The Sekhmet Bed by Libbie Hawker

Posted on December 5, 2016 by Andrea Pryke

Synopsis

The second daughter of the Pharaoh, Ahmose has always dreamed of a quiet life as a priestess, serving Egypt’s gods, ministering to the people of the Two Lands. But when the Pharaoh dies without an heir, she is given instead as Great Royal Wife to the new king – a soldier of common birth. For Ahmose is god-chosen, gifted with the ability to read dreams, and it is her connection to the gods which ensures the new Pharaoh his right to rule.
Ahmose’s elder sister Mutnofret has been raised to expect the privileged station of Great Royal Wife; her rage at being displaced cannot be soothed. As Ahmose fights the currents of Egypt’s politics and Mutnofret’s vengeful anger, her youth and inexperience carry her beyond her depth and into the realm of sacrilege.
To right her wrongs and save Egypt from the gods’ wrath, Ahmose must face her most visceral fear: bearing an heir. But the gods of Egypt are exacting, and even her sacrifice may not be enough to restore the Two Lands to safety.
The Sekhmet Bed is the first volume of Libbie Hawker’s series The She-King, a family saga of the Thutmosides, one of ancient Egypt’s most fascinating royal families. Don’t miss Book 2: The Crook and Flail

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My thoughts

I love history, particularly ancient Egyptian history, so when I saw this was a free kindle download I added it to my downloads straight away.

The book is based on the life of the female Pharaoh Hatshepsut, and the detail included in the book shows that the author has done her research, and as she is also a historian, I would expect nothing less.

The characters are beautifully written, Ahmose, our heroine ‘chose of the Gods’ is so likeable and childlike as she should be as she marries Thutomses when she is still just a child, and we see her grow into a strong young woman, her older sister Mutnofret is suitability scheming as the displaced sister who should have been Great Royal Wife instead of Ahmose, but instead is 2nd Royal Wife, while still an honour this does  not hold the power she craves and that Ahmose has, but again as the story unfolds and they are struck by tragedy as well as joy, she grows as a person and softens to her sister..

Knowing that this story is based on historical facts and real events has actually made me more interested in the history of the time and want to find out more about Hatshepsut and her people.

 

Although I have the eBook of this, it is such a good book that intend to get the whole series in paperback as soon as I can as well as read other books by Libbie Hawker – definitely an author to look out for.

I gave this 5 out of 5*

Posted in Historical Fiction, Review, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Actual Reality by Cat Mantra

Posted on November 24, 2016 by Andrea Pryke

Published by Book Guild Publishing

Date 29th September 2016

Synopsis

Join Josh Mantra and his ever-faithful digital companion Tate as they travel throughout time and space battling foes, and saving innocents from impending disaster. From the old Wild West, to black holes in space a galaxy away, you won’t want to miss a beat! Josh Mantra is a typical 12-year-old kid, living a typical 12-year-old kid’s life – with school, friends, family and video games. On his birthday, he receives a very special gift from his dad, something that is to change his life forever. An Actual Reality crystal, capable of projecting his life force ANYWHERE, and ANYTIME. But this isn’t just for fun. He has been chosen by the Inter Dimensional Federation (IDF) as the ONLY being capable of succeeding his dad on life-saving and life-changing missions throughout the multiverse. He has to go through rigorous testing to make sure he is up to the job, and not long after that, his first mission begins, battling a reptilian on a far away world the size and with the appetite of a Tyrannosaurus Rex! A few missions in, Josh discovers that it’s not just about saving people in distress. There are some bad guys out there… The Inter Dimensional Empire (IDE) has a VERY different agenda to the federation: Divide and Conquer. The IDE have the same capabilities as the IDF. They are are two incredibly technologically advanced organisations, but only one can emerge victorious…

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My thoughts

I was asked to review this book by the Book Guild and after reading the publication information I jumped at the chance.

This is a great debut Children’s novel from Cat Mantra, a middle grade story written for his son, it is suitable for any age, if being read to but I would say 8 and over if reading it themselves.

This is the sort of book that I would have loved to be able to read when I was about 8, what child doesn’t want to be a hero? And through Josh and his adventures they can be!

He is human, he gets scared and nervous but when the chips are down he comes up trumps.

I was concerned at first that Mantra would cop out at the end and have all of Josh’s adventures be part of a video game, but I was so glad to find that he did not, meaning that there will be further adventures for Josh in the future.

The adventures are simple and majority only require Josh to use his common sense, meaning that any child could if face with these challenges solve them, giving them a real way to relate to the character.

 

I hope that as Mantra writes new stories that they will become a bit more complex and in depth as some of them are quite short and I would love to learn more about the bad guys including Kasabian.

All in all I couldn’t wait to find out what Josh’s next adventure would be and I will certainly be picking up a another volume of these adventures when Mantra publishes them.

 

I loved it

I gave this 5 out of 5 stars

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Connecting Dors by Niema Ash and Jason Dors-Lake

Posted on November 21, 2016 by Andrea Pryke

Synopsis

Diana Dors is a legend. Her fame has survived the adored fifties’s celebrity to today’s cult figure. She is arguably the biggest star the U.K. has produced, not only for her acclaimed body of work but for her generosity, incredible bravery, lack of airs and graces, her compassion, wit and intelligence.
From the age of eight Diana’s huge passionate dream was to become a wealthy, famous, film star. “Connecting Dors” tells the fascinating story of how an ordinary-looking child, from an ordinary family, made that seemingly impossible dream come true.
It explores the consequences of that celebrity/stardom, not only on herself but on her son, Jason, examining the pitfalls and rewards of being the child of a famous celebrity.
“Connecting Dors” is both informative and entertaining, recounting wild tales involving Diana’s friends – Hollywood Stars, villains, rogues and rascals, tales which are poignant, hilarious, shocking and disturbing, both from her life and from Jason’s star-studded life. It is a story which has never been told.
Niema Ash is an award winning author, W.B.Yeats scholar and travel writer
She now lives in England.
Jason Dors-Lake, the son of Diana Dors, is a talented actor and musician now living in a house on the beach.

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My thoughts

Diana Dors, Britain’s most glamorous movie star, gorgeous, down to earth, fun and approachable.

Niema Ash gives us Diana’s story form a woman’s point of view and unlike other biographers that only focus on scandals and lies (David Brett anyone???) Ash’s biography is more sympathetic. Some reviewers think that the book is a bit one sided and perhaps this is true, but it is nice to read a book that doesn’t portray her in an extremely bad light.

Did she make mistakes? Of course she did she was a human being But no matter what, she never gave up, until cancer claimed her in 1984.

Every time life knocked her down, she got back up and just got on with it.

The second half of the book focuses on her youngest son Jason, he was 14, when Diana died , and when Alan, his father committed suicide a few months later he was left an orphan, then Jason had to move to LA and live with his strict half-brother, of course he rebelled. Jason of course comes across as a typical spoilt brat – child of star who was given everything he wanted, and he was. But reading on and learning about Jason and how he expelled his demons and eventually was able to grieve for his parents was incredibly moving.

It brought me to tears and I just wanted to give him a big hug and tell him that everything is alright and he is not alone..

I’m not sure why other people haven’t liked this book and I personally found it fascinating and the writing style easy to follow. Maybe some people don’t want Diana and her family to be human, that they should be something else, something to be abused.

 

On a side note back in the 1950s when Diana was touring the UK with her cabaret act and still married to Denis Hamilton, my father met her in a pub in Weston-Super-Mare, he remembers her as  being, gorgeous, funny and above all a wonderful person and maybe this should be her legacy.

She brought glamour and fun into post war Britain , she grew older with grace and humour., and even at the end was the most glamorous star Britain ever produced.

I gave this 4 out of 5*

 

Posted in Biography, Non-Fiction | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Carole Lombard: Twentieth Century Star by Michelle Morgan

Posted on October 31, 2016 by Andrea Pryke

Published by The History Press

5th october 2016

I was sent a copy of this book by The History Press in exchange for a fair and honest review

Synopsis

Carole Lombard was the very opposite of the typical 1930s starlet. A no-nonsense woman, she worked hard, took no prisoners and had a great passion for life. As a result, she became Hollywood’s highest-paid star.
From the outside, Carole’s life was one of great glamour and fun, yet privately she endured much heartache. As a child, her mother moved Carole and her brothers across the country away from their beloved father. Carole then began a film career, only to have it cut short after a devastating car accident. Picking herself back up, she was rocked by the accidental shooting of her lover; a failed marriage to actor William Powell; and the sorrow of infertility during her marriage to Hollywood’s King, Clark Gable.
Lombard marched forward, promising to be positive. Sadly her life was cut short in a plane crash so catastrophic that pieces of the aircraft are still buried in the mountain today. In Carole Lombard, bestselling author Michelle Morgan accesses previously unseen documents to tell the story of a woman whose remarkable life and controversial death continues to enthral.

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My thoughts

I have only read a couple of books about Carole Lombard, one, Gable & Lombard, Powell & Harlow, is really a short piece of fluff, I bought for mainly the Harlow content and the other Fireball by Robert Matzen focuses mainly on the plane crash that took her life and the lives of the other passengers aboard the DC-3 and not with her life although we are given an overview of it. Michelle Morgan’s book focuses on her life and career and of course the plane crash is mentioned but she does not go into any gory details, and if that’s what you’re looking for move along.

Once again Morgan does not embellish any rumours or scandals that plagued Carole, and they are mention in a sensitive and respect manner as Morgan deals only with the facts.

And Carole comes to life because of this and wherever possible Morgan has used quotes from Carole herself and this really shows Carole as a human being, from her early days to her untimely death, I found in this book a woman I would love to have known, and perhaps called a friend, a kind and loving woman, but hard-working and tough when she needed to be and she was loyal to fault. We learn how she changed as she got older, how much her fellow actors and her crews loved working with her and no matter what the role she was given, how hard she worked to be the best that she could be.

As with all of Morgan’s work the narrative in Carole Lombard – Twentieth Century Star – flows beautifully and seamlessly through her life.

A wonderful tribute and stunning biography of a woman who had so much more to give, and left not only her husband devastated at her passing.

I gave this 5 out 5*

Posted in Biography, Cinema, Non-Fiction | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The Toy Breaker by Roy Chester

Posted on October 29, 2016 by Andrea Pryke

Published by Joffe Books

9th October 2016

Synopsis

Dr Hannah Nightingale faces a race against time to stop the evil serial killer known as the Toy breaker
Someone is snatching small children from their beds in the middle of the night. They leave a sinister calling card behind: a broken handmade puppet on the child’s pillow. The press nickname the kidnapper the Toy breaker. In a desperate move, Superintendent David Mallory calls in criminal profiler Dr Hannah Nightingale to help with an investigation that is going nowhere.
More children disappear and the city of Garton is on the edge of panic. A very dark mind is at work, but why does the Toy breaker suddenly change his method, adding a lock of hair to the crime scene. When a prime suspect escapes, the police appear to have reached another dead end. Will the Toy breaker be stopped before more families are destroyed?
This is a fast-paced thriller that will have you turning the pages till the action-packed ending.

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My Thoughts

This was a dark and disturbing crime thriller brilliantly constructed and executed by Chester. All the characters are well defines and the procedural aspect of the police work in the book is fascinating.

The hunt for the Toy Breaker twists and turns as various suspects are discovered and then eliminated.

The plot is very well thought out and every twist and turn builds the suspense and makes perfect sense.

Profiler Hannah Nightingale is a brilliantly writing character, human with flaws, she makes mistakes and admits them, she doesn’t give off airs that she knows better than everyone.

There are sub-plots within the pertaining to the police and their official and unofficial code of conducts and all of these are resolved by the end of the book nicely, leaving no cliffhangers.

The climax of the book is thrilling and heart-stopping and Chester’s writing style is the reason for this.

While the nature of the crimes is disturbing and upsetting, he treats it with sensitivity and allows all of his characters even the hardened police officers to show their sensitivity and horror at the events that occur.

This is a must book for lovers of thrillers

I gave this 5 out of 5*

Posted in Crime, Pyschological Thriller, Thriller | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware

Posted on October 24, 2016 by Andrea Pryke

Published by Harvill Secker on 30th June 2016

Synopsis

In this tightly wound story, Lo Blacklock, a journalist who writes for a travel magazine, has just been given the assignment of a lifetime: a week on a luxury cruise with only a handful of cabins. At first, Lo’s stay is nothing but pleasant: the cabins are plush, the dinner parties are sparkling, and the guests are elegant. But as the week wears on, frigid winds whip the deck, gray skies fall, and Lo witnesses what she can only describe as a nightmare: a woman being thrown overboard. The problem? All passengers remain accounted for—and so, the ship sails on as if nothing has happened, despite Lo’s desperate attempts to convey that something (or someone) has gone terribly, terribly wrong…
With surprising twists and a setting that proves as uncomfortably claustrophobic as it is eerily beautiful, Ruth Ware offers up another intense read.

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My thoughts

There seems to be a bit of a theme in books at the moment to have an unreliable female narrator (think The Girl on the Train) and this is another one. Having heard some mixed reviews on this I went into it not really expecting very much and because of this, I believe, I actually quite enjoyed it . The main character of Lo is well written but not particularly likeable or sympathetic, she drinks too much and takes pills on top for her anxiety. She imagines all sorts of things, which of course makes her claims unbelievable, especially when she witnesses a murder, she has been drinking and there is no evidence at all of the person who was murdered.

The first half of the book moves at a solid pace  and there are not that many characters on the boat that could be the killer, but Ware casts suspicion upon all of them. However other than Lo and her partner Judah – who does not go on the cruise with her, there was no real depth to some of the characters and I really didn’t care who was killed or who the killer was.

In the second half of the book we are expected to believe that Lo convinces the killer’s accomplice to help her escape with hardly any persuasion, this was a bit too far and why this book has been given mixed reviews, the turn around by this character was to quick, as was the ending which felt really rushed this is a shame as the book had so much promise.

I gave this 3 out of 5 stars

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The Witch’s Vacuum Cleaner by Terry Pratchett

Posted on October 20, 2016 by Andrea Pryke

Published by Doubleday’s Children’s

25th August 2016

Synopsis

Poor Mr Swimble is having a bad day.
Rabbits are bouncing out of his hat, pigeons are flying out of his jacket and every time he points his finger, something magically appears – cheese sandwiches, socks . . . even a small yellow elephant on wheels!
It’s becoming a real nuisance – and he’s allergic to rabbits.
His friends at the Magic Rectangle can’t help, but the mysterious vacuum cleaner he saw that morning may have something to do with it . . .
Fourteen fantastically funny stories from master storyteller Sir Terry Pratchett, full of food fights, pirates, wizards and crooks!
‘Arresting stuff! So funny it’s criminal!’ – PC Gorsebush Jones

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My thoughts

14 funny short children’s stories from master story teller Terry Pratchett, from time travelling in Blackbury to the wild west (Welsh town of Llandanffwnfagettupagogo. The stories are written in Pratchett’s inimitable style. Beautifully written and illustrated, this is a treasure trove of stories for readers of all ages.

The majority of these were written when Pratchett was a young journalist and the tweaked before his untimely death last year, this collection showcases his then emerging talent and humour.

A wonderful book and If I had any kids I would delight in reading them these stories at bed time, instead I will keep them to myself and savour them when I need the a childish escape from real life that we all need from time to time.

I gave this 4 out of 5*

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Children of the Moon by Laekan Zea Kemp

Posted on October 13, 2016 by Andrea Pryke

Synopsis

Growing up, Bryn’s nightmares and the debilitating sleep episodes that came with them were what made her weak. But now that she’s learned how to manipulate the dreams, they’re what make her strong. Strength she’ll need now that the shadows have finally trapped her in a nightmare too dark and deep for Roman to reach.

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My thoughts

The third story in the Girl in between series and Bryn is rapidly approaching her 18th birthday when everything will change. Again another gripping read from Leaken Zea Kemp, this series keeps getting better and better, other dreamers like Bryn are disappearing or falling into comas, can Bryn, Roman and the others save them?

The characters keep growing and Bryn is now realising her responsibilities, he curse, she is so human in her reactions, so strong and yet so weak, so real are her fears and her nightmares, unlike ours are real.

This book seems longer than the other two in the series but I was still so gripped by the story that it only took me a couple of days to read.

Book 4 in the series The Daughter of the night is out now!!

I gave this book 4 out of 5*

Posted in Magical Realsim, Romance, Science Fiction & Fantasy, YA | Tagged | Leave a comment

Nevernight by Jay Kristoff

Posted on October 10, 2016 by Andrea Pryke

Synopsis

Destined to destroy empires, Mia Corvere is only ten years old when she is given her first lesson in death.

Six years later, the child raised in shadows takes her first steps towards keeping the promise she made on the day she lost everything.

But the chance to strike against such powerful enemies will be fleeting, so if she is to have her revenge, Mia must become a weapon without equal. She must prove herself against the deadliest of friends and enemies, and survive the tutelage of murderers, liars and daemons at the heart of a murder cult.

The Red Church is no ordinary school, but Mia is no ordinary student.
The shadows love her.
And they drink her fear.

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My thoughts

This epic story does take some getting into, as it is the first in a new series, Jay Kristoff has the unenviable job of building a new world, creating new characters and keepi9ng us interested in everything that is going on at the same time. The description of his locations are fantastic and the main character of Mia Corvere is both likeable and unlikeable at the same time.

Kristoff uses footnotes at the bottom of the page to expend on certain elements of the story and this does work quite well, with funny little comments and asides added to the narration, however I did find that when I was engrossed in the story I would miss the asterix that advises there is a note at the bottom and it would only be when I reached the bottom of the page that I realised that they were there and I would have to then scan the page again to find out what the note actually referred to. However, once you know they are there it is a clever way of adding to the story.

I did enjoy the way the font changed depending on whether or not we were learning about Mia’s past (in italics) or her present (in normal font), this kept a clear distinction between the two parts of the story.

There are lots of twists and turns in this story, and some shocks as well, the pace in the second half of the book is excellent and I found that my heart was in my mouth as Mia and the and the story hurtles towards it’s climax, the ending was amazing and I cannot wait for the next in the series. I only hope that Kristoff does not take to long to get this to us

I gave this 4 out of 5*

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Why I started Reviewing Books

Posted on October 7, 2016 by Andrea Pryke

You may have wondered why I decided to start reviewing books and posting them on this blog and why I started posting videos on Youtube, again about books.

Well there are a couple of reasons:

Firstly – I love reading , it is something I am completely passionate about and if my passion can ignite a desire in someone else to pick up a book and read, well that would be an amazing achievement.

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Secondly – I have read so many books over the years, both physical and in e-book format that sometimes I cannot remember anything about them, by really concentrating on the stories, characters and writing style, I am hoping  that I will remember the book more clearly in the future.

And thirdly I wanted to discover people who also love books as much as I do, that way I can hopefully find new books that are recommended to me by others, as some times I do tend to stick to the same genre, and hopefully those people might pick up some of the books I love.

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If you have a book blog why did you start it?

If you are a reader, what books do you like and what do you think I should read?

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Let me know in the comments below.

Posted in Bookish Thoughts | Tagged , | 1 Comment