Well, here we are at our last stop for July! I can hardly believe it, the kids are halfway through the holidays and three long weeks of vacation lie ahead for me — Bliss!
I really enjoyed popping into Portobello Book Blog last Friday for this fun post! It’s Ten Things You Should Know About Me and even Mr H learned something new from it!
Thanks so much to the lovely Joanne who is behind the scenes on Portobellobookblog – we first connected when she put up a great review of My Husband’s Wives on Amazon – I was so thrilled, it was one of the first and so it led to a fairly merry dance about the kitchen! Thank you, Joanne!
Here’s a link to the post on Portobellobookblog — it’s a great site and if you’re noodling about for a while, well worth checking out, although, be warned, it’s the kind of place you’ll find hard to leave if you’re a book lover!
Portobellobookblog – Faith Hogan
And here’s the post:
Today I have a fun guest post by author Faith Hogan to share with you. I read her debut novel My Husband’s Wives a couple of months ago and really enjoyed it. You can read my review here and order a copy here
It’s lovely to be dropping in today sharing Ten Things You Probably Should Know About Me…
The First thing…
Although I’ve written for many years, I still describe myself as a reader first, but the truth is that since I’ve been published, I’m probably doing less reading than ever! My writing commitments have eaten into my reading time, if only they ate into my ironing time too!
The Second…
My master is not a looming deadline, rather it’s a very fat cat called Norris who demands that everyone in our house attends upon his every whim.
Third…
Perhaps, Norris knows, that the third thing you should know about me is that I’m a dog lover! I love big friendly daft dogs. The madder they are, probably the better I like them. My last dog was an untrainable beagle called Holly – who ate everything from my kitchen table to the car steering wheel – but she brought immense joy and it is only now, three years after she died that I’m ready to have another dog.
And number four…
The fourth thing, you should probably know is that I’m married to a very organised man. Unfortunately, Mr H sees a dog as another thing to organise and to pick up after. He will not be so keen on having his steering wheel chewed or the antique dining table tooth marked forever.
To important number five…
Number five – I love chocolate. All kinds of chocolate really, except Turkish delight. To spoil myself, I take a hot chocolate, dark chocolate and a good read to bed early – bliss!
Being good at number six…
Of course, I don’t spend my whole time eating chocolate! I live in the west of Ireland and although, yes, it does rain, I have the most beautiful countryside on my doorstep and I more than make the most of it. There’s nothing nicer than walking through the woods on a wet day, nice and dry, beneath a leafy canopy overhead.
Seven is a blast from the past…
My first car was a red, two-door, Ford Escort – I so thought I was the Bizz in that car!
Number eight…
My favourite part of writing is the first draft.
Which leads me on to number nine…
My second favourite part of writing is when I finish that draft and write those two, three letter words – the end!
And finally, ten…
My ‘overnight success,’ has taken many years to come about! I’ve been writing since I was at secondary school, albeit not with the intention of writing novels, but always writing…
Faith x
And here is Joanne’s Review of My Husband’s Wives:
My Husband’s Wives is the story of the secrets which top Irish cardiologist, Paul Starr, has kept from the women in his life. Paul is killed in a car crash with a young pregnant woman in the car beside him. Evie, Grace and Annaliese’s lives are changed forever. Paul has been married to each of these women but there are major secrets he has been keeping from them. The book explores the effects that Paul’s death has on each woman as his secrets are revealed.
I found this a compelling read and was quite fascinated by the reaction of the women to the death of this significant man in their lives. Paul was married first to Evie who was quite a bit older than him. He left her for Grace, a successful artist, and had a child with her. Later he leaves Grace for Annaliese, a former beauty queen trying to revive her career, and they have two children together. But who is the mysterious Kasia who was in the car with him and is he the father of her child?
Despite the circumstances, the women form unlikely bonds as they begin to realise just what Paul has meant to each of them. It was interesting that the one person you don’t hear from – can’t hear from – is Paul himself. Although to the reader it seems he has been a rather selfish and self-indulgent man, through the wives you can feel some sympathy for him and an understanding of why he behaved as he did. It is hard to imagine how you would react in the same situation but I’m not sure I would be as gracious as Evie for example! And yet, Faith Hogan has written her characters in a way that seems quite natural and plausible.
Faith Hogan’s writing was compelling and each woman had a strong individual voice. I enjoyed getting to know all four of the women and learning about their relationships with Paul. I also liked how they were drawn together by Paul’s deceit becoming a strong supportive group of friends. Although you might think they had cause to hate each other, in fact Paul’s death was the catalyst which enabled them all to move on with their lives and become like a family to each other, in many ways the family they had all longed for but never had. A moving story of how people react very differently to grief, it is also a story of how the strongest friendships can grow from the most unlikely of circumstances.
My thanks to Blake at Head of Zeus for my copy of this book. My Husband’s Wives was published by Aria (the new digital only imprint from Head of Zeus) on 1 May 2016. You can order a copy here for only 99p at the time of writing this: My Husband’s Wives
From the back of the book
One man, three wives, too many secrets. A heart-warming story of love, loss, family and friendship. A compelling debut that fans of Freya North will love.
Paul Starr, Ireland’s leading cardiologist dies in a car crash with a pregnant young woman by his side.
United in their grief and the love of one man, four women are thrown together in an attempt to come to terms with life after Paul. They soon realise they never really knew him at all.
The love they shared for Paul in his life and which incensed a feeling of mistrust and dislike for each other, in his death turns into the very thing that bonds them and their children to each other, forever.
As they begin to form unlikely friendships, Paul’s death proves to be the catalyst that enables them to become the people they always wanted to be.
