Bob Avey - Footprints of a Dancer

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Hey guys, today I shall be reviewing this Bob Avey book for you, I got this on Amazon for free - if you don't check out the freebies on Amazon you really are missing out on some great deals.  This book has now gone back up to £2.67.

This was a strange one, Kenny Elliot spots Laura Bradford 8 years after she disappeared. Kenny's friend Gerald Reynolds also spots her and calls Kenny, before Kenny gets to Gerald he is killed, his body is in an abandoned building, left in a ritualistic fashion. There is a noise outside which Kenny goes to investigate, when he goes back in the body of his old friend has disappeared. 

The rest of the book Kenny - who takes a break from his job as a Police Detective to unofficially investigate his friends death, and how his old class mate Laura is involved.

This book is a mix between mystery and paranormal activity, it does leave you confused at some points but it all pulls together at the end. 

You can get your own copy for as little as £2.67.

Kathryn Player - Shop Gossip

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Hey guys, another review for you today. I have been so behind on writing these reviews yet I keep reading more and more books, it's about time I settled down and started typing.

This was a short on my Kindle that I found free on Amazon although it's now gone up to 99p.

I found this an odd little book, set in a charity shop ran by woman in their late 40's / early 50's, they are worried that the shop will be closed down if they can't pick up business so they have a bake sale.

I couldn't even tell you the out-come of that bake sale or whether the shop stayed open and the book was only 62 pages long.

There was so much the story was all over the place, one woman was going on the internet to find dates, her sister though married was lusting after the shop manager, at some point a canary comes into it.

It was just too much that I ended the book confused as anything.

I wouldn't recommend this, especially not for the price.

If you wish to read it for yourself, you can buy it on Amazon for 99p.

xx

Sara Shepard - Toxic

Hey guys, I finally got my hands on the 15th (and second to last) book in the Pretty Little Liars series. 

I love the TV show, I love the books. I know most people rant about the show and also how many books there are in this series, but I love them.

One thing I have to say was this wasn't a file intended for the Kindle, I think it was a Nook(?) file that my Kindle then converted to get it to work, only it doubled the amount of pages that were in the book as the writing was huge, after reading it all text looked so small against it. You can buy this on iTunes and Nook, but not on the Kindle for some reason, I'm not sure why but she never releases her books on the Kindle until at least 6 months later. 

It had been so long since I read the last PLL book and I'd read so many other books since then that I was confused when I started reading this, I thought I'd read it before - technically I had but not from that characters view, it was only the first few pages and explained a lot so it wasn't exactly the same. 

I would advise you not to have just watched the show before reading this, the show is completely different to the books but as both have so much going on you can get easily confused. 

Things seem to be looking up for the Liar's in this book, movie roles, selling art, book deals and true love - a little too good for them if you think of how much they have suffered in the past books. Of course you'll have to read the book to discover if A is going to ruin their lives again, or if the girls are actually going to be able to have their dreams come true. 

One thing is for certain though, Alison is alive whilst a lot of other people are dying. 

The next and last book in the series Vicious is expected to be released in December 2014 and I for one cannot wait. 

You can buy this book for £9.94 on Amazon.

xx

Kelley Armstrong - The Summoning

Hey Guys, today's review is in the form of Kelley Armstong's The Summoning, the first book in The Darkest Power Trilogy.

My sister actually left this on the book case outside my room one day to see if I would be interested in reading it - after reading the back, I was, I just wanted to get through the Ice and Fire series first, as soon as I'd finished the A Dance With Dragons book, I was straight to my room and picked this up, and I couldn't put it down.

I am a particular person, I can't stand horror or being scared, but love nothing more than a thrill or suspense book. I have an active imagination so just a few words on a page can make me think of all sorts - where in a horror film, you're seeing the work of other people's imaginations, not actually as bad as what your own can come up with, yet I would choose a thriller book over a movie any day. Anyone else like that?

This starts off with our main character Chloe being babysat as a child, her child minder keeps calling her into the basement even though her parents told her that Chloe must never go in there. The child minder is insisting so young Chloe descends down the stairs where she is cornered by a ghost.

Chloe can see ghosts. 

The story then moves on, Chloe is a teen and the ghost in the basement just a dream, until she starts getting followed around by a guy in school. A guy who is all burned and no way possible that he's alive. With her mum dead, her dad away on business, Chloe is looked after by her Aunt - who after the incident with the burned guy in the school, sends Chloe to Lyle House. A home for disturbed kids.

In this book we meet other kids and see their "abnormalities". Described as mental illnesses - Chloe herself is diagnosed with Schizophrenia, we soon get to see that the other patients have gifts just like Chloe does, and Lyle House and the adults who are supposed to care for these kids are not who they say they are. 

This was a real page turner, I got to the end and wanted to move straight on to the next one. You get completely caught up in this world and these characters. I can't imagine how horrible it would be like to live in a home for mental illnesses, that would be a huge nightmare for me, but being stuck there, not sure if you are imagining ghost, or actually seeing them, would be horrible. 

I can't wait to get onto the next book.

You can buy this from Amazon for £5.99.

xx

George R.R Martin - A Dance With Dragons

Hey guys, another Game of Thrones book review for you today, technically it's two books on my kindle, but I will do the review for both in one. 

I found these books to be more interesting that the previous, but again I felt like there was too much "filling" of information that wasn't needed, or didn't need repeating again. If he cut all that out, his books would be a lot shorter and he'd probably have them written a lot quicker too.

I definitely preferred the second part of the book, it left you on a bit of a hang over - leaving you wanting the next book because "that cannot have just happened?". It's so hard to write a review on a book without giving out spoilers. 

I have to say I wanted to see more of Bran. I don't feel like we've got to see much of this character at all in the later books, though I feel like he is a very important character in the series. Not much has been said about the youngest Stark either, he's mentioned briefly but there isn't anything from his point of view, I'm not sure if that's because he's only 3/4? 

Again with this book, the titles of the chapters had gone from having the characters names, to "The Lost Lord" and the likes, so you had to guess at who it was about at first, being that there is so much information in each chapter, by the time you've gotten to a new one, you've forgotten who and done / said what. 

I have to say after reading the end of this book, I do now want to know how it ends and can understand fans complete frustration with the writer in the fact that he can't stick to a publishing date, or how many books he wants to write in the series.
I've heard that his publishers don't think the next book will be out until 2017! This is ridiculous and although I understand that you have to be in the creative mood to write that story, I just worry now it may never end.
Also what will happen to the TV show as the show isn't that far from the books, this new series, possibly half an other and it will be caught up. 

Hopefully he will surprise us all and have the book ready soon.

What's frustrating for me is that I don't think this is a GREAT series, but even so I've been drawn into this world - even though I'm not attached to many of the characters, I just have to know what happens next. 

You can buy this book for as little as £2.99 (Brilliant price for the full 1045 paged book) on Amazon.

So how about everyone else, what do you think of the Ice and Fire series? Do you prefer the show to the book? Or a book fan for life?

xx

Robert Whitlow - The confession*

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Hey guys, I was sent this book from BookLookBloggers to review, it was only released on the 5th August, so a very new book. Who can argue with new books? 

I have never heard of Robert before, but I liked the description of this book so thought I would give it a go. I was sent this to my Kindle, BookLookBloggers have other options available if you don't have a kindle. 

This book starts off with Holt and his best friend aged 17, all their lives and futures ahead of them until one drunken night sees the best friend killed in a car accident, leaving Holt's life changed forever.
Move forward a few years and Holt is now an Assistant D.A in Ashley County, Georgia, sending criminals to jail one confession at a time. 

With a long term girlfriend and a job he's good at - everything looks like it's going great for Holt, but lurking in his past is a dark secret that could end both his relationship and his career. 

When a file turns up on his desk, Holt gets curious about a cold case of one of the town's wealthiest business men, a guy who allegedly shot himself. This file doesn't contain a lot of information on the case, but the more he digs up, the more he suspects that this was murder.

I enjoyed this book, it had lots of twists and turns that made me kept wanting to turn the page, also not want to put it down for too long because I wanted to see how it ended.
A few things that could have made it (for me) better, was the over use of characters names, "Holt did this, then Holt said that, Holt did the other," too much name in one sentence - if you can get passed that most people wouldn't have any issues.

The only other thing for me was it just seemed to be a little in your face with religion, I respect that there was some religion in the book, but this appeared out of nowhere and suddenly there were bible verses, that was a little too much for me personally. Aside from that, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who likes a good mystery. 

You can buy this for as little as £5.87 on Amazon.

xx

Friends With Partial Benefits - Luke Young

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Jillian Grayson is a disillusioned divorcée and best-selling romance novelist who suddenly can't write a chapter without her hunky male heartthrob suffering ED, an STD, or even worse.  - GoodReads

Hey Guys, this was another book I got on the kindle free from Amazon, it's been sat there just waiting to be read so after a few months of reading other books and passing this one, I decided I would get to it. 

The book starts off with our main character Jillian - an erotic romance novelist who has got creative block, every time she tries to write the scenes turn from sexy to something going horribly wrong - due to Jillian's personal life. She's just divorced after catching her husband cheating. 

Jillan has a son who is in college, the story passes between her and her son - more importantly her son's best friend Brian, who is having relationship problems himself. To try and cheer Brian up, Rob (the son) asks him to go home with him for the holidays, although Rob will be spending time with his girlfriend - who he doesn't see much of due to going to different colleges, his house does have a tennis court and Brian is a big fan of the game.
Coincidently enough, so is Jillian. 

This book is very explicit, I mean you could assume that with the title but I thought I'd warn you.

This book is written by a guy which I was very surprised about, I'm not sure why but reading it I just assumed a woman had written it, not to be sexist it just the way it was written, the details, things I'd not expect a man to think about when putting certain scenes to paper. Well done Luke, you surprised me.

I have to admit this book did have parts that made me cringe, such as when Jillian watches Brian in the shower. Her sons best friend. Hmm little too "keeping it in the family" there for me, but otherwise it was an alright book. Did it make me want to rush out and buy the next one? No, but it was a good book to pass the time with.

You can still get this free on Kindle* on Amazon. 

* Blog post written on the 8th August, book may go up before post is published. 

xx