Author: Patricegotting

Today I am on the tour for The Wartime Book Club by Kate Thompson, 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: 446

Synopsis: Jersey, 1943. Once a warm and neighbourly community, now German soldiers patrol the cobbled streets, imposing a harsh rule on the people of the island.

Grace La Mottée, the island’s only librarian, is ordered to destroy books which threaten the new regime. Instead, she hides the stories away in secret. Along with her headstrong best friend, postwoman Bea Rose, she wants to fight back. So she forms the wartime book club: a lifeline, offering fearful islanders the joy and escapism of reading.

But as the occupation drags on, the women’s quiet acts of bravery become more perilous – and more important – than ever before. And, when tensions turn to violence, they are forced to face the true, terrible cost of resistance . . .

Based on astonishing real events, The Wartime Book Club is a love letter to the power of books in the darkest of times – as well as a moving page-turner that brings to life the remarkable, untold story of an island at war.

My Thoughts: now if you’ve been following my blog for long enough you will know that historical fiction isn’t really my thing, but sometimes the odd one just speaks to me, the wartime book club was one of them and oh am I glad I read it.

The book itself is fiction but very cleverly has real people and real stories woven in throughout, you’ll have to read the authors notes at the end to work out which ones, but it was utterly seamless!

This book made me cry, several times, but it also made me laugh, made me smile and had me feeling like I was part of the community too, the story real just draws you in and doesn’t let you go until the very last sentence.

To know that the stuff you’re reading about actually happened is utterly heartbreaking, you could tell the book was very well researched!

Grace and Bea were incredible main characters who both did their own bit to fight back, even when times got near enough impossible they didn’t give up.

Although the subject matter is a hard one, I would 100% recommend picking this book up if you get the opportunity, it’s one that will stay with you long after you’ve finished it!

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Hi hi 👋🏼

Today I’m here to tell you all about The Only Ones Left by K.E. Jennings which is now available to preorder!!

Pages: 263

Synopsis: Malia lives with Cole, her little boy. They are always together and live a very quiet life because absolutely everyone else is the world has gone, including Malia’s beloved husband Josh. Malia can’t think too deeply about what has happened, or why she and Cole are the only people left on the planet. The thought scares her, so she lives what she perceives to be a ‘normal’ existence until one day, she is messaged by someone on defunct social media channels. In a desperate attempt to connect to this man, Malia strikes up an online friendship with Ian, in Australia. That’s when even more strange and unnatural things start to happen. Dark entities and crows begin to threaten Malia and Cole’s very existence, which Malia desperately tries to cling onto while Ian is trying to get to her and her son. Will he make it? Will Malia and Cole survive and who are the dark entities that threaten the only ones left?

The Only Ones Left is the debut novel of K.E. Jennings, who signed for Provoco in 2023. More books from this talented author are planned in the near future.

The book is released on the 28th March 2024 and can be bought here! It will also be available on Kindle Unlimited!

I can’t wait to be part of the tour for this one!

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Pages: 352

Synopsis: ‘Dark Truth’, the second in a series of three novels, is a suspenseful mystery thriller full of intrigue that will leave you guessing right until the very end. Private investigator Joe Wilde is hired by Tom and Marie Archer to investigate the disappearance of their six-year-old daughter Laura. Joe also takes on an unusual case for a client by the name of Jack Riley. Jack believes he was framed to make it look like he was cheating on his fiancée Claire Brooks. Claire has been the target of disturbing vandalism. As Joe helps the police investigate Laura’s disappearance, he uncovers disturbing secrets concerning the Archers and some of their neighbours. Meanwhile the attacks on Claire become more extreme. Fearing for her life, Claire also hires Joe. As Joe continues to investigate, he puts himself in great danger.

My Thoughts: we all know I like my crime thrillers full of suspense, dark and twisty and that is exactly what this one gave me! – I bloody loved it!

I will say though I can’t have read the synopsis properly when the author approached me asking if I would like a copy in exchange for an honest review because I didn’t realise this was the second in a trilogy.. that being said though I did feel like this could be read as a stand-alone, I was just missing the initial introductions to Joe which meant it took me a while to warm to him!

He now has his own PI Business that isn’t quite off the ground yet so when he gets offered to very different cases that could not only end up being very lucrative money wise but also business wise in getting his name out there who is he to refuse?!

The chapters are short, snappy and engaging which helped to not only keep my focus throughout, but it also made this a book that I really struggled to put down.. I needed to know what happened to Laura & who was the one targeting Laura!

The book deals with some very difficult subjects in a very sensitive way, which is always refreshing for a reader to see, it shows that the writer has not only done their research but that they care!

I will be looking out for more from C.D. Steele in the future, he’s definitely an author that you all want to have on your radar!

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Today I am on the tour for The Au Pair by Jane Renshaw, 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: 352

Synopsis: The Davidsons seem like a normal family. But they do have one little secret…

American student Alice Snyder was excited to be spending the summer in Scotland, working as an au pair for the Davidson family at their remote lodge. But one month after she arrived, Alice disappeared without trace.

Now the new au pair, Melanie, has arrived – and soon notices that the Davidsons are a bit odd. There’s the strange comings and goings at night, the creepy paying guests, and sinister uncle Gray who makes her flesh crawl.

And then there’s the worrying scratch marks on the floor of the au pair’s bedroom. Did Alice try to barricade herself in? What could she have been so afraid of? Are the Davidsons somehow linked to her disappearance? And is Melanie herself now in danger?

As she desperately tries to find out what happened to Alice, Melanie begins to understand that this old house harbours a truly horrifying secret. Alice was its last victim, but she might be its next…

My Thoughts: this one was a one sitting read for me, I couldn’t put it down!

There was tension, suspense, secrets, lies and red herrings galore there was literally no way of knowing which was the story was going.

It’s told in multiple timelines from different perspectives and we all know that’s my favourite type of thriller, it gives you a well rounded look at the story as it unfolds whilst cleverly hiding hints to the upcoming twists throughout!

There were possibilities when it came to Alice and what had happened to her that my head just kept going round in circles, Melanie was also another one that threw me off kilter a little whilst reading, I was constantly wondering if she was somehow involved in Alice’s disappearance or if she knew more than she was letting on!

Parts of this book had me feeling really uncomfortable in the best possible way, I really enjoyed it and it’s one I would highly recommend to fans of psychological thrillers!

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Today I am on the tour for An Honest Living by Dwyer Murphy, thank you to Anne at Random Things Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part.

Pages: 289

Synopsis: Brooklyn, mid-2000s. After leaving behind the comforts of a prestigious law firm, a restless attorney attempts to make ends meet by picking up odd jobs from a colourful assortment of clients. When the mysterious Anna Reddick turns up at his apartment with ten thousand dollars in cash and asks him to track down her missing husband, he trusts it will be an easy case. That is until the real Anna Reddick shows up – a magnetic but unpredictable literary prodigy – and he finds himself out of his depth and drawn into a series of deceptions involving Joseph Conrad novels, unscrupulous booksellers and seedy real estate developers.

Set against the tail end of the analogue era, An Honest Living is a gripping story of artistic ambition, obsession, and the small crimes we commit against one another every day.

My Thoughts: this was an interesting book in that, as you’re reading it, it feels like you’re just going through the motions of someone’s life and not a lot is happening, but it slowly draws you in and before you know it you’re knee deep in secrets and lies with no way out!

The main character is never actually named or really described past being identified as a male which I thought was very clever as it left open to the readers interpretation! – unless I missed something somewhere 😅

Lots of interesting characters who all add something different to the story but there was one in particular that our main character was drawn back to repeatedly!

I’ll be honest and say this isn’t my normal kind of book, I like my crime fiction fast paced and hard hitting. But it’s definitely worth a read if you’re looking for something a little slower where the point of the book is the story itself as a whole, it’s intriguing and something you will find yourself invested in.

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Today I am on the tour for The Trigger Man by Aiden Bailey and I have a spotlight for you, thank you to Zoé at Zooloos Book Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part.

Pages: 372

Synopsis: He’s a good guy who kills bad guys for a living.

CIA operative Mark Pierce is a trained killer with a strict moral code – he only targets those who truly deserve to die. So he has no qualms about taking out Victor Vautrin, an international arms dealer supplying fanatical terrorists in West Africa who may soon trigger a brutal civil war.

But when he is tasked with other objectives – rescue kidnapped tourists, recover eleven million dollars of stolen CIA money – it quickly becomes clear to Pierce that someone doesn’t want him to succeed in his primary mission.

Pierce makes a decision – if the game is rigged, he won’t play by the rules. He goes rogue, crossing the hellish Sahara in relentless pursuit of his target, Vautrin.

And comes face to face with a terrifying conspiracy – not to stop the war, but to start it. Powerful players are behind this chilling plan which will cost thousands of lives – and now only Pierce can stop them.

Unless they kill him first.

About The Author:

Aiden Bailey is an international bestselling thriller author from Australia. Formerly an engineer, he built a career marketing multi-national technology, engineering, and construction companies. His various roles have included corporate communications with the Australian Submarine Corporation, technical writing for several defence contractors, engineering on an outback petroleum pipeline, a magazine editor and art director, and engineering proposal writer for the Royal Australian Air Force’s surveillance and intelligence gathering aircraft and drone enabling works. Aiden has travelled widely in six continents and his experiences are the basis of many of his stories.

If you like the sound of this it can be bought here!

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Today I am on the tour for Last Chance in Paris by Lynda Marron and I have a spotlight for you. Thank you to Tracy at Compulsive Readers for organising it and inviting me to take part.

Pages: 284

Synopsis: When her husband suggests a romantic break, Claire feels obliged to say yes but immediately regrets it. After the tragedy they’ve been through, how can one weekend in Paris save their marriage?

Claire and Ronan aren’t the only people on a make-or-break visit to the City of Love. There is a big-shot movie producer from Hollywood, full of regret for a life ill-lived; a student from Boston, torn between love and duty; a Ukrainian refugee struggling to protect her little sister; and an old woman from Dijon, hoping to be braver than she has ever had to be before.

When their lives briefly intertwine, something extraordinary happens…

About The Author: Lynda Marron was born in Dublin and spent her early childhood in a small town called Prosperous in Co. Kildare. At the age of nine she moved to Cork. She has not yet mastered the language.

In her teens, she learned that reading curbed her anxiety, and that writing swept it clean away. Thus began her addiction to ink.

Lynda graduated from University College Cork in the mid-nineties with two degrees in microbiology, neither of which brought her any closer to her dream of writing a novel. She opted for the longer route, the Life Experience Creative Writing Course, which included teaching English to Italian teenagers, filing letters in a GP’s surgery, writing listicles for an online bookseller, and a twenty-five year module called Read
All the Books.

She has made and raised four lovely humans, each of whom she taught to read. When she isn’t busy writing her second novel, you’ll find her reading, not weeding, in her rewilded garden. Her greatest ambition is to one day plant a forest, or even just an oak.

Last Chance in Paris is her debut novel.

If you like the sound of this it can be bought here!

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Pages: 424

Synopsis: AIDA
I’ve endured fifteen years of underwhelming marital sex with Lord John Russell.
One front-page tell-all from his secretary puts an end to that misery pretty efficiently.
As the media furore rages around our divorce, two things become abundantly clear.
One. It’s time for some decent orgasms.
Which is why I’ve joined the Unfurl programme at London’s top sex club, Alchemy.
Two. It’s time to take control of the narrative. For myself and for other women.
And that’s why I plan to document my sexual revolution on camera.

CAL
Sexy AF celebrity, Aida Russell, is looking for a mentor on her journey to reclaim her sexuality.
As co-founder of London’s most exclusive sex club, I’m her man.
I’ll make her come.
Make her forget.
Untether her from the constraints of her past.
I warn her at the outset not to get emotionally attached. I don’t do commitment.
But when she begins to revel in the new-found liberty I helped her find, I’m the one who struggles.
I should be proud. Relieved.
Job done, right?
But the higher she soars, the more attached I get.

Untether is a spicy reverse age gap romance (10 years’ age gap) where he falls first. It’s full of the searing heat levels, glamour, and mega-feels you’ve come to expect from the Alchemy series.

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Review: welll.. I think Cal might just be my favourite Alchemy founder. 😩🥺

I started this book feeling this book was a little different to the others, there was less sex, well not necessarily less, but it was later in the book it started, but boy was it worth it!

It was hot, steamy & very intense, but it all made for fantastic reading 😂 the chemistry between the two was off the charts & let me tell you the bloke who we all thought wasn’t one for settling down, fell first and fell hard, he was very aware of Aida’s wants and needs & was very gentlemanly in the way he looks after her feelings. I just wanted to wrap him up and give him a bloody big cuddle.

Aida was a lady who knew what she wanted & went after it, but in a very public way to show women that it’s ok to still want good sex in their 40’s.. everyone sees her as a force to be reckoned with & for the most part she is, but she has a vulnerable softer side that Cal seems to bring out of her.

Some of the role play on this book was just spot on 👌🏼👌🏼 it’s not my tastes but something about seeing a woman finally admit her sexual desires and receive them with no judgement from the other party just hit the spot, I was almost cheering them on 😅

Although these books do read as stand alone’s I do think you need to start from the beginning to appreciate the growth in all the characters.

Well done Elodie for surpassing my expectations once again.

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Today I am on the tour for Hurt Runs Within by Zoltan Vincze, 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: 300

Synopsis: Afghanistan, 2012. Mackay Connolly has been medically discharged from the British army following an IED explosion killing three members of his team. He barely survives. To keep Mackay alive, a cutting-edge synthetic bone structure called Phragazom is implanted.

Back in the UK, PTSD engulfs him, leading to a deep depression. However, a budding friendship with Renee Cross, a wheelchair-bound military boxing instructor with her own traumatic past brings a glimmer of hope.

When tragedy strikes again and Mackay’s brother and most of his family are killed at an Australian winery, he is driven to uncover the truth and find his surviving nephew. Together, Mackay and Renee embark on a quest, travelling from one corner of the world to the other to bring those responsible to justice. Mackay, however, has no idea how powerful his synthetic upgrade really is…

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: well this one was bloody brilliant, I wasn’t sure if I’d like it.. I totally judged the book by the cover and I was convinced it was going to be too heavy for me, but boy was I wrong.. although I will say the first couple of chapters were very medical explanation heavy which did put me off slightly

Mackay is a force to be reckoned with, especially with his fancy new bone structure it almost makes him superhuman 🤣

Renee is quite possibly my favourite fictional character ever, as a disabled woman myself, it’s always brilliant when the representation is not only positive but absolutely blew my expectations out of the water, she’s strong independent and an absolute badass!

This book is one hell of a wild ride that will make you laugh, possibly make you cry and also have you on the edge of your seat..

I’ve been very vague with this review but their are reasons, trust me and just pick it up and give it a read.

I will be looking out for more books by Zoltan in the future.

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Today I am on the tour for Death Flight by Sarah Sultoon, 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: 300

Synopsis: Cub reporter Jonny Murphy is in Buenos Aires interviewing families of victims of Argentina’s Dirty War, when a headless torso has washed up on a city beach, thrusting him into a shocking investigation…

Argentina. 1998. Human remains are found on a beach on the outskirts of Buenos Aires – a gruesome echo of when the tide brought home dozens of mutilated bodies thrown from planes during Argentina’s Dirty War. Flights of death, with passengers known as the Disappeared.

International Tribune reporter Jonny Murphy is in Buenos Aires interviewing families of the missing, desperate to keep their memory alive, when the corpse turns up. His investigations with his companion, freelance photographer Paloma Glenn, have barely started when Argentina’s simmering financial crisis explodes around them.

As the fabric of society starts to disintegrate and Argentine cities burn around them, Jonny and Paloma are suddenly thrust centre stage, fighting to secure both their jobs and their livelihoods.

But Jonny is also fighting something else, an echo from his own past that he’ll never shake, and as it catches up with him and Paloma, he must make choices that will endanger everything he knows…

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: this is the second book in The Jonny Murphy series, now this reads as a standalone, but I did miss the introductions to the main characters, but you soon get to learn their personalities!

I didn’t know anything about the dirty war so this was a real eye opener for me, I was fascinated and horrified at the same time, there was layers upon layers and just when you think it doesn’t go any deeper something else happens.

As I was reading it I had to keep reminding myself that it was based on real life events because it was just so shocking, the story was absolutely relentless, the pace is fast and the dangers are constant!

The twist with Paloma threw me for a loop completely, although looking back there was small hints throughout the book that could’ve been followed like a trail left by Hansel and Gretel..

I will definitely be picking up more books from Sarah in the future!

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