Infinite Sky by C J Flood

For Review: Simon & Schuster
Published: 14 February 2013

From Goodreads: Iris Dancy’s free-spirited mum has left for Tunisia, her dad’s rarely sober and her brother’s determined to fight anyone with a pair of fists.

When a family of travellers move into the overgrown paddock overnight, her dad looks set to finally lose it. Gypsies are parasites he says, but Iris is intrigued. As her dad plans to evict the travelling family, Iris makes friends with their teenage son. Trick Deran is a bare knuckle boxer who says he’s done with fighting, but is he telling the truth?

When tools go missing from the shed, the travellers are the first suspects. Iris’s brother, Sam, warns her to stay away from Trick; he’s dangerous, but Iris can no longer blindly follow her brother’s advice. He’s got secrets of his own, and she’s not sure he can be trusted himself.

Infinite Sky is a family story about betrayal and loyalty, and love.

I had the feeling when I picked this up it would be good, and I'm pleased I was proved right!

I really enjoyed the way the story was told. I loved Iris' voice - her personality shines through and you really feel everything she feels. I also thought the way we know something bad happens to one of the characters (but not who it was!) from the onset worked well - it added tension to everything that happened. I needed to know who Iris was referring to!

All the characters in this really come alive. It is where the book truly excels. I fell in love with Trick, Iris' brother Sam and her whole family. All the choices that are made, by all the characters,  seems to lead up to what happens in the end. It makes for very interesting (and heartbreaking!) reading.

Really, really good and it has made me very excited to see what C J Flood writes next!

Infinite Sky Blog Tour

I am really pleased to be part of the UK blog tour for C J Flood's novel Infinite Sky.  For today's stop we have an exclusive snippet from Trick's point of view...
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I do a lot of freewriting to try and work out what the story is when I’m writing. It isn’t always the best prose, but it helps to work out what each character wants, and to find the natural points of conflict between characters. It’s a lot rougher than the stuff that makes it into the novel, but I hope you get the idea of what I am trying to do. Here is a little bit of writing from Trick Delaney’s point of view. Trick is Iris’s friend/love interest in Infinite Sky. He is an Irish Traveller with a history of bare knuckle boxing, but he tells Iris that he is desperate to give this up.

Work with me da’s not so bad. We have a laugh. People like him, he talks a lot, nothing like what he is at home. They call me little Paddy or Paddy’s boy. They reckon we’ve got the same eyes. He’s alright at home at the minute. Ma’s happy.

I like most of the lads at work. We eat our sandwiches together. They’re all older than me, and they read The Star and The Sport and they turn them round to show us the pictures.

Afterwards, me and Da go down the tip to see what people have thrown away. Sometimes he lets me come in the pub with him, gets me half a shandy and we share a bag of beef and onion crisps. He never drinks whiskey in there. Not while I’m there anyway. He knows I’d tell Ma if he did. Even now I’m working with him.

She knows I go out at night sometimes, she hears me leave. I thought she knew, but wasn’t sure, and then the other night she caught me, one hand still on the caravan door.

“You’re a good person, Patrick, aren’t you?” she whispered to me, from the dark of the living room, and I froze where I was, cool air giving me goosepimples.

I turned to her, and nodded, thinking she meant I should stop disobeying me da, take my flip flops off, and come inside, but she checked my eyes then, the way she does, one then the other, searching, and she smiled at me, just a tiny curl of the lips up at each side.

“We brought you up right,” she said, pulling her dressing gown tight around her, and standing up to go to bed. “Didn’t we?”

I jumped out the caravan then, I was so relieved. Still, I shut the door as quietly as ever, even though she knew all about it, and Dad wasn’t back from the pub.

She trusts me, but she doesn’t know about Iris. I’m not sure what she’d say about that. She’s always asking what I get up to, and I want to tell her, but I can’t quite make myself.

I will though. Next time she asks me, I’ll just say it. See what she says.

Tell her she hasn’t anything to worry about.

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Thanks C J!

Make sure to check out the rest of the tour - details are below.

I want to read that...

Infinite Sky by Chelsea Flood

From Goodreads: Iris Dancy’s free-spirited mum has left for Tunisia, her dad’s rarely sober and her brother’s determined to fight anyone with a pair of fists.

When a family of travellers move into the overgrown paddock overnight, her dad looks set to finally lose it. Gypsies are parasites he says, but Iris is intrigued. As her dad plans to evict the travelling family, Iris makes friends with their teenage son. Trick Deran is a bare knuckle boxer who says he’s done with fighting, but is he telling the truth?

When tools go missing from the shed, the travellers are the first suspects. Iris’s brother, Sam, warns her to stay away from Trick; he’s dangerous, but Iris can no longer blindly follow her brother’s advice. He’s got secrets of his own, and she’s not he sure can be trusted himself.

INFINITE SKY is a family story about betrayal and loyalty, and love.

I'm loving the sound of this!   I'm slightly worried it's going to be a one where I need a box of tissues on standby though...

It's published February 2013