Amina Kara
Well, in terms of creating a creepy, tense and menacing atmosphere, the author did an excellent job. You could just feel it as you read and it didn't really let up.
As for the characters, I can't say I found any of them likeable, aside from maybe a couple of them. Atleast three of the men were utterly deplorable!
OH AND WHAT WAS WITH ALL THE DRINKING?! It seemed like all the characters ever did was drink, drink and drink! Im a non drinker, but I could understand maybe a glass or two, but in this case the characters were going through bottles upon bottles. I mean, like seriously?! Maybe it was indicative of the characters, but I found it so excessive!
On a separate note, I'm glad the author included a pronunciation list of all the characters and places, because otherwise I wouldn't have had a clue how to pronounce them! It was really helpful, so thank you to author for adding that.
Thank you to The Book Club Reviewer Group for an eARC of this book.
As far as novellas go, Ryan's are the absolute best.
This was another excellent instalment that added depth to a story already well told! This time, it was following Aeson's journey to Valacia in search of the dragon egg. I'm glad we got this because it really helps us understand the perilous journey Aeson, Dahlen, Erik and a group of others faced just to get their hands on the dragon egg.
It also gave a real insight into Aseon and how far he was willing to go for the cause. The insight really helps us better understand him as a character. Understanding him better is definitely going to stop me from being as harsh on him in the next book.
After everything they went through, I can also understand Dahlen's frustrations when the egg didn't hatch for him. You went through all that only for the egg to hatch for someone else. Yeah, I feel your pain, Dahlen.
This was brilliantly written, with tension from start to finish. Even though we know how some things go, there were still a few heart in mouth moments!
Thank you so much to Ryan Cahill for my eARC of this!
Another excellent book by David Jackson!
This time it involved Izzy. She worked in a bookshop, but her talent, or was it a curse? lay in being able to read peoples emotions and allowing her to know when someone is lying.
She tries to use her talent for good, but as you can imagine it doesn't go well. No one wants to believe her. They all think she's a crackpot, seeking attention apart from the lovely Detective Josh Frendy.
Despite this, through sheer determination? bravery? She keeps going. I didn't know whether to admire her courage, determination, bravery or tell her to stop putting herself in danger especially when noone seemed to believe her.
David Jackson definitely knows how to write a thriller with plenty of action, dark humour and wit and he's done it again with this one!
I definitely recommend this!
Thank you to PH, NetGalley, David Jackson and publishers Serpent's Tail / Viper / Profile Books for the chance to read this book.
Merged review:
Another excellent book by David Jackson!
This time it involved Izzy. She worked in a bookshop, but her talent, or was it a curse? lay in being able to read peoples emotions and allowing her to know when someone is lying.
She tries to use her talent for good, but as you can imagine it doesn't go well. No one wants to believe her. They all think she's a crackpot, seeking attention apart from the lovely Detective Josh Frendy.
Despite this, through sheer determination? bravery? She keeps going. I didn't know whether to admire her courage, determination, bravery or tell her to stop putting herself in danger especially when noone seemed to believe her.
David Jackson definitely knows how to write a thriller with plenty of action, dark humour and wit and he's done it again with this one!
I definitely recommend this!
Thank you to PH, NetGalley, David Jackson and publishers Serpent's Tail / Viper / Profile Books for the chance to read this book.
A few days have passed since I finished this and I'm still thinking and thinking about it! I don't think I'll stop anytime soon. What a wild ride it was!
I saw a lot of mention of this on Twitter and having now read the series to date, I can finally understand what all the hype has been about! The hype, in my opinion, is well and truly justified.
Ryan created an amazing world, with some fantastic characters. Not just simple characters, but a few that were not as black and white as they initially seemed. Creating complicated characters that had you changing your mind about them again and again was something done really well.
Apart from Calen, Vaeril, Tarmon and Erik, shoutout to Gaeleron, Farda, Ella, Arden, Dayne, Belina, Dann, Alina and Valdrin. Oh, and who can forget Valerys?!
This one continued from where we left off in Book 2 and the high stakes and intensity never let up! You really didn't get a chance to catch your breath before you were pulled into yet more intense action. I'm still not sure I've caught my breath yet! I'm impatient for the next book in the series, but I'm also glad there's a bit of a breather between this one and the next because it's definitely needed!
IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THIS SERIES THEN WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?! GO AND READ IT!!!! Honestly, I can't recommend it highly enough! It is so damn good! Kudos to Ryan. He's done an incredible job with this series and I truly cannot wait for more! As fantasy series go, this is EPIC.
This was a very good read.
It was well written and the story flowed at a good pace.
I liked how well the characters were written especially with Sam and her anxiety and fears in relation to her pregnancy. I thought that was really well portrayed. I liked both her and Paul as characters.
I do have to admit though, that some of the scientific bits possibly went over my head. I'd probably have to read it again to properly understand it.
I haven't read the previous books in the Sam Shephard series, but I might give them a go.
Thank you to The Book Club Reviewer Group for a copy of this one.
Rating: 3.5
I'm so torn by this book, because the first half was so good and had the potential to be really amazing. Sadly, for me, the second half of it let me down. It just fell really flat, especially in terms of how clichéd a certain aspect of it turned out to be, and also how unbelievable part of the story was..Like, I just couldn't get past the actions of a character or the reasons given for said actions.
The writing was good to start with especially since it really created a tense and creepy atmosphere.
The setting was such a good one, and if not for what I mentioned above, it could've been such an amazing read.
Thank you to PH and Sinéad for the chance to read this book.
Well, that was a rather interesting take on the famous Romeo and Juliet play.
I admit that at one point I just wanted to give up on the book because Rosaline's behaviour was frustrating me so much, but I'm glad I read through to the end. Having had time to think about it though, it's not really surprising when girls like her and Juliet were shunned by their families or tossed around from person to person, with no one really caring about their well being.
The writing itself was beautiful and I enjoyed it.
Thank you to PH and Natasha Solomons for the chance to read this book.
Holy crap! What did I just read?! That was absolutely mind blowing! It was absolutely gripping from start to finish!
The was a definite page turner. Without giving any spoilers away, I honestly didn't see some of twists coming!
That was superbly well written, not just in terms of the characters but also in the way certain topics were addressed.
It was brilliant and I absolutely recommend it!
Thank you to The Book Club Review Group for the chance to read this.
This has been and excellent read. The descriptions of everything from the food, to the places, to the descriptions of Moroccan life was brilliantly done.
I loved Hamou, Zina and also Madani, the cat. On the other hand, there were also some absolutely vile characters who I hated.
Despite some of the absolute awfulness that took part throughout the book, I've really enjoyed this!
It was a definite page turner and if I had had a physical copy of the book, I would have read it in one go!
Highly recommend it.
Thank you to PH and Jane for the chance to read this book.
This was such a good book! Days after finishing it and I'm still thinking about it and raving about it to anyone that might be interested!
Want a story with complex characters? You got it!
Excellent world building? ✅
Some brilliant action sequences? ✅
A fan of grimdark? ✅
It was superbly well written, with all of the above. It had me gripped from start to finish. I was fully invested from the first page to the last.
Sienna did an excellent job with the characters. The way they were written made me totally invested in them.
It was dark, but so worth the read. I'll definitely be waiting impatiently for the second book!
Highly recommend it!
Wow, wow, wow! That was such an incredible book. I admit that I probably wouldn't have given it a go, but I saw a lot of good stuff being said about it on Twitter, and I thought why not?!
I'm so glad I did because following Bob on his journey was epic! Bob was awesome as were Osivia, Kelael and a few other characters that we met along the way!
I thought the writing was brilliant, and the world building was amazing.
It was fast paced, with plenty of twists and turns.
I can't wait for book 2 and see what adventures await for Bob and the crew next. Well, I'm hoping some of the characters we met in this book will make an appearance in the next one.
Highly recommend this book!
This was such a brilliant read!
I loved it from start to finish, especially with all the twists and turns. It was so tense at times.
It was interesting getting the story from two different perspectives, although I admit that at some point I started finding Zedra annoying and preferred Cyra's chapters over Zedra's. I suppose that does tell you how well her character was for it to inspire such strong feelings towards her.
I liked the return of some of the characters from the first book, and hope some of the old and new characters will make a return in the final book.
The book was really well written and the descriptions of various scenes was beautifully done.
I highly recommend this book.
Thank you to Zamil Akhtar for an eARC of this book.
This was such a wonderful, lighthearted read.
I loved the characters. Well, mostly apart from Cora who become rather frustrating after a while. I loved Esme. She was definitely my favourite character.
The book was well written and I enjoyed it being told from multiple POVs.
Thank you to PH and Faith Hogan for the chance to read this book.
This has been such a brilliant read!
It was fascinating reading about places I've never been to and getting an insight into the different cultures.
It was informative, but also very funny at times especially when people kept asking poor Azzedine where he, and sometimes the family too, were from, and the people aksing not believing the answer. Well, it humourous to me, but I'm not Azzedine felt the same way after the amount of times he was asked that!
The book was really well written and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Highly recommend it!
Thank you to NetGalley, Disruption Books and Azzedine for the chance to read this.
This was a brilliant read. It has taken me an age to finish it (because, life just got in the way!), but it was excellent.
I loved the world building and (some!) of the characters. I loved Kevah and Sadie, who I hope we'll see more of in the second book.
It was very well written and I can't wait to get stuck into Book 2, Conquerer's Blood.
Thank you so much to Zamil for the eARC of the book.
This was an absolutely fantastic book! Thrilling, twisty and full of tension.
I liked Sive, but as for Aaron and the rest of his friends I really struggled to understand why or how any of them were friends considering how they were constantly trying to outdo each other in terms of their achievements in life. Their constant sniping and one-upmanship was annoying.
Saying that, I still loved the book. It was compelling and if I'd had a physical copy of the book, I would likely have read it in one go!
I felt sorry for Sive, especially when Aaron kept refusing to keep an open mind and point blank refused to accept that a certain line of enquiry might actually be linked to his daughter's disappearance. Like, hello, your daughter is missing so surely you'd want to keep an open mind about something like that no matter how unlikely it might've seemed to you?!
Urgh, he really was an annoying, arrogant ass of a character!
Anyway, on that note, thank you to PH and Andrea Mara for the chance to read this excellent book!
Highly recommend it!
Another brilliant edition of the Giordano Bruno books by SJ Parris! Although after the previous one, Execution, this is only the second one I've read.
This was excellent, and definitely lived up to my expectations!
Bruno, as always, was his usual fabulous self and I loved the additions of Sukie and Besler! They were both fabulous!
I loved the build up of tension and the unexpected twists and turns.
Thank you to PH and SJ Parris for another excellent read!
I loved this book, especially with Margaret being such a different character to the usual characters you normally find in a book.
She was quirky, and with her having difficulty creating trusting relationships she made for an interesting character. Not to mention the job she did for a living.
I hadn't had a clue who Reverend Stiffkey (aka Harold Davidson) was or that he'd been a real, living person, so it made for an interesting book to read!
Thank you to PH and Claire McGlasson for the chance to read this book.
It was my first time reading a book by this author and so I went into it not knowing what to expect.
It was well written and I enjoyed trying to solve the mystery of who the killer was.
I liked Strafford's character, but Quirke's not so much. His continuous drinking probably had something to do with that!
Thank you to PH and John Banville for the chance to read this book.
The 4th book in the Max Craigie series and it was yet another blinder! It totally lived up to what I've come to expect from this series! It has fast become one of my favourite series and I'm always looking out for the next book to come out!
This was fast paced with plenty of twists and turns. As always, it was fantastically written. You could just feel the tension as you read.
It was great being reunited with Max, Janie, Ross and co. They have to be one of my favourite group of characters. I absolutely loved the banter between them.
If you haven't read this series, then I would definitely urge you to read them!
Thank you to Neil, NetGalley and publishers HQ, HQ Digital for the chance to read this book.
That was a great read!
It had me totally gripped from start to finish. It was really tense, with some unexpected twists.
I liked Frankie and Baz.
I haven't read any of the previous books, but have definitely added them to my TBR list.
Thank you to NetGalley, Olivia and publishers, Quercus Books for the chance to read this book.
Gosh, what a book! The last 20 percent of the book turned me into an emotional wreck! I actually cried reading it.
The book was so brilliantly written, which since it managed to make me cry goes without saying.
This has, by far, been my favourite read this year, and that's saying something because I've already read some amazing books so far!
REALLY CANNOT RECOMMEND IT HIGHLY ENOUGH!!!
Thank you so much to Louise and PH for the chance to read this book.
This was excellent! So many unexpected twists and turns! Thanks to my NetGalley copy I could have read it in one go, but it was also available via my online bookclub and reading it in staves just added to the tension.
I loved Ben and Dani's friendship, although I'm hoping that at some point it will turn into something more.
I was surprised when it turned out that one of the characters I thought was shady wasn't and it was someone I hadn't suspected at all.
Thank you to NetGalley, Pigeonhole, Robert Gold and Sphere/Little Brown Book Group for the chance to read this book.
I started off rooting for Daphne, because you know, you always want to root for someone who wants to do the right thing. That was at the start, but by the end I'd had enough of Daphne. She became super annoying, frustrating and her naivety and hypocrisy didn't do much in helping me like her.
I read to the end, but by that stage I'd given up caring about whether she survived or not.
I also found it rather slow going at one point, with the only thing happening was us going round in circles whilst someone or other was telling Daphne to leave well alone.
It was interesting to get a little insight into rural communities in America and the issues they face.
Thank you to Pigeonhole and Amanda Traylor for the chance to read this book.