Only the Willing – Allison Cosgrove

Posted on August 15, 2016 by Andrea Pryke

Synopsis

A young girl trying to turn her life around takes pity on a lonely looking man one night… the next morning, Homicide Detective Stan Brookshire is called to one of the most gruesome crime scenes of his career.
Unfortunately, the killer left behind no evidence, leaving Stan almost nothing go to on and under immense pressure from the Chief to solve the case quickly, or let it go cold.
Meanwhile, the killer’s rage is spiraling out of control. He feels that he’s doing the world a favor and has no intention of stopping.
Will Stan’s instincts once again come through on this case? If he doesn’t catch a break – and soon – he’ll be forced to move on, letting the killer run free.

41DyJgphdML.jpg

My thoughts

This book was free from Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

 

This was a very interesting murder thriller, the description of the first victim we came across in the book, immediately made me think of Mary Kelly and Jack the Ripper – with the way the victim was red headed and blue eyed and that her body was ripped to shreds like Kelly (all but the face – obviously I have an unhealthy interest in the Ripper murders and must read more), and was a prostitute as well.

The beginning of the story is well written, the characters are well defined. Stan and Jane are two committed hard-working cops, Stan is divorce and Jane married, but they work so well together and complement each other even when disagreeing.

The killer’s mind and reasoning for the killing is well thought out and described.

We see the killer alternate between sanity and madness, with paranoia taking over leading to complete recklessness on his part.

The only thing that let –this book down was that the ending felt really rushed, the rest of the book was nicely paced but at the end as the killer let his paranoia take over it felt like the author ran out of ideas and rushed headlong to the conclusion, this was great shame as the premise of the book like the beginning was brilliant.

Posted in Crime, Thriller | Tagged | Leave a comment

Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt

Posted on August 9, 2016 by Andrea Pryke

Published by Hodder and Stoughton

28th April 2016

Synopsis

Whoever is born here, is doomed to stay ’til death. Whoever settles, never leaves.
Welcome to Black Spring, the seemingly picturesque Hudson Valley town haunted by the Black Rock Witch, a 17th century woman whose eyes and mouth are sewn shut. Muzzled, she walks the streets and enters your homes at will. She stands next to your bed for nights on end. Everybody knows that her eyes may never be opened.
The elders of Black Spring have virtually quarantined the town by using high-tech surveillance to prevent their curse from spreading. Frustrated with being kept in lockdown, the town’s teenagers decide to break their strict regulations and go viral with the haunting, but in so doing send the town spiraling into the dark, medieval practices of the past.

51aGM+i5MyL._SY346_

My thoughts

Creepy, this book is very, very creepy. The Black Springs Witch, Katherine Van Wyler has haunted the town for 300 years, appears where she likes and the town folk know that they can never leave the town for any significant amount of time, and that Katherine, whose hands are chained and lips and eyes sewn shut, should never be free, never be able to speak and never to be able to see or the whole town will be doomed.

The way they deal with Katherine in the first half of the book is amusing, if a little bit odd – the simply ignore her, what do you do to something you don’t want to see? You cover it up, that’s what they do, putting construction huts round her, or hanging a dishcloth on her head.

The youngsters want to be free, and with access to the internet they plan on telling and showing via Youtube the world about Katherine, but interest in the town in monitored so they have to be careful.

This is where the trouble starts, from the beginning  the author makes it clear that the witch cannot be touched, abused, goaded or mocked. She is there and you like with it, if you try and leave you will become extremely depressed and kill yourself.

The events in the book are well thought out and the characterisations are brilliant, Steve, Jocelyn, Tyler and Matt are our main protagonist, Steve and Jocelyn moved to the town prior to the children being born, by which time it was too late to leave. Tyler wants to expose Katherine, with his friends Jaydon and Lawrence, together the film her and record her whispers, until things get out of hand, and some of the gang start abusing her.

There are some truly horrible moments in this book, some really nasty things are done to Katherine and in turn to those who taunted her, and there is a very nasty twist at the end.

As the truth becomes apparent to Steve as to the only way the town can be saved, he is resigned to know it never will.

And on the final page a terrifying knock on the door.

 

Anything else would be spoilers.

The back of the book advises that this is reminiscent of early Stephen king and it really does have that dark quality about it.

 

This has been translated from the Dutch and I really hope the more of Heuvelt’s work is translated soon.

I gave this 4 out of 5* on Goodreads

Posted in Horror, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Domestic Goddess by Deborah Schneider

Posted on August 1, 2016 by Andrea Pryke

Published by Moon valley Publishing on 3rd July 2016

The was a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review

 

Synopsis

What do you do if your life is suddenly a fixer-upper?
TV lifestyle expert Bailey Holmes is about to take her show, Domestic Goddess, to the big time. With a larger network, new sponsor and series of shows around her upcoming wedding, she’s poised to be a media darling.
Until her fiancé announces he’d rather be the bride and a gossip reporter publishes an unflattering article about her. With her life going flatter than a sad souffle, she heads to Horseshoe Island for a family gathering and to hide-out.
Bailey’s family offers to let her renovate their ancient family fishing lodge for her show. There’s only one stipulation, they’ve already hired a carpenter to do the job, and he stays.
Max Cumberland is thrilled at the chance renovate Blue Moon Lodge, until he discovers the job is going to be part of a television show and he has to put up with a micro-managing domestic diva.
Despite clashing over plans for the lodge, there’s a sexy sizzle of attraction between Max and Bailey that quickly goes from simmer to steamy. Before long they’re spending long decadent nights together.
But once the lodge is renovated and the show has finished filming, will there be a second season for the couple, or will Bailey be off the island for good?

51mNGbCHnSL._SY346_

My thoughts

I liked the sound of this book, when I was looking at the list of books on the Netgalley site. And I was not disappointed.

The characters were well defined and believable and I really liked Bailey and she came across as a woman serious about her career but lacking in fun.

She is like all of us, she wants to be in control of her life and doesn’t like it when things don’t go her way , but she works through it and deals with her mistakes.

Plus – I am not keep on detailed multiple sex scenes, personally I find they distract from the important parts of the story, and in this story although there is one detailed sex scene but that is it, Schneider clearly knows that she does not need to describe the act every time the two leads hit the hay, unlike some lesser writers.

All the characters were great in this book, from Meg, Bailey’s producer to Max, the carpenter and love interest, a great fun read perfect for summer and lying by the pool

 

This is the first in what will be a series of books and I for one am looking forward to the next installment.

4 out of 5 stars

 

Posted in Chick-Lit, Humour, Romance | Tagged , | Leave a comment

An Unremembered Grave by Abigail Padgett

Posted on July 27, 2016 by Andrea Pryke

This was a free Kindle download from Amazon

Synopsis

Danni Telfer, abandoned as a toddler, has no idea what the fading tattoo of a white rose on her left shoulder means. Nor does she want to remember the peculiar perceptions that disturbed her childhood. A talented historian, Danni’s focus is on the Louisiana research project she hopes will land her a job that doesn’t involve teaching bored college freshmen. But she’s walking into a confluence of events that will change her life forever.
His story preserved only in a threadbare quilt fashioned by a slave during the Civil War, the Vampire Grimaud has slept for a century and a half beneath the soil of a Louisiana plantation called Angola. The place is now a prison of over six thousand men locked in sweltering isolation. One of these, Antoine Dupre, is innocent of the decade-old murder for which he is imprisoned. Yet now he must kill or be killed, unless, impossibly, he can prove his innocence.
When a prisoner crew back-hoeing the warden’s latest project, a golf course, unearths the vampire’s grave, Stéphane Grimaud wakes to a future beyond his imagination. Without help he will be vulnerable. How fortunate that an adept, a mortal gifted with the ability to see beings who exist in shadows, is nearby. Yet how strange that she fears him!
These three – historian, prisoner and vampire – have only a moment in time in which to alter a future already written. And the cost to each will be immeasurable.

51QCG0VlJzL._SY346_

My thoughts

This really is a vampire story with a difference, a world in which vampires are not evil, but instead the custodians of human history.. The characters are interesting in this book, the girl with no family, no idea of her history, the fact she is a witch and what she is capable of.

The vampire who has been asleep for 150 years, trying to get used to and fit in with the modern world and the highly educated man wrongly convicted of a murder he did not commit, desperately looking for a miracle before another inmate kills him.

Danni, our main character has to try and lrean about herself and her powers as well as helping Stephane, the vampire acclimatise to the world today and help him fit in, while also solving the murder case that sent Antoine to Angola for Life, and on top of that she has her research project to finish.

Phew what a busy girl!

The story is well thought out and nicely written, the book is easy to read and flows smoothly, all the characters are well defined and their differences clear and this does cause some interesting conflicts, a lovely story, well worth a read. I hope Abigail Padgett will continue Danni and Stephane’s story soon.

 

4/5

Posted in Occult Fiction, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Billionaire by Peter James

Posted on July 24, 2016 by Andrea Pryke

Synsopsis

City stockbroker Alex Rocq leads a comfortable life – with a luxury flat in London, a country cottage, a very expensive car, and a lucrative job that still leaves time for leisure. But all this isn’t enough. After receiving a tip-off, Alex decides to play the commodities market for himself. He soon learns the hard way that fortune doesn’t always favour the brave, and his luck comes to an abrupt end.

When he is offered the chance to write off his debts – in exchange for special services and silence – Rocq can’t believe his luck. But how far will a desperate man go to harness the power players around him?

51g2eSaWHrL._SX328_BO1,204,203,200_

My thoughts

I read this as part of Booktubathon 2016

This is one of Peter James’ earlier works originally published in 1983 , and the characters are not the most sympathetic, in fact for a long time, I really felt that I didn’t care what happened and if I hadn’t been reading this for Booktubeathon I probably would have dnf’d it.

The Main character of Alex Rocq, frankly irritated me to start with, he gambles money he doesn’t have and drives recklessly. The other characters are just nasty, all grabbing for money and women (or men) and not caring about anything but themselves, the only character I actually like was Prince Missh.

However, as with all Peter James novels the story is engaging and well written and as the plot developed I found myself routing for Alex and hoping he would succeed, and escape from the people trying to kill him, it was here that I started to care and this part of the plot had me on the edge of my seat.

The ending has a great Peter James twist and I am glad that I finished reading it.

 

In the end 4/5

Posted in Thriller | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

A Slip of the Keyboard: Collected non-fiction by Terry Pratchett

Posted on July 19, 2016 by Andrea Pryke

Synopsis

Terry Pratchett has earned a place in the hearts of readers the world over with his bestselling Discworld series – but in recent years he has become equally well-known and respected as an outspoken campaigner for causes including Alzheimer’s research and animal rights. A Slip of the Keyboard brings together for the first time the finest examples of Pratchett’s non fiction writing, both serious and surreal: from musings on mushrooms to what it means to be a writer (and why banana daiquiris are so important); from memories of Granny Pratchett to speculation about Gandalf’s love life, and passionate defences of the causes dear to him.

With all the humour and humanity that have made his novels so enduringly popular, this collection brings Pratchett out from behind the scenes of the Discworld to speak for himself – man and boy, bibliophile and computer geek, champion of hats, orang-utans and Dignity in Dying.

DSCN1795

My thoughts

What can I say about this book, funny, touching and at times heart-breaking, this book collects some of Sir Terry Pratchett’s speeches, book introductions and magazine articles into this volume.

All the essays are funny even the saddest ones dealing with his Alzheimer’s have moments of his unique humour in them.  I will admit that this took me longer than normal to read, normally I gobble up anything by Pratchett, but as I progressed throughout the book I found it hard to read, know that there would be no more wonderful stories from this man, and reading the final section when he talks about his illness and assisted dying was extremely sad to read.

The world not only lost a great writer when he passed but also a great human being, no one will ever be able to replace what he was to his many fans and I wonder if anyone will ever be as funny as he was in that dry English way. I doubt it but am always hopeful.

 

A must read

 

4/5 (too sad for 5)

 

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

Booktube-A-Thon – 2016

Posted on July 16, 2016 by Andrea Pryke

 I have been posting videos on Booktube for about 2 months now, and it is so much fun, recently I learnt about the Booktubeathon challenge, this begins on the 18th July and comprises of both reading and video challenges, the reading challenge is as follows:

 

1 Read a book with yellow on the cover

2 Read a book only after sunset

3 Read a book that you discovered through booktube

4 Read a book by one of your favourite authors

5 Read a book that is older than you are

6 Read and watch a book to film adaptation

7 Read 7 books

 

So 7 days and seven reading challenges, and they can be done in any order or even combined.

 

I have now decided my TBR for this and have posted a video on my Youtube channel, a book a day will be quite a challenge although a couple of the books are short reads not all of them are, so this could be tough – we shall see and I will post my progress both on here and Youtube. (My channel is just my name Andrea Pryke).

 

Let me know if you are on booktube and if you are taking part in this years booktubeathon in the comments below.

Posted in Booktube | Tagged | Leave a comment

Drag Teen by Jeffery Self

Posted on July 13, 2016 by Andrea Pryke

Published by Push on 26th April 2016

Synopsis

A fantastic, fabulous, funny YA debut from Jeffery Self, one of the gay icons of the YouTube generation, that follows one high school student on a drag race to his future.

Debut YA author Jeffery Self takes us on a road trip with an insecure high school senior who has one goal: to be the first in his family to leave Clearwater, Florida, and go to college. The problem is, he has zero means of paying for school — until his friends convince him to compete in a drag teen competition for a college scholarship.

DSCN3507

My thoughts

Sometimes a book comes along that really touches your soul and this is one of those books. I bought this because it was recommended by fellow booktuber Peter Likes Books (Peter Monn). I  really wish that we had books like this when I was a young adult. The characters and story really resonated with me, although I am a straight (older) female, JT’s feelings of being on the outside and never feeling he really belongs really touched a nerve with me and I empathised with him, so much so that I was in tears at one point of the story, the low self worth, the now knowing who you are or where you belong, is something, I think that we all struggle (or have struggled) with at some point, some people more so than others.

Jeffery Self explores these feelings in a sympathetic way – no one character is perfect each has their own insecurities and issues, which are explored and explained throughout the story, the three main characters, JT, Seth and Heather, care and support each other, but they also have their fallings out, which happens in real life – no friendship is ever perfect and this is reflected in the events depicted in the book, but eventually JT and Seth’s love survives and their friendship with Heather flourishes. Heather as the only female in the group feels as if they look at her as a token female and is treated badly by some of the other drag queens, which obviously upsets her greatly as she loves her friends and they clearly love her in return.

The story is extremely moving as we follow JT from Clearwater, Florida to New York city to compete in the Miss Drag Teen competition, discovering on they way, who he is and who he wants to be, and sometimes, even though it may seem like your parents don’t listen or care, deep down they do and can surprise you so completely.

Drag teen is a funny, poignant and fabulous YA read

Posted in LGBT, YA | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Black Widow by Chris Brookmyre

Posted on July 10, 2016 by Andrea Pryke

This book was free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest and fair review.

Paperback will be published 01 November 2016

Synopsis

Diana Jager is clever, strong and successful, a skilled surgeon and fierce campaigner via her blog about sexism. Yet it takes only hours for her life to crumble when her personal details are released on the internet as revenge for her writing.
Then she meets Peter. He’s kind, generous, and knows nothing about her past: the second chance she’s been waiting for.
Within six months, they are married. Within six more, Peter is dead in a road accident, a nightmare end to their fairytale romance.
But Peter’s sister Lucy doesn’t believe in fairytales, and tasks maverick reporter Jack Parlabane with discovering the dark truth behind the woman the media is calling Black Widow…

51IhE9937bL._SX325_BO1,204,203,200_

My thoughts

A thriller that apparently gives you the killer at the beginning of the book, and then the author takes us back to the start and we follow the investigation through to the end.

As Diana tells us her side of the story, we discover a powerful, strong independent woman, a successful surgeon, who raged against the inherent sexism in the medical profession.

She meets peter and they marry within six months, but all is not as it seems and Peter’s work changes him, it appears he is having an affair and then steals £40,000 from his wife, the perfect motive for a murder, and then he disappears.

A well written, fast paced thriller and I was hooked from page 1, I could not put this down. All the characters are well written and as a woman I sided with Diana from the start, the other characters, especially with her husband Peter, and his sister Lucy, really came across as not quite what they seemed, yet we are meant to side with them, Jack the report, is well defined, a investigative journalist who doggedly pursues the truth and still came across as human and likable, even when the case appeared to be solved, he keeps digging until he finds the truth.

I would completely recommend this book to any one who enjoys thrillers and crime stories, this book has an ending that will linger long after you close the book.

5 out of 5*

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

The Garden on Sunset by Martin Turnbull

Posted on July 9, 2016 by Andrea Pryke

Synopsis

When Marcus Adler’s father runs him out of Pennsylvania, he can think of only one place to go: 8152 Sunset Boulevard, the home of luminous silent screen star Alla Nazimova, who visited him on his sickbed when he was a child. But when Marcus gets to Hollywood, Madame Nazimova’s home has been converted to a hotel. Marcus checks into The Garden of Allah and starts his new life. He soon finds friends in Kathryn Massey, who ran away from her overbearing stage mother to become a journalist, and Gwendolyn Brick, a hopeful actress from the Other Hollywood—Hollywood, Florida—who wants to try her luck in Glitter City. The three naïve hopefuls band together to tread water against a tidal wave of threadbare casting couches, nervous bootleggers, human billboards, round-the-world zeppelins, sinking gambling boats, waiters in blackface, William Randolph Hearst, the Long Beach earthquake, starlets, harlots, Harlows and Garbos. But how will they get their feet inside Hollywood’s golden door?

514h6RKF4zL

My thoughts

Now as you all know I love old Hollywood and all the glitz., glamour, stars and movies, so when I saw that this was a free download I could not click quick enough.

The idea of 3 people moving to Hollywood in 1927 and moving into The Garden of Alla hotel is a great one, all the Hollywood luminairies of the time congregated there for the legendary parties.

The descriptions of the Hollywood scenes were excellent and the characters interesting, but the time jumped from one year to another without much indication and before I knew it, it was the mid 1930s, and well not much happened in those years to the characters other than a lot of name dropping.

The three main characters were driven by their dream and kept plugging away at their respective careers long after most others would have giving up and gone home, but determination is what is needed to succeed in Hollywood and there are real stories of people sticking it our no matter what, but in reality one of them at least would have given up. The odd thing was how easily they made friends with the big Hollywood stars like Alla Nasimova and Tallulah Bankhead, something that would have been unlikely even then, even though the stars were not protected like they are now, their staff would have mostly consisted on current friends and family members.

The writing style is easy to read and as long as you don’t take it too literally as to the reality of the Golden Age of Cinema, you will enjoy it.

But personally I was hoping for something more, I guess I will have to read book 2 to find out.

I gave this 3 out of 5*

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