ARC – Page 2 – Bibliophile Book Club

New Dusk by Liberty Gilmore

My thanks to the author for sending me a copy of New Dusk to read and review! 😊

About the book:

Alf is roaring. Most people would mistake this for anger, but they don’t spend as much time around Demons as I do…

Cadence Hart has just six months on the job left. But six months might as well be a lifetime in the dangerous field of Deportations. Armed with a flaming sword and backed by Alf, her Demon partner, she’s the thin blue line between the Souls escaped from Hell and the living residents of the city.

Missing persons cases aren’t her usual line of work, but a young woman has disappeared in strange circumstances and Cadence is pulled off her regular duties to investigate. The girl’s parents think she’s possessed. Which is impossible. Only, from what evidence there is – it looks an awful lot like she’s possessed.

To solve the case, she’ll need the help of Matthew, a Soul expert. Matthew gained his expertise first hand – he’s been dead since before Cadence was born. But when their investigation unearths links to the devil-worshipping cult, New Dusk, they begin to realise that the case might be more than even they can handle.

My thoughts:

In the interest of full disclosure I’m going to be honest and say that books that have the paranormal theme are not usually something I would pick up, so when I agreed to read and review New Dusk I was a little apprehensive. What if I didn’t like it? What will I say to the author? Well I needn’t have worried, New Dusk was a great little book!!!

We meet Cadence Hart (a Deporter) smack bang in the middle of a fight with a Shade, a soul escaped from Hell. Helping her, is her Demon partner, Alf. I think the fact that the book opens with a scene like this grabs the reader immediately! I know I was suitable intrigued from the outset.

Cadence gets called to investigate a missing persons case involving a young woman who was caught on camera acting very strangely before she disappeared. This is not her usual type of work, but there’s evidence to suggest possession and Demon involvement so she gets the case.

Helping her, is Matthew, a Soul expert. He himself is a Sin (did something bad but not intentionally) so he will be of use during the course of the investigation. Matthew and Cadence worked really well together as characters, I really liked them both.

New Dusk was exactly what I needed to read at the right time. I’ve been incessantly reading psychological thrillers so this break from routine was perfectly timed, and New Dusk was an excellent read.

Well written, with a very interesting plot (which I won’t divulge as I can’t do so without probably spoiling something 😂) Liberty Gilmore has the beginnings of a brilliant series in the Hart & Soul books. I would happily read these one after another, not least because New Dusk’s ending is left quite open!

Ask I’ve said, paranormal wouldn’t be my go-to genre, but I am so glad I got to read New Dusk as it was so interesting and engaging. My thanks again to Liberty Gilmore for my review copy! I gave New Dusk 4⭐️ on Goodreads, it’s out now and you can purchase a copy by clicking on the link below:

New Dusk by Liberty Gilmore
Happy reading 😊📖

Missing Presumed by Susie Steiner

About the book:

At thirty-nine, Manon Bradshaw is a devoted and respected member of the Cambridgeshire police force, and though she loves her job, what she longs for is a personal life. Single and distant from her family, she wants a husband and children of her own. One night, after yet another disastrous Internet date, she turns on her police radio to help herself fall asleep—and receives an alert that sends her to a puzzling crime scene.

Edith Hind—a beautiful graduate student at Cambridge University and daughter of the surgeon to the Royal Family—has been reported missing for nearly twenty-four hours. Her home offers few clues: a smattering of blood in the kitchen, her keys and phone left behind, the front door ajar but showing no signs of forced entry. Manon instantly knows this case will be big—and that every second is crucial to finding Edith alive.

The investigation starts with Edith’s loved ones: her attentive boyfriend, her reserved best friend, and her patrician parents. As the search widens and press coverage reaches a frenzied pitch, secrets begin to emerge about Edith’s tangled love life and her erratic behavior leading up to her disappearance. With no clear leads, Manon summons every last bit of her skill and intuition to close the case, and what she discovers will have shocking consequences not just for Edith’s family, but for Manon herself.
My thoughts:

I was lucky enough to win a copy of Missing Presumed in a Goodreads giveaway this year, and it’s taken me ages to get to it, but here we are! 😂

This book is a slow burner, it’s not a whack you round the head shocker, but it builds the tension slowly enough that without realising it you are wound with tension! I didn’t expect to be gripped, but in the final quarter I was racing through the pages putting two and two together, coming up with five and starting all over again because I got it all wrong!!!!

Missing Presumed follows the investigation into Edith Hind, a college student living with her boyfriend off campus. She appears to have essentially disappeared without a trace into the night, leaving behin blood and some small signs of a possible struggle.

What follows, is a literary journey into the minds of those involved in the investigation, as well as Edith’s parents and friends. The chapters alternated, bu it was easy enough to follow the story from everyone’s point of view.

I really liked Manon Bradshaw as a character too, but at times she came across as very cold dutning the course of the book. That being said, she’s really well written and very relatable for various reasons. I enjoyed her relationships with the people in her team too, all of whom were also well fleshed out characters.

Missing Presumed is an interesting read. It’s full of red herrings and sidebars that you wouldn’t expect to be there! Towards the end, everything seemed to mesh together and that’s when I thought I had it all figured out, I was wrong 😂

I thoroughly enjoyed Missing Presumed, I gave it 4⭐️ on Goodreads! It’s out now and you can order a copy by clicking on the link below:

Missing Presumed by Susie Steiner
Happy reading 😊📖

Streets of Darkness by A. A. Dhand

About the book:

The sky over Bradford is heavy with foreboding. It always is. But this morning it has reason to be – this morning a body has been found. And it’s not just any body.

Detective Harry Virdee should be at home with his wife. Impending fatherhood should be all he can think about but he’s been suspended from work just as the biggest case of the year lands on what would have been his desk. He can’t keep himself away.

Determined to restore his reputation, Harry is obliged to take to the shadows in search of notorious ex-convict and prime suspect, Lucas Dwight. But as the motivations of the murder threaten to tip an already unstable city into riotous anarchy, Harry finds his preconceptions turned on their head as he discovers what it’s like to be on the other side of the law…

My thoughts:

Firstly, my thanks as always to the lovely Ben Willis for my ARC of Streets of Darkness. I’m always super grateful for these, and Ben has been kind enough to send some brilliant ARC’s my way, and this one is no exception!

Streets of Darkness is Amit Dhand’s debut novel, and I have to say, it is way beyond the scope of a debut. It is an exceptional novel, cleverly written and brilliantly plotted. A must for all crime thriller fans.

The book follows Detective Harry Virdee, suspended from duty, but caught up in the murder of a prominent Bradford due to the fact that he came upon the body himself on his morning run. Virdee’s wife, Saima is heavily pregnant and could have the baby at any time, but fatherhood or not Harry cannot walk away from one of the biggest cases of his turbulent career.

Virdee goes rogue, trying to locate Lucas Dwight, the main suspect in the murder. This decision has far-reaching consequences for everyone involved. Streets of Darkness has so many themes running through the it. Race, religion, drugs, culture, politics. They all figure, some more than others and the authors has done an excellent job of writing sensitively yet honestly during the course of the book.

The characterisation is also superb. Harry is flawed, but he is innately human in his reactions. His wife Saima is a strong female character, well rounded and an excellent balance to Harry’s wild ways. I have to say, even Lucas Dwight who wasn’t the most wholesome of characters, evoked feelings of sympathy at times, and that’s hard work for an author to create empathy for a less than nice character.

Streets of Darkness is a superb debut. Excellent story, fast paced and gripping, I cannot recommend it enough! It’s out on June 16th and you can preorder a copy by clicking on the link below:

Streets of Darkness by A. A. Dhand
Happy reading! 😊📖

Dear Amy by Helen Callaghan

About the book:

Margot Lewis is the agony aunt for The Cambridge Examiner. Her advice column, Dear Amy, gets all kinds of letters – but none like the one she’s just received:

Dear Amy,

I don’t know where I am. I’ve been kidnapped and am being held prisoner by a strange man. I’m afraid he’ll kill me.

Please help me soon,

Bethan Avery

Bethan Avery has been missing for years. This is surely some cruel hoax. But, as more letters arrive, they contain information that was never made public. How is this happening? Answering this question will cost Margot everything . .
My thoughts:

First off, I have to say a big thanks to the lovely Ellie Hughes at Penguin for my ARC of Dear Amy, and apologise for not getting to it sooner 😂📚

I started Dear Amy yesterday, and I finished it this afternoon! It only took me 3 sittings to fly through it which I wasn’t expecting! The premise for this book is actually quite interesting, and in the current trend for psychological thrillers etc, Dear Amy is a very good debut!

While the book flowed well, and the characters were quite well written, the book left me feeling a bit deflated. That is not to say that Helen Callaghan has done a bad job, far from it!!! It’s just that in the current writing trends, with the glut of psychological thrillers coming out left right and centre, I look for something to completely knock my socks off.

However, Dear Amy is a great debut! I think fans of psychological thrillers will enjoy this, and find the twists and turns engaging, it just didn’t work out for me. Maybe I’m overloaded on this particular genre, it’s been pretty much all I have read lately but it is in no way a reflection on the author or her work!

Helen Callaghan is definitely an author to watch out for, and while this book didn’t suit me, I’m sure plenty of other people will love it!

Dear Amy is out on June 16th!

Have you read Dear Amy? Would you read it? Let me know in the comments! 😊

Epiphany Jones by Michael Grothaus

Epiphany Jones A/W.indd

First off, I’d like to say a big thank you to Karen Sullivan at Orenda Books and to the author, Michael Grothaus for my copy of Epiphany Jones to read and review.

About the book (via Goodreads):

Jerry has a traumatic past that leaves him subject to psychotic hallucinations and depressive episodes. When he stands accused of stealing a priceless Van Gogh painting, he goes underground, where he develops an unwilling relationship with a woman who believes that the voices she hears are from God. Involuntarily entangled in the illicit world of sex-trafficking among the Hollywood elite, and on a mission to find redemption for a haunting series of events from the past, Jerry is thrust into a genuinely shocking and outrageously funny quest to uncover the truth and atone for historical sins.

About the author:

Michael Grothaus is a novelist and journalist who spent years researching sex trafficking, using his experiences as a springboard for his debut novel Epiphany Jones. Born in Saint Louis, Missouri in 1977, he spent his twenties in Chicago where he earned his degree in filmmaking and worked for institutions including The Art Institute of Chicago, Twentieth Century Fox, and Apple. As a journalist he regularly writes about creativity, tech, subcultures, sex and pornography, the effects of mass media on our psyches, and just plain mysterious stuff for publications including Fast Company, VICE, Guardian, Engadget, and more. He’s also done immersion journalism at geopolitical events including the Hong Kong protests against Beijing in 2014. His writing is read by millions of people each month. Michael lives in London.

Mike_portraits_22Apr16-1

My thoughts:

I had no idea what to expect when I first started reading Epiphany Jones. Billed as a thriller, I was expecting the usual formulaic writing that is often the case with books these days. However, from the opening chapters, I knew I had something special in my hands.

When we meet Jerry Dresden, he is in the midst of a graphic sexual hallucination. It is a shocking intro, but it gives an insight into his fragile mind. Working in a Chicago museum, Jerry is muddling along in his life. Plagued with all sorts of hallucinations, it’s difficult for the reader to even distinguish between what’s real and what isn’t.

When Jerry stands accused of stealing a Van Gogh painting worth millions of dollars, he flees his apartment and ends up meeting the enigmatic Epiphany Jones. Jones, who hears voices purporting to be those of God, is convinced she needs Jerry to help her on her quest, and in turn she can clear his name.

What follows is a graphic, often violent and darkly comic take on a thriller. Epiphany Jones is most definitely a genre-bending book. Echoes of the twisted Tarantino movies are intermingled with underworld Hollywood dealings in this truly unique novel. It is a very cleverly written novel and Grothaus has done a superb job in bringing trafficking and the seedy underbelly of Hollywood to life between the pages.

Epiphany Jones is quirky, graphic, funny and moving in equal measure. The characters were so well written, and by the end of the book I was genuinely invested in the fates of the characters that I raced to the end to find out what happened. I cannot praise this book or Michael Grothaus enough for taking a genre, picking it apart and making it unique enough to stay with me for a long time. 😉

Thanks again Karen and Michael for giving me the opportunity to read Epiphany Jones and for using my quote on the back cover. Talk about a dream come true! 😊📚❤️

BUY THE BOOK:Epiphany Jones

FOLLOW THE TOUR:

Epiphany Jones Blog tour

My Girl by Jack Jordan Blog Tour

Hi everyone,

Today it’s my stop on the blog tour for Jack Jordan’s forthcoming novel, My Girl and I get to share my review with you all today! 🙂 As always, my thanks to Jack for my copy to read and review for the tour, I’m very grateful.

About the book (via Goodreads):

Paige Dawson: the mother of a murdered child and wife to a dead man.

She has nothing left to live for… until she finds her husband’s handgun hidden in their house.

Why did Ryan need a gun? What did he know about their daughter’s death?

Desperate for the truth, Paige begins to unearth her husband’s secrets.

But she has no idea who she is up against, or that her life isn’t hers to gamble – she belongs to me.

My thoughts:

The day Jack sent me My Girl, I had a sneak peak at the first chapter and I knew I was onto another winner with it. However, I had to put it aside until I got all the other books out of the way first.

When I started My Girl, I genuinely didn’t know what to expect. As you can see from the Goodreads description, there isn’t a huge amount of information to be gleaned from it which is great for me as it means I was intrigued immediately.

I started it thinking, I’ll get a bit read now while my littlest was napping, hours later and the kindle was still wedged into my hands. I was gripped so completely, that I read My Girl in one day. That is NOT a regular occurrence for me, so I knew that I had something great in my hands.

My Girl focuses on Paige, and essentially the downward spiral she has been on since her daughter was murdered and her husband committed suicide. We see Paige at her absolute worst, and it’s not easy reading! This book has more than a handful of uncomfortable scenes that Paige experiences and I’m not going to lie, I was feeling more than a little uncomfortably myself while I was reading them!!!

As the story progresses and the plot unfolds, I was absolutely NOT prepared for where it actually went. I was messaging Sarah at By The Letter Book Reviews as she had read it before me and I needed to talk to someone!!! 🙂

I really like Jack Jordan’s writing style as it’s clear and easy to follow. My Girl is a really well written and intriguing second novel. Jack is definitely an author to watch, as he’s improving with each book.

I thoroughly enjoyed (if that makes sense?!) My Girl. It hooks you immediately, and the slow reveals keep you turning the pages until you get to the end. An assured novel, and I would highly recommend it!

My Girl is out on July 4th and you can preorder your copy on Amazon for only 99p by clicking the link below:

My Girl by Jack Jordan

You can follow the blog tour on all of these brilliant blogs! 😉

Happy Reading! 🙂

See How They Run by Tom Bale

Where do I even begin with this review?! First off, when I wrote this review I had no blurb or cover image as it was that new!!!

When I got an email from the lovely ladies at Bookouture, I knew it was only going to be something good. I had no idea it was going to be AMAZING!!! However, when Keshini said she hadn’t felt this excited about a book since Angela Marson’s Silent Scream, I knew it had to be a winner!

Anyway, onto the business of finding the words to explain See How They Run…

About the book:

How far would you go to save your family?
In the dead of night, new parents Alice and Harry French are plunged into their worst nightmare when they wake to find masked men in their bedroom. Men ruthless enough to threaten their baby daughter, Evie.

This is no burglary gone wrong.
The intruders know who they’re looking for – a man called Edward Renshaw.
And they are prepared to kill to get to him.

When the men leave empty handed, little do Alice and Harry realise that their nightmare is just beginning. Is it a case of mistaken identity? Who is Renshaw? And what is he hiding?

One thing is clear – they already know too much.

As Alice and Harry are separated in the run for their lives, there is no time for breathe in their fight to be reunited. And with their attackers closing in, there is only a choice:

STAY ALIVE. OR DON’T.

My thoughs:

I’ve read hundreds of books, or hundreds of thrillers specifically, and not in a LOOOOOOOOOONG time has a book’s opening made my skin crawl the way See How They Run did. I am not squeamish, but for want of a better phrase, it gave me the heebie jeebies. But I couldn’t stop reading!!! I read 50% in one sitting!!

Harry, Alice and 8 week old Evie are all asleep in bed when Harry hears a noise. in his sleepy state, he’s unsure if it’s that he was dreaming and woke up, or whether there was an actual noise somewhere in the house. All of a sudden, chaos ensues as Harry realises there are intruders in their house, IN THEIR ROOM!!!!!!!

See How They Run starts off with a shock. That shock makes you keep turning the pages until the very last line. It is a superbly well written tale, with so many different avenues and turns. It shakes you, disgusts you, frightens you and angers you in equal measure at times.

The characters are brilliant, and they each have their own narrative running alongside the main plot. Not one part of this book made me think “oh, that shouldn’t really be happening”, which is great as it means the story flows really well.

Tom Bale’s writing, for me, was reminiscent of Linwood Barclay’s storytelling. Fast paced, shocking turns and thrilling scenes which make the reader focus purely on the characters plight within the pages.

See How They Run is a fantastically thrilling whirlwind of a book. It is a tense, masterful lesson in putting ordinary characters into extraordinary circumstances and watching the story unfold. A highly entertaining 5 star read for me! 🙂

Happy reading 🙂

SEE HOW THEY RUN by Tom Bale – Pub date: 6th May

UK: http://amzn.to/22oO7mm

US: http://amzn.to/21wHPPs

About Tom Bale:

Tom Bale decided that he wanted to be an author from the age of seven but, after another career got in the way, it wasn’t until much later that his dream was fulfilled. After several books with Random House, Tom signed with Bookouture for two stunning ‘everyman’ thrillers.

www.tombale.net

www.twitter.com/t0mbale

www.facebook.com/tombalewriter

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