Apryl Baker - The Ghost Files

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Hey guys, sorry I'm a bit late with this review, my fibro has been playing up a lot lately so it's taking me a lot longer to finish books - and I've not wrote a blog post in so long due to sheer exhaustion.

I have this and another book review to write today and then I'm caught up with all the books I've read, so really hope this flare goes soon otherwise I'll have no new posts.

I really enjoyed this book, I thought it would be creepier than what it was - although it could be because I've read some really scary books which is why this didn't bother me as much, the cover does creep me out though, but it's what attracted me to it. 

Mattie our main character is 16 years old. A foster child who has been moved from family to family since her mother tried to kill her when she was a child. 

Her current foster parents also foster another girl, Sally.

When Mattie is at a party with her friends, she sees Sally in front of her - a gun wound in her head. Mattie sees ghosts.

The book follows Mattie as she communicates with other ghosts, tries to get her foster parents to look for Sally, and her relationship with Dan the cop - who doesn't quite know whether to believe her when she says she sees ghosts.

There are lots of twists and turns in this book, one that makes you to continue reading even when your eyes are protesting wanting sleep. 

This is just the first book in the series, I'm intrigued to find out the next part of Mattie's adventures. 

You can still get this for free on the Kindle. 

xx

Luke Young - Friends With Full Benefits

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Hey guys I have a review of the new book in the "Friends with Benefits" series.

If you want to read what I thought of the first book you can find that here.

I hadn't planned on getting this next book in all honesty but I saw it was free on Amazon for the day so figured I may as well find out what happens next with the characters I'd already gotten to know. 

If you haven't read Friends with Partial Benefits - the first book in the series, then I would highly recommend you close this page now as this post will contain spoilers from that book and some from this book too.

As we know Jillian and Brian are now a couple, although Rob (Jillian's son / Brian's friend) still is unaware - although he does almost walk in on them, multiple times.

This book is exactly like the previous in the fact it's explicit. Even Christian and Ana (50 shades of Grey) didn't get it on as much as Jillian and Brian do, although those scenes are more diversely written in these books - if that's your thing.

I couldn't take this book seriously - that's not to say if Amazon offer the other books in the series for free I wouldn't get them, I'm quite curious to see what happens to these characters now, but first you have Jillian who is in a relationship with her son's friend, then Rob sleeps with Jillian's best friend - a woman the same age as his mother; also a woman who is sleeping or dreaming of sleeping with every single male she comes into contact with, before finally sleeping / falling for Brian's younger brother.

Then we have Brian's younger brother Jim, a virgin who has never been able to discover his sexuality at home because his parents are very strict - doors remain open at all time, including when you're in the shower. His mother creeping around at night to make sure he's asleep and not self "woo-hoo'ing" if you wish. Only for him to have his life changed completely making him a brand new man in such a short space of time.

Their parents - strict and disliking Jillian, understandable when she's a lot older than their son, yet Jillian and Jim discover they have a big secret of their own. 

This book is all sorts of crazy, I dread to think of what goes on in Luke Young's head to come up with this book, the first book was weird enough - this just went right past that and thinking about it all makes my head hurt. It's definitely a book that makes you think "What on Earth did I just read?!" when you've finished. 

You can still get this for free* on the Kindle. 

*Book still free as of the 5th October 2014 when post was written.

xx

Gillian Flynn - Gone Girl

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Hey guys today's book is Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl.

I actually downloaded this book on my Kindle years ago, it was one of the first books I bought for my Kindle, according to my account I ordered it on the 27th August 2012 - yet for some reason it took for me to partially see the trailer for me to finally get around to reading it. I believe the words "Gone Girl? I'm sure that's a book! I believe I own it!" were said. 

The story is told from both Nick and Amy's point of view, both from past tense and future.

Nick and Amy are a married couple who have issues in their marriage that they continue to ignore. Both lost their jobs and decide to move back to Nick's home town to look after his sick mother, the last of Amy's inheritance going towards funding a bar that Nick and his twin sister Go run.

On their 5th Wedding anniversary Amy goes missing, the living room has been turned over and Nick isn't acting how a grieving / worried husband should be.

This book is full of twists and turns in every chapter, a complete page turner.

The main characters Nick and Amy; you want to like them, hate them, blame them and believe them  all at the same time, it's a weird feeling. These are two very twisted people and after I completed this book the first thing I said was "I never want to get married!" if this is what marriage is like. 

I would highly recommend this book but expect strangeness. 

I like a book that can confuse me, make me feel a million things and have me rushing to finish so that I can find out it's ending - that is exactly what this book did.

I've now seen the trailer and the film doesn't look like anything how I pictured it when reading the book - which is why I'm glad I read it first, that's not to say I won't enjoy the film but I'll see them as two different things.  

I'd say read the book first.

You can buy it for as little as £2.85 on Amazon.

xx

Michaela Thompson - Paper Phoenix

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Hey guys when I first started reading this book, I didn't know if I was going to like it. 

It starts off with a woman who is understandably upset after her husband leaves her for a younger woman, she contemplates killing him, but that's only to keep her mind busy as she doesn't leave the house, why should she? Being the ex (and embarrassed) wife of Richard a big shot in the town, Maggie is determined she is never leaving the house again.

Only the owner (Larry Hawkins) of the local paper has apparently committed suicide, and Maggie remembers over-hearing a phone conversation of Richard's where he told someone that "Larry won't be a problem any more," with this information she cannot stay at home, not when her ex husband could be a murderer.

This is where the story got interesting for me, there was excitement, drama, love even, all based in the 70's. 

A good read if you get the chance.

You can buy this on the Kindle for £1.81. 

xx

Aimee Duffy - Summer Flings Series

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Hey guys, I was browsing through Google Reads on my phone the other day, if you haven't got Google Play I would highly recommend it, they have some great deals on books, including a few free ones.  

This is one of the free books that was on there, the first book in the Summer Flings series by Aimee Duffy. 

There is 7 books altogether in the series, in all honesty it could all be put into one book as each book is only 40-50 pages long, but they were nice short stories to read in one sitting. 

Each book follows three best friends as they go on adventures around the world. After just finishing university they decide to travel around for the summer before going into the real world, and becoming a proper adult.

I thought I would review all 7 books as they continue from one to another on the girls travels during their summer holidays. Each book follows them to a different country. 

Elle, Ciara and Gem looking forward to shopping, relaxing on the beach, going to clubs and of course meeting guys whilst they were away. There are a lot of unexpected adventures, some not so great. 

The girls travel from Oxford to Hollywood before moving onto Miami, Paris, Greece, Ibiza, Florence, before landing in Dublin. 

There is love, laugh, friendship and dealing with reality after you've finished university and are headed to the real world.

Each book is 49p each (that's less than £3.50 for all 7), you can buy Trouble in TinselTown the first book in the series on Amazon here, or if you wish to visit the authors page on Amazon and seeing all the books in the series, you can do by click here. 

xx

Steve Demaree - Murder in the Library

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Hey guys I have another review for you today, this time it's Steve Demaree's book "Murder in the Library", this is the third book in the series, although the only book I have actually read. 

The police who are on this case know the victim, so I'm not sure if he makes an appearance in the previous books but this one he is the victim, and he knows it.

I have to say this book would have been a lot shorter but the author was quite food obsessed, you had a lot of details of what the detectives were eating or planning to eat, until one decides that whilst he's trying to work on the clues to solve the murder, he will buy a wii and eat healthier, leaving the other cop aggravated. It had nothing to do with the plot, whether it will come up in later books with these two characters I'm not sure, but I found it unnecessary.

Aside from that it was a great book, really got you thinking. How was a man killed in his own personal library, when no one had entered the room?! Definitely has you assuming it's every character you meet along the way, trying to think of their motives. 

I would definitely read another one of these books, I'd just prefer all the food descriptions to be left out. 

You can buy this for £1.99 on the Kindle here.   

x

Pam Jenoff - The Other Girl

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Hey guys, I have another review for you today, this time it's a short by Pam Jenoff.

I found some shorts on Amazon for free, I do like having some short stories on my Kindle for when I want to read something before bed, but not get sucked too into the book that you realise it's 5am and you're half way through a 700 paged book. 

The Other Girl is based in Poland in the 1940's.

Maria our main character ends up marrying a guy she's not completely in love with, purely to get away from her father who she has discovered has been ratting out their neighbours, those neighbours are protecting the Jews from the German's. With her husband off at war, she stays with her in laws. One night she finds a girl, a young Jewish girl who has ran away from her home. Maria risks all to protect this girl, finding out secrets about her own family along the way.

Just when this book got interesting, it ended. 

I would understand it if this was a teaser for a full book, but this was it.  It does say it's Historical Companion Novella to her next book The Winter Guest, but as far as I can see it's just the History and Location of where the books are set that are the same, the characters are not. 

It was one of those moments when you get that frustrated you want to throw your book - only you don't because that would be book abuse.

It was a good start of a story, but left so many questions unanswered. 

You can get it free still on the Kindle, here.

I got a lovely notification on Twitter the other day, the author herself favourited and retweeted this review. 

xx