27 Oct 2024

Book Review / Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty


 

If you knew your future, would you try to fight fate?

Aside from a delay, there will be no problems. The flight will be smooth, it will land safely. Everyone who gets on the plane will get off. But almost all of them will be forever changed.

Because on this ordinary, short, domestic flight, something extraordinary happens. People learn how and when they are going to die. For some, their death is far in the future—age 103!—and they laugh. But for six passengers, their predicted deaths are not far away at all.

How do they know this? There were ostensibly more interesting people on the flight (the bride and groom, the jittery, possibly famous woman, the giant Hemsworth-esque guy who looks like an off-duty superhero, the frazzled, gorgeous flight attendant) but none would become as famous as “The Death Lady.”

Not a single passenger or crew member will later recall noticing her board the plane. She wasn’t exceptionally old or young, rude or polite. She wasn’t drunk or nervous or pregnant. Her appearance and demeanor were unremarkable. But what she did on that flight was truly remarkable.

A few months later, one passenger dies exactly as she predicted. Then two more passengers die, again, as she said they would. Soon no one is thinking this is simply an entertaining story at a cocktail party.

If you were told you only had a certain amount of time left to live, would you do things differently? Would you try to dodge your destiny?

Liane Moriarty’s Here One Moment is a brilliantly constructed tale that looks at free will and destiny, grief and love, and the endless struggle to maintain certainty and control in an uncertain world. A modern-day Jane Austen who humorously skewers social mores while spinning a web of mystery, Moriarty asks profound questions in her newest I-can’t-wait-to-find-out-what-happens novel.

2 STARS

For more information, check out the Goodreads link below:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/208516656-here-one-moment


MY REVIEW


Liane Moriarty is an author I have been wanting to pick up for literally years now.  This story intrigued me so much I just had to get on with it and pick it up.  Now, this review makes me kind of sad really and is more of a reflection on my reading tastes rather than the actual book. 

I really didn't have a good time reading this and I think the main reason for this is the multiple character perspective aspect.  There are a lot of characters in this story and a lot of perspectives and views to follow.  I really struggled to follow and care for any of the characters, no matter what they do. 

Also, the story for me dragged.  It took god knows how many pages at the start (probably too long) sitting on the plane for the introduction.

I am glad I picked this up and gave it a change but I am going to mark this as a not for me type of book.




22 Oct 2024

Waiting on Wednesday / Trial by Fire by Danielle Steel

 

Waiting on Wednesday was a weekly memo that is hosted by Breaking the Spine Blog that I really enjoyed blogging about in the post, so I thought I would bring it back!  Below is this week's pick!

 

 


 

 In this inspiring novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Danielle Steel, the life of a Parisian woman changes in a heartbeat when she’s trapped by wildfires in Napa Valley.Born to a French mother and American father, graceful Dahlia de Beaumont has been sole owner and CEO of the venerable family perfume business based in Paris since her early twenties, following the death of her parents. For twenty-five years, after losing her young skier husband in an avalanche, her life has centered on running Lambert Perfumes and being a devoted single mother to her four now-adult indecisive Charles, volatile Alexa, kind-hearted business visionary Delphine, and dreamy artist Emma. Now fifty-six, she has an “arrangement” with a married French man but has been questioning that relationship.Dahlia comes to San Francisco on a routine business trip to check on her stores in the States. But shortly after her arrival, brush fires ignite in Napa Valley. Watching the sweeping devastation on the news, Dahlia is moved to help. But doing so will bring unforeseen consequences that endanger not only her life, but her entire future. Forced to remain in San Francisco in the aftermath, she will make unexpected connections while also fighting to protect all she has worked for. What Dahlia learns will provide a new perspective of her life, forever changing what really matters to her and what comes next for her journey.With this uplifting novel, Danielle Steel beautifully dramatizes how life’s unforeseen challenges can sow the seeds for growth and a fresh chance at love—if one is willing to take the risk.

 

Expected Publication:  19th November 2024

Publisher:   Delacorte

Goodreads Link:   Click Here

Series or Stand Alone:   Stand Alone


15 Oct 2024

Waiting on Wednesday / The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins

Waiting on Wednesday was a weekly memo that is hosted by Breaking the Spine Blog that I really enjoyed blogging about in the post, so I thought I would bring it back!  Below is this week's pick!

 

 


 When Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore dies, she’s not only North Carolina’s richest woman, she’s also its most notorious. The victim of a famous kidnapping as a child and a widow four times over, Ruby ruled the tiny town of Tavistock from Ashby House, her family’s estate high in the Blue Ridge mountains. In the aftermath of her death, that estate—along with a nine-figure fortune and the complicated legacy of being a McTavish—pass to her adopted son, Camden.


But to everyone’s surprise, Cam wants little to do with the house or the money—and even less to do with the surviving McTavishes. Instead, he rejects his inheritance, settling into a normal life as an English teacher in Colorado and marrying Jules, a woman just as eager to escape her own messy past.

Ten years later, Camden is a McTavish in name only, but a summons in the wake of his uncle’s death brings him and Jules back into the family fold at Ashby House. Its views are just as stunning as ever, its rooms just as elegant, but coming home reminds Cam why he was so quick to leave in the first place.

Jules, however, has other ideas, and the more she learns about Cam’s estranged family—and the twisted secrets they keep—the more determined she is for her husband to claim everything Ruby once intended for him to have.

But Ruby’s plans were always more complicated than they appeared. As Ashby House tightens its grip on Jules and Camden, questions about the infamous heiress come to light. Was there any truth to the persistent rumors following her disappearance as a girl? What really happened to those four husbands, who all died under mysterious circumstances? And why did she adopt Cam in the first place? Soon, Jules and Cam realize that an inheritance can entail far more than what’s written in a will—and that the bonds of family stretch far beyond the grave.

 

 

Expected Publication for this Edition:  5th November 2024

Publisher:   St Martin's Griffin

Goodreads Link:   Click Here

Series or Stand Alone:   Stand Alone

Genres:   Mystery and Thriller 

12 Oct 2024

Book Review / Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez


 

Justin has a curse, and thanks to a Reddit thread, it's now all over the internet. Every woman he dates goes on to find their soul mate the second they break up. When a woman slides into his DMs with the same problem, they come up with a plan: They'll date each other and break up. Their curses will cancel each other’s out, and they’ll both go on to find the love of their lives. It’s a bonkers idea… and it just might work.

Emma hadn't planned that her next assignment as a traveling nurse would be in Minnesota, but she and her best friend agree that dating Justin is too good of an opportunity to pass up, especially when they get to rent an adorable cottage on a private island on Lake Minnetonka.

It's supposed to be a quick fling, just for the summer. But when Emma's toxic mother shows up and Justin has to assume guardianship of his three siblings, they're suddenly navigating a lot more than they expected–including catching real feelings for each other. What if this time Fate has actually brought the perfect pair together?


Published:  2nd April 2024

Publisher:  Platkus

Goodreads :   Click Here

Series or Stand-Alone:  Stand-Alone

Source:  Bought

Genres:     Contemporary Romance

Pages:  432 pages, Paperback




MY REVIEW


What I loved about this story...  I can't tell you how much I enjoyed this novel.  This is the first story I have picked up from this author and it certainly won't be the last.  I found the writing style easy to read, which is what I was after with a contemporary romance.  I really wanted Justin to win in this book, and of course also Emma.  The fact that you have an unlikeable character in her mother and seeing her story play out as well along side was entertaining to say the least.   Read this in one sitting and don't regret it.  Would read it over and over again for sure!

Would I recommend... Absolutely.  Read it now!





11 Oct 2024

Book Review/ Hello Girls by Brittany Cavallaro and Emily Henry


 

Best friends are forged by fire. For Winona Olsen and Lucille Pryce, that fire happened the night they met outside the police station—both deciding whether to turn their families in.

Winona has been starving for life in the seemingly perfect home that she shares with her seemingly perfect father, celebrity weatherman Stormy Olsen. No one knows that he locks the pantry door to control her eating and leaves bruises where no one can see them.

Lucille has been suffocating beneath the needs of her mother and her drug-dealing brother, wondering if there’s more out there for her than disappearing waitress tips and generations of barely getting by.

One harrowing night, Winona and Lucille realize they can’t wait until graduation to start their new lives. They need out. Now. All they need is three grand, fast. And really, a stolen convertible to take them from Michigan to Las Vegas can’t hurt.

Published:  6th August 2019

Publisher:  Katherine Tegen Books

Goodreads : Click Here

Series or Stand-Alone:  Stand-Alone

Source:  Bought

Genres:     Contemporary, Realistic Fiction and Coming of Age

Pages:  325 pages, Hardcover 


MY REVIEW


What I liked about this story...  This was a fun read.  Nothing complicated.   We follow Winona who has a complicated childhood with a very strict and controlling father who shows no signs of letting up even though she is ready to 'cut ties' and go off to college.  She wants to break free and takes her best friend Lucille along with her.  

What I didn't like with this story...  I just could not get invested in either the characters or the plot to be honest.  You also have two teenagers who decide to leave and, unrealistically, decide to steal and thieve to get the money and transport to carry on with their journey when, to me, it seems as though they have not done anything else wrong in their entire life.  

Would I recommend...  This was an ok fun read and one to read on face value and not delve too deeply into motivations...   





8 Oct 2024

Waiting on Wednesday / Into the Storm by Cecelia Ahern

 

Waiting on Wednesday was a weekly memo that is hosted by Breaking the Spine Blog that I really enjoyed blogging about in the post, so I thought I would bring it back!  Below is this week's pick!

 

 


 

 Surviving the storm is only the beginning…It is a wild night in the middle of December, and GP Enya is crouched over a teenage boy, performing CPR in the freezing rain. She found him on a mountain road near Dublin, the victim of a hit-and-run.


The boy survives, but Enya goes to pieces. She leaves her husband, her son, and everything she knows to start a new life in remote rural Ireland.

But even in the quiet of Abbeydooley, beneath the boughs of an ancient tree, Enya is still haunted by that night in the rain. Can the stories of strangers and a land steeped in legend lay the ghosts of her past to rest? Or will the storm she's outrunning finally catch up with her?

 

Expected Publication:  24th October 2024

Publisher:   HarperCollins

Goodreads Link:   Click Here

Series or Stand Alone:   Stand Alone


6 Oct 2024

Book Review / Middle of the Night by Riley Sager


 

In the latest jaw-dropping thriller from New York Times bestselling author Riley Sager, a man must contend with the long-ago disappearance of his childhood best friend—and the dark secrets lurking just beyond the safe confines of his picture-perfect neighborhood.

The worst thing to ever happen on Hemlock Circle occurred in Ethan Marsh’s backyard. One July night, ten-year-old Ethan and his best friend and neighbor, Billy, fell asleep in a tent set up on a manicured lawn in a quiet, quaint New Jersey cul de sac. In the morning, Ethan woke up alone. During the night, someone had sliced the tent open with a knife and taken Billy. He was never seen again.

Thirty years later, Ethan has reluctantly returned to his childhood home. Plagued by bad dreams and insomnia, he begins to notice strange things happening in the middle of the night. Someone seems to be roaming the cul de sac at odd hours, and signs of Billy’s presence keep appearing in Ethan’s backyard. Is someone playing a cruel prank? Or has Billy, long thought to be dead, somehow returned to Hemlock Circle?

The mysterious occurrences prompt Ethan to investigate what really happened that night, a quest that reunites him with former friends and neighbors and leads him into the woods that surround Hemlock Circle. Woods where Billy claimed monsters roamed and where a mysterious institute does clandestine research on a crumbling estate.

The closer Ethan gets to the truth, the more he realizes that no place—be it quiet forest or suburban street—is completely safe. And that the past has a way of haunting the present.


Published:  18th June 2024   
Publisher:  Hodder & Stoughton
Goodreads :   Click Here
Series or Stand-Alone:  Stand-Alone
Source:  Bought
Genres:     Mystery, Thriller, Suspense and Horror
Pages:  352 pages




MY REVIEW


What I liked about this story...  If it sounds right to say, I had such fun reading this novel.  The best part, by far, was the actual mystery.  What happened to Ethan's best friend, Billy.  So many scenarios ran through my mind and were even suggested throughout this novel, but the ending was one that I certainly didn't guess.  I loved the ending.  With this story there is a whole cast of characters with different points of view shown, which is not normally  what I get along well with in a novel, but I really enjoyed meeting all the characters and getting different viewpoints.  I felt that it added a lot of depth to the story and made me really want to root for certain characters.  

What I loved about this story...  I would have loved to have been surprised a lot more in this story.  I guessed most of it apart from the ending, to be honest.  

Would I recommend...  Absolutely.  This is a fun, entertaining, slow paced story that doesn't necessary have a lot of massive twists and turns but enough to make this fun.  




2 Oct 2024

Book Review / Haunting Adeline & Hunting Adeline by HD Carlton (Cat and Mouse Series Duology)

This book was previously banned on Amazon due to the trigger warning. Please read many reviews or go to the author's website.


The Manipulator

I can manipulate the emotions of anyone who lets me.
I will make you hurt, make you cry, make you laugh and sigh.
But my words don't affect him. Especially not when I plead for him to leave.
He's always there, watching and waiting.
And I can never look away.
Not when I want him to come closer.


The Shadow

I didn't mean to fall in love.
But now that I have, I can't stay away.
I'm mesmerized by her smile, by her eyes, and the way she moves.
The way she undresses...
I'll keep watching and waiting. Until I can make her mine.
And once she is, I'll never let her go.
Not even when she begs me to.


Published:  12th August 2021 

Publisher:  Halley Carlton

Goodreads :  Click Here

Series or Stand-Alone:  Stand-Alone

Source:  Bought

Genres:     Dark, Thriller, Fantasy, Horror and Mystery

Pages:  583 pages (book 1) and 649 pages (book 2)


MY REVIEW


What I liked about this story...  Although the topics covered in this duology are very dark and hard hitting I just could not stop reading.  These books are definately an eye opener for many different reasons.  I'll be honest, I would not normally read books like these that are quite this spicy and not really reading much into these books before picking them up to read I didn't know what I was getting into, so there were a few scenes in the first book that I skipped over.

What I didn't like about this story...  More the first book than the second, but these were very uncomfortable reads due to the subject nature that were at times a bit too much for me to read.

Would I recommend...  I would go into this book with your eyes wide open to the sensitive subject matter which can be found in other reviews in the Goodreads link above or the author website here - https://hdcarlton.com/library/.  That aside, the thriller aspect of these books was really very good and addicting to read.  



 





1 Oct 2024

Waiting on Wednesday / The Blue Hour by Paula Hawkins

 

Waiting on Wednesday was a weekly memo that is hosted by Breaking the Spine Blog that I really enjoyed blogging about in the post, so I thought I would bring it back!  Below is this week's pick!

 

 


The spellbinding new novel from the internationally bestselling author of The Girl on the Train.


An isolated Scottish island, accessible to the mainland only twelve hours a day. A famous (some might say infamous) artist whose notoriously unfaithful husband disappeared after visiting her twenty years ago. A present-day discovery that intimately connects three people and unveils a web of secrets and lies.

A masterful and propulsive novel that asks searing questions of ambition, power, gender and perception, The Blue Hour recalls the very best of Shirley Jackson and Patricia Highsmith and cements Hawkins’s place among the very best of our most nuanced, powerful and stylish storytellers.

 

 

Expected Publication:  29th October 2024

Publisher:   Doubleday

Goodreads Link:   Click Here

Series or Stand Alone:   Stand Alone

Genres:   Mystery and Thriller

Book Review / One Perfect Couple by Ruth Ware


 

Harkening to Agatha Christie’s classic And Then There Were None, this high-tension and ingenious thriller follows five couples trapped on a storm-swept island as a killer stalks among them—from Ruth Ware, the New York Times bestselling author who “is turning out to be as ingenious and indefatigable as the Queen of Crime” (The Washington Post).

Lyla is in a bit of a rut. Her post-doctoral research has fizzled out, she’s pretty sure they won’t extend her contract, and things with her boyfriend, Nico, an aspiring actor, aren’t going great. When the opportunity arises for Nico to join the cast of a new reality TV show, The Perfect Couple, she decides to try out with him. A whirlwind audition process later, Lyla find herself whisked off to a tropical paradise with Nico, boating through the Indian Ocean towards Ever After Island, where the two of them will compete against four other couples—Bayer and Angel, Dan and Santana, Joel and Romi, and Conor and Zana—in order to win a cash prize.

But not long after they arrive on the deserted island, things start to go wrong. After the first challenge leaves everyone rattled and angry, an overnight storm takes matters from bad to worse. Cut off from the mainland by miles of ocean, deprived of their phones, and unable to contact the crew that brought them there, the group must band together for survival. As tensions run high and fresh water runs low, Lyla finds that this game show is all too real—and the stakes are life or death.

A fast-paced, spellbinding thriller rife with intrigue and characters that feel so true to life, this novel proves yet again that Ruth Ware is the queen of psychological suspense.

Published:       21st May 2024
Publisher:       Simon & Schuster UK
Goodreads :      Click Here  
Series or Stand-Alone:  Stand-Alone
Source:          Bought
Genres:         Thriller, Mystery and Suspense
Pages:           416 pages, Hardcover 




MY REVIEW


What I liked about this story...  Notwithstanding what I say below, I did enjoy reading this novel.  What I liked the best was the characters.  There were some good, some bad and some plain awful.  They were all meant to be how they were meant to be and I liked to see how they all interacted and reacted to both each other and the situation.  

What I didn't like about this story...  There were really no surprises in this story for me.  I had pretty much guessed all of them.  I would have loved to have had a few surprises that I hadn't guessed, but that's not the case with this one.  Yes I did enjoy the writing and characters but the plot I didn't feel for quite so much.  

Would I recommend...  Honestly, if you were wanting to pick up a Ruth Ware I would go with a different novel of hers first so you get a feel for her writing and style so you can appreciate that in this novel.