Weekly Wrap Up (April 8)

Well it’s been quite a week! If anyone can tell me why four day working weeks are so much worse than normal ones, please let me know.

But… There was good news on Thursday when I read this tweet, I was thrilled that my review was included for a book that is quite different to my normal type of reads, but one that I really enjoyed despite that.

Find out what bloggers @cleo_bannister @bookishchat are saying about @kitdewaal's The Trick To Time https://t.co/HQfMM6MqTK

— Lounge Books (@lounge_books) April 5, 2018

And then yesterday when I discovered that I have been nominated for BEST BOOK REVIEW BLOG for THE ANNUAL BLOGGERS BASH – I’m honoured and thrilled to be included and of course there are a whole heap of other wonderful book bloggers to vote for too!

If you fancy casting a vote click on the logo

This Week on the Blog

I started the week with my Five of the Best – Five Star Reads for March 2014 to 2018 which included books by Tom Vowler, Jane Robins, Sarah Ward, Gillian McAllister and Claire McGowan.

My excerpt post came from my latest read for The Classics Club; The Moving Toyshop by Edmund Crispin

This Week in Books featured books by Jane Davis, Alison Marsons and Rebecca Muddiman.

My first review of the week was for the psychological suspense novel Skin Deep by Liz Nugent which I awarded the full five stars.

This was followed by my review for Vicky Newham‘s debut novel Turn a Blind Eye which introduces Bangladeshi DI Maya Rahman and is set in Tower Hamlets, East London.

I rounded off the week with a cheeky book challenge – I Spy Book Challenge had me frantically searching my bookshelves for suitable titles – always fun!

This Time Last Year…

I was reading Dead Woman Walking by Sharon Bolton. This almost surreal piece of crime fiction featured a hot air balloon, a bunch of nuns and peacocks which has to go down as the most bizarre trio of important items for any crime novel.

The book starts with a fortieth birthday celebration and the aforementioned hot air balloon when one of the passengers witnesses an act of violence. The man committing violence eyes meet those of the witness, and then the balloon crashes. If you want to know any more you really should read this brilliant novel.

You can read my full review here or click on the book cover.

Blurb

Just before dawn in the hills near the Scottish border, thirteen passengers on a hot-air balloon flight witness a brutal murder. Within the next hour, all but one of them will be dead.

Alone, scared and trusting no-one, she flees for her life, running to the one place she feels safe. But she’s seen the killer’s face, and he’s seen hers – and he won’t rest until he’s eliminated the last witness to his crime . . . Amazon

Stacking the Shelves

Just one book this week, yes you read that correctly! I have vowed not only to continue to follow the book token rule in purchasing new books but I’m also sworn off all new review books for the month of April and probably May too. This is mainly out of necessity as the months on the spreadsheet are already overflowing and I am determined to squeeze some of my own reads in too, so something had to give.

So how do I have one book? Well I accepted, not that I would ever say no to this author, before 1 April when this vow came into being.

Dead If You Don’t by Peter James is going to be published on 17 May 2018 and is the fourteenth in my favourite ever police procedural series featuring Roy James.

Blurb

Kipp Brown, successful businessman and compulsive gambler, is having the worst run of luck of his life. He’s beginning to lose, big style. However, taking his teenage son, Mungo, to their club’s Saturday afternoon football match should have given him a welcome respite, if only for a few hours. But it’s at the stadium where his nightmare begins.

Within minutes of arriving at the game, Kipp bumps into a client. He takes his eye off Mungo for a few moments, and in that time, the boy disappears. Then he gets the terrifying message that someone has his child, and to get him back alive, Kipp will have to pay.

Defying instruction not to contact the police, Kipp reluctantly does just that, and Detective Superintendent Roy Grace is brought in to investigate. At first it seems a straightforward case of kidnap. But rapidly Grace finds himself entering a dark, criminal underbelly of the city, where the rules are different and nothing is what it seems . . . Amazon

Since my last post I have read 4 books and since I have gained 1 so my TBR has started its descent to 185
Physical Books – 111
Kindle Books – 52
NetGalley Books –22

 

I have banked absolutely no book tokens this week and also spent 0 so I’m just 1/3 books in credit!