en-US Wed, 30 Apr 2025 00:01:07 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 49430390 It was the house of their dreams. Until the bodies were found . . .

BODIES FOUND UNDER PATIO

When pregnant Saffron Cutler moves into 9 Skelton Place with boyfriend Tom and sets about renovations the last thing she expects is builders uncovering a body - two bodies, in fact.

POLICE INVESTIGATE

Forensics indicate the bodies have been buried at least thirty years. Nothing Saffy need worry herself over. Until the police launch a murder investigation and ask to speak to the cottage's former owner - her grandmother, Rose.

OWNER QUESTIONED

Rose is in a care home and Alzheimer's means her memory is increasingly confused. She can't help the police but it is clear she remembers something.

A KILLER AT LARGE?

As Rose's fragmented memories resurface, and the police dig ever deeper, Saffy fears she and the cottage are being watched.

What happened thirty years ago?

Why did no one miss the victims?

What part did her grandmother play?

And is Saffy now in danger?]]> 407 Claire Douglas 1405943416 Linda 0 currently-reading 4.19 2021
author: Claire Douglas
name: Linda
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/30
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 12992945
Then his estranged older sister Olivia turns up in the cellar with some issues of her own. Over the next few days, as Lorenzo helps her through her heroin withdrawal, they form an intense bond. And Olivia reveals some secrets that the family have kept from Lorenzo.

Niccolò Ammaniti, the author of the hugely popular I’m Not Scared, has been described as ‘the best novelist of his generation��. With this breathtaking novel, he has produced a small masterpiece.]]> 153 Niccolò Ammaniti 0857861972 Linda 0 currently-reading 3.67 2010
author: Niccolò Ammaniti
name: Linda
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/30
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 56402671 NO CRIME?

Niall and Eden Paternoster start their Sunday the same way they always do �� with a long drive, a visit to a country house and a quick stop at the local supermarket on the way home.

But this Sunday ends differently �� because while Niall waits and waits in the car park for Eden to pick up supplies, Eden never returns. She’s not waiting for him at home, and none of their family or friends have heard from her.

Gone without a trace, Niall is arrested on suspicion of her murder. When DS Roy Grace is called in to investigate, it doesn’t take long to realize that nothing is quite as it seems �� and this might be his most mysterious case yet . . .

Sunday Times number one bestseller Peter James returns with the latest installment in his award-winning Roy Grace novels �� now a major TV series.]]> 508 Peter James 1529004284 Linda 4 4.36 2021
author: Peter James
name: Linda
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/29
date added: 2025/04/29
shelves:
review:

]]> 221118391 Every grave has a story ... The much-anticipated new novel in the Cormac Reilly series, from the no.1 bestselling author of The Ruin and What Happened to Nina.

For years the boglands of Northern Europe have given up bodies of the long-deceased. Bodies that are thousands of years old, uncannily preserved. Bodies with strange injuries that suggest ritual torture and human sacrifice.

When a corpse is found in a bog in Galway, Cormac Reilly assumes the find is historical. But closer examination reveals a more recent story. The dead man is Thaddeus Grey, a local secondary school principal who disappeared two years prior.

There's nothing in Grey's past that would explain why he was murdered, or why his body was mutilated in a ritual manner. At first, progress on the case is frustratingly slow and Cormac struggles to keep his mind on the job. His ex-girlfriend, Emma Sweeney, is in trouble, and she's reached out to him for help - Emma's new husband has gone missing in Paris, and the French police are refusing to open an investigation into his disappearance.

Cormac is sure that he has found Grey's killer, and is within hours of an arrest, when another mutilated body is discovered on the other side of the country. Two days later, a third body is found. Press attention is intense. Is there a serial killer at work in Ireland? Has Cormac been on the wrong trail? And if so, can he find the murderer before they strike again?]]> 336 Dervla McTiernan 1460718070 Linda 5 A body is found in the marsh, the nipples have been removed and willow twigs inserted through cuts in the arms, the body turns out to be that of a local school teacher and when Cormac starts investigating he finds that no one liked the man. At the same time Cormac’s previous partner, Emily, comes to see him. She is now married and is expecting a child. Her Husband Finn is missing. As Cormac works on both cases he reflects on his time with Emily and realises he still has feelings for her. Then Cormacs boss offers him a promotion in the form of another position and to top it all off Peter, his side kick, has told Cormac he is moving to Australia.
As usual the writing is fabulous and you really connect with Cormac and his life.
Highly recommend
.
#TheUnquietGrave. #NetGalley]]> 4.38
author: Dervla McTiernan
name: Linda
average rating: 4.38
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/17
date added: 2025/04/28
shelves:
review:
When I started this book I realised that I had somehow missed the previous book in this series and that book had held information that would have been helpful when reading this. The books can be read as stand alones but why miss the back story of the characters.
A body is found in the marsh, the nipples have been removed and willow twigs inserted through cuts in the arms, the body turns out to be that of a local school teacher and when Cormac starts investigating he finds that no one liked the man. At the same time Cormac’s previous partner, Emily, comes to see him. She is now married and is expecting a child. Her Husband Finn is missing. As Cormac works on both cases he reflects on his time with Emily and realises he still has feelings for her. Then Cormacs boss offers him a promotion in the form of another position and to top it all off Peter, his side kick, has told Cormac he is moving to Australia.
As usual the writing is fabulous and you really connect with Cormac and his life.
Highly recommend
.
#TheUnquietGrave. #NetGalley
]]> 216557696 “When we opened Sherlock Tomes people warned us that we’d made a terrible mistake. People warned us that e-readers were taking over. People warned us that we’d never compete with the evil Amazon. The one thing they didn’t warn us about was the murders…��

Introducing...the Bookshop Detectives!

When a mystery parcel arrives at Sherlock Tomes bookshop in small-town Havelock North, New Zealand, husband-and-wife owners Garth and Eloise (and their petrified pooch, Stevie) are drawn into the baffling case of a decades-old missing schoolgirl.

Intrigued by the puzzling, bookish clues the two ex-cops are soon tangled in a web of crime, drugs, and floral decapitations, while endeavouring to pull off the international celebrity book launch of the century.

With their beloved shop on the chopping block and the sinister suspect who forced them to run away from Blighty reemerging from the shadows, have Garth and Eloise Sherlock finally met their Moriarty?

For once, the cover copy is no exaggeration: Diary of a Bookseller really does meet Thursday Murder Club meets Bookseller at the End of the World in this witty debut novel, full of literary clues, comedic insights and the kinds of Kiwis you only ever meet in bookshops.
]]> 340 Gareth Ward 1776951018 Linda 4 3.80 2024
author: Gareth Ward
name: Linda
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/26
date added: 2025/04/26
shelves:
review:

]]> 54675399 A thrilling new story featuring Gregg Hurwitz's New York Times bestselling Orphan X!

Joey Morales was the last recruit of the government's full black operation, the Orphan Program. Trained to be an assassin until she washed out, she was rescued by Evan Smoak, the former agent known as Orphan X.
Now Joey, still a teenager and under the watchful eye of Evan Smoak, lives on her own (with Dog the dog) and attends college.

While on campus, she tries to stop a young woman's suicide attempt - and fails. Then Joey uncovers the reason for Becca Morgan's desperate act - a document called The List, which ranks and rates women around campus based on their sexual appeal and performance.

Determined to find the boys behind The List, the ones whose callous acts drove Becca Morgan to suicide, Joey recruits the help of her mentor, Orphan X, and uses all her skills to uncover and expose the ones responsible.
Usually working from the shadows, Joey has to put herself on the line and in harm's way this time to not just avenge the dead but to protect the rest of the women who are targets of the hidden cabal behind The List.]]> 94 Gregg Hurwitz 1250796474 Linda 3 4.21 2020
author: Gregg Hurwitz
name: Linda
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/22
date added: 2025/04/22
shelves:
review:

]]> 218720419 From #1 New York Times bestselling author Jeanine Cummins comes a deeply felt multigenerational family story that asks: What does it mean to call a place home?

On her wedding day in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1968, Rafaela Acuña y Daubón has mild misgivings, but she marries Peter Brennan Jr. anyway, in a blaze of romantic optimism. She has no way of knowing how dramatically her life will change when she uproots her young family to start over in the American Midwest, unleashing a fleet of disappointments. Against the backdrop of her mother’s isolation in St. Louis, Missouri in the 1980s, Rafaela’s daughter, Ruth Brennan, longs only to belong. Eager to fit in, Ruth lets go of her language, habits, and childhood memories of Puerto Rico. It's not until decades later, when Ruth’s own daughter, Daisy, returns to Puerto Rico that her mother and grandmother begin to truly reflect on the choices that have come to define their lives.

When a hurricane ravages the island in 2023, leaving Daisy critically injured, Rafaela and Ruth return to the city where it all began. As they gather at Daisy’s bedside, they’re confronted by the pasts that brought them to this point. We follow them as they come of age, fall in love, take risks, and contend with all the heartbreaks, triumphs, and reversals of fortune �� both good and bad �� that make up a meaningful life. As old memories come to light, so do buried secrets, leaving everyone in the family wondering exactly where it is that they belong.

A striking, resonant examination of marriage, family, and identity, Speak to Me of Home is ultimately a story of mothers and daughters that asks: how can three women who share geography and genetics have such wildly different ideas of where it is they come from? And more importantly, can they discover the common language to find their way home?]]> 384 Jeanine Cummins 1250759366 Linda 0 currently-reading 4.29
author: Jeanine Cummins
name: Linda
average rating: 4.29
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/21
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]> 230579057
The events of that summer have long-lasting repercussions, not only on the three friends caught in its shadow but also on their children, who struggle to escape their parents' story. Spanning fifty years and set against the backdrop of a rapidly warming Montana, Dream State explores what it means to live with the mistakes of the past--both our own and the ones we've inherited.

Written with humor, precision, and enormous heart, both a love letter and an elegy to the American West, Dream State is a thrillingly ambitious ode to the power of friendship, the weird weather of marriage, and the beauty of impermanence.]]> 432 Eric Puchner 1399744135 Linda 5 Charlie and Garrett have been friends since college and now Charlie is about to marry Cece at his beautiful lake home in Salish, Montana. Charlie a successful cardiac anaesthesiologist asks Garrett to look after Cece until he can arrive in Salish. They have not met before but for Garrett it is love at first sight, on a mad impulse he sends her an email on the eve of her wedding telling her how he feels. Charlie and Cece get married amidst the chaos of some of the wedding party and guest coming down with norovirus, but Cece leaves Charlie for Garrett.
It’s a look at fractured love and how they try to mend the rift between the three of them. As they age and have families and reflect on their lives we see how the world also is growing darker and less stable.
This will be one of my books of the year.

#DreamState. #NetGalley

]]> 4.67
author: Eric Puchner
name: Linda
average rating: 4.67
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/21
date added: 2025/04/21
shelves:
review:
I can’t begin to say how much I loved this book. It’s about love and regret and longing, family and aging and in the background a look at a (future?) world made bleak by global warming.
Charlie and Garrett have been friends since college and now Charlie is about to marry Cece at his beautiful lake home in Salish, Montana. Charlie a successful cardiac anaesthesiologist asks Garrett to look after Cece until he can arrive in Salish. They have not met before but for Garrett it is love at first sight, on a mad impulse he sends her an email on the eve of her wedding telling her how he feels. Charlie and Cece get married amidst the chaos of some of the wedding party and guest coming down with norovirus, but Cece leaves Charlie for Garrett.
It’s a look at fractured love and how they try to mend the rift between the three of them. As they age and have families and reflect on their lives we see how the world also is growing darker and less stable.
This will be one of my books of the year.

#DreamState. #NetGalley


]]> 8605842 355 Charity Norman 1742373186 Linda 0 didn-t-finish 3.74 2010
author: Charity Norman
name: Linda
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at: 2025/04/21
date added: 2025/04/21
shelves: didn-t-finish
review:

]]> 223537714 My little girl has vanished. And I can’t tell anyone��

My nine-year-old daughter Hollie should be leaving school smiling and laughing with all the other children but she’s not here. I run frantically, checking everywhere, my voice growing louder, but I can’t see her bright blue eyes and heart-shaped face anywhere. Pure panic washes over me. This is my worst nightmare.

Her teacher asks me if she should call the police. My heart stops. I shake my head and pretend I’ve made a mistake. I see a look of suspicion creep into the teacher’s eyes. But the police can’t know. No one can. My hands shake as I realise I’m completely on my own.

I know in my gut my daughter hasn’t just wandered off. She’s been taken. Someone must know the truth about my past��

I’ve spent so long protecting Hollie, but I always knew this day might come. And I’ll stop at nothing to get my little girl back.

An absolutely nail-biting, addictive psychological thriller novel from multi-million-copy, bestselling author JD Kirk. This book is sooooo fast-paced you won’t be able to put it down! For anyone who loves Freida McFadden, John Marrs and T.M. Logan.

]]> 319 J.D. Kirk 1835256120 Linda 3 3.83
author: J.D. Kirk
name: Linda
average rating: 3.83
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/04/17
date added: 2025/04/18
shelves:
review:

]]> 199798953 Harkening to Agatha Christie’s classic And Then There Were None, this high-tension and ingenious thriller follows five couples trapped on a storm-swept island as a killer stalks among them.

Lyla is in a bit of a rut. Her post-doctoral research has fizzled out, she’s pretty sure they won’t extend her contract, and things with her boyfriend, Nico, an aspiring actor, aren’t going great. When the opportunity arises for Nico to join the cast of a new reality TV show, The Perfect Couple, she decides to try out with him. A whirlwind audition process later, Lyla find herself whisked off to a tropical paradise with Nico, boating through the Indian Ocean towards Ever After Island, where the two of them will compete against four other couples—Bayer and Angel, Dan and Santana, Joel and Romi, and Conor and Zana—in order to win a cash prize.

But not long after they arrive on the deserted island, things start to go wrong. After the first challenge leaves everyone rattled and angry, an overnight storm takes matters from bad to worse. Cut off from the mainland by miles of ocean, deprived of their phones, and unable to contact the crew that brought them there, the group must band together for survival. As tensions run high and fresh water runs low, Lyla finds that this game show is all too real—and the stakes are life or death.

A fast-paced, spellbinding thriller rife with intrigue and characters that feel so true to life, this novel proves yet again that Ruth Ware is the queen of psychological suspense.]]> 385 Ruth Ware 1668025590 Linda 5 3.60 2024
author: Ruth Ware
name: Linda
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/16
date added: 2025/04/16
shelves:
review:

]]> 215959509 In this compulsive debut thriller set in Sydney’s wealthiest suburbs, one detective’s investigation into a family tragedy threatens to collapse a powerful dynasty. . . .


When Skye married into the wealthy Campbell family, she thought she was entering paradise. But lately, she’s been unhappy in her marriage to Duncan and hiding a few secrets of her own as she tries to maintain a normal, happy life for their six-year-old daughter, Tilly.



Now the family patriarch, Sir Campbell Turner, has died and his three sons are set to inherit the luxury goods empire upon which he built their fortune. But plans for a seamless handover are complicated when a fourth, hitherto unknown, heir named Cody comes forward. The Turners gather for an intimate weekend retreat at an opulent seaside estate in order to meet this newcomer and figure out their next steps. With so much at stake, tempers flare and egos clash within their first few hours together. But even as the tensions rise no one could predict that their very first night would end with a shocking poisoning that leaves one family member dead and another fighting for her life.



Sergeant Mei O’Connor is assigned to investigate the incident and though her superiors are keen to close the case as swiftly as possible, the evidence just isn’t lining up. Mei already has enough on her mind as she struggles to care for her terminally ill mother and recover from her broken engagement, but she can’t help poking around the Turners, convinced that there’s more to the suspicious poisoning than a simple accident. As Mei continues to push for answers, she may just send the carefully laid dominoes of the Turner empire crashing down.]]> 336 Rachel Paris 1613165943 Linda 4 4.22
author: Rachel Paris
name: Linda
average rating: 4.22
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/13
date added: 2025/04/13
shelves:
review:

]]> 214151202 “The farmer is dead. He is dead, and all anyone wants to know is who killed him.��

Beth and her gentle, kind husband Frank are happily married, but their relationship relies on the past staying buried. But when Beth’s brother-in-law shoots a dog going after their sheep, Beth doesn’t realize that the gunshot will alter the course of their lives. For the dog belonged to none other than Gabriel Wolfe, the man Beth loved as a teenager—the man who broke her heart years ago. Gabriel has returned to the village with his young son Leo, a boy who reminds Beth very much of her own son, who died in a tragic accident.

As Beth is pulled back into Gabriel’s life, tensions around the village rise and dangerous secrets and jealousies from the past resurface, this time with deadly consequences. Beth is forced to make a choice between the woman she once was, and the woman she has become.

A sweeping love story with the pace and twists of a thriller, Broken Country is a novel of simmering passion, impossible choices, and explosive consequences that toggles between the past and present to explore the far-reaching legacy of first love.]]> 320 Clare Leslie Hall 166807818X Linda 4 Beth and Gabrielle have been sweethearts since college but when Beth thinks he has been cheating on her she breaks up with him. Enter Frank, the local farm boy who has loved her since he was 13. They marry and life is great until the death of their son Bobby in an accident on the farm. Along with Franks brother Jimmy, they soldier on as it’s all they can do. A few years later Gabrielle returns to his hometown with his young son Leo. Gabrielle and his wife are separated and he has Leo for a while. He asks Beth to mind Leo for him and soon they rekindle their romance.
I won’t say any more as it will give too much of the story away but I will say someone is soon dead, and a trial ensues.

#BrokenCountry. #NetGalley
]]> 4.41 2025
author: Clare Leslie Hall
name: Linda
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/12
date added: 2025/04/12
shelves:
review:
This is the book that everyone is talking about. It’s on so many lists as top picks and the book buyer for the chain I work for has chosen it as one of her reads. Maybe that’s why I was a little bit underwhelmed with the book. Sure it’s beautifully written, heartfelt and tragic but it’s just how books used to be, almost Mills and Boon like. Star Crossed lovers marry other people but still love each other, and the big twist at the end was obvious from the start. Having said all that I will recommend it as it’s a lovely read with no swearing or graphic sex or anything offensive really which sometimes make books hard to recommend .
Beth and Gabrielle have been sweethearts since college but when Beth thinks he has been cheating on her she breaks up with him. Enter Frank, the local farm boy who has loved her since he was 13. They marry and life is great until the death of their son Bobby in an accident on the farm. Along with Franks brother Jimmy, they soldier on as it’s all they can do. A few years later Gabrielle returns to his hometown with his young son Leo. Gabrielle and his wife are separated and he has Leo for a while. He asks Beth to mind Leo for him and soon they rekindle their romance.
I won’t say any more as it will give too much of the story away but I will say someone is soon dead, and a trial ensues.

#BrokenCountry. #NetGalley

]]> 45047384
Linus Baker leads a quiet, solitary life. At forty, he lives in a tiny house with a devious cat and his old records. As a Case Worker at the Department in Charge Of Magical Youth, he spends his days overseeing the well-being of children in government-sanctioned orphanages.

When Linus is unexpectedly summoned by Extremely Upper Management he's given a curious and highly classified assignment: travel to Marsyas Island Orphanage, where six dangerous children reside: a gnome, a sprite, a wyvern, an unidentifiable green blob, a were-Pomeranian, and the Antichrist. Linus must set aside his fears and determine whether or not they’re likely to bring about the end of days.

But the children aren’t the only secret the island keeps. Their caretaker is the charming and enigmatic Arthur Parnassus, who will do anything to keep his wards safe. As Arthur and Linus grow closer, long-held secrets are exposed, and Linus must make a choice: destroy a home or watch the world burn.

An enchanting story, masterfully told, The House in the Cerulean Sea is about the profound experience of discovering an unlikely family in an unexpected place—and realizing that family is yours.]]> 394 T.J. Klune Linda 4 4.37 2020
author: T.J. Klune
name: Linda
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/04/11
date added: 2025/04/11
shelves:
review:

]]> 221455188 'Shelley Burr does not take prisoners. Bloody loved this book . . . It's crime fiction at its effortless best - beautifully drawn characters, rich relationships, fast and fascinating plot, and twists that make you go "ah"' LAINIE ANDERSON, author of The Death of Dora Black

'A constant unnerving undercurrent bubbling away on every page' DARCY TINDALE, author of Burning Mountain

People go to the isolated Karpathy farm looking for a new life - and are never seen again. A chilling thriller from the award-winning and bestselling author of Australian noir, Shelley Burr.

Lane Holland's crime-solving career ended the day he went to prison. With his parole hearing approaching, he faces the grim reality that an ex-con can never work as a private eye. Yet one unsolved case continues to haunt the disappearance of Matilda Carver two decades ago.

Never one to follow the rules, Lane finds a lead - a mysterious farm community led by the enigmatic Samuel Karpathy. His farm attracts lost souls. People who want a more meaningful life. People who are hiding from their pasts. People with nowhere else to go.

But those who go to the farm seem to vanish without a trace.

Is it a commune? Is it a cult? Is it something even more dangerous? Lane goes undercover at the farm to find its dark secret - but could he too find himself intoxicated by the prospect of a new life on the land?]]> 303 Shelley Burr 0733652166 Linda 5 Lane a former Private eye is in jail for murdering his father. (Read Wake and Ripper to appreciate the backstory here). One unsolved case haunts him, the disappearance of Matilda Carver 20 years ago, who also happens to be the daughter of the Governor of the prison Lane is incarcerated in. He has carried on covertly looking into Matilda’s disappearance while inside and comes to the conclusion that Karpathy Farm, a remote, commune like farm is at the centre of not just Matilda’s disappearance but others as well. He does a deal to go to the farm, with an escort, under the pretence of an outreach program for offenders who want to learn about farming.
It’s a really good read with a few twists and intriguing characters.

#Vanish #NetGalley
]]> 4.24
author: Shelley Burr
name: Linda
average rating: 4.24
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/07
date added: 2025/04/08
shelves:
review:
This is the book that got me out of my reading slump. I was very impressed with the first in the series Wake and this, the third Lane Holland outing is just as good.
Lane a former Private eye is in jail for murdering his father. (Read Wake and Ripper to appreciate the backstory here). One unsolved case haunts him, the disappearance of Matilda Carver 20 years ago, who also happens to be the daughter of the Governor of the prison Lane is incarcerated in. He has carried on covertly looking into Matilda’s disappearance while inside and comes to the conclusion that Karpathy Farm, a remote, commune like farm is at the centre of not just Matilda’s disappearance but others as well. He does a deal to go to the farm, with an escort, under the pretence of an outreach program for offenders who want to learn about farming.
It’s a really good read with a few twists and intriguing characters.

#Vanish #NetGalley

]]> 123036004 A four-year-old Mi’kmaq girl goes missing from the blueberry fields of Maine, sparking a tragic mystery that haunts the survivors, unravels a community, and remains unsolved for nearly fifty years.

July 1962. A Mi’kmaq family from Nova Scotia arrives in Maine to pick blueberries for the summer. Weeks later, four-year-old Ruthie, the family’s youngest child, vanishes. She is last seen by her six-year-old brother, Joe, sitting on a favorite rock at the edge of a berry field. Joe will remain distraught by his sister’s disappearance for years to come.

In Maine, a young girl named Norma grows up as the only child of an affluent family. Her father is emotionally distant, her mother frustratingly overprotective. Norma is often troubled by recurring dreams and visions that seem more like memories than imagination. As she grows older, Norma slowly comes to realize there is something her parents aren’t telling her. Unwilling to abandon her intuition, she will spend decades trying to uncover this family secret.

For readers of The Vanishing Half and Woman of Light, this showstopping debut by a vibrant new voice in fiction is a riveting novel about the search for truth, the shadow of trauma, and the persistence of love across time.]]> 307 Amanda Peters 1646221958 Linda 5 4.04 2023
author: Amanda Peters
name: Linda
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/07
date added: 2025/04/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 211004023 A spine-tingling thriller by New York Times bestselling author TJ Klune, about a 10-year-old girl with an impossible power, her father, and an unlikely stranger, who come together to confront the dangerous forces that want her at all costs. A strange story of family, love, comets, and bacon. Perfect for fans of Stranger Things.

In the spring of 1995, Nate Cartwright has lost everything: his parents are dead, his older brother wants nothing to do with him, and he's been fired from his job as a journalist in Washington DC. With nothing left to lose, he returns to his family's summer cabin outside the small mountain town of Roseland, Oregon to try and find some sense of direction. The cabin should be empty. It's not. Inside is a man named Alex. And with him is an extraordinary little girl who calls herself Artemis Darth Vader. Artemis, who isn't exactly as she appears.

Soon it becomes clear that Nate must make a choice: let himself drown in the memories of his past, or fight for a future he never thought possible. Because the girl is special. And forces are descending upon them who want nothing more than to control her.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.]]> 416 T.J. Klune 1250890438 Linda 5 Set in the 90s, Nate is struggling, he’s been fired from his job, he has lost contact with his brother and his parents are dead having been disowned by them anyway when he was caught in bed with another man. He decides to head to his cabin in the mountains where he finds a man and a little girl hiding out. Alex is very protective of the girl, Artemis Darth Vader and it’s soon apparent that she is special, and they are being hunted. Nate soon forms a bond with them and his life changes in many ways.
I will be reading more by this author. ]]> 4.11 2018
author: T.J. Klune
name: Linda
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/03
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves:
review:
I don’t usually read fantasy but had heard so many good things about this author that I thought I would give him a go. My verdict��. I loved it!
Set in the 90s, Nate is struggling, he’s been fired from his job, he has lost contact with his brother and his parents are dead having been disowned by them anyway when he was caught in bed with another man. He decides to head to his cabin in the mountains where he finds a man and a little girl hiding out. Alex is very protective of the girl, Artemis Darth Vader and it’s soon apparent that she is special, and they are being hunted. Nate soon forms a bond with them and his life changes in many ways.
I will be reading more by this author.
]]> 220887061 The powerful, humorous yet sensitive story of Jasper, a talented young artist, who learns to face his anger.

'Tender and wickedly humorous - such an important story.' KAREN FOXLEE bestselling author of Lenny's Book of Everything

Jasper Robinson-Woods is not okay �� his name is too long, his mum has an annoying boyfriend, he never sees his dad, and he can't sleep because of a terrifying nightmare. Oh, and to top it off, his goldfish is dying.

Jasper is overwhelmed with bad thoughts. Are they a sign of disaster to come? The only place he feels safe is in the tree in his front yard.

But then the unimaginable his nightmare comes to life and everything spirals out of control. Jasper decides it's finally time to face his nightmare.

Bear is a moving, often laugh-out-loud funny story showing that even when you hit rock bottom, you never know what, or who, is around the corner.

Winner of 2024 Storylines Tessa Duder YA Award

'Wonderfully fresh and engaging.' Tessa Duder]]> 363 Kiri Lightfoot 1761505599 Linda 5 4.41
author: Kiri Lightfoot
name: Linda
average rating: 4.41
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/04/03
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves:
review:

]]> 121648 Now, sixteen years later, in a posthumous letter, Mrs. Crale has assured her grown daughter that she was innocent. But instead of setting the young woman's mind at ease, the letter only raises disquieting questions. Did Caroline indeed write the truth? And if she didn't kill her husband, who did?

To find out, the Crale’s daughter asks Hercule Poirot to reopen the case. His investigation takes him deep into the conflicting memories and motivations of the five other people who were with the Crales on the fatal day. With his keen understanding of human psychology, he manages to discover the surprising truth behind the artist's death.]]> 216 Agatha Christie Linda 3 4.02 1942
author: Agatha Christie
name: Linda
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1942
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/22
date added: 2025/03/22
shelves:
review:

]]> 214269394
Joe asks Percy for feedback on one of his songs—and the results kick off a partnership that will span years, ignite new passions in them both, and crush their egos again and again. Is their collaboration worth its cost? Or is it holding Percy back from finding her own voice?

Moving from Brooklyn bars to San Francisco dance floors, Deep Cuts examines the nature of talent, obsession, belonging, and above all, our need to be heard.]]> 277 Holly Brickley 0593799089 Linda 5 3.77 2025
author: Holly Brickley
name: Linda
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/21
date added: 2025/03/21
shelves:
review:

]]> 61432218 Two children get on the train. Only one gets off...

No one saw it happen.
You stand on a crowded tube platform in London. Your two little girls jump on the train ahead of you. As you try to join them, the doors slide shut and the train moves away, leaving you behind.

Everyone is lying.
By the time you get to the next stop, you've convinced yourself that everything will be fine. But you soon start to panic, because there aren't two children waiting for you on the platform. There's only one.

Someone is to blame.
Has your other daughter got lost? Been taken by a passing stranger? Or perhaps the culprit is closer to home than you think? No one is telling the truth, and the longer the search continues, the harder she will be to find...]]> 384 Andrea Mara 178763650X Linda 3 3.87 2023
author: Andrea Mara
name: Linda
average rating: 3.87
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/20
date added: 2025/03/20
shelves:
review:

]]> 228318161 Carla Martell 1991006926 Linda 3 4.00
author: Carla Martell
name: Linda
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/20
date added: 2025/03/20
shelves:
review:

]]> 82449
Abby Barton's TV career is taking off and now she and her husband can have the life they've always dreamed of in a lovely Irish town -- at least, in theory! But when your husband takes you for granted and your teenage daughter hates you, an adoring old flame can spell danger to your seemingly perfect life. Fortunately, Abby has her friends to keep her sane. For starters, her best friend, Sally, owns a beauty salon, and Sally and her husband throw fantastic parties, where there are still more friends to be made.

Just be sure to share.

Sally's friend Lizzie makes time for her gal pals, her grown children, even her ex-husband. But when her ex finds someone new, Lizzie can't help but wonder if she'll ever love again. The women are all thrilled to meet Erin, who has moved home to Ireland from Chicago for her husband's new job. But is she cut out for small-town life, and what of the family she left behind years ago? Together and on their own, these four women are about to face highs and lows they never anticipated. Only from each other can they learn that life is for the living and that they need to grab it with both hands....]]> 528 Cathy Kelly 0743490258 Linda 3 3.78 2003
author: Cathy Kelly
name: Linda
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2003
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/20
date added: 2025/03/20
shelves:
review:

]]> 207574753
It's all Anna wants.

But in a closed rural community, strange traditions and a suspicion of outsiders mean everything is not as it seems.

Three teenage girls have vanished at the annual Gathering as they reach their sixteenth birthday.
No one seems to be investigating.
And a fourth girl begs Anna for help, fearing that she will be next to disappear.

Everyone has secrets.
Anna is watching everyone.
But who is watching Anna?

An unpredictable and wild page-turner, with shocks, surprises and a killer twist for a finale.]]> 329 Sharon J. Bolton 1398709891 Linda 4 Anna has made a new start as a baker in a small rural community, a place where 3 sixteen year old girls have vanished during an annual event called the Gathering. When a fourth girl asks Anna for help as she is afraid for her life, Anna, along with her two neighbours, start to investigate the activity at the Gathering, uncovering all sorts of goings on.
No one seems to be who they say they are and everyone has a horrific backstory. When the first twist appears in the book you think huh, I didn’t see that coming but the second twist will see you thinking back over what you’ve read. To be honest I am tempted to read the book again to see how it would read now I know what’s what!
Good read if not implausible in places but that doesn’t detract it from being a page-turner.

#TheNeighboursSecret. #NetGalley]]> 4.00
author: Sharon J. Bolton
name: Linda
average rating: 4.00
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/09/30
date added: 2025/03/12
shelves:
review:
Now this is a novel so hard to review because it has so many twists throughout the book and hinting at any would ruin the book.
Anna has made a new start as a baker in a small rural community, a place where 3 sixteen year old girls have vanished during an annual event called the Gathering. When a fourth girl asks Anna for help as she is afraid for her life, Anna, along with her two neighbours, start to investigate the activity at the Gathering, uncovering all sorts of goings on.
No one seems to be who they say they are and everyone has a horrific backstory. When the first twist appears in the book you think huh, I didn’t see that coming but the second twist will see you thinking back over what you’ve read. To be honest I am tempted to read the book again to see how it would read now I know what’s what!
Good read if not implausible in places but that doesn’t detract it from being a page-turner.

#TheNeighboursSecret. #NetGalley
]]> 7876941 87 Cathy Kelly 0007331444 Linda 4 3.55 2010
author: Cathy Kelly
name: Linda
average rating: 3.55
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/12
date added: 2025/03/12
shelves:
review:

]]> 211953338
Meet the Agarwals, who have gathered on a private, luxury island off the west coast of Scotland for a much-anticipated family reunion.

Raj, the patriarch and a business tycoon, is about to announce to his wife and three children the succession plan for his multimillon-dollar Delhi-based company. Shalini, the fragile matriarch, is ready to have her husband to herself after years of sacrifice to the family business. Myra, the golden child, owner of the island and host of the reunion, is, unbeknownst to her family, on the brink of bankruptcy. Aseem, the son and supposed heir, is torn between his love for his wife and his duty to family. Aisha, the youngest, a party girl whose antics are legendary, can’t pass up an opportunity to wreak havoc. And then there’s Zoe, Aseem’s wife, the outsider whose #InstaPerfect life is built on a foundation of lies.

They’ve all got secrets they would die to protect. Who will survive this high-stakes reunion, and who will become a victim of their own greed? One thing is certain: this family gathering will shatter more than just their illusions of unity.]]> 352 Trisha Sakhlecha 0593832566 Linda 5 3.67 2025
author: Trisha Sakhlecha
name: Linda
average rating: 3.67
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/09
date added: 2025/03/09
shelves:
review:

]]> 202985897 0 unknown author Linda 4 3.50
author: unknown author
name: Linda
average rating: 3.50
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/03/08
date added: 2025/03/08
shelves:
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]]> 102175
"The novels of Peter Robinson are chilling, evocative, deeply nuanced works of art," Dennis Lehane]]> 324 Peter Robinson 0330491644 Linda 3 3.92 1989
author: Peter Robinson
name: Linda
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1989
rating: 3
read at: 2025/03/05
date added: 2025/03/05
shelves:
review:

]]> 195430687 Three estranged siblings return to their family home in New York after their beloved sister's death in this unforgettable story of grief, identity, and the complexities of family.

The three Blue sisters are exceptional—and exceptionally different. Avery, the eldest and a recovering heroin addict turned strait-laced lawyer, lives with her wife in London; Bonnie, a former boxer, works as a bouncer in Los Angeles following a devastating defeat; and Lucky, the youngest, models in Paris while trying to outrun her hard-partying ways. They also had a fourth sister, Nicky, whose unexpected death left Avery, Bonnie, and Lucky reeling. A year later, as they each navigate grief, addiction, and ambition, they find they must return to New York to stop the sale of the apartment they were raised in.

But coming home is never as easy as it seems. As the sisters reckon with the disappointments of their childhood and the loss of the only person who held them together, they realize the greatest secrets they've been keeping might not have been from each other, but from themselves.]]> 342 Coco Mellors 0593723767 Linda 5 3.93 2024
author: Coco Mellors
name: Linda
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/03/02
date added: 2025/03/02
shelves:
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]]> 157591205
'What on earth are you on about?' she said. 'How are we going to catch the Yorkshire Ripper, when the police haven't even managed to?'

I sighed. Her questioning my ideas was a recent and unwelcome element to our friendship. But it was a valid point. How would we catch him? We needed some sort of plan, a way of gathering clues and putting them into order.

I thought about what the policeman had said about structure, and then about Aunty Jean and her notebook, and the idea I had hardened like toffee. I knew exactly what we needed to do.

'We'll make a list,' I said. 'A list of the people and things we see that are suspicious.

And then . . . And then we'll investigate them.'

The List of Suspicious Things is a tender and moving coming of age story about family, friendship and community. Sometimes the strongest connections are found in the most unlikely of places.]]> 464 Jennie Godfrey 1529153298 Linda 5 4.19 2024
author: Jennie Godfrey
name: Linda
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/28
date added: 2025/02/28
shelves:
review:

]]> 56898179 Master storyteller Alice Hoffman brings us the conclusion of the Practical Magic series in a spellbinding and enchanting final Owens novel brimming with lyric beauty and vivid characters.

The Owens family has been cursed in matters of love for over three-hundred years but all of that is about to change. The novel begins in a library, the best place for a story to be conjured, when beloved aunt Jet Owens hears the deathwatch beetle and knows she has only seven days to live. Jet is not the only one in danger—the curse is already at work.

A frantic attempt to save a young man’s life spurs three generations of the Owens women, and one long-lost brother, to use their unusual gifts to break the curse as they travel from Paris to London to the English countryside where their ancestor Maria Owens first practiced the Unnamed Art. The younger generation discovers secrets that have been hidden from them in matters of both magic and love by Sally, their fiercely protective mother. As Kylie Owens uncovers the truth about who she is and what her own dark powers are, her aunt Franny comes to understand that she is ready to sacrifice everything for her family, and Sally Owens realizes that she is willing to give up everything for love.

The Book of Magic is a breathtaking conclusion that celebrates mothers and daughters, sisters and brothers, and anyone who has ever been in love.]]> 400 Alice Hoffman 198215148X Linda 3 4.09 2021
author: Alice Hoffman
name: Linda
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/25
date added: 2025/02/25
shelves:
review:

]]> 213243949 A new Anne Tyler novel destined to be an instant classic: a socially awkward mother of the bride navigates the days before and after her daughter's wedding.

Gail Baines is having a bad day. To start, she loses her job—or quits, depending on whom you ask. Tomorrow her daughter, Debbie, is getting married, and she hasn’t even been invited to the spa day organized by the mother of the groom. Then, Gail’s ex-husband, Max, arrives unannounced on her doorstep, carrying a cat, without a place to stay, and without even a suit.

But the true crisis lands when Debbie shares with her parents a secret she has just learned about her husband to be. It will not only throw the wedding into question but also stir up Gail and Max’s past.

Told with deep sensitivity and a tart sense of humor, full of the joys and heartbreaks of love and marriage and family life, Three Days in June is a triumph, and gives us the perennially bestselling, Pulitzer Prize–winning writer at the height of her powers

]]> 165 Anne Tyler 0593803485 Linda 4 The three days in June are the days before and after Gail and Max’s daughter Debbies wedding.
The story starts with Gail losing her job, then arrives home to her ex husband on her doorstep with a cat he has brought with him. Max was meant to stay with Debbie and her fiancé Kenneth, but Kenneth is allergic to cats.
The dialogue between the couple is great, full of humour and warmth. When Gail and Max find out Kenneth had potentially cheated on Debbie it brings up memories of the disintegration of their marriage. Looking back on her life Gail reflects that she had the best person with her all along.

A short but satisfying read. Her fans won’t be disappointed.

#ThreeDaysInJune. #NetGally
]]> 3.61 2025
author: Anne Tyler
name: Linda
average rating: 3.61
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/22
date added: 2025/02/22
shelves:
review:
It’s funny how when you are an avid reader you sometimes read a few books in a row that have the same theme, the book I has just finished dealt with a divorced couple who had come back together for a trial, this book it’s a wedding.
The three days in June are the days before and after Gail and Max’s daughter Debbies wedding.
The story starts with Gail losing her job, then arrives home to her ex husband on her doorstep with a cat he has brought with him. Max was meant to stay with Debbie and her fiancé Kenneth, but Kenneth is allergic to cats.
The dialogue between the couple is great, full of humour and warmth. When Gail and Max find out Kenneth had potentially cheated on Debbie it brings up memories of the disintegration of their marriage. Looking back on her life Gail reflects that she had the best person with her all along.

A short but satisfying read. Her fans won’t be disappointed.

#ThreeDaysInJune. #NetGally

]]> 465226 The Redbreast is a fabulous introduction to Nesbø’s tough-as-nails series protagonist, Oslo police detective Harry Hole. A brilliant and epic novel, breathtaking in its scope and design—winner of The Glass Key for best Nordic crime novel and selected as the best Norwegian crime novel ever written by members of Norway’s book clubs��The Redbreast is a chilling tale of murder and betrayal that ranges from the battlefields of World War Two to the streets of modern-day Oslo. Follow Hole as he races to stop a killer and disarm a ticking time-bomb from his nation’s shadowy past. Vogue magazine says that “nobody can delve into the dark, twisted mind of a murderer better than a Scandinavian thriller writer”…and nobody does it better than Jo Nesbø! James Patterson fans should also take note.
]]> 519 Jo Nesbø 184343217X Linda 0 3.94 2000
author: Jo Nesbø
name: Linda
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/02/22
shelves:
review:

]]> 40670312 How far would you go to find The One?

A simple DNA test is all it takes. Just a quick mouth swab and soon you’ll be matched with your perfect partner the one you are genetically made for.

That’s the promise made by Match Your DNA. A decade ago, the company announced that they had found the gene that pairs each of us with our soul mate. Since then, millions of people around the world have been matched. But the discovery has its downsides: test results have led to the breakup of countless relationships and upended the traditional ideas of dating, romance and love.

Now five very different people have received the notification that they’ve been “Matched.�� They’re each about to meet their one true love. But “happily ever after�� isn’t guaranteed for everyone. Because even soul mates have secrets. And some are more shocking than others��

A word-of-mouth hit in the United Kingdom, The One is a fascinating novel that shows how even the simplest discoveries can have complicated consequences.]]> 418 John Marrs Linda 4 4.09 2016
author: John Marrs
name: Linda
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/21
date added: 2025/02/21
shelves:
review:

]]> 216522696 The Death of Us is the story of a marriage turned inside out by a violent encounter that sets fire to the hairline faults that were there from the start.

Late on a summer’s evening when they are thirty years old, husband and wife Edward and Isabel’s home is invaded by a serial killer.��Theirs was a classic story of young love that moves into true partnership—but their solid foundation implodes in the wake of this violence.

At fifty-eight, they are reunited for their tormentor’s trial and forced to confront their lifelong love the secrets, passions, and encounter that bind them still.��Isabel has waited years for the man who nearly ended her life to be caught. As she’s tracked news of his increasingly violent criminal life, she’s connected with other survivors and prepared for the moment that she’d get to read her victim impact statement aloud in court. She is sure she’ll speak her truth and finally let the past go. Edward has spent the years since the break-in—and the breakdown of his marriage—trying to figure out how a near-miss with death killed so much else in their shared life. Unlike Isabel, he’s not eager to relive these terrible memories. Even though he’s moved on—he’s remarried, his old life almost unrecognizable ​to him now—he can’t resist accompanying Isabel to their intruder’s sentencing. What would revenge or justice feel like? Can closure set Isabel free? And what might that freedom mean for Edward?]]> 336 Abigail Dean 0593831136 Linda 4 It’s a story of a marriage torn apart by a tragedy, parts narrated by the husband and the other the wife. The wife Isabel narrates her story to Nigel, the man who had broken into their home and raped her while he made her husband, Edward, stay in the bathroom and listen. The violence and horror of the crime is almost second to the aftermath of how it affected their lives and their subsequent divorce.
The story starts where they are to give witness statements at Nigel’s trial, almost 30 years after the event, they are not alone. There are other people there to tell their story.
It’s quite a horrific read of how events can change and shape peoples lives and not just the victims but the police involved in the hunt for the intruder who turned from raping his victims to murdering them. As Isabel and Edward narrate their stories you can see that despite the cracks in the relationship they loved each other and maybe they still do.

#TheDeathOfUs. #NetGalley
]]> 4.15 2025
author: Abigail Dean
name: Linda
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/19
date added: 2025/02/20
shelves:
review:
This is one of those books that I struggled to get into. I picked it up, put it down picked it up again. Deciding to restart from the beginning, I sat and read a good portion of it in one go. The writing style is quite different and I had trouble following at first (obviously just me as all the reviewers love this book)
It’s a story of a marriage torn apart by a tragedy, parts narrated by the husband and the other the wife. The wife Isabel narrates her story to Nigel, the man who had broken into their home and raped her while he made her husband, Edward, stay in the bathroom and listen. The violence and horror of the crime is almost second to the aftermath of how it affected their lives and their subsequent divorce.
The story starts where they are to give witness statements at Nigel’s trial, almost 30 years after the event, they are not alone. There are other people there to tell their story.
It’s quite a horrific read of how events can change and shape peoples lives and not just the victims but the police involved in the hunt for the intruder who turned from raping his victims to murdering them. As Isabel and Edward narrate their stories you can see that despite the cracks in the relationship they loved each other and maybe they still do.

#TheDeathOfUs. #NetGalley

]]> 44491591
I crawled onto the bank and collapsed, exhausted.
From the dirt, I looked up in amazement at four dogs staring down at me.
Was I dreaming? Had I gone mad? It all seemed very real.
'You guys saved me!' I said, as I sat up in my dripping clothes. 'I owe you.'

When disaster separates Gwen from her family, she must fend for herself, all alone in the wilderness.

Luckily, she's not alone for long�� When a wolf puppy, a Labrador, a Chihuahua, and a greyhound want to make friends, Gwen discovers talents she didn't know she possessed.

It will take all her new skills and strength just to survive. Does Gwen have what it takes to be leader of the pack?]]> 206 Anh Do 176052509X Linda 4 4.22 2019
author: Anh Do
name: Linda
average rating: 4.22
book published: 2019
rating: 4
read at: 2019/12/03
date added: 2025/02/19
shelves:
review:

]]> 52939803 For readers of Lisa Jewell, Diane Chamberlain, and Jodi Picoult comes another gripping novel from internationally bestselling author Susan Lewis, about an eccentric old woman, the ghost-writer helping write her memoirs, and the destructive secrets binding them together.

Ghost-writer Joely Foster has been asked to write the memoir of an eccentric old lady with a troubling past. Relieved to have a break from her own marital difficulties, Joely escapes to the woman’s isolated house, where she gets to work writing about a pivotal event in Freda Donahoe’s life.��On its surface, the story is of a fifteen-year-old girl being groomed at school by her teacher. But Freda is determined to set the record straight by showing that the girl was complicit in the seduction, and had only called the police when she was spurned. But that’s just half the story��

Joely delves into her work, learning more about the events that happened all those years ago. She is soon surprised to discover that the truth lies much closer to home and is bizarrely connected to her. How can Freda’s past be linked to Joely? Could the teacher be someone near to her?

As the story of Freda’s past unravels, it spins Joely into a dangerous world of secrets and lies she could never have imagined, causing her to question everything she thought she knew about her family.

Breathlessly intriguing from the first page to the last, My Lies, Your Lies is an unforgettable novel that intertwines the fascinating past of one mysterious woman to the present of another woman with a harrowing, unexpected twist.]]> 304 Susan Lewis 0062906615 Linda 4 3.57 2020
author: Susan Lewis
name: Linda
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2020
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/17
date added: 2025/02/17
shelves:
review:

]]> 55404546 Four famous siblings throw an epic party to celebrate the end of the summer. But over the course of twenty-four hours, their lives will change forever.

Malibu: August, 1983. It’s the day of Nina Riva’s annual end-of-summer party, and anticipation is at a fever pitch. Everyone wants to be around the famous Rivas: Nina, the talented surfer and supermodel; brothers Jay and Hud, one a championship surfer, the other a renowned photographer; and their adored baby sister, Kit. Together, the siblings are a source of fascination in Malibu and the world over—especially as the offspring of the legendary singer, Mick Riva.

The only person not looking forward to the party of the year is Nina herself, who never wanted to be the center of attention, and who has also just been very publicly abandoned by her pro tennis player husband. Oh, and maybe Hud—because it is long past time to confess something to the brother from whom he’s been inseparable since birth.

Jay, on the other hand, is counting the minutes until nightfall, when the girl he can’t stop thinking about promised she’ll be there.

And Kit has a couple secrets of her own—including a guest she invited without consulting anyone.

By midnight the party will be completely out of control. By morning, the Riva mansion will have gone up in flames. But before that first spark in the early hours before dawn, the alcohol will flow, the music will play, and the loves and secrets that shaped this family’s generations will all come bubbling to the surface.

Malibu Rising is a story about one unforgettable night in the life of a family: the night they each have to choose what they will keep from the people who made them... and what they will leave behind.]]> 369 Taylor Jenkins Reid 1524798657 Linda 5 4.02 2021
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Linda
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/15
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves:
review:

]]> 210808030 One in a Million is brimming with heart, reassurance and parental love, from one of today's best-loved picture book authors and an award-winning illustrator.

(This ebook is optimised for Kindle tablets and the Kindle App. It is not suitable for e-Ink kindle devices, such as the PaperWhite. We recommend you download a sample to your device before purchase if in doubt.)

It tells the story of Debra the zebra who is delighted to find she can count anything and everything�� but disaster strikes when Debra realises how big the world is �� and just how small she is in it. Luckily, her wise Mama is there to remind Debra that in a world of hundreds, thousands �� even millions �� sometimes it’s just ONE little zebra, that counts most of all.]]> 0 Smriti Halls 0008671451 Linda 4 4.33
author: Smriti Halls
name: Linda
average rating: 4.33
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/15
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves:
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]]> 220479748 ‘She wasn’t the first and she wouldn’t be the last; swallowed into the deep, dark recesses of the King Country bush, never to be seen again.��

It’s January 1983. During his university summer break, Ryan Bradley returns to the remote town of Nashville in New Zealand’s rugged King Country.

It’s a bittersweet he’s working long, punishing hours as a woolpresser, he needs to sell his late mother’s house, and he’s increasingly feeling like an outcast in his childhood town.

But mostly he’s haunted by memories of Sanna Sovernen, a Finnish backpacker and his secret lover, who worked with him in the shearing shed the summer before - then vanished without trace.

Now Sanna’s sister Emilia has arrived from Finland, determined to get answers - and as he’s the workmate who reported Sanna missing, she wants Ryan’s help. Because Emilia knows her sister was not the first female traveller in the area to disappear . . .

'The stunning King Country landscape and scenery imbue the story with a real atmospheric sense of place. Fans of Chris Hammer, J P Pomare and Alan Carter will enjoy this gripping debut.' Books + Publishing

‘A deftly wrought novel, compelling and complex. I loved it.�� MARGARET HICKEY

'A gripping murder mystery set in 1980s small-town New Zealand, capturing the stifling atmosphere of a commun
ity steeped in secrets. With relentless suspense and a rich cast of characters, this impressive debut keeps the reader guessing to the very end.' ROSE CARLYLE]]> 398 Geoff Parkes 1761349295 Linda 4 3.76
author: Geoff Parkes
name: Linda
average rating: 3.76
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/11
date added: 2025/02/11
shelves:
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]]> 208430624
There’s only one thing that dulls the pressure: alcohol. Vodka, beer, peppermint schnapps—alcohol smooths the sharp edges of Bella’s life. And what’s the big deal? Everyone drinks. Besides, Bella can stop whenever she wants. But after she gets blackout drunk at a Thanksgiving party and wakes up in the hospital, it’s time to face reality. And for Bella, reality means rehab.]]> 464 Kathleen Glasgow 0525708081 Linda 5 4.32 2024
author: Kathleen Glasgow
name: Linda
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/11
date added: 2025/02/11
shelves:
review:

]]> 214152244 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781668076217.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo meets First Lie Wins in this electric, voice-driven debut novel about an elusive bestselling author who decides to finally confess her true identity after years of hiding from her past.

Cate Kay knows how to craft a story. As the creator of a bestselling book trilogy that struck box office gold as a film series, she’s one of the most successful authors of her generation. The thing is, Cate Kay doesn’t really exist. She’s never attended author events or granted any interviews. Her real identity had been a closely guarded secret, until now.

As a young adult, she and her best friend Amanda dreamed of escaping their difficult homes and moving to California to become movie stars. But the day before their grand adventure, a tragedy shattered their dreams and Cate has been on the run ever since, taking on different names and charting a new future. But after a shocking revelation, Cate understands that returning home is the only way she’ll be a whole person again.]]> 304 Kate Fagan Linda 4 Cate is Cass, Cass is Annie. Annie was the teenager who was in love with her best friend Amanda. They were best friends that did everything together and had dreams of escaping their present lives and going to Los Angeles and becoming famous. That is until Amanda suffers a serious accident and Annie in a moment of panic leaves town. She reinvents her self as Cass and starts writing the book that would become The Very Last. The story is shaped by her teenage years with Amanda (whom she is told died in the accident). As her fame grows she finds herself more trapped. Only one person knows Cate is Cass and Cass wants to keep it that way.
The story is told in different voices at different times in their lives and the novel as a whole I think Is meant to be Cate Kay’s memoir.
I found it hard to follow at first and had to organise the characters in my head to sort out who was who and the parts they played. It could easily be a YA read even tho it is a lesbian (do we use that word anymore?)love story , as a lot of Ya novels have gay characters and some a lot more descriptive of the relationships than this.
Good read


#TheThreeLivesOfCateKay. #NetGalley

]]> 3.75 2025
author: Kate Fagan
name: Linda
average rating: 3.75
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/08
date added: 2025/02/08
shelves:
review:
Cate Kay is a best selling author of a dystopian trilogy called The Very Last. In fact she has taken the publishing world by storm, selling millions of her books but……no one knows who she is.
Cate is Cass, Cass is Annie. Annie was the teenager who was in love with her best friend Amanda. They were best friends that did everything together and had dreams of escaping their present lives and going to Los Angeles and becoming famous. That is until Amanda suffers a serious accident and Annie in a moment of panic leaves town. She reinvents her self as Cass and starts writing the book that would become The Very Last. The story is shaped by her teenage years with Amanda (whom she is told died in the accident). As her fame grows she finds herself more trapped. Only one person knows Cate is Cass and Cass wants to keep it that way.
The story is told in different voices at different times in their lives and the novel as a whole I think Is meant to be Cate Kay’s memoir.
I found it hard to follow at first and had to organise the characters in my head to sort out who was who and the parts they played. It could easily be a YA read even tho it is a lesbian (do we use that word anymore?)love story , as a lot of Ya novels have gay characters and some a lot more descriptive of the relationships than this.
Good read


#TheThreeLivesOfCateKay. #NetGalley


]]> 222163948 An American mathematician’s assignment in Russia spirals into a high-stakes maze of shifting loyalties and intrigue in a propulsive short thriller by #1 New York Times bestselling author Lee Child.

Nathan Tyler is an unassuming professor at a middling American university with a rather obscure specialty in mathematics—in short, a nobody from nowhere. So why is the White House calling? Summoned to Washington, DC, for a top-secret briefing, Nathan discovers that he’s the key to a massive foreign intelligence breakthrough. Reading between the lines of a cryptic series of equations, he could open a door straight into the heart of the Kremlin and change the global balance of power forever. All he has to do is get to a meeting with the renowned Russian mathematician who created it. But when Nathan crashes headlong into a dangerous new game, the odds against him suddenly look a lot steeper.]]> 50 Lee Child 1662526202 Linda 5 I’ve noticed Lee Child likes using numbers in his books, equations, chances and sequences, this is no exception.
Worth reading.

#ElevenNumbers #NetGalley
]]> 4.09 2025
author: Lee Child
name: Linda
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/02/08
date added: 2025/02/08
shelves:
review:
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this short story, just 32 pages long but each a joy. Nathan Tyler is a Maths professor due at a maths conference in Russia. In spite of numerous warnings about visiting Russia he decides to go anyway. Then the President of the USA steps in and things dont go to plan from then on in.
I’ve noticed Lee Child likes using numbers in his books, equations, chances and sequences, this is no exception.
Worth reading.

#ElevenNumbers #NetGalley

]]> 214183500 I love you more than a baboon’s bum, a kangaroo’s bum, a slimy slug’s bum!

(This ebook is optimised for Kindle tablets and the Kindle App. It is not suitable for e-Ink kindle devices, such as the PaperWhite. We recommend you download a sample to your device before purchase if in doubt.)

Stuffed full of all sorts of animal bums and celebrating love in all it's wonderful shapes and sizes, this hilarious new picture book is sure to have little ones, and big ones, laughing with pure glee.

Featuring cheeky illustrations from the incredible Ben Whitehouse and with stellar rhyming text throughout, welcome to the brilliantly silly world of I LOVE YOU MORE THAN A BABOON'S BUM!]]> 0 Candy Bee 0008696667 Linda 3 3.00
author: Candy Bee
name: Linda
average rating: 3.00
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/07
date added: 2025/02/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 220196267 From the author of the “irresistible�� (Paula Hawkins, #1 New York Times bestselling author) Where the Truth Lies, an atmospheric novel about a young woman who searches for answers after her estranged friend is found dead in the bayou of their rural Louisiana hometown.

The Labasques aren’t like other families.

Living in a shack out in the swamps, they made do by hunting down alligators and other animals. To the good people of Jacknife, Louisiana, they are troublemakers and outcasts, the kind of people you wouldn’t want in your community.

So, when Cutter Labasque is found face down in the muddy swamp, no one seems to care, not even her two brothers. The only person who questions the official verdict of suicide is Cutter’s childhood friend, Loyal May, who has just returned home to care for her mother. When she left town at eighteen years old, she betrayed Cutter. Now with a ragtag group from the local paper where she works, Loyal goes in search of answers, uncovering a web of deceit and corruption that implicates those in town. It may be too late to apologize to Cutter, but Loyal has restitution in mind.

Weaving through the swamps and bayous of rural Louisiana, Our Last Wild Days is an atmospheric, smoldering suspense about our darker impulses—and how to set things right.]]> 352 Anna Bailey 1982157216 Linda 4 When Cutter is found dead in the swamp no one seems to care, not even her brothers. A verdict of suicide is given, yet Loyal doesn’t think that Cutter would kill herself and she alone seems intent on finding out what happened to Cutter.
Cutter and her brothers caught alligators for a living, selling them for their skin and meat. They live in a ramshackle hut in the swamps and this makes them outcasts with the locals. Perhaps, Loyal thinks, if she can find out what happened to Cutter it will atone for the article she wrote when they were 18.
Every person in this book is wonderfully drawn and the steaminess of the bayou leaks out on every page. Although I didn’t enjoy it as much as Tall Bones, it’s a great read all the same.

#OurLastWildDays. #NetGalley]]> 4.38 2025
author: Anna Bailey
name: Linda
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/14
date added: 2025/02/06
shelves:
review:
Cutter and Loyal uses to be best friends until things happened and Loyal wrote a not very nice article about Cutter in the local paper. Now adults, Loyal is back in the small town of Jacknife to care for her mother who has become confused and forgetful.
When Cutter is found dead in the swamp no one seems to care, not even her brothers. A verdict of suicide is given, yet Loyal doesn’t think that Cutter would kill herself and she alone seems intent on finding out what happened to Cutter.
Cutter and her brothers caught alligators for a living, selling them for their skin and meat. They live in a ramshackle hut in the swamps and this makes them outcasts with the locals. Perhaps, Loyal thinks, if she can find out what happened to Cutter it will atone for the article she wrote when they were 18.
Every person in this book is wonderfully drawn and the steaminess of the bayou leaks out on every page. Although I didn’t enjoy it as much as Tall Bones, it’s a great read all the same.

#OurLastWildDays. #NetGalley
]]> 211004123 The million-copy bestselling Queen of Twists Alice Feeney returns with a gripping and deliciously dark thriller about marriage. . .
. . . and revenge.

Author Grady Green is having the worst best day of his life.

Grady calls his wife to share some exciting news as she is driving home. He hears Abby slam on the brakes, get out of the car, then nothing. When he eventually finds her car by the cliff edge the headlights are on, the driver door is open, her phone is still there. . . but his wife has disappeared.

A year later, Grady is still overcome with grief and desperate to know what happened to Abby. He can’t sleep, and he can’t write, so he travels to a tiny Scottish island to try to get his life back on track. Then he sees the impossible �� a woman who looks exactly like his missing wife.

Wives think their husbands will change but they don’t.
Husbands think their wives won’t change but they do.]]> 306 Alice Feeney 125033778X Linda 3 3.63 2025
author: Alice Feeney
name: Linda
average rating: 3.63
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2025/02/06
date added: 2025/02/06
shelves:
review:

]]> 217524895 MORNING, AFTERNOON, NIGHT. THE MOTHERS ARE ALWAYS WATCHING . . .

'Original, dark, clever and compelling' Mary Ann Sieghart, author of The Authority Gap

'This is a compelling and terrifying novel whose alternative history engages chillingly with current possibilities. No one writes children better than Chidgey. She exactly gets their experimental cruelty and related innocence as they attempt to piece their world together' Elizabeth Cook, author of Lux

England, 1979. Vincent, Lawrence and William are the last remaining residents of a secluded New Forest home, part of the government's Sycamore Scheme. Every day, the triplets do their chores, play their games and take their medicine, under the watchful eyes of three Mother Morning, Mother Afternoon and Mother Night.

Their nightmares are recorded in The Book of Dreams.
Their lessons are taken from The Book of Knowledge.
And their sins are reported in The Book of Guilt.

All the boys want is to be sent to the Big House in Margate, where they imagine a life of sun, sea and fairground rides. But, as the government looks to shut down the Sycamore Homes, the triplets begin to question everything they have been told.

Gradually surrendering its dark secrets, The Book of Guilt is a profoundly unnerving exploration of belonging in a world where some lives are valued less than others.]]> 397 Catherine Chidgey 1399823639 Linda 5
I loved this book, a dystopian novel, that really asks are some lives worth more than others? Catherine is such a wonderful storyteller and each book is different and unique.

#TheBookOfGuilt. #NetGalley]]> 4.69
author: Catherine Chidgey
name: Linda
average rating: 4.69
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/03
date added: 2025/02/04
shelves:
review:
Vincent, William and Lawrence are triplets and the last remaining children at Sycamore House, a secluded home in the New Forest in England in 1979. The children’s dreams, their behaviour, their sins are recorded in various books and they are watched over by mother morning, mother afternoon, mother night. When the government decides to close down Sycamore House, the boys lives begin to unravel. Bit by bit they begin to suspect that something else is at play. When they are allowed to socialise with girls from another home, one of the girls, Jane, tells Vincent that the medicine they are given everyday is actually what makes them sick. Vincent doesn’t take his pills and starts to feel better, better than he has in a long time, then Jane disappears, gone to the utopia that is Margate where all the children seem to end up and where the boys fervently hope to go too.

I loved this book, a dystopian novel, that really asks are some lives worth more than others? Catherine is such a wonderful storyteller and each book is different and unique.

#TheBookOfGuilt. #NetGalley
]]> 219777614 A sweeping, captivating, inspiring WWII story from the No.1 bestselling author of The Girl from London.

In 1942, a group of young women arrive in Cairo, Egypt. The Tuis, named after the beautiful New Zealand songbird, are the first women from their country to serve overseas. They are to provide respite and a touch of home to weary soldiers returning from the front line.

Addy joined the Tuis for the adventure. Vivacious and outgoing, she is the life of the party, with an unforgettable voice. Margot is quiet and withdrawn, grieving the young husband she lost to the war. Despite their differences, the girls become fast friends.

When the Tuis are relocated to Italy to set up clubs in grand venues in Florence, Bari and Rome, Addy and Margot are enchanted by the culture - from the stunning sights to the whirlwind of concerts and parties. But despite the exhilarating and romantic nature of being abroad in the company of soldiers, dark shadows loom.

And as their illusion of peace is shattered with news of a devastating attack, Margot and Addy will find their endurance pushed to the limit, as they discover the true meaning of courage, sacrifice and sisterhood amidst the brutal reality of WWII.]]> 325 Olivia Spooner 1869715152 Linda 4 4.14
author: Olivia Spooner
name: Linda
average rating: 4.14
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/02/02
date added: 2025/02/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 222532867
This magnificent tour de force by acclaimed author Gayle Forman brilliantly explores the porous veil between life and death, examines the impact that one person can have on the world, and celebrates life in all its beautiful complexity.]]> 266 Gayle Forman 1471418316 Linda 5 This is a story that looks at memories and the ties that bind families. Forgiveness, love and connections. Several characters narrate their stories both before the accident and after the accident and as I was reading I was thinking is Amber really there? Her sister has always seen her and talked to her but now her parents can see her too. The fact that she doesn’t eat, sleep or smell anything made me think that perhaps she was some form of ghost. You will have to read it to find out.
Great story for YA

#AfterLife. #NetGalley
]]> 3.69 2025
author: Gayle Forman
name: Linda
average rating: 3.69
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/19
date added: 2025/02/01
shelves:
review:
Seventeen year old Amber is making her way home on her bike, but when she arrives her mother looks at her and starts screaming, because Amber died 7 years ago when she was knocked off her bike.
This is a story that looks at memories and the ties that bind families. Forgiveness, love and connections. Several characters narrate their stories both before the accident and after the accident and as I was reading I was thinking is Amber really there? Her sister has always seen her and talked to her but now her parents can see her too. The fact that she doesn’t eat, sleep or smell anything made me think that perhaps she was some form of ghost. You will have to read it to find out.
Great story for YA

#AfterLife. #NetGalley

]]> 219300641
“Three dead coppers, Tom, maybe four by lunchtime . . .��

The targeted murder of four officers is only the first in a series of attacks that leaves police scared, angry and, most disturbingly of all, vengeful.

As Tom Thorne and Nicola Tanner dig into the reasons for the violence, a deeper darkness begins to emerge: the possibility that these murders are payback. The price paid for an unspeakable betrayal.

To uncover the truth, Thorne will be forced to question everything he stands for. He can trust nobody, and the shocking secrets revealed by one terrible night will fracture his entire world.]]> 432 Mark Billingham 0802164587 Linda 5 The story starts with 4 police officers being poisoned while on duty. A kind stranger had left them a box of donuts as a thank you for all the police do. 3 of the police officers die and one is left fighting for their lives. DI Tom Thorne was there when the donuts were being eaten and almost asked for half. Now he is in charge of finding the murderer. Then another policeman is murdered and the link seems to be they were all guilty of using their position to rape someone. Well not the first 4 who were poisoned, only one was a rapist but the others bore the consequence's. Thorne soon finds that the man they are after has a brother in jail on rape charges. He has always maintained his innocence and now Alex, his brother is murdering the cops he knows have raped girls. As it becomes apparent that Alex is getting inside information, Thorne closes the circle of people he can trust as they hunt Alex and the person giving him info.
I cannot tell you any more as the twists at the end are huge! So much so that I hope by the next book Mark has changed his mind about a few things and restored order into my life!

#WhatTheNightBrings. #NetGalley

]]> 4.65
author: Mark Billingham
name: Linda
average rating: 4.65
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/31
date added: 2025/01/31
shelves:
review:
Well all I can say is holy shit that ending! To be fair it took me a while to get into this story, it wasn’t grabbing me but being one of my favourite authors I kept going (not that I would ever give up on a Billingham book!)
The story starts with 4 police officers being poisoned while on duty. A kind stranger had left them a box of donuts as a thank you for all the police do. 3 of the police officers die and one is left fighting for their lives. DI Tom Thorne was there when the donuts were being eaten and almost asked for half. Now he is in charge of finding the murderer. Then another policeman is murdered and the link seems to be they were all guilty of using their position to rape someone. Well not the first 4 who were poisoned, only one was a rapist but the others bore the consequence's. Thorne soon finds that the man they are after has a brother in jail on rape charges. He has always maintained his innocence and now Alex, his brother is murdering the cops he knows have raped girls. As it becomes apparent that Alex is getting inside information, Thorne closes the circle of people he can trust as they hunt Alex and the person giving him info.
I cannot tell you any more as the twists at the end are huge! So much so that I hope by the next book Mark has changed his mind about a few things and restored order into my life!

#WhatTheNightBrings. #NetGalley


]]> 216848487
It’s a tale from the past, with a message for today. A stunningly poignant, devastating, and ultimately beautiful tour-de-force - Simon James Green

At just nineteen, Stephen has already survived a year at the front. Now he is returning to the trenches to lead a platoon, despite his wounds. Broken-hearted from the loss of his first love, Stephen wonders what he's fighting for. Then he meets Private Danny McCormick, a smart, talented young recruit. From their first meeting, there's something undeniable between them �� something forbidden by both society and the army. Determined to protect Danny, Stephen must face down the prejudices and ignorance of his superiors as well as the onslaught of German shells and sniper fire.
As the summer of 1916 ticks down to one big push on the Somme, can Stephen and Danny stay together �� and will their love save them �� or condemn them?]]> 282 William Hussey Linda 4 Stephen has already, at the age of 19, spent a year fighting for his country. He has a medal which he is ashamed of as his whole troop was killed while he played dead under the bodies. When he finally extracted himself a young German soldier was standing guard, Stephen shot him. Full of remorse he goes again to the front, leading a platoon. As if the horrors of WW1 aren’t enough, Stephen is gay. He meets fellow soldier Danny, a smart talented compassionate boy and while war is raging around them a bond forms. This kind of relationship is illegal and they have to be very careful. Having fought for your country doesn’t count for anything if you are labeled a queer..
A heartfelt read, I enjoyed it,

#TheBoyILove #NetGalley
]]> 4.20 2025
author: William Hussey
name: Linda
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2025
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/29
date added: 2025/01/29
shelves:
review:
Although we do not sell audio books where I work I will be recommending this book in audio and book form.
Stephen has already, at the age of 19, spent a year fighting for his country. He has a medal which he is ashamed of as his whole troop was killed while he played dead under the bodies. When he finally extracted himself a young German soldier was standing guard, Stephen shot him. Full of remorse he goes again to the front, leading a platoon. As if the horrors of WW1 aren’t enough, Stephen is gay. He meets fellow soldier Danny, a smart talented compassionate boy and while war is raging around them a bond forms. This kind of relationship is illegal and they have to be very careful. Having fought for your country doesn’t count for anything if you are labeled a queer..
A heartfelt read, I enjoyed it,

#TheBoyILove #NetGalley

]]> 123193218 spending the night on a locked psychiatric ward.

Amy has been dreading her evening working on Ward D, the hospital’s inpatient mental health unit. There are very specific reasons why she never wanted to do this required overnight rotation. Reasons nobody can ever find out.

And as the hours tick by, Amy grows increasingly convinced something terrible is happening within these tightly secured walls. When patients and staff start to vanish without a trace, it becomes clear that everyone on the unit is in grave danger.

Amy’s worst nightmare was spending the night on Ward D.

And now she might never escape.
]]> 348 Freida McFadden Linda 2 So many things didn’t make sense and the plot was unbelievable. A student spends the night in a locked in psych ward and of course things start to go wrong.
Not for me I’m afraid.

#WardD. #NetGalley
]]> 3.98 2023
author: Freida McFadden
name: Linda
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2023
rating: 2
read at: 2025/01/15
date added: 2025/01/28
shelves:
review:
What can I say, I actually thought this book was more suited to a YA audience. We sell a lot of her books at the store where I work so I thought I would try one but to me it was average, engaging at first but then quite silly, like watching a really bad horror movie.
So many things didn’t make sense and the plot was unbelievable. A student spends the night in a locked in psych ward and of course things start to go wrong.
Not for me I’m afraid.

#WardD. #NetGalley

]]> 181687212
One detective driven by instinct, the other by logic.
It will take both to find a killer who knows the true meaning of fear . . .

When the body of a man is found crucified at the top of Mount Judd, AIDE Lock �� the world’s first AI Detective �� and DCS Kat Frank are thrust into the spotlight as they are given their first live case.

But with the discovery of another man’s body �� also crucified �� it appears that their killer is only just getting started. With the police warning local men to be vigilant, the Future Policing Unit is thrust into a hostile media frenzy as they desperately search for connections between the victims. But time is running out for them to join the dots and prevent another death.]]> 383 Jo Callaghan 1398511226 Linda 4 4.28 2024
author: Jo Callaghan
name: Linda
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/28
date added: 2025/01/28
shelves:
review:

]]> 209594864 In the vein of The Bad Seed comes a twisty, atmospheric psychological suspense about a meddlesome elderly guest at a decadent luxury hotel who believes she has left her problematic past behind, until she decides to interfere in the lives of a young mother and her eight-year-old son, and finally meets her wicked match.

The war between age and youth has never been so vicious.

Eighty-one-year-old widow Maggie Burkhardt came to the Royal Karnak to escape. But not in quite the same way as most other guests who are relaxing at this threadbare luxury hotel on the banks of the Nile. Maggie, a compulsive fixer of other people’s lives, may have found herself in hot water at her last hotel in Switzerland and just might have needed to get out of there fast... But here at the Royal Karnak, under the hot Saharan sun, she has a comfortable suite, a loyal confidante in the hotel manager, Ahmed, and a handful of sympathetic friends, similar “long-termers�� who understand her still-vivid grief for her late husband, Peter. Here, she is merely the sweet old lady in Room 309.

One morning, however, Maggie notices a new arrival at a mournful-looking young mother named Tess and her impish eight-year-old, Otto. Eager to help, Maggie invites them into her world. But it isn’t long before Maggie realizes that in her longing to be a part of their family, she has let in an enemy much stronger than she bargained for. In scrawny, homely Otto, Maggie Burkhardt has finally met her match.]]> 256 Christopher Bollen 0063378892 Linda 5 Maggie Burkhardt is an 81 year old widower from America, not only has she lost her husband but she also has lost her daughter. Her husband left her well off and she has used her money to travel the world and stay for indeterminate periods at hotels. We find Maggie in a hotel in Luxor, Egypt (a country at the time accepting visitors during the covid years) where she has settled into a routine with the staff and at first all seems well. She has little chores that the staff indulge her in like ringing the bell to watch the sun set. Her secluded little world starts to unravel with the arrival of 8 Year old Otto and his mother, from Paris. He is soon taking over the evening bell ringing and Maggie starts trying to find ways to make Otto and his mother leave. Otto however is a cunning and fearless adversary and the two are soon locked in a game of tit for tat with the stakes getting deadlier.
As the story unfolds and we get to know Maggie a bit better, then the twists start happening. If you have been to Egypt (I haven’t) I am sure you will find the descriptions of the sights and the markets and the hawkers very apt, and as we get to see more inside Maggie’s head you just might change your opinion of her.
A compelling read

#Havoc. #NetGalley


]]> 3.58 2024
author: Christopher Bollen
name: Linda
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/26
date added: 2025/01/26
shelves:
review:
Wow! I really loved this dark story full of twists and characters that you either like or loathe.
Maggie Burkhardt is an 81 year old widower from America, not only has she lost her husband but she also has lost her daughter. Her husband left her well off and she has used her money to travel the world and stay for indeterminate periods at hotels. We find Maggie in a hotel in Luxor, Egypt (a country at the time accepting visitors during the covid years) where she has settled into a routine with the staff and at first all seems well. She has little chores that the staff indulge her in like ringing the bell to watch the sun set. Her secluded little world starts to unravel with the arrival of 8 Year old Otto and his mother, from Paris. He is soon taking over the evening bell ringing and Maggie starts trying to find ways to make Otto and his mother leave. Otto however is a cunning and fearless adversary and the two are soon locked in a game of tit for tat with the stakes getting deadlier.
As the story unfolds and we get to know Maggie a bit better, then the twists start happening. If you have been to Egypt (I haven’t) I am sure you will find the descriptions of the sights and the markets and the hawkers very apt, and as we get to see more inside Maggie’s head you just might change your opinion of her.
A compelling read

#Havoc. #NetGalley



]]> 217048401
But, one night, Ava's secret nocturnal routine takes a chilling turn when she stumbles upon the lifeless body of fellow schoolmate, Mickey Grant.

As Detective Seth Delahaye takes charge of the perplexing case, Ava refuses to sit idle. Determined and resourceful, she embarks on a daring quest to unveil the truth behind the string of chilling deaths plaguing her community.

Armed with her unique skills and unrivalled local knowledge, Ava becomes an unlikely force in the race to apprehend the elusive killer before more lives are claimed.]]> Marie Tierney 1804181900 Linda 5 4.06 2024
author: Marie Tierney
name: Linda
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/25
date added: 2025/01/25
shelves:
review:

]]> 156733275 The hilarious crayons from the #1 New York Times bestselling The Day the Crayons Quit are ready to celebrate our planet!The Crayons love our planet and are proud of their contributions. White ice caps, Green trees, Blue oceans and skies, Brown soil...and more! Even Beige is proud of his Wheat! This humorous mini hardcover book shows the beauty of our plant—and why it needs all of us to be complete. Perfect for Earth Day.]]> 32 Drew Daywalt 0593621093 Linda 4 3.76
author: Drew Daywalt
name: Linda
average rating: 3.76
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2025/01/24
date added: 2025/01/24
shelves:
review:

]]> 213987315 Honey is waiting to see Doctor Bingo, but Receptionist Bluey tells her to be patient. Some of the other cases the doctor needs to attend to are a real pickle! Will Honey ever get a turn?

A gorgeous book about imaginative play for kids of all ages.

Bluey is an award-winning preschool show about Bluey, a blue heeler pup, and her family. Airing on ABC KIDS, the show has amassed legions of dedicated fans and hugely popular ranges of books, toys, clothes, games and more.]]> 0 Bluey 1760149446 Linda 3 3.97
author: Bluey
name: Linda
average rating: 3.97
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/17
date added: 2025/01/17
shelves:
review:

]]> 221545082 The first thrilling mystery in the new North Falls series from Karin Slaughter, New York Times bestselling author of Pretty Girls and the Will Trent series.

Welcome to North Falls—a small town where everyone knows everyone. Or so they think.

Until the night of the fireworks. When two teenage girls vanish, and the town ignites.

For Officer Emmy Clifton, it’s personal. She turned away when her best friend's daughter needed help—and now she must bring her home.

But as Emmy combs through the puzzle the girls left behind, she realizes she never really knew them. Nobody did.

Every teenage girl has secrets. But who would kill for them? And what else is the town hiding?]]> 400 Karin Slaughter 0063336804 Linda 5 We Are All Guilty here is listed as the start of a new series, therefore after reading this book i am looking forward to book 2 and where it takes the characters, especially after the big twist at the end of this book.
Emmy Clifton is a cop in the small town of North Falls where her father is the local Sheriff. When 2 local teens go missing, one of them the daughter of Emmys best friend, it is a race to put together the clues in the hopes of finding them alive. The girls bikes are located with a large pool of blood nearby, and as the hours tick over Emmy realises that the girls are probably dead. An arrest is soon made of one of the locals, Adam, with many clues and evidence pointing to his guilt. Emmy however won’t rest until she finds the girls which unfortunately she does when she recovers the girls bodies from a pond. Both tied and weighted down.
Leap forward 12 years. Emmy is now deputy sheriff and Adam has been released from jail as new evidence has given him an alibi for the timeframe the girls went missing, then another teen goes missing and the townsfolk are after Adam.
In San Francisco Jude Archer is about to retire. She has finally found the remains of the last of the 12 girls murdered and buried by Freddy Henby, over a course of 20 years she has doggedly looked for the girls to bring their remains back home. When she sees the alert for the missing North Falls girl, she feels compelled to go and see if she can be of assistance, what we gradually come to see is that North Falls is Jude’s home town and she is Emmys sister, a sister that Emmy was told was dead.
There are a few good twists in this story, some you can guess but the last one I never saw coming. Another fantastic read with many characters and layered stories. I loved it. Roll on #2

#WeAreAllGuiltyHere. #NetGalley]]> 4.51 2025
author: Karin Slaughter
name: Linda
average rating: 4.51
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/10
date added: 2025/01/14
shelves:
review:
Who doesn’t love a new Karin Slaughter. She is one of my all time favourite authors and everything I read is 5 stars from me.
We Are All Guilty here is listed as the start of a new series, therefore after reading this book i am looking forward to book 2 and where it takes the characters, especially after the big twist at the end of this book.
Emmy Clifton is a cop in the small town of North Falls where her father is the local Sheriff. When 2 local teens go missing, one of them the daughter of Emmys best friend, it is a race to put together the clues in the hopes of finding them alive. The girls bikes are located with a large pool of blood nearby, and as the hours tick over Emmy realises that the girls are probably dead. An arrest is soon made of one of the locals, Adam, with many clues and evidence pointing to his guilt. Emmy however won’t rest until she finds the girls which unfortunately she does when she recovers the girls bodies from a pond. Both tied and weighted down.
Leap forward 12 years. Emmy is now deputy sheriff and Adam has been released from jail as new evidence has given him an alibi for the timeframe the girls went missing, then another teen goes missing and the townsfolk are after Adam.
In San Francisco Jude Archer is about to retire. She has finally found the remains of the last of the 12 girls murdered and buried by Freddy Henby, over a course of 20 years she has doggedly looked for the girls to bring their remains back home. When she sees the alert for the missing North Falls girl, she feels compelled to go and see if she can be of assistance, what we gradually come to see is that North Falls is Jude’s home town and she is Emmys sister, a sister that Emmy was told was dead.
There are a few good twists in this story, some you can guess but the last one I never saw coming. Another fantastic read with many characters and layered stories. I loved it. Roll on #2

#WeAreAllGuiltyHere. #NetGalley
]]> 61084889 Friendship, masculinity, sex—Anthony Stevenson has a lot of questions. Is it different for boys who like boys? A poignant and frank story filled with meta-humor by renowned author Patrick Ness.

Anthony “Ant�� Stevenson isn’t sure when he stopped being a virgin. Or even if he has. The rules aren’t always very clear when it comes to boys who like boys. In fact, relationships of all kinds feel complicated, even with Ant’s oldest friends. There’s Charlie, who’s both virulently homophobic and in a secret physical relationship with Ant. Then there’s drama kid Jack, who may be gay and has become the target of Charlie’s rage. And, of course, there’s big, beautiful Freddie, who wants Ant to ditch soccer, Charlie’s sport, and try out for the rugby team instead. Ant’s story of loneliness and intimacy, of unexpected support and heart-ripping betrayal, is told forthrightly with tongue-in-cheek black-bar redactions over the language that teenagers would actually use if, you know, they weren’t in a story. Award-winning author Patrick Ness explores teen sexuality, friendship, and romance with a deft hand in this structurally daring, illustrated short novel.]]> 97 Patrick Ness 1536228893 Linda 3 3.79 2023
author: Patrick Ness
name: Linda
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/13
date added: 2025/01/13
shelves:
review:

]]> 273735 42 Dr. Seuss 0007175175 Linda 5 4.04 1948
author: Dr. Seuss
name: Linda
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1948
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/12
date added: 2025/01/12
shelves:
review:

]]> 152260379
That three innocent people died. That the last stop on the Rainier Ripper's trail of death seventeen years ago was her innocuous little teashop.

She knows that the consequences of catching the Ripper still haunt her police officer husband and their marriage to this day and that some of her neighbours are desperate - desperate enough to welcome a dark tourism company keen to cash in on Rainier's reputation as the murder town.

When the tour operator is killed by a Ripper copycat on Gemma's doorstep, the unease that has lurked quietly in the original killer's wake turns to foreboding, and she's drawn into the investigation. Unbeknownst to her, so is a prisoner named Lane Holland.

Gemma knows her town. She knows her people. Doesn't she?]]> 346 Shelley Burr 0733647863 Linda 4 3.72 2023
author: Shelley Burr
name: Linda
average rating: 3.72
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2023/11/18
date added: 2025/01/11
shelves:
review:

]]> 12287209
Or you'll get what you wish for.]]> 56 Hugh Howey Linda 5 This is the first in a trilogy, cannot wait for the next book.]]> 4.14 2012
author: Hugh Howey
name: Linda
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2012
rating: 5
read at: 2013/01/09
date added: 2025/01/09
shelves:
review:
I really enjoyed this book. If you have read "The Passage", "I am Legend", even "Pure" and enjoyed these dystopian novels, then you will enjoy this. Set in an enormous underground Silo, hundreds of meters deep, people are living their daily lives with strict unbreakable rules. To talk about a future outside is punishable by death. Outside the air is poisonous and the only people who make it outside are prisoners sent to 'clean' the lenses of the cameras that give the inhabitants a view of the landscape. Of course the people sent to do the 'cleaning' die not long afterwards. The Silo is run like any town, with the exception that the population must remain the same, so in order to have a baby, someone must die. Your name goes into a lottery to win the chance to have a baby. The main protagonist is a feisty girl from the Mechanics level of the silo, Jules. Her investigations into how the silo came to be, leads to being sent to do "cleaning".
This is the first in a trilogy, cannot wait for the next book.
]]> 214437991 Celebrate dance recitals, graduations, and other accomplishments with help from this inspirational picture book that follows Angelina Ballerina as she finds reasons to say “Bravo.��

Angelina Ballerina loves practicing ballet, being a big sister and good friend, and dancing through difficulties even when it’s tough. The show must go on, and at the end, there is always a “Bravo!�� in store.

Fans can follow in Angelina’s ballet slippers by saying “bravo�� to the special people in their lives who are doing their best…and to themselves for their hard work at school, on stage, and wherever they are challenged to perform with ballerina-like precision and grace.

© 2024 Helen Craig Ltd and Katharine Holabird. The Angelina Ballerina name and character and the dancing Angelina logo are trademarks of HIT Entertainment Limited, Katharine Holabird, and Helen Craig.]]> 28 Katharine Holabird 166596569X Linda 3 3.38
author: Katharine Holabird
name: Linda
average rating: 3.38
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/08
date added: 2025/01/08
shelves:
review:

]]> 18931011 The Sleeping and the Dead is a tense psychological crime thriller from CWA Gold Dagger award-winning writer, Ann Cleeves.

Detective Peter Porteous is called to Cranwell Lake where the body of a teenager has been discovered. After trawling through the missing persons files, he deduces that the corpse is Michael Grey, an enigmatic and secretive young man who was reported missing by his foster parents in 1972.

For country prison officer Hannah Morton it is the shock of her life. Michael had been her boyfriend, and she had been with him the night he disappeared. The news report that a body has been found brings back dreaded and long buried memories from her past ...]]> 393 Ann Cleeves Linda 3 3.93 2001
author: Ann Cleeves
name: Linda
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2001
rating: 3
read at: 2025/01/07
date added: 2025/01/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 179603842 433 Matt Coyne 1472297431 Linda 5 4.50 2024
author: Matt Coyne
name: Linda
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/04
date added: 2025/01/04
shelves:
review:

]]> 58733693 Remarkably Bright Creatures, an exploration of friendship, reckoning, and hope, tracing a widow's unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus.

After Tova Sullivan's husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she's been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago.

Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn't dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors--until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.

Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova's son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it's too late.

Shelby Van Pelt's debut novel is a gentle reminder that sometimes taking a hard look at the past can help uncover a future that once felt impossible.]]> 368 Shelby Van Pelt 0063204150 Linda 5 4.35 2022
author: Shelby Van Pelt
name: Linda
average rating: 4.35
book published: 2022
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/02
date added: 2025/01/02
shelves:
review:

]]> 220817728 From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones & The Six comes an epic new novel set against the backdrop of the 1980s Space Shuttle program about the extraordinary lengths we go to live and love beyond our limits.

Joan Goodwin has been obsessed with the stars for as long as she can remember. Thoughtful and reserved, Joan is content with her life as a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University and as aunt to her precocious niece, Frances. That is, until she comes across an advertisement seeking the first women scientists to join NASA’s Space Shuttle program. Suddenly, Joan burns to be one of the few people to go to space.

Selected from a pool of thousands of applicants in the summer of 1980, Joan begins training at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates: Top Gun pilot Hank Redmond and scientist John Griffin, who are kind and easy-going even when the stakes are highest; mission specialist Lydia Danes, who has worked too hard to play nice; warm-hearted Donna Fitzgerald, who is navigating her own secrets; and Vanessa Ford, the magnetic and mysterious aeronautical engineer, who can fix any engine and fly any plane.

As the new astronauts become unlikely friends and prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined. In this new light, Joan begins to question everything she thinks she knows about her place in the observable universe.

Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, everything changes in an instant.

Fast-paced, thrilling, and emotional, Atmosphere is Taylor Jenkins Reid at her best: transporting readers to iconic times and places, with complex protagonists, telling a passionate and soaring story about the transformative power of love, this time among the stars.]]> 352 Taylor Jenkins Reid 0593158717 Linda 5 Set in the 1980s Joan Goodwin has always wanted to be an Astronaut. She gets her chance in 1980 and starts her training with a group of exceptionally skilled candidates. Being a woman makes it doubly hard as always the few women on the team have to prove themselves time and time again. Joan’s younger sister Barbara is an unwed mother and Joan has spent a good proportion of her life with her niece Frances. Joan has never had a real boyfriend and while in training she forms a bond with fellow trainee Vanessa. This is the 1980s and same sex relationships are forbidden in the majority but Joan and Vanessa manage to keep their love to themselves.
The book opens with most of the crew we come to know, aboard the 1984 space mission, something catastrophic has happened and it is from here we switch back and forth from the beginning of their training to the unthinkable end.
I really loved this book and hope it sells well.

#Atmosphere. #NetGalley
]]> 4.45 2025
author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
name: Linda
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/02
date added: 2025/01/02
shelves:
review:
What can I say. This author never disappoints and I have loved everything of hers I have read. Atmosphere is similar to Carrie Soto is Back for the fact that like that book you didn’t have to understand or play tennis to enjoy the book, with this book you don’t have to be a space nerd or a NASA geek to understand and love this story. It’s a love story at its heart.
Set in the 1980s Joan Goodwin has always wanted to be an Astronaut. She gets her chance in 1980 and starts her training with a group of exceptionally skilled candidates. Being a woman makes it doubly hard as always the few women on the team have to prove themselves time and time again. Joan’s younger sister Barbara is an unwed mother and Joan has spent a good proportion of her life with her niece Frances. Joan has never had a real boyfriend and while in training she forms a bond with fellow trainee Vanessa. This is the 1980s and same sex relationships are forbidden in the majority but Joan and Vanessa manage to keep their love to themselves.
The book opens with most of the crew we come to know, aboard the 1984 space mission, something catastrophic has happened and it is from here we switch back and forth from the beginning of their training to the unthinkable end.
I really loved this book and hope it sells well.

#Atmosphere. #NetGalley

]]> 209297025
Silver Trevelon’s parents aren’t happy. They haven’t been happy since the nursery they decorated started gathering cobwebs, waiting for the baby brother or sister that never came. So when Silver’s dad is invited to paint at a turtle rescue centre in Costa Rica, she hopes it’ll be just the adventure the family needs.

Under the hot tropical sun, Silver settles into life at the animal centre. She even witnesses a rare sighting of a leatherback turtle nesting on the beach. But when the turtle’s eggs are stolen, events take a dark and dangerous turn. Can Silver and her new friends track them down before it's too late? It’ll mean journeying into the heart of the jungle and uncovering long-buried secrets . . .]]> 337 Hannah Gold 0008582068 Linda 5 Silver is an only child, she loves climbing the tree in her backyard although since she fell out of it she isn’t allowed to do so, unless her parents aren’t around! Silvers dad is a talented artist and Silver despairs that she has no art talent at all. Her mother has closed in on herself after losing a longed for baby and now seeming unable to conceive again.
When Silvers dad is invited to the turtle rescue centre in Costa Rica, Silver hopes that it will help her family heal.
Silver soon makes friends with Rafi and his pet sloth and as they seem to be left to their own devices they fill their days climbing trees and looking out for turtles eggs. These are taken to the rescue centre where they are buried again in sand until they hatch then released back to the sea. This way they stop the eggs from being taken and sold. But someone is stealing eggs from the centre and when Silver sees a rare Leatherback turtle lay her eggs near her she is determined to protect them at all cost.
A wonderful tale with insights into Turtles, their eggs and their struggles to survive in a world increasingly being ruined by man,]]> 4.43 2024
author: Hannah Gold
name: Linda
average rating: 4.43
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2025/01/01
date added: 2025/01/01
shelves:
review:
Hannah Gold has curated another beautiful book highlighting the plight of a species that could become extinct. This time it is Turtles and puts a spotlight on the theft and sale of their eggs. Also highlighted in the story is a couples disappointment at not being able to conceive.
Silver is an only child, she loves climbing the tree in her backyard although since she fell out of it she isn’t allowed to do so, unless her parents aren’t around! Silvers dad is a talented artist and Silver despairs that she has no art talent at all. Her mother has closed in on herself after losing a longed for baby and now seeming unable to conceive again.
When Silvers dad is invited to the turtle rescue centre in Costa Rica, Silver hopes that it will help her family heal.
Silver soon makes friends with Rafi and his pet sloth and as they seem to be left to their own devices they fill their days climbing trees and looking out for turtles eggs. These are taken to the rescue centre where they are buried again in sand until they hatch then released back to the sea. This way they stop the eggs from being taken and sold. But someone is stealing eggs from the centre and when Silver sees a rare Leatherback turtle lay her eggs near her she is determined to protect them at all cost.
A wonderful tale with insights into Turtles, their eggs and their struggles to survive in a world increasingly being ruined by man,
]]> 211673939
Nancy North is ready to put her life back together. After suffering a psychotic break that ruined friendships, stalled her fledgling restaurant, and forced her to move out of her comfortable flat, she’ll do anything to get back to normal. She and her partner Felix—who has been a saint through her recent troubles—move into a new flat for a fresh start.

Nancy is taking her pills, seeing her therapist, and avoiding unnecessary stress. She’s doing absolutely everything right, but something is still very, very wrong. On the first day in the new flat, she hears them again; the mysterious voices that triggered her first episode. It could just be the unfamiliar sounds of water in the pipes, or the screaming baby across the hall, but deep down she knows something more sinister is going on. Her fears are confirmed when the young woman in the downstairs flat, Kira, is found dead. Felix, her neighbors, and even the police insist it’s a tragic suicide, but the pieces aren’t adding up for Nancy. Can she trust her own instincts, or is it all in her head?

Meanwhile, Detective Inspector Maud O’Connor has misgivings about her colleagues�� investigation of Kira’s death. The boys club at the top seems intent on closing the case as quickly as possible, especially since the only person who thinks it could be anything other than suicide is known to be unreliable. But Maud knows what it’s like to be dismissed as an overemotional woman and isn’t so quick to discount Nancy’s claims. As tensions reach an explosive breaking point, the line between fact and delusion becomes dangerously blurred, but Maud will stop at nothing to ensure that the truth comes to light.]]> 441 Nicci French 1398524158 Linda 5 Nancy and Felix have just moved into a new flat and it’s a bit of a hovel. Nancy didnt really want to move but it’s a fresh start after she had a breakdown and as a consequence lost her job and a lot of her friends. Her partner Felix has been a saint, taking care of her and making sure she is taking her medication and keeping calm. Gradually we are introduced to the people living in the flats around them, the couple with the crying baby across the hall, the older couple next door, the men in the ground flat, the young girl there also on her own. But Nancy starts to hear the voices again and then Kira, the young girl in the downstairs flat is found hanging. The police rule it a suicide but Nancy is convinced she was murdered and the voices are telling her so. Everyone is now watching out for Nancy and lies are being said to her and about her. Eventually she is committed to an asylum to help her recover. Nancy knows she isn’t crazy and plays the part until she is released, but all that has happened is that Felix is more controlling. On one of the few times she is able to get outside by herself she makes her way to the police station where she makes another statement, this time to Maud. First time round her statement was dismissed as the ramblings of an unhinged mind and the case of Kira Mullan was closed��.suicide.
This time Maud listens and when she starts looking more closely at the case she sees that Kira in fact could not have hung herself.
It’s a great read, one where you just want to kill Felix for his smothering ways and then be rooting for Nancy.
Highly recommend.

#TheLastDaysofKiraMullen. #NetGalley
]]> 4.34 2024
author: Nicci French
name: Linda
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/28
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves:
review:
Nicci French books have always been a joy to read and I am particularly liking the character of DI Maud O'Connor, this is the second outing for this detective, following on from the excellent Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?
Nancy and Felix have just moved into a new flat and it’s a bit of a hovel. Nancy didnt really want to move but it’s a fresh start after she had a breakdown and as a consequence lost her job and a lot of her friends. Her partner Felix has been a saint, taking care of her and making sure she is taking her medication and keeping calm. Gradually we are introduced to the people living in the flats around them, the couple with the crying baby across the hall, the older couple next door, the men in the ground flat, the young girl there also on her own. But Nancy starts to hear the voices again and then Kira, the young girl in the downstairs flat is found hanging. The police rule it a suicide but Nancy is convinced she was murdered and the voices are telling her so. Everyone is now watching out for Nancy and lies are being said to her and about her. Eventually she is committed to an asylum to help her recover. Nancy knows she isn’t crazy and plays the part until she is released, but all that has happened is that Felix is more controlling. On one of the few times she is able to get outside by herself she makes her way to the police station where she makes another statement, this time to Maud. First time round her statement was dismissed as the ramblings of an unhinged mind and the case of Kira Mullan was closed��.suicide.
This time Maud listens and when she starts looking more closely at the case she sees that Kira in fact could not have hung herself.
It’s a great read, one where you just want to kill Felix for his smothering ways and then be rooting for Nancy.
Highly recommend.

#TheLastDaysofKiraMullen. #NetGalley

]]> 13079982 Sixty years after its original publication, Ray Bradbury’s internationally acclaimed novel Fahrenheit 451 stands as a classic of world literature set in a bleak, dystopian future. Today its message has grown more relevant than ever before.

Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television “family.�� But when he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known.]]> 194 Ray Bradbury Linda 4 3.97 1953
author: Ray Bradbury
name: Linda
average rating: 3.97
book published: 1953
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/12/28
shelves:
review:

]]> 220160814 Three women are connected by one man in this kaleidoscopic thriller.

Restauranteur Paddy Swann was the life of the party until the day a man pushed him in the path of an oncoming train, leaving his twenty-something daughter Ash and wife Nina devastated. Shortly after Paddy’s funeral, the two women receive a surprise in the mail: a note and package from Nick Ratcliffe, an old friend of Paddy’s, and a nondescript lighter that once belonged to him decades ago. This unexpected gift draws Nick and Nina closer together—much to Ash’s dismay.

Martha is a small-town florist with dreams of expansion. She lives with her second husband Al, her baby, and two sons from her prior marriage. But they never seem to have any money, and with his constant traveling for work, she feels like a single parent—especially when an emergency makes her realize something needs to change.

But Nick and Al may not be who they say they are, leading these three women on a shocking collision course, wishing they had heeded a warning: Don’t let him in.]]> 368 Lisa Jewell 1668033879 Linda 5 4.00 2025
author: Lisa Jewell
name: Linda
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/26
date added: 2024/12/26
shelves:
review:
An excellent twisty novel about deceit and deception, of a man with many names and the women he deceives, the heartbreak he causes and the families he abandons. I’ve never disliked someone so much as this guy. The title is apt, Don’t Let Him In!!
]]> 211965585 From the author who brought you the jaw-dropping twist of I Let You Go, the gasp-out-loud ending of Let Me Lie, and the loveable, unpredictable Ffion Morgan in The Last Party and A Game of Lies.]]> 352 Clare Mackintosh 1408726025 Linda 5 Allie, Leo’s ex and son, live at the bottom of The Hills and Allie spends most of her waking time trying to ingratiate her way into the folks who live in the houses on The Hill.
Soon the two cases collide as Leo and Ffion come to see the cases are all linked, the body, the break ins and the cold case. Ffion is also dealing with finding somewhere new to live and although Leo wants her to live with him she is reluctant.
This series is a very enjoyable read and as with most series it pays to start with book #1 (The Last Party) to get the characters backstories. Highly recommend.

#OtherPeoplesHouses. #NetGalley
]]> 4.47 2025
author: Clare Mackintosh
name: Linda
average rating: 4.47
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/21
date added: 2024/12/21
shelves:
review:
I love this author, all her books have been great reads and Other Peoples Houses sees the 3rd outing of DS Leo Brady and DC Ffion Morgan. Each of them is involved in a case, Leo is investigating a series of burglaries in the exclusive area known as The Hills, meanwhile Ffion has the dead body of an estate agent on her hands. Intertwined in the story is a podcast about a couple killed 10 years ago. The person arrested has recently been pardoned and the case has reopened.
Allie, Leo’s ex and son, live at the bottom of The Hills and Allie spends most of her waking time trying to ingratiate her way into the folks who live in the houses on The Hill.
Soon the two cases collide as Leo and Ffion come to see the cases are all linked, the body, the break ins and the cold case. Ffion is also dealing with finding somewhere new to live and although Leo wants her to live with him she is reluctant.
This series is a very enjoyable read and as with most series it pays to start with book #1 (The Last Party) to get the characters backstories. Highly recommend.

#OtherPeoplesHouses. #NetGalley

]]> 58662236
Already an international bestseller, Small Things Like These is a deeply affecting story of hope, quiet heroism, and empathy from one of our most critically lauded and iconic writers.]]> 128 Claire Keegan 0802158749 Linda 4 4.13 2021
author: Claire Keegan
name: Linda
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2021
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/17
date added: 2024/12/17
shelves:
review:

]]> 123136728
Contudo, mesmo tão distantes do mundo, os seis astronautas não conseguem escapar à sua constante influência. Chegam notícias da morte de uma mãe, trazendo pensamentos de regresso e de saudades de casa. A fragilidade da vida humana torna-se um tema central nas suas conversas, nos seus medos e nos seus sonhos.

Apesar de tão longe da Terra, nunca antes se haviam sentido tão protetores dela, tão parte dela. Começam a refletir: o que será a vida sem a Terra? O que será a Terra sem a humanidade?]]> 207 Samantha Harvey 0802161545 Linda 3 3.56 2023
author: Samantha Harvey
name: Linda
average rating: 3.56
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at: 2024/12/17
date added: 2024/12/17
shelves:
review:

]]> 56621648 From the New York Times bestselling author of Girl in Pieces comes a breathtaking story about a town, its tragedies, and the quiet beauty of everyday life.

For all of Emory's life she's been told who she is. In town she's the rich one--the great-great-granddaughter of the mill's founder. At school she's hot Maddie Ward's younger sister. And at home, she's the good one, her stoner older brother Joey's babysitter. Everything was turned on its head, though, when she and Joey were in the car accident that killed Candy MontClaire. The car accident that revealed just how bad Joey's drug habit was.

Four months later, Emmy's junior year is starting, Joey is home from rehab, and the entire town of Mill Haven is still reeling from the accident. Everyone's telling Emmy who she is, but so much has changed, how can she be the same person? Or was she ever that person at all?

Mill Haven wants everyone to live one story, but Emmy's beginning to see that people are more than they appear. Her brother, who might not be cured, the popular guy who lives next door, and most of all, many ghostie addicts who haunt the edges of the town. People spend so much time telling her who she is--it might be time to decide for herself.

Inspired by the American classic Our Town, You'd Be Home Now is Kathleen Glasgow's glorious modern story of a town and the secret lives people live there. And the story of a girl, figuring out life in all its pain and beauty and struggle and joy.]]> 387 Kathleen Glasgow 0525708049 Linda 5 4.13 2021
author: Kathleen Glasgow
name: Linda
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/17
date added: 2024/12/17
shelves:
review:

]]> 62195613 432 Louise Candlish 1398509809 Linda 5 The book is told in two time lines. Present day, Alex Parker, he is happily married and living in a nice community. Why then is he paranoid about being “found out�� and what is his aversion to publicity and the neighbourhoods plans to develop a walk way behind the terraced houses.
1995. Rick Ward meets Marina Stanley, a temp in the building where he works. They start to meet up for lunch and slowly Marina confides in Rick that her husband, (she had to tell him she was married after an acquaintance saw them together), is abusive and controlling. Together they hatch a plan to run away but as in any good story, nothing goes to plan and Rick finds himself in hiding accused of murder.
There is a lot happening in this book but it is an easy read and easy enough to follow the plot lines. A great entertaining read.

#TheOnlySuspect #NetGalley]]> 4.02 2023
author: Louise Candlish
name: Linda
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/12/16
shelves:
review:
This lady can write! Her books are full of plot twists and red herrings and even if you try to second guess her you won’t get them all.
The book is told in two time lines. Present day, Alex Parker, he is happily married and living in a nice community. Why then is he paranoid about being “found out�� and what is his aversion to publicity and the neighbourhoods plans to develop a walk way behind the terraced houses.
1995. Rick Ward meets Marina Stanley, a temp in the building where he works. They start to meet up for lunch and slowly Marina confides in Rick that her husband, (she had to tell him she was married after an acquaintance saw them together), is abusive and controlling. Together they hatch a plan to run away but as in any good story, nothing goes to plan and Rick finds himself in hiding accused of murder.
There is a lot happening in this book but it is an easy read and easy enough to follow the plot lines. A great entertaining read.

#TheOnlySuspect #NetGalley
]]> 203382618 Sekunda za reakciju.
Trenutak od kojeg im zavisi ceo život.

„Jedan od najstrašnijih i najbriljantnijih trilera koji ćete pročitati.��
�� Guardian

Napolju besni snežna mećava. Ona je kod kuće sama sa decom. Spremaju se za spavanje. Čuje nešto �� škripa naizgled uobičajena za stare kuće, ili bar tako umiruje sebe. Međutim, zvuci deluju poznato i uznemirujuće dok odjekuju hodnikom. Koraci neobično teški i spori.

Obris muškarca pomalja se kroz hodnik. Preplašena budi decu i požuruje ih ka najstarijem delu kuće, majušnoj tajnoj sobi sakrivenoj iza zida. Do dece dopire njegov reski glas pun pretnji dok ih čeka da mu razotkriju skrovište.

U zaglušujućoj tami, bori se da ostane pribrana. Da li da potraži neko oružje ili da pokuša da pobegnu? Ugledala ga je opet. To lice. Taj glas. Istog trena njenim telom prostrujali su strah i nemoć. Ona tačno zna ko je on i šta želi. I ne zna da li će izbaviti sebe i decu iz ove opasnosti.

„Čitalac je gurnut u scenario nepatvorenog straha. Opisati ovaj roman kao noćnu moru u suprotnosti je sa živopisnošću te noći. Sama u noći je zastrašujući triler igre mačke i miša u kojem je škripa na stepenicama samo blaga uvertira u borbu za opstanak.��
�� Washington Post

„Izvanredan. Šlag na torti je sjajan završetak, koji deluje i iznenađujuće i neizbežno.��
�� Publishers Weekly

„Ovim romanom trijumfuje ekstremna napetost. Fantastično, ali rizično za one slabog srca.��
�� Daily Mail

„Čitate Samu u noći na sopstveni rizik.��
�� Kris Vitaker

„Zastrašujuće i neodoljivo.��
�� Karin Sloter]]> 368 Tracy Sierra 0241639875 Linda 4 The book is told through the mother’s eyes, she has no name. After putting her son back to bed when he awakes in the middle of the night, she is just settling back to sleep when she hears a noise. Alone in the house with her children, she thinks at first that it is the old house setting, but then she hears it again and it is definitely a step on the stairs. Quietly she wakes the children and takes them to a little room hidden behind a wall. It doesn’t take long for the intruder to realise they all are hiding and he tries cajoling them to come out. Peeking through a crack in the door she sees his face, she knows what he wants now.
It’s a terrifying story and just makes you empathise with her when the police dont take her seriously. Nothing was taken, no forced entry, no footprints. She also has to deal with the father in law, a truly unlikeable character.

#Nightwatching. #NetGalley
]]> 3.81 2024
author: Tracy Sierra
name: Linda
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/08/18
date added: 2024/12/15
shelves:
review:
This is one of those stories that I dread ever happening to me. Someone in your house at night while you are in bed.
The book is told through the mother’s eyes, she has no name. After putting her son back to bed when he awakes in the middle of the night, she is just settling back to sleep when she hears a noise. Alone in the house with her children, she thinks at first that it is the old house setting, but then she hears it again and it is definitely a step on the stairs. Quietly she wakes the children and takes them to a little room hidden behind a wall. It doesn’t take long for the intruder to realise they all are hiding and he tries cajoling them to come out. Peeking through a crack in the door she sees his face, she knows what he wants now.
It’s a terrifying story and just makes you empathise with her when the police dont take her seriously. Nothing was taken, no forced entry, no footprints. She also has to deal with the father in law, a truly unlikeable character.

#Nightwatching. #NetGalley

]]> 209335537 From the exceptionally original mind of CWA Gold Dagger Award winner and Booker longlisted author Belinda Bauer comes this sweeping tale of obsession, greed, ambition, and a crime that has remained unsolved for a hundred years.

How do you find something that doesn’t exist?

1926. On the cliffs of Yorkshire, men are lowered on ropes to steal the eggs of the sea birds who nest there. The most beautiful are sold for large sums. A small girl—penniless and neglected by her family—retrieves one such treasure. Its discovery will forever alter the course of her life.

A century later. In a remote cottage in Wales, Patrick Fort finds his friend, Nick, and his mother tied up and robbed. The only thing missing: a carved case containing an incredible scarlet egg. Doggedly attempting to retrieve it, Patrick and Nick discover the cruel world of egg trafficking, and soon find themselves on the trail of a priceless collection of eggs lost to history. Until now.

A taut, wonderfully imagined novel brimming with skullduggery at every turn, The Impossible Thing is a blazing testament to Belinda Bauer’s status as one of our greatest living crime writers.]]> 309 Belinda Bauer 1473562139 Linda 4 A hundred years later Patrick Fort finds his friend Nick and his mother tied up. It seems he had a red egg and it has been stolen. Patrick and Nick (both a bit “odd�� ) decide to find the egg and in the process uncover a greedy cruel world where one certain man will do anything to guard his priceless collection.

#TheImpossibleThing #NetGalley]]> 4.37
author: Belinda Bauer
name: Linda
average rating: 4.37
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/08
date added: 2024/12/08
shelves:
review:
In the year 1926, men were going to great lengths to obtain birds eggs, coloured eggs, the most beautiful eggs, stealing them from nesting birds to be sold. The men dangled off cliffs, took risks so they could line their pockets with silver and the men who bought them were obsessed with getting the best egg to have bragging rights. There was one section of the Cliff they could not reach, a narrow over hang with a wedge shaped crevice that loomed high over the sea. Celie Shepparton is tiny and always hungry and the perfect size to be lowered through the crevice. Here she takes the most beautiful egg, a red egg and it will change her life.
A hundred years later Patrick Fort finds his friend Nick and his mother tied up. It seems he had a red egg and it has been stolen. Patrick and Nick (both a bit “odd�� ) decide to find the egg and in the process uncover a greedy cruel world where one certain man will do anything to guard his priceless collection.

#TheImpossibleThing #NetGalley
]]> 56062925
Detective Rickman couldn’t take his eyes off the body. There was so much blood. A lacing of fine cuts: parallel lines, curls, sunbursts, whorls and geometric patterns.

‘The baby?�� he asks. ‘Is the baby all right?��

Rickman must dive into a world of exploitation and betrayal in a case that becomes personal for the whole team.

CAN THEY STOP A TWISTED SERIAL KILLER, WHO TURNS HIS VICTIMS LAST BREATH INTO A NIGHTMARE?]]> 366 Margaret Murphy 178931626X Linda 5 Detective Rickman is working hard to find out what happened to Jasmine, the murdered girl and where her baby is. In the picture for the murder is Jasmines former partner Mark, the father of the baby and a drug addict. He is involved with Maitland, a drugs king controlling much of the trade in Liverpool.
When Mark and the baby are found dead, Rickman is more determined than ever to find those responsible.
I loved it.
#dontscream #netgalley]]> 4.32 2020
author: Margaret Murphy
name: Linda
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2020
rating: 5
read at: 2020/12/15
date added: 2024/12/06
shelves:
review:
A botched drugs raid, a missing baby, a woman dead from a thousand cuts. These are the cases being investigated in Margaret Murphy’s latest novel. She is a first rate author, up there with likes of Rankin, Robinson and Cleeves. Her characters and narrative are top notch and the pace and setting wonderful.
Detective Rickman is working hard to find out what happened to Jasmine, the murdered girl and where her baby is. In the picture for the murder is Jasmines former partner Mark, the father of the baby and a drug addict. He is involved with Maitland, a drugs king controlling much of the trade in Liverpool.
When Mark and the baby are found dead, Rickman is more determined than ever to find those responsible.
I loved it.
#dontscream #netgalley
]]> 29236380
Every new scar hardens Charlie’s heart just a little more, yet it still hurts so much. It hurts enough to not care anymore, which is sometimes what has to happen before you can find your way back from the edge.]]> 416 Kathleen Glasgow 1101934719 Linda 5 3.94 2016
author: Kathleen Glasgow
name: Linda
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2024/12/06
date added: 2024/12/06
shelves:
review:

]]> 214363953
After more than seventy years of fighting to live her life on her own terms, Cher finally reveals her true story in intimate detail, in a two-part memoir.

Her remarkable career is unique and unparalleled. The only woman to top Billboard charts in seven consecutive decades, she is the winner of an Academy Award, an Emmy, a Grammy, and a Cannes Film Festival Award, and an inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame who has been lauded by the Kennedy Center.

She is a lifelong activist and philanthropist.

As a dyslexic child who dreamed of becoming famous, Cher was raised in often-chaotic circumstances, surrounded by singers, actors, and a mother who inspired her in spite of their difficult relationship.

With her trademark honesty and humor, Cher: The Memoir traces how this diamond in the rough succeeded with no plan and little confidence to become the trailblazing superstar the world has been unable to ignore for more than half a century.

Cher: The Memoir, Part One follows her extraordinary beginnings through childhood to meeting and marrying Sonny Bono—and reveals the highly complicated relationship that made them world-famous, but eventually drove them apart.

Cher: The Memoir reveals the daughter, the sister, the wife, the lover, the mother, and the superstar.

It is a life too immense for only one book.]]> 432 Cher 0008355371 Linda 4 4.23 2024
author: Cher
name: Linda
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/12/01
date added: 2024/12/01
shelves:
review:

]]> 209455837
On the day after Christmas, head of Department Q, Detective Carl Mørck, finds himself handcuffed in a police car headed for Copenhagen's Vestre prison. After fifteen years, a violent case from his past has caught up with him. Charges of drug trafficking and murder threaten to destroy his life and career. But he is being framed. Someone has a million-dollar bounty on his head to make sure he doesn't talk, putting him in grave danger among the prison's incarcerated criminals and corrupt officers. The question that remains is, Why?

Carl's colleagues at the Copenhagen Police Department instantly turn their backs on him, leaving the ever-loyal Department Q team as his only hope. In search of answers, Rose, Assad, and Gordon must disobey direct orders from way up the chain to try to unravel case. With only one another to trust and Carl's battle against the unknown mastermind's henchmen worsening by the day, they must work faster than ever before if they are to clear his name—and save his life.]]> 512 Jussi Adler-Olsen 0593475690 Linda 4 Locked In sees Carl Morck in prison for being part of a drug ring, after a suitcase with drugs and money is found in his wardrobe, in fact his friend and partner at the time had asked him to hold it for him and he had never thought of it again. Now that he is in prison someone wants him dead and it is a race for Assad, Rose and Gordon to uncover what is really going on before Carl is killed. A good read with quite a few characters to get your head around but I am pleased I made it to the end of the series.

#LockedIn. #NetGalley
]]> 4.17 2023
author: Jussi Adler-Olsen
name: Linda
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/30
date added: 2024/11/30
shelves:
review:
When I finished the last book in the dept Q series I vowed not to read this, the last one. The previous two books had been a struggle for me due to poor translation that just did not make sense in places. Also the characters had lost the initial spark that they held in the first books. As you can see I did read the last in the series and was pleased to find the translation was perfect, although I found once again the characters had lost their spark for me, they weren’t as funny and as appealing as in the first books.
Locked In sees Carl Morck in prison for being part of a drug ring, after a suitcase with drugs and money is found in his wardrobe, in fact his friend and partner at the time had asked him to hold it for him and he had never thought of it again. Now that he is in prison someone wants him dead and it is a race for Assad, Rose and Gordon to uncover what is really going on before Carl is killed. A good read with quite a few characters to get your head around but I am pleased I made it to the end of the series.

#LockedIn. #NetGalley

]]> 50214704 In the heart-pounding next installment of the New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling Department Q series, a terrifying international investigation reveals the complex backstory of one of the department's own--the enigmatic Assad.

The newspaper refers to her only as Victim 2117--the two thousand one hundred and seventeenth refugee to die in the Mediterranean Sea. But to three people, the unnamed victim is so much more, and her death sets off a chain of events that throws Department Q, Copenhagen's cold cases division led by Detective Carl M�rck, into a deeply dangerous--and deeply personal--case: a case that not only reveals dark secrets about the past, but has deadly implications for the future.

For troubled Danish teen Alex, whose identity is hidden behind his computer screen, the death of Victim 2117 becomes a symbol of everything he resents and the perfect excuse to unleash his murderous impulses in real life. For Ghallib, one the most brutal tormentors from Abu Ghraib, Saddam Hussein's infamous prison, murdering Victim 2117 was the first step in a terrorist plot years in the making. And for Department Q's Assad, Victim 2117 is a link to his buried past--and a clue that the family he assumed was long dead may still be alive.

With the help of the Department Q squad--Carl, Rose, and Gordon--Assad must finally confront painful memories from his years in Syria and Afghanistan in order to hunt down Ghallib. But with the clock ticking down to Alex's first kill and Ghallib's devastating attack, the thinly spread Department Q will need to stay one step ahead of their most lethal adversary yet if they are to prevent the loss of thousands of innocent lives.]]> 468 Jussi Adler-Olsen 1524742554 Linda 5 We all thought Assad was this funny man who mixed his English up, made smelly brews and had a prayer mat in the office. It comes as somewhat of a surprise to find out he speaks several languages, is a sharpshooter and ex soldier.
When the 2117th refugee is found dead after trying to cross the Mediterranean it is assumed she drowned. When it is discovered she was stabbed and her photo goes International, Assad realised he knew her, she was a big part of his earlier life. Linked to this is a fanatical maniac who is seeking revenge on Assad and has hatched a crazy plot to blow up many people in Germany, including Assad’s family of whom he had no knowledge and had assumed were dead already.
Thrown into the mix is a troubled young man who uses Victim 2117 as someone he wants to avenge and when he has reached level 2117 on his computer game he will kill his parents and anyone he encounters on the streets.
As always a riveting thriller, tight plot and believable characters.
#netgalley #victim2117]]> 3.96 2019
author: Jussi Adler-Olsen
name: Linda
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2019
rating: 5
read at: 2020/02/07
date added: 2024/11/26
shelves:
review:
How wonderful the department Q books are, and this the 8th in the series is just as good as its predecessors. Although it can be read as a stand-alone it would mean a whole lot more if you have read the others so you understand the main characters and how they relate to each other.
We all thought Assad was this funny man who mixed his English up, made smelly brews and had a prayer mat in the office. It comes as somewhat of a surprise to find out he speaks several languages, is a sharpshooter and ex soldier.
When the 2117th refugee is found dead after trying to cross the Mediterranean it is assumed she drowned. When it is discovered she was stabbed and her photo goes International, Assad realised he knew her, she was a big part of his earlier life. Linked to this is a fanatical maniac who is seeking revenge on Assad and has hatched a crazy plot to blow up many people in Germany, including Assad’s family of whom he had no knowledge and had assumed were dead already.
Thrown into the mix is a troubled young man who uses Victim 2117 as someone he wants to avenge and when he has reached level 2117 on his computer game he will kill his parents and anyone he encounters on the streets.
As always a riveting thriller, tight plot and believable characters.
#netgalley #victim2117
]]> 198281740
“What looks like magic is simply a part of life we don’t understand yet…��

When retired math teacher Grace Winters is left a run-down house on a Mediterranean island by a long-lost friend, curiosity gets the better of her. She arrives in Ibiza with a one-way ticket, no guidebook and no plan.

Among the rugged hills and golden beaches of the island, Grace searches for answers about her friend’s life, and how it ended. What she uncovers is stranger than she could have dreamed. But to dive into this impossible truth, Grace must first come to terms with her past.

Filled with wonder and wild adventure, this is a story of hope and the life-changing power of a new beginning.]]> 324 Matt Haig 0593489276 Linda 4 3.45 2024
author: Matt Haig
name: Linda
average rating: 3.45
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/19
date added: 2024/11/19
shelves:
review:

]]> 25613620
We've all seen him: the man - the monster - staring from the front page of every newspaper, accused of a terrible crime.

But what about the woman who grips his arm on the courtroom stairs �� the woman who stands by him?

Jean Taylor’s life was blissfully ordinary. Nice house, nice husband. Glen was all she’d ever wanted: her Prince Charming.

Until he became that man accused, that monster on the front page. Jean was married to a man everyone thought capable of unimaginable evil.

But now Glen is dead and she’s alone for the first time, free to tell her story on her own terms.

Jean Taylor is going to tell us what she knows.]]> 313 Fiona Barton 0593076222 Linda 5 Told in different time sequences ( very easy to follow ) and from different points of view, we follow the story of 2 year old Bella who is taken from the front lawn of her home. Bob is the detective looking for Bella, Dawn the publicity hungry mother, Kate the journalist hoping for the big scoop and Jean the suspects (Glen) wife. Glen soon appears on the Detectives radar as a person of interest but he is having a hard time pinning anything on him. As the reporter and the detective together and separately try to piece together what might have happened, they discover a group of hard core child pornographers and the chat room of all chat rooms that might give them some clues.
It's a great read and one where you kinda know and kinda not know if Glen is guilty or not.]]> 3.38 2016
author: Fiona Barton
name: Linda
average rating: 3.38
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2016/01/09
date added: 2024/11/16
shelves:
review:
I think I might be right in saying that this book is the next "Girl on the Train" I certainly hope it receives all the right media as it is every bit as good.
Told in different time sequences ( very easy to follow ) and from different points of view, we follow the story of 2 year old Bella who is taken from the front lawn of her home. Bob is the detective looking for Bella, Dawn the publicity hungry mother, Kate the journalist hoping for the big scoop and Jean the suspects (Glen) wife. Glen soon appears on the Detectives radar as a person of interest but he is having a hard time pinning anything on him. As the reporter and the detective together and separately try to piece together what might have happened, they discover a group of hard core child pornographers and the chat room of all chat rooms that might give them some clues.
It's a great read and one where you kinda know and kinda not know if Glen is guilty or not.
]]> 219717474
Gerard doesn't always make good decisions. And on one April morning, in the blink of an eye, he makes a very bad one - one that will upend his whole world.

Now, he faces a bewildering stream of concerned adults clutching files, unfamiliar streets to navigate, a strange bed to sleep in, and the very real chance he won't see his wee brother and sister again.

Heartbreaking and yet brimful of humour, compassion and hope, This Bright Life is a story about messy lives, second chances and the many hands it takes to build a boy.]]> 304 Karen Campbell 1837260613 Linda 5 Gerard is 12 years old, his mother is a drug addiction and Gerard finds himself trying to care for his young siblings as best he can. Arriving home one day to find his mother passed out, his baby sister sitting in her filthy nappy and his 7 year old brother telling him he’s starving, starts the beginning of a tale of such despair.
Gerard can’t make a meal as the power is off. He takes the electric card and sets off to town with the idea of stealing some money to by cream for his sisters nappy rash and to top up the electric card.
He’s sees his opportunity when he spots an elderly lady (Margaret) shopping with her handbag open and purse on top. In his haste to grab the purse he accidentally pushes Margaret over and she is injured. Enter Claire, a passerby who witnesses what happened and ends up savings Margaret’s life as she is choking on her false teeth.
The story is told from these 3 main characters, it’s a grim tale as all 3 have sorry stories to tell and hard sad lives.
Having said that, it’s a great read. I loved it.

#NetGalley #ThisBrightLife]]> 4.49
author: Karen Campbell
name: Linda
average rating: 4.49
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/15
date added: 2024/11/15
shelves:
review:
This book reminded me a bit of Shuggy Bain, the hopelessness of the circumstances the young boy in both of them endured.
Gerard is 12 years old, his mother is a drug addiction and Gerard finds himself trying to care for his young siblings as best he can. Arriving home one day to find his mother passed out, his baby sister sitting in her filthy nappy and his 7 year old brother telling him he’s starving, starts the beginning of a tale of such despair.
Gerard can’t make a meal as the power is off. He takes the electric card and sets off to town with the idea of stealing some money to by cream for his sisters nappy rash and to top up the electric card.
He’s sees his opportunity when he spots an elderly lady (Margaret) shopping with her handbag open and purse on top. In his haste to grab the purse he accidentally pushes Margaret over and she is injured. Enter Claire, a passerby who witnesses what happened and ends up savings Margaret’s life as she is choking on her false teeth.
The story is told from these 3 main characters, it’s a grim tale as all 3 have sorry stories to tell and hard sad lives.
Having said that, it’s a great read. I loved it.

#NetGalley #ThisBrightLife
]]> 212438997 A new heart-wrenching, impeccably researched historical novel for middle-grade readers


The Nazis want everyone to be the same. If you're different, you don't belong.

Not belonging is dangerous ...

Anna's little sister, Eva, is frail and needs time to learn new things. She has a huge heart and a gift for loving, but Hitler doesn't value such riches. And so she's hidden away. Safe for now, but with the threat of discovery always near.

Anna does her best to bring joy and light to Eva's small life with stories, trinkets and treasures from the outside world. But soon, more children need hiding. Risks are taken -- by Anna, by her best friend Udo, by a Nazi seamstress and feisty Brunhilde. Until Anna wonders if any of them will make it through the war ...

Loyalty and love. Family and friendship. Understanding and tolerance. Right and wrong. Multi-award-winning Australian author Katrina Nannestad explores it all in this thrilling and powerful historical novel.]]> 352 Katrina Nannestad 1460716817 Linda 4 4.56
author: Katrina Nannestad
name: Linda
average rating: 4.56
book published:
rating: 4
read at: 2024/11/15
date added: 2024/11/15
shelves:
review:

]]> 175741801
When I was younger I wanted to be an interesting, sophisticated, semi-heroic, multi-layered person.

BUT.

That kind of perfect is impossible. Being an actual twat is much more the real me. Sorry to boast, but I am a champion twat.

In The Twat Files I will tell you about all the times I've been a total and utter twat. The moments where I've misunderstood stuff and messed up. In my life these have been key

Mistakes tell us about ourselves.
Mistakes tell us about others.
Mistakes are hilarious.
Mistakes expose our flaws.
Mistakes show us ourselves honestly.
Mistakes are gloriously human.

My hope is that these stories might fire up yer engines to remind you of just what a massive twat you also are.

Let's celebrate and revel in this most delightful of traits together.

That would be perfectly twatty.]]> 363 Dawn French 1405947284 Linda 3 3.81
author: Dawn French
name: Linda
average rating: 3.81
book published:
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/10
date added: 2024/11/10
shelves:
review:

]]> 35995489
Sam believed it was God who sent Ernie Cantwell, the only African American kid in his class, to be the friend he so desperately needed. And that it was God’s idea for Mickie Kennedy to storm into Our Lady of Mercy like a tornado, uprooting every rule Sam had been taught about boys and girls.

Forty years later, Sam, a small-town eye doctor, is no longer certain anything was by design—especially not the tragedy that caused him to turn his back on his friends, his hometown, and the life he’d always known. Running from the pain, eyes closed, served little purpose. Now, as he looks back on his life, Sam embarks on a journey that will take him halfway around the world. This time, his eyes are wide open—bringing into clear view what changed him, defined him, and made him so afraid, until he can finally see what truly matters.]]> 448 Robert Dugoni 1503949001 Linda 5 4.37 2018
author: Robert Dugoni
name: Linda
average rating: 4.37
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/10
date added: 2024/11/10
shelves:
review:

]]> 208460840
Did what happened to Freya as a child one fateful summer influence the adult she would become �� or was she always destined to be that person? Was she born with cruelty in her heart or did something force it into being?

In Fire, John Boyne takes the reader on a chilling, uncomfortable but utterly compelling psychological journey to the epicentre of the human condition, asking the age-old question: nurture �� or nature?]]> 176 John Boyne 0857529870 Linda 5 Freya Petrus is a surgeon in a burns unit. A woman in her 30s she is a fine plastic surgeon and a warm caring person. She also has a dark secret, she picks up 14 year old boys and seduces them. This stems from a childhood of abandonment from her mother and being buried alive at 12. She lived with her grandmother, Hannah, a young mother herself as both she and her daughter had teenage pregnancies. Hannah didn’t like Freya to have any friends so she had a lonely childhood. On one of her two monthly stays with her mother, Beth, Freya meets her mother’s landlords twin sons, Arthur and Pascoe. They obviously have their own issues and being 2 years older than Freya at 14, they don’t treat her very well. This all leads to Freya being repeatedly sexually abused by them both and finally buried alive for hours with just a breathing tube to keep her alive.
She exacts revenge on them all in a horrifying way.
I liked how the books are linked. Freya served on a jury from the previous book Earth, where 2 football superstars, Evan and Robbie were on trial for rape, and Air, due out next years features Aaron, Freya’s medical student shadowing her for a 3 month stint. In Fire
The book is another fantastic if not squeamish (for me) read. John Boyne must have had a messed up life when he was younger to reach into the darkest corners of peoples minds and uncover the awful things they do.


#Fire #NetGalley]]> 4.21 2024
author: John Boyne
name: Linda
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/01
date added: 2024/11/07
shelves:
review:
This is one of those books whose subject matter makes it hard for me to hand-sell to customers, hopefully it will sell on the authors name alone and as part of the Earth, Water, now Fire and next year Air series people will want all four books.
Freya Petrus is a surgeon in a burns unit. A woman in her 30s she is a fine plastic surgeon and a warm caring person. She also has a dark secret, she picks up 14 year old boys and seduces them. This stems from a childhood of abandonment from her mother and being buried alive at 12. She lived with her grandmother, Hannah, a young mother herself as both she and her daughter had teenage pregnancies. Hannah didn’t like Freya to have any friends so she had a lonely childhood. On one of her two monthly stays with her mother, Beth, Freya meets her mother’s landlords twin sons, Arthur and Pascoe. They obviously have their own issues and being 2 years older than Freya at 14, they don’t treat her very well. This all leads to Freya being repeatedly sexually abused by them both and finally buried alive for hours with just a breathing tube to keep her alive.
She exacts revenge on them all in a horrifying way.
I liked how the books are linked. Freya served on a jury from the previous book Earth, where 2 football superstars, Evan and Robbie were on trial for rape, and Air, due out next years features Aaron, Freya’s medical student shadowing her for a 3 month stint. In Fire
The book is another fantastic if not squeamish (for me) read. John Boyne must have had a messed up life when he was younger to reach into the darkest corners of peoples minds and uncover the awful things they do.


#Fire #NetGalley
]]> 16312
From the
What reason would an amiable dentist like Dr. Morely have for committing suicide? He didn't have emotional difficulties, money problems, or love trouble. What he did have was an appointment with Hercule Poirot, who is not persuaded by the suicide story and has therefore taken it upon himself to question the good doctor's patients, partners, and friends. All he's come up with is the numbing fear that Dr. Morely wasn't an unlikely victim at all. Nor the first.]]> 0 Agatha Christie 1572703857 Linda 3 3.79 1940
author: Agatha Christie
name: Linda
average rating: 3.79
book published: 1940
rating: 3
read at: 2024/08/06
date added: 2024/11/07
shelves:
review:

]]> 62072146 Just gone. Vanished. In the blink of an eye.��

DCS Kat Frank knows all about loss. A widowed single mother, Kat is a cop who trusts her instincts. Picked to lead a pilot programme that has her paired with AIDE (Artificially Intelligent Detective Entity) Lock, Kat's instincts come up against Lock's logic. But when the two missing person's cold cases they are reviewing suddenly become active, Lock is the only one who can help Kat when the case gets personal.��

AI versus human experience.��
Logic versus instinct.
With lives on the line can the pair work together before someone else becomes another statistic? 

In the Blink of an Eye is a dazzling debut from an exciting new voice and asks us what we think it means to be human.��

]]> 416 Jo Callaghan 1398511161 Linda 5 DCS Kat Frank has recently lost her husband so understands loss. She is teamed with an AI identity called Lock and tasked with choosing a cold case from the missing people files to work on as a trial. She chooses a missing teen. Kats instinct and Locks logic form a pretty formidable team with his programming for things being either black or white making for some great lines.
I hope these two have another outing. ]]> 4.13 2023
author: Jo Callaghan
name: Linda
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2023
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/05
date added: 2024/11/06
shelves:
review:
A different take on the detective novel where the lead detective is teamed with AI. It worked really well I think.
DCS Kat Frank has recently lost her husband so understands loss. She is teamed with an AI identity called Lock and tasked with choosing a cold case from the missing people files to work on as a trial. She chooses a missing teen. Kats instinct and Locks logic form a pretty formidable team with his programming for things being either black or white making for some great lines.
I hope these two have another outing.
]]> 217388137 The body of a bookseller is discovered, lying in a pool of blood in his Bristol bookshop. Police have one question: how did the man meet such a violent, murderous end in this peaceful place?

THE CONFLICT
DS Cross's ability to dismiss red herrings is challenged by a worrying development in his personal life. Hopelessly distracted, he needs to rely on those around him in a way he has never been comfortable doing before.

THE MURDER PLOT
It may be a quiet profession, but it's full of passionate, ambitious characters who know the value of a rare book. Their extensive reading means they also know how to get away with murder.

But is that enough to fool the tenacious DS George Cross?

Perfect for fans of MW Craven, Peter James and Joy Ellis, this is the seventh book in the bestselling series, which can be read in any order.]]> 368 Tim Sullivan 103591042X Linda 3
#TheBookseller #NetGalley

]]> 4.32 2025
author: Tim Sullivan
name: Linda
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2025
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/06
date added: 2024/11/06
shelves:
review:
I read a lot of reviews about this author and everyone loved his books. Me not so much. In fact I found it a struggle to finish this book. Maybe it’s because I didn’t start the series from book one and haven’t been privy to the backstory about the characters, i found it boring and the characters not likeable including Cross the main detective who has Asperger’s I am sure my opinion won’t matter for the die hard fans but I won’t be reading any more

#TheBookseller #NetGalley


]]> 213209601 It all began in 1999 when sixteen-year-old Aaron ran away from home, dragging his friends into an unforeseeable chain of events that no one escaped from unscathed ...

In The Ledge, past and present run breathlessly, tensely parallel, leading to a cliff-hanger nobody will see coming. This is a mind-bending new novel from the master of the unexpected.]]> 268 Christian White 1923135058 Linda 5 Told in past and present chapters, The Ledge is about 4 childhood friends who at 16 years of age, in 1999, come together to help one of them cover up a murder, but that’s not the full story. The present day story is told by one of them, now a famous author. When a body is located in his home town, he knows who it is and returns home to meet up with his friends again.
A wonderful mind-bending novel that when the twist is revealed, you think back over the book and think huh, I see that now.]]> 4.16 2024
author: Christian White
name: Linda
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/11/02
date added: 2024/11/02
shelves:
review:
Whenever anyone comments on a book, about the huge twist they didn’t see coming, I spend a good portion of the book trying to figure out what the twist could be. So the blurb on the cover of this book ( “The master of the big twist, I loved it�� Chris Hammer ), had me on high alert. Nope I didn’t guess the twist, it was very cleverly done.
Told in past and present chapters, The Ledge is about 4 childhood friends who at 16 years of age, in 1999, come together to help one of them cover up a murder, but that’s not the full story. The present day story is told by one of them, now a famous author. When a body is located in his home town, he knows who it is and returns home to meet up with his friends again.
A wonderful mind-bending novel that when the twist is revealed, you think back over the book and think huh, I see that now.
]]> 3591262
Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon at a mission hospital in Addis Ababa. Orphaned by their mother’s death in childbirth and their father’s disappearance, bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution. Yet it will be love, not politics—their passion for the same woman—that will tear them apart and force Marion, fresh out of medical school, to flee his homeland. He makes his way to America, finding refuge in his work as an intern at an underfunded, overcrowded New York City hospital. When the past catches up to him—nearly destroying him—Marion must entrust his life to the two men he thought he trusted least in the world: the surgeon father who abandoned him and the brother who betrayed him.

An unforgettable journey into one man’s remarkable life, and an epic story about the power, intimacy, and curious beauty of the work of healing others.
(front flap)]]> 560 Abraham Verghese 0375414495 Linda 3 didn-t-finish 4.32 2009
author: Abraham Verghese
name: Linda
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2009
rating: 3
read at: 2024/11/02
date added: 2024/11/02
shelves: didn-t-finish
review:

]]> 207613903 After decades of silence, the last surviving World War II British spy reveals the real, untold story of her time as a secret agent in the deadly world of Nazi France.

From a unique and singular voice comes the incredible true story of the last surviving undercover British female operative in WW2. Pippa Latour parachuted into occupied France in 1944 to conduct sabotage and subversion behind enemy lines. Selling soap to German soldiers and hiding codes on a piece of ribbon, she sent back crucial information about troop positions in the lead up to D-Day, and continued her work until Paris was liberated. From her childhood as an orphan in South Africa to her years as an undercover agent, Pippa's story is that of a woman determined to honor her principles and risk her life to fight against the greatest evil of the 20th century.

The Last Secret Agent is a posthumously published memoir, co-written with journalist Jude Dobson. Pippa was decorated highly for her actions, including being made a Member of the Order of the British Empire and receiving the Légion d’Honneur in France. For years, Pippa kept her involvement in the war effort secret from everyone, including her family, but for the first time, her story can now be told in full.]]> 0 Pippa Latour 1761188801 Linda 5 She died in New Zealand aged 102 with her past kept mostly secret until her sons happened upon an article about Pippa Latour and asked if it was her, she was by then in her 80s
I wish this book was required reading in schools so everyone could learn about her heroism and bravery, and she may never be forgotten.

#TheLastSecretAgent. #NetGalley
]]> 4.50 2024
author: Pippa Latour
name: Linda
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/30
date added: 2024/10/30
shelves:
review:
This is the most amazing story of a remarkable woman. From her childhood in Africa to, in her early 20s, being parachuted into France as a covert radio operator, and being one of the last secret agents to make it out alive after the liberation, this is truly an awe inspiring story. Using wireless sets hidden around the French countryside, Pippa, code name Genevieve sent hundreds of messages with information on the German troops, and precise locations for the allies to bomb. She had many close calls where she was in danger of being caught but her quick thinking and being able to pass as 14 and act appropriately helped her on many occasions.
She died in New Zealand aged 102 with her past kept mostly secret until her sons happened upon an article about Pippa Latour and asked if it was her, she was by then in her 80s
I wish this book was required reading in schools so everyone could learn about her heroism and bravery, and she may never be forgotten.

#TheLastSecretAgent. #NetGalley

]]> 199223892 From New York Times bestselling author Tess Gerritsen comes a chilling follow-up to The Spy Coast, plunging the Martini Club into the search for a missing teen—with a startling connection to their own pasts.

When former spy Maggie Bird retired to the seaside hamlet of Purity, Maine, she settled in for a quiet life with breathtaking views. But enemies from her past soon threatened to destroy everything.

Maggie survived, thanks to her wits and the collective intelligence of the Martini Club, the circle of ex-CIA friends in her cocktail-sipping book club. Their handiwork, however, caught the attention of young police chief Jo Thibodeau. Now Jo and her neighborhood ex-spies have an uneasy alliance.

After a teenager vanishes—and Maggie’s neighbor becomes the prime suspect—she joins the investigation, determined to prove her friend’s innocence. But the girl’s wealthy family pushes for an arrest. And when authorities discover a long-dead corpse in a nearby pond, the case becomes doubly complicated, with unthinkable ties to long-buried secrets.

As Jo grapples with two unexplained mysteries, the Martini Club races to uncover the truth behind shadowy secrets…before more lives are lost.]]> 363 Tess Gerritsen 1662515154 Linda 5 This series is going to be a fun read. After Richard Osmans Thursday Murder Club came out and was an instant hit, I read a lot of stories where people had copied his idea and some, let’s face it, were so similar it was a wonder they got published. True this is a group of old people solving murders, but being retired spies this makes the stories that much more fun. The books are easy reads but also page turners. Pleased to report book 1 in the series, The Spy Coast, sold out at my work.

#TheSummerGuests. #NetGalley.
]]> 4.38 2025
author: Tess Gerritsen
name: Linda
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2025
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/27
date added: 2024/10/27
shelves:
review:
The second in the Martini club series, one I hope will endure for many years, sees Maggie and her friends help��.or get in the way of the police, to look for a teenage girl Zoe who has gone missing. She is one of the summer families who spend the warmer months in Maine in a small town called Purity. The search for Zoe leads to the discovery of a body in the lake and it seems Zoe’s disappearance is linked to the body although it has been in the lake some 40 years. There are quite a few suspects in Zoe’s disappearance and the Martini Club are one step ahead of the police all the way.
This series is going to be a fun read. After Richard Osmans Thursday Murder Club came out and was an instant hit, I read a lot of stories where people had copied his idea and some, let’s face it, were so similar it was a wonder they got published. True this is a group of old people solving murders, but being retired spies this makes the stories that much more fun. The books are easy reads but also page turners. Pleased to report book 1 in the series, The Spy Coast, sold out at my work.

#TheSummerGuests. #NetGalley.

]]> 207627291
Two fugitives, a man and a child, drive all night across a stony desert. As dawn breaks, they roll into an abandoned mine site. From the vehicle they survey a forsaken place �� middens of twisted iron, rusty wire, piles of sun-baked trash. They’re exhausted, traumatised, desperate now. But as a refuge, this is the most promising place they’ve seen. The child peers at the field of desolation. The man thinks to himself, this could work.

Problem is, they’re not alone.

So begins a searing, propulsive journey through a life whose central challenge is not simply a matter of survival, but of how to maintain human decency as everyone around you falls ever further into barbarism.]]> 529 Tim Winton 1035050838 Linda 4 A man and a young girl are travelling across Australia. It is bleak and barren and unbearably hot. They come across an abandoned mine and feel this is a good place to set up camp. Someone else is living there and he takes the two hostage, locking them in the depths of the mine. As the hostage taker keeps guard, the man begins to tell his story, a story of despair as he and his mother had to try and live in this hostile environment, how they spent months living underground away from the heat above but still sweltering below.
It’s hard to say how long the world has been this way but for me I thought a century at least, our language has been replaced with new words for things which I sometimes couldn’t work out. It took me a long time to get into the story and I only persevered because it was Tim Winton. I did end up enjoying the story but do prefer his other works.

#Juice. #NetGalley]]> 3.95 2024
author: Tim Winton
name: Linda
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/10/22
date added: 2024/10/22
shelves:
review:
Tim Winton is a huge advocate for what is happening to the world through climate change and the general disregard for how we treat our world. Juice is his take on a future where we basically have made the planet almost uninhabitable.
A man and a young girl are travelling across Australia. It is bleak and barren and unbearably hot. They come across an abandoned mine and feel this is a good place to set up camp. Someone else is living there and he takes the two hostage, locking them in the depths of the mine. As the hostage taker keeps guard, the man begins to tell his story, a story of despair as he and his mother had to try and live in this hostile environment, how they spent months living underground away from the heat above but still sweltering below.
It’s hard to say how long the world has been this way but for me I thought a century at least, our language has been replaced with new words for things which I sometimes couldn’t work out. It took me a long time to get into the story and I only persevered because it was Tim Winton. I did end up enjoying the story but do prefer his other works.

#Juice. #NetGalley
]]> 209499400 From one of the most iconic actors in the history of film, an astonishingly revelatory account of a creative life in full. To the wider world, Al Pacino exploded onto the scene like a supernova. He landed his first leading role, in The Panic in Needle Park, in 1971, and by 1975, he had starred in four movies—The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, Serpico, and Dog Day Afternoon—that were not just successes but landmarks in the history of film. Those performances became legendary and changed his life forever. Not since Marlon Brando and James Dean in the late 1950s had an actor landed in the culture with such force. But Pacino was in his mid-thirties by then, and had already lived several lives. A fixture of avant-garde theater in New York, he had led a bohemian existence, working odd jobs to support his craft. He was raised by a fiercely loving but mentally unwell mother and her parents after his father left them when he was young, but in a real sense he was raised by the streets of the South Bronx, and by the troop of buccaneering young friends he ran with, whose spirits never left him. After a teacher recognized his acting promise and pushed him toward New York’s fabled High School of Performing Arts, the die was cast. In good times and bad, in poverty and in wealth and in poverty again, through pain and joy, acting was his lifeline, its community his tribe. Sonny Boy is the memoir of a man who has nothing left to fear and nothing left to hide. All the great roles, the essential collaborations, and the important relationships are given their full due, as is the vexed marriage between creativity and commerce at the highest levels. The book’s golden thread, however, is the spirit of love and purpose. Love can fail you, and you can be defeated in your ambitions—the same lights that shine bright can also dim. But Al Pacino was lucky enough to fall deeply in love with a craft before he had the foggiest idea of any of its earthly rewards, and he never fell out of love. That has made all the difference.]]> 384 Al Pacino 0593655117 Linda 5 3.99 2024
author: Al Pacino
name: Linda
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at: 2024/10/22
date added: 2024/10/22
shelves:
review:

]]> 207252770
Once home to Vanessa: A famous artist whose notoriously unfaithful husband disappeared twenty years ago.

Now home to Grace: A solitary creature of the tides, content in her own isolation.

But when a shocking discovery is made in an art gallery far away in London, a visitor comes calling.

And the secrets of Eris threaten to emerge . . .

A masterful novel that is as page-turning as it is unsettling, The Blue Hour recalls the sophisticated suspense of Shirley Jackson and Patricia Highsmith, and cements Hawkins’s place among the very best of our most nuanced and stylish storytellers.]]> 320 Paula Hawkins 0063396521 Linda 4 It’s a stylish novel full of trust and deception, loyalty and obsession.

#The BlueHour. #NetGalley]]> 3.27 2024
author: Paula Hawkins
name: Linda
average rating: 3.27
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at: 2024/07/24
date added: 2024/10/18
shelves:
review:
This seems more literary than Paula’s other books and I really enjoyed it. Set around a famous artist and the art scene it starts with the discovery of a human bone in a sculpture by renown artist Vanessa Chapman, now deceased. This leads to James Becker, curator of the collection to visit Vanessas home, which is located on a small tidal Scottish island only accessible for 12 hours a day. Here lives Grace, Vanessa’s friend who lived here with her off and on. There are quite a few characters in this story, Helena, James’s wife and pregnant with his child. She was formally engaged to Sebastian, his friend and boss. It is to Sebastian’s father that Vanessa left her paintings and sculptures. There are a lot of side characters, people who knew Vanessa often the husbands she had had flings with and then there is Julian, Vanessa’s husband, a man known for his indiscrete affairs and selling of Vanessa’s paintings behind her back when he needed money. Mysteriously he disappeared one night and Vanessa was always suspected of his disappearance although never charge or substantiated before her death from cancer. As James tries to uncover who the bone belonged to the story flits between the past and Vanessas diaries that James has in his possession as he searches for a truth about an artist he has always had great admiration for..
It’s a stylish novel full of trust and deception, loyalty and obsession.

#The BlueHour. #NetGalley
]]>