Honestly, I’m mega surprised that I managed to make it through week 1! It looks like I’m the only one doing my made up challenge – which is fine! I’m having fun and this is definitely getting me back into reading regularly, which I had hoped it would do.

The three books this week are:

• The Crossing by Matt Brolly
• 1st Case by James Patterson
• Spellbreaker by Charlie N Holmberg

I’m not entirely sure how long The Crossing by Matt Brolly has been in my Kindle Library. I don’t feel like it’s that long but then I don’t check my library that often – I just buy Kindle books at random. I like the idea of this book because it’s set in the UK and somewhere that is real as opposed to fictitious. I’m intrigued by the blurb (see below) as it makes the book sound interesting and curious to me. Like a puzzle waiting to be solved.

£1.99 on Kindle or free with Kindle Unlimited.

In a small town full of secrets, everyone’s a suspect.

When a body is discovered, bled dry on a beach, the sleepy seaside town of Weston-super-Mare wakes up to a nightmare. For Detective Inspector Louise Blackwell, recently transferred to the town she last saw as a child, it’s her first case on the job.

The victim—Veronica Lloyd, an elderly volunteer at a local church—has puncture wounds to her hands. When a priest is found killed in a nearby church in a similarly grisly condition, it becomes clear that Blackwell is dealing with a righteous and bloody murderer. But the victims aren’t random. The killer has a vendetta and is hell-bent on exacting twisted revenge for a dark secret dating back years—and there are more murders planned.

As the body count rises, Blackwell faces a race against time to solve the mystery of the murderer’s identity and put an end to the carnage. She thought she knew Weston, but the town holds more secrets than she’d ever have imagined. Who can she trust and who knows more than they are letting on?

She must discover the crimes that unite the victims—before it’s too late.

1st Case by James Patterson is attempting to be my reintroduction to him. I tried reading another of his books before but I just couldn’t get into what I was reading and ended up giving the book away before I’d finished. I thought, rather than starting with some of his older works, I’d give this a go as it came out this year (2020), and will hopefully inspire me to discover more of his works.

£2.99 on Kindle.

A young tech genius is offered an opportunity that could change her life . . . or end it.

When Angela Hoot is kicked off her graduate programme at MIT for hacking into the computer of a fellow student, she fears she’s blown her chances of a glittering career.

Angela is wrong: instead, she’s offered a dream internship with the FBI. She jumps at the chance, and is thrown straight into her first case at a house in the Boston suburbs where a family of five have been brutally murdered.

As Angela struggles to come to terms with the harsh reality of her new job, a phone is found that could hold the secrets of this mass murder – if Angela is able to uncover them.

Spellbreaker by Charlie N Holmberg was actually something I got on ‘Amazon First Reads’ (if you haven’t heard of it, please check it out, I promise you won’t be disappointed). I have already experienced Holmberg’s writing with the ‘Paper Magician’ series, so was very excited to discover that he’d written something else. I do have high hopes for this.

£3.29 on Kindle or free with Kindle Unlimited.

The orphaned Elsie Camden learned as a girl that there were two kinds of wizards in the world: those who pay for the power to cast spells and those, like her, born with the ability to break them. But as an unlicensed magic user, her gift is a crime. Commissioned by an underground group known as the Cowls, Elsie uses her spellbreaking to push back against the aristocrats and help the common man. She always did love the tale of Robin Hood.

Elite magic user Bacchus Kelsey is one elusive spell away from his mastership when he catches Elsie breaking an enchantment. To protect her secret, Elsie strikes a bargain. She’ll help Bacchus fix unruly spells around his estate if he doesn’t turn her in. Working together, Elsie’s trust in—and fondness for—the handsome stranger grows. So does her trepidation about the rise in the murders of wizards and the theft of the spellbooks their bodies leave behind.

For a rogue spellbreaker like Elsie, there’s so much to learn about her powers, her family, the intriguing Bacchus, and the untold dangers shadowing every step of a journey she’s destined to complete. But will she uncover the mystery before it’s too late to save everything she loves?

If you decide to follow along this week – welcome!

I’d love to get to know you all a little better and talk about the books – whether you’re reading for the first time or coming back to an old favourite. I hope that if you do follow along, you have fun doing so. There is no obligation of course, this is supposed to be a bit of fun! Happy reading everyone.