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Wow what a year it’s been. I feel like the blog and reading has taken a bit of a backseat in recent months but that’s something I’m hoping to change in 2925 as I get more into a routine and hopefully my health can cooperate!
This review, while written in December spans the last three months – I told you reading has taken a back seat! I was super excited for new books from Liane Moriarty and Miranda Rijks, two of my favourite authors and I’ve also returned to another couple of authors who I’ve read before and enjoyed- Riley Sager and Clare. Without further ado, let’s get on with the reviews!
Isolation Island*
by Louise Minchin
The Blurb
*A SUNDAY TIMES PICK OF THE MONTH*
‘Agatha Christie, with a thrilling modern twist’ DAILY MAIL
‘Pacy and tense – I loved it!’ CLARE MACKINTOSH
‘Superb … A riveting read’ SUNDAY TIMES
‘Updates Agatha Christie with contemporary ingenuity’ IAN RANKIN
_______________
TEN STRANGERS.
Investigative journalist Lauren Taylor never dreamed she’d find herself on a remote Scottish island, in the depths of winter, taking part in the most gruelling reality show ever devised. The last person standing will win the prize of a lifetime, but that’s not the only reason Lauren is there.
ONE REMOTE ISLAND.
With a production team that seems incapable of keeping them safe, a gathering storm and the unrelenting gaze of hidden cameras, the contestants are stretched to the limit as they try to outshine their fellow competitors and hide their darkest secrets.
NOWHERE TO RUN.
When a body is found, it’s clear that the game has turned deadly. And with no way off the island until the storm passes, the group have no choice but to play for their lives.
What I Thought
I listened to the audio version of this book and enjoyed it. I found the start of the book slow, but once the storm starts, the tension kicks in and I really couldn’t put it down!
The characters were interesting – it was full of typecasts you would generally find on a reality show today, but this didn’t detract from the story as they were all there to play their part and were well written.
At the end of the story there was a nice little twist but there were a few questions left unanswered – potential plot holes, but overall it was a good ending and was finished well.
The narrator for this one was good and I enjoyed the listen. The slow start may put some off at first but I would definitely say to stick with it, as the tension and atmosphere definitely ramps up!
Where To Buy
This Much Is True
by Miriam Margolyes
The Blurb
BAFTA-winning actor, voice of everything from Monkey to the Cadbury’s Caramel Rabbit, creator of a myriad of unforgettable characters from Lady Whiteadder to Professor Sprout, MIRIAM MARGOLYES, OBE, is the nation’s favourite (and naughtiest) treasure. Now, at the age of 80, she has finally decided to tell her extraordinary life story – and it’s well worth the wait.
Find out how being conceived in an air-raid gave her curly hair; what pranks led to her being known as the naughtiest girl Oxford High School ever had; how she ended up posing nude for Augustus John as a teenager; why Bob Monkhouse was the best (male) kiss she’s ever had; and what happened next after Warren Beatty asked ‘Do you fuck?’
From declaring her love to Vanessa Redgrave to being told to be quiet by the Queen, this book is packed with brilliant, hilarious stories. With a cast list stretching from Scorsese to Streisand, a cross-dressing Leonardo di Caprio to Isaiah Berlin, This Much Is True is as warm and honest, as full of life and surprises, as its inimitable author.
What I Thought
I laughed my way through this one! I love it when an autobiography is read by the person themselves, the stories are theirs and they come across so much better!
Miriam is hilarious, rude, no-nonsense and aware of her own foibles. She makes no bones of who she is and that not everyone will like her which is refreshing and somewhat inspiring. I loved listening to all her sotries, from being a child right up to the Covid pandemic, when this was written. Some are heartwarming, some shocking and some might make you blush – this is not a book for the faint at heart – there is your warning!
I don’t always agree with everything she says but I do really like this wonderful lady and she is amazingly talented. Great for fans of hers, as well as those interested in TV and film – so many interesting stories of her adventures and meetings during her career and beyond.
Where To Buy
I Let You Go
by Clare Mackintosh
The Blurb
A tragic accident. It all happened so quickly. She couldn’t have prevented it. Could she?
In a split second, Jenna Gray’s world descends into a nightmare. Her only hope of moving on is to walk away from everything she knows to start afresh. Desperate to escape, Jenna moves to a remote cottage on the Welsh coast, but she is haunted by her fears, her grief, and her memories of a cruel November night that changed her life forever.
Slowly Jenna begins to glimpse the potential for happiness in her future. But her past is about to catch up with her, and the consequences will be devastating….
What I Thought
This was a TikTok recommendation from Francesca (@pavisfrancesca) who is the go-to thriller girl on the app!
And what a great recommendation it was! The story has a very sad premise – a young boy is killed by a driver who leaves the scene. The story has dual POV with the police investigating the crime alongside Jenna’s story, whose life was changed in an instant.
I half guessed the twist based on the review I saw, so I don’t want to say too much here, aside from the fact it is is great, with a heavy, dark atmosphere and plenty of tension and I would recommend!
Where To Buy
Every Breath You Take*
By Miranda Rijks
The Blurb
Has her husband really left her? Or is someone playing a deadly game?
When Eva’s husband Samuel doesn’t come home from a boys’ night out, she thinks he’s sleeping off his hangover at a friend’s house. So she waits. And waits…
Eventually, he sends her a text – he’s met someone else and needs a few days to get his head together. Eva is devastated. How could he do this? How could he do it to their children? She’d thought her marriage was rock solid.
She tries to go on with her life as best she can. But then things take a truly bizarre turn…
She receives a terrifying photo of Samuel with a knife to his neck, and a demand: do everything on my bucket list or he will die.
As Eva completes the increasingly crazy demands on the kidnapper’s bucket list, every aspect of her life begins to unravel: her children are struggling, she’s not paying attention at work, and her friends and family fear for her mental health. All the while, the threats are mounting. Samuel will die. Unless…
Can Eva save her husband and children or will she lose everything that’s dear to her?
Every Breath You Take – the gripping psychological thriller from the best-selling author of The Visitors and Make Her Pay.
What I Thought
It wouldn’t be a review post without another Miranda Rijks title and this one did not disappoint!
Every Breath You Take had me on the edge of my seat for the whole read! Full of twists and turns, some really tense and some genuinely frightening moments, I couldn’t put this one down and it definitely got me out of my reading slump.
The dual POV between ‘the wife’ and ‘the lover’ is great and moves the story along at a good pace, while still keeping you guessing throughout.
I love a good thriller and Miranda Rijks really is a queen and one of my favourite thriller authors, due to her imaginative but so very relatable situations – which make her books all the more scary and shocking.
Where To Buy
Home Before Dark
by Riley Sager
The Blurb
What was it like? Living in that house.
Maggie Holt is used to such questions. Twenty-five years ago, she and her parents, Ewan and Jess, moved into a rambling Victorian estate called Baneberry Hall. They spent three weeks there before fleeing in the dead of night, an ordeal Ewan later recounted in a memoir called House of Horrors. His tale of ghostly happenings and encounters with malevolent spirits became a worldwide phenomenon.
Now, Maggie has inherited Baneberry Hall after her father’s death. She was too young to remember any of the events mentioned in her father’s book. But she doesn’t believe a word of it. Ghosts, after all, don’t exist.
But when she returns to Baneberry Hall to prepare it for sale, her homecoming is anything but warm. People from the pages of her father’s book lurk in the shadows, and locals aren’t thrilled that their small town has been made infamous. Even more unnerving is Baneberry Hall itself – a place that hints of dark deeds and unexplained happenings.
As the days pass, Maggie begins to believe that what her father wrote was more fact than fiction. That either way, someone – or something – doesn’t want her here. And that she might be in danger all over again….
The instant New York Times best seller.
What I Thought
I have read a couple of Riley Sager’s books now and really enjoyed them – and this one is added to that list!
I love the pace and suspense Sager builds in his stories, with beautiful settings and great characters. There is always the whiff of the extraordinary, is it magical, is it a ghost – however there is always a plausible explanation for the things that happen which make sense after a few twists and turns.
I really wnjoyed this one and will be looking out for more of Sager’s titles – any you would recomend?
Where To Buy
The Wrong Sister
by Claire Douglas
The Blurb
You’ve known her all your life…
Or have you?
Tasha and her older sister Alice might look alike, but they couldn’t be more different.
Tasha’s married with two children and still living in her home town near Bristol. While Alice is a high-flying scientist travelling the world with her equally successful husband.
But each would trust the other with their life.
So when Tasha and husband Aaron want a break and Alice offers to stay in their home with the kids,
Tasha knows they’re in safe hands.
But she couldn’t be more wrong.
The call from home is unexpected: Alice and her husband Kyle have been attacked.
Alice is in intensive care. Kyle is dead.
Rushing to Alice’s bedside, Tasha finds the police trying to piece events together.
She can’t think why anyone would attack her sister.
Then the note arrives, addressed to Tasha:
It was supposed to be you . . .
What I Thought
I had previously read The Couple At No. 9 by this author so when looking for a new listen decided to try out this one.
The story is packed full of twists and turns. As someone who reads a lot of thrillers I am often able to pick apart the stories and guess what might happen… but this one had me guessing all the way. I had so many moments where I thought I had cracked it, and then Douglas would throw another spanner into the works.
Another author I will be putting on my watch list!
Where To Buy
Here One Moment
by Liane Moriarty
The Blurb
rom the worldwide Number One bestselling author behind the Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning HBO series Big Little Lies and smash hit bestseller Apples Never Fall.
We’re all so busy, caught up in life’s moments, big and small . . .
The flight attendant working a shift on her birthday.
The mother struggling alone with two young children.
The newlyweds excited about their tropical honeymoon .
The overworked father missing his kid’s big show.
The young man returning from his best friend’s funeral.
The ER nurse wondering what retirement will bring.
All strangers. All unsuspecting. Each with a life heading in a particular direction – or so they imagine.
Because an elderly woman is about to step into each of their paths. In just a few words, she will make a prediction, tying herself to all of them. And, in being bound to her, these disparate strangers will all face similar existential dilemmas. .
Who is this woman? Is she a genuine clairvoyant? A charlatan? The answer to prayers, or a harbinger of nightmares?
What she will prove to be is an agent of chaos, fraying relationships, putting entire futures into doubt and causing the most ordered of lives to unravel in the most unexpected of ways . . .
What I Thought
I was so excited to hear this had been released on the Mamamia podcast – then realised that while it was out in Australia, I had to wait little longer here in the UK.
I loved the premise of the book and the story did not disappoint. As with lot’s of Liane Moriarty’s books, it provokes you to think about things. With this story you wonder about what you would dlo if you were one of the passengers on the plane with your prediction. Would it change how you lived your life? Would that be a bad thing or should you allow yourself that freedom in order to live your life following your heart, your hopes and dreams?
Liane introduces multiple characters but it doesn’t get confusing due to her creative way of creating amazing people and bringing them to life with her words. She revisits each character often to check in and manages to interweave their stories in clever ways.
There is a reason I was looking forward to this one so much – I have read so many of her books and love them, and she did not disappoint – this is one of my favourites yet!
Where To Buy
Anything here you have read or takes your fancy – let me know in the comments below! Looking forward to the new year and a new reading challenge – I will share some details in the coming week!
Natalie
The Spoonie Mummy
The Spoonie Mummy 
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