I really can’t believe it’s August.  In fact, I think I’ve been ignoring the fact, which is why this post is a few days later than I might otherwise have posted.  The good thing about August is I get to go on holiday.  The bad – it’s August…where has the year and the summer gone?  I swear, the older I get, the faster time flies.  Now that I have to admit July is over though, here’s how my reading month went…

Loved

Blame by Nicole Trope, where a tragic accident tears two best friends apart and reveals secrets both would probably have liked to have kept hidden.  This is my first book by Nicole Trope but won’t be my last.  I found it really well written and heart wrenching as well as a real page turner.

Salt River by James Sallis, a fitting end to a great trilogy staring a flawed central character – Turner – who I couldn’t help but like more than a little as he tried to make his way through the world that threw a lot of rubbish his way.

The Children Act by Ian McEwan which may be my favourite book of the month (it’s also my most viewed review).  This book just left me feeling pulled apart – I completely connected with the characters and the storyline and felt every emotional twist and turn.  Plus the ending was pretty sad.

 

Liked a lot

Watching Edie by Camilla Way in which a teenage friendship, intense at the best of times, goes terribly wrong and comes back to haunt two still young women trying to get on with their lives.  I liked this a lot because it kept me guessing as to just who was in the right and who was in the wrong.  A real page turner. 

My Sister’s Grave by Robert Dugoni which introduced me to a new character and a new series I will be reading more of.  This was a clever take on the normal police procedural – because it didn’t focus so much on the police work as the legal side of trying to free a man wrongly (or rightly?) convicted and small town politics.

The Girl With No Past by Kathryn Croft which had been sat on my Kindle forever it seems before I felt guilty enough to read it.  Not sure why I waited so long because it was a great book, another page turner (I managed a lot of those this month) with a twist at the end I didn’t see coming and made me see everything that had happened and the main characters behaviour in a different light.

The Fire Child by S. K. Tremayne was a thriller with a slightly supernatural twist – an “are there, aren’t there” ghosts theme that made the book just that little bit different in a crowded field and meant I enjoyed it a lot, getting completely caught up in just what really was happening to the central characters and whether the dead were coming back to get revenge (spooky!).

Liked a little

Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death by M. C. Beaton, which I think I would have liked more if I hadn’t been watching the TV show when I read it.  This was my first cozy and I can see why people get it hooked.  It was a fun, quick read with lots of quirky characters to keep me interested.

 

 

And that was it for the month.  A lot of good reads and some really great ones. Nothing that I wouldn’t recommend or didn’t manage to not finish.  How about you? How was your reading month?

Emma

This month, I’m linking in with Kathryn at Book Date for her Month in Review.