But I Smile Anyway…

I am delighted to be a part of the blog tour for this book, Prickly Company by Kitty Kohnson.

Frances Mathews doesn’t get out much since her husband died, but her fondness for the hedgehogs who pass through her garden prompts her to start a campaign to create a hedgehog highway in Hilltop Place―feeding stations, holes at the bottoms of gates and fences, and wild garden areas for hibernation. To Frances’s delight, her neighbours are on board. Mostly.

There are Jess and Michael, whose marriage is cracking under the unanticipated strain of a recent adoption. And Ryan, a wounded war reporter struggling to connect with his son after a divorce and forced to return to live with his mother. Then there’s the glamourous Tara and her daughter Hermie, new to the neighbourhood and already ruffling feathers. Finally, there’s Justin and Helen, a houseproud couple who are not keen to upend their picture-perfect garden for prickly nuisances.

Before long, the Hilltop Place hedgehog highway is thriving, and new friendships are springing up all over the neighbourhood. But with new friendships, secrets are revealed. What Frances and her charitable neighbours soon discover about themselves, and each other, is hardly what any of them expected. The peaceful neighbourhood will find itself threatened in ways that affect them all … hedgehogs included.

My review

Prickly Company by Kitty Johnson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, which provides some great information about Hedgehogs and how we can help this endangered animal. It also takes us through the rollercoaster lives of the residents of Hilltop Place.
Frances is a widow who isn’t interested in learning how to live in the now, preferring to live in the comfort of the past. She starts the campaign to create a hedgehog highway when the animals she has come to love come to harm.
Then there is Jess and Michael, a couple with their own upsets, trying to complete their family with a difficult adoption.
Tara is a single mum with a bit of a reputation.
Irene lives in the Place and has her son, Ryan, living with her, having come back from a war zone with life-changing injuries.
Then there’s Justin and Helen, the epitome of a perfect couple, hiding their secrets.
There are some real twists and turns through the book, as the residents live entwined with one another, as they also help the hedgehogs along the way.
A real twist at the end, too!
Enjoyed this.

 ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kitty Johnson is the author of Five Winters. She has an MA in creative writing from the
University of East Anglia and teaches occasional creative writing classes. A nature lover
and artist, Kitty enjoys walking in woodland and on the coast and makes collages and
paitings from the landscape. She loves a challenge and once performed stand-up comedy
as research for a book ― an experience she found very scary but hugely empowering.
Kitty lives in Norwich, Norfolk with her partner and teenage son. For more information,
visit http://www.kittyjohnsonbooks.com.

I am delighted to be a part of the blog tour for this translated text, The Faberge Girl, by Ina Christova.


1909, St Petersburg. Seventeen-year-old Alma longs to work at the legendary House of Fabergé, with its talented artisans, winding staircases, secret golden elevator, and glasshouse of tropical plants. But instead, Alma must sketch quietly in her room, inspired by magical visions that could have her accused of witchcraft, whilst her domineering brother presents her designs as his own.

But then comes an opportunity. With the help of a Finnish artisan Knut, she attracts the attention of Carl Fabergéhimself and is given a job at the House of Fabergé. Alma’s creations attract widespread acclaim, and her star is on the rise. But the world around her is increasingly divided, as the Revolution creeps ever nearer. Alma will be forced to decide what matters most to her. Can love, art and beauty survive such hatred and violence?

At once a poignant love story, a magical coming of age tale and a haunting and evocative account of one of Russia’s darkest periods of history, Ina Christova’s transporting debut is based on the incredible true story of Alma Pihl, the only female jewellery designer at the House of Fabergé and her journey during the age of silver culture in St Petersburg.

My review

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

It is a beautiful story based on the real life of Faberge’s only female artisan.
Alma is only 17 and dreams of joining her brother, working as an artisan in the House of Faberge, where her father also worked.
But this is not a time when women would have been accepted in this light.
Alma has a talent for her sketches that she cannot realise; instead, she sends ideas via her brother.
There is a worry that Alma is ‘inflicted’ with some power that others will think is witchcraft, where her imagination takes flight, and she finds herself immersed in strange scenarios and situations. While this happens, she goes into trances, which her family goes to great lengths to hide, for fear of her being locked up in a monastery to be ‘cured’.
However, her dream becomes a reality when Knut, another artisan, helps her meet Carl Faberge himself to present her sketches.
As the revolution begins to take hold of the country and St. Petersburg, where they live, Alma gets sucked into different perils after befriending a young man who becomes one of the leaders of the resistance groups.
There is a lot to unpick in this story, but I really did enjoy reading it. Having visited St Petersburg, I could imagine certain places, and with a connection to Finland, too, I was more than enamoured of this book.

 ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ina Christova is a Bulgarian writer. When not travelling around the world, she splits her time between London and Oxford. She completed an MA in English and German Literature where she was the recipient of the Eleanor Boyle and Kathleen Major prizes for her writing. Ina’s work has been longlisted for the Blue Pencil First Novel Awards and it won this year’s Novel London Literary Competition. The first draft of The Fabergé Girl was completed on the selective Curtis Brown Creative Course in London.