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 my current book obsession The Flat Share by Beth O’Leary. I won a copy of this from Readers First and couldn’t resist starting it yesterday morning despite having other books further up the reading list. Needless to say I finished it in a day with the biggest smile on my face pretty much the whole time and I’m already kind of tempted to re read it (thankfully it’s a hardback and too heavy to cart around with me or I’d be reading it all the time). Anyway, I couldn’t resist posting a teaser with a literary reference that made me laugh out loud. I’m pretty sure you can guess the high quality work of fiction under discussion.

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My Teaser

“This Bella Swan is a very popular lady for one who declares herself to be so unattractive,” he tells me. “Seems every single man in the book who isn’t her father is in love with her”.

I nod solemnly. “It’s very hard being Bella”.

“Sparkly boyfriends can’t be easy,” Leon agrees.

Pg237 The Flat Share by Beth O’Leary

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Blurb

Tiffy Moore and Leon Twomey each have a problem and need a quick fix.

Tiffy’s been dumped by her cheating boyfriend and urgently needs a new flat. But earning minimum wage at a quirky publishing house means that her choices are limited in London.

Leon, a palliative care nurse, is more concerned with other people’s welfare than his own. Along with working night shifts looking after the terminally ill, his sole focus is on raising money to fight his brother’s unfair imprisonment.

Leon has a flat that he only uses 9 to 5. Tiffy works 9 to 5 and needs a place to sleep. The solution to their problems? To share a bed of course…

As Leon and Tiffy’s unusual arrangement becomes a reality, they start to connect through Post-It notes left for each other around the flat.

Can true love blossom even in the unlikeliest of situations?
Can true love blossom even if you never see one another?
Or does true love blossom when you are least expecting it?

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 Stepsister by Jennifer Donnelly. It’s described as a feminist re imagining of Cinderella so there was no way I could resist this when it popped up on NetGalley. I started reading it on Monday and honestly it was love at first page. I’m only around 20% in but it is sooo good I already think it could be getting 5 stars.

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My Teaser

Everyone said a girl with a strong will would come to a bad end. Everyone said a girl’s will must be bent to the wishes of those who know what’s best for her. Isabelle was young, only sixteen; she had not yet learned that Everyone is a fool.

Loc 134 Stepsister by Jennifer Donnelly

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Blurb

A startling, fiercely feminist re-imagining of Cinderella from the bestselling, award-winning author Jennifer Donnelly.

Isabelle should be blissfully happy – she’s about to win the handsome prince. Except Isabelle isn’t the beautiful girl who lost the glass slipper and captured the prince’s heart. She’s the ugly stepsister who’s cut off her toes to fit into Cinderella’s shoe … which is now filling with blood.

When the prince discovers Isabelle’s deception, she is turned away in shame. It’s no more than she deserves: she is a plain girl in a world that values beauty; a feisty girl in a world that wants her to be pliant.

Isabelle has tried to fit in. To live up to her mother’s expectations. To be like her stepsister. To be sweet. To be pretty. One by one, she has cut away pieces of herself in order to survive a world that doesn’t appreciate a girl like her. And that has made her mean, jealous, and hollow.

Until she gets a chance to alter her destiny and prove what ugly stepsisters have always known: it takes more than heartache to break a girl.

Evoking the darker, older versions of the Cinderella story, bestselling author Jennifer Donnelly shows us that ugly is in the eye of the beholder, and uses her trademark wit and wisdom to send an overlooked character on a journey toward empowerment, redemption, and a new definition of beauty.

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 Good Samaritans by Will Carver. I finished this book pretty late last night (part of the reason I’m playing catch up today) and really enjoyed it. Well, when I say enjoyed… It’s a little on the dark and disturbing side and there were a few parts which made for uncomfortable reading but it works.

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My Teaser

He didn’t want to be one of those guys who only kill women. He wasn’t a misogynist.

He thought it seemed like the right thing to do.

66% Good Samaritans by Will Carver

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Blurb

One crossed wire, three dead bodies and six bottles of bleach

Seth Beauman can’t sleep. He stays up late, calling strangers from his phonebook, hoping to make a connection, while his wife, Maeve, sleeps upstairs. A crossed wire finds a suicidal Hadley Serf on the phone to Seth, thinking she is talking to The Samaritans.

But a seemingly harmless, late-night hobby turns into something more for Seth and for Hadley, and soon their late-night talks are turning into day-time meet-ups. And then this dysfunctional love story turns into something altogether darker, when Seth brings Hadley home…

And someone is watching…

Dark, sexy, dangerous and wildly readable, Good Samaritans marks the scorching return of one of crime fiction’s most exceptional voices.

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 My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing. I have to admit this book wasn’t on my radar till the publisher sent me a Netgalley widget for it on Valentine’s day but I’m so glad they did. I pretty much devoured the whole thing in one go. It’s so dark and disturbing but absolutely brilliant. I should probably add the caveat that as it is an ARC and not the final copy text (including this teaser) may change.

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My Teaser

But I keep my mouth shut, because that’s what friends do. We don’t point out each other’s faults unless asked.

loc 281 My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing

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Blurb

Every marriage has secrets. Everyone has flaws. Your wife isn’t perfect – you know that – but then again nor are you.

But now a serial killer is on the loose in your small town, preying on young women. Fear is driving your well-behaved young daughter off the rails, and you find yourself in bed late at night, looking at the woman who lies asleep beside you.

Because you thought you knew the worst about her. The truth is you know nothing at all.

This is a thriller like nothing you’ve read before…

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 Twisted, the latest book from Steve Cavanagh which I received from NetGalley. I only started this yesterday so only around 25% in but I am very much enjoying it. This will be my first book by Cavanagh so I’m not entirely sure what to expect (something which is always good with thriller). So far none of the characters are particularly likeable and I have a feeling it’s going to take a turn for the dark so it’s all good.

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My Teaser

The words fell lightly from his lips. No guilt. His conscience had long given up the fight.

loc 483 Twisted by Steve Cavanagh

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Blurb

BEFORE YOU READ THIS BOOK
I WANT YOU TO KNOW THREE THINGS:

1. The police are looking to charge me with murder.
2. No one knows who I am. Or how I did it.
3. If you think you’ve found me. I’m coming for you next.

After you’ve read this book, you’ll know: the truth is far more twisted…

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.

I was struggling to decide on a book to use for this week’s teaser so adopted the complex selection process known as picking up the one closest to me which just happened to be Someone Like Me by M.R. Carey. I haven’t had a chance to dive into this one yet but I do love the sound of it and I loved Carey’s other books The Girl with all the Gifts and The Boy on the Bridge so I have high hopes.

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My Teaser

Fran simply wasn’t ready for a change on this massive scale. With a yelp of dismay, she sank down on her knees among the weeds that were there to the touch although she couldn’t see them anymore.

Pg 153 Someone Like Me by M.R. Carey

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Blurb

SHE LOOKS LIKE ME. SHE SOUNDS LIKE ME. NOW SHE’S TRYING TO TAKE MY PLACE.

Liz Kendall wouldn’t hurt a fly. She’s a gentle woman devoted to bringing up her kids in the right way, no matter how hard times get.

But there’s another side to Liz—one which is dark and malicious. A version of her who will do anything to get her way, no matter how extreme or violent.

And when this other side of her takes control, the consequences are devastating.

The only way Liz can save herself and her family is if she can find out where this new alter-ego has come from, and how she can stop it.

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.

I know I’m really late with my teaser this week but I wanted to post something from King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo and I only managed to get my hands on a copy a few hourss ago. I am ridiculously excited about this book, I feel like I’ve been waiting since Siege and Storm for Nikolai to get his own book and it’s here at last (I’m kind of scared to read it).

Anyway, as I haven’t even started it yet you can have a few sentences from the first chapter, I’m not risking skimming any further forward 🙂

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My Teaser

“Listen,” said Pyotr, and as the wind shook the roof of the house and the fire sputtered in the grate, Dima thought he heard something more than the storm – a high, distant cry like the yowl of a hungry animal or the wailing of a child. “When the wind blows through the graveyard, it wakes the spirits of all the babies who died before they could be given their Saints’ names. Malenchki. They go looking for souls to steal so they can barter their way into heaven.”

Pg 5 King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo

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Blurb

Nikolai Lantsov has always had a gift for the impossible. No one knows what he endured in his country’s bloody civil war—and he intends to keep it that way. Now, as enemies gather at his weakened borders, the young king must find a way to refill Ravka’s coffers, forge new alliances, and stop a rising threat to the once-great Grisha Army.

Yet with every day a dark magic within him grows stronger, threatening to destroy all he has built. With the help of a young monk and a legendary Grisha Squaller, Nikolai will journey to the places in Ravka where the deepest magic survives to vanquish the terrible legacy inside him. He will risk everything to save his country and himself. But some secrets aren’t meant to stay buried—and some wounds aren’t meant to heal.

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 Beauty and the Beast retelling A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer. I received this from NetGalley during the summer last year and being the biggest fan of retellings I couldn’t resist reading immediately. Needless to say while I loved it I did not write a review or any kind of notes after I finished so ended up re reading it over the weekend to refresh my memory. And, it was just as good as the first time. I’ve read quite a few Beauty and the Beast retellings and I think this is one of the best.

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My Teaser

“What would you have done,” I ask quietly, “if we had not arrived?”

“Did you see their swords?” she says against my back. “I’m pretty sure I would have died.”

loc 718 A Curse So Dark & Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer

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Blurb

In a lush, contemporary fantasy retelling of Beauty and the Beast, Brigid Kemmerer gives readers another compulsively readable romance perfect for fans of Marissa Meyer.

Fall in love, break the curse. 

It once seemed so easy to Prince Rhen, the heir to Emberfall. Cursed by a powerful enchantress to repeat the autumn of his eighteenth year over and over, he knew he could be saved if a girl fell for him. But that was before he learned that at the end of each autumn, he would turn into a vicious beast hell-bent on destruction. That was before he destroyed his castle, his family, and every last shred of hope.

Nothing has ever been easy for Harper Lacy. With her father long gone, her mother dying, and her brother barely holding their family together while constantly underestimating her because of her cerebral palsy, she learned to be tough enough to survive. But when she tries to save someone else on the streets of Washington, DC, she’s instead somehow sucked into Rhen’s cursed world.

Break the curse, save the kingdom. 

A prince? A monster? A curse? Harper doesn’t know where she is or what to believe. But as she spends time with Rhen in this enchanted land, she begins to understand what’s at stake. And as Rhen realizes Harper is not just another girl to charm, his hope comes flooding back. But powerful forces are standing against Emberfall . . . and it will take more than a broken curse to save Harper, Rhen, and his people from utter ruin.