Book Review / The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins

 

What if the key to happiness, success, and love was as simple as two words?

If you've ever felt stuck, overwhelmed, or frustrated with where you are, the problem isn't you. The problem is the power you give to other people. Two simple words—Let Them—will set you free. Free from the opinions, drama, and judgments of others. Free from the exhausting cycle of trying to manage everything and everyone around you. The Let Them Theory puts the power to create a life you love back in your hands—and this book will show you exactly how to do it.

In her latest groundbreaking book, The Let Them Theory, Mel Robbins—New York Times bestselling author and one of the world's most respected experts on motivation, confidence, and mindset—teaches you how to stop wasting energy on what you can't control and start focusing on what truly YOU. Your happiness. Your goals. Your life.

Using the same no-nonsense, science-backed approach that's made The Mel Robbins Podcast a global sensation, Robbins explains why The Let Them Theory is already loved by millions and how you can apply it in eight key areas of your life to make the biggest impact. Within a few pages, you'll realize how much energy and time you've been wasting trying to control the wrong things—at work, in relationships, and in pursuing your goals—and how this is keeping you from the happiness and success you deserve.

Written as an easy-to-understand guide, Robbins shares relatable stories from her own life, highlights key takeaways, relevant research and introduces you to world-renowned experts in psychology, neuroscience, relationships, happiness, and ancient wisdom who champion The Let Them Theory every step of the way.

Learn how

Stop wasting energy on things you can't control Stop comparing yourself to other peopleBreak free from fear and self-doubtRelease the grip of people's expectationsBuild the best friendships of your lifeCreate the love you deservePursue what truly matters to you with confidenceBuild resilience against everyday stressors and distractionsDefine your own path to success, joy, and fulfillment. . . and so much more.

The Let Them Theory will forever change the way you think about relationships, control, and personal power. Whether you want to advance your career, motivate others to change, take creative risks, find deeper connections, build better habits, start a new chapter, or simply create more happiness in your life and relationships, this book gives you the mindset and tools to unlock your full potential.

Published:  24th December 2024

Publisher:  Hay House 

Goodreads : Click to open

Series or Stand-Alone:  Stand-Alone

Source:  Bought

MY REVIEW

What I loved about this ...  Mel Robbins is a person who I have been introduced to fairly recently and discovering her ideas and work has been very interesting.    This book was a very useful reminder on how to deal with situations like this on a day to day basis.  

What I wasn't fond of with this ...  Although not necessarily a negative, but this is not a new theory and is one that I have come across before.

Would I recommend?  If this concept is new to you I would recommend giving it a go as a introduction to this concept.  

Book Review / Burn the Negative by Josh Winning

 

In this incendiary mash-up of horror and suspense, a notorious slasher film is remade…and the curse that haunted it is reawakened.

Arriving in L.A. to visit the set of a new streaming horror series, journalist Laura Warren witnesses a man jumping from a bridge, landing right behind her car. Here we go, she thinks. It’s started. Because the series she’s reporting on is a remake of a ’90s horror flick. A cursed ’90s horror flick, which she starred in as a child—and has been running from her whole life.

In The Guesthouse, Laura played the little girl with the terrifying gift to tell people how the Needle Man would kill them. When eight of the cast and crew died in ways that eerily mirrored the movie’s on-screen deaths, the film became a cult classic—and ruined her life. Leaving it behind, Laura changed her name and her accent, dyed her hair, and moved across the Atlantic. But some scripts don’t want to stay buried.

Now, as the body count rises again, Laura finds herself on the run with her aspiring actress sister and a jaded psychic, hoping to end the curse once and for all—and to stay out of the Needle Man’s lethal reach.

Published:  11th July 2023  

Publisher:  Penguin

Goodreads : Click Here

Series or Stand-Alone:  Stand-Alone

Source:  Bought

MY REVIEW

What I loved about this story...   This story was so much fun for me to read.  Following Laura as she visits LA, obviously with a past that we need to know more about, we see her tryign to investigate a new reboot of a 90s horror movie which she starred in as a child.  What I loved the most was finding out more and more about what happened in the last to Laura and why it matters in the present day story.  I found that the more fascinating part of this story...

What I didn't like about this story...  This story was a little predictable for me so I would have loved to have had some more twists and turns that took me by surprise.  

Would I recommend?  Absolutely.  This book was fun to read with a very interesting back story that kept me intrigued.  I also very much enjoyed this author's style of writing and shall definitely be picking up more books by this person in the future.  

Book Review / The Sapphire Widow by Dinah Jefferies

 

A sweeping, breath-taking story of love and betrayal from the Number One Sunday Times bestselling author of The Tea Planter's Wife.

Ceylon, 1935. Louisa Reeve, the daughter of a successful British gem trader, and her husband Elliot, a charming, thrill-seeking businessman, seem like the couple who have it all. Except what they long for more than anything: a child.

While Louisa struggles with miscarriages, Elliot is increasingly absent, spending much of his time at a nearby cinnamon plantation, overlooking the Indian ocean. After his sudden death, Louisa is left alone to solve the mystery he left behind. Revisiting the plantation at Cinnamon Hills, she finds herself unexpectedly drawn towards the owner Leo, a rugged outdoors man with a chequered past. The plantation casts a spell, but all is not as it seems. And when Elliot's shocking betrayal is revealed, Louisa has only Leo to turn to...

Published:  22nd February 2018

Publisher:  Viking

Goodreads :  Click here - opens in new window

Series or Stand-Alone:  Stand-Alone

Source:  Bought

MY REVIEW

What I liked about this story...

I always look forward to reading a story by this author as I know the story is going to be beautiful.  The descriptions of the scenery alone just makes you feel like you are right there where the story takes place, like this one which is in Sri Lanka.  I can't say whether the descriptions are acurate because I've never visited but it felt real.  Along with that, I liked the mystery of Louisa's husband, Elliot.  Who was he and what secrets did he have?  

What I wasn't fond of with this story...

This was a very slow read for me but this may be my fault as I was interested in the story for the mystery of Louisa's husband and it just took a long while to get to the point.  I also found that the character of Louisa could have been portrayed better, for example I felt like she could have had more depth to her and given more strength than she had given that she has already travelled away from the home country that she knows and her family, to live with her husband in a new country.  I felt that she could have been a stronger character than I experienced when reading the story.   That said, I did enjoy the story for what it is but this would have been a 5 star read if written slightly differently, for me.  

Book Review / The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams

 

The first rule of book club: You don't talk about book club.

Nashville Legends second baseman Gavin Scott's marriage is in major league trouble. He’s recently discovered a humiliating secret: his wife Thea has always faked the Big O. When he loses his cool at the revelation, it’s the final straw on their already strained relationship. Thea asks for a divorce, and Gavin realizes he’s let his pride and fear get the better of him.

Welcome to the Bromance Book Club.

Distraught and desperate, Gavin finds help from an unlikely source: a secret romance book club made up of Nashville's top alpha men. With the help of their current read, a steamy Regency titled Courting the Countess, the guys coach Gavin on saving his marriage. But it'll take a lot more than flowery words and grand gestures for this hapless Romeo to find his inner hero and win back the trust of his wife.

Published:  5th November 2019

Publisher:  Berkley

Goodreads : Link here - opens in new window

Series or Stand-Alone:  Book 1, Bromance Book Club 

Source:  Bought

MY REVIEW

What I liked about this story...

Now this was a really fun story to read.  I had seen this about a lot back when it first came out in 2019 and had always meant to get around to it and never had until now.  I wanted to pick up something that looked fun (I was right!) but something that wasn't being hyped right now.  What I liked the most was the fact that the main character, and a lot of the supporting characters, were male.  I am sure that there are lots of stories like this but I have usually picked up stories like this where there's always a female as the main character.  Being a woman, I can't comment on whether it was an acurate portrayal of men and how they think but it seemed pretty real to me.  I liked the fact that it felt like there was a genuine men's friend group helping each other, or having fun.  

What I wasn't fond of with this story...

Honestly, there wasn't anything specific that I didn't like about this story but it was one of those books that I had fun with, but don't feel the 'pull' to pick up the other books in this series.  That's not to say that I didn't enjoy the writing and would pick up something else by this author but maybe not in this series.

Would I recommend this...

Yes, this was so much fun to read and is a great 'beach' read, or at any time of year you feel like it!

Book Review / Rage by Richard Bachman [aka Stephen King]

 

At 9:05 a.m. in Room 16 of Placerville High School Mrs Underwood realised that she had to go back to the basics in Algebra. The exam results had not been good.

At 9:50 the change-of-class bell rang. But in Room 16 Algebra was already long over. For Mrs Underwood, over for ever. She lay dead on the floor, shot through the head, her eyes still wide open, her blood already dark and congealed as a fly settled hungrily on her bare neck. Mr Vance was dead as well. The bullet had caught him full in the throat as he came through the door.

The kids were still there, not hurt but not going anywhere. The boy with the gun, sitting so casually on the edge of the teacher's desk, had decided that. He watched and waited as outside the police circled and conferred. School had been evacuated. Except for Room 16 where the kids still had a lot to learn.

The end of the first lesson. Time for a second, a third. A whole timetable of terror stretching ahead of them...

Published:  6th September 1977

Publisher:  Signet

Goodreads : Link Here - Opens in new window

Series or Stand-Alone:  Stand-Alone

Source:  Bought

MY REVIEW

What I liked about this story...

As disturbing of a story this is, I couldn't put it down.  Following Charlie Decker, and the rest of the class including the teacher, as he plunges deeper and deeper into his 'rage'.  I would have to say that if you wanted to read a story that takes you complete out of your comfort zone and makes you so uncomfortable that you want to put the book in another room, or out of the house, this is one of those!  

What I wasn't fond of with this story...

This is not necessarily a complete negative but this story was very uncomfortable to read, which I guess is the point of this plot, but didn't make for an easy read considering the topic also.  

 

Trilogy Review / The Atlas Six, The Atlas Paradox and The Atlas Complex by Olivie Blake

 

The Alexandrian Society, caretakers of lost knowledge from the greatest civilizations of antiquity, are the foremost secret society of magical academicians in the world. Those who earn a place among the Alexandrians will secure a life of wealth, power, and prestige beyond their wildest dreams, and each decade, only the six most uniquely talented magicians are selected to be considered for initiation.

Enter the latest round of six: Libby Rhodes and Nico de Varona, unwilling halves of an unfathomable whole, who exert uncanny control over every element of physicality. Reina Mori, a naturalist, who can intuit the language of life itself. Parisa Kamali, a telepath who can traverse the depths of the subconscious, navigating worlds inside the human mind. Callum Nova, an empath easily mistaken for a manipulative illusionist, who can influence the intimate workings of a person’s inner self. Finally, there is Tristan Caine, who can see through illusions to a new structure of reality—an ability so rare that neither he nor his peers can fully grasp its implications.

When the candidates are recruited by the mysterious Atlas Blakely, they are told they will have one year to qualify for initiation, during which time they will be permitted preliminary access to the Society’s archives and judged based on their contributions to various subjects of impossibility: time and space, luck and thought, life and death. Five, they are told, will be initiated. One will be eliminated. The six potential initiates will fight to survive the next year of their lives, and if they can prove themselves to be the best among their rivals, most of them will.

Most of them.

Published:  2020 (Book 1), 2022 (Book 2) and 2024 (Book 3)

Publisher:  Tor

Goodreads :  Link to Goodreads Page

Series or Stand-Alone:  Trilogy - Books 1, 2 and 3

Source:  Bought

MY REVIEW 

What I loved about this trilogy...

For me, this trilogy was a lot of fun to read.  I particularly enjoyed following each of the characters to learn, as they learn, what they are capable of, how they are going to use it and how they interact with the other characters.  The writing in this story was also beautiful to follow.  I was immediately drawn in and didn't want to stop reading.  

What I wasn't fond of in this trilogy...

I would have loved a few more surprises.  Yes, there were a few twists and turns but most of them I had already guessed at by the time I got to that point.  That's not to say that I didn't enjoy the ride the story took, but would have loved to have been surprised by some things.   I would have also loved to have learned more about the history of some or all of the characters than we did...

Would I recommend this trilogy...

Absolutely, yes.  If you are a fan of dark academia style stories, in particular stories like Babel, this might be right up your street.  

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.  

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.  

 

Book Review / The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Guest List comes a new locked room mystery, set in a Paris apartment building in which every resident has something to hide…

Jess needs a fresh start. She’s broke and alone, and she’s just left her job under less than ideal circumstances. Her half-brother Ben didn’t sound thrilled when she asked if she could crash with him for a bit, but he didn’t say no, and surely everything will look better from Paris. Only when she shows up – to find a very nice apartment, could Ben really have afforded this? – he’s not there.

The longer Ben stays missing, the more Jess starts to dig into her brother’s situation, and the more questions she has. Ben’s neighbors are an eclectic bunch, and not particularly friendly. Jess may have come to Paris to escape her past, but it’s starting to look like it’s Ben’s future that’s in question.

The socialite – The nice guy – The alcoholic – The girl on the verge – The concierge

Everyone’s a neighbor. Everyone’s a suspect. And everyone knows something they’re not telling.

Published:  22nd February 2022 

Publisher:  William Morrow

Goodreads :  Click Here

Series or Stand-Alone:  Stand-Alone

Source:  Bought

Genres:     Mystery, Thriller and Suspense

Pages:  360 pages, Hardcover

MY REVIEW

What I liked about this story...  This has to be one of my favourites written by this author.  For me, this was one of those stories that just pulled me in and kept me there.   What on earth was going on and is everyone who they say they are?  What happened to Ben?  So many questions.  The fact that all the drama and the majority of the story takes place in one house I thought would not be as interesting as I found it to be, honestly.  I really enjoy this author's writing and the way that we get to see the story from the eyes of different characters so you get to feel more for different characters at certain points.  

What I didn't like about this story...  Although I did like the characters and seeing their viewpoints, there was quite a cast of characters in this and I did struggle at times to try and remember who was who.  

Would I recommend... A really fun and gripping thriller that I would highly recommend.  

 

Book Review / One Moonlit Night by Rachel Hore

 Accept it, he is dead.

No, it’s not true.
It is. Everyone thinks so except you.

When the family home in London is bombed in the early 1940s, Maddie and her two young daughters take refuge in Norfolk, in the country house where Maddie’s husband Philip spent the summers of his childhood. But Philip is gone, believed to have been killed in action in northern France. Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Maddie refuses to give up hope that she and Philip will some day be reunited.

Something happened at Knyghton one summer years before. Something unresolved, that involved Philip, his cousin Lyle and a mysterious young woman named Flora. Maddie’s curiosity, which turns to desperation to find out the truth, is shut down at every turn. No one will speak about it, and no one will reassure Maddie that Philip will ever return to Knyghton.

A beautifully rendered novel about loyalty and betrayal, hope and despair, a husband and wife separated by secrets as well as by distance, One Moonlit Night is the extraordinarily powerful new novel from the bestselling author Rachel Hore.

Published:  12th May 2022 

Publisher:  Simon & Schuster

Goodreads :   Click here

Series or Stand-Alone:  Stand-Alone

Source:  Bought

Genres:     Historical Fiction and Mystery

Pages:  480 pages, Kindle 

MY REVIEW 

What I liked about this story...  The best part of this story was most definitely the mystery that Maddie investigates once she returns to her husband's childhood home and lives with some members of his family.  There's more to her husband's past than she realises and I had great fun following Maddie as she finds out more.  Beautifully written and easy to read.  

Would I recommend...  Another great novel by this author which I would highly recommend.  

Book Review / A Week in Paris by Rachel Hore

 

1961: Born on the day that WW2 broke out, 21-year-old Fay Knox cannot remember her early childhood in London, before she moved to a Norfolk village with her mother, Kitty. Though she has seen a photograph of her father, she does not recall him either. He died, she was told, in an air raid, and their house destroyed along with all their possessions. Why then, on a visit to Paris on tour with her orchestra, does a strange series of events suggest that she spent the war there instead? There is only one clue to follow, an address on the luggage label of an old canvas satchel. But will the truth hurt or heal?

1937: Eugene Knox, a young American doctor, catches sight of 19-year-old Kitty Travers on the day she arrives in Paris, and cannot get her out of his mind. She has come to study the piano at the famed Conservatoire, and lodges at a convent near Notre Dame. Eugene and Kitty will fall in love, marry and have a daughter, but France's humiliating defeat by Germany is not far behind, and the little family must suffer life under Nazi occupation. Some Parisians keep their heads down and survive, others collaborate with the enemy while others resist. The different actions of Eugene, Kitty and their friends will have devastating consequences that echo down the generations.

Published:  31st July 2014

Publisher:   Simon & Schuster

Goodreads :   Click Here

Series or Stand-Alone:  Stand-Alone

Source:  Bought

Genres:     Historical Fiction, Romance and Mystery

Pages:  481 pages, Kindle 

MY REVIEW

What I loved about this story...  I am just so addicted to both this author and this type of story right now.  I can't get enough.  Historical fiction, split narrative and a mystery.  Give me all the stories!  This story we are split between 1961 and 1937 which is certainly different to her other novels that I have read because I've usually come across a past and a present day mix but to have both in the past, with one just slightly older than the other, was an intriguing and interesting mix.  Add in the backdrop of World War II and although for me it did get a bit complicated at times, I enjoyed following the characters as things escalated.  

What I disliked about this story...  I did find, in places, the story was a bit slow paced and complicated with a backdrop of World War II (a subject that I don't normally gravitate towards to be honest, so this may be a 'me issue' rather than an issue with the story).  

Would I recommend...  An interesting story and work reading, but if you are reading Rachel Hore for the first time I might be tempted to pick up some of her newer titles first.  

Book Review / The Memory Garden by Rachel Hore

 

From the Sunday Times  bestselling author of  Last Letter Home,  the 2018 Richard & Judy Book Club pick, comes a breathtaking story of family secrets and forbidden love.

Idyllic Cornwall, a lost garden, a love story from long ago . . .

A hundred years ago, Lamorna Cove, a tiny, picturesque bay in Cornwall, was the haunt of a colony of artists. Today, Mel Pentreath hopes it will be a place she can escape the pain of losing her mother and a broken love affair, and gradually put her life back together.

Renting a cottage in the enchanting grounds of Merryn Hall, Mel embraces her new surroundings and offers to help her landlord Patrick restore the overgrown garden. Soon she is daring to believe her life can be rebuilt. Then Patrick finds some old paintings in the attic, and as he and Mel investigate the identity of the artist, they are drawn into an extraordinary tale of illicit passion and thwarted ambition from a century ago, a tale that resonates in their own lives.

But how long can Mel's idyll last before reality breaks in and everything is threatened?

Published:  1st January 2007 

Publisher:  Simon & Schuster

Goodreads :  Click Here 

Series or Stand-Alone:  Stand-Alone

Source:  Bought

Genres:     Historical Fiction, Romance and Mystery

Pages:  432 pages, Paperback

MY REVIEW

What I liked about this story...  Historical romance, split narrative and a mystery.  What more could I want.  I just can't get enough of these.  We follow two timelines, one from 100 years ago and the present day around Lamorna Cove in Cornwall.  A lot of weaving between the two timelines and at some point they pull together in an unexpected way.   A very laid back historical fiction.

What I didn't like about this story...  If I had to be picky I would have loved a few more surprises in the twists and turns.

Would I recommend...  Most definately.   A slow read which is worth picking up.