Thicker Than Water (Jessica Daniels #6) - Kerry Wilkinson

Thicker Than Water is the sixth book in the Jessica Daniels series.
Oliver, a teenage boy goes missing from a house he's supposed to be babysitting at but when the baby's parent's return home, nothing else is amiss and their daughter is still safely asleep in her cot.

DS Jessica Daniels is called in and although she's suspicious of the disappearance as Oliver's mobile was found at the house, she has nothing else to go on. But when a journalist friend informs her that someone placed an obituary for the missing teen two days before his disappearance her suspicions are raised even higher.When Oliver's body is then found in a seemingly random house across the other side of town the investigation takes a whole new turn.

This is another great read from Kerry Wilkinson and I really enjoyed the development of Jessica's character which is just as much a part of the story as the crime investigation. I would recommend you read this book but I think that even though it could be read as a standalone it would be much more enjoyable if you've read the previous five novels.

How do you choose your next book?

I finished my latest read earlier today and now I have a struggle on my hands - which book to read next?

If you're anything like me you have a mountain of books to choose from and don't know where to start. I find this especially time consuming as a large majority of my books are on my kindle so I can't make a choice by looking at the cover or reading the blurb on the back. This means that usually my method involves Amazon and Goodreads. I sign into my accounts on both sites and the journey begins.

First stop is Amazon and the manage your content and devices tab to see what books I've got. Amazon have made this task even more difficult for me now as they no longer display the book covers on this page. Why Amazon, just why? I scan down the list of titles and one will jump out at me for whatever reason ( but not because of the cover, thanks again Amazon) and then off I go to Goodreads to search for the book only to find that nine times out of ten the book is already marked as read! Oh well, let's try another and back off to Amazon I go and so it continues until I find one that I haven't read.

Then the next step is to look at the overall rating on Goodreads and it had better be a good one after all the effort I've put in so far. If that's a positive then it's on to the synopsis. Am I in the mood to read about a psychopathic serial killer? No? Then it's back to the beginning of the process.

There's got to be an easier way hasn't there? How do you choose yours?

The Throwaway Children - Diney Costeloe

This is another new author to me. I came across this book through an online book group and what a little gem it is.
 
It tells the moving story of two sisters, Rita and Rosie who once had a loving family but their father is killed during World War 2. Their mother Mavis is struggling to cope without a man and starts a relationship with a violent bully named Jimmy Randall. When Mavis falls pregnant with Jimmy's baby he agrees to marry her on one condition; 9 year-old Rita and 5 year-old Rosie have to go. In a time when single mother's were frowned upon Mavis chooses her man and this puts in to motion a tragic chain of events which leads to her daughters being shipped half way across the world to an orphanage.

I found this a compelling read and sometimes difficult as the young girls are thrown from one dilemma to the next. Just as you think things can't get any worse, they do. Don't let this put you off reading this book though as it's not all doom and gloom, it's also a heart-warming tale of families over-coming the odds.

My one criticism, and it's a small one, is that I would have liked to have the author to have added some notes at the end of the book telling me where she got her inspiration for the story and if the practise of sending orphan's to Australia was a common occurrence during this time after the war.

Nose in my book

As I've spent the last week with my nose stuck in my latest book when I haven't been at work I haven't had anything to share with you. I don't want you to feel neglected so I've decided to share some pictures from one of my Pinterest boards that describe me. I hope you like them.

Happy reading!

Chance - Peter Dudgeon

This is a new author to me and I was very kindly given a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Where do I start? This book had me hooked from the opening line "With no strangers to kill, I killed time instead; surveying suburbia through wooden slats" My first thought was I wanted to know who this person was and why they were killing strangers.

Chance is the story of Cassie Janus who has the ability to connect to the emotions of others and unfortuntely sees things that no nine-year-old should have to see especially when you find out that one of the people she connects with is a killer.

If you enjoy reading crime thrillers then you can't afford to miss this book. The characters are well rounded and the storyline grabs you with both hands and pulls you along so that at the end you're left feeling like you've just got off a roller coaster.

Peter Dudgeon has a lot to answer for as I was still awake at midnight last night chanting that well known reader's mantra of "just one more chapter" but the next short chapter finished with such a cliffhanger I was complelled to carry on until I managed to force myself to put it down. I've spent the whole day at my desk wishing the hours away just so that I could get home to find out what was going to happen next. I wasn't disappointed but the wait until Autumn and the sequel might be a long one!

Don't be shy

If you've somehow managed to stumble across my blog please say hello.

Happy reading!

Temporarily bookless!

It's been a few days since my first post and sadly I haven't done much reading. Like most of you reading this I have to go out everyday and earn money to pay for my book addiction and that doesn't always leave me with enough time or energy to pick up my beloved kindle before I head off to bed and drift away into the land of dreams.

Books can be expensive but there's always places to find them cheaper if you know where to look. Charity shops, boot sales, daily deals on Amazon, various other websites and then of course you can always rely on  friends to lend or give their copy of their latest "must read", but then if you're a true bookworm you know all the best places to go already.

A great website for me is Goodreads, I can keep a track of books I've read, find new ones, read reviews, get recommendations, win free books in exchange for reviews and so much more. I've done the Reading Challenge (setting your own target of books to read through the year) for the last few years and exceeded my own expectations year on year, I've found that although I've always loved reading and don't see it as a chore, I do want to beat my target each time and so far I have. I'm sure it's only a matter of time though until I set a target so high I end up asking to take a year off work to achieve it!

Happy reading!

Hello from the hippo!

Hello from my humble abode in Hampshire.

I'm a self confessed bookworm and I love nothing better than to be curled up with a good book. I enjoy most genres, from contemporary through historical, psychological, crime and classics. The only genre I don't venture into is sci-fi but I'm always open to recommendations so if you know of something that might tempt me please do let me know.

So what am I doing here I hear you ask. Well the aim is to review the books I read. I've been doing the Goodreads challenge for the last few years but although I always rate the novels I read, I very rarely write reviews. I'm lucky enough to know a couple of authors and I know how important a review is as well as a rating and so I've decided it's time to return the favour to all the great writers out there so I'm going to start putting fingers to keyboard myself. I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a writer by any means but hopefully over time my reviews will start to get easier to write and will help get the wonderful writers out there a few more fans.

I hope that you enjoy reading my reviews and who knows, you might even find a new favourite author along the way.

Happy reading!