WWW Wednesday: 4th September 2019

September 4, 2019 Ali@abookishlife7 Comments

The WWW Wednesday meme is hosted by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words and is a great way to do a weekly update on what you’ve been reading and what you have planned.

To take part all you have to do is answer the following three questions:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

I’m trying not to start anything new until I get caught up on some reviews so only have audio book Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff on the go at the moment. I’ve owned copies of all three books pretty much since they came out but the combination of hype and unusual format put me off. A lot of people did recommend reading it while listening to the audio though so that’s kind of what I’ve been doing and I am flying through it. The audio is brilliant and I feel like the narrators deserve some kind of award, they are so good. Right now I only have around 2 hours to go and I am not happy with what’s just happened in the story 😥

Recently Finished

Two books finished again this week, I seem to be on a roll. The first was Godsgrave by Jay Kristoff, the second in the Nevernight chronicles series. It’s a little darker and more serious than the first book but so, so good. I’m still not sure about the format, there are lots of footnotes which are really funny but interrupt the flow (especially when you’re reading the ebook) but I do love the story and Kristoff’s writing. Things never seem to go the way you think they will, characters you think will have a big part have their stories cut short and it’s almost impossible to predict how main character Mia will act or what she’s willing to do. Needless to say the ending was epic but has left me hanging for book 3.

Bringing Down the Duke (A League of Extraordinary Women, #1) As I’m pretty much just waiting to read Darkdawn when it’s released tomorrow, I decided to pick up something completely different and went for historical romance Bringing Down the Duke by Evie Dunmore. I do love a historical romance and was expecting the usual light and fluffy read but yeah, that’s not really what Bringing Down the Duke is. It is a romance and it does have a lot of the classic tropes but it plays around with them a little. What I loved however was how grounded and realistic it felt. I also loved the time period it was set in and all of the details around the women’s suffrage movement and class. It makes it a little bit different.

Reading Next

I’m sure it’ll be no surprise that I fully intend on starting Darkdawn the second I manage to get my hands on it. It would be nice to finish one series I’m partway through and also I feel like I need to know how it ends. There’s also a strong possibility I’m going to continue on with the Illuminae Files with Gemina, although that depends on how upset I am at the end of Illuminae and whether I splash out on the audio now or wait till I get my next audible credit at the end of the month.

Finally, it’s just over a two weeks till Bloody Scotland so I feel I should be getting back into my crime fiction. I saw Ambrose Parry in Glasgow last week so I have a copy of their latest book The Art of Dying. They read a couple of extracts from it and it sounds fantastic. I also have an ARC of the Six by Luca Veste which is calling to me too though.

Darkdawn (The Nevernight Chronicle, #3) Gemina (The Illuminae Files, #2) The Art of Dying The Six

Have you read any of the books on my list this week? Any others you’d recommend? As always please feel free to leave comments and links below.

Happy Reading ❤

WWW Wednesday: 28th August 2019

August 28, 2019August 27, 2019 Ali@abookishlife12 Comments

The WWW Wednesday meme is hosted by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words and is a great way to do a weekly update on what you’ve been reading and what you have planned.

To take part all you have to do is answer the following three questions:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

My Kristoff-athon is now well underway and I started the second book in the Nevernight Chronicles, Godsgrave, on Sunday. It’s still fairly early days as I’m only around a quarter of the way through but so far so good. It’s a little darker than the first book and there have been a things I would have liked to have gone a different way but I absolutely love main character Mia (and her shadows). I’m also finding it much easier to read than the first book, I think because I’ve gotten used to the style.

Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1) On started listening to Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff on audio on Monday. This is another series I’ve been meaning to pick up for ages but despite owning all of the books in it kept putting it off (I think it may have been the format again). I’m around an hour in so far and I’m absolutely loving it. The narrators are brilliant and are really bringing it to life for me. My only complaint is that Ezra and Kady are just too funny, I can’t help laughing aloud at some of the things they say at their interviews.

Recently Finished

Things seem to have settled down a little (it won’t last) so I’ve managed to find some time for reading and finished off two books. The first Imaginary Friend by Stephen Chbosky, was an ARC I received from NetGalley. I have to admit that despite not having read Perks of Being a Wallflower I requested this largely on the basis of the author’s name and didn’t realize it was a horror story (I like a good horror story so this was an added bonus). At over 700 pages it is a little on the long side but while I’m not sure it needed quite so many pages I liked it a lot.

Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle, #1) The second book finished was Nevernight by Jay Kristoff and yeah I think this may be the first time I’ve “read” a book in pretty much every format. I started listening to it on audio, switched to the ebook around quarter of the way through and then to the hardback for the second half. I do generally prefer reading ebooks (I like highlighting quotes) but I didn’t think the ebook version worked particularly well with all of the footnotes (there are a lot of footnotes). The audio really helped me to get into it but I think it worked best as a physical copy.

Reading Next

I’m not entirely sure what I’ll pick up next. I do want to continue the Kristoff-athon so may press on with the Illuminae files or pick up Lifel1k3 or it may be time for a bit of a change. I like a bit of variety in my reads so I’m thinking I may need to break up all of the sci fi / fantasy with some crime or a romance. I recently had NetGalley requests for Bringing Down the Duke by Evie Dunmore and Robert Bryndza’s new book Nine Elms approved so I’m very tempted to pick one of them up.

LIFEL1K3 (Lifelike, #1) Bringing Down the Duke (A League of Extraordinary Women, #1) Nine Elms (Kate Marshall, #1)

Have you read any of the books on my list this week? Any others you’d recommend? As always please feel free to leave comments and links below.

Happy Reading ❤

Teaser Tuesday: Nevernight

August 27, 2019August 26, 2019 Ali@abookishlifeLeave a comment

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by The Purple Booker. If you want to join in grab your current read, flick to a random page, select two sentences (without spoilers) and share them in a blog post or in the comments of The Purple Booker.

This week my teaser comes from Nevernight by Jay Kristoff. I actually finished this at the weekend and am on to the second book in the series now but I loved it so much I couldn’t resist using it for this weeks teaser. I haven’t stuck strictly to the random page rule as it’s kind of difficult to find two sentences that don’t contain swearing 🙂

My Teaser

Names speak to the namer as much as the named. Maybe I don’t want folks knowing who I am. Maybe I like being underestimated.

pg57 Nevernight by Jay Kristoff

Blurb

Destined to destroy empires, Mia Covere is only ten years old when she is given her first lesson in death.

Six years later, the child raised in shadows takes her first steps towards keeping the promise she made on the day that she lost everything.

But the chance to strike against such powerful enemies will be fleeting, so if she is to have her revenge, Mia must become a weapon without equal. She must prove herself against the deadliest of friends and enemies, and survive the tutelage of murderers, liars and demons at the heart of a murder cult.

The Red Church is no Hogwarts, but Mia is no ordinary student.

The shadows love her. And they drink her fear.

Review: Skyward by Brandon Sanderson

August 26, 2019 Ali@abookishlife1 Comment

Wow, just wow!!! I absolutely loved this book. It may not be the most original of stories and it’s certainly not perfect but Sanderson is such an incredible storyteller you can’t help but become invested. It’s a wonderful start to the series and I can’t wait for what comes next.

THE BLURB

Defeated, crushed, and driven almost to extinction, the remnants of the human race are trapped on a planet that is constantly attacked by mysterious alien starfighters. Spensa, a teenage girl living among them, longs to be a pilot. When she discovers the wreckage of an ancient ship, she realizes this dream might be possible—assuming she can repair the ship, navigate flight school, and (perhaps most importantly) persuade the strange machine to help her. Because this ship, uniquely, appears to have a soul.

MY THOUGHTS

This was my first book by Sanderson and I have to confess that despite being lucky enough to get a copy from Netgalley I put off reading it for ages, a combination of fear that yet again I would be that one person who didn’t like his writing and also my general wariness of all things sci fi.

When I finally picked it up though I found myself instantly hooked. I knew from pretty much the first page that this was a book I was going to love and I was 100% right. Yes, I can look back at it objectively and say it’s maybe a little longer than it needs to be, some of the characters are underdeveloped and it’s not the most original of stories but while I was reading it I was completely swept away by it.

There’s something about it that just feels epic sci fi. Something that made me nostalgic for those classic sci fi films I loved when I was young. It has that brilliant combination of alien attacks and school setting kind of like Enders Game or Top Gun (OK I need to think of better comparisons) and there is something about the writing which made it all feel very familiar and comfortable (despite having never read the author before). It’s hard to put into words but I just instantly knew that I could trust him to tell a story I’d love.

The characters do veer a little into the classic stereotypes, the hot headed, fiercely independent and determined heroine on a journey of discovery, the grumpy but good hearted mentor/teacher, the nerdy, genius best friend, and the seemingly aloof, priveledged nemesis/love interest but it didn’t matter. I loved main character Spensa and the journey she goes on. She’s just so determined and I love a character who’s proactive, who makes mistakes and who learns.

I loved the emotion in the story too, there is a lot of humour and many, many funny conversations between Spensa and a certain ship AI but there’s a lot of heart there too. There are some wonderful friendships which develop between the characters and for YA it’s nice to see these rather than a romance take centre stage.

The story and the world building are very well done too. There is plenty of action and lots of conflict to keep the story moving on, and the reader hooked. Yes it does get a little repetitive in places, one battle against aliens after another does become a little same old, same old but there’s enough going on with the characters to keep you glued to the page and rooting for them. I should also add here that I often get lost in big action sequences and struggle to visualise or keep up, but that was never an issue. I was seriously impressed with how Sanderson made it all so easy.

There are a few unexpected turns in the story and while parts are predictable (and a smidge tropey) it still surprised me. The ending in particular was epic in scale and left plenty of loose ends for the next book.

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Thanks to the publisher for providing me with an advance copy via NetGalley. This has in no way influenced my review

WWW Wednesday: 21st August 2019

August 21, 2019August 20, 2019 Ali@abookishlife9 Comments

The WWW Wednesday meme is hosted by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words and is a great way to do a weekly update on what you’ve been reading and what you have planned.

To take part all you have to do is answer the following three questions:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

As expected I haven’t quite managed to finish Imaginary Friend by Stephen Chbosky as yet but I only have around 10% left to go so I should be done today or tomorrow. I’ve never read Perks of Being a Wallflower so this is my first book by Chbosky and I’ve been really enjoying it. Given it’s a horror I get the impression it’s very different from Perks but I do like his writing style. At over 700 pages it is a lot longer than the books I usually read but it’s kept me pretty much hooked throughout (to the extent that I almost missed my stop on the train twice). I have read some not so great things about the ending but fingers crossed it doesn’t let me down. Nevernight (The Nevernight Chronicle, #1)

On audio I’ve been listening to Nevernight by Jay Kristoff. I’ve had a copy of the book for a couple of years now and have tried to read it more than once but somehow never made it past the first few pages. The audio does seem to be working a lot better for me, the narrator is brilliant and really brings it to life, but I suspect I’m going to switch back to the book at some point as I’m going to see Kristoff at the start of September and I take too long with audios to have it (and hopefully Godsgrave) finished in time.

Recently Finished

No books finished this week unfortunately, I blame the cat.

Reading Next

I just realized at the weekend that it’s just over two weeks till I go see Jay Kristoff and I’ve read exactly one of his books (or given he co wrote Aurora Rising, half a book). I’ve therefore decided to make the next two weeks a Kristoff-athon. I for sure want to finish Nevernight and Godsgrave but I also have Lifel1k3 lined up too.

Godsgrave (The Nevernight Chronicle, #2) LIFEL1K3 (Lifelike, #1)

Have you read any of the books on my list this week? Any others you’d recommend? As always please feel free to leave comments and links below.

Happy Reading ❤

WWW Wednesday: 14th August 2019

August 14, 2019 Ali@abookishlife8 Comments

The WWW Wednesday meme is hosted by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words and is a great way to do a weekly update on what you’ve been reading and what you have planned.

To take part all you have to do is answer the following three questions:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

I’ve been jumping around between a lot of different books over the last couple of days as I couldn’t decide what I wanted to read but I think I’ve finally settled on Imaginary Friend by Stephen Chbosky. I haven’t made a huge amount of progress, I’m only around 3% in but so far I’m really enjoying it. I was surprised to discover it was a horror, I should probably read blurbs before requesting, but it did just make me even more excited about it than I was. I’m hoping for something creepy.

On audio I’ve been listening to Daisy Jones and the Six but unfortunately it returned itself to the library an hour ago so it’s now on hold again. Not too fussed as I’ve already read it but I was enjoying the audio version.

Recently Finished

I thought I’d finally gotten my reading mojo back at the weekend as I successfully finished two books but my cat seems to be unwell again (he’s off to the vet tomorrow) and work has been a bit nuts so I’ve lost concentration yet again.

The first book I finished was The Risk by Elle Kennedy. I do love Elle Kennedy books and this, the second in the Briar U series, was a lot of fun to read. I loved both of the main characters but Brenna is one of my fave Kennedy characters so far. She’s just so confident and self assured despite not having the happiest of pasts. There are a lot of feels in this story. Sorcery of Thorns

After The Risk I decided to pick up one of the YA fantasy books I’ve had lurking on my NetGalley shelf for a while, Sorcery of Thorns. I had somehow managed to avoid all of the reviews of this and hadn’t read the blurb so didn’t know what it was about but it pleasantly surprised me. I love books about books and libraries and I loved the idea of these magical books that can transform into monsters. Elisabeth makes for a great main character but it was a certain demon who fascinated me the most. There is something holding me back from really loving this (I can’t quite put my finger on what) but I would recommend.

Reading Next

Given Imaginary Friend is over 700 pages and I’ve been struggling to find time to read I suspect I’ll still be reading it next week but in the event I do finish it I suspect I’ll pick up either The Six by Luca Veste or The Lost Ones by Anita Frank.

The Six The Lost Ones

Have you read any of the books on my list this week? Any others you’d recommend? As always please feel free to leave comments and links below.

Happy Reading ❤

Review: Someone We Know by Shari Lapena

August 12, 2019 Ali@abookishlife4 Comments

Someone We Know by Shari Lapena

Having read and loved Lapena’s previous book, An Unwanted Guest, I was very excited to pick up her latest. Unfortunately while this was an addictive whodunit with a great premise, I never really connected with any of the characters and the whole thing left me a little cold. I do think this was down to my general dislike of books with multiple povs though so I would still recommend to anyone who likes a good plot driven story with plenty of twists and turns.

THE BLURB

Maybe you don’t know your neighbors as well as you thought you did . . .

“This is a very difficult letter to write. I hope you will not hate us too much. . . My son broke into your home recently while you were out.”

In a quiet, leafy suburb in upstate New York, a teenager has been sneaking into houses–and into the owners’ computers as well–learning their secrets, and maybe sharing some of them, too.

Who is he, and what might he have uncovered? After two anonymous letters are received, whispers start to circulate, and suspicion mounts. And when a woman down the street is found murdered, the tension reaches the breaking point. Who killed her? Who knows more than they’re telling? And how far will all these very nice people go to protect their own secrets?

In this neighborhood, it’s not just the husbands and wives who play games. Here, everyone in the family has something to hide . . .

You never really know what people are capable of.

MY REVIEW

I’m afraid I liked the idea of this book more than the execution. It’s a well written and addictive read but for me to truly enjoy a book I have to connect to the characters, to become invested in their story, and in this case it just never happened.

It is a great premise, how well do you know your neighbours, do you really know what goes on behind closed doors? In this story there is a teenage boy who knows more about the neighbours than he really should as he’s been breaking into their homes and hacking into their computers. When his mother finds out she’s horrified and out of guilt she writes anonymous letters to the residents of two of the houses to apologize. Unfortunately one of those houses belongs to the man whose wife’s body has been found badly beaten in the trunk of a car. What follows is a complex and addictive whodunit involving a number of the residents of the street, most of whom seem to have some secret or another.

As far as whodunit’s go this is a pretty good one and I will admit that I never really guessed the murderer. There are lots of clues and hints but there are also more than a few twists and red herrings to throw you off the scent. The story is told from multiple point of views including the victim’s husband, several of the neighbours and the police detectives investigating the case so you get to follow the investigation from a number of different angles and get some insight into the different relationships.

Unfortunately however, I think it was the multiple povs that were the biggest problem for me. It’s rare for me to really love a book with a lot of narrators. I find it difficult to keep all of the characters straight and I never feel like I get enough of them to really connect with them. I don’t think it helped that I didn’t especially like any of the characters and I didn’t even hate them. I just wasn’t emotionally invested at all so while I could appreciate the complex plot and all of the twists and turns I didn’t care who the killer was or whether they got caught.

Regardless of this though I am still a big fan of the author and would recommend this book to anyone who likes a plot driven murder mystery. Even with the problems I had with it I found it very difficult to put down.

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with an advance copy. This has in no way influenced my review.

ARC Review: The Wallflower Wager by Tessa Dare

August 10, 2019 Ali@abookishlife1 Comment

The Wallflower Wager by Tessa Dare

When it comes to historical romance, for me, no one beats Tessa Dare and this is definitely one of her best. It sparkles with all of Dare’s usual humour and wit and the romance is hot, hot, hot. I started this on my way home from work one Thursday evening and had the whole thing finished that night. It was exactly the break from reality I needed after a long and stressful day.

THE BLURB

They call him the Duke of Ruin.
To an undaunted wallflower, he’s just the beast next door.

Wealthy and ruthless, Gabriel Duke clawed his way from the lowliest slums to the pinnacle of high society―and now he wants to get even.

Loyal and passionate, Lady Penelope Campion never met a lost or wounded creature she wouldn’t take into her home and her heart.

When her imposing―and attractive―new neighbour demands she clear out the rescued animals, Penny sets him a challenge. She will part with her precious charges, if he can find them loving homes.

Done, Gabriel says. How hard can it be to find homes for a few kittens?
And a two-legged dog.
And a foul-mouthed parrot.
And a goat, an otter, a hedgehog…

Soon, cold-hearted Gabriel, who wouldn’t know a loving home from a workhouse, is covered in cat hair, knee-deep in adorable animals, and bewitched by a shyly pretty spinster who defies his every attempt to resist. Now she’s set her mind and heart on saving him.

Not if he ruins her first.

MY REVIEW

This is the third book in the Girl Meets Duke series so there are some familiar faces from the previous books but it could easily be read as a standalone. If you are familiar with the series, this is the Penny book we’ve all been waiting for (well that I’ve definitely been waiting for). Penny is such a wonderfully unique character I think it would be difficult to not love her. She may be a lady but she avoids society preferring to stick to her close friends and the various wounded and wild animals she has rescued and brought into her home.

Gabe also makes for a suitably dashing hero. He may have come from the slums and have a reputation for ruining the aristocracy but he’s surprising sweet and protective of those around him. He may be gruff and rude at times but he’s incredibly honourable and very conscious of the importance of reputation.

Put them together and they are the perfect match. There is some wonderful banter between them and their chemistry is amazing. They just seem to compliment each other so well. If only they could overcome the usual obstacles that get in their way.

Speaking of obstacles my only slight niggle with this book is that I felt these were resolved a little too easily. I won’t go into details due to spoilers but things that were supposedly major impossible challenges to be overcome were sorted out in a couple of pages.

Who really cares about little details like that though when a story is this much fun to read. I just wish Dare would write faster so I could have the next book now. I suspect we may be getting Nicole’s book next.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advance copy. This has in no way influenced my review.

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

WWW Wednesday: 7th August 2019

August 7, 2019 Ali@abookishlife2 Comments

The WWW Wednesday meme is hosted by Sam @ Taking on a World of Words and is a great way to do a weekly update on what you’ve been reading and what you have planned.

To take part all you have to do is answer the following three questions:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading

I’m still struggling a little with focus this week due to horse, house and cat drama but I did start reading The Risk by Elle Kennedy on Monday and seem to be making reasonable progress with it. I love Kennedy’s sports romances and this one is proving to be pretty addictive and just what I need to take my mind off things. I am loving main character Brenna and Jake is not so bad either 😉

Recently Finished

Someone We Know

I really haven’t had a lot of time for reading over the last week as I’ve been running around all over the place and driving to work rather than taking the train. I did however manage to read thriller Someone We Know by Shari Lapena over the weekend.

I’ve read one of Lapena’s books before and very much enjoyed it so was looking forward to this but I’m afraid it ended up being a bit of a disappointment. There’s nothing really wrong with it, as who dunit’s go it definitely keeps you guessing, but I never really got invested in the story. It may just have been the mood I was in when reading it but I didn’t really care who dunit. I know it probably shouldn’t factor into it but the victim didn’t come across as a particularly nice person and I didn’t really like any of the other characters either. It didn’t help either that there were multiple pov’s, as I often struggle with that style.

Reading Next

I managed to snag a copy of Three Women by Lisa Taddeo from the library so I suspect I’ll be picking it up next (there are a lot of people waiting on it). This is one of those books that seems to have a lot of buzz around it which is something that usually puts me off but it sounds like my kind of read. We’ll see though.

Have you read any of the books on my list this week? Any others you’d recommend? As always please feel free to leave comments and links below.

Happy Reading ❤

Review: The Possession by Michael Rutger

August 3, 2019 Ali@abookishlifeLeave a comment

I can’t remember the last time a book gave me chills the way this one did. I will admit to never really having read Stephen King so I can’t say if it’s as perfect for his fans as the cover claims but for me – who used to devour James Herbert and Dean Koontz books, was a huge fan of shows like X-Files, the Twilight Zone, Poltergeist the Legacy and pretty much any and every horror film – this was right up my street. It’s a lot of fun but so, so creepy and atmospheric. I loved it.

THE BLURB

THEY CAME LOOKING FOR ANSWERS

A group of explorers arrive in the remote town of Birchlake, Northern California, to investigate the appearance of mysterious stone walls.

WHAT THEY FOUND WERE QUESTIONS

A teenage girl has disappeared without a trace.

FOR NOT EVERYONE IS AS THEY SEEM

Soon it becomes clear that the two events may be connected in the most terrifying way. Because sometimes the walls we build end up closing us in . .

REVIEW

I didn’t realize when I started reading this that it was the second in a series but honestly it didn’t matter one bit. Yes there are a few references to the first book (which are mild spoilers if like me you plan to go back and read it later) but I didn’t really feel like I’d missed much. Hell, I was around 150 pages in before I even discovered it was the second in a series (and that was only when I was looking it up on Goodreads).

The blurb is a little lacking in detail but the series is about a team who investigate myths, urban legends and unexplained phenomena, filming it for a YouTube show. When the team’s leader and presenter, Nolan, discovers his ex wife Kristy is in a small town in Northern California investigating the disappearance of a teenage girl he convinces his team that now’s the perfect time to visit that town to look into the mystery surrounding miles of walls in the area. No one knows who built these walls but they’re incredibly old, are scattered throughout the area and often run for miles with no discernible purpose.

This is really an excuse to keep an eye on his ex (and maybe rekindle something) but as both Kristy and Nolan and his team start to experience some very strange things it seems both mysteries may be connected and there may be something very wrong in this town.

It’s a classic creepy horror story with everything that entails – think Blair Witch (dark woods, mist, deserted streets, strange noises in the middle of the night, objects turning up in places they weren’t left and a strange figure only certain people seems to see). Basically there were moments when it scared me witless and yes I did have to put it down to go check the doors were locked (more than once).

What makes it a great fun read though is how the author mixes these genuinely chilling moments with a lot of humor. One second I’d be wanting to hide under the covers and the next I’d be chuckling at a one liner. I loved the relationships between Nolan and his team (Ken, Molly and Pierre). Ken and Nolan in particular are clearly close friends with a long history and there is some great banter between them to break the tension when it all starts to get a bit much.

The story itself fascinated me too. Initially I was probably in a pretty similar place to Nolan’s team when he said walls, I mean how excited can you really get about some walls? But, the more that’s revealed about them the more intriguing it gets and it turns out these walls are a real thing (I googled). I was probably less interested in the missing teenager side of the story (sorry missing teenager) but when the things happening get increasingly strange and spooky it was definitely hard to put the book down.

I do think the first half of the book was the strongest as the mystery around what’s going on in the town, whether supernatural forces are at work or there’s a more rational and scientific explanation, keep you glued to the pages. For me the unknown is almost always scarier than known so once the reveal was made it lost a lot of the tension and on occasion wandered into the slightly bizarre and confusing. As for the ending, I think it worked but was maybe a little too easy or maybe I mean too resolved.

Regardless of this though I loved the author’s writing style and the tone of the whole book. The characters are likeable and the humor just worked for me. Was it a little slow in places? Maybe, but the other parts had enough tension and atmosphere to more than make up for it.

Overall a great read and one I’d recommend if you love a creepy horror story and don’t mind a wander into the weird. I’m off now to read the first book in the series as I think Rutger could become a favourite author.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I won a copy of this book in a Readers First Giveaway. This has in no way influenced my review.