Book After Book

Publication: 8th August 2019 – Hodder & Stoughton

When a mini-break becomes make or break…

Kathy Courage has never visited the famous Italian city of Florence before, so she’s thrilled when she and her boyfriend Neil are invited there for a wedding. Unfortunately, with Neil’s constant complaining and his teenage children in tow, it’s not exactly the romantic break Kathy was hoping for.

But when a mix-up with her flights leaves Kathy stranded in the city, she decides to embrace the unexpected and stay on alone.

What follows is a life-changing few days in the Tuscan sun, as Kathy begins to question the choices that have led her here. With the help of the colourful Innocenti family, who offer Kathy a place to stay, she gradually begins to realise that there’s a much bigger world out there, if only she can be brave enough to explore it.

Could Italy hold the answers to her future happiness? Or is Kathy destined to return to her old life?

**********

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for THREE DAYS IN FLORENCE, the fabulous new novel by Chrissie Manby. A huge thank you to Jenny Platt and Hodder & Stoughton for inviting me to take part in the blog tour and for providing me with a copy of this amazing novel.

Kathy Courage’s second name is Florence, in honour of the Italian city where her parents went for their honeymoon. She’s been dreaming to visit the city since she was a child, when her parents told her the story and showed her pictures of the trip, but she’s been waiting for someone special with whom to share the experience. When her partner’s brother announces his wedding in a castle in Tuscany, Kathy has finally the chance to visit the city, but her boyfriend Neil can’t wait to go back to London and to his job. But things don’t go as planned… Call it fate, call it inefficiency of the world’s most perfect personal assistant, but Kathy is forced to spend three more days in Florence without Neil. Luckily, she won’t be alone, but in the company of the Innocenti family…

I devoured this book. The descriptions are so beautiful and detailed that it was like being there myself together with Jean while she visited Palazzo degli Uffizzi, Ponte Vecchio, and the Cathedral of Florence. The story is entertaining, romantic, and funny. The characters are realistic and mostly likable. The only characters I didn’t like are Kathy’s insufferable and selfish boyfriend Neil and his three spoiled teenage children. I couldn’t stand how Neil tried to control her and how he often put her down. But then comes Henry Innocenti, a pianist, half-English, half-Italian handsome, funny, and caring. I mean, there is no competition. Kathy’s submission to Neil’s wishes infuriated me, how she always tried to make everything easy for him. When she is finally alone, she blossoms and she becomes more alive and engaging. For Kathy the trip to Florence is a journey of self-discovery, a chance to figure out what she really wants from her life.

If you are looking for an heart-warming and brilliant story about friendship and love that will take you in one of the most beautiful city in the world, then THREE DAYS IN FLORENCE to not miss!

Publication: 8th August 2019 – Century

In a large house in London’s fashionable Chelsea, a baby is awake in her cot. Well-fed and cared for, she is happily waiting for someone to pick her up.

In the kitchen lie three decomposing corpses. Close to them is a hastily scrawled note. 

They’ve been dead for several days.

Who has been looking after the baby? 

And where did they go?

Two entangled families.
A house with the darkest of secrets.
A compulsive new thriller from Lisa Jewell.

**********

I loved the new novel by Lisa Jewell. It’s so dark, suspenseful, and haunting that, despite the unsettling feeling it gave me, I couldn’t put it down.

The story is told from three different perspectives. Libby is a young woman living in St. Albans who has her whole life planned out. However, on her twenty-fifth birthday, she finds out that she has inherited a big house so, with the help of a journalist, she sets forth to find out more about her past and her family. Lucy is a homeless woman in her forties living on the streets of Nice with her two children and her dog. The day she’s been waiting for has finally arrived, but first she has to find a way to go back to England. Henry remembers a childhood that turned upside down when David and his family moved in in his house. What do these three people have in common? A big house in the heart of Chelsea where, twenty-four years earlier, three bodies were discovered in what it appeared to be a suicide pact, while upstairs a baby was found unharmed and well taken care of.

The author clear writing style made me fly through the pages while a few psychopathic and evil characters, traumatised children, disturbing relationships make a for a very chilling read. You can’t trust the characters because they don’t tell the whole truth, so there are twists and surprises when you less expect it (there is a big twist on the very last page!), while the tension builds up. THE FAMILY UPSTAIRS is a compelling and claustrophobic story of control, manipulation, abuse, and toxic relationships, a fantastic and gripping new addition to my Lisa Jewell’s collection!

A huge thank you to Laura Brooke and Cornerstone for providing me with a copy of the novel.

 

 

Publication: 8th August 2019 – Quercus

“There’s something I have to explain, my love,” he says, taking your hand in his. “That wasn’t a dream. It was an upload.”

Abbie wakes in a hospital bed with no memory of how she got there. The man by her side explains that he’s her husband. He’s a titan of the tech world, the founder of one of Silicon Valley’s most innovative startups. He tells Abbie she’s a gifted artist, a doting mother to their young son, and the perfect wife.

Five years ago, she suffered a terrible accident. Her return from the abyss is a miracle of science, a breakthrough in artificial intelligence that has taken him half a decade to achieve.

But as Abbie pieces together memories of her marriage, she begins questioning her husband’s motives – and his version of events. Can she trust him when he says he wants them to be together for ever? And what really happened to her, half a decade ago?

A gripping psychological thriller, perfect for fans of The Woman in the Window and The Wife Between Us.

**********

After devouring The Girl Before and Believe Me, JP Delaney is back with another brilliant and twisty novel that literally kept me on the edge of my seat. Weird and dark is one way to describe it, brilliant is another, utterly captivating is another one.

JP Delaney mixes artificial intelligence and obsession to create a mystery thriller set in Silicon Valley, the world’s capital of technology. Abbie Cullen is a beautiful and smart artist. Tim Scott is the founder of Scott Technologies, an innovative start-up. Tim and Abbie meet, fall in love, get married, and have a child. It’s the perfect love story, right? However, nothing is perfect in their love story and, as the author narrates Abbie and Tim’s romance from the beginning to the present day when Tim’s love leads him to use technology to create the perfect wife, I couldn’t help but wonder: was Abbie and Tim’s marriage as happy and perfect as it seemed?

Tim is considered a genius, driven and brilliant. Like all the male protagonists in JP Delaney’s novel, he is also obsessed. He is looking for perfection and, for him, perfection is embodied in Abbie. However, Abbie is a drug addict, a free spirit who doesn’t like to be controlled so Tim uses technology to turn her into the perfect woman, the perfect wife he’s been looking for. What started as a story of grief, great love, and second chances, turned into a psychological thriller about obsession and perfection.

The story is original and thought-provoking, full of intrigue, family drama, and suspense. Some of the story is hard to believe and yet there are themes that rise a few moral and ethical questions about our use of technology, artificial intelligence, data rights, and consent.

For me, THE PERFECT WIFE is JP Delaney’s best novel so far. It’s riveting, twisty and the jaw-dropping ending completely took me by surprise, and now I am already looking forward to the author’s next novel. A must-read not to miss!!!

A huge thank you to Hannah, Ella, and Quercus for providing me with a copy of the novel.

 

 

 

Publication: 6th August 2019 – Boldwood Books

When disaster strikes, paradise calls…

As a published novelist, Lila Rose has been writing about fictional weddings all her life. But disaster strikes on her own big day when she hears her philandering fiancé, Daniel whispering sweet nothings to someone else.

With her dream day shattered, all Lila wants to do is run and hide, so she decides to fly solo on her own honeymoon.

When Daniel arrives in the resort with his new squeeze, Lila strikes up a ‘showmance’ with hot new movie star, Freddie Bianchi. Freddie is perfect for the part and Lila soon relaxes into her leading lady role.

But as truth starts to merge with fiction, could real love be in the air?

A sizzling holiday romance, perfect for fans of Sophie Kinsella, Lindsey Kelk and Sophie Ranald’s Sorry Not Sorry.

**********

Chapter One

My Wedding Day

Your wedding day is the start of a life-long journey, and, like any other journey, it
requires a lot of planning.
First, and most importantly, you need to know where you’re going and how you’re
going to get there. Are you on a one-track path to growing old together or are you
planning on making stops at pets, babies or house moves?
On a real trip you’re going to want insurance, but on the life-long journey of
marriage, assurance is what you need. Are you doing this with the right person? Will
they stand by you for better, for worse? For richer, for poorer? In sickness and in
health?
When your plans are all in place and it’s time to set off on this wonderful, wild
adventure, the only thing left to do is pack – but pack light.
Unfortunately, on this non-stop flight to a happy ever after, ex-boyfriends will not
fit in the overhead storage, no matter how much you dissected the relationship. All
baggage must be destroyed before boarding – you absolutely cannot bring your baggage
into a marriage.
Before you tie the knot, customs will confiscate any and all contraband still on
your person, not limited to, but including flirtatious WhatsApp threads and other
miscellaneous weaponry.
I’m travelling light today. All I have with me is my something old (a necklace my
grandma left me in her will), my something new (the sapphire studs in my ears), and my
something borrowed (a handkerchief from my mum, which I’m going to keep in the
pocket of my wedding dress, because you’d better believe I had my wedding dress made
with sneaky pockets). My something blue is (apparently) my best friend, Ali, who is
currently lying on the chaise longue at the bottom of my bed in my hotel room.
‘Oh, Lila,’ she says dramatically. ‘Are you sure you want to do this?’
I smile at myself in the mirror. Most best friends are supportive, attentive maids of
honour. Ali is showing me her love and support by constantly questioning whether or
not this is the right thing to do. I wouldn’t have her any other way though.
‘I’m pretty sure,’ I tell her. ‘I made sure I was sure before I spent thousands of
pounds on a wedding and a honeymoon.’
‘Well, yeah, I figured,’ she replies. ‘But… I don’t know, I don’t think I thought you’d
go through with it.’
I laugh.
‘And yet here we are,’ I say, smiling at her.
‘Daniel is… you know, he’s fine,’ she says.
‘Fine,’ I repeat back to her. Just what a bride wants to hear on her wedding day.
‘Yeah, he’s fine… he’s maybe just fine though?’
My best friend hasn’t waited until my wedding day to say this, she’s been telling
me for years that Daniel was just too boring to settle down with. I think this is a ‘speak
now or forever hold your peace’ type conversation, not that the latter sounds remotely
like something Ali would do.
‘I know you think he’s boring,’ I tell her. ‘But, maybe “boring guys” are the ones
you settle down with? Take that playboy banker you met last weekend – you wouldn’t
marry him, would you?’
‘Well, someone clearly did,’ she points out. ‘There was a wedding ring in his hotel
bathroom.’
‘Was?’ I dare to ask.
‘Yeah, I flushed it down the lav,’ she says casually. ‘I really don’t appreciate being
lied to.’
Ali is a real force to be reckoned with.
‘I know you’re only being semi-serious with the whole talking me out of getting
married thing,’ I start. ‘But honestly, I’ve thought this through. I love him, we’re happy
together – OK, things might not be wild, but I know in my heart that it’s time to put sexy
playboy bankers behind me.’
‘Well, that’s what I do with them,’ Ali says with a wiggle of her eyebrows.
I know that Ali just wants me to be happy, but I did consider all of this before
agreeing to marry my fiancé, Daniel Tyler, and when I say I considered it before
agreeing, I mean I literally asked him for a moment, before I gave him my answer. The
reason for this is because marriage is something I take seriously. My parents, both sixtyfive
years of age, have been married since they were nineteen. I might be thirty-one, but
I want to marry once, and for life. I had a blast in my twenties, Daniel and I moved in
together when I was twenty-nine and now, comfortably accepting of the fact I am in my
thirties, I finally feel ready to tie the knot.
When some women say they have been planning their wedding for years, what
they really mean is they’ve been dressing up in net curtains as kids and trolling
Pinterest for flower arrangements as adults. Well, I really have been planning weddings
for years… sort of. Not my own wedding and I’m certainly not a wedding planner.
I’m a rom-com author and although the weddings I work with may be fictional, I
haven’t just planned a lot of them – I’ve ruined a lot of them too. I’ve written ten books
now, so it’s pretty safe to say I’ve considered every possible triumph, every little hiccup
and every epic fail my romantic yet devious mind can conjure up.
So, yes, while I have researched flowers, cakes and dresses, and tweaked them
accordingly (pockets! Honestly, this is going to be a game changer), I don’t just know
what this wedding needs, I know what it doesn’t need too. Obsessing over what flavour
frosting to have is rather silly – that’s just the icing on the cake. What you should be
worrying about are the things that are out of your control.
I have essentially reverse-engineered every single wedding I’ve ever written, to
make sure that my real wedding is perfect. It’s kind of a genius move.

Frankie Collins is the pseudonym of Portia MacIntosh, bestselling romantic comedy author of 12 novels, including It’s Not You, It’s Them and The Accidental Honeymoon. Previously a music journalist, Frankie writes hilarious stories, drawing on her real life experiences.

Amazon Link – http://bit.ly/HoneymoonForOneFC

Frankie’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/frankiecollins_

Frankie’s Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/frankiecollinsauthor

Frankie’s Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/frankiecollinsauthor/

Frankie’s page on our website – https://www.boldwoodbooks.com/contributor/frankie-collins/

 

 

Publication: 4th July 2019 – Piaktus

crush (n.): a strong infatuation, particularly for someone beyond your reach . . .

Darcy Barrett found her dream man at age eight – ever since, she’s had to settle for good enough. Having conducted a global survey of men, she can categorically say that no one measures up to Tom Valeska, whose only flaw is that he’s her twin brother Jamie’s best friend – oh, and that ninety-nine of the time, he hasn’t seemed interested in her.

When the twins inherit their grandmother’s tumble-down cottage, they’re left with strict instructions to bring it back to its former glory. Darcy plans to leave as soon as the renovations start, but before she can cut and run – her usual MO – she finds a familiar face on her porch: Tom’s arrived bearing power tools, and he’s single for the first time in almost a decade.

Suddenly Darcy’s sticking around. Sparks start to fly – and not just because of the faulty wiring. But a one percent chance with Tom is no longer enough. This time around, Darcy’s switching things up. She’s going to make Tom Valeska ninety-nine percent hers.

**********

If you loved Sally Thorne’s previous novel, The Hating Game, then you are going to ADORE this one. It’s romantic, hilarious, and captivating, the perfect read for this hot summer.

Darcy Barrett has been running away her whole life, traveling around the world as soon as possible. And now she is preparing to leave home again, as soon as the renovations of the house her grandmother left her are done. The only problem? The contractor doing the job is none other than Tom Valeska, her first and only true love. And how can she stay away from him when he is so sweet, caring, and funny?

I really enjoyed this book. I laughed a lot and I didn’t want it to end. The witty exchanges between Darcy and her brother Jamie were hilarious. They are twins, they take care of each other, but they have completely different personalities that clash over and over again. The relationship between Darcy and Tom is beautiful. They are obviously attracted to each other and it was funny to read Darcy trying to provoke and seduce him, while he tried to keep their relationship on the friendship zone. Tom is the typical nice guy who follow the rules and tries to make everyone happy. Darcy often describes him as “perfect”. On the other hand, Darcy is impulsive, jumping in and out of planes, ready for her next adventure. I loved see their relationship develop from friendship to love, with all its bumps and misunderstanding.

99% MINE is a refreshing, fast-paced and engaging read that features fantastic characters and Sally Thorne’s brilliant and clear writing that made me fly through the pages. Highly recommended!

A huge thank you to Jo and Piaktus for providing me with a copy of the novel.

Welcome to stop on the blog tour for THE SINGLE MUMS MOVE ON. It was published by Aria Fiction on 18th July 2019 and it’s my pleasure to share an extract of this new entertaining novel by Janet Hoggart.

 

Can neighbours become more than good friends…

After her husband left her, Ali and her daughter Grace enjoyed living in what became known as ‘the Single Mums’ Mansion’. However, with her best friends Amanda and Jacqui moving on, it’s time for Ali and Grace to make their own way. Thankfully, a chance conversation leads to them moving into the infamous South London gated community known only as ‘The Mews’.

In ‘The Mews’ everyone lives in each other’s pockets and curtain twitching is an Olympic sport. The neighbours are an eclectic bunch – from Nick the alleged spy, Carl the gorgeous but clearly troubled Idris Elba lookalike, to Debbie who is about to face the hardest fight of her life, and TV agent Samantha who is not as in control as she likes to pretend.

Each day brings another drama, but along with the tears, real friendships grow. And her neighbours’ problems might unlock the key to something Ali has yearned for all along…

Based on a true story – you’ll never be able to look at your neighbours quite the same way again… 

Perfect for fans of Marian Keyes, Mhairi McFarlane and Helen Fielding.

‘Ali, what the fuck? He’s been treating you like a doormat and you’re just covering for him. Has he been sponging off you too?’

‘I’ve lent him money, yes, but he’s promised to pay it back. He’s trying to break into modelling.’

‘You have a child and rely on benefits to help you out. He shouldn’t be taking anything or expect anything!’ Amanda wore her crazy face; she’d abandoned her zen softly-softly approach.

‘Can I see the video?’

Amanda glanced at Ursula and she nodded at her.

‘Fine, if it gives you closure.’ She handed me her phone with the footage already open. It was very blurry but then, when the lens focused, I could make out Ifan half naked on a flowery Cath Kidston duvet with a bare-chested man dressed in tight black leather chaps looming over him. The chaps were unflattering, pushing his gut up into a muffin top. It certainly looked like Sandeep, and in any other situation it would have been hysterically funny, the thought of him trying to squeeze into unforgiving black leather. Mild-mannered Sandeep, who always asked if you wanted one of the chocolate bars on special offer. And to think I had missed seeing him when I’d moved out of Amanda’s! Mary must have been filming. Holy shit, there she was standing in front of a large canvas of the New York skyline. It looked exactly like one from Ikea, in fact the whole bedroom was kitted out with Ikea knick-knacks – some of them were in my home! She was in full leather bondage gear with a stick in her mouth, or was it a gag? I turned the volume up so I could hear. Who was filming then? Suddenly I heard a familiar voice: Niko, he was the cameraman. Sandeep started tantalisingly to peel down Ifan’s underpants and I couldn’t watch any more, my stomach swilled with what felt like battery acid, and I hastily thrust the phone at Amanda.

‘I’m so sorry,’ Amanda whispered. ‘I couldn’t not tell you.’

‘It was like some fucking shit porn film from the seventies.’

‘Was that Niko I could hear?’ Ursula asked tentatively. She and Niko had shagged once when they were very drunk. Not to be repeated: apparently his sexual transgression was golden showers…

‘Yes, the fucker. I always thought it was weird how much time they spent together. And Ifan was completely obsessed with anal sex.’

‘That doesn’t mean he’s gay,’ Ursula said reasonably. ‘Lots of straight men are obsessed with it. The forbidden fruit and all that.’

‘What are you going to do?’ Amanda asked me, as always she expected there to be an exit plan just when I wanted to curl up into a ball and pretend none of this was happening.

‘Throw him out. Oh God, why now? I fucking hate January, I hate being on my own, especially in winter.’ Before I knew it I was howling my eyes out, my nose stinging from the deluge, and Amanda and Ursula were hugging me.

‘You deserve so much better, you really do,’ Ursula soothed me. ‘You are too good for him.’

‘Yes,’ Amanda agreed. ‘I think he has massive self-loathing, which is why he’s so vain. I’ve seen him posing in the pub windows. He hasn’t got anything else apart from his looks. He’s never going to make it as a model now. He’s too old. Don’t they all have to have been spotted by the time they’re eighteen?’

‘Yes, but older models are trending now,’ Ursula replied while I continued to snot into my hands. Amanda shoved a torn-off piece of kitchen towel at me. ‘Look at David Gandy, he’s old.’

‘Hardly! He’s the same age as Chris. We’re old!’

‘Speak for yourself!’ Ursula cackled.

‘I’m old,’ I sobbed pathetically. ‘I’ll never find anyone now. I can’t face going back out there. It was so shit last time.’

Janet Hoggarth has worked on a chicken farm, as a bookseller, children’s book editor and DJ with her best friend (under the name of Whitney and Britney). She has published several children’s books, the most recent ones written under the pseudonym of Jess Bright. Her first adult novel The Single Mums’ Mansion, a huge bestseller, was based on her experiences of living communally as a single parent.

Follow Janet:  

Twitter: @Janethauthor

Facebook: @JanetHoggarthAuthor

 

Pre-order links:

Amazon: https://amzn.to/2J3YhI1

iBooks: https://apple.co/2XYgIlB

Kobo: https://bit.ly/2J3YiM5

Google Play: https://bit.ly/2vtRDTC

 

Follow Aria

Website: www.ariafiction.com

Twitter: @aria_fiction

Facebook: @ariafiction

Instagram: @ariafiction

 

 

I know we are just in the middle of summer and it’s still hot and sunny outside but I couldn’t resist taking part in the cover reveal of this fantastic Christmas novel. I mean, the cover is just fabulous, so shiny and Christmassy.

THE CHRISTMAS CALENDAR GIRLS is the new novel by Samantha Tonge and it’s published in eBook on 3th October 2019 by Aria.

This Christmas fall in love with the town of Chesterwood…

Christmas is meant to be a time of giving, so with Chesterwood food bank under risk of closure Fern knows just what to do to save it. She’s going to get the town to create a living advent calendar.

Fern, and her best friends, call for help from the local community to bring this calendar to life. When Kit, the new man in town, offers his assistance Fern’s heart can’t help but skip a beat (or two).

As they grow ever closer, Fern must admit that Kit’s breaking down the barriers she built after the death of her husband. But his past is holding him back and Fern doesn’t know how to reach him. No matter how hard she tries.

In this town, Kit’s not the only one with secrets. Domestic goddess Clara is behaving oddly, burning meals in the oven and clothes whilst ironing, and Davina’s perfect children are causing trouble at school leaving her son, Jasper, desperately unhappy.

Can the Christmas Calendar Girls find a way to bring the community together in time to save the food bank, while still supporting their families and each other? Can Fern find love again with Kit?

This is a story about kindness and letting go of the past. It’s about looking out for your neighbours and about making every day feel like Christmas.

 

About the author

Samantha Tonge lives in Manchester UK with her husband and children. She studied German and French at university and has worked abroad, including a stint at Disneyland Paris. She has travelled widely. When not writing she passes her days cycling, baking and drinking coffee. Samantha has sold many dozens of short stories to women’s magazines. She is represented by the Darley Anderson literary agency. In 2013, she landed a publishing deal for romantic comedy fiction with HQDigital at HarperCollins and in 2014, her bestselling debut, Doubting Abbey, was shortlisted for the Festival of Romantic Fiction best Ebook award. In 2015 her summer novel, Game of Scones, hit #5 in the UK Kindle chart and won the Love Stories Awards Best Romantic Ebook category. In 2018 Forgive Me Not, heralded a new direction into darker women’s fiction with publisher Canelo. In 2019 she was shortlisted for the Romantic Novelists’ Association romantic comedy award.

 Follow Samantha:   

Facebook: @SamTongeWriter

Twitter: @SamanthaTongeAuthor

Buy links:

Amazon: https://amzn.to/2YAAmUI

Google Play: https://bit.ly/2YBNoBH

Kobo: https://bit.ly/2SUjoPS

iBooks: https://apple.co/2YwUjfd

Follow Aria

Website: www.ariafiction.com

Twitter: @aria_fiction

Facebook: @ariafiction

Instagram: @ariafiction

Publication: 8th August 2019 – Harvill Secker

I know you don’t know me but you have to help me. I didn’t kill anyone.

When Rowan stumbles across the advert, it seems like too good an opportunity to miss: a live-in nanny position, with a staggeringly generous salary. And when she arrives at Heatherbrae House, she is smitten by the luxurious ‘smart’ home fitted out with all modern conveniences, by the beautiful Scottish Highlands, and by this picture-perfect family.

What she doesn’t know is that she’s stepping into a nightmare – one that will end with a child dead and her in a cell awaiting trial for murder.

She knows she’s made mistakes. But she’s not guilty – at least not of murder. Which means someone else is…

**********

THE TURN OF THE KEY, the new brilliant novel by one of my favourite authors is out next week and I had the pleasure to read it earlier thanks to Harvill Secker and NetGalley.

The first thing I say every time I read a new novel by Ruth Ware is: “This is her best one so far!” and it happened again after I finished reading THE TURN OF THE KEY. The premise is brilliant: a young woman is in prison, accused of killing the child she was looking after, but she claims to be innocent. Gripping, right? Then I started reading and there was another surprise: the story is told from Rowan, the protagonist, in form of a letter written to her lawyer, explaining the events that landed her in jail. Granted, it’s a very long long letter where sometimes I forgot that she was addressing the lawyer, but still, I loved it. And I loved the setting: Heatherbrae House, a remote and isolated mansion in Scotland. I found it a bit claustrophobic and unsettling. The mansion is old but the technology inside is absurd. Everything is controlled by an app and it creeped me out how the voice of the children’s mother would suddenly boom into the kitchen when you less expected. And let’s not forget about the strange and inexplicable noises around the house at night when Rowan was supposedly alone with just the children sleeping in their rooms. It literally gave me goose bumps.

The protagonist of the story is Rowan, a young woman I found difficult to figure out. She leaves her job in a nursery in London, a job she didn’t much like, to move into a remote house looking after four children. As I read her narrative, from the job interview to the wait for a response, from getting the job to her first day at Heatherbrae House, it was clear that Rowan was hiding something. Why did she want the job so much? Although she was something of a mystery and at times I didn’t like her very much, I found Rowan relatable (having worked as a nanny for four years I know that children can test the patience of a saint), brave, and very determined.

The mysterious noises around the house, the inexplicable deaths occurred in the past, and the ghost stories give the novel a supernatural touch that kept me on the edge of my seat. There is tension and a sense of dread that never leave the pages and the twists just kept coming and took me by surprise.

THE TURN OF THE KEY is definitely a must-read and I can’t wait to see whatever Ruth Ware is working next (which will be my new favourite 😉)!!!

Publication: 30th July 2019 – St. Martin’s Press

In Megan Goldin’s unforgettable debut, The Escape Room, four young Wall Street rising stars discover the price of ambition when an escape room challenge turns into a lethal game of revenge.

Welcome to the escape room. Your goal is simple. Get out alive.

In the lucrative world of finance, Vincent, Jules, Sylvie, and Sam are at the top of their game. They’ve mastered the art of the deal and celebrate their success in style—but a life of extreme luxury always comes at a cost.

Invited to participate in an escape room as a team-building exercise, the ferociously competitive co-workers crowd into the elevator of a high rise building, eager to prove themselves. But when the lights go off and the doors stay shut, it quickly becomes clear that this is no ordinary competition: they’re caught in a dangerous game of survival.

Trapped in the dark, the colleagues must put aside their bitter rivalries and work together to solve cryptic clues to break free. But as the game begins to reveal the team’s darkest secrets, they realize there’s a price to be paid for the terrible deeds they committed in their ruthless climb up the corporate ladder. As tempers fray, and the clues turn deadly, they must solve one final chilling puzzle: which one of them will kill in order to survive?

**********

This book is a page-turner. It’s gripping, tense, and it completely took me by surprise. I devoured it in one afternoon because I couldn’t stop reading until I found out how it ended.

It has a suspenseful premise: gunshots are heard inside an elevator in an abandoned building. What is going on? Let’s go back to a Friday night when Vincent, Sam, Jules, and Sylvie are preparing to enjoy the weekend when they are called for a mandatory escape room. Their jobs at risk, they have no choice but to get inside the elevator. After all, it should last just an hour. But this is not a normal escape room, as they soon find out, and what happens when people are scared and trapped? Their survival instincts kicks in and things get out of control. Add also resentment, paranoia and secrets that start to come to light and you start wonder if they will ever make it out of there alive.

This part of the story is high with tension and increased my fear of elevators. I was completely captivated as tempers rose and people got hurt. However, that’s not all that happens in the novel, because there is also Sarah Hall’s story that kept me glued to the page. Who is Sarah Hall? She is a young woman just out of graduation, she is driven and optimistic for the future, especially after she lands her dream job in a finance company in New York. Thrown in the man’s world of Wall Street were women can be counted on the fingers of one’s hand, Sarah faces long hours in the office and no social life. But how is she connected to the escape room?

I loved how the author presented the characters, how the twists took me by surprises, and the claustrophobic setting is simply perfect. I was so engrossed in the story that I didn’t realise I finished reading it until I read “acknowledgements from the author”. If you are looking for a fast-paced, entertaining, and compulsive read, then you are going to love THE ESCAPE ROOM.

A big thank you to Kelly and St. Martin’s Press for inviting me to join the blog tour and provinding me with a copy of the novel.

MEGAN GOLDIN worked as a correspondent for Reuters and other media outlets where she covered war, peace, international terrorism and financial meltdowns in the Middle East and Asia. She is now based in Melbourne, Australia where she raises three sons and is a foster mum to Labrador puppies learning to be guide dogs. THE ESCAPE ROOM is her debut novel.

Buy-book link:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250219671

 

 

 

Publication: 11th July 2019 – Mulholland Books

FBI Agent Nell Flynn is about to work the most personal case of her life.

When her father Martin dies in a motorcycle accident, Nell returns home to Long Island for the first time in a decade.

Martin, a homicide detective, left one piece of unfinished business. He was investigating the murders of two undocumented Latina girls. Now his partner wants Nell’s help to find the killer.

But Nell soon realises that Martin should be the prime suspect, and that his friends on the force are covering for him.

With no idea who she can trust, Nell also starts to question events that took place when she was a child – when her own mother was murdered. Could her father really be a killer?

**********

GIRLS LIKE US is one of these novels that I pick up because I find the blurb intriguing and then it engrosses me so much that I don’t put it down until I finish reading. It’s a domestic thriller, fast-paced and full of suspense, keeping you always on the alert.

Nell Flynn is an FBI agent who had it rough in the last months. First she was injured during an arrest and now she is back in her childhood home, where she hasn’t been for the last ten years, to attend to her father’s funeral. She is supposed to organize her father’s estate and then go back to Washington DC, but she finds herself involved in the murder of a young woman. This brutal homicide seems linked to another one her father was investigating before dying and it leads Nell to a ring of prostitution and human trafficking in the area. However, the more Nell investigates the more her father’s involvement becomes suspicious. Did he have anything to do with the girls’ murder? And did he really die in a motorcycle accident?

The novel really captivated me. There is the story of young prostitutes being killed which is dark and disturbing, but there is also the story of a woman and her complicated relationship with her father. Her flashbacks introduce us to an ex-marine, alcoholic, a bit abusive and, for the last ten years, Nell and her father have barely talked to each other. His possible involvement in the murders lead Nell to wonder about her mother’s murder opening up the novel to more twists and suspense.

Nell is quite an interesting character. She is likable, super-smart, a brilliant FBI agent, she acts rough, but she also shows her emotion and her pain. She is haunted by her past and by her complicated relationship with her father, but she keeps always her head on the job.

As the novel ends with a few unanswered questions, I really hope it’s going to be a series and that soon there is going to be another novel featuring Nell Flynn. If you are looking for a fresh and thrilling novel that keeps the tension always high, then GIRLS LIKE US is the right read for you.

A huge thank you to Mulholland Books and NetGalley for providing me with a proof of the novel.