Find Me by J. S. Monroe – Blog tour dates

Posted on February 20, 2017 by Andrea Pryke

I am happy to be taking part in the blog tour for the excellent thriller Find me by J.S. Monroe.

Here are the dates of the tour and where you can find information on this new book from Head of Zeus.

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The Wind on his Back and other short stories by Mary Alexander

Posted on February 20, 2017 by Andrea Pryke

Published by Matador

Synopsis

The Wind on his Back is a beautifully-written collection of six short stories that explore different aspects of love. From a furious divorced man who refuses to forgive his errant wife, to the wife faced with losing her husband of 30 years to a sudden terminal illness, to the motley group of relatives who come together to celebrate Christmas Eve, each story has love – and its offspring, pain and loss – at its core. Each story can be read independently of each other, although they are united by a common theme of love. The Wind on his Back will have you feeling a range of emotions as you share in the highs and lows in the relationship in each story, and will appeal to fans of female novelists such as Barbara Pym, Donna Tartt and Kate Atkinson, all of which the author enjoys herself. The Wind on his Back is a heartfelt collection that is ideal for those who are looking to dip in and out of a love story.

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My thoughts

This book was sent to me by the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review:

The Wind on his Back is a beautifully-written collection of six short stories that explore different aspects of love. From a furious divorced man who refuses to forgive his errant wife, to the wife faced with losing her husband of 30 years to a sudden terminal illness, to the motley group of relatives who come together to celebrate Christmas Eve, each story has love – and its offspring, pain and loss – at its core. Each story can be read independently of each other, although they are united by a common theme of love. The Wind on his Back will have you feeling a range of emotions as you share in the highs and lows in the relationship in each story, and will appeal to fans of female novelists such as Barbara Pym, Donna Tartt and Kate Atkinson, all of which the author enjoys herself. The Wind on his Back is a heartfelt collection that is ideal for those who are looking to dip in and out of a love story.

 

I gave this 4 out of 5*

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Hollow City bu Ransom Riggs

Posted on February 14, 2017 by Andrea Pryke

Synopsis

This second novel begins in 1940, immediately after the first book ended. Having escaped Miss Peregrine’s island by the skin of their teeth, Jacob and his new friends must journey to London, the peculiar capital of the world. Along the way, they encounter new allies, a menagerie of peculiar animals, and other unexpected surprises. Complete with dozens of newly discovered (and thoroughly mesmerizing) vintage photographs, this new adventure will delight readers of all ages.

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My thoughts

In this the second book in the Miss Peregrine’s peculiar children trilogy, we follow the peculiars from their broken time loop in 1940s Wales to War torn London, as they try and save Miss Peregrine, the other Ymbrines and any other peculiars that they encounter along the way, whilst dodging well-meaning adults trying to evacuate them from the capital and the German bombs falling around them.

We learn more about each peculiar and their powers as they each use them in this book and we learn about their pasts before they realised they were peculiar and found their place with the Ymbryne’s.

The characters really grow in this book and Ransom Rigg’s writing style captures the individual characters and powers beautifully, he has created an amazing world within our own world, and all the characters are beautifully written both good and bad, with a twist at the end that makes you wonder what is next for our hero and his friends and also explains the title of book three – Library of Souls.

The story is gripping and fascinating and I could not wait to read this book, and look at all the photo included which are as great as the first. A must read for all ages

I gave this 5 out of 5*

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Ghost Camera by Darcy Coates

Posted on February 13, 2017 by Andrea Pryke

Synopsis

When Jenine finds an abandoned camera in a lighthouse, she takes a photo for fun. But there’s something very, very wrong with the picture: it contains ghosts.

Jenine and her best friend, Bree, realise the camera is capable of capturing the dead. But with each new photo taken, the spectres become more aware and more alert, and begin following the friends. Desperate, Jenine seeks the help of a paranormal researcher. He only has bad news, though: they’ve meddled with something far beyond their control, and the ghosts won’t stop… not until Jenine and Bree are dead.

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My thoughts

The premise of this book is a good one – a camera that takes photos of ghost, however this plot did remind me a little of the computer game Project X and the film The Ring, take too many photos and the ghosts will kill you.

Characterisations in  this book were a  bit on the thin side and the main characters had no backstory in which to bond the reader to them, it wasn’t until halfway through the book that we learnt one character was studying to be a lawyer.

The best character was Richard Holt, the ghost hunter but the story really didn’t take him far enough or do enough with him.

The story was poorly constructed with no information regarding the camera and why it became haunted or why Richard Holt was so afraid of the cameras. I felt the story could have used some investigation as to the origin of the camera which would have given the story the depth it so badly lacked.

I was very disappointed with this as I had really high hopes for this.

I gave this 2 out of 5*

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Shepperton Babylon by Matthew Sweet

Posted on February 11, 2017 by Andrea Pryke

Synopsis

This is a wonderful secret history of British movies that includes the scandals, the suicides, the immolations and the contract killings – the product of thousands of conversations with veteran film-makers. Here you’ll meet, among many others, the 20s film idols snorting cocaine from an illuminated glass dance floor on the bank of the Thames, the model who escaped Soho’s gangsters to become the queen of the nudie flicks and the genteel Scottish comedienne who, at the age of fifty-five, reinvented herself as a star of exploitation cinema, and fondly remembers ‘the one where I drilled in people’s heads and ate their brains’. Welcome to the lost worlds of British cinema.

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My thoughts

Long ridiculed as being insignificant by the rest of the film making world, Matthew Sweets investigates this history of British film, the majority of which very few remain and the silent stars, unlike some of their American counterparts are sadly completely forgotten.

Shepperton Babylon, unlike Hollywood Babylon (Kenneth Anger) is not full of over blown and made up scandal, of course there is scandal but it is dealt with in a matter of fact and responsible way.

Sweet talked to those who were still living that remembered those days or when they were no longer living, their descendent.

It is an interesting look at British cinema from the early days to the early 80s sexplotation industry that took over from the film making of the 50s.

Today British film is stronger than it has ever been and it is a shame that many of these films are lost and the stars forgotten.

Although very interesting the book is very dense and sweet skips over perhaps one of the most famous British Actresses – Diana Dors, but focuses mainly on the male stars, which is a shame and bemusing as she was the glamour movie star of 50s Britain.

Interesting read but the definitive book on British Cinema has yet to be written

I gave this 3 out of 5*

 

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Confessions of a Showbiz Reporter by Holly Forrest

Posted on February 10, 2017 by Andrea Pryke

Synopsis

Press junkets. Premiers. Dom Perignon. They’re all in a day’s work for your average Hollywood celebrity. But, what’s it like on the otherside of the microphone? In this no-holds-barred memoir, showbiz reporter Holly Forest reveals the less glamorous side of the world’s most glamorous industry: show business.

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My thoughts

Although originally published in 2013, this is still a fun read, Holly Forrest is a pseudonym for a real showbiz reporter and in this book she reveals what it is like to interview the famous and not so famous, attend premieres (a lot of standing around by the sound of it) and all the ups and downs of the celebrity reporter.

Although she does mention some stars by name, Harrison Ford, Johnny Depp, and Tom Cruise among others, a lot of the time she refers to them as the actor who was in a film about……, from which some people might be able to work out who she is referring to me, on the other hand wouldn’t have a clue because I don’t generally read the gossip columns so need to actually be told who it is, and in most cases I would still probably say ‘Who?’

 

Still a good fun read

I gave this 3 out of 5*

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The Romanovs 1613-1918 by Simon Sebag Montefiore

Posted on February 8, 2017 by Andrea Pryke

Published by Widenfeld and Nicolson

Synopsis

The Romanovs were the most successful dynasty of modern times, ruling a sixth of the world’s surface. How did one family turn a war-ruined principality into the world’s greatest empire? And how did they lose it all?

This is the intimate story of twenty tsars and tsarinas, some touched by genius, some by madness, but all inspired by holy autocracy and imperial ambition. Montefiore’s gripping chronicle reveals their secret world of unlimited power and ruthless empire-building, overshadowed by palace conspiracy, family rivalries, sexual decadence and wild extravagance, and peopled by a cast of adventurers, courtesans, revolutionaries and poets. Written with dazzling literary flair, drawing on new archival research, THE ROMANOVS is at once an enthralling chronicle of triumph and tragedy, love and death, a universal study of power, and an essential portrait of the empire that still defines Russia today.

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My thoughts

In this massive 700+ page book, the author charts the rise and fall of the Romanov family from 1613 to 1918.

Now, before reading this I knew very little about the Romanovs but know more  thanks to Montifores writing style which is easy to read and understand. I will admit that Russian history has always intimidated me, however after reading this, I feel more comfortable and ready to delve a little bit further into that history.

Obviously it is a large book, covering some 300 years of the Romanovs, but even at this size cannot delve into each Romanov in great depth, but now I have completed this book I feel better prepared to read a full biography of peter the Great or Catherine the Great., and hope to do so shortly..

I have heard that there are a few mistakes in the book, but this is not a major problem and shouldn’t put any one off reading it. It did take me over 3 weeks to read this, but about 100 pages was source notes and bibliography.

If you are interested in the history of the Romanovs then I do recommend this book, but be prepared as it is a very big book.

I gave this 4 out of 5*

 

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Book buying ban? Not Likely

Posted on February 7, 2017 by Andrea Pryke

I have to stop buying books, I have around 580 on my TBR, to be fair the majority of them are on my Kindle, but the stack of unread books in my room is threatening to squash me flat..

But I can’t help, there are still so many books that I wasn’t, I still have book tokens to use and they are burning a hole in my purse. I have an addiction, the feel of crisp new pages, the smell of the book!

I can’t stop, so I’m if I order a book from an online retailer I am going to leave it in the packaging and try and decimate the giant, looming piles of books by my bed.

Of course when I open them, the pile will grow again, but I am hoping that the sight of so many unopened boxes of magic will inspire me to stop buying new ones.

Of course I still have to avoid the book aisle in the supermarket and the various bookshops that I haunt in town, so I don’t think it will work but I have to try.

 

I guess the best way to get the TBR down is to get reading.

See you on the flip side!!!

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The Loney by Andrew Michael Hurley

Posted on February 6, 2017 by Andrea Pryke

Synopsis

Two brothers. One mute, the other his lifelong protector.

Year after year, their family visits the same sacred shrine on a desolate strip of coastline known as the Loney, in desperate hope of a cure.

In the long hours of waiting, the boys are left alone. And they cannot resist the causeway revealed with every turn of the treacherous tide, the old house they glimpse at its end . . .

Many years on, Hanny is a grown man no longer in need of his brother’s care.

But then the child’s body is found.

And the Loney always gives up its secrets, in the end.

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My thoughts

This was a very difficult book read, not because of the subject matter but because of the writing style and the fact that it peppered with religious, specifically catholic references. At the religious imagery permeates the entire story and is very off putting.

This made the book difficult to read none of the characters are particularly sympathetic or likeable and in parts I had no idea what was going on.

The blurb on the back of the book made only the mention of visiting a shrine and I did not know that the book would have all this religious stuff in it, had I known I probably wouldn’t have bought it at all. The premise was good but I found very hard to get to the actual plot

I personally don’t get the fuss and hype that has surrounded this book as I felt it was an average book with average writing (not that I could do any better). It’s hard to describe my feelings about this book because in one way I liked it but in another I didn’t, maybe it is a book I should re-read in a while as I may get more out of it on a second reading.

 

3/5

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Cleopatra’s Shadows by Emily Holleman

Posted on February 5, 2017 by Andrea Pryke

Synopsis

Abandoned by her beloved older sister Cleopatra and an indifferent father, Arsinoe, a young Egyptian princess, must fight for survival in the bloodthirsty royal court after her half-sister Berenice seizes power.

But despite using her quick-wits to win Berenice’s favour, Arsinoe struggles to establish herself in a uncertain new world, one that carries her from the conspiratorial dangers of the palace, to the streets of war-torn Alexandria.

Meanwhile, her other sister, the usurper Berenice, has her own demons to confront – her cruel, flagging mother, a pair of fickle husbands, and the ever-present threat that her father will return from exile-as she fights to hold the throne as the first queen of Egypt in a thousand years.

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My thoughts

I love anything to do with ancient Egypt and Cleopatra’s Shadow’s a historical novel by Emily Holman fits the bill perfectly.

Holman envisions and explores what life would have been like for Cleopatra’s half-sisters, Berenice and Arsinoe, when their father Ptolemy and Cleopatra, already being groomed to become queen leave for Rome.

Half-sister, Berenice seizes the throne and Arsinoe’s life is complicated by her love for Cleopatra and her need to be loyal to the throne as this is key to her survival.

The characters were well written and believable, Holman brings the characters to life and you feel as if this all took place yesterday the story is so engrossing.

Arsinoe is a sweet girl, who is suddenly faced with the reality that she could be murdered any day at the whim of her sister Berenice . Berenice is resentful of the way she and her mother had fallen from Ptolomey’s favour and his new wife Cleopatra’s mother takes over. Berenice as eldest feels she should be heir to the throne and is suitably spiteful and nasty.

The historical information is well researched and Holeman’s clever writing brings to life these long gone people.

I found myself routing for Arsinoe she really is a character you can empathise with, a victim of the circumstances of her birth and not of her own making.

However, I also felt a lot a sympathy or the Usurper Berenice, she herself had done nothing to anger her father and it does show that in Ancient times the pharaoh’s whims really could ruin the lives of those closest to him. This story shed’s a little light on a period at the end of the reign of the Pharaohs in Egypt.

 

As they Egyptians wished to live forever in a way they do as they always prophesised  ‘To speak the name of the dead is to have them live again’

And if that is true Berenice and Arsinone will live for all time.

I gave this 4 out of 5*

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