Vanishing Girls by Lauren Oliver

Thanks to Bookbridgr & Hodder & Stoughton, I received this in exchange for an honest review....

Meet Dara and Nicole (Nick), they are just 11 months apart in age and they used to be inseparable, but that was before the terrible accident that left Dara's beautiful face scarred and the two sisters totally estranged.  Dara vanishes on her birthday, Nick thinks Dara is just messing around. But another girl, nine-year-old Madeline Snow, has vanished, too, and Nick becomes increasingly convinced that the two disappearances are linked. She believes that she can alleviate the mountain of guilt she's carrying around if she can piece the puzzle together and get her sister back. Now Nick has to find her sister, before it's too late.

The chapters bounce between time periods and points of view, so I had to read it a bit more slowly/carefully than I would normally read to make sure I didn't miss anything that Oliver meant for the reader to experience. I love the multimedia approach - it's not all just story told by the author, but also includes diary entries, blogs, emails, website posts, and text messages.   

This is the first book that I've read by Lauren Oliver and really enjoyed it, the last 150 pages I read at break neck speed, I couldn't wait to get to the end, I was rooting for Nick but was completely floored by the ending. I honestly did not see it coming.  An excellent emotional, gripping, edgy thriller full of intrigue, loss, and suspicion as two sisters search to find themselves, and each other.

This is available on Kindle and in all good bookstores.

The Secrets We Share by Emma Hanningan

Thanks to LoveReading.co.uk I received a copy of this in exchange for an honest review.....

Meet Clara Conway, an 80 year old lady who has been a very successful businesswoman, a loving wife and mother but in turn has a few secrets that she hopes can be kept that way.  Her family is falling apart, her son Max emigrated to the US years ago where his abrupt disappearance left the Conway family heartbroken and she has yet to meet her teenage granddaughter Nathalie, because Max and his mother no longer speak.  Tragedy strikes in the US and Clara unexpectedly reaches out to Nathalie where she is sent off to Ireland to spend some time with her grandmother and Aunts.  Will the secrets that have been held so deep resurface?  Is this a chance to heal old wounds and become a family again??

I didn't just like it, I really LOVED it.  It reminded me alot of the time I would spend with my Nana when I was growing up, whether it be going out together or just visiting her and how much I loved been around her.  It is a very bittersweet & heart-warming read, the story flows well throughout the book.  I really enjoyed Emma's book which I read in a couple of days, it kept me turning the pages until the very end. This story had it all a little bit of humor, love, family, protectiveness to more sensitive and hard-hitting issues - I found I had a little tear in my eye at the end along with shedding a few along the way, so grab this book, curl up on the couch and prepare to have a few lump in your throat moments too.  It definitely didn't disappoint.

The Secrets We Share is available to pre-order on Kindle and will be published on 9th April 2015.

Someone Else's Skin by Sarah Hilary

The story opens with DI Marnie Rome and DS Noah Jake visiting a women’s refuge looking to convince a resident to testify against her violent brothers when they find themselves in the midst of a violent crime scene.  One of the other residents has stabbed her husband in full view of a number of witnesses. You would be forgiven for thinking this would be an ‘open-and-shut case’, but is there something more sinister as the case unfolds?  Our duo find that not everything is as it seems.  DI Marnie Rome also has her own hidden past and has had to deal with her own demons over the past 5 years.

I have received No Other Darkness for review so I  thought it'd be best to pick this novel up first to get to know the main character DI Rome, along with DS Jake & the rest of her team.

This is the first book by Sarah Hillary and what a debut it was, I didn't just like it, I LOVED it and it definitely didn't disappoint. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves thrillers or crime fiction books . There were a few twists in it, which I love as I was convinced that I'd worked out what had happened that day of the stabbing in the womens refuge when I was halfway through and I definitely wasn't expecting the twist. 

Sarah Hillary has skillfully drawn the threads of the plot together so all the pieces fall into place but leave us with a sense of wanting more and leaves you hungry to see what happens next, especially for the strong female protagonist, Marnie.  It is very well written and researched too.  I am really looking forward to reading and reviewing No Other Darkness.

This book is available on Kindle and in all good bookstores.

The Friday Tree by Sophia Hillan

It's the summer of 1955, Belfast is a quiet, apparently peaceful backwater. Trolleybuses run in a leisurely way through sparse traffic, and lamplighters go about at night. Still, though Ulster’s eruption of 1969 is fourteen years away, all the seeds of that conflict are being sown. There is an uneasy, palpable tension in the air, yet, for the most part life seems ordered and calm.

In this sleepy, pleasant world, Brigid Arthur, five, and her brother Francis, eleven, live right on the edge of town in a close circle of family and friends. But over that long hot summer, everything begins to change and Brigid struggles to understand the complex adult world around her, a hidden world she often misinterprets. Through a series of events and revelations, some magical, others painful, she learns that the world is full of anguish but also full of hope and wonder.

I really liked this story, there were moments of humor too with certain things said which reminded me of been a kid as I've family in Northern Ireland and some things that were said I could hear my cousins in my head saying it in their Northern accent which made me smile to have memories of growing up with them.  It also brought back memories of my Dad telling us stories when he was growing up in Northern Ireland and the experiences of the troubles. It was so lovely to see the world through Brigid's eyes and the protective and trusting relationship between her and her brother, it kind of reminded me as a kid protecting my own brother as we were growing up.

This is Sophia Hillan's debut novel & I'm looking forward to reading more from this author as it was such a lovely story and beautifully written with alot of emotion throughout it too.

This book is available on Kindle & in all good bookstores.

Silent Scream by Angela Marsons

Thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture I received an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.....

The story opens with five figures gathered around a shallow grave, all taking turns to dig what seems to be like a childs grave and all hoping that these secrets will stay buried forever.

Ten years later a school headmistress is murdered, she's strangled and drowned in her bath in her own home. Then human remains are found in a field beside the former children's home. DI Kim Stone and her investigating team are put on the case. Are these the same bones from the body that was buried ten years earlier? What’s the connection with the headmistress? DI Stone also has her own hidden past and her own demons and her own buried secrets to deal with. She is beginning a race against time to find who knows all the secrets from ten years ago, before they are all dead.

This is the first book by Angela Marsons and what a debut it was, I didn't just like it, I LOVED it and it definitely didn't disappoint. I would definitely recommend this book. There were a few twists in it, which I love as I was convinced that I'd worked out who the killer was halfway through and I definitely wasn't expecting the twist at the end. There were parts in the book I could feel my heart thumping so it's definitely not for the fainthearted. It is a DI Kim Stone Novel and this is the first novel in the series. I know that his book will stick in my memory longer than most because of the subject matter. 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'd highly recommend this book if you love Broadchurch, Scott & Bailey or Lewis. DI Kim Stone is such an excellent female police character, brilliantly written with her straight-talking, no nonsense policing right from the start.

This book is available on Kindle on 20th February 2015.

Bride Without A Groom by Amy Lynch

Thanks to the author Amy Lynch for providing me a copy of her book to read in exchange for an honest review...

When the story opens we meet Rebecca who is planning and organsing her own dream wedding.  She's so obsessed that she already has her Vera Wang dress picked out, the honeymoon chosen and a deposit put down, the only thing that's missing is a ring, she's not even engaged to her boyfriend, Barry.   She's practically driven Barry away to the other side of the world for a business meeting with her constant wedding nagging and we follow Rebecca through the ups and downs of her life as she tries to get her boyfriend whom she loves so much to commit and up the aisle for her perfect day.

I liked this book and it did make me laugh in parts but I felt it was a little too long, 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.  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 I Found The Gown, Say Yes To The Dress or Bridezillas will love this book.

This is available on Kindle and is published on 7th May 2015.

Follow The Leader by Mel Sherratt

Thanks to NetGalley, Thomas & Mercer Publishing and Mel Sherratt for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.....


The Rules are simple but deadly

A man’s body is found on a canal towpath. In his pocket, a plastic magnet in the shape of an E. Days later, a second victim is found, this time with the letter V tucked into her clothing.  As the body count rises, the eerie, childlike clues point to a pattern that sends DS Allie Shenton and her colleagues into full alert.  The race is on. Allie and the team must work quickly to determine where the killer will strike next.  The rules are simple but deadly—to catch the killer, they must follow the leader."

This book is absolutely brilliant, it had me gripped from the first few pages right through to the end, there were some great twists and turns too.  I even had to slow down reading it as I didn't want it to end. I even loved the rhyme that was featured throughout the story, one you'd hear in the playground as a kid. The story does cover alot of subjects and situations which we're all too familiar with on a daily basis, from bullying, abuse, violence to paedophilia, whether it's on the news or in the papers, this story was near enough to real life.  There were parts in the book I could feel my heart thumping so it's definitely not for the fainthearted.

This is the first time 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 this book.  It is a DS Allie Shenton Novel and this is the second novel in the series, the first been Taunting The Dead, it can be read and enjoyed as a stand alone story but I'll definitely read the first one as I feel that there's a few parts I may have missed out on.  I know that his 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 where I'm hoping it won't be too long until the story can continue.

Follow The Leader is released on 10th February and will be available on Kindle & in all good bookshops.