Feb
Today I’m
excited to be a part of the Blog Tour of ‘The Frog Theory’ by Fiona Mordaunt. This
is a romantic novella that will be published today. Check out my review of this book and read the interview I had with Fiona Mordaunt.
About the Book:
Tragedy
and comedy in perfect proportion.
and Flow are the best of friends, living on a council estate, making money
selling drugs.
around the corner in a smarter part of Fulham is Clea, a well-heeled young
woman coping with a violent home life at the hands of her twisted step-father.
Principal runs a famous college for problem teens. Fostering guilty secrets
which distance her from her own children, she resists the advances of a man she
sees on the train every day.
Kim and Clea meet by chance, Kim is smitten but worried about her. Using the
anecdote of the frog theory – that it will jump straight out of boiling water
and live, but stay in and die if heated slowly from cold – he wakes her up to
the dangerous situation she’s in at home.
and a cake-fuelled food fight that goes viral will bring Kim, Clea, Flow and
The Principal together in weird and wonderful ways in this frenetic,
laugh-out-loud story about love, conscience and lion-hearted nerve.
The Facts:
|
Publication
Date: |
February
14th, 2017 |
|
Series:
|
–
|
|
Genre:
|
Romantic
Fiction |
|
Pages:
|
320
|
|
Formats:
|
eBook,
Paperback |
|
Available
at: |
My Review:
asked to read and review ‘The Frog Theory’ I found myself being intrigued by
the book description. I mean tragedy, comedy and something called a frog
theory? I definitely wanted to know what this book was all about. And soon I
signed up for the blog tour and started reading.
start? ‘The Frog Theory’ was definitely a book unlike any other books I’ve
read. Kim and Flow are best friends and life their lives selling drugs, having
sex and just hanging out. Clea on the outside looks like just another rich
girl, but she is having a hard time with a abusive stepfather and no friends.
When the three of them meet at a party, they don’t expect life to change much.
But soon all their lives will change.
really was a little strange. The chapters are short. And the book is written
through the eyes of four different people. The book begins with a short summary
about who the main characters are. And honestly I didn’t expect to really enjoy
this read after the first chapter. But I kept on reading and somehow I found
myself enjoying the story of Kim, Flow and Clea.
writing, with the short chapters was definitely a little unusual but in the end
I really enjoyed ‘The Frog Theory’. I loved how these three young people made a
better life for themselves, and how they found friendship with each other. Their
where definitely some funny moments in this book and it made me smile.
was much shorter than I expected, and I would have enjoyed a little more depth
and a longer storyline. But this book was definitely a nice read.
My Rating:
Interview With Fiona Mordaunt:
did you start writing?
When
I was at primary school we were given the topic ‘I am a door knob’ to write
about as part of English comprehension. I thought how boring, so I made up a story of how it fell
off the door into someone’s bag and travelled to different places.
I
got lots of glorious, sticky gold stars and it was read out to assembly. I was
embarrassed but it felt good. It is the first of many stories I remember
writing.
do you find the hardest about writing your own book?
time lines and continuity. As it gets longer it’s really hard to keep up with
how old everyone is and where they all are in comparison to each other
logistically. I stuck post-it notes all over a large wall to try and keep up.
did you get the idea of writing The Frog Theory?
used to have assemblies at primary school and they would often tell us a
parable or fable. The Frog Theory – that you put a frog in boiling water, it
jumps out and lives but you put it in cold water and heat it up slowly –
it
stays in and dies, came from those days.
message was to make decisions consciously, that they mattered even if they were
small because they led you to places.
wanted Kim to approach certain cross roads, for the story to be a script-like
tale, slightly fantastical, demonstrating the Frog Theory and how they all
escape its watery demise!
keep inspiring stories, quotes, fables, parables, poems; they help me to feel
optimistic.
with domestic abuse. Is this a subject that you think has to get more
attention?
love this question for its ambiguity in relation to my book. Does it refer to
Kim or Clea? They both experienced domestic abuse.
got knocked out by one of his mother’s clients when he smashed his head on a
bicycle pedal leaning against the wall in the hallway when he was seven. Clea
was taunted by her step father mentally and physically.
had a girlfriend who also tortured him mentally and physically on more than one
occasion.
all triumphed.
saw a lot of violence when I was growing up and what struck me was that the
obvious place to create a fair playing-field, was school. In turn the school
environment could bestow the gift of choices.
if teachers were really well paid and the most important people in our society?
if they were trained, also, to understand a certain amount of psychology?
if each child/teenager could trust their teacher and go to them with anything
to get help, inspiration and guidance?
I experienced, personally, at secondary school, were underpaid teachers, over
worked, not respected enough who just about hung on until they couldn’t stand
anymore. Constant turnover. Particularly with French. Which was a shame,
because I liked French!
don’t think, personally, that telling someone they are a victim is the most
empowering point of view. I would prefer to hear just look at you, you’re
brilliant! Let’s check out your options.
was the gift the solicitor gave to Clea. He could have spent that afternoon
commiserating with her about her father or he could have washed his hands of
the whole thing and let her walk out of his office alone. Instead he empowered
her! Filled her with confidence and drive. What a hero.
one saw the mud, the other saw stars.” Dale Carnegie.
Which
character in the Frog Theory is your favourite?
love them all but I relate the most to Flow. He hates to lead, preferring to
fit in with what everybody else wants and finds it hard to assert himself.
He
is naive, impulsive, funny, creative and not brilliant academically, also prone
to being just slightly jealous at times!
he sees Jackie’s true desire to deceive in order to feed her ego, he finds his
personal boundary, learns his lesson and completely shuts the emotional door.
you read your book reviews? How do you deal with good or bad ones?
I’ve had positive feedback. A couple of people have struggled with the
coincidences but I am not upset by that – people enjoy different things and it
is intended to be slightly fantastical.
An
excerpt did get sent to an eighty year old man by mistake some time ago and his
feedback was certainly very colourful!
I
am dyslexic and I thought I had checked the excerpt properly. However, he
pointed out several spelling and punctuation errors. I sent the whole
manuscript to a copy editor after that and paid to have it professionally
corrected before showing any of it to anyone else, ever again! I figured I can’t
control what people think of the story but I can make sure it is at least
grammatically correct.
It
was the copy editor I found online who said the story was ‘absolutely superb!’
and it deserved to be published. So, it led somewhere unexpected.
About the Author:
After
attending school for model-making, Mordaunt started Image Casting in 1998,
specialising in customised body castings. Over the course of 13 years, she
worked on such films as Atonement and The Wildest Dream, as well as for
personal clients like Lionel Richie. In 2012, she relocated to Botswana with
her husband and daughter where she currently resides.
You might also like:
Maureen is a mom, wife, nurse, and Ravenclaw living in the Netherlands. She spends her days juggling mom-life, reading, blogging, planning date nights with her husband and working as a nurse. Maureen also is a big Anglophile, loves cooking, Gilmore Girls, Bridgerton and Harry Potter.. Always! Facebook | Instagram
