allmyprettybooks-new

Fierce Kingdom by Gin Phillips Reviewed by Amanda Kennedy on 1st August, 2017 Fierce Kingdom was truly a joy-ride of a read. I simply could not put it down! It tapped into the very core of just how far a mother would go to protect her child, how people react in such a tense and terrifying situation. The REALITY of it, the raw terror and emotion. What a wonderfully executed story, I sincerely hope to read more from this author! Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

The Bedlam Stacks  by Natasha Pulley Published by Bloomsbury Reviewed by Amanda Kennedy on 1st June, 2017 In 1859, ex-East India Company smuggler Merrick Tremayne is trapped at home in Cornwall after sustaining an injury that almost cost him his leg. On the sprawling, crumbling grounds of the old house, something is wrong; a statue moves, his grandfather's pines explode, and his brother accuses him of madness. Thus begins Merrick's expedition to Peru in search of quinine. Despite knowing that every previous attempt has resulted in death, he yearns to escape his English home and discover some truth about the tales of his father and grandfather concerning the fairy-tales he'd heard as a child. The further he explores, the more mysterious and magical the environment becomes. Until he meets Raphael, who claimed to have known his grandfather. How can that be when Raphael appears so young, and with Merrick's grandfather so long departed from this life? The Bedlam Stacks is th...

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline Reviewed by Amanda Kennedy on May 1st, 2017 Published by Crown Publishers In the year 2044, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he's jacked into the virtual utopia known as the  OASIS. Wade's devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world's digital confines, puzzles that are based on their creator's obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them. When Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade's going to survive, he'll have to win—and confront the real world he's always been so desperate to escape. Generally speaking, I avoid science-fiction novels. Not that I have any particular aversion to the genre; it's just not really my thing . However, RPO was highly recommended by by book group. I...

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles Reviewed by Amanda Kennedy on April 1st, 2017 Published by Penguin “After all, what can a first impression tell us about someone we’ve just met for a minute in the lobby of a hotel? For that matter, what can a first impression tell us about anyone? Why, no more than a chord can tell us about Beethoven, or a brushstroke about Botticelli. By their very nature, human beings are so capricious, so complex, so delightfully contradictory, that they deserve not only our consideration, but our reconsideration—and our unwavering determination to withhold our opinion until we have engaged with them in every possible setting at every possible hour.” The year is 1922 and there are no longer ruling classes in Moscow. Only Comrades. Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov has been sentenced to House arrest at the famed Moscow Hotel Metropol. Once of the landed elite, he is forced to shun his former privilege to spend the remainder of his days in a tiny box room in the serva...

The Shadow Land by Elizabeth Kostova Reviewed by Amanda Kennedy on 15th February, 2017 Years after the loss of her older brother, Jack, Alexandra Boyd travels to Bulgaria to teach English in homage to her beloved sibling. Soon after arriving in the elegant capital, Sophia, Alexandra stops to help an elderly woman and her companions, only to find one of the party's bags has been mixed up with her own. This is not ordinary luggage: she discovers an ornately carved wooden box engraved with a name: Stoyan Lazarov and realises this is a treasured funeral urn. Alexandra sets out to reunite the urn with the family, and finds an unusual companion in her taxi driver, Bobby, whose Bulgarian name she is unable to pronounce. This is not so simple a task as she first hopes: Alexandra and Bobby unwittingly travel the country in search of the Lazarov family, learning long the way of Stovan's life as a musician and as a member of a communist labour camp; the brutality of political disse...

One of Us is Ling by Karen McManus Reviewed by Amanda Kennedy on March 1st, 2017 Published by Delacorte Press We're just entering the second quarter of 2017 and I already know that One of Us is Lying will become a standout book of the year. Described as a cross between The Breakfast Club and Pretty Little Liars , this YA thriller focuses on a group of 5 high school students, strangers to each other at the start of the narrative, attending an after-school detention. By the end, these students know each other much more intimately... But only four of them emerge from the detention alive. I loved this book from start to finish. The characters were so well fleshed out, their narratives believable, though of course with so many twists and turns we cannot fathom the big reveal until it is presented to us. And what a twist it was! I have read many mystery/thriller stories, though can honestly say One of us is Lying  really kept me guessing! Make sure you read this book, no matter what you...

Over on Goodreads, there appears a trend for defining books of this genre as "twist-lit". Think of novels like Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train in which a defining twist turns everything you had believed on it's head. This is exactly what He Said She Said did for me. It is the thriller I have waited to read for a long, long time. I came to read this quite by accident while browsing through ARCs on Netgalley. Featured among the "most requested titles" it was described as domestic noir: a novel featuring a central storyline of a brutal attack and it's aftermath for the two key witnesses. But it is so very much more than that. It is a tour-de-force of impending dread, a psychological joyride through the nuances of truth, trust and control. The story is told through the eyes of the two central protagonists, Laura and her boyfriend Kit, They are students at first, helping to run a tea stall at a festival in Lizard Point in Devon at the time of the solar ec...