Lil

  You went to bed at home, just like every other night. You woke up in the back of a taxi, over 250 miles away. You have no idea how you got there and no memory of the last ten hours. You have no phone, no money; just a suicide note in your coat pocket, in your own writing. You know you weren’t planning to kill yourself. Your family and friends think you are lying. Someone knows exactly what happened to you. But they’re not telling… Review  Thanks to Corvus Books for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for a review. Thanks also to them for sending me an anonymous fake taxi receipt - a cheeky nod to the plot of this novel that left me massivey confused and accusing my long suffering boyfriend of pranking me! As to the book itself, it has all the ingredients for a good psychological thriller , and the opening was really strong. The central character I found really annoying and difficult to like -  but that really isn't uncommon for me in novels of this genre! It is ...

I was lucky enough to snag one of the gorgeous proof copies of this book. Massive thanks to Francesca Russell at Cornerstone! When big-shot literary agent Peter Katz receives an unfinished manuscript entitled The Book of Mirrors, he is intrigued. The author, Richard Flynn is writing a memoir about his time at Princeton in the late 80s, documenting his relationship with the famous Professor Joseph Wieder. One night in 1987, Wieder was brutally murdered in his home and the case was never solved. Peter Katz is hell-bent on getting to the bottom of what happened that night twenty-five years ago and is convinced the full manuscript will reveal who committed the violent crime. But other people's recollections are dangerous weapons to play with, and this might be one memory that is best kept buried. Review There is a lot of hype surrounding this book-although I have to admit that I hadn't heard of it or the author before-so I was eager to see what all the fuss was about. On the face o...

  A spectacular fraud in a London auction house.  A barefoot lover running through the Paris streets.  A colossal theft from a billionaire's yacht.  A vicious murder under a bridge in Rome.  They started it. she'll end it.  WHO IS THE MAESTRA?  Review The simple yet deceptive blurb on the back of this novel is what drew me to read it.I had no idea what to expect, and it was nothing like I could ever have imagined. Maestra comes with the tagline 'The Most Shocking Thriller You'll Read This Year'. I'll admit that I haven't read that many thrillers, but this is  certainly true for me. Maestra is unpredictable, graphic in every sense of the word and left me feeling very uneasy. I couldn't put it down. So I suppose that makes it a success. Having looked at the reader reviews I'm surprised how many negative ones there are. Yes it's explicit, designed to shock, but Maestra is reflective of the baser aspects of human nature - lust and greed. Althoug...

Synopsis Rachel catches the same commuter train every morning. She knows it will wait at the same signal each time, overlooking a row of back gardens. She's even started to feel like she knows the people who live in one of the houses. 'Jess and Jason', she calls them. Their life - as she sees it - is perfect. If only Rachel could be that happy. And then she sees something shocking. It's only a minute until the train moves on, but it's enough. Now everything's changed. Now Rachel has a chance to become a part of the lives she's only watched from afar. Now they'll see; she's much more than just the girl on the train... Review Last weekend I decided it was time to see what all the fuss was about. Less than 48 hours later and I knew. I daren't say too much for fear of giving anything away. True to form it's a thriller packed with twists and turns, and although I predicted pretty early on what the big twist was going to be, I was gripped to see ho...

George Foss never thought he'd see her again, but on a late-August night in Boston, there she is, in his local bar, Jack's Tavern. When George first met her, she was an eighteen-year-old college freshman from Sweetgum, Florida. She and George became inseparable in their first fall semester, so George was devastated when he got the news that she had committed suicide over Christmas break. But, as he stood in the living room of the girl's grieving parents, he realized the girl in the photo on their mantelpiece - the one who had committed suicide - was not his girlfriend. Now, twenty years later, she's back, and she's telling George that he's the only one who can help her... Review Boy meets old flame -his first love in fact- and she urgently needs his help. I'm hooked. George is a kind of anti-hero, an average Joe thrown into circumstances far beyond his comprehension, and this isn't this first time that it's happened to him. He spends the majority of...

Here's a confession - I actively avoid hyped novels. They rarely live up to expectation, and the more a book is pushed at me, the less inclined I am to read it. That said, when I spotted Disclaimer on the shelf of my local library I was 1) Very surprised that it hadn't been snatched up/reserved - I'd assumed the waiting list was a mile long! 2) Torn between leaving it on principle, or picking it up to see what all the fuss was about. Suffice to say I chose the latter. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Imagine if the next thriller you opened was all about you. When an intriguing novel appears on Catherine’s bedside table, she curls up and begins to read. But as she turns the pages she is horrified to realize she is a key character, a main player. This story will reveal her darkest secret. A secret she thought no one else knew… - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -   Disclaimer was nothing like I expected it to be. But then, I...

I had previously read and enjoyed Lousie Candlish's previous novel The Sudden Departure of the Frasers . So when Lovereading offered up review copies of her lastest novel The Swimming Pool I jumped at the chance. The day it arrived, if you'll pardon the pun, I dived right in. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  The swimming pool: a perfect stage. In the heady swelter of a London summer, the Elm Hill lido opens. For teacher Natalie Steele, the school holiday typically means weeks of carefully planned activities with her husband Ed and their daughter Molly. But not this year. Despite Molly's extreme phobia of the water, Natalie is drawn to the lido and its dazzling social scene, led by the glamorous Lara Channing. Soon Natalie is spending long, intoxicating days with Lara at the pool - and intimate evenings at her home. Natalie's real life begins to feel very far away. But is the new friendship everything it seems? Why is Natalie haunt...

I was looking through my review notebook (which in reality is an old notepad full of jumbled ideas and half-asleep handwriting), and found a handful of short reviews, some of which are only a few sentences, that have yet to see the light of day. Life has been getting in the way of blogging lately for me, so writing up these  thoughts on a few books seems like a good way to get back into the swing of things. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - My name is Amber Fraser. I've just moved in at Number 40, Lime Park Road. You'll come to think of me as a loving wife, a thoughtful neighbour and a trusted friend. This is a lie. When Christy and Joe Davenport are handed the keys to Number 40 on picture-perfect Lime Park Road, Christy knows it should be a dream come true. How strange though that the house was on the market for such a low price. That the previous owners, the Frasers, had renovated the entire property yet moved out within a year. That none o...

Despite the ten-year age gap and the differences in their backgrounds, Bailey was meant to marry Logan - she's sure of it. But when Logan brings Bailey home to his magnificent estate, her dreams of happily ever after begin to unravel. She can't ignore the rumours about what happened to Logan's first wife and then when a local woman goes missing, all signs point to Bailey's husband. Suddenly Bailey is facing an impossible decision: should she believe what everyone is saying, or should she bet her life on the man she loves, but hardly knows? I knew immediately from the blurb that I would love this book. And I was right. I was so utterly gripped that I raced through it in a day! After a whirlwind holiday romance Bailey Browne finds herself married to Logan Abbott. Only once they arrive back at his estate does Bailey become aware of the rumours and secrets that plague the life of Logan and those closest to him. Logan was dark, mysterious, and downright gorgeous! Like Bailey...

The best laid plans... Halli Sanders spent two years planning the trip of a lifetime to Italy. Her itinerary did not include being stranded by her siblings, kidnapped by a sexy American movie star, dodging bullets, or fleeing criminals in a car chase around Lake Como. And that's just in the first three hours. ...often go awry. Trent Tomlin put his movie career on hold to investigate his brother's murder-ruled-suicide at his Italian villa. He's closing in on the suspects when an American tourist unwittingly films the murder of the retired cop helping him. The killers will stop at nothing to get the evidence-including holding Halli's family as collateral. Life's a little different unscripted. Thrust into the role of real-life hero, Trent finds himself falling for the Plain Jane whose beauty blossoms with every challenge they face. But how can he keep the evidence from falling into the wrong hands and get justice for his brother and friend without betraying Halli and h...