Happy June and May reads

Can you believe it is June already! This year is flying by. So I have seen on many blogs, round ups, a highlight of all the books the person has read the previous month. As I am pretty much house bound (and couch bound for the best part of my days just now) I thought this would be a good thing to try. In total I read twelve books in May, not counting the one I finished today, that will go as book one in June!







Before I do, I thought I would show you the book I am starting June with (I finished my book earlier today but started that in May so it goes into May's reads). Look at my wee reading "corner" basically Princess Trixie's side of the couch with a blankey (far too hot to use tonight), my fab cushion my lovely pal Jaime got me and miss paws. The book is "The Intruder" by author P. S. Hogan, I believe this is the only book by this author so far.







My first book of May was The Rebel by author Jamie Raven - 4/5 stars, click here for my review. I had read this author before and like but hadn't loved the story, this one was fantastic and I plan to go for the back catalogue.





My Sister's Secret by Tracy Buchanan, 4/5 for me you can read my review here. Family secrets, duo timeline - past and present, relationships, a first for me with this author, it won't be my last.





The Girl in the Ice by Robert Bryndza, 4/5 for me, you can read my review HERE. Another first, first time reading this author, first in a series you can read my review here. I kept hearing about this from readers and bloggers in The Crime Book Club book group on Facebook.





Ararat by Christopher Golden, 3/5 for me. I apparently didn't write a review for this one :O however it is a supernatural, spooky, murder story taking place up a mountain in Turkey. Very atmospheric, the blurb can be found HERE from Goodreads.





Meet me at the Museum by Anne Youngson, 3.5/5 for me, you can read my review HERE. A genteel novel, composed in letters between two people who spark up a friendship and go on journeys of personal growth.





A Bargain in Silver by Josie Jaffrey, 3.5/5 for me. You can read my review HERE. This is a series with vampires and weepers, weepers are like zombies and infecting the human race, the vampires need to protect their food source and so it begins. This is the first book in a series.





Host by Robin Cook was only 2.5/5 for me, you can read my review HERE. I did like the medical aspects of this book and I plan to read more by him however I had issues with some of the interactions and actions of some of the characters. If you have read it I would love to hear your thoughts.





Darker by E L James, 3/5 for me, you can read my review HERE. This is book two of the Fifty Shades books told from Christian's point of view. I never got all the hate for the original books and the abuse stuff, however, reading from his pov I can see some folk will have issues with him/it. If you liked the original I think you will enjoy this, it fills in some of the gaps.





Beyond the Sea by Melissa Bailey, 4/5 for me, you can read my review HERE. This wee book sat on my review pile for a long time, I wish I had read it earlier. A mother struggles with her grief and returns to the Hebridean Island to deal with it. The story also deals with legends, mermaid myths and I just loved that.





Dead Girls by Graeme Cameron, 3.5/5 for me, you can read my review HERE. This is book two in a series, well I hope there will be more, it is very different from book one but I think fans will still enjoy it.





The Girls by Lori Lansens, 3.5/5 stars, you can read my review HERE. This is a story about two sisters who are conjoined, craniopagus twins. From their medical issues, family history, relationships, it is a very touching story and I love when you learn about things from a fiction book.





The Coven by Graham Masterton, 4/5 for me, you can read my review HERE. Set in the 1700s we have a widow who goes to work at a refuge for "fallen women", before long she is caught up in claims of witchcraft, missing people and threats to herself. She is a fantastic strong female character and I liked it so much I am going to buy book one, I hadn't realised this was book two.


And there you have it folks, that was my May's reading, a relatively mixed bag. I would recommend them all, even if I don't love a book I know it comes down to personal taste and what wasn't for me why be loved by another. This is my first ever round up post, not sure I will ever do another lol, it took ages and my screen kept freezing/crashing. What books have you read in the last month? Have you read any of the above? Hope you guys are having a great day whatever you are up to.

Lets Talk Reviews and Bloggers

I love social media, there is so much good on it but lets face it, there is also a lot of negative stuff out there too. Lately there has been a lot of negativity surrounding bloggers, blogger bashing has been rife and the old chestnut of SPOILER REVIEWS! So lets talk about it a bit, strap in guys this could get long!




So, why so much hate for bloggers? The thing I hear over and over is "I want to hear from REAL READERS, not bloggers!" So I will address this first and why it causes upset. We ARE REAL READERS, we are real people, we have lives, families, jobs, pets, obsessions but when anyone is called fake, and repeatedly so, it does get upsetting as we are human beings. I think the problem is some people confuse book bloggers with say life style bloggers, beauty bloggers and the like who DO GET PAID to do reviews, book bloggers do not. There are a handful of book bloggers out there who charge, and some do so underhandedly which is always wrong. If you are paid to review something, you need to declare it. Some authors are still getting caught out with this, over at Book Connectors (a group for authors and trusted bloggers), one of our members, the lovely Amanda from Go Book Yourself created a logo (see on the left hand side). We do what we do because we love books, reviews are honest and FREE, please do not pay for reviews. I think maybe the confusion is they think we get paid so we must be lying, or they only see the books we love so assume it must be a lie? Trying to engage people about this is frustrating because certainly on Facebook the most vocal wouldn't engage in the why. As BT used to say, it is good to chat and the best way to get to the root of a problem is to gab, communicate, talk, some of my fav things!





So what is a Book Blogger? A book blogger is a real reader, a person who loves reading but where some readers would read a book and move on or tell a friend over a cuppa, a book blogger will write about it, shout about it on their blog, tweet etc. Now here is where we differ a wee bit, some book bloggers only post about the books they love on their blogs, I tend to do all of mine. A lot of book bloggers got into blogging for different reasons, for some it is a hobby, some to keep tags on what they read, some it has helped with social/health issues. We all blog for different reasons and that is ok, some will only blog the books they loved and again for different reasons. Yes they read books they didn't like and some may still rate them on Goodreads, some will just delete them from their shelves. Some feel that an author has spent so long writing a book they have loved they can't bring themselves to say anything if they can't say anything positive and that is ok too.





Me and mine is a wee bit different. I try to review all the books I read and if it is a review copy I feel I owe it to the author, if I DNF (did not finish) I now private message publisher or author instead of reviewing a book I didn't complete. I used to review absolutely everything, even DNF books however after many debates, chats, discussions I no longer do. I once was party to a chat with authors who said they gave out over 300 copies (downloads) of their books out to readers for honest reviews and got a handful of feedback, reviews and the silence was the worst. Had folk hated the books? Downloaded but not got to yet? (review piles easily get into the hundreds) Was it not for them? Silence they can't work with and I personally think all reviews have their place, excluding trolls, author bashing and spoiler reviews (I will come back to them!). If you are constructive, most authors are happy to have feedback, something didn't work for you, why? It is ok to not all love the same thing, we never will, even classics, well known authors, masterpieces have critics and low ratings because even if you are Picasso you will never please everyone, ever! However, it doesn't hurt to be polite, I do reviews from 1-5 star ratings, I make sure authors read my review policy before asking for a review. I will always be honest in my reviews and what doesn't work for me can be hugely popular for others. But I would never bash an author, no one should, you are not what you eat and an author is not what they write. Whilst I think everyone should be allowed to review a book how they feel slagging an author and questioning their morality because they write horror or graphic scenes/books is unacceptable. Be honest not rude.





And now, the SPOILER REVIEWS! Oh guys it doesn't matter if you are "just a reader" or "just a blogger", we are as well to just burn the books to be honest if we are dropping spoilers.





I cannot imagine why anyone who loves books (or movies) would do this. Speaking to an author this morning and someone left them a review saying they had seen a spoiler for their book and as a result won't be reading ANY of their books! How horrible is that, for the reader having a whole series or author ruined for them, for the author, having all those weeks/months/years of work ruined because someone decided to giveaway the plot.





Read your books, if you review please think about what you write, low or high ratings just please do not include spoilers, only a handful of people will go on to read a book that has been ruined for them. Don't be that person. If you don't know about bloggers, ask, but in short, we are readers who just geek a wee bit more by being more vocal. Support your authors, buy their books, if finances are hard (we have all been there) use your libraries. We are still supporting our authors and keeping libraries alive. Book Bloggers are people, we love chatting books, if you want to ask them something just do it, we love books and most of us love gabbing. I love meeting fellow bookworms and met so many great folk through virtual book clubs, book events (LOVE THEM) are great, get involved. But above all, just do what you do, enjoy reading, we are all book lovers and book worms whether we blog/review or not and spread the love for the printed word xxx

Wee catch up

February hasn't been the most active with posts on here as you may have noticed if you are a regular visitor to the blog, I also have only read 5 books this month which, for me, isn't a lot considering I had some time off. Well there has been lots going on and most recently has been with Princess Trixie (the adorable kitty that features on here).





We took her in for her check up, she is 16 has stage 3 kidney failure and every day we get is one more than we expected but she had been grand. It wasn't great news, her health had deteriorated, her weight dropped 7%, her eyesight was going, arthritis is getting worse and starting in her front legs. We left and it was pretty emotional however she got some strong painkillers which seen her rally the last time & they took some bloods.





We got a phone call from the vet on Saturday to say all bloods were much better than expected, we were going out to celebrate a friends big birthday so it turned into a double celebration. And what better way to celebrate than with my fav drink and a wee goblet with a super cool nerdy bottle opener.





One night after her painkillers and we had a very playful kitty, if you follow us on Instagram (Always_reading) you can see a wee video of her!





So now that we have our blog mascot fighting fit for another day, I am considering trying a new feature as I don't know about you but I LOVE seeing peoples furbabies and books so watching this space. Now I can concentrate on reading I can get stuck into the ever growing TBR list and I have some time off coming up which is just as well with all the incoming reviews.





Today will be catching up on my reviews, I have already posted my thoughts on Rattle, the new debut by Fiona Cummins and hoping to get another few up and finish my current read. I wanted something a bit different and it has been a while since I added to my zombie reads so today is Underground from the ZomB series by Darren Shan.

Review - Before I Say Goodbye by Mary Higgins Clark

Blurb from the back cover

Voices from the dead...secrets from the past ...

Nell McDermott is devastated when the cabin cuiser of her husband, architect Adan Cauliff, blows up with him and three others on board.  As the investigation into the boat's explosion proceeds, she learns that it was not an accident but a bomb.

The last time she saw Adam, they had a bitter quarrel over her plan to embark on a political career.  Wracked with guilt over her last harsh words to Adam, she overcomes her scepticism and responds to a message from a medium claiming to be his channel.

While trying to unravel the threads of Adam's past and his violent end, Nell continues to see the medium, who transmits messages to her with instructions from Adam.  the story reaches a powerful climax in Nell's final encounter with the medium, in which she leanrs the truth about the explosion -a truth she can't be allowed to live and tell.......


-----------------------------

my review

I am torn between giving this a 2 or 3 star rating.  The start of the book was fine, fairly decent pace to getting the story started and building a bit of background.  However I feel that it took an age to get to the good stuff and it dragged a lot.  There was quite a few things going on, psychic vibrations and mediums so you thought the ghost aspect was going to be quite big (in a sense it was but not what I exected given from the blurb on the back).  Also there was a lot of individual side stories going on which does happen in a lot of books but normally they get to a huge build up and they all link in together, I don't feel this happened in this book.

There was a lot that I felt didn't need to be in the story and it was a bit pointless although some of it did link up near the end but it took forever to get there.  The last say quarter of the book it did really pick up though and it kicked off and became exciting which is where I feel a 3 rating is justified but getting there was a slog which is why I considered a 2.

I have read MHC a few times and really enjoyed her books but this one for me was hardwork and dare I say it a bit boring until the latter part of the book.  It won't put my off reading anymore of her books and I did in the end enjoy it it just took far too long to get to the point, 3/5 for me.

Review Promise Me by Harlan Coben

Myran Bolitar and his trusty sidekick Win are on another case. This time it isn't one of their clients, it's a friends loved one who seems to have vanished and Myron was the last one with her.

The story really kicks off when Myron is called in the early hours of the morning by his friends teenage daughter whom he promised if she needed help no questions asked just call. He gets more than he bargains for when he drops her off at an unknown address and she goes missing. The police have their suspicions and Myron is the number one suspect, it doesn't look good. Myron starts digging to find out what happened to Aimee and if it is linked to another girls disappearance and gets caught up in a tangled web of danger, murder and family secrets.

This is the 8th book in a series although you don't necessarily have to have read the previous books to follow this one and it does give you a history on the business and his relationships with Win and his co workers. Good paced, easy to follow and some pretty good unexpected twists. 4/5 for me.

Review Beyong Exile (day by day Armageddon) by J L Bourne

This is the second book in the journey of a mans survival in a world over run by the dead. Again as with the first book we are reading his journal entries day by day and sometimes more than one entry per day.

It picks up where the first book has left off (with a small recap of the previous incase you hadn't read it). When you think most of the fast pace and excitement was covered in the first book you would be wrong, my heart has been thumping reading this one.

More nerve wracking situations as the survivors try to keep ahead of the dead, get supplies and maintain some(any) kind of normal existance. We are introduced to more characters and more depth of those we know and knew, and heart stopping action all in the name of survival.

I love this book and was not disappointed, sometimes with sequels it can drag or you are let down but this is definately not the case this time. I was hooked from book one and continue to be so, great paced and well written.

5/5 for me.

Another new author?

I was browsing through the blogs on here and came across one called Murder by 4. A blog that interviews authors and the most recent was Raff Ellis. After reading a lot of reviews on here and discovering so many authors I have never heard of what makes this one stand out? The authors story of how he sells books "one at a time" He carries a business card and passes it out on his travels. It was the story of one older lady he met on a plane, how he took the time to chat with her, mentioned his book and gave her his card. His book was in his case already checked in and he thought that would be the end of it. A month later he gets a letter from the lady saying she bought his book and loved it. This lady will now have a story to tell everytime she talks about her book and some free publicity for the author but how nice is it to have an author take time out and promote his book on a one to one basis like that!

Wether it is the kind of genre I would read or not I will give it a go because I like the way he does his promotion!

I found the interview here http://murderby4.blogspot.com/2011/04/how-do-we-sell-books-one-at-time.html and there is a listing of authors upcoming chats too. I just thought it was nice and would share.