Hello lovely readers, I hope you are all starting to enjoy reading in a bit of sunshine!
Last week was a bit of a slow reading week for me so I don't have an abundance of book reviews to share with you.
However this week for me is half term, in theory this gives me more time to read but we have a lot of family outings planned which may slow my reading pace down.
Watch this space.
I recently had the pleasure of reading Mina and the Undead by Amy McCaw, this was a YA fantasy that really caught my attention and renewed my love of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Then along came Raising Hell by Bryony Pearce.
A new YA fantasy that in my opinion is going to make waves in this genre of book.
Once upon a time, Ivy and her friends did a very stupid thing and now there's a rift letting dark matter into the world. Dark matter that manifests as black magic which actually works. Now every teenager with access to the Internet is raising hell. Literally.
Ivy's doing her best to stem the tide, but her new job working school security barely pays the bills and there's only so much one girl with a machete (and a cat possessed by her own dead grandmother) can do against the forces of evil.
Now she's facing a teenaged goth with an attitude, a dark cabal with a terrifying agenda and a potential zombie apocalypse.
Ivy losing her job might be the best thing to happen to the world!
Some books are like a breath of fresh air.
That's exactly how I felt when I read the blurb for Helly Acton's latest novel The Couple. Having never read a book from this author before, I was excited to see if the concept actually translated well onto the pages.
Spoiler.... it did!
So I was rather pleased when I got myself a place on the blog tour so I could share my thoughts with all of you.
Millie is a perfectionist. She's happy, she's successful and, with a great support network of friends and family (and a very grumpy cat), she's never lonely. She loves working at a big tech firm and is on track be promoted to her dream role. The last thing she needs is romance messing up her perfectly organised world.
Besides, normal people just don't have romantic relationships. Everyone knows that being in a couple is a bit . . . well, odd. You know, like having a pet snake or referring to yourself in the third person. Why rely on another person for your own happiness? Why risk the humiliation of unrequited love or the agony of a break-up? No, Millie is more than happy with her conventional single life.
So, when Millie lands a new project at work, launching a pill that prevents you falling in love, it seems like the opportunity of a lifetime. That is, until she starts working with Ben. He's charming and funny, and Millie feels an instant connection to him.
Sometimes we all need a good laugh.
Something to make us stop and forget our worries.
For me a good book can do this and Phoebe Luckhurst certainly hit the spot with her debut novel The Lock In.
This is definitely a rom-com for the modern ages.
One Saturday morning, while nursing The Hangover from Hell, a flooded kitchen leads best mates Ellen and Alexa, and hapless housemate Jack, into their attic to turn off the water supply.
But when Ben - Alexa's date from the night before - walks in, the door slams, the handle breaks and all four of them are trapped.
Cue The Worst morning-after-the-night before.
As the hours tick by, Ellen nurses her sore head and watches as her best friend falls for this handsome stranger.
Only for a horrifying realisation to hit. She is sure she knows Ben from somewhere.
Frantically searching her memories, Ellen tries to piece together exactly how they've met before.
When a distant memory finally comes to her, she desperately wonders: could Ben really be who she thinks he is . . .
And more importantly, what on earth is she going to do about it . . .
Welcome to The Lock In.
Hello lovely bookworms.
How are we all, another week into the year. Has anyone found any lasting sunshine yet?
It was a good week of reading last year. Had to give myself a big push up the bum as I've said yes to being a part of quite a few blog tours which meant I needed to increase my reading pace (a lot).
And for that reason a lot of my reviews will be short and snappy as you'll be able to see my entire thoughts when the blog tour posts go live over the next month or so.
On that note, here are the novels I managed to read and enjoy over the last week:
Sci-fi is a genre of book that I dip in and out of. It's not my favourite but I can definitely get lost in certain stories given the right story line.
Screams From the Void from author Anne Tibbet definitely ticked the boxes for me. Reading the blurb I felt like this wasn't going to be your typical Sci-fi tale and I was definitely right with my predictions.
For two years in deep space, the freighter Demeter and a small crew have collected botanical life from other planets. It's a lesson in patience and hell. Mechanics Ensign Reina is ready to jump ship, if only because her abusive ex is also aboard, as well as her overbearing boss. It's only after a foreign biological creature sneaks aboard and wreaks havoc on the ship and crew that Reina must find her grit - and maybe create a gadget or two - to survive...that is, if the crew members don't lose their sanity and turn on each other in the process.
This is what I'd describe as scary in space.
As a mum to four girls, I have always tried to teach them to be independent. Wanting them to do things without help so I know that if I (for any reason) can't be there, that they'll be ok.
I'll admit I've never been one for parenting books, much preferring to ask for help from friends and people, trusting the people that I know but when I was asked if I would like to be a part of the blog tour for Peace E. Ani's book Nurturing Soft Skills, after reading the blurb I found myself drawn to the book.
The speed of change, advances in technology and communication mediums means we are required to be more nimble in order to adapt to the rapidly evolving competitive landscape. Research by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and McKinsey (Management consultancy) highlights the increasing importance of soft skills, setting out the critical skills that will be required from the future workforce. Furthermore, it is becoming increasingly challenging for parents to equip their children with the qualities to be resilient to face life's challenges and flourish.
Nurturing Soft Skills introduces the COACH framework to help parents nurture Confident, Outgoing, Articulate, Creative and Happier children, who feel empowered to try new things and believe they can always bounce back if success is not immediate.
I'll start this post by saying after my persistent promises, I still haven't picked up The Book of Longings again. I honestly don't know what's stopping me from reading it because I was enjoying it but other books keep getting bumped up the list.
Having said that, it's been a slow week for reading anyway.
I had the same old problem of struggling to concentrate. Too tired to read more than a few chapters at a time, perhaps my bed is too comfy to become my permanent reading spot.
However the books I have finished have been brilliant, both of which I'm joining blog tours for soon so I will get my thoughts short and sweet for now ...
The dystopian genre is one that I have always loved.
Ideas and concepts about all things futuristic always intrigue me. Especially when I feel like the things suggested could become a reality.
Sarah Govett is an author who writes with a great passion, her books are always highly original and it is no different with her latest story, We Go On Forever.
Arthur is dying. He must transition within the next four weeks or face permanent memory loss. Alba is studying, preparing to impress the Mentors in an all-important interview. If she’s picked as the next Apprentice she will be reunited with her best friend and cross the Wilderness for the first time.
They meet and everything comes together. And everything falls apart.
Everything has changed in the last year.
From how we interact with friends and family to where we are allowed to go and even when we can go to work.
It has been a lot to contend with for everybody and as we navigate our way through a new normal, we all need to learn to be a bit more adaptable.
This is most definitely applicable when it comes to our places of work and there is where Andry Anastasis McFarlane is stepping in to help with their book, The Really Resilient Guide.
Drawing on real-life examples, executive coaching insights, emotional intelligence, global wellbeing research and solutions-focused approaches, The REALLY RESILIENT Guide blends compassionate yet reassuringly practical guidance, with 27 relevant, proven resilience-building techniques you can quickly and easily practise at home or at work.
Now let it be said, this book isn't here to replace medical advice, what the author provides is balanced opinions.
Sometimes a thriller comes along that will literally have you on the edge of your seat, and I mean ready to fall down.
And one such novel is The Players by Darren O'Sullivan.
Are you ready to play?
A stranger has you cornered.
They call themselves The Host.
You are forced to play their game.
In it one person can live and the other must die.
You are the next player.
You have a choice to make.
This is a game where nobody wins…
Scary, haunting, a book that has you questioning what would you do if faced with the same situations as the victims in this sinister tale.
Told from three points of view, this novel is about a high stakes game that literally comes down to kill or be killed.
Hey there fellow bibliophiles.
Well after the previous week's lack of reading mojo, last week certainly made up for it (definitely helped by the calibre of books that I chose/was given to read.
Totalling almost one book a day - I actually read two books in a twenty four hour period - and I'm nearing my Goodreads challenge total for the year already!
So what books did I read, I hear you say in your heads...
The Perfect Lie by Jo Spain 5 out of 5 stars
I seem to be late to the party more often than not when it comes to authors. What I mean by that is that I don't read a novel of theirs until perhaps they've already released a few and I'm always left wondering why I haven't read any of their books before.
This was definitely the case when it came to Marika Cobbold. On Hampstead Heath is actually her eighth novel and in this moment I find myself with a great need to have the chance to now devour her previous stories.
Thorn Marsh was raised in a house of whispers, of meaningful glances and half- finished sentences. Now she's a journalist with a passion for truth, more devoted to her work at the London Journal than she ever was to her ex-husband.
When the newspaper is bought by media giant The Goring Group, who value sales figures over fact-checking, Thorn openly questions their methods, and promptly finds herself moved from the news desk to the midweek supplement, reporting heart-warming stories for their new segment, The Bright Side, a job to which she is spectacularly unsuited.
On a final warning and with no heart-warming news in sight, a desperate Thorn fabricates a good-news story of her own. The story, centred on an angelic apparition on Hampstead Heath, goes viral. Caught between her principles and her ambitions, Thorn goes in search of the truth behind her creation, only to find the answers locked away in the unconscious mind of a stranger.
Certainly a book that will warm your heart.
Hello fellow bookish people.
I struggled to write this post for my weekly reading round up. It's been a busy week working etc, which meant I forgot to post my reviews via Goodreads, which in turn meant that I actually had a hard time remembering just what I read in the past 7 days.
Has anyone else had this problem before?
After much thinking time (and going back over my Twitter page for evidence) I can now share with you the books which I now have memory of reading lol.
