Today I’m taking part in the blog tour for Darren O'Sullivan's new 'gripping psychological thriller' 'Dark Corners'!

Book blurb

You thought you’d escaped your past

It’s been twenty years since Neve’s best friend Chloe went missing. Neve has never recovered and promised herself she’d never go back to that place.

But secrets can come back to haunt you

When Neve receives news that her first boyfriend Jamie has gone missing, she’s forced to return. Jamie has vanished without a trace in a disappearance that echoes the events of all those years ago. Somebody is watching and will stop at nothing until the truth about what took place that night is revealed …

My Review

Neve Chambers lives in London and is the co-owner of a coffee shop called The Tea Tree. Although far away from the location of a tragic past event, Neve's memories still haunt her and spill over into her current life. Her fiance leaves and while she seeking solace in alcohol, it begins to affect her work and things come to a head when the cafe gets broken into. This is followed by the news that Neve's first boyfriend Jamie has gone missing and leads to Neve taking a trip back to her hometown (a small mining village) to help with the search. 

The story jumps back and forth between dual timelines;- Summer 1998 (the year when Neve's best friend Chloe went missing) to the current time effortlessly. We follow Neve through thrilling real-time events alongside the background story before Chloe went missing.  We learn about the gang of teenage friends who Neve leaves behind and some aren't pleased to see her return. All have been affected by Chloe's disappearance in different ways. We also learn of the mysterious 'Drifter' who was hanging around at the time of Chloe's disappearance and is back sinisterly lurking in the shadows to greet Neve's arrival. Soon the original gang are all back together, all that's missing is Chloe and now Jamie, and you have to ask yourself, is Jamie's disappearance related to what happened in the past?

The story starts off slow but the plot is well placed and before you know it, you're pulled into a dark and twisted tale which keeps your head spinning. Fully developed characters and strong descriptive writing really bring this sinister story and it's small mining village to life. I loved the flashbacks between past and present and how the parallels of the story unfolded - nothing was what it seemed! It was hard to put this book down and take a break from reading! 

A 5 star read and a brilliant and gripping dark thriller!

Thank you to Sian Baldwin at HQStories and Darren O'Sullivan for the ARC. I was #gifted this book in exchange for an honest review.

Blog Tour

Thank you to everyone who has stopped by – I hope you have enjoyed my review.  Please check out the rest of this blog tour for more thoughts and reviews about this book!

More information and where to buy to buy this book

Available from 2nd April

Kindle 

Paperback

About the author

Today I’m taking part in the blog tour hosted by Love Books Groups for 'The Identity Thief' (The God Machine Book 1) by Alex Bryant

Book blurb

A shapeshifting sorcerer called Cuttlefish unleashes a terrifying wave of magical carnage across London. A strange family known as the River People move into Cassandra Drake's neighbourhood. Are the two events connected?

Spoiler alert: no

My Review

It's my stop over on the Blog Tour hosted by Love Books Tours for Alex Bryant's  new book The Identity Thief' which is a fantasy based book set in London where magic exists - but is forbidden 📚

The story follows 12 year Cass and is told from her point of view as she gets pulled into a magical world and into the path of the dangerous Cuttlefish - a shapeshifting sorcerer 🔮 Cass just wants to fit in and get through secondary school, but life has other plans! Her interactions with others the arrival of 'River People', especially the son Hector, shows the complexities of being young, impressionable and also cruel at times.

The story is fantasy based but also flows along as a crime drama, as we follow Cuttlefish's deadly adventures and the carnage he leaves in his wake to get what he wants. With a title like 'The Identity Thief' you might be able to guess the villain's main form of magic✨ How this falls into the plot and that way it's written was one of my favourite aspects of this story.

I loved that this story was set in London and that magic (while forbidden) was also blended into each chapter and centred around Greek Mythology and wizardry.

The other supporting characters add an additional layer to the story and the newspaper clippings on magic activity and other media reports scattered throughout the book provide a more immersive experience and oh did I mention that it's funny too! I adore the cover and I really enjoyed reading this book and look forward to the next instalment!

Thank you to Love Books Tour and Alex Bryant for the ARC. I was #gifted this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to everyone who has stopped by – I hope you have enjoyed my review.  Please check out the rest of this blog tour for more thoughts and reviews about this book!

Trigger warnings

The second page of the book includes a website link for trigger warnings https://www.alexbryantauthor.com/the-identity-thief-tw

About the Author

Alex has led a largely comfortable but unremarkable life in North London, and more recently Oxford. His main hobbies as a kid were reading and sulking. When he’s not writing, he’s performing with his improvised comedy troupe, Hivemind Improv. And when he is writing, he’s procrastinating.

The first idea for The God Machine came when he was 19, shortly after falling off a horse. Or possibly shortly before - the exact chronology is lost to history. So is the horse’s name, in case you were wondering.

More information and where to buy

Amazon
Paperback published 9th February 2020
Kindle published 28th February

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Today I’m wanted to chat with you about my most recent read! ‘Critical Incidents’ by best-selling author Lucie Whitehouse is part of her major new crime thriller series and I’ve got to tell you that I absolutely loved it! It's been a while since I've read a crime thriller, and this really brought me back into the fold of one of my favourite genres.

“It’s been described as ‘seriously good’ by Lee Child, ‘a strong, deft thriller with real depth’ by Tana French and ‘brilliant’ by Susie Steiner.”

Book blurb

Set against the backdrop of a regenerating Birmingham, Critical Incidents introduces a new brilliant female detective DCI Robin Lyons and is written with all of Lucie’s trademark style, skill and suspense, as well as being a deeply personal novel about identity, family and the power of homecoming. Lucie’s previous books – including Before We Met and The Bed I Made have been chosen for Richard & Judy, TV Book Club and ITV Crime Thriller Book Club, so it’s a big moment!

A Birmingham house fire. A young mother dead. The main suspect? Her husband – but he’s disappeared. A young woman has also vanished, but the police don’t seem concerned. Desperate, her mother turns to a less official channel for help. Former DCI Robin Lyons.

Once a high-flyer in the MET’s Homicide Command, Lyons has been sacked for misconduct and forced home to Birmingham broke and disgraced. Confronting the failures and disappointments of her past – including fraught family relationships and a first love that ended without explanation – she thinks she’s hit rock bottom, but she’s about to learn there’s much further to fall.

Because the mother who died was Robin’s best friend – a woman she trusted with all her secrets, but whom she comes to suspect may have hidden her own. And to get to the truth, Robin will risk everything.

My thoughts about this book

Critical Incidents is dark, gripping, twisty and so brilliantly written!

The story follows the main protagonist DCI Robin Lyons, who is dismissed from her job at the Met on a misconduct charge. With no choice but to return back to family home (18 years later) with her teenage daughter in tow is stressful enough, but the family dynamics which centre around her troubled relationship with her mother, a resentful brother and a somewhat easy going father, puts Robyn under pressure. Trying to find a solution for her situation she takes on work as a private investigator where one of the cases include a missing young woman. While thinking she still has her best friend Corrine to lean on for support, Robin learns that tragedy has struck when she finds out that Corrine has died the day after she arrived. Unhappy with the police investigation that follows, Robin decides to take matters into her own hands to find out the truth. 

The book starts off as a slow burn, which allows the reader to familiarise themselves with the protagonist and other characters, as well as (like some of the best detective stories) dropping a series breadcrumbs along the way. We follow Robin as she works these two separate cases alongside each other building up a series of critical incidents, but both will put her in danger.

The narration is superb and the story is ingrained with small and specific details which bring authenticity to the inner city setting of this novel. Birmingham provides the perfect backdrop for this gritty, honest and complex thriller!  Descriptions of the people, the towns, the buildings (right down to the smell and aromas) really bring this book to life. Within an inner city setting, this book highlights some of the dynamics of race, sexism, abuse and classism.

I loved that the protagonist was a strong female lead who was not afraid to go against the status quo. Robin was bright, brilliant and damaged, and we get to see her vulnerability pitted against her strengths. Her interactions with her family, friends and those who she comes across in her work was one of the highlights of for me, along with the suspense and heart-racing moments!  Midway through the book, I could not put it down and read it greedily in one setting! The conclusion cleverly weaves all the strands together but also leaves you wanting more. I'm really looking forward to the next instalment and seeing what’s in store for DCI Robin Lyons!

Thank you to Lucie Whitehouse, Martina Ticic of Midas PR and 4^th Estate Books for my ARC.

About the Author

Lucie Whitehouse was born in Gloucestershire, England, in 1975. She read Classics at Oxford University and worked in publishing while writing her own first novel, The House at Midnight. She is the author of The Bed I Made, which was a TV Book Club pick; the bestselling Before We Met, a Richard and Judy Summer Book Club pick and ITV Crime Thriller Book Club selection; and Keep You Close. Her new novel, Critical Incidents, is the first in a projected trilogy of literary thrillers featuring DCI Robin Lyons and set in Birmingham, UK. Her books have been translated into thirteen languages. She now lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband and daughter.

You can find Lucie Whitehouse on
Twitter @LWhitehouse5

More information and where to buy

Title: Critical Incidents

Publisher: 4^th Estate Books

Published: Out now

Amazon

Waterstones

A Year of Chasing Love by Rosie Chambers Blog Tour & Review

Today I’m taking part in the blog tour for book tour for ‘A Year of Chasing Love’ by Rosie Chambers (published 6^th January 2020!

A Year of Chasing Love is described as a ‘delightfully uplifting holiday read for 2020’!

Book blurb

One moment can change a lifetime…

The last thing top divorce lawyer Olivia Hamilton ever expected was to be served her own divorce papers! To escape her marriage troubles, she agrees to go on a year-long trip to find the ultimate guide to love.

Travelling the world, surrounded by stories of love and happiness, it’s not long before her thoughts turn to Nathan, her soon-to-be ex-husband, and she starts to take note of her own lessons in love…

But with Nathan over a thousand miles away, will it be too late?

Perfect for fans of Cathy Bramley, Philippa Ashley and Caroline Roberts.

My review

A Year of Chasing Love is an endearing story about romance, travel and taking chances!

The story kicks off with our main protagonist and top divorce lawyer Olivia being served with her own divorce papers at her workplace!  Although Olivia was aware that there were problems in her marriage (mostly down to being so focused on her career that she never finds the time to actually spend time with her husband Nathan), she nevertheless devastated by this news!

Overworked and stressed out, she’s ‘persuaded’ to take a 10-month sabbatical, and through her friend Rachel, Olivia finds herself on a ‘research’ trip visiting countries where divorce rates are lower and marriages have a higher success rate. Her journey begins with Malta and ends in Paris (also known as the City of love)!  At first this seems like a great way to escape her marriage blues but through doing research while writing a guide on lessons in love and what makes a marriage last, Olivia’s true journey is the self-reflection that allows her to discover herself, examine her relationships with others and what really matters to her!  That said, while Oliva was a strong-minded and a high achieving career woman, her self-doubts and self-criticisms were aplenty.

Olivia is faced with a choice of trying to save her marriage or moving on and while I won’t spoil the ending, I will say that A Year of Chasing Love is a funny and interesting story about love and relationships. That and the gorgeous locations make it a great escape read debut novel from Rosie Chambers!

Thank you NetGalley and HQ Digital for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to HQStories for the ARC of A Year of Chasing Love. Thank you to everyone who has stopped by – I hope you have enjoyed my review.  Please check out the rest of this blog tour for more thoughts and reviews about this book!

About the Author

Rosie Chambers loves writing uplifting, feel-good stories set in sun-filled locations around the world. Her stories are filled with fun, friendship and foodie treats, which Rosie hopes will bring a smile to her readers' faces.

She's always in the market for quirky stationery and is never happier than with a pen in one hand and a cup of tea and a chocolate biscuit in the other. A YEAR OF CHASING LOVE is her debut novel.

You can find Rosie Chambers on
Twitter @ https://twitter.com/RosieCbooks

More information and where to buy

Title: A Year of Chasing Love Author: Rosie Chambers
Publisher: HQ Stories
Published:  Ebook available January 6^th 2020  Paperback available March 19^th 2020

Amazon

Waterstones