Review ~ Follow You Home by Mark Edwards

Rating: 4/5 Stars
Author: Mark Edwards
Available Formats: eBook, Paperback, Audio
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer 
Publication Date: 06-30-15            Pages: 402 

It was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime, a final adventure before settling down.

After a perfect start, Daniel and Laura’s travels end abruptly when they are thrown off a night train in the middle of nowhere. To find their way back to civilisation, they must hike along the tracks through a forest…a haunting journey that ends in unimaginable terror.

Back in London, Daniel and Laura vow never to talk about what they saw that night. But as they try to fit back into their old lives, it becomes clear that their nightmare is just beginning…

Follow You Home is a chilling tale of secrets, lies and deadly consequences from the author of #1 bestsellers The Magpies and Because She Loves Me.

Amazon  / Goodreads / B&N

Review ~ Normal by Graeme Cameron

Rating: 5/5 Stars
Author: Graeme Cameron
Available Formats: eBook, Paperback, Hardcover, Audio
Publisher: MIRA  
Publication Date: 03-31-15                Pages: 304

"The truth is I hurt people. It's what I do. It's all I do. It's all I've ever done."

He lives in your community, in a nice house with a well-tended garden. He shops in your grocery store, bumping shoulders with you and apologizing with a smile. He drives beside you on the highway, politely waving you into the lane ahead of him.

What you don't know is that he has an elaborate cage built into a secret basement under his garage. And the food that he's carefully shopping for is to feed a young woman he's holding there against her will—one in a string of many, unaware of the fate that awaits her.

This is how it's been for a long time. It's normal... and it works. Perfectly.

Then he meets the checkout girl from the 24-hour grocery. And now the plan, the hunts, the room... the others. He doesn't need any of them anymore. He needs only her. But just as he decides to go straight, the police start to close in. He might be able to cover his tracks, except for one small problem—he still has someone trapped in his garage.

Discovering his humanity couldn't have come at a worse time.

Amazon / Goodreads / B&N

ARC Review ~ The Bones of You by Debbie Howells

Rating: 5/5 Stars
Author: Debbie Howells
Available Formats: eBook, Hardback
Publisher: Kensignton Publishing 
Publication Date: 06-30-15                         Pages: 320
Purchase ~ Amazon                             Add ~ Goodreads

A stunning, wonderfully assured psychological thriller that evokes Gillian Flynn and Alice Sebold, The Bones of You revolves around a young girl’s murder and one woman’s obsession with uncovering the secrets in an idyllic English village.

I have a gardener’s inherent belief in the natural order of things. Soft‑petalled flowers that go to seed. The resolute passage of the seasons. Swallows that fly thousands of miles to follow the eternal summer.

Children who don’t die before their parents.

When Kate receives a phone call with news that Rosie Anderson is missing, she’s stunned and disturbed. Rosie is eighteen, the same age as Kate’s daughter, and a beautiful, quiet, and kind young woman. Though the locals are optimistic—girls like Rosie don’t get into real trouble—Kate’s sense of foreboding is confirmed when Rosie is found fatally beaten and stabbed.

Who would kill the perfect daughter, from the perfect family? Yet the more Kate entwines herself with the Andersons—graceful mother Jo, renowned journalist father Neal, watchful younger sister Delphine—the more she is convinced that not everything is as it seems. Anonymous notes arrive, urging Kate to unravel the tangled threads of Rosie’s life and death, though she has no idea where they will lead.

Weaving flashbacks from Rosie’s perspective into a tautly plotted narrative, The Bones of You is a gripping, haunting novel of sacrifices and lies, desperation and love

Blog Tour Review, Author Interview & Giveaway ~ The Secrets We Keep by Stephanie Butland

Rating: 4/5 Stars
Author: Stephanie Butland
Available Formats: eBook & Paperback
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark 
Publication Date: 07-07-15                Pages: 384
Purchase ~ Amazon                               Add ~ Goodreads 

A tragic accident, a broken heart, and a marriage drowning in secrets...

Mike always walks the dog in the evening while Elizabeth relaxes in the bathtub--but one night he doesn’t come back. Mike has drowned while saving a teenage girl named Kate, his dog standing on the bank barking frantically as the police pull his body from the water.

But despite her husband being lauded as a hero, Elizabeth can’t wrap her mind around the fact that Mike is gone--and Kate won’t reveal the details of what really happened that night. 

Elizabeth finds herself facing the unfathomable possibility that she may not have known her husband at all. Does she really want to know the truth? Or will the weight of Mike’s secrets pull her under?

Review ~ Don't Turn Around by Caroline Mitchell

Rating: 4/5 Stars
Author: Caroline Mitchell
Available Formats: eBook, Paperback
Publisher: Bookouture 
Publication Date: 04-24-15           Pages: 318
Purchase ~ Amazon                        Add ~ Goodreads 

You don’t know him. But he knows you. 

Soon he would be able to touch her, to feel the warmth of her blood. And when the time came, nothing would stop him.

As D.C. Jennifer Knight investigates a routine stabbing in the quiet town of Haven, she is shocked at what seems like a personal message from beyond the grave.

When more bodies are found, Jennifer is convinced the killings are somehow linked. What she discovers is more chilling than she could possibly imagine. The murders mirror those of the notorious Grim Reaper – from over twenty years ago. A killer her mother helped convict.

 Jennifer can no longer ignore the personal connection. Is there a copycat killer at work? Was the wrong man convicted? Or is there something more sinister at play …

With her mother’s terrifying legacy spiralling out of control, Jennifer must look into her own dark past in a fight not only to stop a killer – but to save herself and those she loves.

Review ~ Little Black Lies by Sharon Bolton

Rating: 4/5 Stars
Author: Sharon Bolton
Available Formats: eBook, Paperback, Hardback
Publisher: St. Martin's Minotaur Books 
Publication Date: 05-19-15                Pages: 368
Purchase ~ Amazon                               Add ~ Goodreads 

In such a small community as the Falkland Islands, a missing child is unheard of. In such a dangerous landscape it can only be a terrible tragedy, surely...

When another child goes missing, and then a third, it’s no longer possible to believe that their deaths were accidental, and the villagers must admit that there is a murderer among them. Even Catrin Quinn, a damaged woman living a reclusive life after the accidental deaths of her own two sons a few years ago, gets involved in the searches and the speculation.

And suddenly, in this wild and beautiful place that generations have called home, no one feels safe and the hysteria begins to rise.

But three islanders—Catrin, her childhood best friend, Rachel, and her ex-lover Callum—are hiding terrible secrets. And they have two things in common: all three of them are grieving, and none of them trust anyone, not even themselves.

In Little Black Lies, her most shocking and engaging suspense novel to date, Sharon Bolton will keep the reader guessing until the very last page.

Blog Tour & Giveaway ~ After We Fall by Emma Kavanagh

Rating: 4/5 Stars
Author: Emma Kavanagh
Available Formats: eBook, Paperback, Audio
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Publication Date: 06-02-15             Pages: 336
Purchase ~ Amazon                           Add to Goodreads

A plane falls out of the sky.

A woman is murdered.

Four people all have something to hide…

 

Shortly after takeoff, flight 2940 plummets to the snow-covered ground, breaking into two parts, the only survivors a handful of passengers and a flight attendant. 

Cecilia has packed up and left her family. Now she has survived a tragedy and sees no way out.

Tom has woken up to discover that his wife was on the plane and must break the news to their only son.

Jim is a retired police offer and worried father. His beloved daughter has disappeared, and he knows something is wrong.

Freya is struggling to cope with the loss of her father. But as she delves into his past, she may not like what she finds.

Four people, who have never met but are indelibly linked by these disasters, will be forced to reveal the closely guarded secrets that unlock the answers to their questions. But once the truth is exposed, it may cause even more destruction.

Told from various points of view, chapter by chapter, readers follow the investigation into the doomed plane alongside the investigation of a murder. Kavanagh deftly weaves together the stories of those who lost someone or something of themselves in one tragic incident, exploring how swiftly everything we know can come crashing down.

ARC Review ~ Evil Games by Angela Marsons

Review: 5/5 Stars
Author: Angela Marsons
Available Formats: ebook, Paperback, Audio
Publisher: Bookouture 
Publication Date: 05-29-15              Pages: 384
Purchase ~ Amazon                            Add to Goodreads

The greater the Evil, the more deadly the game… 

When a rapist is found mutilated in a brutal attack, Detective Kim Stone and her team are called in to bring a swift resolution. But, as more vengeful killings come to light, it soon becomes clear that there is someone far more sinister at work. 

With the investigation quickly gathering momentum, Kim finds herself exposed to great danger and in the sights of a lethal individual undertaking their own twisted experiment. 

Up against a sociopath who seems to know her every weakness, for Detective Stone, each move she makes could be deadly. As the body count starts to mount, Kim will have to dig deeper than ever before to stop the killing. And this time - it’s personal.

Review ~ Silent Scream by Angela Marsons

Rating: 5/5 Stars
Author: Angela Marsons
Formats Available: eBook, Paperback, Audio
Publisher: Bookouture 
Publication Date: 02-20-15              Pages: 390
Purchase ~ Amazon                            Add to Goodreads

Even the darkest secrets can’t stay buried forever…

Five figures gather round a shallow grave. They had all taken turns to dig. An adult sized hole would have taken longer. An innocent life had been taken but the pact had been made. Their secrets would be buried, bound in blood … 

Years later, a headmistress is found brutally strangled, the first in a spate of gruesome murders which shock the Black Country. 

But when human remains are discovered at a former children’s home, disturbing secrets are also unearthed. D.I. Kim Stone fast realises she’s on the hunt for a twisted individual whose killing spree spans decades. 

As the body count rises, Kim needs to stop the murderer before they strike again. But to catch the killer, can Kim confront the demons of her own past before it’s too late?

ARC Review ~ Eeny Meeny by M.J. Arlidge

Rating: 4/5 stars
Author: M.J. Arlidge
Formats Available: eBook, Paperback, Hardcover, Audio 
Publication Date: 06-02-15                   Pages: 432
Purchase - Amazon                             Add to Goodreads

Two people are abducted, imprisoned, and left with a gun. As hunger and thirst set in, only one walks away alive.

It’s a game more twisted than any Detective Inspector Helen Grace has ever seen. If she hadn’t spoken with the shattered survivors herself, she almost wouldn’t believe them. 

Helen is familiar with the dark sides of human nature, including her own, but this case—with its seemingly random victims—has her baffled. But as more people go missing, nothing will be more terrifying than when it all starts making sense....

ARC Review ~ Blurring Lines by Chloe Walsh

Rating: 5/5 stars
Author: Chloe Walsh
Formats Available: eBook
Publication Date: 05-22-15               Pages: 236
Purchase - Amazon               Add to Goodreads

Mackenzie Moore's world came crashing down on her when she was just a child. Her innocence was robbed. Her future was corrupted and dismantled.

The events of Mackenzie's past have morphed her into the heartless creature she comes across as. She trusts no one, feels nothing, and avoids everyone... everyone except her step-brother Cade.

Cade is the one person who can shake Mackenzie's icy facade.

Cade is also the one person who is utterly forbidden...

But living together in such small quarters leads to blurred lines...

*****Warning Explicit Content 18+*****

This fictional story focuses on the lives of high school students and contains graphic scenes of sexual violence, promiscuity, bullying, physical violence, excessive bad language, self-harm, rape, abduction, cheating, child abuse, and substance abuse. Some scenes in this book may be extremely upsetting for some readers and due to its explicit content, Blurring Lines is recommended for mature readers of eighteen years old and above.

The Legacy

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Author: Katherine Webb
Format: eBook, Paperback, Hardcover, Audio
Pages: 432
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Publication Date: 06-24-2010
http://www.amazon.com/Legacy 

When they were children, Erica Calcott and her sister, Beth, spent their summer holidays at Storton Manor. Now, following the death of their grandmother, they have returned to the grand, imposing house in Wiltshire, England. Unable to stem the tide of childhood memories that arise as she sorts through her grandmother’s belongings, Erica thinks back to the summer her cousin Henry vanished mysteriously from the estate, an event that tore their family to pieces. It is time, she believes, to lay the past to rest, bring her sister some peace, and finally solve the mystery of her cousin’s disappearance.

But sifting through remnants of a bygone time is bringing a secret family history to light—one that stretches back over a century, to a beautiful society heiress in Oklahoma, a haunting, savage land across the ocean. And as past and present converge, Erica and Beth must come to terms with two shocking acts of betrayal . . . and the heartbreaking legacy they left behind.

Remember Me This Way

Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars
Author: Sabine Durrant
Format: eBook, Paperback, Hardcover
Pages: 368
Release Date: Paperback - 03-12-15, eBook & Hardcover - 05-26-15
http://www.amazon.com/Remember-Me-This-Way

Bit On The Back……..

Everyone keeps telling me I have to move on. And so here I am, walking down the road where he died, trying to remember him the right way.

A year after her husband Zach's death, Lizzie goes to lay flowers where his fatal accident took place.

As she makes her way along the motorway, she thinks about their life together. She wonders whether she has changed since Zach died. She wonders if she will ever feel whole again.

At last she reaches the spot. And there, tied to a tree, is a bunch of lilies. The flowers are addressed to her husband. Someone has been there before her.

Lizzie loved Zach. She really did.

But she's starting to realise she didn't really know him.

Or what he was capable of . . . 

The Lie

Released: 04-23-15

Book Bits:

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Author: C.L. Taylor
Formats Available: eBook & Paperback
Pages: 400
http://www.amazon.com/Lie-C-L-Taylor

This was no accident…
 

Haunting, compelling, this psychological thriller will have you hooked. Perfect for fans of Gone Girl and Daughter.
 

I know your name’s not really Jane Hughes . . .
 

Jane Hughes has a loving partner, a job in an animal sanctuary and a tiny cottage in rural Wales. She’s happier than she’s ever been but her life is a lie. Jane Hughes does not really exist.
 

Five years earlier Jane and her then best friends went on holiday but what should have been the trip of a lifetime rapidly descended into a nightmare that claimed the lives of two of the women.
 

Jane has tried to put the past behind her but someone knows the truth about what happened. Someone who won’t stop until they’ve destroyed Jane and everything she loves . . .

Stolen Child

Released: 03-27-15

When I first began Stolen Child, I thought I was going to be reading a psychological thriller about a stolen baby and the hunt to find her kidnapper. This book was less a “thriller” and more of a psychological character study of two very different women, their families, and the tragedy that shaped all of their lives. I absolutely loved this book and found it utterly fascinating. As a mother, some parts were really hard for me to read; I kept placing myself in Carla’s shoes, wondering how I would have dealt with the kidnapping of my child. My emotions were running so high at the beginning of this book that a few times I actually slammed my kindle down and yelled (to no one in particular), “Enough! I can’t read this anymore!” Of course, a few minutes later I was stealthily sneaking back towards said kindle - I just had to find out what happened next! I love books that can invoke this type of emotion from me and I can honestly say it doesn’t happen very often!

What She Left

Release Date: 04-23-15

What She Left is probably one of the most original, unique books I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. This is the story of Alice Salmon; she’s a young, talented journalist who was just found drowned in a lake near her University. Jeremy Cooke (he's so nasty!!), one of Alison’s former professors decides to put together a book about her life; a compilation of interviews, letters, journal entries, blog and social media posts. It’s this format in which the story is written that gives it an utterly fascinating, documentary style feel. I really loved reading it this way and enjoyed that each entry (chapter) wasn’t listed in chronological order. Instead, the entries jumped back and forth in Alison’s life timeline, certainly kept me on my toes! As different perspectives and clues were revealed within these entries (chapters), I had to continually check back and see when the event actually happened in Alison’s life. That may sound confusing and I know many readers are burnt out on this style of writing but it really works here and it's done in such a refreshing way that most readers won't feel as if it's an overused technique.

The Ice Twins

Release Date: 05-19-15

The Ice Twins is one of the most hauntingly beautiful books I’ve read in a long time. Sarah and Angus Moorcraft used to have a very happy life; they had a good marriage and beautiful twin daughters, Lydia and Kirstie.  Their story begins 14 months after Lydia has died in a terrible accident, an accident that Kirstie witnessed but was unable to stop. The Moorcrafts are still grieving their loss but also desperate to overcome this tragedy and possibly give Kirstie a fresh start they believe she needs. Angus has just inherited a remote Scottish island after the recent passing of his grandmother and they believe it could be just the thing their family needs to finally start over. But as Sarah begins packing and preparing for the move and their new life Kirstie makes a shocking claim. They have mistaken her identity, she is in fact Lydia and that it was Kirstie that had died.