Saturday 16 March 2024

The Marriage Mender by Linda Green

The Marriage MenderThe Marriage Mender by Linda Green
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 3 days

Pages - 491

Publisher - Quercus

Source - Bought

Blurb from Goodreads

The only relationship she can't save is her own . . .
Alison is a marriage counsellor. Her job is to help couples who fear they have reached the end of the line. But the trouble with spending your time sorting out other people's problems is that you tend to take your eye off your own. Even when her husband's ex Lydia arrives on the doorstep demanding to see her son, Alison thinks she can handle it. But what Alison doesn't realise is that Lydia is the one person who has the ability to destroy their perfect family. And sometimes the cracks can run so deep that even a marriage mender can't repair them . . .


My Review

Meet Alison, a marriage counsellor, someone who helps mend your marriage but what happens when the counsellors marriage and family are the ones needing help? Chris's older son was a baby when his mum Lydia bailed, Alison came along when he was young and became the only mum he knew and gave him a little sister. So when Lydia rocks up looking fabulous, full of stories, intrigue, edgy Josh can't help but be drawn to his biological mother. Chris has never really spoke about her, Alison is doing her best to keep everyone happy and Lydia is just a wrecking ball in their tranquility.

Ooft we all have an ex partner we would rather stayed in the past but when kids are involved what can you do. Lydia has been MIA for pretty much eighteen years and now she is back. Stunning, rubbing shoulders with people in the music industry, how do you compete with that? Well Alison isn't the kind of person who does, she is such a good person to the point I was like OH COME ON ALISON put your foot down. She tries to put out fires between Chris and Josh, explaining to her own wee girl who this stranger is and the more outrageous Lydia is the more withdrawn and angry Chris seems to be. It is very much family dramas with unresolved issues, the past coming back to bit them and wreck their perfect little bubble. We also get to see/hear confessions/snippets from the counselling room, some uncomfortable and some of Alison's patients going through some dark themes, coercion, abuse of different kids, hardships and secrets from the past.

I think this is my first book by Green and it took me a little to settle to it but I soon got pulled into the dramas and see where it was going next, 4/5 from me, I would absolutely read this author again and will check out her other books.

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Wednesday 13 March 2024

A Thousand Boy Kisses by Tillie Cole

A Thousand Boy Kisses (A Thousand Boy Kisses, #1)A Thousand Boy Kisses by Tillie Cole
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 1 day

Pages - 316

Publisher - Penguin

Source - Bought

Blurb from Goodreads

One kiss lasts a moment. But a thousand kisses can last a lifetime. One boy. One girl. A bond that is forged in an instant and cherished for a decade. A bond that neither time nor distance can break. A bond that will last forever. Or so they believe.

When seventeen-year-old Rune Kristiansen returns from his native Norway to the sleepy town of Blossom Grove, Georgia, where he befriended Poppy Litchfield as a child, he has just one thing on his mind. Why did the girl who was one half of his soul, who promised to wait faithfully for his return, cut him off without a word of explanation? Rune's heart was broken two years ago when Poppy fell silent. When he discovers the truth, he finds that the greatest heartache is yet to come.

A stand-alone young adult tearjerker romance, recommended for ages fourteen and up.



My Review

I kept seeing everyone talking about this and how it ripped their heart out, I don't cry much so figured I would check it out, absolute FOMO. Well the problem is, from the blurb you don't really know why folk had the emotionals and I wasn't expecting it, even from the first chapter we get a sad emotive slap in the kisser. The book takes us through Poppy and Rune meeting as kids, their friendship and relationship blossoming and then as teenagers after a sudden and brutal period of them being cut off for two years, the awkward reunion because Rune isn't the boy Poppy remembers.

Young love guys, you remember being a teen and having that wild emotions, first love, hormones so it has all that but takes a deeper level. It is hard to review why the book is so emotive without giving spoilers and we don't do that here.

Lets just say depending on your lived experiences I think it packs a harder punch and it was a bit close to home for me, I wasn't expecting it so a bit of a throat punch. A few parts of it I was reading with that painful lump in my throat & did end up with wet eyes once or twice (we don't cry here).

Young love, relationships, heartache, health issues, bad boy behaviours, family, friendship and a sweet romantic gestures but also some questionable behaviours. One thing I will say, after reading this book I will never look at a Cherry Blossom tree the same way again and without thinking about this book, 4/5.

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Thursday 7 March 2024

Inside The Mind of the Yorkshire Ripper by Chris Clark and Tim Hicks

Inside the Mind of the YorkshireInside the Mind of the Yorkshire by Chris Clark
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 3 days

Pages - 345

Publisher - Ad Lib Publishers

Source - Netgalley

Blurb from Goodreads

The account of the crimes of Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, including those he was not charged with and has never previously been connected to.

The police believed that Sutcliffe attacked women only in Manchester and West Yorkshire, travelling in his car. The authors show that, in fact, he attacked his victims across the UK and sometimes even overseas, while driving his employer’s lorry.

Now that Sutcliffe is dead the full extent of his crimes cannot be known, but authors Chris Clark and Tim Hicks have meticulously researched his life and, in this definitive investigation, they reveal many previously unknown victims for the first time. The book includes a number of first-hand accounts from women and children who narrowly escaped death at Sutcliffe’s hand.

The police failed to deliver justice for the victims’ families – both in the original investigation and in subsequent cold-case reviews – and the media has failed to hold them to account for this failure. The authors hope that by revealing all Sutcliffe’s attacks and telling the victims’ stories they can help to bring closure for friends and relatives of his victims, both those who are known and those who have remained unacknowledged – until now.


My Review

So I have seen many documentaries and or programmes over the years about the Yorkshire Ripper including articles and discussions on true crime groups. I had no idea just how horrific his MO was, I think every one knew about the hammer(s) but this book gives graphic details and insight into just how depraved he really was.

There is a lot of data in the book as well as maps giving locations and routes, potentials too as there are many more victims attributed to him that those commonly posted/discussed. I never knew he was suspected of male victims too and different attack styles to throw the police off. Add into that how he tried (effectively in many ways) to put the police off his track.

The book also discusses those well knows tapes and letters from the alleged ripper and how the police blindly clung to them and just how many times Sutcliffe slipped through their fingers as a result.

The book is shocking in many aspects, the bungled investigations, time after time, how some officers were dissuaded from linking cases that they knew was the ripper. The underhanded behaviours, criminal at times, in some of the actions of lack of actions in handling victims, witnesses, statements. It is amazing he was caught and you cannot help but think how many lives may well have been saved had they not missed or ignored so many tings.

I think another jaw dropper is that despite knowing all they did wrong, when they were reached out to in more recent times they still refuse to release information or acknowledge certain similarities/cases/victims. One of the authors of this book is an ex police officer so it adds more weight and shock to some of the things you read and what was ignored. Truly shocking in so many areas and I think a lot of information in this book will raise more than a few eyebrows, like I say I had been familiar with the case, who isn't but so much information, victims, falsely accused is discussed in this book, it is actually quite scary how badly it was overall (the case handling not the book). For people who love true crime I think this is a must read as there is so much new (well for me anyway) information, it is wild how much he got away with and how many still have no closure/justice, 4/5.



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Wednesday 6 March 2024

The Christmas she married the playboy & The Greek Secret she carries

The Christmas She Married The Playboy / The Greek Secret She Carries: The Christmas She Married the Playboy (Christmas with a Billionaire) / The Greek ... Diamond Inheritance) (Mills & Boon Modern)The Christmas She Married The Playboy / The Greek Secret She Carries: The Christmas She Married the Playboy (Christmas with a Billionaire) / The Greek ... Diamond Inheritance) by Louise Fuller
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 3 days

Pages - 384

Publisher - Mills & Boon

Source - Bought

Blurb from Goodreads

Their convenient winter wedding!

To save her pristine image from scandal, Santina must marry notorious playboy Louis. But after a past betrayal, it’s not gossip she fears…it’s the burning attraction that will make resisting her convenient husband impossible.

One scandalous Greek night…

Months after their passionate fling, rumours bring enigmatic Theron to Summer’s doorstep – to discover a pregnancy as obvious as the still-sizzling desire between them! He will give their child the family unit he lost. But Summer’s trust isn’t so easily won…


My Review

Mills and Boon if you have read them you know exactly what you are getting. This book is a two in one. Book one, meet Santina, pristine image and trying to make it in the professional world of ice skating. She has zero interest in the opposite sex especially after having her heart broken and crushed by her ex. Meet Louis, money galore, bad boy reputation, womaniser and often in the press for his antics, so much so it is impacting his work life. When a chance encounter brings them together and the press catch a juicy story the two have to work together to try and salvage both their images.

Story two sees Summer, naive going from university and a mostly sheltered life to trying to find her real father and helping her sick mother. She has a passionate tryst with Theron ending in disaster. He shows up again in her life trying to make amends for his behaviour and assumptions but is it too late.

The first story I did like better and it was very reminiscing of what I remember Mills and Boon to be but with a modern day theme to it. Good girl, bad boy, money, reputation, hard exterior (for both) and absolute attraction they both try to deny and it goes from there.

Book two, I think the whole Greek man and behaviours, for me, didn't work. Instead of passion and sense of wanting to do the right thing as is expected of him I found him to be controlling and really negative behaviours. Summer also came across weak and annoying rather than damsel in distress but also doing the right thing by her family. Maybe if I had read the the other way around I may have taken to it more? Both good stories but I really wasn't a fan of either of the main characters in the second book therefor overall it is 3/5 for me.

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Saturday 2 March 2024

March giveaway is now live

Happy March people, up for grabs is x1 £5 Amazon voucher, UK only guys as Amazon doesn't allow me to gift outside my own country.




As usual, entries via Rafflecopter below, comp runs til the end of the month.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Claimed by J R Ward

Claimed (Lair of the Wolven, #1)Claimed by J.R. Ward
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 1 day

Pages - 509

Publisher - Piatkus

Source - Bought

Blurb from Goodreads

A heart-pounding new series set in the Black Dagger Brotherhood world, with a scientist fighting to save the timber wolves—and getting caught in a deadly trap herself...

Lydia Susi is passionate about protecting wolves in their natural habitat. When a hotel chain develops a tract of land next to the preserve, Lydia is one of the most vocal opponents of the project—and becomes a target.

One night, a shadowy figure threatens Lydia’s life in the forest, and a new hire at the Wolf Study Project comes from out of nowhere to save her. Daniel Joseph is both mysterious, and someone she intrinsically wants to trust. But is he hiding something?

As the stakes get higher, and one of Lydia’s colleagues is murdered, she must decide how far she will go to protect the wolves. Then a shocking revelation about Daniel challenges Lydia’s reality in ways she could never have predicted. Some fates demand courage, others require even more, with no guarantees. Is she destined to have true love... or will a soul-shattering loss ruin her forever?


My Review

This is book one of a trilogy, Lydia is all about protecting the wolves in their natural environment and a new hotel/chain is putting everything at risk. Daniel, a drifter appears at the perfect time looking for a job. Someone has poisoned a wolf, money at the facility is low and Lydia will do just about anything for the wolves safety. Both Lydia and Daniel are mysterious and or aloof in their own way and it isn't long before sparks fly between the two and their attraction has more pull that what they are hiding.

So the book is from the Lair of the Wolven series and we have snippets of chapters going to the Blackdagger Brotherhood characters, specifically Xhex, dreams and freaking out, then back to Lydia with no seeming reason or cross over, I am hoping with book two we will have more clarity and info (I have book two and three at the ready).

There is murder, intrigue, dodgy behaviour, skulduggery, stalking and wolves of course. I would say it is a slow burner at times but when you get to the end it all comes together and absolutely needs book two to be read asap.

There is some spice, intrigue, wolfy interactions, secrets, danger and all is not what it seems, like even the folk Lydia has worked with and it being a small town there are secrets and reveals to be had. I am very much looking forward to book two and seeing what is next in store, a good foundation book setting up for the rest, 4/5.

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Thursday 29 February 2024

Unholy Murder by Lynda La Plante




The #TeamTennison tour continues, today we have our review for "Unholy Murder" by author Lynda La Plante.

Unholy Murder (Tennison, #7)Unholy Murder by Lynda La Plante
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 3 days (inbetween shifts as able)

Pages - 380

Publisher - Zaffre

Source - Review copy

Blurb from Goodreads

'Help me turn the coffin lid over.' Jane Tennison said, grabbing one end.
'What you looking for?' Doctor Pullen asked.
'I want to see the condition of the interior lining.'
'The right hand on the body has a broken fingernails, some are worn down to the fingertips.' Doctor Pullen informed them as they gently turned the lid over. The mouldy white satin lining was torn and hanging loose at the head end. Jane gently brushed it to one side revealing deep fingernail scratch marks on the interior metal.
'Oh my God,' Tennison exclaimed. 'She was buried alive.'

In Unholy Murder, Tennison must lift the lid on the most chilling murder case of her career to date . . .


My Review

This is book seven in the Tennison series, Jane is doing pretty well/established and respected considering we are in the early 80s and she is a female officer. This time we have a coffin found on a construction job, when it is opened we do indeed have a body, whilst one cop wants to declare it normal/case closed Jane has always been one to look at everything. Not only is it the body of a nun but upon closer inspection she has been murdered. Now to establish an identity, time line and if a case is to be answered to.

I love that Jane is always force for the victims, no matter what she is faced with and lets face it, the previous six books she has more than had her work cut out for her. This time, with the investigation we have to look at the Catholic church and deal with priests, nuns and those in higher capacities. We have bad blood already between some of the officers and those in the holy order. Much is at risk for all concerned and some people will do anything to keep past secrets exactly that, in the past.

This time, as much as we have the investigation into the murder/identity, we see more of a person side for Jane and of course how that impacts or clashes with the job. A bit more of a flawed version of the Jane we have come to know and love, not in any huge capacity but a few things in this book make her seem more, I don't think vulnerable is the word I am looking for but certainly mis stepping once or twice.

Because there are practicing religious folk and some questionable/shady behaviours/secrets I think there may be a few gasps for those who hold people of the cloth in higher esteem that those who don't. Also the fact the victim is a nun is also a bit of a chest skelp as there are some folk you often put in untouchable categories, innocents, kids, animals, people serving/giving their lives to a higher order. So whilst the book isn't break neck pace it absolutely smacks you in the chops from early on, who would target a nun and in such a horrific way and then you are hooked! 4/5 for me this time, book eight is giving me the eyeball from the shelf already to see what is next in store!





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