The Woman On The Bridge by Sheila O'Flanagan

Today is my turn on the blog tour for book "The Woman On The Bridge" by author Sheila O'Flanagan, this is a RandomThings tour. The book is available to buy now as a treebook or ebook, link HERE for Amazon UK.

About the Author:

Sheila O'Flanagan is the author of 30 bestselling novels including What Eden Did Next, Three Weddings and a Proposal, The Women Who Ran Away, Her Husband's Mistake, The Hideaway and The Missing Wife. She lives in Dublin with her husband.

www.sheilaoflanagan.com / Twitter: @sheilaoflanagan Facebook.com/sheilabooks

For my stop I have my review, enjoy, non spoiler as usual.

The Woman on the Bridge by Sheila O'Flanagan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - in and out over 4 days

Pages - 448

Publisher - Headline review

Source - Review copy

Blurb from Goodreads

Dublin. The 1920s. As war tears Ireland apart, two young people are caught up in events that will bring love, tragedy - and the hardest of choices.

In a country fighting for freedom, it's hard to live a normal life. Winnie O'Leary supports the cause, but she doesn't go looking for trouble. Then rebel Joseph Burke steps into her workplace. Winnie is furious with him about a broken window. She's not interested in romance. But love comes when you least expect it.

Joseph's family shelter fugitives and transport weapons. Joseph would never ask Winnie to join the fight; but his mother and sisters demand commitment. Will Winnie choose Joseph, and put her own loved ones in deadly danger? Or wait for a time of peace that may never come?

Ireland's tumultuous independence struggle is the backdrop for an unforgettable story of courage and heartbreak, in which heroes are made of ordinary people. Inspired by the story of Sheila O'Flanagan's grandmother, The Woman on the Bridge is the unmissable, compulsive new novel from a bestselling author.



My Review

1920's Ireland, civil unrest and a country at war wanting to be free and amongst that we have Winnie - working in a shop, can do measurements without tape and likes the simple life. When the shop is damaged it brings a meeting with rebel Joseph. We alone with Winnie are dragged into the cause and finding ourselves caught between sides in the war and the dangers of being a civilian within it let alone the partner of a rebel.

I do enjoy books like this, I never used to read Historical fiction but find as I get older I am enjoying it more and more. Plus my history isn't the best so I generally find within reading books like this I stop and research & O'Flanagan does a great job bringing to life the characters and a time period of history.

Winnie comes from a working class style family, Joseph's family whilst having money are very involved in the troubles and supportive/activists with freedom. As Winnie and Joseph's relationship develops we see her being pulled further into the other side, strong belief's and the trouble and threats that come from this.

It is a love story essentially but not exclusively that, set around a rough and at times bloody period of Irish history and we get other veins of normality and harsh reality. Alcoholism, DV, family dynamics, love, loss, grief it is a mixed bag and envelopes the reader in the characters lives, trials and tribulations whilst giving us some important history with emotive moments.

I have read O'Flanagan before and will read her again, 4/5 for me this time.

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The Woman On The Bridge by Holly Seddon Blog Tour

The Woman on the Bridge by Holly Seddon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 3 days

Pages - 320

Publisher - Orion

Source - Review copy

Blurb from Goodreads

A stranger in need - would you invite them into your home? The electrifying new thriller from Holly Seddon.

On the worst night of her life, in the middle of nowhere, lonely Charlotte Wilderwood saves a runaway bride from falling to her death.

Soon Maggie is staying in Charlotte's home, safely hidden from the man that she was so desperate to escape. The immediate bond between the two women eclipses anything they've ever known and before long they will go to extreme lengths to protect each other.

But is Maggie the best friend Charlotte has always dreamed about, or the nightmare she never saw coming...


My Review

Charlotte is heading home FURIOUS after an encounter with her friend and co worker when she clocks a woman in her wedding dress close to her own demise. When Charlotte talks her down and takes her home they strike up a friendship that will have consequences neither could have forsaw.

My reading mojo has been out the window, grieving, stress, loss and just a whole heap of emotive heartache has really mucked up my reading mojo. Concentration is out the window and something we all love reading for is we can escape our own lives/trauma to jump into someone elses. Seddon has weaved a world of chaos and drama that helped me escape my own and start sparking back the missing mojo!

A fast finding friendship, each woman lonely and needing what the other has to offer, an ear, a solution, friendship and trust. Sure don't they say the road to evil is paved with good intentions? Well with the ladies helping each other what could go wrong, the answer, just about everything. We follow Charlotte and Maggie (the damsel in distress) from one chaos to another, even hearing what brings them to their current predicaments, particularly Maggie, I gasped! Talk about bad luck and evil men, ooft. Then you think ok so all this has happened what can possibly happen next? The book gives and gives and I think the reader would be hard pushed to guess ahead the path any of the story line is taking. Well that was the case for me, I didn't know where we were headed next but for the first time in ages didn't want to put the book down and see what these two were about to get into next!

Some utterly shocking characters, skulduggery, shameful, shady, bad, I would even go as far as to say evil or certainly rotten (to their core) in some cases. A page turner that will keep you guessing to what is coming next, hoping this is my mojo back or at least going in the right direction. 4.5/5 for me this time, I have at least one more of Seddon on my tbrm I need to bump up and will see what I am missing from the back catalogue!

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