Review: Her Last Holiday by C.L. Taylor

 You come to Soul Shrink to be healed. You don’t expect to die.

Two years ago, Fran’s sister Jenna disappeared on a wellness retreat in Gozo that went terribly wrong.

Tom Wade, the now infamous man behind Soul Shrink Retreats, has just been released from prison after serving his sentence for the deaths of two people. But he has never let on what happened to the third victim: Jenna.

Determined to find out the truth, Fran books herself onto his upcoming retreat – the first since his release – and finds herself face to face with the man who might hold the key to her sister’s disappearance. The only question is, will she escape the retreat alive? Or does someone out there want Jenna’s secrets to stay hidden?

Review: This is such a unique concept for a book, I am in awe of the ways CL Taylor choose to thrill us with her writing in such different and original ways and this one just hit it out of the park. A love the fact that we have a sot of cult leader under the guise of a self-help style retreat and mysteries surrounding some explained and unexplained deaths. 

The structure of this book really had me hooked in, this author always has us uttering that phrase, just one more chapter and this book was no exception because we have two sisters and we get to hear from both of them then and now. We follow Fran's story now as well as then and we get to hear Jenna's side of the story then. But wait, there's another voice we get to hear as well and that third thread holds so many keys to unlocking some of the mysteries we uncover in both Fran and Jenna's stories. It's all just so brilliantly thrilling. 

It is so hard to talk about anything to do with this book without giving away spoilers but my reviews are always spoiler free and so I have to start by saying that although Fran may seem on paper to be a stand-offish individual who would we hard to relate to, I really did find myself empathizing with her in so many ways. We meet her right at the beginning and I just love how prickly she is and I wanted to find out why. That was part of the journey for me and I love that thread of discovering what makes Fran who she is as the story progresses. 

I also enjoyed getting to know Jenna and seeing how this whole thing began, Through Jenna we get to know Tom and how his whole spiritual healing gig began and that is where we get really deep into this situation. I was worried for Jenna the entire book and found myself holding my breath whenever she appeared. Everything about these characters and this book is just so intriguing and yet you could totally see all of this actually happening in real life. 

This book has a really insightful author's note as well as a warning not to read the acknowledgments before reading the book both of which were just added bonuses for me as I love an authors note and also love to read the acknowledgments before I start the book. This is such a unique book and very different from this author's previous novels but still just as thrilling and just as hard to put down. Highly recommend!

To order your copy now, just click the link: UK or US

Review: Strangers by CL Taylor

Ursula, Gareth and Alice have never met before.

Ursula thinks she killed the love of her life.

Gareth’s been receiving strange postcards.

And Alice is being stalked.

None of them are used to relying on others – but when the three strangers’ lives unexpectedly collide, there’s only one thing for it: they have to stick together. Otherwise, one of them will die.

Three strangers, two secrets, one terrifying evening.

The million-copy bestseller returns with a gripping new novel that will keep you guessing until the end.

Review: The tagline of 'keep you guessing until the end' is exactly right, I gasped and exclaimed my way through the last 15% of this book and I had so many questions that I asked the air in my apartment for the rest of the book, this is the definition of a page turner. 

This book was so great, CL Taylor just keeps out-doing herself novel after novel. The fact that we have a stalker, some mysterious goings on and some very very dodgy strangers is the basis for this novel and the rest of the plot just can;t be talked about because-spoilers. 

These three characters are all incredibly intriguing. I could definitely sympathise with all of them even if I didn't necessarily like them. Alice gives us some lessons in what consent means, but also what it means to open up and trust people. I did actually rally like Ursula, perhaps because, like me, she is a former teacher and I was really championing her throughout the novel. On the outside she is a pretty strong person but on the inside she is oh so broken. And then Gareth is probably the person we find out least about until the very end of the novel. I really felt for him and he made me want to find out more every time I read his chapters. 

This story is told from all of these characters' points of view and so you get a little way into someone story and then you're thrown back to the story of another character and so you literally have to keep turning and turning and reading on and on searching for answers and only uncovering even more questions. This book will make your heart race, leave you holding your breath and ultimately turning the pages until you get some answers into the mysteries of the Strangers. This is a hard recommend from me!

To order your copy now, just click the link: UK or US

Guest Review: Perfect Kill By Helen Fields

He had never heard himself scream before. It was terrifying.

Alone, trapped in the darkness and with no way out, Bart Campbell knows that his chances of being found alive are slim.

Drugged and kidnapped, the realisation soon dawns that he’s been locked inside a shipping container far from his Edinburgh home. But what Bart doesn’t yet know is that he’s now heading for France where his unspeakable fate is already sealed…

DCI Ava Turner and DI Luc Callanach are working on separate cases that soon collide as it becomes clear that the men and women being shipped to France are being traded for women trafficked into Scotland.

With so many lives at stake, they face an impossible task – but there’s no option of failure when Bart and so many others will soon be dead…

Get ready for a rollercoaster ride like no other, with the next gripping thriller from the number one bestselling crime author, Helen Fields.

Review: This is the sixth in a series of crime novels written by Helen Fields featuring Detective Inspector Luc Callanach and Detective Chief Inspector Ava Turner. This follows on from the fifth book in the series "Perfect Crime". However, this latest entry can be read as a standalone thriller.

Luc Callanach had been seconded from Interpol in France to Police Scotland's Major Investigation Team in Edinburgh, but at the beginning of this book he is back in Paris acting as Scottish liaison officer with Interpol investigating the disappearance of a young man from Edinburgh. Meanwhile, Ava Turner and the rest of the Major Investigation Team become involved with a murder that appears to be related to gangland violence in Edinburgh.

Hence, the story takes place on both sides of the English Channel and there are several strands to it, involving organised crime, people trafficking and murder. I liked the way that the chapters alternated between these different strands. This resulted in the tension being maintained throughout the book, so that I found myself wanting to keep turning the pages to find out what happened next.

I have read the two preceding books in the series, and it was good to re-visit familiar characters. One of my favourite characters, a detective sergeant, gets to play a more significant role in this story and we see a different side to his character.

A criticism I have made of previous books in the series is that, for stories set in Edinburgh, the dialogue has featured very few Scottish colloquialisms and, indeed, there have appeared to be some Americanisms. I am pleased to report that, for this latest book, this has been addressed, and there are a few good Scottish expressions throughout.

Overall, I found the book to be a thrilling, although at times very graphic, account of law enforcement agencies' investigations into major crimes. So, are these investigations on both sides of the Channel resolved? You will have to read the book to find out.

To order your copy now, just click the link: UK or US

Review: Watching You by Lisa Jewell

You’re back home after four years working abroad, new husband in tow.

You’re keen to find a place of your own. But for now you’re crashing in your big brother’s spare room.

That’s when you meet the man next door.

He’s the head teacher at the local school. Twice your age. Extraordinarily attractive. You find yourself watching him.

All the time.

But you never dreamed that your innocent crush might become a deadly obsession.

Or that someone is watching you.

Review: Another amazing book from Lisa Jewell. And another book where I have read the last page and then immediately gone back and read the beginning again to see how it all ties up. Lisa always does an amazing job of drip feeding the important information and the clues to the big reveal throughout the story through mini revels and through characters revealing things to one another and I am just in awe of the way she writes and the way she structures her novels. So clever and just so gripping. Just like her last novel, this one had me holding my breath and gasping at regular intervals throughout the book. Yet again it is hard to comment too much on the narrative or the characters without giving too much away!

There is quite a big cast of characters in this novel and the way they all intertwine with one another must have taken a lot of planning. We have some classic unreliable narrators but we also have some characters who are much more difficult to work out and keep you intrigued right up until the last page. I wouldn't say I particularly warmed to any of the characters particularly, perhaps with the exception of teenager Jenna who is a young carer for her mother. But boy was I obsessed with finding out more about every single one of these characters, what made them tick and how they fitted into the story. They are people you know, people you recognise from everyday life, they are your neighbours! Characters we can all relate to is just something else which this author excels at!

To say this book was a thriller, there isn't a lot of gore or violence in it, there are definitely moments that make the reader uncomfortable and moments that lead you down a path you never saw coming. This is definitely a slow burn but the short chapters will mean you will continue to turn those pages way past your bedtime. Some of the ways things that seem trivial are connected to the story are just mind-blowing and I am just in awe of how cleverly written this novel is. I enjoyed every moment and would love to have the chance to read it for the first time all over again. Another amazing Lisa Jewell novel to add to your reading list right now!

To order your copy now, just click the link: UK or US

Blog Tour: Extract from The Fear by CL Taylor

I am so excited to be part of the blog tour for The Fear by CL Taylor. CL Taylor is one of my favourite authors and she is definitely an auto-buy author for me! The Fear was published on 22nd March in the UK and you can read my review of this novel by clicking here!

Here's what its all about...

Sometimes your first love won’t let you go…

When Lou Wandsworth ran away to France with her teacher Mike Hughes, she thought he was the love of her life. But Mike wasn’t what he seemed and he left her life in pieces.

Now 32, Lou discovers that he is involved with teenager Chloe Meadows. Determined to make sure history doesn’t repeat itself, she returns home to confront him for the damage he’s caused.

But Mike is a predator of the worst kind, and as Lou tries to bring him to justice, it’s clear that she could once again become his prey…

You can order your copy of The Fear by clicking here!

And now I will leave you with an extract from the book-so exciting! Don't forget to check out the other stops on this tour for more exclusive content!

‘Jay, where are you?’ a blonde woman called from behind him. A second later she hurtled down the hallway, knocking into the walls like a bowling ball thrown by a pre-schooler. ‘Oh, there you are.’ She looped her arm around his neck and peered out at Wendy through red-rimmed eyes. ‘Who are you?’

    Wendy tried very hard not to sigh. The woman was obviously drunk and, from the look of her grubby feet, she’d walked barefoot back from the pub. ‘I’m Jason’s next-door neighbour. I’d like you to turn the noise down please. I can’t sleep.’

    ‘But it’s his birthday,’ the woman wailed before she pressed her smudged lips against the side of his neck. ‘Don’t be an old killjoy.’

    ‘I’m not an old anything,’ Wendy said tightly. ‘But I’ve got work in the morning and I suggest you save your partying for the weekend.’

    Jay sighed. ‘We’ll turn it down.’

    ‘And spoil your birthday? No chance!’ The blonde waggled a hand in Wendy’s face. ‘You need to go home and have sex with your husband. It might loosen you up a bit.’

    ‘Lisa!’ Jay tried to extricate himself from her octopus-like grip. ‘You can’t talk to her like that. Sorry,’ he said over his shoulder to Wendy as he attempted to wrangle Lisa back down the hallway. ‘She’s a bit of a livewire.’

    ‘I’d rather be a livewire than a dried-up prune,’ Lisa shouted up at him. ‘I don’t want to get old. Not if I end up like her. Will you shoot me if I do, please?’

    ‘You’ll never be like her.’

    Wendy reached forward and tugged on the door handle of the open front door. The glass in the top panel shook as she slammed it shut.

Review: The Fear by C L Taylor

Sometimes your first love won’t let you go…

When Lou Wandsworth ran away to France with her teacher Mike Hughes, she thought he was the love of her life. But Mike wasn’t what he seemed and he left her life in pieces.

Now 32, Lou discovers that he is involved with teenager Chloe Meadows. Determined to make sure history doesn’t repeat itself, she returns home to confront him for the damage he’s caused.

But Mike is a predator of the worst kind, and as Lou tries to bring him to justice, it’s clear that she could once again become his prey…

Review: Wow this book was so intense. I love CL Taylor's thrillers, they just transport me into the book and it's like I'm living the whole thing along with the characters. This story is just full of twists and turns, every few pages you think you know what's going to happen but you absolutely don't. Just when you think things are starting to come together, they're really not!

Lou is a great main character to go in this novel journey with because she is just like you and me. But then you find out that there is so much more to her than meets the eye. I never feel like I really got to know Lou, she never fully let her barriers down for me, but I can forgive her that, that's for sure. There are a few other female supporting characters in this novel too and I found those characters, despite being quite different to me, to be easy to get along with as well. Strong characters meant that I didn't feel alone going through everything they were going through!

The setting of this novel is also easy to picture, this author uses actual road names and place names and so you can put yourself into this English rural setting and continue to live this story alongside the characters. This novel definitely deals with some difficult issues, I don;t want to list exactly what because I don't do spoilers but I think that they are incredibly well-written and sensitive to those who might have gone through any of the things that these characters have. There are some quite violent scenes as well, as you might expect from a thriller, but they are also fabulously written and scared me but made me want to read on and find out more. 

I love C L Taylor's novels and this one is no exception, I read it in two sittings because I had to find out what was going to happen and I know you're going to love it!

To order your copy now, just click the link: UK or US

Review: The Treatment by CL Taylor

“You have to help me. We’re not being reformed. We’re being brainwashed.”

All sixteen year old Drew Finch wants is to be left alone. She's not interested in spending time with her mum and stepdad and when her disruptive fifteen year old brother Mason is expelled from school for the third time and sent to a residential reform academy she's almost relieved.

Everything changes when she's followed home from school by the mysterious Dr Cobey, who claims to have a message from Mason. There is something sinister about the ‘treatment’ he is undergoing. The school is changing people.

Determined to help her brother, Drew must infiltrate the Academy and unearth its deepest, darkest secrets.

Before it’s too late.

Review: wow, this is going to be a hard book to review without giving away any spoilers because it is just so twisty and action packed with full of exciting characters and plot. I really enjoyed this book and it was a very different read for me! This is CL Taylor's first YA novel. I love her usual thrillers and this one had just as much action and set my pulse racing just as much as her adult novels do. This book has a slightly dystopian feel about it and is set in the near future. Don't let the dystopian feel put you off though, I could recognise everything in this book and it made for some familiar feeling and ` familiar setting but with CL Taylor's plot twists and a very uncomfortable reality. 

This book follows Drew and her quest to help her brother. Drew is a fabulously strong female lead. She fights for what she believes in and finds some incredibly clever ways to get her own way and to get exactly what she wants. She doesn't make friends in real life easily because she values her independence so much and i found this really relatable and also very admirable. Her bother Mason is a character in this novel but we don't get to know as much of his back story as we do Drew's therefore I didn't feel as much of a connection to him or the other characters in the novel as much as my connection with her. 

The adults in this book are definitely not to be trusted and that's what makes the kind of classic YA characteristics in this novel. I love the fact that we can solve to hate the authority figures here, especially since this is mainly set in a school so we can all hate the OFSTED inspector! Some of the plot lines of this book are definitely not for the faint hearted just because we don't know exactly what The Treatment is but we know its not a nice thing! And because we love to hate the authority, some may find the reasons why we hate them fairly shocking. But I loved all the dark and twisted bits of this book, they made for excellent reading and kept me on the edge of my seat right until the bitter end!

If you love CL Taylor's psychological thrillers already then you will definitely enjoy this read. If this is your first of her books then you are in for a treat! I would definitely recommend this book for older readers and you should definitely prepare yourself to be challenged, to be entertained and to be thrilled by this awesome novel!

To order your copy now, just click the link: UK or US

Review: Into The Water by Paula Hawkins

In the last days before her death, Nel called her sister. Jules didn’t pick up the phone, ignoring her plea for help.

Now Nel is dead. They say she jumped. And Jules has been dragged back to the one place she hoped she had escaped for good, to care for the teenage girl her sister left behind.

But Jules is afraid. So afraid. Of her long-buried memories, of the old Mill House, of knowing that Nel would never have jumped.

And most of all she’s afraid of the water, and the place they call the Drowning Pool . . .

Review: Unfortunately this was one of those books for me that didn't live up to the hype. I did finish reading it and did take some enjoyment from the main storyline, it was interesting and something I'd not seen done before. The structure of this novel though really baffled me, if left me quite confused and so really affected my enjoyment of the book. I think that the structure was multiple narrative, something which i normally love but there were just too many separate bits to this narration that I found it very hard to follow. There were first, second and third person narrative. Some part of the narrative were set in the past and some parts of the narrative were extracts from a book that one of the characters was writing. If there had just been narratives changing ONE of these variables, it would have been fine but it was just a little too much. 

Having said that, I did enjoy the main storyline and getting to know the very main characters. Obviously we know from the synopsis that Nel has died in these mysterious waters and it is being class a suicide but we know right from the word go that there are differing opinions on that. It was really interesting finding out about the other people that have died in these same waters and the mysteries surrounding their deaths and how their deaths fit into Nel's death too. It was also interesting finding out about her relationship with her family but I did enjoy trying to work out what exactly happened when Nel died. 

In terms of characters, it is really difficult to judge whether I liked these characters or thought they were realistic because we jump between characters so often. It was interesting getting to know where Nel fitted into the community. I enjoyed watching the relationship between Nel's sister Jules and her daughter develop. I found myself very suspicious of one of the families in the community and found a couple of the other characters very difficult to actually visualise because they didn't feel entirely whole or realistic. 

The thriller aspect of this novel is obviously there because I kept reading until the end but I wasn't particularly desperate to find out what had happened because there was so much else going on. I wasn't filled with adrenaline like I am with some other books and so I think that was another reason why this book came up a little short for me. If you like a big cast of characters and being shaded from the truth by a whole load of other storylines then definitely give this one a go but I couldn't honestly recommend this book. 

To order your copy now and see for yourself, click the link: UK or US

Review: Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell

A MISSING GIRL

A BURIED SECRET

THEN

She was fifteen, her mother's golden girl. She had her whole life ahead of her. And then, in the blink of an eye, Ellie was gone.

NOW 

It’s been ten years since Ellie disappeared, but Laurel has never given up hope of finding her daughter.

And then one day a charming and charismatic stranger called Floyd walks into a café and sweeps Laurel off her feet.

Before too long she’s staying the night at this house and being introduced to his nine year old daughter. 

Poppy is precocious and pretty - and meeting her completely takes Laurel's breath away.

Because Poppy is the spitting image of Ellie when she was that age. And now all those unanswered questions that have haunted Laurel come flooding back.

What happened to Ellie?

Where did she go?

Who still has secrets to hide?

Review: Wow! This book left me breathless, shaking with adrenaline and just blown away. Lisa Jewell has just written her best novel yet (and I am a massive fan of hers so I am allowed to make that call!). I just loved this book, the twisty plot, the intense characters and the family theme running through it that just reduced me to tears. This is just a must read this summer. 

It is hard to go into too many specifics about what I loved so much about this book without giving away any spoilers but I will do my best. This novel is written in 5 parts and has 4 different narrators. We hear from Mum Laurel's perspective, some from Ellie's perspective, a little from Floyd and there is another narrator in there that I won't giveaway. We also have sections written then and sections written now, as the blurb would suggest. This may sound a little complicated, but believe me, it totally works. I love the fact that it was heavily structured like this and the short sections from each narrator made it even more fast paced for me because I wanted to find out what happened then that let to now or what happened to one person and how that affected another-I love books like this!

In terms of the character, Lisa Jewell always writes these amazing strong family relationships that you don't see from many other writers of psychological thrillers. The family at the core of this novel are your typical family, a Mum, a Dad two girls and a boy and I loved the fact that we get to go through this story meeting all of these characters and they all have their own backstory and subplot. But the main characters here are Mum Laurel and daughter Ellie. This whole story revolves around Ellie's disappearance and Laurel's quest to find out what happened. Laurel is really down to earth. She values her family and she trusts her instincts and I love that about her. She is a typical mum when it comes to her children, but we also see her become a woman in her own right when it comes to Floyd. 

Of course there are villains in this book as well as heros, what would a good psychological thriller be without a villain or two. But these characters are written so that we as readers can sympathise with them to some extent and form a kind of trust with them in many ways. And of course there are twists with each character along the way, I've already said too much! Needless to say the characters in this novel are all full formed people you could meet on the street, work with, go to school with and I feel like I know them inside out now. 

This novel is set in North London and so is very easy to relate to in terms of setting. A lot of it takes place inside which I thought really added to the tension and was an interesting choice, but each home and setting is well-described and easy to put yourself right into. The tension in this book is unbelievable. I had to go and pick my husband up when I had reached 90% and I was physically shaking with the adrenaline of the story unfolding in front of me and as soon as he got in the car I told him to be quiet to I could finish, this book is that good!

The storyline is fabulous, totally believable, incredibly tense but also something you could totally see happening in your neighbourhood to your friends. I loved the family theme and the twists and turns during every section of the story. The structure was perfect and lends itself to binge reading, what more could you want from a book this summer? Go out and get yourself a copy now-you won't regret it!

To order your copy now, just click the link: UK or US

Review: The Escape by CL Taylor

Look after your daughter's things. And your daughter…"

When a stranger asks Jo Blackmore for a lift she says yes, then swiftly wishes she hadn't. The stranger knows Jo's name, she knows her husband Max and she's got a glove belonging to Jo's two year old daughter Elise.

What begins with a subtle threat swiftly turns into a nightmare as the police, social services and even Jo's own husband turn against her. No one believes that Elise is in danger. 

But Jo knows there's only one way to keep her child safe – RUN.

Review: I was unbelievably excited for this new book from CL Taylor and as such wanted to allow myself time to read as much of this as possible in one sitting. I ended up reading all but the first few pages all at once and I am glad that I did. The storyline of a CL Taylor book is so tense and so gripping that I strongly believe all of her novels are best read in one sitting so that you can fully immerse yourself in the action and get the proper reaction to every moment in the book. That being said, I feel sure that this storyline will sick with you so much when you put the put down that you will absolutely be ready to dive right back into again upon picking it back up. 

One of the reasons I love CL Taylor's Psychological thrillers so much is because they generally have a slightly more domestic setting than other psychological thrillers I have read, meaning that there is a story that I can relate to going on alongside the action. The events take place in a normal household in a normal street or with a normal group of friends and I think because they are so relatable I find them so easy to read. This particular storyline surround a mother and her need to protect her daughter. There are a few issues with her anxiety and a few other issues in her home and work life but aside from that this is essentially what the storyline surrounds. 

I really liked getting to know the character or Jo, we experience the very first moments that this fear grips her, the need to escape is there right from the beginning and so we get to know what Jo is like and how she handles things very quickly. Husband max and their daughter are also in the action right from the word go and then we have the mystery situation for which Jo is trying to escape. I think Jo is like every other mother but also experiences the anxieties that a lot of us experience whether or not we are mothers and so we get  a very clear picture of Jo right from the beginning. 

A lot of this story is set in Bristol, with escapes to other cities which actually exist. The setting means that the story gets under your skin a lot more easily because we can picture the scenes taking place and imagine them happening just down the street from us, in our neighbourhoods and workplaces. I also loved the link with the title and the need for escape in the book. I loved the way the escape was interpreted throughout the story and without giving any spoilers away, I'm sure you will too. 

If you're not usually a psychological thriller fan, as I am not normally, then CL Taylor is a great place to start because her novels are so very easy to relate to but at the same time so compelling. I read this basically in one sitting, just like her previous 3 novels, which speaks for itself really. Her writing and her ability to twist and weave plots and characters just astounds me and I highly recommend picking up her latest novel right now!

To order your copy now, just click here!