Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough

Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Don’t Trust This Book

Don’t Trust These People

Don’t Trust Yourself

And whatever you do, DON’T give away that ending…

‘Sarah Pinborough is about to become your new obsession’ Harlan Coben

Louise

Since her husband walked out, Louise has made her son her world, supporting them both with her part-time job. But all that changes when she meets…

David

Young, successful and charming – Louise cannot believe a man like him would look at her twice let alone be attracted to her. But that all comes to a grinding halt when she meets his wife…

Adele

Beautiful, elegant and sweet – Louise's new friend seems perfect in every way. As she becomes obsessed by this flawless couple, entangled in the intricate web of their marriage, they each, in turn, reach out to her.

But only when she gets to know them both does she begin to see the cracks… Is David really is the man she thought she knew and is Adele as vulnerable as she appears?
Just what terrible secrets are they both hiding and how far will they go to keep them?

I have read Sarah Pinborough novels before and I have to admit I really like them. She manages to draw the reader in and keep them hooked until the ending and this is another of those books. I began it one Sunday afternoon and hardly put it down until I went to bed that night. I was so engrossed in the story line I had to know what was going to happen next.


David and Adele have moved to the area, they have the 'perfect' marriage, life and home. Louise works in a doctors office/physicist type place and has a son Adam. She split up with her husband Ian a while ago now, but they stay civil for Adam. Louise met David in a bar one night but currently has no idea who he is, that is until he walks through the office doors where she works and turns out to be the new doctor there.

This story is about the 3 of them, Adele, David and Louise and how their lives intertwine, I thought it was written very well and throughout the novel I kept changing my mind on different things, my feelings for the characters also changed throughout the book and I couldn't see which direction the story was going in.

This is a very difficult book to review, mainly because I don't want to spoil it for anyone but also because I want to discuss that ending, personally the second twist I feel was one too far and Pinborough should have stopped at just the first twist, had she have done that, this book would have got 5*. I feel that the second twist was unnecessary and actually didn't bring an awful lot extract to the story for me, it just made me cross and left me with a sour taste in my mouth as I thought it was silly.

Although the second twist in the book did spoil it for me, I feel that this was still a good read, one that does live up to the hype and if you enjoy thrillers you should pick this one up. I would also recommend you read other Pinborough novels as they are written well and keep you hooked from early on. I really did enjoy 98% of the book, if only the last 5 pages didn't exist. Hopefully after you have read this you will understand what I mean.

Overall though an enjoyable read that I would recommend and I will be passing my book on to a friend.

Ambulance Girls by Deborah Burrows blog tour with extract

It's my stop today on the Ambulance Girls blog tour and I am bringing you an extract from the book. This is from the first chapter so it is bound to get you hooked. Look out for the other stops on the tour later this week. 

On duty during London's Blitz...
As death and destruction fall from the skies day after day in the London Blitz, Australian ambulance driver Lily Brennan confronts the horror with bravery, intelligence, common sense and humour.

Although she must rely upon her colleagues to carry out her dangerous duties, Lily begins to suspect that someone at her Ambulance Station may be giving assistance to the enemy by disclosing secret information. Then her best friend, Jewish ambulance attendant David Levy, disappears in suspicious circumstances. Aided – and sometimes hindered – by David’s school friend, a mysterious and attractive RAF pilot, Lily has to draw on all of her resources to find David, and negotiate the dangers that come from falling in love in a country far from home in a time of war…

EXTRACT from Ambulance Girls 

CHAPTER ONE



Tuesday 15 October 1940

London



Blood, warm and sticky, was trickling down my forehead. Something sharp must have nicked me as they pushed me through the narrow gap. Never mind, I was inside.

‘Hullo,’ I called out. ‘Anyone there?’

The words disappeared into the darkness as my torchlight flicked over the mess of plaster, wood and debris. In the fug of soot and dust and ash, my breathing was shallow and unsatisfying, which added to the sense of impending doom that had gripped me the moment they shoved me inside.

The trickle of blood on my forehead had become exquisitely itchy. When I lifted my gloved hand to wipe it away, the leather was harsh against my skin and felt gritty. Now my face was bloody and dirty; I probably looked like any child’s nightmare.

Whatever was I – Lily Brennan, schoolteacher from Western Australia – doing here, crawling into the ruins of a bombed house, playing the hero, when the children were most likely already dead?

But what could I do? Really, there was no choice.

I had arrived with my ambulance partner, David Levy, to find a familiar scene of devastation, bleached to aquatint by the moonlight. Piles of rubble stood in the middle of what had been a row of Victorian dwellings. They towered in gaunt ruin against the sky, between shapeless wrecks of masonry that showed the signs of a direct hit. Men’s voices, brisk and business-like, emerged from the gloom, between whistles and the occasional shout. Short flashes of torchlight appeared and vanished in the darkness, as rescue workers sought doggedly for signs of life in the ruins.

When I emerged from the ambulance, the warden had looked me up and down as if I were a prize cow at the Royal Show. As he did so, the letters on his tin helmet had stood out brightly in the moonlight: ‘ARP’. They stood for air raid precautions, and I had felt inappropriate laughter bubble up in my chest when I got a good look at him. How could this small man protect anyone from the destruction London had suffered in the past five weeks of air raids? And yet there was a quiet authority in his slow nod to me, and in the way he had then turned to throw a cryptic comment to the men standing behind him.

‘She’ll do; she’s thin enough.’

Levy, who had come to stand beside me, laughed at that, saying, ‘I think she might prefer to be described as slim.’ There had been no answering smile from the warden. Instead, he gestured at the ruins of what had been a house. ‘We’ve got two infants buried under the rubble there,’ he said. His clipped, precise voice did not at all obscure the horror of those words.

‘At least one’s alive – or was alive until a half-hour ago – because we’ve heard a baby crying. We understand they were left sheltering under a solid kitchen table before the bomb hit. Problem is, the place is just holding together. If we disturb the site too much it’ll bring the rest down on top of them. It looks like someone slim – as slim as you, miss – could squeeze through. You’d need to crawl through to the kitchen at the back, find the kids and bring them out. Think you can do that?’

Levy knew I had a horror of tightly enclosed spaces. ‘I’ll go,’ he had said. ‘I’m good at squeezing through ruins. I’ve done it before.’

‘There isn’t the room. You’d never get in.’ The warden sized me up with another quick glance and challenged me with his eyes.



Extracted from Ambulance Girls by Deborah Burrows (Ebury Press, in paperback £5.99)

I would like to thank Ebury for the opportunity to take part in this tour. 

The Marriage Lie by Kimberly Belle

The Marriage Lie by Kimberly Belle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A chillingly unsettling psychological thriller, perfect for fans of Paula Hawkins, Liane Moriarty , Shari Lapena and Clare Macintosh. Are you ready to question if everything in your life is really as it seems…

She thought they had a perfect marriage….
When a plane crashes, Iris Griffiths watches the news unfold with horror…and then relief. Her beloved husband Will had just flown out from the same airport, but he was on a different flight.

So why is his name on the list of victims? 
Surely there’s some mistake – her husband would never lie to her. Would he? But wading deeper into the truth of her husband’s deception, Iris begins to think the unthinkable.

Maybe she’s glad that he’s dead…

I enjoyed this evenly spaced thriller; unusual start that someone takes a flight they are not meant to and the plane crashes killing everyone on board including Iris' husband Will. At first Iris refuses to believe Will is dead, after all he was meant to be flying to Florida not Seattle and she is convinced that the airline must have got it wrong. The main reason she believes it can't be true is that she would have to believe that he lied to her and she can't come to terms with this. She sets about finding out what really happened and comes to realise that the man she married and thought she knew is not the man she thinks he was.

As Kimberley Belle builds momentum she succeeds in keeping the reader in suspense and not knowing who to trust. The character of Iris is believable and she does what you'd expect her to do in trying to piece together this mystery and when she uncovers truths about her husband its possible to feel her frustration and pain. Good solid characters but for me the ending was not the best. Well executed piece of writing, good steady suspense building enabled this book to climb to its climax but as I said the climax left a little to be desired.

It was great for 3/4 of the book then fell a little bit flat, the ending was disappointing however at least it was not 100% predictable which is why I have given this a 4 star rating. Enjoyable novel but just lacked the killer punch to make it truly memorable.

I would like to thank the publisher for sending this in exchange for an honest review.

Lost for Words Cover Reveal!

Lost for words is due out 6th April and today I am able to share the cover with you. I have also included some early quotes below.

What an absolute stunner of a book. I  LOVED it and cried like a motherf***er. If you care about books (or humans) read it!’ Shelley Harris

‘Burns fiercely with love and hurt. A quirky, rare and beautiful novel, one you’d be delighted to unearth in any book shop. And Loveday Cardew is a character who leaps from the pages into our hearts.’ Linda Green

'This book will warm and break your heart in equal measure. This is a must-read novel.'

Claire Dyer

Finally it is half term!!!!

Finally, I have made it half term. It has been a long 7 1/2 weeks and I feel like I am completely ready for a break. While I am off I do have a lot I need to do, although I am hoping to spend one or 2 days solidly on work and then I will be able to use the rest of the time for reading. 

Over Christmas I felt like I had made a big dent in reading after a long reading block I had. Since the beginning of the year, I have only managed to read 11 books. Now this does sound like a lot, I don't feel this is really. During a good week I can normally manage 4 or 5 if I am off work. So far this year I have found it difficult to be able to read while I am at work during the week. I think the job is just so demanding that when I get home I am shattered. 

I would be really pleased if I managed to read 4 long books this week, I do have some things planned but hopefully I can fit them in. I am currently over half way though Behind her eyes and I will be really pleased if I manage to finish this over this weekend, then it gives me a whole week. 

I won't be too hard on myself if I don't manage to complete my target this week as I have got 30 reports to write, on top of planning, marking and assessing! 

Whatever you are doing next week, whether you are off or at work, I hope it is enjoyable and you get to read what you want. 

Dead Simple by Harry Bingham

Dead Simple by Harry Bingham
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A woman reports a crime to the police, with unexpected results
The grieving widow who finds that she's about to lose more than just her husband
When a man attempts the perfect murder, it's not quite as easy as he thinks
Two men in prison play a deadly game of Scrabble
A young woman tries to trick an old man and gets more than she bargained for
Sometimes crimes are solved in ways you can't explain
A murderer about to be hanged finds that's not the worst thing that can happen
You never know who's going to turn up at your door

Original stories from Mark Billingham, Clare Mackintosh, James Oswald, Jane Casey, Angela Marsons, Harry Bingham, Antonia Hodgson and CL Taylor - specially written for Quick Reads.


By now you know that I love short stories as I can finish something during week after a busy day. It really makes me feel like I have accomplished something.

This is a collection of eight short stories from best selling crime authors. This is where I have a confession, I have never actually actually read any of these authors, so I was excited to get started to see if I will discover a new favourite. I do have quite a few novels by these authors though on my shelf to read soon!

These stories range from a couple of pages to 20-30. I didn't enjoy all of the stories, however my favourite three were: The Funeral by Clare Mackintosh, Old Tricks by Jane Casey and The Perfect Murder by Harry Bingham. I really managed to get into these and I would have enjoyed fuller length novels featuring these I think.

Overall this is a good Quick Read, it allows you to try authors work perhaps you haven't before and You can finish a story in around 15 minutes. Some of the stories I felt did need to be longer as it didn't give the reader long enough to get into it, however I think this is a brilliant book to release fo the Quick Reads program this year and recommend you to pick this up. Like me, you may discover some brand new authors.

A Very Distant Shore: Quick Reads by Jenny Colgan

A Very Distant Shore: Quick Reads by Jenny Colgan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Wanted: doctor for small island. Must like boats, the seaside and having no hope of keeping a secret...

Lorna lives on the tiny Scottish island of Mure, a peaceful place where everyone helps their neighbour. But the local GP is retiring, and nobody wants his job. Mure is too small and too remote.

Far away, in a crowded camp, Saif is treating a little boy with a badly-cut hand. Saif is a refugee, but he's also a doctor: exactly what Mure needs.

Saif is welcome in Mure, but can he forget his past? Over one summer, Saif will find a place to call home, and Lorna's life will change forever.


I haven't had much time to read lately and was feeling like I was in a little reading slump. When I saw that 'Quick Reads' had released their new books for the year, I couldn't wait to get my hands on them. I decided to pick up this one by Jenny Colgan.

I have read a few Jenny Colgan books and I have always really enjoyed them. This is a short story (145 pages) and I managed to read this in a few hours. I really enjoyed this story, it was different to others I have previously read, focusing on a Syrian refugee and a small town in Scotland.

I really got into this and couldn't believe how quick I was whizzing through it. I don't want to mention the story line as it is so short and would be worried about giving it away. Although I did really enjoy it and felt like I was in Lorna's world, I also did find that at the end of the book I had many unanswered questions and the book did feel very unfinished. I do believe that these characters will be featuring in Jenny Colgan's new book which is of full length, we get a sample of this at the end of story. I believe this though follows Lorna's best friend Flora, who we do meet in this book.

Personally I would have preferred to have this a little longer as I was enjoying it so much and felt it came to an abrupt ending. I also was a little shocked by the book as I didn't expect it to pan out in the way it did, I am hoping that in the full length novel Lorna is a prominent character as I am hoping to discover some of the answers to my questions. This short story is completely heartbreaking and it felt a lot longer than it actually was due to everything that happens in it.

Duractron Stereo Headphones, High Definition, in-ear, Noise Isolating, Powerful Bass, Pure Sound Compatible with iPhone, iPod, iPad, MP3 Players, Samsung Galaxy, Nokia, HTC, Nexus, BlackBerry etc With Microphone (Silver)

Description:

• Impressive Stereo Sound: With supreme sound technology, Earbuds deliver powerful, deep and rich sound across a wide frequency range while blocking distractive outside noise.
• Comfort Wear: In ear and secure fit design make it doesn't fall out. Silicone sweat proof earbuds make it comfortable to wear.
• Easy Control: The built in microphone allows you to easily enjoy talking on phone everywhere. The multifunction button will control play/pause music; answer/ end calls.
• Compatibility: Ideal for Apple Devices; Android Smartphones; Windows Phones; Portable Music Players with 3.5 mm port.
• Warranty: 1 Year free Warranty and full support from Duractron, so you could purchase with confidence.

My thoughts:

These came well packaged in a brown box. Inside they were in a clear bag, this was O.K, I have bought earphones before for a similar price and they offer a little 'extra' they have come in a nice bag to keep them in. In my opinion if these were to come in a travel type bag I could keep in my handbag this would change these from being 4* to a 5*. To be honest that is only nit picking as the actually headphones were very good. It states they fit with iphone and android. As I have an iphone 7 they do not fit due to headphones needing to be bluetooth... (Which I must admit is the most annoying thing ever!)

I have however used these with my kindle and they work brilliantly. They come finished to a high standard and look a lot more expensive than they actually are. I also love the extra plastic ear pieces, in case they don't fit you have an opportunity to swap them and use the spare. I also like the volume control on the side of the head phones.

I would recommend these to others and as I said they only reason I have given these 4* and not 5* is down to them not coming in a protective case to stop them getting tangled in my bag, as you can see from the pictures the box they come in wouldn't really be suitable to keep them in indefinitely.

Elisenda Domènech Investigations series Blog Tour

Summary:

When a child disappears, the clock starts ticking Detective Elisenda Domènech has had a tough few years. The loss of her daughter and a team member; the constant battles against colleagues and judges; the harrowing murder investigations… But it’s about to get much worse. When the son of a controversial local politician goes missing at election time, Elisenda is put on the case. They simply must solve it. Only the team also have to deal with a spate of horrifically violent break-ins. People are being brutalised in their own homes and the public demands answers. Could there be a connection? Why is nobody giving a straight answer? And where is Elisenda’s key informant, apparently vanished off the face of the earth? With the body count threatening to increase and her place in the force on the line, the waters are rising… Be careful not to drown. The stunning new instalment of the gripping Elisenda Domènech crime thrillers for readers of Ian Rankin, Henning Mankell and Andrea Camilleri.



Information about the Book

Title: City of Drowned Sould (Elisenda Domènech Investigations #3)

Author: Chris Lloyd

Release Date: 6th February 2017

Genre: Crime Thriller

Publisher: Canelo

Format: ebook Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34106761-city-of-drowned-souls Amazon Link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01N7Y2NDN

About the Author:

Chris was born in an ambulance racing through a town he’s only returned to once and that’s probably what did it. Soon after that, when he was about two months old, he moved with his family to West Africa, which pretty much sealed his expectation that life was one big exotic setting. He later studied Spanish and French at university, and straight after graduating, he hopped on a bus from Cardiff to Catalonia where he stayed for the next twenty-four years, falling in love with the people, the country, the language and Barcelona Football Club, probably in that order. Besides Catalonia, he’s also lived in Grenoble, the Basque Country and Madrid, teaching English, travel writing for Rough Guides and translating. He now lives in South Wales, where he works as a writer and a Catalan and Spanish translator, returning to Catalonia as often as he can.



He writes the Elisenda Domènech series, featuring a police officer with the newly-devolved Catalan police force in the beautiful city of Girona. The third book in the series, City of Drowned Souls, is published on 6 February 2017.

Website: http://www.cityofgooddeath.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/chrislloydbcn



Guest Post:


5 Top ten fictional inspirations



1. As I imagine is the case with most writers, my love of reading – and, by extension, writing – began as a kid. I was lucky enough to grow up in a town that had a wonderful public library – you know what I’m going to say now… we have to fight hard to save them (OK, I’ve done banging the drum for the moment). I used to love spending hours after school choosing books – it was a magical, unstoppable realm. The children’s section when I was growing up had a rule where you had to take out one non-fiction book for every fiction book, which I’m certain laid a basis for a lifelong passion for discovering new things and wandering off down paths of learning. It was absolutely wonderful, transporting me not only to imaginary worlds but to real worlds and real stories, engendering in me not just a love for great fiction, but a fascination for discovery. We need to do everything we can to save our libraries. Did I mention that?



2. If you don’t mind me banging on a bit more about childhood, next in my list of inspirations is children’s authors. They’re wholly to blame, they’re the ones that gave me a love of reading from an early age and who made me want to write. My first love as a child were the Just William books by Richmal Crompton – I loved his well-meaning misunderstandings and the scrapes they got him into. That’s when I began writing my own stories, the Just Chris series – now sadly lost to the world – whose adventures were remarkably similar to William’s. Other books I enjoyed were The Three Investigators series by Robert Arthur about three young teenagers in Hollywood who solved crimes, the Willard Price Adventure series and Emil and the Detectives by Erich Kästner. I think I’m beginning to see a pattern emerge here…



3. And then I read The Silver Sword by Ian Serraillier, a present from my mum, and I saw just what a book could do. The story of children doing what they can to survive in Warsaw in World War Two, it’s a story of despair and hope, friendship and love, searching and survival, and I still remember it as one of the most powerful novels I’ve ever read. It was like the culmination of the fiction and non-fiction books I’d been enjoying for years, and it left a deep and lasting impression on me. That was probably when I knew I wanted to be a writer.



4. There are a couple of Welsh poets I love who I have to mention. One of the powers of poetry for me is the extraordinary ability the best poets have of conveying a whole world in a single line. They open the door and you as the reader walk out into the world. Dylan Thomas should be required reading for his incredible love of the sound of words, the bizarre juxtaposition of them that conjures up the most vivid images and show us it’s all right to play around with language. The other poet is very different. RS Thomas wrote rather sombre poems that trouble the conscience, but it was his way of contrasting the world of the individual with the perception of others that I find fascinating – it has its resonances with what I try to do as a crime writer.



5. I love old Hollywood films, but they have to be in black and white or they don’t count. Every now and then, I love a weekend kicking back, the lights off in the living room, sharing a bottle or two of red wine with my wife and succumbing to 48 hours of movie greats. Ever since I was a teenager, I’ve loved the Marx Brothers for their completely off-the-wall stories and appalling puns – again it’s that playing around with language that I love. Billy Wilder’s films are object lessons in how to craft dialogue – The Front Page is so sublime, I’ll even forgive it for being in colour. So too is pretty much anything by George Cukor – for quick-witted exchanges between characters, The Philadelphia Story is jaw-dropping. And

Humphrey Bogart as Philip Marlowe has to be the blueprint for every fictional detective, wisecracking or not.



6. If you want to write, you read. And if you want to write crime, you read crime. I knew for years that I wanted to write, but I sometimes struggled to know what exactly. I worked as a travel writer for some time and I wrote comedy sketches for radio, but I hadn’t found the genre that suited me. (Which my wife reckons is where I’m a bit thick as it was obvious to her that I should write crime fiction because that made up about two-thirds of what I read!) It was discovering Rebus by Ian Rankin that made me realise that that was the way I wanted to go – his use of crime novels to tell any story he wanted is the best argument for the genre. And then along came the Scandinavian writers and I was completely sold – I wanted to do for my little corner of the Mediterranean what they were doing for their cultures, and that’s when I started writing in earnest.



7. Which brings me to Catalonia. I lived in Spain for twenty-four years, twenty of them in Catalonia, and I work as a Catalan translator and still have close links with Girona and Barcelona. It’s a part of me. I’ve always been treated well there and I wanted to return the favour by talking about my love for the country. In Girona, I discovered a series of legends relating to more or less every part of the city, and I learned that storytelling was so important that there are even modern-day legends that have already become part of the city’s folklore. They were perfect for a crime novel I wanted to write set in Girona, and they became the basis for the first book in the Elisenda series. But they go deeper than that, as I believe that setting creates character (not just in fiction), and that original idea of the legends underscores a lot of the subsequent books and the people in them.



8. This may be stretching the notion of fictional inspirations, but there are certain painters who have inspired me a lot. Quite apart from their skill, I’m in awe of their ability to use a static visual medium to create a narrative that can be as vibrant and as powerful as any film or novel. For their paintings overflowing with story, I love the works of Hieronymus Bosch and Breughel – every character in their compositions could be the protagonist of a novel. In terms of Catalonia, there are two painters I draw inspiration from, one famous the world over, the other not so well known outside Spain. Santiago Rusiñol was a Modernist who created beautiful and haunting landscapes, some of early twentieth-century Girona, alongside incredibly acute studies of people. The other is Salvador Dalí, who was from the Girona region, whose surreal paintings have always inspired me to see things differently, to turn what I think I know on its head. He’ll turn up in an Elisenda story one day…



9. Talking of Elisenda, she’s a rock music fan. She gets it from me. One of my favourite bands is from Girona – Sopa de Cabra, who took their name (Goat Soup) from the title of the Rolling Stones album, so that gives you some idea of their style. Some of their early songs talk of the street people and the characters who are out of step with the rest of the city, and they inspired part of Elisenda’s world view – she identifies with the victims of life, the ones who can’t always cope with the world. To a large extent, her love of rock music from her roots is what defines her.



10. If I had to say one book that I wish I’d written, it would be Perfume by Patrick Süskind. The use of smells, from the most exquisite scent to the pungent stench of an eighteenth-century city, is a masterclass in using the senses to convey atmosphere and emotion. It’s the aromas that convey the picture of the city, the terror of the victims, the killer. A constant reminder not to forget to bring out all the senses when writing. And to end on a curious note,

a lot of the film based on the book, especially the scenes set in Grasse, was filmed in Girona.



Lastly, thank you Sam for hosting me on The Book Corner today.

Don't forget to check out the other stops on this tour!

Breakfast at Tiffany's Notebooks (Set of 3)

Breakfast at Tiffany's Notebooks (Set of 3)

£9.99

Inspired by the beloved character Holly Golightly from the classic film,Breakfast at Tiffany’s, this stylish set of three paperback notebooks is perfect for tossing in your bag, making lists and dashing down thoughts on the fly. Each notebook cover features different illustrations of the movie’s most popular icons: Holly’s sequined sleep mask, her cat eye sunglasses, her lipstick, and more. The set includes two larger notebooks, one lined and the other blank, and a small notebook with a graph paper interior.

You can buy them here.

What I think: 

I love stationary, who doesn't? When I was offered the chance to review this beautiful note set I couldn't wait to get my hands on them. 

When these arrived they were absolutely beautiful, I really like the fact that these come in different sizes. My favourite notepad is the blue one with the iconic eye mask on. This is really well made with cotton holding the pages together. This is the perfect size to fit in your handbag and keep lists of shopping in. 

This is a wonderful set to give someone for a birthday or just because you want to. I am so pleased I have been able to try these out and I have been really impressed. These are great for stationary loved and for those who love Breakfast at Tiffany's. 

Although these are a little pricey as they are not that thick, I think they would make a great gift and I would purchase these for a friend. 

I would like to thank Abrahams and Chronicles for sending this in exchange for an honest review. 

The Fox and the Star by Coralie Bickford-Smith

The Fox and the Star by Coralie Bickford-Smith
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

'Once there was a Fox who lived in a deep, dense forest. For as long as Fox could remember, his only friend had been Star, who lit the forest paths each night. But then one night Star wasn't there, and Fox had to face the forest all alone...'


Stunning book. I used this for a literacy unit of work at a primary school, the children were transfixed to it, even though I read a little bit more every day for over 4 weeks.

I have never seen them enjoy a book so much. From a teaching point this is an amazing book for a literacy unit, you can cover so much through it. Non - fiction, poetry, narrative and even science with habitats, food chains etc.

This story is about a fox, who is alone in the forest except Star, Star is fox's only friend and guides Fox through the forest at night. All is well, until one night when Star disappears.

There are no words to describe how fabulous this is, unfortunately I only had the paperback version but the hardback looks beautiful.

This is a book I would recommend to everyone with children, you can get so much from it.

The Reading Group: January by Della Parker

The Reading Group: January by Della Parker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Anne-Marie has always considered herself a bit of a matchmaker - never mind that she's only got one real success under her belt. And this year she's determined to up her game: Little Sanderton's singles could certainly benefit from her expertise! But while Anne Marie thinks she knows what's best for everyone else, her own life couldn't be less of a fairytale romance. Between looking after her cranky father and running her own business, she doesn't have time for a relationship. Her friends in the Reading Group know better though: after all, love can be found in the most unexpected of places . . 


This is the second installment by Della Parker. The Reading Group is a fun new series, where we follow the lives of those in the reading group. Each month they choose a book and we delve into one of the members lives. This month was the turn of Anne - Marie, she believes after running a successful cleaning business, she could be just as good as match making. She recently set a friend up and now they are sending out their wedding invites! After a dinner party of singles, she thinks perhaps it isn't a great idea, especially when she ends up getting unwanted attention herself.

I really enjoyed this installment and I am very much looking forward the February edition. These are light-hearted, easy going books and if you are looking for a little romance to get you though the month then I suggest picking these up. Although this is only the second one I have read I would recommend this series to busy people who don't have too much time to dedicate to reading.

I would like to thank netgalley for providing this in exchange for an honest review.