Mini-Review Time!

I thought I would have got these both finished in August. I didn’t. I finished the first on the 2nd September and the other the following day, on the 3rd. And they are so far removed from each other, I felt that it should be fun to put them in a same blog post (not sure why). 

The first is Spiced Kisses by Charlie Novak, an MM low angst romance set in the lead up for Christmas and the other is The Doctor’s Widow by Daniel Hurst, sequel to The Doctor’s Wife, a domestic thriller. 

Spiced Kissses is the third book in the Kiss Me series (I haven’t read either the first or second book in this series, Strawberry Kisses and Summer Kisses - will add these to my Kindle wish list) but we follow Ben and Ianto. Ben is co-owner of the Pear Tree pub and is just trying to get through the upcoming hell known as Christmas. But when he breaks his collarbone at rugby, he finds himself spending time with Ianto, who feels guilty for the accident. Unbeknownst to either of them, they have a crush on each other… will Christmas bring this grumpy Yorkshire men and Christmas-loving Welshman together?

In The Doctor’s Widow, we pick up the story several months after the events of The Doctor’s Wife. Fern has gotten away with it. Away with murdering her adulterous husband, framing his mistress for his murder and killing the mistress’s husband to keep the truth from coming out. She just wants to put the past behind her and move on with her life. A new life with Roger, a man she is falling for. But Roger isn’t who she think he is. In fact, Roger isn’t Roger at all… 

The Doctor’s Widow was gifted by the UK publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, FYI. 

Murder Month 2023 - The Holiday Home

So, February's reading plan was a bit of a car crash. Mainly because my brain didn't want to read what you guys voted for and, at the same time, I was quitting a lot of reads or, if I did stay and finish them off, I was very "Meh" over it. And it felt like I still was in a crime reading frame of mind, rather than going to fantasy and teen, which is my reading bread and butter. Because of this, March is going to be the blog's "Murder Month". I've done this in the past, where I do a theme month of focusing on crime/thriller stories. And I have a good few on my radar that I was to devour before the Easter blog holiday (and I have an idea for a themed reading month for April as well (more about that after my Easter blog break). 

But let's start this murdery month off which a review and let's go with a thriller author I discovered last month and am slowly devouring...

Title and Author: The Holiday Home by Daniel Hurst

Publisher: Bookouture

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: eProof and Audiobook gifted by UK publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Two couples go away to a remote cabin in Scotland. The wives have known each other since Sixth Form and the husbands barely get along. But a holiday away will do wonders, right? So when one of the wives overhears something that she shouldn't have, it starts a chain reaction which will end with no all of them coming home alive...

Audiobook Review - The Doctor's Wife

I feel that, maybe, I should have saved this for next week or maybe an audiobook-themed month (oh, that's an idea!), but after binging The Couple in the Cabin by Daniel Hurst (write-up for that that can be found here) and with a few library audiobooks on my Reserve list (all linked to books or titles that I should have reviewed by now!), I decided to risk a quick list to another Daniel Hurst thriller audiobook in the hopes that this would another edge of my seat list and, maybe, that this author might be a new Auto-Buy author... 

Title and Author: The Doctor's Wife by Daniel Hurst

Publisher: Bookoutre Audio

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Audiobook gifted by UK publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review/reaction

Dr Drew Delvin and his wife, Fern, have moved out of Manchester and into a small village for a fresh start. Well, that's what Drew has told his wife. But that's not true. For you see, the doctor isn't as honest and trustworthy as he wants you to be. Not with his marriage and not with his job and duty of care either. 

He thinks his wife knows nothing. How very wrong he is... and he has no idea what Fern is planning...

Audiobook Review - The Couple In The Cabin

This has been sitting on my Audiobook To Be Read Shelf for quite some time. And after I finished dipping in and out of my last audiobook from library (Listen to Me by Tess Gerritsen. Which I am currently reading, FYI, as I enjoy reading Tess Gerritsen novels rather than audiobook, but I got a good way into it), I wanted some short and fast to listen to as I have requested a LOAD of audiobooks from my local library this month and I wasn’t in the mood to start a podcast binge (that will be next month, I suspect).

So, I plumped for this, which has a precise that sounds deliciously twisted.

Title and Author: The Couple In The Cabin by Daniel Hurst

Publisher: Bookouture

Bought, Gifted or Borrowed: Audiobook gifted by UK publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review/reaction.

Grace and Dominic have been married for quite some time and happily so. Or so Grace thinks. Instead of staying in a hotel after a work’s event as she planned, she comes home to discover Dominic’s clothes thrown on the floor – as well as women’s clothes. Not her clothes, but someone else’s. There, she discovers the two in his work-cabin at the bottom of the garden and, without thinking, she locks the naked pair in. Then, she goes back into the house, goes to bed and then, in the morning, goes to work as if nothing has happened…