prdgreads

Today I am on the tour for The Mark of Eternity by Murray Bailey, thank you to Murray himself for organising it and inviting me to take part and for providing me with a copy of the book.

Pages: 338

Synopsis: An ancient code. A deadly killer. A truth buried beneath the sands of time.

FBI Special Agent Charlie Rebb thought the Surgeon – a notorious serial killer – was a ghost from the past. But when a new series of murders erupts, each marked with strange, arcane symbols, the trail leads Rebb across continents to Egypt… and to a chilling revelation: the Surgeon has returned, and this time, his killings follow a pattern—one tied to a purpose more terrifying than anyone imagined.

Meanwhile, in Egypt, Alex MacLure has uncovered more encoded messages in ancient tablets. An ancient Egyptian was searching for a forgotten symbol. His name appears in a programme written by a brilliant AI student. The student reaches out with a wild theory – but before MacLure discovers the truth, he’s arrested for a murder he didn’t commit.

Thrown together by fate and hunted by forces beyond their understanding, Rebb and MacLure must unlock an ancient secret. They must stop the Surgeon before he unleashes a plan, millennia in the making.

My Thoughts: well he’s done it again, Murray has somehow written the perfect mix of a mystery thriller with a historical element, I can’t lie, sometimes the whole Egyptian history bit goes a little over my head, but then I get sucked in and caught up with Alex’s utter delight at working something out & I forget that I don’t actually understand what he’s talking about 😂

Charlie was a force to be reckoned with, she’s an FBI special agent with a coffee addiction and a smart mouth, she takes no prisoners and is not afraid to tell everyone how she feels even if that means ruffling some feathers as long as it means getting the job done.

What starts out feeling like separate stories in 2 different countries soon turns out to be connected, the question is can they work together to get to the truth before any more bodies turn up?

I will admit that I much preferred the chapters that involved Charlie, they just seemed to have more action and packed more of a punch, but in the other hand we absolutely needed the quieter chapters with more in depth details to really understand the story itself.

Another brilliant book that I read in 2 sittings (would have been one if I didn’t need to put it down to go to work 😂)

Really solidified for me why Murray is one of my favourite authors.

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Today I am on the tour for The Stolen Sister by Jan Baynham, thank you to Zoé at Zooloos Book Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part and thank you to the author and the publisher for my copy.

Pages: 386

Synopsis: Lost letters. A secret Greek love affair. A daughter’s search for the truth.

Crete, 1963. Young artist Greta Ellis arrives at the sun-soaked port of Fáros Limáni, ready to paint and explore the beautiful Greek island.

There she meets passionate local, Andreas Papadakis, and Greta is swept up in a world of colour, freedom and forbidden love. But when tragedy strikes, Greta is forced to make an impossible choice that will change the course of her life — and her heart — forever.

Wales, 1984. After the death of her beloved mother Greta, silversmith Zoë Carter receives a sealed letter that upends everything she thought she knew. Greta’s dying wish is for her ashes to be scattered in Crete, a place precious to her . . . but somewhere she had never spoken of.

Searching through her mother’s belongings, Zoë uncovers a series of letters. Written in Greek and dated the year before she was born, they reveal a passionate love affair. And a tragedy that tore it apart.

Determined to know the truth, Zoë travels to Crete to follow the trail left behind in her mother’s letters. Through the olive groves and whitewashed villages of Crete, she begins to piece together a story of love, betrayal and loss — and discovers that her family was never what it seemed.

My Thoughts: this was such a beautiful story of a girl trying to work out her past and where she’s come from. Zoé has grown up believing that she’s always lived in Wales, it’s all she’s ever known. Her father died when she was 3 and all she knows is his name was John, her mother refused to tell her anything else.

When her mum dies she asks Zoe to do one more thing, to scatter her ashes in Crete, the request confuses Zoe but she does as she’s asked, which leads into a whole new world of discovery. Between old letters and photographs Zoe soon learns that her whole life had been a lie, can she piece it all back together and feel like she belongs somewhere for the first time in a long time.

The writing in this book is beautiful, it flows so easily that before you know it you’re half way through and so invested that you can put it down.

We have 2 different timelines and 2 different perspectives, some of the chapters from Gretas POV were absolutely harrowing, made me want to jump in the book and right some wrongs, that poor woman, dealt with some pretty devastating things but it was all done in a really sensitive way, whilst also feeling so real that I found myself welling up on more than one occasion.

We do have a lot of lighthearted moments too & actually a lot of positivity which helped to break the story up.

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Today I am on the tour for Ponderstuff and the Dragon of Darkness by Stuart Brandt, thank you to Hannah at Hygge Book Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part and thank you to the author and the publisher for my copy.

Just going to address the elephant in the room for those of you who are eagle eyed.. no, I’m not on the poster I was a last minute addition, but I’ve put it up so you can follow the rest of the tour if you’d like to.

Pages: 294

Synopsis: Not your normal magical adventure.

On an ordinary school day, everything changes for shy teenager Autumn, when she hears an enchanting twinkling sound. Before she knows it, she is whisked off into a magical portal and is transported into Ponderstuff, a world of imagination that seems to be dying. To get home, Autumn must embark on a quest to seek out four imaginative relics that can summon the brave guardians who can then restore Ponderstuff back to life. But there’s a twist – she must navigate this adventure in a new body. As a stuffed bear!

Along the way, Autumn and her new quirky friends discover they are not the only ones on the hunt for the relics. As the shadows grow and the darkness infects Ponderstuff, the sinister Dragon of Darkness and her army of shapeshifting shadow minions are lurking around every corner. Will Autumn uncover the power of imagination from within, save Ponderstuff and prevent the darkness from spreading?

Discover the adventure that awaits in this whimsical tale of wonder, friendship and self-discovery.

My Thoughts: now I’ll be honest right from the start, I don’t often pick up middle grade books because at the age of 35 I am absolutely not the target audience, but when a friend reaches out asking for help you don’t say no!

Which coincidentally is an ongoing theme in this book, Michael and Autumn are both unhappy, for different reasons, but they’re not really able to be children anymore, they’ve had to grow up too fast & life is all of a sudden too serious.

For reasons unbeknownst to them they find themselves in Ponderstuff, a world that seems fun at first, but they soon realise that all is not as it seems and everyone is losing their imagination, there is someone or something stealing the relics and leaving everyone feeling lost and broken!

Along the way they find creatures to help them, moles, hippos, magical books and more.

I was totally swept up in the story & flew through the book. I laughed out loud & even almost shed a tear, I will definitely be interested to carry on if there happens to be another book in the series, I wasn’t really ready to say goodbye to them all! 😔

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Today I am on the tour for Tombstoning by Doug Johnstone, thank you to Anne at Random Things Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part and thank you to the author and the publisher for my copy.

Pages: 93

Synopsis: Your best mate just fell off a cliff in mysterious circumstances. You were the last person to see him alive. What do you do?

If you’re David Lindsay from Arbroath, you leg it – and don’t go back. Not for fifteen years.

Then Nicola Cruickshank – yes, that Nicola, the girl you always fancied but never had the guts to speak to – gets in touch. She wants you back for a school reunion. At the very place it happened. Of course you say yes. Not to lay ghosts to rest, but because you still fancy Nicola.

The thing is, if you are David Lindsay, then returning to Arbroath isn’t going to bring closure. Because when someone else tumbles off the cliffs – an act the locals now call tombstoning – David has a choice: run away again, or finally find out why people around him keep dying…

My Thoughts: I am a huge fan of Doug’s writing, so when I was given the opportunity to read his debut novel I jumped at the chance.

This one was brilliant, it’s dark, but with Doug’s usual humour woven throughout, which at times had me laughing out loud.

In this one we’re following David, who escaped his hometown after leaving school because something traumatic happened to one of his best friends and when people started pointing the finger at him he thought it was best to just be done with it.

It’s now 15 years later and he’s had an email from Nicola, an old school friend talking about a reunion the following week.

The panic and indecision he went through felt very real and relatable, u remember feeling the same way when we had a school reunion, you start doubting yourself & wondering what good can come from reliving your school days.

As always with Doug’s books, the background story is just as important as the main plot points, they really get you thinking and keep you engaged with the book.

The idea behind the story was simple, yet executed in a completely different way which leaves you feeling everything that the characters are feeling which is brilliant yet terrifying.

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Today I am on the tour for Catch The Flame by Juliana Stone, thank you to Zoé at Zooloos Book Yours for organising it and inviting me to take part and thank you to the author and the publisher for my copy.

Pages: 288

Synopsis:

🔥Small-town
🔥 Grumpy x Sunshine
🔥 Sizzling heat
🔥 Mystery
🔥 Forced Proximity
🔥 Brooding hero

I came to Fire Lake to outrun my past.

A broken-down car, an empty wallet and one loyal dog — that’s all I had when I stumbled into this small town I didn’t plan to stay in.

Then I met Gus.

Ex–Navy SEAL. Carpenter. Six-foot-five of trouble wrapped in muscle and quiet control. He’s the kind of man who can fix anything — except whatever’s broken inside him.

I tell myself I don’t care. But every time his gaze finds mine, my resolve cracks a little more.

His touch scorches. His kiss tastes like danger. And when he says my name, I forget every reason I ever had to run.

He’s not the kind of man you fall for — he’s the kind you burn for.

And I’m already going up in flames.

My Thoughts: this was EXACTLY what I needed at the time that I read it, I flew through this because everything was just so perfect I couldn’t put it down.

Faith finds herself Fire Lake by accident when her piece of junk car gives up on her and she needs to find somewhere for her and her dog Taco to stay the night, maybe 2 until she can get herself back on her feet, what she didn’t expect was a town full of residents that welcomed this newcomer with open arms who loved her dog just as much as she did, they do say everything happens for a reason.

Gus is grumpy, gorgeous and keeps himself to himself, but it didn’t take long for us to see his softer side, and let me tell you he is definitely swoon worthy. He cares, but he does so quietly he doesn’t shout about it which was enough to give me butterflies and I wasn’t even the focus of his attention! 😂

This is more than just a small town romance, it’s full of secrets, and characters with a lot of depth who actually know how to communicate which was refreshing.

I definitely didn’t need another romance series for me to become obsessed with but here we are, Fire Lake has hooked me in and I can’t wait to see what’s next. 🥰

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Thank you to Laury herself for a copy of Jenny Kidd in exchange for a review. I am so sorry in the delay in getting it up.

Pages: 183

Synopsis: While spending autumn in Venice, a young American artist, Jenny Kidd, hopes to create a portfolio of paintings to launch her career and establish her independence from her tyrannical father. At the Guggenheim Collection, she encounters Randi, a colorful British woman, who invites her to a masked ball at the Palazzo Barbon. There, she meets the seductive Caterina Barbon and her brother, Sebastiano, who entice Jenny into a world of glittering façades that cloak sexual perversion, art forgery, and murder. As Jenny struggles between her attraction to Caterina and her growing awareness that she is in danger, Jenny discovers an inner strength and spirit worthy of her infamous pirate ancestor.

My Thoughts: this book was strangely beautiful, the setting was gorgeous and the idea of Jenny gaining some freedom from her father whilst also enjoying creating her own work was really very intriguing.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t actually read the blurb of the book when Laury contacted me, I’d already enjoyed 2 of her books so it was one of the easiest yes’s I’ve given, so the fact that this turned out to be dark & twisted shocked me, I was expecting a nice almost literary fiction story of a young lady escaping and finding herself but it was so much more than that.

Jenny meets several people all who change her story in some way, all of them equally important.

As always the writing is beautiful, Laury really has a way with words that leaves you completely unable to put the book down until it’s finished.

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Today I am on the tour for Taken From Her Home by C.J. Grayson, thank you to Zoé at Zooloos Book Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part and thank you to the author and the publisher for my copy.

Pages: 374

Synopsis: Mary’s in the shower after a long day’s work when the lights go out. Her phone screen flashes in the dark. The text is from an unknown number:

‘You’re not alone in this room.’

When she wakes, her head is pounding and there’s a churning in the pit of her stomach. She’s lying naked on the cold hard floor of a room she’s never seen before. The door is locked.

There’s a deep cut across her thigh. The key to the door is sewn into her flesh. It’s the only way out of this room.

Detective April Fisher must race against time to catch a killer in a sick game of cat and mouse.

My Thoughts: C.J. Grayson is fast becoming one of my favourite thriller authors, o have read quite a few of his books now and every time he keeps me guessing.

Taken from her home definitely felt like things had been stepped up a bit, it was fast paced and the action never let up, it was very dark and twisted it even had me cringing at times and I’ve read a lot of dark books!

I love April as a character, she is strong willed, knows what she wants and is always willing to go the extra mile to get it, but also isn’t afraid to lean on her colleagues for support when needed.

This case is a sensitive one, it deals with a lot of tough topics, but with heads turning up in local libraries she’s needs to find the connection fast.

I think I enjoyed the goriness a little too much, I was so caught up in the story that I definitely sided with the “bad guy” for a lot of this one, as a disabled person the chapters set in the best almost took me back to my school days.

I can’t wait to read more in this series!

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Today I am on the tour for The Cut Up by Louise Welsh, thank you to Anne at Random Things Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part and thank you to the author and the publisher for my copy.

Pages: 321

Synopsis: It’s hard to be good when living is expensive. And times are tough on the streets these days. Luckily for Rilke at Bowery Auctions the demand for no-questions-asked cash is at an all-time high, and business is booming. 

When Rilke hears his old acquaintance Les is fresh out of prison, his inclination is to stay well out of his way. Letting sleeping dogs lie is one thing – but when one of Bowery’s customers winds up dead on their tarmac, Rilke needs a bit of help from his friends to tidy things up. If only his friends didn’t have such a habit of making things worse.

My Thoughts: I feel like maybe this is the wrong word to use for a crime thriller but I found this one to be a lot of fun! – I loved Rilke as a character, I found his personality changed depending on who he was around and what he was dealing with, he could be warm and kind but then on the other hand sassy and sarcastic, he really kept me on my toes!

This is the first book I have read in the series and although at times I felt like I’d missed out on a little of the back story I did find that it read absolutely fine as a stand alone!

Rilke is just shutting up the auction house when he finds a long term customer of theirs dead with a hat pin through his eye, the same hat pin that he knew his boss/best friend was wearing earlier in the day, so he does the unthinkable and gets rid of the evidence, not knowing that it will select off a whole new chain reaction that he will find himself in the middle of!

This was fast paced, with a bunch of characters that all took the story in a different direction but could have been equally culpable.

It had my head not knowing what direction the story was going in but having Rilkes constant presence almost helped to ground us so we didn’t lose the story!

Thoroughly enjoyed it & it’s made me want to read the rest of the series!

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Today I am on the tour for The Secretary by Deborah Lawrenson, thank you to Anne at Random Things Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part and thank you to the author and the publisher for my copy.

Pages: 322

Synopsis: Moscow, 1958. At the height of the Cold War, secretary Lois Vale is on a deep-cover MI6 mission to identify a diplomatic traitor. She can trust only one man: Johann, a German journalist also working covertly for the British secret service. As the trail leads to Vienna and the Black Sea, Lois and Johann begin an affair but as love grows, so does the danger to Lois.

A tense Cold War spy story told from the perspective of a bright, young, working-class woman recruited to MI6 at a time when men were in charge of making history and women were expendable.

My Thoughts: I thoroughly enjoyed this one, I always thought I wasn’t a fan of historical fiction, but I have since learnt that it depends entirely on how it’s told and the perspective it’s told from.

In this one we’re following Lois who has joined the MI6 to try and flush out a security leak that they have noticed in their ranks, she is sent to Moscow & is told to be careful but to get information in any way possible.

She’s young, she’s beautiful and appears quite innocent so quickly believes that she’ll be fine, she knows it won’t be easy but that it’ll be with the hard work.

She soon realises that things aren’t as they seem & finds herself not sure which side she is on, shes a double agent unable to tell who the bad guy is!

This book is full of characters, many of them strong women who are secretly keeping things going behind the scenes, one of my favourites was Nan, she was more observant than anyone else gave her credit for, but she was subtle too.

It did take me a while to get into this one, but once it hooked me it was really hard to put down, it’s full of secrets and lies and a little but of love too.

A beautiful story that is definitely with a read.

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Today I am on the tour for Six Weeks In January by Alan Pearson, thank you to Zoé at Zooloos Book Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part and thank you to the author and the publisher for my copy.

Pages: 246

Synopsis: Picture a man, a grown-up child, alone in a boat, surrounded by so many people, in his car, swimming through a stream, looking down on Oceans, fighting his way through swamps, whilst laying in his hospital bed, kidnapped by out of work, eastern European actors, choosing which door, waiting for a red can of coke cola while the hearse returns his mobile.
Holding your hand, he will sit you down and lead you through a vast array of different time zones and parts of the world, none of the scenarios will remain the same, but all have a common theme, none of which are of his own doing, but all come from deep down in the depths of his own sub-consciousness.
There is light and dark, up and down, confusion and mayhem, there is no chance of survival but everything to fight for. He will transport you from the first cough to the last stand via the wards, the morgue, the woods, the roads, the streams and seas, the bays and rays of the sun.
Each experience is a battle to survive just a bit longer, against an unseen foe, that we all came to loathe and fear, but you will join in the achievement of taking everything on and trying for the win, despite having the odds stacked greatly against us.
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This is the story of one persons unwanted, unrequested journey once induced into a medical coma, due to Covid19, and instead of his brain shutting down, as expected by the sedatives, it sprang immediately into an unending nightmare of experiences, yes, experiences, as that is exactly what he did, he believed he really was in each of these scenarios that he was plunged into.
The ‘dreams’, not an accurate description of them, but that is truly what they were, were weird beyond belief, horrific beyond compare, long and tedious, the boredom could be unrelenting but interspersed with the highs and lows of a full gambit of emotions.
These tales will remain front and centre of his memory for the rest of his days.

My Thoughts: this is such a hard book to review, because who am I to have an opinion on what Alan went through. That being said what I can say is what a brave thing for him to do to document it for everyone else to read, I can’t imagine the emotions he must have gone through to almost experience it all again for a second time.

Some of his visions and experiences almost read like very vivid stories, sometimes being incredibly dark, which must have been terrifying.

I was absolutely fascinated though & I couldn’t put the book down.

At times this is a really hard read, but one that is absolutely worth the time to read it if you’re able to.

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