prdgreads

Today is my stop on the blog tour for Across the Water by Jack Byrne, thank you to Anne at Random Things Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part and thank you to the author for my copy.

Pages: 352

Synopsis: RETURN OF A NATIVE SON
Following the events of Under the Bridge, Vinny and Anne travel to Ireland in search of Vinny’s father, Paddy, who mysteriously disappeared not long after returning to his homeland in 1974.

We piece Paddy’s story together as he returns to Wicklow to lie low after a killing in Liverpool. DI Barlow of Special Branch wants to use him to disrupt an IRA gun route. Facing danger on every side he struggles to fit in. A devastating experience in Dublin forces him to re-evaluate his life and seek a better future.

A story of emigration and return in three narratives that span recent history in Ireland and the UK.

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: although this is the 2nd book in a series I personally haven’t read the first one & didn’t feel like I was missing anything so it works really well as a stand alone. That being said I do have the first one, I just haven’t had chance to read it!

This story was told in 2 timelines.. 2010 where Vinny is trying to find out more information about his dad, he never knew him as he wasn’t around when he was a child and now he’s ready for answers. And 1974 where we get the real story about Vinnys dad Paddy.

This story really had me gripped, both timelines were full of twists and turns & characters that you either loved or hated, there seemed to be no in between!

I was equally invested in both timelines, was rooting for Vinny to get the answers he needed whilst also wishing I could put the brakes on what I knew was going to happen to Paddy because although he had his faults he was such a likeable character who just really needed a little looking after!

I would absolutely recommend this book to fans of crime fiction and love the fact that I’ve discovered a new author.

🐧❤️

Today I’m thrilled to be kicking off the blog tour for Space Hopper by Helen Fisher, 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: 351

Synopsis: If you could go back in time to find answers to the past, would you?

For Faye, the answer is yes. There is nothing she wouldn’t do to find out what really happened when she lost her mother as a child. She is happy with her life – she has a loving husband, two young daughters and supportive friends, even a job that she enjoys. But questions about the past keep haunting her, until one day she finally gets the chance she’s been waiting for.

But how far is she willing to go to find answers?

Space Hopper is an original and poignant story about mothers, memories and moments that shape life.

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: oh my, this book.

I don’t think anything I have to say will do it justice, it’s beautiful.

We follow Faye, who after finding the box of a space hopper she received for Christmas as a child is transported back to the past where she finds her mum, who died when she was little and little Faye.

It takes her a while to realise that the box is some kind of key/portal that allows her to travel between the past and the present & having grown up without her mum the need to go back regularly is strong.. but will she lose the life she’s built with her husband and children if she travels too often?

She decides to keep what she’s discovered a secret for now, because let’s be honest people would think she’s crazy wouldn’t they?

There were so many poignant moments within this book that it will stay with me forever.. yes I’m being purposely vague because part of the magic of this is not knowing anything about it and going in blind.

A line that really resonated with me and got me thinking was this one.. “What about your past? How often would you travel there given the chance? Often? Never? And when you got there would you think about staying forever?”

And I realised that it was a question I couldn’t answer, there are people that have left my life that I’d love to see again and there are people in my family that I never got to meet and would possibly jump at the chance, but I think I’d be too scared of losing what I have in the present 😂

I cannot believe this is a debut novel, it was so well written the words just flowed off the page so easily. – this is by far my favourite read of the year so far and in my top 5 favourite books ever.

🐧❤️

Today I’m on the blog tour for Keep Your Friends Close by Tony Millington, thank you to Anne at Random Things Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part & thank you to the author and the publisher for my copy.

Pages: 197

Synopsis: A young woman’s body is found on the Russell brother’s patch.

Jimmy and Allan have been running West Ravenswood for too long, it’s time to bring their empire down.

While Monteith gets to work on doing just that, Detective Watson begins searching for a young woman, snatched from the street while out running.

Are the abduction and murder linked?

Will the Russell brothers evade justice – again?

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: this is the 2nd book in the Monteith and Watson series, I haven’t actually read the first one so I did at times feel like I was missing some small part of the story and after reading something reviews I now know this follows straight after the end of the first one so try at makes sense.. that being said though this absolutely works as a stand alone.

You very quickly get to grips with the characters, learn who the good guys and the bad guys are, even some that cross over at times.. enough that you can never be 100% sure which side they’re really on!

The story follows 2 different disappearances, one being one of our main police officers, they even have footage of his abduction on cctv!

The other one a 17 year old girl out for a run, are they linked or just a case of 2 people being in the wrong place at the wrong time?

This was brilliant, for such a short book it packed one hell of a punch, was fast paced, gripping and left me on the edge of my seat!

highly highly recommend!

🐧❤️

Today I’m on the book tour for Death at the Abbey by Jan Durham, 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: 213

Synopsis: A cliff-top murder. A clever canine. A seaside sleuth.

After the death of her husband, Liz McLuckie has taken early retirement and moved to Whitby, a picturesque fishing town on the North Yorkshire coast. She thinks the renovation of two ramshackle fishing cottages will take her mind off things, but soon discovers Whitby isn’t quite the peaceful retreat she imagined.

When she discovers the body of a local Professor near the medieval Abbey, Liz reluctantly finds herself at the centre of a murder investigation. The post mortem reveals death by drowning. So how did he get onto the clifftop? And why did he have a fish in his pocket?

Liz follows the trail of the murderer, and many red herrings – both literal and metaphorical – in the company of her friends, including an almost-reformed burglar, a disgraced archaeology student and Nelson the bull terrier – the ugliest (and bravest!) dog in Yorkshire.

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: cosy mysteries are becoming a favourite genre of mine because they’re just so easy to get lost in and always have the most likeable characters.. throw in Nelson the dog and this was just everything I wanted.

Liz has taken early retirement in Whitby, not ready to settle down and take it easy just yet she’s bought two cottages with the intentions of doing them up, one to live in and the other one to rent out as a holiday home.

One morning whilst taking Nelson for a walk she discovers a dead body, or rather Nelson discovers a dead body – it’s the body of a well known figure in the town and straight away Liz decides things count add up & despite warnings from police she decides to do a little investigating of her own & drags a couple of friends along with her… what could possibly go wrong?! 😂

This story was full of twists and turns and left you trusting someone one minute and doubting them then next. I got myself all tied up in the mystery and just didn’t know which way to turn.

There were serious moments & bits that made me laugh out loud, I definitely did not see the ending coming. I was convinced it was someone else.

There was a small part of this book that hit a little too close to home one of the characters had a wife who had died, she’d been poorly for a while.. the only explanation given was that she had MS. As someone with MS it always upsets me a little when people who suffer from MS die in books or films when it’s the only explanation given.

But that didn’t take away from the story and it was a thoroughly enjoyable read.

🐧❤️

Today I’m on the book tour for Trust Me by Lucinda Lamont, thank you to Zoé at Zooloos Book Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part and thank you to the author for my copy.

Pages: 248

Synopsis: Sara has no idea that her life is in danger, but a hitman has her in his crosshairs.

Driven by rage and rejection, businessman Christian hires an assassin to murder his ex, Sara, after she abruptly ends their affair. With no knowledge of the target on her back, a chance encounter in a parking garage leads her to a fresh start: a picture-perfect romance with policeman George.

As Christian’s plan forms, George pursues a long-wanted criminal for promotion on the force, and Sara inches unwittingly closer to a lurking danger. With a hired gun, a new flame, and a treacherous plan converging, will Sara be saved?

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: how far would you go to punish someone who had broken your heart?

Christian decides that when his bit on the side Sara has had enough of being just that, he has no choice but to hire a hit man (nothing like being extreme 😂)

Obviously completely unbeknownst to her so she goes on a date with George, who just so happens to be a policeman… perfect for protection.

Sara is absolutely besotted with George, he treats like an absolute princess, leaves her a little dubious because she’s just not used to it, it leaves her feeling like she’s missing something and looking out for red flags that just aren’t there.

She then starts feeling like she’s being watched and stalked by Christian.. George is already on the case though and had a whole team and operation to catch him.. hoping he can get it sorted before she realises.

That all falls through and things come to blows right at the end with more than one person ending up dead and another in hospital!

The parts of this story that were thriller left me utterly gripped.. I just needed to know what the outcome would be. The best but about this book though is that half of it is romancey which helped you become attached to the main characters and break up the seriousness of the other bits. Amazingly it all flowed perfectly and never felt like two separate stories!

🐧❤️

Today I’m taking part in the International Women’s Day Festival run by Spell Bound Books. I’m on the book tour for Dig Your Own Grave by Carmen Radtke.

Pages: 274

Synopsis: Marie Ingram is kind, generous, and lately, a killer …

When her childhood friend takes her own life to escape marital hell, Marie is devastated. But when the widower sets his eyes on a new wife, she knows what she has to do:

Make sure no other woman suffers the same fate.

Knowing she may not have long to live due to a serious illness, Marie considers this her parting gift to the world.

But doing good by breaking bad is a very easy habit to fall into, and there are plenty more evil people who seem to be untouchable by the law.

The question is, is Marie fast becoming irredeemable herself?

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: this is a mystery book with a bit of a twist, we know who’s killing people, we know how and we know why, all things that we normally expect to be a big reveal, but somehow this book was addictive.

The writing flowed so easily that it was a quick read and I just couldn’t put it down!

I was behind Marie the whole time, I understood why she was doing what she was doing and I actually found myself agreeing with her reasons and feeling like she was definitely doing the right thing.. (don’t worry, I’m not about to start killing people, I just kind of ‘got it’)

Not that this makes it right, but she’s dying.. she was just trying to right some wrongs and rid the world of bad people 😂

I loved Dash so much, he quickly became one of my favourite parts of the book, he just had so much character!

This was such an enjoyable read without being too heavy despite the subject matter.. I would say it’s more of a cosy mystery but without the huge element of humour that normally comes with that specific genre.

I would definitely recommend picking it up when it’s released on 11th March 2022. And it can be bought here! – it’s also included on Kindle Unlimited.

🐧❤️

Today I’m on the blog tour for Princess Ever After by Connie Glynn, I’m coming at you with a spotlight! – thank you to The Write Reads Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part.

Pages: 304

Synopsis: Return to the magical world of The Rosewood Chronicles in the fifth and final instalment of this gorgeous series for fans of The Princess Diaries and Harry Potter.

Ellie is a rebellious princess who is no longer hiding her real identity.

Lottie is her Portman, wishing that she could shield Ellie from the threat of Leviathan.

Jamie is Ellie’s Partizan, a lifelong bodyguard sworn to protect the princess at any cost – but has mysteriously disappeared.

Not all of the trio have made it back to Rosewood Hall. Can they be reunited? And at what cost?

With the crown at risk, the stakes have never been higher . . .

About the Author: Connie Glynn has always loved writing and wrote her first story when she was six, with her mum at a typewriter acting as her scribe. She had a love for performing stories from a young age and attended Guildhall drama classes as a teenager. This passion for stories has never left her, and Connie recently finished a degree in film theory.

It was at university that Connie started her hugely successful YouTube channel Noodlerella (named after her favourite food and favourite Disney princess). After five years of publicly documenting her life and hobbies to an audience of 900,000 subscribers on YouTube, Connie closed the book on the Noodlerella project in a bid for more privacy and to pursue her original passions in the performing arts. Connie now writes music and fiction full- time.

If you like the sound of this the book can be bought here! – but remember it’s book 5 in the series!

🐧❤️

Today I’m on the blog tour for Killer Looks: The Forgotten of History of Plastic Surgery in Prison by Zara Stone, 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: 360

Synopsis:Killer Looks is the definitive story about the long-forgotten practice of providing free nose jobs, face-lifts, breast implants, and other physical alterations to prisoners, the idea being that by remodeling the face you remake the man. From the 1920s up to the mid-1990s, half a million prison inmates across America, Canada, and the U.K willingly went under the knife, their tab picked up by the government.

In the beginning, this was a haphazard affair — applied inconsistently and unfairly to inmates, but entering the 1960s, a movement to scientifically quantify the long-term effect of such programs took hold. And, strange as it may sound, the criminologists were right: recidivism rates plummeted. 

In 1967, a three-year cosmetic surgery program set on Rikers Island saw recidivism rates drop 36% for surgically altered offenders. The program, funded by a $240,000 grant from the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, was led by Dr. Michael Lewin, who ran a similar program at Sing-Sing prison in 1953.

Killer Looks draws on the intersectionality of socioeconomic success, racial bias, the prison industry complex and the fallacy of attractiveness to get to the heart of how appearance and societal approval creates self-worth, and uncovers deeper truths of beauty bias, inherited racism, effective recidivism programs, and inequality.

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: this was a very interesting and intriguing look into something that happen behind the closed doors of a prison that no one ever really thinks about.

Plastic surgery to make prisoners look more ‘normal’ to hopefully make things easier for them on the outside once they are released.

Procedures such as nose jobs and facelifts were performed as early as the 1920’s which just shows that people have always consider their looks to be very important.

The way this stories were told almost made it seem like fiction which made it really easy to get lost in.

You could tell by the amount of detail that was in this book that Zara had been very thorough in her research.

It almost makes it hard to believe that it’s all true!

There were pictures throughout which as well as breaking up the story made visualising everything that was being talked about so much easier.

I’d recommend this story to everyone, it was absolutely fascinating.

If you’d like to dig a little deeper into it then have a look at this Instagram! – @prisonplasticsurgery

🐧❤️

Today I’m on the blog tour for Undercover Princess by Connie Glynn and I’m coming at you with a spotlight to tell you all about the book ☺️

Pages: 376

Synopsis: Loved The Princess Diaries, Once Upon a Time and Girl Online? Then you’ll love Undercover Princess!

Lottie Pumpkin is an ordinary girl who longs to be a princess, attending Rosewood Hall on a scholarship.

Ellie Wolf is a princess who longs to be ordinary, attending Rosewood Hall to avoid her royal duties in the kingdom of Maradova.

When fate puts the two fourteen-year-olds in the same dorm, it seems like a natural solution to swap identities: after all, everyone mistakenly believes Lottie to be the princess anyway.

But someone’s on to their secret, and at Rosewood nothing is ever as it seems…

From YouTube personality Connie Glynn, AKA Nooderella, comes her debut novel, the first in The Rosewood Chronicles series. The perfect book for teenage girls, join Lottie and Ellie at the mystical and magical Rosewood Hall.

About the Author: Connie Glynn has always loved writing. She wrote her first story when she was six, with her mum at a typewriter acting as her scribe. This passion for stories has never left her, and Connie recently finished her degree in film theory. It was at university that Connie started her hugely successful YouTube channel, Noodlerella. There Connie vlogs about her passions, which include comics, cartoons, impressions, video games, cosplay, and all things cute. Connie’s channel has nearly one million subscribers and over 88 million views.

If you like the sound of this you can buy it here.

🐧❤️

Today I’m on the blog tour for The Killing Kind by Jane Casey. 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: 474

Synopsis: Ingrid will never forget what John did.
The people he hurt. The way he lied about it so easily. The way she defended him.

Now he’s back.
He says a murderer is after her. He says only he can protect her.

Would you trust him?
The clock is ticking for Ingrid to decide. Because the killer is ready to strike…

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: I am a Jane Casey virgin, this is my first dive into her work & right from the first chapter I was hooked! This is a relatively long book for the genre but it was so fast paced that it didn’t feel long, I honestly struggled to put it down.

The story is told from the perspective of Ingrid Lewis, a barrister who defended the wrong person in the past and since then her life has been a nightmare, she’s had a 2 year reprieve because she had a restraining order put on John which didn’t allow him to contact her or come near her, but that’s just run out… her colleague has been killed in a car accident, but she was carrying Ingrid’s umbrella… is she the wrong victim?

There were so many layers to this story that just when you think you know where its going something happens to make you doubt yourself.

I started doubting the ‘good guys’ and trusting the ‘bad guys’ this story really messed with my mind but in the best way possible.

It was told in different timelines and online conversations with anonymous people.

I’m really struggling to put my thoughts into words in a way that won’t ruin the story for you, all I can say is pick it up, but remember that you don’t know who is telling the truth and who has Ingrid’s best interests at heart.

This is one of the best psychological thrillers I’ve read in a long long time.

Part of me wishes I could forget all about it and experience it for the first time again.

🐧❤️