Month: April 2019

Recent Reads: Pecan Pies and Dead Guys by Angie Fox (Southern Spirits 7)

Posted on by Pam

My review: ????

Pecan Pies and Dead Guys by Angie Fox is set in southern United States, with Verity, who has a mobster ghost that lends her energy so she can interact with other ghosts, is often asked to look into ghostly goings on, but not everyone believes she can do what she can do.

This is the 7th book in the series, but Angie Fox has ensured that you won’t feel like you’ve missed out on too much, catching you up on essential details, so I didn’t find it a problem!

The 1st book in the series (Southern Spirits) is free from Amazon, and it turns out I read it in 2017, and rated it 4 stars as well!

Angie Fox also has another series of books called Accidental Demon Slayer, which has 11 books in the series! She also has a 

Facebook page

and a 

reader group

.


I really enjoyed Pecan Pies and Dead Guys, which I would classify as a cosy mystery.  It was fun and kept me guessing.

Pecan Pies and Dead Guys

 was published on 18th September 2018, and is available on 

Amazon

  to buy on Kindle and on 

Waterstones

 to pre-order the hardback, which is coming out on 16th May this year.  I’ve found a 

link

 to where you can search for local bookshops, including independent!

 
I was given this book for free in return for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to Moose Island Books (the publishers) for this book.
 
Check out my 

GoodReads profile

 to see more reviews!

Recent Reads: Ruth Robinson’s Year of Miracles a summer hit or miss

Posted on by Pam

My review: ???

Ruth Robinson’s Year of Miracles by Frances Garrood is a light read, looking at how Ruth has ended up living with her uncles, pregnant, with her Anglican parents unhappy, and the Catholic cleaner ecstatic that the Virgin Mary has appeared on the back of the hen house.

There are lots of different characters in here, with the eccentric twin uncles, who like to play up to an audience, and Amos, father of the child, last seen somewhere in the world!

I thought this was OK, but I had problems with some aspects, like Amos being uncontactable due to changing mobile numbers, and that being misplaced.  To me, it felt a little forced, and in this day and age where everyone has social media, email (especially for a musician looking for a job), and mobile phones, a bit unlikely.

Ruth Robinson’s Year of Miracles was published on 9th August 2018, and is available on Amazon  to buy on Kindle and on Waterstones to pre-order the hardback, which is coming out on 16th May this year.  I’ve found a link to where you can search for local bookshops, including independent!

I was given this book for free in return for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to Sapere Books (the publishers) for this book.

Check out my GoodReads profile to see more reviews!

Recent Reads: Boy Swallows Universe brings a bit of magic to a coming of age story

Posted on by Pam

My review: ????

Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton is quite a harrowing read which tells the tale of the life of a 13 year old boy, Eli, and his mute brother August, set in Queensland, Australia.

There are other characters, like his mother and her boyfriend, Lyle, who are both drug dealers, a father who he can’t ask about, and Slim, who is a convicted murderer, Eli’s best friend and baby sitter.

A red telephone, prophecies drawn in the air by August, and drugs are key points in the book, and there’s a hint of magic, but not enough to turn you off this book if you don’t like fantasy.  It’s not a fantasy book.  It’s a coming of age tale, where you see everything from Eli’s perspective, and sometimes he isn’t sure what’s happened.  Or he is, but lies to himself.

Boy Swallows Universe is Trent Dalton’s debut novel, but he’s an accomplished journalist, having been nominated for awards in Australia.

This is partly based on Dalton’s own childhood, and he talks about it in a post for HarperCollins.  This put a whole new spin on the book for me!

I enjoyed Boy Swallows Universe, and if you like coming of age stories, with some crime mixed in, you’ll enjoy this!

Boy Swallows Universe was published on 5th July 2018, and is available on Amazon  to buy on Kindle and on Waterstones to pre-order the hardback, which is coming out on 16th May this year.  I’ve found a link to where you can search for local bookshops, including independent!

I was given this book for free in return for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to HarperCollins (the publishers) for this book.

Check out my GoodReads profile to see more reviews!


Recent Reads: Stronger, Faster and More Beautiful by Arwen Elys Dayton

Posted on by Pam

My review: ????


This is one novel, with six stories ranging from a couple of years in the future, to far in the future.  They are all all looking at what life would be like with body modifications, which starts with the good intentions of medical applications, and diversifies from there.  

These six stories have different characters in them, and set in different times, with no exact number of years between, but we’re told it’s ‘a few more years’ into the future.

Stronger, Faster and More Beautiful was an enjoyable sci-fi look at the applications people could find to being able to modify their bodies, and isn’t being told to preach to you, just to give you the room to look at the idea, and how wrong it could go.

Stronger, Faster and More Beautiful was published on 4th December 2018, and is available on Amazon and Waterstones to order, and everywhere else you can find books!  I’ve found a link to where you can search for local bookshops, including independent!


I was given this book for free in return for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to Harper Collins (the publishers) for this book.
Check out my GoodReads profile to see more reviews!

Recent Reads: The Nowhere Child by Christian White

Posted on by Pam

My review: ?????

Sammy Went disappeared as a little girl just over twenty years ago from Manson, Kentucky, and now Kim Leamy in Australia is being told that she is this missing child.

The Nowhere Child goes between present day and when Sammy goes missing, and tells a story that I sped through, wanting to know more.  

Kim’s journey to understand what happened, and meet her family is well told, with the pain of Kim’s memories of her mother being betrayed, and Kim’s Australian sister.

I really enjoyed this book, and thought it was paced well, with twists and turns throughout.  If you enjoy crime or thriller novels, then you’ll probably enjoy this!

The Nowhere Child was published on 22nd January this year, and is available on Amazon and Waterstones to pre-order, and everywhere else you can find books!  I’ve found a link to where you can search for local bookshops, including independent!


I was given this book for free in return for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to Harper Collins (the publishers) for this book.
Check out my GoodReads profile to see more reviews!

Recent Reads: Extract of The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

Posted on by Pam
Only an excerpt, but ?????

I got my hands on an extract of The Priory of the Orange Tree, and was really pleased I did!  It’s a fantasy with dragon’s, wyrms (a different type of dragon, but one that doesn’t like humans), kingdoms that don’t understand each other, and an assassin from The Priory of the Orange Tree, looking after the Queen.

The whole book is 848 pages long in total, but the bit I read was really engaging, and I wanted to know more about the characters, and who gets to be a dragon rider!
The Priory of the Orange Tree was published on 26th February this year, and is available on Amazon and Waterstones to pre-order, and everywhere else you can find books!

I was given this book for free in return for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to Bloomsbury Publishing (the publishers) for this book.
Check out my GoodReads profile to see more reviews!

Recent Reads: Brotherhood of Shades by Dawn Finch

Posted on by Pam

My review: ???

Brotherhood of Shades is a YA fantasy book by Dawn Finch, for whom this is her debut novel.  She has also written a number of non-fiction books on historical sites, and I can see her love of history in Brotherhood of Shades.

Adam is a teenager, who dies at the beginning of the book, but whose shade is important to a secret organisation called The Brotherhood of Shades, whose purpose is to deal with poltergeists and other unhappy spirits.

This is a book that is set in present day, with some trips down memory lane to 1666 for example, where we experience the Great Fire of London.

I don’t read many YA books, and so found it to be slow in places and giving a little too much explanation, and I’m not sure if that was due to it being YA or not!

Brotherhood of Shades is to be published on 22nd April this year, and will be available on Amazon and Waterstones to pre-order, and everywhere else you can find books!

I was given this book for free in return for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to Stirling Publishing and Stone Cold Fox Press (the publishers) for this book.
Check out my GoodReads profile to see more reviews!