Category Archives: Book Reviews

Bonus review number two

Dickens and Christmas

Published By: Pen & Sword History

Publication Date: 3rd October 2017

ISBN: 9781526712264

Format: Hardback

Price: £15.99

Blurb

Dickens and Christmas is an exploration of the 19th-century phenomenon that became the Christmas we know and love today – and of the writer who changed, forever, the ways in which it is celebrated. Charles Dickens was born in an age of great social change. He survived childhood poverty to become the most adored and influential man of his time. Throughout his life, he campaigned tirelessly for better social conditions, including by his most famous work, A Christmas Carol. He wrote this novella specifically to “strike a sledgehammer blow on behalf of the poor man’s child”, and it began the Victorians’ obsession with Christmas.

This new book, written by one of his direct descendants, explores not only Dickens’s most famous work, but also his all-too-often overlooked other Christmas novellas. It takes the readers through the seasonal short stories he wrote, for both adults and children, includes much-loved festive excerpts from his novels, uses contemporary newspaper clippings, and looks at Christmas writings by Dickens’ contemporaries. To give an even more personal insight, readers can discover how the Dickens family itself celebrated Christmas, through the eyes of Dickens’s unfinished autobiography, family letters, and his children’s memoirs.

In Victorian Britain, the celebration of Christmas lasted for 12 days, ending on 6 January, or Twelfth Night. Through Dickens and Christmas, readers will come to know what it would have been like to celebrate Christmas in 1812, the year in which Dickens was born. They will journey through the Christmases Dickens enjoyed as a child and a young adult, through to the ways in which he and his family celebrated the festive season at the height of his fame. It also explores the ways in which his works have gone on to influence how the festive season is celebrated around the globe.

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Review: ‘Who Killed The Mince Spy?’, by Matthew Redford

Who Killed The Mince Spy

Published By: Clink Street

Publication Date: 6th December 2016

I.S.B.N.: 9781911525158

Format: Paperback

Price: £5.99

Who Killed The Mince Spy?

Tenacious carrot, detective inspector Willie Wortell is back to reveal the deviously delicious mind behind the crime of the festive season in this hugely entertaining, and utterly unconventional, short story.

When Mitchell the Mince Spy is horrifically murdered by being over baked in a fan oven, it falls to the Food Related Crime team to investigate this heinous act. Why was Mitchell killed? Who is the mysterious man with a long white beard and why does he carry a syringe? Why is it that the death of a mince spy smells so good?

Detective Inspector Willie Wortel, the best food sapiens police officer, once again leads his team into a series of crazy escapades. Supported by his able homo sapiens sergeant Dorothy Knox and his less able fruit officers Oranges and Lemons, they encounter Snow White and the seven dwarf cabbages as well as having a run in with the food sapiens secret service, MI GasMark5.

With a thigh slap here, and a thigh slap there, the team know Christmas is coming as the upper classes are acting strangely – why else would there be lords a leaping, ladies dancing and maids a milking?

And if that wasn’t enough, the Government Minister for the Department of Fisheries, Agriculture and Rural Trade (DAFaRT) has only gone and given the turkeys a vote on whether they are for or against Christmas.

Let the madness begin!

This short story by Matthew Redford follows his deliciously irreverent debut Addicted To Death (Clink Street Publishing, 2015).

 

Purchase from Amazon UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Who-Killed-Mince-Spy-Investigation/dp/1911525158/ref=sr_1_cc_2?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1478177564&sr=1-2-catcorr&keywords=matthew+redford

 

About Matthew Redford

Born in 1980, Matthew Redford grew up with his parents and elder brother on a council

estate in Bermondsey, south-east London. He now lives in Longfield, Kent, takes masochistic pleasure in watching his favourite football team snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, is a keen chess player and is planning future food related crime novels. To counterbalance the quirkiness of his crime fiction Redford is an accountant. His unconventional debut crime thriller, Addicted to Death: A Food Related Crime

Investigation was published by Clink Street Publishing last summer.

Website – http://www.matthewredford.com/

Twitter – https://twitter.com/matthew_redford

Continue reading “Review: ‘Who Killed The Mince Spy?’, by Matthew Redford”

First Bonus Book Review of the Month

I asked Moon Books for a copy of this seasonally appropriate book and it arrived yesterday. Since it was snowing and freezing yesterday, I went to bed early and had a read.

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December Review Schedule

Just because it’s that time of year, it doesn’t mean I’m slacking off. These are the reviews I have booked in for definite. There will be others, I have a couple of books on my Kindle that I’ve received from Netgalley that I want to review. Some are even seasonably appropriate. As you can see, one a week is scheduled for the entire month, and there is on blog tour planned. I hope you enjoy the variety in books this month.

  • 2nd December
    • Matthew Redford
      • Who Killed The Mince Spy?
        12 Days of Clink Street Christmas
  • 6th December
    • Jane Robins
      • White Bodies
  • 13th December
    • Mikayla Elliot
      • Snow
  • 20th December
    • George Billions
      • Fidget Spinners Destroyed my Life!
  • 27th December
    • Bolivar Beato
      • Pangaea: The End of Days, Revelations

Review: ‘Dark Days of Georgian Britain’, by James Hobson

Dark Days of Georgian Britain

Published by: Pen and Sword Books

Publication Date: 15th November 2017

ISBN: 9781526702548

Format: Hardback

Price: £15.99

Blurb

In Dark Days of Georgian Britain, James Hobson challenges the long established view of high society during the Regency, and instead details an account of a society in change.

Often upheld as a period of elegance with many achievements in the fine arts and architecture, the Regency era also encompassed a time of great social, political and economic upheaval. In this insightful social history the emphasis is on the life of the every-man, on the lives of the poor and the challenges they faced.

Using a wide range of sources, Hobson shares the stories of real people. He explores corruption in government and elections; “bread or blood” rioting, the political discontent felt and the revolutionaries involved. He explores attitudes to adultery and marriage, and the moral panic about homosexuality. Grave robbery is exposed, along with the sharp pinch of food scarcity, prison and punishment. It is not a gentle portrayal akin to Jane Austen’s England, this is a society where the popular hatred of the Prince Regent was widespread and where laws and new capitalist attitudes oppressed the poor. With Hobson’s illustrative account, it is time to rethink the Regency.

Continue reading “Review: ‘Dark Days of Georgian Britain’, by James Hobson”

Review: ‘Become The Force’, by Daniel M. Jones and Theresa Cheung

Become the Force

Publication Date:Watkins Publishing Ltd 

Published By: 16 Nov. 2017

I.S.B.N.: 9781786780904

Format: Paperback

Price: £12.38

Blurb

Become the Force: 9 Lessons on How to Live as a Jediist Master

Daniel M Jones founded the Church of Jediism in 2007, and it now has over 500,000 members around the world. This is the book his fans have been waiting for. In it Daniel outlines the Jedi perspective and provides practical tools for anyone interested in gaining a deeper understanding of how to use the Force in everyday life. The Force is a metaphor for the universal life energy that connects us all, and it can be both light and dark, good and bad. Now, more than ever, it is our responsibility to overcome the dark side. This book does not aim to convert but to inspire its readers to live a life of meaning and purpose according to the universal spiritual teachings from ‘The Way of the Jedi’.

Become the Force covers:

Daniel’s own fascinating spiritual journey and how overcoming personal struggles has awakened him to his purpose.
How Jedi teachings can empower mind, body, heart and spirit.
A comprehensive toolkit that will allow anyone to genuinely embrace ‘the way of the Jedi’.
Compelling reasons why the spiritual teachings of Jediism are relevant today.
A comprehensive explanation of Jediism as a spiritual movement (a universal desire for self-awareness, spiritual awakening, peace, love and harmony) rather than a religion.
Shows that it’s plausible that the Jedi-minded among us today might usher in a new spirituality and shift in global consciousness towards peace and harmony that is more powerful than any we can possibly imagine.

Purchase from Amazon UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Become-Force-Lessons-Jediist-Master-ebook/dp/B0744HCP9B/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1508410541&sr=1-1&keywords=become+the+force

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
 Daniel M. Jones aka Morda Hehol is a philosopher, scientist and musician. In 2007 he became world famous when he founded the Church of Jediism at the age of twenty one. Since then he has appeared in many national newspapers and Time magazine, and has been interviewed by the BBC, Good Morning America, ITN and numerous other TV and radio stations. Daniel also has a degree in Chemistry from the University of Bangor, Wales. He is a member of pop punk band Straight Jacket Legends, whose debut album charted in Japan. He also dedicates his time to his the Aspie World YouTube Channel highlighting what life is like with Aspergers, after having been diagnosed in 2013. For more information please visit: https://thechurchofjediism.org/
Twitter – https://twitter.com/TheAspieWorld
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/theaspieworld/
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/TheAspieWorld/
Theresa Cheung was born into a family of spiritualists and has a Masters in Theology and English from King’s College, Cambridge. She has sold almost half a million books and encyclopaedias about the psychic world, the afterlife and personal transformation over twenty years. Her spiritual books Heaven Called My Name (Piatkus 2016) and An Angel Healed Me (Simon & Schuster 2010) became Sunday Times Top 10 bestsellers and have been translated into thirty languages.
For more information please visit http://www.theresacheung.com or follow her on Facebook @TheresaCheungAuthor

Received in return for an honest review
Continue reading “Review: ‘Become The Force’, by Daniel M. Jones and Theresa Cheung”

Review: ‘Dance Like You Mean It’, by Jeanne Skartsiaris

Published By: Black Opal Books

Publication Date: 11th February 2017

I.S.B.N.: 9781626945746

Format: Paperback

Price: £13.99

Blurb

What if you wrote a steamy, erotic novel that was so hot bookstores couldn’t keep it on their shelves? What if you couldn’t tell anyone you wrote it?

With a mundane life as a nurse, a husband who is grazing other fields, and a daughter of an impressionable age, Cassie checks her horoscope one morning just for kicks and notices an article about romance novels and how profitable publishing could be if one could spin a good tale.

She pens Wild Rose under a pseudonym and it flies to the top of the charts, is the talk of the town, and people are clamoring to know who the author is. What would her children think if they knew? Or her own mother, who ‘taught her better’, and, worse, her husband who’d thought she’d turned back into a virgin since they’d not had sex in so long. How could she be thrown into the spotlight and still be a good mom?

Wild Rose, Cassie’s caldron of prose, is woven through this story. Set it the 70s, it is the story of Rosemary, a beautiful photographer who wants to be recognized for her body of work, not her haunting beauty. Although, a modern women, she is as adventurous sexually as she is with her camera and beds men like candy…until she falls in love.

Both novels parallel each other as Cassie realizes Rosemary is not so different from her

Continue reading “Review: ‘Dance Like You Mean It’, by Jeanne Skartsiaris”

Review: ‘Live Like You Give a F**k’, by Nicola Findlay

NF V1.2

Published By: Clink Street Publishing

Publication Date: 7th November 2017

I.S.B.N.: 9781912262236

Format: Paperback

Price: £8.99

Blurb

Live Like You Give A F**K!

The No Nonsense Philosophy for Smart Girls who Want to Smash It!

Boss a bitch? Diet a hot mess? Broke after payday? Ghosted on tinder?

If life feels like a constant hangover why not take five f**king minutes for yourself to decide what you really want. Slam on the brakes, kick off your heels and unplug from the social media circus.

Stop Surviving – Start Thriving

Live Like You Give A F**K will show you how to create the future you want, not the one that’s been shoved down your throat. It will shake and wake you from the hypnosis of modern living. The triple shot of empowerment, confidence and motivation will unleash the badass in you.

Nicola Findlay is the straight-talking, bold, coaching diva who isn’t afraid to tell it like it is. If you ask her advice about your lame partner she’ll give you a bitch slap, tell you to raise your standards and get rid of that loser.

She’s your best friend, your enemy, your punchbag and your cheerleader. Some people call her a diva, some people call her a badass bitch but whichever you decide you will get results.

WARNING: If you’re afraid of a few swear words on a page put this book down and go cry to your Mama. I’m not here to offend anyone.  I’m here to tell you how to rock your world, and because I’m so passionate about it I’ll be shouting and swearing from the rooftops.

Purchase from Amazon UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Live-Like-Give-Nicola-Findlay/dp/1912262231/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1508170816&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=live+like+you+give+a+fuck

Purchase from Barnes & Noble – https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/live-like-you-give-a-f-k-nicola-findlay/1127151814?ean=9781912262236

About the author:

Nicola Photo 1

Nicola Findlay, a former British Airways air stewardess, is a qualified neurolinguistic practitioner and accredited international coach with over a decade of experience. She runs personal group workshops, 1-2-1 coaching and corporate training working with companies such as Specsavers and Stella & Dot. Previously she managed the Brighton branch of Life Clubs where she ran weekly personal development workshops with different themes each week before starting her own company The Coaching Diva in 2015. In 2018 she is planning a series of live events in London and New York including; Attracting Mr Right and Live Like You Give A F**K! Nicola lives with her 7 year old daughter and husband in Surrey, England

Website – https://www.nicolafindlay.co.uk/

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/nicolafindlaytcd/

 

 

 

I received this book in return for an honest review

Continue reading “Review: ‘Live Like You Give a F**k’, by Nicola Findlay”

Review: ‘A Pearl For My Mistress’, by Annabel Fielding

 

A Pearl for My Mistress by [Fielding, Annabel]

Published By: HQ Digital

Publication Date: 9th August 2017

Format: Kindle

Price: £0.99

Blurb

A story of class, scandal and forbidden passions in the shadow of war. Perfect for fans of Iona Grey, Gill Paul and Downton Abbey.

England, 1934. Hester Blake, an ambitious girl from an industrial Northern town, finds a job as a lady’s maid in a small aristocratic household.
Despite their impressive title and glorious past, the Fitzmartins are crumbling under the pressures of the new century. And in the cold isolation of these new surroundings, Hester ends up hopelessly besotted with her young mistress, Lady Lucy.
Accompanying Lucy on her London Season, Hester is plunged into a heady and decadent world. But hushed whispers of another war swirl beneath the capital… and soon, Hester finds herself the keeper of some of society’s most dangerous secrets…
Received from the author in return for an honest review

Continue reading “Review: ‘A Pearl For My Mistress’, by Annabel Fielding”

Blog Tour: Become The Force

BecometheForce_Banner

Become the Force: 9 Lessons on How to Live as a Jediist Master

Daniel M Jones founded the Church of Jediism in 2007, and it now has over 500,000 members around the world. This is the book his fans have been waiting for. In it Daniel outlines the Jedi perspective and provides practical tools for anyone interested in gaining a deeper understanding of how to use the Force in everyday life. The Force is a metaphor for the universal life energy that connects us all, and it can be both light and dark, good and bad. Now, more than ever, it is our responsibility to overcome the dark side. This book does not aim to convert but to inspire its readers to live a life of meaning and purpose according to the universal spiritual teachings from ‘The Way of the Jedi’.

Become the Force covers:

Daniel’s own fascinating spiritual journey and how overcoming personal struggles has awakened him to his purpose.
How Jedi teachings can empower mind, body, heart and spirit.
A comprehensive toolkit that will allow anyone to genuinely embrace ‘the way of the Jedi’.
Compelling reasons why the spiritual teachings of Jediism are relevant today.
A comprehensive explanation of Jediism as a spiritual movement (a universal desire for self-awareness, spiritual awakening, peace, love and harmony) rather than a religion.
Shows that it’s plausible that the Jedi-minded among us today might usher in a new spirituality and shift in global consciousness towards peace and harmony that is more powerful than any we can possibly imagine.

Purchase from Amazon UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Become-Force-Lessons-Jediist-Master-ebook/dp/B0744HCP9B/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1508410541&sr=1-1&keywords=become+the+force

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

 DMJ_Head_Shot_1

Daniel M. Jones aka Morda Hehol is a philosopher, scientist and musician. In 2007 he became world famous when he founded the Church of Jediism at the age of twenty one. Since then he has appeared in many national newspapers and Time magazine, and has been interviewed by the BBC, Good Morning America, ITN and numerous other TV and radio stations. Daniel also has a degree in Chemistry from the University of Bangor, Wales. He is a member of pop punk band Straight Jacket Legends, whose debut album charted in Japan. He also dedicates his time to his the Aspie World YouTube Channel highlighting what life is like with Aspergers, after having been diagnosed in 2013. For more information please visit: https://thechurchofjediism.org/

 

Twitter – https://twitter.com/TheAspieWorld

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/theaspieworld/

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/TheAspieWorld/

 

Theresa Cheung was born into a family of spiritualists and has a Masters in Theology and English from King’s College, Cambridge. She has sold almost half a million books and encyclopaedias about the psychic world, the afterlife and personal transformation over twenty years. Her spiritual books Heaven Called My Name (Piatkus 2016) and An Angel Healed Me (Simon & Schuster 2010) became Sunday Times Top 10 bestsellers and have been translated into thirty languages.

 

For more information please visit http://www.theresacheung.com or follow her on Facebook @TheresaCheungAuthor