The Morning After Memoirs by Kate Michaels

Thanks to Laura Stephens from Ago Publishing I received a copy of this in exchange for an honest review.......

When we meet Jess she wakes up on New Years Day with a horrible hangover from the night before beside a man who she realises is not her boyfriend, Ben.  In fact, she doesn’t even remember Not-Ben’s name.  Jess is a twenty-nine year old who has a dead end job in an office who temporarily moves back in with her parents and the story follows her life and antics throughout the coming year with her friends and how she deals with her new found single life with some funny moments thrown in and memories which I'm sure we've all experienced when we were younger when relationships broke up.

I liked this book and it did make me laugh in parts but even though there are only 12 chapters I felt some of them were a little too long, unfortunately I couldn't warm to the main character and there were some parts that I felt were also a bit unrealistic.  The main character was whingy, needy & got on my nerves at times throughout the book especially where she kept referring to every man she met as "not Ben" even up to a year after her relationship had ended with Ben.  While I can honestly only say that I liked the book, I do think that people who like to hear stories or watch shows like Sex and The City you will love this book.  I am looking forward to reading more work from Kate Michaels.

This is available on Kindle and in all good bookstores.

Alone in the Dark by Karen Rose

Thanks to LoveReading.co.uk & Headline Publishing, I received a copy of this for an honest review............

Homicide Detective Scarlett Bishop has seen enough bad guys slip through the cracks and too many innocent victims go unavenged to know that good doesn't always prevail. So far, she's been able to lock away her rage and her vigilante fantasies. That lock is about to break. A desperate hunt to find a young girl's killer is about to take a deadly turn.  Former army ranger Marcus O'Bannion is a fierce champion of victims' rights. His investigation into the murder of a seventeen year old Asian girl lures him and Scarlett down a dark, dark road and straight into the path of a dangerous, powerful underground ring that deals in human trafficking.  To stop them, Scarlett and Marcus have to be just as cunning and just as ruthless as those they are hunting.  But first they have to make it out alive.......

Alone in the Dark is the second book in the Cincinnati series, the first one been Closer Than You Think.  This can be read as a standalone novel and because I didn't read it I don't think that it really affected my reading of Alone in the Dark by not reading the first novel.  This is the first book by Karen Rose that I've read but unfortunately I couldn't get into it at all, it started off quite slow, it did build up but kind of dropped off again, it could've made a great thriller but I felt it was about 200 pages too long and I ended up skimming through most of the chapters and I put it down numerous times and went off to do other things but I don't want that in a book, I want to be hooked from the first few pages at least and keep me gripped right until the last page is turned but this book didn't do this.  As I said it was my first book I've read by Karen Rose but I would try her earlier books when she started writing first.  I'm sorry, I really tried to like it but it wasn't for me.

Alone in the Dark is available on Kindle and published in hardback and paperback on November 5th and is available in all good bookstores.

Written In The Scars by Mel Sherratt

Thanks to the lovely author Mel Sherratt, I received an ARC of this in exchange for an honest review...........

Scars. Sometimes they’re visible. Sometimes they’re hidden deep within. 

Written in the Scars mainly focuses on four characters in this novel; Donna, Lewis, Megan and Mary.  Some of them are friends, some are poorer than others, they are from all walks of life but they are all associated with The Estate.

Donna's a single mother with two adult children Sam and Keera and after her failed marriage would love to have someone who wants to share her hopes and dreams, makes her happy and makes her smile but when a certain person comes into her life and starts to gives her the attention that she craves, will this be everything that she wanted??

Lewis is an ex soldier who has returned recently from the war in Afghanistan and is suffering from anger and consumed by grief by what he witnessed with his time in the army.  Having constant flashbacks and nightmares he risks loosing everything from his home, hi skid and even his marriage is on the brink of breakup.

Megan Cooper is a sweet girl who is a care assistant in a care home and also a cleaner in the local hospital, she hides her scars on a daily basis since she was old enough to understand for fear of being rejected.

Mary Marshall who is also Donna's mum who has dementia and lives in a care home and can't always remember how she got her scars.  Is she having falls and just can't simply remember or is there someone abusing her within the care home??

This is the third book that I've read a book by Mel Sherratt, I didn't just like it, I LOVED it and it definitely didn't disappoint.  I would definitely recommend it and I CAN'T recommend Mel's books enough.  It is an Estate Novel and this is the forth novel in the series, the first been Somewhere To Hide, the second been Behind A Closed Door and the third been Fighting For Survival.  Written in the Stars is the fourth book in The Estate Series but each one can be read and enjoyed as a standalone novel but I'll definitely read the first three in the series as I did feel that there might have been a bit of the background story that I may have missed out on.   I know that this book will stick in my memory longer than most because of the subject matter. I am really looking forward to Mel's next book already and I'm hoping that this isn't the last that we've heard from The Estate series.

Written in the Scars is published and available on Kindle and from all good bookstores since October 30th 2015 and is currently £1.99 at the time of publication of this review.

Lost Girls by Angela Marsons

Thanks to Bookouture  and Netgalley, I received an ARC of this in exchange for an honest review..........

DI Kim Stone is back with her investigating team and once again are put on the case. The story opens where DI Stone and her side-kick DS Bryant are part of a kidnapping case where two little nine year old girls, Charlie & Amy whom are best friends have been abducted from outside the local leisure centre.  Two families are plunged into a living nightmare.  The couple who offer the highest ransom will see their daughter again.  One girl will live, the other will die, make no doubt about it. A text message to both couples confirms the unthinkable; that the girls are the victims of a terrifying kidnapping.

When a second text message pits the two families against each other for the life of their children.  But which couple want their child back more!?? As the body count mounts up, DI Kim Stone realises that these ruthless killers might be the most deadly she has ever faced with their chances of bringing the girls home alive, are getting smaller by the hour. The clock starts ticking for D.I. Kim Stone and the team.   Will they get to the little girls on time or will it be too late!??  What are the couples trying to hide from their past?  Is there something more sinister behind all this that DI Kim Stone and her team have to try to unravel before it's too late??  Will someone’s child pay the ultimate price??

WOW, WOW, WOW!!!  What a novel Lost Girls was, I didn't think Angela Marsons could top her success with her previous two novels of Silent Scream & Evil Games but once again how wrong was I? It was absolutely fantastic. The sociopath/kidnapper character was absolutely brilliant, very well written and cleverly constructed.  They were everything you'd expect with a sociopath - cold, calculating, manipulating and has no regard for anyone's feelings or who they hurt on their path of destruction.  At times, I could feel I was right there with the two little girls.  As we discovered in the first and second book in the series, DI Stone has her own hidden past and her own demons and her own buried secrets to deal with which we do touch on a little in Lost Girls.  I will admit that I found parts of the story hard to read and in places it made my skin crawl but it definitely didn't disappoint. It was a spine-chilling , pulse pounding, heart thumping rollercoaster ride.  I know that his book will stick in my memory longer than most because of the subject matter that was involved. I am really looking forward to Angela's next book already where I'm hoping it won't be too long until another DI Stone Novel is upon us.

I've said this in my previous reviews that Angela Marsons is definitely an author to watch and I definitely mean it. It's hard to believe that Angela has written all 3 novels in less than a year which is an amazing achievement and I'm been honest here by saying that all 3 novels will definitely be in my Top 10 Reads of 2015.

I'd HIGHLY recommend ALL three of her novels especially if you're a fan of Rachel Abbott, Val McDermid and Mark Billingham. Silent Scream is only £0.99 & Evil Games is £1.99 respectively on Kindle at the moment so grab it while you can, you won't be disappointed so don't say I never told you so!!!

Lost Girls is published on 5th November and is available on Kindle and in all good bookstores and is currently £1.99 at the time of publication of this review.

Asking For It by Louise O'Neill

Meet Emma O'Donovan, she lives with her parents and brother in a small town in Cork, she's an eighteen year old girl.  She is beautiful, happy, confident and very popular with lots of friends.  One night on a weekend, there's a party which gets out of hand. Everyone is there and all eyes are on Emma.

The next morning, she wakes up on the front porch of her house where her parents find her. She can't remember what happened, she doesn't know how she got there. She doesn't know why she's in pain. But everyone else does. She vaguely starts to remember parts from the night before, drinking hard, taking a few pills but that's it, everything else is a blur.

Photographs taken at the party start to emerge, in explicit detail of what happened to Emma that night. They are put up on social media, on her Facebook page that has been set up and everyone can see them, there are hundreds of likes and comments on these pictures and everyone whispers "slut, skank, bitch, whore, slut, skank, bitch, whore" pointing and giggling everytime they see Emma.  Sometimes people don't want to believe what is right in front of them, especially when the truth concerns the town's heroes......

I didn't like this book, I absolutely LOVED it, it was brutal, honest, raw and left me emotionally drained after I turned the last page.  I went through alot of emotions reading this and I'm sure I'm not the only one.  It also shows the dangers of social media and how it can be used as a weapon by the wrong people to try destroy someones life and successfully accomplishing it too.  I hated Emma's parents, they were the most unsupportive people I'd ever come across, they dismissed everything that Emma was going through after her ordeal and wanted to forget everything and were willing to turn a blind eye or want to bring attention on themselves by getting the culprits charged especially when Emma went to get legal advice from her parents solicitor and it makes you angry and realise what the legal system is like, when a victim of sexual assault or rape is treated and not just in Ireland mind you.  I Loved her brother Bryan, he was the only one who stood up for Emma, supported her and tried to make their parents see sense but not to much avail.

Louise O'Neill has written a brutal yet honest account of what could, can and has happened to women of all ages and where the questions and blame starts to set in; did they bring it on themselves by the way they acted?? by what they wore?? or where they #AskingForIt or are they a victim of a sexual assault?? I would HIGHLY recommend this to everyone to read from 16 years of age upwards, both male and female and would even go as far as to say that it should be on the Curriculum in Secondary Schools.  Asking For It will definitely be in my Top 10 Reads of 2015.

Asking For It is available on Kindle and in all good bookstores.

Addicted by Nigel May

Thanks to Bookouture and Netgalley, I received a copy of this in exchange for an honest review........

Four women….one death, one killer….Getting clean is a dirty business

Meet Martha Eclair the wine heiress with a sex addiction that could destroy her father's wine business empire, Nancy Arlow the faded entertainer who also has a major gambling addiction, Portia Safari the operatic diva who is adored by millions but has a drinking problem that could cost her everything and Lauren Everett the politician's wife, who pretty much has no life since she married her politician husband and she is about to rediscover life she left behind and discover a coke addiction - four women who can’t say no….....

All of these women should be happy with what life has given them. Success, beauty, money and fame. But never judge a book by it's cover, because on the outside they may all seem to be completely in control of their lives, but under their fashionable appearance, deep within their souls, they are all battling their own demons…......they are all addicted.  Addicted to things that could ruin their very existence. In fact, one will snuff it out for good but who will it be?

I didn't like this book, I LOVED it, the book is divided into two parts and couldn't wait to get through to the end of it to see what way it would progress and pan out.  The characters were well written and with great depth too.  There was lots of glitz and glamour throughout this book with some of the characters which I loved, I could imagine myself there at times during the book in Las Vegas. I would state that due to mature content, I would recommend this for readers aged 18+.  There are alot of scenes of  sex and this might not be to everyone's cup of tea but I thought that it was tastefully written.

As I've never read any books by the likes of Jackie Collins or Victoria Fox, I can't really compare or judge the book based on that, I'll probably cause a bit of a stir by saying this but I can tell you that in my opinion I think Nigel May can certainly write better than E.L. James.  I'm looking forward to reading more from Nigel too. So, if you are looking for an escapist read; grab this book, a glass or two of wine and some chocolate. Switch off, relax and enjoy!

Addicted is available on Kindle and in all good bookstores and is currently £1.99 at the time of publication of this review.