Search

Search only in certain items:

For Your Own Good
For Your Own Good
Samantha Downing | 2021 | Crime, Thriller
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Fun and Over The Top!
I read a lot of thrillers and I am getting harder to please but I'm happy to say that For Your Own Good pleased me!

This book had me hooked and I read it in super quick time. It is full of thoroughly unlikeable characters where few had any redeeming qualities and I have to admit that I actually smiled when at least one of them came to their sticky end!

The story is written from various points of view and whilst this puts you right into the heads of the characters, it does take away some of the tension and thrills but it was fun being in the heads of people who had clearly lost the plot!

This was a fun and over the top read that I would recommend to those who are able to put reality and plausibility aside for a few hours and just hop on and enjoy the ride.

My thanks go to Penguin Michael Joseph UK and NetGalley for my copy in return for an honest, unbiased and unedited review.
  
40x40

Heather Cranmer (2721 KP) created a post

Oct 10, 2021 (Updated Oct 10, 2021)  
Author Cynthia Leal Massey visits my blog to talk about her Texas history book WHAT LIES BENEATH: TEXAS PIONEER CEMETERIES AND GRAVEYARDS. Be sure to enter the giveaway to win an autographed copy of the book - three winners!

https://alltheupsandowns.blogspot.com/2021/10/book-blog-tour-and-giveaway-what-lies.html

**BOOK SYNOPSIS**
Texas, the second largest state, both in land mass and population, has more than 50,000 burial grounds. As the final resting places of those whose earthly journey has ended, they are also repositories of valuable cultural history. Pioneer cemeteries provide a wealth of information on the people who settled Texas during its years as a Republic (1836-1845), and after it became the 28th state in 1845.
 
In What Lies Beneath: Texas Pioneer Cemeteries and Graveyards, Cynthia Leal Massey exhumes the stories of these pioneers, revealing the fascinating truth behind the earliest graveyards in the Lone Star State, including some of its most ancient. This guide also provides descriptions of headstone features and symbols and demystifies the burial traditions of early Texas pioneers and settlers.
     
40x40

ClareR (5686 KP) rated Burntcoat in Books

Feb 13, 2022  
Burntcoat
Burntcoat
Sarah Hall | 2021 | Contemporary, Dystopia, Fiction & Poetry
10
10.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
This novella really packs a punch - as all good novellas do!
It’s set in a world that we all know a little about. A Covid-19-type virus, except far more severe, breaks out and social panic ensues. Society goes ion to lockdown, hospitals are unable to cope with the sheer volume of cases, and the army is drafted in to keep order. Shops are looted, food is rationed, people die horrifically.

Edith Harkness looks back on her life as she prepares to enter the last stages of Long-Nonovirus. It’s a much more serious version of Long-Covid, where the affected person dies. Edith looks back on her life, from her childhood where she lives with her brain-damaged mother, to her years of study and consequent art prizes, and then her time in lockdown with her lover, a Bulgarian Turk.

It’s a book about love, sex, desire, illness, caring, family and grief. Those are some big topics for a slim book, but it’s beautifully told.
Now I need to read some more Sarah Hall books.
  
40x40

ClareR (5686 KP) rated The Anniversary in Books

May 15, 2023  
The Anniversary
The Anniversary
Stephanie Bishop | 2023 | Fiction & Poetry, Mystery
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
This is one of those books where I’m glad I commit to the 30% rule. After the first stave (I read it on The Pigeonhole, so it was split up over 10 days), I wanted to give up. I felt pretty much the same after day 2, but at day 3, I wanted to know what had happened. I wanted the Ruth, and I was all in!

It’s a very introspective book, lots of descriptions of places, people, scenes and above all, feelings. JB has a lot of feelings, although she appears to be in a state of shock for a majority of the novel. I mean, her husband falls off the ship they’re celebrating their anniversary on. Not an ideal situation!

And then the truth starts to come out about the reality of their marriage.

The word “marmite” has been bandied around quite a lot regarding this book, and I’ve come down on the “like it” side. It’s certainly a book that gave me a lot to think about - even when I wasn’t reading it!
  
Gingerbread Cookies and Gunshots
Gingerbread Cookies and Gunshots
Leslie Meier | 2010 | Mystery
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Missing Child at Christmas
Lucy Stone gets involved when a four-year-old boy is kidnapped in her community. With no clues to go on, Lucy begins to think that something much larger is happening. Is she right?

Even though I don’t normally read this series, I didn't have any trouble jumping into the characters here. There was enough explanation of who people were that I could follow along. The bits about those I assume are series regulars didn't mean quite as much to me, but I enjoyed meeting everyone. This is on the serious side of the cozy spectrum, and the atmosphere was carried perfectly throughout the story. Lucy did seem to jump to one conclusion, but since she was proved right with evidence later on, I can't call it a major flaw. There are two recipes at the end of this story to enjoy later. This is probably my favorite of the stories I’ve read from Leslie Meier.

NOTE: This is a novella, roughly 100 pages along.

NOTE 2: This was originally published in the anthology Gingerbread Cookie Murder.
  
OS
One Split Second
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
11 of 220
Book
One Split Second
By Caroline Bond
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

One split second ... the moment that changed their lives forever.

When a car carrying five friends home from a party crashes into a wall, the consequences are devastating - not just for the young people directly involved, but also for their families and the wider community.

No one escapes unscathed, but some are more deeply scarred than others. Those affected are left to question who was to blame for the accident, and what price they will pay.

This moving story of an accident and its aftermath explores our understanding of love and loyalty, grief and forgiveness.

Wow! This is so emotionally charged the impact that one event can have on so many lives is incredible. This is a heartbreaking story of how 5 teenagers, a party , an argument and car accident completely shakes the lives of them and their families. I have to admit I shed a tear at the end. As humans we are so strong and it take’s something drastic for us to see how strong!!