Category: loss
+ abuse, alcoholism, brothers, childhood, domestic noir, family, fantasy, feel-good, female friendship, fiction, folklore, forgiveness, friendship, Ghost story, gothic horror, Gothic mystery, grief, haunting, List, literature, loss, love, music, paranormal, piano, relationships, review, secrets, sisterhood, sisters, slavery, suffragette movement, supernatural, superstition, tradition, whimsical
My Top 4 Books of 2022
It’s approaching the very end of 2022 and it’s time to reflect on my absolute favourite books of the year. Last year it was hard but this year is even harder. There were instant standouts again – about 10 of them but I had to cut it down to four. I have tried to include a mix of genres but failed yet again. I read … Read More My Top 4 Books of 2022
+ abuse, adventure, childhood, crime fiction, Detective novel, family, fiction, friendship, Ghost story, gothic horror, grief, Historical fiction, List, literature, London, loss, love, Magical realism, mental health, motherhood, murder, mystery, police drama, religion, revenge, review, secrets, short stories, short story, sisters, supernatural, thriller, twins
My Top 8 Books of 2022 Part Four
Here are my favourite eight books of the final quarter of 2022. One of these will make it into my top four books of 2022 (I just couldn’t cut it down to three this year). The Parlour Game by Jennifer Renshaw This is the book I have been waiting for! A gothic tale of sinister goings-on, mysterious disappearances, hauntings and macabre artefacts with special powers. … Read More My Top 8 Books of 2022 Part Four
+ crime fiction, family, female friendship, fiction, friendship, grief, loss, love, Magical realism, revenge, review, secrets, supernatural, thriller
Dragonfly Summer by J H Moncrieff
No small town’s secrets can stay buried for long. Moncrieff digs into the treachery of memory and the power of female friendships… Dragonfly Summer is a gripping thriller that asks: What happens when the past comes back to haunt you? #DragonflySummer #JHMoncrieff @flametreepress #RandomThingsTours @annecater @RandomTTours #blogtour Jo Carter never thought she’d return to Clear Springs, Minnesota. But when the former journalist receives a cryptic note about … Read More Dragonfly Summer by J H Moncrieff
+ family, feminism, fiction, girl's school, grief, Historical fiction, literature, London, loss, love, mental health, motherhood, music, psychiatrist, relationships, review, sisters, twins
The Crooked Little Pieces: Volume 2 by Sophia Lambton
Mind the gap between youth’s pedestal and looming adulthood. Two years have passed since Anneliese and Isabel braved the bombardment of the Blitz. Risks are resumed and revelations rattle as the past begins to rear its ugly head. Suffering sends Isabel on downward spirals; Anneliese falls victim to society’s expectations. Skeletons come tumbling from Susanna’s closet and for some the sex-and-death divide grows thinner. … Read More The Crooked Little Pieces: Volume 2 by Sophia Lambton
+ abuse, bullying, childhood, crime fiction, family, female friendship, feminism, fiction, friendship, grief, literature, loss, love, marriage, motherhood, murder, relationships, review
Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan
The most compelling, challenging and contemporary novel you will read this year – and which will start conversations we need to have around authenticity, identity and gender. From the bestselling authors Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan comes a moving and powerful exploration of the secrets we keep and the risks we take in order to become ourselves. Olivia fled her abusive marriage to return … Read More Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan
+ crime fiction, Detective novel, fiction, grief, loss, murder, police drama, revenge, review, serial killer, thriller
The Pain Tourist by Paul Cleave
How can you catch a killerWhen the only evidence is a dream…? James Garrett was critically injured when he was shot following his parents’ execution, and no one expected him to waken from a deep, traumatic coma. When he does, nine years later, Detective Inspector Rebecca Kent is tasked with closing the case that her now retired colleague, Theodore Tate, failed to solve all … Read More The Pain Tourist by Paul Cleave
+ female friendship, fiction, friendship, loss, psychiatric hospital, review, secrets, sisters, thriller
The Clinic by Sally Ann Martyn
Would you go to a beauty clinic that promises to transform your life? If you’re prepared to put the work in. It seems like the opportunity of a lifetime. An all-inclusive stay at a top-of-the-line wellness retreat for a month of pampering and luxury. Not just anyone gets in. Guests are hand selected. #TheClinic @sallyannemartyn @JoffeBooks @Zooloo’s Book Tours @zooloo2008 #ZooloosBookTours #blogtour They promise big results: a total transformation. All you … Read More The Clinic by Sally Ann Martyn
+ brothers, family, fiction, Ghost story, gothic horror, Gothic mystery, grief, haunting, loss, love, paranormal, review, supernatural, superstition, USA
The Haunting of Noyo Bay by L.B. Stimson narrated by Jennifer March
When sixteen-year-old Charlotte Goolsby first encounters the mysterious little boy playing in the cemetery, she assumes he belongs to the minister’s family. However, as sightings of the little boy continue and seemingly go unnoticed by the rest of Keesbury’s residents, Charlotte is forced to confront everything she once believed about life and death. Charlotte finds herself confiding her fears to her father’s shipwright apprentice, … Read More The Haunting of Noyo Bay by L.B. Stimson narrated by Jennifer March
+ abuse, alcoholism, child abuse, childhood, domestic noir, eighties, family, female friendship, fiction, grief, loss, love, mental health, mental illness, obsession, relationships, review
Surviving Her by Jo Johnson
Nicky is the child with the hurting eyes and desperate ways. Rescue him.Claus is the man with the empty eyes and controlling ways. Rescue her. Broken by the death of her sister, Keziah can’t believe her luck when Claus, a beautiful psychologist saves her from a disciplinary disaster. Desperate to heal herself and restore her parents, she marries in haste. But her husband’s idiosyncrasies … Read More Surviving Her by Jo Johnson
+ childhood, crime fiction, fiction, Gothic mystery, grief, lies, loss, love, mental health, mental illness, murder, review, Scotland, Scottish Highlands, secrets, superstition, thriller
The Blackhouse by Carole Johnstone
From the author of the “dark and devious…beautifully written” (Stephen King) Mirrorland comes a richly atmospheric thriller set on an isolated Scottish island where nothing is as it seems and shocking twists lie around every corner. A remote village. A deadly secret. An outsider who knows the truth. Robert Reid moved his family to Scotland’s Outer Hebrides in the 1990s, driven by hope, craving safety and … Read More The Blackhouse by Carole Johnstone
+ childhood, family, fantasy, female friendship, feminism, fiction, forgiveness, friendship, grief, haunting, loss, love, magic, review, sisterhood, supernatural, witchcraft, witches
The Witches of Moonshyne Manor by Bianca Marais
The House in the Cerulean Sea meets The Golden Girls in this funny, tender, and uplifting feminist tale of sisterhood featuring a coven of aging witches who must unite their powers to fight the men determined to drive them out of their home and town. A coven of modern-day witches. A magical heist-gone-wrong. A looming threat. Summoned by an alarm, five octogenarian witches gather … Read More The Witches of Moonshyne Manor by Bianca Marais
The Other Side Of Night by Adam Hamdy
The Other Side of Night begins with a man named David Asha writing about his biggest regret: his sudden separation from his son, Elliot. In his grief, David tells a story. Next, we step into the life of Harriet Kealty, a police officer trying to clear her name after a lapse of judgment. She discovers a curious inscription in a secondhand book—a plea: Help me, he’s … Read More The Other Side Of Night by Adam Hamdy
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