Tag: books

Hey guys,

I’m back again with another batch of recent reads for review. I swear, I’ll get back to fuller reviews soon, but this is really helping me clear the backlog of books…

I think! 🙂

The Gods of Love

Meet Frida: divorce lawyer, cynic and secret descendant of the immortal love god Eros. She’s about to have a really bad day . . .

When a handsome but clearly delusional man named Dan bursts into Frida’s office and insists that she is fated to save the world, she has him ejected faster than you can say ‘prenup’.

But a creepy meeting, a demon or three and one attempted kidnapping later, Frida is beginning to face the inconvenient truth: Dan is in fact The Oracle, the gods of Greek mythology are real and Frida herself appears to be everyone’s only hope.

The world is doomed.

I had seen this one popping up on social media, and Ellen had read it too so I figured I would give it a shot. I actually enjoyed it more than I expected! It is a super fun read. It reminded me of something, but I can’t quite put my finger on what it was. Anyway, yeah it was definitely a quirky read, with some unexpected turns in the story. I would happily pick up book 2 whenever its out!

The Gods of Love by Nicola Mostyn

World After

In this sequel to the bestselling fantasy thriller, Angelfall, the survivors of the angel apocalypse begin to scrape back together what’s left of the modern world. When a group of people capture Penryn’s sister Paige, thinking she’s a monster, the situation ends in a massacre. Paige disappears. Humans are terrified. Mom is heartbroken.

Penryn drives through the streets of San Francisco looking for Paige.
Why are the streets so empty? Where is everybody? Her search leads her into the heart of the angels’ secret plans, where she catches a glimpse of their motivations, and learns the horrifying extent to which the angels are willing to go.

Meanwhile, Raffe hunts for his wings. Without them, he can’t rejoin the angels, can’t take his rightful place as one of their leaders. When faced with recapturing his wings or helping Penryn survive, which will he choose?

Ok. So I loved Angelfall. It was a cracking opener to the trilogy and it set everything up really well for the subsequent books. Enter World After. I got about halfway into it and it just kinda got stuck. I found it lost pace, and there was a lot of focus on lesser characters, when all I wanted was Penryn and Raffe! Less explosive than Angelfall, but it was still an ok middle for a trilogy. I will definitely be buying book 3 because I need to know what will happen with these two characters!!!

World After by Susan Ee

Night School

Jack Reacher is having a bad day.

It would be a dumb idea to make it worse. 
Reacher sees a West Point class ring in a pawn shop window. It’s tiny. It’s a woman cadet’s graduation present to herself. Why would she give it up? Reacher was a West Pointer too, and he knows what she went through to get it.

All he wants is to find the woman.

He’ll have to go through bikers, cops, crooks, and low-life muscle.
If she’s ok, he’ll walk away. If she’s not … he’ll stop at nothing.

Best advice: stay out of his way.

I love the Jack Reacher series of books, and The Midnight Line was no exception. Reacher is like a dog with a bone in this one. Spotting a West Point Class Ring in a pawn shop while on a bus rest stop, he wants to know who owned it and why it was pawned. So begins a story that ticks along slowly, unfolding layer by layer until we are presented with the unexpected towards the end of the story. I really enjoyed The Midnight Line, it was a great story and it kept my attention. Not quite the Reacher of old, but still a goodie all the same!

The Midnight Line by Lee Child

The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic (aka Confessions of a Shopaholic)

Meet Rebecca Bloomwood.

She has a great flat, a fabulous wardrobe full of the season’s must-haves, and a job telling other people how to manage their money. She spends her leisure time … shopping.

Retail therapy is the answer to all her problems. She knows she should stop, but she can’t. She tries Cutting Back, she tries Making More Money. But neither seems to work. The letters from the bank are getting harder to ignore. Can Becky ever escape from this dreamworld, find true love, and regain the use of her credit card?

I was eager to read a non-crime book, and this one was on my TBR for ages. I actually love the movie, so I was interested to see how different (similar) they would be to each other! I’m not going to lie, I spent a lot of the book comparing it to the movie, so I can ony imagine what I would have been like if I went about it the other way around! I definitely enjoyed this one. It was light-hearted, fun, and it definitely catered to my shopaholic heart. Although I am not as bad as Becky, thankfully! I actually went and bought the others in the series after finishing this one, so its safe to say I enjoyed it!

The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella

Ok! That’s it until the next batch. If I have time, I have a couple of actual reviews to get done so keep an eye out for those too!

Until next time, happy reading 🙂

Hi everyone,

So, I’m back with another Recent Reads Rapid Reviews post. I’ve not posted many reviews lately, even though there has been plenty of other bits and pieces on here. It made sense to carry on with this feature as it’s the only way I can get some mini-reviews done for what I’ve been reading lately.

Fault Lines by Doug Johnstone

A little lie … a seismic secret … and the cracks are beginning to show…

In a reimagined contemporary Edinburgh, where a tectonic fault has opened up to produce a new volcano in the Firth of Forth, and where tremors are an everyday occurrence, volcanologist Surtsey makes a shocking discovery.
On a clandestine trip to new volcanic island The Inch, to meet Tom, her lover and her boss, she finds his lifeless body, and makes the fatal decision to keep their affair, and her discovery, a secret. Desperate to know how he died, but also terrified she’ll be exposed, Surtsey’s life quickly spirals into a nightmare when someone makes contact – someone who claims to know what she’s done…

I love anything to do with volcanoes, and if you add in murder, I am sold. I picked this one up after a run of not so good books, and I ended up reading pretty much the whole thing in one day. Doug Johnstone has a great writing style and Fault Lines is no different. It is a cleverly re-imagined crime thriller, but nature takes centre stage due to the fact there is a volcano in Scotland. I really enjoyed the escapism with Fault Lines. I had suspicions early on, but that in no way took away from my enjoyment of the book. It is a really good read packed with plenty of intrigue and secrets. Recommended for sure!

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

**A world at stake. A quest for the ultimate prize. Are you ready?**

In the year 2045, reality is an ugly place. The only time Wade Watts really feels alive is when he’s jacked into the OASIS, a vast virtual world where most of humanity spends their days.

When the eccentric creator of the OASIS dies, he leaves behind a series of fiendish puzzles, based on his obsession with the pop culture of decades past. Whoever is first to solve them will inherit his vast fortune – and control of the OASIS itself.

Then Wade cracks the first clue. Suddenly he’s beset by rivals who’ll kill to take this prize. The race is on – and the only way to survive is to win.

Why oh why did I leave this languishing on my kindle for so long?! Even my husband, who doesn’t read that much, read it before me! I picked this up when I was in need of something different, and boy did it sing to my 80’s, geek-loving heart. John Hughes references, music I love and gaming references, what wasn’t there to love with this book?! I was hooked immediately, and I read it at every available opportunity. There wasn’t a thing I didn’t enjoy with Ready Player One. As soon as I had finished it, I wanted to go back and read it again, and that rarely happens to me with books! Highly recommended!

Trunk Music by Michael Connelly

Harry Bosch is back at the LAPD in Homicide after disciplinary leave. But his first case proves to be one of the most difficult.

In the wooded hills overlooking the Hollywood Bowl, he opens the trunk of a white Rolls-Royce and finds a corpse. It looks like a simple case of Trunk Music – the execution style of the Mafia where the victim is shot in his own vehicle – but the victim is LA movie producer Tony Aliso, and the mob weren’t the only ones after him.

Bosch finds himself up against the FBI – and back in the arms of a beautiful ex-felon. It’s starting to look like Harry’s first case back in Homicide is in danger of being his last . . .

Continuing my re-read of the Harry Bosch series and Trunk Music was another great read. I am really enjoying this series, more so now that I am reading it in the correct order. The thing that stands out in these books is Connelly’s ability to create characters that are so well-written that you can’t help but become immersed in their stories. Trunk Music is a prime example of this. Bringing back an earlier character works really well here, and it really adds to the tension of the book as a whole. I can’t recommend these books highly enough!

Jar of Hearts by Jennifer Hillier

Five years ago, Geo’s first love was revealed as a terrifying serial killer.

But he escaped custody and went on the run.

Now, bodies have started turning up, killed in exactly the same way as before.

The message is clear: he’s making his way to her, one murder at a time…

Last but not least, Jar of Hearts. This was a really gripping book for so many reasons. Clever plotting, emotive scenes and great writing made this an interesting read. I loved Geo as a character, and I really felt for her in some parts of the book. This is a book for lovers of the serial killer thriller genre, because that is exactly what it is. There is a lot going on in Jar of Hearts, but it all weaves together beautifully. Highly recommended if you want a fast-paced thriller!

And that’s it for now. I have more reviews to do, some for blog tours, and some Netgalley reads as well. I will be raving about To Kill A Kingdom by Alexandra Christo and Furyborn by Claire Legrand sooooooooooon 🙂