Laura

I think this may be my first two-star review this year, things had been going so well with my reading and then along came The Pool House to throw a spanner in the works and send me careening towards a reading slump. I should have known, I have become a fantasy girl at heart, avoiding contemporary fiction unless it comes with strong reviews but it was 20p in my local library book sale and I was drawn in by the cover.

Initially, it seemed this could be a good read, a story of Jem and her husband who take a share in a beach house in the Hamptons but when they get there they find out about a girl who drowned in the pool of the house a year before and died. Jem begins to investigate Alice's death and it incorporates all the inhabitants of the house. It should have been a fairly good read. So where did it all go wrong?

Firstly, in order to engage with the book, you need to really care about the character who has met their untimely demise. Alice, however, was ultimately really unlikeable. I could respect the fact she had come from a poor and difficult background and had overcome diversity but if you stripped that away she isn't a great person. She's shallow and motivated purely by status, she's a serial cheater moving from affair to affair behind her husbands back, she's prepared to blackmail her ‘friends' in order to get herself out of her own blackmail situation. I just couldn't get on board with her at all. I didn't empathise with her and so I really couldn't care about who killed her or why.

Jem, on the other side, was a much more rounded character to read from the perspective of and I liked how she portrayed the opposite of Alice, not really being on board with the expense of the beach house, having doubts about her own husbands fidelity and wanting to do the right thing by following up on what happened to Alice. It's just a real shame her parts of the book were at times slow and lacking in action. Overall this book felt unwieldy and by 330 pages in I couldn't do it anymore. I was losing the will to care and so I flicked to just before the end for a quick who-done-it reveal, found it didn't surprise me, it was what I guessed and so I gave up and am now moving on.

Disappointed with this one, it had lots of story potential but the characterisations let it down.

Lisa Hall is one of the authors I will automatically pick up her books because of the quality of her debut, Between You and Me. This is the third novel of hers I have read and I was thrilled to find it on my library shelves as one of their brand new releases a month ago.

The Party tells the story of Rachel who wakes up in the spare bedroom of her neighbour's house on New Years Day with no memory of the night before but with bruises and signs that she has been attacked the night before. With no memory of what happened and having gone through a really difficult time in her marriage in the preceding months after an affair she is loathe to add further strain to her relationship but feels compelled to find out what happened to her.

The book follows Rachel's investigations to find out who saw what at the New Years Eve party the night before as a means to piece together who her attacker might be. She has a number of potential suspects from the man she had an affair with to the stalker she has been having increasing issues with and she even finds herself considering if her husband could be responsible.

This story did keep me guessing throughout, it was really good at drip feeding to us the different clues through a method of using chapters that flashbacked to the months leading up to Rachel's attack mixed with chapters based after the attack where Rachel would use the accounts of friends to piece together the events at the party. Through this method it was great to be able to gain information about the state of Rachel's marriage and how all the different suspects had touched her life in the month's before the attack, giving us motives for several different people that all look plausible.

I liked the story and it did keep me turning the pages, however, there were a few niggles I had that dropped this to a 3 star read for me. Firstly, Rachel herself is an okay heroine but there were times I wanted to give her a shake, especially when it came to her husband. She seemed content to allow him to walk all over her and to dictate their lives all because of the affair she'd had. I felt she could and should have been stronger in standing up for her own rights both in the months leading up to the attack and after. Secondly, several of the characters in the novel felt a little underdeveloped. Also, the ending. I absolutely hated the ending. I'm sorry Lisa Hall but that last chapter just had me screaming no. There was no need. The last paragraphs were just such an awful ending to Rachel's story. This was not how she should have taken control and it just left me annoyed. It was all suggestion and then nothing.........just no!!!

Overall an okay read, if you can ignore the last few pages I think it's an enjoyable but not standout thriller.

Wow, just wow! I don't think I've had a book for a little bit now that's literally had me struggling to put it down, nor have I managed to read one in 2 days for quite some time but Amanda Prowse has truly produced a wonderful book in Another Love, one of her No Greater Courage series.

This is the story of Romilly and the illness which tears her life and her family apart and her lifelong struggle to manage it. The book opens with Romilly's letter to her teenage daughter Celeste as she apologises for allowing her alchoholism to have ruined their lives and how she sometimes wished she had an illness people could see as then they would understand that she can't just pull herself together and stop drinking but that it's something she cannot control. From this point we are given interlinking chapters from Romilly's view of the past and Celeste's memories of growing up with a mum who is spiralling out of control.

From the outset of the book Romilly is a heavy social drinker, from her time meeting her future husband David at university she speaks freely of big nights out where she uses alcohol to lower her inhibitions and turn her into the confident party goer rather than the nerdy insect girl she feels like inside. As the chapters progress her drinking slowly begins to spiral, suddenly she's not only drinking socially but her glass of wine at the end of the day has progressed to a bottle, then to two and beyond.

This book takes us through Romilly's journey, the constant uphill struggle to battle against the call of alcohol and the never ending battle she faces to feel good enough for her family. She is a woman who has everything and as a reader there are points of the book where you want to take her aside and say, “What are you doing?” and this is a theme Prowse explores through her lead character, that motivation that drives her drinking to the expense of everything else.

The chapters from her daughter Celeste's perspective are heartbreaking, as she recounts the ups and downs of living with an alcoholic parent, the unreliability of what she might find walking through the door at the end of the day and the happy memories she has of times when her mum would be sober.

These two stories intertwine really beautifully and the book pulls you through with quite succinct chapters, blending the voices of mother and daughter beautifully. For me though there was one voice in the book whom I felt I didn't hear as much as I'd have liked and whose story would have been equally as intriguing and that is the one of David, Romilly's husband who literally lives through the dramas and heartache of watching his wife spiral into the grip of an illness she cannot control. It would have been really heartbreaking to get inside his head and understand at what point he felt he needed to step back and stop trying to help his wife get better.

I couldn't recommend this book any more highly, it is my favourite book thus far this year. It is one that's made me keen to read another Amanda Prowse novel and soon.

I feel like it's taken me quite a long time to work through all 3 books in Penny Vincenzi's Spoils of Time trilogy, and I think on each occassion I've found my way back to the story of the Lytton family and their publishing business I've found myself able to engage very easily with the characters and their stories again.

This third and final book in the trilogy, Into Temptation, was a real mammoth book to work through at a hefty 700 plus pages it was always going to be one you needed to commit to. I found that this was all very well, however where books 1 and 2 had focused upon the first and second world wars as their backrops which gave them something to bounce stories off of this book failed to have a similar historical event upon which to pin it's characters fates. Instead we begin in the 1950's in the senior years of our heroine of the trilogy Celia Lytton. She is preparing to marry after the death of her first husband Oliver and her children are less than happy with her choice. In fact instead of marrying her lover of many years Sebastian she has chosen instead to marry a man whom she has little romantic interest in at all.

The family business is still being run largely by family members, including Celia's son Giles and one of her twin daughters Venetia along with her nephew Jay Lytton. Celia's ongoing involvement in the business and their perception that her ideas are now outdated mean that they would like nothing more than Celia to retire, but shes not prepared to do that just yet, or is she?

The American branch of Lytton's is firmly in the hands of Barty, the adopted daughter of Celia and her first husband Oliver. She and her daughter Jenna are living off the fortune left to them by her husband Lawrence but Celia is lonely and suddenly one of daughter's school chums introduces her father Charlie and she dares to think maybe she could love someone again.

I hate to say but this book, whilst having some flashes of good storyline also had a tendency to drag them out overly. I love Barty as a character but the ongoing contracted storyline of her romance and marriage to Charlie Patterson became one of the more tedious ones in the book for me. It was patently clear from the outset he was not to be trusted and his scheming and money grabbing became something that should have lasted one part of the book but instead dragged throughout the whole 700 pages. I didn't buy that Bary who had previously been a very strong charater would have allowed him to continue acting that way for so long without taking very direct and decisive action.

If I were to review the position of the characters at the start of the book and compared it against where they ended I unfortunately felt that may of them hadn't been moved forward at all. Giles Lytton became a sidelined charater who was referred to ocassionally but was a missed opportunity in my opinion. In fact, because we had moved forward so far with the family since book one that we now had to deal not just with Celia and the first generation family but also the children, grandchildren and great granchildren's stories all in the one book. This means very few were given main storylines, instead they flitted in and out ocassionally but I craved more time with some and that wasn't always allowed.

The trilogy overall was a good story but my favourite was firmly Book 1, No Angel. The time setting, the worries of the Great War and the development of the family in the early years made for a more engaging read that we had by the time we got to Book 3. Instead we lacked focus on a small cast, lost a historical even in which the family could engage their stories and lost our attention to the family business in deferrence to managing the huge number of people the book had to cover. This was a real shame, it wouldn't stop me from reading Vincenzi again as Book One demonstrated the quality of writing of which she is capable, it's just a shame the Lytton clan became so unweildy that it caused a huge management of them in Book 3 to lead to loss of drama.

I've been hanging on this summer waiting for Jane Green's newest novel Summer Secrets to lift me out of my readers block I've been having the last month or so. Green's novels are generally very very readable and heartwarming and engaging so I thought this book, if it fit the authors normal high standards, would provide me the salvation I sought.

The lead character Cat is immediately engaging but clearly harbouring issues in her past with alcohol and in the first few chapters she talks us through her teenage years with a difficult father with whom she struggles to form a relationship and a mother who suffers from black bouts of depression. She openly outlines how she found comfort in alcohol as it dampened the hurt of her life. This relationship with alcohol ultimately becomes the most important in her life and after her father dies and she continues to struggle she finally is confronted by her mother who explains about an old family secret that may explain her addiction.

There are lots of time jumps throughout this book, from present day in London with Cat we travel back to Nantucket in the 70's with her mother and then follow Cat to Nantucket on two further occasions in her life as she seeks answers to who her family are and where she belongs. Throughout all these travels we are never far from Cat's addiction and the grip it has on her life, in fact ultimately that is the story of this book, it is a story about the daily struggle to stay sober, to never give into that pull of temptation and about the horrible hurt addiction can cause with those we are close to and how sometimes those wounds cannot heal.

The scenic backdrop to the book is totally typical of Green, it is based in beautiful but very middle class America, there's a detonate aspirational pull as a reader to hearing about the little boho boutiques and stores along the Nantucket shore and the ever so chic sores. Green seems to be most at home writing about the kind of lifestyle she as a writer is privileged to be able to enjoy and she translates it well to the reader. Normally however her other skill is the relationships I. her books which are strong and deeply formed and highly emotional. My one disappointment with this book was that I felt this wasn't as triumphant as normal. I thought the relationship between Cat and her mother was well written as was that with her daughter Annie but I was waiting for more emotional connections between Cat and her relatives in Nantucket which didn't ever really seem to get going. They lacked the same depth that I've come to expect and as a resulting wasn't as thrilled with the book as I might otherwise have been.

It's a good story and it's a fairly easy read and I did get through it reasonably quickly but it is not Jane Green's best novel, whether this is a reflection of a traumatic year in the authors own life encompassing a cancer scare, a house move and publishing a cookery book who knows?

It had been some time since I read No Angel the first of Penny Vincenzi's “Spoils of Time” trilogy. I could remember bits of the story and therefore when I began the second in the trilogy I worried how long it would take me to get back up to speed. I needn't have worried though as the book was written really well so as to reintroduce all the key players and I found ask the important plots from book one flooding back.

The Spoils of Time trilogy continues to follow the Lytton family, publishing magnates and rich socialites as head of the family Celia and her very different children navigate their way through life. whilst the first book “No Angel” focused upon the first world war and Celia's loves and life this second book focuses on the years before and throughout the second world war and the lives of the children in the Lytton family as they grow and fall in love and begin families of their own.

I felt like this book took forever to read, it is one of those really involved family sagas on par with those written by Barbara Taylor Bradford and it covered such a wide variety of dramas and love affairs that it felt quite like it was undertaking a mammoth read. The characters are all really well structured and there are a huge variety of different ones in the book but it's one of those books which some might find frustrating as you can pretty much guarantee its full of cliches such as girl sleeps with boy girl gets pregnant type of thing. None of the plot lines can't be seen coming but somehow there is something strangely comforting in that.

The book has left all the characters nicely poised for book three which I know I will definitely read but perhaps after a little gap again. After a book so full of high drama and family in fighting I feel I need to take a break and try something faster paced.

This book has become one of the most notable psychological thrillers of recent years, joining an elite collection along with Gone Girl which has seen Hollywood producers scrambling for the rights to transform it into a movie. I though seemed to miss much of the hype for this when it was released and it has been languishing on my kindle for ages, however whilst looking on IMDB a week ago I found the trailer for the upcoming movie adaptation featuring Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth.

Regular readers of my reviews will know I hate to miss the opportunity to read the book before watching the movie so I catapulted this to the top of my reading list and dove in.

The story is an intriguing, if not original concept, whereby the key character Christine, an amnesiac, wakens each day with no memory of where she is or the last 25 years of her life. It is up to her husband Ben to tell her each day who she is, where she is and why she can remember nothing. Now amnesia is no laughing matter but I'm sure people will forgive me for having a giggle initially as it pulled to mind visions of the Adam Sandler movie 50 First Dates, where Drew Barrymore has to be wooed each day due to the very same condition. It took a few chapters to leave those images behind. For Watson, trying to create an intense atmosphere I'm sure he's cursed this movie silently more than once.

Once I'd left it behind I began to enjoy the book more, I liked the use of Christine's journal to move past the amnesia and to build the story by allowing her memories to be built gradually through writing things down and rereading the daily. what this did was identify the discrepancies in the information her husband Ben was giving her and allowed us to move into the questions around what happened to Christine, who was responsible and why she was being lied to by her husband. was he just protecting her to prevent distress or was it to hide his own indiscretions?

I've read reviews where people said they found this book predictable and had guessed the ending early on. I have to say I didn't find this fault, it took me until the point where Watson begins his reveal to catch on and it didn't leave me bored half way. I loved the way that Christine's memories had me questioning whether she could be creating fictitious memories and trying to piece together what was true.

I think this will translate beautifully as a film, utilising video diaries instead of Christine's journal, what I think will be more interesting is which upcoming film release will emerge the ratings victor, Before I Go To sleep or Gone Girl. Both have it hitting casts with strong stories. I suspect this may languish a little but if it does it should on book value be much more engaging. It, in my opinion, read as the more believable novel and was the most engaging and I'd be keen to review both movies against their book counterparts upon their release.

I only gave it 4 stars because of the never ending visions of Drew Barrymore belting out The Beach Boys “Wouldn't It Be Nice” whilst paining a wall day after day in the Sandler movie. It made it hard to focus and as I write this I can almost see Watson giving another silent curse to Mr Adam Sandler and that makes me smile.

And so The Women's Murder Club continues on, book 10 and eventually Lyndsay Boxer makes it down the aisle. It was an auspicious start to Book 10, a glimmer that it might be as good as book 9'but sadly it wasn't to last. The thing about the series is that whilst sometimes Patterson gets it spot on and produces a rip roaring tale, sometimes they sputter and fail.

I have a theory as sharp as any Boxer could produce as to why. I know the novels are entitled Women's Murder Club but it's the club bit that let the poorer books down. In book 10 we seems to have returned to the format of Boxer investigating a central case with the SFPD, Yuki struggling to try a case in court and Cindy investigating something for the paper. This is becoming a little predictable and depends largely on the quality of each of the threads of the story.

In this instance Boxers case is not that exciting and is solved by 60-65% in, Yuki is now coming across as a so,we hat substandard lawyer who seems to always be struggling in court and Cindy's story is picked up and put down more times than a trashy mills & boon. All of the plots seem weak and don't make for as exciting a novel as Patterson usually provides.

It still pulls you through remarkable quickly and I read it in just over a day, zipping through the chapters, but it was still less satisfying to read than some of the other books in the series. Now we know what is going to be a focus in book 11 I'll still be keen to follow Boxer's next chapter but I pray it's not more of the same format. I miss the grizzly gritty cases of the early novels and a real sense of danger.

This book had a rip-roaring start, as we follow Emma and her partner Matt and their small daughter Alice as they leave Brighton to begin a new life in the South of France the writer draws us quickly into the family and their adventure as they arrive at their somewhat delapadated farmhouse with grand plans to renovate together and begin a quieter life, even if Matt is the driving force and Emma's heart isn't quite in it.

The twist in the book comes suddenly and unexpectedly and had me re-reading the start of one chapter as I thought I'd seriously missed something as important as the introduction of a major character but I soon realised where the author was going and it became clear the deception within the book was one of magnific proportions. Until the point where the deception is discovered this is a cracking book.

I found however the the unraveling of our main female character lacked some substance, it began to almost feel like a different book altogether for a couple of chapters as I found myself lacking sympathy for the main character and longing her to sprout a backbone. The book managed to recover itself admirably in the last few chapters and concluded nicely if it was a little rushed.

As good as Emily Barr's other novels - not really but still worth reading.

I am really proud of myself, after a very long time of promising to read The Mortal Instruments series I have in the last few months managed to work my way through all 6 books and can now finally understand what all the hype is about with this story.

It's been a really long journey from City of Bones to City of Heavenly Fire and along the way we have fallen in love with some wonderful characters, hated others and had lots of shouting at the pages moments. This book had to pull together all the strands of Jace and Clary's story and bring them to a conclusion and give us a satisfying feeling about their endings together.

The first really exciting thing in this book was the introduction of new characters from the Los Angeles institute. Emma Carstairs is the heroine of Clare's newer series The Dark Artifices and to see her story introduced in Heavenly Fire was lovely and I liked her immediately. I love that we have been given a glimpse of what is to come and I feel as I begin to read Lady Midnight it will be lovely to enhance her story and watch it grow.

I also loved the merging of Infernal Devices favourites in this book, for most people The Infernal Devices holds a special place in their hearts and to have their involvement in this story was so exciting and the parts of the book in which they featured were some of the real high points in this story and made it even more special.

As for our main cast they are all front and centre in this story and are still trying desperately to chase down and stop Clary's evil brother Sebastian who is trying to wage war on the Shadowhunters. From this perspective I have to be honest I am glad to see the end of this story. At points I felt it was never going to end. I have truly loved the stories of many of the characters in these books, Simon Lewis is a bonafide legend and I hold a special place for him and this book really brought his story full circle. Whether I felt it was the best ending for him I'm not quite sure, I can understand the idea Clare had but I loved my Daylighter and I'm a little unsure as to whether this was the right ending for my beloved vampire.

I am thrilled to see Alec and Magnus also reach a place where they are at peace with their relationship and ready to move forward into the future. They have been an absolute joy in this series, by far my favourite couple. You just root for them. Magnus Bane is one of Clare's most masterful creations and I could read about him all day long. I love the way we introduced the premise for The Bane Chronicles novel and I am excited now to read Magnus' stories from his 400 year long life.

The ending of this series was eminently satisfying and a wonderful conclusion where all the loose ends were tied up neatly whilst paving the way for The Dark Artifices to begin. On the whole I liked this series but I certainly didn't love it in the same way I did The Infernal Devices, there are characters I loved but equally others who didn't set me alight. I only gave it 4 out of 5 because fundamentally it is not the equal of The Infernal Devices books but it was still one of the strongest books of this series.

I finished this installment of the Mortal Instruments a few days ago and I've been letting it all sink in before posting my review because of all the books in the series this far it's the one I've been least overwhelmed by.

This is the 5th book in the 6 books of the series and by now we have become very familiar with the usual cast of characters and they are feeling like old friends and we are very familiar with the Shadowhunter world and the other Downworlder characters. It is clear with this book that we are building towards a big finale in Book 6 but is it wrong that a little bit of me cannot wait to be done with the whole Clary and Jace fiasco?

The central two characters in this series have become a tad dull and their ongoing relationship angst and the ability for Jace to stumble from one disaster to another is beginning to wane a little at this stage. Clary thinks there is no one like him, in fact, he can literally do nothing to stop her trailing at his heels like a puppy dog. This book is the perfect example of how even his demonic connection to her brother Sebastian and his involvement in a plot to end mankind cannot stop this girl from sticking up for him. Yes, kill Sebastian and you kill Jace is a bit of an issue to helping him but really was it just me who wanted to yell “Just kill them both and be done with it!”.

These books still hold sway for me now because of the wonderful characters that surround our hapless central two. Simon Lewis, our day walking vampire and Clary's best friend continues to hold this series together for me. He has grown immensely from book one and is the real hero of the hour, there is nothing he will not do for his best friend and I could read about him so much more. Isabelle Lightwood is also winning me over immensely with her feisty nature and kickass attitude. I also had such high hopes for Alec and Magnus and Magnus Bane always has held a special place in my heart in this series and The Infernal Devices but in this book, I have to say that Alec blew it. He literally blew this relationship up because he couldn't cope with having an adult conversation with Magnus where he said “I don't know how to cope with your immortality”. Instead, he decided to go behind Magnus' back and try to take the immortality from him. Now that was just stupid and misguided and although I love Alec dearly he dropped in my estimation in this book.

With one book to go in this series I am clearly going to read it's conclusion but now I'm beginning to wonder if I'm reading because I've heard such wonderful things about the series to follow, The Dark Artifices and I've been told you need to understand the conclusion of this series before embarking on that. Lady Midnight and Lord of Shadows have all been clearly highlighted as way better than this series and I cannot wait to start them but I do wonder if without this draw I'd be getting a little disillusioned with Clare's writing by now. The Infernal Devices was incredible and I loved it so much but The Mortal Instruments is at the moment a bit of a ‘meh' for me.

There have been some highs along the way, an equal number of lows and this book is probably one of the lower points for me. Most people will probably read it as a means to an end of getting to Book 6 but I'm not sure anyone really will have loved it.

I am almost relieved to read the other reviews on this site of Douglas Kennedy's latest novel - I wondered if it was just me who found the ending to this book rather pointless and bizarre.
I have read lots of Douglas Kennedy's novels and loved them all, as others on this site state they are always really insightful, show a great depth of understanding of his characters and always follow a really strong storyline. I was really excited to begin The Woman In The Fifth, the dust jacket of the book outlines a plot that sounds really promising as an American college professor trying to escape his complicated life in Ohio moves to Paris to begin again and meets a Hungarian woman there who he begins a relationship with.
To be fair at the start of the book it begins really well, Kennedy builds his characters well and I was really enjoying the book. The last 8 or 9 chapters however are almost like they come from a totally different book, suddenly we go from a novel about the observations of life and our characters in Paris, to one about some woman who is a figment of the main characters imagination (or not - I'm still not sure) who's been dead for years and who goes around murdering people who have done the main character wrong.
I probably would chance reading another Douglas Kennedy novel again but another one like this and I think it would be my last!

I had heard wonderful things about Patrick Ness' novel A Monster Calls and in the past had opened it and flicked through the first few pages but, for some reason, I put it down and hadn't picked it back up again. However, this is one of those books that refuses to go away, no matter where you turn people cannot wait to tell you how incredible this story is and how much it moved them emotionally and so I went back and gave it another try and I am absolutely not disappointed that I did. In fact, from this point on I think I'm going to join those legions of people shouting about just how wonderful this beautiful book was.

It's an unusual story, full of imagery and subtle themes that link it all together. It is the story of Connor, a young boy who is struggling to help his mother cope with her cancer and the debilitating effect the treatment of her disease has upon their lives. Living alone together he is her carer and from the outset of this book he talks about the nightmares that haunt him as he tries to manage to care for his mum, school and his feelings that nobody treats him normally anymore.

One night a monster, in the form of a tree, from the graveyard across from his back garden comes calling and tells Connor it is there because Connor called him. An ancient soul this monster says it will tell Connor three stories but in return, he must share the content of his nightmare which haunts him.

Dealing with difficult themes this book is not for younger readers but it is wonderful for young adults looking to explore a book rich with beautiful imagery and there is a gorgeous illustrated edition of this novel available which helps to bring the story to life. Also adapted into a movie starring Felicity Jones and with the voice of Liam Neeson, it also makes the story accessible to those who aren't lovers of books. It is absolutely going on my to watch list within the next few weeks. It isn't overly long, weighing in at just over 200 pages. I read this so quickly picking it up and finishing it in one afternoon because once I had picked it up I really really did not want to put it down.

The core theme of the novel is one of coping with those things that are outwith our control and the fear of having to let go of someone you love. It addresses all of the emotions that accompany that from helplessness to anger to fear and grief. The way in which the monster and the stories it tells reflect the feelings Connor is experiencing in his own life make it very powerful to read and mean that you really lose yourself in the emotion of this story.

This is easily the easiest 5-star rating I've given in a while, it was a beautiful book very powerfully written and with a story that is timeless and will span generations because of its core story of family and love.

This book exploded into the bestsellers chart earlier this year and already movie rights have been bought up by Reese Witherspoon's film company, whilst every newspaper for a while had pictures of celebrities with a copy of this book tucked under their arms.

When a book receives such endorsements it's almost unbearable not to check out whether the hype is deserved.

This is the story of Nick & Amy, a young married city couple who have moved back to Nick's small hometown in order to help care for his ill mother. One day however Amy disappears and suddenly every aspect of their marriage is under the microscope. The problem is though that Nick's view of his marriage seems to be out of synch with what the police are finding out about Amy. Suddenly Nick is suspect number 1.

I loved first half of this book, the way the chapters flit between Amy & Nick, exploring their marriage from two view points and this was intriguing. It built the suspense and a picture which promised a strong book. About half way through though it flipped on it's head and went a little crazy. I won't go into any specifics because it would ruin for those who haven't read it yet but suffice to say it made the ending less than I was expecting.

Personally I didn't find the ending credible, it left me frustrated and the character unresolved. I can see why this might translate well to the screen and I'm positive it will receive lots of attention on release. For me it wasn't the greatest book ever but it did introduce me to the author and I'd now (based on part of Gone Girl) give the other books from her a try.

I came to this book very late in relation to it's immense publicity and popularity a few years ago when it featured on the Richard & Judy reading list. It's been lingering in my e-reader for some time and I've always seemed to flick past it but I knew it would pull me in eventually and I am very glad indeed that it did.

Beatrice is living in America with her fiancé when she receives a call from her mother to notify her that her sister Tess has gone missing. Despite Tess being somewhat of a ‘free spirit' Beatrice immediately hops on a plane and comes home to search for her. The book is written retrospectively in a letter to her sister as Beatrice relates the tale to a representative of the Criminal Prosecution Service as a statement.

The story unfolds really nicely through reflective passages that flick back into the shared past of the sisters and we learn a great deal about their relationship and how they differ with Tess being an art student who lives near to their mother but is regarded as a little eccentric whereas Beatrice is the high flyer with secure job and a good future who flew the nest for life abroad. The differences between them has had no bearing on their closeness and it is this relationship which makes Beatrice sure that something terrible has happened to her sister and forces her onward till she finds the answers to where she has gone.

It is book with many different potential options of what happened to Tess, we are presented a large list of possible suspects and motives throughout and it is hard to decipher who actually is to blame, I found myself swaying on several occasions and questioning everything. I didn't guess the ending before the closing chapters and that in itself was hugely refreshing as often with this genre you are almost groaning at the end with a sense of “I could have told you that 7 chapters ago”, it is lovely that this book didn't give me that. It dropped a huge bombshell at the end which turned the whole book on it's head.

I've read some people found the ending frustrating, and I can understand why that was the case. I didn't find myself disliking it so strongly it impacted my enjoyment of the rest, I just felt it didn't reach a proper conclusion which because of how it had been written I was expecting to be able to gain, instead it was very much a quick and dramatic end with no conclusion.

I really enjoyed the central theme of the book, the relationship between the sisters and the way in which we pull for Beatrice to find the solution to Tess' disappearance, we believe her innately and know that she is doing the right thing. The surrounding characters are really well written and as a result we suspect everyone and believe nothing. This is the art to good mystery writing.

I thoroughly enjoyed this, my first Rosamund Lupton book and I am looking forward to reading more in the months and years ahead.

Having read and loved the Court of Thorns & Roses novels by Sarah J. Maas and with it being around a year till we can expect the next installment from that series I decided that in the meantime I should try the other series from this wonderful author, Throne of Glass. I've heard lots about this series as well and the reviews are very positive so with that in mind I started off the series with this first novel in what is an ongoing and developing story, Book 6 having just been released this week.

The first thing that struck me about this book was the absolute no nonsense delving into the story, right from the first page the story kicks off with Assassin Celeana being taken to meet the Crown Prince who is looking for someone to be his Champion in a contest his father the King is holding to find someone to fulfil the role of Royal Assassin. In this contest, she must compete against a variety of thieves, murderers, professional soldiers and other Assassins to win her freedom from the mines where she is currently a prisoner. This story is Celeana's fight to win each round of the competition and to ensure that she never has to return to the brutal mines at Endovier again where she knows she will die.

The essence of this story is Celeana's relationships with the people she meets in the royal palace, the Head of the Kings Guards Chaol who mentors her through the competition and helps her train, her relationship with the Prince, Dorian who she is building a close relationship with which could turn to more than just friendship. The other contestants in the competition, a foreign Princess in the palace who as a political pawn is trying to cope with the wrongs done to the people in her country by the King. Against this backdrop, people are being murdered in vicious circumstances and Celeana is scared she may be next.

I loved this book. I liked the sheer range of characters, there are so many we are introduced to in this novel that I'm sure we are going to learn more about through the series that you feel you can forgive Maas for not exploring all of them in depth at this stage. I like that we have a love triangle setting itself up that you cannot quite decide on which side of to fall. You want to root for both sides. Celeana is a kick ass lead character, she is feisty and strong and intelligent. You want her to succeed and we are sure that there are lots of stories still to explore about her past. I really enjoyed the introduction of paranormal elements to the story, the demons and fight against good and evil during the final duel.

I am excited to see where this story takes us next. Having read Court of Thorns & Roses and its expanding world I know how capable Maas is of building stories that are all encompassing and I can see a great deal of potential in this world and its history and the development of its future. I gave this one a 4 out of 5 stars because I have a feeling the best is yet to come.

My dad has been in hospital the past few weeks and had been listening to some audio books as a way to pass the long hours, and whilst preparing this first Jack Reacher book on his MP3 player it reminded me that I still had to give Lee Child's hero a try.

So initially I started off the book a little more slowly than I'd hoped, I kind of limped through the first few chapters. I picked it up and put it down, picked it up again and read a little then stalled again. Then suddenly around Chapter 5 something happened and suddenly Mr Reacher & I just clicked.

From that point on I was hooked, the book just pulled me in and the storyline moved up into a higher gear. The story of a man shot in a small town and a drifter passing through conveniently having the blame pinned on him began to shift and change, links began to fall into place and a real conspiracy began to take shape.

This was a whole different book to that of James Patterson who is the king of short snappy chapters to keep you guessing. Child instead weaves a more sophisticated story, long leisurely chapters designed to pull you in deeper. His writing and hero seemed more intelligent, more gritty than those of Mr Patterson.

I'm definitely feeling book withdrawal symptoms now this book has finished and as my dad spends even more time in hospital I know he'll love having the next few Reacher adventures to pass the time. I'm absolutely certain it won't be long till I dive into another story with Mr Jack Reacher.

I first glimpsed this book on a shelf in WH Smiths and it's cover tantalised me and then subsequently so did it's cover blurb. It is the first Sarah Rayner novel I'd heard of and I immediately wanted to read it.

This book took me a while to get through which is not a reflection upon it at all more the fact that I decided to catalogue my ebook collection at the same time and like a woman demented I didn't want to stop. Instead I kept flitting in an out of this book, a chapter here and here.

This is the story of a man called Simon who on the 7.44 train from Brighton to London suffers a fatal heart attack. It is his wife's story, that of his wife's best friend and also of Lou, the woman who witnesses events that fateful morning.

Simon's death has a profound effect on them all and on their lives. It isn't though a depressing story. Instead I found it full of hope and love and stories of friendship at difficult times. Simon's death is not the central story merely the setting around which the real story is told.

I liked this book a great deal and would say that it left me feeling full of awareness that we all need to be aware that life is fleeting and we need to live in the moment and I would recommend this book. It is a lovely novel which is easy to read and has some truly lovely characters at it's core.

This book has been on my TBR (to be read) shelf for a while now along with the other two books in The Infernal Devices series, Clockwork Princess and Clockwork Prince. Written by Cassandra Clare and based in her world of Shadowhunters it is a companion to her Mortal Instruments series. The only reason I hadn't already picked this book up is I wasn't sure if it was ‘okay' to read The Infernal Devices books before I'd finished The Mortal Instruments and so I'd been trying and trying to get into the second book of The Mortal Instruments when I saw a great YouTube video that reassured me it's okay to read The Infernal Devices first and that was all the information I needed to have me delve into Clockwork Angel immediately.

I had already read City of Bones, the first in The Mortal Instruments series, and so I had a little background knowledge on Clare's Shadowhunter world but I read it a few years ago now and my knowledge was hazy and so I went into Clockwork Angel hoping that I would be able to glean as much information as I needed to understand the narrative. Also, for me a book with a historical, in the case of this book Victorian, setting really helped me engage with the world more than the modern setting of The Mortal Instruments series. I kept thinking Penny Dreadful, the TV show, when I was reading this and imagining a similar vibe of gothic London in the 1890's and it helped me build the atmosphere in my mind and I found that really helped.

The story begins when Tessa, a young American, travels to London after the death of her aunt to be reunited with her brother. When she gets to London she is taken prisoner by two sisters, known as the Dark Sisters who are trying to train her to use the powers that she has that allow her to physically change into another person. She is told that if she learns to use her powers she is to be married to a powerful man known as ‘The Magister' who is currently holding her brother prisoner and that only her co-operation will guarantee her siblings freedom.

Rescued by a mysterious young boy, Will Herrondale, Tessa is introduced to the world of ‘The Shadowhunters' a group of angelic fighters whose role it is to protect the human world from the dangers of ‘downworlders' which consist of Vampires, Werewolves, Faires and Warlocks. While helping Tessa to try and understand the strange powers she has they begin a quest to find and rescue her brother Nate from the mysterious ‘Magister' and deal with a new threat to The Shadowhunters that may be able to wipe them out forever.

I loved this book. It was dark and gothic and the action within the chapters was non-stop. It has a totally new collection of characters from The Mortal Instruments series except for the Warlock, Magnus Bane, whose name I recognised from reading City of Bones. Tessa is a great lead character, she begins the book with little confidence and much confusion in her abilities but by the end, she's clearly learning to use her strange powers and has grown in maturity. There is also somewhat of a love triangle in this book between Tessa and two young Shadowhunters, Will and Jem. Will is a dark, cocky and enigmatic young man who is confident in his abilities but whose attitude splits the opinions of those around him. On the other hand, we have Jem, Will's best friend and fellow Shadowhunter. Jem is more guarded, more thoughtful and also frailer. He is suffering from a mysterious illness that weakens him but he battles through it to ensure he is there for his friend when he needs him.

I liked the different relationships Tessa has with Jem and Will. With Will it's almost a gentle sparring between them, a teasing relationship but he is her protector and the one she looks to when she feels unsafe. With Jem, Tessa shares more about her inner feelings, how she feels confused by the new world she's learning about and what it means about who her parents were and her new life in London. At the end of this book things are left wide open and clearly are going to be explored in more depth as the series progresses.

I really needed to read this book in order to open a door for me into Cassandra Clare's world. I felt much more connection to the characters in this book than I did to those in City of Bones. I came away from this book desperate to delve into Book 2 in the series, Clockwork Prince. I genuinely have not felt that same calling back to The Mortal Instruments. This doesn't mean however that I do not intend to go back to them. I am using this series as a way to lose myself in the Shadowhunter world so much that I will then go back and reread City of Bones with a fresh perspective and then with my wider knowledge and background to the world move forward from there and after having read Clockwork Angel I'm sure I will do so with more insight and awareness than I did first time around. I am also studiously avoiding the TV series, Shadowhunters, so I do not spoil anything for the books but am saving it till I've finished both series.

I know I am coming to this series very late as much of the book community has already digested them and are already awaiting the second book in Clare's new series The Dark Artifices but I am so glad that now I am finding my way into the series and cannot thank Emmabooks and her channel on YouTube enough for giving me that reassurance that it was okay to pick this up before I read The Mortal Instruments. I had recently been in a bit of a reading slump, not finding anything to really engage me but I've changed up my usual genre's in the past few weeks and it's really re-energised me and given me a boost. Rather than sticking to my normal contemporary or historical adult fiction novels I've found an escape in Young Adult fantasy novels into worlds that really take you away from the normal and it's been really refreshing. Clockwork Angel has been such a joy and a book I would highly recommend if gothic adventures are your thing.

I have been planning to read Stolen for some time, the cover blurb has always intrigued me and I was keen to find out more about the story of a young woman washed ashore on a beach, clearly having escaped from being mistreated.

It was a fascinating read, I loved how the story built throughout the book, not giving too much away early on. However what few clues were dropped were quite huge and I picked up on them and immediately had my suspicions where they might lead.

The main characters are good and well written my only reservation was that some of the secondary characters were a little one dimensional and very typecast.

Pearse has a very specific style of writing and many of her novels have similar heroines, very sweet innocents whom the big bad world rails against. Stolen fits that mould and if you liked her previous books I'm sure you will love this

It has been several years since I read the first two instalments of Steig Larsson's Millennium Trilogy, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played With Fire. I had begun reading The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest but had always left it unfinished and only recently when thinking about unfinished trilogy's did it begin annoying me that never did I get round to following through the story of Larsson's alternative and feisty heroine Lisbeth Slander.

Although written as a trilogy I found that the first novel, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, could have been a standalone book due to the slightly isolated subject matter whereas books 2 & 3 were very definitely linked and followed on more directly from the other. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo reads as a murder mystery whereas The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest are more politically driven and seek to raise questions over the ethical dealings of the Swedish Government.

I'm not quite sure why I did not complete this book during my initial attempt at reading it some years ago, I was literally hooked on it this time around. I had to do a fair bit of reminding myself who was who and perhaps because of it's translation from Swedish to English I found many of the character names to be similar and I had to keep reminding myself who was whom and whether they were a good or bad guy.

That aside this is a wonderful novel. Picking up immediately after book 2 we find Lisbeth being rushed to hospital grievously wounded and facing several criminal charges against her, not to discount her psychopathic father being in the hospital room next door. Trying to help her, old friend and Millenium journalist Mikael Blomkvist begins to undertake all kinds of espionage style dealings and from there it's very much about mapping out who is going to be victorious in either destroying or saving Salander.

It is gripping, fast paced, engaging and although Lisbeth is in no way a traditional heroine we root for her the whole way through. Her lawyers examination of dodgy psychiatrist Telborian was one of the most gripping pieces of writing I've ever had the pleasure of devouring.

It's really no wonder this trilogy has become so highly regarded, it is collectively wonderful to read.

I've had this book on my kindle for a while but hasn't got round to reading it, having seen it has been adapted for TV I decided I wanted to read the book before I watched the dramatisation.

It was truly addictive,I have 4 children - 2 under 3 years old yet somehow I couldn't put this book down and read over half in one afternoon.last night I sat up till 2.30am somehow unable to pull myself away.

The story of Serena and Poppy who are accused of the murder of their ‘boyfriend' Marcus. Poppy has spent 20 years in prison for the crime whilst Serena who was acquitted built a life and family. Yet Poppy claims she didn't kill Marcus and is determined now she's free to clear her name and make Serena confess.

The best book I've read in ages it was gripping, it just pulled me along and although I'd guessed the conclusion it didn't leave me disappointed. Can't wait to watch the adaptation now.

At the end of City of Glass we had reached a point where the first part of the Shadowhunter story had reached a partial conclusion and the point where it allowed Cassandra Clare to move our characters in a new direction. I, therefore, had high hopes for City of Fallen Angels and was excited to see in which direction we would go now that we had ended our storyline with Valentine.

I am absolutely delighted that in this book we continue to have Simon as a very front and centre character. From Book 1 his character development has been one of the highlights of the series, I love that we still have so much to discover about him and that he continues to play a leading part in the way the storyline is moving. He is really engaging and I love any chapters told from his perspective and desperately want to see him continue to play a heroic role.

I am almost scared to say this but I am struggling with Jace and Clary more as each book goes by. I know they are the central characters on whom the series is focused but they aren't setting me alight as much as I would hope. I am getting a little bit bored with Jace's bad boy brooding and the ongoing dramas. I could really do with a little less teen angst from them and more time spent focusing on bringing others to the fore.

I am loving Magnus and Alec and their developing relationship, I am really interested to find out how they manage the reality of Magnus' immortality and the challenges this is going to pose for them in the years ahead. I also love that we are getting more characters from The Infernal Devices slowly beginning to infiltrate the story and I give a little yelp of joy each time I recognise one of them and I am and I am really excited to know if they will dovetail further as we come to the series conclusion.

I know some people have said they didn't enjoy this book as much as they did the earlier books in the series but for me I enjoyed it a little more than City of Glass, I liked the expanding focus on other characters and would happily see the focus continue to move to a wider perspective than simply Clary and Jace.

At the two thirds milestone of the series I am seeing the finish line in sight and am excited to cross it in the weeks ahead so I can look forward to moving on to enjoy The Dark Artifices as well.

I've always been a bit sceptical about Ahern novels, feeling they are still riding on the phenomenal success that was PS I Love You whilst never really delivering the same satisfaction. I especially was left dissapointed by The Gift which lacked a storyline of great substance, however I duly picked up The Book Of Tomorrow and gave it a try.

Initially I was dubious - the title character is a spoilt 16 year old who has been forced to leave her home after the suicide and bankruptcy of her father, she and her depressed and grieving mother move in with her brother and his wife in their small cottage next to the ruin of an old castle belonging to the Kilcarney family.

In the first few chapters I stuggled to warm to the lead character Tamara finding myself thinking the novel would have worked better written from her mothers perspective as she struggled following the death of her husband, however as the novel progressed and the plot line developed I warmed to Tamara and found myself really empathising with her position. I won't go too deeply into the plot line as it's nice not to give too much away but this book resotred my faith in Ahern's writing with a great ending to the book and one you don't see coming so very strongly written and well worth reading.

There has been such a lot of hype surrounding this books release that in anticipation of it I ensured I had finished my previous read so that on release day I could dive straight in.

The book begins when Robert Landon is called to Washington DC to deliver a key notes speech for his old mentor Peter Solomon, but when he gets there he finds his old friend has been kidnapped and possibly killed by a phsychotic madman who wants Langdon to dechiper an ancient mystery that is hidden in the city......sorry is this sounding familiar. Yes it probably is and that's because in no way is The Lost Symbol anything new, it is very very firmly written in the same formulaic manner as both Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons.

It is almost as though off the back of the massive money spinning success of those two books his publishers have got in touch and said can you do 500 pages in this amount of time for $XX million, be sure to include the ususal old favourites such as intelligent damsel in distress, Robert Landon trying to unravel strange old mystery, phsychotic madman on the loose threatening and chasing said Professor Langdon, old friend with mysterious past linked to ancient organisation, police detective who seems to be helping/hindering the investigation for unknown reasons. When I write it down in as simple a way as that it becomes evident that Brown is fast running out of creative ideas.

I am sure that a big budget blockbuster of this movie starring Mr Hanks will be along in around 18 months or so, it will probably translate well onto the big screen. It will no doubt sell billions of copies worldwide by the time it's paperback release takes place. I find it dissapointing however that this now ranks as the fastest selling book of all time - this is a diservice to the outstanding work that JK Rowling produced in Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows which was a truly awe inspiring novel. In no way is this book evidently produced for the quick sell mass market a patch on Rowlings last Potter book which previously held that accolade.