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Today Week Month All

ShortBookandScribes #BookReview - Love in the Time of Britpop by Tim Woods @tim_woods77
ShortBookandScribes #PublicationDay #BookReview - So Lucky by Dawn O'Porter @fictionpubteam #BlogTour #SoLucky
ShortBookandScribes #BookReview - The Photographer of the Lost by Caroline Scott @simonschusteruk #RandomThingsTours #BlogTour
ShortBookandScribes #BookReview - Violet by SJI Holliday @OrendaBooks #RandomThingsTours #BlogTour
ShortBookandScribes #BookReview - Coming Home to Winter Island by Jo Thomas @headlinepg #RandomThingsTours #BlogTour

ShortBookandScribes #BookReview – On the Up by Alice O’Keeffe @CoronetBooks #BlogTour
ShortBookandScribes #BlogTour #Extract from The Light in the Hallway by Amanda Prowse @amazonpub @ed_pr
ShortBookandScribes #BookReview – Kim, Leon and the Sky Path to Africa by Barnaby Allen #RandomThingsTours #BlogTour
ShortBookandScribes #BookReview – The Temple House Vanishing by Rachel Donohue @CorvusBooks @LoveReadinguk #AmbassadorBookBuzz
ShortBookandScribes #BlogTour #Extract from Katherine Tudor Duchess by Tony Riches @tonyriches @hfvbt #KatherineTudorDuchess #TonyRiches #HFVBTBlogTours #giveaway

Today Week Month All

ShortBookandScribes #BookReview - The Photographer of the Lost by Caroline Scott @simonschusteruk #RandomThingsTours #BlogTour
ShortBookandScribes #BookReview - The Lying Room by Nicci French #TheLyingRoom
ShortBookandScribes #BookReview - Haverscroft by S.A. Harris @saltpublishing #HaverscroftHalloween #BlogTour
ShortBookandScribes #BookReview - A Spooky Tale by Sue Wickstead @JayJayBus @rararesources #giveaway #BlogTour #ChildrensBooks
ShortBookandScribes #BookReview - Woman in the Water by Katerina Diamond @AvonBooksUK #BlogTour

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shortbookandscribes

I'm a book blogger and all round lover of all things bookish.
Just one person trying to read all the books.

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New Review! On The Up by Alice O'Keeffe
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On The Up is an absolutely lovely book. Although the blurb gave me an idea of what the story was going to be about, there are so many more themes bubbling away underneath the surface.
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Sylvia and Obe live with their two children, The Toddler and That Baby (otherwise known as Larkin and Eliot) in Priory Court, a block of flats in London. Sylvia hates it there; there’s constant noise from her downstairs neighbour which she is documenting for the authorities, it’s grey, it’s concrete, there’s no garden for her children to play in. In short, she dreams of a better life. Yet Obe doesn’t share her dreams and seems to have no ambition to get away from Priory Court. All he wants to do is quote poetry at her!
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I loved how subtle the writing is. Sylvia is the narrator and most of the time she doesn’t have to say exactly what she’s thinking, I just knew. She’s such a well-rounded character and I felt like I totally understood her. Even when she was verging on the irrational I got her. She’s drowning in her life and they can’t afford to buy even the grottiest house on the outskirts of London, let alone somewhere half decent. And yet, when Priory Court is earmarked for demolition she finds something to fight for and a reason for living.
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In many ways On The Up is a light-hearted book. I found myself smiling or laughing to myself quite a lot, and yet it’s all there under the surface as I said. Money worries, job woes, life with young children and post-natal depression are all explored.
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I just loved Sylvia and I loved this uplifting story of life, hope, friendships, community spirit, and having something to believe in. I liked the London elements that were proving so hard for Sylvia to deal with, and I really loved the ending. This is the sort of book you close with a sigh of satisfaction and a smile on your face.

@hodderbooks
#bookreview #BlogTour #bookblogger #bookblog #shortbookandscribes

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Thank you Sabah Khan from @avon_books for #Magpie by @sophiedraperwriter and #IDareYou by @samcarringtonauthor #bookpost for the upcoming #blogtours. Excited to read them both.

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Thank you Gaby Young @penguinukbooks for #LittleFriends by @jane.shemilt #bookpost. #HowFarWeFall was one of my top reads of last year so I'm really happy to have this one.

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Thank you @noexitpress for #WhenWeFall by Carolyn Kirby #bookpost. I thought The Conviction of Cora Burns was brilliant so I can't wait to read this!

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Thank you Laura Nicol @michaeljbooks for #TheLie by Hilary Boyd #bookpost. It sounds fabulous.

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Thank you Jenny Platt @hodderbooks for #HaventTheyGrown by @sophiehannahwriter #bookpost. Really excited to read this for the #blogtour!

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New review: The Temple House Vanishing by Rachel Donohue. Out February 2020
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The Temple House Vanishing is a beautifully constructed story of teenage obsession, jealousy and love. It centres around three people, Louisa and Victoria, both students at Temple House school, and their art teacher, Mr Lavelle.
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The year is 1990 and Louisa has just arrived at Temple House as a scholarship student. The school is a strange one, set up in a house which was never converted into something more school like. Run by nuns, it’s not exactly tyrannical but the religion is rammed down the students’ throats rather, and it’s very strict. Louisa finds a kindred spirit in the languid and unconventional Victoria. Mr Lavelle seems quite out of place in a school run by nuns. He has a very free style to his teaching, popular with the pupils because of his young age and manner.
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Louisa and Lavelle disappear and Victoria is left behind. If I thought I knew where the story was going then I was wrong. Somehow it didn’t surprise me and yet there are some unexpected twists and turns in the story. The slow unfolding of events bends the reader’s mind to where the author wants to take them and I thought the plotting and the way the story progressed was really well done.
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Running alongside the story of what happened in 1990 is that of a journalist 25 years later who lived opposite Louisa as a child and has always wondered what happened to her and to Lavelle. Using the journalist’s investigations as a way of revealing what happened added an extra dimension to it with both the benefit of the progression of time and an onlooker’s viewpoint.
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The Temple House Vanishing is an intense story which reminded me a bit of The Secret History in both subject matter and writing style. It steadily drew me in to the 25 year old mystery. I have to say too that Temple House itself is a character in the book. It’s full of atmosphere and I was able to picture it in my mind, this old-fashioned seat of learning, ramshackle yet fierce. I thought this book was an excellent debut from Rachel Donohue and it’s brilliantly observed.

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Thank you so much @ljh50hill for my giveaway win of #TheGuardianOfLies by Kate Furnivall. It looks fabulous and I loved the accompanying card too 🐈🐾

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These are my next few reads.
I'm taking part in the @lovereadinguk Ambassador Book Buzz for #TheTempleHouseVanishing by Rachel Donohue which is published by Corvus in February 2020.

I'm on the blog tour for #TheLightInTheHallway by @mrsamandaprowse, published by Lake Union and out now @ed.pr @amazonpublishing.

I'm also on the blog tour for #OnTheUp by Alice O'Keeffe, published yesterday by Coronet @hodderbooks.

#SevenDays by AlexLake was published yesterday in paperback by @harpercollinsuk and is one I'm really looking forward to.

In fact I'm really looking forward to all of these books. Have you read any of them? Would you like to?

#bookreview #bookstoread #bookstack #bookstagram #bookblogger #bookblog #booklover #bookobsessed #lovebooks #lovereading #bookworm #shortbookandscribes

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Girl Power is alive and well in 1845!

The Vanished Bride by Bella Ellis is a fabulous imagining of the Brontë sisters as amateur sleuths. Charlotte, Emily and Anne decide to investigate when a woman at nearby Chester Grange disappears and her bedchamber is covered with blood.

I thought this was a really innovative read and what could have been a little twee was nothing of the sort. The author clearly used her extensive knowledge of the family to write something authentic. I thought she portrayed each member incredibly well and I loved the storyline.

You can read my full review on my blog - link in bio.

@hodderbooks
@brontemysteries
#bookreview #BlogTour #bookblog #bookblogger #brontesisters #shortbookandscribes

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New review of 17 Church Row by James Carol
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Good grief, remind me never to buy a house with built in AI!

That’s what Nikki and Ethan do, with their seven year old daughter, Bella. They’re trying to recover from the nightmare of losing Bella’s twin, Grace, in an accident a couple of years earlier and moving house is one way of trying to deal with that. From a common or garden home they move to 17 Church Row, a house where the doors have no handles, everything is automated and most importantly there’s Katy. Katy is probably the most sophisticated piece of artificial intelligence you could find. She is intuitive and helpful and the family start to rely on her completely.

This is where things start to go a bit awry. I won’t go into what happens but it’s a stark lesson in the possibilities of computers and what they are capable of. I don’t know whether the things that happened in the book could actually happen but I suspect there’s much in this book that is possible with the right components and processing power.

It’s an intense and exciting storyline, and I thought it was inspired too. These are our modern day nightmares, the idea that computers can turn on us. I’m all for technology but I think I would draw the line at something that did everything for me. It can never be good to give over all control to anybody or anything, can it?

I thought 17 Church Row was a really well plotted story with a twist in the middle that I didn’t guess at all. This is very much a plot-driven story rather than a character one (unless you include Katy as she’s very much the driving force in this book). I couldn’t turn the pages quickly enough whilst reading this dark and clever story.

@zaffrebooks #bookreview #BlogTour #bookblogger #bookblog #psychologicalfiction #psychologicalthriller #shortbookandscribes

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