Sunday 11 December 2016

Update

After what seems like ages I've finally got the reading bug again. For the last six weeks or so the only thing I've managed to read is a couple of short stories, this has happened before but never for this long. There's no point me starting a book when I'm in this mood as it will feel like a chore and I'll be unable to finish it.
This afternoon I suddenly missed not having a book on the go so I downloaded Mystery in White by J Jefferson Farjeon to my Kindle. It has been on my wishlist for a while and I'm already a quarter of the way into it.
Does anyone else ever struggle to read? If so is there anything you do to help or do you just wait until your reading mojo returns? 

Friday 14 October 2016

Book Beginnings on Fridays - The Dry

Book Beginnings on Fridays is hosted by Rose City Reader and as she says the idea of this meme is for you to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name. There's a linky list on the website and you can use #BookBeginnings on Twitter.

 

This week my book beginning is The Dry by Jane Harper.  I received a copy from Netgalley and it is due to be published by Little Brown on 17th January 2017. 

 

It wasn't as though the farm hadn't seen death before, and the blowflies didn't discriminate. To them there was no difference between a carcass and a corpse. 

 

The Dry 

 

Description


 

Wednesday 14 September 2016

All We Shall Know by Donal Ryan

All We Shall Know

 

Melody Shee is pregnant and now alone, her husband left when she told him the child she was carrying wasn't his. The father is a seventeen year old traveller called Martin Toppy that Melody has been teaching to read. When Melody goes to the site Martin was living on she meets Mary Crothery and the two women become friends.

 

Donal Ryan's novels may be short but he manages to pack so much into them and creates believable characters. All We Shall Know is no exception to this, Melody isn't a likeable person but I loved her Dad and found the story about Breedie, Melody's friend at school, particularly heartbreaking.

 

Rating: 4 out of 5

 

Thanks to Transworld Publishers and Netgalley for a copy in return for an honest review.

 

You can read my reviews of Donal Ryan's previous two novels here:

The Spinning Heart 

The Thing About December

 



 

Friday 1 July 2016

Book Beginnings on Fridays - I'm Travelling Alone

Book Beginnings on Fridays is hosted by Rose City Reader and as she says the idea of this meme is for you to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name. There's a linky list on the website and you can use #BookBeginnings on Twitter.

 

This week my book is one that I only got in the post just over one hour ago and started reading straight way. I'm Travelling Alone by Samuel Bjork was published in 2013 in Norway and will be published in the UK in December 2016 in paperback, for those that can't wait until then it is available in hardback or eBook formats now.

 

Walter Henriksen took a seat at the kitchen table and made a desperate attempt to force down a little of the breakfast his wife had prepared for him. Bacon and eggs. Herring, salami and freshly baked bread. A cup of tea brewed from herbs from their very own garden. 

 

I'm Travelling Alone 

 

Book Description 

 

When a six-year-old girl is found dead, hanging from a tree, the only clue the Oslo Police have to work with is an airline tag around her neck. It reads 'I'm travelling alone'.

One divorced detective estranged from his only child. The other with no family to speak of, determined to take her own life. An unexpected pairing. A brilliant team. 

Friday 17 June 2016

Book Beginnings on Fridays - #ReadWithoutPrejudice

Book Beginnings on Fridays is hosted by Rose City Reader and as she says the idea of this meme is for you to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name. There's a linky list on the website and you can use #BookBeginnings on Twitter.

 

This week my choice is intriguing, I don't know the title of the book, what it's about or even who the author is. It's due to be published by Hodder & Stoughton on 1st October 2016 and they have an online campaign called #readwithoutprejudice. I've only just been approved for a copy on Netgalley and will start reading it in a minute, I cannot wait to see what it's like.

 

The miracle happened on West Seventy-fourth Street, in the home where Mama worked. It was a big brownstone encircled by a wrought iron fence, and overlooking either side of the ornate door were gargoyles, their granite faces carved from my nightmares.


 

 

Book Description:

 

Monday 30 May 2016

Mailbox Monday

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. It was created by Marcia @ A Girl and Her Books but now has a permanent home here

 

I got two kindle eBooks this week and both were only £0.99 each.

 

The Railway Man's Wife by Ashley Hay 

 

The Railwayman's WifeIn a small town on the land's edge, in the strange space at a war's end, a widow, a poet and a doctor each try to find their own peace, and their own new story.

In Thirroul, in 1948, people chase their dreams through the books in the railway's library. Anikka Lachlan searches for solace after her life is destroyed by a single random act. Roy McKinnon, who found poetry in the mess of war, has lost his words and his hope. Frank McKinnon is trapped by the guilt of those his treatment and care failed on their first day of freedom. All three struggle with the same question: how now to be alive.

Written in clear, shining prose and with an eloquent understanding of the human heart, The Railwayman's Wife explores the power of beginnings and endings, and how hard it can be sometimes to tell them apart. It's a story of life, loss and what comes after; of connection and separation, longing and acceptance. Most of all, it celebrates love in all its forms, and the beauty of discovering that loving someone can be as extraordinary as being loved yourself.

A story that will break your heart with hope.
 

 

 

The Silent Hours by Cesca Major


The Silent Hours

An epic, sweeping tale of love and loss inspired by heartrending true events in the Unoccupied Zone of wartime France.

The Silent Hours follows three people whose lives are bound together, before war tears them apart:

Adeline, a mute who takes refuge in a convent, haunted by memories of her past;

Sebastian, a young Jewish banker whose love for the beautiful Isabelle will change the course of his life dramatically;

Tristin, a nine-year-old boy, whose family moves from Paris to settle in a village that is seemingly untouched by war.

Beautifully wrought, utterly compelling and with a shocking true story at its core, The Silent Hours is an unforgettable portrayal of love and loss.

Friday 20 May 2016

Book Beginnings on Fridays - The Fireman

Book Beginnings on Fridays is hosted by Rose City Reader and as she says the idea of this meme is for you to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name. There's a linky list on the website and you can use #BookBeginnings on Twitter.

 

My book beginning this week is The Fireman. At the time of writing this post I'm almost a third of a way into the book, I love apocalyptic fiction and I'm thoroughly enjoying the latest Joe Hill novel. My copy is an ARC from Netgalley and Orion Publishing and it's published in the UK on 7th June.


Harper Grayson had seen lots of people burn on TV, everyone had, but the first person she saw burn for real was in the playground behind the school. 

 

The Fireman 

Book Description

 

 Nobody knew where the virus came from.
FOX News said it had been set loose by ISIS, using spores that had been invented by the Russians in the 1980s.
MSNBC said sources indicated it might've been created by engineers at Halliburton and stolen by culty Christian types fixated on the Book of Revelation.
CNN reported both sides.
While every TV station debated the cause, the world burnt.
Pregnant school nurse, HARPER GRAYSON, had seen lots of people burn on TV, but the first person she saw burn for real was in the playground behind the school.
With the epic scope of THE PASSAGE and the emotional impact of THE ROAD, this is one woman's story of survival at the end of the world.

Friday 13 May 2016

Book Beginnings on Fridays - The Secret To Not Drowning

Book Beginnings on Fridays is hosted by Rose City Reader and as she says the idea of this meme is for you to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name. There's a linky list on the website and you can use #BookBeginnings on Twitter.

 

This week my book beginning is The Secret To Not Drowning by Colette Snowden. I only heard about this book on Twitter the other day and have borrowed an ebook from Suffolk libraries, it's one of the books included in Brave New Reads and you can read about them all here

 

There are four people in the room but only one of them is me.

I am the only one flat on my back, legs in the air, knickers somewhere on the floor. I am the only one focusing only on the paper towels stacked in piles from the floor almost to the ceiling. Little green bundles, ready and waiting for all those doctors and nurses to wash their hands and dry them again afterwards.

 

The SECRET TO NOT DROWNING 

 

Book Description:

 

 How did a girl who once dreamed of being a Charlie's Angel become such a cowed and submissive woman? When a chance meeting at her once a week trip to the swimming baths develops into a secret relationship she has the chance to become the women she wanted to be but is it too late?  

 

 

Thursday 12 May 2016

Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt

HEX

 

Hex was originally published in The Netherlands in 2013 but has just been released in the UK and US. It is set in a small, fictional place called Black Spring, but this is no normal American town. It is haunted by a woman from the seventeenth century whose eyes and mouth are sewn shut, she wanders the streets and can enter any home she chooses. Known to the residents as the Black Rock Witch they believe that if her stitches are cut open the entire population of Black Spring will die but a curse prevents any of them from leaving for more than a few days. Surveillance cameras are everywhere and the town is practically under quarantine.

 

At the beginning it was amusing to see how people dealt with her, she was hidden from outsiders by being disguised or covered up so the secret wouldn't get out. The story was far from light-hearted though and it was creepy when the witch (Katherine) was first introduced. The idea that she can suddenly appear in the corner of a room while you're doing normal, everyday things or by your bed while you're sleeping is quite frankly terrifying. Hex didn't scare me all the way through but is original and different to anything other novel I've read before. Something that often disappoints me with horror fiction is how authors end a story, this wasn't the case with Hex though, I loved it. 

 

Rating: 4 out of 5

 

Thanks to Bookbridgr and Hodder & Stoughton for my copy in return for an honest review.

 

Friday 6 May 2016

The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware

The Woman in Cabin 10Laura (Lo) Blacklock is a travel journalist given a chance to go on the maiden voyage of a luxury cruise ship. She's hoping the trip will do her good and help her recover from a break in at her flat where she came face to face with the burglar. 

 

One night she's woken by noises coming from the cabin next door and is convinced she heard a body being dumped into the sea. Everyone tells her this isn't possible as no one is missing and the cabin has been empty, but if that's the case who was the woman who answered it's door to Lo and lent her a mascara?


The story started well and when the characters on the ship were introduced I was immediately trying to work out who could and couldn't be trusted. This has been compared in other reviews to Agatha Christie and I can see why. Unfortunately I began to lose interest towards the last part of the story, it felt rushed, as though the author had run out of ideas and wasn't sure how to finish and tie everything up. Lo was also making some annoying and at times perplexing decisions. You need to suspend belief for most crime thrillers to work but this went too far and I'm also not entirely sure what the very end was supposed to mean. Plenty will enjoy this quick and easy read though.


Thanks to Netgalley for a copy in return for an honest review.


Rating: 2.5 out of 5

 

Publication date: 30th June



Book Beginnings on Fridays - Hex

Book Beginnings on Fridays is hosted by Rose City Reader and as she says the idea of this meme is for you to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name. There's a linky list on the website and you can use #BookBeginnings on Twitter.

 

This week my book beginning is from Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt which I only started reading yesterday.

 

Steve Grant rounded the corner of the parking lot behind Black Spring Market & Deli just in time to see Katherine van Wyler get run over by an antique Dutch barrel organ. For a minute he thought it was an optical illusion, because instead of being thrown back onto the street the woman melted into the wooden curlicues, feathered angel wings, and chrome-coloured organ pipes. 

 

HEX

 

Book Description  

 

Whoever is born here, is doomed to stay until death. Whoever comes to stay, never leaves.

Welcome to Black Spring, the seemingly picturesque Hudson Valley town haunted by the Black Rock Witch, a seventeenth-century woman whose eyes and mouth are sewn shut. Blind and silenced, she walks the streets and enters homes at will. She stands next to children's beds for nights on end. So accustomed to her have the townsfolk become that they often forget she's there. Or what a threat she poses. Because if the stitches are ever cut open, the story goes, the whole town will die.

The curse must not be allowed to spread. The elders of Black Spring have used high-tech surveillance to quarantine the town. Frustrated with being kept in lockdown, the town's teenagers decide to break the strict regulations and go viral with the haunting. But, in so doing, they send the town spiraling into a dark nightmare.
 

Monday 18 April 2016

Mailbox Monday

 

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. It was created by Marcia @ A Girl and Her Books but now has a permanent home here

 

This week I received a copy of Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt from Hodder & Stoughton. I requested it through Bookbridgr quite a while ago and presumed I'd missed out, I was delighted when it arrived on Thursday as it is described as being reminiscent of vintage Stephen King. Those of you who like the sound of it won't have to wait too long either as the publication date is 28th April.

 

 

HEX

Whoever is born here, is doomed to stay until death. Whoever comes to stay, never leaves.

Welcome to Black Spring, the seemingly picturesque Hudson Valley town haunted by the Black Rock Witch, a seventeenth-century woman whose eyes and mouth are sewn shut. Blind and silenced, she walks the streets and enters homes at will. She stands next to children's beds for nights on end. So accustomed to her have the townsfolk become that they often forget she's there. Or what a threat she poses. Because if the stitches are ever cut open, the story goes, the whole town will die.

The curse must not be allowed to spread. The elders of Black Spring have used high-tech surveillance to quarantine the town. Frustrated with being kept in lockdown, the town's teenagers decide to break the strict regulations and go viral with the haunting. But, in so doing, they send the town spiraling into a dark nightmare.

 

 

Thursday 31 March 2016

When She Was Bad by Tammy Cohen


This psychological thriller kept me guessing until the end. The story has two threads; one is in America and about a particularly horrific case child psychologist Anne Cater dealt with years ago. The other is in England, set in an office at a recruitment agency where manager Gill has been let go. Much to the rest of the staff's dismay she's been replaced by the much stricter Rachel Masters. Gone is the friendly office atmosphere and everyone is on edge, wondering if they will be the next one shown the door and suddenly becoming suspicious of each other. Anyone who has worked in a similar environment will recognise the office politics involved and the team bonding weekend away was my idea of hell.


The two storylines are obviously linked but as the tension gradually increased during the book, I didn't work out correctly how until all was revealed. A gripping read that I raced through in a few days and I will certainly look at my work colleagues in a different light. 


Rating: 5 out of 5


Thanks to Netgalley and Transworld for my copy in return for an honest review. 


Publication date: 21st April 2016







Saturday 19 March 2016

The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena


The Couple Next DoorIf you enjoy thrillers with lots of twists and turns then you must read this book.
It was a slow starter for me, but once I'd got into it I found it almost impossible to put down. 


Marco and Anne are out one evening for their neighbours birthday, let down by the babysitter they've left their six month old daughter alone. After all they are only next door and are going home to check on her every half hour so what could go wrong? The unthinkable happens and when they return in the early hours she's gone and there's no sign of where she is or what has happened. The story concentrates on Marco and Anne along with her wealthy parents and neighbours Cynthia and Graham, it's up to detective Rasbach to get to the bottom of the mystery and get baby Cora home safely. There are lots of secrets in the family and The Couple Next Door is a book that will keep you guessing until the very end.

Thanks to Netgalley and Transworld Publishers for a copy in return for an honest review. 

 

Rating: 4 out of 5

 

Publication date: July 14th 2016

Friday 18 March 2016

Book Beginnings on Fridays - The Couple Next Door

Book Beginnings on Fridays is hosted by Rose City Reader and as she says the idea of this meme is for you to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name. There's a linky list on the website and you can use #BookBeginnings on Twitter.

 

This week I'm reading an ARC of The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena, it's due to be published on 14th July.

 

Anne can feel the acid churning in her stomach and creeping up her throat; her head is swimming. She's had too much to drink.

 

The Couple Next Door 

 

Book Description


You never know what's happening on the other side of the wall.

 

Your neighbour told you that she didn't want your six-month-old daughter at the dinner party. Nothing personal, she just couldn't stand her crying.


Your husband said it would be fine. After all, you only live next door. You'll have the baby monitor and you'll take it in turns to go back every half hour.

Your daughter was sleeping when you checked on her last. But now, as you race up the stairs in your deathly quiet house, your worst fears are realized. She's gone.

You've never had to call the police before. But now they're in your home, and who knows what they'll find there.

What would you be capable of, when pushed past your limit?
 

 

Monday 14 March 2016

Mailbox Monday

 

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. It was created by Marcia @ A Girl and Her Books but now has a permanent home here

 

Another from Netgalley and Transworld Publishers for me this week.  It's by Tammy Cohen, is called When She Was Bad and publication date is 21st April.

 

 

When She Was BadYOU SEE THE PEOPLE YOU WORK WITH EVERY DAY.

BUT WHAT CAN'T YOU SEE?


Amira, Sarah, Paula, Ewan and Charlie have worked together for years - they know how each one likes their coffee, whose love life is a mess, whose children keep them up at night. But their comfortable routine life is suddenly shattered when an aggressive new boss walks in ....

Now, there's something chilling in the air.

Who secretly hates everyone?

Who is tortured by their past?

Who is capable of murder?

Monday 7 March 2016

Mailbox Monday

 

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. It was created by Marcia @ A Girl and Her Books but now has a permanent home here

 

I received The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena from Netgalley and Transworld Publishers. It's a psychological thriller that is being published on 14th July and looks like just my kind of read.

 

 

The Couple Next DoorYou never know what's happening on the other side of the wall.

Your neighbour told you that she didn't want your six-month-old daughter at the dinner party. Nothing personal, she just couldn't stand her crying.

Your husband said it would be fine. After all, you only live next door. You'll have the baby monitor and you'll take it in turns to go back every half hour.

Your daughter was sleeping when you checked on her last. But now, as you race up the stairs in your deathly quiet house, your worst fears are realized. She's gone.

You've never had to call the police before. But now they're in your home, and who knows what they'll find there.

What would you be capable of, when pushed past your limit?

 

 

Friday 4 March 2016

Book Beginnings on Fridays - The Stopped Heart

Book Beginnings on Fridays is hosted by Rose City Reader and as she says the idea of this meme is for you to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name. There's a linky list on the website and you can use #BookBeginnings on Twitter.

 

My book beginning is from The Stopped Heart which is the latest novel from Julie Myerson.

 

It was a sunny day. The sky was thick and high and blue. Addie Sands was standing in the lane and she was screaming. There was blood everywhere. On her skirts, her wrists, her face.

 

AN90280185The Stopped Heart.jpg 

 
 Book Description


Some memories are too powerful to live only in the past.

During a ferocious storm, a red-haired stranger appears in the garden of a small farming cottage. Eliza and her parents take him in. But very soon, it’s clear he has no intention of leaving.

A century later, Mary and Graham have experienced every parent’s worst nightmare. Now, escaping the memories and the headlines, they have found an idyllic new home in rural Suffolk. A cottage, a beautiful garden. The perfect place to forget. To move on. But life doesn’t always work that way.
A devastating depiction of profound loss, sexual longing, love and true evil, The Stopped Heart is the finest novel to date from this most fearless and original of writers.

 

 

 

Thursday 25 February 2016

Five Rivers Met on a Wooded Plain by Barney Norris

Five Rivers Met on a Wooded Plain

 

This debut novel, set in Salisbury, tells us about five different people linked together because of a car accident. They include Rita, a flower seller who runs a market stall and teenager Sam, who has fallen in love for the first time but his dad is gravely ill. The other characters are an elderly farmer whose wife has just passed away, Liam a heart broken security guard and an army wife who is lonely because her husband is working abroad and her son is away at boarding school.

 

Each chapter is told in the first person of the character. I didn't think all of these worked but they all had moving, sad tales to tell. My favourite was the army wife, and her chapter was written in the form of diary entries.

 

This is a very well written first full novel from an author I expect to hear more about in the years to come.

 

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

 

Thanks to Netgalley and Transworld Publishers for my copy in return for an honest review.

 

Publication date: 21st April 2016

 

 

Wednesday 24 February 2016

The One-in-a-Million Boy by Monica Wood

The One-in-a-Million Boy

 

I loved this story about 104 year old Ona Vitkus and the 11 year old boy scout. He is sent to help her with jobs to earn a merit badge and they soon form a wonderful friendship. The boy, whose name we never learn, is obsessed with world records and he would love to see Ona's name in the Guinness Book of Records. One day he doesn't arrive and the elderly lady is disappointed and left feeling let down, she wrongly believes he is the same as all the previous scouts she couldn't get on with. Then his father arrives to help instead, sent by his ex wife to continue their sons good deed.

 

This novel has sad and funny moments and ultimately is an uplifting story. An enjoyable, easy read that was very different to what I was expecting. 

 

Rating: 4 out of 5

 

Thanks to Headline for an ARC.

Publication date: 5th April 2016 

 

 

Monday 22 February 2016

Mailbox Monday

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Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. It was created by Marcia @ A Girl and Her Books but now has a permanent home here

 

I received a surprise book post this week from Headline. It's called The Butterfly Summer by Harriet Evans and is due to be published on the 19th May.

 

 

This is the story of Nina Parr, a girl who has grown up in London with her mother after her father's early death catching butterflies in the Amazon. She knows nothing about him, or his family, and has got to the age of almost twenty-five accepting this, until one day in a dusty old library off Piccadilly she bumps into an old lady who seems to recognise her...

 

 

Monday 15 February 2016

Mailbox Monday

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Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. It was created by Marcia @ A Girl and Her Books but now has a permanent home here

 

Just one for me this week but I'm so excited about it, a book proof of This Must Be The Place by Maggie O'Farrell. It's due to be published by Headline on 16th May.

 

Meet Daniel Sullivan, a man with a complicated life.

A New Yorker living in the wilds of Ireland, he has children he never sees in California, a father he loathes in Brooklyn and a wife, Claudette, who is a reclusive ex-film star given to shooting at anyone who ventures up their driveway.

He is also about to find out something about a woman he lost touch with twenty years ago, and this discovery will send him off-course, far away from wife and home. Will his love for Claudette be enough to bring him back?

THIS MUST BE THE PLACE crosses continents and time zones, giving voice to a diverse and complex cast of characters. At its heart, it is an extraordinary portrait of a marriage, the forces that hold it together and the pressures that drive it apart.

Maggie O'Farrell's seventh novel is a dazzling, intimate epic about who we leave behind and who we become as we search for our place in the world.

Friday 12 February 2016

Book Beginnings on Fridays - The Trouble With Goats and Sheep

Book Beginnings on Fridays is hosted by Rose City Reader and as she says the idea of this meme is for you to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name. There's a linky list on the website and you can use #BookBeginnings on Twitter.

 

This week my book beginning is from The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon.

 

Mrs Creasy disappeared on a Monday.

I know it was a Monday, because it was the day the dustbin men came, and the avenue was filled with a smell of scraped plates.

'What's he up to?' My father nodded at the lace in the kitchen window. Mr Creasy was wandering the pavement in his shirtsleeves.

 

The Trouble with Goats and Sheep 

Book Description:


Summer, 1976

 

Mrs Creasy is missing and The Avenue is alive with whispers. As the summer shimmers endlessly on, ten-year-olds Grace and Tilly decide to take matters into their own hands.

 

But as doors and mouths begin to open and the cul-de-sac starts giving up its secrets, the amateur detectives will find more than they could have imagined...  

 

Friday 5 February 2016

Book Beginnings on Fridays - Little Black Lies

Book Beginnings on Fridays is hosted by Rose City Reader and as she says the idea of this meme is for you to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name. There's a linky list on the website and you can use #BookBeginnings on Twitter.

 

I'm currently reading Little Black Lies by Sharon Bolton.

 

I've been wondering if I have what it takes to kill. Whether I can look a living creature in the eye and take the one irreversible action that ends a life. Asked and answered, I suppose. I have no difficulty in killing, I'm actually rather good at it.

 

Little Black Lies 

 

Book Decription


In such a small community as the Falkland Islands, a missing child is unheard of. In such a dangerous landscape it can only be a terrible tragedy, surely...

When another child goes missing, and then a third, it’s no longer possible to believe that their deaths were accidental, and the villagers must admit that there is a murderer among them. Even Catrin Quinn, a damaged woman living a reclusive life after the accidental deaths of her own two sons a few years ago, gets involved in the searches and the speculation.

And suddenly, in this wild and beautiful place that generations have called home, no one feels safe and the hysteria begins to rise.

But three islanders—Catrin, her childhood best friend, Rachel, and her ex-lover Callum—are hiding terrible secrets. And they have two things in common: all three of them are grieving, and none of them trust anyone, not even themselves.

 

 

 

 

Friday 29 January 2016

Book Beginnings on Fridays - Sweetheart Sweetheart

Book Beginnings on Fridays is hosted by Rose City Reader and as she says the idea of this meme is for you to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name. There's a linky list on the website and you can use #BookBeginnings on Twitter.

 

My book beginning is from Sweetheart Sweetheart by Bernard Taylor.

 

I can't see the sun right now; there's an angel in the way.

As I lie here in the short-cropped grass with my eyes just half open a butterfly alights on the carved angel's head. It stays only a few seconds - its wings opening and closing - then takes off, fluttering away, dancing up and down over the grey stone wall.

 

 

Sweetheart, Sweetheart  

Book Description


 David Warwick, an Englishman living in New York, has a sudden premonition that his twin brother, Colin, is in danger. He returns to England and learns the shocking truth: both Colin and his young bride Helen have died ghastly deaths - deaths that no one in the village wants to talk about.

Now David has inherited his brother's home, Gerrard's Hill Cottage, a lovely house with a lush garden that seems to promise peace and comfort to all who dwell there. But as David tries to unearth the facts of what really happened to his brother and his wife, he has no idea of the horror and evil that surround him or the terrible fate that may be in store...

Monday 25 January 2016

Mailbox Monday

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Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. It was created by Marcia @ A Girl and Her Books but now has a permanent home here

 

This week I was lucky enough to get Five Rivers on a Wooded Plain by Barney Norris via Netgalley. This was on my wishlist and is published by Doubleday on 21st April 2016.

 

 


 

 

 

Friday 22 January 2016

Book Beginnings on Fridays - The Ballroom

Book Beginnings on Fridays is hosted by Rose City Reader and as she says the idea of this meme is for you to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name. There's a linky list on the website and you can use #BookBeginnings on Twitter.

 

I started reading an ARC of The Ballroom by Anna Hope yesterday evening. It's published by Doubleday and Transworld Publishers on 11th February. I loved the authors previous novel  and you can read my review of The Wake here

 

'Are you going to behave?' The man's voice echoed.

'Are you going to behave?'

She made a noise. Could have been yes. Could have been no, but the blanket was pulled off her head and she gasped for air.

 

The Ballroom 

 

Book Description


Where love is your only escape ....

1911: Inside an asylum at the edge of the Yorkshire moors,
where men and women are kept apart
by high walls and barred windows,
there is a ballroom vast and beautiful.
For one bright evening every week
they come together
and dance.
When John and Ella meet
It is a dance that will change
two lives forever.

Set over the heatwave summer of 1911, the end of the Edwardian era, THE BALLROOM is a tale of unlikely love and dangerous obsession, of madness and sanity, and of who gets to decide which is which.
 

 

 

Wednesday 20 January 2016

Waiting On Wednesday - The Fireman

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme, hosted by Breaking The Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases we can't wait to be published.

 

The Fireman by Joe Hill is due to be published in June by Gollancz.

 

The Fireman

No one knows exactly when it began or where it originated. A terrifying new plague is spreading like wildfire across the country, striking cities one by one: Boston, Detroit, Seattle. The doctors call it Draco Incendia Trychophyton. To everyone else it’s Dragonscale, a highly contagious, deadly spore that marks its hosts with beautiful black and gold marks across their bodies—before causing them to burst into flames. Millions are infected; blazes erupt everywhere. There is no antidote. No one is safe.

Harper Grayson, a compassionate, dedicated nurse as pragmatic as Mary Poppins, treated hundreds of infected patients before her hospital burned to the ground. Now she’s discovered the telltale gold-flecked marks on her skin. When the outbreak first began, she and her husband, Jakob, had made a pact: they would take matters into their own hands if they became infected. To Jakob’s dismay, Harper wants to live—at least until the fetus she is carrying comes to term. At the hospital, she witnessed infected mothers give birth to healthy babies and believes hers will be fine too. . . if she can live long enough to deliver the child.

Convinced that his do-gooding wife has made him sick, Jakob becomes unhinged, and eventually abandons her as their placid New England community collapses in terror. The chaos gives rise to ruthless Cremation Squads—armed, self-appointed posses roaming the streets and woods to exterminate those who they believe carry the spore. But Harper isn’t as alone as she fears: a mysterious and compelling stranger she briefly met at the hospital, a man in a dirty yellow fire fighter’s jacket, carrying a hooked iron bar, straddles the abyss between insanity and death. Known as The Fireman, he strolls the ruins of New Hampshire, a madman afflicted with Dragonscale who has learned to control the fire within himself, using it as a shield to protect the hunted . . . and as a weapon to avenge the wronged.

In the desperate season to come, as the world burns out of control, Harper must learn the Fireman's secrets before her life—and that of her unborn child—goes up in smoke.
 

Friday 15 January 2016

Book Beginnings on Fridays - NOS4R2

Book Beginnings on Fridays is hosted by Rose City Reader and as she says the idea of this meme is for you to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name. There's a linky list on the website and you can use #BookBeginnings on Twitter.

 

Yesterday I started reading NOS4R2 by Joe Hill.

 

Nurse Thornton dropped into the long term care ward a little before eight with a hot bag of blood for Charlie Manx.

She was coasting on autopilot, her thoughts not on her work.

 

NOS4R2 

 

Book Description


Victoria McQueen has a secret gift for finding things: a misplaced bracelet, a missing photograph, answers to unanswerable questions. On her Raleigh Tuff Burner bike, she makes her way to a rickety covered bridge that, within moments, takes her wherever she needs to go, whether it’s across Massachusetts or across the country.

Charles Talent Manx has a way with children. He likes to take them for rides in his 1938 Rolls-Royce Wraith with the NOS4R2 vanity plate. With his old car, he can slip right out of the everyday world, and onto the hidden roads that transport them to an astonishing – and terrifying – playground of amusements he calls “Christmasland.”

Then, one day, Vic goes looking for trouble—and finds Manx. That was a lifetime ago. Now Vic, the only kid to ever escape Manx’s unmitigated evil, is all grown up and desperate to forget. But Charlie Manx never stopped thinking about Victoria McQueen. He’s on the road again and he’s picked up a new passenger: Vic’s own son.