Before I go to Sleep

Jul 292011
 

I wouldn’t have naturally picked up this book as it doesn’t really sit comfortably in any of my regular genres, but after hearing S. J. Watson talk about it at his joint signing with Tess Gerritsen, I was intrigued.

Having just finished it, words honestly fail me.  A lot of clichéd phrases go through my mind and while most of them fit, I don’t think they could do this book justice.  It was quite simply phenomenal.

From the start you are drawn in to the world of a woman who wakes up every day and has no idea where she is, or the identity of the man she is sleeping next to.  She’s shocked by the older woman she sees in the mirror each morning.  A daily process of seeing pictures and notes left for her by her husband, to piece together just enough so she can get through the day.  She can retain memory for just that day but once she sleeps, it’s all gone again.

We follow Christine as she discovers that she has been keeping a journal, that a man who calls himself Dr. Nash has been working with her to try and regain some memory and that he rings her every day to remind her where she hides it.

We experience the story through Christine’s journal, and as she reads through it, she finds out things she can’t remember having written, but has the proof in front of her.  It leads to questions and then confusing and often contradictory answers about how she ended up this way, and why she is working with Dr. Nash to try and regain some semblance of life.

The story is moving and tragic and powerful.  Perhaps sometimes there are things we would rather forget but to imagine not remembering anything at all is beyond distressing.

Finally, towards the end of the book, just as you think you know what is happening, as Christine thinks she knows what is happening, it all changes.  The twist is monumental and incredible but utterly believable.

The entire book was gripping and thought provoking and I couldn’t put it down.

As a book, it’s brilliant.  As a debut novel for S. J. Watson, it’s just amazing.

Read it…  Just read it.

Rating: ★★★★★ 

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Avenger’s Angel

Jul 272011
 

I have to be honest and say that when I was offered Avenger’s Angel to review, it was the cover art that really piqued my interest.  It’s just beautiful.  The story sounded interesting, but I didn’t expect too much so I prepared myself for another ‘immortal male needs/meets lifemate’ story.

Avenger’s Angel is kind of like that but is also so much more.  It has so much charm that I was immediately drawn right in, totally engaged and wanting to find out what happens; I only put it down when I absolutely had to.

The characters that Heather Killough-Walden has created are my very favourite kind.  The male character is powerful and dominant but knows when to give ground.  The main female character is capable enough to take care of herself, but puts her care for others before herself.  Both have a quality I can’t explain but I find extremely attractive and I can only put it down to great writing.

I love the back story created to support the series;  four favoured Archangels sent to Earth for the chance to find the soul mates that ‘the Old man’ created for them.

I love all four of the Archangels, their characterisations are solid and well written, making them likeable and believable.  Each are flawed in their own way but it makes them unique in their own right. After searching for thousands of years for their Archesses, they have reluctantly settled into lives in the modern world, still hoping, still searching.

The main characters in the book are Archangel Uriel (former Angel of Vengeance), and his created Archess Ellie.  Uriel, now known as film star Christopher Daniels, is a funny, wry character who I often wanted to smack as much as hug.  Ellie is just so sweet I wanted to take her home and look after her, even though she is more than capable of doing it herself.  When Ellie and Uriel are in each others presence the sparks really fly and the tension builds up to a fever pitch.

The story itself flows well and is intriguing and the pace nicely judged.  There are other characters that come into it that I can’t really say too much about because of spoilers but suffice to say there are some surprises in store and things are not always as they seem. I have to mention the love scenes as well, because you might just need a fan!  They’re very well written and totally hot.

A great read and I look forward to the next book in this charming series!

Rating: ★★★★☆ 

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The Silent Girl signed by Tess Gerritsen – Twitter Giveaway!

Jul 252011
 

I had the pleasure of meeting Tess Gerritsen at a signing in Nottingham, and was cheeky enough to get a second copy of The Silent Girl signed, to give away to you awesome folk!  I’m running this giveaway on Twitter.

To be in with a chance of grabbing the book, you’ll need to do two things,

  1. follow @bookthing_uk and
  2. re-tweet the link on the @bookthing_uk feed which points to this post (this one)

You need to do both those things to be in with a chance.  You’ve got until the end of July (so midnight GMT on Sunday July 31st) to re-tweet the link.

Due to postal costs, I can only post the book to UK addresses.  If you live outside the UK and still want to take part, you’ll need someone in the UK to forward it on to you – sorry!

Feel free to tweet about this post, even if you don’t want to be the lucky new owner.  But don’t forget, if you do want the book, you need to follow @bookthing_uk and re-tweet the specific giveaway tweet.

Thanks for taking part, good luck!

Note: You don’t need to re-tweet the message more than once (although we’re excited if you want to share it lots of times).  We will be tweeting the message a few times before the end of the deadline just to spread the word – you don’t have to act every time!

Congratulations to @AliceMartha on winning the signed copy!

New look …

Jul 232011
 

I’m just sorting out a new theme and layout for the site so over the next hour it’ll probably look a little broken in places.  Should be sorted real soon now …

time passes

Right, should be sorted.  Let us know if anything doesn’t work as you expect by commenting here.

Tess Gerritsen & S. J. Watson Signing

Jul 212011
 

Waterstones Nottingham held an evening event to promote The Silent Girl by Tess Gerritsen and Before I go to Sleep by S. J. Watson.  I went in a strictly non-BookThing capacity because I am a huge fan of Tess Gerritsen.

I was a little disappointed the only books of Tess’s to buy were copies of the new one.  I had expected at least the opportunity to buy back catalogue books and was hoping to get a new copy of The Surgeon to get signed, as it was the first book I’d read by Tess Gerritsen.  My own copy is a little tattered now from re-reading!

Anyway, I was happy to get The Silent Girl, I can’t wait to read it and was also intrigued by the premise of Before I go to Sleep by S. J. Watson.

S. J. Watson (aka Steve) was the first to speak and his personal story of how he became a published writer was fascinating.  From working a fairly high responsibility job within the NHS and realising if he didn’t try and achieve his dream of being a writer now, he never would.  He took a much more junior role part time and devoted the rest to writing.  He enrolled in a writing course run by the Faber Academy and didn’t actually know what he wanted to write about, just days before the course started.  Inspiration hit in the form of an obituary that led him to think… what if?  Before I go to Sleep is the result of that ‘what If’ and by all standards has been a huge success. The icing on the cake has to be that it’s been acquired by Ridley Scott’s production company.  Wow.  The premise alone has me wanting to read it and will post a review here when I do.

Tess Gerritsen is an amazing lady.  From her career in the medical field to the number of books she has written I almost expected her to be about seven feet tall.  She is actually quite a bit shorter and very warm and funny to listen to.  She spoke about where her ideas came from and the genres she has written in.  She spoke quite a bit about her new book The Silent Girl and that it was a book that she had wanted to write for a while, but hadn’t felt the time was right.  I think perhaps this book might be the most personal for her, as it touches on her parents culture and stories she was told by her mother when she was a child.  I honestly could have listened to her talk all day but time soon ran out and there was a brief Q&A session that answered most of the questions I also had.  Apparently, despite my best efforts to appear normal, I did squeal when she mentioned that the Rizzoli & Isles TV series would be airing on the Alibi Channel in the UK in September.  I’d been doing so well up until that point!

I did get to ask a question and even managed to not trip over my words.   My question was: You’ve successfully written across three genres; Romance, Medical Thriller and a Crime Serial.  How easy did you find the transition?

Her reply was interesting in that she herself found it easy to make the transitions, but because she’d chosen to use the same pen name for all her work, some fans of one genre found it hard to read in another.  She jokingly said she’d had some stern letters from her crime fans who had ‘discovered’ her older romance novels.

I wouldn’t say I have read everything she has written because I could have easily missed something but I do find her personal ‘voice’ is strongly present in anything she writes and that is what I find so attractive about her work.  It’s powerful and engaging and always leaves me wanting more.

All in all it was a great evening and while it was an absolute pleasure to meet both authors, it made my day to talk to Tess Gerritsen.  Apologies for the blurry photo!

Stay tuned to twitter and here for news of a signed copy give-away of The Silent Girl!

[Edit - oops, Steve, not Simon, sorry!]

Fever

Jul 202011
 

Hidden in the jungles of Borneo live a race of creatures; neither human nor leopard but something in between.  Able to shift to either form, they live in empathy with the rainforest and its numerous inhabitants, serving as protectors and guardians against poachers and bandits.

Fever is two stories brought together in one volume.  I’ve not read much by Christine Feehan so far and this is the first of the Leopard People books.

The Awakening is a nine chapter story establishing the setting for the series and it was entertaining enough, although the male lead did bug me a little by being too overbearing.  It was a decent introduction to the setting and I liked the concept but it suffered for being so short.  I think if there had been more time to get to know the character of Brandt, he would have come across much better and not felt so suffocating.

Wild Rain is the longer Novella and was a much better read.  There was time to build empathy with the characters of Rachael and Rio, explore their background, even if most of it was shrouded in secrecy until they were able to open up to each other.  Of course that doesn’t happen until after quite a lot of sex and bonding.  I did come to like them, enough that I cared about what happened to them.

The plot was a little contrived but it was interesting and again I liked the concept Feehan has created with this series and the Leopard People.  The pace was smooth, I didn’t feel it was dragging at all and even though most of the novella takes place in one location due to an injury, it didn’t get boring.

As a book, it didn’t light me on fire.  I felt that the characters were quite formulaic and it didn’t quite engage me to the levels that other authors in this genre have but it was an enjoyable enough read that I am interested in reading the next book in the series.

No great shakes but enjoyable nonetheless.

Rating: ★★★☆☆ 

Book Information

Cover reveal Bloodlines – Update!

Jul 202011
 

As I reported in the blog post here the cover for the UK edition of Bloodlines had been revealed.  The publisher has since decided to go with the same cover as the US edition for a more global series look, so… here for the final time is the Cover reveal for the UK edition of Bloodlines!

I loved the original cover but I have to say, this does give a great visual of who the main character might be ;)

 

The Sworn

Jul 082011
 

While plague sweeps across the Winter Kingdoms, some nations barely survived because of famine and loss from the war.  A dark power rises across the northern sea, looking to use their weakened state to wage his own battle.  That dark power that seeks to free an ancient enemy and only The Sworn can see what is coming.

It was good to see the major characters from the last series again, even if not much time had passed in the world from the end of Dark Lady’s Chosen.  They are just as consistently written and as likeable as before and it was a bit like greeting old friends.

The book started quite slowly as the scene for this new series was set.  Meeting and getting to know the new characters took a little time but was worth it.  As with the others, Martin writes her new heroes in such a way that you can’t help but like them. The pace did pick up eventually and was well matched with the story as events unfolded.

The plot was a little confusing at first with the new characters, and the focus jumped around a bit between them all.  I did feel  though, as if it was almost a reflection of what the characters were going through and their own confusion.  In my imagination it’s like a huge circle with everyone far apart on the edges but as you read on, the circle gets smaller and smaller until people meet up, join forces and as knowledge and experiences get shared, they start working out what was really going on.

And I have to say… what seems to be going on is huge!  By the end of the book I was desperate to know what happens next!

There are some very sad and poignant moments in The Sworn, and in a subtle way you get prepared for them, but it doesn’t lessen the overall impact.

I still love the way magic works in these books, the variety of forms, plus the religious aspects still intrigue me and Tris’ unique power is always fascinating as he continues to learn who and what he is.

I was disappointed that Kiara and Carina didn’t really play a huge part, other than supporters, due to pregnancy.   While it is a natural and expected thing, it almost felt like it was a deliberate ploy to keep more characters out of the mix.  Having said that, I get the feeling Tris and Kiara’s firstborn is going to play an important role in the rest of the series, and the reasoning for Kiara getting pregnant again so quickly was sound.  Kiara is going to have to play a part in the next book, pregnant or not, so maybe in the end it’s a question of setting the stage.

Can’t wait for the next book in this exciting fantasy series!

Rating: ★★★½☆ 

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© 2011 Grete Evans A blog of myths, romance, fantasy and thrills. Suffusion theme by Sayontan Sinha