🎨⏳Painting Time by Maylis de Kerangal…. A Review!!! 🎨⏳

Love this cover!!!

Publication Date: 13th May

Formats: Hardback & Ebook

Price: Hb £16.99/Ebook £9.99

Publisher: MacLehose Press

I would like to say a huge thank you to Milly Reid and to MacLehose Press for gifting me a copy of this intriguing and fascinating book. I am extremely grateful to all publicists and publishers in allowing little ol me to read and review up and coming books so thank you so much. Thank you also to Maylis de Kerangal for creating such a compelling and alluring novel on painting, I have no idea what magic has been used, but this story seeps with little golden nuggets of historical, both prehistoric and ancient which then mixes with growing up and trying to find out who you are in a fast paced and at times impatient world. Intrigued? let’s head to the blurb and find out a bit more on what the book is about.

Behind the ornate doors of 30, Rue du Metal in Brussels, twenty students begin their apprenticeship in the art of decorative painting – that art of tricksters and counterfeiters, where each knot in a plank of wood hides a secret and every vein in a slab of marble tells a story.

Among these students are Kate, Jonas and Paula Karst. Together, during a relentless year of study, they will learn the techniques of reproducing materials in paint, and the intensity of their experience – the long hours in the studio, the late nights, the conversations, arguments, parties, romances, will cement a friendship that lasts long after their formal studies end.

For Paula, her initiation into the art of trompe l’oeil will take her back through time, from her own childhood memories, to the ancient formations of the materials whose depiction she strives to master. And from the institute in Brussels where her studies begin, to her work on film sets of Cinecitta, and finally the prehistoric caves of Lascaux, her experiences will transcend art, gradually revealing something of her own inner world, and the secret, unreachable desires of her heart.

Wow…. just wow. This is one of those books, where I have so much to say about it, but when it comes to putting it down on my blog, it feels like there are no adequate words to describe it. It just is. This book left me reeling (in a good way) I felt I had immersed myself in a different, evocative, mesmeric world filled with gorgeous imagery and sights, sounds, touch and taste. This story drips with decadent and rich tastes in the art world, or the art of deceiving your eye, what you think is marble is actually painted wood and vice versa. But its not only about painting, it’s about how we learn to grow into ourselves and become more comfortable with who we are.

The main character, and kind of narrator is Paula Karst, who we see at first trying to find something that will energise her and make her feel she is doing something she loves to do, we see her try and fail at a few things, because while young you do tend to flail around until you latch on to that one thing that keeps you tethered and passionate in your life. We also see how Paula, sees herself and that at first she’s so anxious about how she appears to people (because of her “wandering eye”) and how she thinks she should be so good that everything comes to her, that when it gets really tough she becomes almost dependent on how she normally faces things….by running away and going back to her parents. But then she finds friendship with Jonas and Kate, and things suddenly become if not easier, more understandable and wonderful.

We follow them as they grow through their studies and then are let out into the big wide world, where their expectations of who and what they are, are morphed, changed and sculptured down paths they wouldn’t have thought they would end up. I fell in love with this book, and its narrative, the characters are vividly portrayed and also at times brutally too. Paula can be at times, sharp, stubborn, cruel, highly excitable, lazy, directionless, depressed and calm cool and collected. We see how as she grows up looks at what her parents are and feels at certain points comforted they haven’t changed but at the same time frustrated with them, we also see how cruel and sharp she can be with them.

I loved how she also looks at her paintings and sees the stories behind what she is trying to capture, that you are also brought in on those stories too, whether it be a turtle swimming in an ocean, to medieval princes of merchants, in Italy to all the way back into our prehistory, where humans painted the first pictures of animals and fishes that meant something to them, and which we today only can gasp in awe even if the message is lost to time, the pictures remain as something tangible, the past reaching out to us in the present time. All these themes and more are interweaved within this story. And yet there are some tragic aspects too, has she, Paula really gained much by being too focused on her work and not built up relationships and friendships along the way? and will she realise how important her family are to her before something horrific happens to shake her out of herself? I won’t go any further and spoil anything more, but this book has truly captivated me and I love it.

Ratings: 5 🌟s with a large ☕️ and a large 🍰…. this book needs to be savoured so take as long as you like 😊 it’s a joy.

Authors Blurb:

Maylis de Kerangal was raised in Le Havre, she went on to study history and philosophy in Rouen and Paris. She worked at Paris-based Editions Gallimard (children and youth department, from 1991 to 1996), then travelled in the United States, and went back to her studies at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences. She wrote her first novel in 2000, and from that moment on became a full-time writer. She has written some outstanding novels Birth of a Bridge, Mend the Living, The Cook and Painting Time.

I hope you have enjoyed this wonderful, intriguing and beautiful journey through wild landscapes of prehistory all the way to a paintbrush held by a young women with “a wayward eye” who feels alive when painting and depicting stories from her brush. If you are intrigued and want to grab a copy you can find this in Waterstones, any Independent shops (which I would highly recommend) and of course on Amazon. I will leave you now to say Happy Reading and see you all soon!!!!

🏠 🧍‍♀️The House Guest by Charlotte Northedge… A Book Blog Tour Review!!! 🏠 🧍‍♀️

Check out this lovely cover!!!

Publication Date: Out Today!!!

Formats: Hardback & Ebook

Price: Hb £14.99/Ebook £5.99

Publisher: HarperCollins

I would like to say a huge thank you to Emily Goulding and the team at HarperCollins for organising this intriguing book’s tour. I would also like to thank HarperCollins and Netgalley for allowing me to access and read the digital copy to review, I am always extremely grateful to be able to have this chance. I would like to say a huge thank you to the creative talent, Charlotte Northedge, for creating such a twisted, sinister and intriguing novel. Intrigued? let’s head over to the blurb and find out.

Kate trusts Della, and Della trusts Kate.

Their downfall is each other.

When Kate moves to London after the disappearance of her sister, she’s in need of a friend. A chance meeting leads Kate to Della, a life coach who runs support groups for young women, dubbed by Kate as ‘the Janes’.

Della takes a special interest in Kate, and Kate soon finds herself entangled in Della’s life – her house, her family, and her husband. It’s only when she realises that she’s in too deep that Della’s veneer begins to crumble, and the warnings from ‘the Janes’ begin to come true.

Why is Della so keen to keep Kate by her side? What does Kate have that Della might want? And what really lies beneath the surface of their friendship?

Wow this book has presence, and all the thrills and suspense you could ever hope to have in such an intriguing novel. We follow a rather sad, lonely girl in Kate, who’s sister has just disappeared without a trace, and leaves her family in a state of unknowing and grief without end. Kate feels the emptiness of her sister quite forcefully as she feels that her parent’s love of her isn’t enough to make them see that she too needs to be noticed and that she is there for them. But with a disappearance and the not knowing it can leave people turning away from each other or even not seeing the other sibling or child, which can in turn leave the only daughter or son remaining feeling alone and un loved. We follow Kate leave her parent’s house and live in London, well, try to and this in turn leads her to discover Della.

This is where everything starts to happen, at first its good and everything feels right and she feels good enough to feel that she can move on, then things start to turn weird, unsettling and somewhat disturbing, but in such small and subtle ways that she hardly pays any attention to the warnings that the rest of the group, who also follow and listen to Della’s “preaching”, try to tell her. There’s an almost gothic, sinister and dreadful predictable element to this story, that whatever choice she would have made, it all goes back to that fateful meeting in a coffee shop where she bumped into Della. There’s a flavour of Daphne Du Maurier sinister and suspenseful atmosphere, mixed with Shirley Jackson’s thrilling tension and almost crazily drawn characters, that are way too perfect on the outside but inside and when the cracks start to show, become something more disturbing than if they showed off their flaws to begin with.

This story is incredibly gripping, dramatic and filled with all sorts of suspense and thrills to chill your blood, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of the slow burn tension which ratchets up a notch page by page.

Ratings: 4 🌟 with a large ☕️ and a large 🍰 perfect accompaniment with this book 😊

Authors Blurb:

Charlotte Northedge is joint Head of Books for the Guardian. She has previously written for a range of newspapers and magazines, including the Guardian, Psychologies and Cosmopolitan. She has an MA in Modern and Contemporary Literature from Birkbeck and is an alumna of the Curtis Brown Creative writing course. The House Guest is her first novel.

I hope you have enjoyed this little post of mine on this thrilling, disturbing, sinister and how the perfect family and perfect life of others might not be as perfect as we first thought and that people can be as equally deceiving as us. This novel teaches us what at first seems too good to be true, might not be quite as perfect or as fortuitous as we first thought. If you have found this book intriguing and want to get your hands on a copy you can find it in Waterstones, any independents and of course on Amazon. I would recommend you going to an independent as they need your custom much more than the big companies, you also get all the little personal touches that get lost in the big companies. I will leave you (otherwise I could be here for awhile lol) now to say Happy Reading and see you all soon!!!

Check out these lovely bloggers too!!!

👥♾We Go On Forever by Sarah Govett…A Book Blog Tour Review!!!👥♾

Stunning cover!!!

Publication Date: Out now!!

Format: Paperback

Price: £7.99

Publisher: Marotte

I would like to say a huge thank you to Anne Cater and to Random Things Tours for organising this, intriguing, disturbing and fascinating book’s tour. I would also like to say thank you to Marrote publishing for gifting me a copy of this wonderful book. I would also like to say a huge thank you to the creative genius, Sarah Govett, for her terrifying look into a disturbing, dystopian future, where the elite are able to take over a host body when their time is up so they are able to live pretty much forever. Intrigued? lets head to the blurb to find out a little bit more.

Arthur is dying. He must transition within the next four weeks or face permanent memory loss.

Alba is studying, preparing to impress the Mentors in an all-important interview. If she’s picked as the next Apprentice she will be reunited with her best friend and cross the Wilderness for the first time.

They meet and everything comes together. And everything falls apart.

This is a book, that will take your breath away, with its dystopian, disturbing and sinister societies(not sure if that’s right but anyway it will do) where you are either part of the high elite where you get to choose who you transition to before anything bad happens to you, so essentially you become immortal and live forever (who wouldn’t want that?) or you are one of many people trying desperately to study to become an “apprentice” to I assume be able to do that. As you can tell I am still not sure what I have read, not in a negative way, just that this is one book that will leave you pondering it for awhile after you have put it down.

I wasn’t entirely sure I liked the characters, or felt sympathy for them, but I was intrigued by how humans have adapted to their environment again but this time increasing their life span by essentially shape shifting into other humans. So maybe think of Dr Who and anything sci fi with a hint of horror and you have this little delight. We follow both Arthur and Alba through their life(s) and their trials and tribulations and also how they eventually meet, and what the consequences are for their eventual tragedy, its a futuristic star crossed lovers scenario with a very Margret Atwood style handmaidens tale to the some of the plot that weaves in and out of their situation.

I feel that this is a very good introduction to Dystopian style novels for young adults wanting to read something that is different and leaves them questioning everything. I also think this would be a good book club read, as there are many facets within the novel that make you want to know a bit more and also can provide a good discussion too.

I would definitely recommend this to anyone who is not into sci fi or anything to hardcore, but is wanting to read something engaging, moving and beautifully written. This book has to be read again and again, as I am still trying to come to terms with it, it has blown my mind.

Ratings: 4 🌟 with a large ☕️ and a large 🍰 maybe a 🍪 or two just to get you through your read…. though you might find that you still have some left due to the book’s magic 😉

Authors Blurb:

Sarah Govett

Sarah Govett graduated with a first in Law from Oxford University. After qualifying as a solicitor, she set up her own tutoring agency, which specialises in working with teenagers. She began writing after the birth of her first daughter. Sarah is an in-demand speaker at schools and has the support of a network of school librarians, independent bookshops and numerous Waterstones stores.

I would also like to mention that this book is available direct from the publisher (Marotte), which includes free post and packaging. They can also ask the author to sign and dedicate copies at no extra cost!!!! honestly if you don’t take up this, I would think you are mad, and you would also be helping out an independent who really need all your help and custom as much as possible. So please if you are thinking of buying this intriguing book get it from them and you will be helping them as much as yourself, also there maybe a few personalised touches that you won’t get if you buy it from Amazon or even Waterstones (not saying they are bad, but being bigger they kind of lose out on the little touches and warmth which independents thrive on). I hope you have enjoyed my little post and will at least have a little gander at this wonderful independent, and maybe get tempted to buy this book (wink). I will leave you now to say Happy Reading and see you all soon!!!

Check out these lovely bloggers too!!!

🧔🏻🔚The End Of Men by Christina Sweeney – Baird….A Book Blog Tour Review!!!🧔🏻🔚

Love this cover!!!

Publication Date: Out now!!!

Formats: Hardback & Ebook

Price: Hb £14.99 / Ebook £7.99

Publisher: The Borough Press

I would like to say a huge thank you to Anne Cater and Random Things Tours for organising this intriguing, thrilling and fascinating book’s tour. I would also like to say thank you to The Borough Press for gifting me a copy to read and review, I am extremely grateful for my copy. I would also like to say congratulations and a huge thank you to the creative talent, Christina Sweeney-Baird, the author of this truly terrifying, tragic and at the same time hopeful. Intrigued? let’s head to the blurb to find out more.

Glasgow 2025

Dr Amanda Maclean is called to treat a young man with a mild fever. Within three hours he dies. The mysterious illness sweeps through the hospital with deadly speed. This is how it begins.

The victims are all men.

Dr Maclean raises the alarm, but the sickness spreads to every corner of the globe. Threatening families. Governments. Countries.

Can they find a cure before it’s too late? Will this be the story of the end of the world – or it’s salvation?

Oh. My. God!!!! this book is an absolute scorcher, gripping and thrilling ride from the first page to the last. This had me in tears, with both sadness and anger, it really pulls at your heart strings and does not let it go. There are scenes of utter devastation, heartbreak and grief so powerful I had to put the book down for a moment because it had me in its power and (yes I cried for imagined characters) this book will break you and make you think about the world we live in and how devastating an impact like this virus in the book could wreak. Having read it during a pandemic (not quite on a similar scale, though in other countries it has been just as devastating, i.e. Covid 19) this has gripped me more than it probably would have had before this virus swept ‘our’ world.

The story is told from multiple characters, which builds the tension and the suspense of both before, during and after and how the world tries to recover from such a loss. We see from both the medical people trying to find a cure and how this could happen, to the women left behind to either carry on the burden of being on their own where both their husbands and sons have tragically succumbed to this virus, also women who are trying to find the cure for their own ends and some of the men that have survived who are left with that feeling of survivors guilt and also having to come to terms with the fact that they are now extremely rare rather than the majority. Which means the balance of power and who controls governments are now looking at how to fix and work with the situation that has been left to the women and survivors left behind.

I felt sympathy and empathy towards certain characters and to others there were more complex emotions, I felt irritation and anger towards Lisa with the way she held most of the world to ransom with her “cure” for the virus and that she and only she should be remembered for coming up with the vaccine, to me I found her abrasive, arrogant and just a tad annoying (but I still found her character intriguing and her scenes were well written and gives the story another look into how scientists sometimes don’t get the recognition they deserve). I found Catherine and Amanda could at times be slightly annoying too, but these are my opinions and I still found the story and plot absolutely marvellous, and I think for me to find favourites and people who could be irritating means the book has captivated me in such a way that for me these characters could be real… is very telling in a powerful way.

My characters who I would love to meet, chat and hang out with are Dawn and Elizabeth, both of these ladies are strong, intelligent, witty and kind, (Dawn has this brilliant sarcastic and sharp humour and which always brought a light within the dark pages and made me giggle at times) I really felt for Elizabeth and how she works with the scientists to help find that vaccine, even though they are beaten to the post, they are recommended and do get their own happy ever after (don’t worry I won’t spoil anything).

As I have mentioned before, reading this in the current climate of the Covid 19 pandemic, really touched me and made me take stock of what I have and how thankful that both me and my husband don’t have to (hopefully) go through what these characters go through within the book. I have many reasons to be grateful right now and the main thing is that I have family still living and carrying on and friends and colleagues who I interact with either on social media or at work. As bad as the pandemic has been and (in other countries is still virulent) a fictionalised virus will always be more devastating than in actuality. This book is terrifying and scarily near to being a reality, but there is also a glimmer of hope that shines through at the end.

I really did enjoy this powerful, emotive and utterly devastating yet with a sense of hope, novel. There were elements that I found not being involved and I felt a bit letdown by that, as it did come across that all these people were healthy, wealthy and had no underlining issues such as mental health or learning disabilities, it just felt too clean for me. Granted if you added more characters into the mix it would be quite a hefty tome but there were certain groups of people that were either quite subtle or not even mentioned.But again that too is my opinion and I would highly recommend you read it, just because it will break you, cause you to cry and cling to the men in your life (be it friend, lover, husband, father or son, nephew, cousin or brother).

Ratings: 4 🌟 with a large ☕️ and a large 🍰 with a 🍪 or two…. or three. You will definitely need sustenance reading this book.

Authors Blurb:

Christina Sweeney-Baird

Christina Sweeney-Baird was born in 1993 and grew up between London and Glasgow. She studied Law at the University of Cambridge and graduated with a First in 2015. Christina works as a Corporate Litigation lawyer in London. The End Of Men is her first novel.

She was inspired by both an experience she went through and through what she read to create this fascinating novel. She read The Power by Naomi Alderman in February 2018 and found it’s portrayal of women’s increased physical power fascinating. She started thinking about how the world would look without men. What would Parliament look like? What would a hospital look like? How would the US be different from the UK? What about the rest of the world?

A few months later, in June 2018, Christina nearly died from sepsis. She had an ear infection which quickly developed into something much more sinister and she was rushed to hospital just over 24 hours later. Sepsis is extremely hard to diagnose and can be fatal. It took over a month to recover. These two moments are the starting point for The End Of Men. Christina’s near death experience became the genesis for the plague featured in her novel. The symptoms of her killer virus are identical to sepsis. And having imagined the political, social and cultural landscape of a world without men, Christina’s imagined virus would extinguish 90% of the male population. She used her home city of Glasgow as the epicentre of the virus, with ‘patient zero’ coming from the Isle of Bute. Another book which also inspired some elements of her novel is the book by Max Brooks World War Z, another apocalyptic and multiple voices telling their own story about the spread of a particular virus which creates zombies.

I hope this little information gives a bit of meaning to what this book is about, and I also hope you have enjoyed this somewhat, dark, tragic, devastating and at times heartbreaking book, will fall into your hands when you enter a bookshop (or wherever you buy this book). You can find this in Waterstones, any independents, supermarkets too and of course on Amazon. I will leave you now to say Happy Reading and see you all soon!!!

Hope you check out these lovely bloggers too!!!

one last glimpse 😉

👤🧔🏻Unknown Male by Nicolas Obregon… A Book Blog Tour Review!!! 👤🧔🏻

Intriguing cover

Publication Date: Out now!!!

Formats: Paperback and Ebook

Price: Pb £8.99/ Ebook £5.99

Publisher: Penguin

I would like to say a huge thank you to Michael Joseph (Penguin) team for inviting me on this book’s brilliant blog tour. I am also extremely grateful to be able to review the digital copy of this fabulous book. I would also like to say a huge thank you to the creative talent Nicholas Obregon for creating such a unique and thrilling novel set in Japan and America all with that sad and desperate edge to the character. Intrigued? let’s head over to the blurb and find out more.

He is a completely unremarkable man.

Who wears the same black suit every day.

Boards the same train to work each morning.

And arrives home to his wife and son each night.

But he has a secret.

He likes to kill people.

Exiled detective Kosuke-Iwata is asked back to the neon-drenched streets of Tokyo.

An English exchange student has been murdered, the Olympics are just days away and those high up want this case closed fast.

But Kosuke-Iwata is not a man to be hurried. What he doesn’t realise is that out there is a killer so apparently unremarkable he’s impossible to find……

I was (and still am) happy to be on this thrilling and tense book’s tour, it grips you from the start and will not let go till the final page has been turned. I found all the characters just superbly written. With you and the detective not knowing who the killer was, even though us as the reader get insights into the killers mind, we are also as lost and paralysed by the fact that we have no idea who this person is. We follow Kosuke-Iwata through his weird and slightly off feelings of returning to the country of his birth, even though he feels like he doesn’t belong there anymore and yet at the same time understands him more than where he currently lives in the US, even though he feels the US is more his ‘home’.

Having read the other books in this series (yes there are more, and its ok you can read them separately) it felt like coming home and revisiting some brilliant and evocative characters. There are two different plots going on, but the main one is trying to work out and catch this unknown killer. Though with the way things look, it seems that Kasuke’s past is also about to catch up with him as well.

I loved how the whole suspension within the novel slowly builds and builds to a crescendo and just leaves you feeling breathless and just wanting to know who is the Unknown Man. This isn’t just about the detective though, its about all the people that are connected in some way with this unremarkable killer, his wife and son, and how he cannot seem to stop what he craves which is to torture and kill, though the killing to him is the end of his depraved relationship with his victim. In a sense this book is about both the detective and his past haunting him, as well as the killer and how he feels he is impelled to do what he does.

If you are looking for a a good thriller series to get into this is one to collect, and as I have said before you can read these books as standalone’s though the first one I would say you should read first as it gives you a bit more of an introduction and personal history for Kosuke-Iwata. I can definitely highly recommend this book to anyone who loves, Japan, crime and thrillers.

Ratings: 4 🌟s with a large ☕️ and a large 🍰

Authors Blurb:

Nicolas Obregon, British born of a Spanish father and a French mother, he grew up between London and Madrid. As a travel writer, Nicolas has had an extensive experience of Japan, but the beginning of his fascination with the country came from watching Japanese cartoons (Anime) as a young boy. He is a graduate of the acclaimed Birkbeck Creative Writing Masters course and a former bookseller for Waterstones. His first novel was Blue Light Yokohama. He lives in Los Angeles.

I hope you have enjoyed this little journey through dark, seedy streets down backstreets of neon shining Tokyo, which also travels across Japan’s countryside to try and track down a hidden killer, who seems to go unnoticed and is unremarkable to every Japanese citizen. If you like or are intrigued enough by my little post, you can find this in Waterstones, any independent bookstore and of course on Amazon. I will leave you now to say Happy Reading and see you all soon!!!

I hope you have checked out these other bloggers too!!

📝☄️🌏Things To Do Before The End Of The World… A Book Blog Tour Review!!! 📝☄️🌏

Intriguing cover!! (also my favourite colour too)

Publication Date: 13th May!!!

Formats: Paperback & Ebook

Price: Pb £7.99/ Ebook £4.99

Publisher: Penguin

I would like to say a huge thank you to TheWriteReadsTours for organising this intriguing book’s tour, I would also like to say a huge thank you to Penguin for providing another brilliant tour and for allowing access to a digital copy of this book. I would also like to say thank you to the creative talent Emily Barr, for creating a book that makes you stop and think about our impact on the world and who will be left to try and rescue it or even be left with our ruin and own end. Intrigued? let’s head over to the blurb and find out.

What would you do when you hear the news that humans have done such damage to the earth that there might only be a limited amount of safe air left – a year’s worth at most? You’d work through your bucket list, heal rifts, do everything you’ve never been brave enough to do before?

Olivia is struggling to do any of this. What it is she truly wants to do? Who does she want to be?

Then out of the blue comes contact from a long-lost cousin Olivia didn’t even know existed. Natasha is everything Olivia wants to be and more. And as the girls meet up for a long, hot last summer, Olivia finds Natasha’s ease and self-confidence having an effect on her.

But Natasha definitely isn’t everything she first appears to be…..

This book is a good, gripping and intriguing novel, of a last gasp for humans on an earth where we have literally taken all the air out of the world, and soon we have a count down to our last moments. A year if that. We follow Olivia as she lives in this fearful, awful and tragic time, she’s a teenager who will not live to see her full potential and so she decides to set off and do things she’s never been brave enough to do before and experience things she will never get to experience again. This should be quite dark, unsettling and and desperate, but the brilliant thing about the way the author deals with these issues is make it also humorous with a dark edge to it and a slightly punchy, angry and lets just go out on a last hurrah type of teenage feeling.

We follow Olivia and Natasha as they both journey to live each day as their last, and though Olivia feels that she, Natasha, is the type of person she wishes she was, there comes a point in the narrative where Olivia realises that maybe, just maybe, she is who she is supposed to be and thats ok. I really loved the end of the world from a new perspective, such as a young adult, and how though the background is dark, fearful and bleak, there are moments of joy, love and happiness to make each day special.

Though I did enjoy this book, I did find it wasn’t what I was expecting either, and thats not a bad thing, just I had expectations and it kind of didn’t grip me in that way. I do feel that this is a brilliant YA novel which both young readers and adults will enjoy and maybe make people wake up a bit to our own situation. I wouldn’t say this is prophetic but it does centre around us, humans, being the cause of our own destruction along with the world. This is an unsettling and emotionally charged novel, one that makes you reach out to your loved ones and give them a tight squeeze.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in catastrophe, dystopian and end of the world style books and definitely to anyone in the younger generation.

Ratings: 4 🌟s with a ☕️ and a large 🍰 😋…. you definitely need the sugar and caffeine for this one.

Authors Blurb:

Emily Barr started working as a journalist in London, but always hankered after a quiet room and a book to write. She managed, somehow, to get commissioned to go travelling for a year, and came home with the beginnings of a novel set in the world of backpackers in Asia. This became Backpack, a thriller which won the WHSmith New Talent Award, and She has since written eleven more novels for adults, one novella, and three books for Young Adults, published in the UK and around the world. She lives in Cornwall with her husband Craig and their children.

I hope you have enjoyed this little post on a world that has reached and on its last gasp and with humans having to count down to their own demise, what would you do? how would you react? and is this where we are headed right now? all these questions may not be entirely answered but there are glimmers of hope and as I have said in other catastrophic style stories, that fiction can be more dramatic than reality. If you are intrigued by this, and you want to grab hold of a copy you can pre order this on Waterstones, any independents and of course on Amazon. I will leave you now to say Happy Reading and see you all soon!!!.

Check out other bloggers on this tour too!!!

🦴 🆘The Bone Code by Kathy Reichs… A Book Blog Tour Review!!! 🦴🆘

Love this cover!!! And this series is 👌

Publication Date: Out now!!!

Format: Hardback & Ebook

Price: Hb £20/ Ebook £9.99

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

I would like to say a huge thank you to Anne Cater and Random Things Tours for organising my favourite crime/thriller writer’s 20th Temperance Brennan novel. I am so grateful and thrilled to be able to participate in this book’s tour, I would also like to say a huge thank you to Simon and Schuster for gifting me a finished copy of this book, I am extremely grateful for being able to read and review especially an author who I have come to admire and love the stories she’s able to conjure up. Kathy Reichs needs no introduction, for me she is a genius in captivating her readers with her characters, the tension in the plot and between her main characters and not just romantically ( lucky lucky Tempe) I could go on and on but If I do I might just bore you lol, I wouldn’t want that, but I will say this again, The Temperence Brennan series is my go to comfort read and one that I cherish, so for me to read and review this book is a that lucky golden ticket. Anyway, moving on (ahem), so what is this book about? let’s head to the blurb and find out.

A Storm has hit South Carolina, dredging up crimes of the past.

En-route to Isle of Palms, a barrier island off the South Carolina coast, forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan receives a call from the Charleston coroner. During the storm, a medical waste container has washed up on the beach. Inside are two decomposed bodies wrapped in plastic sheeting and bound with electrical wire. Chillingly, Tempe recognises many details as identical to those of an unsolved case she handled in Quebec fifteen years earlier. With a growing sense of foreboding, she flies to Montreal to gather evidence and convince her boss Pierre LaManche to reopen the cold case. She also seeks the advice – and comfort – of her longtime beau Andrew Ryan.

Meanwhile, a storm of a different type gathers force in South Carolina. The citizens of Charleston are struck by capnocytophaga, a bacterium that, at its worst, can eat human flesh. Thousands panic and test themselves for a rare genetic mutation that may have rendered them vulnerable.

Shockingly, Tempe eventually deduces not only that the victims in both grisly murders are related, but that the murders and the disease outbreak also have common cause.

Wow, Kathy has done it again, another brilliant, intriguing and thrilling book that can also be read separately, though you might have to get the others to understand the relationship between Tempe and Andrew Ryan (Tempe’s hot partner) I have always been a Temperance Brennan fan ever since I found the first three books in the series in a box set in WHSmith, yes I know not Waterstones, but back then I was young and I knew WHSmith had some good deals and I was in need of a new book or two or a series to get my teeth into, and found Kathy Reichs I have never looked back and those books I prize quite a lot, I now have most of them including this one (apart from a few on my kindle) on my shelves. I really loved this particular story, with a mixture of a murder mystery, a storm and a horrifying disease that may or may not be connected with what Temperance is trying to solve. I also loved meeting old and beloved characters such as Pierre her boss and of course Andrew Ryan and last but definitely by no means least the grumpy and sarcastic Luc Claudel, who has a somewhat turbulent relationship with (honestly read the rest of the books, lol its quite hilarious the amount of verbal swiping they dish to each other)

I also loved meeting new characters, especially the sarcastic and grumpy cop with which Tempe helps out and gradually both warm if not respect each other. I found the idea behind the disease deeply chilling and terrifying, not least because I can imagine it happening, but because right now we have been dealing with our own plague, Covid 19, and though this is set a little bit after it and its still set within our time frame that it feels terrifyingly real. I found the science and the descriptions of the medical staff to do with bones really fascinating as always. There were some characters with whom I felt were cleverly written as being not nice as such but neither were they evil, just that they started out trying to do good, but then money and greed took over what little humanity they had left and started something which created the events we are reading. I won’t spoil anymore of this brilliant book, as just the pace and how chilling it feels.

I have to admit that Birdie, Tempe’s cat is my favourite character and I just love him ever since the first book he’s always had my heart. I seriously cannot urge you enough to find out and look this series up, if you haven’t already, Kathy Reichs to me is the Empress of crime/thrillers and no one (in my opinion, you might disagree and thats fine) has come close to taking that crown away. I also love the nod to Bones, the tv series, which uses the characters name but changes everything else apart from her job and role. I was so ecstatic to be able to read this wonderful book, and it did not disappoint me at all, instead it has made me want to re-read them all over again.

Ratings: 5 🌟s with a large ☕️ and a large 🍰 with some 🍪s or two or three…. this book will grip you, so you might find you are covered in crumbs and mugs lie discarded with a certain amount of different stages of drinking coffee (or any hot beverage you prefer 😉)

Authors Blurb:

Kathy Reichs

Kathy Reichs’s first novel Deja Dead was a number one bestseller and won the 1997 Ellis Award for Best First Novel. The Bone Code is Kathy’s twentieth entry in her series featuring forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan. Kathy was also a producer of the hit Fox TV series, Bones, which is based on her work and her novels. Dr Reichs is one of very few forensic anthropologists certified by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology. She served on the Board of Directors and as Vice President of both the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and the American Board of Forensic Anthropology, and as a member of the National Police Services Advisory Council in Canada.

I hope you have enjoyed this little post of mine, and have been intrigued to read this series (or get hold of this book) as I really urge you to. You can find this book pretty much anywhere, Supermarkets, Waterstones, independents and of course Amazon. I just want to say thank you to Kathy Reichs for creating such a captivating series that has always made me want one more book… and another etc. I don’t know whether its to do with the writing, the crimes, or the superbly drawn out characters. With all their faults, flaws, loves and all the complex emotions that make a fantastic crime/thriller, but there is some magic that just makes me pick up the series again and again. I am hooked and I hope you will be too. I will leave you now to say Happy Reading and see you all soon… (If I haven’t combusted with excitement at reading this book lol).

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☀️🦞🍷The Summer Job by Lizzy Dent…A Book Blog Tour Review!!! ☀️🦞🍷

(This is a proof copy) and 🤩 the cover is just beautiful

Publication Date: Out now!!!

Formats: Hardback, Ebook and Audiobook

Price: Hb £12.99/ Ebook £4.99

Publisher: Viking (Penguin)

I would like to say a huge thank you to the team at Viking (Penguin) and at Penguin Random House, for sending me this gifted copy to read and review and also I would like to say thank you to Ellie Hudson for inviting me to participate on this book’s wonderful tour. I think this is going to be one of my top books for this year (no hinting of what I think of this book of course lol) I would also like to say huge congratulations and thank you to the creative talent Lizzy Dent for this brilliant, hilarious and a refreshing look at a topsy turvey love story with chaos involved along the way (I mean thats life isn’t it). I would also like to say thank you for creating the most gorgeous man James (phew). What is this book all about? well let’s head to the blurb and find out.

Birdy just got her dream job. The problem is, it’s not hers.

Have you ever imagined running away from your life?

Well Birdy Finch didn’t just imagine it. She did it. Which might’ve been an error. And the life she’s run into? Her best friend, Heather’s.

The only problem is, she hasn’t told Heather. Actually there are a few other problems.

Can Birdy carry off a summer at a luxury Scottish hotel pretending to be her best friend (who incidentally is a world-class wine expert)?

And can she stop herself from falling for the first man she’s ever actually liked (but who thinks she’s someone else)?

Wow this book held me enthralled from the first page to the last. I was hooked, and yes laughed with and at times did the painful wince (in sympathy) when things are going a little bit pear shaped. This is what (not) to do when your friend asks you to call a job, she’s applied for, but doesn’t want to do and jets off with her boyfriend, so you or Birdy, has to then become the messenger, or does she? why not become someone else and leave her life behind, which has become a bit of a mess. So Birdy does what she (thinks) does best, lets play pretend. I really loved the whole plot as it unfolded, and how she feels constantly out of her depth and yet at the same time, realises something, she actually enjoys what she does even if the wine sommelier job side of things is a bit of a faff.

I really loved Birdy and her friend Heather, they just felt so real and vivid, bold and brash and just full of life. I found both their pasts intriguing and sad at the same time, there were times I wanted to give Birdy a hug and tell her its ok you are not alone (though am not sure she would want one lol most likely would tell me to F off or say I am being soppy lol) these characters really touch your heart and never let you go. Then of course we meet James…… (eyes start to glaze over and look all dreamy) yeah you can see where this is going, sexy Scottish man, chef and just lovely… yep sign us up too please lol. I love these two characters move around each other and how Birdy’s little pretence has and is becoming a lot like juggling hot coals and in which she keeps dropping, hilarious and yet you want her to find some love, joy, peace and of course security and safety.

I have to admit this book does make you want to drink copious amounts of wine, both red and white lol, along with the most delicious sounding food. Also I don’t think I can recover from “baby lobsters” (Birdy who has never seen langoustines describes them as) I think my heart broke and yes I was laughing too. Its these little nuggets of gold that come out from this book and stay with you. All the incidents and the chaos that ensues are so lifelike and vivid and ones in which I could see happening just make it all the more sweeter and joyful.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves wine, good food, loves a bit of fun, chaotic the better, and sexy Scottish blokes lol ( yes you can fantasise this chap as much as you like… mmmm dreamy lol) there is also the other wine sommelier who I guess is like a wise old man but actually is an alcoholic and with whom Birdy tries to help as much as she can even if she lets down her guard a bit… nothing bad could come of that? right?

I am in love with this book as I know some of my other Squadettes too love this book as much as I do, yes I will mention them here and I cannot thank them enough for all the support they give (you know who you are my lovelies). So yes this is one book you all have to read this summer, with a glass of wine in hand lounging in the garden with the sun shining and a cool breeze blowing.

Ratings: 5 🌟s with a large 🍷 maybe another just to be on the safe side 😉 this is one to drink in the ☀️ and laugh to.

Authors Blurb:

Lizzy Dent (miss)spent her early twenties working in Scotland in hospitality, in a hotel not unlike the one in this novel. She somehow ended up in a glamorous job travelling the world creating content for various TV companies, including MTV, Channel 4, Cartoon Network, BBC and ITV. but she always knew that writing was the thing she wanted to do, if only she could find the confidence. After publishing three young adult novels, she decided to write a novel that reflected the real women she knew , who don’t always know where they’re going in life, but who always have fun doing it. The Summer Job is that novel.

I hope you have enjoyed this, chaotic, fun, hilarious, engrossing, thrilling and one where though you may not know where you are going, the kinks and troughs along the way in life make up for the meandering road you travel on in life. I hope you are intrigued enough to buy this book, which you can find in Waterstones, any independents and of course on Amazon. I will leave you now to say Happy Reading and see you all soon!!!

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👎💡Worst Idea Ever by Jane Fallon… A Book Blog Tour Review!!! 👎 💡

Pretty cover!!!

Publication Date: Out now!!!

Formats: Hardback, Ebook and Audiobook

Price: Hb £12.99/ Ebook £7.99

Publisher: Michael Joseph (Penguin)

I would like to say a huge thank you to the team at Penguin, especially Gaby Young, for allowing me to take part on this wonderful book’s blog tour. I am also grateful in ben=ing able to read and review a digital gifted copy thank you. Thank you also to the creative talent, Jane Fallon, for creating such an intriguing and a hilariously chaotic story. Intrigued yet? let’s head over to the blurb to find out more.

Best friends tell each other everything. Or do they?

Georgia and Lydia are so close, they’re practically sisters.

So when Lydia starts an online business that struggles, Georgia wants to help her – but Lydia’s not the kind to accept a handout. Setting up a fake Twitter account, Georgia hopes to give her friend some anonymous moral support by posing as a potential customer.

But then Lydia starts confiding in her new internet buddy and Georgia discovers she doesn’t know her quite as well as she thought. Georgia knows she should reveal the truth – especially when Lydia starts talking about her – but she just can’t help herself.

Until Lydia reveals a secret that could not only end their friendship, but also blow up Georgia’s marriage.

Georgia’s in too deep.

But what can she save?

Her marriage, her friendship, – or just herself?

Wow, oh boy was this book not what I thought it would be…. Don’t worry its all good I assure you. This is a darkly humorous and sinister glimpse into a long standing friendship, which when it gets tough, seems to not be as strong or unbreakable than first thought. This is a story about how even though you know someone for a long time, there are times when lives start to drift apart and it soon becomes harder to be close to someone, no matter how hard you try to cling on to them.

This is also a story about, trust, love, of both kinds, the nurturing and healthy love as well as the obsessive and damaged love which can blind people from seeing who they really are and why things don’t always go their way. We watch these two main characters, Georgia and Lydia, trying to work out their relationship with one another and also trying to work out who they really are. Georgia has everything that Lydia wants for herself, a gorgeous and loving husband (who she secretly pines for) kids and not just one but twins and a job that Lydia also craves for. We see how Lydia, instead of going about finding out how she can improve and maybe even changing jobs, goes about destroying her friends life along with her own, all for the sake of wanting something that to her other people seem to have the gift to just get easily.

What Lydia doesn’t understand is that Georgia also feels unworthy, and at times doubtful in herself and what she has created, and soon finds herself gaining even more prestige than she knows what to do with. So already there is a conflict between the two friends and one in which creates the sort of high tension, hilarious intrigues and painful moments which we all love to read about, especially if we are not involved. This book definitely takes you all over the place with your emotions, you are all in sympathy with Georgia and her husband and at the same time you have sympathy for Lydia as well, the catalyst and Instigator of her own demise in their friendship.. I don’t want to go further than I already have, but if you love rivalries, jealousies and bitterness with some highly hilarious and painful intriguing moments, this is the book for you.

The also surprising thing about this book is how it kept the tension up without any killing, murdering or violence of any kind, its all in the word play and how messages are twisted and stories fabricated to make a person seem untrustworthy. This author knows her audience and how to capture your imagination, and its used beautifully and cleverly.

Ratings: 4 🌟 with a large ☕️ and a large 🍰 just because you need the caffeine intake and sweet goodness 😉

Authors Blurb:

Jane Fallon is the multi-award winning television producer behind such shows as This life, Teachers and 20 Things To Do Before You’re 30. Her Sunday Times bestselling books – Getting Rid of Matthew, Got You Back, Foursome, The Ugly Sister, Strictly Between Us, My Sweet Revenge, Faking Friends, Tell Me A Secret and Queen Bee – have sold over a million copies in the UK.

I hope you have enjoyed this rather tragic, hilarious, dark and twisted look at old friends, turned enemies and rivals to then moving on from what has been and now in the past. This looks at all the influencing media such as Instagram and Twitter and how for vulnerable people it can become so obsessive into looking good and getting followers, that you lose sight of yourself and your friends and that sometimes you won’t even notice the change. I could go on and on but I might end up repeating myself, if you can’t tell its good and one that I would recommend to people you can find this book in Waterstones, any independent and of course on Amazon. I will leave you now to say Happy Reading and enjoy this lovely Bank Holiday and see you all soon!!!!

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