Author: Patricegotting

Today I am helping to close the tour for The Cornish Christmas Book Club by Angela Britnell, 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: 283

Synopsis: ’Tis the season for second chances — and unexpected chapters . . .

Talented baker Tamara Pascoe has spent years saving every penny and perfecting her recipes in the hopes of opening her own café in the cosy village of Penworthal.

But her dream is suddenly out of reach when the perfect location is snapped up by newcomer Gage Bennet — a brooding ex-Marine with plans to open a bookshop.

Gage has no time for pleasantries, let alone Christmas spirit. But he didn’t count on Tamara — sharp, stubborn and brimming with festive cheer.

When the village book club throws them together, Gage realises they might just be able to help one another. Tamara needs a job. He needs help connecting with the community.

Striking a reluctant truce, Tamara and Gage’s frosty beginning starts to melt as they bond over their shared love of books.

While snow begins to fall and the fairy lights twinkle, could a little Cornish book club help two opposites write their own happily ever after?

My Thoughts: every now and again I just love me a cosy romance, it’s almost like a palette cleanser between the smut and the crime that I read… and when you add in Christmas you honestly just can’t go wrong.

In this one the main focus of the story is Tamara and Gage, they both have their eye on the perfect property in Penworthal to fulfil their respective dreams.. Gage was quicker off the mark purely because all of Tamara’s carefully laid plans fell through because let’s be honest you can’t always predict life and it likes to throw you curveballs from time to time.

In a surprising turn of events they end up working together to help get Gages dream bookshop off the ground because he has an accident and can’t do it all himself and as much as she’d like to dislike him for taking away her dream, she finds she has a soft spot for him… could he feel the same?

It was lovely being back with this bunch of loveable characters that make you laugh out loud at times, and we even get updates on the characters we met in the previous book.

This has everything you could possibly want from a small village Christmas romance, it really felt like being wrapped in a warm blanket and it had a real sense of community which made me feel all warm inside.

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Today I am on the tour for Hell Hath No Fury by Geoff Major, thank you to Zoé at Zooloos Book Tours for organising it & inviting me to take part and thank you to the author and the publisher for my copy.

Pages: 393 

Synopsis: They changed her life forever. Did they really think they could get away with it?

Evie Perry was a high-class escort whose way of life was abruptly and cruelly shattered by two drunken men. Stella Kendrick’s husband committed suicide and left her with a legal battle and a debt of £6m, but he leaves her a message with the names of three men on it. Daniella Maddox is a world-class barrister, assigned to an indefensible case for a corrupt client, but one she must win to save her own life. Unbeknownst to them, fate has woven their lives into a twisted web.

Detective Sergeant Alan Armitage is mystified when he attends the scene of a triple murder, but he is very quickly joined in his hunt for the killer by Detective Sergeant Steve Denton from The Met, and Detective Sergeant Bob Williams from North Yorkshire CID. Along with Detective Constable Rachael Jones, they have to uncover who the murderer is and why they are killing people across the country. Their task is made even more difficult because a criminal known to most simply as The Broker gets closer to banking millions every time his team commits another murder.

My Thoughts: I have been eagerly awaiting the release of Geoffs next book since reading deadline as part of the blog tour in 2020 & let me tell you this one is absolutely worth the wait! 

The tension is oozing from the page from the start and absolutely impossible to put down! 

Twists and turns everywhere and absolutely full of red herrings, I thought I had it worked out multiple times just to be proved wrong at every turn. 

We’re following a group of friends who have agreed to always be there for each other in whatever way any of them needs.. pooling resources and money where necessary.. one by one these friends and their families all turn up dead & seemingly the only thing linking the murders is the lottery ticket left in each of their mouths. 

Full of secrets, lies and some badass female masterminds, this goes down as one of the most complex thrillers I’ve ever read but it honestly kept me on my toes throughout. 

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Today I am on the tour for The Twin Sister by Yvette Davies, 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: 318

Synopsis: I took my twin sister’s life. By life, I mean I replaced her. Is my new baby worth the price? 

I’m Beth. Or I was, until the crash.

I’m a woman clinging to the frayed edges of a failing marriage. We’ve been trying for a baby for ten years now, and the strain of it all is destroying us.

My twin sister Cate has everything I’ve ever wanted — three perfect children, an adoring husband, a beautiful home.

The world revolves around her. I’m the paler, watered-down version.

Then comes the accident. A twisted wreck on the motorway. A single, devastating moment.

And a choice.

They thought I was my twin sister. And I didn’t correct them.

Now I’m living her life. Sleeping in her bed. Raising her child . . . But someone knows what I’ve done.

My Thoughts: this book was fantastic, eerie & creepy yet weirdly you get why Beth has done what she’s done.

After all, she didn’t cause the crash but yet if she pretends to be her sister she’ll get everything she’s ever wanted, and really nobody gets hurt, right? Apart from her husband , but if she’s honest it already feels like he has one foot out of the door already.

Just when Beth thinks she’s got away with it, she gets a feeling that someone knows, turns out Cate was keeping secrets of her own and it could cause everything to unravel.. she can’t let that happen.. Ted needs his mummy!

This is Yvette’s debut novel and if this is her first one it makes me excited for what she has in store for the future!

I absolutely flew through this because I wouldn’t allow myself to put it down, I needed to know if Beth succeeded in fooling everyone!

You could cut the atmosphere in this book with a knife at times, I even found myself looking behind me several times whilst reading, the book just had me feeling like I was being watched, like I was the one keeping secrets.

Highly recommend!

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Today I am on the tour for No Safe Place To Hide by Murray Bailey, thank you to Murray himself for organising it, inviting me to take part and for my copy of the book.

Pages: 338

Synopsis: A gripping noir thriller that exposes the dark heart of a nation in turmoil.

Journalist Martin Gillie has vanished, and his wife wants him found. It seems like a straightforward case for newly arrived Ash Carter. But in post-war Philippines, nothing is ever straightforward.

Carter follows a trail that leads from the smoky boxing rings of Manila to the rebel-haunted provinces. And as Carter digs, with each uncovered clue, the stakes rise higher. The police can’t be trusted. The military has its own agenda.
Carter begins to wonder: Is Martin Gillie hiding from something—or someone? And if Carter finds him, will either of them live to tell the story?

My Thoughts: it was honestly such a joy to be back in the world of Ash Carter, reminded me why I fell in love with Murray’s writing in the first place, don’t get me wrong I have loved everything he has written but this one almost felt like coming home again.

Yet again Ash seems to find himself caught up in something that he has no business with, but we all know he just can’t help himself, he’s a big believer in justice even if it’s in a different way to how we see it.

He goes to the Philippines, it’s meant to be just a quick stopover until he runs into an old friend, he’s a but worse for wear and Ash just wants to get him on the right track again.. then in comes a lady asking for help, her husbands missing.

Little did ash know this would start him on a journey that goes a lot deeper than he first thought, everyone is corrupt and he’s not sure who he can trust besides Wolfe and maybe Hilary.

I thoroughly enjoyed this one, it has all the action we’ve become accustomed to with Murray’s writing, but this one felt different, there was a lot of heart and a lot of of friendship and elements of found family too.

I can’t wait to see where this series goes next.

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Today I am on the tour for Genes Don’t Lie by Zetta Thomelin, 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: 180

Synopsis: Genes Don’t Lie examines the impact of secrets exposed after a DNA test reveals much more than expected. It begins as a narrative drawing the reader into the story, charting a journey of discovery, then moves into a plan for treatment and support, assisting the reader to make peace with their own story. We learn through stories and sometimes we need to recreate our own. 

With the cheap availability of DNA testing, people are stumbling into knowledge unprepared in unprecedented numbers and there is little help available. Who you think you are is a fragile edifice which can be so easily shattered, yet this sense of identity is vital to our resilience and well-being. This book addresses topics like identity, anger, belonging, grief, shame and family secrets which can affect us all.

My Thoughts: I loved this book, part memoir, part therapy/self help.

The first 3rd of the book was Zetta’s story with how after losing her dad she discovered she had a younger sister, not only that but that she’d actually known her her whole life as she was the daughter of family friends. Reading about her experience & how raw and honest she was regarding her emotions and actions throughout the whole process actually left a lump in my throat. My dad always used to joke about having “only 5 kids that he knew of” but I couldn’t imagine more coming out of hiding after we lost him in 2022.

The rest of the book was how to deal with certain parts of the journey of discovering DNA secrets, I liked how rounded this was because life is never just one sided.

It gave you questions to answer or to really think about to make you reflect

This book will probably stay with me for a long time.

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Today I am on the tour for Thrill Kill by Cameron Curtis, 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: 248

Synopsis: A defector on the run. A faceless assassin. Breed’s toughest mission.

When CIA operator Anya Stein offers Breed a job in Vienna, he arrives just in time to save her from Russian assassins led by a deadly blonde in dark sunglasses.

Stein explains the mission: protect defecting rocket scientist Dieter Kromik, who holds the secret to Russia’s devastating Oreshnik missile – a conventional weapon that delivers a nuclear-sized punch.

The Russians already have elite teams on the ground – and they’ll do whatever it takes to find and kill Kromik. Spetsnaz teams and the enigmatic assassin Strelko hunt them through the streets of Vienna and escape seems impossible. Their only hope lies with the Magnificent Strang, an aging Cold War-era magician who once smuggled fugitives across the Iron Curtain.

With his beautiful granddaughter Liesl, Strang guides the group on a deadly journey from Vienna to Prague to Berlin. Outnumbered and outgunned at every turn, Breed fights a running battle across Europe as the body counts rises.

The bloody finale awaits in a smoky Berlin nightclub, where Breed and Stein must use every one of their lethal skills – and a few of Strang’s illusions – to survive against impossible odds.

My Thoughts: this is book 12 in the breed thriller series & although yes they can be read as standalones easily enough, you won’t understand a lot of the comments about the past and previous missions.

As always this book was action packed from the get go and never really stops, this time him and stein find themselves caught up in a bit of trouble and have to disappear in order to survive, there seems to be a bounty on their head.

They get help from an illusionist and things seem like they’re going well until all hell breaks loose, because obviously it wouldn’t be a Breed thriller if he didn’t nearly die more than once 😂

Fast paced, full of violence and weapons, even a little bit of love too!

Highly recommend this series, it never fails to hit the mark for me!

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Today I am on the tour for SnowBlind 10th anniversary edition by Ragnar Jónasson, 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: 476

Synopsis: SNOWBLIND

Siglufjörður: an idyllically quiet fishing village in Northern Iceland, where no one locks their doors – accessible only via a small mountain tunnel. Ari Thór Arason: a rookie policeman on his first posting, far from his girlfriend in Reykjavik – with a past that he’s unable to leave behind. When a young woman is found lying half-naked in the snow, bleeding and unconscious, and a highly esteemed, elderly writer falls to his death in the local theatre, Ari is dragged straight into the heart of a community where he can trust no one, and secrets and lies are a way of life.

An avalanche and unremitting snowstorms close the mountain pass, and the 24-hour darkness threatens to push Ari over the edge, as curtains begin to twitch, and his investigation becomes increasingly complex, chilling and personal. Past plays tag with the present and the claustrophobic tension mounts, while Ari is thrust ever deeper into his own darkness – blinded by snow, and with a killer on the loose.

Taut and terrifying, Snowblind is a startling debut from an extraordinary new talent, taking Nordic Noir to soaring new heights.

FADEOUT – NEW!

When Ari Thór Arason receives a staggeringly high bill for a foreign credit card that was taken out in his name, his life takes a turn he never anticipated. The bill in question belongs to his namesake – his father, who disappeared under mysterious circumstances when Ari was only a child.

Seeking answers, Ari Thór travels to London to investigate, hoping to learn the truth about what happened to his father all those years ago, and discovering far more than he could ever have imagined…

My Thoughts: this is my first dive into Ragnars work although I know he’s a very popular well loved author!

I really enjoyed this one, it’s dark and chilling & not just because of the setting, I felt weirdly uncomfortable all the way through & couldn’t put my finger on why, the writing just had a way of working its way into your bones & you felt everything.

Ari has just moved to a village as a rookie policeman, everyone in this village knows each other so as a newcomer he stands out like a sore thumb, no one trusts him despite him being a police officer because he’s new and doesn’t yet know the way the village works, as you can imagine everything gets worse for him when he finds a last unconscious with no hint as to how or why she got there.

It feels like everything is against him and when another body turns up he’s left wondering if he made the right decision to move in the first place… but for now the avalanche and snow storm have left him with no way out!

The story had me hooked right from the beginning but I think it helped that I had read Fade Out first because it gave me Ari’s back story with Kristin and everything that had lead up to him wanting to be a police officer, I was on the edge of my seat throughout both of these stories, I wanted the best for Ari, I found myself feeling sorry for him and wanting to wrap him up in a hug and for him to know he wasn’t alone.

I will definitely be picking up more from Ragnar in the future when (if) my TBR isn’t so full!

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Pages: 475

Synopsis: My new billionaire boss has driven three assistants to quit in tears this year alone.

Everyone warns me that Ethan Kingsley is “profoundly complex.”

But I see right through him. He’s a walking textbook on emotional dysregulation, numbing himself with workouts, alcohol, and sex.

He’s destroyed his marriage, alienated his teenage son, and built walls so high that no one can reach him.

Lucky for him, I don’t do walls.

I work for Seraph, an elite agency placing accomplished women with men who need “full service” executive assistants and will pay obscene amounts for the privilege.

My job? Manage his stress. His schedule. His… everything.

I can handle the Ice King billionaire with the devastating looks and even more devastating control issues. That’s easy.

What I didn’t plan for? The man underneath the armour.

Because when he finally lets me in – when I see the terrified little boy still hiding inside the ruthless CEO – everything changes.

He needs to choose between the empire his father built and the son he’s losing.

Between the legacy he inherited and the man he could become.

And somehow, I’ve become the person he trusts to help him figure out which version of himself is worth fighting for.

The problem is, I’m falling for both versions.

Vivacity is a standalone billionaire single dad, grumpy/sunshine workplace romance featuring opposites attracting, found family, and a hero who learns that vulnerability is the ultimate power move. HEA guaranteed.

My Thoughts: I am starting to believe there is no end to this ladies writing talents.. she just writes the most perfect grumpy male character that you love to hate until you actually love him & believe me when I say that Ethan Kingsley is the most troubled one yet.

He’s angry, he’s grumpy, he’s switched off from anything but work, but you get hints of his vulnerability from the start, small little openings until he realises and shuts it down again. I have never wanted to hug someone more, you could tell that he just needed love and affection but wasn’t willing to accept it, so used his sexual prowess to distract instead!

This is where Sophia comes in, she is a Seraph. An executive assistant who goes all out to give her boss whatever they need & she’s just agreed to work for Ethan despite him sending some of her colleagues running for the hills in tears.. she knows she can get through to him & that she will have a lot of fun along the way.

As far as FMC’s go Sophia was a total badass, she’s strong enough to take whatever is thrown at her & secure enough in herself to know that none of it is a reflection on her, can she get this infuriating man to start dealing with his past and his parts before they consume him and take his relationship with his son with them?

This book was honestly beautiful, everything was dealt with sensitively but not pussy footed around and I really appreciated that. You are in for a rollercoaster of emotions with this one but I promise the ride will be worth it.

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Today I am on the tour for Infinite Stranger by Wendy Skorupski, thank you to Zoé at Zooloos Book Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part and thank ou to the author and the publisher for my copy.

Pages: 414

Synopsis: On a snowy February morning in 1978, eighteen-year-old Leah Cavanagh meets Brother Matthew Haddon while on a retreat with her Catholic girls’ school. The four days she spends at Greystones Abbey in the wilds of North Yorkshire will have a profound impact not only on her own life, but also on that of her single mother Molly, who never recovered from the murder of her fiancé in 1956.

Leah and Matthew start writing to each other. Soon a tentative friendship develops, with a hint of more. The longing that Leah feels is shared vicariously by Molly, who sees something of her late fiancé in a photograph that Leah shows her of the handsome young monk. When Leah leaves home to study at music college, her feelings for Matthew deepen and she has difficulty committing to other relationships.

Over the coming years Leah keeps returning to Greystones Abbey, spurred by her infatuation for Matthew. The forbidden desire between them grows in intensity with each visit, until it seems impossible that the monk’s vows of chastity will remain unbroken. Soon Leah finds herself unable to break free – neither from her controlling mother, nor her enigmatic yet tortured monk – and realizes that choices will have to be made.

My Thoughts: this was one of the most complex romance books I’ve ever read, because it spans such a long period of time, but also I guess because it wasn’t the only theme to the book, a big part of it was Leah’s relationship with her mum and how that has changed/developed over the years.

The book was so hard to put down because no matter what Leah did in her life, the people she met, the relationships she had throughout her life, she was always drawn back to brother Matthew at Greystones Abbey.. probably not helped by her mother who can’t seem to let Leah make her own decisions and reminds her of Brother Matthew and their “true love” at every moment possible, I remember thinking it was sweet and first and then it got pushy and made me feel incredibly uncomfortable.

The story had so many layers and made me feel so many emotions that it was hard to keep track, one second I’d be laughing and the next I’d be welling up, the writing had a haunted quality that left me captivated throughout & the fact that is based on true events makes it even more incredible.

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Today I am part of the Blogathon for My Girl by Jack Jordan, thank you to Tracy at Compulsive Readers Blog Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part and thank you to the author and the publisher for my copy.

Pages: 250

Synopsis: Paige Dawson: the mother of a murdered child and wife to a dead man.

She has nothing left to live for… until she finds her husband’s handgun hidden in their house.

Why did Ryan need a gun? What did he know about their daughter’s death?

Desperate for the truth, Paige begins to unearth her husband’s secrets.

But she has no idea who she is up against, or that her life isn’t hers to gamble – she belongs to me.

My Thoughts: I literally have no idea how this man writes thrillers that are so sick and twisted yet entirely plausible and realistic at the same time!

This time we’re following Paige, who’s daughter was murdered when she was 14, the body was never recovered though, just one arm, not able to cope with the loss of his daughter a few years later Paige’s husband ends his life, now Paige is in the depths of depression & addicted to prescription drugs and alcohol, the only people she had left are her dad and her brother Maxim who are both starting to lose hope at Paige will ever be able to pull herself together!

I absolutely flew through this book, it’s so fast paced that you’re just instantly drawn in, the writing style really makes you feel like an observer, a fly on the wall, so when the twists dropped I swear I actually shouted “no way!!!” & was left trying to pick my jaw up off the floor.

You’re left thinking you know where the story is going but utterly powerless to stop any of it happening!

This honestly read like a movie & I am a little bit sad that the movie doesn’t exist!

I swear there is no end to Jack Jordan’s talent when it comes to writing.

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