Looking For Jane by Heather Marshall

Looking for Jane by Heather Marshall
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - in and out over 3 days

Pages - 384

Publisher - Simon & Schuster

Source - Netgalley

Blurb from Amazon

'Just tell them you're looking for Jane...'

2017
When Angela discovers a mysterious letter containing a life-shattering confession in a stack of forgotten letters, she begins to look for the intended recipient. Her search takes her to the 1970s and 80s, when a group of daring women operated an illegal underground abortion network known only by its whispered code name: Jane . . .

1971
As a teenager, Dr. Evelyn Taylor was forced to give her baby up for adoption. Swearing she'll do everything she can to make sure other women have the right to choose, she joins the Jane Network to provide safe but illegal abortions. There, she crosses paths with Nancy, who was told that if she ever found herself 'in a position', she should ask for Jane. Nancy soon becomes the Network's newest volunteer, desperately trying to help others while family secrets threaten everything she knows to be true.

Over the years, Evelyn, Nancy, and Angela's lives intertwine to reveal the devastating consequences that come from a lack of choice, and the buried secrets that will always find a way to the surface . . .

Spanning decades, Evelyn, Nancy, and Angela's lives intertwine to reveal the devastating consequences that come from a lack of choice, and the buried truths that will always find a way to the surface...


My Review

Spanning over many timelines and characters the book focuses centrally on abortion, it is fictional based on historical facts around abortion. It looks at young mothers to be, unmarried, no father for multiple reasons and the home for these "unfortunates" and the nuns that "care" for them.

We go through the horrors women face because abortion is illegal at one of the timelines and what they go through, in detail at points, protests. We also look at motherhood, the impact is has when it is thrust upon you, when you have a partner, when you don't. Options available to women back then or lack of and how one woman's experience drives her to "Looking for Jane".

The book is graphic, brutal, emotive and heartbreaking at points. It has been well researched and multiple links and info available for the reader when they finish.

You don't realise how lucky you are (general you) in the healthcare and options we have as modern day females. That said what is going on in America with the abortion laws really brings a lot of this home just how scary it truly is and the risk women are yet again going to put at. A book that gives pause for thought, 4/5.

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The Last House by R.G. Adams - Blog Blast

Today is my turn on the blog blast, for my turn I have my review, enjoy.

The Last House by R.G. Adams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 2 days

Pages - 320

Publisher - Riverrun

Source - ARC

Blurb from Goodreads

Social worker Kit Goddard is convinced that Sandbeach Child Services have let an injured seventeen-year-old boy down, just like they'd done to her brother ten years earlier. Since the referral came in, it had been passed between departments, her own manager Georgia and colleague Tim brushing it off as a low risk, low priority case. But Kit can't shake the feeling that something isn't quite right.

Scanning the referral, she notices that the house seventeen-year-old Dylan Meredith lives in with his 'weird' mother had been described as decrepit. The anonymous caller said he was injured, frightened and afraid to tell the truth.

As Kit begins to look deeper into the history of the family, she learns that Dylan's grandmother had been an inpatient at Penlan psychiatric hospital and had died there in 2012. But as her colleague Tim had stressed, this was not a case for psychiatric services.

In a bid to trace the anonymous caller for more information, Kit sets of to the small coastal town of Rock. Only to be confronted with the sense of strangeness that surrounds the Meredith family and the rumours that have troubled this small community for years.


My Review

So if you haven't read the first book in this series I would say it isn't necessary to be honest as Kit is still relatively new to the job and finding her feet. Her recent case is referenced and there are still teething problems to her settling and finding her rythmn. A seventeen year old comes across her radar, a fair few red flags and it seems people in the office are quite eager to close the case. Kit being a kid from a care background feels something isn't right and takes a vested interested getting herself into some hot water, bit of a theme with her.

I think this book is very different pace and feel from the first book, this one has a more slower pace as Kit tries to bond and get a handle on Dylan, his mother and their situation. We also see a lot of Kit's own personal life, issues with her biological parents, her relationships with her siblings and a bit of a curve ball from life causing them all to assess their relationships and actions going forth.

I think the book may prove a tad emotive for some depending on your own personal history and mental health does feature a bit within this book. We also have a look at the issues faced by social workers, red tape. office politics and abuse of power and manipulation especially as Kit is a newbie and does get herself involved more than some of the other workers seem to. Really interesting to read despite not being huge parts of the story I thought it was interesting none the less and how shady and not very nice some of these characters are. It is a bit of a slower start than book one but the last quarter really kicks up a notch and you find yourself not wanting to put it down to see where it goes 4/5.

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The Dry by Jane Harper

The Dry by Jane Harper
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 2 days

Pages - 336

Publisher - Abacus

Source - bought

Blurb From Goodreads

A small town hides big secrets in this atmospheric, page-turning debut mystery by award-winning author Jane Harper.
In the grip of the worst drought in a century, the farming community of Kiewarra is facing life and death choices daily when three members of a local family are found brutally slain.
Federal Police investigator Aaron Falk reluctantly returns to his hometown for the funeral of his childhood friend, loath to face the townsfolk who turned their backs on him twenty years earlier.
But as questions mount, Falk is forced to probe deeper into the deaths of the Hadler family. Because Falk and Luke Hadler shared a secret. A secret Falk thought was long buried. A secret Luke's death now threatens to bring to the surface in this small Australian town, as old wounds bleed into new ones.


My review

Federal Police investigator Aaron Falk is heading back to his small town home, left under a dark cloud and now no choice but to return. His childhood friend Luke and his family are dead by murder/suicide. Aaron can't quite believe it but on some level maybe just maybe could Luke have really have done this atrocity?

Aaron doesn't get the most warm welcome, the small town is facing the worst drought in one hundred years which is affecting everyone and tempers are raised. Whilst Aaron and one officer unofficially look into the deaths Aaron also has to face the wrath of what he ran from. Small towns don't forget and everything must be answered for.

This is part police investigation, a bit psychological thriller, small town mentality and intrigue as we flip between present and the past with the lead up what led Aaron to leave town. Violence, secrets, lies, friendships, small town mentality and all the jazz that comes with it. You have the two deaths/timelines also the effects of the drought on the towns people and the stresses/issues that brings too. Different but interesting and book one, I will be looking out for the next in the series, 4/5 for me.

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Six Graves by Angela Marsons

Six Graves by Angela Marsons
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 1 day

Pages - 424

Publisher - Bookouture

Source - Bought

Blurb from Goodreads

An absolutely heart-pounding and addictive crime thriller

It’s a typical teenage bedroom with posters covering the walls and clothes littering the floor. But the girl lying on her bed, wearing a delicate chain around her neck, is lifeless. A circle of red stains her white vest top. How had the girl’s mother looked down at her sleeping child and pulled the trigger?

When Detective Kim Stone rushes to the scene of a house fire, she’s shocked to discover it’s claimed the lives of two teenage children and their parents. But this tragedy is not quite as it seems. Each body is marked by a gunshot wound and the mother, Helen Daynes, is holding the gun.

The case sparks painful childhood memories for Kim who suffered at the hands of her own abusive mother, but it just makes her more determined to uncover the truth. As Kim untangles Helen’s past, she finds a history of clinical depression. But did it drive Helen to murder her loved ones?

Then Kim uncovers a tiny, vital clue in Helen’s bedroom that throws the investigation wide open. Could someone else have killed the Daynes family?

Just as Kim feels she’s making progress, a deadly threat is made to her own life by a dangerous psychopath from her past. Biting back her fear, she keeps digging. And when Kim hits upon a shocking secret that changes everything she thought she knew about Helen, she realises that the remaining family members are in grave danger.

Kim is under pressure like never before, and the monster circling her is getting ever closer. Four bodies already. Four graves fresh in the ground. Who will be next? Can Kim find the killer and save herself before it’s too late?



My Review

If you haven't read the others just stop and go read them, it is a great series and you need to know the backstories to appreciate the dynamics of the team. Normally I tell you you can absolutely pick up and read as a standalone however the baddy you appreciate more if you read the previous books. Kim and co have came up against many a psycho but this one really pushed the limits and when someone wants revenge nothing will stop them.

As always Marsons does short chapters which I need as my concentration is all over the place and she has a knack for pulling you in from the opening pages. We see a few characters from previous books and Kim is pushed to new limits when she needs to go against everything she knows that gets results. Kim never gives her own safety a second thought, that of her team always but this time Kim knows she is the sought after prize and must adhere to the bosses rules.

We see an emotive side to Kim, she generally is a closed book and keeps her emotions locked up but when you can't do the thing you normally do and high pressure I feel we got a glimpse of a different side.

Warning, the prologue will pull you in, give you palps and for us a AW HELL NAW - so clear your schedule for going in because you won't want to put it down. Pacey, shocking, one very sick and twisted individual who thinks nothing of human torture in fact really gets off on it so a wee bit squeamish reading some scenes, more of the what done than super graphic details, 5/5 for us and as always we very much look forward to the next book!

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The Last House by R.G. Adams

The Last House by R.G. Adams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 2 days

Pages - 320

Publisher - Riverrun

Source - ARC

Blurb from Goodreads

Social worker Kit Goddard is convinced that Sandbeach Child Services have let an injured seventeen-year-old boy down, just like they'd done to her brother ten years earlier. Since the referral came in, it had been passed between departments, her own manager Georgia and colleague Tim brushing it off as a low risk, low priority case. But Kit can't shake the feeling that something isn't quite right.

Scanning the referral, she notices that the house seventeen-year-old Dylan Meredith lives in with his 'weird' mother had been described as decrepit. The anonymous caller said he was injured, frightened and afraid to tell the truth.

As Kit begins to look deeper into the history of the family, she learns that Dylan's grandmother had been an inpatient at Penlan psychiatric hospital and had died there in 2012. But as her colleague Tim had stressed, this was not a case for psychiatric services.

In a bid to trace the anonymous caller for more information, Kit sets of to the small coastal town of Rock. Only to be confronted with the sense of strangeness that surrounds the Meredith family and the rumours that have troubled this small community for years.


My Review

So if you haven't read the first book in this series I would say it isn't necessary to be honest as Kit is still relatively new to the job and finding her feet. Her recent case is referenced and there are still teething problems to her settling and finding her rythmn. A seventeen year old comes across her radar, a fair few red flags and it seems people in the office are quite eager to close the case. Kit being a kid from a care background feels something isn't right and takes a vested interested getting herself into some hot water, bit of a theme with her.

I think this book is very different pace and feel from the first book, this one has a more slower pace as Kit tries to bond and get a handle on Dylan, his mother and their situation. We also see a lot of Kit's own personal life, issues with her biological parents, her relationships with her siblings and a bit of a curve ball from life causing them all to assess their relationships and actions going forth.

I think the book may prove a tad emotive for some depending on your own personal history and mental health does feature a bit within this book. We also have a look at the issues faced by social workers, red tape. office politics and abuse of power and manipulation especially as Kit is a newbie and does get herself involved more than some of the other workers seem to. Really interesting to read despite not being huge parts of the story I thought it was interesting none the less and how shady and not very nice some of these characters are. It is a bit of a slower start than book one but the last quarter really kicks up a notch and you find yourself not wanting to put it down to see where it goes 4/5.

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The Woman On The Bridge by Holly Seddon Blog Tour

The Woman on the Bridge by Holly Seddon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 3 days

Pages - 320

Publisher - Orion

Source - Review copy

Blurb from Goodreads

A stranger in need - would you invite them into your home? The electrifying new thriller from Holly Seddon.

On the worst night of her life, in the middle of nowhere, lonely Charlotte Wilderwood saves a runaway bride from falling to her death.

Soon Maggie is staying in Charlotte's home, safely hidden from the man that she was so desperate to escape. The immediate bond between the two women eclipses anything they've ever known and before long they will go to extreme lengths to protect each other.

But is Maggie the best friend Charlotte has always dreamed about, or the nightmare she never saw coming...


My Review

Charlotte is heading home FURIOUS after an encounter with her friend and co worker when she clocks a woman in her wedding dress close to her own demise. When Charlotte talks her down and takes her home they strike up a friendship that will have consequences neither could have forsaw.

My reading mojo has been out the window, grieving, stress, loss and just a whole heap of emotive heartache has really mucked up my reading mojo. Concentration is out the window and something we all love reading for is we can escape our own lives/trauma to jump into someone elses. Seddon has weaved a world of chaos and drama that helped me escape my own and start sparking back the missing mojo!

A fast finding friendship, each woman lonely and needing what the other has to offer, an ear, a solution, friendship and trust. Sure don't they say the road to evil is paved with good intentions? Well with the ladies helping each other what could go wrong, the answer, just about everything. We follow Charlotte and Maggie (the damsel in distress) from one chaos to another, even hearing what brings them to their current predicaments, particularly Maggie, I gasped! Talk about bad luck and evil men, ooft. Then you think ok so all this has happened what can possibly happen next? The book gives and gives and I think the reader would be hard pushed to guess ahead the path any of the story line is taking. Well that was the case for me, I didn't know where we were headed next but for the first time in ages didn't want to put the book down and see what these two were about to get into next!

Some utterly shocking characters, skulduggery, shameful, shady, bad, I would even go as far as to say evil or certainly rotten (to their core) in some cases. A page turner that will keep you guessing to what is coming next, hoping this is my mojo back or at least going in the right direction. 4.5/5 for me this time, I have at least one more of Seddon on my tbrm I need to bump up and will see what I am missing from the back catalogue!

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Listen to Me by Tess Gerritsen blog tour

Today is my stop on the blog tour for Listen to Me by author Tess Gerritsen, this is a Random Things Tour.

The book is available to buy now, click HERE to purchase from Amazon UK.

About the author

Bestselling author TESS GERRITSEN is also a physician, and she brings to her novels her first-hand knowledge of emergency and autopsy rooms. Her thrillers starring homicide detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles inspired the hit TV series Rizzoli & Isles. But Tess’s interests span far more than medicine and crime. As an anthropology student at Stanford University, she catalogued centuries-old human remains, and she continues to travel the world, driven by her fascination with ancient cultures and bizarre natural phenomena.

For my Stop I have my review, non spoiler as always.

Listen To Me by Tess Gerritsen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read -

Pages - 336

Publisher - Bantam Press

Source - Review copy

Blurb from Goodreads

Mothers know best . . . But who will listen?

Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles are plagued by what seems like a completely senseless murder. Sofia Suarez, a widow and nurse who was universally liked by all her neighbors, lies bludgeoned to death in her own home. But anything can happen behind closed doors, and Sofia seemed to have plenty of secrets in her last days, making covert phone calls to old contacts and traceless burner phones. When Jane finally makes a connection between Sofia and the victim of a hit-and-run months earlier, the case only grows more blurry. What exactly was Sofia involved in? One thing is clear: The killer will do anything it takes to keep their secret safe.

Meanwhile, Angela Rizzoli hasn’t had a decent night’s sleep in all the years since her daughter became a homicide detective. Maybe the apple didn’t fall too far from the tree. Nothing in her neighborhood gets by Angela - not the gossip about a runaway teenager down the block and definitely not the strange neighbors who have just moved in across the street. Angela’s sure there’s no such thing as coincidence in her sleepy suburb. If only Jane would listen; instead she writes off Angela’s concerns as the result of an overactive imagination. But Angela’s convinced there’s a real wolf in her vicinity, and her cries might now fall on deaf ears.

With so much happening on the Sofia case, Jane and Maura already struggle to see the forest for the trees, but will they lose sight of something sinister happening much closer to home?



My Review

It has been a while since I have read a Rizzoli and Isles, huge fan so jumped at the opportunity to read this one. I don't think I have read all of them but read most, been a while so I have small gaps. In this one jane & Frost are investigating the murder of a nurse, just home from work and killed. Maura is doing her bit, examining the body & keeping busy with something she hasn't told Jane about. Hello Jane's mum, I don't remember huge amounts about her before but she certainly steals the show a bit in this one. Curtain twitching or rather a bit more obvious than that she is clocking the new neighbours, something is up and she is going to get to the bottom of it.

Jane & Maura are fab duo, they are so very different in so many aspects and with this one we get another glimpse of that. Their friendship has been tried and tested and this time they are just working the case. We meet a few new characters central and around the story. The chapters bounce between them, named in some chapters for ease to follow for the readers.

Intrigue a plenty, the murder, we have Amy - young accident survivor, protective parents which is no wonder and a mysterious individual ?following Amy or just coincidence they are in the same place. Angela was the show stopper for me, she is a total card, larger than life, feisty, into everything and like a dog with a bone when she feels she is onto something. You can see where Jane gets it from.

The book has plenty to keep the reader hooked, sub plots and stories, characters a plenty but not so much you get distracted. I hope it isn't too long until the next, shocks, surprises and a very good lesson of Listen To Me because you never know just how important something someone tells you is, 4/5 for me this time!

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