Silent Lies by Kathryn Croft

Synopsis:

Five years rebuilding your life. Five words will destroy it again.

Mia Hamilton lived the perfect life with her husband, university teacher Zach, and their two-year-old daughter. But everything changed when Zach committed suicide on the same night one of his students vanished. 

Five years later, just when Mia is beginning to heal, stranger Alison walks into her life, saying her husband didn’t kill himself. 

Fragile, slight Alison leads Mia on a path into Zach’s past, and Mia begins to think she never really knew her own husband. As the secrets revealed get darker, Alison becomes harder to read, and Mia starts to wonder – why is Alison so keen to help?

And then a piece of the puzzle appears in an impossible place, and Mia has to ask, is she losing her mind, or should she be afraid for her life?

Review:

Mia has moved on from the awful event that change her and her daughter’s live. Zach is gone, betraying them both. But life is on the up. She has someone who cares about her, someone she can trust. Freya is now 7 years old and thriving.

Until Alison knocks on the door with claims that Zach didn’t kill himself, which set Mia off onto a path of searching for the truth. This book keep going and is a quick read once the story grips you. I really enjoyed the timelines swap between Mia and Josie, it brought authenticity to the story.

There are a couple of unexpected turns and I must say I was surprised by the ending which is fab as it’s far too often now that we guess the ending and I certainly didn’t with this one.

Any fan of a psychological thriller will enjoy this book – give it a go.

Thank you to Netgalley for this book.

Rating: 4/5

Available from:

Amazon UK

Moonstone by Laura Purcell

Synopsis:

From award-winning bestseller Laura Purcell comes her YA debut, MOONSTONE, a sparkling, chilling gothic romance with real bite… Following a scandal at Vauxhall pleasure gardens, Camille is sent away to her reclusive godmother, who keeps a strict watch over her and her own sickly daughter, Lucy.

Camille must stay away from everything she has known until the scandal is forgotten, keeping strictly to the small farmhouse in the woods. Away from the corsetry and curtsies of polite society, Camille finds herself surprisingly…free. She is also strangely drawn to Lucy, a pale, fragile girl who dreams of stars, but has never left the farm.

Yet as Camille and Lucy grow close and cross forbidden boundaries, the fine balance of their woodland home begins to death stalks between the trees, claw-marks rake the doors and the moon rises to the song of a creature Camille has never heard before. Camille begins to realise her godmother was holding more than unladylike behaviour at bay… 

Review:

Reading this as an adult I can see the simplicity of the story, however, thinking about reading this as a young adult, which this is targeted too, I would have loved it.

The pace goes between slow and fast as the story progresses. The ‘secret’ seems quite obvious from the start, but the development of the story is presented really well. I enjoyed this book even as an adult. It’s a bit of an escapism into a world of YA fantasy.

I liked Camille as the main character, she had her human flaws like naivety, but she was brave, head strong and not afraid to get stuck in. She was also kind and understanding and I felt she questioned things for all the right reasons. Lucy was clearly trapped in a very sad world her mother Rowena and Bridget created for her to keep her safe and Camille became the one bright star in the darkness.

I would certainly recommend this to any budding young adult reader, who would like to delve into mystical creatures fantasy genre, it’s a great start into this world and a thoroughly enjoyable read.

Thank you to Netgalley for this book.

Rating: 5/5

Available from:

Amazon UK

The First Day of Spring by Nancy Tucker

Synopsis:

Chrissie is eight and she has a secret: she has just killed a boy. The feeling made her belly fizz like soda pop. Her playmates are tearful and their mothers are terrified, keeping them locked indoors. But Chrissie rules the roost -- she's the best at wall-walking, she knows how to get free candy, and now she has a feeling of power that she never gets at home, where food is scarce and attention scarcer.

Twenty years later, adult Chrissie is living in hiding under a changed name. A single mother, all she wants is for her daughter to have the childhood she herself was denied. That's why the threatening phone calls are so terrifying. People are looking for them, the past is catching up, and Chrissie fears losing the only thing in this world she cares about, her child.

Review:

The synopsis for this book makes you want to hate Chrissie. She sounds awful, like she knows exactly what she’s doing. I to be fair I felt like hating her myself – bossy, unruly, not a care in the world, a bully to her best friend and others and the list could go on. Just not a nice child – and to top it all off she kills a three year old boy Steven – and it makes her feel powerful.

And then you get introduced to Julia – grown woman with a little girl called Molly – and absolutely terrified of losing her. When she starts getting phone calls and Molly gets hurt and social worker arranges an appointment, Julia panics and leaves for her hometown, where her mother moved back to whilst she was in a children’s home (instead of prison).

The book alternates the story of eight year old Chrissie and those parts are written in a simpler language that Chrissie would use at that age – it’s a clever way to make the story more authentic. So we find out more about her life as a small child, while adult Julia visits her old home town and decides what to do next.

I can’t hate her – I have a lot of sympathy for her. When her childhood is revealed along with her understanding of life, death, role of a mother and father and everything that shapes a person at that age – how could you not sympathise. It’s a controversial feeling, but the more I knew about little Chrissie the more I wanted to give her a hug and hope that as Julia, she will be ok. Julia is clearly good mum, giving her little girl everything, whilst not asking anything in return, even love.

I am so glad to have read this. It’s thought-provoking, difficult, and definitely a book that will stay with me for a while.

Thank you to TBConFB for this book.

Rating: 5/5

Available from:

Amazon UK

The Better Mother by Emily Shiner

Synopsis:

Zoe just wanted to help. Now she may have a killer in her home.

Zoe is happily married to Ethan until the day a 13-year-old boy shows up on their doorstep. He says his name is Micah and that Ethan is his father. Distressed because his mother is missing, Micah has come to them for help.

Ethan is wary – he didn’t know anything about Micah - but kind-hearted Zoe feels she can’t possibly turn her back on the boy. She welcomes him into their home and does her best to make him part of the family.

But there’s something off about Micah.

He lies constantly, creeps silently around the house and towers over Zoe, observing her every move. And his growing bond with Anna, Zoe’s young daughter, feels all wrong.

So when his mother's body is found and the police start looking for the murderer, Zoe realizes something terrible. He might already be in her home.

The Better Mother – the stunning psychological thriller from the best-selling author of Her Husband’s Secret.

Review:

Zoe is a mum of a three year old girl Anna, happily married to surgeon Ethan and quite frankly her life could not be any better.

Until there is a knock on the door and a thirteen year old Micah announces that his mum is missing, and Ethan is his dad. But credit to Zoe, she welcomes this boy into their home and convinces Ethan that they must look out for Micah and make sure he has a nice home.

But quickly things start to get weird. Little incidents and Micah calling Zoe mom within 24 hours, make Zoe feel on edge and like something just isn't right with the boy and she realises that she has invited into he life someone, she knows nothing about. And when Police tell her, Micah's mum is found dead, Zoe swear she will protect her family at all costs.

This is a quick page turner. A little predictable especially since perfect Ethan is so squeaky clean and clearly has emotional superiority and control over Zoe, even is she doesn't admit that to herself.

Anyone that like a quick read thriller, will enjoy this book and the ending I felt was also perfect.

Rating: 4/5

Available from:

Amazon UK

Redemption by Jack Jordan

Synopsis:

Aaron Alexander has just been released from jail after serving eleven years for causing the death of Joshua Moore in a hit-and-run. Now a free man, all he wants to do is stay on the straight and narrow and leave his troubled past behind him.

But for Joshua’s mother Evelyn, eleven years in jail isn’t nearly enough. Consumed by grief and rage, she has been waiting for Aaron’s release, counting down the days until she can exact the revenge he deserves. And now that time has come.

However, as Evelyn and her husband Tobias embark on a road trip to track Aaron down, they soon find themselves caught on two different sides of a gripping game of cat-and-mouse. Because Tobias knows what Evelyn is planning, and he will do anything to save her from herself. Even if it means protecting the man who killed their son.

Locked in a collision course set in motion eleven years ago, Aaron, Evelyn and Tobias are about to find out whether the road they have chosen leads to retribution . . . or redemption.

Review:

Aaron has just been released form prison after serving 11 years for a hit and run incident that killed a boy named Joshua Moore. 11 years that Evelyn Moore, Joshua’s mother, spent planning his murder and 11 years that Tobias Moore, Joshua’s father, spent looking for the wife he loved in the woman he lives with, never losing hope.

Aaron just wants to stay of the radar and get on with his life, he is clean of drugs, has a job and flat above a shop and a rekindled relationship from the past. But with Evelyn determined and ready to strike, he has no hope of a quiet life.

Tobias knows that if Evelyn gets her wish and kills Aaron, he will lose his wife forever. As Evelyn sets off to finally serve her justice and leaving destruction in her path, Tobias sets off to stop her and help the one man, he never wanted to meet.

This is a proper cat and mouse book. Aaron and Tobias are very likable characters and I really enjoyed the relationship they create out of desperation and fear. Tobias is a kind man, that sees when a person never had a chance of normal life and where innocence still exists. Evelyn on the other hand is awful, unlikable and to me unrealistic. It was all too much – all the things she did to other, to herself and still carried on – I just felt it was too far-fetched.

I liked the writing style, the pace of the story, the surroundings and I would happily read another book by this author. It was a proper, grown-up story of grief and revenge.

Thank you to TBConFB and the author for access to this book.

Rating: 4/5

Available from:

Amazon UK

 

My Favourite Mistake (Walsh Family #7) by Marian Keyes

Synopsis:

Anna has just lost her taste for the Big Apple…

Anna has a life to envy. An apartment in New York. A well-meaning (too well-meaning?) partner. And a high-flying job in beauty PR. Who wouldn’t want all that? Anna – it turns out.

Turning a minor mid-life crisis into a major life event she bins the lot, heads back to Ireland, and gets a PR job for a super-high-end coastal retreat.
Tougher than it sounds. Newsflash: the locals hate it. So much so, there have been threats – and violence.

Anna, however, worked in the beauty industry. There’s no ugliness she hasn’t seen. No wrinkle she can’t smooth over. Anna’s got this.

Until she discovers that leaving New York doesn’t mean escaping her mistakes.
Once upon a time she'd had a best friend. Once upon a time she'd loved a man.

Now she has neither. And now she has to face them.

We all make mistakes. But when do we stop making the same one over and over again?

Review:

Anna Walsh is back and slightly broken again. Back in Ireland, not knowing what to do with her life after leaving behind her high-flying job in New York, her apartment and her last boyfriend. Anna feels lost, not able to cope with the stress of her PR job anymore and sad from her amicable and very friendly breakup with Angelo. Suddenly she is not sure what to do.

When a job comes up to work for friends Brigit and Colm to save their luxury country retreat build and reputation with the local residents of a small town, Anna is thrown into the intricate world of new friends, small town gossip and the go-boy Joye – blast from the past she is not sure she is ready for.

But as they face each new crisis together, their friendship blossoms once again and there is hope for finally being together. But trust is earned and that seems nearly impossible for both of them.

I love the Walsh family - all the sisters and their different characters, so liking Anna was not a problem. Joye on the other side I struggled with a little bit – I found him weak and controlling - everything was down to him and his decisions. But one person I disliked completely? Jacqui – she is the worst friend I could possibly imagine – unsupportive, selfish, always the victim. For that – the book lost a star as I was just not interested in that relationship at all – I get it, but for me reading Anna and Jacqui’s past was enough – any future for them was not something I even wanted to read about and I think the book would have been better without it – at least for me.

But – bravo Marian – another fabulous book that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for access to this book.

Rating: 4/5

Available from:

Amazon UK

Amazon US

 

Hear Her Scream by Dylan H. Jones

Synopsis:

He knows where you are. He knows where you're going. He's waiting for you.

Seven years ago. Valencia's best friend is brutally murdered and she's the one who finds the body. A man is convicted and is serving time. But there's still so much they don't know about the murder.

Valencia's never been convinced he's guilty and now she's ready to look for the truth. But what she discovers shocks her to her core.

A sick serial killer is sacrificing women. The method of death chosen by the highest bidder. Their murders livestreamed.

As Valencia's desire for the truth intensifies, the killer's need to kill is escalating.

He knows Valencia is looking for him . . . and he has her in his sights.

Review:

Valencia is a researcher for a podcast company that specialises in criminal cases where there is a possibility of the wrong person being behind bars for a crime they didn’t commit. Things take on a personal spin when that person is Clyde Domingo – incarcerated for the brutal murder of Jodi – Valencia’s best friend.

Valencia persuades her boss to let her go back to where Jodi was murdered and dig out what she can. And the more she digs, the more she is in danger. She is clearly not wanted there, where there are secrets decades old. Secrets that nobody wants her to know.

This is quite a fast paced, thriller, following couple of timelines. It’s descriptive, twisty and keeps you guessing.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for access to this book.

Rating: 4/5

Available from:

Amazon UK

Amazon US

 

The Day the Earth Turned Book Four: Spring by Chantelle Atkins

Synopsis:

The adults are all dead. Society has collapsed. As Mother Nature pursues her latest cull, the children of Heron Village are hanging on by a thread.

Traumatised by the reign of David, Gus, Chess and Charlotte enlist the help of a bigger and better organised group from London – a group who want to rebuild the world the way it was before.

When David is dethroned, it seems fresh hope arrives with the spring – yet they have not found his body. Is he still out there?

Reuben remains suspicious of the London groups intentions and is becoming more animal in nature. Is his the only way forward? And as spring breaks and the snow thaws, a brand new world lies on the horizon…

Review:

Fourth and final instalment in the series and what an ending. I just want more – I have all these questions in my head that I need answer to.

The world the author built in this series is one of fear, hope, cruelly and friendships, world full of two sides of a coin. Survival is of the utmost importance, but it needs to be a survival of the future. Some believe Mother Nature has had enough and has finally taken back what’s hers, giving humanity the biggest warning of their generation, killing almost every adult human and passing the world to younger generations in hope they built a new world that lives in harmony with nature.

The last book takes off where we finished, with Reuben at the edge of death, and the Heron kids fighting against David, the only adult alive. But that seems to be the easy part. Next comes the group from London, trying to restore the old world of justice, politics, money and mass farming. And Reuben is the only one who can try and convince them this is not the right path to take.

I absolutely swallowed up this book and thoroughly enjoyed the whole series. It’s one big warning to us all.

Thank you to TBConFB and the author for access to this book.

Rating: 5/5

Available from:

Amazon UK

 

The Descent by Paul E Hardisty

Synopsis:

A young man and his young family set out on a perilous voyage across a devastated planet to uncover the origin of the events that set the world on its course to disaster ... The prescient, deeply shocking prequel to the bestselling, critically acclaimed Climate Emergency thriller, The Forcing.

Kweku Ashworth is a child of the cataclysm, born on a sailboat to parents fleeing the devastation in search for a refuge in the Southern Ocean. Growing up in a world forever changed, his only connection to the events that set the world on its course to disaster were the stories his step-father, now long-dead, recorded in his manuscript, The Forcing.

But there are huge gaps in the story that his mother, still alive but old and frail, steadfastly refuses to speak of, even thirty years later. When he discovers evidence that his mother has tried to cover up the truth, he knows that it is time to find out for himself.

Determined to learn what really happened during his mother's escape from the concentration camp to which she and Kweku's father were banished, and their subsequent journey halfway around the world, Kweku and his young family set out on a perilous voyage across a devastated planet. What they find will challenge not only their faith in humanity, but their ability to stay alive.

The Descent is the devastating, nerve-shattering prequel to the critically acclaimed thriller The Forcing, a story of survival, hope, and the power of the human spirit in a world torn apart by climate change.

Review:

The Descent is a prequel/sequel to The Forcing and joins the Ashworth family descendants in The Hope on the coast of Australia. Kweku and his brother Lewis with their families. Their father, The Teacher, has passed away and his sons are carrying on his legacy, transmitting his book The Forcing to the world, to anyone who would listen.

This is how we meet the character Sparkplugs – a woman’s voice through the radio, filling the gaps of the world doom story and how it all happened in the first place. Sparkplug tells the tale of working for The Boss and being privy to all the machinations of world’s richest people, working hard to ensure they survive what is coming.

And then a tragedy occurs, someone wants them to be quiet. Kweku looses most of his family and his little niece his abducted – only bloodied playing cards with Alpha Omega symbols on them are left behind as a clue.

Kweku sets off around the world with his wife Julie and son Leo to find what really happened to the world, his family and to find his niece Becky and bring her home, if there is one left at the end. 

This book is amazing – it is a real warning to us regarding our actions against the natural world and should be read by everyone. It is an amazingly woven story of the past and present and is certainly a book that will stay with me for a long time.

Thank you to TBConFB and the author for access to this book.

Rating: 5/5

Available from:

Amazon UK

 

The Day The Earth Turned Book Three: Winter by Chantelle Atkins

Synopsis:

The adults are all dead. Society has collapsed. Relentless storms have left carnage in their homes flooded, precious resources ruined, missing children…The two warring tribes of Heron Village are now united against a bigger threat. Chess is missing. Was she lost to the storm or has David, the enigmatic man in white, taken her?

Former enemies, Gus and Reuben work together to find the truth and rescue their friend; downing their weapons, ending their feud and confronting the leader of the town community. While Gus is taken under David’s wing, Reuben discovers how dangerous the man in white really is, and as the storms and floods finally abate, a brutal Winter sets in, making survival almost impossible…

Review:

Third book in this fabulous series and I already cannot wait to read Spring part. We are back with the three groups of survivors: group lead by an adult David – who is using God and religion to put fear into children in order for them for follow him; Heron groups with a kind of failing leader Gus and Pig Shoot Lane group led by Reuben and his grandad John.

All three groups are still facing the wrath of nature, this time unstoppable rain and floods and whilst two groups agree to work together to find new shelter, one group wants it all and won’t stop until they get it.

With Chess and Grace missing, Gus and Reuben team up together and hatch a plan to infiltrate David’s group, but are faced with starvation and violence.

This book was fast-paced with tragedy, drama and consequences of certain actions and the story just keeps getting better with a tiny light of hope that there might be some saviours coming.

Thank you to TBConFB and the author for access to this book.

Rating: 5/5

Available from:

Amazon UK

 

The Storm by LK Chapman

Synopsis:

I've fled my wedding... I've stolen my wedding car... now what?

When Emily makes a snap decision to run away from her wedding, she gets caught in a summer storm where a chance encounter and a terrible accident throw her into a nightmare.

Oh, and not to mention the wrath of a jilted groom.

Review:

Very short, very faced-paced story. But well written to keep you on your toes and a good introduction to a new author for me - certainly going on my list to read more. The story was creative enough to keep the reader on the edge of the seat and had enough time to hate the male character called Bryn and it also just shows it takes a split second to make a decision in your life that can change your whole future.

Thank you to TBConFB and the author for access to this book.

Rating: 4/5

Available from:

Amazon UK