How Much To…? Matt Shaw – A Review. [SPOILERS].

WOW, okay, this is not going to be a proper review because to be quite honest I don’t think I could write a review on this book.

I picked this book free from the Kindle store as I thought it would be a crime kinda theme, the How Much To…? I thought that was someone hiring a hit person etc. NOPE. It was more traumatising than that!

HUGE SPOILERS AHEAD!!

The book centres around people who are seemingly desperate for money, and they’re basically asked how much money it would take to get them to perform certain tasks, but with a twist.

The tasks themselves range from downright weird to things you would see on a Saw film (in fact I’m pretty sure one of them was a watered down version of a Saw trap…) and are enough to make anyone feel ill just thinking about them!

There was at least one point during this story that I physically retched and other points that I felt so revulsed that someone had come up with this that I had to put the book down and walk away, it was too much for me to stomach.

Part of me wants to give this book 5 stars for just being so fucked up but another part of me wants to give it 1 star because it’s so disgusting… I have really mixed feelings about it…

If you do happen to read it, let me know what you thought!

Em xxx

 

Top 10 Tuesday – Inspirational/Thought Provoking Book Quotes📚🤔

Guess who’s back, back again… I’m BACK with another Top Ten Tuesday post, revived by the lovely That Arsty Reader Girl.

Today’s TTT (on the 30th April) is Top Ten Inspirational/Thought Provoking Book Quotes. This has actually been one of my favourite ones to write so far, I’m a sucker for a good quote. Before I start can I ask very nicely (pretty pretty please) that people don’t judge me for having multiple Potter quotes on here, OKAY THEY ARE MY FAVOURITE BOOKS, please let me be 😦

Now that’s cleared up, here is my TTT:

1. “It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live” JK Rowling – Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
2. “A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.” Roald Dahl – The Twits. 
3. “Sometimes dead is better” Stephen King – Pet Sematary. 
4. “May the odds be ever in your favour” Suzanne Collins – The Hunger Games. 
5. “Some people care too much. I think it’s love” A.A. Milne – Winnie The Pooh. 
6. “Every human life is worth the same, and worth saving” JK Rowling – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. 
7. “Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us and sometimes they win” Stephen King – The Shining
8. “If everybody minded their own business, the world would go around a great deal faster than it does.” Lewis Carroll – Alice in Wonderland.
9. “Never do anything by halves if you want to get away with it. Be outrageous. Go the whole hog.” Roald Dahl – Matilda
10. “The world isn’t split into good people and death eaters. We’ve all got both light and dark inside of us. What matters is the part we chose to act on. That’s who we really are.” JK Rowling – Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix. 

Are any of your Top Ten thought provoking quotes on my list? Let me know!

Em xx

Sometimes I lie, Alice Feeney – A Review. [SPOILERS]

Aloha! I’m back with another book review and this time I’ve been reading Sometimes I lie by Alice Feeney. 

My overall rating of this book – 2 out of 5 stars. Again, I was intrigued by the book that promised twists and turns on every page, and the only reason I read this so quickly is that I was waiting for those twists and turns.

I felt that the promised twists and turns of this book only really came in the last few chapters or so, and in turn that made me get a bit lost, I had to re-read the last few chapters out of sheer confusion. 

I really didn’t enjoy this book, I felt the way it was set out, jumping between a diary, then and now, the lack of twists and turns and the sheer confusion at the end where absolutely NOTHING is cleared up and you’re left with far too many questions for a book of that size.

I really struggled to enjoy it 😦 Has anyone else read this book? Let me know what you thought in the comments!

E xx

The Child, Sebastian Fitzek – A Review. [SPOILERS]

Hello my lovely followers!

I literally finished this book today on my lunch break at work, but I’ve only just got the chance to review it. Overall, 2 out of 5.

I was so excited by the premise of the book “My name is Simon. I’m 10 years old. I’m a serial killer” like okay book, you’ve piqued my interest I’m going to read you, you’re going to be the first book off my newly updated bookshelf and what a waste it was.

It started off well, I was really keen to read this, the premise had got me hooked and I wanted to find out how on earth Simon, a 10 year old kid was a serial killer… But then it just lost its way.

There were too many people brought into the story with absolutely zero back story or explanation, I mean, the ending just didn’t make any sense whatsoever in relation to who this “voice” was, I mean, no sense whatsoever.

The story lost its way part way through as well, it seemed to be about Simon, who went through regression therapy and thought that he was a serial killer, but then it suddenly turned into child trafficking and there was no explanation as to how it reached that point. It just seemed to jump without any reasoning.

For me, I was pulled in by this 10 year old who thinks he’s a serial killer, like COOL I’ve never read a story like that before, but then it just got too much. There were no links between parts of the book and the twists were just pulled out of thin air.

I feel like giving this book 2 out of 5 stars is stretching it, but I thought 1 star was a bit hard. It had potential, and if Sebastian Fitzek had stuck to the original idea then it could have been so much more, but sadly, it was not to be.

Have you read The Child? Let me know what you thought in the comments below!

We’re gonna need a bigger boat (bookshelf actually but hey it sounded good)📚

Hello!

Welcome to my blog if you’re new and hello to my followers, who for some reason have stuck around through my ramblings???

ANYWAY, on with the post. Has anyone seen Jaws, by the way, and got my post title reference?

I recently (like 10 – 14 days ago) did a down the TBR hole post, as I had a few books that I wanted to read before I purchased anymore… Well, I didn’t buy any, I just collected some!

Me and my Mom cleaned out the spare room of the majority of books in there, while most went to charity there were some I was really keen on and took for myself, so I am back with an even longer TBR list, including books on my kindle.

Buckle up peeps, we have a LOT to get through! 

• The Child – Sebastian Fitzek 
• The Girl on the Train – Paula Hawkins 
• Sometimes I lie – Alice Feeney
• The Righteous Men – Sam Bourne
• Hannibal Rising, Red Dragon, The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal – Thomas Harris ng
• The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon – Stephen King
• Dolores Claiborne – Stephen King
• Rose Madder – Stephen King
• The ENTIRE Chronicles of Narnia (yes all 7 books)
• Book of Shadows – Alexandra Sokoloff
• The Unseen – Alexandra Sokoloff
• Laying a Ghost (1) – Alexa Snow
• Giving up the Ghost (2) – Alexa Snow
• Waking the Dead (3) – Alexa Snow
• Banquet for the Damned – Adam Nevill
• Apartment 16 – Adam Nevill
• Cujo – Stephen King
• Thinner – Stephen King
• The Stand – Stephen King
• Insomnia – Stephen King
• Gerald’s Game – Stephen King
• Dark Places – Gillian Flynn

I mean, it’s increased quite a bit! I’m aiming for 3 books a month, which will also give me time to digest them and review them. 

I’ve got a few others on my Kindle that I’m not so fussed about reading, they looked good so I downloaded them but I’ve got others to read first!

Are there any books on the list you’ve read? Let me know in the comments below and then be sure to check out my review once I’ve read it.

Em xx

Top 10 Tuesday – Reasons to pick up a book📚

Hello everyone!

Welcome to my Top Ten Tuesday revived by That Arsty Reader Girl in January 2018, I’m completely new to this so I’m really excited to kick off my first post.

I’ll be writing about my top 10 things that make me pick up a book, so without further ado… 

1. The cover of a book. I know you shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover!! But I do think a cover can give you a feel of the book, a dark mysterious cover can intrigue me just as much as a good title. 
2. The author. I’m a huge fan of certain authors and if they were to write the phonetic alphabet I’d still read it, regardless of how good it was!
3.  If it’s a series of books or a standalone novel. I love a good book series, I find the author gives themselves more time to expand on the storyline and really set the scene and delve into the background of the story. 
4. If someone has recommended it. I’m a huge believer of recommending books to people (one of my later posts will be about books I’ve brought or borrowed from the library based on what other people have shared) and so if someone has been kind enough to tell me about a book they think I’ll like then I will DEFINITELY pick that book up.
5. Comments from other authors. I recently read The Woman in the Window and in my review I posted that I picked this book purely because other authors that I adore had said how good this book was. I was disappointed in the book but the sole reason I chose it was Stephen King’s recommendation!
6.  The genre. I’m a fan of certain genres, and I went through a phase where I loved crime books, so I’d only look for books that came under that topic.
7. The length of the book. As with the series of books, I find a longer book has more time to set the scene and delve into the background, but equally something too long will bore you. It has to be the perfect length. 
8. It’s a topic I enjoy (none fiction). I love ethics & philosophy and quite a broad range of history as well, so if a book is on a topic I enjoy, I’ll pick it up and give it a read. I prefer to buy these kind of books as I’m able to then doodle over them and write in them – terrible but SOZ.
9. Staying Power. Is this book going to be read for years to come? Continue to spark discussions? Or is it a book that has been around for years that people can’t seem to get enough of? Either way, if it’s got staying power I AM HERE FOR IT. 
10. The Fear Of Missing Out. OOOOH, yes, I get this big time. If someone is talking about a book, I so want to be able to contribute my opinion on it and I want to do so ASAP so that they don’t move onto something that I haven’t read yet. A terrible reason to read but something that I’m super guilty of sometimes 😦

Do you pick up a book for any of the reasons above? Do you pick them up for different reasons? Let me know in the comments!

Em xx

The Balkan Escape, Steve Berry – A Review. [SPOILERS]

Hello my lovely followers! And welcome if you’re new to my blog😊

I thought I’d jump on here quickly and share a review of a short story I’ve just finished (it only took me about 20 mins to read) called The Balkan Escape.

It was one of the free kindle books they do and I was looking for something “scary”.

On the whole I’d give it 2 out of 5.

Whilst I felt the story didn’t really have a clear direction, or any direction at all really, it did have a lot of potential.

If anyone has a kindle or has read on one before you’ll know it has the little percentage bar at the bottom that tells you how much of the book you’ve read? The book ended at 70% so there could be loads of unnecessary spiel🙄 which gives you an idea!!

It had potential to be great, there was a lot of good ideas in the book, the archeological aspect, the idea that the Russian’s were mining things under a guise… but it just wasn’t long enough to factor all those things in which is why it lacked direction, it never really got going or expanded on much.

My rating is 5/10 and even that is being generous!

Have a read and then let me know what you think in the comments below.

Em xx

Mirror Mirror, Anthony M Strong – A Review. [SPOILERS]

Hello my lovely followers and welcome to you if you’re new to my blog!

I’ve just finished reading (what I would say is a short story) called Mirror Mirror, it was a free kindle book that I found when I searched for horror books.

Overall rating – 1/5. I like to be scared when I read or watch something horror and it just fell flat.

The story itself could have been made much longer if the author was to actually expand on the backstory, alas he didn’t.

It just was not an enjoyable read, even when I didn’t pay for it!

On the whole, Mirror Mirror was pretty rubbish, it failed to scare me, it didn’t make me want to carry on reading and it left a few unanswered questions. A disappointment all round.

Until next time,

Em xx

The Woman in the Window, A J Finn – A Review. [SPOILERS]

Hello and welcome to my new followers!

I’ve just finished another book, as you can see from the title The Woman in The Window, by A. J. Finn. It’s called “astounding, thrilling, amazing” by Gillian Flynn the author of Gone Girl and even Stephen King called it “unputdownable” so I had extremely high expectations for this book…

On the whole, I was disappointed. The blurb of the book really builds the story up, Anna hasn’t left her home in 10 months, watches her neighbours (bit weird but sure) and one day hears a scream from across the street, I’m summarising.

The book itself I found takes entirely too long to actually build up to the main “story line” if you could call it that. I’m all for a book with twists and turns, but I found A.J.Finn to just be pulling the twists from thin air. It took ages to get into the main premise of the story and then once we got “there” A.J.Finn, I felt, was throwing too much into it without any thought of how that lined up with the rest of the story and shoved as many twists as possible without any background to them.

I was expecting a really good read, and whilst I did read through it really quickly because I wanted to see what happened, I did feel on the whole it was a bit MEH. 

Out of 5, I’d give The Woman In The Window 3 out of 5.

Have you read it? Let me know in the comments what you thought! X

Misery, Stephen King – A Review. [SPOILERS]

Good evening my lovelies!

I just thought I’d quickly pop on and review Stephen King’s Misery which I’ve not long finished (as in about half an hour ago). 

Overall review – 4 / 5. Stephen King is one of my favourite authors of all time so I may be slightly biased when it comes to his work…

For me, the storyline wasn’t overly inventive, it was fairly simple, man crashes car, no1 fan takes him in and nurses him back to health, no1 fan (shock) turns out to be crazy, not the most inventive of plot lines, that being said, the book is pretty much set in one room with the introduction of just a handful of minor characters alongside the two main ones for the entire book.

The fact that there are just 2 key characters, Annie and Paul, and that it’s set with the exception of a few chapters here and there in the bedroom that Paul is being held in shows off King’s writing talent. With nothing in the scenery to expand upon he relies entirely on the story itself. 

Within the book, there is another book, which Paul is writing to stay alive. So not only is King writing ‘Misery’ the book where Paul is held by his no1 fan he’s also writing ‘Misery Returns’ Paul’s book that he’s writing to stay alive – are you with me so far? I feel this is part of what makes the book so exceptionally good, the same thought and effort that went into ‘Misery’ also went into ‘Misery Returns’ to really set the scene and flesh out the book.

I keep seeing the film on Netflix, it pops up on my recommended list every so often so I’m pleased I’ve read the book before I watched it so I don’t spoil it for myself! 

Anyway, have you read Misery? Let me know what you thought in the comments below.

Em Xx