Thicker Than Water, by Brigid Kemmerer

Format: e-ARC, 432 pages

Publisher: Kensington Books

Published: 29 December 2015

ISBN: 9780758294418

Genre: Teens & YA

Back cover blurb: On his own.

Thomas Bellweather hasn’t been in town long. Just long enough for his newlywed mother to be murdered, and for his new stepdad’s cop colleagues to decide Thomas is the primary suspect.

Not that there’s any evidence. But before Thomas got to Garretts Mill there had just been one other murder in twenty years.

The only person who believes him is Charlotte Rooker, little sister to three cops and, with her soft hands and sweet curves, straight-up dangerous to Thomas. Her friend was the other murder vic. And she’d like a couple answers.

Answers that could get them both killed, and reveal a truth Thomas would die to keep hidden…

My review: I put off reading this for ages but once I started, I couldn’t put it down. The story took an unusual supernatural twist that I’m not sure I was expecting based on the blurb, and the resolution came quickly, leaving me wanting more. I could easily see this as the start of a series with these characters. They were all very well realised and interesting. I’d certainly love more of Nicole!

Kemmerer is a new author for me, and I will definitely be looking up her other work.

***Disclaimer: This e-ARC was provided to me by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Huge thanks to them. ***

My rating: 4/5

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The Never Have I Ever Club, by Mary Jayne Baker

Format: e-ARC, 326 pages

Publisher: Aria

Published: 18 June 2020

ISBN: 9781789546149

Genre: Romance, Women’s Fiction

Back cover blurb: Robyn Bloom thought Ash Barnes was the love of her life – until one day he announced he was leaving her to fly halfway across the world.

Months later, Robyn is struggling to move on – but then she has a brainwave: The Never Have I Ever Club. Her handsome next-door neighbour Will helps her bring their fellow Yorkshire villagers together for some carpe-diem-inspired fun.

From burlesque dancing to Swedish massages, everyone has plenty of bucket-list activities to try, but it doesn’t take long for Robyn to realise what – or who – her heart truly desires: Will.

There’s just one problem: he’s Ash’s twin brother.

Make that two problems: Ash is moving home… and he wants Robyn back.

My review: This was a wee delight, just what I needed as the weather grows darker and colder in my part of the world. Baker is a new author for me, but I will be seeking out her other work because she can write great characters, favours showing over telling, and the humour shines through. I started off thinking this might have been a bit of a light version of Marian Keyes’ “The Break”, but Ash running off to Australia to find himself was only really a minor subplot. I loved the club and all its characters, and Will was adorable. Any book that references the “My Lovely Horse” episode of Father Ted is okay by me.

***Disclaimer: This e-ARC was provided to me by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Huge thanks to them. ***

My rating: 5/5

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The Bear and the Nightingale, by Katherine Arden

Format: e-ARC, 336 pages

Publisher: Random House UK, Ebury Publishing

Published: 12 January 20217

ISBN: 9781785031045

Genre: General Fiction (Adult), Sci Fi & Fantasy

Back cover blurb: ‘Frost-demons have no interest in mortal girls wed to mortal men. In the stories, they only come for the wild maiden.’

In a village at the edge of the wilderness of northern Russia, where the winds blow cold and the snow falls many months of the year, an elderly servant tells stories of sorcery, folklore and the Winter King to the children of the family, tales of old magic frowned upon by the church.

But for the young, wild Vasya these are far more than just stories. She alone can see the house spirits that guard her home, and sense the growing forces of dark magic in the woods…

My review: I think this is a case of “it’s not you, it’s me.” The book was beautifully written but I just didn’t feel any connection to it. I don’t think I’ll bother with the rest of the series.

***Disclaimer: This e-ARC was provided to me by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Huge thanks to them. ***

My rating: 3/5

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Game of Cones, by Cynthia Baxter

Format: e-ARC, 304 pages

Publisher: Kensington Books

Published: 24 November 2020

ISBN: 9781496726827

Genre: Mystery & Thrillers

Back cover blurb: In Cynthia Baxter’s fourth Lickety Splits Mystery, ice cream shoppe owner and amateur sleuth Kate McKay doesn’t waffle around scooping up new clientele at a historic hotel, but her hopes of becoming the Hudson Valley’s reigning ice cream queen melt fast when murder checks-in!

From the moment Kate arrives at the imposing Mohawk Mountain Resort, not even luggage brimming with hot fudge can sweeten her stay. Instead of savoring alone time with her on-again boyfriend Jake and leading workshops on whipping together delectable frosty treats, she finds herself stranded at the isolated hotel with a small group of nutty characters–and a dead body.

When the corpse of wealthy cosmetics executive Bethany La Montaigne is suddenly found following a blackout, any of the five strangers trapped with Kate and Jake could be the killer. Chilled to the core, Kate vows to discover whether the victim’s mortal enemy was a smooth-talking playboy, bubbly millennial, mousy librarian, charming Englishman, or the Mohawk’s creepy general manager…

Bethany’s life was chock full of scandals and there’s little doubt that someone refused to endure another taste. With just a sprinkling of clues, it’s up to Kate to bring justice to a culprit who believes that revenge is a dish best served cold…

My review: I chose this book from Netgalley because of the punny title and the fact it was about ice cream. I was unaware it was the fourth book in a series, but I don’t think that mattered much. It soon became apparent, though, that this was very poorly written. The title and the ice cream were the best things about it.

The characters were unlikable stereotypes who didn’t seem to care that someone had been murdered in their midst and their body left somewhere in the hotel, never to be mentioned again. One even had a complete change of character, going from creepy to puppy dog in a matter of a few pages. The plot was ridiculously implausible. Police would have been on the spot, no matter what the weather, and it would not have been up to one of the guests to inform the family about the death. Mrs Moody’s backstory was extremely unlikely from a legal perspective. And what kind of ice cream business owner goes to a remote hotel without knowing if there are decent refrigeration facilities?

At once stage, Kate’s niece said Google was her friend, and it’s clearly the author’s friend also because she used it to provide unrelated facts about ice cream at the start of each chapter, even down to including the URL of the website the fact came from. There were pages describing what a cult was, like it was some novel concept, and even an explanation of foosball. One can only assume the author thinks she needs to spoon-feed her readers because they aren’t capable of looking up new words for themselves if they don’t know them. But would they really not have heard of them?

And then there was the actual writing. At one point, the word ‘suddenly’ was used three times in two short sentences. This could have benefited from a good editor, both for writing and content. Kate was written much older than she was meant to be, more Miss Marple than Nancy Drew.

Overall, then, not one I would recommend. Despite the ice cream, I won’t be reading the rest of the series or any other by Baxter.

***Disclaimer: This e-ARC was provided to me by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Huge thanks to them. ***

My rating: 1/5

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The Switch, by Beth O’Leary

Format: Audiobook ARC, narrated by Alison Steadman and Daisy Edgar-Jones (e-book 333 pages)

Publisher: Macmillan Audio

Published: 18 August 2020

ISBN: 9781250751850

Genre: Women’s fiction

Back cover blurb: When overachiever Leena Cotton is ordered to take a two-month sabbatical after blowing a big presentation at work, she escapes to her grandmother Eileen’s house for some long-overdue rest.

Eileen is newly single and about to turn eighty. She’d like a second chance at love, but her tiny Yorkshire village doesn’t offer many eligible gentlemen.

So they decide to try a two-month swap.

Eileen will live in London and look for love. She’ll take Leena’s flat, and learn all about casual dating, swiping right, and city neighbors. Meanwhile Leena will look after everything in rural Yorkshire: Eileen’s sweet cottage and garden, her idyllic, quiet village, and her little neighborhood projects.

But stepping into one another’s shoes proves more difficult than either of them expected. Will swapping lives help Eileen and Leena find themselves…and maybe even find true love? In Beth O’Leary’s The Switch, it’s never too late to change everything….or to find yourself.

My review: This was such a fun story with an unusual pair of heroines, a burned-out Londoner grieving the death of her sister and her 79-year-old grandmother from a small village near Leeds. I really enjoyed how they were both looking for more out of life, and how much they embraced each other’s lifestyles as they initiated the swap where Leena took over her gran’s responsibilities in the village while Eileen got herself on Tinder and flatted with Leena’s friends in Shoreditch. There’s a wonderful cast of friends and neighbours, all of whom I could see clearly in my mind, and although Leena infuriated me near the end, the ending was very satisfying.

I listened to the Netgalley audiobook narrated by the wonderful Alison Steadman (Pride and Prejudice‘s Mrs Bennet) and Daisy Edgar-Jones (Normal People), and although I thought Steadman was probably a little young to play a 79-year-old, they were both fabulous. (The Netgalley app, though, is horrendous and I do not recommend. It kept losing my place and sending me back to the very beginning, or if I paused in the middle of a chapter it would restart from the beginning of the chapter before. Very frustrating! I hope they fix that soon.)

Beth O’Leary is an author I will now keep a keen eye out for. I’m eager to read her other work.

***Disclaimer: This e-ARC was provided to me by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Huge thanks to them. ***

My rating: 5/5

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The Last Donut Shop of the Apocalypse, by Nina Post

Format: e-ARC, 216 pages

Publisher: Curiosity Quills Press

Published: 23 February 2017

ISBN: 9781620070963

Genre: Humor, Sci Fi & Fantasy

Back cover blurb: After narrowly preventing the last apocalypse, Kelly Driscoll finds herself with an unlikely day job. She’s the interim manager of Amenity Tower, one of the few buildings still left standing in the rubble of Pothole City. But after answering a mysterious phone call, she signs up for a new mission that’s a perfect match for her skills: locating the missing president of the famed Cluck Snack brand.

As Kelly quickly learns, the missing executive is only the beginning of Pothole City’s problems. The city’s leading donut shops — run by two very different Gorgon monster siblings — are engaged in a bitter territorial dispute. Plus, the residents of Kelly’s building have hatched a new plot to kill the beloved single-purpose angels and set the stage for another apocalypse.

Teaming up again with her allies from the first book — including Af the Angel of Destruction, Stringfellow the ferret, and Tubiel and the other single-purpose angels — Kelly is up for the challenge. But can she rescue the missing president and restore peace between the donut shops before Pothole City is destroyed yet again?

My review: Netgalley recommended this to me, and since the title mentioned donuts, I was in. However, I had a problem right from the outset since I hadn’t read the first in the series and had no idea what was going on. This is a very weird story, and clearly all the world-building took place in the first book because no time is spent here explaining what has already occurred. I no doubt would have liked it more if I’d been reading the series in order, but I’m not intrigued enough to want to go back and find book 1. Not for me.

***Disclaimer: This e-ARC was provided to me by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Huge thanks to them. ***

My rating: 1/5

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It Started With a Tweet, by Anna Bell

Format: e-ARC, 416 pages

Publisher: Bonnier Zaffre

Published: 28 December 2017

ISBN: 9781785763694

Genre: Romance, Women’s Fiction

Back cover blurb: Could YOU survive a digital detox? 

Perfect for fans of Lucy Diamond and Sophie Kinsella, It Started With A Tweet is the hilarious new romantic comedy from the author of The Bucket List to Mend a Broken Heart.

Daisy Hobson lives her whole life online. But when her social media obsession causes her to make a catastrophic mistake at work, Daisy finds her life going into free-fall . . .

Her sister Rosie thinks she has the answer to all of Daisy’s problems – a digital detox in a remote cottage in Cumbria. Soon, too, Daisy meets a welcome distraction there in Jack, the rugged man-next-door.

But can Daisy, a London girl, ever really settle into life in a tiny, isolated village?

And, more importantly, can she survive without her phone?

My review: Started off hilariously and ended with quite a serious message about how we are all losing personal connections because of our smartphone addictions. It was easy to relate to Daisy as she made her massive faux pas and was then bustled off to the country by her sister for a digital detox. The characters were realistic, there was so much humour, and I absolutely loved the little letters shared between Daisy and Jack. I was also glad to see a certain character being taken down a peg in the end, too. Great story, and I will certainly be checking out Anna Bell’s other titles.

***Disclaimer: This e-ARC was provided to me by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Huge thanks to them. ***

My rating: 4/5

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Summer Days and Summer Nights – Twelve Love Stories, edited by Stephanie Perkins

Format: e-ARC, 320 pages

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

Published: 17 May 2016

ISBN: 9781250079121

Genre: Children’s Fiction

Back cover blurb: Maybe it’s the long, lazy days, or maybe it’s the heat making everyone a little bit crazy. Whatever the reason, summer is the perfect time for love to bloom.

Summer Days and Summer Nights: Twelve Love Stories, written by twelve bestselling young adult writers and edited by the international bestselling Stephanie Perkins, will have you dreaming of sunset strolls by the lake. So set out your beach chair and grab your sunglasses. You have twelve reasons this summer to soak up the sun and fall in love.

My review: This was not exactly the sweet summer anthology I was expecting. Many of the stories were bittersweet and packed quite a punch, and I was enthralled by most of them. Of course, I was most keen to read Stephanie Perkins’ story, a continuation of her winter tale from My True Love Gave To Me, but to be honest it disappointed. I found North rude and a bit of a jerk this time around. My favourite stories were by Leigh Bardugo, Jennifer E. Smith, and Veronica Roth. Others by new authors to me, such as Francesca Lia Block, intrigued me and made me want to hunt out their other work.

Individual Ratings:
Head, Scales, Tongue, Tale by Leigh Bardugo – ★★★★★
The End of Love by Nina Lacour – ★★
Last Night at the Cinegore by Libba Bray – ★★★★
Sick Pleasures: For A and U by Francesca Lia Block – ★★★
In Ninety Minutes, Turn North by Stephanie Perkins – ★★★
Souvenirs by Tim Federle – ★★★
Inertia by Veronica Roth – ★★★★
Love Is The Last Resort by Jon Skovron – ★★★
Good Luck and Farewell by Brandy Colbert – ★★★
Brand New Attraction by Cassandra Clare – ★★★
A Thousand Ways This Could All Go Wrong by Jennifer E. Smith – ★★★★★
The Map of Tiny Perfect Things by Lev Grossman – ★★★

***Disclaimer: This e-ARC was provided to me by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Huge thanks to them. ***

My rating: 4/5

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The Sunday Girl, by Pip Drysdale

Format: e-ARC, 336 pages

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Australia

Published: 1 September, 2018

ISBN: 9781925685824

Genre: Mystery & Thrillers

Back cover blurb: The Girl on the Train meets Before I Go to Sleep with a dash of Bridget Jones in this chilling tale of love gone horribly wrong …

‘Some love affairs change you forever. Someone comes into your orbit and swivels you on your axis, like the wind working on a rooftop weather vane. And when they leave, as the wind always does, you are different; you have a new direction. And it’s not always north.’

Any woman who’s ever been involved with a bad, bad man and been dumped will understand what it feels like to be broken, broken-hearted and bent on revenge.

Taylor Bishop is hurt, angry and wants to destroy Angus Hollingsworth in the way he destroyed her: ‘Insidiously. Irreparably. Like a puzzle he’d slowly dissembled … stolen a couple of pieces from, and then discarded, knowing that nobody would ever be able to put it back together ever again.’

So Taylor consulted The Art of War and made a plan. Then she took the next step – one that would change her life forever.

Then things get really out of control – and The Sunday Girl becomes impossible to put down.

My review: Thoroughly enjoyed this and read almost all of it in one sitting. Taylor really was a naïve heroine, and I could see all the ways she would be tripped up long before she could, but there were also lovely twists and turns along the way that I didn’t see coming that kept me enthralled. I would have given this five stars except for the very end, which I found a bit weak. I was fully expecting another twist that didn’t come. However, this is a great debut and I will be sure to look out for this author in future. I really love the pink cover, too.

***Disclaimer: This e-ARC was provided to me by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Huge thanks to them. ***

My rating: 4.5/5

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The Upside of Unrequited, by Becky Albertalli

Format: e-ARC, 352 pages

Publisher: Penguin Random House UK Children’s

Published: 11 April, 2017

ISBN: 9780141356112

Genre: LGBTQIA, Teens & YA

Back cover blurb: “I don’t entirely understand how anyone gets a boyfriend. Or a girlfriend. It just seems like the most impossible odds. You have to have a crush on the exact right person at the exact right moment. And they have to like you back.”

What does a sixteen-year-old girl have to do to kiss a boy? Molly Peskin-Suso wishes she knew. She’s crushed on twenty-six guys…but has kissed exactly none. Her twin sister Cassie’s advice to “just go for it” and “take a risk” isn’t that helpful. It’s easy for her to say: she’s had flings with lots of girls. She’s fearless and effortlessly svelte, while Molly is introverted and what their grandma calls zaftig.

Then Cassie meets Mina, and for the first time ever, Cassie is falling in love. While Molly is happy for her twin, she can’t help but feel lonelier than ever. But Cassie and Mina are determined to end Molly’s string of unrequited crushes once and for all. They decide to set her up with Mina’s friend Will, who is ridiculously good-looking, flirty, and seems to be into Molly. Perfect, right? But as Molly spends more time with Reid, her cute, nerdy co-worker, her feelings get all kinds of complicated. Now she has to decide whether to follow everyone’s advice…or follow her own heart.

My review: The author writes authentically about what it’s like being a teen, all self-centred and constantly with crushes on unobtainable boys, but I found myself seriously disliking Molly’s twin sister. She is just horrible! I didn’t really find anything to like about Mina or Will and Max either. There is a lot of diversity, and that’s great, but this didn’t grab my interest quite the way it seems to have many other readers. I haven’t read Albertalli’s earlier book, which is apparently much better, so I will give that a try.

***Disclaimer: This e-ARC was provided to me by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Huge thanks to them. ***

My rating: 4/5

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