Book Synopsis:

Six-foot-two Irish man who answers to the name Samuel McLaughlin.
Has weak shins and enjoys show tunes.
If found, please return to Sophie Williams.

Before Sophie met Samuel she saw the world in grey.
Before Samuel met Sophie, he never believed in love at first sight.

When they first meet, something tells them they are meant to be.
But fate has other ideas.

Now they have lost each other and can’t see a way back.
But they’ve already changed each other’s lives in more ways
than they ever expected…

The First Time I Saw You is available in ebook now and in paperback on the 9th February 2020. You can purchase or pre-order your copy using the link below.

My Review:

I’m a huge fan of this author so was incredibly excited to read this book. I thought it was a beautifully written, funny book that manages to be both heartwarming and heart breaking at the same time

This is a love story, but not necessarily the one you’d expect as it’s not just about the love between a couple but rather about all the different love that is in our lives. The main characters Sophie and Samuel have some amazing people around them and I loved the truly heartwarming, lovely scenes involving their interactions with their siblings and their parents.

As you can probably imagine the course of love doesn’t run smoothly and there is lots of mishaps or misunderstandings on the way which made up some of the funny scenes in the book. It also lead to some lovely supportive moments between the characters which was very enjoyable to read about.

There is a lovely message in this book which added to the beauty of the story and left me feeling sad that the book had ended. The idea that being kind and helping each other out would make life easier for everyone, is an important one which I wish everyone would follow. This is definitely one that will stay with me for a long time and I will be recommending to everyone.

Huge thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me onto the blog tour and to Headline for my copy of this book.

About The Author:

Emma Cooper is a former teaching assistant, who lives in Shropshire with her partner and four children. She spends her spare time writing novels, drinking wine and watching box-sets with her partner of twenty-four years, who still makes her smile every day.

Emma has always wanted to be a writer – ever since childhood, she’s been inventing characters (her favourite being her imaginary friend ‘Boot’) and is thrilled that she now gets to use this imagination to bring to life all of her creations.

Book Synopsis:

THREE HOURS TO SAVE THE PEOPLE YOU LOVE

From the Sunday Times bestselling author of Sister comes an electrifying, pulse-racing new novel that takes us deep into the heart of what it means to be human

‘Superb’ Kate Mosse
‘ASTONISHING. Powerful, terrifying, heartbreaking’ Emma Flint
‘One of the most exhilarating reading experiences I’ve ever had’ Emma Healey
‘A stunner of a book. Staggeringly good’ Jane Fallon
‘SO gripping, intelligent, timely, affecting and moving’ Marian Keyes

Three hours is 180 minutes or 10,800 seconds.

It is a morning’s lessons, a dress rehearsal of Macbeth, a snowy trek through the woods.

It is an eternity waiting for news. Or a countdown to something terrible.

It is 180 minutes to discover who you will die for and what men will kill for.

In rural Somerset in the middle of a blizzard, the unthinkable happens: a school is under siege. From the wounded headmaster in the library, unable to help his trapped pupils and staff, to teenage Hannah in love for the first time, to the parents gathering desperate for news, to the 16 year old Syrian refugee trying to rescue his little brother, to the police psychologist who must identify the gunmen, to the students taking refuge in the school theatre, all experience the most intense hours of their lives, where evil and terror are met by courage, love and redemption.

Three Hours is published on the 9th January 2020 in hardback and ebook. You can pre-order your copy using the link below.

My Review:

Three Hours is a tense, unique read which I will stay with me for a long time.

I was immediately drawn into the story and the situation the children find themselves in. The author’s writing made me feel like I was actually there watching everything unfold and hearing the chilling footsteps of the gunman pacing the floor. I found myself wondering how I would react and what I would have done differently. It is obvious very early on that the gunman are completely in control of the situation and have timed certain things to happen at certain times which made the characters seem like pawns in their game and adds to the chilling aspect of the story.

The story is told from multiple points of view which makes for very interesting reading as we discover how the different groups are dealing with the situation. This also gives us a chance to get to know the characters more and find out what is happening in their lives. There are some amazing characters in this book whose bravery and selflessness brought a year to my eye. It was very emotional watching everyone trying to put each others first.

Events in this book do unfold slowly but I found this actually added to the tension in the story as I felt on high alert waiting for something to happen and wondering what it might be. The reader is able to see the whole picture of what is happening in each part of the school, sometimes finding things out before the others which made the book hard to out down as I wanted to know what would happen. I often found myself shouting at the characters in my head when I felt they should have done something differently which shows just how involved I was in the story.

I’ve read every book this author has written and in my opinion she keeps getting better and better. I think this book would make a great book club read as there is lots to discuss.

Huge thanks to Ellie from Penguin Random House for inviting me into the blog tour and for my copy of this book.

About The Author:

ROSAMUND LUPTON’s new novel “Three Hours’ is published 9th January 2020.

Her debut novel ‘Sister’, was a BBC Radio 4 “Book at Bedtime”, a Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller, winner of the Strand Magazine critics award and the Richard and Judy Bookclub Readers’ Choice Award. Her next two books ‘Afterwards’ and ‘The Quality of Silence’ were Sunday Times bestsellers. Her books have been published in over thirty languages.

Book Synopsis:

AN INNOCENT GAME. A SHOCKING CRIME. A COMMUNITY FULL OF SECRETS.

Mapledon, 1989
Two little girls were out playing a game of dares. Only one returned home.
The ten-year-old told police what she saw: village loner Bill ‘Creepy’ Cawley dragged her friend into his truck and disappeared.
No body was found, but her testimony sent Cawley to prison for murder. An open and shut case, the right man behind bars.
The village could sleep safe once again.

Now…
Anna thought she had left Mapledon and her nightmares behind but a distraught phone call brings her back to face her past.
30 years ago, someone lied. 30 years ago, the man convicted wasn’t the only guilty party.
Now he’s out of prison and looking for revenge. The question is, who will he start with?

I Dare You is available in ebook and paperback now. You can purchase your copy using the link below.

My Review:

I’m a huge fan of this author as I always find her books to be very enjoyable, gripping thrillers and I Dare You was no exception.

Firstly the author does a really good job of setting the scene for this story with the small village mentality vividly described so I felt like I was actually there watching everything unfold. From the first time we visit the village the reader gets the feeling that there’s something strange about it and this leads to a general feeling of unease throughout the book. The villagers love to gossip and their almost desperate need to keep up appearances made it difficult for some people to fit in. I felt this added to some of the intrigue as you weren’t sure what people were actually like.

I actually felt very sorry for Billy Crawley who is picked on by the village children just because he is difficult. He reminded me a bit of Boo Radley from To Kill A Mockingbird, maybe because the children play a similar game with him. I found it interesting to learn more about him and found myself wondering what he was going to do to get his revenge which made me want to keep reading.

Overall I thought this was a gripping, entertaining read which I really enjoyed. I was drawn into the book from the first chapter and found it very hard to put down as I needed to know what had happened. The story is told from two different timelines and this is done very well, with the reader never getting confused between them. There are lots of twists that kept me guessing and the end was brilliant and completely blew me away as it wasn’t at all what I had guessed.

Huge thanks to Sabah from Avon for inviting me onto the blog tour and to Avon for my copy of this book via Netgalley.

About The Author:

Sam Carrington lives in Devon with her husband, two border terriers and a cat. She has three adult children and a new grandson! She worked for the NHS for fifteen years, during which time she qualified as a nurse. Following the completion of a psychology degree she went to work for the prison service as an Offending Behaviour Programme Facilitator. Her experiences within this field inspired her writing. She left the service to spend time with her family and to follow her dream of being a novelist. SAVING SOPHIE, her debut psychological thriller, published in September 2016. It became a Kindle eBook bestseller, with the paperback hitting The Bookseller Heatseeker chart at #8. Sam was named an Amazon Rising Star of 2016. Her second psychological thriller, BAD SISTER, published in 2017 followed by ONE LITTLE LIE in July 2018. THE MISSING WIFE publishes in June 2019 with her fifth due on 12th December.

Book Synopsis:

Psycho meets The Silence of the Lambs

One killer on the loose. Another setting the rules. A profiler caught in the middle.

A serial killer is terrorising London, removing a body part from each victim and leaving in its place a single pink rose.

Dr Vernon Sange, a multiple murderer awaiting extradition, seems to know the culprit’s identity—but he’ll only talk to profiler Ziba MacKenzie, the woman responsible for putting him away. Though there’s something he wants in return from her. And time is running out.

With one killer whispering in her ear and another running rings around the police, Ziba must play a game in which only her opponent knows the rules, and the forfeit is death.

Snakes and Ladders is available in all formats now. You can purchase your copy using the link below.

My Review:

This was a dark, chilling and very twisty read which will be hard to review as I don’t want to give anything away.

I loved the two main characters of Ziba and Sange with the fantastic contrast they provide between good and evil. Ziba was a very interesting character who manages to be both tough and quite vulnerable at the same time, which made me warm to him as I just wanted to help him. Sange is a stereotypical Hollywood serial killer as he’s charming, attractive and very intelligent which makes him an interesting bad guy. The author’s has done a lot of research into famous serial killers and there are characteristics of them included in all her books which I found fascinating.

Overall I thought this was a gripping, fast paced thriller which had lots of twists in it which kept me guessing. Just when I thought I had figured everything out, something would happen and I’d have to start all over again. It’s a very intense race against time which I found hard to put down as I just had to know what was going to happen next.

This is the third book in the series but I think it can easily be read as a standalone, like I did, though I’ll definitely be going back and reading the other books in the series.

Huge thanks to Tracy Fenton for inviting me onto the blog tour and to Amazon publishing for my copy of this book via Netgalley.

About The Author:

Victoria Selman studied History at Oxford University and Creative Writing at the City Lit in London. She also holds certificates in Criminal Psychology and Criminal Profiling. She has written for the Independent, Daily Express and Ham & High newspapers and co-hosts a true crime podcast called, Crime Girl Gang with two other authors. Her first novel, Blood For Blood, was shortlisted for the Debut Dagger award and is a Kindle number 1 bestseller.

If you’d like to follow what Victoria’s up to:

-Follow on her Twitter @VictoriaSelman
-Sign up for author newsletter for sneak previews and competitions via website http://www.VictoriaSelmanAuthor.com
-Follow her on her Amazon Author Page

Book Synopsis:

Four strangers are missing. Left at their last-known locations are birthday cards that read:

YOUR GIFT IS THE GAME.
DARE TO PLAY?

The police aren’t worried – it’s just a game. But the families are frantic. As psychologist and private detective Dr Augusta Bloom delves into the lives of the missing people, she finds something that binds them all.

And that something makes them very dangerous indeed.

As more disappearances are reported and new birthday cards uncovered, Dr Bloom races to unravel the mystery and find the missing people.

But what if, this time, they are the ones she should fear?

Gone is available in ebook and paperback now. You can purchase your copy using the link below.

My Review:

Gone was a fantastic, absorbing and original book from an exciting new author. The thing that I most liked about this book is that the reader gets to look inside the mind of a psychopath which I found very intriguing.

This book gripped me from the start with a really dramatic opening where we are introduced to the fascinating Seraphine. She was definitely a character that interested me as I was never sure if she was telling the truth or not which helped add an unpredictable edge to the story. I enjoyed learning more about her through her sessions with Dr Bloom as I got to learn more about her story and how it fits in with what’s been happening.

Dr Augusta Bloom was my favourite character by far as I was impressed by her determination to try and solve the case, despite not having to as she wasn’t a police officer. She’s obviously a very clever lady and I enjoyed reading about her psychology sessions and seeing how her mind works. Her friendship with her partner Marcus, an ex16 agent, was wonderful to read about, especially their interactions and how they compliment each other.

Overall I thought this was a chilling and fascinating read which I found hard to put down. It’s different from other psychological thrillers that I’ve read which made a nice change. I’m very excited to read more from her and the future and hope this isn’t the last we see of Augusta and Marcus.

Huge thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me onto the blog tour and to Transworld publishers for my copy of this book via Netgalley.

About The Author:

Leona Deakin started her career as a psychologist with the West Yorkshire Police. She is now an occupational psychologist and lives with her family in Leeds. This is her debut thriller.

Book Synopsis:

Everyone’s welcome at The Afternoon Tea Club…

Marjorie, Stacy, Raymond and Dora each hold a different story to their chest – lost loves, abandoned dreams, crippling self-confidence issues, and simply feeling invisible. For each of them, the thought of letting those stories out is almost as terrifying as letting strangers in, and that makes for a very lonely life indeed.

But when these four strangers who have struggled to “fit in” end up on the same table for an event at their local community centre, little do they know that their lives are about to be entwined and changed forever because of an Afternoon Tea club.

Cue an unexpected journey of self-discovery, some unlikely new companions, and plenty of tea and biscuits along the way…

Heart-warming and poignant in equal measure, this is a story about loneliness, kindness, and the power of friendships that span generation, proving that the most simple of human connections unite us all. Perfect for fans of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, The Single Ladies of Jacaranda Retirement Village and The Keeper of Lost Things.

The Afternoon Tea Club is available in ebook now and paperback on the 3nd of April 2020. You can purchase or pre-order your copy using the link below.

My Review:

This was a heartwarming read which is perfect for escaping into. It covers quite a current problem of loneliness amongst older people which made it quite an emotion read at times as it seemed very real.

The characters were all wonderful, realistic creations and I enjoyed finding out more about them. I didn’t particularly warm to any of them at the begining but as I discover more about their back story I found myself growing fond of them. They are definitely an eclectic mix of people and it was interesting to see the many different reasons that they had seeked out the club for companionship. My favourites was Stacey the librarian whose love of cats has meant that she has ended up with 8 of them. I think I felt a bit of sympathy for her as she joined the club so she’d have someone to talk to other than the cats, which is similar to the reason I go to groups so I have someone other than the kids to talk to.

The book is written in a lovely easy style that has a great flow to it. This just draws the reader into the book and ensures that they get fully emersed into the story. There is some funny parts and wry humour which I enjoyed and helped give the story a lighter feel to it. I’m normally a bit wary when books are described as similar to Rachel Joyce’s books but in this case I think the comparison is justified as the style did remind me of those books.

Huge thanks to Sabah from Avon for inviting me onto the blog tour and for my copy of this book via Netgalley.

About The Author:

Jane Gilley was born in Nottingham and now lives on the beautiful island of Jersey, with her husband, a rabbit and a Senegal parrot.
Following a career in Interior Design and after writing 6 children’s books, Jane now writes adult books full time.

Book Synopsis:

A secret that could kill her.

A truth no one believes…

Jenny Bowen is going home. Boarding the Caledonian Sleeper, all she wants to do is forget about her upcoming divorce and relax on the ten-hour journey through the night.

In her search for her cabin, Jenny helps a panicked woman with a young girl she assumes to be her daughter. Then she finds her compartment and falls straight to sleep.

Waking in the night, Jenny discovers the woman dead in her cabin … but there’s no sign of the little girl. The train company have no record of a child being booked on the train, and CCTV shows the dead woman boarding alone.

The police don’t believe Jenny, and soon she tries to put the incident out of her head and tells herself that everyone else is right: she must have imagined the little girl.

But deep down, she knows that isn’t the truth.

What She Saw Last Night is available in ebook and paperback now. You can purchase your copy of both using the link below.

My Review:

I thought this was a very enjoyable, addictive thriller that I seriously couldn’t put down. I managed to read it in two days, which as a mum to three kids is no mean feat.

The characters in this where brilliant creations and very well developed. I really liked Jenny and felt sorry for her at times as her confusion was almost palpable at times. However I was very impressed with her determination to try and work out what was happening as I felt lesser people would probably have given up. This definitely made me warm to her as a character. I also liked the kindly policeman who gave the book a bit of a retro crime classic feel to the book which I enjoyed.

The author does a great job of setting the scene in the book and I felt I could imagine the train and the rugged Scottish countryside vividly, making me feel like I was actually there watching everything unfold. This helped put me in Jenny’s shoes so to speak and meant I could imagine how she might be feeling or more alert to possible danger so I felt more involved in the story.

The plot is very fast paced and hugely addictive as I felt I had to keep reading as I had to find out what was happening. There are lots of twists that kept me guessing, some of which took me completely by surprise which I always love. If you like fast paced, unusual thrillers then you’ll enjoy this book- though maybe don’t read it on a sleeper train!

Huge thanks to Tracy Fenton for inviting me onto the blog tour and to Orion for my copy of this book via Netgalley.

About The Author:

Mason Cross is a British novelist whose debut novel The Killing Season was longlisted for the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Book of the Year 2015. His second novel, The Samaritan, also featuring his inimitable lead character Carter Blake, was selected as a Richard & Judy Book Club pick. Mason has written a number of short stories, including A Living, which was shortlisted for the Quick Reads ‘Get Britain Reading’ Award and ‘Expiry Date’, published in Ellery Queen. He lives near Glasgow with his wife and three children.
 
Mason’s latest novel Presumed Dead was longlisted for the McIlvanney Prize 2018, and is available to buy now.
 
To sign up for the Mason Cross Readers Club for updates and exclusive giveaways, go to masoncross.net/readers-club
 
Find out more at http://www.masoncross.net