Death Is Not Enough Contest

I have a contest for you guys! And it's not YA. I know! But I want to try new things with my reading and, as you guys know, I like dipping in and out of crime and this author keeps catching my eye so, as soon as I saw this on BookBridgr, I knew it was time!

Death Is Not Enough is the sixth book in the Baltimore series (but I've been told you can read these as standalones) and this sounds like a neck-breaker of a read!

Defence attorney Thomas Thorne knows violence all his life. He has overcome these with determination and is ready to left his guard down and finally let the woman he always admire from afar into his life.

But his world is torn apart when he is four in his own bed with a lifeless body of a stranger lying next to him, her blood all over his hands. But his friend, Gwyn Weaver, knows Thorne could never commit such a terrible crime. So she and his friends rally round to clear his name, but someone has a deadly vendetta and they're not going to stop till they've destroy Thorne...

This sounds dark and Mctwisty as heck. Perfect for me! I can't wait to find time to dive into this novel. But, to wet my appetite, the lovely people at Headline are allowing me to do a small contest to give away a copy of Death Is Not Enough.

Ok, boring stuff now. I have only one copy to give away and this contest is a UK and Ireland only contest. This contest will close at 3pm this coming Sunday (Sunday 27th May 2018). The winner will be chosen at random via random.org. I will tweet and email the winner to get their address so the publisher can send the winner their copy of Death Is Not Enough.

If you're going to enter, I wish you good luck and hope that the odds are in your favour!

Quieter Than Killing Blog Tour Stop

Why, hello and welcome to my stop of the Quieter Than Killing blog tour. As you guys know, I enjoy reading a good crime novel and am always on the hunt to discover new authors in the genre. So, when this blog tour came on my radar, I couldn't resist.

Quieter Than Killing is the fourth DI Marnie Rome series where she and her partner, Noah, are investigating a series of random assaults. But they're not random as they first appear as all the victims have been convicted of violent crimes and have just been released. But as they investigate further, outside dramas effect them both: Marnie's parents' home has been targeted by a gang of youths and her tenants have been attacked in an apparent robbery and Marnie can't help but feel that there's a connection between what happening and  her foster brother, Stephen. All the while, Noah's brother might be involved in gang, though he claims that he isn't.

As Marnie and Noah investigate the three cases, they can't help but wonder whether the cases are connected in some way. Because some crimes are much quieter and more insidious than killing... and if this true, they all better be careful...

Doesn't that sound tense and creepy?! Right up my street for crime! I can't wait for it to get darker and sink my teeth into this!

But that's not what this stop is about. I am very lucky to have Sarah Hilary talking about some chilling Autumn reads, books that will give you a shiver (and not just because of the turning weather!).

So, before I hand it over to Sarah, I must thank her for finding time to write this tiny post (and I blame her for me looking up one or two of her titles and go "That sounds good...") and I want to thank Katie at Headline/BookBridgr for allowing me to pop on this!

Now, are we sitting comfortably? ... good. Then Sarah will begin...

Katherine of Aragon Contest

New Month, surprise contest! And why the hell not?

Because of the lovely people at Headline & bookbridgr, I have two copies of Alison Weir's Katherine of Aragon: The True Queen, the first book in the Six Tudor Queens series. 

We can't seem to get enough of the drama that surrounds the Tudor family, especially Henry VIII. And this fictional novel follows his first wife, Katherine, who arrives to England from Spain to find her future husband, Prince Arthur (Henry's older brother) ill and not interested in her. 

But what happens to her once she's in England? What happens to her marriage to Arthur? And what happens to her when Arthur died? 

So, to be in the chance to win one of TWO copies of this book, all you have to do is fill in the form below. This contest ends on Sunday 5th June at 5pm, with the winners being picked around that time... 

This is a UK only contest - sorry everyone outside of the UK. The publisher will be sending these so nothing to do with me! But I will be emailing & tweeting the winners.

So, good luck everyone. And may the odds ever be in your favour...

GoodRead - A New York Christmas

Ok, I am writing this blogpost in September, but I think I shall post this near the UK publication date so end of October, which means I am breaking my own rule of writing review when I finished the book and airing it when it's written. Oh well!

Jemima Pitt arrives in New York. The year is 1904. She's there to chaperone her friend, Delphinia, across the ocean to marry one of New York's richest men. But when Jemima discovers a secret that could ruin the wedding, she tries to protect her friend.

And it backfires. Soon, Jemima has to prove her innocence in an unfamiliar city...

I requested this from BookBridgr on impulse. Plus, was going through a phase where I wanted to read Christmas reads and was requesting them (this was my third, if I remember correctly) and I thought this would be a light, cozy read.

Which it was. It's a novella that I can imagine fans reading on Christmas Day after Christmas lunch and the Queen's Speech to past the time before the Christmas edition of Strictly Come Dancing or Downton Abbey started.

However, while I liked it, I sense this novella wasn't for me. I love a good cozy murder mystery (remember, I own two DVDs of Murder, She Wrote - DON'T JUDGE ME!), but it was a tad too cozy for my tastes. I feel that this story was aimed for an older target audience rather than someone in their late twenties.

But, it was a different read for me, and I always like to try something new. And while it has started to get me in the mood for Christmas (I hate Halloween so am ignoring that holiday!) and I wanted something fast to read before I dare tackle a beast of a book (which I sense I have reviewed already... hopefully...), this story just wasn't my cup of mulled wine.

GoodRead - Day 21

I was thinking of keeping this review back a few days as I only finished this book yesterday and I wanted to keep the review of The 100 and its sequel, Day 21 some distance apart. But am going to post this now just to mess with BookBridgr and Goodreads.

It's day 21 for the 100 sent down to Earth. This day is important, for its when signs of radiation begin to make themselves present. But that isn't the 100's only problems. They thought they were the first humans to set foot on Earth for the first time in centuries.

They were wrong.

With fear of a new, unknown enemy, the 100 has to band together. Wells struggles to keep the 100 together and not turn on themselves. Bellamy is determined to save his sister who was snatched from this enemy. And when trying to help him, Clarke finds evidence that leads to a truth that the 100 aren't the first to be sent to Earth from space. And back on the space station, Glass is forced to make a decision between love and life.

Like I said in my review to The 100 (review here), if you are expecting the TV series (aired on the CW in the USA and on e4 in the UK), you are going to be very disappointed as, while the TV show is dark (with a stupidly high death count - which I adore! NO ONE IS SAFE ON THAT SHOW!), the book is very much romantic driven.

I had problems with this book. I think it's because I read Day 21 very quickly after reading The 100, which isn't something I normally do. But I found Day 21 a real struggle. There was one or two things I really wanted ti stop reading this book - Life's too short to read awful books. In the end, I decided to skip a chapter and skim read because I decided to read this with a bunch of bloggers on Twitter and I didn't want to let them down.

I can list the problems I have - Glass being on the space station and yet, being more worried about her love life than finding out information that might be useful to the reader. Clarke and Bellamy doing stuff without telling anyone what they're planning to do - THERE ARE MYSTERIOUS BAD GUYS KILLING AND YET, GO RUN INTO THE FOREST WITHOUT TELLING ANYONE! And you survive without any real consequences - ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

I could go on. I could. But I won't as I don't want to rant and rave. This book series, I feel, could have been more sci-fi or more into human survive - as the TV show does. It could have huge twists that shock the reader. But it's more love-driven and the book felt predictable and that's a huge problem with me. This book has so much potential and yet... it falls flat. It's unbaked and, in the words of Mary Berry from The Great British Bake Off, has a bit of a soggy bottom.

I MIGHT continue reading the series, but I think I might have to leave it and continue watching the TV show. I am really getting into it. I think we need to start a drinking game with the amount of death! THIS IS WHY I NEED THE DVD WHEN IT COMES OUT!

The Snow Child - New Cover and Extract!

As you should know, I am a huge fan of The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey. I fell in love with this quietly beautiful book (I believe I actually used in my review in 2012 when this book was first published. If you want to read my review, check here!).

Anyway, I was on bookbridgr and I saw that they were doing a new cover and I had to get involved in showing it to you. So, here's the new cover!

Now, I love the original cover, but this is just as pretty! I love the eeriness of the footprints and the dash of red, but it still catches the magic of the story.

Also, bookbridgr has allowed me to show you guys an extract! I hope this wets your appetite (and I reread it and wailed "BOOK 2, EOWYN! I WANT YOUR NEXT BOOK NOW!!!)!

‘I am the little daughter of the Snow,’ she replied to everything, and she ran out into the yard into the snow.

      How she danced and ran about in the moonlight on the white frozen snow!

      The old people watched her and watched her. At last they went to bed; but more than once the old man got up in the night to make sure she was still there. And there she was, running about in the yard, chasing her shadow in the moonlight and throwing snowballs at the stars.

      In the morning she came in, laughing, to have breakfast with the old people. She showed them how to make porridge for her, and that was very simple. They had only to take a piece of ice and crush it up in a little wooden bowl. Then after breakfast she ran out in the road, to join the other children. And the old people watched her. Oh, proud they were,

         I can tell you, to see a little girl of their own out there playing in the road! They fairly longed for a sledge to come driving by, so that they could run out into the road and call to the little snow girl to be careful.

        And the little snow girl played in the snow with the other children. How she played! She could run faster than any of them.

       Her little red boots flashed as she ran about. Not one of the other children was a match for her at snowballing. And when the children began making a snow woman, a Baba Yaga, you would have thought the little daughter of the Snow would have died of laughing. She laughed and laughed, like ringing peals on little glass bells. But she helped in the making of the snow woman, only laughing all the time.

      When it was done, all the children threw snowballs at it, till it fell to pieces. And the little snow girl laughed and laughed, and was so quick she threw more snowballs than any of them.

      The old man and the old woman watched her, and were very proud.

      ‘She is all our own,’ said the old woman.

      ‘Our little white pigeon,’ said the old man.