If I Can't Have You by Charlotte Levin

If I Can’t Have You by Charlotte Levin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 3 days as able

Pages - 416

Publisher - Pan

Source - Bought

Blurb from Goodreads

Samuel, the day we met I knew I’d finally found what I’ve been waiting for.

You.

Happiness, at last.

Then you left me.

And now I am alone.

Everyone I love leaves in the end.

But not this time.

I’m not giving up on us.

I’m not giving up on you.

When you love someone, you never let them go.

That’s why for me, this is just beginning.


My Review

Oh this is a dark yin! Our main character is full of secrets, a bit all over the place and I couldn't decide how I felt about her. The book is a bit of a slow burn, teasing out and revealing information about out main character Constance. She works in a doctors surgery, her guy room mate is a bit much and full on at times, Constance is a bit quiet, a people pleaser and actually really complex. She lost her mum, her dad bounced when she was younger and she has so much unresolved issues and emotions. When Samuel joins the surgery Constance notices him quickly and soon things get very tangled, very mixed and very dodgy and dark, strap in guys!

There is so many dark issues, triggering for some and toxic toxic behaviours and people! Obsession, gaslighting, manipulation, grief, stalking, mental health, sa, honestly it is wild but very very dark. Cause and effect, how one persons perception can be so different, how manipulation of people can lead down some dark paths. It is very much an example of play with fire and you will get burnt.

I did struggle with some of this, not because it isn't well done or badly written, more because the people and behaviours are so shocking. It is car crash tv, like you don't want to read or look but you absolutely cannot look away because you HAVE TO KNOW. It is really good but just prepare yourself for a dark shady ride and if you have a shady muppet ex I think you will sympathise with Constance at some points and oooft girl what are you thinking at others, 4.5/5. Wild that this is a debut, it is really well done, total creepy, cringe and breath holding at points but it is a slow burn for a fair bit, prepare!

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The Spirit Engineer by A J West

The Spirit Engineer by A.J. West
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - in and out over 4 days

Pages - 299

Publisher - Duckworth

Source - Bought

Blurb from Goodreads

Belfast, 1914. Two years after the sinking of the Titanic, high society has become obsessed with spiritualism in the form of seances that attempt to contact the spirits of loved ones lost at sea.

William is a man of science and a sceptic, but one night with everyone sat around the circle something happens that places doubt in his heart and a seed of obsession in his mind. Could the spirits truly be communicating with him or is this one of Kathleen’s parlour tricks gone too far?

This early 20th century gothic set in Northern Ireland contains all the mystery and intrigue one might expect from a Sarah Waters novel. Deftly plotted with echoes of The Woman in Black, readers will be thrilled to discover West’s chilling prose.

Based on the true story of William Jackson Crawford and famed medium Kathleen Goligher, and with a cast of characters that include Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini, The Spirit Engineer conjures a haunting tale that will keep readers guessing until the very end.



My Review

William Jackson Crawford, married to Elizabeth and father to three children. Elizabeth still grieves her brother who died on the Titanic and is very spiritual. William is a scientist, one thing leads to another and William gets exposed to the medium Kathleen Golighter. In a twist of events William becomes The Spirit Engineer trying to debunk the seances and spiritual happenings. Everything is seemingly going well, fame, fortune and paid to debunk William finds himself going from scathing sceptic to questioning is the phenomenon real?

Well, I can't say there is many likeable characters, William is actually someone who many a time I wanted to slap and would use the phrase insufferable. The book has death and even a wee shock or two along the way, well I was shocked.

I don't know anything about the real life people featured in the book so I don't know how accurate events/characters are in the book nor their likeness. Was I interested? yes absolutely but I really struggled to like the characters.

The book opens with a dark scene and then takes us back, I completely forgot about that and did immerse in the book, not knowing where it would go. Short chapters and I did enjoy the seances and ghost/haunty parts but I can't say I loved the book, 3/5. It was my first time reading this author, would I read them again, yeah sure.

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Let Me Go by Chelsea Cain

Let Me Go by Chelsea Cain
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 2 days

Pages - 358

Publisher - Minotaur books

Source - Bought

Blurb from Goodreads

Detective Archie Sheridan is about to receive a birthday present from the last person he ever wants to see again: Gretchen Lowell.

The investigation into Jack Reynolds's drug enterprise is heating up and has Archie heading off to attend a masked Halloween party on Jack Reynolds's island, where Susan is a reluctant guest. But the next morning one of the guests is found murdered, and Archie quickly realizes that nothing is what it seems. Only one thing is clear: Gretchen is back, and she's been closer than anyone thinks. On Halloween Eve, with time running out, Archie will have to risk everything, and choose wisely whom to trust, if he and his loved ones are going to live through the night.

My Review

I really enjoy (if that is the right word) the Gretchen/Archie series but read them out of order so this was me going back the way. I think the thing with these books is the psychotic killer is a beautiful female but she is beyond dangerous, she can take out whole teams of trained killers. Her obsession with Archie is something else, gave me Hannibal/Clarise vibes to be fair.

Gretchen is on the loose, there is a killer out there and Archie knows Gretchen is stalking him. He has a "relationship not relationship" with his neighbour and he is just trying to get through yet another day without pills. Poor Archie is really put through it in this book, embarrassed, used, humiliated and always trying to do the right thing.

Mobsters, killers, threats, violence, abuse, sa, the books has just about a bit of everything. Gretchen is ruthless and brutal as usual and we see another glimpse of her madness/obsession levels with Archie, 4/5 for me. Absolutely not for the faint hearted though guys, graphic and brutal!

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Looker by Laura Sims

Looker by Laura Sims
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 1 day

Pages - 182

Publisher - Scribner

Source - Review copy

Blurb from Goodreads


In this taut and thrilling debut, an unraveling woman, unhappily childless and recently separated, becomes fixated on her neighbor—the actress. The unnamed narrator can’t help noticing with wry irony that, though she and the actress live just a few doors apart, a chasm of professional success and personal fulfillment lies between them. The actress, a celebrity with her face on the side of every bus, shares a gleaming brownstone with her handsome husband and their three adorable children, while the narrator, working in a dead-end job, lives in a run-down, three-story walk-up with her ex-husband’s cat.

When an interaction with the actress at the annual block party takes a disastrous turn, what began as an innocent preoccupation spirals quickly, and lethally, into a frightening and irretrievable madness. Searing and darkly witty, Looker is enormously entertaining—at once a propulsive Hitchcockian thriller and a fearlessly original portrait of the perils of envy.




My Review

A shocking insider look at a spiral of mental health and obsession. The protagonist is obsessed with her famous neighbour, from stalking her in real life and online. We get to know her (unnamed protagonist) as she goes about her daily encounters. She has a job, a professor, she is in the midst of a break up, failed IVF attempts and unable to get pregnant are only some of the reasons her o/h has left her.

Despite being a small book it packs a huge emotive punch, she is an unlikeable character and at points I felt sorry for her, others I cringed and another I wanted to slap her. As her obsession spirals so does her personal life and with chaos comes more chaos.

Voyeuristic, shocking, self destructive, disturbing, a psychological thriller with a pace that is hard to label. A descent into madness, we start off in a bad place and it just goes from there, interesting because we go through it with the main character, her view point and how everything is fine despite some very horrific and destructive behaviour until it all comes to a head. I would have loved this book to be longer, I certainly would have appreciated more about what happened next, maybe the author is considering revisiting this character. 3/5 for me, there is a thing in regards to an animal which I just can't, I struggle with anything like that. Otherwise I would recommend and interested to hear what others make of this.

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The Closer I Get by Paul Burston

The Closer I Get by Paul Burston
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 1.5 days

Pages - 311

Publisher - Orenda Books

Source - bought ebook & fellow blogger sent a tree copy

Blurb from Goodreads

Tom is a successful author, but he’s struggling to finish his novel. His main distraction is an online admirer, Evie, who simply won’t leave him alone.
Evie is smart, well read and unstable; she lives with her father and her social-media friendships are not only her escape, but everything she has.
When she’s hit with a restraining order, her world is turned upside down, and Tom is free to live his life again, to concentrate on writing.
But things aren’t really adding up. For Tom is distracted but also addicted to his online relationships, and when they take a darker, more menacing turn, he feels powerless to change things. Because maybe he needs Evie more than he’s letting on.
A compulsive, disturbingly relevant, twisty and powerful psychological thriller, The Closer I Get is also a searing commentary on the fragility and insincerity of online relationships, and the danger that can lurk just one ‘like’ away…


My Review

Tom is an author who seemingly has it all, his first book smashed the sales and he was on everyone's A list. Then when his second didn't do so well and he struggled to write his third he found a boost in Evie an online friend and fan. Things take a sinister turn when Evie goes from friend to foe resulting in a restraining order and going to court. But every story has three sides, his side, her side and the truth.

Ooft what a story and warning about how fame can go wrong, we hear from Evie in first person narrative, her side of the story and to be honest she is a bit of a scary biscuit. Tom's story is told in third narrative and we glimpse the person he is in the before, his friendship with his confident and close friend Emma and how he is "coping" with the whole Evie situation.

The story makes for really uneasy reading as you are hearing both sides, at different timelines, how they react and who they seemingly are with their interactions and actions. Whilst Evie is scary Tom isn't the most likeable character and I found myself questioning a lot of the actions in the book.

Almost from page one I had a sense of unease that grew as the book went on, it is chilling, creepy and may make you think twice when it comes to online interactions. The timeline goes from present day to X amount of time before the court case, all well signposted so you know where you are. If you want a book that will creep you out and keep you reading into the wee hours then look no further, 4/5 for me this time. This was my first dance with this author, it won't be my last!

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House of Skin by Jonathan Janz Blog Tour

Today is my turn on the blog tour for House of Skin, please check out the other stops as we all offer different content.




About the author:




Jonathan Janz grew up between a dark forestand a graveyard, which explains everything. Brian Keene named his debut novel The Sorrows "the best horror novel of 2012." The LibraryJournal deemed his follow-up, House of Skin,"reminiscent of ShirleyJackson's The Haunting of Hill House and Peter Straub's Ghost Story" Since then Jonathan's work has been lauded by writers like Jack Ketchum, Edward Lee, Tim Waggoner, Bryan Smith,and Ronald Kelly. Novels like The Nightmare Girl, Wolf Land, Savage Species,and Dust Devils prompted Thunderstorm Books to sign Jonathan to an eleven-book deal and to give him his own imprint, Jonathan Janz's Shadow Side. His novel Children of the Dark received a starred review in Booklist and was chosen by their board as one of the Top Ten Horror Books of the Year (August2015-September2016). Children of the Dark will soon be translated into German and has been championed by the Library Journal, the School Library Journal,and Cemetery Dance. In early 2017, his novel Exorcist Falls was released to critical acclaim. Jonathan's primary interests are his wonderful wife and his three amazing children,and though he realizes that every author's wife and children are wonderful and amazing, in this case the cliché happens to be true. You can learn more about Janz at www.jonathanjanz.com.

House of Skin by Jonathan Janz
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 1 day

Pages - 312

Publisher - Flame Tree Press

Source - Review Copy

Blurb from Goodreads

All it needs to live again is fresh blood!



Myles Carver is dead. But his estate, Watermere, lives on, waiting for a new Carver to move in. Myles’s wife, Annabel, is dead too, but she is also waiting, lying in her grave in the woods. For nearly half a century she was responsible for a nightmarish reign of terror, and she’s not prepared to stop now. She is hungry to live again…and her unsuspecting nephew, Paul, will be the key.



Julia Merrow has a secret almost as dark as Watermere’s. But when she and Paul fall in love they think their problems might be over. How can they know what Fate—and Annabel—have in store for them? Who could imagine that what was once a moldering corpse in a forest grave is growing stronger every day, eager to take her rightful place amongst the horrors of Watermere?


My Review

When Paul Carver inherits the estate of Watermere he is set for life, estate, money and finally the chance to write the book he has always wanted and escape his mundane life. A family he knew nothing about, his uncle Myles now dead everything is his. The book will be written,, the dead won't rest and Paul will find out why his family was so hated in this wee town.

If you think back to old school horror, the black and white movies on at the weekend in the 80s, hammer horror, haunted houses with eerie back stories you get the feel for House of Skin. We have a duo timeline, current day with Paul and the past with his uncle and the beautiful Annabel. Coveted by many, she is stunning, beautiful a force to be reckoned with, fierce, dark and deadly, Watermere was Annabel's home and Annabel isn't ready to let go.

There is a lot of spooky hair raising scenes, some subtle and as the book progresses the levels of chilling darkness rise. There is also a lot of sex, sexual undertones, obsession, haunting, abuse, some really dark elements of humanity. I think fans of horror will eat this up especially if you like books combined with sex, flips in and out of duo timelines and a building tension, 3.5/5 for me. I have read this author before and will read him again. I think a prequel to this book would be epic and have reached out to the author about it. I think there is so much of this, the past, that would be amazing to explore and uncover it would give readers tons of insight into these characters, I so hope he pens it, fingers crossed.

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The String Diaries by Stephen Lloyd Jones

The String Diaries by Stephen Lloyd Jones
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 1 day

Pages - 416

Publisher - Headline

Source - Waterstones

Blurb from Goodreads

A jumble of entries, written in different hands, different languages, and different times. They tell of a rumour. A shadow. A killer.

The only interest that Oxford Professor Charles Meredith has in the diaries is as a record of Hungarian folklore ... until he comes face to face with a myth.

For Hannah Wilde, the diaries are a survival guide that taught her the three rules she lives by: verify everyone, trust no one, and if in any doubt, run.

But Hannah knows that if her daughter is ever going to be safe, she will have to stop running and face the terror that has hunted her family for five generations.

And nothing in the diaries can prepare her for that.



My Review

Hannah is on the run, something is coming for her, her little girl and her badly hurt husband but what and why? The story opens with Hannah trying to escape a force we do not see but feel the threat of it almost from the first page. We flit chapter to chapter with different timelines, present day (Wales), the 1870's (Hungary) and the 1970's Oxford introducing Hannah's parents and the origins of what they are running from.

It took a wee bit for me to get into the swing of the other stories and I just wanted to get back to Hannah and find out what it is that is chasing them. Slowly, by following the others stories we are introduced to other key characters all providing a better understanding of everything that follows. You soon get caught up in the time period and characters you are reading and wishing each new chapter was back to the previous ones.

It is an interesting story, shapshifters, love, sacrifice, obsession and family are just some of the themes in this book. Many of the scenes are tense, eerie and keep you engaged to see where it is going. I have never read this author before and I will be reading him again, I bought the next book in the series as soon as I finished this one, 4/5 for me this time.

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Rattle by Fiona Cummins

Rattle by Fiona Cummins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 3 days on and off

Pages - 352

Publisher - MacMillan

Blurb from Goodreads

A psychopath more frightening than Hannibal Lecter.

He has planned well. He leads two lives. In one he's just like anyone else. But in the other he is the caretaker of his family's macabre museum.

Now the time has come to add to his collection. He is ready to feed his obsession, and he is on the hunt.

Jakey Frith and Clara Foyle have something in common. They have what he needs.

What begins is a terrifying cat-and-mouse game between the sinister collector, Jakey's father and Etta Fitzroy, a troubled detective investigating a spate of abductions.

Set in London's Blackheath, Rattle by Fiona Cummins explores the seam of darkness that runs through us all; the struggle between light and shadow, redemption and revenge.

It is a glimpse into the mind of a sinister psychopath. And it's also a story about not giving up hope when it seems that all hope is already lost.


My Review

Jake Frith is a special little boy, he has a medical condition that means he needs to be extra careful and not hurt himself. For this reason he has come under the watchful eye of "The Bone Collector" a ruthless killer with one purpose in mind and nothing will get in the way of his goal. Etta Fitzroy is investigating abductions and soon finds herself in a cat and mouse game with a dangerous killer.

For a debut novel this book really packs a punch, we explore a rare medical condition, Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva (FOP) and it is evident how much research the author has sunk into that aspect of the book. I love fiction where you learn something and with anything else, if I come across something I don't know or don't know in detail I will go off and read about it so that ticks boxes here. The object of the killers desire is bone malformation and in this tale, two particular children fit the bill which will make some readers feel uncomfortable. There is also animal abuse mentioned, abuse to children and some of the scenes are very dark, creepy and chilling to say the least.

Etta makes for a great character as she has many flaws, she is determined to get the job done and will do whatever it takes to get the results she needs. I think this really brings the character to life and it shows a writers strength and ability to lift characters off the page. Cummins is definitely worth keeping an eye out for, I hope to see more in the series and look forward to her next offering, 4/5 for me this time.

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