prdgreads

Today is my stop on the blog tour for Legends Rise by Devri Walls, thank you to Dave at The Write Reads Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part. & thank you to the author for my copy of the book.

Pages: 575

Synopsis: The path will be forged in sweat and blood. Rune, Grey, the shape-shifter Beltran, and willful vampire, Verida, set out to rescue their friend and mentor, Tate, from the gladiator games. But first they must navigate the perils of Eon and its warring factions. Each of this band of four carries with them a secret that threatens to tear their group apart from within. Rune now bears the mark of the promise she made to save Grey’s life—a nixie bubble lodged in her arm that could call her away to do their bidding or spell her death. Even as their loyalty to their cause and to one another faces its greatest test, Rune’s twin brother Ryker is forging an alliance with their mortal enemy, the powerful sorceress Zio, who has plans of her own for the Venators and Eon. Hearts will be bared, secrets unveiled, and relationships made and destroyed in this stunning new installment of the Venators series.

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: I’m going to have to be really really careful in what I say in this review as it is book 3 in the series! I’m really sorry if I accidentally put any spoilers.

This one follows on straight after the events of book 2, with Rune and Grey in a meeting with the council to explain what went wrong in book 2 & how they’re going to rectify it, however they’re all keeping a big secret, Tate is stuck in the games again and they have to make it their mission to rescue him before anyone really notices he’s gone.

That is the main crux of the story, but in true Devri style there is a lot more action that happens that just had me constantly turning the pages, I honestly couldn’t put it down and read it in 2 sittings!

The character development in this one was absolutely incredible, we saw a vulnerable side to Rune & Beltran, my favourite though was the fact that Grey grew a backbone and wasn’t afraid to show it!

I will say though, I need book 4 now, as always I’m left with more questions than answers by the end of it 😂

I am a huge fan of Urban Fantasy and this is one of the best series I’ve read, please pick it up!!

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Pssst… here’s my reviews of the previous books..

Book 1: https://prdgreads.home.blog/2020/03/11/blogtour-venators-magic-unleashed-by-devri-walls/

Book 2: https://prdgreads.home.blog/2020/06/07/blogtour-review-promises-forged-by-devri-walls-promisesforged-devriwalls-writereadstours/

Today is my stop on the blog tour for The Same Ledge by Daniel James, thank you to Emma at Damp Pebbles Blog Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part & thank you to the author for my copy

Pages: 275

Synopsis; Behind the postcard imagery of London, the darkest parts of the city house some of the saddest stories.

When Michael met Cameron, they were two boys who shared a bond and a ledge, an escape from their turbulent and violent home lives. But when Michael leaves, their lives drift apart into dramatically different directions until the events of the past bring them back together. They are no longer boys, but the ledge remains. Can they save themselves? Can they save one another?

This raw debut from Daniel James is a literary fiction that delves into fragile friendships, social inequality and mental health.

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: well this was definitely a powerful read, one that felt so real that I actually struggled with it, now that sounds like a bad thing, but that’s not my intention.

We follow Michael & Cameron, the chapters are told from the perspective of one or the other & are clearly marked which made things easier in the beginning but as you get going it becomes obvious who’s chapter is who’s because they are just SO different.

I’m really struggling to put my thoughts into words here because the book was just so captivating, Cameron’s life just got worse and worse as the book went on and I just wanted him to catch a break, Micheal seemed to get his life together as he got older, but will it stay that way?

Thank you Daniel for writing such a powerful story that will definitely stay with me for a long, long time.

I purposefully haven’t put anything in my review about this but TRIGGER WARNINGS for drug use, abuse, (mental, physical and sexual) self harm and suicide.

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Today is my stop on the blog tour for Unspoken by T.A. Belshaw, thank you to Emma at Damp Pebbles Blog tours for organising it and inviting me to take part, and thank you to the author for my copy!

Pages: 408

Synopsis: A heart-warming, dramatic family saga. Unspoken is a tale of secrets, love, betrayal and revenge.

Unspoken means something that cannot be uttered aloud. Unspoken is the dark secret a woman must keep, for life.

Alice is fast approaching her one hundredth birthday and she is dying. Her strange, graphic dreams of ghostly figures trying to pull her into a tunnel of blinding light are becoming more and more vivid and terrifying. Alice knows she only has a short time left and is desperate to unburden herself of a dark secret, one she has lived with for eighty years.

Jessica, a journalist, is her great granddaughter and a mirror image of a young Alice. They share dreadful luck in the types of men that come into their lives.

Alice decides to share her terrible secret with Jessica and sends her to the attic to retrieve a set of handwritten notebooks detailing her young life during the late 1930s. Following the death of her invalid mother and her father’s decline into depression and alcoholism, she is forced, at 18 to take control of the farm. On her birthday, she meets Frank, a man with a drink problem and a violent temper.
When Frank’s abusive behaviour steps up a level. Alice seeks solace in the arms of her smooth, ‘gangster lawyer’ Godfrey, and when Frank discovers the couple together, he vows to get his revenge.
Unspoken. A tale that spans two eras and binds two women, born eighty years apart.

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: Being completely honest, if I’d seen this book on the shelf I wouldn’t have picked it up, I know we’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover and really there isn’t anything wrong with it, it just doesn’t pull me in, let me tell you though I’ve now officially learnt my lesson, this story was brilliant & had me hooked from the first 2 chapters!

Books that are set in the early 1900’s aren’t normally something I enjoy, I don’t know why I just can never really get on with how different things feel, but this time round the chapters from when Alice was younger were my favourites, I was so invested I needed to know this big secret she had been carrying around with her.

The present day chapters were a hard read and in some places, especially the beginning they were a complete contrast to the ones told by Alice, I didn’t like Jessica’s boyfriend (he angered me to the point that I’ve actually forgotten his name, so I’m sorry🙈) more than once I found myself talking out loud asking Jessica why she stayed and telling her she deserved so much better.

There were so many different characters within the story on both timelines and I found that they all had an integral role and were all equally important for different reasons – my favourite characters though were Alice (especially in the timeline set in 2020) and Gwen, they were a little ray of sunshine in what actually turned out to be a very dark, but very compelling story.

I encourage everyone to pick this up and give it a go, I promise you won’t be disappointed.

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Today is my stop on the blog tour for The Good Samaritan by C.J. Parsons, thank you to Anne from Random Things Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part.

Pages: 400

Synopsis:

HE FOUND YOUR MISSING CHILD. YOU CAN TRUST HIM. . . CAN’T YOU?

When her five-year-old daughter disappears from the park, Carrie’s world shatters. She is tortured with worry and she blames herself. What if her inability to read facial expressions has put her child in danger?

But just days later, a stranger finds Sofia and brings her home.

Carrie should be relieved, but the abductor is still out there, still unknown. Still after her child.

And are those who have offered their help really the good Samaritans they seem… or has Carrie missed the warning signs?

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: This story had be hooked and questioning myself throughout! – definitely the best kind of thriller.

We follow Carrie, who after taking her eyes off her daughter for 2 minutes to take a phone call finds herself distraught because Sofia is no longer there.

She is approached by Tara, who quickly gathers a group of mums together to arrange a search party and comes up empty handed so helps Carrie inform the police.

Whilst talking to police we learn that Carrie is unable to read people’s facial expressions and struggles with understanding implications in tones of voice, as such she also struggles to express the same emotions & can sometimes come across as cold as a result.

Sofia is later returned by a man who claims to be a stranger who just walked past where Sofia was being held – is he telling the truth?!

I really struggled to put this book down, as much as I was getting frustrated with myself because I just couldn’t work out who was responsible and where the story was going! I was even doubting that the ending was really the ending 😂

If you love a thriller that will take you on a never ending journey and keep you on your toes throughout then this is definitely the one for you!

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Today is my stop on the blog tour for The Peacock Room by Anna Sayburn Lane, thank you to Anne at Random Things Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part.

Pages: 380

Synopsis: A literary obsession.An angry young man with a gun.And one woman trying to foil his deadly plan.When Helen Oddfellow starts work as a lecturer in English literature, she’s hoping for a quiet life. But trouble knows where to find her.There’s something wrong with her new students. Their unhappiness seems to be linked to their flamboyant former tutor, Professor Petrarch Greenwood, who holds decadent parties in his beautiful Bloomsbury apartment.When Helen is asked to take over his course on the Romantic poet William Blake, life and art start to show uncomfortable parallels. Disturbing poison pen letters lead down dark paths, until Helen is the only person standing between a lone gunman and a massacre.

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: this book was a bit confusing to me to begin with, the story was a very slow burn & I wasn’t totally hooked until just before the half way point, we follow Helen who has just taken a new job as a university and feels it will be quieter than where she was before (this is where I admit I haven’t read the first book, but I know something big happened that prompted her needing something a little quieter)

Very near the beginning she is asked to take over Professor Greenwood’s first year class as he’s taking time out to write his latest book, she reluctantly agrees but had an uneasy feeling that there is more going on that she isn’t being told.

It is whilst raking over this class that she learns that some students are happy with the change in tutor whilst others are devastated – more so than is normal!

What follows is a story line that genuinely made me squirm whilst reading!

Throw in an unknown artist on the dark web who draws disturbing images and starts bringing them to life, a gunman & a whole ton of characters who are all somehow interlinked and what you have is a story that you can really sink your teeth into.

Would definitely recommend it to those who are partial to a crime thriller with a bit more of a story to it!

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Today is my stop on the blog tour for the Audiobook blog tour for Strangers by C.L. Taylor, thank you to Ellie Pilcher for organising it and inviting me to take part.

Pages: 400

Synopsis: Ursula, Gareth and Alice have never met before.

Ursula thinks she killed the love of her life.
Gareth’s been receiving strange postcards.
And Alice is being stalked.

None of them are used to relying on others – but when the three strangers’ lives unexpectedly collide, there’s only one thing for it: they have to stick together. Otherwise, one of them will die.

Three strangers, two secrets, one terrifying evening.

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: I read this book back in April & my thoughts haven’t changed, BUT listening to it in an audio format added a whole new atmosphere to it & I found myself gripped in a totally different way, I would definitely recommend it if you’re into audio books!

But because I can’t put my feelings into words any better than I did before I have posted my previous review below..

I’ve read a couple of C.L. Taylor’s books before and absolutely loved them, and this one was no exception, the story was told from 3 different perspectives which left me a little worried at first, would I be able to keep up? would the differences confuse me? – I should’ve had more faith in the authors skill, it was so easy to follow and the end of every chapter left me excited to get to their next chapter.

Ursula has a problem with taking things that aren’t hers and sticking her nose into places where it’s not wanted, but through doing that she could change the life of more than one person for the better so is it always a bad thing?

Gareth is a security guard who lives with his mum, she has dementia and needs caters in to help her during the day. Gareth’s life changes when his mum starts receiving postcards from her husband who has been presumed dead for many years, but then Gareth thinks he sees him on one of the cameras at work, has he been lied to his whole life? is he dad still alive?

Alice has been pushed by her daughter to start online dating, through which she meets Simon at first she’s smitten, but then things start happening which make her doubt his intentions and his honesty, what is he really after? Is he hiding something?

I honestly could not put this book down, I just had to know how their lives were going to pan out and what was going to happen to bring them all together!

If you love a thriller that keeps you guessing and makes you doubt yourself several times along the way, then I highly recommend this one, I promise you won’t be disappointed

Today is my stop on the blogtour for The Choice by Alex Lake, thank you to Anne at Random Things Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part & thank you to Harper Collins for my copy.

Pages: 476

Synopsis: A kidnap…
Matt Westbrook only turned his back for a moment. But when he looks around, his car – with his three young children inside – has vanished.

A ransom…
Panicked, Matt assumes a car thief has got more than he bargained for, but then he starts to receive text messages: This is a kidnap. If you want to see your children again, you will exchange them for your wife.

A choice…
Matt and his wife Annabelle are horrified. They can’t involve the police, or their children will be killed. Which means they have to choose: Annabelle, or their children. Either option is unthinkable. But one is inevitable. And they have only hours to make their decision…

The gripping new thriller you won’t be able to put down!

My Rating 🐧🐧🐧🐧.5

My Thoughts: the first 75% of this book was truly gripping, starts off with a dad nipping to the shop for a couple of things leaving his 3 kids in the car, he’s only going to be a couple of minutes, they’ll be safe right?

Matt’s world gets turned upside down when he goes outside and his car has disappeared, what follows was fast paced and made the book really difficult to put down.

This sounds like your typical kidnapping story but it’s not, instead of money the kidnapper wants Annabel (the wife/mother) in place of the children, but why didn’t he just take her in the first place?

After the big reveal was made the story slowed down in pace but it was still thoroughly enjoyable, it went from fast paced and thrilling to slow paced and unsettling but the change was perfect.

I did guess the big reveal before it was announced which doesn’t often happen which made me wonder if maybe if was intentional?

Couldn’t recommend this story enough!

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Today is my stop on the blogtour for How we Got to Today by Ben Ellis, thank you to Anne from Random Things Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part &

thank you to Accent Press and Ben Ellis for my copy.

Pages: 240

Synopsis: How can you find love, when you’ve lost sight of yourself?

Sheridan doesn’t know what he looks like. There’s nothing wrong with his vision, it’s just that he’s the only person in the world who can’t see his own face.

Despite this, he has it all going for him – a good job as an optometrist, a nice home, and a wonderful girlfriend. All until Heidi, totally out of the blue, dumps him.

And to make matters worse, not only has she broken his heart, but she’s disappeared. Distraught, Sheridan begins to search for her, and ends up finding himself along the way. . .

This is a story about how sometimes it’s the people closest to us that see us the best and, if we lose sight of ourselves, can tell us who we really are.

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧.5

My Thoughts: this story was very original, we follow Sheridan who can’t see his own reflection in any format and has spent his life trying to in different formats, obviously it is something he is very insecure about and yet he hasn’t told anyone. – the story begins a year in the past on the day that Heidi ends the relationship between her and Sheridan.

The last half of the story was told from Heidi’s POV and for me personally I preferred her account, I found myself relating to it more & sympathising with her where as I found Sheridans version whiny and all “why me” but I guess in a way that added to the story!

The story itself was enjoyable and romantic & made my heart happy. – I would definitely recommend it ☺️

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Today is my stop on the blog tour for the incredible love songs for sceptics by Christina Pishiris thank you to Anne at Random Things Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part and thank you to Simon and Schuster for my copy.

Pages: 464

Synopsis: My brother’s getting married in a few weeks and asked for help picking a song for his first dance. I suggested Kiss’s ‘Love’s a Slap in the Face’.

It didn’t go down well.

When she was a teenager, Zoë Frixos fell in love with Simon Baxter, her best friend and the boy next door. But his family moved to America before she could tell him how she felt and, like a scratched record, she’s never quite moved on. Now, almost twenty years later, Simon is heading back to London, newly single and as charming as ever . . .

But as obstacles continue to get in her way – Simon’s perfect ex-girlfriend, her brother’s big(ish) fat(ish) Greek wedding, and an obnoxious publicist determined to ruin her career – Zoë begins to wonder whether, after all these years, she and Simon just aren’t meant to be.

What if, despite what all the songs and movies say, your first love isn’t always all it’s cracked up to be? What if, instead Zoë and Simon are forever destined to shuffle around their feelings for each other, never quite getting the steps right . . .

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: I absolutely adored this book, I won’t give too much away in my review because I want to encourage you all to pick it up & not just tell you the story 😂

We follow Zoe, who is a bit of a Debbie downer when it comes to love, mainly because she has been in love with her childhood best friend Simon for as long as she can remember and the feelings have never been reciprocated, but when she gets the news through Zak that Simon is returning to the UK could this be her chance?

Throw in a wedding to prepare for, a failing business, band members that have got too big for their boots & a publicist who seems to do everything in his power to sabotage Zoe’s attempts to save her job, what follows is absolutely hilarious at times, heartbreaking in others but is ultimately impossible to put down!

This is one of those few books I read that I wish I hadn’t just so i could experience it again for the first time 😍

Thank you to Christina for giving me the chance to read her debut novel

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Today is my stop on the blog tour for The Assistant by Cathryn Grant, thank you to Emma at Damp Pebbles Blog Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part and thank you to NetGalley & inkubator books for my copy.

Pages: 306

Synopsis: Two women. One office. A fight to the death.

Laura has sacrificed a lot for her high-powered career – her marriage, the chance to have kids. Now, finally, she’s in line for a big jump up the corporate ladder – all the way to the boardroom.

But there’s a fly in the ointment in the shape of beautiful Vanessa, a lowly assistant who seems to have it in for Laura.

Vanessa is PA to Hank, the most powerful executive in the company, a man whose support Laura desperately needs if she is to secure the job of her dreams. Repelled by Laura’s naked ambition, fiercely possessive of her boss, Vanessa deliberately sabotages Laura’s every attempt to make a good impression on Hank.

Laura threatens and cajoles but Vanessa just won’t play fair. Soon their mutual dislike escalates to an all-out war.

But career-obsessed Laura has always been willing to do whatever it takes to get ahead. And if Vanessa stands in her way… she’s going to pay the ultimate price.

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧.5

My Thoughts: this was an enjoyable read, we follow Laura, who after giving up everything for her career is ready to make the next step and it seems like she’s almost there but one person stands in her way. The Executives assistant Vanessa.

Vanessa is very anal about Hanks time, who gets to see him and when is a delicate thing and there is no way you can get to see him without an appointment! – when she notices Laura always hanging around the office trying to catch Hank unawares it seems Vanessa will do anything to stop that from happening – she’s the assistant that’s her job, right?

Things aren’t as perfect for Laura as she likes to portray to the world, she has a very strict routine with herself, one thing being running very early every morning! One morning she notices someone else has joined her on the track & thinks nothing of it until a few days later and decides to take matters into her own hands!

The story was fast paced I read it in one sitting & would recommend to fans of mysteries, I wouldn’t necessarily say this one was a thriller, but it had left me intrigued enough to look at Cathryn’s back catalogue!

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