Hello lovelies! Sorry for my recent absence, I was off recovering and reading lots of books! My dressing is now off of the wound and everything is healing nicely. Just waiting for the dissolvable stitches to dissolve.

I ended up reading 12 books this month, which became a bit of a mission because I had a run of reading books that just had too many words. I don’t mean they were over descriptive, details or used language or a structure that I didn’t understand. There were just too many words. It’s more of a frustrated feeling, when you start to read a book and you see words rather than a story. I’ve had a run of bad luck with five or six books where I’ve tried to start reading them and found that the words remained words and I was unable to get myself into the story. These books have been shelved for the moment, I may well open them another time and be able to get pass the mass of words…we’ll see.

For the books I did read, I am happy that I got up to 12. I always feel very proud when I read more than 10 books a month. If I’ve read under 10, I feel like I haven’t been trying hard enough (*cough* August *cough*).

Of the 12 books I read this month, 3 were Children’s Books (9-12yrs), 7 were Detective Thrillers, and 2 were Thrillers. It was a nice mix of books.

I couldn’t pick one favourite of this month…instead I have 5! Two of those are the second and third books in the Erika Foster series by Robert Bryndza, which are ‘The Night Stalker’ and ‘Dark Water’. I have really come to love Erika Foster and through discovering Robert Bryndza on Amazon, have become obsessed with his writing. I have the fourth, fifth and sixth book in the series waiting to be read.

‘No One’s Home’ by D. M. Pulley was my ‘Amazon Firsts’ read for August. I really enjoyed that it spanned so many decades and characters but still managed to link them altogether in a spine tingling way. The ending was chaotic and shocking and I loved every minute of it.

My top 5 of the month were all ‘Detective Thrillers’, which is a sub-genre I have really got into.

I couldn’t have a Top 5 without including Lisa Regan’s sixth book in the Josie Quinn series ‘Her Silent Cry’, this book was a stellar read and one I completely devoured in one sitting. Each addition to the Josie Quinn series surpasses the one before it. The case of the missing child, taking Josie to places she hasn’t been before. I love the growth I see in Josie with each book and the fact that there is always something more to discover from the characters.

The last of my Top 5 books was M. W. Craven’s ‘The Puppet Show’, which I read as I was flying to New York in September. It was a very dark and twisting book but it was also a very compelling read. I did guess who the killer was but only a couple of pages ahead of the reveal so it wasn’t that bad. I’m excited for the next book in the series.

Now for the bad…

The book that I was most disappointed with was J.P. Carter’s ‘In Safe Hands’. The blurb on the back of the book sold it to me but I found that the story within the pages was full of disappointments. It was a throwaway comment in chapter three which revealed all to me and had me howling with annoyance that everything could be that predictable. I found myself coming to the end of the book and feeling liked I’d wasted a couple of hours that I could have spent with a better and more deserving book!

‘The Taking of Annie Thorne’ by C. J. Tudor was also a book that disappointed me. I’d been wanting to read it for a while and had heard good things about it. For the most part, it delivered what it said in the blurb, but it also didn’t really explain what was happening or have a clear cut explanation at the end of the book. It was left incredibly vague and I felt almost like the plot had been stalled from creating an understandable ending.

Lastly, comes T.M. Logan’s ‘The Holiday’. I read C. L. Taylor’s ‘Sleep’ earlier this year and it seems that in the wake of that I have seen countless of books on shelves whose story revolves around a group of people (strangers or friends) who are either trapped somewhere or decided to meet somewhere and then tragedy strikes. Another example of this would be Claire McGowan’s ‘What You Did’.

However, I found that T. M. Logan’s book fell flat and became unrealistic towards the end. The misdirect that sends the reader down one path was well done but the reality of the situation felt almost forced and wasn’t a scenario I could see happening in real life because it became too chaotic and characters began acting without reason. I was disappointed at the end but I was also amused by the bizarre turn of events that just seemed quite ridiculous.

Review 1 – An Unlikely Spy by Terry Deary – ★★★★★

Review 2 – No One’s Home by D.M. Pulley – ★★★★★

Review 3 – The Night Stalker by Robert Byndza – ★★★★

Review 4 – Hush Hush by Mel Sherratt – ★★★

Review 5 – You Won’t Believe This by Adam Baron – ★★★★★

Review 6 – Dark Water by Robert Bryndza – ★★★★★

Review 7 – The Puppet Show by M. W. Craven – ★★★★★

Review 8 – In Safe Hands by J. P. Carter – ★★

Review 9 – The Taking of Annie Thorne by C. J. Tudor – ★★★★

Review 10 – The Holiday by T. M. Logan – ★★★

Review 11 – Her Silent Cry by Lisa Regan – ★★★★★

Review 12 – Pages & Co: Tilly and the Bookwanderers by Anna James – ★★★★