prdgreads

Today I’m on tour for Ten Dates by Rachel Dove, thank you to Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources for organising it and inviting me to take part and thank you to author and the publisher for my copy.

Pages: 282

Synopsis: Is it the end of their love story or just the beginning?

Callum Roberts and Alice McClaren have spent two wonderful years building a life and a home and making plans for a future together. But when Alice is involved in a car crash, Callum fears that he has lost her forever. As he sits by her bedside he promises he’ll do anything if only she’ll open her eyes…

But when Alice does finally wake up, she has absolutely no memory of being in love with Callum or the life they once shared. In fact, all she remembers about him is how incredibly annoying he once was! How can she have forgotten him if she really did love him so deeply?

Callum is determined to prove to Alice that what they had was special, so he makes her a deal: he’ll recreate their first ten dates and make her fall in love with him all over again!

Alice isn’t sure Callum can fill in all the gaps in their story.And what if going back to the start only means the end?

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: this book was just an absolute delight from start to finish.. the book opens with Alice just coming out of a coma.. it soon becomes clear to her family that she doesn’t recognise Callum as the love of her life.. to her he’s just her brothers best friend.

Determined to win her heart again and help her regain the memories of the last 2 years that she’s lost he recreates the ten dates from the first time round..

We get the story from the perspective of both Alice and Callum which really helped to open the story up.

You could feel the need, the want and the love dripping from Callum’s chapters, I was really hoping that his plan worked, but let me tell you I was Alice I’d have been professing my undying love for him a lot sooner! 🤣

This really was a lot of fun with a lot of laugh out loud moments, moments that made you swoon but also moments that pulled at your heart strings!

100% recommend.

🐧❤️

Today I’m on the tour for Indelibly Yours by Monica Myers, 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: 293

Synopsis: Will she be the first to slip past his cranky façade and imprint herself on his heart?

Joel’s got the whole “gruff Viking pirate” thing nailed, with his somewhat-cranky attitude and a body that’s a living billboard for his arty tattoo studio.

But underneath the bad boy façade, he harbors a devotion to his adopted family that’s as true blue as his deepest indigo inks. All he wants is to make his business a success so that his people will be proud of him.

When his planned expansion is thwarted, Joel can’t help holding a grudge against the woman who stole his perfect location, no matter how enticingly adorable Olivia’s mussed hair and bunny slippers are.

For her part, Olivia has no idea she’s coming across as “bed-rumpled sex goddess” rather than “sleep-interrupted, perpetually frazzled single mom,” but either way her skin prickles the first time she meets the presumptive, cocky Joel.

She’s dreamed of meeting a Mr. Nice Guy to offer her and her daughter Abby some stability, and while she knows she shouldn’t judge a book by its cover (or a man by his ink, in this case), nothing about Joel screams “smooth sailing ahead.” So why then is she so drawn to him?

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: I wasn’t sure this would be possible but I think I loved this one more than book 1.

We’re following Olivia, a single mum to 7 year old Abby who will go out of her way to help those she loves, which is why she’s out opening her sister in laws bakery in her bunny slippers at stupid o’clock in the morning ..

And Joel, a local tattoo artist who was hoping that opening new premises could help save his business and his family’s finances, he was a bit of a dick to his employees the night before, hence why he is also out in the early hours of the morning hurting donuts as an apology.

This results in a chance encounter and a case of mistaken identity and a falling out that the still sassy Abby helps to fix by making them apologise to each other. 🤣

I won’t give away anymore because I don’t want to spoil the fun, but I LOVED this, seeing Joel and Olivia discover what they both thought they needed was wrong and find what they truly need is each other was beautiful.

Some swoonworthy moments and a lot of spice.

This was perfect and exactly what I needed at the time.

I’m already eagerly awaiting book 3 (if there is one)🤞🏼🤞🏼

🐧❤️

Today I’m on the tour for Killer Casting by Simon Maltman, 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: 313

Synopsis: ‘A Docu-drama about a murder. And the killer’s in the cast.’

Jessica, an up-and-coming young director is helming her first full documentary.

It focuses on the story of a young girl, murdered fifteen years before in New York.

The girl’s father was convicted and has been in prison ever since.

But he’s innocent.

Joe killed her.

Joe’s killed a lot of people.

When Joe sees the call for amateur actors to join the cast, he has an idea.

Joe gets lots of ideas. That’s how he’s survived this long.

But this time, has he gone too far?

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: anyone who knows me knows that I love a crime docu-series, I’ve been known to binge them on Netflix for hours 🤣 so reading about one was just up my street!

I do love a thriller that already outlines who the bad guy is for the reader, it adds an extra element to the story.. like it’s letting you in on its secrets.. but it takes a special kind of thriller that can do that and still keep you hooked on the story..

Simons ability to do just that was incredible.. this was yet again another one sitting read for me because I was so invested that everything else in my life was put on hold.

I found myself cringing at some parts of the story whilst also being in awe of Joes audacity in others.

The only thing I didn’t get was why Joe was killing people, there’s normally a reason or something that the culprit thinks they are gaining from the murders but this time they felt random and for no reason which left me feeling more than a little uncomfortable 😂

This might sound daft to say but the book actually read like a tv show 😅 I could picture what was happening so easily!

Will definitely be making sure I pick up more books from Simon in the future.

🐧❤️

Today I’m on the tour for In Too Deep by Rose McClelland, 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: 277

Synopsis: Lucy, stunning lead singer of a local band, is found dead on a beach.

Everyone assumes it’s suicide or accidental death. However, band member Tony thinks his sister Olivia might be involved. Not only was she insanely jealous of Lucy, but her husband Barry died in suspicious circumstances too.

Detective Sergeant Kerry Lawlor isn’t convinced its suicide either. The more she looks into the case, the more ‘accidental’ deaths she discovers. As she digs deeper, she finds motive and intrigue at every turn.

Following in Lucy’s footsteps is drop-dead gorgeous Roxie. Will Olivia’s jealousy strike again? Tony fears Roxie could be next.

Detectives Simon and Kerry are on the case. Will they intercept in the nick of time?

Or is Olivia in too deep?

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: this one really kept me on my toes!

First Lucy, the lead singer of the band is found dead on the beach with all the other members saying she disappeared at dinner the night before, she went to the loo and never came back.. now I thought this would be the main crux of the story but boy was I wrong.. In fact it very quickly seemed to be forgotten which threw me for a while 😂

DS Kerry Lawlor isn’t happy with the verdict of suicide, so with the help of the person you’d probably least expect she decides to dig a little deeper!

Every single person is hiding something and people keep turning up dead..

The short snappy chapters and the fact that this story was told from multiple perspectives meant that you got a full well rounded story.. some chapters even recapping the same scene from a different characters view.. this is something I didn’t know I needed but really helped when following the story along!

I was so engrossed in the book and the lives of the characters that this book was read in one sitting, I absolutely loved it.. it took what I thought would be the outcome and totally flipped it on it’s head, it’s not often that happens when you read as many books as I do and I was here for it!

Definitely feel like I should go back and read the first 2 in the series now, but this one read absolutely fine as a stand alone & I would definitely add it to your list, it’s worth the read!

🐧❤️

Today I’m on the tour for The Sleepwalker by L C George, 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: 398

Synopsis: Our dreams can be forgotten. But our nightmares will haunt us forever.

Sam Fulford is living a perfectly normal life, except for one little thing: a strange sleep condition that causes him to roam in the night and occasionally become violent.

So when Sam wakes one devastating morning to discover his wife dead beside him and his baby daughter missing, his whole world implodes. Did he accidentally kill his wife during a night time episode? If so, where is his baby?

Just as Sam begins to accept the possibility that he is guilty, he finds a photograph that makes him realise someone else may be involved, that he may be innocent and might yet find his missing daughter.

But there’s a complication. Sam has a dark secret that he just can’t allow to surface. And it’s soon made clear to him that if he presses on with his quest to find out what happened that terrible night, his secret will be revealed to the world.

Leaving Sam wondering whether it might be better to confess to a crime he’s not even certain he committed. Faced with an unimaginable dilemma, Sam begins to wonder: would it be better for everyone if he was guilty?

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: this book was definitely one hell of a ride! A ride that I didn’t want to get off, at almost 400 pages this is quite a long thriller for me, but yet I still read it in 2 sittings.. if I didn’t need to sleep it would have definitely been a one sitting read for me!

It’s told from different perspectives across different timelines, but yet never got confusing because the timeline and the lead character from each chapter was made clear, with there being a definite change in the writing for each character.

This was eerily dark at times and constantly building the tension.. I didn’t guess the twists either which is a nice bonus for me.

There is a moment near the end of the book that actually made me about ‘nooo!’ at my kindle 🤣

another one to be added to the top of your list, it’s fantastic!!

🐧❤️

Today I’m on the tour for Waters Edge by T. J. Shepherd, 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: 492

Synopsis: David Green suffers a dramatic breakdown at work. Since his first visit at sixteen, Venice has come to symbolise for him a time before starting the long decline into being lived by life rather than living it. Forced by the breakdown to take action, he decides to return, hoping its influence will begin the process of healing. As Venice and the people he meets there, begin to bring about the changes he seeks, he is faced with a new and urgent dilemma.

My Thoughts: David is doing a presentation at work when he has a breakdown, unsure of what to do he thinks that returning to Venice will help, he went when he was younger and thinks that the answer to all his problems is there.

With his wife unable to join him straight away they agree that he will go that day and she will join him a week later, after all they like different things, he’s a fan of sight seeing and she prefers to relax in the sun.

When he gets there, he feels like a huge weight has been lifted and spends his time getting to know the local area and the people there.

This was quite a heavy book to read, not only is it a long book, but the chapters were long and felt like they were over descriptive at times, which meant that I kept having to put it down.

David isn’t a very likeable character but I did feel for him throughout the book and the difficult choices he had to make – his whole life will change no matter which way he decides to go so which one is best?

The story wasn’t what I thought it would be at all, but it did keep me interested throughout and I definitely needed to know how it ended!

🐧❤️

Today I’m on the tour for Within You, Without You by Sara O’Donovan, thank you to Anne at Random Things Tours for organising this and inviting me to take part and thank you to the author and the publisher for my copy.

Pages: 336

Synopsis: Kathryn Johnson’s life is at a standstill. Stuck in a lacklustre marriage, the spark that once burned so brightly within her has since been snuffed out by the monotony of the everyday.

Returning to England after many years of living in Ireland, she is shocked to discover a familiar face on the side of the road one dark and stormy night. But a person can’t just reappear like that. Not when they’ve been dead for twenty years. 

Uncovering long-buried memories of first love and its devastating loss, Kathryn returns to the past to see if she can rewrite her present. But love divided by time is a complicated equation to solve.

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: for a debut novel this was bloody brilliant, it hooked me from the beginning.. I was invested in Kathryn’s life.

The story is told spamming 2 different timelines 1992 and 2012.

The earlier chapters had me turning the pages so fast I’m surprised I didn’t get friction burn from my kindle.. I absolutely adored the relationship between Kathryn and Ed and although we are aware quite early on that they don’t get their happy ending due to some tragic circumstances I enjoyed their journey.

The smaller characters in the story were all equally important as they helped to tie the bigger picture together, out of all of them I think Paul was my favourite because he always just said what was on his mind!

Just as you’re getting to a place in the book where you’re preparing to have your heart broken something happens to turn the whole story on its head & although looking back I can see that the author was setting you up for it, not to expect it, but to WANT it, I wasn’t expecting it and it left me a little confused.. I’m not sure I’ve fully managed to work it out yet 🤣

Highly recommend this one.

🐧❤️

Today I’m on the tour for Agnes’s Broken Dreams by Judy King, 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: 456

Synopsis: It has been thirty years since Agnes last visited the country of her birth and upbringing. While it is at the request of her aging, narcissistic mother, she has her own reasons for making the journey to Australia from her home on Mallorca.

Something has blighted her life since childhood. Something has cast such a long shadow over her existence that her ability to grasp at life fully, to appreciate her own sense of self-worth, to attain any semblance of happiness, to trust without reservation, has been damaged. Those whom she chooses, and who choose her, seem to want only to exploit her.

Having undergone a long period of psychotherapy, Agnes can now return to re-experience the places that featured in her youth in the hope that burning questions will be answered, haunting mysteries solved, and buried memories let out into the light…

This is the vibrant, heartening, and often amusing tale of a buoyant and irrepressible woman whose natural energy and determination continue to drive her forward. Having reached middle age, she is determined to grapple with – and heal – the ills that have beset her.

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: this was such a difficult read all the way through, it really took a toll on your emotions. I felt for Agnes.. where she found the strength to carry on from I’ll never know!

I know this was fiction, but it honestly felt like a memoir/biography. it took you through Agnes’s whole life, her family life was heartbreaking you could feel the hatred and anger that her parents had for her dropping off the page, the only highlight she had throughout were school friends whose houses she was able to escape to & even that didn’t last.

As she got older the pressure she feels from both herself and family members just keeps mounting.

Watching her come into her own and confront her past was such an amazing feeling like she was almost sticking her middle finger up to everyone who was against her.

I couldn’t read this on one go as the subject matter was heavy, but my word was it worth it!

🐧❤️

Today I’m on the tour for Love In The Spotlight by Julia Sutton, 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: 333

Synopsis: When Elizabeth Ryan is demoted on Christmas Eve, she resigns herself to a dismal future: selling kitchen utensils in a large department store.

The New Year looks bleak, but a chance encounter on a karaoke evening at her local pub introduces her to the glittering world of showbiz. The Rebels are an up-and-coming pop band who are preparing for a whirlwind tour of the UK. After some persuasion, Elizabeth auditions and is astonished when she is taken on as their backing singer.

Leaving her sleepy Cornish fishing village behind, Elizabeth moves to the manic noise of London. Catapulted into a world of fame, will she succeed in the dazzling world of music and open her heart once more to the possibility of love?

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧.5

My Thoughts: this was a lovely story about learning to live your life again after a loss and also realising that a complete change might be just what you need!

Elizabeth has worked in the same department store for 30 years when she is given the awful news on Christmas Eve that she is being demoted, moved to another department and ‘replaced’ by a younger staff member.

She goes out with her friends to drown her sorrows and performs a Whitney Houston song in karaoke that has the whole place in awe.. little did she know that that performance would change her whole life forever.

I really enjoyed this, having lost my dad last year I resonated with a lot of the emotions that Lizzie was feeling at various points in the book, watching her come out of her shell and discover her true calling was like a breath of fresh air.

I also appreciated the fact that she experienced a few wobbles along the way.. it grounded the story and made it feel more authentic.

I will definitely be looking out for the next book in the series 🙂

🐧❤️

Today I’m on the tour for Mothers Day by Abigail Burdess, 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: 375

Synopsis: The last thing Anna needs is a baby. Abandoned, adopted and living hand to mouth, she never dreamt of having a real family.

But when she meets her birth mother, everything changes – because the same day, she learns she’s going to be a mother too.

Marlene is eccentric, generous with her considerable fortune and overjoyed to become a grandmother. Anna’s living the dream. But is it her dream, or someone else’s?

Now she will have to decide what she’s willing to sacrifice for a real family – her future, her freedom, even her unborn child.

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧.5

My Thoughts: this was a slow burn thriller, being completely honest this didn’t feel like a thriller until the last 100 pages which were incredibly fast paced.

The rest of the story read like a dark contemporary, family drama story.

The writing was eerily addictive, I kept thinking I’ll put it down at the end of the chapter but always had to keep reading.

Full of characters that were weird but oddly real, most of them felt ‘normal’ Dermot was by far my favourite, he felt like a friend but someone who needed protecting from the things that were unfolding!

Anna was meek and just went along with what everyone else wanted from her even though she knew it was wrong or just not what she wanted.. so many times I wanted to shake some sense into her.

The story wasn’t what I expected at all and I couldn’t help but feel the ending was a little rushed, but I had a good time reading it and would recommend it, it’s definitely worth a read.

🐧❤️