Sam's Fireside - Cosy Book Reviews & Recommendations

"2020 has a sci-fi ring to it, I feel, like it might be the year of alien landings 👽 or the one when the gamma rays get us." The Other Passenger is my March read for @hook.me.a.book challenge – the #NeglectedFaithfulsReadingChallenge 📚. It reminded me of why I enjoy a thriller, and after reading this I have decided to try and read some more this year. Let's see how that works out! 🤞 The story switches between the beginning of 2019 and the end, as we roll over into 2020, with Jamie as the most unreliable narrator I've ever heard — honestly — by the middle of the book, I wasn't trusting a word he said! 😅 I was kept guessing throughout The Other Passenger. Just when I raised my eyebrows and thought to myself, "really, that's a poor twist, I don't like that if it's the ending", Louise threw a complete curveball ⚾, turned the story on its head and went streaking off in a completely different direction, which had me hooked all over again! Even ...

'Someone is lying. Someone is missing.  Someone is guilty'. The Guilty One was twisted with a capital T and so messed up that I spoke out loud to my audiobook more than once! 😂 I really enjoyed it, even if Tate was a total douchebag, and that's being kind. Urgh, many of us will know how it feels to be bullied and to be so scared of someone that you will do what they tell you to do, no questions asked and this is what Tate does to people and how he makes them feel.  The story was told between two different timelines, then and now and there were so many twists and turns, I was exhausted - but in a good way! Everyone lies, everyone has something to hide and just when I thought I had worked out what was going on, Kiersten threw another spanner in there and contorted it that little bit more!  The narrators each brought their own special touch to the book, and yep, the characters you're supposed to dislike, you definitely did! They all did a great job. If you like twisted, d...

Missing girls but no bodies.... This was an audiobook listen for me and made all the more enjoyable because of the four narrators, who really made the story their own. It became quite apparent from the beginning that the majority of this small community has had a strict religious upbringing and continues to follow their faith. The wife's role was to bring up the kids and look after the house, and absolutely everything has to be run past their husbands first. I appreciate that there are many, many communities in the US that put their faith above everything, but I don't think I've read a book that focuses highly on this, not one set in the 21st century anyway.  I worked out pretty early on who the bad guy was going to be, but that didn't spoil the enjoyment at all. There were still plenty of moments when I nearly changed my mind, as every now and then the plot took a diversion! A great story with underlying themes of grief and the difficulties of motherhood.  Thank you to...

Well, that was a dark ending! I'm flying through my audiobooks this year, and The House on Cold Creek Lane was another good one. I seem to be picking up the thriller audiobooks rather than the physical or digital copies, and I'm loving the immersiveness of them. A good narrator makes for an even better story, and Emily Ellet and Gail Shalan did a fantastic job of picking me up and depositing me into the lives of those who live or have lived on Cold Creek Lane.  I didn't care for Laurel's husband, yep, he might have wanted what was best for her, but he didn't handle her very well. He came across as controlling and bossy, many a time I wanted to throw that influencing attitude right back at him.  Told alternatively from Laurel and Corey's point of view, both characters were pretty screwed up in different ways.  I worked out pretty early on who the bad guy was, but what I wasn't expecting was that ending! Wow, Liz, just wow! As an author I'm pretty sure you...

This was such a brilliantly written book. I loved it from start to finish, and what a whirlwind of a story it was. There were so many times that I thought I’d worked out what was what, only to be flummoxed yet again. I couldn’t decide who were the good characters and who were the bad ones, and although I thought I’d worked it all out about three-quarters of the way through, I couldn’t be sure and there were lots more twists to come. I listened to this one as an audiobook, and the narrator, Tanya Eby, was really good. I’ve listened to books which she has narrated before and always enjoyed them. She played Emma, the female main character, well, and as with any good narrator, I could well believe that she actually was Emma, lying in that hospital bed. One of the best thrillers I’ve listened to (or read) for a long time, and although this was my first by Leslie Wolfe, it definitely won’t be my last. There were so many moments when I thought ‘no way’, that can’t be how it happened and I lov...

Full of twists and turns, and a million and one loop-the-loops, The Perfect Parents is a rollercoaster of a book with so many plot angles I didn’t see coming - and just a few that I did! This was such a good read, and I devoured it in only a couple of days. There is so much I want to say, so much I want to tell you about, but that would just spoil it, so you will just have to trust me and read it yourself. Written primarily from two viewpoints, that of Flo and Jess - two of the Hemsworth children, the story alternates from one to the other with the odd curveball thrown in every now and again. There are lots of secrets, and lots of hushed whispers and gossip throughout the village, but is there anyone at all that knows the whole truth? Maybe, or maybe not? If you like a good thriller, that will keep you turning the pages and get your brain cells working overtime that I would recommend you go out and buy yourself a copy of The Perfect Parent. Thank you to Netgalley, Boldwood Books and ...

Well, this was the second ****** up book in a row that I’ve read, with such a brilliant plot that I couldn’t put it down. I was desperate to just read and read and read so I could discover how everything would pan out. It’s not often books cause me to talk out loud, but this one did. A lot! Usually in relation to Freddie, who was a complete cockwomble (Google that word if you don’t know what it means, it’s my word of the moment)! It was scary how he could just essentially kidnap someone and take them into his life - and never want to let them go! Becka was a great main character as she slowly begins to piece her life back together after an accident left her with little memory of her life before. She and Grace were probably the only decent characters though, almost everyone else was messed up with a rotten core and a twisted agenda. I haven’t read a Hayley Smith book before, but I’m now on the lookout for more. If a decent domestic thriller is your cup of tea, then I’d start pouring now...

I finished the last page of this book, placed my Kindle down and said, out loud, ‘Well that was ****** up’! I’ve never read anything quite like this, but I loved every single moment. I didn’t know what to expect when I turned a page, but I didn’t expect what happened to happen. We All Keep Secrets is written from multiple viewpoints, numerous times, often telling the same story three times over, from Ellie, the childminder and also from Jake and Megan, husband and wife. I didn’t guess what was happening at all. Just when I thought I’d got it all sussed, Browne threw another curveball, and I was back to square one. I thoroughly recommend this book if you love a twisted psychological thriller. Check all the trigger warnings though, there are multiple and if you’re ok with them all, go out and grab yourself a copy. Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the opportunity to read and review We All Keep Secrets by Sheryl Browne. About the Book I look into baby Fern’s crib, and my heart pou...

Full of secrets, lies and deception, The Retreat by Karen King is a fast-paced psychological thriller. It won’t have you jumping out of your seat or hiding behind the sofa, but it does have enough umph to keep you reading, to find out who is behind all the weird things that are going on here. Jose and Eva have opened their home as a wellbeing retreat, and the first guests have received a discount to discover anything that needs changing, to enable any tweaks to be ironed out before Jose and Eva open properly to paying guests. I can’t say I warmed to any of the characters, apart from maybe Eva and Saskia. However, to me, this is the work of a good writer. I don’t think we were supposed to actually ‘like’ any of them! It definitely kept me guessing the whole way through the book, although I did have my suspicions at various points as to who was sabotaging things throughout their stay. Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the opportunity to read and review The Retreat by Karen King. ...

I really enjoyed His Secret Wife by Lisa Timoney, and for a couple of days, all I did was read, sitting in the sunshine in the garden. Cora and Harry both found their way into my heart and I loved that with the innocence of childhood, they were probably the best thing that happened to each other.  Elle is married to Rob, Jen is married to Bill and we realise from the beginning that Rob and Bill are the same man, who actually believes he is doing the right thing for both families! I did question how someone can be so deceptive and think he can keep things going with two wives indefinitely. Well, he certainly gave it a good go! The author covered the kids’ diagnosis with differing forms of ADHD, with incredible knowledge, and she obviously did her research well. The story made me think about how difficult it must be for parents and teachers, whose children are perhaps a little different from their peers and how hard it is, as a child to try to fit into what is considered ‘normal’. I...