Tag Archives: Helen J Christmas

#BookReview ‘Pleasures’ by Helen J Christmas @SFDPBeginnings #thriller #romance

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Part three of a London-based thriller series, Pleasures by Helen J Christmas takes up immediately where books one and two left off. The ‘Same Place Different Place’ series ticks all the thriller boxes. Chases, disguises, London gangsters, phone tapping, dodgy politicians and policemen, threats, kidnapping, lovable victims and baddies to hate. Helen J ChristmasBook two ends in 1987, Pleasures picks up the story in the same year. Do not read Pleasures without having read books two and three first as you will miss so many references. In a nutshell, in Beginnings Eleanor Chapman is on the run with her son Eli after Eli’s father was murdered after witnessing the killing of a politician. In Visions, Eleanor and Eli have settled in the quiet village of Aldwyk, hopeful of remaining under the radar from the gang who see her as a dangerous witness. But a bitter property deal brings an old enemy to the village.
The handling of the backstory in Pleasures is at times repetitive, exacerbated perhaps by the fact that this book starts immediately after the previous story finished. The old enemy is back in another controversial property deal in the town where Eleanor now lives. The heavies are brought in to threaten Eleanor Bailey, now married to Charlie, and their family. There is a 12 year gap between books one and two, adding fresh air to the plot and enabling the cast of children to grow into early teens. Only months pass before the ending of book two and start of book three. The children are embarking on girlfriend/boyfriend angst, all of which Christmas blends naturally into the story. The Eighties setting is done particularly well, not just random details but made relevant to the plot. There is also the return of an old adversary who adds spice to the mix as he goes straight; but has he really become a responsible businessman, or is it just a front. Eleanor, understandably, is haunted by past threats and is over-protective of son Eli.
At 556 pages this is a long book, very long for a thriller. The first, Beginnings, 314 pages. The second, Visions, 486 pages. There is a fair amount of summarising what has happened and repeating of the threats faced. The story really starts moving as the midway point is neared and the second half is a page-turner as threat after threat, hinted at for so long, begins to happen and Eleanor’s carefully constructed world begins to unravel.
The teenagers are growing up, there’s lots of adolescent angst, snogging and groping. Avalon and William are my favourite characters and I enjoyed the late Eighties references. I wished for a new threat, or a twist on the old one, and admit to expecting a significant death. But perhaps that will come in book four.

Click the title to read my reviews of the first two books in this series:-
BEGINNINGS #1SAMEFACEDIFFERENTPLACE
VISIONS #2SAMEFACEDIFFERENTPLACE

If you like this, try:-
‘Corpus’ by Rory Clements
‘The Accident’ by CL Taylor
‘The Blood Detective’ by Dan Waddell

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview PLEASURES by Helen J Christmas @SFDPBeginnings https://wp.me/p5gEM4-3ym via @Sandra Danby

#BookReview ‘Visions’ by Helen J Christmas @SFDPBeginnings #thriller #romance

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Crammed with Eighties references from Margaret Thatcher, Echo & the Bunnymen and Jane Fonda aerobics to Laura Ashley décor, Visions quickly immerses you in the world of Eleanor Chapman. Visions is part two of Eleanor’s story which started in the 1970s in Beginnings and will ultimately end far into the future. Helen J Christmas‘Same Face Different Place’ by Helen J Christmas is an ambitious thriller series focussing on a single gangland incident which has reverberations across the decades. It is a study of how to react to threats and violence, the nature of victimhood, and the power of fighting back.
There are times in Visions when it covers old ground from book one, but nevertheless the story slowly reeled me in. After the events of Beginnings, Eleanor and her son Elijah live in a caravan in a Kent village, safe from the London criminals who threatened them. Their neighbours, James Barton-Wells and his children Avalon and William become close friends. However Westbourne House, the ancestral home of the Barton-Wells family, is crumbling. When the house is declared a ruin and the repairs too expensive for James to pay, a sinister property developer offers to help. All too soon, his nasty son and equally nasty sidekick bring terror to the quiet village as the tentacles of threat from the past find Eleanor’s hiding place.
There are scenes of nasty violence which remind the reader this is not simply a story of petty crime. Eleanor, her family and new friends must face intimidation, assault, sinister stalking and abduction. At the heart of their survival is a defiance born of knowing they are right.

Click the title to read my reviews of the next books in this series:-
BEGINNINGS #1SAMEFACEDIFFERENTPLACE
PLEASURES #3SAMEFACEDIFFERENTPLACE

If you like this, try:-
‘The Truth Will Out’ by Jane Isaac
‘No Other Darkness’ by Sarah Hilary
‘Himself’ by Jess Kidd

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview VISIONS by Helen J Christmas @SFDPBeginnings http://wp.me/p5gEM4-2q6 via @Sandra Danby

#BookReview ‘Beginnings’ by Helen J Christmas @SFDPBeginnings #thriller #romance

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A teenager abandoned and at the mercy of a 1970s London gang, Eleanor Chapman is the ‘same face’ in the romantic thriller series ‘Same Face Different Place’ by Helen J Christmas. London’s East End is the starting point for the first novel, Beginnings. Eleanor’s father must disappear from England after killing in a man in a gang war. Sixteen-year-old Eleanor is taken under the wing of her father’s boss, gang leader Sammie Maxwell. And from that point, her life spirals out of control. Helen J Christmas Forced to work in a brothel, she escapes and joins up with another teenager-on-the-run, Dutch musician Jake. Together they attract the attention of organised crime gangs and the police. Unsure who is really chasing them, they run from hiding place to hiding place and lose the ability to judge who is trustworthy. Sharing their fears, spending every minute together, Jake and Eleanor live on borrowed time. They fall in love. At times the story takes surprising twists, sometimes the outcomes are a little more predictable. I found it a little difficult to keep track of how time was passing, they seem to fall in love very quickly, and it will be interesting to see if Eleanor’s father re-emerges in the next book.
Inevitably in the first book of a series, there is lots of setting-up, character introduction and exposition. Christmas does a great job creating Seventies colour, the food, the fashions, the neighbourhoods. In a fast-moving story, Christmas writes well about a teenager lost in a large and unforgiving world.

Click the title to read my reviews of the next books in this series:-
VISIONS #2SAMEFACEDIFFERENTPLACE
PLEASURES #3SAMEFACEDIFFERENTPLACE

If you like this, try:-
‘The Girl on the Train’ by Paula Hawkins
‘The Cheesemaker’s House’ by Jane Cable
‘The Seventh Miss Hatfield’ by Anna Caltabiano

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview BEGINNINGS by Helen J Christmas @SFDPBeginnings via @Sandra Danby http://wp.me/p5gEM4-29V