Book Review: The Quaker Cafe

I wasn't sure about this one after reading the story line. But what swayed me in the end was the cover and thoughts of a story centered around a coffee shop. After all a coffee shop in a small community is filled with nothing but gossip! And that it most certainly was. This is a genre I can't quite put my finger on, a little thriller, a litter murder mystery but a lot of general fiction as well. The story follows many of the characters, one main voice is Liz, whose a liberal from the Mid-West that marries into a conservative Quaker family and now lives in rural North Carolina. A lot of the time trying to raise her children in the faith of a Quaker lifestyle can be a challenge for her, especially when her mother in law constantly watches over her shoulder. 

In Liz's town of Ceder Branch, she has many friends that she leans on for support and to gossip about others with, even occasionally throw out the odd negative word or two about her in laws. But when one of her friends high politically standing father dies, Liz is forced to help pick up the pieces and in doing so, finds out secrets from the past that could threaten to dismantle the whole of her little town. A town that has a long history of racial tensions and wrong doings. While this is happening Liz must juggle her work and her family life. Her mother in law is more of a hand full then she can handle at the bet of times.

Suddenly a friend is diagnosed with cancer and some of the secrets Liz has found so hard to carry start spilling out in order to try and save a life, and to restore the good name of others. With the help of religion and the black and white communities, things can be done and the bad choices of others can start to be questioned, talked about and maybe even forgiven. But not without many troubles along the way. Trips to the next town to visit the hospital, the Easter parade float to make, weddings and trying to explain to the children how the dead hamster came to be, Liz has a lot to deal with. 

 Despite the heavy theme of religion in this book, I really enjoyed it (but saying that, there were a good few 'fuck you' comments towards religion that had me nodding and giggling away). There were some really amazing paragraphs and quotes that I even screen caped I was so impressed by the writing. I love the small town personalities that you meet throughout the story, even down to the man who sells peanuts all day, that just isn't quite right and the wonderful descriptions of the houses and shops. Some of the racism and sexism in the book is a little distressing, along with the theme of death. But there all something that has and still does happen in everyday life that you have to deal with, so it was interesting to read about the stereotype of rural North Carolina in that time. I really think this book review would have been easier to write if I wasn't so careful about giving spoilers away! But in summary, I think this could be one for everyone book shelves, a great and interesting read. 

Book Review: Forever Yours

I've gone off reading a little since finishing this book, does anyone else get like that? I can go through like 12/15 books one after the other and then suddenly I have no desire to pick up another book for the longest time. I'm trying to find something lighthearted and trashy to read right now, but its hard to find anything good! I'm just in one of those funks.

I both loved and disliked this book. Hands down it was genuinely the most terrifying modern themed thing I have ever read. This was magical for me on many levels. The one that stands out most for me is the fact that I had to turn on the lights while reading this, I was that scared by the story. (I read it on my kindle which has a light, in case your thinking I'm sitting in the dark squinting at a dark page) I've read horrors, murder mysteries and the likes, but a book that seems to be more of a romantic.. thriller? And I had to finish the book all in one go. It was one of those sleepless nights anyway, so I was kept in good company. And then I disliked it for some of the same reasons. The content of the book, the slightly drawn out story and in some cases the poorly translated phrasing. 

Forever Yours is a story about the single Judith who owns and runs a light shop. She accidentally bumps into Hannes in a shop one day and it turns out they don't work so far from one another. Soon they start to bump into each other more often and it turns into coffee and dating. Hannes is every womans dream man and everyone in Judiths life is wowed by how wonderful he is. Judith herself can't believe her luck that such a charming and gorgeous man is interested in her. From how she acts when a compliment is given to her, its clear to see that confidance is lacking.

As wonderful as this man is, he soon starts to show signs of somewhat obsessive behavior, making his affections for Judith weary, oppressive and overbearing. Its lovely to be the apple of this mans eye, but can no one else see how he is beginning to act? Feeling isolated from family and friends, she tries to cut Hannes out of her life, but shes tormented by him everyday, even in her dreams. Why can't anyone else see the suffering he is causing her and how scary he is? Yet the minute something goes wrong in Judiths life, Hannes is there at the door waiting to make it all better again.

This was hair raising for me, a phrase I don't associate with when having read a book. It wasn't an amazing story, but the fear of the theme is what really made it for me. At the end of this story there is a moment that gets me in the feels in all sorts of ways, a real hurrah for the sexes kind of thing. And of course theres a big twist too, something else I liked about it. If more books were based on this type of topic I would never sleep again. One to put on your to-read list for sure.

Book Review: The Good Girl

Not to belittle the content on NetGallery, (or whats out there in the book shops) but its not often I come across a book that makes me wish I hadn't read it so fast. That it wasn't over quite so soon. This was indeed one of those books and to make it even more shocking, it was a debut novel, this author has never published a book before. Even before I tell you about the book I strongly recommend you put this on your reading list, its something special. I was kindly given the chance to read this before its release date. You can pre-order it for its release date on the 1st of August here. 

Mia Dennet is the daughter of a judge and a 'home maker' mother. Her older sister followed in her fathers steps and has made him proud, while Mia is an inner city art teacher, the black sheep of the family. Mia is currently dating a near non existent boyfriend, who one night calls last minute to cancel a date instead of meeting her at the bar where she takes the call from. Mia instead leaves with a smooth talking stranger after a few too many drinks, thinking that he will be a safe one night stand, but Colin is anything but. 

Colin has been following Mia for days now. He knows where she lives, works, who she sees, where she gets her groceries. ''I don't know the colour of her eyes or what they look like when shes scared, but I will.'' His job is simple. Kidnap her and deliver her to his employers, but somewhere along the way Colin decides things are not going to go as planned. This wild extortion plot just went off the rails and Mia isn't about to walk free. Instead they hide out at a secluded cabin in Minnesota and Mia is close to loosing her mind from fear and trying to figure out what this man wants with her. Will Mia's mother Eve and Detective Gabe Hoffman be able to find her?

This was such a great read. The story is told with each chapter going back and forth from about four main characters, before and after Mia's kidnapping. It sounds like it could be hard to follow, but its really well done, clearly marked and written perfectly. It flowed but parts were a little drawn out - maybe that could just have been my own impatience in wanting to find out what happened next in the story. I loved how the author managed to sway my emotions along with the characters and I was literally left sitting on the edge of my seat at times. Despite the simple idea of a girl being kidnapped and held by a man, it was full of twists and kept me eager to turn the next page, while also establishing good side stories that interconnected so well with the main story. My little heart was fit to burst and yes, by the end of the story I was in tears. Oh all the emotions!

I was blown away by the story line, I wasn't expecting anything that happened and the twists of the plot still have me reeling from them. Just wow - and its not often I'll ever say that about a book. Its rare for me to find a really good book that I have nothing negative to say after reading it and rarer still that I'm more then ready to tell anyone who will listen to read it. Consider this post me shoving the book at you and demanding you give it a go!

Book Review: Prime Deception

I was approached by the author Cary Jones to read and review her new book Prime Deception via Net Gallery. I was really delighted to be asked to review a book as it would be my very first and not just one that I had bought and read myself. I naturally accepted straight away and downloaded it onto my kindle - a really handy function that a lot of the books on Net Gallery have. I'm not a big fan of reading a long book from my laptop, major square eyes!

This book is in the romantic thriller category, which means I was even more delighted to be asked. I'm mad about a bit of romance or a little erotica, me. (And don't go tutting, I know everyone loves a bit of a dirty read!) The book starts with Lorna who has been having an affair with the Prime Minster of Britain for the last six months and now she has committed suicide, or so says the coroners report after shes found dead in her car. But her twin sister Laurie is certain that her sister wouldn't kill herself, she was too full of life and loved living. Laurie heads off to London to seek out the truth, which means that she has to ask some hard questions that aren't easy to get an answer for. Unless your the Prime Minster that is. 

I have to say, when I read the blurb for the book I thought it sounded like it could be a really good read. The above paragraph has given nothing away about the story thats not in the blurb by the way, which I find a little odd as you could almost guess the entire story just from that alone. None the less I enjoyed the concept of the story, how well the reader got to know the characters and how the story developed. That was all good and fine up to a point when the story started to drag. It hit a point where the same sort of information was been fed; each character was sad that Lorna had died... How they had to wait for new information.. How alike the twins looked... How sad everyone was.. How they had to wait for new information. Did I mention how... Yeah, you get my point. There was one moment in the book where Laurie complains to the Prime Minster about them getting nowhere and how waiting was painful and making her impatient, which I had to laugh at considering the irony.  

In the end, I actually skipped a lot of pages which is something I never do. The book itself is 304/248 pages long - depending on what site you read it from, but as I had it on my kindle it was 3085 pages long because I have the letters massive (I can never find my glasses!). I skipped 80 pages near the end only to discover I could still understand the story perfectly and nothing much had changed. (Someone do the maths on the page count and understand that I skipped a feckin' load of pages.) There was an odd twist at the end which was great for the story considering it lost my attention with the repetition of the story line. 

Overall I thought it was a good read despite long dragged out parts and the weird pervy parts about twins, I'm glad I read it. Would I recommend it to a friend? I doubt it very much. You would have to be the sort to appreciate a book that had equal good and bad parts to it - But then again I know a surprising number of people who enjoy books like that! You can download it on Amazon here.

*I did not pay for this item, it was a PR gift.  Please see my disclaimer here.