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?