#BlogTour Asking for a Friend by Andi Osho

Today it’s a pleasure to take part in the BlogTour Asking for a Friend by Andi Osho.

About the Author

Andi Osho is an accomplished writer, actress, film maker and stand-up comedian who has appeared on a number of popular TV comedy shows, such as Mock the Week, Live at the Apollo, Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow, Last Call With Carson Daly and The Late, Late Show. During that time, Andi also wrote, performed and toured two sell-out solo shows, appeared at the O2 Arena in London and Just for Laughs in Montreal.

Andi has written for broadcasters such as Fox, BBC and Sky including comedy horror, Twin Thing (Sky Arts) and her own E4 sketch pilot The Andi O Show. As a film maker, her award-winning shorts have screened at film festivals around the world. Asking For A Friend is her debut novel.

Follow @Andiosho on Twitter, on Goodreads, on Amazon, Visit andiosho.com, Buy Asking for a Friend

About the book

No woman gets left behind. Three best friends are going to solve their relationship woes once and for all. Forty-something Jemima’s life is on track – well, sort of. All she has to do is muster the courage to bat her niggly ex away for good.

Twenty-something Meagan is in the midst of her five-phase plan and is nearly ready for phase three – a relationship. While thirty-something Simi has had more it’s not yous than any I dos.

Deciding it’s time to play the dating game by their own rules, they’re going to ditch the dating apps and ask people out in real life. The catch? They’re playing matchmaker and can only ask out potential dates for each other because the most important rule is that no woman gets left behind.

Review

Jemima, Simi and Meagan aren’t exactly good examples of happy and stable dating habits. Simi only needs to glance in the direction of someone she finds attractive and she falls in love. Meagan is a no strings attached kind of girl, hence the friends with benefits. Jemima has a creepy ex with a stalking problem – stalking Jemima that is.

They come up with the idea of someone else, one of them, picking their next date, as opposed to one of them following the same old patterns again.

I kind of liked the idea of the dating game, although it can only work and be fun if the participants are friends and genuinely want their fellow singletons to make solid connections. It wont work if someone has their self-interest in mind rather than the best interest of others.

The author gives readers a witty entertaining read, a contemporary story of friendship and sisterhood. How women should champion and support each other instead of grinding each other down. It’s perhaps a little more subdued than expected, but a decent romcom nevertheless.

Buy Asking for a Friend at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher : HQ; pub date 21 Jan. 2021. Buy at Hive. Bookshop org. Waterstones.

#BlogTour The Art of Deception by Louise Mangos

Today it’s a pleasure to take part in the BlogTour The Art of Deception by Louise Mangos. It’s contemporary and women’s fiction with elements of crime fiction.

About the Author

Louise Mangos grew up in the UK but has spent more than half her life in Switzerland. Her debut psychological thriller “Strangers on a Bridge” was a finalist in the Exeter Novel Prize and long listed for the Bath Novel Award. Her second novel “The Art of Deception” will be published in June 2019.

She lives on an Alp with her Kiwi husband and two sons, and when she’s not writing you can find her on the cross-country ski loop or swimming in the lake, depending on the season. She also writes short stories and flash fiction which have won prizes and been published in various anthologies. She is currently studying for her MA in crime writing at UEA.

Follow @LouiseMangos on Twitter, on Goodreads, on Amazon,

Buy The Art of Deception

About the book

Art college dropout Lucie arrives in a Swiss ski resort looking for work – but instead finds Mathieu.

Handsome, charismatic and from a good family, Matt seems like the perfect man. But as Lucie soon discovers, he has a dark side – one that will drive their relationship to a dramatic conclusion, and tear the life she has built for herself and their son apart.

Left fighting for her freedom in a foreign prison, and starting to lose her grip on reality, Lucie must summon all of her strength to uncover the truth and be reunited with her son before it’s too late.

The clock is ticking . . . but who can she trust?

Review

‘When someone tells you who they are, believe them the first time’. I can’t say this loud enough, because an abuser, even a manipulative charming one with lots of experience, will show you what he or she is in some way or other. You just have to take off the pink-tinted glasses long enough to register it.

Following on from that, when all your friends, family, colleagues and acquaintances try to warn you or tell you what they know or see, then listen carefully. Don’t ignore what you probably already know deep in your heart. The other side of that coin is the fact many women and men, that includes young people, aren’t always aware what constitutes abuse, thereby are unable to extricate themselves from those type of relationships because they don’t recognise abuse for what it is.

Lucie chooses not to listen and to ignore the warning signs. She is a young girl in the throes of young love. Captivated by the attention she receives. Matt doesn’t fall in love or in lust really, he just sees another innocent and vulnerable young woman he can manipulate and control.

Lucie ends up behind bars for the death of her husband. Separated from her young son and a victim of a vigorous and perhaps biased legal system.

Mangos does something specific when it comes to the abuse, which seems quite intentional as the read progresses, it’s written as if it is secondary to the situation. The acceleration isn’t noted per se, but rather noted more in Lucie’s hesitation and reading of his body language and facial expressions. Now why is this important, this seemingly lackadaisical approach to describing that aspect of the relationship and story.

Whether intentional or not it portrays how this type of abusive relationship slips into a daily normality, hence it’s not always at the forefront of those flashbacks in the past. Abuse is more complex than it appears, which is why the outside often don’t understand and are critical of those being abused.

It’s contemporary and women’s fiction with elements of crime fiction. For me the question at the forefront of this story is whether the end result death is justified when you believe your life or the life of your child is in danger. The problem is that domestic abuse still isn’t seen as the real danger it is, which is why so many of the abused feel they have no other choice than the extreme.

Mangos gives the reader a multi-faceted story, and draws from multiple genres to create a thought-provoking read.

Buy The Art of Deception at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: HQ Digital; pub date Paperback release 13 June 2019. Buy at Amazon com.