Search

Search only in certain items:

I received this book from Sparkle Book Tours in return for a fair and honest review.

Toni is the daughter of an incredibly rich man in Australia and has therefore always felt like she has fallen short of the mark and will never live up to her parents' expectations. Her mum is slim and expects Toni to be the same, even though she has inherited her father's genes in the weight department. Jason is the military man who doesn't have oodles of money to his name but instead oozes sex appeal and Toni finds him irresistible.

I really wanted to like this book more than I actually did. I am loving the Romantic Suspense genre at the moment but something in this book just didn't work for me... and I'm at a loss to explain what it is. Perhaps it's the quickness of their relationship, perhaps it is how the relationship with her parents turns on its head within moments with no real explanation of why she was treated the way she thought she was in the past. The other thing could be that I never really felt that danger was present for Toni. The whole suspense issue, indeed most of the issues in the book, seemed to be resolved too quickly, too easily and all tied together with a neat bow.

The writing of this book is very well done and the plot flows at a steady pace. This is a light book to read when you don't want to have to think too deeply about anything.
  
40x40

ClareR (5955 KP) rated Last Request in Books

Oct 28, 2019  
Last Request
Last Request
Liz Mistry | 2019 | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
7
7.5 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
I had a mixed experience reading Last Request on The Pigeonhole app. I liked the storyline, but the main character Nikita (Nikki) Patel wasn’t particularly likeable. She’s very involved in her job which seems to take precedence over everything, including her family. I get that she has her mum, sister and the father of two of her three children to look after them, and I doubt I’d think twice if she was a man, but there is a pivotal part in the story where she really needed to talk to her eldest daughter, and she seemed to do everything in her power to avoid her. Not good.

Aside from that, I quite liked the other characters. Her work partner, Sajid, and his actual partner are great: very supportive of Nikki, and they go above and beyond their work roles where she’s concerned.

The action was non-stop, with the bones of murder victims turning up all over the place, and a drug dealer causing problems. I don’t think Nikki sleeps for most of the book (which might explain her mood).

This kept me guessing up to the end - although I did guess who did it before the big reveal (most unusual for me!). It did take me a while though, and indicative of how we were drip fed the evidence, just as the police were.

I would be interested to read the next in the series, especially if it’s going to go the way I think it might!
Thanks to The Pigeonhole for serialising this book, and to Liz Mistry for reading along!
  
40x40

ClareR (5955 KP) rated The Beekeeper of Aleppo in Books

Oct 16, 2019 (Updated Oct 16, 2019)  
The Beekeeper of Aleppo
The Beekeeper of Aleppo
Christy Lefteri | 2019 | Fiction & Poetry, History & Politics
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I loved this book so much, that I bought it for my mum!
I’m going to sound very clichéd when I say what I want to say about this book. I know it, but I’m going to say it anyway. This is a book that will stay with you. It will break your heart. It will open your eyes (if they aren’t already) to the horrors in the world. It will make you realise that even amongst all of this despair and death, there is always hope. Hope of survival, hope of new beginnings.

The things that Nuri and his wife Afra see and experience in Aleppo, causes Afra, an artist, to go blind. The experiences that they live through on their journey to Greece and on to the UK are harrowing. No part of this journey is easy. The story is compelling, and it’s a story that frankly we should all be aware of. People have really lived through the things that Nuri and Afra see, do and have done to them. This is still happening, both in Syria and in other places in the world.

I think I pretty much cried through the last couple of chapters, but I couldn’t stop reading it. I’d still recommend it to anyone that wants to read about the experiences of refugees, and quite possibly I’d recommend it to those who don’t know what these people go through. There’s a lot to be learnt from this book.

Many thanks to ReadersFirst for my copy of this book.
  
Tricked Into It (War Of The Myth #3)
Tricked Into It (War Of The Myth #3)
Miranda Grant | 2019 | Paranormal, Romance
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Tricked Into It is the third book in the War of the Myth series, and we get Charlie and Jack's story. Charlie is a human being held captive by Sebastian, her son, Tony, being used to ensure her compliance. Jack is Jack, the ultimate trickster with a secret and a heart of gold, even though he hides it well.

I found this to be extremely well-written, with Charlie's emotions when rescued being spot on. As a mum, I would have tried anything to get back to my child, which is just what Charlie did. Jack does what he can, bending the rules where possible, to help her. He is fighting a losing battle with the 'thing' inside him, and now finding Charlie, he feels like he is losing it.

As always, the characters are brilliant. I did take some time to reconnect with them as it has been a while since the first two books came out. This just meant that I got to learn their witticisms and quirks all over again, which is not a bad thing in my book.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story AND the epilogue. If I had anything 'bad' to say it would be that it finished all too quickly for my liking. It certainly left me with questions unanswered! Definitely recommended by me.

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

Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
  
Smiley Smile/Wild Honey by The Beach Boys
Smiley Smile/Wild Honey by The Beach Boys
1990 | Rock
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"I’ve got a weird story about when I first heard “Good Vibrations”. I was really scared of going to the dentist and my Mum had made me this appointment. I was literally terrified, we were sitting in the waiting room, there was a radio and “Good Vibrations” came on. Then they called my name to go into the dentist and I was still really scared, but at the same time this beautiful thing was coming out of the speakers “When I went in, they had the radio on in there as well. It was absolutely mad and my emotions were on edge, but I just couldn’t get over hearing that song. I don’t know if it was because I was in that situation and really hyped up emotionally, but every time I hear that song I remember that feeling. “It really stuck with me and obviously when I hear it now, it’s such a brilliant record, but it’s great that you can hear something that brilliant when you’re sitting in a waiting room, in a place where you’d hardly expect to have a musical revelation. “It’s funny how you used to listen to the radio more back in those days. I wouldn’t have had the ready cash to go out and buy “Good Vibrations”, so I’d just listen to the radio until it came on. People did that more, you’d have little transistor radios everywhere and you’d be waiting for your favourite music to come on, and when something came on you loved you’d turn it up"

Source