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The Marriage Retreat by Laura Elliot
The Marriage Retreat is a story about grief, pain, and a tangled web of deceit. I usually love a domestic thriller especially from Bookouture, but this failed to hit the mark for me. I had a few problems with it mainly the believability of the story. Now, as a reader I know that you need to suspend a fair bit of disbelief in reading, but I did feel that certain aspects just weren’t the actions of a rational human even during the fog of grief. The story follows Lorraine and Victor, the owners of the well renowned marriage retreat, Serenity Falls. It’s a roaring success with only a few failures…
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The Whispering Muse by Laura Purcell
The Whispering Muse is everything that Gothic horror should be. It’s haunting, eerie, and compulsive. A cautionary tale that you should never underestimate a woman’s ability to exact revenge. The Whispering Muse by Laura Purcell is definitely a contender for book of the year. The plight of a young woman trying to make ends meet to care for her family. Their brother ran off with another man’s fiancée and stole from Jenny’s employer threatening to bring her record into disrepute. The story is told in Victorian London and let me tell you – I was right there. I imagined the cobbled streets, the smog, the costumes, the inequality. Laura Purcell…
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REVIEW: Outside by Ragnar Jónasson
Outside piqued my interest for its devastating atmosphere. Iceland has always intrigued me, with its brutal and raw landscape and its beautiful but deadly mountainscapes it’s the perfect backdrop for a survival thriller. It’s a place I have longed to visit to photograph the Northern Lights in all their glory, so I enjoy reading about the country and its heart-breaking imagery. Ragnar Jónasson is a new author to me, and I look forward to discovering more of his stories. Four friends head out to the Icelandic Highlands for a weekend’s hunting trip. It’s a reunion of sorts, with the friends not having been together as a foursome for quite some…
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REVIEW: The Long Weekend by Gilly MacMillan
The Long Weekend is a psychological thriller that likes to live in your head rent-free. The story follows three couples who look to escape the city constraints and rent a converted barn in Northumbria for a long weekend. It’s abundantly clear that the couples all have their problems. Ruth and Toby have recently welcomed their baby boy Toby, but it isn’t the picnic the couple imagined, Ruth is struggling with alcoholism and her marriage is plagued with suspicion and paranoia. Jayne and Mark are ex-forces, and they are hoping to bury trauma from their tours in the Middle East. Emily and Paul are newly married and basking in their newfound…
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Review: The Goners by L. Stephenson
The Goners was a home run for L. Stephenson. The cover was ominous, secretive, and forewarned of the threatening shadows that lurked beneath the surface. It’s the kind of story that will become etched into your mind and you can’t put the book down until that last page has been devoured. Stephenson is a master storyteller that envelops you in atmospheric brilliance and complexity that will literally tie you up in knots. His brilliance is his reader’s weakness, and The Goners did not disappoint. This isn’t just another Horror – it is an experience. Set on the fictional island of Boatmore, we meet a Paramedic Liam and his team, with…
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The Islanders by S.V. Leonard | Blog Tour Review
Damn if a trapped, suspenseful mystery doesn’t just tap into that inner flight or fight response. The Islanders delivers on everything it says it does. Think Love Island with the ultimate twist. A horrifying and bloody twist. The two shows are different but standing up together in proximity, they are created from the same primordial soup that humanity crawled from. A desire to escape from life, a hint of romance distanced from everyday life and some hot hot sun. S.V. Leonard plays with fire and peels back the layers of human emotion and greed. This debut will have you rushing through the pages in a race to the end. The…
