Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosten by Tynga’s Reviews and Reading Reality, all about sharing the books you have aquired in the last week.
Kindle
I have been extremely restrained for the last week and only bought three kindle books!! These are all books that I’ve seen great reviews for and blog tours recently and I had to get them.
The Closer I Get – I’ve seen so many great reviews for this recently, and once I saw that it had and LGBT character I was sold. It seems like a pretty intenste psychological thriller, and I hope I’ll enjoy it as much as everyone else has.
The Dream House – I already have every book by Jess Ryder in my TBR, but I’ve yet to read any of them. It does mean that if I like this I can dive straight into the back catalogue.
Don’t Ever Tell– This is another psychological thriller (seemingly my favourite genre recently). The plot for this immediately intrigued me, and the reviews meant that I had to get it.
NetGalley
The End of the Line – This sounds like a really interesting horror/fantasy novel. This is the author’s first novel so I have no clue what to expect, but it’s been a while since I read anything from this genre so I’m quite excited.
We Were Sisters – I’m extremely grateful to Bookouture for approving my requests even though I’m still a tiny blog. We Were Sisters sounds like an amzing thriller which I’m really looking forward to reading.
Hardback
I didn’t plan on buying these, but I was shopping and they were on offer. I have no self-control when it comes to books.
The Whisper Man – This is another book that I’ve seen great reviews for recently. This sounds like an eerie mystery that promises to keep my on the edge of my seat.
Keep You Close – The blurb for this is excellent. I enjoy books that explore the relationship between the parent and child when the child is accused/guilty of something.
Everything I’ve bought this week is because I’ve seen other bloggers reviewing, so I’m blaming all of you.
Tickets for Edinburgh Book Festival went on sale this week, and I have tickets for eight events. I own a couple of the books, but most I borrowed from the library, or have on my kindle so I need to start buying / saving up for physical copies of books so I can get them signed.
What have you added to your shelves this week? Have you read any of these books? Which should I read first?
A huge thanks to Emma for inviting me to be a part of this blog tour. The Perfect Betrayal is out in paperback today, so you should definitely go out to buy a copy if you haven’t already.
About the Book
After the sudden
death of her husband, Tess is drowning in grief. All she has
left is her son, Jamie, and she’ll do anything to protect him – but
she’s struggling to cope.
When grief counsellor Shelley knocks on their door, everything changes. Shelley is understanding and kind, and promises she can help Tess through the hardest time of her life.
But when a string of unsettling events happens and questions arise over her husband’s death, Tess starts to suspect that Shelley may have an ulterior motive. Tess knows she must do everything she can to keep Jamie safe – but she’s at her most vulnerable, and that’s a dangerous place to be.
My Review
This book was astounding. The Perfect Betrayal starts with Tess in hospital, and her son, Jamie, missing. The story then jumps back to 55 days earlier. Tess is struggling to cope after the death of her husband, Mark, in a plane crash. Jamie’s mood reflects her own and she doesn’t know how to help him. On top of everything else, her brother in law is demanding money that Mark borrowed before his death. When Tess isn’t sure what to do next Shelley arrives on her doorstep to help. While Tess isn’t sure at first she quickly comes to rely on Shelly, who is also a huge help with Jamie.
There are chapters of Tess in the hospital being interviewed throughout the book, and she starts to question Shelley’s motives as she begs the police to find her son.
As you read this book you get a true sense of the grief that Tess is experiencing. The author does a wonderful job of giving us a real insight into her emotions and grieving.
The suspense and unease is built up throughout the book, in a very clever way. We read the events as Tess first experienced them, and then these events are given a different light when Tess talks about them in her interviews with the police. The reader is left not knowing who to trust, as even the kindest are seen as untrustworthy and manipulative as Tess tries to piece together what happened.
The ending of this book blew me away. The moment I realised what was going on I was completely gobsmacked and raced through the rest of the book. Looking back I could see the clues woven throughout the book, but they’re subtle enough that it doesn’t take away from the suspense by giving away the reveal too early.
I feel like I can’t say too much about this book as I don’t want to give anything away and spoil the book, but it is a stunning read. This is definitely something I’ll be recommending to anyone who’ll listen to me. I’m also eagerly anticipating the next release from Lauren North.
Lauren North writes psychological suspense novels that delve
into the darker side of relationships and families. She has a lifelong passion
for writing, reading, and all things books. Lauren’s love of psychological
suspense has grown since childhood and her dark imagination of always wondering
what’s the worst thing that could happen in every situation.
Lauren studied
psychology before moving to London where she lived and worked for many years.
She now lives with her family in the Suffolk countryside.
I’ve seen a quite a few blogs doing the mid year freakout in the last week or so. It’s hard to believe we’re already half way through the year (and halfway to Christmas for anyone counting). I’m not sure who created this tag, but it’s been great fun so thank you.
Best Book of the Year so Far
Twisted – I loved this book. This is what immediately came to mind as my favourite book of 2019. It was a wonderful book that kepy me on the edge of my seat, and up late so I could finish it. You can check out my full five-star review.
Best Sequel of the Year so Far
For We Are Many – I loved We Are Legion (We Are Bob) and For We Are Many was just as good. These are wonderfully fun books that move slowly through the story and is full of sci-fi pop culture references. It’s an amazing series for fans of sci-fi.
A New Release You Haven’t Read Yet but Want to
Red, White & Royal Blue – This probably isn’t my usual type of book but I’ve seen so many reviews raving about it that I’m really intrigued and quite looking forward to reading it.
I want to read more fiction with LGBT characters, but I’m also not a huge fan of romance in general. Although I’m usually more a fan of romance when it doesn’t involve straight couples, and there are a couple of LGBT romance films that I watch to cheer myself up so I’m hoping this book will have a similar effect.
Most Anticipated Release for the Second Half of the Year
The Turn of the Key – I’m not great at keeping up with new releases, but I recently discovered that Ruth Ware has a new book due out later this year and I’m incredibly excited. I’ve ready all of her books, and she gets better with each release. I’ve applied for The Turn of the Key on NetGalley and The Pigeonhole so I’m hoping I’ll be loucky enough to get an early copy of this.
Biggest Disappointment of the Year so Far
Space Opera – I really wanted to like this book. Eurovision set in space sounded absolutely perfect. Sadly this book didn’t live up to my expectations and seemed to try too hard. I was disappointed by this because I had been so excited to read it.
Biggest Surprise of the Year so Far
The Perfect Betrayal – This is a recent read and was absolutely amazing. The ending blew me away and left me speechless. My full review will be published tomorrow on the blog tour.
Your New Favourite Author
John Marrs – I’ve read four John Marrs books this year and loved all of them. I have two books left to read before I’m all caught up and I’m hopeful that these will be just as good.
Your New Favourite Character
DI Jackman – I started listening to this series on audible at the beginning of the year and fell in love with DI Jackman. I’m eagerly anticipating the next book in the series.
Your Newest Fictional Crush
DI Jackman – This might be cheating but DI Jackman is also my fictional cruch as well as my favourite character. Part of this may be due to the fact that Richard Armitage does the Audible reading.
A Book That Made You Cry
Lost Daughter – This was a beautiful story. This is a character driven story that tells the story of three mothers. It’s a haunting story that made me incredibly emotional. You can see my full review.
A Book That Made You Happy
The Lights – This was such a fun read. It was a wonderful sci-fi with a definite feel of The War of the Worlds in regards to the Britishness of the book. This was a review copy so I had no expectations, but it was an excellent story. It manages to be fun while still telling the story well. You can read my full review where I go into the reasons of why I enjoyed this in more detail.
Favourite Book to Film Adaptation
Good Omens – I’ve talked about Good Omens on here more than once. It is one of my all time favourite books, so I was excited and nervous about the TV show. Thankfully it was absolutely perfect, and completely blew me away. I still haven’t manged to fully vocalise how I fell about the TV show into a blog post but it will be coming.
The Most Beautiful Book of 2019 so far
The Surface Breaks – I read this back in January, and it was actually published in 2018, but I adore the cover. The cover is stunning, and the story is just as wonderful. Louise O’Neill writes beautifully moving stories, and you should definitely start these if you haven’t read any yet.
Book You Need to Read Before 2019 Ends
Old Man’s War – I read Old Man’s War back in January and planned to read the rest of the series. However the library copies of books 2 & 3 have been misplaced, with no luck tracking them down. I’m planning to get copies of these to read before the end of the year (the later books in the series the library still has).
This is my year so far. I’ve already read more books in 2019 than I did in all of 2018, and I’m hoping to finish my Goodreads Reading Challenge by the end of the month. How has your reading been going?
Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosten by Tynga’s Reviews and Reading Reality, all about sharing the books you have aquired in the last week.
Come Back For Me – I’ve seen a lot of good reviews for this and it sounds like a really interesting mystery so I’m hoping it will live up to expectations.
The Girl Before You – I love a good psychological thriller. I’ve seen mixed reviews for this, but most have been positive so hopefully it will be interesting.
I received a copy of The Perfect Betrayal for a blog tour. I’ve already read this and absolutely loved it. My review will be posted on Thursday.
The Darkest Truth – This was released at the beginning of the year and doesn’t have many reviews, but does have a 4 star average on Goodreads. The plot of this sounds quite intriguing.
The Copycat – This sounds like a dark thriller, another book with very few reviews on Goodreads but has promising reviews and it sounds like something I’ll really enjoy.
Trance – This sounds really interesting. I’ve read something with a similar plot and I’m hoping this one is just as good.
I’ve seen a lot of reviews for Dead Memories recently so when this, and Dead Souls were on offer in the kindle store I bought both of them. I already have a few of the other books in the series, but I haven’t read any of them yet, so hopefully I’ll start the series soon.
I may need to slow down my book buying to match how fast I actually read, but I’ll read them all eventually.
What have you added to your shelves this week? Have you read any of these books? Are there any I should move to the top of my TBR?
The Girl on the Train meets Before I Go to Sleep in this chilling tale of love gone horribly wrong …
“Some love affairs change you forever. Someone comes into your orbit and swivels you on your axis, like the wind working on a rooftop weather vane. And when they leave, as the wind always does, you are different; you have a new direction. And it’s not always north.”
Any woman who’s ever been involved with a bad, bad man and been dumped will understand what it feels like to be broken, broken-hearted and bent on revenge. Taylor Bishop is hurt, angry and wants to destroy Angus Hollingsworth in the way he destroyed her: ‘Insidiously. Irreparably. Like a puzzle he’d slowly dissembled … stolen a couple of pieces from, and then discarded, knowing that nobody would ever be able to put it back together ever again.’
So Taylor consults The Art of War and makes a plan. Then she takes the next irrevocable step – one that will change her life forever.
Things start to spiral out of her control – and The Sunday Girl becomes impossible to put down.
My Review
This is my first blog tour, so I’m incredibly excited to be sharing my review of The Sunday Girl. Thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me to be a part of this blog tour
Taylor is hurt by Angus, and she’s determined to ruin him, they way he ruined her. But when he wants her back, has he really changed, or is it part of a larger plan.
The book starts with Taylor being hurt and humiliated by her boyfriend Angus after he puts a sex tape of her online. So Taylor starts to come up with a plan to get her revenge. She doesn’t want petty revenge, she wants to destroy his life.
There are references throughout this book to something that Taylor has done, but we’re not sure what. Tension builds up throughout as Taylor and Angus both become more determined to ‘win’, and their actions become more dark and twisted.
Neither of the characters are particularly likeable, but this doesn’t take away from the enjoyment. I was still fascinated througout the book as I wanted to know what happened, and I couldn’t help but root for Taylor.
I finished this book in one day, and had to take some time when I’d finished to process what I had just read, rather than starting something else straight away. I’ll be keeping a look out for future releases by this author.
About The Author
Pip Drysdale is a writer, actor and musician who grew up in Africa and Australia. At 20 she moved to New York to study acting, worked in indie films and off-off Broadway theatre, started writing songs and made four records. After graduating with a BA in English, Pip moved to London where she dated some interesting men and played shows across Europe. The Sunday Girl is her first novel and she is working on a second. She currently lives in Australia.
When three domestic abuse offenders are found beaten to death, DC Maggie Jamieson knows she is facing her toughest case yet.
The police suspect that Probation Officer Lucy Sherwood – who is connected to all three victims – is hiding a dark secret. Then a fourth domestic abuser is brutally murdered. And he is Lucy’s husband.
Now the finger of suspicion points at Lucy and the police are running out of time. Can Maggie and her team solve the murders before another person dies? And is Lucy really a cold-blooded killer?
I bought this after seeing dozens of reviews praising this book and it did not disappoint. This is a suspenseful book that kept me hooked throughout.
Dead Inside focuses on the story of Lucy, a probation worker abused by her husband, and DC Maggie Jamieson, who has just started work at a new team. You get to know these characters, and understand their thoughts and motivations, with chapters from other characters woven in beautifully.
This book gives a wonderful insight into abusive relationships. We get a real understanding of Lucy’s thought processes. She knows that she should leave her husband, but she can’t bring herself to do it. This doesn’t trivialise the abuse and instead demonstrates the struggle that domestic abuse victims go through. It also has some chapters from her husband’s point of view which gives more of an understanding of his character, rather than completely demonising him. It doesn’t excuse his behaviour, or make us like him anymore, but it does show the man behind the abuse, something not often seen.
Suspense and tension is built up throughout the book but a lot of this involves making us care about the characters. Even my cold, cynical heart started to care about Lucy and Mark.
My only complaint is I thought the blurb for this book gave too much away. Lucy’s husband isn’t murdered until 3/4 of the way through the book. I think I would have liked it more if this was a surprise, rather than waiting for it to happen.
I really enjoyed this book, and I’ve already ordered the next one.
Stacking the Shelves is a weekly meme hosten by Tynga’s Reviews and Reading Reality, all about sharing the books you have aquired in the last week. As this is my first week, I’m going to do the books I’ve bought in the last fortnight, and then continue weekly.
Most of these are books that I’ve bought after seeing reviews on different blogs
I’ve seen a lot of reviews for Tick Tock in the last few weeks, so I have this and Hush Hush, the first in the series. I read a few books by Mel Sherratt earlier in the year
Her Sister’s Lie – This is another book that I’ve seen a few reviews for. This promises to be full of suspense and mystery.
The First Mistake – I’ve seen a lot of reviews promising that this book is full of suspense and twists so I’m really looking forward to this.
Mine – I’d been in two minds about whether to buy this for a while, and I finally gave into the urge.
The Last Stage – A dark psychological thriller with great reviews, added to my TBR straight away.
Have You Seen Her? – There have been a lot of reviews praising this. The missing child storyline is a standard crime storyline but one I usually find engrossing.
Someone is Lying – Another book with a lot of great reviews recently. I’ve read a few books by Jenny Blackhurst now, and this one looks to be an interesting twist on the classic whodunnit.
Unfollow Me – This sounds really interesting and the blurb doesn’t give too much away so I’m quite excited about this.
Riverflow – This arrived in the post for a book tour next month. I’ve never read anything from this author so I don’t have any expectations going in and I’m really excited.
What have you added to your shelves this week? Are there any of these books that I should move to the top of my TBR?
I finished a few books last week and got back on top of my blogging. I wasn’t as active on Twitter and Instagram as I would have liked so that’s something to work on.
I’ve been really busy at work, and that’s going to carry on for the next two weeks, but this is the kind of busy I like being. I have a trip to Aberdeen this week, which will be a long day, but also means I’ll get to spend at least four hours reading on the train (and it will count as work time). When travelling for work we have an agreement hat we will ignore each other until we get there as we like spending the train journey reading (and it’s too early in the morning to speak to anyone).
I’m not sure yet what I’m going to read this week. Because I’m so busy with work I don’t want to plan too much, rather I’ll see what I’m in the mood for.
I have an upcoming book tour next week which I’m really excited about (my first one) but I’m still waiting for the book to turn up so hopefully I’ll be reading that this week.
I finished my reading corner last week so I’d have a nice, cosy space to read. Unfortunately Dominick has decided it’s the best nap spot in the entire house so I don’t actually get to use it.
Dominick enjoying his new nap corner
What are you reading this week? How are your reading goals going?
‘I’m your husband, Chloe. We’re a partnership now and we do what’s best for us as a couple. Staying here is going to be the best option.’ He picked up his drink and took a sip. ‘It’s not open for discussion. We’re not going home.’
Chloe had the dream wedding. Dan is her perfect man. They haven’t known each other for long, but as she walked down the aisle and saw him standing by the altar, tears glistening in his eyes, she knew this was forever.
Later, as they relax on a beautiful island, settling in to their new married life together, they congratulate themselves on their lovely wedding day, and Dan jokes that he’d like them to stay there forever.
But as the honeymoon goes on, he becomes increasingly adamant. They shouldn’t leave. In fact, he won’t let her…
Chloe and Dan marry after knowing each other for only two months, and the book starts with them going on their honeymoon. Dan has cancelled Chloe’s dream honeymoon, and they’re flying to a different country. Chloe’s mad, but Dan’s just trying to be romantic, isn’t he?
I really wanted to like this book, but I couldn’t connect with the characters. I couldn’t understand why Chloe didn’t leave Dan early on, or why she kept trying to justify his behaviour.
There are secrets revealed throughout the book, both Chloe’s and her husband’s, to build up the tension as we try to understand what they’re both hiding. I also enjoyed the clues scattered throughout as to the twists in the book, but sadly I couldn’t get over my frustration with Chloe to fully engage with this.
I’ll admit that I’m not a very romantic person (and I don’t tend to enjoy romance in books and films) so if you’re a more romantic person you might find it easier to understand Chloe and enjoy this more than I did.
I will try other books by this author, but this one wasn’t my cup of tea.
Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for my copy of The Honeymoon. All opinions are my own.
She hopes to get a seat to herself, tries to avoid eye contact, and, if she’s really lucky, reads a chapter of her book.
But it’s a Friday – and the bus is always crammed at the end of the week. Personal space doesn’t exist. She keeps her elbows close and clings to a pole at every juddering stop.
When she gets off, something feels different.
An envelope stuffed with thousands of pounds is in her bag.
Is it the answer to her prayers, or the beginning of a nightmare?
Because, in the end, everything has a price.
A Face in the Crowd starts with Lucy finding an envelope containing over £3000 in her bag after her usual bus trip home. This raises the interesting question of what you would do in this situation. Lucy knows she should hand it into the police but when unexpected living expenses come up, Lucy uses the money to cover the shortfall, and she’s soon spent over £1000. In this situation we’d all like to think we would do the right thing and hand the money in, but in a situation where you are struggling to make ends meet, would you be able to? It also made me think about at what point would you hand money in rather than keep it for yourself? If you find a pound coin on the floor you don’t think twice about pocketing in, but what if it was £20, £50? At what point as a society do we consider it stealing, rather than just good luck?
After Lucy has spent some of the money she begins to feel like she’s being followed. Is she just being paranoid, or is there someone watching her every move?
This was a bit of a slow build. For a while we see Lucy going about her life as normal, starting to spend the money as necessary before we get a sense that there’s something wrong (other than her finding thousands of pounds in her bag). It did build up the suspense well as there are plenty of suspects, and it’s not clear whether there really is a stalker, or if it’s just Lucy’s imagination. Finding large amounts of money generally means that there’s someone who wants it back, so is Lucy just feeling guilty?
This was an interesting read, but I would have liked to see the ending expanded on a bit more. It felt a bit rushed, and there were parts I thought could have been explained more. Overall I did enjoy the book, and I’ll look out for more from this author.
Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for my copy of the book. All opinions are my own.
BookBathBrew 