On behalf of Rachel at https://www.rachelsrandomresources.com/ and Jo Woolaston I am honoured to be hosting a guest post today and to promote this brilliant sounding novel – Pink Ice-creams.
Synopsis
Intent on fixing her broken marriage and the alcohol-fuelled catastrophe that is her life, Kay Harris arrives at her grim and grey holiday let, ready to lay to rest the tragedy that has governed her entire adulthood – the disappearance of her little brother, Adam.
But the road to recovery is pitted with the pot-holes of her own poor choices, and it isn’t long before Kay is forced to accept that maybe she doesn’t deserve the retribution she seeks. Will the intervention of strangers help her find the answers she needs to move on from her past, or will she always be stuck on the hard shoulder with no clear view ahead and a glove box full of empties?
Pink Ice Creams is a tale of loss, self-destruction, and clinging on to the scraps of the long-lost when everyone else has given up hope.
Paperback: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1984168231
Kindle: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07RV49TKB
Author Page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B07RYX3YWP
Amazon.com:
Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1984168231
Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07RV49TKB
Guest Post – Brother, where art thou?
Without a father to speak of and a selfish, inattentive mother – once upon a time Kay and her brother Adam were all the family that existed in her little world. Summers were spent in Nan’s caravan by the coast, the beach, the pool, in cahoots nicking sweets from the shop, the arcade, the funfair – a childhood made idyllic by its freedom and simplicity. But now Adam is half her age and Kay an almost teenager and her role is edging towards that of a mother figure. Kay accepts the responsibility towards him with an equal measure of grace (when it suits her) and outrage (when it doesn’t.) She is beginning to resent his constant presence which prevents her from entering the grown-up world she craves and that her mother occupies. And she might think she wants Adam to disappear because of this, but in reality she really, really, doesn’t.
Being a middle child, sibling relationships fascinate me – the rivalry and the jostling for position and attention, from love to hate and back again in the blink of an eye. The denied favouritism, and the enforced, elongated time in which you must integrate – which can make and break a bond. Of this, I am personally grateful that eventually it was distance, and not absence, that made the heart grow fonder. My own little brother was a nuisance, or so I thought. After I ‘encouraged’ him to jump in a swollen river when he couldn’t swim, I was further annoyed by the stranger who leapt off the bridge to fish him out – making him the centre of attention again, AS ALWAYS!! (I mean, really? What sort of a monster was I – what had I hoped would happen?) The idea that a childish tiff could end with devastating consequences (as it did for Kay) terrifies me now that I consider my brother to be one of my best friends.
To balance the loss of one sibling I needed to invent another for Kay – a big sister of sorts. An annoying golden girl (sorry, Sis) who didn’t live under an angry cloud, who everyone loved more, despite her being of lesser intelligence (ha ha ha – the power of print). This is Jen – Kay’s ‘best’ friend and sister-in-law who takes on the role with aplomb. Her cloying advice is well-meaning but patronising, suggesting how Kay can better herself, but her understanding of Kay comes only from the perspective of someone who will never understand her – historically or now – as they are from completely different ponds. But Kay needs her, Jen is her guiding force in a world where there is no other. And she is her route to her husband Martin, Jen’s beloved brother, who Kay is in danger of losing.
Significantly, Jen and Martin’s grown-up blood relationship displays a stronger bond than either of theirs with ‘outsider’ Kay but given the opportunity to defile Martin’s character to Jen – by exposing him as the bully he really is – Kay declines to do this. Forcing a gap between them that Kay could have then occupied might have given her the stability of the close relationship she so craves, with one, or both of them. But she understands only too well the enormity of losing a sibling, and cannot bring herself to allow this to happen to someone else.
So when a young boy from the caravan park, Thomas, goes missing – Kay knows she must act. A lost, only child struggling to find his place in a broken family is something Kay now painfully relates to, so when Thomas takes flight – she follows. The big sister, the protector, finally getting a second chance to do the right thing.
Author Bio – Jo Woolaston
Jo Woolaston lives in Leicestershire, England with her extreme noise-making husband and two lovely sons. She tries to avoid housework and getting a ‘proper job’ by just writing stuff instead – silly verse, screenplays, shopping lists…
This sometimes works in her favour (she did well in her MA in TV Scriptwriting, gaining a Best Student award in Media and Journalism – and has had a few plays produced – that kind of thing) but mostly it just results in chronic insomnia and desperate tears of frustration. Pink Ice Creams is her first novel, she hopes you liked it.
Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/author/jowoolaston
Website: https://www.jowoolaston.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nevermindthebloggers
Twitter: @JoWoolaston
Good reads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19176972.Jo_Woolaston
Herding Cats 