The Hospital by Leslie Wolfe

The Hospital by Leslie Wolfe
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 2 days

Pages - 322

Publisher - Bookouture

Source - Review copy & bought one

Blurb from Goodreads

I should feel safe here. I don’t.

I thought I had it all. The loving husband I married on a beach, sand between my toes. The career I fought for. The beautiful home tucked away between pines and mountains.

But my perfect life crumbled when my husband betrayed me. And then it started. Everywhere I went, someone was following me… But no one believed me. Were they right? Was I losing my mind?

Then, one day, I wake up with a searing pain in my head, and only the sound of sirens and distant conversations to pierce my confusion.

I’ve been attacked. I’m in the hospital.

It should be reassuring. But all I can think is: I’m trapped.

I must escape. But I know I can’t trust anyone, and I’ll do whatever it takes to save myself.

You will never see the twists coming in this jaw-on-the-floor gasp-out-loud rollercoaster from the no.1 bestselling author of The Surgeon. Fans of Freida McFadden, Lisa Jewell and Shari Lapena won’t be able to put it down!



My Review

She is running, she is injured, she wakes in a hospital, unable to move, unable to see - she can talk but that is about it. She knows she was attacked and she knows she isn't safe, how can she protect herself when she doesn't know who hurt her and can't get her body to move.

So the book bounces between the main character Emma confined to a hospital bed, immobile and we hear from the bad guy, the person who committed the atrocity against Emma and they are OBSESSED! So we know Emma was assaulted and almost died and now is essentially locked in, cared for around the clock, frustrated with her lack of memory and her body's brokenness. We bounce around as she grasps for her memories, tries to get any kind of movement going and frantically find out who is after her.

I did take a bit to settle into the book as the narrator is so unreliable, she has a traumatic brain injury so we are finding out about her as she is. Things jump around a bit which I found a wee bit distracting but I think it adds strength to the character, you are meant to be unsettled and frustrated because she is and it is her story. I had suspicious/guesses galore, I was a bit like when watching an episode of Murder She Wrote lol, I have about twenty theories so one ought to stick!

Some shady characters, cheating, manipulation, frustration, health/recovery (or lack of) and processing her past as it is all coming back to her slowly as she is confined to body and bed. I would say the last quarter really came into its own so I was back and fourth on my rating. I am going for 3.5/5 (I added the .5 because the later part really was WOW, well for me anyway). This was my first by this author, it won't be my last.

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Missing Pieces by Tim Weaver blog tour

Today is my stop on the blog tour for Missing Pieces by Tim Weaver, just out, click HERE to order from Amazon.


Missing Pieces by Tim Weaver
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 1 day

Pages - 512

Publisher - Michael Joseph

Source - ARC

Blurb from Goodreads

Rebekah Murphy has been missing for five months. Why is no one looking for her?
________

Rebekah Murphy knows too much . . .

She knows she's alone on an abandoned island with a killer on her trail.
She knows that to get home, she must live to understand why this is happening.
She knows someone tried to kill her for a secret.

What she doesn't know is what that secret is . . .

Detective Frank Travis doesn't know enough . . .

He doesn't know where to find Louise Mason.
He doesn't know how and why she vanished into thin air three months ago.
He doesn't know the identity of the man last seen talking to her.

What he does know is that he retires in one week - and if he doesn't find out where Louise went, no one will . . .

What neither Rebekah nor Detective Travis realize is that each holds a missing piece from the same puzzle - and it will cost them everything to finally solve it . . .



My Review


Rebekah is running, running for her life, she is hurt - she is desperate and other than that we don't really know what is going on, that is the opening chapter. We flip to the before and learn about Rebekah, her life and what takes her eventually to the Island, where she is now present day. The chapters flip between Rebekah trying to survive and then, the past as we run up to the present. Someone wants Rebekah dead, she is stranded on an Island alone and can't imagine why anyone would want to hurt her let alone kill her. Rebekah wasn't alone when she arrived so where is her brother and where is the person she is running from?

The then lets us know Rebekah's current relationship, stressors, family life, the now is her trying to survive on a deserted island, harsh elements, loneliness. There are twists, timeline jumps, little nuggets *missing pieces* of information as you delve further into the story.

There is a whole ton of mystery, different paces depending on if you are past or present & add into that we have Detective Frank Travis who is due to retire soon. Frank is looking into the disappearance of a missing artist who has a link to Rebekah's brother and is desperate to finish the case before he goes. Could Rebekah's family have had anything to do with her current predicament? I found myself flipping back and forth on theories and unwilling to put the book down because I wanted to know, just like Rebekah who, why and is she going to get out of it. 4/5 for me, this was my first time reading this author, I would read him again!

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Blood Games by Richard Laymon

Blood Games by Richard Laymon
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 1 day

Pages - 467

Publisher - Headline Feature

Source - Bought online

Blurb from Goodreads

Laymon's restored version of his 1992 horror novel that tells of a group of former college friends who hold a reunion at a deserted resort lodge only to find they're sharing it with a maniac. — They meet for one week every year, five young women, best friends since college, in search of fun and thrills. Each year they choose a different place for their reunion. This year it's Helen's choice, and she chose the Totem Pole Lodge. Bad choice. The Totem Pole Lodge is a deserted resort hotel deep in the woods with a gory, shocking past Helen has a macabre streak and she can't wait to tell her friends all about what happened at the lodge and why it's now abandoned. But Helen and the others are in for a nasty surprise. The resort isn't quite as deserted as they think. And not all the gruesome events at the Totem Pole Lodge are in its past. The worst are still to come....


My Review

Five friends from college meet up every year, each year one picks what the groups does and they all go, no questions asked. This year is Helen's turn, Helen loves horror and what better choice than an abandoned lodge that was the site of a massacre. The girls arrive and after a while they realise they aren't alone and soon fighting for their lives.

Helen, Cora, Vivian, Finley and Abilene explore the lodge and go over some of their past exploits, including how they met and bonded in college. With each throwback the reader is given a potential suspect of who may want to get even with them. Or is there something more evil lurking at the lodge? The suspense and eerie atmosphere it present almost from the beginning, you can feel the hair standing up on the back of your neck as you get deeper into the story. The split timeline is easy to follow as the chapters are well earmarked.

There are a fair few themes in the book, mystery, horror, murder, sexual encounters, friendship, revenge and pushing the limits. I found some of the sex stuff wasn't really required although I suppose when the group got together it brought back when they were carefree and a bit more risky. There are plenty of creepy moments in the book , I have always loved checking out old abandoned buildings, after this I may reconsider that.

I forgot how much I enjoyed Laymon's writing, he creates characters and places that just draw you in, almost from the first chapter. 3.5 out of 5 for me this time, I need to buy up more of his books and reacquaint. Perfect for a night wrapped up in the blanket with some candles and just freak yourself right out.

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Review - Hunted by Karen Robards

Hunted by Karen Robards
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 9 days (on and off)

Publisher - Hodder & Stoughton

Pages - 336

Goodreads blurb

Caroline Wallace is one of New Orleans PD's top hostage negotiators, and she's never failed to get every hostage out alive. But this time, it's different. This time, the hostages include her boss - the chief of police - and the mayor. And this time, she's trying to negotiate with Reed Ware, a former co-worker who left the force disgraced, under investigation by Internal Affairs, and worst of all, considered to be volatile and extremely dangerous. As police snipers arrive on the scene and manage to get a clear shot of Reed, Caroline knows she only has a few moments left to persuade the hot-headed, reckless (and extremely handsome) Reed to let the hostages go and turn himself in before anyone gets hurt. When the SWAT team runs out of patience and launches an attack, Reed takes Caroline hostage and manages to escape with her in the chaos.

During the escape, Reed reveals to Caroline that he's uncovered corruption at the highest levels of the police department and New Orleans city government, and those involved will stop at nothing to keep him from exposing what he knows...including murder. Now, the normally cool, calm, by-the-book Caroline is forced to question everything she thought she knew about her job and her city and join Reed on the run...putting both her life - and her heart - in jeopardy.


My Review

Karen Robbard's is an author I have read once before, she mixes a high paced crime with romance and sex. This time we meet Caroline Wallace, a top police negotiator with the NOPD (New Orleans Police Department). When a cop goes rogue and holds hostage some of the cream of the crop of New Orleans in a mansion on Christmas Eve. Surrounded by bombs and ready to set them off unless his demands are met, Reed Ware, a top police officer who left the police force under investigation of Internal Affairs. What follows is a police chase, the unraveling of why Reed has done what he done, Caroline's job and safety is on the line as well as facing her past and old attraction to Ware when he was on duty for her family when she was a teen.

Well I must say, I was pretty disappointed overall with this story. Caroline seems like a competent negotiator, she recognizes the potential issues she may have when she realizes who the criminal is. Due to a crush on his when he was on police detail with her family when she was a teen and an awkward encounter, however she is an adult now and a professional. The story starts well, it has a good build up and the crime story is set at a good pace. However, once she is kidnapped and the next stage progresses it really, for me, went to pot. She goes from being a professional to almost like a lust filled teenager. A lot of the dialog is about how they brush against each other and how their bodies react and a cat and mouse game of I like him he likes me but we both pretend we don't ensues. Seriously, even if you were attracted to the "perp" your professionalism would keep you right, or the fact he kidnapped you or the fact he had held your father hostage with bombs would.

I think you would have to suspend all rational thought to get on with this book. There was far too much contradiction for me, from the professional to the in lust teenage behavior, to the I like him but will pretend I just don't care all the whilst in a situation where the police are hunting you, oh and you have been kidnapped.

I had enjoyed the last book however this one, for me, was just a bit ridiculous. The characters were more focused on fighting their lust for each other whilst there was numerous descriptions of their body reactions to one another. I wanted to know about the crime as it seemed like a really good story, however the bulk of the book, I felt, was all about Reed and Caroline and the friction and temptations they fought off. 2/5 for me this time.

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