Book Reviews – Page 60 – Everything Is Better With Dragons

Review: ‘Whiskey Tango Foxtrot’, by Gina Kirkham #LoveBooksGroupTours

Publication Day: 19th July 2018

Publisher: Urbane Publications

ISBN: 9781911583813

Price: £8.99

Blurb

The laughter continues to flow in Gina Kirkham’s brilliant sequel to the wonderful Handcuffs, Truncheon and a Polyester Thong.

Our hapless heroine Constable Mavis Upton is preparing to step down the aisle with her fiancé Joe, but has to deal with her temperamental teen daughter, as well as investigate a serial flasher on a push bike. Throw a diva drag queen into the mix and readers can expect the usual hilarious Mavis mishaps that made the first book such a hit.

Revel in Gina Kirkham’s humorous, poignant and moving stories of an everyday girl who one day followed a dream.

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Review: ‘Faerie Stones’, by Ceri Norman

Moon Books sent me this book in return for an honest review. They’re probably going to wish they hadn’t.

Faerie Stones Published by: Moon Books

Publication Date: 30th Marc 2018

Format: Paperback

I.S.B.N.: 9781785357190

Price: £13.99

Blurb

Faerie Stones explores the Faerielore and Folklore associated with different stones and various crystal formations, from the ancient Neolithic arrows known as Elfshot to magical Faerie dusted geodes known as Fairy Cavern Quartz. It deals with the metaphysical aspects of the stones, their traditional uses and healing qualities, and discusses which types of Faerie and which Deities/Faerie Monarchs are associated with each stone. It also offers practical tips and two meditations for working with Faeries and stones for spiritual development. Aimed at all those who love Faeries and Crystals, it is ideal for the beginner or the more experienced practitioner.

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Review: ‘Wrecker’, by Noel O’Reilly

Published by: HQ

Publication Date: 12th July 2018

Format: Hardback

Price: £12.99

IS.B.N.: 9780008274511

Blurb

‘With echoes of Du Maurier, this compelling Cornish drama weaves a tangled web of fallen faiths, of sins, seductions and deceits.’ Essie Fox

A powerful debut exploring the dark side of Cornwall – the wrecking and the drowned sailors – where poverty drove villagers to dark deeds…

Shipwrecks are part of life in the remote village of Porthmorvoren, Cornwall. And as the sea washes the bodies of the drowned onto the beach, it also brings treasures: barrels of liquor, exotic fruit, the chance to lift a fine pair of boots from a corpse, maybe even a jewel or two.

When, after a fierce storm, Mary Blight rescues a man half-dead from the sea, she ignores the whispers of her neighbours and carries him home to nurse better. Gideon Stone is a Methodist minister from Newlyn, a married man. Touched by Mary’s sacrifice and horrified by the superstitions and pagan beliefs the villagers cling to, Gideon sets out to bring light and salvation to Porthmorvoren by building a chapel on the hill.

But the village has many secrets and not everyone wants to be saved. As Mary and Gideon find themselves increasingly drawn together, jealousy, rumour and suspicion is rife. Gideon has demons of his own to face, and soon Mary’s enemies are plotting against her

Gripping, beautifully written and utterly beguiling, Noel O’Reilly’s debut WRECKER is a story of love, injustice, superstition and salvation, set against Cornwall’s dark past

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Review: ‘The Haunting of Mount Cod’, by Nicky Stratton

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Published by: Clink Street

Publication Date: 28th June 2018

Format: Paperback

I.S.B.N.: 9781912562138

Price: £9.99

Blurb

Lady Laura Boxford lives with her pug, Parker in the retirement complex of Wellworth Lawns, formerly her family home. One day she and her friend Venetia see the ancient actor, Sir Repton Willowby arriving. He’s Venetia’s cousin by marriage and Venetia says he murdered his wife. He lives at the Edwardian pile, Mount Cod and he says he’s being haunted by the ghost of an eighteenth century serving wench called Rosalind.
Laura is convinced he’s a charlatan using the ghost as a ruse for finding a new wife. She determines to get to the bottom of the mystery on account of Venetia’s daughter who stands to inherit Mount Cod. But did Sir Repton murder his wife and is the house haunted?

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Double Review Day!

Today I’m reviewing both Girl in the Gallery and Death in Dulwich, by Alice Castle. Thanks to Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources for sending me the ebook files and arranging this blog tour. It’s a long post because there are two books, plus the author’s information and, if you like what you hear, at the end there’s a chance to win copies of the books.

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Review: ‘Love Me, Love Me Not’, by Katherine Debona

Thanks to the publisher for sending me an ebook copy of this book as part of their blog tour.

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Published By: HQ Digital

Publication Date: 1st September 2018

Format: E-book

I.SB.N.: 9780008304065

Price: 99p

Blurb

Today isn’t the first time I’ve thought about killing my best friend, but it is the first time I’ve done something about it.

Since they were teenagers, Jane and Elle had been inseparable.

Until the day that Elle stole the love of Jane’s life.

Now everything has changed. Jane wants him back, and with a little help from her horticultural obsession, she may just have found the perfect solution…

A psychological suspense novel that you will not be able to put down. Perfect for fans of Louise Jensen and Clare Boyd.

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Review: ‘Tubing’, by K.A.McKeagney

tubing cover

Published By: Red Door Books

Publication Date: 31st May 2018

I.S.B.N.: 9781910453568

Format: Paperback

Price: £8.99

Blurb

Polly, 28, lives in London with her ‘perfect-on-paper’ boyfriend. She works a dead-end job on a free London paper. . . life as she knows it is dull. But her banal existence is turned upside down late one drunken night on her way home, after a chance encounter with a man on a packed tube train. The chemistry between them is electric and on impulse, they kiss, giving in to their carnal desires. But it’s over in an instant, and Polly is left shell-shocked as he walks away without even telling her his name.

Now obsessed with this beautiful stranger, Polly begins a frantic online search, and finally discovers more about tubing, an underground phenomenon in which total strangers set up illicit, silent, sexual meetings on busy commuter tube trains. In the process, she manages to track him down and he slowly lures her into his murky world, setting up encounters with different men via Twitter.

At first she thinks she can keep it separate from the rest of her life, but things soon spiral out of control.

By chance she spots him on a packed tube train with a young, pretty blonde. Seething with jealousy, she watches them together. But something isn’t right and a horrific turn of events makes Polly realise not only how foolish she has been, but how much danger she is in…

Can she get out before it’s too late?

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Book Review: ‘The Warrior with the Pierced Heart’, by Chris Bishop

Published By: Red Door Publishing

Publication Date: 5th July 2018

Format: Paperback

I.S.B.N.: 9781910453599

Price: £8.99

Blurb

In the second book in the exciting and atmospheric Shadow of the Raven series we rejoin novice monk turned warrior, Matthew as he marches ahead of King Alfred, to Exeter to herald the King’s triumphant return to the city, marking his great victory at Edington.

It should have been a journey of just five or perhaps six days but, as Matthew is to find to his cost, in life the road you’re given to travel is seldom what you wish for and never what you expect.

In this much-anticipated sequel Chris Bishop again deposits the reader slap-bang into the middle of Saxon Britain, where battles rage and life is cheap. An early confrontation leaves Matthew wounded, but found and tended by a woodland-dwelling healer he survives, albeit with the warning that the damage to his heart will eventually take his life.

Matthew faces many challenges as he battles to make his way back to Chippenham to be reunited with King Alfred and also with the woman he wants to make his wife. This is an epic tale of triumph over adversity as we will the warrior with the pierced heart to make it back to those he loves, before it is too late.

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June Bonus Review #2: ‘The Gaslight Stalker’, by David Field

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Published By: Sapere Books

Publication Date: 16th February 2018

I.S.B.N.: 9781912546039

Format: Paperback

Price: £6.50

Blurb

Jack the Ripper is stalking the streets of London. Can anyone stop the serial killer before more women are murdered?

London, 1888

Whitechapel is full of the noise of August Bank Holiday celebrations. Everyone is in high spirits until a woman – Martha Turner – is discovered brutally murdered.

Her friend, Esther, a lowly seamstress turned female sleuth, is determined to find the killer.

A young police officer, Jack Enright, takes the lead on the case, and he and Esther soon embark on a professional – and personal – relationship.

When another murder is committed and whispers of a slasher calling himself Jack the Ripper start flowing through the London streets, the search becomes even more desperate.

The police are on the wrong track and the young couple take matters into their own hands, and soon find themselves navigating through London’s dark underbelly.

Can they find the murderer before he kills again? Will anyone listen to their suspicions?

Or will this dark presence continue to haunt Whitechapel…?

THE GASLIGHT STALKER is the first crime thriller in an exciting new historical series, the Esther and Jack Enright Mysteries, a traditional British detective series set in Victorian London and packed full of suspense

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Bonus Review: ‘Testosterone Rex’, by Cordelia Fine

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Published by: ICON

Publication Date: 24th January 2017

ISBN: 9781785783180

Format: Paperback

Price: £8.99

Blurb

Many people believe that, at its core, biological sex is a fundamental, diverging force in human development. According to this overly familiar story, differences between the sexes are shaped by past evolutionary pressures: Women are more cautious and parenting-focused, while men seek status to attract more mates. In each succeeding generation, sex hormones and male and female brains are thought to continue to reinforce these unbreachable distinctions, making for entrenched inequalities in modern society.

In Testosterone Rex, psychologist Cordelia Fine wittily explains why past and present sex roles are only serving suggestions for the future, revealing a much more dynamic situation through an entertaining and well-documented exploration of the latest research that draws on evolutionary science, psychology, neuroscience, endocrinology, and philosophy. She uses stories from daily life, scientific research, and common sense to break through the din of cultural assumptions. Testosterone, for instance, is not the potent hormonal essence of masculinity; the presumed, built-in preferences of each sex, from toys to financial risk taking, are turned on their heads.

Moving beyond the old “nature versus nurture” debates, Testosterone Rex disproves ingrained myths and calls for a more equal society based on both sexes’ full, human potential.

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