The Lives Before Us by Juliet Conlin

The Lives Before Us by Juliet Conlin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 2.5 days

Pages - 400

Publisher - Black & White Publishing

Source - Review copy

Blurb from Goodreads

A beautifully written, sweeping story of survival, community and love ...

It it April 1939, and, in Berlin and Vienna, Esther and Kitty face a brutal choice. Flee Europe, or face the ghetto, incarceration, death.

Shanghai … They’ve heard it whispered that Shanghai might offer refuge. And so, on a crowded ocean liner, these women encounter each other for the first time.

Kitty has been lured to the other side of the world with promises of luxury, love and marriage. But when her Russian fiancé reveals his hand, she’s left to scratch a vulnerable living in Shanghai’s nightclubs and dark corners. Meanwhile, Esther and her daughter shelter in a house of widows until Aaron, a hot-headed former lover, brings fresh hope of survival.

Then, as the Japanese army enters the fray and violence mounts, the women are thrown together in Shanghai’s most desperate times. Together they must fight a future for the lives that will follow theirs.


My Review

Esther and Kitty, two very different girls but both escaping Europe to Shanghai to evade the war. Kitty is running to a new life, a fiance, money, a new home, perfect. Esther has her wee girl, leaving to the unknown but willing to work. On the ship over the ladies meet and forge a connection, a friendship before parting to what awaits them. Things aren't quite as they planned, circumstances change, war rages and as the Japanese soldiers invade their small part of the world we experience the war and injustices through the ladies eyes.

I have to admit my ignorance, I don't know a whole lot about the wars and the history of the world but Shanghai was never an area I read or heard of during these times, World War two in this book. The imagery created by Conlin, in some of the darkest parts you could taste the poverty/filth/deprivation and feel the stark reality and darkness faced by these characters. Emotive is a word I find using more and more when reading these kind of books but in parts of this it evoked raw emotion. The horror these people faced, survived, endured and those who didn't, your breath catches, holds and strains as you inhale word after word rooting for it to go good.

So so many themes in this book but for me the biggest were humanity, relationships and the shape of who we are, how tough humans can be and more importantly just how quick things can turn and change. The strength of humans, the goodness and some of the most horrific aspects especially the antisemitism it really made the hairs of the back of my neck stand and my gorge rise. This was my first dance with this author, it won't be my last, she has a way of pulling the reader right into the settings, location and lives of the characters, 4/5 for me this time.

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Dark Sky Island by Lara Dearman Blog Tour

Today is my stop and closing the blog tour for Dark Sky Island by Lara Dearman, if you haven't checked out the other stops please do as we all offer different content.


Dark Sky Island by Lara Dearman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - in and out over 2 days

Pages - 304

Publisher - Orion

Source - Review Copy

Blurb from Goodreads

An inspector and journalist join forces to uncover long-buried secrets, simmering resentments, and a chilling murder in a tiny, remote island in the English Channel.

The tiny island of Sark lies isolated in the dark waters of the Channel Islands. No cars are allowed. No streetlamps light its paths. It is the world’s only Dark Sky Island. This breathtaking patch of land seems the picture of tranquility—but at its heart lies a web of murder, deceit, and hidden danger.

When bones are discovered on Derrible Bay and an elderly resident is violently murdered, DCI Michael Gilbert from the nearby island of Guernsey is called in to tackle the case. With his department under fire, he needs to find the killer—and fast. Joining him is newspaper reporter Jennifer Dorey, whose father died in a mysterious drowning off the island. As Michael struggles to crack the case and Jennifer launches her own investigation, the island’s residents are left reeling and soon, their dark secrets begin to unravel threatening everything.

On an island steeped in superstition, where tales of hauntings and devil craft abound, Michael and Jenny race to discover the truth in Dark Sky Island, the second tantalizing installment of Lara Dearman’s Jennifer Dorey mysteries.


My Review

Jennifer Dorey is a journalist who has a recent run of being on the other side of the story. Now she is heading back to the island, Sark, to cover a story - the discovery of bones in a cave. Really she is going back for personal reasons, the death of her father, Jenny has never believed it was an accident and now she has a reason for being back and doing a bit of digging. When an islander is brutally murdered Jenny will find she has maybe bitten off a bit more than she can chew as she finds the some things should remain in the past.

This story has a whole host of things going on, small island doesn't want outsiders, one of their own is murdered, unresolved family issues, secrets, lies, death looming around the corner. The reader goes on the journey with Jenny, slowly unravelling the secrets of the island and uncovering bigger issues.

The setting for the story, the authors creative flow, you can visualize it with ease and I so want to go visit, excluding all the issues and bad stuff obviously. There is a lot of history with this book and despite this being my first dance with this author and this being book two, I don't think I missed anything by starting with this one. I will be checking out the first story as I would like more history on the main character but got into the rhythm of this one no bother. It goes at a good pace and has a few layers to the story, atmospheric and keeps the reader on their toes as you may think you have it figured only to have another curve ball chucked at you. Enjoyed reading this author and will be looking out for their other offerings, 4/5 for me this time.

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Perfect Crime by Helen Fields Blog Tour

Today is my turn on the blog tour for "Perfect Crime" by Helen Fields. As you can see there are a lot of us on the tour, please check out the other blog stops, we all offer different content.





For my stop on the tour I have my review.

Perfect Crime by Helen Sarah Fields
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 1.5 days

Pages - 400

Publisher - Avon Books

Source - Arc

Blurb from Goodreads

Stephen Berry is about to jump off a bridge until a suicide prevention counsellor stops him. A week later, Stephen is dead. Found at the bottom of a cliff, DI Luc Callanach and DCI Ava Turner are drafted in to investigate whether he jumped or whether he was pushed…

As they dig deeper, more would-be suicides roll in: a woman found dead in a bath; a man violently electrocuted. But these are carefully curated deaths – nothing like the impulsive suicide attempts they’ve been made out to be.

Little do Callanach and Turner know how close their perpetrator is as, across Edinburgh, a violent and psychopathic killer gains more confidence with every life he takes…



My Review

This is book five in the Callanach and Turner crime/police detective series, if you haven't read the previous book I suggest you do first. You could get away with reading this as a standalone but you have missed so much of the history I think you would enjoy it more if you knew the back stories.

So this book features suicide themes and some very brutal and graphic murders. Callanach and Turner are investigating what initially looks like suicide(s), as the body count rises they have to consider they have a soulless killer in Edinburgh who is escalating in brutality with every kill. The investigation is on and as with the previous books we also get the personal life of the detectives. Callanach has his own personal investigation ongoing which brings his career and home life together in a way that will threaten everything he has worked so hard on.

I think fans of the series will be delighted we are getting some light shed on somethings left over from the previous books. Emotive, gorey, provocative, murder, suicide, police procedural, friendship, relationship, secrets and that is just some of what this book packs in. I am a Fields fan, this is a page turner and I cannot wait to see what is in store next for the characters. 4.5/5 for me this time, roll on the next.

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Baxter's Requiem by Matthew Crow Blog Tour

Today is my turn on the blog tour for Baxter's Requiem by author Matthew Crow, this is a Random Things Tour.




About the book

A tender, witty, uplifting story about friendship, family and community written with great humour that will appeal to fans of Rachel Joyce, Ruth Hogan and Joanna Cannon. Let me tell you a story, about a man I knew, and a man I know... Mr Baxter is ninety-four years old when he falls down his staircase and grudgingly finds himself resident at Melrose Gardens Retirement Home. Baxter is many things - raconteur, retired music teacher, rabble-rouser, bon viveur - but 'good patient' he is not. He had every intention of living his twilight years with wine, music and revelry; not tea, telly and Tramadol. Indeed, Melrose Gardens is his worst nightmare - until he meets Gregory. At only nineteen years of age, Greg has suffered a loss so heavy that he is in danger of giving up on life before he even gets going. Determined to save the boy, Baxter decides to enlist his help on a mission to pay tribute to his longlost love, Thomas: the man with whom he found true happiness; the man he waved off to fight in a senseless war; the man who never returned. The best man he ever knew. With Gregory in tow Baxter sets out on a spirited escape from Melrose, bound for the war graves of Northern France. As Baxter shares his memories, the boy starts to see that life need not be a matter of mere endurance; that the world is huge and beautiful; that kindness is strength; and that the only way to honour the dead, is to live. Baxter's Requiem is a glorious celebration of life, love and seizing every last second we have while we're here.


Buy Link from Amazon, click HERE.




About the author

Matthew Crow was born and raised in Newcastle. Having worked as a freelance journalist since his teens he has contributed to a number of publications including the Independent on Sunday and the Observer. He has written for adults and YA. His book My Dearest Jonah, was nominated for the Dylan Thomas Prize.

For my stop I have my review :D Baxter's Requiem by Matthew Crow
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 1 day

Pages - 248

Publisher - Corsair

Source - Review copy

Blurb from Goodreads

Let me tell you a story, about a man I knew, and a man I know...

Mr Baxter is ninety-four years old when he falls down his staircase and grudgily finds himself resident at Melrose Gardens Retirement Home.

Baxter is many things - raconteur, retired music teacher, rabble-rouser, bon viveur - but 'good patient' he is not. He had every intention of living his twilight years with wine, music and revelry; not tea, telly and Tramadol. Indeed, Melrose Gardens is his worst nightmare - until he meets Gregory.

At only nineteen years of age, Greg has suffered a loss so heavy that he is in danger of giving up on life before he even gets going.

Determined to save the boy, Baxter decides to enlist his help on a mission to pay tribute to his long-lost love, Thomas: the man with whom he found true happiness; the man he waved off to fight in a senseless war; the man who never returned. The best man he ever knew.

With Gregory in tow Baxter sets out on a spirited escape from Melrose, bound for the war graves of Northern France. As Baxter shares his memories, the boy starts to see that life need not be a matter of mere endurance; that the world is huge and beautiful; that kindness is strength; and that the only way to honour the dead, is to live.

Baxter's Requiem is a glorious celebration of life, love and seizing every last second we have while we're here.


My Review

At ninety four years old Baxter is set in his ways, grumpy, no time for nonsense and likes what he likes. When a fall down the stairs sees him in a retirement home until he is able enough to go back to his own home he is forced amongst people and routine. He meets young Gregory, a young chap who starts work in the home, quiet, shy and a tad withdrawn. Baxter makes it his mission to break down Gregory's barriers and enlist him to help deal with something from his own past.

Gregory is a sweet kid under the outward exterior, dealing with a loss and struggling to have a relationship with his father. His life is very limited and lonely, possibly what draws Baxter. Baxter is a great character, funny in a grumpy no nonsense way he has a plan and the retirement home rules nor his age will stop him. An unlikely friendship grows and both men help each other deal with things in their lives, Gregory's now and Baxter's from the past.

We flip to Baxter's past, how he obtained his fortune and his one true love he never got to say goodbye to, Thomas. Called to war he never returned home and Baxter, knowing he doesn't have time to waste, wants to say goodbye.

Funny, sad, poignant, friendship, past, present, overcoming barriers and a whole host of emotion for these two main characters. It is a nice read, flipping between past and present, I would have liked the book to be longer, learned more about Baxter and Gregory but they always say a good author will leave you wanting more. This was my first time reading Crow, it won't be my last, I will be looking up his other works, 3.5/5 for me this time.

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The Pale Ones by Bartholomew Bennett Blog Tour

Today is my stop on the blog tour for The Pale Ones by Bartholomew Bennett, we all offer different content so if you haven't checked the other stops please do.




About the book:

A startlingly fresh and accomplished literary debut in the socio-satirical tradition of Rosemary’s Baby and Jordan Peele’s Get Out, The Pale Ones addresses the parlous state of the modern gig economy, and the enormity of the deal forced by big tech upon the marginalized, the precarious and the excluded. As Britain’s social landscape is remade around us, horror fiction offers a unique perspective on what ails us. The Pale Ones is a modern parable of the deal-with-the-devil we have accepted from the tech giants who dominate our economy, exploiting the low-paid and self-employed. A young freelance bookseller on the make falls under the spell of an older expert, Harris, who isn’t at all what at first he seems. The book takes us on a journey through the edgelands of the UK and the lives of the losers in our current social contract, where we quickly discover that it is not only secondhand books lining the shelves of the high street charity shops that are up for sale. Blending the longstanding UK tradition of ghostly ‘Weird Fiction’ (MR James, Arthur Machen, Robert Aickman) with the social bite of the contemporary US indie horror renaissance (Get Out, It Follows) and the literary heft of the new horror (Mark Danielewski, Paul Tremblay), The Pale Ones is a modern British triumph.

Available to buy ebook and tree book format from Amazon HERE




About the Author:

Bartholomew Richard Emenike Bennett was born in Leicester, the middle son of an American father and English mother. He has studied and worked in the US and New Zealand, and has a First Class Honours degree in Literature from the University of East Anglia. The Pale Ones is his first published work, although he has been writing fiction, long-form and short, since 2002. • compelling parallels to Roald Dahl’s Tales of the Unexpected • novella size perfect to read in one sitting on short journeys • horror genre of specific interest to those drawn by weird tales and the occult

The Pale Ones by Bartholomew Bennett
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time Taken to Read - 1 day

Pages - 128

Publisher - Inkandescent

Source - Review Copy

Blurb from Goodreads

Pulped fiction just got a whole lot scarier…

Few books ever become loved. Most linger on undead, their sallow pages labyrinths of old, brittle stories and screeds of forgotten knowledge. And other things besides...

Paper-pale forms that rustle softly through their leaves. Ink-dark shapes swarming in shadow beneath faded type. And an invitation...

Harris delights in collecting the unloved. He wonders if you'd care to to donate. A small something for the odd, pale children no-one has seen. An old book, perchance? Neat is sweet; battered is better.

Broken spine or torn binding, stained or scarred - ugly doesn't matter. Not a jot. And if you’ve left a little of yourself between the pages – a receipt or ticket, a mislaid letter, a scrawled note or number — that’s just perfect. He might call on you again.

Hangover Square meets Naked Lunch through the lens of a classic M. R. James ghost story. To hell and back again (and again) via Whitby, Scarborough and the Yorkshire Moors. Enjoy your Mobius-trip.



My Review

Told in first person narration the book dealer obtains and sells second hand books always looking for an overlooked special edition. It brings him into the path of Harris another collector of books, a dealer who isn't exactly what he seems. The narrator is taken on one of the weirdest and challenging journey's with Harris, along with the reader, not knowing what is coming and often not knowing what is happening.

This is by far one of the most unique/different books I have read, I felt like I was on a bit of a trip not knowing what was happening and having to re read what I had read. There are subtle hints, subtext that if you aren't paying attention you may well miss. Craftily written this debut has an unnerving feel pretty much from the beginning, something is afoot, danger is looming you (and the narrator) just aren't sure what or where it is coming from.

The writing style itself is also something I haven't came across before and I have read thousands of books. Instead of speech quotation the author has gone for Em dash (longer version of a dash) at the start of any speaking character, only at the start with a full stop really the only thing at the end of the sentence. That took me a wee bit to get used to but it made sure I paid attention to the words I was taking in, a smart trick.

There is uncertainty in almost every conversation with Harris and I had so many ideas about his motivations, his actions and what was happening in a scene only to re read it and change my mind to something else. I think this would make for a great reading group choice because there are so many potential conclusions to their interactions, the character(s), the actions I think you could debate almost ever scene. Creepiness seeps through every other sentence, pushing the reader and book seller to a shocking finale, 3/5 for me this time. It will be interesting to see what Bennett creates next, I will be watching!

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Happy Easter you guys

I hope whatever you have done today you have had a great day, I woke up and o/h had left an easter egg on the pillow next to me, he is an absolute wee chop.





Today has been very mixed for me, we are currently installing a new kitchen, neither of us do this by trade. The cupboards are off the wall (top ones) and the new ones are now out the box. They aren't the sizes advertised on the website which is just a nitemare as we already started drilling *sigh*. Then I smashed one of my fav candle burners whilst cleaning, o/h saved the day and asked where I got it PickNMelt and the wee chop ordered me a brand new one. These guys are great to work with, professional, polite, really helpful and the scents are amazing. I have a few burners but this one is one of my favs, so easy to clean (the top lifts off and the only thing that survived the epic smash).




I had a lovely secret bunny gift from an exchange in a book group on FB and was spoilt. So with that and to cheer me up for my burner getting wrecked I am doing a wee giveaway. Easter/Game of Thrones themed, two great things.





As pictured, up for grabs is a dragon bookmark (apparently the lighter beads charge with the sun), a wee packet of mini eggs and a Game of Thrones keyring. Good luck guys, open worldwide, use Rafflecopter to enter.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Echo Killing by Christi Daugherty

The Echo Killing by Christi Daugherty
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - as and when able over 4 days

Pages - 439

Publisher - Harper Collins

Source - Review copy

Blurb from Goodreads

When a murder echoing a fifteen-year-old cold case rocks the Southern town of Savannah, crime reporter Harper McClain risks everything to find the identity of this calculated killer.

A city of antebellum architecture, picturesque parks, and cobblestone streets, Savannah moves at a graceful pace. But for Harper McClain, the timeless beauty and culture that distinguishes her home’s Southern heritage vanishes during the dark and dangerous nights. She wouldn’t have it any other way. Not even finding her mother brutally murdered in their home when she was twelve has made her love Savannah any less.

Her mother’s killer was never found, and that unsolved murder left Harper with an obsession that drove her to become one of the best crime reporters in the state of Georgia. She spends her nights with the police, searching for criminals. Her latest investigation takes her to the scene of a homicide where the details are hauntingly familiar: a young girl being led from the scene by a detective, a female victim naked and stabbed multiple times in the kitchen, and no traces of any evidence pointing towards a suspect.

Harper has seen all of this before in her own life. The similarities between the murder of Marie Whitney and her own mother’s death lead her to believe they’re both victims of the same killer. At last, she has the chance to find the murderer who’s eluded justice for fifteen years and make sure another little girl isn’t forever haunted by a senseless act of violence―even if it puts Harper in the killer’s cross-hairs…


My Review

Meet Harper McClain, one of the best crime reporters in the business, good relationships with the police (unheard of eh!) and nothing gets in the way of a story. We meet her when there is a shooting and quickly get the scope of her character, hard as nails and putting herself in the middle of danger for a story. When a murder of a house wife in an affluent area goes down, gold for reporters, Harper wants to low down. When she realises how much it mirrors a crime from the past, one with personal links for Harper she risks literally everything to get to the bottom of it.

So, we get an insight into reporters and some of the things they say in regards to the people's stories they cover, ooft! We watch a highly professional individual go through emotional turmoil and recklessness as she stops at nothing to get answers. It is a good paced story and we have a female character who is pretty head strong, forceful but dealing with her own past, personal feelings vs the job, pushing boundaries and really crossing more than a few lines along the way.

I think for book one it sets up some good foundations, we get to know her and her background. Things that matter to her, how far she is willing to go. It was interesting to read a book from the reporters perspective, the books I read are often the police or criminals, not too often I get it fro this angle. It will be interesting to see where the author takes the next book, 3/5 for me this time, this was my first dance with this author and I will be checking out the next book in the series.

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