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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 Estate by Liza Costello! Don’t forget to check out the rest of the stops! The Synopsis There's no place like home...and Beth hopes there never will be again. Beth never had a settled home as a child, but that's all behind her now. She's fine. Great. Settled in her single life. Until friends start peeling away, moving on to careers and family, leaving her feeling impatient and angry. When she bumps into Jason at a party, she spots the opportunity for her own fresh start - to turn her back on a reckless life of drinking and missed deadlines. She can build a new life, too...can't she? When she discovers that Jason has the opportunity to house-sit a new build out of town, she glimpses her chance. There's only one catch - Jason needs to stay in town for the sake of his new job. But Beth can keep their dreams alive on her own, can't she? As her drinking worsens, and new friends turn out to be prospective enemies, her sense of reality begins to unravel. As Beth comes to confront the mysteries of her own past, she moves closer to understanding the desperate crime at the heart of the estate. But first she must learn who is behind the strange attacks on her new home. And is Jason who she thought he was? Can she even trust him? My ReviewDue to earlier starts, I’ve recently been driving a lot more on my commute rather than taking the train, and The Estate came along at the perfect time, receiving the ‘honour’ of being the first audiobook that I listened to during my commute!! This improved my drives to say the least! The only downside was that it had me so gripped, I often struggled to get out of the car upon reaching my destination! I found Beth to be an extremely interesting central character and enjoyed the way that the narrative switched between the past and the present to reveal what had gone on at The Estate and to subtly create a sense of foreboding regarding the state that Beth was currently in. I really didn’t know which, if any, of the characters that I could trust and found myself constantly questioning everything that I read. While I guessed a small part of the plot in terms of the cause of Beth’s troubles, the dark and twisty atmosphere kept me hooked and dying to find out the full story. Which in the end turned out to be satisfyingly explained and still had a few surprises in store. Additionally, I thought that the narrator did a fantastic job. Not only could I always tell who was speaking, sometimes due to the most subtle differences in her voice, but also the way she read really added to the atmosphere. Overall, I’m giving The Estate 4 out of 5. It’s gripping, eerie and super intense. I thoroughly enjoyed it. This audiobook was provided free in exchange for an honest review About the AuthorLiza Costello was born in County Westmeath, where she lives with her husband and two children. A copy editor and poet, her writing has been broadcast on RTE Radio 1 and published in outlets including The Stinging Fly, The Saturday Independent (Ireland), The Manchester Review and Mslexia. Costello won the Dromineer Literary Festival Poetry Award (2011), came joint second for the Patrick Kavanagh Award for an unpublished collection of poetry (2015), and has been shortlisted for the Sean O’Faolain International Short Story Competition and the Francis McManus Short Story Competition. She is currently completing a PhD on the work of the Irish writer Dermot Healy.
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 Today is my stop on the blog tour for Beginners Spanish with the Superpolyglotbros! I’m so excited to be kicking off this tour! Thanks so much to Edwina for organising and don’t forget to check out the rest of the stops. About the Audiobook Learning a language doesn’t have to be difficult - sitting through hours of classes, reading boring lists of vocabulary or listening to someone trying to explain all that grammar. Let the Superpolyglotbros take you with them on a journey through the basics of Spanish. Full of personality and humour, this is a conversational guide to help you build the phrases and exchanges you actually need. With this original audiobook, you’ll be entertained as you learn, building up all the skills you need to get by and much more in just under 10 hours of listening. Based on 30 real-life scenarios packed with essential everyday vocabulary, listeners will be taken on an audio immersive trip of a typical Spanish-speaking place complete with a host of real-world scenarios to help them learn language in context – whether it be meeting new people, exploring a new city or ordering in a restaurant with their new amigos. Perfectly tailored for audio, and thanks to the brothers’ innovative method of gradual immersion, spaced repetition and complete guidance throughout the course, students will be forming their own sentences and making the language their own in ways they never thought they could. Drawing upon their own methods of learning together and a wealth of experience at all levels of teaching, the twins strongly believe that anyone, with the right tools and a healthy dose of fun, can learn a new language. My ReviewBeginners Spanish with the Superpolyglotbros is something a little different from what I usually review - which is just one of the reasons I’m so excited to be taking part in this blog tour! Having learnt French the ‘traditional’ way, which took me a long time to understand all of the grammar and get to a level of being able to converse with others, I was super interested to see how this experience of controlled immersion would be, compared to what I had done before. And I’ve got to say, right from the first lesson, I knew that this style was going to be effective and enjoyable to learn with. After just the first 20 minutes, I’d already picked up so much in absolutely no time at all! The bite sized lessons enabled me to listen on the go and made learning a lot more manageable. The content was clear and easy to follow and I didn’t find myself drifting or getting distracted or frustrated. There were lots of really useful tips as well as quick and easy to understand guides on pronunciation and grammar. This was a key benefit for me, as grammar in particular has been something I’ve struggled with in the past, but they made it extremely simple to follow. I could really feel the twins’ experience with teaching and learning languages coming through, as well as their personalities and humour, which is what took this audiobook and learning experience up to the highest level for me. Overall, I’m giving Beginners Spanish with the Superpolyglotbros 5 out of 5. It’s clear, concise and truly engaging. This audiobook really is for anyone, whether learning new languages is something you do a lot or whether you’ve never tried to learn a new language before, I’d highly recommend this and the Superpolyglotbros for all your language learning needs. This audiobook was provided free in exchange for an honest review About the Superpolyglotbros The Superpolyglotbros are twin brothers and professional language coaches with over 20 languages between them. They've spent years perfecting a unique approach to language learning that puts immediate understanding and effortless interaction at its heart. Their technique has helped them learn Turkish in a week and teach Danish in just five days by immersing themselves and their students in the day to day use of a language.
With over ten years of professional experience in the language industry, from translation and interpreting to second language instruction and acquisition, from accent coaching to subtitling films, from bilingual education for pre-schoolers to linguistics seminars; if there’s something to do with ‘languages’, it’s safe to say they’ve done it. Their linguistic abilities feature extensively in international media, with the twins making regular appearances on TV, radio and social media.  Today is my stop on the blog tour for The Burning Men by Will Shindler. Thanks so much to Jenny for organising the tour, don’t forget to check out the rest of the stops! The Synopsis When a development in South London catches fire mid-construction, a close-knit team of fire fighters runs in to save a man spotted at the window. They come out without a body. They quit the service. They plan never to speak to each other again. Five years later one of them is set alight at his own wedding. Soon after, a second is found, nothing but a smoking corpse. It appears that someone knows what they did that night. What they chose over their duty. And there are still three men left to burn . . . DI Alex Finn and his new partner DC Mattie Paulsen are an unlikely pairing, but they need to discover who is behind these killings before the next man faces the fire. My Review  I was completely intrigued by The Burning Men as soon as I read the synopsis. It seemed totally unique, with a fascinating plot that would keep me hooked. In the end, it absolutely did not disappoint on having those qualities. I had so many questions even before I opened the first page and the journey to having them answered was thoroughly riveting. I couldn’t stop turning the pages. I absolutely flew through The Burning Men and I enjoyed every action-packed, twisty, exciting second. The writing and plot was strong from the very first page right to the extremely satisfying ending. It really was a great introduction to DI Alex Finn and DC Mattie Paulsen and I’m so looking forward to plenty more books featuring them. The characters in general were another high point of this book, as they were all so well-developed and took the book to a whole other level. Slight disclaimer that there are some very gruesome elements to this book, so I wanted to make sure that you’re aware of that before reading, as you’ll need a strong stomach on some occasions. Overall, I’m giving The Burning Men 4.5 out of 5. It’s cleverly written, engaging and powerful. I can’t believe this is Shindler’s first book and can’t wait for the next! This book was provided free in exchange for an honest review About the AuthorWill Shindler has been a Broadcast Journalist for the BBC for over twenty-five years, spending a decade working in television drama as a scriptwriter on Born and Bred, The Bill and Doctors. His time on these leading prime time dramas has given him a rich grounding in authentic police procedure, powerful character development and gripping narratives. He currently combines reading the news on BBC Radio London with writing crime novels and has previously worked as a television presenter for HTV, a sports reporter for BBC Radio Five Live, and one of the stadium presenters at the London Olympics. The Burning Men is his first novel.
 Today is my stop on the blog tour for Haven’t They Grown by Sophie Hannah! Don’t forget to check out the rest of the stops! The Synopsis All Beth has to do is drive her son to his Under-14s away match, watch him play, and bring him home. Just because she knows that her former best friend lives near the football ground, that doesn't mean she has to drive past her house and try to catch a glimpse of her. Why would Beth do that, and risk dredging up painful memories? She hasn't seen Flora Braid for twelve years. But she can't resist. She parks outside Flora's house and watches from across the road as Flora and her children, Thomas and Emily, step out of the car. Except... There's something terribly wrong. Flora looks the same, only older - just as Beth would have expected. It's the children that are the problem. Twelve years ago, Thomas and Emily Braid were five and three years old. Today, they look precisely as they did then. They are still five and three. They are Thomas and Emily without a doubt - Beth hears Flora call them by their names - but they haven't changed at all. They are no taller, no older. Why haven't they grown? My Review What drew me to Haven’t They Grown was the absolute impossibility of the situation that Beth Leeson finds herself in on that morning dropping her son off to football practice. How on Earth can two children be exactly the same age as they were 12 years ago? Alongside Beth, I puzzled over this for almost the entirety of the book. Each new piece of information had my mind whirring with new theories and possibilities but I still couldn’t manage to explain that vital question. I wondered how Hannah was going to pull it off, but having read and enjoyed previous books of hers, I knew that somehow she would. As Beth came closer to finding the answer to the mysteries of the Braid family, I felt the tension subtly build and eventually realised that I wouldn’t be able to stop reading until all was revealed. While I must say that at times I did find certain scenes a little dragged out for my liking, I later came to realise that this actually contributed to the building of that tension and in a way, the frustration I felt was representative of the way that Beth felt throughout the book, so this was actually something which helped me to connect with her more. I’d say that the ending was definitely worth the wait and the build up. It offered plenty of excitement, tension and satisfaction to say the least. As I’ve always said, humour is something I really love to see, especially in a book of this genre and Haven’t They Grown had plenty of it. This often arose from Beth’s interaction with her family and I must say that I think Beth’s relationship with her family was one of my favourite parts of the book. Overall, I’m giving Haven’t They Grown 4 out of 5. It’s impossible, chilling and cleverly written. If there’s one thing Haven’t They Grown illustrates, it’s that Sophie Hannah is at the top of her game. This book was provided free in exchange for an honest review About the AuthorSophie Hannah is an internationally bestselling crime fiction writer, translated into 49 languages and published in 51 countries. Her psychological thriller The Carrier won the Specsavers National Book Award for Crime Thriller of the Year in 2013. Sophie is the author of the bestselling Poirot continuation mysteries. The Point of Rescue and The Other Half Lives have been adapted for television as Case Sensitive, starring Olivia Williams and Darren Boyd. Sophie is also a bestselling poet who has been shortlisted for the TS Eliot award. Her poetry is studied at GCSE and A-level. Sophie is an Honorary Fellow of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge. She lives in Cambridge with her family. N.B - apologies for the delay in posting, I had scheduled the review to post on the correct day and not realised that it hadn’t done so.  Today is my stop on the blog tour for The Dilemma by B A Paris! Don’t forget to check out the rest of the stops! The Synopsis It’s Livia’s 40th birthday and she’s having the party of a lifetime to make up for the wedding she never had. Everyone she loves will be there except her daughter Marnie, who’s studying abroad. But although Livia loves Marnie, she’s secretly glad she won’t be at the party. She needs to tell Adam something about their daughter but she’s waiting until the party is over so they can have this last happy time together. Adam wants everything to be perfect for Livia so he’s secretly arranged for Marnie to come home and surprise her on her birthday. During the day, he hears some terrible news. He needs to tell Livia, because how can the party go on? But she’s so happy, so excited – and the guests are about to arrive. The Dilemma – how far would you go to give someone you love a last few hours of happiness? My Review Bring Me Back is one of my favourite books and while The Dilemma marks a bit of a new direction for B A Paris, it keeps all of the classic elements which make Paris’ books so addictive to read. Once again I was hooked right from the first page and it’s simply impossible to put down. It’s also extremely difficult to review The Dilemma without giving the plot away, which is something that’s particularly important to avoid when it comes to this book and trust me you’ll understand why when you read it. There’s so much tension and emotion packed into the pages that I felt like I was on a real emotional rollercoaster the entire time and I knew it wouldn’t be a book I’d be forgetting any time soon. I loved the dual narrative style and the way it enabled me to gradually get to know the characters and the back stories whilst keeping the book moving along at a perfect pace and I don’t think I looked up once the entire time I was reading. The ending was the jewel in the crown for me though, it shocked me again and again and was everything I could’ve hoped for and more. Once again, a classic feature of B A Paris’ books. Overall, I’m giving The Dilemma 4.5 out of 5. It’s addictive, emotional and powerful. What a way to start off the year! This book was provided free in exchange for an honest review About the Author B A Paris is the internationally bestselling author of Behind Closed Doors, The Breakdown and Bring Me Back. Now approaching 1.5 million copies sold in the UK alone, she is a New York Times bestseller as well as a number one bestseller on Amazon and iBooks. Her books have sold in 37 territories around the world. Having lived in France for many years, she recently moved back to the UK. She has five daughters.
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