£2.99 – £9.99
“Now it happens. We look at each other and move in closer, the warning voice in my head now silenced…”
It’s tough to listen to your heart when everything around you is so darn loud. But sometimes, the right person comes along at the right moment and, suddenly, all the noise just melts away and you can hear – for the first time – what you’ve secretly known all along.
Sixteen-year-old Chrissie’s first love is a girl.
But it’s the eighties, and she fears rejection from her rural community, so her relationship remains secret. When her friend vanishes, Chrissie bears her heartache alone.
Decades later, her long-lost love resurfaces, but all is not as it seems. It takes a global pandemic and a brush with death to spark the resolution Chrissie craves.
Heartsound is a tale of unspoken truths, broken promises, almost-forgotten dreams, and hope.
Content Tropes:
Forbidden love / A big deceit / Music stirs memories / Buried Past / Rekindled Hope / Back From The Brink / First Love
Content Warnings:
This title contains mentions of the following: Queerphobia / Hospitalisation / Death of Parent / Terrorist Attack (Off-page) / Drug & Alcohol Use
If you are a retailer and wish to stock this title, please get in touch with us for our discount rates and return terms.
Full Sell Sheet: Coming Soon!
Author: Clare Stevens
Category: Literary Fiction
Release Date: April 2024
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-913117-23-8
Pages: 402
RRP: £9.99 / 12.99€ / $14.99
Format: eBook (MOBI & ePUB)
ISBN: 978-1-913117-24-5
RRP: £3.49 / 3.99€ / $3.99
With Thanks To:
BBeBooks Thailand (Formatting)
Rebekah Parrott (Cover Design)
Sara-Jayne Slack (Editing)
Interested in reviewing this book (or one of our others?) check out our Book Reviewers Page!
Praise for Blue Tide Rising (Clare’s Debut Novel)
A debut novel that deftly steps between gritty reality and magic realism with an agility that many more seasoned writers would envy, this is a book that has a beating heart within its fascinating central character.
– Matt Turpin, Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature
A timely novel of mental health issues, of understanding when to cease blaming ourselves for other people’s actions, and of finding a safe home […] this novel is strongly rooted in a recognizably British reality so I think even readers who aren’t magical realism fans would enjoy this accomplished debut.
– Literary Flits
In a culture where staying ‘pure’ is still regarded as a woman’s ultimate virtue, in a system that prefers silence and secrecy to truth and justice; amidst a mindset that does not mind crushing a woman’s dreams if it feeds male entitlement, it feels novel to imagine that lives like Amy’s are getting redeemed somewhere out there. That voices like hers are being heard. That experiences like hers are being counted. Even if it is set in another land. Even if it is all fiction.
Clare Stevens has lived most of her adult life in Nottingham with brief sojourns in four other UK cities. She began her career as a journalist, working mainly for the Nottingham Post group, before spending several years in government communications.
Recently she made the switch from spin-doctor to story spinner and embarked on an MA in Creative Writing at Nottingham Trent University, which she passed with distinction. Clare wrote her first novel Blue Tide Rising (2019) while on the course, and used it as the basis for her dissertation.
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