Triflers Need Not Apply by Camilla Bruce Book Review

 I've been wanting to read Triflers Need Not Apply for quite some time. This reading experience was made even better when I was offered the chance to take part in a buddy read. My partner, the lovely Preena (@bookshortie1 on Twitter).

We decided to read the book over 5 days and what a good choice that was as it really added to the tension. Our breaks seemingly ending on a cliffhanger each time.

If you didn't know, this novel is based on the true story of Belle Gunness whose murderous rampage began in Chicago in 1900, and after finishing the book I'm now keen to find out more facts about this quite honestly scary woman.

Early in life Bella Sorensen discovers the world is made only for men. They own everything: jobs, property, wives. But Bella understands what few others do: where women are concerned, men are weak.

A woman unhampered by scruples can take from them what she wants. And so Bella sets out to prove to the world that a woman can be just as ruthless, black-hearted and single-minded as any man.

Starting with her long suffering husband, Mads, Bella embarks on a killing spree the like of which has never been seen before nor since.

And through it all her kind, older sister Nellie can only watch in horror as Bella's schemes to enrich herself and cut down the male population come to a glorious, dreadful fruition . . .

Elodie's Library of Second Chances by Rebecca Raisin Blog Tour

 Rebecca Raisin is fast becoming one of my favourite authors.

I've already been lucky enough to read and review two of her books on my blog. Flora's Travelling Christmas Shop and Aria's Travelling Book Shop.

And now here I am on the blog tour for her latest novel, Elodie's Library of Second Chances.

Well you had me at library.

When Elodie applies for the job of librarian in peaceful Willow Grove, she’s looking forward to a new start. As the daughter of a media empire, her every move has been watched for years, and she longs to work with the thing she loves most: books.

It’s a chance to make a real difference too, because she soon realises that there are other people in Willow Grove who might need a fresh start – like the homeless man everyone walks past without seeing, or the divorcée who can’t seem to escape her former husband’s misdeeds.

Together with local journalist Finn, Elodie decides these people have stories that need sharing. What if instead of borrowing books readers could ‘borrow’ a person, and hear the life stories of those they’ve overlooked?

But Elodie isn’t quite sharing her whole story either. As the story of the library’s new success grows, will her own secret be revealed?

This Wild, Wild Country by Inga Vesper Blog Tour

 I just loved The Long, Long Afternoon by Inga Vesper so when I was given the opportunity to join the blog tour for her latest novel This Wild, Wild Country, the answer was always going to be yes. 

The tag line for the book: 

Three women. An isolated town. A decades-old mystery.

How could I resist?

1933. Cornelia Stover is headstrong and business-minded - not the kind of woman the men of Boldville, New Mexico, expect her to be. Then she stumbles upon a secret hidden out in the hills . . .

1970. Decades later, Joanna Riley, a former cop, packs up her car in the middle of the night and drives west, fleeing an abusive marriage and a life she can no longer bear. Eventually, she runs out of gas and finds herself in Boldville, a sleepy desert town in the foothills of the Gila Mountains.

Joanna was looking for somewhere to retreat, to hide, but something is off about this place. In a commune on the outskirts a young man has been found dead and Joanna knows a cover up when she sees it. Soon, she and Glitter, a young, disaffected hippie, find themselves caught up in a dark mystery that goes to the very heart of Boldville, where for too long people have kept their eyes shut and turned their heads away. A mystery that leads them all the way back to the unexplained disappearance of Glitter's grandmother Cornelia forty years before . . .

After Paris by Nicole Kennedy Blog Tour

I'll be honest, I've always got on with men better than I have with women. I work in an all female environment, I even went to an all girls school so I find other women can be too much sometimes. I guess the word that comes to mind is bitchy.

So I always find it fascinating to read about bonds between women.

For me, Nicole Kennedy has got it spot on in her novel After Paris.

Three best friends take the same Eurostar to Paris for a girls' weekend, but take separate trains back. What happened that weekend? A grown-up, thought-provoking and gripping novel set in Paris about motherhood, friendship, secrets, and the face we present to the world.

Three best friends. A weekend away. And a whole lot of baggage.

Alice, Nina and Jules have been best friends for 20 years. They met in Paris and return there once a year, to relive their youth, leave the cares and troubles of home behind, and indulge in each other's friendship and warmth. But this year, aged 35, the cracks in their relationships are starting to show...

After their weekend together in Paris, the three women never speak again. Each of them claims the other two ghosted them. But what really happened that weekend? 

Last Time We Met by Emily Houghton Blog Tour

 Summer time to me always signals the chance to sit back and relax with a good book. And during the holidays, I love to read a good romance. I find that genre to be the perfect escapism, a chance to forget all the stresses.

And that is exactly what I got with Emily Houghton's novel Last Time We Met.

ONE PROMISE

Aged thirteen, best friends Eleanor and Fin are inseparable. Convinced it will always be this way they make a pact - to go to university together, always live near each other, and if they're both single at 35 they'll get married.

TWO DECADES

Eleanor and Fin haven't spoken in fifteen years. Life has run away from them and they're both far from where they'd dreamt of being all those years ago.

CAN THEY STILL KEEP THEIR WORD?

It takes tragic circumstances for Fin to come back into Eleanor's life, but everything has changed since the last time they met. Is it too late to mend their friendship? Or is there a chance they can keep some of the promises they made?