**Weekly Wrap Up**

This week I have managed to read four books, two ARC’s and two off my bookshelf, I felt a real sense of achievement as I actually read two books that have been patiently sat on my book shelf, only another 400+ books to go 😂. I’m hoping to read more books from my book shelf this year at least 1-2 a month, well that’s the plan!

Snatched From Home by Graham Smith

Book description

Middle-class parents Victoria and Nicholas Foulkes are distraught when their children are kidnapped against Nicholas’ gambling debts. Penniless and desperate the couple turn to crime as a way to raise the ransom.

Hot on their heels is recently bereaved DI Harry Evans and his Major Crimes team. Evans is fighting against enforced retirement and his replacement – DI John Campbell – is foisted upon him along with other cases. If he must leave the police then he wants one last big case before he goes.

In a race against time Victoria and Nicholas must evade the police while continuing to add to the ransom fund. If they don’t pay up on time the kidnappers have threatened to amputate their children’s limbs with an oxy-acetylene torch.

Can they save their children before time runs out?

Tattletale by Sarah J Naughton

Book description

The perfect brother. The perfect fiancee. The perfect revenge.
A thriller you won’t be able to predict.

One day changes Jody’s life forever.

She has shut herself down, haunted by her memories and unable to trust anyone. But then she meets Abe, the perfect stranger next door and suddenly life seems full of possibility and hope.

One day changes Mags’s life forever.

After years of estrangement from her family, Mags receives a shocking phone call. Her brother Abe is in hospital and no-one knows what happened to him. She meets his fiancé Jody, and gradually pieces together the ruins of the life she left behind. But the pieces don’t quite seem to fit…

The Girl Before JP Delaney

Book description

Enter the world of One Folgate Street and discover perfection . . . but can you pay the price?

Jane stumbles on the rental opportunity of a lifetime: the chance to live in a beautiful ultra-minimalist house designed by an enigmatic architect, on condition she abides by a long list of exacting rules.

After moving in, she discovers that a previous tenant, Emma, met a mysterious death there – and starts to wonder if her own story will be a re-run of the girl before.

As twist after twist catches the reader off guard, Emma’s past and Jane’s present become inexorably entwined in this tense, page-turning portrayal of psychological obsession.

The Mountain In her Shoe by Louise Beech

Book description

A missing boy. A missing book. A missing husband. A woman who must find them all to find herself.

On the night Bernadette finally has the courage to tell her domineering husband that she’s leaving, he doesn’t come home. Neither does Conor, the little boy she’s befriended for the past five years. Also missing is his lifebook, the only thing that holds the answers. With the help of Conor’s foster mum, Bernadette must face her own past, her husband’s secrets and a future she never dared imagine in order to find them all.

ARC’s I received this week

I managed to stay away from NetGalley for two Whole weeks and then had an epic fail when Bookouture put Blink by K L Slater up for review, but how could I resist? But then I have read and reviewed two of my NetGalley books and it’s now in single figures with 84% feedback, a record in itself for me!

Last week on The Book Review Café

https://thebookreviewcafe.com/2017/01/06/run-by-mandasue-heller-bookreview/

https://thebookreviewcafe.com/2017/01/05/topfivethursday-with-bookblogger-emma-mitchell/

https://thebookreviewcafe.com/2017/01/04/the-marriage-lie-by-kimberley-belle-bookreview/

https://thebookreviewcafe.com/2017/01/03/dear-charlie-by-n-d-gomes-review-nd_gomes-hqstories/

https://thebookreviewcafe.com/2017/01/02/the-fallen-by-michael-wood/

Next week on The Book Review Café

Review for Snatched From Home

Review for The Mountain In My Shoe

#TopFiveThursday

News from the book review café

The eagle eyed among you may have noticed my blog has a brand new look. Purely by accident I happened to be looking at changing theme but pressed the wrong button and changed it! Unfortunately it looked awful and as I couldn’t remember the name of the theme I had, so I had to go with one I knew would keep all my content. Now I’m getting use to it I ❤ it, what do you think hit or a miss?

Dear Charlie by N.D Gomes #Review @nd_gomes @HQstories

Book description

At sixteen, Sam Macmillan is supposed to be thinking about girls, homework and his upcoming application to music college, not picking up the pieces after the school shooting that his brother Charlie committed.

Yet as Sam desperately tries to hang on to the memories he has of his brother, the media storm surrounding their family threatens to destroy everything. And Sam has to question all he thought he knew about life, death, right and wrong.

 

I decided to read this book after seeing the book advertised on Twitter and I’m so glad I did. As you can imagine a book that deals with a difficult and emotive subject isn’t going to be a light read by any means. The author deals with the subject with sensitivity and doesn’t use the plot to add shock value. Sam should be enjoying the best years of his life, but instead the sixteen-year-old is trying to deal with the fact his older brother Charlie was the perpetrator of a mass school shooting, leaving fourteen people dead before killing himself. I don’t feel I’m giving any spoilers at this point as it’s all in the book description.

If I’m honest I have never really given much thought to the perpetrators family up until now, when these story’s reach the headlines I always find my sympathies lie with the deceased victims families. Dear Charlie concentrates very much on the after mass, (so there are no graphic scenes in case you were wondering). As the reader joins Charlie’s family on their journey the author explores the issues of a family left behind, a family who are judged, ridiculed and hounded by the media, a family so fragmented by events you can’t help wondering if they will ever be a “normal” family again.

You can’t help feeling empathy for Sam as he struggles to come to terms with his brothers heinous crimes, he gets little support from his family and his friends have deserted him, this is a young boy who wants to be accepted by his peers and not treated like a pariah. The authors describe Sam’s feelings and thoughts with such conviction you cannot help but become emotionally involved with his character. I was surprised that the author doesn’t give the reader answers to what drove Charlie to commit such a terrible act, but in not going into great detail about the why’s of Charlie’s crimes the author encourages the reader to see the person behind the crime, a son, a brother, and friend.

Dear Charlie is not fast paced or action filled, so I would imagine this is not a read everyone would enjoy. For me this is a novel that is very much character driven, and one that deals with emotions of very credible characters.Sometimes poignant, sometimes heartbreaking this is a book that will provoke an array of a wide range of emotions. This is a fairly short read but don’t think for one minute it lacks depth it’s very well written and despite this being billed as a YA read I think it’s a book that’s well worth reading whatever your age. I couldn’t say I enjoyed this book due to the subject matter but I did find it an emotive and a thought provoking read.

4⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️out of 5

Paperback: 287 pages

Publisher: HQ; First edition edition (20 Oct. 2016)

Amazon UK   🇬🇧   Amazon US  🇺🇸