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Merissa (14013 KP) created a post

Jun 5, 2026  
"Thomas Barry is dead, and everyone in Portrush had a reason." 🔍🇮🇪

An excerpt, a guest post, and a giveaway for HI LOVE, YOU JUST DROPPED YOUR GLOVE (A MCCUSKER MYSTERY #3) by PAUL CHARLES are live on the blog today! This gripping Irish crime police procedural opens with a death that shakes a whole community, and a detective who must unpick a town full of secrets and suspects. ⚡✨

Head over to the blog to read the excerpt and guest post, and enter the giveaway!

@paulcharlesbooks @levelbestbooks @partnersincrimevbt #Crime #PoliceProcedural
https://archaeolibrarian.wixsite.com/website/post/hi-love-you-just-dropped-your-glove-a-mccusker-mystery-3-by-paulcharles
     
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Sam (74 KP) rated The Hate u Give in Books

Nov 30, 2018  
The Hate u Give
The Hate u Give
Angie Thomas | 2017 | Children
2
8.4 (54 Ratings)
Book Rating
Strong Characterisation, Great Cover (0 more)
Wrong Tone, Bad Examples (0 more)
Problematic
I was so excited to start reading this one. Because of how popular it had been, I'd put off buying it for ages. Waterstones had a special edition in and that was as much of an excuse as I needed to buy it.
It's got five-star reviews everywhere, has won so many awards, and literally, everyone is talking about it. So, of course, it's worth a try.
Only I didn't enjoy it to the point where I got halfway through and couldn't finish it. I wasn't even sure whether to post the review because I know that lots of people will disagree with me over this.
I was so excited for a book to be out that's about police brutality in America towards black teenagers, and was surprised, to begin with, that something as serious as this was in a YA book, but also happy that it was being told to teenagers. It sounded like my ideal book.
But I just couldn't get along with it at all. The whole idea with the book is to show what casual racism is doing to America, but at the same time on every few pages, there's another part talking about how horrible and funny and evil white people are. If a book wants to make a stand against racism, make a stand against it from both sides, not just one. You cannot end racism by calling the other race.
I just found it really one-sided in its battle against racism. I am definitely not saying that the police shooting was right, let me just say that, and Starr has every right to hate the police for shooting her best friend. However, this does not mean that every few pages there needs to be a comment about how awful white people are.
A much healthier focus for the book would have been equality, not switching the racism to the other side in a 'how-do-you-like-it-now' move.

Read the full review at https://ohbookit.blog
  
Fearless (Scarlet Suffragette #1)
Fearless (Scarlet Suffragette #1)
Nicola Claire | 2021 | History & Politics, Mystery, Romance
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
54 of 250
Kindle
Fearless ( Scarlet suffragette book 1)
By Nicola Claire

Once read a review will be written via Smashbomb and link posted in comments

Nicola Claire's captivating new Gothic romance series introduces a dark and sinister early settler New Zealand at the end of the nineteenth century - brightened by a fearless and talented heroine and a loyal and secretive police inspector...

Free spirit. Brilliant. A Liability?

Doctor Anna Cassidy has been trained by the best; the former Chief Surgeon for the Auckland Police Force. She knows how to dissect a body. She knows how to treat any ailment. And she knows how to find a cause of death.

But society is not ready for a female surgeon.

Fighting for what she believes in has been ingrained in Anna since she was a young child. But the battles she faces now are not all based on equality. A murderer stalks her fellow Suffragettes and the police inspector in charge of the case could be Anna's downfall.

Experienced. Dedicated. Something to hide?

Inspector Andrew Kelly holds duty and honour in the highest regard. His role as a detective proves just that; he never stops until justice is served. Love is something he has forsaken, for reasons he'd rather you didn't know.

But Anna is not a woman a man can ignore.

Fighting his instincts with cold determination is something Kelly has become accustomed to. But a murderer is loose in his adopted city, bringing memories to the fore of a killer who walked in the shadows of Whitechapel, and shining light on a dark past the Inspector is trying hard to forget.

A gritty, twisted, and authentic Victorian romantic suspense, sure to rip you apart... just like old Jack.

This had all of my favourite things! Gruesome murders linked to Jack the Ripper, historical romance , strong female lead and a very good story. Although the murderer was quite clear to me from the beginning I absolutely loved reading it play out! Definitely worth a try if you like any of the things I mentioned!
  
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ClareR (6230 KP) rated Fire Rush in Books

May 11, 2023  
Fire Rush
Fire Rush
Jacqueline Crooks | 2023 | Contemporary, Fiction & Poetry
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
This is an incredible debut novel. Yamaye is a young black woman who is immersed in the Dub music scene of the 1970s and 1980s. She spends her free time clubbing at The Crypt (it really is a crypt) where Dub music is the music that young black people all want to listen and dance to. Yamaye works so that she can go clubbing and buy the clothes that she wants to wear there (which all sound very cool, by the way).

But there’s a cloud that hangs over Yamaye’s life. Her mother left when she was young, and she has been raised by a father who seems thoroughly heartbroken by his wife’s departure. There’s also the spectre of racism and police brutality looming over her. Yamaye becomes involved in police brutality protests, and then becomes embroiled in a gang in Bristol, leaving London and her troubles there behind. Or so it seems, because it looked to me like she was just swapping one set of problems for another.

I loved this book, and I wish that it had come with a playlist on Spotify (the actual book may well have a playlist, but I read the NetGalley download) - but never fear! I went looking myself, and was ably assisted by my 16 year old drumming mad son. Now he LOVED the music, and regularly drums along to these new bands and songs that he has discovered for himself.

This is an engaging, exciting story with a vibrancy through its descriptions of inner London as much as those of rural Jamaica. The Jamaican patois was for me the icing on the cake. It made such a distinctive voice (quite literally!), and I soon fell into it’s rhythms.

It’s a book that reminded me of how I felt about music as a young woman (ok, it was different music, but still!) and how it crept into everything in my life.

Themes include: race, misogyny, police violence, oppression of people of colour, gangs, the legacy of slavery, music and belonging. At least these are the themes that I could pick out!

It’s an amazing book - just read it!