Book Review #7

I've had way too much going on recently to be reading but I need some time to escape from the craziness of life so I tend to turn to my kindle. The problem is that I picked up 'Killer Instinct' by Zoe Sharp and then couldn't put it down! As per my usual I don't know when or why I got this book but it was sitting on my TBR list so I got stuck in. Also quite typically for me, I hadn't read the synopsis before starting it and had no idea what was going to happen (to be honest I'm quite enjoying doing that as I enjoy being led by the author at the pace that they want rather than having the bones of the story before I've even begun). However I'm going to share the outline with you or you'll have no clue what I'm on about!


'Susie Hollins may have been no great shakes as a karaoke singer, but I didn't think that was enough reason for anyone to want to kill her.' 
Charlie Fox makes a living of sorts teaching self-defence to women. It's a skill she picked up of necessity having been kicked out of the army for reasons she prefers not to go into. So when Susie Hollins is found dead only a few hours after she mistakenly tussles with Charlie at the New Adelphi Club, Charlie knows it's only a matter of time before the police come calling. Only the police reveal that the unlucky Hollins has become the latest victim of the homicidal rapist stalking the local area. Charlie finds herself inadvertently drawn into the investigation when the Adelphi's enigmatic owner Marc Quinn offers her a job. Viewed as an outsider by the existing all-male security team, her suspicion that there is a link between the club and the serial killer doesn't exactly endear her to anyone. Charlie has always taught her students that it's better to run away from a danger than fight unnecessarily. But when the killer starts taking a very personal interest in her it becomes clear that he isn't going to give her that option...

I really enjoyed this book. I've never read anything by Zoe Sharp before and I hadn't heard any reviews about her work. Since finishing it I've seen a lot of people seem to compare her books to the Jack Reacher novels though they're not something I've ever been able to get into. I think this novel is written more as a female point of view and as a result I enjoyed the book a lot more. The protagonist, Charlie Fox, is strong but not too over the top. You never know for sure if she's going to be able to get out of trouble as her conscience can get the better of her. I can't promise that the plot is completely revolutionary but it had enough twists and turns to keep me interested and unsure of who to trust.

Zoe Sharp is a British writer and has written 10 books in the Charlie Fox series with Killer Instinct being the first. I'm pretty sure I'll be adding the next one to my wishlist (and probably my TBR pile before too long)!

Holly

A few weeks ago my Holly pup had to have some surgery to remove a lump from between her eyes. I was so worried about getting it done and, to be honest, have been putting it off. She's had some problems after surgery in the past as she doesn't heal very well but the vet had concerns since it recently started to grow bigger so they recommended removal to prevent problems in the future.

Straight after the op she looked so sorry for herself, poor girl. I felt terrible for putting her though the discomfort and whole experience.

She bounced back really quickly but wasn't too impressed that I had to put her collar on to stop her licking at her shaved legs!

I'm so happy with the result. Just a few weeks after the surgery she's looking amazing. I thought the scar would always be visible as the hair on her face is quite short, however it's nowhere to be seen!

She always was gorgeous in my eyes, but she's even more beautiful now!

Lost

I haven't been blogging much recently and to be honest I feel like I lost my creativity. I ended up working extremely long working hours and basically any left over time in the day was taken up eating and sleeping. My work life balance became totally unbalanced! I'm pleased to say though that now I can shift my priorities back again and make time, amongst other things, to write. However once I get out of the habit of writing I find it hard to know what to talk about. Hopefully the creative side of me will wake up and give me some good stuff to share with you but for now you've got this... a post about nothing really. It's just me saying 'hi, I'm back'.

When we get too caught up in the busyness of the world, we lose connection with one another-and ourselves.

Jack Kornfield

Change...

Book Review #6

I've been motoring through quite a few books recently so I thought I'd write about some of them.

The first one I'm starting off with is On the Run by Sue Fineman which is the first book in The Gregory Series. I'm guessing this one has made it's way onto my Kindle at some point as a free or discounted book that I thought would be worth reading. I love a good series so I'm always looking for a new one that I like so that I can follow a character through several books.

Here's the synopsis...

Who knew the man who claimed to be Neen's long-lost uncle was a big drug lord? Nobody told her what he did for a living. She didn't find out until the night of the raid, when Uncle Julio's men tried to shoot her. She got away, but she's been on the run for the past three years, staying one step ahead of the killers.

Former DEA agent Adam Gregory tried to get Neen out before the raid, but he was stabbed in the back by one of his own people. Greg is desperate to find the dirty agent who stabbed him and protect Neen from the killers. He finally finds her in the cemetery, visiting her mother's grave, but the killers have spotted her, too.

Greg takes Neen on a wild ride across the country, protecting her from the killers, but not from his love. She tries to keep her distance, but the macho dude cop is hard to resist, and he's determined to make her love him again.

I have a lot of unread books on my kindle that I'm working my way through so quite often I start one and have no idea what to expect. I rarely go into the book description as I think it's not necessary to know what's going to happen if you're about to read it. That being said, 90% of the books I own are legal dramas or crime / thrillers and the rest are running books so I know the genre before I start.

I hate to say it but this is another case of 'if I'd seen the cover I could've maybe judged the whole book by it and saved myself a load of effort'. Even when I've read the description from Amazon after finishing the book I don't think it accurately reflects the genre. I was expecting a cop thriller and instead I got a girly love story loosely based around someone running from a bad guy. A lot of thrillers include a personal story and love interest, and I have no problem with that, as usually it gives the story more depth. I was surprised by was the love story element of this novel with the very graphic love scenes. In this case I felt like this was the main point that the author was trying to get across. I'm sorry to say that the plot lacked any complexity or depth and had no suspense at all.

I rarely give up on a book and will almost always see it through, but if you're looking for a police thriller I'd steer clear of this one if I were you.

Wishlist Wednesday #22

Welcome to my twenty-second Wishlist Wednesday post for this great blog hop hosted by Dani at Pen to Paper. This week I've chosen Only The Innocent by Rachel Abbott

When Laura Fletcher approaches her home in Oxfordshire to find hordes of photographers crowding the gates, she knows there is something terribly wrong. She is faced with the shocking news that her husband is dead - brutally murdered - and according to Chief Inspector Tom Douglas, there is little doubt that the murderer is a woman.

In a marriage that has taken her from the glamorous five star luxury of London, Venice and Positano to a bleak and draughty manor house in rural Oxfordshire, Laura has learned to guard her secrets well. She is not
alone. It would appear that all the women in her husband's life have something to hide.

But there is one secret that she has never shared, and when the investigation reaches its dramatic and horrific climax, she realises that she has no choice. She has to give Tom Douglas the final piece of the puzzle. And this changes everything, leaving Douglas with a terrible dilemma: whether to punish the guilty, or protect the innocent.

Want to join in??

• Follow Pen to Paper as the host
• Pick a book from your wishlist that you are dying to get your hands on and read
• Wrote a post telling your readers about the book and why it's on your wishlist
• Add your blog to the linky at the bottom of her post
• Put a link back to Pen to Paper somewhere on your post with a note about the host
• Visit the other blogs, follow and enjoy :)

What's on your wishlist this week? Leave me a link to your post, I'll be sure to pop by and check it out!

The Plus Party #7

Welcome to The PLUS Party #7!

<center> <a href="http://www.shapinguptobeamom.com"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbj-PnqspGyeTO2StixbKcS2SVfd-EqiGyjWbhb0FEblhmiUXH1aeLrIHoiHLU61k7K6u63hOE53KplhVnmE5WLMCoWMfmlOnbSlxOOogyDysBogUXAmXHGBDWzTW0wHyEIytLCqdh6mFT/s1600/pluspartybutton+250x250.png" /></a></center>

Google Plus and Bloglovin are the definite hot spots for following and engaging with your favorite bloggers! At The PLUS Party you can link up your profiles and follow friends old and new!

The Plus Party will run on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month, so mark it on your calendars! We'd also love it if you could share the hop through your social media and/or post our button somewhere on your blog.

Want to co-host? Spots are open! Contact Megan at Shaping Up To Be A Mom for more info!

Make sure to follow the host and co-hosts, and then link up and party on!

Host:

Shaping Up To Be A Mom

Co Hosts:

Glued To My Crafts

Life As I Know It

Shushkat

The Closet Intellectual

The Squishable Baby

Wishlist Wednesday #21

Welcome to my twenty-first Wishlist Wednesday post for this great blog hop hosted by Dani at Pen to Paper. This week I've chosen Guilt by Association by Marcia Clark

Los Angeles D.A. Rachel Knight is a tenacious, wise-cracking, and fiercely intelligent prosecutor in the city's most elite division. When her colleague, Jake, is found dead at a grisly crime scene, Rachel is shaken to the core. She must take over his toughest case: the assault of a young woman from a prominent family.

But she can't stop herself from digging deeper into Jake's death, a decision that exposes a world of power and violence and will have her risking her reputation--and her life--to find the truth.

Why this book? I love the sound of it and though it has legal thriller links it does not seem to be based in the courtroom. However it's going to be a love or hate thing depending on whether I connect with the protagonist or if her 'wise cracking' tenacity gets on my nerves!

I've recently finished what I was reading and seeing as it's my birthday, I'm going to treat myself and get this on my Kindle today :D

Want to join in??

• Follow Pen to Paper as the host
• Pick a book from your wishlist that you are dying to get your hands on and read
• Wrote a post telling your readers about the book and why it's on your wishlist
• Add your blog to the linky at the bottom of her post
• Put a link back to Pen to Paper somewhere on your post with a note about the host
• Visit the other blogs, follow and enjoy :)

What's on your wishlist this week? Leave me a link to your post, I'll be sure to pop by and check it out!

Book Review #5

Yesterday I read No Write To Die by Tom Immins.

Ex-Insurance investigator Sam Lucas has his world turned up side down when his wife is killed in a hit and run accident, A phone call claiming she was murdered, sends him on a roller coaster ride to discover the truth... When another girl turns up dead he is plunged into the seedy world of gangsters, greed and drugs. Will his dead wife's past lead him to find the answers, who can he trust? and how far is he willing to go.










So what did I think?
I read this in one day and was interested in it enough to see it through but unfortunately I didn't really like the book. Part of the reason for this was the writing style that just didn't click with me. I didn't seem to connect with the characters plus some of the content was quite explicit. I understand that this was necessary in the context of the plot but I felt the writer did not approach the subject matter skilfully in comparison to other books I have read with similar content. In addition there were problems in the composition of the eBook  I'm not sure how this would come across in print but in the Kindle version there were a lot of grammatical and spelling errors. The plot jumps around in time a lot and there was no indication of this in the paragraphs or chapters which I often found confusing. The combination of bad grammar, spelling and unclear time shifts meant that the flow of the book was disrupted and this really detracted from the enjoyment of it. I'm not sure if this is an error of the writer or the publisher but it definitely affected my opinion of the book as a whole.

To be honest I'm a bit soppy and often feel a bit sad when finishing good book because I don't want it to end. I was interested to find out who was responsible in this story but unfortunately it didn't result in any emotional response from me other than disappointment that I hadn't enjoyed it more.

Bluebells.... At Last!

For the last 20 years my mum has been telling me we should go to a bluebell wood when the bluebells are flowering. We never seemed to have time when I was at school, then I moved away for a few years and we just never seemed to be in the right place together at the right time of year. Before I knew it she'd be showing me a photo in the newspaper that someone had sent showing the bluebells, telling me that we'd missed them again. This year, we managed it at last!

I can't believe it's taken us 20 years to make a 10 minute drive to Hagg Wood! It really was a beautiful place for a wander with the dogs while admiring the carpet of bluebells around us.

"The most simple things can 

bring the most happiness"

Izabella Scorupco

The Plus Party #6

Welcome to The PLUS Party #6!

<center> <a href="http://www.shapinguptobeamom.com"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbj-PnqspGyeTO2StixbKcS2SVfd-EqiGyjWbhb0FEblhmiUXH1aeLrIHoiHLU61k7K6u63hOE53KplhVnmE5WLMCoWMfmlOnbSlxOOogyDysBogUXAmXHGBDWzTW0wHyEIytLCqdh6mFT/s1600/pluspartybutton+250x250.png" /></a></center>

Google Plus and Bloglovin are the definite hot spots for following and engaging with your favorite bloggers! At The PLUS Party you can link up your profiles and follow friends old and new!

The Plus Party will run on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month, so mark it on your calendars! We'd also love it if you could share the hop through your social media and/or post our button somewhere on your blog.

Want to co-host? Spots are open! Contact Megan at Shaping Up To Be A Mom for more info!

Make sure to follow the host and co-hosts, and then link up and party on!

Host:

Shaping Up To Be A Mom

Co Hosts:

Glued To My Crafts

Life As I Know It

Shushkat

The NO Drama Mama

Wishlist Wednesday #20

Welcome to my twentieth Wishlist Wednesday post for this great blog hop hosted by Dani at Pen to Paper. This week I've chosen What's truth got to do with it by Mark Crigman

When an intruder fatally stabs Paul Checkley and inflicts horrific injuries on his wife, the police are convinced that Gary Trevors is the culprit even though the evidence is flimsy and circumstantial. Facing a murder charge before a judge who has skeletons of his own rattling in the cupboard, Trevors is defended by the giant QC Ronan Cadogan, a ruthless bully, who is pitched into battle against an ambitious Prosecutor Bertrand Haskett with whom he has a score to settle.

So begins a courtroom drama in which Cadogan seeks to manipulate the judicial process whilst his beautiful Junior Council, Naomi Nicholas watches in horror as he tries to reduce the truth to an irrelevance. Who wins? Truth, blackmail corruption or justice?

Why this book? I've never read anything by this author before and just stumbled across this book while pottering around Amazon (as you do!). I like the sound of it and it's well reviewed too. It looks like it's on offer at the moment which is a bonus so I think I might be investing in it for my TBR pile..

Want to join in??

• Follow Pen to Paper as the host
• Pick a book from your wishlist that you are dying to get your hands on and read
• Wrote a post telling your readers about the book and why it's on your wishlist
• Add your blog to the linky at the bottom of her post
• Put a link back to Pen to Paper somewhere on your post with a note about the host
• Visit the other blogs, follow and enjoy :)

What's on your wishlist this week? Leave me a link to your post, I'll be sure to pop by and check it out!

Change...

"Change is not a process for the impatient"

Barbara Reinhold

My Girl...

This is my black Labrador Holly... She's told me that she didn't go any where near the wet paint in the kitchen but for some reason I don't believe her... 

Wishlist Wednesday #19

Welcome to my nineteenth Wishlist Wednesday post for this great blog hop hosted by Dani at Pen to Paper. This week I've chosen Accused by Mark Giminez

'Scott, it’s Rebecca. I need you.'
After years of silence, Texan lawyer Scott Fenney receives a devastating phone call from his ex-wife. She has been accused of murdering her boyfriend, Trey – the man she left Scott for – and is being held in a police cell. Now she is begging Scott to defend her.
Scott is used to high-stakes cases, but this one is bigger than anything he has handled before. If Rebecca is found guilty, under Texan law she will be sentenced to death. He will have her blood on his hands. As he prepares to take the stand in the most dramatic courtroom appearance of his life, Scott is forced to question everything he believes to get to the truth – to save the life of the ex-wife he still loves

Why this book? I've just finished the first book with this protagonist 'The Colour of Law' and even though it was totally far fetched I really enjoyed it. I'm interested to see where the author goes with this book and the character progression.

Want to join in??

• Follow Pen to Paper as the host
• Pick a book from your wishlist that you are dying to get your hands on and read
• Wrote a post telling your readers about the book and why it's on your wishlist
• Add your blog to the linky at the bottom of her post
• Put a link back to Pen to Paper somewhere on your post with a note about the host
• Visit the other blogs, follow and enjoy :)

What's on your wishlist this week? Leave me a link to your post, I'll be sure to pop by and check it out!