Mini Reviews!

Hello fellow bookworms, I’m here today with 2 smaller reviews of full length books. I’ve decided to do smaller ones as there wasn’t much I had to say about them both, other than that I really enjoyed them so I decided to just condense them into this smaller post.

The Perfectly Proper Paranormal Museum by Kirsten Weiss.

Overall rating – 4 out of 5 stars.

For a freebie off the Amazon Kindle store The Perfectly Proper Paranormal Museum did not disappoint!

I found this book so easy to read, and to get sucked into – which is no way a criticism, it was just a well written and enjoyable story.

The whole book was just so cosy and mysterious and really played on that whodunnit theme, which I thought was done really well. It built up the suspense, dropped little hints and clues here and there and wasn’t totally outlandish with the perpetrator.

The finger was pointed at absolutely everyone and I loved it. We were really kept guessing right until the author wanted to reveal to us who it was – it literally could have been anybody!

Everything within this story just made sense and concluded brilliantly, it held a steady pace the whole way through and built the tension up and dipped it down again as and when it needed to. Everything just worked so well together to craft this really interesting little read.

Explicit by Roxy Sloane.

Overall rating – 5 out of 5 stars.

As another freebie from Amazon I wasn’t holding out much hope for this one, but I was absolutely BLOWN AWAY!

I devoured this book so quickly, it was easy to just get lost in the story and when I was rooting for our main character (Ellie) I had to keep reading because I had hoped so much that she got her happy ending.

The characters were the real standout of this book for me, Ellie was independent and driven, Jackson was painted as the bad boy we all love, but really was a softie with some issues and Ellie’s friends added that feeling of girl power the story.

Explicit just flowed so well, the story built up and dipped at the right moments, it made me laugh out loud, gasp and even cry at points, and the sex scenes were brilliantly written, they were perfectly smutty! While I do wish it was longer, I appreciate that there couldn’t have been much more to go into the story without losing some of those feelings it had already crafted.

Oh and special mention because Ellie works in publishing, it was a book about books! And sex and love of course, but it featured books!

I loved both of these books, and I would definitely recommend, although probably to different audiences! They were both well worth the read and I’m glad I decided to pick them up.

Until next time, Em xxx

Mini reviews!

Hello fellow book bloggers! I have a couple of mini reviews coming your way, these are just for two short stories that I read this year, that didn’t warrant a full review post on their own!

Bobo by Richard Schiver.

Overall rating – 1 star.

I am SO GLAD this book was a free kindle one because I would not have paid money to read this.

The whole story from start to finish didn’t make any sense whatsoever, there were points where I think even the author got confused with his own story, the direction it was taking and what he had already written.

There were several seeds planted within this book which could have been expanded upon to make a really interesting story, but sadly they weren’t and we were left wanting and waiting for more from this. I have a lot of unanswered questions after reading it.

There was no fear factor within this book, which considering it’s marketed as a horror on Goodreads is highly disappointing.

It was just an exceptionally poor book and I didn’t enjoy it at all.

Cinderella Is Evil by Jamie Campbell.

Overall rating – 4 stars.

I want to start by saying how misleading I found the title of this book, it’s a retelling of the traditional tale of Cinderella, but the title implies something that the book and plot don’t match up with.

That being said, I did enjoy this retelling. It was a glorious little read and I’m so glad I picked it up.

The book itself simply retells the story of Cinderella from one of the step sisters POV, and focuses on their lives, which I was really impressed with. It reminded me that there are two sides to every story and that not everything may be as it seems.

The one thing that let this book down was the writing, it just didn’t quite hit the mark for me, but I can gloss over that as I enjoyed this story so much!

I definitely enjoyed this story, I just feel irritated with the title and a little bit let down with the writing.

Until next time, Em xxx

Mini Reviews!

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Hey everyone! Here are a selection of mini reviews for short stories I read during July. I’ll put their title, author and length, along with a short description prior to the review of them.

Turn Her Face to the Wall by William Hussey. 45 pages on Kindle.

Synopsis… Turn Her Face to the Wall is a free short story so chilling, it is sure to leave your blood running cold. In this creepy tale, the twist comes with the very last word…

I was so excited to read this story no sooner had I read the first couple of pages, Hussey really builds up our intrigue from the get go. The story builds up perfectly and you can feel the emotions written on the page.

The ending was wild, I was not expecting it and the twist was left until the very last sentence, we were kept on edge until the last second and even then, we were still left wondering exactly what happened.

Overall rating 4 out of 5 stars.

The Garage by J Dispenza. 27 pages on Kindle.

Synopsis… “It’s 1996 and high school sweethearts, Zoe and Stefano, are enjoying a valentine’s night in when Zoe realizes she is about to miss her midnight curfew. Worried about losing her car privileges, she jumps into her Ford Escort and begins the long and dark drive home. Meanwhile, Stefano is caught off guard by a troubling psychic premonition of blood – lots of blood. As the clock ticks down to midnight, Zoe comes to the bone-chilling realization that she has a bigger problem than answering to her strict father about the time. Will Zoe and Stefano survive the night?”

In such a short space of story the author definitely built up the suspense and had us questioning every little thing! In the end, it turned out to be something so completely different to what we expected that I think I’m still digesting what happened.

I honestly expected this to be like so many urban legends I’ve read so I was pleasantly surprised with how this one turned out! The ending was just CRAZY.

The only criticism I have is that we didn’t really get introduced to Zoe, who the story focused around, and we were left to imagine her in our own mind. I feel the author could have taken an extra few lines to describe her.

Overall rating 4 out of 5 stars.

Mini Reviews!

• 

Hey everyone! Here are a selection of mini reviews for short stories I read during June. I’ll put their title, author and length, along with a short description prior to the review of them.

The Text by Claire Douglas. 40 pages long on Kindle. Published August 2017.

My review – I feel let down by this book, if I’m being completely honest. The blurb really grabbed me and when I actually read the book I was disappointed and felt as though we were led on. I felt like we went round in circles and just lacked the spark to make this book good and the ending was just too easy.

Alive by Sharon Bolton. 58 pages long on Kindle. Published March 2018.

My review – I really enjoyed this story, it might have helped that I read it at night in the dark but it really gave me creepy feels! Bolton creates an atmosphere that’s intense and builds up really well. I love a mystery but I was disappointed that we didn’t find anything else out about the Craftsman, just a little bit to tie the story together would have been perfect.

Tell Him He’s Dead by Tony Parsons. Published January 2018.

My review – I am shook, I thought this story was excellent. For a short story there was so much packed in, but it didn’t feel rushed at any point. I couldn’t have predicted anything about this story and I was so shocked when everything unravelled. I had literal goosebumps reading this story, it was really good!

I think short stories can be quite hard to get right, you don’t want to pack too much in so it feels rushed but at the same time you need to give the reader something to get stuck into.

Let me know if you’ve read any of these stories and what you thought about them!

Em xxx

Mini Reviews!

Hey guys, doing two little mini reviews of some short stories I read. The reason they’re mini reviews is that they were literally tiny, but I still wanted to review them. 

I read Treehouse by J Sharpe and Dark Web by Kelvin Teo. 

Treehouse review – I know this book was a short story but it was literally 2 or 3 pages? The idea was so good, and I did get goosebumps just reading the short passages. But, it would need to be expanded upon to warrant a story, it was more of a short creepy pasta!

Dark Web review – This story had so much potential! I really enjoyed what was written and the author did really well to fit everything in but I just wish it wasn’t so cut off at the end – it could have continued just a few more pages! 

So there we have 2 very mini reviews to go with the very mini books that I read. Hope you enjoyed them and let me know if you’ve read either of these and what you thought. 

Em xxx