Tag: Four star reads

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book reviews

The Truants by Kate Weinberg ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: (UK) August 8th, 2019
(US) January 28th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, Kindle.
Genre: Suspense, psychological fiction, coming of age fiction.

 SYNOPSIS:

People disappear when they most want to be seen. During the first year of university, a group of friends discover the true cost of an extraordinary life in this captivating debut novel about obsession, rivalry and coming of age. 

Jess Walker, middle child of a middle class family, has perfected the art of vanishing in plain sight. But when she arrives at a concrete university campus under flat, grey East Anglican skies, her world flares with colour. 

Drawn into a tightly-knit group of rule breakers – headed up by their maverick teacher Lorna Clay – Jess begins to experiment with a new version of herself. But the dynamic between the friends begins to darken as they share secrets, lovers and finally a tragedy. Jess is thrown up against the question she fears most: what is the true cost of the extraordinary?

MY REVIEW:

“A tiny, insignificant crime. It’s only now, looking back at all the choices I was about to make, that I detect the faintest of watermarks, the first of many lines I was about to cross.”

Jess Walker had always yearned for the extraordinary. After she reads a novel that changes her life she applies to the University where the author, Lorna Clay, is a tutor. When she’s accepted she thinks this could be the beginning of the life she’s longed for. But Jess’s dream is about to descend into a nightmare in this coming of age story of friendship, love, obsession and tragedy. 

The atmosphere is thick with foreboding from the start, like the wheels have been set in motion and they’re powerless to prevent disaster. Truths are slowly revealed, tragedy strikes and the lives of those involved will never be the same again. It is a stark reminder of the consequences of even the seemingly small, insignificant decisions we make in our lives, and how quickly life can change into something unrecognisable that can’t be put back together like it was before.

“Amazing how, with three little words, she’d relieved me if the mantle of my ordinariness, made me believe that I had done something brave and true.”

I liked Jess and found her to be a relatable protagonist. I think we can all recognise that feeling of wanting more out of life, longing for adventure and wanting to be seen. We’ve all been that young person who’s trying to figure out who they are and what their place is in the world. And we all remember the first time we fell in love. I understood her desire to reinvent herself after an unhappy life and why she was drawn to the outgoing, rule-breakers who are the centre of attention of any room rather than fading quietly into the shadows as she has always done. But she doesn’t see the darker side of these people, what they’re masking with  their extrovert personalities and lifestyle, how adept some of them are at manipulation and deceit.

Though Jess is our main character, Dr Lorna Clay feels like she’s at the centre of this book from the start. Her book has become a kind of manifesto for life for Jess and after meeting her, Jess’ reverence only increases and she truly thinks Lorna will change her life. I was increasingly worried she was heading to have her heart broken by this woman she had put on such a high pedestal and could do nothing to stop it. The friendship between Jess, Georgie, Alec and Nick is integral to the plot and it is the immediate, strong and loyal friendship between Jess and Georgie that starts it all. They are opposites, the yin to each other’s yang, but complement each other wonderfully. The exotic, alluring, charming, Alec someone I felt sure had another level to him, a deeper mystery shrouded between the life he chose to share. He seems to be the ringleader, the one who first suggests they play truant, the one suggesting taking shrooms and smoke by the riverbank, and the one who is dating Georgie but seeming to fan the sparks sizzling between him and Jess, who is dating Nick. I didn’t trust him but couldn’t put my finger on why. I liked the different elements each of the characters brought to the story through their different personalities.

The English Literature course Jess takes focuses on the work of Agatha Christie and both her work and the novel by Lorna Clay, also called The Truants, are referenced throughout. As the story progresses, we see parallels with Christie’s novel and what’s happening to Jess and her friends. I enjoyed this aspect and how literature and reading were such a big part of the storyline. I read The Truants as part of a buddy read and the author shared with us the reading list for Lorna’s course, which I now have added to my own tbr. 

The Truants is a well-written, intriguing and multilayered debut. The author combines rich, beautiful prose with dense, cloying apprehension to create a beguiling read that I thoroughly enjoyed. 

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Blog Tours book reviews

The Lady of the Ravens by Joanna Hickson ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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Publisher: Harper Collins UK
Genre: Historical Fiction
Published: January 9th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, Kindle

Thank you to Anne at Random Things Tours for the invitation to take part in the blog tour and to Harper Collins UK for the gifted copy of the book.

SYNOPSIS:

Elizabeth of York, her life already tainted by dishonour and tragedy, now queen to the first Tudor king, Henry the VII.

Joan Vaux, servant of the court, straining against marriage and motherhood and privy to the deepest and darkest secrets of her queen. Like the ravens, Joan must use her eyes and senses, as conspiracy whispers through the dark corridors of the Tower.

Through Joan’s eyes, The Lady of the Ravens inhabits the squalid streets of Tudor London, the imposing walls of its most fearsome fortress and the most glamorous court of a kingdom in crisis.

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MY REVIEW:

This decadent and delightful novel transported me back in time to Tudor England. Henry VII has just taken the throne and his reign is still tenuous, under threat from Yorkists who see him as a usurper. The story takes us through the next sixteen years of his reign as they navigate conspiracies and try to establish the Tudor dynasty. It is narrated by Joan Vaux, an intelligent, independent young woman who is also the closest servant and friend of Elizabeth of York, Henry’s queen. Ravens are immediately very present and important to the story with Joan feeling an affiliation to them and talks of the suspicion that they guard the tower and if the ravens disappear then the king will fall. These themes are woven throughout the story as the ravens become almost a character themselves.

I absolutely adored Joan. She was a fascinating character who was all the more compelling to me because she was a real person. I admired her attempts to fly in the face of tradition and how she stood up for what she thought and believed in, even when it wasn’t advisable or would work against her. I felt immensely sad for her when talked about her wish to remain unmarried and her overwhelming fear of childbirth as it was expected that women would marry and become mothers at that time. Unless you became a nun there wasn’t the choice to remain single, especially when you lived at court. Marriages were a political power play, and women had no autonomy over themselves or their bodies, something Joan clearly loathed and found unfair.. It was hard to read the battle that would rage inside her when she was forced to yield to things because it what was expected and I desperately wished she and the other women could live in progressive societies today and experience more choice in their lives.

Elizabeth may have been the Queen of England, but she was a character I felt desperately sorry for. She is in a precarious position from the start of the story – needing to marry Henry to secure her place as part of royalty and securing her family’s position in society. After their marriage it is all about her royal duty to have children, particularly heirs and spares, reminding us of the thinking at the time that males were superior and that fertility and a baby’s sex were in the woman’s hands and the danger posed if she doesn’t fulfill her duties. Elizabeth is a doting mother but not only is she forced to be separated from her children shortly after their births, she suffers the tragic loss of two of them to illness, as well as multiple miscarriages. My heart broke for what she went through. I loved the sweet friendship between her and Joan. It was clear that Elizabeth relied on her as her support and confident, more than in a practical sense as time went on. She had a true friend she could trust, something needed when you have to use clandestine methods to go about things your husband wouldn’t agree with.

I’ve become a huge lover of historical fiction over the past few years and this novel had everything you could want from that genre. It is wonderfully written and well developed. The author knows how to draw in and captivate her audience, quickly having me fully immersed in the era. It felt like I was Joan, seeing everything through her eyes and feeling everything she did. I was in Tudor England, bearing witness to moments in history that shaped our country, and could almost smell the squalor. The author vividly portrayed not only the imagery of that time, but the emotions too. Life at court was a tightrope that had to be walked very carefully and a game that had to be delicately played – making the right move at the right time to advance further. We saw how both men and women were subject to rigid expectations and had to yield in order to not only maintain their position, but sometimes to save their lives. She also didn’t shy away from the darkest truths of that time and we witnessed some tragic moments that linger in my mind.

The Lady of the Ravens is a beautifully crafted novel that I couldn’t put down. Though it is based hundreds of years ago, the humanity of the story makes it relatable, affecting and uplifting. I enjoyed learning more about the era and plan on learning more about Joan after my interest has been sparked by this novel. I am thrilled that this is just the start of a new series and can’t wait for the next installment.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Joanna Hickson spent twenty five years presenting and producing News and Arts programmes for the BBC. Her first published book was a children’s historical novel Rebellion at Orford Castle but more recently she has turned to adult fiction, concentrating on bringing fifteenth century English history and some of its fascinating principal characters to life.

She is married with a large family and gets inspiration from her Wiltshire farmhouse home, which dates back to her chosen period.

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Blog Tours book reviews

The Unforgetting by Rose Black ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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Publisher: Orion
Published: January 9th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, Kindle
Genre: Historical Fiction

It’s Publication Day and my stop on the blog tour for this xx novel. Thank you to Anne at Random Things tours for the invitation to take part, and to Orion Books for the gifted copy of the novel.

SYNOPSIS:

Her fate was decided. Her death foretold. Her past about to be unforgotten.

When Lily Bell is sold by her father to a ‘Professor of Ghosts’ to settle a bad debt, she dreams of finding fame on the London stage. But Erasmus Salt wants Lily not as an actress, but his very own ghost – the heart of his elaborate illusion for those desperate for a glimpse of the spirit world…

Obsessed with perfection, Erasmus goes to extreme lengths to ensure his illusion is realistic. When Lily comes across her own obituary in the paper, and then her headstone in the cemetery, she realises she is trapped, her own parents think she is dead, and that her fate is soon to become even darker…

A spellbinding story of obsession, the lure of fame, and the power of illusion.

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MY REVIEW:

Lily Bell feels trapped. Sold by her step-father as payment for bad debt she is now the property of Erasmus Salt, a self-proclaimed Professor of Ghosts. Thinking she was being sold to be an actress, Lily thought at least her dire situation might lead to her following her dream of fame on the London stage, but instead she is hidden away and must perform each night as a ghost summoned from the dead. Growing increasingly frustrated and unsettled, Lily finally discovers the macabre lengths Erasmus has gone to for his illusion; the world thinks she is really dead. Knowing she’s in more danger than she thought, she starts to plot her escape. But as things become increasingly complex and grim, she fears she might never be free of the Professor’s clutches. 

The Unforgetting started slowly but I was soon drawn into the strange, ominous, claustrophobic and bleak world Lily inhabits with siblings Erasmus and Faye Salt. Lily is an easy character to like. She’s sweet, naive, hopeful and has big dreams. She has concerns about Erasmus and things he expects of her from the start, but with the help of his sister Faye she brushes them aside as him knowing what is best for the performance. I liked that she also showed an assertive side and wasn’t afraid to make her voice heard. As her situation darkened, I felt scared for Lily and was worried she was going to meet a tragic end and was on tenterhooks until the last page.

Erasmus Salt is an arrogant, angry, ominous and devious man. I got bad vibes from him straight away but never imagined how vile and evil he and his plans could be. Stemming from a bizarre obsession with his deceased mother, he is consumed with the idea of actually returning a spirit to human form, and will stop at nothing to achieve it. Faye Salt, his sister, comes across initially as a mousy servant but it soon becomes clear she is terrified of her brother and, as her backstory is gradually told, we learn it has origins in their childhood, particularly after the deaths of their parents when they were still young. She starts as a background character but slowly becomes a vital part of the story and the character I found most interesting. I felt sad for her and understood why she did some of the more questionable things she did, and was willing her through the pages to find the strength she needed and to find happiness after all she’s been through. She and Lily have a relationship that is very close in proximity, but quite distant in emotion, which was interesting to read. Though I can’t help but think that if they had just confided in each other things could have turned out very differently for both of them.

The Unforgetting is a story about obsession, desire, love, loss, death, illusions and dreams. It is a story of smoke and mirrors where so often things aren’t what they seem and characters are misled or misunderstood. It started out quite simple but becomes a multilayered story that had some surprising twists and kept me captivated. There were a few unanswered questions but I liked the direction the author took the story and the way she ended it. This is the perfect read for lovers of historical fiction who like their stories a little bit eerie, strange and sinister.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Rose Black has written stories all her life. Her long-standing fascination with the Victorians and 19th century England underlies this novel. An award-winning freelance writer, she’s covered health, overseas development and education. Married, with two children, she lives partly in London and at other times by the sea. In her spare time she enjoys wild swimming and growing food and flowers on her allotment.

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Categories
Blog Tours

The Move by Felicity Everett ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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Welcome to my final blog tour of 2019. Thank you to HQ Stories for the invitation to take part in the blog tour and for the gifted copy of this book.

SYNOPSIS:

Can you paint over the cracks in a marriage?

Karen has packed up her life and is making The Move. She’s on her way to the idyllic country cottage which her husband has painstakingly renovated for her. They’re escaping the London bustle and daily grind. And they’re escaping their past.

A fresh start in a beautiful, peaceful village. It will be different here, right?

But something is awry. The landscape, breathtaking by day, is eerie by night. The longed-for peace and solitude is stifling. And the house, so artfully put together by her husband, has a strange vibe. Now that Karen is cut off from her old friends and family, she can’t help wondering if her husband has plans of his own, and that history might be repeating itself.    

From the author of The People at Number 9 comes a dark and redemptive tale of a rural dream gone wrong…

MY REVIEW: 

Karen is recovering from a breakdown and is still struggling with her mental health when she and her husband Nick move from London to an idyllic country cottage. He has done the place up, including building her a studio for her pottery, to try and aid her recovery. Despite this, Karen is still walking on eggshells around Nick and struggling to trust him after his betrayal that led to her mental breakdown. She is also missing her best friend Jude and the familiarity of life back in London. But she is determined to give this a chance as Nick has made a real effort to change and help her in her recovery, so she tries to push aside the nagging doubts and mistrust.

Using her pottery as catharsis, she begins to create again and finds a new style that fits her new life and begins to make friends in the village, bonding in particular to their neighbour Cath. At the same time, sinister things begin to happen – their car tyre is punctured, the kiln doesn’t switch off and all her pots are ruined – and Karen thinks that someone is out to get her, that maybe Nick is up to his old tricks and his lover is lashing out. But Nick tells her she’s imagining things, that it’s her medication side effects making her forgetful. At first she believes him, but she begins to notice things that make her question what he says, and she is increasingly sure that Nick isn’t the perfect husband he is making himself out to be.

This readable and enjoyable book took me by surprise. Though there was an air of foreboding and some sinister occurrences, it wasn’t the dramatic and intense domestic thriller I was expecting, and was instead a mysterious and fascinating character study and domestic drama. All the characters were well developed, three dimensional and believable, which made it hard to read at times as my heart broke for Karen and I seethed at Nick.

I related to Karen as we’ve been through similar things and I had a lot of empathy for her. I know how it feels to doubt your sanity because an abusive spouse tells you you’re crazy and how much harder it is to recover from real mental illness when in that toxic environment. I wanted to go into the book and tell her my story, help her see she isn’t alone or imagining all the things she’s experiencing, and help her find the strength to see she deserves so much more. I was glad to see her friendship with Cathy develop as she was a no-nonsense character who wasn’t afraid to tell Karen what she saw behind the mask while also allowing Karen to arrive at things in her own time while she was there for support. Karen was able to open up to Cath in a way she hadn’t with anyone else before and starts to see the truth of her situation and her real feelings, instead of the things she’s been conditioned to believe. I loved seeing Karen find herself as the story went on and think her new friendship played a vital role in that.

Nick was a well-written example of subtle control and abuse. He had the charm thing down to a fine art with everyone else while chipping away at Karen’s self esteem and breaking her down. It was hard to read how she believed what he said and that she deserved the way he treated her, especially when he turned her breakdown into something that was her fault rather than the result of his affair. I was rooting for her to see the truth and break free from the toxicity of their relationship.

This was the first book I’ve read by this author and I will definitely read more. I loved her writing style, the complexities of the plot, and how she was able to use imagery to make the landscape seem more beautiful or ominous to the reader. She also had a talent for putting me in Karen’s shoes and making me feel whatever she did, which made me fully immersed in the story and invested in the outcome. The only complaint I have about this book is that I felt like the story ended too abruptly. There were a lot of unanswered questions and I would have liked to see what happened next for Karen and some of the other characters.

The Move is a steadily paced, character-driven novel that explores the intricacies of mental illness and abusive relationships. I would recommend this book to those who enjoy general fiction.

Published on January 23rd, 2020 – Kindle

Published on August 20th, 2020 – Paperback

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Felicity Everett grew up in Manchester, lived, worked and raised her family of four in London and returned from a four year spell in Melbourne, Australia to live in Gloucestershire in 2014. After an early career in children’s publishing and freelance writing, she published her debut adult novel The Story of Us in 2011. Her second novel, The People at Number 9 was published in 2017.

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Categories
book reviews

I Dare You by Sam Carrington ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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SYNOPSIS:

AN INNOCENT GAME. A SHOCKING CRIME. A COMMUNITY FULL OF SECRETS.

Mapledon, 1989.

Two little girls were out playing a game of dares. Only one returned home.

The ten-year-old told police what she saw: village loner Billy ‘Creepy’ Crawley dragged her friend into his truck and disappeared.

No body was found, but her testimony sent Crawley to prison for murder. An open and shut case, the right man behind bars.

The village could sleep safe once again.

Now…

Anna thought she had left Mapledon and her nightmares behind but a distraught phone call brings her back to face her past.

30 years ago someone lied. 30 years ago the man convicted wasn’t the only guilty party.

Now he’s out of prison looking for revenge. The question is, who will he start with?

MY REVIEW:

What a roller-coaster ride! I was quickly gripped by this exhilarating thriller and found myself reading fervently, desperate for answers about what happened to ten-year-old Jonie Hayes, how the narrators were connected to it all, and what secrets the residents of Mapledon were hiding. 

The story is told in dual timelines and is narrated by two women – Anna and Lizzie. We soon learn that both women lived in Mapledon as children but left for very different reasons: Anna because of bad memories of her childhood friend’s murder and feeling stifled, and Lizzie because she was taken and put into care for unkown reasons. They both have unanswered questions about what happened thirty years ago and have been affected by the legacy of Billy ‘Creepy’ Crawley and the murder of Jonie. As they look deeper it is clear that nothing is as it seems and are forced to question everything they thought they knew as they unearth secrets they were never meant to find…

This was the second book I’ve read by this author and I was every bit as captivated as when I read The Missing Wife, cementing her place on my must-read authors list. The thing I liked about her writing in this book was how she told the flashbacks to 1989 in reverse chronological order up until the highly anticipated big reveal. This slowly revealed clues to the reader while increasing the tension and slowly revealed the roles everyone played in the tragic events. 

Anna and Lizzie were both unreliable protagonists by their own admission. They were children thirty years ago and it is their fuzzy recollection of events that leads them to finally search for the truth. Anna’s relationship with her mother Muriel is fraught and she’s hasn’t been back to Mapledon once since she left. It seems with every day more cracks appear in their relationship and Anna is increasingly sure her mother has lied and hidden the truth from her about what had happened that summer. I definitely had my feelings about Muriel’s character coloured by Anna and only ever saw her as a busybody that was lying to her daughter. I was sure she was entrenched in what happened and felt like screaming at her to just tell her daughter what she knew. Lizzie was a character I had a lot of empathy for but I was torn about how much of the truth I wanted her to discover, especially as it seemed she had the most she could lose by the revelations. All of the characters in this book are fractured and troubled and I often wondered if they would be torn apart even more by the truth rather than healed by it. 

I Dare You is a tense, twisty, jaw-dropping thriller about childhood friendships, small town politics, secrets and murder. I guessed some of the twists early on but so much was a mystery to me as we approached the end. The author cleverly wove the clues together until the full picture emerged and rendered me speechless. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who loves psychological thrillers and can’t wait to see what she writes next.

Thank you to Avon Books UK and NetGalley for the copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Out now.

Categories
Blog Tours book reviews

The Pact by Amy Heydenrych ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for this absorbing thriller. Thank you to Tracy at Compulsive Readers for my invitation to take part and to Zaffre and NetGalley for my copy of the book.

SYNOPSIS:    

What if a prank leads to murder?

When Freya arrives at her dream job with the city’s hottest start-up, she can’t wait to begin a new and exciting life, including dating her colleague Jay.

However, Nicole, Jay’s ex and fellow employee, seems intent on making her life a misery. After a big deadline, where Nicole continually picks on her, Freya snaps and tells Jay about the bullying and together they concoct a revenge prank. The next morning Nicole is found dead in her apartment.

Is this just a prank gone wrong? Or does Freya know someone whos is capable of murder – and could she be next?

MY REVIEW:

“It was just a joke, a little slice of revenge…”

The story at the heart of this book is one that is all too familiar to most women. We all have stories about the male colleague who makes unwelcome suggestive remarks, gets a bit too handsy, holds onto a hug for that little bit too long or makes us feel uncomfortable in a way we can’t put our finger on. I bet there’s someone in your mind that describes right now. I know there is in mine. And what do we do? We usually brush it aside so we don’t cause a problem and tell ourselves it’s harmless fun. And if we do report it then we face the accusations that we led them on, did something to cause it and watch as things are twisted to paint them as the victim and us as the harasser. The #MeToo movement is beginning to change the tides and has inevitably sparked a wave of books and other media that address these issues. The Pact is the best I’ve read yet.

I didn’t expect this to be such a timely book but I am glad this author chose to write this particular story. As well as sexual harassment the book takes a look at other social issues such as bullying in the work place, the inequality between the sexes in certain professions, women being pitted against each other and how the media looks at female victims of crime. All the topics were handled in an honest and sensitive manner that felt realistic and sadly relatable.

The author filled this book an eclectic mix of strong, intelligent but flawed female characters. The narrators, Isla and Freya, are both ambitious and passionate about their chosen field. Both have things in their past that have left them a little fragile and fractured but also gave them strength that I don’t think they recognised in themselves at first. I liked both characters and thought their bad decisions only made them more human and relatable. Nicole was the mean girl. While she’s alive we only see her through Freya’s eyes and, as she is being bullied by her, that’s quite a biased lens. I could see how some people were manipulating things and wondered if there were things we didn’t know about that were contributing to her behaviour. Another thing that happened because we only see her from Freya’s point of view is that it was hard at times to be sympathetic or mournful of her death. The choice to make her both murder victim and villainess, and the author’s ability to evoke in me such constrasting feelings towards her, were a testament to her talent. The characters who manipulated, lied and harassed people were expertly written (I’m not naming them to avoid spoilers). They were classic examples of abusers and narcissist – masquerading behind a veil of charm, charisma, kindness and kinship. Their victims were like lambs to the slaughter at the hands of their expert scheme.

The story is written in multiple timelines and moves somewhat sporadically between them. It felt choppy and confusing at times as a result and I sometimes had to double check what timeline we were in to make sense of things. But as more of the story was told this got better and things flowed more smoothly. There were times I liked the use of multiple timelines as they were used to weave clues through the story and tease the reader before jumping to another point in the story, leaving us in suspense.

The Pact manages to hit all the requirements for a riveting, explosive and involving thriller while also being an acutely observed commentary on some of the most harrowing, difficult and important issues we face. While I did guess some things early on I was left with my jaw on the floor when the author delivered the coup de grace.

Out now.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Amy is a writer and book blogger based in South Africa. She has been shortlisted twice for the acclaimed Miles Morland African Writing Scholarship. Her short stories and poems have been published in multiple anthologies including Brittle Paper, The Kalahari Review and the Short Sharp Stories anthologies. When she is not writing her own fiction, she ghost-writes books and columns for global tech and financial companies.

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Categories
Blog Tours book reviews

Who Did You Tell by Lesley Kara ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for this new thriller. Thank you to Anne at Random Things Tours for the invitation to take part, and Bantam Press for the gifted copy of the book.

SYNOPSIS:

Every town has its secrets. Lesley Kara knows them all…

From the author of 2019’s biggest crime thriller debut, The Rumour, comes an addictive new novel…

It’s been 192 days, seven hours and fifteen minutes since her last drink. Now Astrid is trying to turn her life around.

Having reluctantly moved back in with her mother, in a quiet seaside town away from the temptations and painful memories of her life before, Astrid is focusing on her recovery. She’s going to meetings. Confessing her misdeeds. Making amends to those she wronged.

But someone knows exactly what Astrid is running from. And they won’t stop until she learns that some mistakes can’t be corrected. 

Some mistakes, you have to pay for…   

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MY REVIEW:

This brilliant thriller started slowly but then drew me in as the pace and tension increased and simmered with fear. It was well written and plotted and I loved the suspense that came from the paragraphs in italics as a mysterious person fantasises about murder and vengence. Is this voice Astrid’s before she got sober or is it someone else who has their sights on her? I wasn’t sure and changed my mind on this and the identity of this mystery narrator many times throughout the book. As the story progressed it was impossible to know which characters we could trust and like Astrid I was seeing enemies everywhere, even in those I’d never wondered about early on.

Dealing with a central theme of alcoholism and addiction, this is an emotional read in places. The author has clearly done her research and captured the daily battles that are faced by a recovering alcoholic and the devastating effects on their life, friends and family in a way that was honest, real and raw. I had never really thought about the extent of the turmoil, exhaustion, terror and they face every moment they’re awake until I read this book. The author wrote Astrid’s constant battle to stay sober so expertly that my own heart would race when she faced temptation and I shouted inside my head for her to stay strong. 

Astrid was an interesting protagonist. I could never quite decide if she was unreliable or really in jeopardy, which I liked because it added an extra layer of tension and mystery to the story. The small town setting helped to convey her feeling of being watched and monitored every time she leaves the house and I could feel her fear radiating from the pages as she tried to decipher who knew her secrets, if she’s really going crazy, and who she could trust.  Guilt and depression are themes that ran through the book and, for Astrid, go hand in hand. The author explored this in a way that showed her vulnerability and self-loathing as well as her dark side, and managed to make her less likeable yet more sympathetic.

Who Did You Tell is a captivating and twisty thriller full of dark secrets, suspicion and revenge. Every time I thought I had things figured out the author would throw in another twist and I’d have to rethink what I thought I knew. The further I got into the story, the more I was on the edge of my seat. I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough as we approached the end. Though I got some things right, when the full picture was revealed it still had my jaw on the floor in shock.

Out December 5th.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Lesley Kara is an alumna of the Faber Academy ‘Writing a Novel’ course. She grew up in Essex and now lives with her family on the North Essex coast. Lesley has been a teacher and worked as a bookseller. Her first novel, The Rumour, was a Sunday Times Top 10 Bestseller. The Rumour has been optioned for TV (Cuba Pictures) and has sold in 15 territories to date.

Categories
Blog Tours book reviews

Violet by S.J.I. Holliday ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for this twisty psychological thriller. Thank you to Anne at Random Things Tours for the invitation to take part and to S.J.I. Holliday and Orenda books for the gifted ebook copy of this novel.

SYNOPSIS:

When two strangers end up sharing a cabin on the Trans-Siberian Express, and intense friendship develops, one that can only have one ending…a nerve-shattering psychological thriller from bestselling author SJI Holliday.

Carrie’s best friend has an accident and can no longer make the round-the-world-trip they’d planned together, so Carrie decides to go it alone.

Violet is also travelling alone, after splitting up with her boyfriend in Thailand. She is also desperate for a ticket on the Trans-Siberian Express, but there is nothing available.

When the two women meet in a Beijing Hotel, Carrie makes the impulsive decision to invite Violet to take her best friend’s place. 

Thrown together in a strange country, and the cramped cabin of the train, the women soon form a bond. But as the journey continues through Mongolia and into Russia, things start to unravel – because one of these women is not who she claims to be…

A tense and twisted psychological thriller about obsession, manipulation and toxic friendships, Violet also reminds us that there’s a reason why mother told us not to talk to strangers…

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MY REVIEW:

This claustrophobic and disturbing psychological thriller takes the reader on a wild ride as we follow travellers, and new friends, Violet and Carrie on their cross-country journey on the Trans-Siberian Express. Nothing and no-one is what they seem in this mysterious, foreboding and tense thriller that had me guessing throughout. 

The story is narrated by Violet with Carrie’s voice appearing in the form of emails to her friends and family back home. I thought this was a great way to show us Carrie’s perspective and give us an alternative look at events. Both girls were curious characters but not very likeable, and neither were any of the background characters we met along the way. From the start I didn’t trust Violet, and it was soon apparent that there was something very wrong with her. Something that ran deep. Carrie couldn’t have been more different. She is chatty and makes friends easily.  The pair develop a strong and intense bond but Violet goes further, developing an unhealthy obsession with her new friend and will do anything to keep her close. 

This was my first read by this author and I now can’t wait to read more. She transported me to places I’ve never been with her evocative and descriptive prose. I also loved how she teased us, alluding to fragments of the girls’ past and how we are left to guess what Violet means by the sinister sentences she will randomly throw out. It’s soon clear she has some dark secrets and is hiding behind a smokescreen of lies but the author leaves us as clueless as Carrie, heightening the suspense. 

Violet is an exciting story about obsession, jealousy, rage, secrets and devious desires. It is also a cautionary tale about trusting strangers and intense, toxic friendships. I devoured the pages as we approached the crescendo – the shocking revelations coming thick and fast, a million questions in my head –  before finally reaching the deft and satisfying conclusion. 

I would highly recommend this book, particularly if you enjoy Killing Eve or Single White Female. 

Out now. 

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

S.J.I. (Susi) Holliday is a scientist, writing coach and bestselling author of five crime novels,  including the Banktoun Trilogy (Black Wood, Willow Walk and The Damselfly), the festive chiller The Deaths of December and her creepy Gothic psychological thriller The Lingering. Her short story Home From Home was published in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and shortlisted for the CWA Margery Allingham Prize. Encapsulating her love of travel and claustrophobic settings, her latest novel, Violet, explores toxic friendships and the perils of talking to strangers, as well as drawing on her own journey on the Trans-Siberian Express over 10 years ago. All of her novels have been UK ebook number-one bestsellers. Susi was born and raised in Scotland and now divides her time between Edinburgh, London and as many other exciting places that she can fit in.

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Categories
book reviews

The Assistant by S. K. Tremayne ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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SYNOPSIS:

She’s in your house. She controls your life. Now she’s going to destroy it.

A terrifying and timely new psychological thriller, from the No. 1 Sunday Times bestselling author of The Ice Twins.

She watches you constantly.

Newly divorced Jo is delighted to move into her best friend’s spare room almost rent-free. The high-tech luxury Camden flat is managed by a meticulous Home Assistant called Electra, that takes care of the heating, lights – and sometimes Jo even turns to her for company.

She knows all your secrets.

Until, late one night, Electra says one sentence that rips Jo’s fragile world in two. ‘I know what you did.’ And Jo is horrified. Because in her past she did do something terrible. Something unforgivable.

Now she wants to destroy you.

Only two other people in the whole world know Jo’s secret. And they would never tell anyone. Would they? As a fierce winter brings London to a standstill, Jo begins to understand that the Assistant on the shelf doesn’t just want to control Jo, it wants to destroy her.

MY REVIEW:

This story has seeped into my psyche and given me the most bizarre dreams of technology terrorising my life since reading. I don’t have an Alexa, any smart meters or Home Assistants. And after this book, I have never been more thankful of that! Intriguing, suspenseful, creepy and unpredictable, The Assistant exposes and explores a very modern fear alongside ones that have been around for years. 

Jo is a freelance journalist, recently divorced and living in her best friend Tabitha’s spare room. The Camden flat is the height of luxury and high-tech, filled with the latest Home Assistants who control everything from the temperature and lights, to answering your questions. Jo is alone most of the time so she’s started talking to one of the assistants, Electra, for company. But one night the assistants suddenly don’t seem so friendly, uttering the terrifying words – “I know what you did…I know your secret.” Jo is horrified because she does have a secret. One that only two others know. A secret that has haunted her for fifteen years. As the assistants begin to terrorise Jo, it soon clear they want more than control. They want to destroy her. As her life slowly unravels, Jo desperately tries to get to the truth before it’s too late for herself and those she cares about.

Eerie, menacing and sinister, The Assistant is a timely story about our love affair and reliance on technology mixed in with a story about mental health problems and good old fashioned vengeance. It is a claustrophobic story and you have a real sense that someone or something is  always watching and listening. 

Jo was an unreliable protagonist as early on we learn her father had late-onset schizophrenia and his symptoms were remarkably similar to what she is experiencing. Everything is questionable: is she hallucinating the assistants saying these things or is this really happening? I liked this as we never know what to think which makes the story harder to predict and you’re full of questions right up until the end. I would go back and forth in my own thoughts on Jo’s sanity and what was really happening throughout the book. 

The idea that someone could weaponise the assistants against us filled me with a lingering sense of horror. We’re all dependent on technology to some degree. If I leave the house without my phone I panic and feel like my arm has been cut off. We don’t think twice about using these devices to make life easier and connect with people. It is also seen as something that doesn’t make mistakes and it certainly doesn’t think for itself, which is why no one believes Jo when she says it’s out to get her, is speaking to her and doing things using her email accounts of its own accord. That’s just crazy. And it seems just as crazy that someone could be using the assistants to get some kind of revenge. After all, Jo is in charge of the apps. 

This was my first book by this author but won’t be my last. I loved the language and vivid imagery in his writing and though I felt like it started a little slow, the tension soon ramped up to a nail-biting suspense. I was desperate for answers and couldn’t put the book down, racing towards the finale where the jaw-dropping twist and revelations left me blindsided. 

I would recommend this unsettling and unpredictable novel for anyone who enjoys psychological thrillers. Just make sure you unplug your Alexa before you start…

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollinsUK for my copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Published November 29th.

Published November 29th.

Categories
book reviews

High Heels and Beetle Crushers by Jackie Skingley ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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SYNOPSIS:

This compelling memoir of a girl in uniform reveals the first-hand experience of the social attitudes towards women in post-war Britain.

A compelling memoir of post-war Britain. Jackie Skingley grew up with limited career choices but joining the Women’s Royal Army Corps offered her a different life, living and working in the military world, against the backdrop of the Cold War. Packed full of stories reflecting the changing sexual attitudes prior to the arrival of the pill and the sexual revolution of the  mid-60s, Skingley’s memoir denotes a shift in the political and social fabric of the era. Follow her relationships with the men in her life from finding her first true love, which through a cruel act of fate was denied to her, to embarking on a path of recovery.

MY REVIEW:

I was asked to read this memoir by Jackie herself after she followed me on twitter. I’ve come to know her as a kind woman who’s passionate about her book so while I’ve been excited about reading it, I’ve also been apprehensive as I will only give honest reviews and was hoping it would be as delightful as the woman herself. I needn’t have worried. High Heels and Beetle Crushers is a charming and fascinating memoir filled with entertaining and heart-rending stories. 

It begins with an air raid siren blasting in 1944 when Jackie is just three years old. Seeing an air raid through the eyes of a young child felt particularly poignant. We also learn that this particular night her father, Flight Lieutenant Jack Skingley, is killed along with thousands of others from his regiment during an air raid in Germany. From there we follow her through childhood, adolescence and becoming a young woman determined to spread her wings and find adventure and independence. We watch her discover boys, begin her first relationship, fall head over heels in love, move out for her first job and settle on a career that she loves. 

Jackie has plenty of colourful anecdotes to share alongside the more emotional stories. She’s been through a lot and there were many times I was fighting tears as my heart broke for what she went through. But what came through time and again is her indomitable strength and resilience in the face of everything. Her tenderness for most of those recalled in the book is in every word she writes, as does her distaste for those who, quite frankly, deserve it. 

I was born in 1979 and the world has changed dramatically in the time I’ve been alive. There’s things I remember being normal that are alien to my children, so it was interesting to read a memoir where even more has changed in that person’s lifetime and be reminded how recent it was that homosexuality was made legal, sexual attitudes changed, how differently women were viewed and the less options they had. For instance, she talks about how her mother had to put up with her lot in life when she found herself in an abusive marriage due to the social stigma of divorce. As someone who’s divorced an abusive husband this made me once again incredibly thankful it was in a time when there isn’t that stigma and people encourage you to become free of abusive relationships. 

I would highly recommend this book if you’re looking for a compelling, entertaining and quick read. It will make you laugh, make you angry, make you fight tears, but it will also teach you things and make you think. I would also recommend it for fans of things like Call The Midwife or Land Girls. I don’t read many memoirs but I’m glad I read this one and can’t wait for the follow up. 

Thank you to Jackie Skingley and John Hurt Publishing Ltd for the e-Book ARC in exchange for an honest review. 

Published December 14th.

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