Thursday 2 April 2015

Run by H.G. Lynch Book Blitz




ABOUT THE BOOK

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Tilly is a witch…at least, she thinks she is. All she really knows is that she
has powers she shouldn’t, and that the cruel women she escaped
from – who definitely are witches – will stop at nothing to make her their
prisoner again because of those powers.

But Tilly has fallen in with a strange group – a pack of werewolves. The pack
wants to protect her; none of them more so than Dominic, the alpha’s
kind-hearted son. Tilly thinks she might be falling for him, but she can’t help
being fascinated by his brooding, mysterious half-brother Spencer.

Caught between the two, Tilly isn’t sure anymore what she’s most scared of:
the witches hunting her down, or her own heart betraying her.

EXCERPT


His fingers on my wrist felt too warm and too intimate, his touch making things deep inside me tingle. There was so little between us, literally, only my nightshirt and underwear separated my body and his. I could feel the growling inside him, vibrating through my blood. I’d never felt desire like that, never known it could be so addictive, like a drug I wanted more of.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR



H.G. Lynch is a Scottish Paranormal Romance author, avid reader, and cat-lover. She spends most of her days writing, while wrestling her cat, Sooki, off her laptop. She believes that chocolate cake can save the world, and is highly caffeine-addicted. She can occasionally be found rolling on the floor, laughing manically, when she’s consumed too much caffeine. She loves horse-riding, Star Trek, and snow. 
Her books are dark fantasy romances, usually with a bad boy and a bad girl. Sometimes with zombies, sometimes vampires, sometimes other things. 





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Wednesday 1 April 2015

The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins


Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22105022-the-girl-on-the-train

SUMMARY

Three women, three men, connected through marriage or infidelity. Each is to blame for something. But only one is a killer in this nail-biting, stealthy psychological thriller about human frailty and obsession. 
      Just what goes on in the houses you pass by every day? 
     Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning and evening, rattling over the same junctions, flashing past the same townhouses.The train stops at the same signal every day, and she sees the same couple, breakfasting on their roof terrace. Jason and Jess, as she calls them, seem so happy. Then one day Rachel sees someone new in their garden. Soon after, Rachel sees the woman she calls Jess on the news. Jess has disappeared. 
     Through the ensuing police investigation, Rachel is drawn deeper into the lives of the couple she learns are really Megan and Scott Hipwell. As she befriends Scott, Rachel pieces together what really happened the day Megan disappeared. But when Megan's body is found, Rachel finds herself the chief suspect in the case. Plunged into a world of betrayals, secrets and deceptions, Rachel must confront the facts about her own past and her own failed marriage. 
     A sinister and twisting story that will keep you guessing at every turn,The Girl on the Train is a high-speed chase for the truth.

REVIEW

I loved this one! It was curious to read about a situation from an unreliable narrator, she was drunk most of the time. Rachel is a 30 something year old who has been married and divorced with no children. At the beginning of the novel things were slowly put in to place by her and a couple other characters, and as you keep reading (especially from Rachel's point of view) you begin to wonder if everything is part of their imagination, or has it actually happened.

There was things going on where I thought I figured out what the big twist was, but on more than one occasion, I was totally wrong, I actually love when this happens, you get more out of a story I think. The characters were generally likable, even Rachel sometimes, at other times you really just want to shake her with the drinking. One thing I can never figure out is why Rachel would want to put herself in the same situation time after time, but in the end it all seems to come together.

I can sortive see where people are getting the comparison to Gone Girl, however, I think that they both stand on their own tow feet very well, and if you liked one you should like the other. At first I didn't know what to think when Jess went missing, was she really missing, or did she run away with someone else? That part kept the story going at a really good pace.

I am not sure what else to say without getting in to spoilers, however, if you are looking for a great thriller that will keep you guessing right till the very end, this is a story for you! I give it a 5/5!

An Untamed State by Roxane Gay


Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18467818-an-untamed-state

SUMMARY

Roxane Gay is a powerful new literary voice whose short stories and essays have already earned her an enthusiastic audience. In An Untamed State, she delivers an assured debut about a woman kidnapped for ransom, her captivity as her father refuses to pay and her husband fights for her release over thirteen days, and her struggle to come to terms with the ordeal in its aftermath.

Mireille Duval Jameson is living a fairy tale. The strong-willed youngest daughter of one of Haiti’s richest sons, she has an adoring husband, a precocious infant son, by all appearances a perfect life. The fairy tale ends one day when Mireille is kidnapped in broad daylight by a gang of heavily armed men, in front of her father’s Port au Prince estate. Held captive by a man who calls himself The Commander, Mireille waits for her father to pay her ransom. As it becomes clear her father intends to resist the kidnappers, Mireille must endure the torments of a man who resents everything she represents.

An Untamed State is a novel of privilege in the face of crushing poverty, and of the lawless anger that corrupt governments produce. It is the story of a willful woman attempting to find her way back to the person she once was, and of how redemption is found in the most unexpected of places. An Untamed State establishes Roxane Gay as a writer of prodigious, arresting talent.

REVIEW

Let me first start by saying that I don't feel as though I could give this book the praise that it deserves, nothing I say is going to be able to convey how I feel about this book, it may be a work of fiction, however, these things happen (more often than we probably would like to admit), and it is only an excellent writer that can bring about the feelings that I have even after sitting for a couple weeks after finishing this novel.

So in this story we follow Mireille whom goes back to Haiti to visit her parents, and winds up getting kidnapped (this is not a spoiler!). Mireille and her husband live a pampered life in the US, she is fully willing to admit to this, they have everything that they need and enjoy dinner parties with friends, and having the best of everything. They also have a small child that they adore and were thinking of having more.

What I loved about this novel was the way that Gay was not afraid to tackle the tough issues, not only the kidnapping, but everything that went along with it, and everything that happens after. Even though it was only 13 days that she was gone, you truly can see how she is really trapped for the rest of her life, and how things will never be the same for her. I have never read a book (besides a memoir) that is able to rip my heart out so much for the victim in the story, you wish and wish for her that it is all a bad dream, and that she will wake up and be back with her family again. The characters were beautifully written, even the ones that you want to detest. Every one of them brought something new and interesting to the story, whether it was to make you hate them, or love them. 

The book was told in alternating chapters of Mireille either during her kidnapping, or her remembering things from before she was kidnapped, either from childhood or when she was older dating Michael, or when they were first married, both perspectives were heart wrenching, because you knew that even when this ordeal was over, nothing would ever be the same for her again.

If you are looking for a serious read that covers many topics and do not have any trigger warnings about sexual violence towards women, then this is a novel for you! I absolutely give it a 5/5.