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Pages: 352

Synopsis: Sometimes you have to risk everything to find your something…

All Andrew wants is to be normal. He has the perfect wife and 2.4 children waiting at home for him after a long day. At least, that’s what he’s told people.

The truth is, his life isn’t exactly as people think and his little white lie is about to catch up with him.

Because in all Andrew’s efforts to fit in, he’s forgotten one important thing: how to really live. And maybe, it’s about time for him to start.

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: I’m really struggling to put my thoughts into words on this one, it was so beautiful, but in a hidden gem kind of way.

When you first start reading it, it draws you in and being honest it never really lets you go, but I can’t explain why, a but like Eleanor Oliphant, it just pulled me along with the story & will stay with me for a long time.

We follow Andrew, who to everyone else has the perfect life, the kind of relationship to be envious of with his wife, as well as 2 beautiful children, one of each, what he always wanted, but how much of that is true?

We very quickly discover that in fact that is all a lie, he lives in his own and survives on beans on toast! – but once you tell a lie, it gets bigger and bigger and now he can’t find a way out.

I loved every part of this, it made me really laugh in places Penny is hilarious & just the perfect counter to Andrew.

A lot of this book felt melancholy and left me feeling sad, I just wanted to jump into the book and fix everything.

I was really interested in Andrews job, he goes around the houses of recently deceased people where there is no obvious next of kin, to try and find one or money to put towards the cost of the funeral. – he goes above and beyond in his role though & actually attends the funerals to, so they’re not alone. I couldn’t help seeing a parallel between their lives and his life & that broke my heart.

I promise it’s not all doom and gloom, there were a lot of heartwarming parts to the story too & believe it or not a massive part of it was about friendship and how invaluable certain people are to us.

Thank you to TBC on Facebook for inviting me to be a part of this read along, without you I probably wouldn’t have picked it up & I feel everyone needs to read it.

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Today is my stop on the blog tour for Fin & Rye & Fireflies by Harry Cook, thank you to the team at Love Books Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part & thank you to Black and White Publishing for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

Pages: 329

Synopsis: Fin Whittle is sixteen and he likes guys. A fact which seems to be complicating his life.
One minute Fin’s kissing the godlike Jesse; the next he s been cruelly outed. His family’s response? To up sticks in search of a ‘fresh start’.

A fresh start won’t change the truth of who Fin is. Obviously. But it does introduce him to the best squad in town: kick-ass Poppy, her on-off girlfriend June and the super cute, super irresistible Rye.

Fin soon has a serious crush. And Rye might just feel the same way. But Fin’s parents aren’t happy. If their son won’t change his ‘lifestyle’, they ll force him onto the straight and narrow . . . by way of ‘conversion therapy’. An outrageous plan is needed to face down the haters and to give Fin and Rye (and their fireflies) a chance at the happy-ever-after their story deserves . . .

From moonlit meet-ups to vintage diners, pride parades to a passion for old vinyl, Fin & Rye & Fireflies is a gloriously upbeat tale of being true to yourself no matter what.

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: from the cover this looks like a super cute romance between 2 young boys, and although some of this book was exactly that, the other things that are hidden in these pages brought out so many emotions in me as the reader.

We follow Fin, 16 years old, just starting to be into the whole relationship scene, he kisses a boy and it all turns out to be some horrible prank. – to make matters worse upon discovering that his son is gay Fins dad sells the house and moves his family somewhere new for a “fresh start”

The scenes between Fin and his dad absolutely broke my heart, he just kept telling Fin to “stop the nonsense” and to just “be normal”

Fin and Rye hit it off almost immediately, the only problem is that Rye has a boyfriend, he’s a popular guy in school and isn’t actually out yet, so keeps introducing Rye as his friend, put politely he’s an idiot and Rye deserves so much better.

I’m not going to give anymore of the story away because so much more happens, more things that broke my heart and a lot of things that made my heart happy.

Please go and pick it up I promise you won’t be disappointed

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Today is my stop on the blog tour for Keep her Quiet by Emma Curtis, thank you to Anne at Random Things Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part and thank you to Transworld Books and Netgalley for my copy.

Pages: 432

Synopsis: Jenny has just given birth to the baby she’s always wanted. She’s never been this happy.

Her husband, Leo, knows this baby girl can’t be his. He’s never felt so betrayed.

The same night, a vulnerable young woman, Hannah, wakes to find her newborn lifeless beside her. She’s crazed with grief.

When chance throws Hannah into Leo’s path, they make a plan that will have shattering consequences for all of them.

Years later, a sixteen-year-old girl reads an article in a newspaper, and embarks on a journey to uncover the truth about herself. But what she learns will put everything she has ever known – and her own life – in grave danger. Because some people will go to desperate lengths to protect the secrets their lives are built on . . .

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: wow, wow, wow…

On the surface this seems like a simple thriller that’s probably been done so many times, but believe me when I tell you that it is so much more than that.

Just when I thought the story couldn’t possible get any darker or throw any more twists at me Emma proved me wrong, I honestly didn’t know wether I was coming or going with this story and I absolutely loved it! – this got read over 2 days at the weekend, time I normally spend with the boyfriend, he got ditched for reading and had to play on his switch instead 😂

Weirdly I found myself rooting for Hannah in this whole story, as much as I really felt for Jenny, there was just something about Leo that was totally rubbing me up the wrong way!

I loved the fact that Zoe was brought into it and given her own perspective later on in the book, it added a whole other level to the story that I wasn’t expecting but greatly appreciated.

If you’re looking for a thriller that will take your on a journey and leave you not knowing which way is up then this is definitely the one for you.

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Today is my stop on the blog tour for Below the Big Blue Sky by Anna McPartlin, thank you to Tracy at Compulsive Readers for organising it and inviting me to take part & thank you to Zaffre books and Netgalley for my copy.

Pages: 372

Synopsis: How do you pick up the pieces when the person that held them together is gone?

When forty-year-old Rabbit Hayes dies, she leaves behind a family broken by grief. Her mother Molly is distraught and in danger of losing her faith. Her father Jack spends hour upon hour in the family attic, poring over his old diaries, losing himself in the past.

Rabbit’s brother Davey finds himself suddenly guardian to her twelve-year-old daughter Juliet. Juliet might be able to fill a hole in Davey’s heart – but how can he help Juliet through her grief when he can barely cope with his own?

But even though the Hayes family are all fighting their own battles, they are drawn together by their love for Rabbit, and their love for each other. In the years that follow her death they find new ways to celebrate and remember her, to find humour and hope in the face of tragedy, and to live life to its fullest, as Rabbit would have wanted.

My Rating 🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧

My thoughts: this book picks up right from the last chapter of the first book, and I don’t mean afterwards, I mean that you get to experience Rabbits death all over again 😭 – right from the off this book made me cry and being totally honest I lost count of the amount of time’s I cried and the amount of tissues I used.

I devoured this book in one day, part of me always feels guilty when I do that because I know how much work goes into creating it, but I just COULD NOT put it down, by this point I was so invested in all of the characters lives I needed to know that they were going to be ok!

It’s heartbreaking to read them all experience grief in such different ways, some of them retreated into themselves, whilst others acted out. We even had people acting like nothing had changed, when in reality all of their lives had been completely turned upside down, how do you cope with the loss of such a big personality within your family unit?

The parts about Grace had me feeling devastated for her, it’s really not the news you need when you’ve just lost your sister, but I have to say the way the whole thing was dealt with was incredible, it was done in such a sensitive way that it added to the feeling of realness that was also in the first book.

I won’t give too much of the story away because it was an absolute delight discovering it all along the way, but just know that although a lot of this book made me cry, there was lots of laughter and smiling at the book too!

Such a beautiful story that will stay with me for a long time, thank you for giving me the opportunity to read it and share my thoughts.

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Today is my stop on the blog tour for The One they Got Away by Egan Hughes thank you to Tracy at Compulsive Readers for organising it and inviting me to take part & thank you to the team at Little Brown UK for my copy.

Pages: 393

Synopsis:

You love him. You trust him.
YOU CAN’T ESCAPE HIM.

Mia thinks she has escaped her controlling ex-husband, Rob. She’s found herself a new home, a new boyfriend and a new life.

But when the police arrive to tell her that Rob has been found dead on his boat, things quickly fall apart. Mia is terrified she’ll be suspected, however the police are keeping all options open. They know Mia had reason to hate her ex-husband, but she’s not the only one. Plenty of people wanted Rob Creavy dead, not least his new wife, Rachel.

What they don’t know is that Mia has a secret, one she’s desperate to protect.

But someone else knows. Someone with very dark secrets of their own . . .

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧

My thoughts: I’m going to have to be really careful here not to give anything away because the reason this book got such a high rating was because I just didn’t know what it was going to throw at me next.

It has everything you could want from a thriller, dual perspectives, dual timelines kept you constantly second guessing both the characters and sometimes even yourself!!

We follow Mia, who divorced from her controlling husband Rob a few years ago and Jess who had just met someone new and is on cloud 9, it very quickly becomes apparent that somehow they’re both linked and not everything is as it seems.

Parts of this book made me feel physically uncomfortable but weirdly that was part of the enjoyment as it just felt so real.

I did find that for the most part this book was incredibly fast paced but it did slow down a little in the middle & I felt in parts there was more detail than was actually needed but this is still a book that I would highly recommend to everyone.

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Today is my stop on the blog tour for Lucy’s last Chance by Elle Sweet, thank you to Emma at Damp Pebbles Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part.

Pages: 175

Synopsis: Lucy was a high-powered attorney who had it all in her professional and private life, or so she thought. After the pressures of the courtroom mount and she suffers a nervous breakdown her husband leaves her.

Broken, she flees to the small town of Moonshire Bay to start over as a yoga instructor; determined to find inner peace in all things this time around.

Brant, Moonshire Bay’s Mayor, is running for governor and running after Lucy, but she is scared of his drive and need for success.

Can Lucy realize she’s stronger than she thinks and take a chance on love?

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧.5

My thoughts: this is exactly what you’d expect if you’ve read my reviews for the other books in the series – a lighthearted story about starting again somewhere new and the events that follow.

This time we follow Lucy, who moved to Moonshire Bay about 3 years ago to get away from her past as a lawyer for a pretty big law firm, something happened and she lost her job.

She had a pretty successful business in Moonshire Bay as a yoga instructor, but is looking to expand her business and find somewhere more permanent to stay. Her search for the perfect property leads her to the live interest of this story Brant!

Brant is the Mayor of Moonshire Bay but also owns a construction business with his brother, it turns out they are both after the same building but for very different reasons!

Can they compromise and find a solution that makes them both happy?

I loved that the romance side to this story wasn’t the main focus, in fact at one point I wasn’t even sure there would be any romance 😂 the story kept me hooked because I needed to know what happened with the house! – there was quite a lot in this short story and it shows that lies catch up with you eventually!

I’m hoping there are more books in this series, because I’m really invested and need to know what else happens in the seemingly quiet town of Moonshire Bay!

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Today I am delighted to be kicking off the blog tour for Dead to Her by Sarah Pinborough, thank you to Anne at Random Things Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part & thank you to Harper Collins UK for my copy.

Pages 416

Synopsis: Something old…
When Marcie met Jason Maddox, she couldn’t believe her luck. Becoming Jason’s second wife catapulted her into the elite world of high society. But underneath the polite, old money manners, she knows she’ll always be an outsider, and her hard-won life hangs by a thread.

Something new…
Then Jason’s widowed boss brings back a new wife from his trip to London. Young, beautiful, reckless – nobody can take their eyes off Keisha. Including Jason.

Something you can never, ever undo…
Marcie refuses to be replaced so easily. People would kill for her life of luxury. What will Marcie do to keep it?

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧.5

My Thoughts: for me this is a really hard book to review, not because it was bad, I really enjoyed it. – it just didn’t seem like much of a thriller to me until the last 100 pages.

It has a very slow build to it, we are following Marcie who is married to one of the Elite in Savannah & the book opens on the wedding day of William – the head of the group – & Keisha is new wife who is a lot younger than him!

Instantly Marcie feels threatened, because she is no longer the youngest in the group, the only saving grace is that she is also no longer the only second wife, so maybe she won’t be the one that’s constantly looked down on anymore.

It very quickly become clear that Marcie and Keisha have secrets buried deep that they don’t want the group to find out, but secrets always have a way of making themselves known, don’t they?

I would say the first half of this book is getting to know the characters, their quirks and what makes them tick, I appreciated this because I felt like I really knew them, that nothing would surprise me about them but not was I wrong 😂

Because the story is very heavily focused on Marcie and Keisha, with a little bit of William and Jason thrown in you don’t seem to notice what the background characters are up to!

The last half of the book started setting the scene for that big mystery & I was pulled in all sorts of different directions trying to work out where the story was going!

Needless to say when the big event happens I didn’t see it coming & I definitely didn’t work out who was behind it all, the book kept me guessing all the way through!

This is the first novel of Sarah’s that I have picked up and I will definitely be looking at her back catalogue in the future.

If you click the photo of the book it will take you to amazon where you can buy your own copy 🥰

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Today is my stop on the blog tour for Bound to You by Alyson Caraway, thank you to the team at Love Books Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part & thank you to Vulpine Press for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

THIS BOOK WILL BE RELEASED ON FRIDAY 7TH AUGUST 2020!

Pages: 213

Synopsis: She’s a power-hungry battle angel
Coriel is determined to rid the world of demons and prove she has what it takes to be archangel. But when a fierce battle ends in tragedy on her orders, she is banished from the Heavens—and finds herself at the mercy of Hell’s sexiest and most powerful demon knight.

He’s the demon knight who wants her
Rather than take his rightful place on Hell’s throne, Zagan prefers to spend his days in the human realm corrupting souls—and he’ll end the life of any angel who tries to stop him. But rather than slay the beautiful battle angel when he has the chance, he binds her to him with his life-saving kiss, forcing her to obey his every command.

The line is drawn
Coriel has no choice but to submit to her captor, though the curse of his kiss is not what lures her to him. While Zagan takes great pleasure in exerting his dominance over the Heavens’ fiercest warrior, he soon wants her to do more than just his bidding. As the war between angels and demons rages, he wants her by his side … to rule Hell as his queen.

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧.5

My thoughts: as soon as the invite for this tour fell into my inbox I read the description and was instantly intrigued, I felt I needed to be a part of it!

I’ll be completely honest though, I did the one thing us as readers should never do & I judged the book by its cover (it just didn’t appeal to me, please don’t shoot me) and even after reading the book, I don’t think it fits the story at all, which by the way was totally gripping!

I was reminded again whilst reading it why we really shouldn’t do what I did – right from the beginning there was action and it didn’t stop or slow down at all! – for such a short book (for fantasy) it had everything you needed! – the world building was incredible and felt so real, as much as a book set in Heaven and Hell can anyway 😂🙄

Coriel was the perfect main character, full of sass, attitude and sarcasm but endearing with it that just made you love her even more!

Zagan, was the epitome of a villain, but does he have a softer side?

And are the angels Ouranos (how do you even pronounce that?!😂) and Michael really as good as they seem?

You’ll have to read the book to find out!

Full of action, hilarity and some seriously sexy but totally badass characters, if you’re a fan of fantasy & like the idea of a battle between heaven and hell that is far from straight forward then this is the one for you.

I definitely can’t wait to dive into the rest of the series! 😍

If you click the cover image it will take you to amazon where you can preorder your own copy!

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Today I’m on the blog tour for The Big Chill by Doug Johnstone, thank you to Anne at Random Things Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part & thank you to Orenda books for my copy.

Pages: 318

Synopsis: Haunted by their past, the Skelf women are hoping for a quieter life. But running both a funeral directors’ and a private investigation business means trouble is never far away, and when a car crashes into the open grave at a funeral that matriarch Dorothy is conducting, she can’t help looking into the dead driver’s shadowy life.

While Dorothy uncovers a dark truth at the heart of Edinburgh society, her daughter Jenny and granddaughter Hannah have their own struggles. Jenny’s ex-husband Craig is making plans that could shatter the Skelf women’s lives, and the increasingly obsessive Hannah has formed a friendship with an elderly professor that is fast turning deadly.

But something even more sinister emerges when a drumming student of Dorothy’s disappears and suspicion falls on her parents. The Skelf women find themselves sucked into an unbearable darkness but could the real threat be to themselves?

Following three women as they deal with the dead, help the living and find out who they are in the process, The Big Chill follows A Dark Matter, book one in the Skelfs series, which reboots the classic PI novel while asking the big existential questions, all with a big dose of pitch-black humour.

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: I absolutely loved this, but being completely honest, I didn’t realise this was book 2 in a series until Wednesday as I was about to pick it up 😂 cue me panicking and reading book 1 first, which luckily for me I did already own! – and although yes this would work as a stand alone you would miss ALL of the back story about Craig & all the intricate details that Doug puts into A Dark Matter when introducing us to the women who make up the amazing group of main characters.

This story follows on 6 months from the events of the first book, Dorothy, Jenny and Hannah are all starting to come to terms with what happened & maybe start to move on too, but is it really over?

The Skelfs are back to running both sides of their business, they are inundated with funerals to organise, but it also seems that they have a lot of private investigating to conduct too! (I LOVE how they manage both sides at the same time, but manage to keep it all separate when needed)

This story is full of so much to keep you gripped, but without getting overwhelming. – we have a death at a funeral, a suicide, a missing dad, maybe? A one eyed dog and so much more, but in true Skelf style nothing is that straight forward!

I can’t actually tell you anything about it because part of the joy of reading it was discovering it all for yourself.

But what I can tell you is that there is so much character development within the book, especially for Indy and Jenny in my opinion & I particularly enjoyed seeing a vulnerable side to Archie that we didn’t really get to see in book 1.

I cannot recommend this book enough. It was so good!

If you click the cover photo it will take you to amazon where you can buy your own copy.

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Today I’m on the blog tour for The Garden of Forgotten Wishes by Trisha Ashley thank you to Anne From Random Things Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part.

Pages: 400

Synopsis: All Marnie wants is somewhere to call home. Mourning lost years spent in a marriage that has finally come to an end, she needs a fresh start and time to heal. Things she hopes to find in the rural west Lancashire village her mother always told her about.

With nothing but her two green thumbs, Marnie takes a job as a gardener, which comes with a little cottage to make her own. The garden is beautiful – filled with roses, lavender and honeysuckle – and only a little rough around the edges. Which is more than can be said for her next-door neighbour, Ned Mars.

Marnie remembers Ned from her college days but he’s far from the untroubled man she once knew. A recent relationship has left him with a heart as bruised as her own.

Can a summer spent gardening help them recapture the forgotten dreams they’ve let get away?

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: This is the second Trisha Ashley book I’ve had the pleasure of reading for the purposes of a blog tour & although this one didn’t suck me in as much as the first one it was still magical.

We follow Marnie who after escaping her controlling ex husband has come to Jerichos End, the place her mum grew up but always told Marnie to never return.

Consumed by the need to know why Marnie finds herself there after accepting a job offer to help maintain a fade-in full of lavender and restore the rose Garden of a nearby property – the job doesn’t pay the best but includes a self contained flat so she’s left feeling like she’s found the perfect hideaway, nothing could ruin that, right?

Along comes Ned, an old school friend and unbeknownst to Marnie the owner of the property with the rose garden, neither of them trusts each other and feels there has to be an ulterior motive somewhere.

Throw into the mix lovely elderly characters, a returning ex who’s determined to ruin everything, family members who ate determined to keep your identity hidden & a cat that talks Russian & I promise you you’re in for a treat!

Click the cover photo and you will be taken to amazon where you can buy your own copy

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