In A Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware

Thanks to Random House UK, Vintage Publishing and Netgalley, I received an ARC of this in exchange for an honest review......

Someone's getting married................someone's getting murdered.

Norah is a writer and one day out of the blue whilst checking her emails she notices that she's received an email with an invitation to Clare's hen do, they were once best friends but she hasn't seen her for the last 10 years.  Initially, Norah decides not to go and debates whether to delete the email or not but when she contacts one of the girls from the group from years ago she changes her mind and ends up at the Glass House in a remote part of Northumberland.   There are six people in total for this hen weekend; Norah, Clare, Flo, Tom, Melanie and Nina.  They are all really complete strangers to each other in an isolated location, cut off from the rest of the world and as the snow begins to fall the phone lines go down and mobile coverage is scarce.   Clare's friend Flo has organised the whole weekend down to the finest details and the party begins. The story flicks between the past and the present,  where 48 hours after the party begun we meet Norah in hospital under police guard with no recollection of how or why she's there.......

This book is brilliant, it had me gripped from the first few pages right through to the end, a real page turner and there were some great twists and turns too.  I even had to slow down reading it as I didn't want it to end.  It's a bit creepy in parts and definitely not for the fainthearted especially towards the end.   I thought that I'd worked out the killer halfway through it in my mind but I was wrong.  So, the next time you receive an invitation to something you may think twice of accepting after reading this book.

This is Ruth Ware's debut novel, I didn't just like it, I LOVED it and it definitely didn't disappoint.  I would definitely recommend this book.  I am really looking forward to Ruth's next book already.

In A Dark, Dark Wood is available on Kindle & in all good bookshops since 30th July 2015.

The Girl Who Broke the Rules by Marnie Riches - COVER REVEAL

Hi everyone,

I was really excited to receive an email last week asking me to do a cover reveal so I'd like to say a huge thanks to Kate Ellis from Harper Collins for been given this huge opportunity to host the cover reveal for The Girl Who Broke The Rules by Marnie Riches, which is the second book in the George McKenzie trilogy and is due to be released on 20th August and I really can't wait to read it as I am also going be part of the blog tour for The Girl Who Broke The Rules in September which I'm really looking forward too already.  I really can't wait for this and can it be pre-ordered on Amazon.  The Girl Who Wouldn't Die is available on Kindle and in all good bookstores.

So without further ado, here it is.............................

What’s in store next for George McKenzie?

When the mutilated bodies of two sex-workers are found in Amsterdam, Chief Inspector van den Bergen must find a brutal murderer before the red-light-district erupts into panic.

Georgina McKenzie is conducting research into pornography among the UK’s most violent sex-offenders but once van den Bergen calls on her criminology expertise, she is only too happy to come running.

The rising death toll forces George and van den Bergen to navigate the labyrinthine worlds of Soho strip-club sleaze and trans-national human trafficking. And with the case growing ever more complicated, George must walk the halls of Broadmoor psychiatric hospital, seeking advice from the brilliant serial murderer, Dr. Silas Holm…

A Single Breath by Lucy Clarke

The deeper the water, the darker the secrets..........


Meet Eva who has been happily married to Jackson for the past 8 months.  Jackson is a fisherman and decides to leave that morning to go down to the rocks and make a start on catching fish but the weather is horrendous, a huge wave comes in and sweeps Jackson out to sea where he tragically drowns.  Eva has to eventually face up to the reality that Jackson is gone but his body never found.  She is devastated, the man she adored has now gone and left her alone.  She met Jackson on a plane, he is from Tasmania. They lived together in London, as happy as can be until the fateful day.

Eva never met Jackson's family so she decides to leave everything behind including her mother and job and travel to Tasmania to find out more about her husband's life, family and friends, she never got to meet anyone and is looking for closure in whatever way she can.   Will she find the truth?  Will she find the answers and the closure she is looking for?   Will her heart heal?  What impact will all these events have on her as a person and her life?

I really enjoyed this book…..a lot!  I could visualise myself sitting in a beach-hut in Tasmania soaking up the sun and the heat while looking out at the sea.  This was no way a chic-lit book, more of a thriller as the chapters gathered pace and webs of lies were spun and secrets kept that they all hoped would be kept that way forever.  I would recommend this for readers who like thrillers or mysteries with a twist but if you're looking for a read about love, family, friendship and how far people will go to keep secrets buried then grab this book, curl up on the couch with a glass of wine and a large bar of chocolate and sink into the story.

This is Lucy Clarke's second novel, the first been Sea Sisters which I thoroughly enjoyed.  I'm really looking forward to Lucy's new novel, The Blue which is due to be published in August 2015.

A Single Breath is available on Kindle and in all good bookstores.

A Year of Marvellous Ways by Sarah Winman

Thanks to Elizabeth Masters and Tinder Press, I received a copy of this in exchange for an honest review.................

Meet Marvellous Ways, an old woman who has entered her 90th year.  It's 1947 and she lives in a caravan by a creek in Cornwall where she still swims everyday.  It tells her story of love and her life and that she is waiting for something to happen. That something is a meeting with Francis Drake by chance, a returning solider from the Second World War who is determined to fulfill a dying man’s wish.  The two form an unlikely friendship and Marvellous recognises Drake’s sadness.  She sets out to try and lift his depression and reignite his passion for life by telling him stories about her three great loves.

To be honest I'm not sure how I feel about this one.  I neither loved it nor hated it, I thought it started off really well and had great potential but sadly I was finding myself going back and re-reading parts of it is not a straightforward story.  I also thought that some of the characters names would've suited a story set in the Deep South more so than Cornwall, like Marvellous Ways, Peace & Francis Drake amongst others.  It took a while for me to get into this book and from one page to the next I was never sure if I was going to keep turning pages or put it down but I continued.  It was very easy to put down and go do something else for a while, that's why it took me so long to finish this, unfortunately that's not what I'm looking for in a book. I want a story I can't bear to put down, I want to lose track of time while in the story and have it finished in a few hours, I didn't get that with this one.  I'm sorry but I really tried to like this but unfortunately it wasn't for me.

This is Sarah Winman's second novel, the first been When God was a Rabbit which I haven't read yet but even though I was disappointed with A Year of Marvellous Ways I will read Sarah's first novel.

A Year of Marvellous Ways is available on Kindle and in all good bookstores.

The Lie by C.L.Taylor

She trusted her friends with her life....

Meet Jane Hughes, who lives and works in Wales and is in a steady relationship with her boyfriend.  She works for the local animal sanctuary, a job which she loves but one day Jane receives a letter at the animal sanctuary, indicating that someone knows her secret but what secret could she be hiding???

Five years earlier, Jane Hughes was called Emma Woolfe and she along with her  three friends set out for the holiday of a lifetime to Nepal. The fun that they were expecting however soon turns into a nightmare.  The suspense starts right from the very beginning where I was intrigued to find out why Jane changed her name? The story then flips between the present and the past.  The characters of Emma, Daisy, Leanne and Al were all excellent and could feel as though I was there with them in Nepal.

I didn't just like it, I LOVED it and it definitely didn't disappoint.  I would definitely recommend this book and I CAN'T recommend this book  enough.  I knew that I was going on holiday for a week in June so I decided to keep this to read until then, I had it read in just over a day and a half as I couldn't put it down.  There were some great twists and turns too which I loved and that I wasn't expecting. It's a very face paced story and I even had to slow down reading it as I didn't want it to end.  There were parts in the book I could feel my heart thumping so it's definitely not for the fainthearted.

This is C.L. Taylor's second novel, her first been The Accident which I haven't read yet but I will definitely be picking it up really soon and I'm really looking forward to C.L. Taylor's next book already.

The Lie is available on Kindle and from all good bookstores.  At the time of this review been published The Lie is only £0.99 on kindle so grab it while you can, you won't be disappointed so don't say I never told you so!!!

The Dish by Stella Newman

Thanks to Frances Gough and Headline Books I received a copy of this in exchange for an honest review......

Love is on the menu. With a side order of lies.

Meet Laura Parker, a restaurant critic for The Dish is finding her feet again after getting divorced and is finding the dating scene not very successful and after been dumped yet again by another looser, Laura decides to seek comfort in a bacon sandwhich in a local cafe but when the last sandwich has been sold to another customer sat behind her, Laura instead orders one of their renowned custard doughnuts, only to find again that Adam, the customer sitting behind her, has been served the last one.  But when she takes a closer look she sees a talented, handsome man who outshines the string of jokers she's been dating.

 A friendship forms, but Adam has a secret that he doesn't yet want to share with Laura, and Laura feels she can't tell Adam what she does for a living.  Can a relationship survive their secrets?  Tricky for someone who prides herself on honesty.  And how can you expect your boyfriend to be honest if you're not quite telling the truth yourself?

To be honest I'm not sure how I feel about this one.  I neither loved it nor hated it, it was good and all the talk/descriptions of all the yummy dishes and of course the mention of doughnuts which made me crave them, I actually thought that I'd have to go to the shop to get a bag of doughnuts but I abstained from that idea.  It took a while for me to get into this book and from one page to the next I was never sure if I was going to keep turning pages or put it down but I continued.  It was very easy to put down and go do something else for a while, that's why it took me so long to finish this, unfortunately that's not what I'm looking for in a book. I want a story I can't bear to put down, I want to lose track of time while in the story and have it finished in a few hours, I didn't get that with this one.  It's a nice story but easily forgettable.

Alot of the chapters made up of emails between Laura, her family members, work colleagues but I skimmed through most of these as they were one of the things that put me off, I felt they were too frequent and sometimes made up majority of a chapter.  I do like a bit of humour in my Chick lit stories (who doesn't?) but in most parts it just felt forced in parts in this one.  It's a good story in there, it's just not what I hoped for.

This is Stella Newman's third book, having written Pear Shaped and Left Overs which I've never read but will definitely read them at some stage but I'm looking forward to see what Stella Newman will serve up next.

The Dish is available on Kindle and in all good bookstores.

The Secret Daughter by Kelly Rimmer

Thanks to Bookouture and Netgalley I received a copy of this in exchange for an honest review....

Meet Sabina, a 38 year old teacher who is happily married to Ted when she discovers that she is pregnant and is over the moon.  Sabina and Ted can't wait to tell their parents but this is where the news is not received very well by Sabina's parents.  At first, Sabina is confused and assumes that her mother, Megan is just not happy with the news and is worried for her as she has had many failed pregnancies and would not wish the same for her own flesh and blood.  As Sabina presses Megan for answers about her own pregnancy it is then revealed that Sabina was adopted when she was born from a maternity home in a rural town several hours from Sydney.  Sabina's carefully constructed world comes crashing down instantly and everything she believed to be true is about to be questioned.  As Sabina presses her mother and father for answers it causes a rift between everyone and Sabina decides to take the step on how to go about searching for her birth mother but it’s not as easy as she thought and her parents are not helping with their lies.  Will the adoption agency have the information that Sabina needs?  Will she find her birth mother?  Will she discover that she has another family waiting for her?

This was a very bittersweet, emotional, sensitive and heart-warming read, the story flows well throughout the book. It is based on true events surrounding forced adoption in Australia in the 70's.  I really enjoyed Kelly's book which I read in a couple days, it kept me turning the pages until the very end.   This story had it all a little bit of humor, love, family, loss, protectiveness to more sensitive and hard-hitting issues - I found I had a little tear in my eye at the end along with shedding a few along the way, so grab this book, curl up on the couch and prepare to have a few lump in your throat moments too.  It definitely didn't disappoint.

This is Kelly's second novel, her first been Me Without You which  was published back in June 2014, and is one that I haven't yet had the chance to read, but I'm certain that after my experience with The Secret Daughter, I will definitely have to get around to reading it and I'm really looking forward to reading more from Kelly.

The Secret Daughter is available on kindle and is currently only £1.99 at the time of the publication of this review.

Little Black Lies by Sharon Bolton

Thanks to Alison Barrow and Transworld Books, I received an ARC of this in exchange for an honest review...........


WE WERE INSEPARABLE................UNTIL THE DAY SHE KILLED OUR SONS.


Set in the Falkland Islands in 1994, it is a little over a decade after the Falklands war and almost three years since Catrin’s two young sons were tragically killed in an accident, which involved her former best friend Rachel.  Now divorced, Catrin’s ex-husband Ben has moved on, but understandably she is unable to recover from her terrible grief.  Although ex-soldier Callum is in love with her, she cannot get past her sorrow and make a new life – instead, her existence consists of plotting vengeance on Rachel and as the novel opens, she is making plans to kill her.  This story is set over 5 days and what a fast paced 5 days these were.  It is told from three different character viewpoints: Catrin, Callum and Rachel.

I loved the setting and think the author, Sharon Bolton really portrayed the beauty and harshness of the landscape magnificently. It was so easy to visualise everything from the barren moors to the tin roofed cottages. On the one hand I wanted to race through it to see what happened but on the other hand I wanted to savour every page. In short, I absolutely loved this book, a thrilling and haunting read with excellent descriptions of the island which made it was dark and creepy in parts.  I thought that I'd worked out who was the killer and who was the liar but I was completely wrong and OMG what an ending, it's not what I expected at all.  I'd have to say would definitely be one of my top reads of the year so far.

This is Sharon Bolton's fourth stand-alone novel that she has written and I really hope that she will write more like this.  Sharon has also written a series of books which is based around the character Lacey Flint, I will definitely be reading this series along with the other stand-alone novels too and I look forward to see what Sharon Bolton brings us next.

Little Black Lies is published on 2nd July 2015 and available on Kindle and in all good bookstores.