Tideswell by Phill Featherstone

Thank you @PhillFeathers @LoveBooksTours For letting me be part of this tour and reviewing this book. Tideswell is a psychological genre. This is the second book that I have read from Phil Featherstone, and it has not let me down. Amazing. The writing is engaging from the start, and once you get into the book, you can’t put it down. The story is about Alice, who’s gone back to her sister's cottage to sort her things out because she’s been missing for a year and strange things have been happening in her dreams, and secrets start to come out from her family past. The descriptions in the book are brilliant because you can visualize everything a lot better in your head. Tideswell is a gripping and thrilling read that left me on the edge of my seat while reading this book. I really liked the plot of the story and the themes that ran through the book; it all worked well together. The story is excellently written, and I really engaged with all the characters throughout the book. 5 stars. Blurb In the seaside village of Tideswell, things are not what they seem. Beneath its peaceful exterior, sinister forces lurk. Heather Mason, a gifted amateur artist, vanished from Tideswell a year ago. Now her older sister, Alice, returns to settle her affairs. It should be straightforward, but it's not. Conflicting accounts of Heather’s behaviour twist through the village, and paintings found in her studio reveal dark visions of witch trials and of a monstrous figure that rises from the sea. As Alice digs deeper, she uncovers disturbing truths, but the Tideswell community is turning against her. Violence erupts, and Alice is almost drowned. She lives, but suffers from serious memory loss. She returns home to be looked after by Simon, her seemingly devoted husband, but she finds that even there appearances are deceptive. Instead of caring for her, Simon is controlling her and manipulating reality so that she becomes increasingly confused. The threat of consignment to a psychiatric hospital and the loss of her independence force Alice to act. She runs away and finds her mother, whom Simon had told her was dead, and at last learns the truth about her missing sister. The story ends on a note of calm, as Alice looks forward to a new and brighter future. Immerse yourself in Tideswell, a psychological thriller that explores the bonds of family, the mystery of loss, and the tenuous nature of reality. As Alice grapples with her fragmented memories and the legacy of her time in the village, you'll be drawn into a web of haunting beauty and suspense, questioning what’s real and what lies hidden in the shadows. Author bio Phill Featherstone has been a reader and writer all his life, but it was not until he gave up full-time employment that he found the time to create his first novel, Paradise Girl. It appeared in 2016, and since then he’s written another 10, and a collection of short stories. Phill’s novels have been finalists in the Page Turner and Wishing Shelf Awards, and have received Indie BRAG Medallions and Chill With a Book Readers Awards. When Phill’s not reading or writing he enjoys travel, visiting galleries and museums, theatre and concerts. He drinks coffee (a lot) and plays the saxaphone (badly). Phill lives in Sheffield, South Yorkshire. You can keep in touch through his website (www.phillfeatherstone.net), where you can sign up for his monthly email blogs.