Books

Kate and Jake agreed when they got married that they would always give each other space. But lately, Jake seems to want a lot more space than Kate’s comfortable with. He’s growing more distant with every day. In an angry attempt to figure out why, she doesn’t take the turning for their road on the way home from work. She keeps on driving and takes a room at a local hotel to conduct a bit of spying—and discovers some worrisome information.

But when she returns home to confront him, Jake isn’t just emotionally distant—he’s gone, along with all his things. All that remains is a lone laptop with a map of everywhere she has been over the past days and a timer that is ticking down . . .

Kate turns to the police, who just think she’s been dumped. Then comes an anonymous threat and a demand for money. Nothing seems to make sense. Will she ever get her husband back? And does she really want to?

Lauren Wade hates Jem Carter, and Jem hates her. So, when Lauren gets a message from Jem asking for help, she suspects it’s some sort of attention-seeking stunt by the woman she caught in bed with her husband. Lauren decides to simply alert her ex, Daniel, who thinks Lauren is the one trying to cause trouble.

However, when Jem’s car is found abandoned on a bridge, the police become involved . . . and Lauren finds herself panicking. She is sure they will find out about a secret she has been hiding.

Lauren knows she’s been a bit erratic. She’s acted in fits of jealousy at times. But she hasn’t harmed Jem. With DS Bekah Bradley closing in, Lauren must make a desperate attempt to find out what happened to Jem—before she becomes a missing person herself . . .

“Wildly entertaining and compelling.” —Daily Mail

“Tense and gripping.” —Sanjida Kay, author of My Mother’s Secret

Set in the Northern Quarter of Manchester around the iconic Castle pub, Teenage Kicks spans the Manchester punk scene in 1978 to today as Kaye Macey and her friend Janet search for Kaye’s lead-singer sister, Stella, but find much, much more.

Kaye and Janet have seen it all. They’ve partied with the best of them and fallen in and out of love with unsuitable men. But one thing is missing. Stella. Kaye’s sister left in the late seventies, and their mother, Imelda, forbade Kaye to look for her. But now Imelda has gone.

The women search across the city for each member of the punk band Stella sang with. They toast dead pop stars, travel in a camper van called Mavis channeling Debby Harry and Kate Bush, and search for lasting love. But both of them know this could be their Last Hurrah and want to go out with a bang. Will they find Stella? Will they find love? Will they find out who was really at the Sex Pistols gig at the Manchester Free Trade Hall in 1976?

Teenage Kicks is Jax Ward’s love letter to Manchester.

Pre-order: Shipped to arrive on 12th of May 2023 

Four stories of feathers, blood and eggs. A girl chases a different future on the back of a Suzuki 250. A sibling seeks her brother, hoping answers will heal. Inside the walls of her speaking house, a ‘kept’ wife tries to learn to be content with her identity. A young woman falls in love with a Goose and grows wings. These are journeys fuelled by love, loss and self-discovery, in which characters must fight or take flight. 

Stories by Helen Kennedy, Katie Hale, Louise Finnigan and Jacqueline Ward.

He knows your every move…

‘…important and powerful…’- Daily Mail
Disturbing…How to Play Dead is horrifying in its reflection of reality for many women – and men –  Natasha Cooper – The Literary Review

She’s watching over them. And he’s watching her…
Ria Taylor is everything to everyone. Wife and mother, the centre of her family. And the manager of a refuge for women whose partners have driven them out of their own homes.
But one night, with her husband away, Ria receives a terrifyingly sinister message. Someone is watching her. Someone who seems to know everything about her. She knows what she should do – seek help, just like she tells her clients to. But Ria is the help. As events escalate, and terror takes hold, Ria must decide whether to run or hide…
Buy How to Play Dead here…

An explosive debut thriller about one woman’s search for revenge – and the dangerous chain of events she sets in motion…

‘Wildly exciting’ – Daily Mail

Caroline Atkinson is powerless and angry. She has lost more than most – her marriage, her reputation, even her children. Then one day, she receives an unusual delivery: lost luggage belonging to the very man who is responsible, her estranged husband Jack.
In a leather holdall, Caroline unearths a dark secret, one that finally confirms her worst suspicions. Jack has kept a detailed diary of all his affairs; every name, every meeting, every lie is recorded. He even marks the women out of ten.
Caroline decides it’s time to even the score. She will make this man pay, even if it means risking everything…
Buy Perfect Ten here…

The Truth Keepers

‘Can you keep a secret?’

Can you keep a secret? Three women on the peripherals of war did – the most dangerous secret of all
MI6 spy Kate Morden has a big problem. She’s involved in a case where someone has killed an informer and discovered more than they bargained for. Kate investigates and finds her dead father, also a spy who taught her all she knows about coding, is involved.
Juliette Watson holds the key to the mystery. She knows what the apocalyptic secret is but she’s not telling, until she confides in Iraqi artist, Sanaa Yazidi, who she meets in the desert.
Spanning from the start of the 1991 Iraq war to present day, through London, Cyprus, New York and Baghdad, three women on the peripherals of war chase down a ticking clock to save humanity.
The Truth Keeper is the first in the Kate Morden series of spy thrillers.

SmartYellow™

‘Dystopia at its best…’

( J.A.Christy) as published in both a digital edition and paperback in 2015.

ISBN: 978-1-908168-78-8 eBook Typical price £2.99 / €3.49 / $3.99
ISBN: 978-1-908168-68-9 paperback 304pp List price £9.99 / €11.99 / $17.99

Identity, Health and Women

A social and psychological perspective of identity construction

I completed a PhD on narrative psychology and this focused on the way health is constructed and reconstructed through narrative and discourse. The people who participated in my study were asked to tell the story of their health life – a story with a beginning, a middle and an end. Part of the outcome of the study was that when asked to tell a story people will include many aspects of their life to explain how the central focus came about, or was constructed. Compared with answering an interview or a survey, which are largely controlled by the interviewer and leave little room for the surrounding influencing environment of people lives, stories give us a fuller landscape and picture of how people live.
The book is called ‘Identity, Health and Women’ and this was really how I came to love storytelling and listening to other people’s stories. (written as Jacqueline Christodoulou)