I did actually start reading a book today, but then work took over. Then there was a power cut which lasted over an hour and my boredom levels hit a new low. I was actually just being sneaky in seeing if any of the books on my ‘birthday books’ wishlist had disappeared. TBH, I can’t actually remember what I put on there in the first place, so the sneaky tactic was pointless.

Anyway, the first of these two books popped up on ‘recommended for you’ on Amazon. I read the prologue and first chapter, and decided that it was something I was interested in reading. It was only 99p, so not bank breaking or anything. I decided to go ahead and get the second in the series as well, based on how drawn I was to the first. The prologue and first chapter, just clicked for me. I find myself constantly reading the first chapter of a book – if I can – before I buy it. There is only so much a cover and a blurb can offer you.

She looked at the smiling, eager face of the little girl in the photograph, with dark hair, bright-green eyes, a missing front tooth, and her entire life ahead of her. Chelsea was last seen walking back from a friend’s house one summer afternoon. She never made it home…

An eight-year-old girl, Chelsea Compton, is missing in Pine Valley, California and for Detective Katie Scott it’s a cruel reminder of the friend who disappeared from summer camp twenty years ago. Unable to shake the memories, Katie vows she won’t rest until she discovers what happened to Chelsea.

But as Katie starts to investigate – her PTSD flashbacks kept at bay with the help of her loyal ex-military dog, Cisco – the case reveals itself to be much bigger and more shocking than she feared. Deep in the forest, she unearths a makeshift cemetery: a row of graves, each with a brightly coloured teddy bear.

Tracing the silk lining the coffins, Katie links the graves to a stack of missing-persons cases involving young girls – finding a pattern no one else has managed to see. Someone in Pine Valley has been taking the town’s daughters for years, and Katie is the only one who can stop them.

And then another little girl goes missing, snatched from the park near her home…

Publisher: Bookouture (31st May 2019)

Kindle: 316 pages

H – So I haven’t heard of Jennifer Chase before, so reading this will be new for me. I can already tell that the story will be as gripping as it says it’ll be. From the glimpse I got, it spoke volumes of the story inside and how dark and twisted the book will be. I hope that it’ll be rich on characters and that the main character has some bite to her.

Katie focuses her mind, trying to keep another anxiety attack at bay. The victim’s long brown hair is slick and wet, her body rigid in the grass. She looks more like a mannequin than the woman Katie had spoken with only yesterday, the woman she had promised to protect…

When a cold, naked body is discovered by a couple on a jog through the lush woodlands of Pine Valley, California, new recruit Detective Katie Scott is stunned to discover the victim is Amanda Payton – a much-loved local nurse and the woman at the heart of an unsolved case she’s been investigating whilst getting a grip on her crippling PTSD.

Weeks earlier, Amanda had run, battered and bruised, out into the headlights of a passing patrol car. She claimed to have just escaped a kidnapping, but with no strong evidence, the case went cold. The Pine Valley police made a fatal mistake…

Katie is certain the marks on Amanda’s wrists complete a pattern of women being taken, held captive and then showing up dead in remote locations around Pine Valley – and she won’t let someone die on her watch again.

But then a beautiful office worker with a link to the hospital where Amanda worked goes missing. With only days before the next body is due to show up, can Katie make amends for her past by saving this innocent life?

Publisher: Bookouture (21st October 2019)

Kindle: 322 pages

H – I’m probably mad getting the second in the series before reading the first, but I find myself doing it regardless. This was only £1.99, so I don’t feel too hard done by and having had a glimpse of the first book, I think I can safely say this is a series I’ll enjoy.

Call it mother’s intuition, but I knew she was dead the moment she was late home. As I listened to her phone ring and ring, that’s when I knew for sure. My little girl was gone.

Fifteen-year-old Shannon Ross is missing and her parents are distraught. With her long blonde hair, easy laugh and perfect grades, she’s the girl everyone at school wants to be.

Detective Jessie Blake is called to Inverlochty, the missing girl’s home town in the Scottish Highlands, and finds Shannon was keeping a diary full of friends’ and neighbours’ secrets. She knows the kind, outgoing boy who’s sleeping with his teacher and the quiet woman who’s been having an affair with her best friend’s husband.

Just as Jessie and her team are beginning to understand Shannon’s complicated world, her lifeless body is found on an ice-cold river bank on the outskirts of town. And when Jessie tells Shannon’s family the heart-breaking news, she senses something isn’t right. The loving family is beginning to show cracks. Did Shannon know about her father’s alcohol problems and violent past? Why does Shannon’s mother keep finding excuses to leave the room, when Jessie wants to ask her questions?

As Jessie begins to piece together the final days of Shannon’s life, her own history comes back to haunt her. Putting aside her personal demons, Jessie vows to do whatever it takes to catch Shannon’s killer. But what if the killer is ready to strike first?

Publisher: Bookouture (21st March, 2019)

Kindle: 272 pages

H – This author, Kerry Watts, keeps popping up in my recommended reads, so I finally decided to see what all the fuss was about. Of her three books on Amazon, this was the one that spoke to me the most, so I thought I’d give it a go!

School should have been the safest place…

For Lizzie Riley, switching her eight-year-old son Tom to the local academy school marks a fresh start, post-divorce. With its excellent reputation and outstanding results, Lizzie knows it’ll be a safe space away from home.

But there’s something strange happening at school. Parents are forbidden from entering the grounds and inside, there are bars across the classroom windows.

Why is Tom coming home exhausted, unable to remember anything about his day? What are the strange marks on his arm? And when Lizzie tries to question the other children, why do they seem afraid to talk?

Tom’s new school might seem picture-perfect. But sometimes appearances can be deceiving…

Kindle: 385 pages

Publisher: HQ (21st March, 2019)

H – This is another author who I know nothing about. It popped up a while back in a ‘people who bought this, also got this’, and I’ve been keeping it on the back burner of Kindle books I want to get for a while now. It sounds like a story I’d enjoy and the reviews on amazon were 80% 5 stars, so I feel like even if it isn’t 100% enjoyable, I’ll be able to take something from it.

By now, we all know how hard it is for me to resist not buying any books, and I’m through making excuses to myself and others. It happens. I’m much rather have an addiction to buying books than anything else in the world. My anxiety is particularly high at the moment, and the fact that I’ve only read 3 books this month is weighing heavily on my mind! I have – and I’m really not kidding – 50 books to read on my shelves currently! But I either haven’t been able to find the time to read, or haven’t found a book to suit my current mood/emotions. These are not excuses, they’re real issues. I should be able to pick up my reading momentum in March, but frankly, I’ll be happy if I manage to read 10 books in Feb!!