Series Review / Cormoran Strike Series by Robert Galbraith (aka JK Rowling)

When a troubled model falls to her death from a snow-covered Mayfair balcony, it is assumed that she has committed suicide. However, her brother has his doubts, and calls in private investigator Cormoran Strike to look into the case.

A war veteran, wounded both physically and psychologically, Strike's life is in disarray. The case gives him a financial lifeline, but it comes at a personal cost: the more he delves into the young model's complex world, the darker things get - and the closer he gets to terrible danger . . .

A gripping, elegant mystery steeped in the atmosphere of London - from the hushed streets of Mayfair, to the backstreet pubs of the East End, to the bustle of Soho - The Cuckoo's Calling is a remarkable debut. Introducing Cormoran Strike, it is a classic crime novel unlike any other book you will read this year.

Published:     2013
Goodreads :  Click here
Series or Stand-Alone:  Books 1, 2 & 3, Comoran Strike
Source:  Owned

MY REVIEW

What I liked about this series...  As one of the many series that I have been meaning to pick up, I am so glad that I decided to get on with it and read it mainly for the reason that this was really good but also for the reason that while getting this post ready I noticed that there will be a book 4 in this series and that is something I am very excited about!  You have Cormoran who is a private detective and a bit down on his luck until two things happen,  he meets and hires an assistant who is more valuable to him then he will realise and he is about to stumble across a case that is going to make his career.  He has not always been a private detective.  He used to be in Afghanistan but lost half his leg in the war.  Although a hindrance sometimes, the loss of his leg doesn't seem to affect him too much.

With each of these stories, you have a new problem to solve but there's also the bigger picture to do with Cormoran's past that flows through each of these books and that is the main reason I kept reading.  I wanted to know what was going on.

You also have the two main characters Cormoran and his assistant Robin.  You can clearly see there is something there between them, whether romantic or not.  Over time they clearly respect each other and can become great friends.  I enjoyed following them as they discover how their relationship works both at work and as friends. 

What I didn't like about this series... If I had to be picky, this series is very slow paced so even though I wanted to keep reading and keep the momentum going the pace was so slow which meant that even though I thought I had read a lot I really hadn't made much of a dent in the book.

Book Review / The Angel by Katerina Diamond

THE TRUTH WON’T STAY LOCKED UP FOREVER

When a burned body is found in a disused signal box, suspicion falls on lonely teenager Gabriel Webb. There’s no doubt he was at the scene of the crime, but does he really deserve what awaits him in prison?

DS Imogen Grey is certain there’s more to the case than meets the eye. But while she struggles to convince those around her of the truth, her partner DS Adrian Miles is distracted by his own demons.

When a brutal double murder is reported, their investigation is stopped in its tracks. Is the body in the box even who they thought it was? The duo realise Gabriel might have been locked up for a crime he didn’t commit. But with enemies watching Gabriel’s every move, they may be too late.

Miles and Grey are back in the thrilling new novel from bestselling author Katerina Diamond, perfect for fans of Karin Slaughter and M.J. Arlidge.

Published:     21st September 2017
Publisher:  Avon
Goodreads :  Click here
Series or Stand-Alone:  Book 3, DS Imogen Grey
Source:  Review Copy from Publisher

MY REVIEW

 What I liked about this book...  Although I think I would have enjoyed this more if I had read the previous books in this series, I did enjoy the journey.  It was fast paced and I was definitely hooked enough to want to follow the detectives and find out whether Gabriel was guilty or not.

What I didn't like about this book..  I hadn't realised when looking into this book that it was book 3 in a series.  There was nothing on the cover that I had to say that it was and is a pet hate of mine.  If books are part of a series, it should be noted either on the cover or on the spine as what book in a series it is.  When picking up a book to read, I don't like to look too much into it apart from reading the description in the back so if there's nothing obvious to say that it is part of a series, I would not know. 

Book Review / Lucky in Love by Kasie West

Can’t buy me love…

Maddie’s not impulsive. She’s all about hard work and planning ahead. But one night, on a whim, she buys a lottery ticket. And then, to her astonishment—

She wins!

In a flash, Maddie’s life is unrecognizable. No more stressing about college scholarships. Suddenly, she’s talking about renting a yacht. And being in the spotlight at school is fun…until rumors start flying, and random people ask her for loans. Now Maddie isn’t sure who she can trust.

Except for Seth Nguyen, her funny, charming coworker at the local zoo. Seth doesn’t seem aware of Maddie’s big news. And, for some reason, she doesn’t want to tell him. But what will happen if he learns her secret?


Published:     25th July 2017
Publisher:  Scholastic
Goodreads :  Click here
Series or Stand-Alone:  Stand-Alone
Source:  Library

MY REVIEW

Unfortunately, this is one of those books that is going to fall into the 'this is just not for me'.  Although it was fun and easy to read,  this story had a lot of aspects that I didn't believe in or aspects that could have happened but didn't.  You have Maddie who is in school, so must be a teenager, who wins the lottery.  Instead of her parents helping her or a guardian appointed until she is an adult or finished school etc she is just left to sort out her own finances.  The money is just handed over, no questions asked.  As a response to that, she makes very silly decisions such as investing in an uncle's investment idea, an uncle she didn't know exist until she had the money.

The very reason she bought the lottery ticket in the first place was because it was her birthday and none of her friends turned up or let her know they weren't coming.  After winning, there was a little mention of why they didn't turn up but it was just dismissed as if it didn't matter.  If that had happened to me, it would have upset me a lot more than that.

There's also the character of Seth who Maddie first meets when she goes out to buy her lottery ticket.  There was such potential that Maddie and Seth could have made the story very interesting but for me there was not enough of that story to be able to get invested in the relationship.

Very disappointed by this one but I did enjoy the writing style and am planning to pick up more by this author. 

Book Review / The Martian by Andy Weir

ix days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars.

Now, he’s sure he’ll be the first person to die there.

After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive — and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive.

Chances are, though, he won’t have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old “human error” are much more likely to kill him first.

But Mark isn’t ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills — and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit — he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?

Published:     11th February 2014
Publisher: Crown
Goodreads :  Click here
Series or Stand-Alone:  Stand-Alone
Source:  Library

MY REVIEW


I don't believe that words can fully describe how much I enjoyed this book.  I decided to listen to this on audio book rather than read the book and I am so glad that I did.  I am not sure who the narrator was but he did a brilliant job.  You have this very serious situation where Mark Watney has been left behind on Mars and has to figure out how to survive with only the supplies he was left with and about 4 years to live long enough for the next mission to arrive.  There's a lot of scientific talk which I'll be honest and say that I didn't fully understand but you also have this great comedic sense of humour coming from the author via Mark Watney, other characters and situations that just made this so much fun to listen to.   Just following Mark Watney as he discovers the only music he has to listen to for the next number of months and years is disco, made me chuckle!

I am now going to watch the movie and I hope that not too much has been changed from the book!

Book Review / Genuine Fraud by E Lockhart

The story of a young woman whose diabolical smarts are her ticket into a charmed life. But how many times can someone reinvent themselves? You be the judge.

Imogen is a runaway heiress, an orphan, a cook, and a cheat.
Jule is a fighter, a social chameleon, and an athlete.
An intense friendship. A disappearance. A murder, or maybe two.
A bad romance, or maybe three.
Blunt objects, disguises, blood, and chocolate. The American dream, superheroes, spies, and villains.
A girl who refuses to give people what they want from her.
A girl who refuses to be the person she once was.

Published:     5th September 2017
Publisher:  Delacorte Press
Goodreads :  Click here
Series or Stand-Alone:  Stand-Alone
Source:  Review Copy from Publisher

MY REVIEW

This is a very difficult book to review.  I went into this book the same as I did with We Were Liars, knowing nothing.  Honestly, I didn't relate or like either of the main characters - Imogen or Jule.  I read and loved We Were Liars earlier this year and had very high expectations for this one.  I found the plot confusing (the way is backtracks) and there's too many characters in the mix.

Maybe it was my mistake in presumption but I had thought that this book would have a point to the plot, a bit of suspense and maybe a few twists and turns but, for me, this had none of those things.

Unfortunately this book was not for me but have given it 2 stars because it intrigued me enough to want to finish reading the book.

Book Review / The Little Bakery on Rosemary Lane by Ellen Berry

**Take a trip to the Yorkshire village of Burley Bridge, where a new arrival is going to shake things up…**

Growing up in a quiet Yorkshire village, Roxanne couldn’t wait to escape and find her place in the world in London. As a high-powered fashion editor she lives a glamorous life of perennial singlehood – or so it seems to her sister Della. But when Roxanne gets her heart broken by a fashion photographer, she runs away, back to Della’s welcoming home above her bookshop in Burley Bridge.
But Burley Bridge, Roxanne discovers, is even quieter than she remembered. There’s nothing to do, so Roxanne agrees to walk Della’s dog Stanley. It’s on these walks that Roxanne makes a startling discovery: the people who live in Burley Bridge are, well, just people – different from the fashion set she’s used to, but kind and even interesting. Michael, a widower trying to make a go of a small bakery, particularly so. Little by little, cupcake by cupcake, Roxanne and Michael fall into a comforting friendship.

Could there be a life for Roxanne after all, in the place she’s spent 46 years trying to escape?


Published:     7th September 2017
Publisher:  HarperCollins
Goodreads :  Click here
Series or Stand-Alone:  Stand-Alone
Source:  Review Copy from Publisher

MY REVIEW

This book was so much fun.  I had previously read this author's first book, The Bookshop on Rosemary Lane, and loved it!  I couldn't wait to dig into this one.  Although it does not look like it has been marketed as a series, I would recommend reading The Bookshop on Rosemary Lane first mainly because a lot of the characters in that are in that book feature in this one.  You don't have to, the second book can be read as a stand-alone but you would get so much more out of this book if you read both.

Although predictable, this was a fun read with a bit of romance mixed in. 

Book Spotlight / Whippoorwill by R L Bartram

Barely fourteen, Ceci Prejean is a tomboy running wild in the hot Louisiana summer. After breaking the nose of a local boy, her father decides to enlist the aid of Hecubah, a beautiful Creole woman, with a secret past, who takes Ceci in hand and turns her into a lady.

Now, eighteen-year-old Ceci meets and falls passionately in love with a handsome young northerner, Trent Sinclaire. Trent is a cadet at the West Point military academy. He acts as if he knows Ceci. They begin a torrid affair, even as the southern states begin to secede from the Union.

Only weeks before their wedding, the Confederate army attacks Fort Sumter and the civil war begins. Trent is called to active service in the north, leaving Ceci heartbroken in the south. Swearing vengeance on the union, after the untimely death of her family at the fall of New Orleans, Ceci meets with infamous spy master, Henry Doucet. He initiates her into the shadowy world of espionage. After her failure to avert the catastrophe at Gettysburg, Ceci infiltrates the White House.

There, she comes face to face with Abraham Lincoln, a man she’s sworn to kill. Forming a reckless alliance with the actor, John Wilkes Booth, she is drawn deeper into the plot to assassinate the President of the United States. A Confederate spy in love with a Union officer, her next decision will determine whether she lives or dies...

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5858365.R_L_Bartram/blog

http://www.troubador.co.uk/book_info.asp?bookid=4722

EXTRACT

Trent was lucky. The Confederate musket ball that was intended to kill him merely grazed his brow. He lurched violently back in his saddle. His horse reared wildly, throwing him, unconscious to the ground, directly into the path of his own cavalry advancing only yards behind him. At the far end of the field, Sergeant Nathanial Pike and his men, engaged in the hasty formation of a skirmish line, watched helplessly as the scene unfolded. As Trent hit the ground, a Confederate soldier appeared out of the shadows. Small and slight, little more than a boy, he lunged forwards, grabbed the officer by the lapels of his coat and dragged him out of the path of the galloping horses. Throwing himself across the man’s prone body, he shielded him from the pounding hooves. The cavalry thundered past oblivious, in the half-light, to the fate of their captain.

As the danger passed, the rebel rose to his knees and appeared to search the unconscious man. “God damn thieving rebs,” Pike snatched his pistol from its holster, his thumb wrenching back the hammer. Before he could take aim, the rebel stopped searching. He leaned forwards and, cradling the officer’s face in his hands, bent down and kissed him, full on the lips, long and hard. Pike’s pistol, arm and jaw dropped simultaneously. Something, some noise, some movement, made the rebel look up and glance furtively around. He jumped to his feet and, with a final backwards glance at the fallen man, melted into the shadows, like a wraith. It was some moments before Pike’s jaw snapped shut, his teeth meeting with an audible click. He rounded on his men. “Did you see what I just saw?” he demanded. His question was answered with shrugs and scowls. Not one man there could swear he hadn’t dreamed it. Then suddenly, they heard it, far off, plaintive and eerie, the cry of a whippoorwill.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

With Historical Romance as his preferred genre, Robert has continued to write for several years. Many of his short stories have appeared in various national periodicals and magazines.

His debut novel “Dance the Moon Down”, a story of love against adversity during the First World War, gained him considerable critical praise, being voted book of the month by “Wall to Wall books”

His second novel “Whippoorwill” tells of a passionate affair between a young southern woman and a northern man at the beginning of the American Civil War.

He is single and lives and works in Hertfordshire.