Book Review - The Hotel on the Riviera - Carol Kirkwood - #FamilyDrama

 

TITLE - The Hotel on The Riviera

AUTHOR - Carol Kirkwood

GENRE - Family Drama / Romance

BUY LINK - Click here

SYNOPSIS 

By the sapphire blue waters of the French Riviera, a decades-long secret is about to be revealed…

Wayward Greek heiress, Ariana Theodosis, inherits the Hotel du Soleil as part of a mysterious legacy. Captivated by its faded glamour, she hopes it offers her the chance to start again.

Hotelier Gabriel du Lac’s family have owned the hotel for decades – and he has no intention of giving it up for a beautiful stranger.

Madame du Lac has watched the rich and famous pass through the doors of the hotel for almost half a century, and she has kept its secrets too.

As the past finally catches up with them all, will this summer reveal a forgotten secret, and change their lives forever…?

I loved the authors last book which transported me to beautiful sunny climes. This book was no different. The story centres around Ariana and her wealthy family. Through an inheritance it brings Ariana into contact with Gabriel Du Lac and his family. What happens next is a tale of secrets and lies, with the truth needing to be uncovered. 

I love how the author describes her character so vividly, that you almost feel as if you know them. 

The story weaves seamlessly between the past and the present. It is based in the South of France and also the beautiful Ithos in Greece, transporting you to stunning places, making it a perfect summer read.

Book Review ~ Fool Me Once by Harlan Coben #Penguin #RandomHouseUK

 TITLE - Fool Me Once

AUTHOR - Harlan Coben

BUY LINK - Click here

SYNOPSIS - 

From the #1 bestselling author and creator of the hit Netflix series THE STRANGER

You think you know the truth. The truth is you know nothing.

The international #1 bestselling author of Tell No One and Six Years is back another impossible-to-put-down thriller, now a Sunday Times top 10 bestseller and soon to be a film starring Julia Roberts.

If your husband was murdered and you were a witness.

How do you explain it when he appears on your nanny cam, back from the dead? You thought you trusted him. Now you can't even trust yourself.

Dark secrets and a terrifying hunt for the truth lie at the heart of this gripping thriller by 'master of the double twist' Harlan Coben.

This is a fast paced book that is a rollercoaster of a ride. This is what you come to expect now from Harlan Coben. You know nothing is going to be straightforward. 

There are many strong characters in this book, from the main protagonist, Military woman and widow, Maya Stern-Burkett; her Brother in Law Eddie and the secretive Burkett Family. The characters are very well written. 

Maya has buried both her Husband and her Sister. Are the murders linked? What about the death of her Husbands Brother Andrew, several years before.

It's a really good book to keep you guessing, with twists and turns around every corner.  The plot is exciting and with a twist at the end that you don't see coming. 

Book Review ~ Legacy by Nora Roberts

TITLE - Legacy

AUTHOR - Nora Roberts

BUY LINK - Click here

SYNOPSIS - 

The first time Adrian met her father was the day he tried to kill her..Adrian Rizzo didn't have the easiest childhood, to put it mildly, but she's worked hard to put it behind her and to the outside world she is a beautiful young woman with a successful, high-profile career and a wonderful family and friends.

When, out of the blue, she receives a death threat in the post, she is shocked but puts it down to someone's jealousy of her success and tries to forget about it. But Adrian doesn't realise that it's more than just spite. Someone is very, very angry about her happy life and will stop at nothing to bring it all crashing down.

If there is one thing you can say about a Nora Roberts book ,it's that they are never predictable. Ms Roberts writes several different genres of books. 

This book, Legacy, is the style of book I prefer from the Author. It is a mixture of family drama, romantic novel and thriller. What more could you want from a book? 

The characters are very well written and the main protagonist, Adrian, is very likeable, and luckily hasn't inherited any of her Mothers "Cold" traits. The relationships between various characters are developed extremely well, and you end up feeling immersed into their lives. 

The Author leads you on many twists and turns. Who is sending Adrian Death Threats on an annual basis? She knows the threats are going to arrive in the mail, but doesn't know who is sending them and why. You are kept guessing until the very end. 

Another great read from Ms Roberts and I will certainly read more of her books in this style.

Book Review - The Summer Seekers by Sarah Morgan #FeelGood

 TITLE - The Summer Seekers

AUTHOR - Sarah Morgan

BUY LINK - Click here

SYNOPSIS -

Kathleen is eighty years old. After a run-in with an intruder, her daughter wants her to move into a residential home. She's not having any of it. What she craves - needs - is adventure.

Liza is drowning under the daily stress of family life. The last thing she needs is her mother jetting off on a wild holiday, making Liza dream of a solo break of her own.

Martha is having a quarter-life crisis. Unemployed, unloved and uninspired, she just can't get her life together. But she knows something has to change.

When Martha sees Kathleen's advert for a driver and companion to take an epic road trip across America, she decides this job might be the answer to her prayers. Travelling with a stranger? No problem. She's not the world's best driver, but it couldn't be worse than living with her parents again. And anyway, how much trouble can one eighty-year-old woman be?

As these women embark on the journey of a lifetime, they all discover it's never too late for adventure...

I've always liked Sarah Morgan's books and this one was no exception. I loved it. The Author has thrown together two of the most unlikely travelling partners ever, and made this such a fun read, and I wished I was one of their travelling companions. 

The characters are extremely likeable, and well written. The storyline is also well written and descriptive and makes you feel like you are riding along with them on their journey. The descriptions of the destinations makes you feel as if you have actually been there yourself.

It is a tale of so many different emotions. There are tears, much laughter, and some annoyance along the way. This was just the book I needed to read in these current climes and put a smile on my face for quite some time. I'm even smiling as I'm writing this.

Under Currents - Nora Roberts - Book Review

 

TITLE - Under Currents

AUTHOR - Nora Roberts

BUY LINK - Click Here

SYNOPSIS -
From the outside, the house in Lakeview Terrace looks perfect and the Bigelows seem like the perfect family: the respected surgeon father, the glamorous, devoted mother and two beautiful children.

But the perfect facade hides dark undercurrents. Teenager Zane and his younger sister, Britt, are terrorised by their violent father until one dark, brutal night when their father's temper takes a horrifying turn for the worse.

Over time, Zane moves on and builds a new life for himself but a childhood like that can cast a shadow the length of a lifetime. Can Zane ever really be free of his past? Or could those dark undercurrents rise back to the surface, forcing Zane to fight for his life once again...

Do you like romance novels, family dramas or crime novels? Well this book has it all wrapped up in one. This is one of Nora Roberts standalone novels, and the first of her books I've ever read. 

Darby, having escaped an abusive Husband, looks for a place to live, somewhere in another part of the country. Preferably a place with a view of trees and lakes. She eventually found the ideal place, a place she had never heard of before, but having checked it out on the internet it suited exactly what she was looking for. So, having sold her house and her business, she packed up all her wordly goods in her car and headed off.

What comes next for Darby is lots of hard work, new friends, a romantic interest and murder. The author has weaved all of this into one extremely well written novel, which was very hard to put down. Her style of writing is very descriptive. I could almost smell the flowers she wrote about, and picture the boats on the lake. I could see all the delightful houses she described and imagine myself being there. I could also picture the characters as if I knew them personally. I really loved how different families lives were weaved together. The murder and intrigue in the book, blended very well with the family drama's and happy times.

This has to be one of the best books that I've read this year. I didn't want it to end, and would love to have seen a follow up to it as I'll miss the characters.

I thoroughly recommend this read, and I will certainly be checking out more of Nora Roberts standalone novels. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Nora Roberts was born in Silver Spring, Maryland, the youngest of five children. After a school career that included some time in Catholic school and the discipline of nuns, she married young and settled in Keedysville, Maryland.

She worked briefly as a legal secretary. “I could type fast but couldn’t spell, I was the worst legal secretary ever,” she says now. After her sons were born she stayed home and tried every craft that came along. A blizzard in February 1979 forced her hand to try another creative outlet. She was snowed in with a three and six year old with no kindergarten respite in sight and a dwindling supply of chocolate.

Born into a family of readers, Nora had never known a time that she wasn’t reading or making up stories. During the now-famous blizzard, she pulled out a pencil and notebook and began to write down one of those stories. It was there that a career was born. Several manuscripts and rejections later, her first book, Irish Thoroughbred, was published by Silhouette in 1981.

Nora met her second husband, Bruce Wilder, when she hired him to build bookshelves. They were married in July 1985. Since that time, they’ve expanded their home, traveled the world and opened a bookstore together.

Through the years, Nora has always been surrounded by men. Not only was she the youngest in her family, but she was also the only girl. She has raised two sons. Having spent her life surrounded by men, Ms. Roberts has a fairly good view of the workings of the male mind, which is a constant delight to her readers. It was, she’s been quoted as saying, a choice between figuring men out or running away screaming.

Nora is a member of several writers groups and has won countless awards from her colleagues and the publishing industry. Recently The New Yorker called her “America’s favorite novelist.”

The Butlins Girls by @ElaineEverest ~ A Feel Good Summer Read - Book Review & Giveaway

TITLE - The Butlins Girls

AUTHOR - Elaine Everest 

PUBLISHER - Pan Macmillan

PUBLICATION DATE - 4th May 2017

BUY LINK - Amazon UK // Amazon US // Waterstones //    W H Smith

PAGES - 421

SYNOPSIS -

A warm and comforting read, set against the nation's favourite holiday camp, from bestselling author of The Woolworths Girls

'Molly Missons gazed around in awe. So this was Butlin's. Whitewashed buildings, bordered by rhododendrons, gave a cheerful feeling to a world still recovering from six years of war. The Skegness holiday camp covered a vast area, much larger than Molly expected to see.'

Molly Missons hasn't had the best of times recently. Having lost her parents, now some dubious long-lost family have darkened her door - attempting to steal her home and livelihood...

After a horrendous ordeal, Molly applies for a job as a Butlin's Aunty. When she receives news that she has got the job, she immediately leaves her small home town - in search of a new life in Skegness.

Molly finds true friendship in Freda, Bunty and Plum. But the biggest shock is discovering that star of the silver screen, Johnny Johnson, is working at Butlin's as head of the entertainment team. Johnny takes an instant liking to Molly and she begins to shed the shackles of her recent traumas. Will Johnny be just the distraction Molly needs - or is he too good be to be true?

Every now and again, a book comes along that makes you think about it ages after you've finished reading it. This is what The Butlins Girls did to me. I couldn't stop talking about it to anyone who would listen. The funny thing is that this is not my usual reading genre either, as I am a crime thriller girl on the whole.

I fell in love with all the Butlins Girls; what good fun they sounded. I just wanted to be there with them. Maybe I've missed my calling! Maybe I should have been a "Redcoat". I loved the character Johnny too, picturing him as the dreamy Liam Hemsworth (look him up and you'll see what I mean!). 

The background stories that came with each of the girls (all of them having some baggage), were very well written. They were all such interesting people with captivating lives. It was great that they each came from a different world to each other but the author managed to make them such good friends.

In fact I loved everything about this book! I even enjoyed the nasty characters, as they were portrayed in such great detail. 

This is the authors new book and I have just bought her first book, The Woolworths Girls, currently on offer for the Kindle. I will also be pre-ordering her book "Christmas at Woolworths" due out on the 2nd November 2017. 

If you want a great holiday read, then you need to add this to your list. I highly recommend it.

Thank you to Pan Macmillan and the Author for giving me this book in exchange for an honest review. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Elaine Everest lives in Kent and is in the author of bestseller, The Woolworths Girls. She has written widely for various women's magazines and when she isn't writing, she runs The Write Place creative writing school in Dartford, Kent, and the blog for the Romantic Novelists' Association.

Author links -
Twitter // Facebook // Website // Goodreads

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Guide Star by Joy Ellis - Book Review - Emotional drama - Joffe books

Title - Guide Star

Author - Joy Ellis

Publisher - Joffe Books

Publication Date - 28th April 2017

Buy Link - Click here

Synopsis -

Who do you turn to when life goes wrong?

Stella’s life has changed forever. Her only support is her amazing grandmother, Beth. But Beth also faces the biggest challenge of her life.

Stella North, a rising star in the police, has her life torn apart by a gunman’s bullets. All her life she has faced danger, but these injuries mean she must give up the job she loves.  Her grandmother Beth is her rock. And Beth is no ordinary woman. At seventy, she runs marathons and has an exciting past that Stella knows very little about.

Will Stella find the strength to overcome the challenges of her new life, and will her grandmother at last resolve the deep emotional turmoil of her past?

By UK #1 best-selling author, Joy Ellis, this is a gripping and emotional departure from her acclaimed crime fiction.

I had just read a Thriller by this author, when I was given the opportunity to read Guide Star which was a departure from her normal Crime genre. I was hoping the writing would be as good and I wasn't disappointed.

I loved the main character Stella, who had been shot trying to save others. She was such a caring person and I really admired her. I think she would be the Friend who would always put others first. The type of Friend everyone wants.  The Author has written some really strong personalities into this emotional read, and apart from one Senior Police Officer, I really liked them all. They seemed like real people; whether they were based on people the author knows I don't know but they just all had such deep personalities.

Again as with other Joy Ellis novels, the descriptive scenery makes the places really vivid in your mind; from the rugged cliff tops to the fens.

All this combined makes the book a rollercoaster of a read. One that I couldn't put down and read in two sittings. For anyone that knows me, that's really unusual as I'm a slow reader. I highly recommend this book.

Thank you Joffe books for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

 ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

 

Joy Ellis grew up in Kent but moved to London when she won an apprenticeship with the prestigious Mayfair flower shop, Constance Spry Ltd. Many years later, having run her own florist shop in Weybridge, Ellis took part in a writer’s workshop in Greece and was encouraged by her tutor, Sue Townsend to begin writing seriously. She now lives in the Lincolnshire Fens with her partner Jacqueline and their Springer spaniels, Woody and Alfie.

Contact the author

Goodreads // Facebook // Website

Their Lost Daughters by Joy Ellis - Book Review - Thriller full of intrigue

TITLE - Their Lost Daughters

AUTHOR - Joy Ellis

PUBLISHER - Joffe Books

BUY LINK - Click here

SYNOPSIS -

TWO GIRLS GO TO A PARTY, ONLY ONE RETURNS ALIVE

Toni, the surviving teenager, is found delirious, wandering the muddy fields. She has been drugged and it’s uncertain whether she’ll survive. She says she saw her friend Emily being dragged away from the party. But no one knows who Emily is or even if she’s still alive.

Meanwhile the drowned body of another girl has been found on an isolated beach.
And how does this all relate to the shocking disappearance of a little girl nearly a decade ago, a crime which was never solved? The girl’s mother is putting immense pressure on the police to re-open the high-profile case.

EACH ONE OF THEM IS SOMEONE’S DAUGHTER AND THE POLICE MUST GIVE THEIR FAMILIES JUSTICE AND CLOSURE

DI Rowan Jackman and DS Marie Evans of the Fenland police are stretched to the limit as they try to bring the perpetrators of these shocking crimes to justice.

There is evidence of an illegal drinking club run by a shadowy group of men, who are grooming teenagers. And the team come across a sinister former hospital called Windrush which seems to house many dark secrets.

Full of twists and turns, this is a crime thriller that will keep you turning the pages until the shocking ending.

Sometimes when you read a book, it can take you a couple of chapters to get into it. I was hooked on this book after a couple of paragraphs! I had never read anything by this author, and being honest I hadn't heard of her. Not one to just follow the more well known authors I was happy to try and find myself another author to read.

There was so much content in this book and each story line blended seamlessly. As the blurb says, two girls go to a party & only one returns; also a young girl has been missing for several years and just seems to have disappeared without trace; also illegal drinking parties held for teenagers but by who? How are all these storylines linked?

The book was very descriptive, from the surrounding scenery to the numerous intriguing characters. Sometimes I get lost if there are too many characters in a book, but these all had such distinctive personalities and characteristics that it was hard not to follow who was who.

I felt the main Police characters were well written and the research seems to have been well done. It was great how the author had blended them all as a team.

This was a fast paced novel, with something different to grab your attention in each chapter. I found it hard to put down. Great twist at the end and totally unpredictable. I will most certainly be reading books by this author again. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Joy Ellis grew up in Kent but moved to London when she won an apprenticeship with the

prestigious Mayfair flower shop, Constance Spry Ltd. Many years later, having run her own florist shop in Weybridge, Ellis took part in a writer’s workshop in Greece and was encouraged by her tutor, Sue Townsend to begin writing seriously. She now lives in the Lincolnshire Fens with her partner Jacqueline and their Springer spaniels, Woody and Alfie.

Contact the author
Goodreads // Facebook // Website





BOOK REVIEW ~~ Anything For Her by Jack Jordan ~ Crime Thriller

TITLE - Anything For Her 

AUTHOR - Jack Jordan

FORMAT - Paperback or Kindle

PAGES - 340

GENRE - Thriller/Crime/Mystery

PURCHASE - Kindle click here; Paperback click here

SYNOPSIS (From Goodreads)
Sometimes the past comes back to haunt you.

Louise Leighton’s life has fallen apart, all because of one fateful night. Her husband is an adulterer, her sister is his mistress, and soon, Louise will lose everything she owns. But she never imagined she would lose her daughter. 

Eighteen-year-old Brooke Leighton is missing. It’s up to Louise and the Metropolitan Police to find her. Has Brooke run away? Or has she been taken against her will? And can Louise aid the investigation without mentioning the night where all of her troubles began? 

If she mentions that night, she will incriminate her daughter for heinous crimes. But if she doesn’t, she may never find Brooke; and if she has been abducted, the person who took her may come for Louise, too. 

Sometimes the past comes back to kill you.

MY REVIEW 

This book was unputdownable! It wasn't a book where you had to read a few chapters before you were hooked, I was hooked from the start. I was really intrigued as to what this terrible family secret was that could split a family apart completely, affecting all members of the family in different ways. The author had made the characters really personable and very real.

The storyline was fantastic and utterly believable. There were so many factors to it and the author pulled them together with ease.

It was emotional and upsetting as it was tearing a very close family apart with the son Dominic having to go through things no young boy should have to go through. It was also gripping at the same time with some amazing twists and turns, usually Louise being at the end of something terrifying. Without adding any spoilers it was utterly intriguing and I couldn't put the book down as I wanted to keep reading to see who was behind all the bad things that was happening.

If you want a book that keeps you on the edge of your seat then you have to read this. I also think it would make a great screenplay. 

An amazing debut novel!! I am going to be watching out for Jack Jordans next book and hoping it's every bit as good as this one.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jack Jordan lives in East Anglia, England. He is an introvert disguised as an extrovert, an intelligent person who can say very unintelligent things, and a self-confessed bibliomaniac with more books than sense. 'Anything for Her' is Jack Jordan's debut novel. 

Goodreads Author Page https://www.goodreads.com/jackjordan

Author Web page - http://www.jackjordanofficial.co.uk

Check out the authors goodreads page for a giveaway!