Thanks to the lovely people at Harper Collins for inviting me on the blog tour for ‘The Therapist’ by B A Paris, a tense psychological suspense novel that is out today!
My Review:
Continue reading Blog Tour: ‘The Therapist’ by B A Paris
WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted at Taking on a World of Words. Anyone can take part and it is a great way of sharing what you have just finished reading, what you are currently reading and what is next on the TBR.
WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted at Taking on a World of Words. Anyone can take part and it is a great way of sharing what you have just finished reading, what you are currently reading and what is next on the TBR.
Thanks to The Write Reads for inviting me onto this Ultimate Blog Tour for the YA thriller ‘What Beauty There Is’.
From the Publisher:
When everything you love is in danger, how long can you keep running to survive?
Life can be brutal
Winter in Idaho. The sky is dark. It is cold enough to crack bones.
Jack knew it
Jack Dahl has nothing left. Except his younger brother, Matty, who he’d die for. Their mother is gone, and their funds are quickly dwindling, Jack needs to make a choice: lose his brother to foster care, or find the drug money that sent his father to prison.
So did I
Ava lives in isolation, a life of silence. For seventeen years her father, a merciless man, has controlled her fate. He has taught her to love no one.
Did I feel the flutter of wings when Jack and I met? Did I sense the coming tornado?
But now Ava wants to break the rules – to let Jack in and open her heart. Then she discovers that Jack and her father are stalking the same money, and suddenly Ava is faced with a terrible choice: remain silent or speak out and help the brothers survive.
Looking back, I think I did . . .
Perfect for fans of Patrick Ness, Meg Rosoff and Daniel Woodrell, What Beauty There Is an unforgettable debut novel that is as compulsive as it is beautiful, and unflinchingly explores the power of determination, survival and love.
Ruta Sepetys, bestselling author of Between Shades of Grey
‘Beautifully written and superbly constructed, Anderson pulls you onto a chilling footpath of love and loss and keeps you there until you’ve read every last word’
My Review:
I was drawn to this book by the interesting setting – with the action unfolding under the dark, brooding skies of Idaho in winter. What I wasn’t prepared for was a book that was also so dark in content!
The story follows Jack Dahl, a teenager who is left caring for his younger brother after the suicide of their mother. His father is in prison, leading Jack to embark on a scramble to find his hidden drug money. However, Jack isn’t the only one on the trail…
I’ll admit that this was not an easy read – the story is bleak and there are points that are really heartbreaking, for example Jack’s fleeting hope of having a job which is then snatched away from him because of his family name. And any scene with Matty in – the child unquestioningly trusting his big brother to protect him while Jack makes increasingly desperate decisions.
However, there are also some excellent reasons to read this book:
This book is not for the faint-hearted. It is gritty, brutal and unflinchingly violent in places – definitely one to check the trigger warnings on before you read. However, if your preferred reading is on the shadowy end of the spectrum, this could well be a great book for you.
About the Author:
Cory Anderson is a winner of the League of Utah Writers Young Adult Novel Award and Grand Prize in the Storymakers Conference First Chapter Contest. She lives in Utah with her family. What Beauty There Is is her debut novel.
Twitter: @coryanderwrites
Website: https://coryanderson.us/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coryanderwrites/
Amazon UK Link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/What-Beauty-There-Cory-Anderson/dp/0241441714/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=what+beauty+there+is&qid=1616251655&sr=8-1
I have a huge apology to make. This book has sat on my NetGalley shelf for a long time and I should have read and reviewed it much earlier. Not least because I have missed out on reading this until now. This book was published in 2019 by Collins Crime Club, part of Harper Collins.
This is the third in Bonnie MacBird’s excellent series featuring Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson. I’ve now read all four books (the latest, ‘The Three Locks’, has just been published – you can read my blog tour review here). I think they can be read in any order as, although there are some recurring characters in the books aside from the expected ones, I don’t think there are spoilers.
Continue reading ‘The Devil’s Due’ by Bonnie MacBirdHappy publication day to this unusual tale of gay friendship!
I didn’t really know what to expect from this book, but the 1920s setting and the concept seemed interesting – two childhood friends, Bettina and Bart, decide to marry in order to hide their same-sex preferences from a disapproving world. They hope that marriage will bring them a respectability that will allow them to carry out their love affairs in private.
The story opens in 1921 when Bart and Bettina share a moonlit kiss that convinces both of them that their sexual preferences aren’t for each other! What follows is a story of a marriage that is a giant cover-up – although, to the outside world, it looks conventional and produces children. Instead, Bart becomes involved with a French lover, Etienne, and Bettina conducts her own love affairs. As the pair progress through the 1920s and 1930s and into World War II, neither have any sense of where their deceptions will lead them.
I think I had hoped that this would be a heart-warming tale in which the friendship between Bart and Bettina would mean that they have each others’ backs even through the tough times. It doesn’t exactly play out like this as both characters are spiky and tough so they do seem to spend a lot of the novel either not together or not liking each other – I thought this was a shame as it undermined what I hoped would be a message about the power of friendship. It just isn’t that sort of book!
Instead, it is funny and shocking at times and quite graphic – there’s no cosiness in this version of the past. In fact, it reads as quite modern in the social sensibilities and language used – occasionally jarringly so, but this may be because I am used to more conventional historical fiction. It is also quite sad in places, particularly the framing of the novel in more modern times.
This was definitely a novel that kept me reading – it moves through time and space at speed and there really isn’t a dull moment. I enjoyed the varied settings and the historical backdrop, from Hollywood glitz to the very unglamorous work of the Land Girls of WW2. Although I can’t say I liked either of the lead characters, their story was interesting and thought-provoking.
I’d recommend this to anyone interested in the sexual politics surrounding LGBT issues in the past – it certainly doesn’t hold back on the challenges that people like Bart and Bettina must have faced in a much less permissive society than our own.
If you’d like a copy of this book, please use my Amazon Affiliate link below – thanks for supporting my blog with any purchases.
Header photo with thanks to Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash.
In the place of my usual WWW Wednesday post, I have my end of my end of month wrap up and a look at what is coming up in my bookish world in April.
Links provided are affiliate links – thanks for supporting my blog with any purchases.
March Wrap-Up
It’s been a good reading month – I’ve read some great books, including a few outside my comfort zone! This month, I’ve read 13 books. I’ve struggled a bit with digital reading, so these have been mainly physical books – unusual for me and a lovely change.
My NetGalley is at 76% – this will be a focus for me in April as I really want to get back to that elusive 80%!
Continue reading March 2021 Wrap-Up and April TBRAs soon as I saw the subtitle for this book – ‘In search of ourselves in life and literature’ – I knew I had to read it. Thanks to Sarah at Harwood PR for sending me a gifted copy in exchange for an honest review – opinions, as always, are entirely my own.
I love books about books and loved the sound of this one! Josh Cohen is a psychoanalyst and Professor of Literary Theory – there is genuinely no-one better suited to take the reader through the trials of human life while also offering up literary examples of characters who have suffered the same timeless conundrums.
Continue reading ‘How to Live. What to Do’ by Josh CohenWelcome to my stop on the blog tour for ‘Last Place You Look’ by Louisa Scarr. This fab new police procedural will be published by Canelo Crime in paperback and digital formats on 8th April 2021.
This tour is organised by Damp Pebbles. As always, thanks to the publisher, author and tour organiser for my gifted copy in exchange for an honest review.
Continue reading Blog Tour: ‘Last Place You Look’ by Louisa ScarrWelcome to my stop on the blog tour for ‘The Shadow in the Glass’ by JJA Harwood.
This tour was organised by Random Things Tours. The novel was published in hardback on 18th March, 2021.
Thank you to the tour organiser and publisher for my review copy – this has not influenced my views and opinions are – as always – entirely my own.
