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30/4/2018 0 Comments

Review: The Good Daughter

The Good Daughter by Karin Slaughter
​
Genre: Thriller/Crime Fiction
​Page Length: 545 Pages
Publication Date: 13 July 2017
Publisher: HarperCollins
Source: NetGalley

Stars:  5 out of 5

LINKS: Amazon (UK)


ABOUT THE GOOD DAUGHTER
One ran. One stayed. But who is… the good daughter?
Twenty-eight years ago, Charlotte and Samantha Quinn's childhoods were destroyed by a terrifying attack on their family home. It left their mother dead. It left their father – a notorious defence attorney – devastated. And it left the family consumed by secrets from that shocking night. Twenty-eight years later, Charlie has followed in her father's footsteps to become a lawyer. But when violence comes to their home town again, the case triggers memories she's desperately tried to suppress. Because the shocking truth about the crime which destroyed her family won't stay buried for ever…
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My Review:

​An incredible read. 

The story is devastating and some descriptions are not for the faint-hearted.
I felt very invested in all of the characters and the multiple versions of the stories intertwined beautifully. When the final chapter ended I was genuinely bereft. 

I’m glad to see that this book may be the first in a Good Daughter series, and if so, I can't wait for the next instalment from Karin Slaughter.

VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.


Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me a complimentary copy of The Good Daughter in exchange for my honest review.


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26/4/2018 0 Comments

Review: The Man Who Didn't Call

The Man Who Didn't Call by Rosie Walsh
​
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
​Page Length: 305 Pages
Publication Date: 1 May 2018
Publisher: Mantle
Source: NetGalley

Stars:  5 out of 5

LINKS: Amazon (UK)


ABOUT THE MAN WHO DIDN'T CALL
The Man Who Didn't Call by Rosie Walsh is a heart-wrenching love story with a dark secret at its heart, for anyone who's waited for a phone call that didn't come.
Imagine you meet a man, spend seven glorious days together, and fall in love. And it’s mutual: you’ve never been so certain of anything. So when he leaves for a long-booked holiday and promises to call from the airport, you have no cause to doubt him.
But he doesn’t call. Your friends tell you to forget him, but you know they're wrong: something must have happened; there must be a reason for his silence. What do you do when you finally discover you're right? That there is a reason -- and that reason is the one thing you didn't share with each other?
The truth.

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My Review:

1) Stop what you are doing.
2) Book a weekend away in a remote cottage with a comfortable armchair.
3) Read this book.

An absolutely brilliant book.

From the moment Sarah and Eddie met I was vying for them to end up together, but every twist and turn assured me it was impossible. I read the last quarter of the book in one sitting on a long bus journey and I have to admit that I started to sob a few chapters from the end. At least the other passengers were polite enough to ignore my tears.

It was the literary equivalent of spending the evening wrapped in a duvet, with a tub of Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey ice cream, and binge-watching a favourite box set.

VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me a complimentary copy of The Man Who Didn't Call in exchange for my honest review.
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20/4/2018 0 Comments

Review: The Family at No. 13

The Family at No. 13 by S.D. Monaghan

Genre: Psychological Thriller
​Page Length: 310 Pages
Publication Date: 27 April 2018
Publisher: Bookouture
Source: ARC via NetGalley

Stars:  4 out of 5


LINKS: Amazon (UK)

ABOUT THE FAMILY AT NO. 13

Mary has everything. Beautiful and rich, she lives on an exclusive street in the heart of the city, in a house with gorgeous views and an immaculately maintained garden. Her life looks perfect.

But behind closed doors the truth is very different. Her husband Andrew barely speaks to her, spending his days down in the basement alone. Her teenage nephew is full of rage, lashing out with no warning. Her carefully constructed life is beginning to fall apart.

And then someone starts sending Mary anonymous notes, threatening her and her family…

Everyone has secrets. But is someone at number 13 hiding something that could put the whole family in danger?
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My Review:

I enjoyed S.D. Monaghan's debut novel The Accident and looked forward to reading The Family at No. 13.

I read the book whilst travelling from Africa to the UK, through two airports, and on two respective planes. It kept me sane during a particularly long delay at Entebbe Airport waiting for a Turkish Airlines flight. It took me a couple of chapters to get into the story from the two standpoints of Connor and Mary. But by chapter three I was in for the long haul.

You never know what goes on behind closed doors...

I love the nosy curtain-twitching of neighbourhood thrillers - as the old adage goes you never know what goes on behind closed doors. The first chapter opens with a dead body and it would be easy to assume it would be an average whodunnit, but how wrong I was. The rich story was so all-consuming that I almost forgot about the crescendo I was hurtling towards chapter by chapter, until the final twist!

The story is about families.
The story is about relationships and marriages.
The story is about neighbours.
The story is about difficult teenagers.
The story is about ambition.
Above all, the story is about the complexity of people living in close proximity to others.

I lost count of the clever, subtle twists. It was a joy to spend time with the multi-faceted residents of St Catherine's Hill.
Highly recommended.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me a complimentary copy of The Family at Number 13 in exchange for my honest review.
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16/4/2018 0 Comments

Review: Bonfire

Bonfire by Krysten Ritter

Genre: Psychological Thriller/Crime Fiction/Thriller
​Page Length:  256 Pages
Publication Date: 9 November 2017
Publisher: Cornerstone Digital

Stars:  4 out of 5

LINKS: Amazon (UK)

ABOUT BONFIRE
It has been ten years since Abby Williams left home and scrubbed away all evidence of her small town roots. Now working as an environmental lawyer in Chicago, she has a thriving career, a modern apartment, and her pick of meaningless one-night stands.

But when a new case takes her back home to Barrens, Indiana, the life Abby painstakingly created begins to crack. Tasked with investigating Optimal Plastics, the town's economic heart, she begins to find strange connections to a decade-old scandal involving the popular Kaycee Mitchell and her friends—just before Kaycee disappeared for good.

But as Abby tries desperately to find out what happened to Kaycee, troubling memories begin to resurface and she begins to doubt her own observations. And when she unearths an even more disturbing secret, her search threatens the reputations, and lives, of the community and risks exposing a darkness that may consume her.

With tantalizing twists, slow-burning suspense, and a remote, rural town of five claustrophobic miles, Bonfire is a dark exploration of what happens when your past and present collide.

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My Review

I am a sucker for plots just like Bonfire: Girl escapes town, does well for herself, and has to return.

BONFIRE delivered and it was full of twists and turns. Who to believe? Who to trust? Who to champion - the former prom king or the ne'er do well bloke who runs the local off license? I read this book in a couple of days and I went to bed an hour early to get in extra reading time.I found myself surprised at the story, I thought it was going to be an environmental legal thriller in the vein of Erin Brockovich but it was so much more. The unreliable heroine embroiled me fully with her woes, worries, and school memories. 

A great debut novel.
Highly recommended.
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11/4/2018 0 Comments

Review: How to Murder Your Life

How to Murder Your Life by Cat Marnell
​
Genre: Autobiography
​Page Length: 374 Pages
Publication Date: 2 February 2017
Publisher: Ebury Digital

Stars:  4 out of 5


LINKS: Amazon (UK)

ABOUT HOW TO MURDER YOUR LIFE
By the age of 15, Cat Marnell longed to work in the glamorous world of women's magazines - but was also addicted to the ADHD meds prescribed by her father. Within 10 years she was living it up in New York as a beauty editor at Condé Nast, with a talent for 'doctor-shopping' that secured her a never-ending supply of prescribed amphetamines. Her life had become a twisted merry-go-round of parties and pills at night, while she struggled to hold down her high-profile job during the day.

Witty, magnetic and penetrating - prompting comparisons to Bret Easton Ellis and Charles Bukowski - Cat Marnell reveals essential truths about her generation, brilliantly uncovering the many aspects of being an addict with pin-sharp humour and beguiling style.

'I was twenty-six years old and an associate beauty editor at Lucky, one of the top fashion magazines in America. That’s all that most people knew about me. But beneath the surface, I was full of secrets: I was a drug addict, for one. A pillhead. I was also an alcoholic-in-training who guzzled warm Veuve Clicquot after work alone in my boss’s office with the door closed; a conniving and manipulative uptown doctor-shopper; a salami-and-provolone-puking bulimic who spent a hundred dollars a day on binge foods when things got bad (and they got bad often); a weepy,wobbly, wildly hallucination-prone insomniac; a tweaky self-mutilator; a slutty and self-loathing downtown party girl; and – perhaps most of all – a lonely weirdo. But, you know, I had access to some really fantastic self-tanner.'
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My Review:

WOAH! So this is an incredible read BUT it won't be for everyone. The story of Cat's life is raw, it is unabashedly honest to the point of uncomfortable at times, but it is an insight to the life and survival of a some-what functioning addict. It by no means proposes excuses for abusing drugs and the almost unapologetic tone could come across as patronising, yet I can't remember any book I have read that offers such an honest and transparent recollection of addiction.

I would also recommend to those who have a loved one who struggles with drug use/abuse.

What a ride.
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