Fearnley Fiction

October 2017 A group of old women – all headscarves, furs and sunglasses – shuffled past Elizaveta and into the Charlie Chaplin-themed restaurant on her left. She tucked her hands under her armpits. It wasn’t a cold day, but after standing still for an hour she was freezing. She checked the time on her phone: 11.48. From her vantage point, she watched the four Decembrists on the pavement where the Sampsonievsky Bridge rose to cross the grey Neva. A stream of traffic disappeared below their feet into an underpass along the embankment. Max and a beautiful girl with dark hair joined the four. He was wearing his yellow Puffa jacket that was reversible to black. He’d bragged to her about the time he avoided a stupid policeman by turning the jacket inside-out seconds before the musor chasing him ran right past. He pulled a turquoise balaclava over his face, before folding up the bottom half so it resembled a woollen hat. Liza let out a slow breath. She tried to distract herse...

Buy Here Chapter One Rathmoney, County Wicklow. Hours passed. Margo sat in her favourite wingback velvet armchair by the window. The rain sheeted down outside, balls of water creating their own symphony on the galvanised roof of the big shed out the back. Wind squealed around the house, whipping in from the sea, across the fields, hitting against the building, driving the worst of the weather against the glass panes, whistling between the loose bits of wood at the top of the bay window, a loud gatecrasher into her thoughts. Her body was stiff, her mind racing; in her hand a letter. She did not need to read it, she knew every line off by heart. Margo scrunched the letter into a tight ball, letting it roll over the palm of her hand, dropping to the floor. Decisions made in the dark may never last, but she had no choice. Her daughter was sleeping, her husband dead. Conor’s funeral had been the day before. Crowds shuffling forward to offer their...

Buy Here I have to say that I put off reading this book for a while as I wasn’t I would like it. I thought it would just be another generic girl meets boy in the war story. However I was wrong. I actually really enjoyed this book, it was an easy read and I read 150 pages in one sitting. To think I wouldn’t enjoy this was a mistake. I haven’t read anything along these lines before. A factory worker, Gracie, seems to have a few of the boys after her. The one that takes her fancy is Jacob; however, Jacob is a German. Just when you pour all your hopes into them and are rooting for them to succeed, the war stars. I really enjoyed meeting all these characters in this book, there was love, tension, friendship and some trial and tribulations. These all married well into one another, creating a gripping story that I was glad to have picked up and read. Gracie is the heart of the book, and you get behind her 100% in everything that she does. In a way it was refreshing to see anot...