Book Review - Behind Her Back by Jane Lythell - #HolidayReading Book 2

Book 2 of 30 that I read on my holiday to Fuerteventura in December 2017

Amazon UK

Title:  Behind Her Back

Author: Jane Lythell

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Publisher supplied copy

Publisher: Head of Zeus

Publication Date: 10th August 2017

Rating: 4 Stars

In a TV station run by men, how do the women make themselves heard?

Liz Lyon is a television producer at StoryWorld, the UK's favourite morning show. Her job is stressful and demanding, but she is determined to show her teenage daughter that women can succeed.

Then a new female colleague joins the station. In this predatory climate of toxic masculinity Liz and Lori should be helping each other. But when Lori starts secretly building her power base with the bosses, Liz is desperate to know what's going on behind her back...

Really enjoyed seeing Liz Lyon back in her second book and thoroughly enjoyed being part of the Storyworld team again. 

This is the second book in the series and at did take me while to get fully into the story. It had been a long while since I read book 1 and so remembering the characters and specifics took a bit of time. I do though feel this probably works as a standalone too, as all the key bit from the previous book are mentioned. 

Wow there is a lot to take in on this story, there is a lot of work place politics in place, some of which is more amusing than others, there is Liz's new dating interest who I'm not sure I like that much. 

Then there is Liz's daughter Flo who is in some ways a typical 15 year old girl, and in others as someone quite loving and mature for her age. 

I just found it a shame that just as my enjoyment had peaked, I was at the end of the book and have been left crossing my fingers for a book 3,

Full of humour and conflict, this is a lovely story and one I really enjoyed. 

Thank you to Clare Gordon at Head of Zeus for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily. 

Guest Post - My Writing Path by Jane Lythell - Blog Tour

As a child my mum would describe me fondly as a bookworm. My favourite activity was to lie on my stomach, on my bed, in the garden or on the beach and to escape into the latest fictional world that was enthralling me. From the age of nine we lived in Norfolk and as an early teen I read my way through the fiction shelves of Sheringham library. I also tried my hand at fiction when I was seven or eight. I wrote a story for my younger sister Caroline about Sally Dumpling, a fairy with curves who lived in a yellow rose. Her best friend was a robin. I read this to my sister who said she loved it. She still sometimes mentions it today.

I studied English Literature at university so I enjoyed three more years of intensive reading, novels and poetry, and writers were my heroes: Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

I started to write a few short stories. These were highly autobiographical and I never did anything with them though I think they were teaching me something about how to write. Then, from about the age of thirty and for many years, there was no time for writing and a lot less time for reading. I was working in film and TV in the kinds of jobs that gave you very little empty time. I think you need empty time to be able to write. And I had my daughter and was a lone parent from when she was two and a half. But I had stories in my head which I wanted to tell one day. While I was at the Foreign Office, heading up their TV and Radio Unit, I started on my first draft of what would become The Lie of You.

One of the things that helped me at this time was the Arvon Foundation which runs writing retreats. I went to two week-long retreats, one in Devon and a year later one in Scotland. These were very valuable because I met other would-be writers and the published writers who lead the courses and this made me take my wish to write more seriously. I carried on with The Lie of You.

The next step in my writing path was blogging. In 2011 I started to write a novel in instalments which I called The Chronicles of Chloe Greene. It was set in the 1980s and centred on a young idealistic woman called Chloe Greene who lived in a run-down housing association house in North London with two artists. Each week I made myself write an 800 – 1,000 word instalment and would post this up on my blog every Tuesday. I then tweeted about it and began to attract readers who enjoyed the unfolding story. Blogging gave me two very good things: the discipline to write every week and the sense of reaching an audience, however small. Readers would post comments on the instalments and I found this thrilling.

I took my draft of The Lie of You out of the drawer where I had stashed it and read it again. I felt it had something and I finally plucked up courage to ask my partner Barry to read it. Barry is a TV script writer and we hadn’t been going out very long! I asked him to be honest. Was it worth trying to redraft it or should I start again? Barry’s feedback was so helpful. He said it opened well and that the characters were interesting but that the last third of the book had lost direction. And it had.
This encouraged me to work on it again and I rewrote it and sent the first forty pages of the manuscript to the literary agency Sheil Land. I didn’t know anything about publishing at this time. 

My work world had been film and TV. My finished manuscript was only 57,000 words long. 
I had the huge luck to be taken on by the literary agent Gaia Banks of Sheil Land. Gaia guided me. She explained that publishers expected a novel to be at least 80,000 words long. We discussed the book at length and how it needed some new scenes to deepen the characters and the plot. And I learned that you never submit to a publisher until you have made your book as good as it possibly can be. A first draft is just that, a first draft. It is at the redrafting and editing stage where you can hone and polish your book.

Six months later Gaia submitted my now longer novel (87,000 words) and I was selected for publication by Head of Zeus which was a new publishing venture. If I could do cartwheels I would have done these all around the garden! 

This was my writing path and I now write full time.

Jane Lythell

Thank you so much Jane for sharing your writing path with us.

Jane's latest book Behind Her Back is out now, and I hope to be reading and reviewing it as soon as I can.

Liz Lyon is a television producer and busy single mum to a teenage daughter. She works at StoryWorld, the UK's favourite morning show. As both confidante and team leader, she is the person tasked with controlling the conflicts and tantrums that flare up off-air. Having just started dating again, she's also having to deal with a few conflicts and tantrums at home...

Following a blissfully peaceful two-week holiday in Italy, Liz has returned to find a new colleague has joined the station. Lori Kerwell has been brought in to increase the show's profitability. But Liz is not sure that's the only thing on Lori's agenda.

As Lori builds her power base with the bosses, Liz finds herself wondering what's really going on behind her back... 

Purchase from Amazon UK

Please follow along with the rest of the blog tour to see more from Jane. 

Book Review - Woman of the Hour by Jane Lythell

Amazon UK

Title:  Woman of the Hour

Author: Jane Lythell

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: Head of Zeus

Publication Date: 14th July 2016

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Meet Liz Lyon: respected TV producer, stressed-out executive, guilty single mother... woman of the hour.

StoryWorld is the nation's favourite morning show, and producer Liz Lyon wants to keep it that way. Her job is to turn real-life stories into thrilling TV - and keep a lid on the scandals and backbiting that happen off-stage.

But then simmering tensions erupt at the station, trapping Liz in a game of one-upmanship where she doesn't know the rules. As the power struggle intensifies, can Liz keep her cool and keep her job? Does she even want to?

In this gripping novel of power, rivalry and betrayal, Jane Lythell draws on her experiences of working in the glamorous, pressurised world of live TV.

I really enjoyed the book, and found it  a very entertaining and gripping read.  Liz Lyon is in charge of features for a TV show called StoryWorld. It's a morning TV show, with guests on the couch, and some pre-recorded sections, but mainly live, similar to This Morning in the UK, at least that is the vibe I had from it. 

She has a small team and the book is all about the inner workings at the TV station, and the power games between the overall boss, Julius that she has had a chequered history, the head of the News team, Bob who has been having an affair with another member of the show. And on the flip side we also have Lizzy's anxieties at being a single parent to 14 year old Flo, whose new neighbour, 16 year old Paige is a not fantastic influence. 

I loved the scenes in the TV stations as it gives a great behind the scenes look at the decision making involved in putting on live daytime TV, and the dynamics between Liz's research team are great. Loves Simon, Molly, Ziggy and even Harry grew on me eventually. The two younger girls Ziggy and Harry cause the most mystery in the book, in an epic storyline that runs for the majority of the book, often in the background, but just there, hitting at your concious to be unravelled. 

The various "on air personalities" are a good mix too, from the insecure lead presenter Florrie, to the chef who makes some delicious sounding recipes to the flamboyant astrologer, the kind hearted Betty who is the problem letter lady and even some comic relief with Sal. 

There were loads of entertaining interactions, and between the team at the station and the stories of some of the guests, especially some for the Outside Broadcast, I had a tremendous sense of how realistic Jane Lythell can write her characters and that she clearly knew her TV production stuff. 

I believe I read somewhere this is the start of a series, and if so then I am definitely eager to see more from the team at Storyline, as I really want to know what happens next. 

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Head of Zeus for this review copy. This was my honest opinion.