Kimberley Chambers & Anna Smith author event at Waterstones

Can we just take a moment to appreciate how beautiful the window pane is in Waterstones.



I am literally just through the door and home from yet another fabulous event hosted by Waterstones, was also lunching and dinner with friends, the book chat was the finale of the day. Tonight's event was the lovely Kimberley Chambers and Anna Smith chatting together about their books, Chambers Tainted Love is out today in paperback.



There was a wee clearance box out to browse whilst we waited so I picked up another book, shhh don't tell my other half! The ladies had a great and relaxed evening, introduced themselves and a bit about their background. Chambers is hilarious, if you have never had the pleasure of meeting her or hearing her talk, you really should get to one of her events. One of the gentlemen in the audience actually praised her for when he reached out online she replied as a lot of well known authors who are very popular don't always. Anna Smith I don't really know (not that I know Chambers but she does have an online presence), I may have read one of her books but it has been a while if I have, I need to seek one out. I also don't see her on any of the online book groups whereas Chambers has a huge presence and often in or the subject of much chat in them.



The ladies had a great flow with each other, easy banter which had a knock on effect with the audience. Sometimes it is like pulling teeth trying to get audience interaction, not so tonight, in fact had the chap in Waterstones not made time for signings we may still be sitting there.



I also got to briefly meet Fliss, one of Chambers team, I have spoken to her online so it was lovely to meet the actual person and she is just as lovely in person. The team at Waterstones did a grand job as always and the ladies got a great turnout for the chat, I don't think there was an empty seat by the time they got started.



You can find the ladies on Twitter & Facebook Anna Smith @annasmithauthor



And Kimberley Chambers @kimbochambers



What a great day and to top it all off, I came home with one or two new books :P

The Fire Child by S K Tremayne

The Fire Child by S.K. Tremayne
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 2 days

Publisher - Harper Collins

Pages - 400

Blurb from Goodreads

When Rachel marries dark, handsome David, everything seems to fall into place. Swept from single life in London to the beautiful Carnhallow House in Cornwall, she gains wealth, love, and an affectionate stepson, Jamie.

But then Jamie’s behaviour changes, and Rachel’s perfect life begins to unravel. He makes disturbing predictions, claiming to be haunted by the spectre of his late mother – David’s previous wife. Is this Jamie’s way of punishing Rachel, or is he far more traumatized than she thought?

As Rachel starts digging into the past, she begins to grow suspicious of her husband. Why is he so reluctant to discuss Jamie’s outbursts? And what exactly happened to cause his ex-wife’s untimely death, less than two years ago? As summer slips away and December looms, Rachel begins to fear there might be truth in Jamie’s words:

‘You will be dead by Christmas.’


My Review

We start 178 days before Christmas, Rachel is a new wife, moved to be with the man she loves and his son Jamie. Young Jamie is troubled, his mother died and as Rachel spends more time with him his behaviour becomes even more worriesome. Jamie appears to be haunted by his mother and making scary predictions that Rachel fears are coming true. The most recent "You will be dead by Christmas", Rachels husband doesn't want to know so Rachel starts to dig into Jamies claims and their past. Some things are best left alone but Rachel is scared, lonely and the more she digs the more her husband pulls away from her, is Rachel really in danger?

This is Tremaynes second book and I actually prefered this one to the first. It has the same eery spooky under currents of the Ice Twins but I felt this one draws you in from the offset. The chapters vary in length but are all relatively short which I quite like in a book. Each chapter has a photograph at the beginning of the chapter of the settings of the book which is a relatively nice touch, I have the hardback version but assume all formats will have this.

The characters are well drawn, the little boys behaviour fluctuates from affection and acceptance of Rachel to withdrawn and preocupation of her demise or his mothers ghost. Rachel is a bit unreliable as a person, she begins relatively strong but as she gets spooked her behaviour becomes somewhat questionable. The book deals with some tough issues, death, mental health, violence, loss, love, acceptance, ghosts, martial issues to name just a few. I think if you take the story as it is you will really enjoy it, creepy, dark and eery with a bit of suspension of reality required. 3/5 for me this time, I would read this authors work again, thanks to Harper Collins for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

View all my reviews