Today is my stop on the blog tour for December Girl, the fantastic debut novel by Nicola Cassidy.
Synopsis
Molly Thomas is a feisty, independent soul, born on the Winter Solstice. At every stage of her life she has faced troubles.
As a young woman her family are evicted from their home at Christmas. Molly swears vengeance on the jealous neighbour and land agent responsible, Flann Montgomery.
Then in 1896 her baby son is taken from his pram. Molly searches the streets for Oliver. The police are called but her baby is gone.
Why does trouble seem to follow Molly?
And will she ever find out what happened to her child?
December Girl is a tale of family bonds, love, revenge and murder.
Review
The harrowing tone of the book is set in the opening scenes where we first meet Molly Thomas. Already coming to terms with her past she now has to deal with the fact her baby son, Oliver, has been taken from his pram.
Readers are then taken back to into Molly’s past where were are guided through the events that set her on the path to becoming the woman we first meet. A couple of times the story left me a little lost as I tried to keep up with the characters. However, by part 2 I was fully invested in Molly and found mixed up in a roller coaster of emotions as we followed her story.
December Girl is filled with such amazing details of the period and paints a vivid picture of life in Ireland during the 19th century. What I loved most about the book though, was the path it took. Just when I thought I knew where it would lead, there was a twist in the plot and we were off in a totally different direction.
This is a fantastic debut novel from Nicola Cassidy and one I would highly recommend. It’s easy to see the work she has put into the book as it is extremely well researched and brilliantly written. I can’t wait to see what come next from Nicola.
Many thanks to Nicola Cassidy, Sarah Hardy and Bombshell Books for my advanced reader copy and inviting me on the tour!
Amazon UK | Goodreads | Amazon US
About the Author
Nicola Cassidy is a writer and blogger from Co. Louth, Ireland. She started her writing career early, entering short story competitions, penning protest letters to magazines and making up characters in her head. These scribblings saw her place in a number of competitions as a child and encouraged by her English teachers, she chose to study journalism at Dublin City University.
While working in political PR and marketing, Nicola studied a series of advanced creative writing courses at the Irish Writers’ Centre and set up a lifestyle and literary blog at http://www.LadyNicci.com, which was nominated in the Ireland Blog Awards in 2015 and 2016.
During her maternity leave for her first daughter, Nicola set about researching and writing a historical fiction novel, December Girl, inspired by true events and set in the mystical and ancient Boyne Valley, famed for its stone age passage tombs, near to where she grew up.
Nicola signed with US based Trace Literary Agency in 2016. December Girl was picked up by Betsy Reavley at UK digital publisher Bombshell Books in June 2017 and was published 26 October 2017.
She is an avid reader, inspired by the likes of Anais Nin, Joan Didion and Jessie Burton and is currently working on her second novel, also inspired by true events. She lives with her husband and two young daughters in Termonfeckin, Co. Louth.
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My Eclectic Reads 