Blog Tour – Surrounded By Water by Stephanie Butland – review and signed copy giveaway (now closed)

Surrounded by Water blog tour poster I’m delighted to be included in the blog tour for Stephanie Butland’s Surrounded By Water, published in hardback by Bantam Press on 10 April, and also available for Kindle. I’m also thrilled to be able to offer a signed copy to one lucky follower, as I’d like as many people as possible to read this wonderful book – thank you to Patsy Irwin and team at Transworld.

Elizabeth’s world is turned upside down when her husband dies in a tragic drowning accident.

How typical of her kind, generous husband to sacrifice his own life saving a complete stranger’s. At the heart of this village that has lost its most respected police officer is a woman who has lost life as she knows it.

Or so thinks. But this is a small place where everyone knows each other and nothing stays secret for long. Before Elizabeth can begin trying to piece her heart back together, it might just need to be broken again…

This is such a beautifully written book – a wonderful evocation of grief, love and loss. Elizabeth and Mike were an unlikely partnership when they first met – he was a rather gauche British tourist in Australia, she was the receptionist at the hotel where he stayed who enjoyed his company. Mike is a policeman in a small community where everyone knows and respects him, and Elizabeth moves across the world to be with him. Other than their failure to have a child, the marriage is a perfect one – until, one night, while taking the dog for a walk, Mike drowns while trying to save a teenage girl from the icy waters of a lake.

Elizabeth is totally overcome by grief and friends and family rally round. Her sister Mel – straight talking, and the source of the book’s lighter moments – travels over from Australia to support her. Mike’s friends and his mother are there too – but Elizabeth is untouchable in her desperate need to understand what happened. She writes to Mike throughout her grief – wonderful letters, full of love and emotion, that had me in tears more than once. As the secrets begin to emerge, we feel every turn of the knife with her.

This is a powerful story that has you in its grip from the first page and the opening lines of Elizabeth’s first letter. It’s a story of secrets and their impact, but also of heartbreaking grief – grief that you physically experience through the beauty of the writing. But, at the end, it’s also uplifting – at some point, everyone has to come out on the other side. This is a book that everyone should read and feel – it was quite wonderful.

To win a signed copy of this excellent book (now closed) – with thanks again to the publishers – please follow my blog and leave a comment below. If you tweet about the review, please copy me in (@Williams13Anne) and I’ll give you an additional entry. I will draw a winner on Friday 18 April – UK readers only please – and the book will be sent direct by the publishers. If I receive ten entries or more, I will draw a second name and send them my own pre-loved hardback copy.

Just four entries and some retweets?! Draw done, and the winner of the signed copy is Beady Janet – congratulations Janet, I’ll pass on your details to the publisher and your signed copy will arrive direct.

Stephanie Butland is a professional trainer specialising in creativity and thinking skills. She also uses her unique skills and first-hand experience to support people with cancer. She helps to raise awareness and funds for many charities, and has written two books about her life with the illness. She lives in Northumberland with her husband and two children. For more information on Stephanie and her wonderful novel, have a look at her website: she is also on Twitter at @under_blue_sky.