📚Top Ten Tuesday – Books I want to be stranded with📚

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

This week we are discussing books that we want to be stranded with on a desert island! I have quite a few for this so I’ve managed to narrow it down to 5 with extensive reasons as to why I want to bring these with me.

1 – IT by Stephen King. I’ve chosen to bring this one with me because to be honest I have been trying to read this book for about 4 years now and I just for whatever reason cannot. And I thought, hey, I’m stuck on a desert island with absolutely NO REASON not to read this book, so why not take it with you and actually read it!

2 – The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris. This is one of my ALL TIME FAVOURITE books in the whole entire universe, one I never get tired of reading, so of course it’s in my bag when they decide to drop me off at some random island and leave me there forever.

3 – The PJO series by Rick Riordan. I will never get bored of reading these books, they bring so much joy and light to my life. They are perfect for when you need to give yourself a happiness boost! Plus, the chapter headings alone are enough to give you those laughs that keep going until you’re crying, which is a reason enough for me to bring these with me.

4 – Wicked series by Piper Lawson. Ya girl is stranded for fucks sake, I need something to keep me entertained and bring some excitement to my life!

5 – How to Survive on a Deserted Island by Tim O’Shei. Now I haven’t read this one (as I don’t plan on ever getting stuck on an island) but the title alone is enough to make me want to bring it along, if nothing else it will give me something to read when I’ve gotten through the rest of my books haha.

And there are my 5 books I will be taking with me when the aliens decide to transport me to the nearest deserted island!

Until next time, Em xxx

📚Top Ten Tuesday – Books I read in one sitting (or I would if I had the time)📚

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

Today’s post is all about books that I read in one sitting, or that I would have done if I had the time to. While there aren’t many recently that I’ve been able to read in one go, due to time constraints, there are definitely some from when I was younger!

1 – Hush Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick. I could easily read this book in one sitting, I find it so easy to devour this one!

2 – Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix. I remember vividly when this came out, I read it in one day where I literally only moved to use the toilet or to get a drink.

3 – Goosebumps Horrorland Series. If I remember rightly my re-read of this series a few years ago took place across one full day. Granted they’re only short books but I was so desperate to find out what happened that I just powered through them.

4 – Matilda by Roald Dahl. This is one from my childhood that I never ever tire of reading!

5 – The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. Not so much with my re-reads of this book but the very first time I read it I literally flew through it, I couldn’t put it down.

6 – Chopping Spree by Angela Sylvaine. Now this one was helped by how short the story was, I didn’t think it was going to be that short, but I devoured this in one sitting and it was SO worth it.

7 – Me and Mr Jones by Lucy Diamond. This one was just so easy to read that I completely lost any sense of time and carried on until I finished the whole thing!

And moving onto ones that I would love to read in one sitting if I could…

8 – The Pastel Effect by Arly Carmack. This book gave me all of the feels and was so bloody good that I would love nothing more than to be able to re-read it in one go, without any interruptions so that I could fully immerse myself into the story.

9 – The Shining by Stephen King. I absolutely love the atmosphere of this book and I always get disappointed when I have to put it down as it spoils it for me, so to be able to read this is one sitting would be PERFECT.

10 – The Guest List by Lucy Foley. Now I probably won’t re-read this one but if I could erase it from my memory and then read it again I would do so in one sitting, I felt like I was constantly on edge and I needed to keep reading to find out what would happen next. Every chapter was a cliffhanger.

And there you have it, 7 books that I absolutely flew through in one sitting and 3 that I would love to have done so if I just had the time!

Let me know if you’re taking part in TTT so I can check out your post too.

Until next time, Em xxx

Dr Sleep, Stephen King – A Review.

Dr Sleep by Stephen King.

Synopsis… “Following a childhood haunted by terrifying events at the Overlook Hotel, Danny Torrance has been drifting for decades. Finally, he settles into a job at a nursing home where he draws on his remnant ‘shining’ power to help people pass on. Then he meets Abra Stone, a young girl with the brightest ‘shining’ ever seen. But her gift is attracting a tribe of paranormals. They may look harmless, old and devoted to their Recreational Vehicles, but The True Knot live off the ‘steam’ that children like Abra produce. Now Dan must confront his old demons as he battles for Abra’s soul and survival…”

Overall rating 2 out of 5 stars.

My review…

I’m sad fellow book bloggers, I’m super sad 😦

I thought I would adore this book, I usually LOVE Stephen King and rate all of his book incredibly highly, but I just can’t do that with Dr Sleep… I would be lying if I said I enjoyed it.

The actual layout of the book put me off right from the start, with the different parts and then chapters within chapters, it confused me and I found it very hard to keep a track of where I was in the book.

The story itself, and whilst I shouldn’t compare it to The Shining you can’t help but not because it literally is the follow on story from that, was awful and should have just stayed in the drafts.

It felt, to me, like there was no clear direction this story was going in and a lot of the elements from The Shining were brought into this book but they felt different and wrong somehow. Almost as if King had forgotten to reread his own book before he wrote the sequel.

At points the book would jump years in the space of a few lines, which frustrated me no end and made it hard to keep up with what was going on.

The introduction of the True Knot was good, it added another angle to the story and I loved how the members were described and written, they had this real earthy feel to them and they felt quite cult like.

But the true standout of this novel was Abra, she was the shining star in a book that otherwise would have been unredeemable for me. I loved how she was written, how headstrong she was and I enjoyed any parts of the book that featured her immensely.

To top off this book the ending was absolutely appalling, it just summed up the rest of the book for me.

I definitely will not read this again and I’m sad to say how disappointed I am in this one because I usually love King’s books. Let me know if you’ve read it and what you thought!

Until next time, Em xxx

Gerald’s Game, Stephen King – A Review.

Gerald’s Game by Stephen King.

Synopsis… “A game of seduction between a husband and wife goes horribly awry when the husband dies. But the nightmare has just begun…“

Overall rating 4 out of 5 stars.

My review…

There is a trigger/content warning with Gerald’s Game for child sexual abuse. I will not be mentioning this in my review but please be aware of this should you wish to read this book.

Anyone who knows me will know I adore Stephen King and his writing and Gerald’s Game was no different, it was, in a word, brilliant.

We are launched straight into the story here, the opening of the book involves Jessie already in handcuffs, and I’m glad that King didn’t waste time setting the scene or the drive to the lake house when that would have held little relevance to the overall story.

As always, the suspense creeps up on us and Gerald’s Game is no exception to this. I had permanent goosebumps reading the first chapter of this book! I was literally terrified for a good chunk of this book. Especially when Jesse starts hallucinating (or does she…) and seeing things in their room.

I particularly enjoyed how despite Jessie being alone (other than Gerald’s body) the book never seemed to stop or fall into a lull, or feel claustrophobic. This, for me, was aided by Jessie’s inner monologue, which I loved.

The inner monologues also allowed us to learn more about Jessie, her relationship with Gerald and her life in general, which I felt added a human element to the characters and helped me to form a connection with them.

King was clever in his chosen moment for the flashbacks or inner monologues, so that there was never a point where we would feel bored from being stuck in the same room for so long.

There was a point that I felt the book could have ended, and for me I wished it had of done. The last few remaining chapters were unnecessary and spoiled it a bit, in my opinion.

On the whole, I did really enjoy this book and I was terrified at points, the suspense really got to me! Let me know if you’ve read Gerald’s Game, I’m off to watch the film now on Netflix as my treat to myself for finishing the book.

Em xxx

Top Ten Tuesday – Authors I’ve read the most books by📚

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Hey guys welcome back to my blog! It’s Tuesday (7th July already?!) which means it is time for Top Ten Tuesday! Currently hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, and is a weekly post, born out of the want to bring us bookish people together!

This weeks topic is top 10 authors that I’ve read the most books by, but I’ve decided to do as many as I can, I might get to 10 (or I might not) I’m going to look back through my Goodreads and total my reviews for certain authors haha.

1 – J K Rowling. I’ve read all 7 Harry Potter books, the 3 Hogwarts Library books and The Casual Vacancy.

2 – Stephenie Meyer. I’ve read the 4 Twilight saga books and The Host and I will be reading Midnight Sun when it’s released. (WOOOOOP!)

3 – Thomas Harris. I have read all 4 of the Hannibal Lecter book series.

5 – Roald Dahl. I’ve read his 15 book collection, numerous times! I still have the boxset in the loft, a bit battered and faded but I’m saving them for when I have my own little ones!

6 – Dan Brown. I have just (as in the start of June) completed Origin which means I have read every book of his!

7 – Rick Riordan. I’ve read the first 5 of the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series, I want to do a reread at some point but the other books on my TBR list will screech at me if I do that lmao.

8 – Piper Lawson. I’ve read 4 of her books so far and enjoyed every single one, they were all amazing.

9 – Stephen King. I’ve lost count now of how many books of his I’ve read, I had ones from before I started blogging and using Goodreads too.

10 – Adam Nevill. Someone I didn’t find until the last year or so but so far I’ve enjoyed!

That was easier than I thought actually to find 10 authors I’ve read multiple books of, here was me thinking I’d struggle. Let me know if you’re taking part in TTT so I can check out your post too.

Em xxx

Top Ten Tuesday turns 10🎉🎊

Hello everyone! It is Tuesday today which means it’s time for Top Ten Tuesday… Today is a special one as TTT is 10, so we have a celebration post! Our brief for today is that we could pick any previous TTT post and redo or update it, we can be as creative as we like…

Top Ten Tuesday is currently hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl and is a weekly post, that was born from the want to bring us bookish people together and those of us who love a good list (me😂)

I have decided to post my top ten fave books I’ve ever reviewed, the original post was first ten books so I’ve decided to switch it up a bit and share my fave reviews instead!

If you click on the book titles you can see the original review I posted too.

1 – Salem’s Lot by Stephen King. I picked this one because it was the first ever book review I posted, and while I’ve certainly come a long way since then it reminds me of when I started out.

2 – Inferno by Dan Brown. This book literally planned an entire holiday for me and even though I only rated it 4 stars it still made such an impact on my life.

3 – Mirror Mirror by Anthony M Strong. I reviewed this 1 star, BUT, it’s my first ever bad review of a book so I had to include it!

4 – The Perfect Couple by Jackie Kabler. I really enjoyed reading this book and it’s definitely one that will be on my reread list, which is why I’ve included it.

5 – Die, My Love by Zoe Blake and 6 others. This was the first anthology I’d read and it was amazing. I’ve included it because I want more people to know about this book, it was SO GOOD.

6 – Camp Leanpe by Timothy R Baldwin. I’ve included this one because it reminded of the Goosebumps series I used to read as a child, so it was one of my favourites to review, it was like going into a time machine!

7 – Coraline by Neil Gaiman. I don’t know why I put off reading this book for so long because it was amazing and by far one of my favourites to review, I felt like I couldn’t get my words typed fast enough to share the review.

8 – Goosebumps by R L Stine. I mean of course I’ve included this one, I literally got in a time machine and went back to my childhood!

9 – Death Warrant by Will Pearson. This is the only none fiction book on my list and I’ve included it because it was my third book after I’d DNFR the 2 previous, and it really got me out of a slump.

10 – Hannibal book series by Thomas Harris. Technically this is 4 books in this review, but Hannibal is one of my all time favourite book series and I had to include it, as they were my favourite reviews to write.

Happy 10th birthday to Top Ten Tuesday too, originally from The Broke and the Bookish back in June 2010 it moved over to Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018 and it has been there ever since. I can’t even begin to imagine how many posts there has been in its 10 year history!

As always, let me know if you’re taking part and I will check out your post too.

Em xxx

Dolores Claiborne, Stephen King – A Review. [SPOILERS]

Hey guys and welcome back to my blog! Today I’m going to review one of the two Stephen King books that I read in one weekend – WOOP – it’s Dolores Claiborne. 

Overall rating – 5 out 5 stars. 

I’ll start by saying that I did find this book a bit odd at first, I was reading it in bed and thought to myself “I’ll finish the chapter then bookmark it and go to sleep” but there literally is no chapters??? Once I got used to the constant narrative it was superb. 

Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King was excellent. Not only does the constant narrative show King’s ability to hold a reader (usually if there’s no chapters or no clear breaks in the text my eyes just go a bit funny) but it also is a bloody good read. God that sounded so British.

ANYWAY! Slightly different to other King books I’ve read recently with their supernatural goings on, Dolores Claiborne focuses on real-life scares, of a wife being beaten, a daughter being sexually abused by her father and an old lady (that Dolores Claiborne is looking after) in denial about her children who died in a car crash.

I experienced so many emotions reading this book and I can honestly say it’s very highly ranked in my Stephen King list.

Have you read Dolores Claiborne? Let me know, we can talk about it! Em xx

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, Stephen King – A Review. [SPOILERS]

Aloha my lovely followers! I’m back with the second Stephen King book that I read in a weekend, this time I’m reviewing The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon.

Overall rating – 4 out of 5 stars.

I read this book so fast, I was literally obsessed with it! Following a young girl goes off the trail whilst hiking with her family aka her Mom and brother (bcos she needs a wee, TBH I can relate to that) and can’t find her way back to the trail afterwards.

A big fear of mine is getting lost and I felt like we were in the woods with Trisha as she was trying to find civilisation again, or even someone who could help her escape the hell she was in.

I’m not a huge baseball fan, so I didn’t really like the way the chapters were headed, and I did find it a bit cringey that she was imagining her sporting hero as she was trying to find her way out of the woods – concentrate kid!! But the storyline itself terrified me, mostly because it played on a big fear of mine.

I had goosebumps at the end of the book when she was found. A true rollercoaster of a read.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments. Em xx

Night Shift, Stephen King – A Review. [LOTS OF SPOILERS].

Hey everyone and welcome to my blog! Over the past 4 or 5 days, I’ve been treating myself to the delights of some of Stephen King’s short stories, from his Night Shift collection. I skipped a few that I just wasn’t interested in reading and then rated the rest individually.

Buckle up cos we’re in it for the long haul now!!!

I have a hardback copy of this book, and inside the cover, it says… “In the stories that follow you will encounter all manner of night creatures… None of them are real. The thing under my bed… isn’t real. I know that, and I also know that if I’m careful to keep my foot under the covers, it will never be able to grab my ankle” which instantly drew me to reading this collection.

The order these stories are reviewed is the order I read them, and without any more of me rambling, let’s get into the reviews…

• Graveyard Shift – 4 out of 5 stars. I literally hate rats, so this story was beyond creepy for me, the thought of mutant rodents? NO THANK YOU.
• Night Surf – 4 out of 5 stars. I was intrigued by this one more than scared, the opening line really caught my attention and I do wish it was longer so we could delve further into this virus that they appear to have.
• I Am the Doorway – 5 out of 5 stars. Wowzers, I did not see this one coming, it was the perfect weave of curiosity and eeriness that kept you hanging on a cliff edge…
• The Mangler – 5 out of 5 stars. I had a rough idea of this story already before I read it, but nothing could prepare me for the thought of a demon possessed mangler. I think because it was a household item that made it feel all the scarier, plus the descriptions of how it was mangling people, grim.
• The Bogeyman – 5 out of 5 stars. “All I did was kill my kids” and I’m not going to lie, I was waaaay off with this one, I thought he made up the Bogeyman because he was beating his wife/kids, NOPE, the shock of my life at the end! I kind of closed the book and just sat there for a few seconds digesting what I had read lmao.
• Gray Matter – 5 out of 5 stars. For the sheer disgustingness (is that a word??? I guess so Grammarly didn’t pick it up) of the blob described, and whilst the ending left us on a cliffhanger it also seemed like THE perfect way to round off the story.
• Sometimes They Come Back – 5 out of 5 stars. This was sheer terror for me, this is what I want from a short story, I want to be scared! And I was, I had a nightmare after reading this story…
• The Ledge – 3.5 out of 5 stars. This one was kind of a let down for me after the high quality of the others, it just didn’t feel so scary. Maybe I’ve read too many other things similar but I just didn’t enjoy it that much compared to the others.
• The Lawnmower Man – 4 out of 5 stars. I was eating my lunch while I read this story and let me tell you it nearly came back up again 😦 I honestly felt sick reading this, not out of fear but sheer disgust at the guy eating the grass? NAH.
• Quitters Inc – 5 out of 5 stars. WOW, I mean it’s a pretty simple premise about aversion therapy, but the line where he shakes the hand of McCann’s wife, it got me…
• I know what you need – 3 out of 5 stars. This one seemed a bit flat compared to the others, to me it just didn’t make that much sense at the end? And I felt quite disappointed after I finished reading it, almost like I would have ended it differently.
• The Man Who Loved Flowers – 4 out of 5 stars. I genuinely did not see this coming, at all. But when it hit me (pardon the pun – if you’ve read it you’ll understand) I was shook. And then it clicked in my head a line earlier in the book, about a man attacking with a hammer, who hadn’t yet been found and the seed had been planted on the very first page but it was never obvious it was him!
• The Last Rung on the Ladder – 5 out of 5 stars. For me, this was by far the most poignant story in the book. After an accident when they were younger involving a ladder and a broken ankle it just goes to show how we get so caught up in our own lives (not intentionally) and then we miss catching up with family or friends who need us. It really made me think.
• The Woman in the Room – 2 out of 5 stars. I’m really sad that I read this last as I thought it was shit, I’m not sure if I was spoilt with the other stories or it just wasn’t as good but it never really got going, which was disappointing.

There are a few that I skipped, including Children of the Corn (I did try and read it but I was so damn tired I fell asleep halfway through soooo). 

On the whole, I really enjoyed the short stories in Night Shift, some of them were downright creepy and others were just excellent pieces of storytelling. My overall rating… 4.5 out of 5 stars. 

Have you read any of the short stories in Night Shift? Let me know, I’d be keen to hear what you thought. Em xx

First Line Friday – Thinner by Stephen King📚

Aloha and welcome back to another First Line Friday! Hosted by Hoarding Books! Today I’m posting a line from Thinner by Stephen King. 

“‘Thinner’, the old gypsy man with the rotting nose whispers to William Halleck as Halleck and his wife, Heidi, come out of the courthouse”. 

I actually reviewed this not long ago, as I’ve just finished reading it! It was so good and as soon as I read the first line I was hooked. Check out my review here!

Are you taking part in First Line Friday? Let me know in the comments below!