Welcome to Bloomin’ Brilliant Books’s stop on the Blog Tour for Sam Carrington’s Saving Sophie.  I am delighted to have Sam as a guest, talking about the three books that have had an impact on her life.  So without further ado, I will hand over to Sam. 

 

Three Books That Have Had An Impact On My Life

Being a writer, you can only hope that your novel will have some kind of effect on the reader. Whether it’s as simple as bringing some entertainment and enjoyment, or whether it leaves a lasting impression, it’s wonderful to think that your words; your story, has touched someone in some way.
Books can affect us in many different ways. Sometimes a book might have a minor impact: a small effect on an area of our lives, perhaps teaching us something about a previously unknown subject. Or sometimes a book will have a major effect: change the way we actually think or feel about something, or encourage us to take an unknown path. The three books I’ve chosen as ones that have impacted on my life, have been for different reasons. I thought I’d share them with you.

The Outsiders by S.E Hinton is a coming of age novel set in America and depicts boys from rival gangs: the Greasers and the Socs. It’s ultimately about friendships, loyalty, class conflict and family ties. I first read it when I was twelve. This story will always hold a special place for me; because of it, a lifelong friendship formed. I’d just started at secondary school and another pupil, Jo Frazer, was also reading it. It’s through talking about the themes in the book that our friendship was firmly forged. To this day, some thirty-two years later, we still quote lines from the book – and we frequently tell each other to ‘stay gold, Ponyboy’!

Into the Darkest Corner, by Elizabeth Haynes, is a fabulous psychological thriller with believable, well-drawn characters. It tackles the topic of domestic abuse, and with deftly crafted prose takes you right into the scary, creepy actions of Lee as he exerts his power, control and obsession over his girlfriend, Catherine. It’s the ease of how the character of Lee is able to come across to her friends as a loving partner and quite ‘a catch’ one moment – then quickly change his behaviour when he’s alone with Catherine the next, that really shocked me. Personally there were things that resonated with me and after reading it I made a few life-changing decisions myself! So, this book stayed with me long after I’d read the last page, and has remained one of my all-time top reads.

My third pick is Postmortem, by Patricia Cornwell. When I finished this novel I knew I was going to love Dr Kay Scarpetta for a long time and would be buying book after book in the series! This was possibly the first time where I’d read a book with a strong female lead, and it was this novel that propelled me into my obsession with forensics and the crime genre, (where, give or take a few books from other genres, I’ve stayed for twelve or so years). After reading Postmortem, my dream job became that of a medical examiner – undertaking post mortems and piecing together evidence to bring the killer to justice. Obviously I have not realised this particular dream!
But perhaps this novel had a part to play in how I came to my current writing career… And having sold more than 100 million books, Patricia Cornwell is certainly an author to aspire to!

About Saving Sophie

A teenage girl is missing.  Is your daughter involved, or is she next? 

Your daughter is in danger but can you trust her?  When Karen Finch’s seventeen-year-old daughter Sophie arrives home after a night out, drunk and accompanied by police officers,  no one is smiling the morning after.  But Sophie remembers nothing about how she got into such a state. 

Twelve hours later, Sophie’s friend Amy has still not returned home.  Then the body of a young woman is found. 

Karen is sure that Sophie knows more than she is letting on.  But Karen has her own her demons to fight.  She struggles to go beyond her own door without a panic attack.  As she becomes convinced that Sophie is not only involved but also in danger, Karen must confront her own anxieties to stop whoever killed one young girl moving on to another – Sophie. 

A huge thank you to Sam for being a guest on the blog and writing a fantastic post.  You can read my review for Saving Sophie here.  Published on ebook on 12 August, it can be purchased from Amazon. Be sure to catch the rest of the Blog Tour!