Review - The Trafficked by Lee Weeks

The Trafficked by Lee Weeks

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Time taken to read - 2 days

Blurb From Goodreads

Summoned to meet his boss, rebellious Detective Johnny Mann expects to be told that he is being demoted. Instead he is ordered to lead the investigation into the kidnapping of Amy Tang - the illegitimate daughter of a major player in the skin trade, CK Leung. Mann is reluctant to help - he has crossed paths with CK before- but he has no choice. Nine-year-old Amy is the third child to be kidnapped and held for a vast sum of money, but while the other two children were released after the vast ransom was paid, Amy is still being held captive. Mann's investigation takes him to London, where he teams up with DC Becky Stamp. Within days of his arrival, an arson attack kills twelve women and children. The charred bodies of the victims are found chained to their beds - their injuries rendering them identifiable! What is the link between the kidnapping of Amy in Hong Kong and the deaths of these women and children and can Mann discover the truth before it's too late.


My Review

A young girl goes missing from school, kidnapped and she isn't the first. The difference this time is she is the daughter of CK Leung, head of the Triads. Children have been going missing from different countries and being sold into sex trafficking business, could this be what has happened to Amy or is there something more. Detective Johnny Mann is pulled from vacation to investigate and is soon caught up in a dangerous tangle of lies, deceit and murder.

I do love Lee Weeks books however they do get under your skin and usually leave you pondering on them long after your finished, this book is one of them. Because it involves children being abused and sold for sex (and as usual she paints a pretty graphic picture) it is a bit harder to stay with it, not because it isn't engaging or full on but more because you can picture exactly what is happening.

Detective Mann is his same trade mark character we seen in the first book but we also have insight into why he is the way he is and see his character in a different light. The story is engaging, good paced, filled with drama (and some hardcore scenes that may offend or upset people not used to her work or even those who are because children are involved). The chapters vary in length but all are fairly short which I find helped race through the book. Another good read, 4/5 for me.

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Review - Don't Look Now by Richard Montanari

Don't Look Now by Richard Montanari

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



Time taken to read - 2 days


Blurb From Goodreads

Andrea Heller has been married for seven years, but likes to pretend she's single. She enjoys sitting on her own in bars but there's another couple watching. They call themselves Saila and Pharaoh, but only after sundown. And it is after sundown that some terrible things are happening in the singles clubs in Cleveland. In six months, three women in their twenties have been brutally murdered. And each step that Homicide Detective Jack Paris takes to find their killer draws him closer to the heart of his own forbidden impulses. As the stakes become increasingly personal, Jack knows only one thing for certain. To enter the minds of Saila and Pharaoh is to enter a world from which no one ever fully returns...

My Review

A serial killer is on the loose, and an unusual combination at that. The target, beautiful young business women who all have something in common and all end up brutally murdered with a thin strip of skin removed along with other mutilation. Jack Paris is on the case and half way through gets an unlikely lead that sees the case closed, or is there more to it?

I usually really enjoy Richard Montanari but I was really disappointed with this one. The characters I couldn't seem to connect with or have any feelings for at all other than puzzlement or annoyance. There was a lot of contradictions (I felt), for example Jack seems clueless all along then at the end a small clue tips him off that leads to the finale (sorry to be vague but I hate spoiler reviews). The killer seems to be motivated and does the killings and rituals for a reason but your left wondering and really with a lot more questions than answers at the end and that really annoys me. Even if I had liked the book this would have pulled it's rating down anyway but I wasn't moved or enthralled with this at all.

There is a lot of sex and swearing in the book but if your a Montanari fan this won't be new for you, if your looking to start with this author try one of the other books first as this doesn't show any of his talent or have a patch on any of his other books I have read and enjoyed, 2/5 this time.

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Review - Lucy In The Sky by Paige Toon

Lucy in the Sky by Paige Toon

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Time taken to read - 1 day

Blurb From Goodreads

Settling down for a 24-hour flight to Australia, Lucy finds a text message on her phone from a woman claiming to have slept with her boyfriend, James, four times in the past month. Trapped above the Pacific, she questions everything about their relationship, but when she finally calls him, James reassures her that it was only his friend playing a joke. James is gorgeous and successful and Lucy adores him, yet at her best friend Molly’s wedding in Sydney, she finds herself having doubts and is keeping an eye on Molly's brother-in-law Nathan. Nathan is a happy-go-lucky surfer boy with no prospects, no place to live, and an almost-girlfriend in tow. Suddenly, Lucy finds herself caught between two distant continents and two very different men.

My Review

Lucy is heading back to Australia for her best friends wedding when she gets a text from her boyfriends phone from someone saying they have just slept with her man. What follows is what you would expect being trapped on a long haul flight with no way to contact home and find out what the hell is going on!

I really liked the start of this book, I was totally gripped from the text message and couldn't wait to see how it played out. Enter Nathan whom she hasn't seen for years, is now hot, buff and smokingly good looking and soon sparks start to fly. The book was great paced and a page turner but I found once she got home she started to really annoy me with her indecisiveness, lack of confrontation and failing to get some satisfactory answers from James.

It is a typical chick lit book and not normally something I would go out of my way for but I did find it enjoyable and entertaining for the most part. Very easy to read and I would definitely read this author again, 3/5 for me this time.

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Competition - Amazon Kindle 3 Cover (Lilac)

This is brand new in its original packaging, colour as shown. It fits the amazon Kindle 3 (thats the first kindle with the buttons along the bottom).

This competition closes on March the 18th. All you need to do is fill in the form (see the link below) and if you would like an extra entry just leave a comment on this post.

Click here to fill out the competition form

March's Pre-loved giveaway is Are You Experienced by William Sutcliffe

The book itself is in great condition and could pass as new, the spine has no breaks in it and the cover has a few very light indents to it.

Unfortunately I read this before I did reviews so have pulled the product description from Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.co.uk
For anyone with the slightest curiosity about travelling, or even if you've been, William Sutcliffe's tremendously funny Are You Experienced? will have you in stitches. The protagonist is Dave, a 19-year-old Londoner on a gap year before starting university. He had no intention of leaving Europe, until his best mate James, who's about to go on a trek through the Himalayas, challenges him. "Do you want to learn Fwench David? Something pwactical for your CV?" he taunts when he hears Dave is going to be a waiter at a Swiss ski resort.

Admitting his fears, ("Suffering, danger and poverty are all fine by me, but dirt and disease are two things I happen to hate") Dave is determined to prove he's not a coward and accepts an invitation to go to India with James's girlfriend Liz (in anticipation of consummating their burgeoning relationship). But by the time they get on the plane it all goes downhill. Bickering constantly, their adaption to India couldn't be more different. Liz embraces it--hugging beggars and wearing saris, while Dave's dry-humoured rants, scepticism and fear of the unknown eventually drive her away in search of her "centre".

The characters the pair meet along the way draw upon all the old hippy-traveller stereotypes, but there's also a few new ones in keeping with the times. There's Ranj--a British-born Indian who hates Indians; Jez--a public-school-educated undergraduate whose travels are being funded by daddy; and Caz and Fee who experience the side-effects of "Intimate Yoga".

While this story is ultimately a funny piece of fiction, it also addresses more serious considerations, such as cultural stereotypes, peer pressures and making life-changing decisions.

This book is irresistible and seasoned travellers will empathise with the situations Dave finds himself in, (his graphic description of a bout of Dehli-belly is guaranteed to make you feel sorry for him, and nauseous too). Be prepared to laugh out loud. --Angela Boodoo
Product Description
A devastatingly funny satire on the whole idea of student travel,and particularly the India back-pack trail. Dave travels to India with Liz because he thinks he might be able to get her into bed. Liz travels to India with Dave because she wants a companion for her voyage of spiritual discovery. She loves it. He dreams of frosty mornings, pints of lager and restaurants where vegetable curry is only a side-dish...

As always please use the link below to enter the competition and feel free to share. The competition will remain open until the last day in March when a winner will be picked at random. For an additional entry just leave a comment on this post, thanks.

Click here to fill out the competition form

February's pre-loved Giveaway Winner is..........................

Mrs Jean Garrett - no website given. Congratulations, the winner has been notified and the book will be posted out in the next few days.

March pre-loved giveaway will be up soon with another competition.

Thank you to everyone who took part and good luck for the next one.

A.R.R - The Earthquake Machine by Mary Pauline Lowry

The Earthquake Machine by Mary Pauline Lowry

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Time taken to read - 4 days

Blurb From Goodreads

The Earthquake Machine tells the story of 14 year-old Rhonda. On the outside, everything looks perfect in Rhonda's world but at home Rhonda has to deal with a manipulative father who keeps her mentally ill mother hooked on pharmaceuticals. The only reliable person in Rhonda's life is her family's Mexican yardman, Jes s. But when the INS deports Jes?'s back to his home state of Oaxaca, Rhonda is left alone with her increasingly painful family situation. Determined to find her friend Jes s, Rhonda seizes an opportunity to run away during a camping trip with friends. She swims to the Mexican side of the Rio Grande and makes her way to the border town of Boquillas, Mexico. There a peyote-addled bartender convinces her she won't be safe traveling alone into the country's interior. So with the bartender's help, Rhonda cuts her hair and assumes the identity of a Mexican boy named Angel. She then sets off on a burro across the desert to look for Jes s. Thus begins a wild adventure that explores the borders between the United States and Mexico, adolescence and adulthood, male and female, English and Spanish, and adult coming-of-age and Young Adult novels.

My Review

Rhonda is 14 years old and our main character. Her father she despises, her mother isn't herself mentally and the only person she connects with is their Mexican gardener Jesus. When Rhonda over hears something and tragedy strikes she decides to run away and find Jesus after he has been deported back to Mexico. What follows is a path of self discovery, identity crisis, new relationships and a whole new look at her faith.

I really struggled with this book and it was mainly because there was so much going on in it, it felt like it could have been 50+ different stories as there was so many huge issues and topics. She is 14 years old and experiences two major blows in a short time which causes her to run away. As well as this (and identity issues) there is the whole obsession and hate for the man who ended her childhood. The gift she gets for a elderly lady (also the books namesake) - that I found both weird and unsettling.

Reading about her journey was hard as she is a young girl traveling alone, facing dangerous situations and having to resort to things you wouldn't feel as bad about if it was an adult. A lot of the things I just found hard to swallow, the visions, the attitudes of the gang of carjackers and the husbands response to them.

If you are a deeply religious person you may find some of Rhonda/Angels views outrageous and upsetting. The self discovery and intimacy may also be too much as your reading about a 14 year old girl, however if none of that is an issue for you and you like your stories jam-packed with unconnected situations then you will love this story (it has quite a few 4 and 5 star reviews) but it just wasn't for me. So much action gave me a headache trying to follow it and figure out where it was going next.

I would like to thank the author for giving me the chance to read and review her work but this time for me it is a 2/5.

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