The second and final blog post for this evening is one where I have the honour of closing the tour for ‘No Reception’ by Maisie Porter. Big thank you to RaRaResources for the blog tour invite and the ARC of the book. Here is my review:
For hyper-successful wedding photographer and blogger, Zody Lee Swabler, anonymous death threats come with the territory. When warned by email not to continue booking jobs, she responds by accepting the next request that comes in.
When a strangely eager woman approaches her about the emails, she accepts the woman’s invitation to visit her home. So begins Helena Hoath’s elaborate plan to take over the life and profession of the photographer she wishes she could be.
And when Zody unleashes her own revenge scheme, she discovers that the unhinged woman may still have the wit to turn a successful photographer’s own talents against her.
Zody and Helena’s lives begin to intertwine in ways that neither could have foreseen…
What does TWG think?
This might sound daft, but I feel a little bit empathetic towards authors of novella’s, as they are well aware that although the story may be shorter, it has to pack a punch and do the job of a full length novel, a lot quicker. With that in mind, I do end up with high expectations for novella’s and I probably shouldn’t as it could end in disappointment.
I needn’t have worried as ‘No Reception’ left my mind in a head funk and my tail in a spin, with the feeling of ‘disappointment’ to be miles away on its own. What a cracking read this turned out to be!
‘No Reception’ led me into a flash sense of security from the moment I started reading. I had all of the characters sussed out. Well, let me rephrase that; I THOUGHT that I had all of the characters sussed out, but I didn’t. In fact, what I thought was going on was in fact NOT going on. And, you want to know what the frightening thing is? People do in fact, go through similar things to the characters in this book. I would hazard a guess that a lot of you have as well!
It was hard NOT to get swept up in the misery of the characters, whilst also being swept up in the thrilling and intense discovery of the conclusion and the overall storyline.
‘No Reception’ may be short, but it certainly was long enough to keep me on my toes the entire time!
Author Bio
Maisie Porter works as a professional photographer in Australia, with wide experience
covering weddings, though she has neither abducted nor been abducted by any competitors. No Reception is Maisie’s first novel.
The Writing Garnet 