looking too big and pregnancy rumours swirl. Then there’s talk of post-baby bulges. It put pressure on readers to copy their celeb idols’ mad fad diets.

I was mightily impressed to learn this was her debut novel. What’s interesting will be seeing what comes next from North. This book will probably be everywhere this year. And that’s an EXCLUSIVE! from me.

Not to be missed if you enjoy a real pageturner.

I would like to thank Anne Cater at Random Things Tours who invited me to participate in this blog tour, and Transworld who provided me with a proof. This did not affect my opinion and this is an honest review.

Author L.C. North

Check out the other bloggers on this blog tour!

BLURB: Melanie Lange has disappeared.

Her father, Sir Peter Lange, says she is a danger to herself and has been admitted to a private mental health clinic.

Her ex-husband, Finn, and best friend, Nell, say she has been kidnapped.

The media will say whichever gets them the most views.

But whose side are you on?
#SaveMelanie
#HelpPeter

Told via interviews, transcripts and diary entries, The Ugly Truth is a shocking and addictive thriller about fame, power and the truth behind the headlines.

Blog Tour – March 2023 – Twist Of Fate – D.L. Mark

So this book has been getting carried around the house (when I’ve been home) for the last ten days or so…

People often use the word “unputdownable” to describe books, but for me, this one truly has been! I’ve not wanted to lose the chance to read even a couple of pages – that’s how compelling it is…

Now a lot of the storyline has religious undertones to it, which I really hope doesn’t put anyone off reading it, as that just adds to how different and original it is.

So what’s the basic storyline?

Well, Claudine Cadjou is a communications executive – something of a mover and a shaker in her Central London world. She works hard, and appears to do very little else. Her only family is her older brother, Jethro, who lives out in the Cambridgeshire Fens. He was an incredibly smart undergraduate but was already suffering mental health difficulties when, at the age of 23, he jumped from the top of the church near their family cottage. Although his body healed, his mind was damaged beyond all repair, and once the funding ran out to keep him in the care facility he’d been in since the accident he returned to their (now somewhat dilapidated) family home where he could live and study quietly, spending time in his beloved Fens. Claudine sends a monthly stipend to his neighbours, Everitt and Peg Goodall, and they deliver food, ensure he takes his medication, and takes care of himself as best as he can (not very well, to be honest…)

But then one morning he appears at the glossy London building Claudine works?

Yes, despite, to her knowledge, never entering London – navigating the city would be impossible for him (and me too, probably, in all honesty…!) he’s found his way to her place of work, where she runs the show in expensive designer clothes. Claudine feels dreadful to realise that she’s actually embarrassed at the state of her brother – he’s very unclean, terribly unkempt, smells of the Fens – she’s really just thinking of the best way to get him out of there without hurting his feelings.

Then a madman appears in the foyer, and attacks and kills Jethro (this isn’t a spoiler; it happens very early in the book) and others, having already attacked some homeless people in a nearby park. Armed police are soon on the scene, and shoot the attacker twice before he dives into the Thames…something, surely, no-one could survive…

The other main character in the book is a policeman, DS Billy Dean, and this is when he is introduced to us…

Billy’s an incredibly competent policeman who’d supported his wife, Fran, as she’d scaled the heights of the police force. Billy preferred to still have his feet on the ground, working with people rather than signing off on “actions” and not having to be nice to people he dislikes as they can elevate him, career-wise. But at some point Fran became Cesca and Billy, well, he didn’t want to change and at the point in time where we meet Billy, she wants a divorce. So, he’s not in the best place, personally, but he sees this case as something he can get his teeth into – as there’s plenty of things about it that don’t quite ring true to him…

Everyone else sees Jethro as being unlucky – in the wrong place at the wrong time, he died so that his sister – who would otherwise have been in the madman’s path – could live. But what if the truth is a bit more complicated? And what if it isn’t a coincidence that the day of the massacre is the only day Jethro Cadjou has visited his sister at work? Billy Dean is the only one who thinks otherwise…but he’s going to have the Devil’s own job proving it.

So I would highly recommend this novel to well, anyone…

If you like a chewy, get-your-teeth-into psychological thriller that will continually keep you guessing – and you’ll end up carrying everywhere so you can read a couple of pages whenever time allows – then it’s just the ticket. I was utterly enamoured by it.

Don’t miss this book!

Thanks to Anne Cater at Random Things Tours for inviting me to participate in this blog tour, and to Head Of Zeus for the ARC. That has not influenced my opinion, and this is an honest review.

Author D.L. Mark

Why not check out some of the great-and-the-good of the blogging world and see what they thought of Twist Of Fate?

BLURB: She says he’s a victim. They say he’s a killer.

When an armed man massacres several people in central London, Claudine witnesses the whole thing. To her horror, one of the victims is her brother, Jethro.

Riven by grief, Claudine retreats to the family home in the Fens, which is where the police find her. She is left reeling when they tell her Jethro orchestrated the attack. Why would a gentle, if troubled, middle-aged man cause such bloodshed – and why would he include himself in the list of victims?

The truth could lie in Jethro’s research on a mediaeval cult. If Claudine can’t solve the mystery in time, more people will die… and the darkness will claim her too.

This twisty, unrelenting thriller is perfect for fans of Ruth Ware, Emma Kavanagh, and Sharon Bolton, using themes of grief to explore how people are never as straightforward as they seem.