Book Review / Lock Every Door by Riley Sager

No visitors. No nights spent away from the apartment. No disturbing the other residents, all of whom are rich or famous or both. These are the only rules for Jules Larsen's new job as an apartment sitter at the Bartholomew, one of Manhattan's most high-profile and mysterious buildings. Recently heartbroken and just plain broke, Jules is taken in by the splendor of her surroundings and accepts the terms, ready to leave her past life behind.

As she gets to know the residents and staff of the Bartholomew, Jules finds herself drawn to fellow apartment sitter Ingrid, who comfortingly, disturbingly reminds her of the sister she lost eight years ago. When Ingrid confides that the Bartholomew is not what it seems and the dark history hidden beneath its gleaming facade is starting to frighten her, Jules brushes it off as a harmless ghost story—until the next day, when Ingrid disappears.

Searching for the truth about Ingrid's disappearance, Jules digs deeper into the Bartholomew's dark past and into the secrets kept within its walls. Her discovery that Ingrid is not the first apartment sitter to go missing at the Bartholomew pits Jules against the clock as she races to unmask a killer, expose the building's hidden past, and escape the Bartholomew before her temporary status becomes permanent.

Published:     2nd July 2019
Publisher:  Dutton
Goodreads :  Click here
Series or Stand-Alone:  Stand-Alone
Source:  Owned

MY REVIEW

How could I not pick up another book by this author!  Having just read The Last Time I Lied,  I needed to read more from this author and I wasn't disappointed in the slightest!

In this story we follow Jules who is very down on her luck.  Her parents having died a while back with her sister also having disappeared a while back before that, her boyfriend cheating on her and she's lost her job.  Things could not get any worse for her - or could they?  Jules sees an advert for an appartment sitter.   Its only when she arrives that she discovers that it is the Barthlomew, which is one of Manhattan's most high profile buildings but it also holds secrets.

I could not put this down. I picked this up one Sunday morning after waking earlier than I had intended and wanted to treat myself to some early morning reading time - something of a rarity for me but one that I love.    What I have learned is that this author knows his stuff when it comes to suspense and building characters.  With every page turned, you get a little bit closer to finding out what is going on and a little bit closer to the realisation that the character is probably going to be in trouble soon...  As with The Last Time I Lied, I went into this story blind only knowing the cover and the author.  For me, this was most certainly the best way to go.

I think I am probably going to end up saying this after every book I read from this author but you need to read this!  Now! :-)

Book Review / The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager

Two Truths and a Lie. The girls played it all the time in their tiny cabin at Camp Nightingale. Vivian, Natalie, Allison, and first-time camper Emma Davis, the youngest of the group. The games ended when Emma sleepily watched the others sneak out of the cabin in the dead of night. The last she—or anyone—saw of them was Vivian closing the cabin door behind her, hushing Emma with a finger pressed to her lips.

Now a rising star in the New York art scene, Emma turns her past into paintings—massive canvases filled with dark leaves and gnarled branches that cover ghostly shapes in white dresses. The paintings catch the attention of Francesca Harris-White, the socialite and wealthy owner of Camp Nightingale. When Francesca implores her to return to the newly reopened camp as a painting instructor, Emma sees an opportunity to try to find out what really happened to her friends.

Yet it's immediately clear that all is not right at Camp Nightingale. Already haunted by memories from fifteen years ago, Emma discovers a security camera pointed directly at her cabin, mounting mistrust from Francesca and, most disturbing of all, cryptic clues Vivian left behind about the camp's twisted origins. As she digs deeper, Emma finds herself sorting through lies from the past while facing threats from both man and nature in the present.

And the closer she gets to the truth about Camp Nightingale, the more she realizes it may come at a deadly price.

Published:     3rd July 2018
Publisher:  Dutton
Goodreads :  Click here
Series or Stand-Alone:  Stand-Alone
Source:  Owned

MY REVIEW

I am not sure whether it is just good luck but this is the second thriller that I have picked up this month and I just could not put it down!  This was amazing!

We follow Emma Davis who after fifteen years was going back to Camp Nightingale.  A place that she never thought she would go back to after three of the friends that she made there and who were staying with her in the same cabin disappeared.  This event has haunted her ever since, so now Emma decides that it is time for closure.  We follow her as she starts to investigate what happened and we meet some new characters and some characters that were there the first time.

There are certainly a lot of twists and turns in this story and I can't tell you how many times I had thought one of the characters was the culprit and was wrong!  I went into this story blind, not really knowing anything about it but the title and, for me, that was the best way to go into this.   Certainly the twist at the end I did not see coming!

If you have not picked this up yet, you should!  Now!

Book Review / The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

Alicia Berenson’s life is seemingly perfect. A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London’s most desirable areas. One evening her husband Gabriel returns home late from a fashion shoot, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face, and then never speaks another word.

Alicia’s refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London.

Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations—a search for the truth that threatens to consume him...


Published:     5th February 2019
Publisher:  Celadon Books
Goodreads :  Click here
Series or Stand-Alone:  Stand-Alone
Source:  Owned

MY REVIEW

This book was amazing!  I just could not put this down and read it in one sitting, simply because I could not bear not knowing what had happened!

We follow two characters in this book. The first is Alicia who seemed to have the perfect life but all goes wrong when her husband is shot dead.   She has never spoken after that moment.  The second is Theo who is a criminal psychotherapist who has heard of Alicia and wants to help treat her.  He manages to get a job in the facility that she is being kept and looked after and soon after manages to persuade his boss that he can give it a shot - to try and get her to talk and both help her and find out the truth.

There are a lot of twists and turns in this story - some that were predicatable and some, in particular the twist nearer the end, I really had not expected and completely floored me!

You need to read this book!

Book Review / Perfect Kill by Helen Fields

He had never heard himself scream before. It was terrifying.
 
Alone, trapped in the darkness and with no way out, Bart Campbell knows that his chances of being found alive are slim.
 
Drugged and kidnapped, the realisation soon dawns that he’s been locked inside a shipping container far from his Edinburgh home. But what Bart doesn’t yet know is that he’s now heading for France where his unspeakable fate is already sealed…

DCI Ava Turner and DI Luc Callanach are working on separate cases that soon collide as it becomes clear that the men and women being shipped to France are being traded for women trafficked into Scotland.

With so many lives at stake, they face an impossible task – but there’s no option of failure when Bart and so many others will soon be dead…



Published:     6th February 2020
Publisher:  Avon
Goodreads :  Click here
Series or Stand-Alone:  Book 6, D I Callanach
Source:  Review Copy from Publisher

MY REVIEW

I really enjoyed this story.  Instead of the usual thriller style books that I have been reading recently, this one centres more from the point of the view of the detectives and we follow police procedure and processes etc.  Not that the kidnapping and everything else that is going on wasn't important as that is what the police are looking for but, for me, the most interesting part of this is the police and detective work. 

There is certainly a lot more than what meets the eye with this story.  What starts off as a kidnapping turns into something completely different and a far larger problem than the detectives had originally anticipated including the trafficking of women for the sex trade. 

I am sensing that there is a larger story to this that I haven't picked up as this is book 6 in the series and I haven't read any of the previous novels, but that didn't affect being able to just pick up and read this one as a stand alone but I am definitely intrigued to see what the bigger picture is in this series...

Book Review / Behind Closed Doors by B A Paris

Everyone knows a couple like Jack and Grace. He has looks and wealth, she has charm and elegance. You might not want to like them, but you do.

You’d like to get to know Grace better.

But it’s difficult, because you realise Jack and Grace are never apart.

Some might call this true love. Others might ask why Grace never answers the phone. Or how she can never meet for coffee, even though she doesn’t work. How she can cook such elaborate meals but remain so slim. And why there are bars on one of the bedroom windows.

Sometimes, the perfect marriage is the perfect lie.






Published:     9th August 2016
Publisher:  Harlequin Mira
Goodreads :  Click here
Series or Stand-Alone:   Stand-Alone
Source:  Owned

MY REVIEW

This book made me so angry, but that's ok.  Its meant to!

We follow Jack and Grace, a recently married couple who are settling into their dream home.  Grace's sister, who has Down's Syndrome, is going to be joining them soon after leaving her residential school unit as she is old enough to move out.   What seems like a normal couple living a normal life may not be the case.

Words cannot describe how much this made me angry for reasons that I can't tell you because of spoilers but let's say that this is a book that deals with the relationships between married couples, when they work and when they don't work in awful fashion.  And that ending!  I won't say too much more as it is really best if you go into this novel as blind as you possibly can but this book was a page turner from start to finish and I definitely wasn't left disappointed. 

Blog Tour Book Review / Liar Liar by Mel Sherratt

The truth can be a dangerous thing…

When a young boy is thrown from a balcony in a block of flats, DS Grace Allendale witnesses the shocking aftermath of the tragic event. But despite everything, no one will admit to seeing who did it – and the parents will only tell the police that it was an accident.

Determined to bring the perpetrator to justice, Grace must sort the truth from the lies in a case that takes her into the darkest corners of the criminal world – and strikes closer to home than she could have ever imagined…








Published:     19th March 2020
Publisher:  Avon
Goodreads :  Click here
Series or Stand-Alone:  Book 3, DS Grace Allendale
Source:  Review Copy from Publisher

MY REVIEW

In this story, we follow DS Grace Allendale who, along with her colleagues, are investigating the tragic event of a young boy potentially being thrown from a balcony in a block of flats in a community where they keep their own secrets and others in the building for fear of their own lives.  Along with this, you have what seems to be a 'bigger picture' story that I am guessing is building up with every book in this series but I can't comment on that as I have not yet picked up any of the other books in this series but that doesn't spoil this story.  You can easily read this as a stand alone.

For me, the pace of the story was a little slower than what I would have liked but when you get to the main part of the story and DS Grace is interviewing the various 'suspects' around the block of flats I soon got stuck into trying to figure out who was telling the truth and who was lying.  This was more about the different characters, their personalities and what they have or have not got away with or what secrets they are keeping.  That was the best part of this for me.

A good story and one that for sure makes me intrigued to pick up the other books at some point in the future to see what the bigger picture is and learn more about DS Grace and her family connections. 

Blog Tour Book Review / The Neighbours by Nicola Gill

Meet Ginny, 34, and Cassie, 55. Neighbours, and (very) unlikely friends.

Some women have it all. Others are thirty-four, renting a tiny flat alone because they recently found their long-term boyfriend in bed with their boss. Unfortunately, the latter applies to Ginny Taylor. Single and jobless, Ginny is certain her life can’t get any worse. But then she encounters her downstairs neighbour for the very first time...

Cassie Frost is a woman who had it all – she was a once-loved actress, but a recent stint on reality TV has rocketed her to online infamy. She’s suddenly become a national hate figure – and she desperately needs a new publicist. And Ginny is a publicist who desperately needs a job... but can she be persuaded to work for the uber-difficult, excessively prickly woman that lives below her floorboards?

Because sometimes – just sometimes – bad neighbours become good friends...


Published:     6th February 2020
Publisher:  Avon
Goodreads :  Click here
Series or Stand-Alone:  Stand-Alone
Source:  Review Copy from Publisher

MY REVIEW

This book was so much fun to read!  We follow Ginny as what I believe is the main character in this story.  She has not having the best time with breaking up with her boyfriend and losing her job at the same time, along with her best friend and room mate moving away.  Along comes Cassie who had recently taken part in a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here style show and also having a bad time with social media etc.  We follow both of these characters as they navigate both their lives and also help with each others.

What I loved most was the friendship between Ginny and Cassie.  Quite often in stories like this friendships can be portrayed as always happy, pillow fights etc etc etc.  In this story, we have a honest description of what life is like for both of them when things are not going right and also showing both their personalities which may not always be bubbly and happy - sometimes it is sarcastic and a little bit mean but meant not to be mean and meant to help the other.  This is what made this story fun to read.  There are, of course, other smaller stories like other family members and their relationship and potential new love interests for the two main characters but those stories I only saw as side stories and the main focus was the friendship.

A really honest and funny read I would recommend.