Books I Read in 2018

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Hi!

I was going to start this off by apologising for not posting properly since June (I've still been pottering around on Social Media) but I don't think anyone actually gives a shite, so here's what my 2018 looked like in books.

I haven't read much more than a small handful since August, to be honest. I found it very hard to get back to "normal" after Repeal. I got through 69 books (my little pedant soul would have read another one to get to 70 had I realised before the stroke of midnight) - much more than I thought, so I've a little round-up here before I start a new books page for 2019. Instead of splitting them up by months (because there were some months during which I read nothing) I've split them into Fiction, Non-Fiction, and Audiobooks. There's a mixture of both adult and young adult in there, plus a good chunk of those free romance ones from BookBub that were a godsend for switching off after an evening canvass.

As much as I'd love to keep everything in one place, I just can not write 69 synopses today so if you'd like to read my review on any particular book, click the cover and you'll be taken to my Goodreads review.

  

                                    

      

  

My favourites of the year were: Skin Deep by Liz Nugent, All The Little Lights by Jamie McGuire, From a Low and Quiet Sea by Donal Ryan and The Wicked Deep by Shea Ernshaw. 

According to Goodreads, I read a total of 20,696 pages which isn't bad for someone who couldn't concentrate on a magazine article by the end of the year.

I should have updated my Books 2018 page by the end of the week -  I also completely lost track of what was happening with the Rick O'Shea Book Club, but hopefully I'll be able to join in there again soon and find some great reads.

I'm not setting specific goals for 2019, I've set up an online savings account instead of using a Book Jar because I kept dipping into it and spending it, so I'll pop a few euro in whenever I finish a book. I've set my Goodreads challenge to 52 (a book a week), and anything more than that is a bonus.

What was your favourite read of 2018? Is there anything you're looking forward to reading in 2019?

Blog Tour - Skin Deep by Liz Nugent

Not paid or sponsored.
Amazon & Book Depository links are affiliate links.

Hi!

It's been a while, hasn't it? I've a dozen posts sitting in drafts, waiting to be finished. Truth be told, I've lost my reading mojo of late - since Repeal, I find it very hard to just sit and relax. I also feel like at this time of year I need to be doing several things at once.

When I was asked a while ago if I wanted to be part of the Blog Tour for Liz Nugent's third novel, Skin Deep, I was only to happy to say yes. Selfishly, I hoped that the novel would help me get out of my recent rut and back into reading. I'm already a huge fan of Liz - while her debut Unravelling Oliver left me wanting slightly more, her second novel Lying in Wait had me hooked from the off and became one of my favourite books of 2016. This is her third novel, another thriller/crime.

Cordelia Russell has been living on the French Riviera for twenty-five years, passing herself off as an English socialite. But her luck, and the kindness of strangers, have run out.

The arrival of a visitor from her distant past shocks Cordelia. She reacts violently to the intrusion and flees her flat to spend a drunken night at a glittering party. As dawn breaks she stumbles home through the back streets. Even before she opens her door she can hear the flies buzzing. She did not expect the corpse inside to start decomposing quite so quickly . . .

I never know what to expect when I go into one of Liz' books - she knows how to do a shocking opening line to hook a reader in. We are introduced to Delia, who appears to have landed herself, to put it mildly, in hot water. We begin in the present day and go back to Delia's beginnings on a small island off the coast of Ireland - with a father worringly obsessed with her and a mother feeling trapped and longing for freedom.

Back-and-forths are quite common in novels, especially thrillers  or crime - I always feel like the sign of a good one is when I get completely sucked in to the past and then get a bit of a land when we go back to the future - and this is what happened here. While the events of the present were intriguing and kept me wanting to read more, Delia's past was just completely addictive and I felt like I was there on the island, overhearing conversations with Tom Crow and spying on Delia's family. She's an incredibly intriguing character from the first moment she appears on the page.

I don't really want to spoil too much of the actual story, because Liz is a master writer and I feel like the best way to go into one of her books is blind - but I'm telling you, honestly, that if you're in a reading rut, this is the one to break it. I genuinely could not put it down, and I offer sincere thanks to Georgia at Penguin Random House for asking me to contribute a post to the blog tour - I purchased the kindle edition when it was released back in April and it has sat, waiting for me to read it. I'm kicking myself that I left it this long, but it's the perfect kind of book to curl up with as the weather gets colder and the evenings get darker.

If you're looking for a great book to give as a Christmas present, I'd strongly consider this - it's currently (at the time of publishing, November 15th 2018) part of 25% off promotion at Eason, plus it's available from the retailers below.

I don't know how Liz does it, but I can't wait to see what she comes up with next.

Highly recommended, one of the best thrillers I've read in years.

You can purchase Skin Deep at the following retailers, or at any good book shop (and don't forget your library):

Amazon (Kindle)

Book Depository

Eason

Please do check out the other stops on the Blog Tour - while today is the official publication day for the UK paperback edition, there are many brilliant bloggers involved over the next couple of weeks who will be featuring their own insights, extracts and giveaways.

Sharon x

Blog Tour: Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter

ARC clearly defined in accordance with review policy here
Links to buy are affiliates

Hi!

I'm delighted to be a part of this blog tour, Karin Slaughter is one of my go-to authors and I always try to keep up with her new releases. I was very kindly asked if I'd like to participate in this one, and I was only too happy to accept. Pieces of Her is a standalone. 

What if the person you thought you knew best turns out to be someone you never knew at all? 

Andrea Cooper knows everything about her mother Laura. She knows she's spent her whole life in the small town of Gullaway Island; she knows she's never had any more ambition than to live a quiet life as a pillar of the community; she knows she's never kept a secret in  her life.

But one day, a trip to the mall explodes into violence and Andrea suddenly sees a completely different side to Laura.

Now, Andrea must go on a desperate journey to follow the breadcrumbs of her mother's past. If she can't uncover the secrets hidden there, there may be no future for either of them.

Mother/Daughter relationship books always draw me in - I think it's fascinating that some people can think of their mother as their best friend while others grow up fearing that one day, they'll turn into their mother. Andy and Laura's relationship is an interesting one - Andy assumes she knows everything about Laura, but an event changes all that in seconds. 

As with most of Karin's books, this one starts with a bang (literally). We go back and forth between 2018 and 1986, and see the contrast between the two women (including the opportunities available to them). The issue of overprotective parents is not hammered home, but it's there - Laura has done everything she can to protect Andy, but has it backfired? Is it possible to grow up with a parent and still never really know who they are? 

Overall this is another fast-paced, action packed thriller from Karin that would be a great holiday read, as is evident from my photo above!

Thank you to Harper Collins for allowing me to read an advance e-copy. 

Pieces of Her will be released on August 9th. 

Kindle

Book Depository 

You can follow the other stops on the tour here:

Have you read any of Karin Slaughter's books? Which one is your favourite? 

Blog Tour: The Lost Letters of William Woolf by Helen Cullen

Links to buy are affiliates. 
ARC clearly defined in accordance with review/disclosure policy here. 


Hi!

Today I have the pleasure of introducing you to the wonderful debut from Irish author Helen Cullen. If you're of the same vintage as myself, you will probably remember The Jolly Postman books - we had one in Primary School and I was fascinated with being able to open letters meant for other people. Considering that one of my greatest wishes as a child was to open all the mail in the Post Van, it always makes my voyeuristic little heart sing when I find a good epistolary novel. In my teenage years, I read the Griffin and Sabine series - a Supernatural story about letters and postcards between a couple who have never met. I've often wondered why there aren't more fiction books about letters - thankfully, this one (wait for it) delivers. 

While this story isn't explicitly told through letters, they do feature heavily. William Woolf works at the Dead Letters Depot in London. This is where all the undeliverable mail ends up - sometimes it's because the person doesn't exist, or the intended recipient is Supernatural, or sometimes it's due to damage. William is a letter detective - he spends his days sifting through the mail, and picking out special ones to unite with their intended recipients. 

William discovers a series of letters written to "My Great Love" - he's married to his own great love, Clare, but their marriage is strained. As William begins to develop an obsession with the writer of the love letters, is he at risk of missing what's happening to his own relationship? 

I assumed that this would focus entirely on the letters, and I was completely wrong. While they are sprinkled throughout, this is equally a story about a marriage. Fans of Us by David Nicholls may enjoy the relationship aspect of the story. 

A few years ago, I found a love letter in a piece of furniture that we acquired second hand. We never found the recipient, and later lost the letter, but I did archive it here on the blog if you'd like to see it: 

Yours Forever, Glenda

The Lost Letters of William Woolf is a sweet, charming read. Some of the letters are incredibly heartfelt and they did bring a tear to my eye at times. The story of William and Clare's marriage is not uncommon, and I liked how we heard from both William and Clare. For me, William came across as much, much older than he was supposed to be - he's not yet forty - but maybe that's just me refusing to accept the fact that I am, in fact, a middle-aged woman now.

The Lost Letters of William Woolf is released on July 12th, and you can purchase it at all good bookshops or via the links below:

Kindle

Book Depository

If you'd like to check out the other stops on the Blog Tour happening throughout the month of July, you can keep track via the below graphic:

The importance of letters is beautifully documented here - some of my own most treasured possessions are letters or cards from people who are no longer with us. It's lovely to have memories, but it's even better to have something tangible, something you know they wrote with just you in mind. I do wish that more people would send letters and cards, I fear that it may become obsolete in the future. This story just proves how important it is to keep letter-writing going, and how much love and joy can come from a small envelope. 

Monthly Reads: June 2018

Links under books are affiliates. ARCs clearly defined in accordance with review policy here. 

Hi!

Since early June, we've had a heatwave here in Ireland. I find that I'm much less likely to pick up a book if the weather is too hot, so I've been struggling to fit reading in. I got through just six books, most of them very light holiday reads.

Click on an individual cover to go to my full Goodreads review.

  

Next To You (Love With Altitude #1) by Daisy Prescott

This was on offer via BookBub a few weeks ago. It's a dual POV between Stan, a hot South African rugby player, and his girl-next-door neighbour Sage, a dance teacher/animal welfare volunteer. It was sweet, and sexy, and had a little more bite than some other novels of this type (yay for safe, consensual sex!). I really enjoyed it so I bought the others in the series. This is free on Kindle at the time of posting.
Buy: Kindle | Book Depository

Crazy Over You (Love With Altitude #2) by Daisy Prescott

These are standalone books - they're set in the same world and feature the same characters but you don't have to read them in order to enjoy them. This one focuses on Jesse (ski patrol) and Mara (a veterinarian). Again, it was really witty, enjoyable, and light.
Buy: Kindle | Book Depository

Wild For You (Love With Altitude #3) by Daisy Prescott

This one is for the cowboy fans - Justin and Zoe get together despite Justin's brooding lone cowboy schtick. I didn't enjoy this one as much, who knew that the rodeo wasn't my thing?
Buy: Kindle | Book Depository

The Kissing Booth by Beth Reekles
This has been made into a movie on Netflix, and I wanted to read the book before I watched it. Firstly, it's worth mentioning that the author first wrote this when she was 15 - and it's pretty indicative of what 15 year olds write - I wrote a short story when I was 16 (if you want to punish yourselves you can read it here) - so I get it, I get the fascination with America and boys and kissing. What I don't get is how this was published as it is. I thought it was going to be a story about escaping an abusive relationship, such was the level of obsession and control involved. It's disturbing, and the constant switching from UK to US slang was confusing. I really didn't like the book - but I have nothing but admiration for a young author who lands a deal like this. I wasn't mad about the movie either, to be fair.
Buy: Kindle | Book Depository

Mad by Chloé Esposito
Following in the footsteps of quirky main characters like Eleanor Oliphant, Elvira Carr and Eileen, along comes Alvina Knightly. Foul mouthed and with no regard for other people, her life is a bit of a mess. Alvie accepts her estranged twin sister Beth's invitation to join her at her perfect mansion - thinking that being miserable in Sicily beats being miserable in London. But why does Beth want Alvie there after so long? It's funny, full of action, and clever - unfortunately, after about the first third or so, I just found it pure daft and didn't really buy any of it. I loved the first part and I really liked Alvie as a character, I'm very fond of a foul-mouthed evil twin. If you want something to read by the pool on holiday but you don't mind it descending into utter filthy, gory madness, you may enjoy this.
Buy: Kindle | Book Depository

Review Copies

All The Little Lights  by Jamie McGuire
In the words of the great poet Vanessa Williams, I saved the best for last. It's a story about Elliott and Catherine, two young people in a small town who find solace in each others company. But when Catherine really needs Elliott, he can't be there - will she ever forgive him? This has a lovely "old" quality to it, I would have assumed it was set in the fifties or sixties but for a Beyoncé reference. It's part hazy Summer, part mystery - it really changes pace mid way and manages to do it well. I couldn't put this down, and when I wasn't reading it I was thinking about it. I adored it, it's one of my favourite reads so far this year.
Buy: Kindle | Book Depository


That's all for June - it's July 7th and I haven't read one single book this month, but Booktube-a-thon is on the way so hopefully July will be a better reading month. I'll be back in a couple of days with a blog tour spot for a wonderful debut novel by an Irish author and my Booktube-a-thon planned reads. If you've read anything interesting lately please let me know!