Day: Jan 10, 2019

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Genres: Historical Fiction, Drama, Mystery

Goodreads / Amazon

This kind of story is such a recipe for success for me – it’s dark and twisty and feels so personal, with how close you get to the characters. It gave me Tender is the Night vibes and also a bit of Tangerine. I think if you enjoyed either book, you’ll like this one too!

It’s a hot summer, and Frances is moving into a grand but decadent house to write a report. This is going to be her home until late August – and then she meets her neighbors. Gorgeous and dark-haired Cara, and Peter, so very handsome. It is 1969, and Frances is excited for her new life after taking care of her mother for 10 years. Cara and Peter are incredibly charming, and she is drawn by their magnetism and their offer of friendship. But there are…

Author: V.E. Schwab
Title: The Dark Vault (The Archived, The Unbound)
Publisher: Titan Books
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult
Pages: 697
Overall Rating: 5/5

I received a copy of The Dark Vault by V.E. Schwab from Titan Books in exchange for an honest review. The thoughts and opinions in this post are entirely my own.

The two novels from The Archived Series appearing together for the first time.

Imagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books.

Each body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which they rest is the Archive.

Mackenzie Bishop’s grandfather first brought her here four years ago, when she was twelve years old, frightened but determined to prove herself. Now her grandfather is dead, and Mac has grown into what he once was: a ruthless Keeper, tasked…

Hi Everyone!

Today on my blog I am kick starting the blog tour for The Sinister Gathering by Diane Ezzard and I’m bringing you a review. 

Sophie attends a well-being retreat hoping to find herself, instead she finds a dead body.

Coming to the Scottish Highlands, she hopes to escape life and get in touch with her inner self. She wants to free herself from the anxieties that have gripped her for years.

Peace and harmony are advertised but what she discovers is anything but.

She is around women with other ideas. As she gets to know the strange bunch staying at Glenloch Hall, fights and arguments become the norm.

She should never have entered that fateful property.

She was looking for peace but found death.

Amazon UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sinister-Gathering-Sophie-Brown-Book-ebook/dp/B07HWP9V5H

Amazon US – https://www.amazon.com/Sinister-Gathering-Sophie-Brown-Book-ebook/dp/B07HWP9V5H

Manchester born Diane Ezzard writes emotionally charged psychological thrillers and mysteries about everyday people in seemingly…

Goodreads blurb: “Set in an America where half the population has been silenced, VOX is the harrowing, unforgettable story of what one woman will do to protect herself and her daughter.
On the day the government decrees that women are no longer allowed more than 100 words daily, Dr. Jean McClellan is in denial—this can’t happen here. Not in America. Not to her.
This is just the beginning. Soon women can no longer hold jobs. Girls are no longer taught to read or write. Females no longer have a voice. Before, the average person spoke sixteen thousand words a day, but now women only have one hundred to make themselves heard. But this is not the end. For herself, her daughter, and every woman silenced, Jean will reclaim her voice.”

My Review

I’ve been wanting to read this book for ages after seeing all the hype on social media with…

Book Synopsis:

Hella Mauzer was the first ever woman Inspector in the Helsinki Homicide Unit. But her superiors deemed her too ‘emotional’ for the job and had her reassigned. Now, two years later, she is working in Lapland for the Ivalo police department under Chief Inspector Järvi, a man more interested in criminal statistics and his social life than police work. They receive a letter from Irja Waltari, a priest’s wife from the village of Käärmela on the Soviet border, informing them of the disappearance of Erno Jokinen, a local. Hella jumps at the chance to investigate. Järvi does not think that a crime is involved. After all, people disappear all the time in the snows of Finland. When she arrives, Hella stays the village priest and his wife, who have taken in Erno’s grandson who refuses to tell anyone his grandfather’s secret. A body is then discovered in the…

January 2019 Quercus Books

Book Description

When Esther Thorel, the wife of a Huguenot silk-weaver, rescues Sara Kemp from a brothel she thinks she is doing God’s will. Sara is not convinced being a maid is better than being a whore, but the chance to escape her grasping ‘madam’ is too good to refuse.

Inside the Thorel’s tall house in Spitalfields, where the strange cadence of the looms fills the attic, the two women forge an uneasy relationship.  The physical intimacies of washing and dressing belie the reality: Sara despises her mistress’s blindness to the hypocrisy of her household, while Esther is too wrapped up in her own secrets to see Sara as anything more than another charitable cause.

It is silk that has Esther so distracted.  For years she has painted her own designs, dreaming that one day her husband will weave them into reality.  When he laughs at…

Today I’m re-sharing my review of The Burning Men by Steve Parker just in case you missed it at the end of last year 🙂

Title: The Burning Men by Steve Parker

Publisher: Joffe Books

Date Published: 7^th December 2018

Genre: Police Procedural

Description:

Discover a crime thriller full of shocking twists by one of the most exciting new authors you’ll read this year.

A MAN IS BURNT AT THE STAKE IN A LONDON PARK. HIS SMOULDERING CORPSE IS A MESSAGE OF THE MOST VIOLENT KIND.

The man burnt alive is Davey Caine. He is the heir to the criminal empire created by his father, William ‘Billy’ Caine. Billy is a notorious and violent gangster with total control of South East London. But he’s not the man he used to be and the sharks smell blood in the water.

Detectives Ray Paterson and Johnny Clocks must find the killer…

Thank you for stopping by today as I share my review for The Disappeared by Sibel Hodge as part of the blog tour. First of all though let’s take a look at the description for the book…

The widow. The secret. The liar.

The Disappeared…

On a routine flight from Africa to England, Dr Mason Palmer is tragically killed when the light aircraft he’s travelling on crashes and disappearsin dense bush land.

The Widow…

Ten months later, Nicole Palmer is still trying to block out the grief of her husband’s sudden death. Until one morning she receives a photo of Mason through the post, along with a cryptic message. A message only he could’ve written.

The Secret…

But when Nicole tries to find out if Mason is really alive and what actually happened to himin Africa, everyone she turns to for answers ends up dead.

Determined to find the truth…

Blurb; The Widow. The Secret. The Liar. The Disappeared…

On a routine flight from Africa to England, Dr Mason Palmer is tragically killed when the light aircraft he’s travelling on crashes and disappears in dense bushland.

The Widow…

Ten months later, Nicole Palmer is still trying to block out the grief of her husband’s sudden death. Until one morning she receives a photo of Mason through the post, along with a cryptic message. A message only he could’ve written.

The Secret…

But when Nicole tries to find out if Mason is really alive and what actually happened to him in Africa, everyone she turns to for answers ends up dead.

Determined to find the truth, Nicole uncovers a conspiracy that spans the globe, and discovers there are powerful people who are prepared to kill to keep her silent.

My Review; Happy Publication Day. This is such a great story. I…

Let me tell you what the real brilliance of this book is – the authenticity of it all. After a few pages I found myself questioning whether it was fictional. Halfway through the story I was avidly googling The Six, Daisy Jones and both of the Dunne brothers. No result. Double-check. Nope, definitely says it is a fictional story. Kudos to the author for creating not only an authentic story, but also such convincing dialogue and characters.

The reader can feel the passion, the self-destruction and flighty confusion of the era, which in turn is reflected in the characters. The era of free love, lots of drugs and plenty of rock n’ roll. Nobody embodies the life quite like the lead singer of The Six, Billy Dunne.

When he reaches breaking point the relationship between Billy and his future wife Camila is what keeps him from running straight off a…

PUBLISHER: St. Martins Press PUBLICATION DATE: January 8th, 2019 …… Thank you to St. Martins Press for providing me with a free physical ARC copy of this book to read and review. …… ABOUT THE BOOK: Seeking women ages 18–32 to participate in a study on ethics and morality. Generous compensation. Anonymity guaranteed. When Jessica Farris signs up for a psychology study conducted by the mysterious Dr. Shields, she thinks all she’ll have to do is answer a few questions, collect her money, and leave. Question #1: Could you tell a lie without feeling guilt? But as the questions grow more and more intense and invasive and the sessions become outings where Jess is told what to wear and how to act, she begins to feel as though Dr. Shields may know what she’s thinking… and what she’s hiding. Question #2: Have you ever deeply hurt someone you care about?

Author: Ben H. Winters

Genre: Dystopian Thriller

Format: Hardcover 336 pages

Release Date:  24 January 2019

Publisher: Random House UK, Cornerstone 

I would like to thank the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read this book via NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

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Synopsis

Welcome to Golden State, where the worst crime you can commit is to lie.

Laz Ratesic is a veteran of the State’s special police. Those in power rely on Laz to discover the full and final truth.

But when a man falls from a roof in suspicious circumstances, it sets in motion a terrifying series of events which will shatter Laz’s world for ever.

Because when those in control of the truth decide to twist it, only those with the power to ask questions can fight back.

Golden State is an ambitious and frighteningly timely novel set in…