Smashbomb

Search

Search results

All (3977)

Content

The Bones She Buried (Detective Josie Quinn #5)

Lisa Regan

9.3 (4 Ratings) Rate It

Book

Josie works until her arms ache, until the paramedics arrive and pull her gently away from the...

ClareR (6144 KP) rated The Last House on Needless Street in Books

Mar 9, 2022

This book is mind-bending, constantly surprising and just plain old phenomenal, really 🤷🏼‍♀️ Just when I thought that I knew what was going on, something happened to completely throw me off.

It’s also a book with just enough oddness to keep me reading. Usually, a book about missing children would be a big “no” from me, but I have to admit to being drawn in by the talking, God fearing cat. I mean, how can that not appeal to the reader?

Ted is the main character though. He lives in a rundown house on Needless Street with his talking cat, Olivia, and his daughter Lauren, who visits at the weekends. He’s a reclusive man, who boards up his windows, has spy holes to look into the garden and uses a chest freezer to keep his cat in when he’s out. He doesn’t do himself any favours - he’s odd.

And so Dee decides that he is the man responsible for the disappearance of her sister. The Police have already discounted him, but she is sure that he fits the profile of a child abductor. She finds a house for sale on Needless Street, moves in and bides her time.

This is hands down, one of the strangest, delightfully off-kilter, most uncomfortable books I’ve read in recent times. I thought I had the ending all sorted out, but there are a fair few twists and turns that will wrong-foot you throughout this frankly brilliant book.

If you enjoy an eccentric, strange, slightly horrifying book, you’ll undoubtedly enjoy this. I loved it.

Kudos

The German Wife [Audiobook]

Debbie Rix

8.0 (1 Ratings) Rate It

Book

Germany, 1939: Annaliese is a doctor’s wife, living in an elegant grey stone house with ivy...

Lyndsey Gollogly (2893 KP) rated Shrooms ( Garden Variety Zombies 1) in Books

Nov 2, 2023

163 of 235
Kindle
Booksirens ARC
Shrooms (Garden Variety Zombies 1)
By Zola Joyce
⭐️⭐️⭐️

Hazel always had doubts about the protective abilities of the government. Particularly Child Protective Services and the cranky old lady who’d been doing her best to separate Hazel from her one and only parental unit. Why couldn’t Mrs. Stenopoulos see the value of independent living, and Hazel’s knack for it from the youngest of ages?
She was second in command of her mother’s slightly illegal but very profitable enterprise.
She’d taught herself to drive a full four years before she was eligible to get a license.
She’d rescued her beloved hound from the ‘Clinical Trial’ her mother’s boyfriend of the month had recently concocted.
And just a few weeks after her 15th birthday, she’d secured a full ride scholarship to the local university. Early entrance.
Hazel was a caretaker, a dog lover, and a crack shot. Ask anyone in town.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

If you enjoy Zombie YA then it’s definitely the book for you! I think it could have done with a bit more humor and it did have some just didn’t quite hit the mark for me. I’ve gone with a 3⭐️ because it’s well written and the idea is really interesting. The ending has thrown me a little and I really want to read the next to make sure I wasn’t high on mushrooms reading that last page 😆.

Kudos

Elemental Love (Warlocks #1)

L.M. Somerton

10.0 (1 Ratings) Rate It

Book

An untrained warlock is a dangerous man to love. On his twenty-first birthday, Evrain Brookes...

Urban Fantasy MM Romance

Merissa (13956 KP) rated Braided Dimensions (Braided Dimensions #1) in Books

Apr 15, 2024

BRAIDED DIMENSIONS is the first book in the series of the same name. We meet Kay, an ex-professor now working in a job she dislikes. She is a loner and drifting. One Halloween, she goes out and enjoys herself. When she decides to have her own garden patch, she meets the same people and now has her own little group. On her way home from the Halloween night out, something strange happens to her, leading her down a rabbit hole into ancient Wales.

One thing I need to mention first... it is SO good to read something set in Wales rather than Ireland! I have nothing against Ireland, but there are other Celtic countries out there, although you could be forgiven for thinking otherwise.

This was an enjoyable story that took place both in the present and the past. I love the group of friends Kay has. It is full of paganism and mysticism, although written as both specialised and general day-to-day knowledge. The blending of the two lives is well-written, giving the reader Kay's sense of confusion as she tries to understand what is happening.

This is definitely a series so be prepared to be left with questions at the end, which will leave you wanting more.

** same worded review will appear elsewhere **

* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book; the comments here are my honest opinion. *

Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
Apr 15, 2024

Kudos

Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2538 KP) rated Easter Basket Murder in Books

Jan 25, 2024 (Updated Jan 25, 2024)

Here’s to a Deadly Easter

Kensington has called on their go to trio for three new holiday themed mysteries, this time featuring Easter. Up first, Leslie Meier’s Lucy Stone gets involved with a promotion for the local businesses leads to the theft of a golden Easter egg. Then Lee Hollis’s Hayley Powell finds the Easter Bunny dead at a community Easter egg hunt. Finally, Barbara Ross’s Julia Snowden’s Easter on the family island off the coast of Maine is interrupted when she finds a man in coat tails dead in the garden. Then, a few minutes later, he’s gone.

All three stories have fun with the theme, and present it in some clever ways. As is often the case, I found the first story the weakest, but the mysteries in the other two stories are strong. Still, I was engaged no matter which story I was reading. All three have some great Easter elements that made me feel like it was spring. And I love the community aspects we get. I’m only a regular reader of Barbara Ross’s series, and I was interested in the updates we got on the characters there. If you are looking for some new dishes to serve this year, you’ll be interested in the recipes we get with the second and third story. Each story is roughly 100 pages, so you can read them in a sitting or two. Overall, this is a fun anthology you’ll be happy hopped on to your to be read pile.