BOOKSIMO

Description Shortlisted for the CrimeFest Last Laugh Award 2018 ‘If you like your thrillers darkly comic and outrageous this ticks all the boxes’  The Sun The last person who called me ‘Sweetpea’ ended up dead… I haven’t killed anyone for three years and I thought that when it happened again I’d feel bad. Like an alcoholic taking a sip of whisky. But no. Nothing. I had a blissful night’s sleep. Didn’t wake up at all. And for once, no bad dream either. This morning I feel balanced. Almost sane, for once. Rhiannon is your average girl next door, settled with her boyfriend and little dog…but she’s got a killer secret. Although her childhood was haunted by a famous crime, Rhinannon’s life is normal now that her celebrity has dwindled. By day her job as an editorial assistant is demeaning and unsatisfying. By evening she dutifully listens to her friend’s plans for marriage and babies whilst secretly making a list. A kill list. From the man on the Lidl checkout who alw...

Description After thirty years at St Oswald’s Grammar in North Yorkshire, Latin master Roy Straitley has seen all kinds of boys come and go. Each class has its clowns, its rebels, its underdogs, its ‘Brodie’ boys who, whilst of course he doesn’t have favourites, hold a special place in an old teacher’s heart. But every so often there’s a boy who doesn’t fit the mould. A troublemaker. A boy with hidden shadows inside. With insolvency and academic failure looming, a new broom has arrived at the venerable school, bringing Powerpoint, sharp suits and even sixth form girls to the dusty corridors. But while Straitley does his sardonic best to resist this march to the future, a shadow from his past is stirring. A boy who even twenty years on haunts his teacher’s dreams. A boy capable of bad things. Review I've had this on my TBR pile for ages - initially drawn to it by the author as I loved her earlier work. This is in a different vein to the books I've read by her b...

Description Time to come out of hibernation... Sylvia Penton has been hibernating for years, it's no wonder she's a little prickly... Sylvia lives alone, dedicating herself to her job at the local university. On weekends, she helps out at a local hedgehog sanctuary because it gives her something to talk about on Mondays - and it makes people think she's nicer than she is. Only Sylvia has a secret: she's been in love with her boss, Professor Lomax, for over a decade now, and she's sure he's just waiting for the right time to leave his wife. Meanwhile she stores every crumb of his affection and covertly makes trouble for anyone she feels gets in his way. But when a bright new PhD candidate catches the Professor’s eye, Sylvia’s dreams of the fairy tale ending she has craved for so long, are soon in tatters, driving her to increasingly desperate measures and an uncertain future. Sylvia might have been sleep walking through her life but things are abo...

Description When Harriet Westaway receives an unexpected letter telling her she’s inherited a substantial bequest from her Cornish grandmother, it seems like the answer to her prayers. She owes money to a loan shark and the threats are getting increasingly aggressive: she needs to get her hands on some cash fast. There's just one problem - Hal's real grandparents died more than twenty years ago. The letter has been sent to the wrong person. But Hal knows that the cold-reading techniques she’s honed as a seaside fortune teller could help her con her way to getting the money. If anyone has the skills to turn up at a stranger's funeral and claim a bequest they’re not entitled to, it’s her. Hal makes a choice that will change her life for ever. But once she embarks on her deception, there is no going back. She must keep going or risk losing everything, even her life… Review This is the third Ruth Ware novel I have read and I think it's her best yet.  Fro...

I'm so pleased to be part of the book tour today for A Letter from Sarah by Dan Proops. Description Adam's sister, Sarah, has been missing for seven years, but he hasn't given up hope of finding her. He is a sculptor and lives with his bedridden father who is a bully and a curmudgeon. One morning, as the anniversary of Sarah's disappearance nears, Adam receives a letter from her and she is apparently alive and well, living in New York. Adam travels to Brooklyn to search for Sarah as he's desperate to see her, but she seems determined to avoid him. Sarah's letters arrive weekly, but she continues to remain elusive. Adam is perplexed by Sarah's requests for secrecy, as is his father and his girlfriend, Cassandra. He is determined to find her, whatever the cost to his wellbeing, health and sanity....    Review I don't recall ever having read a book like this before - the writing style is very unique almost like you are not reading something...

Description Depression and anxiety are now at epidemic levels. Why? Across the world, scientists have uncovered evidence for nine different causes. Some are in our biology, but most are in the way we are living today. Lost Connections offers a radical new way of thinking about this crisis. It shows that once we understand the real causes, we can begin to turn to pioneering new solutions - ones that offer real hope. Review I was interested to read this book from a viewpoint of how we might prevent depression, if, as the author claims they know why it happens. Also to be an advocate for those that suffer, to try to be informed. The book has several pages of mainly celebrity endorsements at the beginning some of which had attracted me to the book, however know I have read it I wonder did any of these people actually read the book? Then came the longest prologue I have ever read followed by an even longer introduction.  This is not in my opinion a self help book - ...

Description Audrey's family has fallen apart. Her two grown-up daughters, Jess and Lily, are estranged, and her two teenage granddaughters have never been allowed to meet. A secret that echoes back thirty years has splintered the family in two, but is also the one thing keeping them connected. As tensions reach breaking point, the irrevocable choice that one of them made all those years ago is about to surface. After years of secrets and silence, how can one broken family find their way back to each other? Review This is a beautifully written book with a secret that has been kept for over 30 years, but I found it to be a different secret to different people.  I spent most of the book imagining what the secret could be. We are taken back in time to 30 years ago on several occasions and the day is replayed from a different characters view point. There is also a horrific incident back then which is played down in the book, but I found quite haunting apart from the actu...