Tag: netgalley

3.5*, book review

Review: My Girl by Jack Jordan.

if only I could read faster
mygirl
My Girl by Jack Jordan.

My 3.5* review:

This is my first Jack Jordan read but I’ve heard a lot about him and how good his books are so I was excited to read this. I knew little about the book’s storyline and if I’m honest I think that that is the best way to read this book.

I found it very easy to read, it took me a couple of days which is really quick for me but that was because the book is quite simply written. This has its benefits but I also felt that it was a bit too simplified and I just didn’t emotionally relate to any of the characters which meant that I didn’t really care about what happened to them.

Paige is a mess, her daughter was killed ten years ago and only her severed arm was found. Then, a few months ago, her husband committed suicide. Paige falls apart, she is drinking so much that she often blacks out so when strange things start happening no one will believe her as they think that it was something that she had done herself when she was drunk.

There is talk about childhood sexual abuse in the book which could be a trigger for some people but it is not graphic in any way. There is pretty graphic violence in the book though.

I enjoyed My Girl and give it 3.5*. I received a copy of My Girl from the publisher via Netgalley but I was under no obligation to review the book.

Blurb:

Paige Dawson: the mother of a murdered child and wife to a dead man.

She has nothing left to live for… until she finds her husband’s handgun hidden in their house.

Why did Ryan need a gun? What did he know about their daughter’s death?

Desperate for the truth, Paige begins to unearth her husband’s secrets.

But she has no idea who she is up against, or that her life isn’t hers to gamble – she belongs to me.

From the bestselling author of Anything for Her, Jack Jordan’s My Girl is the new chilling thriller that you won’t want to miss.

My Girl is out now and available from Amazon UK and Amazon US.

2*, book review

Review: The Swimming Pool by Louise Candlish

if only I could read faster
the swimming pool
The Swimming Pool by Louise Candlish
I really struggled with this book and in the end I gave it 2*, I don’t know why this book just didn’t work for me when it has so many good reviews.
Blurb:

‘I can’t take my eyes off the water. Can you?’

It’s summer when Elm Hill lido opens, having stood empty for years. For Natalie Steele – wife, mother, teacher – it offers freedom from the tightly controlled routines of work and family. Especially when it leads her to Lara Channing, a charismatic former actress with a lavish bohemian lifestyle, who seems all too happy to invite Natalie into her elite circle.

Soon Natalie is spending long days at the pool, socializing with new friends and basking in a popularity she didn’t know she’d been missing. Real life, and the person she used to be, begins to feel very far away.

But is such a change in fortunes too good to be true? Why are dark memories of a summer long ago now threatening to surface? And, without realizing, could Natalie have been swept dangerously out of her depth?

Review:

‘I was quite excited to read The Swimming Pool. Another author that I really like had such high praise for it that I was sure it was going to be good. The book started well, and then it just kept going and going and going, but it wasn’t really going anywhere.

I do read a lot of thrillers, which tend to start with a bang, so I do have to remind myself when reading other genres that they have a slower pace. But The Swimming Pool didn’t actually get anywhere at all. At 26% things seemed to pick up and I thought here we go, and so I read and I read and I read and I thought that I must surely be nearly finished, and then I checked and was only 56% in. It was only my belief that the author that loved it wouldn’t let me down that made me keep going, I normally give up on books that are like this.

While The Swimming Pool is very well written and I felt that the author was particularly good at setting scenes meaning I can picture in my head many of the places from the book very clearly, and there are many reviews praising the writing, but for me there was something missing. I often read books with characters in that I do not like, but the main character in The Swimming Pool was not just unlikeable but so loathsome that I struggled to tolerate reading about her. Her behaviour and thinking were so bizarre for someone of her age that it just made no sense. The other characters were better, and all believable and well written, but those that could have been more interesting often had small parts.

The Swimming Pool generally gets really positive reviews, for whatever reason this book and I just did not click. It took me nine days to read it which is slow for me, even though I’m a slow reader. But everyone else can’t be totally wrong, so maybe don’t take my word for it?

I received a copy of The Swimming Pool from the publisher via Netgalley in return for an honest review.’

The Swimming Pool is available now from Amazon UK, it will be released in America in January 2017 but is currently available on audiobook now.