The Reluctant Cannibals

When a group of food-obsessed academics at Oxford University form a secret dining society, they happily devote themselves to investigating exotic and forgotten culinary treasures. Until a dish is suggested that takes them all by surprise. Professor Arthur Plantagenet has been told he has a serious heart problem and decides that his death should not be in vain. He sets out his bizarre plan in a will, that on his death, tests the loyalty of his closest friends, the remaining members of this exclusive dining society. A dead Japanese diplomat, police arrests and charges of grave robbing. These are just some of the challenges these culinary explorers must overcome in tackling gastronomy’s ultimate taboo: cannibalism.

I recieved a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review, via netgalley.

This book was interesting, unlike anything I have ever read. I did find it a little slow though. But that is probably personal preference, I like faster paced books with more action and more drama. I did enjoy this though. I found it a very interesting concept. It was suitably dark and disturbing for the subject matter, it suited the setting very well.

The characters were all very different and easy to differeniate between them. I liked the eccentric characters, it’s hard to write them yet make them believable but the author dis amazingly well.

Overall a very enjoyable read.

3 out of 5 stars

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ARC Review: Black Rabbit Hall

Amber and Toby and Barney and Kitty.

The four Alton children spend every day of the hot Cornish summer playing games on sun-baked lawns or building dens in the dark woods. Endless days of laughter and fun, without an adult in sight.

But no one can foresee the storm that will bring it all to a tragic end.

Afterwards, Black Rabbit Hall, their home, with its endless corridors and ancient creaking clocks, is a twisted and changed place, set to steal the last vestiges of their childhood and innocence. A home that not all of the Altons will be strong enough to survive.

Now, thirty years later, a message from one of the Alton children is discovered carved into an old oak tree. Could the tangled truth of that terrible summer finally creep into the light? Or should some secrets be left in the past for good?

I received a free copy of this book via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I am a huge Kate Morton fan, this book just screamed secrets, deception and lies. All the things that I love in this sort of book. Although there was quite a lot of the desired subjects, they were a little too mundane for me. It was too obvious and I guessed the secrets quite early on in the book.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed this, I loved the setting and the story was good even though I had worked out a lot of it. I really loved the idea of Black Rabbit Hall and how it got it’s name.

I was rooting for the Alton children the whole way through, I wanted them to get away from the hate and just survive until they were old enough to get away.

The tragic parts were just that, tragic, they really pulled on my heartstrings.

Barney’s secret was not really a secret and not really worth waiting for. It didn’t really bring anything new to the story that we didn’t already know.

I would read more by this author. The writing was great and overall I really enjoyed this book.

3 out of 5 stars

Recommended for people who like:

ARC Review: In Place of Never

Can the truth set her free?…

A part of Mercy died the summer her sister tragically drowned. Now Mercy has a chance to discover if Faith’s death was an accident—or murder.  Her first step is to confront the lead suspects: a band of traveling gypsies—the last people who saw her sister alive. But Mercy finds an unexpected ally in Cross, the soulful musician in their ranks. He’s a kindred spirit, someone who sees into her heart for the first time in, well, forever. Yet stirring up the past puts Mercy in danger…

Suddenly someone is shadowing Mercy’s every move, making her even more determined to uncover the facts. With Cross by her side, she is ready to face it all, even if that means opening up to him, knowing he may one day leave her. What she discovers is a truth that rocks the foundation of her small river town—and a love worth risking everything for….

I received a free copy via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was set three years after Faith’s death, it showed how much her death had affected her family in different ways. How they were still trying to find themselves without her. How to be a family again when members are gone forever.

Mercy was a good main character, she thought about her sister a lot and it was good to learn about what happened this way. I cannot imagine what it would be like to lose a sister who was also your best friend. It is a shame she shut Pru out but I was glad they finally started talking again.

I loved the path this story took, her path to find the truth and who she really is. She stuck up for what and who she believes in. There was more to the story than Mercy’s quest, there was depth to it, different layers, made it feel more real.

Cross was a good love interest and a great character. I was rooting for him all the way, not just to get the girl but to succeed in his dreams.

I was a big fan of how there was hints at different ways for Faith’s death, but it all made sense and became cleat in the end.

I will read more by this author the writing style was excellent.

4 out of 5 stars.

Recommended for fans of:

ARC Review: Heart of Ice

Will their passion for each other be a blessing, or fulfill an ancient curse and destroy them?

Lucinda Stafford is uniquely unqualified to serve as governess for the children of a handsome inventor. But, she’s determined to prove to her family she’s not a fragile, pampered heiress who can’t take care of herself. She didn’t plan to be attracted to the man who makes her furious one moment and whimper with desire the next. When danger threatens, can she save two innocent children from a terrifying nightmare?

Grayson Thorne has only weeks to prove his geothermal plant can generate electricity, or he’ll lose much needed funding. He’s desperate to hire a new governess, but shocked when his housekeeper returns home with a beautiful, educated female who awakens long dormant desires. She’s the perfect choice, if he can manage to keep his hunger for her kisses and fantasies of taking her to his bed under control.

An ancient Icelandic curse hides in the hills, haunting the residents of Thornehús. Grayson and Lucinda may be swept away by passion, but they must face an unspeakable horror that threatens them all.

I received a free copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book had a nice premise, they characters were clever and very well defined, but this curse that is described in the blurb barely shows up and you never truly find out exactly what it is. There’s little hints but not enough. This is in all essence a romance novel trying to pretend to be a Gothic thriller. It didn’t have me fooled for very long. So if you wanting the folk lore and thriller-ness this book promised, you should go find it somewhere else. If you are happy with a nice historical romance in a lovely setting, this book is for you.

Lucinda was passionate and stood up for what she believed was right. I liked her very much as a main character.

Grayson was a strange man, often giving foolish restrictions to his children and staff, although he did come through in the end. It made up for all his foolishness in the beginning.

The setting was beautiful and makes me very much want to visit Iceland. I just wish they explored a little more, most of the book took place in the manor or surrounding area.

If there had been more folk lore in it, it would have been much better. In my view if you promise it in the blurb it should be there.

3 out of 5 stars.

Review: Girls in Love

Tags

ellie, girls in love, magda, nadine, young adult

Magda is tall and glamorous, Nadine is willowy and ‘gothic’ and Ellie, well, Ellie thinks she is unattractive and boring and that no boy will ever be interested in her. The three girls have been best friends ‘forever’ even though they don’t seem to have much in common. But one thing they all want is a boyfriend!

Join the girls as they work out how to deal with all the surprises that being a teenage can bring. Sometimes sad, sometimes scary and often funny, don’t miss this unputdownable and hugely popular trilogy for teenage readers by the award-winning Jacqueline Wilson.

I watched this show as a teenager and loved it, when I saw it going for cheap in the bookshop I volunteer in, I could not pass up the opportunity to read it. It wasn’t exactly what I remembered, but it was still enjoyable. I am an adult so not the target demographic, but I found it funny and clever. Some of the stuff the 13 year old girls got up to was a little much, I am positive I didn’t do anything like that at that age, didn’t even really start thinking about boys until I was 15.

I did really like how loyal the girls were to each other, thy stood up for Nadine when she couldn’t do it herself and saved her from a terrible fate. I liked how Ellie grew as the book went on. It was a good read and am looking forward to the next one. 🙂

4 stars out of 5

ARC Review: Lying Out Loud

Tags

fiction, love, lying, romance, Ryder Cross, teen, the duff, YA

Sonny Ardmore is an excellent liar. She lies about her dad being in prison. She lies about her mom kicking her out. And she lies about sneaking into her best friend’s house every night because she has nowhere else to go.

Amy Rush might be the only person Sonny shares everything with – secrets, clothes, even a nemesis named Ryder Cross.

Ryder’s the new kid at Hamilton High and everything Sonny and Amy can’t stand – a prep-school snob. But Ryder has a weakness: Amy. So when Ryder emails Amy asking her out, the friends see it as a prank opportunity not to be missed.

But without meaning to, Sonny ends up talking to Ryder all night online. And to her horror, she realizes that she might actually ‘like’ him. Only there’s one small catch: he thinks he’s been talking to Amy. So Sonny comes up with an elaborate scheme to help Ryder realize that she’s the girl he’s really wanted all along. Can Sonny lie her way to the truth, or will all her lies end up costing her both Ryder and Amy?

I received a free copy of this book via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

At first I wasn’t sure of this book, it’s didn’t hold my attention, but about a third of the way in I could not put it down. I stayed up until 4am last reading it (Not something I do often, I like my sleep). I know this was a companion novel to The Duff, but that didn’t really matter to me, yes Wes and Bianca were in it a little, but for all the contributed they might as well have been random characters.

Sonny was a good main character, very hyper and a lot going on in her life. I know it’s what the whole book was about but some of the lies really annoyed me. She didn’t treat her friend Amy very well. She also seemed to take some the Rush’s hospitality for granted.

Amy, I was glad she gained her voice later in the novel and stopped putting up with Sonny’s schemes and bossing. She was always a good friend even when she was mad.

Ryder was a nice love interest, I like how Sonny got to know him then started to like him, it wasn’t insta-love which is good. Insta-love annoys me. He also had a lot going on in his life which is good to see all sides of characters. Also he didn’t judge Sonny on her upbringing, he judged her on her actions.

Since this took me a while to get into and I would have liked a little more too the ending pertaining to Ryder, I am only going to give it 4 stars.

4 stars out 5

 

ARC Review: The Silent Ones

Tags

mystery, thriller

He’ll do whatever it takes to find his missing sister.

Darren Evans was only eleven when his beloved sister Carly and four other teenage girls disappeared, sparking a huge police investigation.

Eventually, a woman confessed to their murders. But although she admitted her guilt, Olivia Duvall refused to say what had happened to those five missing girls. Or where their bodies might lie.

Ten years later, Darren’s family are still no closer to the truth. Desperate to alleviate his parents’ heartbreak, Darren gets a job as a cleaner in the psychiatric hospital where Olivia was committed, hoping he can make her tell him his sister’s fate once and for all.

But playing a killer is a very dangerous game . . .

I received a free copy of this book via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a book full of mystery and intrigue and I lapped up every moment. I was guessing  my through and never coming up with the right until the very end. Through the book I found myself distrusting the wrong characters and loving it. I liked that it wasn’t predictable and I was kept guessing. I sometimes got confused at the change of POV, especially when it was characters that I deemed not important and not really necessary.

Darren was a great character, I liked learning along with him, seeing his anguish and need to find his sister. Although he knew the risks of what he was doing, he did it anyway.

I loved how the start we saw from Olivia’s POV, it started the book off with a bang of mystery. I was wracking my brain through the whole book, as to why she did it.

The ending cleared all mystery’s for me but one. Which wasn’t really a mystery it was more of a guessing on my part and I want to know!! But all the main mysteries were cleared up and I enjoyed the ending, not at all what I was expecting.

4 out of 5 stars

ARC Review: The Mysterious Affair at Castaway House

Tags

ARC, fiction

Stephanie Lam’s stunning debut novel, The Mysterious Affair at Castaway House, is a gripping read laced with mystery, secrets and love.

It’s 1965 and eighteen year-old Rosie Churchill has run away to the beautiful but run-down Castaway House in the seaside town of Helmstone. But when she uncovers a scandal locked away in the walls of the old house, she soon comes to realise that neither her own troubled past nor that of the house will stay buried for long. . .

In 1924 fresh-faced Robert Carver comes to Castaway House to spend a languid summer in the company of his much wealthier cousin, Alec Bray. But the Brays are a damaged family, with damaging secrets. And little does Robert know that his world is about to change for ever.

As Rosie begins to learn more about Robert, the further she is drawn into the mysterious history of the house, and their stories, old and new, entwine.

I received a free copy of this book via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book took me ages to read, I was reading other books at the same time, but this just dragged for me. The premise was good but the book was slow and every time I thought a secret was going to resolved, it was just put on hold. It was a long book for what happened it could have been shorter, and in my opinion, it would have been much better.

The story was fine but the secrets were not enough to hold my attention for long, I only finished it because it was a review book. I wish the secrets were stronger and held more clout. I did really like the separate time lines and how both sets of stories came together at the end.

I did feel with Rosie and Star that what happened between them came out of the blue and didn’t feel real. It was like it was an afterthought and just shoved in.

I wasn’t a fan of Clara Bray, she was mysterious and hard to predict, she was also selfish and moody.

The name of book wasn’t really fitting, it wasn’t a mystery as such, it was more a bunch of secrets.

3 out of 5 stars

Review: Speak

Melinda Sordino busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops. Now her old friends won’t talk to her, and people she doesn’t even know hate her from a distance. The safest place to be is alone, inside her own head. But even that’s not safe. Because there’s something she’s trying not to think about, something about the night of the party that, if she let it in, would blow her carefully constructed disguise to smithereens. And then she would have to speak the truth. This extraordinary first novel has captured the imaginations of teenagers and adults across the country.

It was about a month ago I read this, and I forgot to review it, so thought I would do it now. I loved this book, it was well written and dealt with a difficult topic well. Not just the topic but the aftermath. How people deal with it, I am sure is different for everyone, but a high schooler who didn’t tell anyone and has become an outcast, it is very difficult.

I loved the ending, that it all came right in the end and Melinda will soon have a semblance of normal again.

4 out of 5 stars

Review: The Medea Complex

Tags

fiction, historical fiction, insane

A deep and riveting psychological thriller inspired by true events of the Victorian era, The Medea Complex explores the nature of the human psyche: what possesses us, what drives us, and how love, passion, and hope for the future can drive us to insanity.

1885. Anne Stanbury wakes up in a strange bed, having been kidnapped from her home. As the panic settles in, she realizes she has been committed to a lunatic asylum, deemed insane and therefore unfit to stand trial for an unspeakable crime. But all is not as it seems….

Edgar Stanbury, her husband as well as a grieving father, is torn between helping his confined wife recover her sanity and seeking revenge for his ruined life. But Anne’s future rests wholly in the hands of Dr. George Savage, chief medical officer of Bethlem Royal Hospital.

The Medea Complex is the darkly compelling story of a lunatic, a lie, and a shocking revelation that elucidates the difference between madness and evil….

Straight out the gate, this book was awesome. I really liked Anne and her story, I really felt for her and was completely engrossed and intrigued by what had happened to her.

Than about a quarter of the way through, it got really bad. The story turned completely sexist (I know it was like that in this time, but it still felt really wrong). The ending made the story fall apart and the beginning then did not make any sense. I only finished because I have promised myself to try harder to finish books, because I could be pleasantly surprised by the end. This was not the case with this book.

I can find something wrong with each character, that made me dislike them and the way they were written.

The author apparently wrote this so people would understand Post Partem depression more, because she herself had it. Well she failed spectacularly on that count, if anything she will make people think she thinks it’s a joke.

I always try and find something good to say about a book so – the setting was fairly well done. I really have not disliked a book so much in such a long time. Especially one I was so looking forward to.

2 out of 5 stars.