Tag: Crime Thriller

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BLOG TOUR: Wife, Mother, Liar by Sue Watson

Published January 10th, 2025 by Bookouture
Psychological Fiction, Crime Thriller, Mystery, Thriller

Happy Publication Day to this dark, tense and unpredictable thriller. Thank you to Bookouture for the invitation to take part in the blog tour and for sending me a copy of the book.

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ABOUT THE BOOK:

She’s perfect. Too perfect…

Wife: For twenty-five years, my husband and I have been the ideal couple. I’m shy, but he’s always been the life and soul of the party, a charmer, so I didn’t worry the first time I caught him a little too close to my best friend, Wendy.

Mother: Then our darling son says he’s taking Wendy’s daughter to prom, the girl I never trusted because she’s too much like her mother. As I snap photos of them, I have a smile plastered on my face, but inside my head I’m screaming at him to stay away from her.

Liar: As flashing lights slice the darkness around our home, my worst nightmare comes true with the shocking news that one of our children is dead. And I can tell my husband, my best friend are both lying about where they were. But none of their secrets compares to mine.

And nobody knows just how far I’d go to protect my family…

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MY REVIEW:

Happy Publication Day to what I think is Sue Watson’s best book yet. 

Jill and Wendy have been best friends for 25 years. Ever since the day Jill and her husband, Tim, moved in next door to Wendy and her husband, Robert. They did everything together from being newlyweds to having babies and raising their children. Right up until the day their children went to prom together and one of them didn’t come home. Eighteen months later and the grieving mother is still searching for answers, unable to accept the official ruling of accidental death. She’s sure her best friend is lying to her about what happened that night, and this weekend she intends to get to the truth…

OMG. What a ride this was! Tense, twisty, surprising, and totally addictive, this is a thriller that will get your heart racing and make your jaw drop. It had me on the edge of my seat from start to finish as I tried to predict what would happen next. But Watson kept me on my toes with her expert writing that was filled with chilling tension, dark secrets and some really moving moments. There was no time to recover as she moved from one twist to another at breakneck speed and all I could do was enjoy the ride. It was impossible to put down, and I actually fell asleep reading it in the early hours and then picked it up as soon as I’d had my coffee the next morning. And that ending! I’m still reeling. 

Nothing and no-one is what they seem in this story. Especially not Jill and Wendy. From the start we know that both women are keeping secrets about the night Leo died, but we don’t know how much they know or if either of them was involved. We also don’t know if Leo’s death was murder like Jill believes or a tragic accident like the police ruled. Moving seamlessly between timelines, we see glimpses of their friendship and their lives in flashbacks, while in the present they reminisce about old times and try to avoid the elephant in the room. It soon becomes clear that this friendship has never been what it seemed and both women have ulterior motives for getting together this weekend. The tension was sky-high and it felt like no-one was going to get out of this unscathed. 

Dark, sinister and totally riveting, this is a must-read for any thriller lover.

Rating: ✮✮✮✮✰

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Sue Watson was a journalist on national magazines and newspapers before becoming a TV producer with the BBC.

Now a USA Today bestselling author, Sue explores the darker side of life, writing psychological thrillers with big twists.

Originally from Manchester, she now lives with her family in leafy Worcestershire where much of her day is spent writing and procrastinating. Her hobby is eating cake while watching diet and exercise programmes from the sofa, a skill she’s perfected after many years of practice.

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BUY THE BOOK:

Waterstones* | Amazon*
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Thanks for reading Bibliophiles xxxx

Please check out the reviews from the other bloggers taking part in the blog tour.

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SQUADPOD REVIEWS: The Final Party by A.A. Chaudhuri

Published May 25th by Hera Books
Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Crime Thriller, Domestic Fiction, Urban Fiction, Travel Literature, Coming-of-Age Story

Today I’m delighted to be opening the Squadpod Spotlight tour for The Final Party. Thank you to Hera books for my gifted eBook.

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SYNOPSIS:

SIX FRIENDS.

In a luxury villa set high in the hills above the glamorous town of Sorrento, southern Italy, three couples gather for the perfect 40th birthday celebration.

ONE BODY.

Before the week is out, one of them is dead.

COUNTLESS LIES.

Their perfect reunion quickly becomes the holiday from hell when one of the group starts receiving anonymous messages, threatening to expose a dark secret from their university days.

As old friendships are tested to the limit, it’s clear that what happens in the dark past won’t stay buried…

A heart-racing psychological thriller that will hook you from the very first page, with twist after twist that will make your jaw drop. Fans of B.A. Paris, My Husband’s Killer and Lucy Foley won’t be able to put this down. If you were hooked by The White Lotus or The Watcher, you’ll love this.

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MY REIVEW:

“Six friends had started the week on seemingly good terms, here for a rest and the perfect birthday celebration. 
But the perfect week in paradise has turned into the holiday from hell. 
Because one of them is dead. 
One of them is a killer. 
But which one of them here is guilty?” 

A multiple point of view and dual timeline novel, The Final Party takes place in Sorrento, Italy in August 2019. Six friends have got together for the fortieth birthday of one of their group, but tensions are high as four of the friends battle with their conscience over secrets they have been keeping for eighteen years. Secrets surrounding the night that another one of their group was attacked and left forever changed by her inability to remember who attacked her or why. What is it her friends know about that night? And which one of the group will end up dead before their celebrations are over?

A.A. Chaudhuri just gets better with each book. Tense, twisty and totally thrilling, she has delivered a first-rate thriller that will knock your socks off! This is suspense writing at its best; a seven-layer cake of a thriller where each slice holds something unexpected. And I couldn’t get enough. From the start there is a sense of something dark and sinister. Of overwhelming dread, long-held secrets and deception. And you can tell that these secrets have the power to blow up their lives if revealed. Chaudhuri expertly drip-feeds the reader little pieces of the puzzle before whipping the rug away from under us every time I thought I’d got things figured out. The uncertainty only heightened the tension and I was on the edge of my seat from beginning to end. 

When a multi-narrative thriller is done right it is one of my favourite tropes, and this is sheer perfection. The characters are a group of fractured, flawed and relatable people who, quite frankly, are a train-wreck. But they are compelling and I couldn’t help but feel totally invested in their twisted web of friendship, secrets and lies. It was soon apparent that each one of them holds different pieces of this puzzle and no-one has the full picture, not even the ones who think they do. They are eaten up by guilt, regret and the fear of exposure; of one of the secrets being revealed and triggering a domino effect that would see their lives explode in a fiery blaze of betrayal. I really felt for Padma, who is still so eaten up by not knowing the truth about the night that changed her life. Knowing that those closest to her have held the keys to answering her questions all along yet chose to keep her in the dark only compounds the devastation. But even in my wildest theories I didn’t suspect the true horror that was waiting to be uncovered.

Unpredictable, intricate and suspenseful, The Final Party is a nerve-shredding thriller you won’t be able to put down. This is one any self-respecting thriller-lover HAS to have on their TBR.

Rating: ✮✮✮✮.5

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MEET THE AUTHOR:

A.A. Chaudhuri is a former City lawyer, turned thriller writer, who lives in Surrey with her family.

Once a highly ranked British junior tennis player, competing in the national championships and a member of the national squad, she went on to tour the women’s professional satellite circuit as a teenager and achieved a world ranking of 650.

After returning to full-time education, she gained a BA Honours 2:1 in History at University College London, and a commendation in both the Graduate Diploma in Law and Legal Practice Course at the London College of Law, before training as a solicitor at City firm Norton Rose and then practising as a commercial litigator at two other City firms, Kendall Freeman and Travers Smith.

She left law in 2008 to pursue her passion for writing and in 2010 passed the NCTJ fast-track newspaper journalism course, in respect of which she was awarded The Oxford University Press Public Affairs Award for the most outstanding public affairs central government paper.

In 2013 and 2014 she self-published two women’s fiction novels under the name Alexandra Sage: Love & Limoncello and the sequel Love & Loss. Love & Limoncello has sold more than ten thousand copies to date, reaching number 53 in the Amazon Kindle Bestsellers List in October 2014.

THE SCRIBE and THE ABDUCTION, published by LUME BOOKS in July and December 2019, are her first crime book series, plunging readers into London’s glamorous legal world and featuring series’ heroine, Maddy Kramer, fiction’s first female City lawyer amateur sleuth, who teams up with charismatic DCI Jake Carver to solve a gruesome series of murders and a puzzling abduction.

Both books have hit the bestsellers lists in the UK, Australia and Canada, with bestseller tags in Australia and Canada.

THE SCRIBE and THE ABDUCTION were published as audio books by Isis Audio on 1st  January and 1st March 2021, both read by David Thorpe.

She has also contributed an original short story THE ENCOUNTER to crime anthology GIVEN IN EVIDENCE published by LUME BOOKS in May 2020, has written many articles and short stories for The Crime Writers’ Association.

In February 2021, Alex signed a two-book contract for two standalone psychological thrillers with HERA BOOKS, the first entitled SHE’S MINE was published on 18th August 2021 in ebook and 26th August in paperback. THE LOYAL FRIEND was published by Hera Books on 23rd June 2022 in paperback and ebook and on 26th June in audio with Saga Egmont. In June 2022 Alex signed a deal with Hera Books for three more psychological thrillers. The first of these, THE FINAL PARTY, will be published on May 25th 2023.

Besides being an avid reader, she enjoys fitness, films, anything Italian and a good margarita!

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Thanks for reading Bibliophiles xxxx

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BLOG TOUR: Guilty Women by Melanie Blake

Published: April 28th 2022
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
Genre: Crime Thriller, Suspense, Humorous Fiction, Erotic Mystery Fiction
Format: Hardcover, Kindle, Audiobook

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for this sexy, salacious and spectacular novel. Thank you to Anne at Random Things Tours for the invitation to take part and Harper Collins for the gifted ARC.

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SYNOPSIS:

THE SENSATIONAL NEW THRILLER FROM THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

Can they get away with murder?

 On a beautiful island off the English coast, four TV actresses gather.
Their fifth member is missing – and only they know why she was killed.
As the secret between them threatens to come out, tensions on set run high.
The women are determined that the show must go on – no matter what it costs.
But one of them is on the edge of telling the truth – and no show in the world could survive this scandal…   
 
All of the women have something to hide – but the question is, are they all guilty?

The cast of RUTHLESS WOMEN is back – but this time they’re in trouble…

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MY REVIEW

We’re back in Falcon Bay for more blood, blackmail, backstabbing, Botox and bonking.   Two months on from the now infamous live Christmas Day episode that ended in tragedy, St Augustine’s Cove is just beginning to get back its serenity after the media circus that followed Madeline Kane’s death.  But one of the group is so filled with guilt over her part in the TV-executive’s death that she’s threatening to crack.  The others rally round to try and stop her from hitting self-destruct, but can they survive the scrutiny of a cut-throat reporter, an ex with an unquenchable thirst for revenge and the glare of the world’s media and get away with murder?

Sassy, sharp, saucy and spectacular, this is another winner from Melanie Blake, who has shown herself to be the new queen of the killer bonkbuster.  While this isn’t my usual kind of read, these delightfully over-the-top tomes of pure escapism have become auto-reads for me.  I love the feeling of nostalgia that comes from these books, like a throwback to the eighties heyday of Dynasty and Jackie Collins but with a modern-day twist, and how we are given a peek behind the curtain to see the darker truths that lurk behind the glitz and glamour of showbiz.  They are a guilty pleasure that I devour hungrily,  feeling bereft when I’m finished. 

Another allure for me is how the author has chosen to shine a spotlight on the mature woman.  Women of middle age and above have long been silenced and invisible, especially in the media, and I love seeing them given a voice at last.  The women in these books, whether heroine or villain, are powerhouses; beautiful, fierce, ambitious and utterly compelling.  They are the shining stars who propel both the plot and fictional show forward and write their own stories in a business dominated by men. Themes of sisterhood and female empowerment running through every page, particularly within the bond that our quintet of narrators share.  But they are also flawed and complex, making terrible decisions that I couldn’t condone yet the author still had me rooting for them every step of the way.  And then there’s the sex.  This is a spicy novel that not only embraces the sexuality of these women but celebrates it, reminding us that it isn’t just young women who are hot, vivacious sexual beings.  It is refreshing to see such representation of older women, particularly as a woman of that age myself.

An outrageous, lusty romp filled with adrenaline, Guilty Women is a hilarious and gripping read that had me completely hooked.  Highly recommended for some sizzling summer reading.

Rating: ✮✮✮✮✮
Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

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MEET THE AUTHOR:

Bestselling author Melanie Blake’s own real life Rags to Riches story reads like the plot of an outrageous drama…

At fifteen years old Melanie Blake was told by her high school career advisors that her decision to do work experience at a local record shop was an ‘embarrassment to the school and a clear example that she wouldn’t go far in life or her career’. They were wrong. By nineteen she was working at the BBC’s iconic Top of the Pops show and by twenty-seven she had built a reputation as one of the UK’s leading music and entertainment managers, with her own agency and roster of award-winning artists who had sold more than 100 million records. During this time she also built up an acting agency from scratch which quickly became the most successful independent boutique agency in the UK where she manages clients from some of the biggest internationally syndicated shows in the world.

Her roster have won Baftas, Emmys and pretty much every best actress award going and Melanie is one of the most successful female agents in the world. In the UK alone, over 25 million people a week currently tune in to watch the very stars Melanie represents in their globally syndicated shows. In 2018 after two decades at the top of her game, Melanie decided to manage a smaller client list and concentrate on her other passion, writing – first as a columnist for a national newspaper, then as a playwright and now as a best-selling novelist.

Her first book The Thunder Girls became a Number 1 Best Seller in the summer of 2019 and the play she adapted from the novel broke box office records for a new work at the prestigious Lowry Theatre. She still represents a high profile stable of some of the best known faces on British television but is also now enjoying success in her own right as a producer, author and playwright.

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BUY THE BOOK:

Waterstones* | Amazon* | Bookshop.org*
*These are affiliate links

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Thanks for reading Bibliophiles 😊Emma xxx

Please check out the it reviews from the other bloggers taking part in the tour.

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book reviews Emma's Anticipated Treasures

Review: The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward

Published: March 18th, 2021
Publisher: Viper Books
Format: Hardcover, Kindle
Genre: Mystery, Psychological Thriller, Gothic Fiction, Horror Fiction, Crime Fiction

Thank you to the wonderful Miranda at Viper Books for sending me a gorgeous gifted ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

SYNOPSIS:

THE MUST-READ GOTHIC THRILLER OF 2021

‘I haven’t read anything this exciting since Gone Girl’ STEPHEN KING

‘Believe the hype… a masterclass’ KIRAN MILLWOOD HARGRAVE

‘Books like this don’t come around too often’ JOANNE HARRIS

This is the story of a murderer. A stolen child. Revenge. This is the story of Ted, who lives with his daughter Lauren and his cat Olivia in an ordinary house at the end of an ordinary street.

All these things are true. And yet some of them are lies.

You think you know what’s inside the last house on Needless Street. You think you’ve read this story before. In the dark forest at the end of Needless Street, something lies buried. But it’s not what you think…

MY REVIEW:

“Don’t let anyone find out what you are.” 

The Last House On Needless Street is a gothic masterpiece. It’s a few months since I read it and yet it still lingers vividly in my mind. Mysterious, unsettling and original, I was mesmerised from the start and completely enrapt by the eerie world the author had created. And the creepier it became, the deeper I fell; lured against my every instinct into the dark and twisted world of a murderer, his cat and the mystery of a missing child.

The story is told from multiple points of view: Ted, Dee, Lauren and Olivia the cat. Yes, the cat is a narrator in this book. Each is vividly drawn, fascinating and memorable, but they may or may not be reliable, adding to the mysterious atmosphere and leaving the reader never quite sure what is and isn’t real in this bizarre tale. 

It takes a talented author to write a story that is both horrifying and funny, something Ward has achieved with flourish with this book. She has crafted a tale unlike anything I’ve read before. One full of beautiful imagery and prose that belies the dark, murky, spine-chilling story it tells. She plays with your mind, cleverly lulling you into a false sense of security where you accept what you’re reading, while using it to mask an entirely different narrative that only becomes visible as you approach the finale. And when you see it, it changes every word you just read. It is a masterclass in storytelling, twists and plotting that blows my mind every time I think about it.

“… if you wait long enough, evil always shows up.” 

One of the things I loved most is how deeply Ward delves into the mind of the killer. I need more books like this! Don’t miss the Afterward for the full, fascinating insight into Ted’s mind. The amount of research that has gone into it is phenomenal and sent me down a fascinating and frightening rabbit hole. 

Striking, inventive and gloriously unhinged, this jaw-dropping thriller is one that doesn’t come around often. It is a truly spectacular and original novel that you won’t be able to shake. One that will haunt you, horrify you and surprise you. Someone needs to call Spielberg or Howard because this is a story that belongs on the big screen.

Rating: ✮✮✮✮✮

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MEET THE AUTHOR:

Catriona Ward was born in Washington, DC and grew up in the United States, Kenya, Madagascar, Yemen, and Morocco. She read English at St Edmund Hall, Oxford and is a graduate of the Creative Writing MA at the University of East Anglia. Her next gothic thriller, The Last House on Needless Street, will be published March 2021 by Viper (Serpents Tail).

Ward’s second novel, Little Eve (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2018) won the 2019 Shirley Jackson Award and the August Derleth Prize for Best Horror Novel at the 2019 British Fantasy Awards, making her the only woman to have won the prize twice, and was a Guardian best book of 2018. Her debut Rawblood (W&N, 2015) won Best Horror Novel at the 2016 British Fantasy Awards, was shortlisted for the Author’s Club Best First Novel Award and a WHSmith Fresh Talent title. Her short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies. She lives in London and Devon.

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Thanks for reading Bibliophiles! Until next time, Emma xxx

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Her Sister’s Child by Alison James

Published: November 26th, 2020
Publisher: Bookouture
Format: Paperback, Kindle
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Crime Fiction

Welcome to my stop on the tour for this gripping thriller. Thank you to Bookouture for the invitation to take part and the eBook ARC.

SYNOPSIS:

She rolls over and reaches for her instinctively: her baby. Her hand hits air and flaps redundantly. She stumbles out of bed and switches on the light. But this only confirms it. The baby is gone. Someone has taken her.

Sixteen years ago, Lizzie Armitage woke to find her newborn baby gone. Just days later, Lizzie was dead.

Her sister Paula swore she would do everything she could to find the child. If she hadn’t promised to keep Lizzie’s pregnancy secret, maybe the baby wouldn’t have disappeared. And maybe Lizzie would still be alive. But, in nearly a decade, Paula’s never found any trace. Until now…

When Paula bumps into an old friend from the past, she realises she wasn’t the only one who knew about her sister’s child. Someone knows what happened that day. Someone knows where Lizzie’s baby went.

But can Paula find out the truth before another family is ripped apart?

A twisty, unputdownable psychological thriller that will keep you hooked until the last page. Fans of Behind Closed Doors, Friend Request and The Girl on the Train will love Her Sister’s Child.

MY REVIEW:

“But the baby is gone. Someone has taken her.”

Her Sister’s Child is a domestic thriller told from the point of view of three women – Paula, Charlie and Marian. Moving between timelines, it tells the story of a tragic death and the search to find out the truth about a baby who went missing sixteen years ago.

A quick and easy read, I flew through this book in just a few hours. Though there were some issues with the novel – it felt a little predictable and confusing at times as it shifted between characters and timelines – it captured my attention for the first page and held some surprising twists along the way.

The characters are well written and each of the protagonists are flawed and complex. There were times they’d pull on my heartstrings and others I’d want to shake some sense into them. Their connection might seem obvious, but the full picture of how these women are linked is more intricate than it first appears and there are plenty of shocking revelations as the full picture is slowly unveiled.

A moving, compelling and twisty thriller, this is a great read for anyone who enjoys this genre.

Rating: ✮✮✮.5

Trigger Warning: Infant death, infertility, alcoholism

MEET THE AUTHOR:

Born in the Cotswolds, Alison spent most of her formative years abroad. She studied languages at Oxford, then became a journalist and author, returning to university after her two children to take a law degree. After a three-year stint as a criminal paralegal, Alison worked as a commercial copywriter and then a TV storyliner, before coming full circle to write fiction again.

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Blog Tours book reviews

Mother Loves Me by Abby Davies

Published: September 17th, 2020
Publisher: Harper Collins UK
Format: Paperback, Kindle, Audio
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, Psychological Fiction, Adventure Fiction

I’m thrilled to share my review as part of the tour for this spine-tingling debut. Thank you to Jennifer at Harper Collins for the invitation to take part and the gifted copy of the book.

SYNOPSIS:

The creepiest debut thriller you will read this year!

One little girl.
Mirabelle’s mother loves her. She’s her ‘little doll’. Mother dresses her, paints her face, and plaits her hair. But as Mirabelle grows, the dresses no longer fit quite as well, the face paint no longer looks quite so pretty. And Mother isn’t happy.
 
Two little girls.
On Mirabelle’s 13th birthday, Mother arrives home with a present – a new sister, 5-year-old Clarabelle, who Mother has rescued from the outside world.
 
But Mother only needs one.
As it dawns on Mirabelle that there is a new ‘little doll’ in her house, she also realises that her life isn’t what she thought it was. And that dolls often end up on the scrap heap…

MY REVIEW:

Mother Loves Me is a darkly atmospheric, claustrophobic and sinister debut that sent shivers down my spine. From the opening pages there’s prevailing unease malevolence that hangs in the air, making me read with a breathless anticipation.

Thirteen-year-old Mirabelle’s mother paints her face and dresses her like the doll she has nicknamed her, the windows are boarded up, the doors locked and the young girl has never left the house.

When Mother returns home with another little girl hidden in a bag and tells Mirabelle this is her new sister Clarabelle, she begins to question things she’d always believed, wonders if there are things Mother might be hiding; sparking a series of events that will turn her world upside down.

This is exactly the kind of twisted read I love. The book I’d just finished was one I loved so much that I was worried I’d struggle to read this, but, thankfully, this was so creepily addictive I couldn’t get enough. The author’s prose is beautiful, eerie and immersive, pulling me into Mirabelle’s small world with such vividness that I could see the story playing in my head as I read.

The characters are richly drawn and felt so real, despite their absurd situation. Mirabelle is a great narrator. The author perfectly captured her childish innocence, inquisitiveness and obedience and her fledgling desire for independence. We meet her at an age where she would have both that desperation to please desire to rebel against Mother, which combined with the jealousy that arises upon having to share her mother with Clarabelle, creates a perfect storm that the author mines to perfection.

Mother is one of the most sinister characters I’ve read for a while. She was clearly unhinged, the author capturing every shade of her evil and madness and made it leap from the page, chilling me to my core. I was terrified for both girls in her “care”. Over the course of the story we do learn what happened to make her this way, but I liked that the author didn’t let that make her a sympathetic character, despite Mirabelle’s desire to feel that way about her. It felt right that she remained an abhorrent, evil figure no matter what had happened in her past.

So, if you like a book that sizzles with tension, sends shivers down your spine, and has you on the edge of your seat, then this is the book for you. It’s as good as any chilling horror film and I would love to see it on screen.

Rating: ✮✮✮✮✰

MEET THE AUTHOR:

After acquiring a degree in English Literature, Abby taught English in state and private schools, and earned a Creative Writing MA in 2013. She wrote a great deal throughout her twenties and early thirties. To stay motivated, she told herself that even if it took her until 80 to get her work out to readers, she’d do it.

Abby lives in Wiltshire with her husband and daughter. MOTHER LOVES ME is her debut novel.

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Blog Tours book reviews Emma's Anticipated Treasures

Truth Be Told by Kia Abdullah

Published: September 3rd, 2020
Publisher: HQ
Format: Hardcover, Kindle, Audio
Genre: Crime Fiction, Legal Thriller, Political Thriller, Domestic Fiction, LGBTQ Literature

Happy Publication Kia Abdullah! I’m thrilled to be one of the bloggers sharing their review for this outstanding thriller on publication day as part of the blog tour. Thank you to HQ for the invitation to take part and my copy of this novel.

SYNOPSIS:

ARE YOU READY TO START THIS CONVERSATION?

Kamran Hadid feels invincible. He attends Hampton school, an elite all-boys boarding school in London, he comes from a wealthy family, and he has a place at Oxford next year. The world is at his feet. And then a night of revelry leads to a drunken encounter and he must ask himself a horrific question.

With the help of assault counsellor, Zara Kaleel, Kamran reports the incident in the hopes that will be the end of it. But it’s only the beginning…

Powerful, explosive and important, Truth Be Told is a contemporary courtroom drama that vividly captures today’s society. You will not stop thinking about it for a long time to come.

MY REVIEW: 

I’m still reeling from this phenomenal thriller. It’s one I devoured, foregoing sleep to read it in one sitting as I found it impossible to put down. 

Zara Kaleel is back and finds herself embroiled in another high profile case when Kamran Hadid comes to her for help. Kamram claims he was raped in his room at a prestigious boarding school after passing out drunk after a party. But his alleged attacker claims it was consensual. Why wouldn’t he say no if he didn’t want it? Why just let him carry on? 

When Kamran decides to persue the case, the question of consent is examined in great detail and leaves both boys attempting to grapple with the truth of what their actions, and inactions, that night meant. Full of shocking twists and turns, when the truth is finally revealed it will leave your jaw on the floor. 

He tried to give shape to the weight of his trauma. He thought of it as a thick bar of florescent light that hummed from throat to groin. Real healing with dim that light, snuff out sections until it grew dark – but how could he heal if he couldn’t remember? Instead, he would push down the pain until it was a sun-bright penny lodged in his gut. That’s where he’d let it burn.”

Truth Be Told examines a topic rarely discussed with truth and sensitivity, highlighting the complex layers of emotion and perception that accompany male rape. The author also addresses the intricacies and blurred lines of consent, and the prejudice faced by gay men in the Muslim community. Like her fantastic debut, it is an intelligent, well-written, powerful and thought-provoking novel that will stay with the reader long after reading the final page. 

Zara is a brilliant character to base a series on because she stands out from the saturated crowd of other protagonists. She is a modern, liberal Asian woman, trying to balance her family’s cultural expectations and traditions with her Western life and personal desires. This pressure has led to a misuse of narcotics that she’s seeking treatment for in this novel, adding another layer to her flawed character. 

The other characters are all equally as compelling and richly drawn. Kamran Hadid was the one who took my heart. Maybe it’s because I have two boys of a similar age that I couldn’t help putting in his shoes, but this kid broke me. The rainbow of emotions he’s feeling lept from the page and went straight to my soul. It was heart-rending to read his journey; the effect the trauma had on every facet of his life, changing him forever. It takes immeasurable strength for any victim to stand up against their attacker, and I had such admiration for Kamram in his refusal to be a silent victim. 

But the author doesn’t make it that easy. She also tells the story from the alleged attacker’s perspective. And while at the start he’s clearly sure it was consensual, there soon becomes hints that he’s hiding something. Though we don’t know what. We also witness his devastation as he faces the fact that Kamran views what happened as rape. That what Finn views as a mistake is a traumatic attack in Kamran’s eyes tears him apart, but he also feels sure that without a clear no it was consensual. I found myself feeling sympathy for what Finn was going through, then felt mad at myself for doing so. After all, whether he meant to or not, he raped someone. Didn’t he?

Fast-paced, hard-hitting and intense, this is not your typical legal thriller. Kia Abdullah has just cemented her place on my list of auto-buy authors. Outstanding and addictive, this is one I can’t recommend highly enough. 

Rating: ✮✮✮✮✮

MEET THE AUTHOR:
*From Kia’s Website

Kia Abdullah is an author and travel writer from London. Her novel Take It Back was named one of the best thrillers of th year by The Guardian and Telegraph and was selected for an industry-first audio serialisation by HarperCollins and The Pigeonhole. Her follow-up novel, Truth Be Told, is out in September 2020 (HQ/HarperCollins).

Kia has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, The Telegraph and The Times, and is the founder of Asian Booklist, a non-profit organisation that advocates for diversity in publishing. 

Born in Tower Hamlets in East London, Kia was raised in a family of eight children. As the most stubborn of six daughters, she constantly found herself in trouble for making choices that clashed with her parents’, a habit they came to accept when she became their first and only child to graduate from university – with a degree in Computer Science.

In 2007, Kia left her job in tech to pursue the one thing she had always wanted: a career as a writer, taking a 50% pay cut in the process. She worked as sub-editor and later features editor at Asian Woman Magazine where she interviewed British-Asian luminaries like Riz Ahmed, Meera Syal, Anoushka Shankar and Nitin Sawnhey. 

Kia went on to join global publisher Penguin Random House where she helped grow digital readership at Rough Guides to over a million users per month. In 2014, she quit her day job to found Atlas & Boots, an outdoor travel blog now read by 250,000 people a month. 

Today, she splits her time between London and the Yorkshire Dales town of Richmond, and spends her time writing, hiking, mentoring pupils from Tower Hamlets and visiting far-flung destinations for Atlas & Boots.

Kia loves to travel, hates to cook and periodically highlights that, in actual fact, she is one of nine children (one passed away), making her Seven of Nine… which is cool but only if you’re a Star Trek fan… which she is. But please don’t hold it against her.

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Blog Tours book reviews

The Silence by Susan Allott

Published: August 6th, 2020
Publisher: The Borough Press
Format: Hardcover, Kindle, Audio
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, Psychological Fiction, Crime Thriller

Today is my stop on the tour for this riveting debut. Thank you Anne at Random Things Tours for the invitation to take part and The Borough Press for the gifed copy of the book.

SYNOPSIS:

It is 1997, and in a basement flat in Hackney Isla Green is awakened by a call in the middle of the night: her father, Joe, phoning from Sydney.

30 years ago, in the suffocating heat of summer 1967, the Greens’ next-door neighbour Mandy disappeared. Joe claims he thought she had gone to start a new life; but now Mandy’s family is trying to reconnect, and there is no trace of her. Isla’s father was allegedly the last person to see her alive, and he’s under suspicion of murder.

Back home in Sydney, Isla’s search for the truth takes her back to 1967, when two couples lived side by side on a quiet street by the sea. Could her father be capable of doing something terrible? How much does her mother know? And is there another secret in this community, one which goes deeper into Australia’s colonial past, which has held them in a conspiracy of silence?

Deftly exploring the deterioration of relationships and the devastating truths we keep from those we love, The Silence is a stunning debut from a rising literary star.

MY REVIEW:

“This is the community she grew up in. Where people know everything but say nothing.”

Susan Allott is an author to watch. In her debut novel, a dramatic family saga that I couldn’t put down, Allot has captured a sense of time and place so vividly that you can see the outdated wallpaper and feel the acrid heat. It is a mysterious, foreboding, emotional and layered story that takes the reader back to one of the darkest times in Australian history, merging it with the tantalising tale of a woman missing for thirty years and long-held secrets finally being revealed. 

Told using dual narratives, we simultaneously follow neighbouring families the Greens and the Mallories during the summer of 1967. A summer that will leave them inextricably linked after Mandy Mallorie disappears and Joe Green comes under suspicion. In 1997, Isla Green returns home to support her family and tries to get to the bottom of what happened thirty years ago. As Isla delves deeper into the past, shameful secrets resurface that threaten to rock her whole world. Could her father have killed Mandy? And how much does her mother know?

This was a powerful and affecting read. Examining relationships, secrets and lies, the author handles difficult subjects such as domestic abuse and alcoholism in a real but sensitive way. The characters are flawed but intriguing and I couldn’t help but feel invested in their fates.

Atmospheric, haunting, utterly compelling and with a strong emotional resonance, this novel drew me in, transporting me back in time and to the other side of the world. One I would highly recommend, it kept me guessing right until the unforgettable finale. 

Rating: ✮✮✮✮.5

MEET THE AUTHOR:

Susan Allott is a fiction writer whose debut novel THE SILENCE was published in e-book and audio formats on 30th April 2020 by Borough Press (Harper Collins, UK) with the hardback edition due to be published on 6th August 2020. The UK paperback will follow in April 2021.

THE SILENCE was published in North America on 19th May 2020 by William Morrow (Harper Collins, US) with the paperback to follow in May 2021.

In Australia and New Zealand THE SILENCE was published by Harper Collins on 1st May 2020.

Harper Collins will publish THE SILENCE in the rest of its English language territories in August 2020.

In Italy THE SILENCE will be published by Harper Italia and in France by Editions Belfond.

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