That period when your book is just out and you're waiting for your first review is always somewhat nerve-wracking. I always try not to think about it too much - I've been getting on with painting a bedroom and turning my mind to a new writing project - but there's always the worry that what you felt at one time was good enough to send off to your publisher is just not going to pass muster after all, or that however good it is it just won't please others. So I was thrilled and hugely relieved to switch on my alerts and discover a really wonderful first review of Astral Travel from Amy Riddell for Bookmunch. She calls the prose 'intricately beautiful and abruptly brutal', and is clearly gripped by the story. She says:
'I greedily consumed every paragraph, and yearned for more free time when I had to put the book down to do something inconsequential like work or sleep ... I can’t remember the last time a work of fiction aroused such sympathy and indignant anger in me ... one of the most memorable and brilliant books I’ve read this year.'
I'm very grateful to Amy and to Peter Wild, editor of Bookmunch, and in celebration I'm off to make some bread while my next novel brews in the greater space the relief has created in my head.
The full review is here. (And Astral Travel is available here.)
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