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I post book reviews as often as possible but at least once a week every Wednesday! I hope they help you to find some new books that you'll love as much as I did!
  Today is my stop on the blog tour for The Ex Girlfriend by Nicola Moritarty! Don’t forget to check out the rest of the stops! The Synopsis Luke is the one. After everything she's been through, Georgia knows she deserves someone like him, to make her feel loved. Safe. The only problem is his ex-girlfriend. Luke says Cadence is having trouble accepting their break-up, but Georgia thinks there's more to the story. She has the feeling someone is watching her. So when everything starts to go wrong at work, at home, in her old friendships and her happy new relationship with Luke, Georgia starts to feel afraid. It's becoming clear Cadence wants what she has. But how far will she go to get it? My Review The name Nicola Moriarty is becoming quite a regular feature on my blog, and for very good reason. I pretty much fell in love with Moriarty’s writing after reading The Fifth Letter back in 2017 and I fell in love with it all over again whilst reading The Ex Girlfriend. There’s something quite spellbinding about the way it reads. While it starts at more of a comfortable pace, as the book progresses the pace gradually picks up and by the end, it really is gripping and edge of your seat level stuff. I did guess quite a key part of the story, but I definitely didn’t guess how all of the pieces of the puzzle would eventually slot together and when they did so, I felt completely satisfied. The way the ending always makes me feel completely content is a real highlight of Moriarty’s books for me and with The Ex Girlfriend I had one of those moments where I closed the book and felt completely fulfilled. Overall, I’m giving The Ex Girlfriend 4.5 out of 5. It’s atmospheric, dramatic and extremely satisfying. I can’t wait for more from Nicola Moriarty! This book was provided free in exchange for an honest review About the AuthorNicola Moriarty is a novelist, copywriter and mum to two small (but remarkably strong-willed) daughters. In between various career changes, becoming a mum and studying at university, she began to write. Now, she can't seem to stop. The Fifth Letter was her UK debut novel, followed by Those Other Women.
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 Today is my stop on the blog tour for The Last Hunt by Deon Meyer! Thanks so much to Jenny for organising the tour, don’t forget to check out the rest of the stops! The Synopsis A cold case for Captain Benny Griessel and Vaughn Cupido of the Hawks elite police unit - not what they were looking for. And a difficult case, too. The body of Johnson Johnson, ex-cop, has been found beside a railway line. He appears to have jumped from South Africa's - perhaps the world's - most luxurious train, and two suspicious characters seen with him have disappeared into thin air. The regular police have already failed to make progress and others are intent on muddying the waters. Meanwhile in Bordeaux, Daniel Darret is settled in a new life on a different continent. A quiet life. But his skills as an international hit-man are required one more time, and Daniel is given no choice in the matter. He must hunt again - his prey the corrupt president of his homeland. Three strands of the same story become entwined in a ferocious race against time - for the Hawks to work out what lies behind the death of Johnson, for Daniel to evade the relentless Russian agents tracking him, for Benny Griessel to survive long enough to take another huge step in his efforts to piece together again the life he nearly destroyed - and finally ask Alexa Bernard to marry him. My ReviewThe Last Hunt is the sixth book in the Benny Griessel series, but make sure you don’t let that put you off if you’ve not read the previous books. This was the first Benny Griessel book I had read (in fact it was my first book by Meyer ever) and I absolutely loved every minute of it! I got right into it instantly and the relentless pace kept me hooked for the entirety of the book, so much so that I barely put it down. I loved meeting all of the characters, who were so well drawn that they felt completely real to me. It was the same with the setting, I almost believed I’d been to South Africa and I felt like I’d been on such a journey by the end of the book - both distance wise and emotionally! The plot was excellent, there was so much suspense while the current affairs and political edge kept it right up to date. Overall, I’m giving The Last Hunt 4.5 out of 5. It’s totally gripping, with plenty of twists and plenty of action. I can’t wait to read more of Meyer’s books! This book was provided free in exchange for an honest review. About the AuthorDeon Meyer is the award-winning and bestseller of both series and standalone crime thrillers. He has won the Deutsche Krimi Preis, Le Grand Prix de Littérature Policière and Le Prix Mystère de la Critique for DEAD AT DAYBREAK, which was adapted for an Afrikaans M-Net TV series (SA). He has also received the Barry Award in the Best Thriller and was shortlisted for the Macavity Best Mystery Novel Award. He has been shortlisted for the CWA International Dagger three times. Rights in his titles are sold in 30 territories and 28 languages and many of his books have been optioned for film. DEAD BEFORE DYING was filmed for a 6-part TV series, titled CAPE TOWN. He is much in demand for appearances at festivals and tours around the world. @MeyerDeon
 Today is my stop on the blog tour for The Stone Song by Tom Bale! Don’t forget to check out the rest of the stops! The Synopsis On a sweltering summer’s night, teenage siblings Jack and Lily witness a helicopter crash on the main road between Brighton and London. The next morning they wake to find their village has been sealed off from the entire world. A terrorist cell is holed up in Stenhurst – or at least that’s the official story, put out by sinister government agent Wynter and his vicious sidekick, Major Kellett. But later that day, Lily and Jack stumble on the truth: the authorities are hunting for a mysterious creature, labelled CatX, who escaped during the crash. Together with their friends, Erin and Oliver, Lily and Jack take it upon themselves to defy the lockdown and protect the creature, no matter what the risks. The stakes are raised still further when a team of American agents arrive with their own unique technologies. Nobody who sees the CatX must be allowed to survive, and yet it soon becomes clear that there is a much bigger secret here...one that threatens the entire world. My ReviewI was excited to be invited to this blog tour for so many reasons! I’ve never reviewed an audiobook on my blog before and since The Stone Song is a dystopian sci-fi thriller, it also gave me the chance to read a little outside of my usual genre, an experience which I always enjoy. And I certainly did enjoy every aspect of The Stone Song. All of the characters felt well-developed and real, while the plot kept me fully engaged and completely gripped. I also really enjoyed the narration by Raza Jaffrey. He’s got a beautiful voice which kept me captivated and only heightened the intrigue and tension I felt during the audiobook. (Additionally, I loved the interview with Jaffrey at the end, I thought it was a nice little addition.) Overall, I’m giving The Stone Song 4 out of 5. It’s fast-paced, tense and had a poignant but satisfying ending. I’ll definitely be reading more by Tom Bale. This audiobook was provided free in exchange for an honest review.  Today is my stop on the blog tour for Safe House by Jo Jakeman! Thanks so much to Mia for organising the tour, don’t forget to take a look at the rest of the stops too! The Synopsis Charlie just wants to be forgotten but everyone else wants to know her story... The morning after a terrible storm, a woman turns up in a remote Cornish village. She has bought the crumbling cottage that has lain empty for over a decade, and she’s going to make it her home. She calls herself Charlie, but it’s a name she’s only had for a few days. She keeps herself to herself, reluctant to integrate with the locals. Because Charlie has a secret. Charlie was in prison for providing a false alibi for a murderer. But Lee Fisher wasn’t a murderer to her; he was the man she loved. Convinced of his innocence, Charlie said she was with him the night a young woman was killed. That lie cost her everything. And now she has the chance to start again. But someone is watching her, waiting for her, wondering if she’s really paid the price for what she did. My Review I’ve got to admit, when I got the email inviting me to this blog tour and saw that the author was Jo Jakeman I immediately said yes, without even reading the synopsis! The thing is, since I read Sticks and Stones last year, Jo Jakeman has been at the top of my list of authors you can rely on for an amazing read. I find her writing totally hypnotising and Safe House only strengthened this notion. Charlie was a really enjoyable character to read and she took me on such a journey throughout the book - I went from emotional to suspicious and then absolutely everything in between. Jakeman had me questioning all of the characters wondering whether they were who they said they were and I’m certain that if she’d wanted me to be, I would’ve been suspicious of the dogs too! The structure worked really well for me, initially it took a little bit of concentration to to keep up with the different names and who was who, but once I got that bit sorted, it really kept the pages turning and was a great way of building up the tension and gradually feeding pieces of information through. While the fact that I’m going to enjoy a Jo Jakeman book is predictable, the story certainly isn’t! Safe House managed to surprise me when I was least expecting it (which I suppose is the only time you can be surprised really!!) and after I managed to get my breath back from the shocking finale, I was left thoroughly satisfied. Safe House has it all really, great twists, plenty of action and suspense and an extremely satisfying conclusion - definitely one of my favourite books this year so far. Overall, I’m giving Safe House 5 out of 5 and adding it to my five star favourites shelf. It’s hypnotising, pacey and stunningly addictive. Jo Jakeman is definitely one of my favourite authors and her next book can’t come soon enough!! This book was provided free in exchange for an honest review.  And if that didn’t make you want to pick up the book instantly, did I mention that the ebook will be 99p throughout November on Amazon?! What’s not to love? About the AuthorJo Jakeman was the winner of the Friday Night Live 2016 competition at the York Festival of Writing. Born in Cyprus, she worked for many years in the City of London before moving to Derbyshire with her husband and twin boys. Safe House is her second novel and Sticks and Stones was her debut thriller.
 Today is my stop on the blog tour for In the Absence of Miracles by Michael J. Malone! Thanks so much to Anne for organising the tour and don’t forget to take a look at the rest of the stops! The Synopsis John Docherty’s mother has just been taken into a nursing home. Following a massive stroke, she’s unlikely to be able to live independently again. With no other option than to sell the family home, John sets about packing up everything in the house. In sifting through the detritus of his family’s past he’s forced to revisit, and revise his childhood. In a box, in the attic, he finds undeniable truth that he had a brother who disappeared when he himself was only a toddler. A brother no one ever mentioned. A brother he knew absolutely nothing about. A discovery that sets John on a journey from which he may never recover. For sometimes in that space where memory should reside there is nothing but silence, smoke and ash. And in the absence of truth, in the absence of a miracle, we turn to prayer. And to violence... My ReviewHaving never had the chance to read one of Malone’s books before, I was unsure of what to expect going in. What I ended up experiencing with In the Absence of Miracles though, was one hell of a powerful read. One that I know I’m going to have to be careful to review in order to avoid spoiling any of its impact. (So this may end up being a slightly shorter review) In John Docherty, Malone has created an incredible character who draws you straight into his story, making you truly feel his emotions alongside him. The author managed to make me care about Docherty and all of the characters so, so much, which is why it had so much of a powerful impact when the truth finally came to light. It also made the issues raised within the book even more shocking. These issues are really emotionally harrowing to read, yet they’re handled so sensitively. Thoughts of the book and it’s contents stayed with me long after I’d finished reading. Overall, I’m giving In the Absence of Miracles 5 out of 5 and adding it to my five star favourites shelf! It’s captivating, heartbreaking and sensitively written. I can’t wait to read more from Michael J. Malone. About the AuthorMichael Malone is a prize-winning poet and author who was born and brought up in the heart of Burns’ country. He has published over 200 poems in literary magazines throughout the UK, including New Writing Scotland, Poetry Scotland and Markings. Blood Tears, his bestselling debut novel won the Pitlochry Prize from the Scottish Association of Writers. Other published work includes Carnegie’s Call; A Taste for Malice; The Guillotine Choice; Beyond the Rage; The Bad Samaritan and Dog Fight. His psychological thriller, A Suitable Lie, was a number-one bestseller, and the critically acclaimed House of Spines and After He Died soon followed suit. A former Regional Sales Manager (Faber & Faber) he has also worked as an IFA and a bookseller. Michael lives in Ayr.
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