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The Shadow of the Gods by John Gwynne | ARC Review
JESUS CHRIST ON A BURNING BIKE!! Never has there been a more impossible review to write. The Shadow of the Gods, a book that has not only captured my imagination but stolen my heart with the range of differing but equally loveable characters. Some you love to hate and some that carve a big gash across your chest with glistening sharp axe. The storytelling is magical but brutally real, the atmospheric worldbuilding enraptures you, you can feel the raw and biting waves as you travel with these Norse folks on longships, you can feel the ground they trod upon and you can feel the pressure of being a part of…
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Leash and Other Horror Stories by Brett Schumacher | Review
When I spotted Leash and Other Horror Stories up for grabs for review, I could have chewed their hand off! I am a subscriber to Brett’s awesome YouTube channel and I just couldn’t wait to get my grubby mitts on this seriously creepy horror anthology. This collection of deviously good stories warrants the shouting that I’m about to do! His narrative style is both mind-blowing and wickedly disturbing in equal measures and it immediately transports you into the depths of his orchestrated shadows – it’s terrifying and bone chilling. I’m a huge fan and I gobbled this up just as fast as I would a cake! Leash had a paradoxical…
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Keeper by Jessica Moor | Review
Keeper was one of those books that had the premise of being outstanding, but it didn’t work for me for several different reasons. Firstly, the characterisation didn’t work in any aspect. I didn’t feel connected or invested in their back stories or their end game. This was a real shame because good characterisation is pretty much a deal breaker for me. Like other readers, I went through bouts of anger and not the type that invoked such emotion that I was intertwined with the plot, the anger was for reasons that I will discuss below. The main protagonists were so devoid of human kindness and emotion that I seriously wondered…
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Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano|Review
Dear Edward…Prepare for a cry fest! It combines everything I love in Contemporary novels, a soul-destroying plot, tug at your heart strings characters and a narrative that has me hugging my loved ones for dear life! It’s not the first time that I’ve thought of myself as a masochist. A family relocating. Multiple lives forever intertwined through disaster. Loneliness. A boy left broken. Element of a plot that in any other dimension would make for a truly devastating effect. Only Ann Napolitano could take these effects and manage to align the stars. To bring a sense of ease and rightness by the final page. The originality tears at you. You…
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When You See Me by Lisa Gardner|Review
When You See Me by all accounts should have been one of those really immersive police procedurals. That my dear friends is not what I got…although it does seem that I’m in the minority with those feelings. I was expecting a full-blown luxurious slap up meal and instead I got a shit sandwich. I should go on record and state that I haven’t read any of Lisa Gardner’s other offerings, but this did let me down. Elements just didn’t work for me and the first 40% of the novel about looking for bones, after bones, after bones just ended up having the opposite effect for me – monotony. As I’m…
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Review: The Unspoken Name by A.K. Larkwood
The Unspoken Name Didn’t they teach you how to steal a ship at wizarding school? A.K. Larkwood has created an ethereal vision of female badassery that I had completely laced up my feminist ass kicking boots by the end of chapter one. The formula that the author concocted in order to produce the masterpiece that my eyes and brain conversely lapped up was unique and special. She knew the compounds that go into writing a fantasy – they work, but the author decided to tear that rule book up and rewrite them completely! She drew me in with her hypnotic narrative and the familiar territory that I have become used…
