Monthly Wrap-up: August/September TBR

I read ten books in August. I wasn’t able to do any more reading from August 18^th because of exams.

Here are the books that I read in August.

Click on the titles to read my reviews of the next ten books.

1. Someone must Die by Sharon Potts
2. Missing Presumed by Susie Steiner
3. Play Dead by Angela Marsons
4. 2nd Sight: Capturing Insight by Ben Sharpton
5. Watching Eddie by Camilla Way
6. The Girls by Emma Cline
7. Black Widow by Chris Brookmyre
8. The Fire Child by S.K Tremayne
9. SOS: Summer of St. George by Briana Gaitan
10. Chosen Child by Linda Huber

Books that I plan to read in September

As I mentioned at some time back, I joined NetGalley in June and went a bit crazy with the requests. I assumed that most of them would be rejected and so I kept asking for books. In total, I requested for 34 books lol, yeah I know it is bad. 30 of them were approved in the end. However, this meant that I had a tone of ARCs to read and hardly any time to read my other books. I have read and reviewed 20 books from NetGalley so far and I hope to get through the remaining ten this month. I will try and stay away from ARCs for a while after that. So here are the 10 books that I plan to read in September:

1. The Boston Strangler by Gerold Frank
2. Dead and Buried by Helen H. Durant
3. After She’s Gone by Lisa Jackson
4. Fear Stalks the Bayou by Juanita Coulson
5. Land of Carful Shadows by Suzanne Chazin
6. Cover Me in Darkness by Eileen Rendahl
7. The Kept Woman by Karin Slaughter
8. Fractured by Catherine McKenzie
9. The Last One by Alexandra Oliva
10. Two Days Left by Randall Silvis

I hope that you had a wonderful month. Happy September. Cheers!

Friday Finds #August 26th

Friday Finds is a meme currently hosted by Jenn at Books and a Beat.  This is an opportunity to share the books that you have recently found and added to your TBR.

 I added two books to my TBR this week.

 Dead and Buried by Helen Durrant

 40 years ago something terrible happened in Annie’s new house . . .

Annie Naden and her husband buy a remote country cottage at auction. It’s the home of their own that they always wanted, but as they begin renovations, Annie discovers a satchel in a dusty old hidden cupboard. Inside are the usual schoolbooks, now over 40 years old, and a girl’s diary. Among the record of day-to-day crushes and pop concerts, is a secret whose terrible consequences are still resonating to this day.

Detective Tom Calladine has problems of his own. A notorious villain, Vinny Costello, seems to be back in town, and the bodies soon stack up. With Calladine’s loyal DS Ruth Bayliss on maternity leave, he gets in hot water with one of Costello’s assistants, and must also cope with an abrasive new member of the team as they seek to untangle a complex series of murders.

What happened to that girl forty years ago? And what’s it got to do with the current crime wave?

 

Black Widow by Chris Brookmyre

 Diana Jager is clever, strong and successful, a skilled surgeon and fierce campaigner via her blog about sexism. Yet it takes only hours for her life to crumble when her personal details are released on the internet as revenge for her writing.

Then she meets Peter. He’s kind, generous, and knows nothing about her past: the second chance she’s been waiting for.

Within six months, they are married. Within six more, Peter is dead in a road accident, a nightmare end to their fairytale romance.

But Peter’s sister Lucy doesn’t believe in fairytales, and tasks maverick reporter Jack Parlabane with discovering the dark truth behind the woman the media is calling Black Widow…

So those are my newest books. How about you? Did you add any books to your bookshelf this week? Have you read of my new finds? Let me know.

Happy Friday!

 

 

Ten Books that have been on my TBR for over a year…

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created by  The Broke and the Bookish. Each week, bloggers get a topic which entails giving a list of ten things based on the topic.

Today’s instructions were as follows: Ten Books That Have Been On Your Shelf (Or TBR) From Before You Started Blogging That You STILL Haven’t Read Yet (this is going to be sad considering how many of those I have unread six years later…)

I did an almost similar post on the books that I was eager to buy but still haven’t read. Those books have been on my bookshelf for months. However, this list has books that have been on my TBR for longer than just months. I have been intending to read them but let’s just say that it has taken me quite long to actually get to them.

1. The Diary of a Young Girl: Anne Frank
2. Hellen Keller:The Story of my Life
3. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
4. Persuasion by Jane Austen
5. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
6. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
7. The Time Travelers’ Wife bu Audrey Niffenegger
8. Love in the time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
9. My Life with a Taliban by Abdul Salam Zaeef
10. Yacoubian Building by Alla Al Aswany

I have heard great things about these books so I hope to read them soon. Hopefully, I can read at least 5 of them before the year ends. Luckily, my book club has selected Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez so now I will read it.

Have you read any of these books? Which books have been on your TBR for long? Let me know. Happy Tuesday!

Brief Hiatus

Hi Everyone!

I will be away from the blogosphere for about two weeks. I have exams starting next week up to September ^5th . I hope to be back here after that. During my time away, I have scheduled 3 posts at least to keep the blog alive. However, my interactions with you all will be limited and it may take me longer than usual to reply to comments and visit your posts.

Have a great time and see you in September. Cheers.

Friday Finds #August 19th

Friday Finds is a meme currently hosted by Jenn at Books and a Beat.  This is an opportunity to share the books that you have recently found and added to your TBR.

I added two books to my TBR this week.

 

Fractured by Catherine McKenzie

 Julie Prentice and her family move across the country to the idyllic Mount Adams district of Cincinnati, hoping to evade the stalker who’s been terrorizing them ever since the publication of her bestselling novel, The Murder Game. Since Julie doesn’t know anyone in her new town, when she meets her neighbor John Dunbar, their instant connection brings measured hope for a new beginning. But she never imagines that a simple, benign conversation with him could set her life spinning so far off course.

After a series of misunderstandings, Julie and her family become the target of increasingly unsettling harassment. Has Julie’s stalker found her, or are her neighbors out to get her, too? As tension in the neighborhood rises, new friends turn into enemies, and the results are deadly.

 

After She’s Gone by Lisa Jackson

Cassie Kramer and her younger sister, Allie, learned the hazards of fame long ago. Together, they’d survived the horror of a crazed fan who nearly killed their mother, former Hollywood actress Jenna Hughes. Still, Cassie moved to L.A., urging Allie to follow. As a team, they’d take the town by storm. But Allie, finally free of small-town Oregon, and just that little bit more beautiful, also proved to be more talented—and driven. Where Cassie got bit parts, Allie rose to stardom. But now her body double has been shot on the set of her latest movie—and Allie is missing.

Police discover that the last call to Allie’s phone came from Cassie, though she has no recollection of making it. Instead of looking like a concerned relative, Cassie is starting to look like a suspect—the jealous sister who finally grew sick of playing a supporting role. As the tabloids go into a frenzy, Cassie ends up on a Portland psych ward. Is she just imagining the sinister figure who comes to her bedside, whispering about Allie—a visitor of whom there is no record? Is someone trying to help—or drive her mad?

Convinced she’s the only one who can find Allie, Cassie checks herself out of the hospital. But a sudden slew of macabre murders— each victim masked with a likeness of a member of Cassie’s family—makes Cassie fear for her safety and her sanity. The only way to end the nightmare is to find out what really happened to Allie. And with each discovery, Cassie realizes that no one can be trusted to keep her safe—least of all herself…

So those are my newest books.How about you? Did you add any books to your bookshelf this week? Have you read of my new finds? Let me know.

 

Happy Friday!

WWW-Wednesday #August 17th

This meme is currently hosted by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words

To take part all you need to do is answer the following questions:

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

So here’s my 3 W’s for the week.

Recently Finished

Click on the titles to read description and my review of the two books.

Missing Presumed By Susie Stenier

Black Widow by Chris Brookmyre

Currently Reading

Watching Eddie by Camilla Way

Beautiful, creative, a little wild… Edie was the kind of girl who immediately caused a stir when she walked into your life. And she had dreams back then—but it didn’t take long for her to learn that things don’t always turn out the way you want them to.

Now, at thirty-three, Edie is working as a waitress, pregnant and alone. And when she becomes overwhelmed by the needs of her new baby and sinks into a bleak despair, she thinks that there’s no one to turn to…

But someone’s been watching Edie, waiting for the chance to prove once again what a perfect friend she can be. It’s no coincidence that Heather shows up on Edie’s doorstep, just when Edie needs her the most. So much has passed between them—so much envy, longing, and betrayal. And Edie’s about to learn a new lesson: those who have hurt us deeply—or who we have hurt—never let us go, not entirely…

I am almost done with this book. It is not what I expected although its an interesting read nonetheless.

Reading Next

I don’t intend to read any other book soon after the one that I am currently reading. My end of semester exams will be starting soon so I am just going to focus on academic reading/revision until after September 6th. This means that I will not participate in the next 2 or 3 WWW Wednesday features also. Good news is that this is my final semester at uni attending classes and taking exams. I will start my Masters Thesis next semester and embark on off-campus research for a year.

So how about you, any interesting books that you have read lately? What are you reading now? What do you plan on reading next? Feel free to leave your WWW links in the comments section.

 

 

Top Ten Books with a Beach Setting

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created by  The Broke and the Bookish. Each week, bloggers get a topic which entails giving a list of ten things based on the topic.

Today’s instructions were as follows: August 16: Top Ten Books With X Setting (top ten books set near the beach, top ten book set in boarding school, top ten books set in England, etc)

I decided to do a post on books that have beach settings. I loves beaches and can spend hours just looking at the ocean. I have always found this kind scenery to be quite relaxing. This is why I like books that have beach settings. Reading them, I can picture the wonderful scenery and the untold secrets held by the waters.

So here are some of my favorite books with beach settings.

Psychological Thrillers

1. After She Fell by Mary Jane Riley
2. The Girl from the Sea by Shalini Boland
3. Chosen Child by Linda Huber
4. The Fire Child by Tremayne S.K

Romance

1. Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks
2. Dear John by Nicholas Sparks
3. That Summer by Sarah Desen

Books that I would like to read

1. Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson
2. The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks
3. Message in a Bottle by Nicholas Sparks

 

Honorable Mention

SOS:Summer at St. George-Briana Gaitan- I read this book recently and really liked it. You can click on the tile to read my review.

Have you read any interesting books set in beach towns? which ones would you recommend? Feel free to link me to your TTT posts in the comment section. Happy Tuesday.

Book Review: Black Widow by Chris Brookmyre

Description

Diana Jager is clever, strong and successful, a skilled surgeon and fierce campaigner via her blog about sexism. Yet it takes only hours for her life to crumble when her personal details are released on the internet as revenge for her writing.

Then she meets Peter. He’s kind, generous, and knows nothing about her past: the second chance she’s been waiting for.

Within six months, they are married. Within six more, Peter is dead in a road accident, a nightmare end to their fairytale romance.

But Peter’s sister Lucy doesn’t believe in fairytales, and tasks maverick reporter Jack Parlabane with discovering the dark truth behind the woman the media is calling Black Widow..

Review

Black Widow by Chris Brookmyre is a fast-paced psychological thriller. It starts with action right at the first page where readers are introduced to a court proceeding where a trial is ongoing. The only thing that we know for sure is that a woman in on trial. Different points of view take us through the narration. One of the main narrators is Diana Jager, the female protagonist. The other narrator is Jack Parlabane, the journalist trying to uncover the true story behind the events surrounding the protagonist. We have another narrator who gives the perspective of the investigators. All the different perspectives help in building the suspense in the book as we get to learn different sides of the narrative.

The narrative takes us through the past and present occurrences narrated interchangeably. We get to see Diana’s life before and after Peter. The second timeline takes us through the present occurrences as we get to see the events that take place as the search for peter or his body takes place.

Diana is an interesting protagonist. I found her to be strong and admirable even when everyone else in the book vilified her. The author does such a great job at portraying her as a sympathetic character. All her actions seem justifiable even when she does things that seem absolutely nuts…ahem…like the HIV injection. As a reader, I found myself admiring her instead of being repulsed by her. I liked how the author developed her character by allowing us to know her better through her past and present hence care about her.  Jack is flawed, it is clear that he is dealing with demons from his personal life and career. However, he is the kind of rogue journalist who many love to hate but who we all know gets the job done no matter how unscrupulous the investigation. I found myself rooting for him to get the truth. I understand that this is the 7^th book in a series featuring this character and I can’t wait to read the first 6 so as to understand him better.

This book is a bit big at 432 pages but it is unputdownable. I wanted to get to the bottom of it all and unearth the secrets. The twist at the end totally blew me away. This is one of those books that I assumed would be easy to predict. I thought the blurb gave it all away and so I completed my jury duty, gave a guilty verdict and was wrapping up when I was hit on the face by the twist. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone so let me just that it was good! Disturbing, unpredictable basically it was everything that makes a twist awesome. This is the kind of book that you will finish reading then go back to the first scene/chapter and reread it with the end in mind. The author was really skillful in this aspect. I thought that I knew how everything was going but getting to the end gave me more insights on past events as the chips fell into place.

Black Widow is the first book that I have read by Chris Brookmyre and I can’t wait to read more from the author. I recommend this book to all fans of psychological thrillers. If you are looking for a good thriller with a fast-moving plot that will suck you in from the first page and keep you engrossed in the story due to many twists and turn then this is the right book for you.

I’d like to thank NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

About the Author

Christopher Brookmyre is a Scottish novelist whose novels mix politics, social comment and action with a strong narrative. He has been referred to as a Tartan Noir author. His debut novel was Quite Ugly One Morning, and subsequent works have included One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night, which he said “was just the sort of book he needed to write before he turned 30”, and All Fun and Games until Somebody Loses an Eye (2005).

Christopher has been shortlisted three times for the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award: in 2007 for All Fun And Games Until Somebody Loses An Eye, in 2008 for A Tale Etched in Blood and Hard Black Pencil and in 2012 for Where The Bodies Are Buried. You can find more information about him here.

About the Book

• Title: Black Widow
• Author: Chris Brookmyre
• Hardcover, 432 pages
• Published January 28th 2016 by Little, Brown
• Original Title: Black Widow
• My Rating: 5 Stars

Friday Finds #August 12th

Friday Finds is a meme currently hosted by Jenn @ Books and a Beat.  This is an opportunity to share the books that you have recently found and added to your TBR collection.

I added three books to my TBR pile this week.

SOS: Summer of St. George by Briana Gaitan- I read this one as soon as I got it so you can read my review here.

 When we were 16, we made a pact.
When we were 17, we decided to follow through.
When we were 18, we decided to spend our final summer together.
Because at the end of the summer, we would show them.
Our deaths would show the world- they can’t treat us this way any longer.
This is our SOS, our Summer of St. George.
Murphy and her cousin Poppy have been BFFs forever. They share everything- including a birthday.
When they make a pact to commit suicide after high school, they decide to have one last summer of fun with NO consequences and nothing holding them back.
As the Summer of St. George begins, things don’t go as planned. Murphy doesn’t expect to fall in love and she doesn’t expect to find a boy that makes her want to live. His name is Liam, and after spending two years in the Air Force living in Japan, he’s trying to integrate back into American society. As a self-proclaimed “Jack-of-all-trades” he knows things about Murphy that she isn’t quite ready to admit to herself. And he is determined to haunt her, peel back layer after layer of lies until she can’t run from the truth anymore.
This is our SOS, this is our Summer of St. George.

 

Cover Me in Darkness by Eileen Rendahl

Amanda Sinclair has to fight harder than most for everything she has after fleeing the cult that left her brother dead at her mother’s hand. Amanda works a quiet job in quality control for a small cosmetics company, trying to leave her past behind her—until she learns that her mother has committed suicide in the mental ward where she’s been locked away for the past ten years.

At first, Amanda believes that her mother killed herself, but when she looks through the personal belongings left behind, it seems her death may be related to the upcoming parole hearing for cult leader Patrick Collier. Teaming up with her mother’s psychologist, Amanda starts to peel away the layers of secrets that she’s built between herself and her own past, and what she finds is a truth that’s almost too big to believe.

 

Watching Edie by Camilla Way

 Beautiful, creative, a little wild… Edie was the kind of girl who immediately caused a stir when she walked into your life. And she had dreams back then—but it didn’t take long for her to learn that things don’t always turn out the way you want them to.

Now, at thirty-three, Edie is working as a waitress, pregnant and alone. And when she becomes overwhelmed by the needs of her new baby and sinks into a bleak despair, she thinks that there’s no one to turn to…

But someone’s been watching Edie, waiting for the chance to prove once again what a perfect friend she can be. It’s no coincidence that Heather shows up on Edie’s doorstep, just when Edie needs her the most. So much has passed between them—so much envy, longing, and betrayal. And Edie’s about to learn a new lesson: those who have hurt us deeply—or who we have hurt—never let us go, not entirely…

So those are my new books. How about you?Did you add any books to your bookshelf this week?Have you read of my new finds?Let me know.

 

Happy Friday!

Book Review: Missing Presumed by Susie Steiner

Description (from goodreads)

At thirty-nine, Manon Bradshaw is a devoted and respected member of the Cambridgeshire police force, and though she loves her job, what she longs for is a personal life. Single and distant from her family, she wants a husband and children of her own. One night, after yet another disastrous Internet date, she turns on her police radio to help herself fall asleep—and receives an alert that sends her to a puzzling crime scene.

Edith Hind—a beautiful graduate student at Cambridge University and daughter of the surgeon to the Royal Family—has been reported missing for nearly twenty-four hours. Her home offers few clues: a smattering of blood in the kitchen, her keys and phone left behind, the front door ajar but showing no signs of forced entry. Manon instantly knows this case will be big—and that every second is crucial to finding Edith alive.

The investigation starts with Edith’s loved ones: her attentive boyfriend, her reserved best friend, and her patrician parents. As the search widens and press coverage reaches a frenzied pitch, secrets begin to emerge about Edith’s tangled love life and her erratic behavior leading up to her disappearance. With no clear leads, Manon summons every last bit of her skill and intuition to close the case, and what she discovers will have shocking consequences not just for Edith’s family, but for Manon herself.

Review

Missing Presumed by Susie Steiner is a story about a high profile missing person. The story revolves around the investigation of this missing woman. The lead investigator is DS Manon Bradshaw. While investigating the story, Manon is also in search for love. So we have these two stories run concurrently although the investigation is the main focus.

This book has multiple narrators. There is Manon who is the lead investigator. Interestingly, we also have another cop as a narrator, Davy who works closely with Manon. Other characters who are part of the investigation also feature as narrators such as the missing woman’s best friend and her mother.

The story is suspenseful, the clock is ticking so there is pressure on the police to solve the case soon. The more  time passes since Edith went missing, the more the pressure builds hence escalating the tension. The mystery is developed slowly through the chapters as secrets are revealed, list of suspects grows and the police gets new leads on the case.

This is an interesting book although it didn’t quite work for me. There is nothing wrong with the story but I didn’t like the pacing. There are so many details and a lot of focus on the characters and their lives outside the investigation and this slowed down the pace of the book. However, I think this was an issue for me because I went in expecting the usual fast paced thrillers with lots of surprises and twists. So if you decide to read this book then you should change your expectations and perhaps that will help you enjoy it more.

I recommend Missing Presumed by Susie Steiner for fans of police procedural books. As I have already mentioned, the book details the investigation. There are searches conducted, police strategies discussed, a lot of suspects interviewed and we get to view the investigation from two officers working the case. If you like books that are character driven then this one is for you. You will get to know the officers and suspects pretty well due to the detailed character development that delves into their personal lives especially when it comes to DS Manon. Finally, if you like a good mystery then you might also enjoy this one. The investigation is interesting with a couple of false leads and the tension that is builds by the minute hence cumulating in a wonderful suspenseful novel.

About the Author:

 SUSIE STEINER is a former Guardian journalist, where she worked as a commissioning editor for 11 years. Prior to that, she worked for The Times, the Telegraph and and the Evening Standard. She lives in London with her husband and two sons. Check out her website for more.

About the Book

• Title: Missing Presumed
• Author: Susan Steiner
• My Rating: 3.5 stars

• Hardcover, 400 pages
  Published February 25th 2016 by The Borough Press