Hi there!
Welcome back to Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers.
Today, we're joining Rachel's Random Resources for a stop along their current tour featuring a book that takes us back to the 80's, places us in the shoes of a woman down on her luck, but not out of the game. When things start happening, both for better and worse, she has to pick herself up by her proverbial bootstraps and sort it all out, lest those that came before her go down without a champion. Ladies and gents, let's take a closer look between the pages of today's blog tour guest and title in the spotlight...
A Little Birdie Told Me
by
Sharley Scott
About the book...
It’s 1988. The era of young love, with Scott and Charlene melting hearts in Neighbours, and a new princess for the Royal Family. With Bros, Madonna and Wet Wet Wet in the charts, and children hoping for Ghostbusters’ toys in their stockings.
But it’s not all fun for Belinda. If her life was a board game, she’s losing at snakes and ladders. Once she’d been working her way up one of those ladders but, thanks to her snake-like polytechnic lecturer, she’s toppled from the rungs. Now she works in an old people’s home, where her chief duties involve cleaning toilets and emptying commodes.
At least her lovely colleague, Joe, offers excitement in her otherwise dreary life. But Belinda can’t believe he'd be interested in someone like her. Not when her pretty friend, Tracey, only has to glance at a man to have him fall for her.
But just when it seems things are looking up for Belinda, the residents’ precious possessions start to go missing. Then she witnesses a disturbing incident and doesn’t know what to do. Luckily, Belinda has Joe to guide her – until she discovers that he’s hiding a secret, one that forces her to make an agonising decision.
Will she continue to hide in the shadows, never speaking out – or will she put her future on the line to stand up for what is right? After all, she’s caring for a generation that's lived through two wars. Now it’s time to fight for them.
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~~~ EXCERPT ~~~~
A Little Birdie Told Me… is set in a care home during the 1980s. At mealtimes Belinda sits with residents and has formed friendships with all but Alice, a prickly woman with a hidden past and a fondness for pilfering the strangest of things.
I’d finished the commodes and had started cleaning downstairs when Sally strode past, arm outstretched, clutching a dinner knife. She didn’t look my way, although she must have seen me. Puzzled, I watched as she headed down the corridor that led to Gloria’s office. While her manner was unsettling, I didn’t think she was about to kill our boss. For a start, she could have got a much sharper knife from the kitchen.
When she disappeared, I sprayed the grandfather clock and set to work with the duster. This was one job I didn’t mind doing, although the hoovering wasn’t too bad, especially when I could pretend to be the Shake ’n’ Vac lady, whizzing around to put the freshness back. It was much needed, as the smell of cooked food seemed to stagnate in the air.
Gloria and Sally appeared, catching me sniffing the duster. This time Gloria brandished the knife. Her expression was easier to read. Murderous. I shuddered as she curled her finger to call me over. As I reached her, she pointed the knife at me. It looked like the ones used on the side plates at breakfast.
“How did this get into Alice Swann’s room?”
I went to shrug but decided against it. “I-I have no idea.”
“Belinda must have let her take it this morning,” Sally said. “Or we’d have found it when we cleaned her room yesterday.”
“Residents” – Gloria emphasised the word by rolling the ‘r’ – “should never have knives in their rooms. And I’ve already warned you about Alice Swann.”
A rounded knife couldn’t do much damage, so why was it an issue? The residents weren’t children. Far from it. Most of them appeared a decade or more older than my gran. One had even mentioned that she’d been my age at the start of the Great War. Perhaps there was an age limit to knives, although the idea seemed ridiculous. Anyhow, asking older people’s ages was off limits, unless they offered to tell me. That didn’t happen until they were well into their eighties when, once again, age became something to celebrate. They were a bit like children in that respect.
Sally crossed her arms, gloating, forgetting she’d been assigned to train me.
I wilted under Gloria’s glare. “I-I’m sorry. I-I didn’t realise. No one’s said why I should take extra care with Miss Swann.”
Gloria handed the knife back to Sally. “I’ll leave you to explain that. I have work to do.”
Sally’s face fell. Had she expected Gloria to punish me more? She rounded on me. “This is the second time you’ve been told. Don’t let me find out about any more objects ending up with Alice, do you hear?”
Then she stormed off towards the lounge, before spinning around in exasperation and stomping past me. The kitchen door smashed shut, leaving me standing alone, bewildered.
If I’d hoped to be educated about Alice Swann, I was in for a wait.
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About the author...
Sharley Scott is the author of the Devon Seaside Guesthouse novels – Bedlam & Breakfast and B&Bers Behaving Madly – and the Maddie Meadows series.
Sharley is a guesthouse owner in South Devon. She is thankful to have been blessed with lots of amazing and kind-hearted guests, who are nothing like some of the fictional characters featured in the Devon Seaside Guesthouse series.
The Two Lives of Maddie Meadows – and its sequel The Gift of a Rose – portray the life of a working single mum. Some of the mischief Maddie's little one, Josh, gets up to will be familiar to all parents. In real life, Sharley has carried out the threats she made to her son decades ago and now gets her own back him by telling tales to his girlfriend (some of the incidents in the books are inspired by him), although he returns the favour by recounting utterly embarrassing stories about his mum.
Sharley's latest novel ‘A Little Birdie Told Me…’ is being published in February 2021. This book goes back in time to the late eighties: a time of fun music, interesting fashion, strange hairstyles and no internet or mobile phones. Fancy having to talk to each other! (Says the author who frequents Facebook too often).
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Special thanks to Rachel at Rachel's Random Resources for the chance to bring this tour to you. (THANKS!) For more information on this title, the author, this promotion, or those on the horizon, feel free to click through the links provided above. Be sure to check out the rest of the tour for more bookish fun!
Until next time, remember...if it looks good, READ IT!
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