#BlogTour THE HEIGHTS by LOUISE CANDLISH #BookReview @louise_candlish @TeamBATC #TheHeights

Delighted to be with you today as part of the Blog Tour for the fabulous THE HEIGHTS by LOUISE CANDLISH. My thanks to the author and publisher for putting the tour together, and letting me be part of it all!!

He thinks he’s safe up there.
But he’ll never be safe from you.

The Heights is a tall, slender apartment building among the warehouses of Shad Thames, its roof terrace so discreet you wouldn’t know it existed if you weren’t standing at the window of the flat directly opposite. But you are. And that’s when you see a man up there – a man you’d recognize anywhere. He’s older now and his appearance has subtly changed, but it’s definitely him.

Which makes no sense at all since you know he has been dead for over two years.

You know this for a fact.

Because you’re the one who killed him. 

published by Simon & Schuster

PURCHASE LINK

Amazon

MY REVIEW

I found this to be a book that horrifies, terrifies, excites and thrills in equal measures!!  You just can’t get over the intensity as the hate builds and the twists and turns end up punching you in the gut with their verocity!!  I’m still in shock!!

It’s the story of parents dealing with grief, and in the case of Ellen she isn’t coping well!  She’s doing her best to get on with her life after losing her son, but you’re always aware with her that there is an edge and she’s obsessed with what happened – and how what she has just seen has sent shockwaves through her.  The case has consumed her and there is no limit to how far she’ll go to get what she wants!  After losing her son, she had a media campaign to be involved with wanting longer sentences and it’s almost as if she got addicted to the feeling of power and control.  Is it justice she wants? Or revenge?! I know where I’m putting my money!!

As well as seeing the story from her point of view, we get the viewpoint of Vic, the father of Lucas, and how the case impacted on and how he sees what Ellen is up to now and how it changed her as a person back then.

I loved the slow build up in this book. It really sets the scene to the characters state of mind, so their actions begin to make sense and allows you to put yourself in the same position and wonder if you’d be driven to such extremes if faced with the same situation!

This was such an engrossing read that I raced through it and didn’t want it to end – especially with all the twists and turns ramping up the tension!!

★★★★★

#BlogTour A NARROW DOOR by JOANNE HARRIS #BookReview @Tr4cyF3nt0n #CompulsiveReaders #ANarrowDoor

Super excited to be with you today as part of the Blog Tour for the fabulous A NARROW DOOR by JOANNE HARRIS.
My thanks to the author, publisher and Tracy of Compulsive Readers for putting the tour together and letting me be part of it all!ABOUT THE BOOK

Your favourite authors have been gripped by this electric psychological thriller!

‘A dark world of emotional complexity and betrayal, where twist follows twist and nothing is what it seems’ ALEX MICHAELIDES
‘Exhilarating, addictive, fierce’ BRIDGET COLLINS
‘A psychological thriller you can’t put down and an antiheroine you won’t forget’ HARLAN COBEN
‘Dark, Gothic, and propulsively readable – past secrets and present discoveries entangle in an intricately crafted conclusion’ RUTH WARE
‘Engrossing, cunning, sharp, sinister . . . kept me enthralled till the final pages’ CHRIS WHITAKER
‘A clever chess game of repressed fears, power struggles, secrets and lies’ LUCY ATKINS
‘A complex, chilling mystery full of shifting truths and dark corners where the unburied past lies in wait’ TAMMY COHEN
‘A dark and richly enjoyable novel that already feels like a classic’ ELLY GRIFFITHS
‘Irresistibly readable, dark and brilliant with a masterful emotional punch’ CATRIONA WARD

* * * * *

Now I’m in charge, the gates are my gates. The rules are my rules.

It’s an incendiary moment for St Oswald’s school. For the first time in its history, a headmistress is in power, the gates opening to girls.

Rebecca Buckfast has spilled blood to reach this position. Barely forty, she is just starting to reap the harvest of her ambition. As the new regime takes on the old guard, the ground shifts. And with it, the remains of a body are discovered.

But Rebecca is here to make her mark. She’ll bury the past so deep it will evade even her own memory, just like she has done before. After all…

You can’t keep a good woman down.PUBLISHED BY ORIONPURCHASE LINKAMAZON


MY REVIEW
Dark. Twisted. Thrilling. Sinister… got your interest yet?!  This is one of those books that I was absorbed in from the get go! You are confronted by a woman who is determined, single minded and not prepared to put with anything. And now she’s in the perfect position to put everything into play… and that means settling scores!
Be prepared to be led down a garden path, or school corridor!, on a number of occasions as the story flits from the now to the past and the shocking events that plagued her childhood and have made her the woman she has become. 
When a body is discovered on the school grounds, Rebecca seems untroubled by the events, and more concerned with how a certain member of staff reacts to the news.  Amidst the school setting we get to see the politics at play and the sexist attitudes never far from action and that really adds to the muddying of water as you make up your mind about Rebecca and her motives!
The more you find out about her childhood and the past, the more the ‘now’ begins to make sense and that undercurrent of darkness is forever present and storyline of her past was particularly intense and gripping!
This is a psychological thriller full of complex characters and situations and I was totally ensnared in the web of intrigue!!

★★★★★

#BookReview GUILTY by SADIE RYAN

ABOUT THE BOOK

Two Strangers.A Chance Meeting?One Moment that will change their lives forever.

Lindy once had the world at her feet. An adoring husband, two beautiful daughter’s and a successful career.
In a split second, a tragic accident causes Lindy’s world to come crashing down around her.

Mia, personal fitness trainer and glamorous wife of a local tv personality seems to have everything.

Slowly Lindy learns more about Mia’s ‘perfect’ life and becomes convinced that they are each other’s saviours.

As obsessions grow and the lines that shape reality become blurred, Lindy’s and Mia’s lives are now forever dangerously intertwined as personalities merge

Nobody with a conscience can survive, can they?

A breathtaking psychological thriller that will keep you up all night. –Fans of Samantha Downing, Lucinda Berry and Teresa Driscoll will devour this twisty thriller in one sitting

PUBLISHED BY SPELLBOUND BOOKS

PURCHASE LINK

Amazon

AUTHOR WEBSITE

MY REVIEW

If you are looking for a psychological thriller that takes you on the ultimate rollercoaster ride, then look no further!! I was guilty of forever telling myself, ooh just one more chapter, as I raced through this as I just couldn’t tear myself away from these characters and the situation they found themselves in!

Lindy is one of the main characters and her life has been turned upside down after a terrible accident. She had it all, but now she’s full of rage and bitterness. She’s plagued by memories of how wonderful her life was before, and soon becomes fixated on Mia, the glamorous wife of a local tv personality, and becomes convinced that they’re meant to be in each others lives for a reason….. she just doesn’t quite know what that reason is just yet.

Their lives soon become entangled, as you see the stories behind both Lindy and Mia and all is not what it seems underneath the surface! I loved that you got to see different sides to them as you found out more about their lives – there’s some seriously disturbed minds in some of these characters!!

The more Lindy finds out about Mia, the more obsessive she becomes in finding out more. And the more she learns about Mia and her husbands relationship, the more involved she becomes.

It’s dark, pulsating, tense and full of suspense and captures the mood of modern life perfectly! People being manipulated and how obsessions can blur the line between fact and fiction, and I found myself intrigued to see how things would play out as horrors from the past were revealed and dealt with. You see this bond between the women but wonder what it is really based upon and it was quite disturbing when things began to spiral out of control! Such a brilliant read!!

★★★★★

#BookReview The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides #thesilentpatient

About the book

Promising to be the debut novel of the season The Silent Patient is a shocking psychological thriller of a woman’s act of violence against her husband—and of the therapist obsessed with uncovering her motive…

Alicia Berenson’s life is seemingly perfect. A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London’s most desirable areas. One evening her husband Gabriel returns home late from a fashion shoot, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face, and then never speaks another word.

Alicia’s refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London.

Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations—a search for the truth that threatens to consume him…. 

Published by Orion

Publication Date – 7th February 2019

Purchase Links

hive.co.uk  £10.29

waterstones  £10.99

MY REVIEW

It wasn’t only the patient who was silent as I found myself sitting in silence racing to turn every page as I got immediately caught up in this twisty, dark thriller that definitely lives up to the hype!

Alicia is convicted of the brutal murder of her husband – the evidence finds her at the scene of the crime, covered in blood and unwilling to say a word.  And she stays silent for the years that follow when she is locked up in The Grove, a secure unit, and left to puzzle therapists and those treating her with her reluctance or inability to utter another word.

Theo Faber, a criminal  psychotherapist, is fascinated by her case following the media coverage , and when he finds himself a job at The Grove, his mission is to meet  her and unlock the secrets that Alicia is keeping from the world.

I think the main pull for me reading this book was the fact that Alicia seemingly had it all – a wonderful career as an artist, the perfect husband, a life we all dream of – but something happened that fateful night and as the story goes backwards and forwards you get to piece together the pieces and form your own opinions of what happened and how the truth is often skewed to fit a narrative.

The introduction of the diaries of Alicia was also another intriguing and genius way of telling the story.  It becomes clear that there was a lot going on in her life at the time and it adds such an absorbing element to the main narrative and really explores the effect of mental abuse on others and how the smallest comments can often cut the deepest.  Just why does she deal with the trauma by being silent?  Why can’t she she open up to people and let them know her side of the story?

I read this in one sitting and I think it’s one of those books that has all the elements to make you lose yourself and forget the real world while you’re trying to work out the twists as they get darker and darker! LOVED IT!!

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

My thanks to the author, publisher and publicist for the advanced reading copy in return for a fair and honest review.

#BookReview The Death of Her by Debbie Howells

THE BLURB

The Death of Her is a haunting psychological thriller from Debbie Howells, author of the bestselling Richard and Judy Book Club success The Bones of You.

A woman’s body is discovered on a Cornish farm, battered and left for dead in a maize field. Airlifted to hospital, her life hanging in the balance, no one’s sure who she is. Three days later she comes round, but her memory is damaged. She knows her name – Evie – but no more, until she remembers another name. Angel – her three-year-old daughter.

As the police circulate Evie’s photo, someone recognizes her. Charlotte knew her years ago, at school, when another child went missing. Leah Danning, who vanished whilst in Evie’s care.

When the police search Evie’s home, there’s no sign of Angel. More disturbingly, there’s no evidence that she ever lived there, forcing the police to question whether Evie’s having some kind of breakdown.

But even from the darkest place she’s ever known, Evie believes her daughter is alive. The police remain unconvinced – unaware that on the fringes of Evie’s life, there’s someone else. Someone hidden, watching her every move, with their own agenda and their own twisted version of reality

Amazon UK   £14.99 hardback

Hive.co.uk – buy online and support a local bookstore  £10.29 hardback

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Debbie self-published three commercial women’s fiction novels before writing The Bones of You, her first psychological thriller.
She now writes full time from her home, in a small West Sussex village where she lives with her family.

Author Website

Author on Twitter

MY REVIEW

As a huge fan of the first book from this author, The Bones of You, I was extremely excited to receive a copy of her latest release courtesy of the Publishers – a big thank you to them from me!  And I wasn’t disappointed as this new book kept me turning the pages and found it difficult to put down!

Prepare to have your emotions played with when you read this!! The author has done another amazing job of constructing a storyline that draws you in, packed it with characters you don’t know whether to trust or be wary of, and leads the reader on a thrilling journey as the plotline unfolds!

When a woman is found battered and alone in the middle of a quiet village in Cornwall, the quest is on to find out what happened to her and what happened to her daughter Angel who is now missing. And all she can remember is her name – Evie – and very little else which makes putting the pieces together very difficult.

Charlotte is a local who recognises Evie from a photo she sees online, but she remembers her as Jen from school! She starts spending more time with Evie at the request of the police officers involved in the case, in the hope that an face from the past will help unlock her memories. But as the memories slowly return, more troubling revelations follow. And just where is the trace of Evies’ daughter, Angel?! No clothes, no toys, no photographs – maybe her amnesia is making her believe something that never happened? And when men with torches are spotted in the woods at night, is there something far more sinister going on, especially as a child went missing a number of years ago and was never found?

I really enjoyed the multiple Points of View we have in this book! The characters we hear from each have their own strengths and weaknesses, so your opinion is changed at regular intervals . The timeline also delves into the past and it is fascinating to hear from such a dark and tortured soul with their views and how that impacts on the now.

The pace is quite steady throughout which means you keep turning those pages, and I didn’t feel it drag at all and have to confess to reading it in 2 sittings out in the garden as I just wanted to know how it all ended!! The vulnerability of the characters also worked really well and added to to the intrigue!

Another absorbing story from Debbie Howells and I can’t wait for more!!