Month: August 2019

4*, book review, crime thriller

#BookReview Tell Me Your Secret by Dorothy Koomson. @DorothyKoomson @HeadlinePG #TellMeYourSecret #bookblogger

if only I could read faster

It has been a long time since I read Ice Cream Girls by Dorothy Koomson, but I still remember it and how much I loved it. My heart then melted with My Best Friend’s Girl and so Dorothy Koomson earned herself a spot on my favourite author list. I haven’t read every book she has written but those that I have read I have really enjoyed. So I was excited to read Tell Me Your Secret, the author’s latest book.

My Review:

I wasn’t sure what to expect from Tell Me Your Secret by Dorothy Koomson, all I knew was that I had heard about it on various book groups on Facebook and everyone was saying good things. So I wanted to read it too.

This is the most crime book that I have read from the author, a lot of her books have crime elements but this one was totally focused around finding the man who called himself The Blindfolder, who was kidnapping women and forcing them to sit with their eyes closed for 48 hours. If they opened their eyes then he would kill them.

I don’t know about you but I find that concept incredibly creepy and unsettling, especially when I read about the experience from people who had survived the weekend.

I really enjoyed reading Tell Me Your Secret by Dorothy Koomson, the characters are interesting and the writing is confident and believable. This book creeped me out in a way books don’t often do, and was full of twists and turns and happy and sad moments. I will definitely be catching up on the books by Koomson that I haven’t read yet.

Blurb:

The new emotional thriller from the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Ice Cream Girls, My Best Friend’s Girl and The Brighton Mermaid. Dorothy Koomson, ‘Queen of the big reveal’, is back with a gripping page-turner full of twists and turns. Pieta has a secret.
Ten years ago, Pieta was kidnapped by a man calling himself The Blindfolder who said he wouldn’t kill her if she kept her eyes closed for 48 hours. She never told anyone what happened to her, vowing to move on with her life. But when The Blindfolder starts hunting down his past victims, Pieta realises she may finally be forced to tell her deepest secret to stay alive . . .Jody has a secret.
Fifteen years ago, policewoman Jody made a terrible mistake that resulted in a serial killer known as The Blindfolder escaping justice. When Jody discovers journalist Pieta survived an attack by him, she realises she may finally have found a way to catch him. But that would mean endangering at least two innocent people . . .They kept quiet to protect themselves.
Will telling all save or sacrifice each other?

About The Author:

Dorothy Koomson is the award-winning author of 15 novels and has been making up stories since she was 13 when she used to share her stories with her convent school friends. Her published titles include: Tell Me Your Secret, The Brighton Mermaid, The Friend, When I Was Invisible, That Girl From Nowhere, The Flavours of Love, The Woman He Loved Before, Goodnight, Beautiful and The Chocolate Run. 

Dorothy’s first novel, The Cupid Effect, was published in 2003 (when she was quite a bit older than 13). Her third book, My Best Friend’s Girl, was selected for the Richard & Judy Summer Reads of 2006 and went on to sell over 500,000 copies. While her fourth novel, Marshmallows For Breakfast, has sold in excess of 250,000 copies. Dorothy’s books, The Ice Cream Girls and The Rose Petal Beach were both shortlisted for the popular fiction category of the British Book Awards in 2010 and 2013, respectively. 

Dorothy’s novels have been translated into over 30 languages, and a TV adaptation loosely based on The Ice Cream Girls was shown on ITV1 in 2013. After briefly living in Australia, Dorothy now lives in Brighton. 

For more information on Dorothy Koomson visit www.dorothykoomson.co.uk

Tell Me Your Secret by Dorothy Koomson is out now and is available from Amazon UK and Amazon US.

blog tours, book extract

#BlogTour #Extract Zippy And Me by Ronnie Le Drew, Duncan Barrett, and Nuala Calvi. #ZippyAndMe @Punchand @unbounders #RandomThingsTours

if only I could read faster

Today it is my stop on the blog tour for Zippy And Me by Ronnie Le Drew, Duncan Barrett, and Nuala Calvi. I’m sure that most people around my age remember Zippy from the incredibly popular children’s tv programme, Rainbow. So I was excited about the book and I’m delighted to share an extract from the book. Thank you to Anne Cater from Random Things Tours for having me as part of the tour.

To whet your appetite for this fabulous book I have an extract for you. Enjoy!

Extract:

Curtain Up

July 1961. Stockwell Gardens council estate, South London.
Crouched behind a cardboard box, I wait impatiently
for the audience to settle. I sneak a glance round the side
of my brand-new Pollock’s toy theatre. Rows of little girls
in knee-high socks sit cross-legged on the floor as their
brothers jostle for space at the back.
I have summoned them to a performance on the landing
of our block of flats, instructing them very clearly not to
cross the crack in the concrete that delineates the stage.
I clear my throat importantly, and the rabble quietens
down a little. ‘The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince
of Denmark, by William Shakespeare,’ I announce in
the lowest possible tones my thirteen-year-old voice box
can muster, prodding Bonnie, my twin sister, to start
the wind-up gramophone. I wince as the strains of ‘I’m
a Lonely Little Petunia in an Onion Patch’ begin, to the
accompaniment of sniggers. Hardly the grand orchestral
music I would have wished, but since it’s the only record
we own, it will have to do.

I take a last, lingering glance at the shiny photograph
of Laurence Olivier, resplendent as the Dane in the 1959
film of Hamlet, in the book that Benjamin Pollock’s toy
shop has helpfully provided as part of its Regency Theatre
kit. It has taken me eight weeks to save the money to buy it
from the Pollock’s shop on Monmouth Street, and it is my
pride and joy. The wooden stage is exquisitely made, with
a little round pit containing a painted orchestra, a battery-
operated spotlight, and cardboard scenery and characters
lovingly cut out and coloured in by Bonnie and me.
With a nod from me, she now lifts the little wooden
curtain and the lights come up; down goes the ghost of
Hamlet’s father on a piece of cotton thread, uttering the
immortal line: ‘O horrible! O horrible! Most horrible!’
I’m soon well into my stride, moving Hamlet and Horatio
around the ramparts and concentrating hard to make
sure I get every word right. The audience is completely
silent, apparently transfixed by the drama onstage.
After a couple of scenes it’s too much – the desire for
applause overwhelms me and I pull the curtain down with
a flourish, announcing, ‘You may clap now!’
As dead silence greets us, Bonnie and I stand up and
look over the top of the theatre.
There is no one there. Each and every child has quietly
crept away and we have been performing to ourselves.
It is the best lesson I will ever learn as a puppeteer.

Blurb:

Over the course of almost half a century, puppeteer Ronnie Le Drew has worked with the greats – from David Bowie in Labyrinth to Michael Caine in The Muppet Christmas Carol. But the role that defined his career was Rainbow’s Zippy, who he operated for more than twenty years.

Zippy and Me is the first time a Rainbow insider has told the true story of what went on under the counter and inside the suits: the petty squabbles between performers, wrangling with TV executives, and scandals such as the ‘love triangle’ between musicians Rod, Jane and Freddy. Not to mention the now infamous X-rated episode shot for an ITV Christmas party, which subsequently found its way to the Sun.

Interweaved with the dirt on what really went on behind the scenes is the story of Rainbow’s heyday in the 1970s and 80s, when its stars found themselves catapulted into an exciting showbiz world – scooping a BAFTA award and even performing for the queen – and the story of a young lad from a south London council estate who defied his parents’ protests to became one of the most respected puppeteers of all time.

About the Author:

Ronnie Le Drew is one of the UK’s most respected puppeteers, and recipient of the prestigious Harlequin Award.
He has operated many of the most iconic children’s puppets of the twentieth century – Zippy, Sweep, Muffin the
Mule, Bill and Ben, Brains from Thunderbirds – as well as working on classic puppet films such as Labyrinth,
Little Shop of Horrors and The Muppet Christmas Carol. He continues to work regularly as a puppeteer in TV,
theatre and advertising and also teaches at the London School of Puppetry, which he founded in 1987.

Zippy and Me by Ronnie Le Drew, Duncan Barrett and Nuala Calvi is out now and is available from Amazon UK and Amazon US.

5*, blog tours, book review, psychological thriller

#BlogTour #BookReview Rage by Netta Newbound. @nettanewbound @Juntionpublish @BOTBSPublicity #Rage #5*read

if only I could read faster

I’m delighted to be kicking off the blog tour for Rage by Netta Newbound. I’ve long been a fan of Netta Newbound’s books and her ability to suck the reader in and make her stories feel so real. So I was excited to read her latest book.

Thanks to Sarah Hardy for asking me to be part of the blog tour and to Netta Newbound and Junction Publishers for a copy of Rage. I was under no obligation to review the book and all thoughts are my own.

My Review:

Before I start reading a Netta Newbound book I take a deep breath and ready myself for what is to come. Normally that involves getting to know characters who feel so real, that you get to know and care about and who get put through horrible things. The death count in Newbound’s books are normally also high.

Rage starts with doctors telling a woman that a man needs to be kept highly sedated for the rest of his life as he is such a risk to women. We learn that this man, Charles, is a very famous ex-footballer whose condition needs to be kept secret.

Lizzie is hired to nurse Charles, she has strict instructions to keep him sedated at all times and believing that he is in so much pain due to a brain tumour, she agrees. But it doesn’t quite sit right with her and so when she’s left alone with Charles she starts to wonder whether it is really fair to keep him so medicated.

Poor Lizzie really has a lot going on in this book, there are bodies turning up, creepy neighbours, a lovely neighbour and a patient who is very dangerous. I often kept reading, desperate to see what was going to happen next. would Lizzie meet a grizzly end because of the neighbour? The patient? Or someone else?

Although there was a lot going on it was easy to keep track of it all and the story definitely kept me hooked. It was different to other books by the author that I have read, but I really enjoyed reading it and was disappointed when I had finished it. All in all the sign of a great book!

Blurb:

Nurse, Lizzi Yates, is assigned to provide end-of-life care to Charlie Maidley, one of Britain’s footballing legends, on the condition she keeps his identity a secret. 

Unbeknownst to Lizzi, Charlie’s doctors have agreed to allow his sister, Miriam, to take him home to die on the strict understanding he remains in an induced coma, due to his history of assaulting women—a side effect of his brain tumour. 

Miriam goes away on business, leaving Lizzi in charge, but a mishap with Charlie’s medication has Lizzi questioning why he is spending his final days comatose. Deciding he is being sedated without just cause, she makes the call to wake him up. However, a string of events and the discovery of a girl’s body at the bottom of the garden lead her to wonder if she’s made the right decision. 

Who is the killer? 

Could Lizzi be his next victim? 

Don’t miss RAGE by bestselling author Netta Newbound – A gripping psychological thriller that will keep you turning pages long into the night.

About The Author:

Netta Newbound, originally from Manchester, England, now lives in New Zealand with her husband Paul and their boxer dog Alfie. She has three grown-up children and three delicious grandchildren.

As a child, Netta was plagued by a wild imagination, often getting in trouble for making up weird and wonderful stories. Yet she didnt turn her attention to writing until after her children had grown and left home.

Most of her inspiration comes from the horror greatsStephen King, Dean Koontz and Richard Layman.

Although she mostly writes psychological thriller novels, all of which consistently rank highly in the best seller categories, she has also written several non-fiction books with a close friend and fellow author under the names of Sandra Rose & Jeanette Simone.

Rage by Netta Newbound is out today and is available from Amazon UK and Amazon US.