Written by Samantha HenthornGriping read! ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
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Today I am delighted to welcome Indie Author Samantha Henthorn to my blog. I have just finished reading her latest novel, My Half-Sister’s Half-Sister. Quite a departure from her Curmudgeon Avenue series!
But first, I must thank Ms Henthorn for taking part in my Author Interview feature, and for a free digital copy of My Half-Sister’s Half-Sister to review.
But first, I must thank Ms Henthorn for taking part in my Author Interview feature, and for a free digital copy of My Half-Sister’s Half-Sister to review.
The blurb:
Pippa is fed up, frustrated and nearly forty. She lives upstairs at The Peacock, her mother’s pub that remains closed after lockdown. When her half-sister’s half-sister unexpectedly visits, Pippa must face up to the past.
Post lockdown has been anxiety provoking for Pippa because isolation has been the norm since the death of Aunt India.
Pippa has been waiting for an epiphany all her life, hoping a revelation will provide certainty in an unreliable reality. Instead, she returns to the office run by a tyrannical receptionist and it seems as though her boyfriend might leave her. Her mother, Jacquetta and sister Heather worry that Pippa may fall to pieces like last time she had a crisis.
Sadie is Pippa’s half-sister’s half-sister and they haven’t seen one another since school swim class. Despite Pippa’s paranoia, Sadie becomes the supporter she never had; she is nothing like Pippa’s enchantress mother and sister.
Sadie is the sister Pippa never had, but Sadie’s attention is not selfless...
She wants something in return from Pippa.
Psychological Fiction
My thoughts:
My Half-Sister’s Half-Sister, in my opinion, is Ms Henthorn's best work to date. I do like to think ahead of what I'm reading, and guess where the story is going. This one kept me on my toes the whole way through.
The story is narrated by Pippa, whose birth name is Epiphany. She always introduces herself as Pippa, such is her dislike of her given name. Pippa tells us that she is the one relied upon to help her mother, regardless of whether Pippa has anything else to do or not. Pippa lives over her mother's pub, The Peacock, a stone's throw from her mother's house, and her mother knows her every movement. Pippa's mother is called Jacquetta. She comes across as cold, selfish and a bit eccentric.
Pippa has an older half-sister, Heather, who is married to Rhys with four children, and is a bit 'New Age'. She is into holistic therapies, and takes Pippa to a retreat for a bit of de-stressing. While Pippa formerly calls her mother 'Mother', Heather calls her by her given name, Jacquetta. Pippa believes the pair of them to be witches.
Pippa's boyfriend, Ben, has been paying more attention to Cassandra while her husband has been working away. Cassandra bullied Pippa when they were at school, and it seems taking Ben from Pippa is Cassandra's idea of sport. My feeling was that Ben was not committed to Pippa, and was only with her because she was providing him with somewhere to live.
Pippa seems to be existing, until Sadie turns up unexpectedly. Sadie is Heather's half-sister. She's the confident, outgoing, fun-loving one, who encourages Pippa to live her best life, and then begins to drip poison in her ear.
What I thought was straightforward, became less so as the story progressed. I wasn't sure that Pippa's account could be relied upon. Perhaps she was too trusting of Sadie. They are chalk and cheese, and Sadie's motives for befriending Pippa were always unclear to me.
After 'the incident', I realised I had been blind-sided from the start, and it all began to make sense.
My Half-Sister’s Half-Sister is a cleverly-written, engaging story, with a sympathetic main character in Pippa. I also found the story humorous, and slightly dark at times.
My kind of story, and I look forward to more in this vein.
| Author Bio – Samantha Henthorn |
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 Join Samantha Henthorn's mailing list to catch up with all the gossip and freebies from Curmudgeon Avenue. Samantha Henthorn was born in 1970something in Bury, England. She is a disabled indie author. When she was a child, she read Roald Dahl and Enid Blyton. When she was a teenager she watched Victoria Wood and read Stephen King. Now she reads lots of things. Last Christmas, her husband bought her a DNA kit and Samantha found out that she is 96% Mancunian. Samantha is well suited to her chosen genre, comedy-drama set in Manchester. Readers have compared her books to Fawlty Towers, Sophie Kinsella and The Bridget Jones Series. Her books include the contemporary social satire series, Curmudgeon Avenue. The historical fiction '1962' (An Uplifting Tale of 1960s Lancashire), the short story collection 'Quirky Tales to Make Your Day' and the novella 'Piccalilly'. She has one dog, one gorgeous grown-up daughter and one husband. When not reading or writing, she is listening to heavy metal (particularly the grunge years of the early ’90s). Samantha would be thrilled to bits if someone read - or listened to her books. Samantha had a twenty-year nursing career in the NHS, working both in hospital and community settings. After a diagnosis of MS in 2005, she eventually accepted early retirement in 2014. Looking for a career where she can work for herself within a paced routine, Samantha remembered her love of reading and drew on her observation skills and imagination to start writing. Samantha often feels as though she is living in a sit-com and this is reflected in her style. Samantha looks after her condition by attending physiotherapy, hydrotherapy, sleeping whenever and wherever possible, wearing sunglasses indoors, avoiding emotional vampires and enjoying life as much as she physically can. |
| Social Media Links – | |
| Web site | https://samanthahenthornfindstherightwords.blog |
| https://www.instagram.com/samantha.henthornauthor/ | |
| Goodreads | https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16004689.Samantha_Henthorn |
| Facebook Author Page | https://www.facebook.com/SamanthaHenthornAuthor/ |
| X | https://twitter.com/SamanthaHfinds |
| Newsletter | https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/d0q2h7 |
Thank you, Sam, for taking the time to answer a few questions for us today. We wish you well with My Half-Sister’s Half-Sister, and I definitely look forward to reading more in this series!
Q1. What inspired you to write My Half-Sister’s Half-Sister?
Inspiration attacked me from all angles and produced My Half-Sister’s Half-Sister. Towards the end of writing Curmudgeon Avenue, I had a strong compulsion to write something darker (without losing my quirky edge). A childhood fascination with witches, a memory of visiting two relatives in a beautifully elegant house (this turned out to be a dream memory), and ultimately, my twenty-year nursing career all provided inspiration. This is not a book solely about witches, but the subtext is definitely mental health.My RMN career ended after I was diagnosed with MS. Reading and writing saved my mental health when faced with the vast culture shock of retiring at 39. That was almost eight years ago, and I’ve come a long way since. The older I get, the easier it becomes to face up to the serious side of life (especially when you’re an author). It all fitted into place, and the protagonist of My Half-Sister’s Half-Sister started to shape into a character who could inspire hope (or at least seek help).
Q2. Who is your favourite character in My Half-Sister’s Half-Sister and why?
I am torn between Pippa (the protagonist) and Sadie (the half-sister). Both are strong heroines (although Pippa doesn’t see it this way initially). I enjoyed writing Pippa’s journey from unreliable to her epiphany. Granted, by the end of the book Pippa appears to misunderstand what has happened to her, but readers will know that Pippa has tackled her demons (in both senses of the word).Or, will they? In addition to Pippa’s unreliable first-person account, readers are invited to believe Sadie. Her long legs, long hair and secrets of her own Sadie is a character I enjoyed writing. She brings no ill to the story, yet she turns Pippa’s life upside-down.
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| Lindsay McKinnon & Samantha Henthorn Photo by https://www.jdmoses.co.uk/ |
Q3. Is My Half-Sister’s Half-Sister part of a series?
I intended My Half-Sister’s Half-Sister to be standalone. I even wrote a newsletter requesting that subscribers ‘slap me if I ever write another series’. When I wrote Curmudgeon Avenue, I wrote all six in order. This was lesson number one; write something else between any potential sequels (Alexander McCall Smith and Joanne Harris always publish an alternate to the next in series before continuing). The second lesson is to listen; the audio narrator of all of my books is the multi-talented voice actor Lindsay McKinnon. After reading the initial character/voice identification scenes, Lindsay told me that I definitely had ‘at least two sequels’. Who am I to disagree with one so talented? Towards the end of writing My Half-Sister’s Half-Sister, the all too familiar hurried recording of ideas crept in. Before I knew it, I had ideas for the following two books in the series. I am going to take my own advice and write something else first.Q4. Do you have another story planned or in progress?
I do, but I can’t tell you the titles! I am reading the final year of my creative writing degree with the Open University. This means I cannot publish anything about my submissions pre-results. I suppose I can share a little secret or two; I am about to work on three creative pieces. One is about a married couple coping with a change, one is about a boyfriend and girlfriend on an all-inclusive holiday and another is about a family who move house next door to a charming yet divisive neighbour.Q5. Who is your favourite author, and do they influence you?
Stephen King, without a doubt – although I realise that Stephen King is on most people’s favourite author list. Another favourite is Jean Rhys who wrote books about marginalised women surviving the hand they had been dealt. She wrote during two periods of her life and is a post-modern legend. If you haven’t read Jean Rhys, you should – especially if you have read Bronte’s Jane Eyre. I also enjoy Joanne Harris’s books. Aside from writing Chocolat, Joanne Harris is a genre-defying genius who has also written a creative writing reference book (Ten Things About Writing).I have identified these three authors as inspiring because they all write ‘what they want when they want’. Over the years, I have not swayed from their subconscious guidance to be myself. I don’t write to market; I write when I’m able (and my books are quirky and entertaining).
Q6. Will My Half-Sister’s Half-Sister be available as an audiobook?
Of course! Lindsay McKinnon has started producing the audiobook version of My Half-Sister’s Half-Sister which should be available in the first half of 2022.Q7. What advice do you have for other independently published authors?
Go for it; you don’t need permission to write. Once you have made the decision to write a novel, don’t rush. Learn your trade by reading, trial and error, and taking feedback. If you can, study for a creative writing degree. If you are suited to be independently published, get ready to be your own marketing manager. No one likes to ‘blow their own trumpet’, but it must become like second nature to you. Your creative disposition will prevent you from boasting, but after a while you will realise that your words and actions can guide your books to the right readers. Keep going; you’ll get there.
Thank you 😊
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