Killer Review: Little Gone Girl by Alexandra Burt

*The Killer Review are reviews featured in my 'A Killer Season' feature, where I will be reviewing psychological thrillers on which much fuss has been made about, declaring if they are worth the buy (or not)* Stay tuned for more posts.

PURCHASE~~~GOODREADS

MY SYNOPSIS

Imagine This: In your heart you know you are not cut-out for having a baby. But then you have her, and the moment she's in your arms you know you'd do everything to protect her.

But you never thought once that She may never give you the chance to protect her. She's crying Day and Night. She's screaming at the top of her lungs. Doctors say it's colic, a few months tops and it will be gone.

But seven months later, she's still yelling more than ever. And now it turns out it's you she doesn't want, because your husband picks her up and she's OK.

You'll do anything to calm this baby. God, knows you do your best. She's just not into you.

So, one Day you wake up in a hospital after an accident. Your baby's missing. You are not like the mother screaming bloody murder, "Where the heck is my baby girl?" The police are doubting your story. Your husband is doubting your story. It doesn't take long for you to stop believing in you. And you are suddenly worrying, "What the heck have I done to my baby girl?"

The puzzling story of Estelle Paradise's baby's disappearance summarized for your delight.

My Review.

Beautiful storyline. Mother's baby goes missing. And she has no idea what happens to her child. How can anybody sneak into a locked house and steal your baby? Why the hell is this Mother having visions of herself scrubbing blood off every surface? A star!——★

Normally when you read a psychological thriller, you know whose side to take. Obviously the grieving mother. But in this case, we can't trust our lead. We can only judge her because all evidence points against her. Which makes her a very unlikable heroine from the start. And don't we all love judging! A star to a lead who you can't figure out whether to love or hate!——★★

Like all psychological thrillers this book pays attention to detail. The writing is beautiful. All through the novel you are on the edge of your seat trying to untie the knots before the writer begins unraveling the plot, but you give up after all attempts and just sit through the unnerving suspense.——★★★

From the above, you can deduce this novel is unpredictable——★ and also highly suspenseful——★.

I've read a few psychological thrillers, and most—bordering on all—of them have the biggest anti-climax that put me off them completely. Oh, this title is nothing like that. Expected danger comes. The treacherous circumstances you expect are fulfilled and you feel like the whole story wasn't a sham so as to build intensity for a very shallow resolution.——★★★★

That said, this book has an amazing denouement—★ which made for a Great ending—★

So my rating:  Five/Five stars!

Little Gone Girl is available on Amazon with more raving reviews than mine to prove it's worth a buy.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants to start their new year reading something highly thrilling and edge-of-your-seat suspenseful. Anyone who wants a psychological thriller that would keep them guessing and worrying and hating the lead right through the end should go grab this. If you want a novel, that bears a high resemblance to real life and all the chilling moments it describes can actually happen—because most psychological thrillers don't have this resemblance—to any mother, you should get this. 

My work not done here. Off to post my review on Amazon and Goodreads! 

Blog Tour: Follow Me by Angela Clarke

The thriller everyone's been talking about this fall is making a stop here on the blog! We have a short Q&A from the author you should read breezily (Thanks to her humour!)

PURCHASE 

Q: What is your favourite crime novel and why?

A: Oh! Such a hard question! There are so many amazing crime writers today – I wouldn’t like to pick. I’m going to wuss out and go for a classic: I’ll always love Agatha Christie. Her murder mysteries are the book equivalent of sinking into a warm bubble bath, whilst sipping a glass of Prosecco, and scoffing chocolate truffles. A total joy.

Q: Is there a book you love so much you wish you’d written it?

A: Probably The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. It’s a gorgeous, historically resonant, literary book based on the Greek myth of Patroclus and Achilles. It made my heart sing and ache, and moved me to tears. It’s so far from everything that I write I can’t help but put it on a pedestal. It won the Orange Prize for Fiction (2012). I was lucky enough to meet Madeline Miller at a signing, she’s a softly spoken superbly intelligent woman. An incredible writer.

More info on the book?

See the (chilling) blurb: The ‘Hashtag Murderer’ posts chilling cryptic clues online, pointing to their next target. Taunting the police. Enthralling the press. Capturing the public’s imagination.

But this is no virtual threat.

As the number of his followers rises, so does the body count.

Eight years ago two young girls did something unforgivable. Now ambitious police officer Nasreen and investigative journalist Freddie are thrown together again in a desperate struggle to catch this cunning, fame-crazed killer. But can they stay one step ahead of him? And can they outrun their own past?

Time's running out. Everyone is following the #murderer. But what if he is following you?



My REVIEW should be out soon! The blurb was a giveaway that I should read this book!

Fall Book Review: The Piano-Man Project by Late French

Purchase|Goodreads 

MY SYNOPSIS 

Imagine This: You are never the type of woman to orgasm. No matter what your friends say, you just know no man can do THAT for you, thanks very much!

So when your friends contemplate on the kind of man who can just make you have that much multiple 'O's: a piano-playing sex-god, you know when they set out to get him wherever he is, it's going to be a disaster! But you play on, because you want to keep your hopes up that out there there's a (piano-playing) sex god who can just make you come (for once!)

Meanwhile, the man next-door is tinkling your interest. He's rude, bad-tempered and only needs company when he's getting a bottle of whiskey in return. He plays no Piano, people. Except when he mentions your name, you feel you might as well come with the ripple of sensations that courses through you. 

How do you work your way into the bed of a man who is deeply troubled and emotionally distorted? It's only for the orgasm, you keep telling yourself. But why do you want to stake a claim on his heart (even when sometimes he makes you feel like driving a stake throught it!)

Honeysuckle Jones' trouble-seeking, orgasm-less life summarized for your delight. 

My Review. 

I loved this book!

The storyline is very run-off-the-mill chicklit title. Though it is not unique in its sense, it's very enjoyable. So Blonde wants an orgasm, she wants to keep her oldies from being thrown out of their home and she wants the man next-door to stop being such an arse. A star.—★

I loved Honeysuckle, the main character. What a funny name. But Rose and Lily would have been quite non-unique, wouldn't it? She's very charismatic, loves to STEP in to help anyone everywhere, the kind of neighbor who would help you pick up your fallen groceries whilst secretly wishing you would be the one to make her come. A star to her.—★★

Other characters also made this title IMMENSELY fun. There's Lucille, the kind-hearted co-worker of Honey and Mimi, her eighty-year old sister who comes off as hard but is genuinely a sweetheart and is just your ordinary senior citizen who just wants to have a normal adventurous sex life. There's also old Billy, Mimi's boyfriend who loves being handcuffed. You'd love Tash (the Samantha Jones-lookalike friend) and also Nell (the Charlotte-esque friend of Honey who's lately experimenting with more tools with her sweater-clad husband). Christopher, the villain of the book is humorously wicked. Plus, you'd love Hal, the tempestuous next-door-man.—★★★ 

One of the features about this book is its humor. It's also one of those community books in which the whole town joins in to protest major, abnormal changes to their town.—★★★★

My rating: Four-stars.

This book is available on Amazon. Go get.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants a feel-good, funny read full of senior citizens engaged in lots of shenanigans. Another good book to add to your fall reading list. 

My work not done here. Off to post my review on Goodreads and Amazon.

Blog Tour: His Other Life by Beth Thomas

MY SYNOPSIS

Imagine This: You are in perfect bliss. Married to the most adorable guy for over a year. Everyone looks at you two, and think, he’s too perfect for you. Even your family. That one day he might just pack up and leave. But you doubt that. Because of all the women he could pick, he picked you.

So perhaps not all things are going smoothly. But, really, which marriage ever does? What if he’s a tad bit too secretive? And he wouldn’t let you to go through the mail, the bills, and even his unlocked wardrobe.

Then one day, over an Indian-Takeout errand, he never returns.

Police Interrogation makes you aware you never knew anything about him. One moment, you are sad and angry he might have taken off. Then another, you are so worried something terrible might have happened to him and he didn’t run off at all.

Then you stumble upon his Pandora box of secrets, and your life would never be the same again. Who the hell were you calling your husband?

MY REVIEW

Great storyline. I loved the whole Girl gets married to a guy and for over a year he’s too secretive she doesn’t know anything about his past and even his present, Girl thinks she’s landed a gold mine when she doesn’t even really know who her husband is. The blurb and the opening pages piques your curiosity. Brill.── ★

Is Grace someone you could relate to? Well, I do wonder which woman would stay married to a man who doesn’t even allow her peep into his closet, or find out why his mum is such a loose cannon, or why he’d never allow her into his past. I’m sure shit like that does happen sometimes, the world is a big and strange enough place for such occurrences. But I really do wish Grace made much of an effort sometimes and just found out a lot about the man she wanted to spend her life with. If not for her, then for the police if in case, he commits a crime and they need some background information. Though her lack of knowledge into the past sets the background for the story and makes many a curious reader.── ★★

Other characters in this book were great. I loved Ginger, the friend who was always around to get our lead pissed whenever she needed some comfort. I loved Linda, the police handling the investigations who really thought our lead could be a suspect from her unusual reactions to the police’s findings. I loved Melissa, the psychic who looks into the other world for clues where missing people might be. Adam, the husband who’s secretiveness gave his character some form of intrigue.── ★★★

I liked this book. But I really wished I could love, love it. Too many anti-climaxes in lots of pages that you wondered if the book was going anywhere at all. One minute you are on the edge of your seat, then you are not anymore because Police’s findings have been proved wrong. Until the last, about, hundred pages do you begin to discover some really intriguing info to keep you on the edge of your seat till the end. It could have been more fast-paced.

My rating: 3.5 stars/five.

Beth Thomas’ latest is available on amazon.

I recommend this book to anyone who loves some mystery laced with their chick-lit.

My work not done here. Off to post my review on Goodreads.

Book Review: The School Gate Survival Guide by Kerry Fisher.

MY SYNOPSIS

Imagine This: Your life smells (nothing like Chanel No.5, but) of bleach and Glade as a cleaner of spas, country clubs and ginormous homes of the well-to-do. You do not have an easy life. Not with your children and their constant needs. And a ‘partner’ who hasn’t proposed for nineteen years who’s so much of a lazy slob, all he does for full-time is rant at you.

Life couldn’t get any worse than this when the people around your estate are mostly crack-heads, teenagers who get knocked up and become dropouts. Could this be the future of your kids?

Then when the death of a Professor who was always keen on you as her cleaner, catapults your children into the life of highly-esteemed schools where all the mums arrive in Land Rovers, organize tea meetings in their plush homes after the school drop-off so the new mums could get acquainted with the system of things (and hierarchy of things), have mani-pedi dates with one another discussing which tutor is shipped from where helping their child’s math, you are both enamoured and frightened.

How are you going to pay the bills now that the children want to go on rugby tours in South Africa? Or put much effort into organizing bake sales with all the mums who know nothing about running shifts to scrub other people’s toilets? How can you cope with a partner who cannot wait for you to arrive so he could berate you for all the wrong choices you’ve made in your life (excluding running off with him, of course)?

And what do you do about the Head Teacher who’s showing such interest in you you can hardly focus when you are doing someone’s toilet?

Maia Exteleku’s life summed for your delight.

MY REVIEW

I loved, loved this book! So in my review you know I’d be urging you to grab a duster and do your own cleaning so you could take (mini) breaks and sit cross-legged with this book in your lap?

Beautiful story-line! Girl’s day job is cleaning. Girl doesn’t really dream of life more than that, but she’d like that the council tax people would take it easier on her. Girl has always dreamt of going back to school for a degree to better her life, but if only the man who has never proposed to her for nineteen years would give her a little encouragement rather than take up all her savings to hit the pubs when he’s grumpy (which is always). If only Girl could get her life together and give her children the good life they deserve, she’d be more than accomplished. Except on the way to giving children a good life, children want horses, bitchy mums cannot wait to downgrade her, Head Teachers cannot help but flirt and neighbours cannot help but envy what she has (which is nothing!). Brilliant. A star to the story-line.── ★

I adored the main character, Maia. She’s so relatable. She has this whiplash, direct tone laced with humour that gives the reader no chance to indulge in annoying constant bemoaning of her troubles. You would love her for trying to make the school run when she’s so late to scrubbing off someone’s floors. You would also love her for being about the only mum who doesn’t have the luxury to mani-pedi yet isn’t envious of all the others. You would also love her for being committed to succeeding in a life that keeps slamming her on her bottom with mountains of debt (so she could imitate a late aunt with a Spanish accent to tell off the creditors). A star to her!── ★★

The development of the supporting cast made this book worth-reading too. You would love Sandy, the neighbour next-door who cannot always wait to rub it in our lead’s face how much she’s trying to be prim and proper when cleaning other people’s shit is all she does. You would want to kick the gonads, of Colin, the ‘partner’ who only cares about his beers and West Ham. You would find Jennifer, one of the school mums, utterly annoying for wanting to be such a bitch every time to our lead for her chosen profession. There’s also Clover, one of the nicer mums, whose foul-mouth causes her children to take after her. Venetia, who is always going on about the necessity to pick out colleges for your nine year-olds and teaching them foreign languages so they could easily get into Oxford even if they wouldn’t encounter anyone in their lives who spoke Mandarin.  A star to all these and more.── ★★★

In every chapter there’s a cliff-hanger, something to keep you flicking the pages. I was hooked. Lots of OMG moments thrown in there as well. There’s also so much you could giggle at as an extra to make this book a kicking read.── ★★★★

I did love this book. But the first opening pages (twenty) were not that engaging and were shaky for me. However, after I got past the shaky bit I read all the others in a day!

So my rating: 4.5 stars/ 5 (4.5/5)

Too much for a debut, Kerry Fisher’s book is available on Amazon. I do hope you get it as well as her latest, The Island Escape which also sounds equally fab!

I recommend this book to anyone who loves chick-lit leads with not-so-glamorous lives and jobs. Anyone who wants a book into the life of an immigrant should also run off with this book. Anyone who wants to get on with something from a debut author they’d love to stick with through all other bestsellers in the future.

My work not done here. Off to post my review on Goodreads.