Orenda Books

Blog Tour: I am Dust by Louise Beech

April 1, 2020 Yvonne 7 Comments

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

i am dust by louise beech - Blog Tour: I am Dust by Louise Beech

I Am Dust by Louise Beech
Published by Orenda Books on February 16, 2020
ISBN: 9781913193225
Genres: Fiction, Thrillers, Crime
Pages: 300
Format: Paperback
Source: Publisher
Buy on Amazon
Goodreads

five stars - Blog Tour: I am Dust by Louise Beech

The Dean Wilson Theatre is believed to be haunted by a long-dead actress, singing her last song, waiting for her final cue, looking for her killer. Now Dust, the iconic musical, is returning after 20 years. But who will be brave enough to take on the role of ghostly goddess Esme Black, last played by Morgan Miller, who was murdered in her dressing room? Theatre usher Chloe Dee is caught up in the spectacle. As the new actors arrive, including an unexpected face from her past, everything changes. Are the eerie sounds and sightings backstage real or just her imagination? Is someone playing games? Is the role of Esme Black cursed? Could witchcraft be at the heart of the tragedy? And are dark deeds from Chloe's past about to catch up with her? Not all the drama takes place onstage. Sometimes murder, magic, obsession and the biggest of betrayals are real life. When you're in the theatre shadows, you see everything. And Chloe has been watching.

You know you are in trouble when your first thought after finishing an epic book is how on earth are you going to review it? How on earth can I do it justice? Never has dust been so visible. I am Dust is outstandingly perfect!

This was an amazing read. This is a book that you don’t want to review straight away. You need to take a breather and relish in the absolute mastery that is I am Dust. It is a story that envelops your soul, becomes at one with your psyche and knows at your senses. This book flows so beautifully that it speaks to you on a raw and deeper level. It reads easily, and you end up being so absorbed in the plot. You are absorbed by the pages until you are living and breathing the story. There isn’t enough stars that I could possibly rate this book at realistically.

The Dean Wilson Theatre has newly opened. The year is 1999, and the first show being shown is Dust. Morgan Miller plays the character Esme Black. The unfortunate event that occurred on the fourth showing as the murder of Morgan Miller. The inevitable action being that the show was cancelled. There was no successful encore, no new roles, just a wasted potential. It has been rumoured that Miller haunts the theatre, in her full Esme Black get up. The case was never solved, and her murderer is still on the loose. The threatening shadows keep you on your toes. You can feel the threat. Louise Beech’s writing is magnificent. My senses were on red alert. I could see the mystery, sense the fear. The story was seeped in coldness. The characters are balancing a sheet of thin ice – one movement could immerse us all.

We are now twenty years in the future and Dust is returning for a comeback show. It splits its audience – some are anticipating great things, and some believe that it should be left well alone. The theatre ultimately hope that this revival will bring a necessary injection of renewed customers. Bringing it back to where it all began could either cure or kill the theatre’s survival. I was enamoured with the plot and couldn’t see the impending threats that slowly began to reveal themselves.

We meet some new characters. Chloe being the one that touched me on a raw and gritty level. For me she is easily led with a resounding need to just fit in. she is a broken character and the emptiness that screams at us from behind her eyes is enough to crack the readers hearts into a thousand pieces. The story has an undercurrent of melancholy and it is very easy to fall into a saddened state while experiencing the characters life. Louise Beech has managed to intertwine two lives that were connected through the ages.

I am Dust is gritty and compelling. It is dead set to be a book that gets everyone talking in 2020. It’s visceral, addictive and Louise Beech’s storytelling is so mind-blowing that she takes it an elusive quality.

Thanks to Anne @ Random Things Tours for my spot on the blog tour.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Louise Beech is an exceptional literary talent, whose debut novel How To Be Brave was a Guardian Readers’ Choice for 2015. Her second book, The Mountain in My Shoe was shortlisted for Not the Booker Prize. Both of her previous books Maria in the Moon and The Lion Tamer Who Lost were widely reviewed, critically acclaimed and number-one bestsellers on Kindle. The Lion Tamer Who Lost was shortlisted for the RNA Most Popular Romantic Novel Award in 2019. Her short fiction has won the Glass Woman Prize, the Eric Hoffer Award for Prose, and the Aesthetica Creative Works competition, as well as shortlisting for the Bridport Prize twice. Louise lives with her husband on the outskirts of Hull, and loves her job as a Front of House Usher at Hull Truck Theatre, where her first play was performed in 2012.

Louise Beech

Blog Tour: Mexico Street (Chas Riley #8) by Simone Buchholz

March 11, 2020 Yvonne 1 Comment

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

mexico street by simone buchholz - Blog Tour: Mexico Street (Chas Riley #8) by Simone Buchholz

Mexico Street by Simone Buchholz
Published by Orenda Books on March 5, 2020
ISBN: 9781913193157
Genres: Fiction, Mystery & Detective, International Mystery & Crime
Pages: 276
Format: ARC, eBook
Source: Publisher
Buy on Amazon
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four stars - Blog Tour: Mexico Street (Chas Riley #8) by Simone Buchholz

Night after night, cars are set alight across the German city of Hamburg, with no obvious pattern, no explanation and no suspect. Until, one night, on Mexico Street, a ghetto of high-rise blocks in the north of the city, a Fiat is torched. Only this car isn't empty. The body of Nouri Saroukhan--prodigal son of the Bremen clan--is soon discovered, and the case becomes a homicide. Public prosecutor Chastity Riley is handed the investigation, which takes her deep into a criminal underground that snakes beneath the whole of Germany. And as details of Nouri's background, including an illicit relationship with the mysterious Aliza, emerge, it becomes clear that these are not random attacks, and there are more on the cards.

Mexico Street, where the atmosphere is buzzing and the air is smoking, quite literally! It reminds me of a slogan that should be on the city’s signs. The title hides the depravity and the greed that is Hamburg’s underbelly. It’s a novel that packs a seriously kilter throwing punch. Gangster families. Strong women. Forbidden love. it investigates the complexities of whether good truly dominates over evil or whether that is just a fabricated construct to give us hope. Be prepared to freshen up those pearly whites because this is a novel with bite!

We open with a bang or more accurately a scorch. There’s a car on fire in Mexico Street. There’s a man still in it, threatening to be burned alive. The fire brigade arrives, the man is taken to hospital with smoke inhalation. It said he comes from the crime family, Saroukhan from Bremen. His death is neither a shock nor does it unsettle them, he has been dead to them for several years. Just how bad does it need to be for an entire family to disown their son? Their reaction and the lives this family leads had me entirely curious about the sanctity of family in their eyes. We are immediately catapulted into the brutality and the mistreatment of the woman. If we can say a woman is the nurturer in a family, then the men of this story are the destructors.

The ones trying to decode this crime are an elite team. We have our unlikely heroine, Chastity Riley, the state prosecutor. She can throw punches like the big boys and break barriers with her iron will. She’s flawed just like the rest of us. Cracking complicated crimes seem like a piece of cake to her but relationships seem unattainable, shrouded in smoke, not quite trusting herself to let go and be herself. She was a galaxy away from what I expected going into this book, but she was so imperfectly perfect she was a character I was straight behind, ready to take any insight she felt confident giving out. Somethings don’t add up in her initial estimations. Who was the redhead woman they saw running away from the scene of the crime, an innocent bystander or the culprit? *Enter twilight show theme music*

Simone Buchholz is an entirely new author for me and wow I was equal parts amazed and perplexed not only by her ability to weave a raw and gritty crime narrative but her writing is tack sharp with large doses of tension thrown into the mix with a threatening shadow that creeps into every aspect of the investigation. It’s dark, it’s dangerous and it will delight all crime fans. This is a complicated story of family and the saying especially rings true in this tale – “you can’t pick your family.”

Mexico Street is highly compelling and brought me straight upright and reminded why I love crime fiction. It brought us a wealth of details and sucked me into a black hole of twisty thriller-ness!!

Thank you to Anne Cater @ Random Things tours for my spot on the blog tour. Big Thanks also to Rachel Ward on the translation without whom, i would never have read this absolute gem!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Simone Buchholz was born in Hanau in 1972. At university, she studied Philosophy and Literature, worked as a waitress and a columnist, and trained to be a journalist at the prestigious Henri-Nannen-School in Hamburg. In 2016, Simone Buchholz was awarded the Crime Cologne Award as well as runner-up in the German Crime Fiction Prize for Blue Night, which was number one on the KrimiZEIT Best of Crime List for months. She lives in Sankt Pauli, in the heart of Hamburg, with her husband and son.

Simone Buchholz

Blog Tour: Beast (Six Stories #4) by Matt Wesolowski

February 18, 2020 Yvonne 4 Comments

Beast by Matt Wesolowski
Published by Orenda Books on February 6, 2020
ISBN: 9781913193133
Genres: Horror, Mystery
Pages: 320
Format: ARC, Paperback
Source: Publisher
Buy on Amazon
Goodreads

five stars - Blog Tour: Beast (Six Stories #4) by Matt Wesolowski

Elusive online journalist Scott King examines the chilling case of a young vlogger found frozen to death in the legendary local 'vampire tower', in another explosive episode of Six Stories...
In the wake of the 'Beast from the East' cold snap that ravaged the UK in 2018, a grisly discovery was made in a ruin on the Northumbrian coast. Twenty-four-year-old Vlogger, Elizabeth Barton, had been barricaded inside what locals refer to as 'The Vampire Tower', where she was later found frozen to death.
Three young men, part of an alleged 'cult', were convicted of this terrible crime, which they described as a 'prank gone wrong' However, in the small town of Ergarth, questions have been raised about the nature of Elizabeth Barton's death and whether the three convicted youths were even responsible.
Elusive online journalist Scott King speaks to six witnesses - people who knew both the victim and the three killers - to peer beneath the surface of the case. He uncovers whispers of a shocking online craze that held the young of Ergarth in its thrall and drove them to escalate a series of pranks in the name of internet fame. He hears of an abattoir on the edge of town, which held more than simple slaughter behind its walls, the tragic and chilling legend of the 'Ergarth Vampire...
Both a compulsive, taut and terrifying thriller, and a bleak and distressing look at modern society's desperation for attention, Beast will unveil a darkness from which you may never return...

What an absolute Beast! Fist bumps all round to Matt Wesolowski. The premise of a pod cast that investigates true crime is always going to warm my soul. This is my first rodeo reading this author, but it will not be the last. I’m going to immediately order the six stories series. Rest assured you can read this as a standalone, I did, and I didn’t find myself grappling for more back story information.

This book has everything to get you through the remainder of the cold winter dark nights. Vampires, a grisly murder and a podcast series that will send chills ricocheting down your body.

Horror is right up there in my favourite genres but quite often the stories are regurgitated with samey plotlines, disappointing conclusions and it all just leaves me feeling jaded. The author has created something really quite original, I definitely haven’t read anything like it before. The opening instantly had me licking my lips and fighting a giddy feeling that this was going to rock my damn boat.

Beast is like a vivid nightmare. The sweat beads at your temple, you rock back and forth, you will yourself to wake up but at the same time you really don’t want to. I was transported to Ergath and I was transported to the dark underbelly of poverty, despair and a deep-seated horror that I just couldn’t get enough of!

Podcasts are simply amazing. If I’m not reading a book or listening to an audiobook, then I’m listening to a podcast. They are informative, we have a great selection at the tap of a finger, it has never been easier to be instantly entertained.

The Scott King podcasts are top tier level. Scott King delves into true crime cases that spark his interest, he’s influential and can connect with his interviewees on a personal level. Imagine an empty room – no furniture, blinds drawn, and walls covered floor to ceiling in newspaper clippings, internet printouts, victim and perpetrator photographs. An incident room. He’s immaculate.

It’s split into six episodes/interviews from six people directly involved with the victim of the crime. You get their take on the crime and the victim and perpetrator, you get the whole spectrum, good and bad. Let me make this absolutely clear this is a podcast that yanks at your attention as you weigh up the different points of view. Beast will turn you into just that – a hungering beast clawing at every bit of evidence, every scrap that Scott King will throw at us.

The story is an intriguing one. The beast of the East snow storm of 2018. A dead vlogger. A dangerous following. An old tale of Vampires. Three culprits. A foreboding tower. The darkness this story creates is threatening and ever lingering. It creeps up on you and you don’t notice until it’s too late. Supernatural or something far darker, something more human? Well I guess you’re just going to have to read the book/podcast.

Beast Is a richly immersive and deeply haunting that catapults you into a world of intrigue, fear and terrifying monsters. An avid blend of nightmare and mystery.

Thanks to Anne Cater @ Random Things book tours for my spot on the blog tour.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

IMG 1026 copy 2 200x300 1 - Blog Tour: Beast (Six Stories #4) by Matt Wesolowski

Matt Wesolowski is an author from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in the UK. He is an English tutor for young people in care. Matt started his writing career in horror, and his short horror fiction has been published in numerous UK- an US-based anthologies such as Midnight Movie Creature, Selfies from the End of the World, Cold Iron and many more. His novella, The Black Land, a horror set on the Northumberland coast, was published in 2013. Matt was a winner of the Pitch Perfect competition at Bloody Scotland Crime Writing Festival in 2015. His debut thriller, Six Stories, was an Amazon bestseller in the USA, Canada, the UK and Australia, and a WHSmith Fresh Talent pick, and film rights were sold to a major Hollywood studio. A prequel, Hydra, was published in 2018 and became an international bestseller. Changeling, book three in the series, was published in 2019 and was longlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year and shortlisted for Capital Crime’s Amazon Publishing Reader Awards in two categories: Best Thriller and Best Independent Voice.

Follow Matt on Twitter @ConcreteKraken and on his website: mjwesolowskiauthor.wordpress.com

Orenda Books

Book Review: The Home by Sarah Stovell

January 17, 2020 Yvonne 4 Comments

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

This book may be unsuitable for people under 17 years of age due to its use of sexual content, drug and alcohol use, and/or violence.

the home by sarah stovell - Book Review: The Home by Sarah Stovell

The Home by Sarah Stovell
Published by Orenda Books on 22 January 2020
ISBN: 9781912374731
Genres: Fiction, Thrillers, Suspense, Domestic
Pages: 278
Format: ARC, eBook
Source: Publisher
Buy on Amazon
Goodreads
five stars - Book Review: The Home by Sarah Stovell

five stars - Book Review: The Home by Sarah Stovell

A gritty, dark and devastating psychological thriller centring around three troubled girls in a children's home, by the bestselling author of Exquisite
'I was immediately ensnared into the devastating and dark world of The Home and devoured it in one day ... A triumph' Holly Seddon
'Gripping, sinister and utterly heartbreaking ... I absolutely loved it' Lisa Hall
_________________
One more little secret ... one more little lie...
When the body of a pregnant fifteen-year-old is discovered in a churchyard on Christmas morning, the community is shocked, but unsurprised. For Hope lived in The Home, the residence of three young girls, whose violent and disturbing pasts have seen them cloistered away...
As a police investigation gets underway, the lives of Hope, Lara and Annie are examined, and the staff who work at the home are interviewed, leading to shocking and distressing revelations ... and clear evidence that someone is seeking revenge.
A gritty, dark and devastating psychological thriller, The Home is also an emotive drama and a piercing look at the underbelly of society, where children learn what they live ... if they are allowed to live at all.
________________
'So beautiful and haunting and ghostly and addictive and intense and sad and shocking. Just wow' Louise Beech
'A vividly disturbing, eloquent and enthralling tale ... striking, thought-provoking, compulsive storytelling' LoveReading

A poignant and a slash to the chest kind of read. In order to love a book, you need to find something that speaks to you. It needs to draw out connections. It simply knows how you tick. The Home had this in spades. The talent coming to life in these pages are like liquid gold – valuable and rare. It has the addictive pull that ties you down and stops you doing your chores. The only thing The Home does is take you hostage and holds you to ransom until you have read the final word of the final page.

This book has everything you need to hold your attention in a futile struggle. The stable Children’s Home. A forbidden love. Terrible parenting. Terrible decisions. Toxic relationships. A death. The death of a potential future. Layered betrayals. Deceit. And all the heartbreak you can take.

Sarah Stovell is an author that obviously lives and breathes her writing. The book has taken on an entity all its own. It’s like she has the secret formula that can break a heart. Mine blew straight out of my chest. Her narrative then leaves you searching for the missing pieces for the entirety of the novel. The tears pricked my eyes, my heart physically hurt but left me with an overwhelmingly urge to hug my babies tightly. I needed to show them the love I felt.

This definitely a hard book to read. The content is overwhelming. It’s a story that is meant to unseat you and make you uncomfortable. It’s hard and harrowing and makes you take a long hard look at your comfy existence. You might have experienced hard ship yourself but just how bad have you had it? It pulls and extracts such an intense level of empathy from your body…I had an all-encompassing feeling of just wanting to mother these girls. If I had the space, I would have taken them in in an instant.

This is the first book I have read by Sarah Stovell but by all means and purposes she is hitting legendary status. I will rectify that as soon as I possibly can. The characters she creates are broken, with a story to tell, dark and deep histories, but they have such a capacity for love. It’s amazing that after everything they have been through they can show love towards one another. Hope and Annie have such dogged determination. Neither of them want to be in this situation. It was never a conscious choice. They were dealt the worst betrayal from parents that should have given their lives for their kids.

The Home is a children’s Home that is a safe Haven to Hope (15) and Annie (15) and Lara (12). There have the good fortune of being surrounded by the Lake District. Despite the circumstances it could, indeed, be a lot worse. The setting, the opening chapter, the creeping shadow of desolation and despair had me hook, line and sinker. I was done for – I ended up racing to the finish.

Why you ask?

Well, Sarah Stovell has created a perfect cadence of a highly addictive plot that seeps in its intensity but try as you might to slow the reading, to savour each delicious page…it is impossible. The characters, although they have been broken down by life, they display the most amazing strength and dare I even say it a hunger to still continue living. Hope toys with the idea of ending it all but I genuinely put that down to not having any direction. These girls are the epitome of the word survival.

The story kicks off on Christmas day. Two girls are missing – Hope and Annie and Lara is in The Home, silent and unyielding. Choices come full circle and that message is being shouted loud and clear. It’s audible, deafening and terrifyingly deep. A girl is found beside the water, dead and the other is hysterical with her grief. It is bone deep. After the story starts to unfold you wonder just how much one person can take?

Annie’s metamorphosis from victim to survivor is poignantly beautiful – she’s scarred and with flaws, but she stands tall. The author has wrote about a superhero in my eyes and her characterisation spoke to me so clearly. It was impossible not to love her.

The Home is a chillingly, deeply disturbing take on the unreliable narrator. It unseats you. The narrative is razor sharp and unlike anything you have ever read before.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR OF THE HOME

Sarah Author Picture - Book Review: The Home by Sarah Stovell

Sarah Stovell was born in 1977 and spent most of her life in the Home Counties before a season working in a remote North Yorkshire youth hostel made her realise she was a northerner at heart. She now lives in Northumberland with her partner and two children and is a lecturer in Creative Writing at Lincoln University. Her debut psychological thriller, Exquisite, was called ‘the book of the summer’ by Sunday Times.

Sarah Stovell

Blog Tour: Nothing Important Happened Today by Will Carver

November 20, 2019 Yvonne Leave a Comment

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

nothing important happened today by will carver - Blog Tour: Nothing Important Happened Today by Will Carver

Nothing Important Happened Today by Will Carver
Published by Orenda Books on September 14, 2019
ISBN: 9781912374847
Genres: Fiction, Thrillers, Crime
Pages: 300
Format: eBook
Source: Publisher
Buy on Amazon
Goodreads

five stars - Blog Tour: Nothing Important Happened Today by Will Carver

When strangers take part in a series of group suicides, everything suggests that a cult is to blame. How do you stop a cult when nobody knows they are a member? A shocking, mesmerisingly original and pitch-black thriller from the critically acclaimed author of Good Samaritans..&‘Thrilling and completely original, Nothing Important Happened Today deserves to become an instant classic'Kevin Wignall, author of The Names of the Dead.Nine suicidesOne CultNo leaderNine people arrive one night on Chelsea Bridge. They've never met. But at the same time, they run, and leap to their deaths. Each of them received a letter in the post that morning, a pre-written suicide note, and a page containing only four words: Nothing important happened today. That is how they knew they had been chosen to become a part of the People Of Choice: A mysterious suicide cult whose members have no knowledge of one another. Thirty-two people on that train witness the event. Two of them will be next. By the morning, People Of Choice are appearing around the globe; it becomes a movement. A social media page that has lain dormant for four years suddenly has thousands of followers. The police are under pressure to find a link between the cult members, to locate a leader that does not seem to exist.How do you stop a cult when nobody knows they are a member?A shocking, mesmerisingly original and pitch-black thriller, Nothing Important Happened Today confirms Will Carver as one of the most extraordinary, exciting authors in crime fiction.

I’m in a complete state of book hangover inebriation. I’m overwhelmed, I’m mesmerised and I’m at a complete loss at Will Carvers incomparable skills. If you’re a music lover you can be completely in awe of a well-executed riff, this authors penmanship is the same. I am staring into space wondering how on earth I can pen this review. As far as I’m concerned Will Carver has earned his Godly status as The Crime/Thriller author. If you want a novel to touch you deeply whilst wrenching all the WTF’s you could possibly conjure within you, then Nothing Important Happened Today is the novel for you. Absolutely 100% my novel of the year.

Nothing Important Happened Today.

And yet everything that is important happened today. That is the irony that Will Carver bends to his will. It is an incredibly dark novel of our time. The clock ticks our time away and Will Carver makes that time run all the faster. He makes it lace up our Nikes and run for the horizon. He is the fear in the darkness always creeping around every corner reminding you that comfort isn’t exciting, he wants you at the edge, willing to throw yourself off, willing to do any damn thing he tells you. The waters are rising, threatening to take us all away.

You will not read anything else that will fry your mind like Nothing Important Happened Today. Nothing. Nothing can touch the level of genius this just has. It is in a ball of frenetic energy, crackling, hypnotising you to touch it. You know if you do you’re in trouble, but you just can’t resist the pull it has over you. Its taut with uncompromising tendrils of tension. Even after finishing this book over a week ago I still can’t stop thinking about it, it is like nothing I have ever read before, or likely will again.

Personally, I love a book that can take me off my guard, leading me straight into an impact that leaves me with whiplash. I felt bruised and battered in more ways than one. The one thought after closing the final page…”what the hell did I just read?” That was in no way a criticism it was the biggest praise I could give. The topic was frightening and so scarily real. We now live in a society where Mental Health conditions are much more prevalent, and he brought attention to it in glorious technicolour. If only we could stop the world spinning, stop it moving so fast, stop rushing around, pay more attention and treat everyone with grace and kindness. No-one knows what pain others are hiding, the world would be a kinder place to be if we just cared.

Don’t think this book is going to be sunshine and rainbows…oh hell no! Will Carver has so expertly captured a darkness, a cold reverence to the narrative. He has introduced to us just how the world is. How we view it, how uncaring it has become, how utterly broken and emotionless the world is. The author is a freaking genius. The one thing I really took from this novel was – Darkness doesn’t just come at night.

Really, what has happened to our humanity?

The storyline is deep. A tragic event happens, people stare, they take photos, videos, they post it online. It’s in the newspapers and just like that people move onto the next tragedy. We have become desensitised from death. We see it all around us, movies are more graphic. We have the instant gratification of the internet and being able to find anything. I could imagine the sombre scene, the loneliness, the utter melancholy of it all.

Nothing Important Happened Today wasn’t an enjoyable read. It’s not meant to be. You are supposed to be deeply disturbed. I kept thinking the perfect soundtrack to this novel would be anything by Radiohead. They both have the same unsettling theme. I felt sad. Human nature isn’t supposed to be this way. Why on earth is this the only choice? I cuddled my babies; never do I want any of them feeling this way. Being human is meant to be about showing empathy, love and kindness to others. The questions hurtling around my brain hurt. I couldn’t switch off, I couldn’t stop. Life was going on around me, but I felt MIA, I was lost in my thoughts. I still am. I have struggled to move onto another novel since.

Nothing Important Happened Today is a nuclear take on the thriller genre. It taps into your humanity and makes you check on your loved ones. Unsettling, a scary look into our future as a society. It affected me in ways I’m struggling to verbalise. The brutality of it will knock you for six, bring you to your knees and leave you fighting for every breath. Will Carver you are a king amongst mere men. Bravo.

Thank you to Anne Cater @ Random Things Book Tours and the publisher for my spot on the blog tour and a copy of the book.

Will Carver is the international bestselling author of the January David series. He spent his early years in Germany, but returned to the UK at age eleven, when his sporting career took off. He turned down a professional rugby contract to study theatre and television at King Alfred’s, Winchester, where he set up a successful theatre company. He currently runs his own fitness and nutrition company, and lives in Reading with his two children. Good Samaritans was book of the year in Guardian, Telegraph and Daily Express, and hit number one on the ebook charts.

Blog Tour: Violet by SJI Holliday

November 12, 2019 Yvonne Leave a Comment

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

violet by sji holliday - Blog Tour: Violet by SJI Holliday

Violet by SJI. Holliday
Published by Orenda Books on November 14, 2019
ISBN: 9781912374854
Genres: Psychological Thriller
Pages: 300
Format: eBook
Source: Publisher
Buy on Amazon
Goodreads

five stars - Blog Tour: Violet by SJI Holliday

When two strangers end up sharing a cabin on the Trans-Siberian Express, an intense friendship develops, one that can only have one ending ... a nerve-shattering psychological thriller from bestselling author SJI Holliday
***Mail on Sunday BOOK OF THE YEAR***
'A tense, immersive thriller that kept me guessing' Ian Rankin
'Compelling, gripping and horrifically entertaining' Liz Nugent
'Wonderfully creepy and compelling' Mail on Sunday
'Echoes of a Killing Eve vibe. Fabulously awful women you will love' Sarah Pinborough
_________________
Carrie's best friend has an accident and can no longer make the round-the-world trip they'd planned together, so Carrie decides to go it alone.
Violet is also travelling alone, after splitting up with her boyfriend in Thailand. She is also desperate for a ticket on the Trans-Siberian Express, but there is nothing available.
When the two women meet in a Beijing Hotel, Carrie makes the impulsive decision to invite Violet to take her best friend's place.
Thrown together in a strange country, and the cramped cabin of the train, the women soon form a bond. But as the journey continues, through Mongolia and into Russia, things start to unravel - because one of these women is not who she claims to be...
A tense and twisted psychological thriller about obsession, manipulation and toxic friendships, Violet also reminds us that there's a reason why mother told us not to talk to strangers... 'A fantastically claustrophobic and hugely enjoyable read' I-Newspaper
'Killing Eve meets The Talented Mr Ripley meets Single White Female ... This is a tense, uneasy thriller, which will forever stop you befriending strangers' Red
'A dark look at toxic friendship, this twisted thriller is a devour-in-a-single-sitting gem' Crime Monthly
'A compulsive read ... a book you won't be forgetting in a hurry' CultureFly
'Gripping with twists that you don't see coming' Woman's Way

Many thanks to Anne Cater @Random Things Tours and Orenda Books for my spot on the blog tour and a copy of the book. My review is unbiased and completely honest.

Violet, Violet Violet. This girl projects are real problem. Can the worst parts of us hide in plain sight? We can deal with most situations and conform and fit in the box when we need to but how many people are watching our small nuisances, those little tells that give off the impression that something isn’t as it seems. We try hard to hide our inner psycho, what happens when that just isn’t enough anymore?

SJI Holliday puts the psycho in psychological thriller, seriously. Violet is so hauntingly relevant and completely and utterly compulsive. Never has a name held such a convincing portrayal of hell.

As always, I know an Orenda Books title is going to be a winner, so I didn’t hesitate on signing up for this blog tour. I didn’t fully know what to expect as this was my first Holliday novel but exceeded everything I dared to hope for and more. Holliday is a complete master at dragging the reader in immediately and keeping them there and giving them a good old slap if they for a moment dare to take their eye off the ball. She has explored the theme of trust so exquisitely. Trust is a five-letter word and just how much can you possibly know about someone you have just had a chance encounter with? It’s a frightening premise of obsession and travelling.

Violet is travelling. Her relationship has dissolved with her boyfriend whilst in China. He apparently prefers the company of his German mates and some hot babes. She takes the decision to grab the bull by the horns and continue on her adventure without him. Who needs that kind of negativity in your life, right? She tries to get a ticket on the trans-Siberia line, so she can continue onwards to Russia. Guess what? Its full. Another brit is having an equally difficult time. She can’t get a refund for a second ticket but apparently can transfer it to someone else. You know what’s on Violets mind, don’t you? They meet in a bar and immediately hit it off. They have similar life experiences, young and looking to have the time of their lives. Carrie offers her spare ticket to Violet and they begin their journey through Mongolia to Russia. Grab a seat and prepare yourself for the imminent disaster. I enjoyed Hollidays storytelling and the narrative of Violet. It was disturbing and twisted. We also got an interesting glimpse into Carrie’s head through the format of emails home to friends and family. The anxiety builds as the train journey progressed. Could you trust Violet, was her narrative wholly accurate or was she just a walking red herring? On the other hand, was Carrie all she seemed? Imagine looking through a cracked mirror. This was how violet really was whilst trying to constantly repair the cracks. Violets narrative completely messes with your head. She juggles several personalities and the mask of course slips. Both Violet and Carrie in my opinion are two sides of the same coin – Ying and Yang, Dark and Light, Good and Evil. Carrie, however carries her own darkness and her mask slips also.

Violet is a chilling tale. The trap door opens up and drops you down with no regard to life. The twists will snap your neck and in a lot of ways I wasn’t rooting for either of them. Violet is clearly twisted and has pretty deranged thoughts floating her around her delusional brain, and again Carrie isn’t the sweet, easy going girl she would have you believe either. Holliday had me doubting my own thoughts, the processes that got me there. It made me think twice about interacting with any stranger, quite frankly it freaked me out, but the journey and the actions of the characters were completely addictive. I wanted to know what got the girls to this point in their lives, I just need to know everything, and I needed to know it at every given moment.

Holliday definitely wrote a story that resonated deeply with me. I didn’t really root for one character over another, but I was completely engrossed at where this was going. Trepidation had my nerves jumping. Just like the train journey the story gained speed at an alarming rate and I was completely here for it.

Violet is a tale of Obsession and Destruction. A story that you will inhale with little time to breathe. It left me deeply uncomfortable but needing more. This has cemented Hollidays position at the top.

S.J.I. (Susi) Holliday is a scientist, writing coach and the bestselling author of five crime novels, including the Banktoun Trilogy (Black Wood, Willow Walk and The Damselfly), the festive chiller The Deaths of December and her creepy Gothic psychological thriller The Lingering. Her short story ‘Home From Home’ was published in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and shortlisted for the CWA Margery Allingham Prize. Encapsulating her love of travel and claustrophobic settings, her latest novel, Violet, explores toxic friendships and the perils of talking to strangers, as well as drawing on her own journey on the Trans-Siberian Express over 10 years ago. All of her novels have been UK ebook number-one bestsellers. Susi was born and raised in Scotland and now divides her time between Edinburgh, London and as many other exciting places that she can fit in.

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