prdgreads

Today is my stop on the blog tour for on the road not taken by Paul Dodgson, thank you to Anne at Random Things Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part and thank you to Paul and Unbound for my copy.

Pages: 288

Synopsis: On the Road Not Taken is a memoir about the transformational power of music . It begins with a boy growing up in a small town on the Kent coast in the 1970s, who learns to play the guitar and dreams of heading out on the open road with a head full of songs. But when the moment comes to make the choice he is not brave enough to try and do it for a living.

Time passes but the desire to explain the world through music never goes away. And as the years go by it gets harder and harder to risk looking like a fool, of doing the very thing he would most like to do, of actually being himself. Eventually, thirty-five years later, when it feels like time is running out, he walks out onto a stage in front of 500 people and begins to sing again.

What follows is an extraordinary period of self-discovery as he plays pubs, clubs, theatres and festivals, overcoming anxiety to experience the joy of performance.

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: this story really took me on a journey with it, it was told in 2 different time lines, one when he was a small child and the second around 40 years later, each chapter is a new year and they eventually combine at the end so you really do get the full story.

To begin with the earlier chapters, the ones from his childhood were my favourite because he was just discovering music and although this is Paul story years later you could still feel the awe and amazement that he must have felt at the time

The scene at the dinner table with the family and him being laughed at actually made me tear up, I can’t imagine how awful that must have felt at the time.

But as Paul become older (still a child) I found him rather bossy and demanding, (no offence to you Paul 😂) so at that point although I still enjoyed the earlier chapters and appreciated the fact that they gave all the background, the older chapters where he started actually rediscovering the music became the best ones.

You could feel the nerves coming through the page & I found myself rooting for him even though I knew that the events had already happened.

I loved that each chapter was named after a song, that was a really nice touch and the fact that you also included the year helped me picture it in my head.

I listened to the audiobook for this, I’m not going to lie at first it was hard going, but once I got used to the speed and the tone and everything I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Thank you Paul for being brave enough to write your story and showing others that it’s never too late to go after your dreams!

🐧❤️

Today is my stop on the blog tour for The Girl and the Stars by Mark Lawrence, thank you to Anne at Random Things Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part and thank you to Harper Voyager for my copy.

Pages: 480

Synopsis: Only when it’s darkest can you see the stars.

East of the Black Rock, out on the ice, lies a hole down which broken children are thrown

On the vastness of the ice there is no room for individuals. No one survives alone.
To resist the cold, to endure the months of night when even the air itself begins to freeze, requires a special breed. Variation is dangerous, difference is fatal. And Yaz is different.

Torn from her family, from the boy she thought she would spend her life with, Yaz has to carve a new path for herself in a world whose existence she never suspected. A world full of danger.

Beneath the ice, Yaz will learn that Abeth is older and stranger than she had ever imagined.
She will learn that her weaknesses are another kind of strength. And she will learn to challenge the cruel arithmetic of survival that has always governed her people.

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: I always love discovering a new author and this my first dive into one of Mark Lawrence’s books, and afternoon this one I will definitely be picking up more from him in the future.

We follow Yaz a member of the Ictha tribe who thrive in the cold, that’s their domain, it’s what they’re used to, the day has come to find out if the youngest members of the tribe have made it to adulthood, it’s a horrible tradition where they stand in front of the “pit of the missing” if the priest thinks you’re grown up you stay, if not you get pushed in!

The first book in this trilogy is all about Yaz’s journey in the pit (you’ll have to read the book to find out how she ends up down there, it’s not as straight forward as you think 😉) she soon discovers that the pit of the missing is not as it has been described from up top, there’s a whole civilisation down here! – can she integrate herself and find what she is looking for before it’s too late?

The story was absolutely magical and not just because our main character can control how bright the stars shine just by talking to them.

The world building was amazing, I was left feeling claustrophobic at times almost like I was actually down the pit with the characters of the story.

Seeing Yaz develop from a scared unsure ‘child’ into a woman who is not afraid to go after what she wants was so nice to see, who doesn’t love a bad ass female character?

It took me w while to be totally invested, adult fantasy series always start off slow because there is so much world building and character introducing to do, but by about 25% I was hooked and totally lost in the story.

Be prepared for long chapters, this isn’t something I’m used to, so was very strange to me, but it didn’t take away from the enjoyment of the story.

As with most first books, this one was left on one hell of a cliffhanger which has left me wanting book 2 now.

I NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS!

🐧❤️

Thank you to Avon Books UK and Netgalley for my copy of Strangers in exchange for an honest review.

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’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 blog tour for A Place of Reckonjng by J.F Burgess, thank you to Kelly at Love Books Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part.

Pages: 394

Synopsis: Three women. Two bodies. One deadly secret.
Pottery tycoon Charles Lancaster knows who kidnapped his wife.

He’s sure it was the brutally dangerous ex bare-knuckle fighter, Patrick Dunne. Patrick promised to avenge his son who died in a tragic accident in one of Charles’ factories. It’s an open and shut case…

…until a headless body turns up in a remote Peak District pool, its back tattooed with a cryptic Tarot card. As Detective Inspector Tom Blake and FBI profiler Lucy Stryker dig into the mystery, they unearth long-buried secrets about an historic conspiracy and a clandestine cult. But with a sadistic killer on the loose, and everyone hiding things, it’s not just the victim’s life that hangs in the balance. Will anyone get out alive?

Because when the powerful are pointing the finger, you’d better watch your back…

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧.5

My thoughts: love a good police procedural story they’re amongst my favourite genre! – I was unaware that this was book 2 of a series when I agreed to the blog tour and was slightly worried that I’d feel like I’d missed something, but like most series of this type the story itself actually read like a standalone, all I was missing was a bit of background on the main characters. But I felt by the time the story got going I knew them and their personalities well enough!

The synopsis has actually done a pretty good job of setting the story, which is what I would normally do in my review, but this time I feel like I’d be repeating what you already know.

I really enjoyed this, it had lovable characters that I found myself rooting for, it had characters that you were supposed to hate, that at times I actually felt sorry for and it had characters that left me second guessing their intentions.

There were multiple layers to this story, there was the main crime, but there were also things that Charles was dealing with behind closed doors and keeping to himself & then his older daughter was also up to something, is it all connected?

This had me doubting myself and second guessing my judgement throughout the whole thing whilst also leaving me intrigued enough to keep going to find out what the conclusion would be.

A well written story that has made me want to continue on with the series ☺️

🐧❤️

Today is my stop on the blogtour for Ash Mountain by Helen Fitzgerald, 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: 210

Synopsis: Fran hates her hometown, and she thought she’d escaped. But her father is ill, and needs care. Her relationship is over, and she hates her dead-end job in the city, anyway.

She returns home to nurse her dying father, her distant teenage daughter in tow for the weekends. There, in the sleepy town of Ash Mountain, childhood memories prick at her fragile self-esteem, she falls in love for the first time, and her demanding dad tests her patience, all in the unbearable heat of an Australian summer. As past friendships and rivalries are renewed, and new ones forged, Fran’s tumultuous home life is the least of her worries, when old crimes rear their heads and a devastating bushfire ravages the town and all of its inhabitants…

Simultaneously a warm, darkly funny portrait of small-town life – and a woman and a land in crisis – and a shocking and truly distressing account of a catastrophic event that changes things forever, Ash Mountain is a heart-breaking slice of domestic noir, and a disturbing disaster thriller that you will never forget…

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: you’re going to roll your eyes because I’m going to say it again, I knew nothing about this book going into it and I’ve never read anything by Helen Fitzgerald before, but a friend of mine adores her writing and told me I had to give this one a go, and my god was she right.

The story starts off with Fran being woken up by the town siren, with nothing online to tell her why she goes in search of her daughter Vonny and realises that the emergency is a gigantic bush fire!

Fran has just begrudgingly returned to the small town she grew up in, her dad is ill and needs full time care, it’s not that she doesn’t want to care for her dad, she just doesn’t want to go back to Ash Mountain, straight away you get the feeling that she’s hiding something & I personally couldn’t wait to figure out what it was.

The book is told from too different timelines – the now, which obviously goes without saying is present day, and the then, which follows Fran at various stages of her life growing up. The background parts are integral to the story and they’re the chapters that hold the most mystery and really pack a punch!

The present day chapters and events lead up to the bush fire that puts everyone she loves in danger, will they make it out alive?

Will Fran figure out exactly why being in Ash Mountain makes her feel uneasy?

The joy of a thriller is all the twists and turns, trying to work out if you can figure out where the story is going and then being proved wrong over and over again, this story does that multiple times and I just couldn’t put it down.

🐧❤️

Today is my stop on the blogtour for The Carer by Deborah Moggach, thank you to Anne Cater from Random Things Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part, and thank you to Tinder Press for my copy!

Pages: 272

Synopsis: From the bestselling author of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Tulip Fever, a deliciously funny, poignant and wry novel, full of surprising twists and turns:

James is getting on a bit and needs full-time help. So Phoebe and Robert, his middle-aged offspring, employ Mandy, who seems willing to take him off their hands. But as James regales his family with tales of Mandy’s virtues, their shopping trips and the shared pleasure of their journeys to garden centres, Phoebe and Robert sense something is amiss.

Then something extraordinary happens which throws everything into new relief, changing all the stories of their childhood – and the father – that they thought they knew so well.

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: I can’t help but feel like I missed something with this story, not because it was bad, it really wasn’t, it was bloody brilliantly BUT the synopsis says it’s ‘deliciously funny’ I didn’t find the story funny at all, I found it utterly heartbreaking but in the best way possible, this is why I love reviewing books and reading the reviews of other people because it truly fascinated me that people can get such different things from the same story.

It’s told from two different perspectives, Phoebes and Roberts, who employ Mandy to become the full time live in carer for their dad James, at first Mandy seems like the perfect addition to the ‘family’ she’s taken the pressure off them both and left them feeling that their dad will be well looked after, but once they start visiting they notice James deteriorating rather quickly & they learn that Mandy has for her feet well and truly under the table so to speak, could she be up to something?

They make it their mission to dig up the dirt on Mandy and just as they feel they are getting somewhere something tragic happens that puts them back at square one!

It’s a book full of secrets and twists that I personally didn’t see coming, and deals with some sensitive subjects in such a beautiful way. The last part of the book had me crying on more than one occasion. I know this review is short and for that I’m sorry, but I don’t want to ruin any of the parts that make this story something that I feel you need to pick up.

Just trust my judgement and give it a go ☺️

🐧❤️

Today is my stop on the blogtour for Would Like to Meet by Rachel Winters, thank you to Orion Publishing for organising it and inviting me to take part.

Pages: 368

Synopsis: Long-suffering assistant Evie Summers will lose her job unless she can convince her film agency’s biggest and most difficult client, Ezra Chester, to finish the script for a Hollywood romcom. The catch? He hasn’t started writing it.

Suffering from ‘writer’s block,’ he will only put pen to paper if singleton Evie can prove to him that you can fall in love like they do in the movies. Forget internet dating, Evie can only meet a man the way that Sally met Harry, or Hugh Grant meets anyone. Cue her entering into one ridiculous romcom scenario after another. But can life ever be like the movies?

Of course, real life is never that straightforward . . .

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧

My thoughts: This book had been on my radar for a while, it seemed really popular with people on booktube and sounded right up my street!

We follow Evie who has been given the task of making her bosses biggest client finish the script he’s been promising the directors for years, they’ve given them a final ultimatum of 3 months or they pull the contract, with her job on the line, can she achieve something that feels impossible?

Ezra makes a deal with Evie that if she can prove that you can fall in love just like the movies then he will write the script. Evie takes the bull by the horns and starts setting up ‘meetcutes’ to prove that if can be done!

I loved Evie’s character, she seemed meek and not one to rock the boat, but throughout the book she turned into a strong woman who knew what she wanted and how to get it too.

Ezra was a really unlikeable character and in my opinion didn’t get better as the book went on, but I liked that because it gave the book a realistic feel.

The story has so many elements to it, it was more than just your average romance, it covered death of a loved one and grief from at least 3 different angles, heartbreak, love but above all the uncertainty of life in general, because after all things don’t always go the way you plan or expect!

The main questions in the story are is it possible to get your life back after losing someone you love in one of the worst ways possible?

Does love really creep up on you when you least expect it?

I was swept along with the story and thoroughly enjoyed discovering the answers, I cannot recommend this story enough.

🐧❤️

Today is my stop on the blog tour for Sisters of Berlin by Juliet Conlin, thank you to Kelly at Love Books Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part, and thank you to Black and White Publishing for my copy.

Pages: 384

Synopsis: BERLIN 2019. A young writer is brutally attacked in her home and left for dead. For her sister Nina Bergmann, it’s the beginning of a nightmare that will threaten to destroy her marriage, her job and – ultimately – her life. As she sets out to unravel the truth about what really happened to her sister, Nina comes face-to-face with inner demons she believed long since banished and discovers that her sister’s past and that of the once-divided city are intertwined in unimaginable ways. The Wall may be gone, but its legacy still haunts Berlin . . .

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧

My thoughts: in typical prdgreads style I went into this not knowing anything, I didn’t read the synopsis and just saw the cover and with everything going on with COVID-19 atm if I can fit a blog tour in I’ve been agreeing to it because I feel the authors deserve to have their time in the spotlight.

I don’t know what I expected from this story really but I really enjoyed this, It had everything a mystery should have, characters you’re rooting for, characters that leave you questioning what their intentions really are what they claim to be and a thoroughly gripping storyline.

This story follows Nina and opens up with her being questioned about her younger sisters attack, Marie is currently in hospital in an induced coma, but unfortunately dies which leads to the main crux of the story, who attacked Marie and why?

So feeling like the police aren’t doing enough Nina makes it her mission to get to the bottom of it, along the way though she finds that all the stress has brought old demons that she thought she’d overcome returning, her husband feels like Nina is putting the investigation before her family which causes a total divide, can she find the answers she’s looking for before her family completely falls apart?

I honestly couldn’t put this book down and needed to know what happened, and I definitely didn’t see the conclusion coming.

The story covers a lot of topics and I feel I should put some trigger warnings in here for domestic violence and eating disorders.

🐧❤️

Today is my stop on the blogtour for The Museum of Broken Promises by Elizabeth Buchan, thank you to Anne Cater from Random Things Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part.

I have another giveaway for you today, which will be in my Twitter, I’ll have it linked below for you again.

The prize up for grabs this time will be a paperback copy of the book! ☺️ again it’s UK only I’m afraid and will close 3 weeks today on the 12th May.

Click here to enter the giveaway!

Synopsis: Paris, today. The Museum of Broken Promises is a place of wonder and sadness, hope and loss. Every object in the museum has been donated – a cake tin, a wedding veil, a baby’s shoe. And each represent a moment of grief or terrible betrayal. The museum is a place where people come to speak to the ghosts of the past and, sometimes, to lay them to rest. Laure, the owner and curator, has also hidden artefacts from her own painful youth amongst the objects on display.

Prague, 1985. Recovering from the sudden death of her father, Laure flees to Prague. But life behind the Iron Curtain is a complex thing: drab and grey yet charged with danger. Laure cannot begin to comprehend the dark, political currents that run beneath the surface of this communist city. Until, that is, she meets a young dissident musician. Her love for him will have terrible and unforeseen consequences.

It is only years later, having created the museum, that Laure can finally face up to her past and celebrate the passionate love which has directed her life.

About the Author: Elizabeth Buchan was a fiction editor at Random House before leaving to write full time. Her novels include the prizewinning Consider the Lily, international bestseller Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman and The New Mrs Clifton. She reviews for the Sunday Times and the Daily Mail, and has chaired the Betty Trask and Desmond Elliot literary prizes. She was a judge for the Whitbread First Novel Award and for the 2014 Costa Novel Award.

elizabethbuchan.com

if this sounds like something you would enjoy but you can’t enter the giveaway for whatever reason then you can buy the book here!

❤️🐧

Thank you to Quercus Books and Netgalley UK for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

Pages: 400

Synopsis: Leena is too young to feel stuck.
Eileen is too old to start over.
Maybe it’s time for The Switch…

Ordered to take a two-month sabbatical after blowing a big presentation at work, Leena escapes to her grandmother Eileen’s house for some overdue rest. Newly single and about to turn eighty, Eileen would like a second chance at love. But her tiny Yorkshire village doesn’t offer many eligible gentlemen… So Leena proposes a solution: a two-month swap. Eileen can live in London and look for love, and L Leena will look after everything in rural Yorkshire.

But with a rabble of unruly OAPs to contend with, as well as the annoyingly perfect – and distractingly handsome – local schoolteacher, Leena learns that switching lives isn’t straightforward. Back in London, Eileen is a huge hit with her new neighbours, and with the online dating scene. But is her perfect match nearer to home than she first thought?

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: Firstly, let me say I’ve been looking forward to this book before I even knew anything about it. the flatshare was if my favourite books last year and I was eagerly awaiting her next release to see what she came up with next & I was definitely not disappointed.

This one follows 79 year old Eileen and her 29 year old granddaughter and namesake Leena, Leena has just been given a 3 month sabbatical from work after struggling to come to terms with the death of her sister a year ago. She leaves her busy life in London and goes to see her grandma in the Yorkshire Dales.

Eileen is a single woman after her husband left her, so she’s thrown herself into helping her neighbourhood with anything possible, taking minutes in their neighbourhood watch meetings, helping to organise the May Day celebrations and just being there for her daughter which can sometimes feel like a full time job, but now she feels ready to move in and find love again so Leena sets her up an online dating profile.

After realising that her grandmas options are slim in the Yorkshire Dales Leena comes up with the crazy idea that they should switch lives for 2 month, promising to look after everything there so her grandma can lead the life she wanted to when she was younger, in London!

The story had me gripped from the very start, I honestly don’t want to say too much about it, but it covers so much, there is loss, grief, new found love, acceptance & a whole lot more, it had me laughing, it had me crying & if I’m being completely honest I felt like I was part of the story. I was so invested in the characters and their lives that I just wanted the best for them all.

After reading both of her books and giving them both 5 stars, I think it’s fair to say that Beth O’Leary has become an autobuy author for me!

🐧❤️