by emmalfield -

Sleep by C L Taylor #bookreview

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About Sleep by C. L. Taylor

All Anna wants is to be able to sleep. But crushing insomnia, terrifying night terrors and memories of that terrible night are making it impossible. If only she didn’t feel so guilty…

To escape her past, Anna takes a job at a hotel on the remote Scottish island of Rum, but when seven guests join her, what started as a retreat from the world turns into a deadly nightmare.

Each of the guests has a secret, but one of them is lying – about who they are and why they’re on the island. There’s a murderer staying in the Bay View hotel. And they’ve set their sights on Anna.

Seven strangers. Seven secrets. One deadly lie.

Someone’s going to sleep and never wake up…

by emmalfield -

How It Ends by Saskia Sarginson #bookreview

How It Ends1957: Within a year of arriving at an American airbase in Suffolk, the loving, law-abiding Delaney family is destroyed.

Did they know something they weren’t allowed to know? Did they find something they weren’t supposed to find? Only one girl has the courage to question what really went on behind closed doors . . .

Hedy’s journey to the truth leads her to read a manuscript that her talented twin brother had started months before he died, a story inspired by an experience in the forest surrounding the airbase perimeter. Only through deciding to finish what her brother started does Hedy begin to piece together what happened to her family.

But would she have continued if she’d known then what she knows now?

Sometimes, it’s safer not to finish what you’ve started…

by emmalfield -

Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart

 

genuine fraud

E. Lockhart is one of those authors I’ve always meant to read more of, having been blown away by the one and only book of hers that I’ve read, We Were Liars.  It’s taken me nearly two years to get to that next book and I really don’t know why I’ve waited so long.

Genuine Fraud is told in a rather disjointed way, with the narrative moving back and forth across the life of Jules, a young woman who is either trying to live a carefree life thanks to an unexpected inheritance or is on the run after her best friend goes missing.

It’s all quite complicated and it’s all very simple at the same time, meaning I never knew where I was in the story and found myself putting everything together as if it was a jigsaw.  Then, as each piece fell into place, I wanted to say “of course”, even though I had been nowhere near guessing the truth.

by emmalfield -

Tuesday Intro: The Things We Learn When We’re Dead by Charlie Laidlaw

For the first time in a while,  I’m linking up again with Vicky at I’d Rather Be At The Beach who hosts a post every Tuesday for people to share the first chapter/paragraph of the book they are reading, or thinking of reading soon.

This week it’s The Things We Learn When We’re Dead by Charlie Laidlaw, who very kindly sent me a copy to read.  I have to say the cover was what first caught my eye, but it sounds good too.  Here’s what it’s about…

by emmalfield -

Monthly update: November, 2017

Month in review

So this is it, the final countdown to Christmas is one day away – time to dig out the advent calendars and start shopping earnest!  I am officially getting excited (it helps that it has snowed here today, and I love snow).  I’m not sure what the season will do to my reading and blogging but I imagine for a lot of us it will start to slow down as we focus on other things.  November, though was a good reading month (bar a mini-slump half way through).  Here’s what I liked, loved and just weren’t for me this month…

by emmalfield -

Monthly Update: October, 2017

Month in review

So it’s bye, bye, October and hello November, with the dark nights now fully here and the cold weather making itself known, it’s the perfect time of year to snuggle down with a good book – well, at least it is in my part of the world!  Thankfully, I’ve had some good books this month and have the promise of more to come (yay!).  Here’s what I liked, loved and just weren’t for me this month…

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Stacking the Shelves: 23rd September, 2017

STSsmallOnce again, but for the first time in  month, I’m joining in with Tynga at Tynga’s Reviews and Marlene of Reading Reality for Stacking Shelves, where you share the real and virtual books you have added to your shelves in the last week.

Last week, I broke my self imposed Netgalley ban and fell off the wagon in quite spectacular style…mainly because I wished for a few books I wasn’t sure I would get and then there were a few read now’s that caught my eye…you get the picture (and I’m sure you’ve been there).  I also bought a few books too, adding to the virtual shelf – which would probably fall over if it wasn’t, well, virtual!  So, without much more rambling, here are the books I picked up this week…

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The Last Days of Summer by Vanessa Ronan

She can forgive. They can’t forget.

After ten years in the Huntsville State Penitentiary, Jasper Curtis returns home to live with his sister and her two daughters. Lizzie does not know who she’s letting into her home: the brother she grew up loving or the monster he became.

Teenage Katie distrusts this strange man in their home but eleven-year-old Joanne is just intrigued by her new uncle.

Jasper says he’s all done with trouble, but in a forgotten prairie town that knows no forgiveness, it does not take long for trouble to arrive at their door.

I am not 100% sure what I expected when I picked up my copy of The Last Days of Summer because it’s setting isn’t one that I normally go for but the story appealed and I wanted to take a bit of a step outside of my comfort zone.  What I ended up with was a beautifully written story that had me caring about the central characters, including Jasper, a man I shouldn’t have liked at all given his past.

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Stacking shelves: 15th July, 2017

STSsmallOnce again, I’m joining in with Tynga at Tynga’s Reviews and Marlene of Reading Reality for Stacking Shelves, where you share the real and virtual books you have added to your shelves in the last week.

So the first few books I bought this week are probably of not much interest to anyone but me and my family – they are guide books for our holidays, which isn’t far away and I feel slightly unprepared for (I will be off trying to find enough warm weather clothes in a bit)…

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Tuesday Intro: The Accidental Life of Greg Millar by Aimee Alexander

Once again I’m linking up again with Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea who hosts a post every Tuesday for people to share the first chapter / paragraph of the book they are reading, or thinking of reading soon. In really enjoy these tasters when I read them on other blogs so wanted to join in.

Right now I’m reading The Accidental Life of Greg Millar by Aimee Alexander and which has been on my TBR ever since reading about it over at Cleopatra Loves Books.  Here’s what it’s about…

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Lucy Arigho’s first encounter with Greg Millar is far from promising, but she soon realises he possesses a charm that is impossible to resist. Just eight whirlwind weeks after their first meeting, level-headed career girl Lucy is seriously considering his pleas to marry him and asking herself if she could really be stepmother material.

But before Lucy can make a final decision about becoming part of Greg’s world, events plunge her right into it. On holiday in the South of France, things start to unravel. Her future stepchildren won’t accept her, the interfering nanny resents her, and they’re stuck in a heat wave that won’t let up. And then there’s Greg. His behaviour becomes increasingly bizarre and Lucy begins to wonder whether his larger-than-life personality hides something darker—and whether she knows him at all.

And here’s how it starts…

A bird has just flown into my car – a moving car, a moving bird, heading in different directions yet somehow magically intersecting. I thought, at first, that it had simply flown close to my open window, passing by on its way somewhere else, but a manic flapping behind my head proves otherwise.

What do you think – would you keep reading?

Emma