Little Boy Found

Little Boy Found by L K Fox

Published by Quercus

July 2017

WHEN HE FOUND HIS LITTLE BOY, NICK THOUGHT THE NIGHTMARE WAS OVER . . . IT WAS ONLY THE BEGINNING.

One rainy morning, just after Nick drops off his young son Gabriel outside the crowded school gates, he has a minor collision with another car. The driver won't surrender his insurance details, so Nick photographs the licence plate. When he gets home, he enlarges the shot on his phone and spots something odd about the picture - Gabriel in the back seat, being driven away by a stranger. Nick needs to know what happened to his boy, but losing Gabriel turns out to be far less terrible than the shock of finding him. Now, to discover the truth, he must relive the nightmare all over again...Be warned, this is not another missing child story: what happened to Nick and his son is far more shocking.

L K Fox is the pen name of author Christopher Fowler who writes the Bryant & May novels (I reviewed one here). This book focuses on Nick, who on the day of his son's birthday drops him off a school only to notice that his child has somehow ended up on the back seat of a stranger's car!  What on earth has happened to Gabriel and how can he get him back?

There are many strands to this book and it's not until the end of the book that they are all tied up together.  Nick is not Gabriel's 'real' father, this is his ex-husband Ben although it is Nick and Gabriel who have the closer relationship.  They are now estranged and it turns out that Nick's nightmare at the start of the book is in fact a memory of what happened to Gabriel twelve months earlier.  Did Nick see more on that fateful day than he first imagined.  Can he discover what really happened to his child?

We also have a second narrator, and this is Ella, a teenage girl who has a massive crush on a popstar called Ryder.  When she wins a competition to meet him, her life is changed forever.  This is also her story.

How do the stories of Nick, Ella and Ryder link though?  Keep reading Little Boy Found to find out the truth.

Happy Reading

Miss Chapters x

The Caller

The Caller by Chris Carter

Published by Simon & Schuster

July 2017

Be careful before answering your next call. It could be the beginning of your worst nightmare.

After a tough week, Tanya Kaitlin is looking forward to a relaxing night in, but as she steps out of her shower, she hears her phone ring.  The video call request comes from her best friend, Karen Ward.  Tanya takes the call and the nightmare begins.
 
Detectives Robert Hunter and Carlos Garcia are thrown into a rollercoaster of evil, chasing a predator who scouts the streets and social media networks for victims, taunting them with secret messages and feeding on their fear. 

Where on earth have I been hiding away?  This is the eighth of the Robert Hunter novels by Chris Carter and only the first one I've picked up.  In fact, it's the first one I've even heard of, and I love a great crime thriller so I'm somewhat bemused as to how the previous 7 books have escaped my radar, especially being a book blogger and all!  Anyway, that aside, this is the newest in the series and it's completely worth a read; I loved it!

The story starts with our first character, Tanya Kaitlin, stepping fresh out of the shower and she receives a video call from her best friend Karen which is set to blow her world apart.  On the phone is Karen but also a masked man who tells her if she can get two questions right about her best friend then she will live, but if she gets them wrong, Karen will die!  Initially she thinks this is a prank but she soon realises that this is no game.  It's up to detectives Hunter and Garcia to investigate but this isn't just one isolated incident, it soon becomes apparent that LA has a serial-killer on the loose!

I was gripped by this book, though the killings themselves are quite graphically described so it's not for the faint-hearted.  Also, you won't guess the killer which isn't a good or bad thing but if you think you know who it is, trust me, you don't! 

I'm now off to get the previous 7 books in the series, I hope that they are as good!

Happy Reading

Miss Chapters x

The Lying Game

The Lying Game by Ruth Ware

Published by Havill Secker

June 2017

The text message arrives in the small hours of the night. It’s just three words: I need you.
Isa drops everything, takes her baby daughter and heads straight to Salten. She spent the most significant days of her life at boarding school on the marshes there, days which still cast their shadow over her.

At school Isa and her three best friends used to play the Lying Game. They competed to convince people of the most outrageous stories. Now, after seventeen years of secrets, something terrible has been found on the beach. Something which will force Isa to confront her past, together with the three women she hasn't seen for years, but has never forgotten.

Theirs is no cosy reunion: Salten isn't a safe place for them, not after what they did. It’s time for the women to get their story straight…

I've reviewed Ruth Ware's debut novel here and when the fabulous Reese Witherspoon recommended this for her book group I decided to check it out, after all, who is to argue with Reeese?!  The book started off grippingly enough - Isa receives a text from an old school friend reading simply 'I need you'.  This is enough for her to immediately drop everything, literally she just packs up her baby and goes and travels to Salten to stay with Kate, whilst awaiting the arrival of the other girls that made up their group at school.  The girls all met when they were 16 and sent to boarding school - Kate, Isa, Fatima and Thea were all very different and nobody would have predicted the bond that they would form with each other.   They begin a game, the lying game where they  make up a lie and get points for how well it is believed by others.  What they don't realise is the effects that this game will have on those around them.  But the girls are well practised in their lies and it is apparent from the very start that all four of them are continuing to lie to their nearest and dearest to this very day - the only people they don't lie to is each other.  Isn't it?

I did enjoy this book and it is a real page-turner but I guess I did question how quickly and easily all four were able to drop everything and meet up, despite having had no real contact with each other in about 17 years.  I also found the ending a touch disappointing.  I can't really explain it but it didn't end the way in which maybe I thought it deserved.  It is hard to explain.  If you do pick up a copy, and I'd recommend you do, please let me know what you thought when you finished it.

Happy Reading

Miss Chapters x

Her Husband's Lover

Her Husband's Lover by Julia Crouch

Published by Headline

January 2017

After the horrors of the past, Louisa Williams is desperate to make a clean start.
Her husband Sam is dead. Her children, too, are gone, victims of the car accident in which he died. Sam said that she would never get away from him. That he would hound her to death if she tried to leave. Louisa never thought that he would want to harm their children though.
But then she never thought that he would betray her with a woman like Sophie.

And now Sophie is determined to take all that Louisa has left. She wants to destroy her reputation and to take what she thinks is owed her - the life she would have had if Sam had lived.
Her husband's lover wants to take her life. The only question is will Louisa let her?

I can't believe I read this book at the start of the year and haven't blogged about it yet!  Well I'm making up for it now, apologies for the error!  Her Husband's Novel  focuses on two female central characters - one being Louisa who has just lost her husband and both of her children in a car crash and that of Sophie, the girlfriend of Louisa's husband Sam.  According to Louisa, Sam was a violent, cruel man who made her life a living hell and he always said she would never get away from him - well it looks like his prophecy almost came true. 

However Sophie does not feel the same.  The Sam that she knew and loved wouldn't have hurt a fly.  She believes that Louisa has ruined her life, and she doesn't see why she should be allowed to get away with her lies. Living alone in her bedsit, with only her shrine of Sam to get her through each day, Sophie is determined to clear Sam's name.

This is a story of two women but which one is telling the truth?  Is it the grieving widow who feared for her life or is it the heartbroken lover who feels robbed of her future happiness?  Julia Crouch's book will keep you turning the pages long into the night as you try to figure out who you should be believing.

Happy Reading

Miss Chapters x

The Graces

The Graces by Laure Eve

Published by Faber & Faber

September 2016

Everyone said the Graces were witches.

They moved through the corridors like sleek fish, ripples in their wake. Stares followed their backs and their hair. They had friends, but they were just distractions. They were waiting for someone different. All I had to do was show them that person was me.

Like everyone else in her town, River is obsessed with the Graces, attracted by their glamour and apparent ability to weave magic. But are they really what they seem? And are they more dangerous than they let on?

As a huge witchcraft nerd I am not entirely sure how The Graces slipped off my radar when it was first published but it did.  A friend put it up on her Instagram page and I immediately brought a copy for myself and devoured it instantly!  Basically if you have seen the film The Craft then this is kind-of the book version of that film.

So River is the new kid at school (and I should point out here that this book is set in England, not in the USA like so many of its contemporaries - think Twilight for the many comparisons to the Cullen family).  She immediately becomes obsessed with the Grace siblings, because why wouldn't she? Everyone at the school wants to be like the Graces! Twins Fenrin and Thalia plus their younger sister Summer are both revered and despised by those in the town in which they live.  Their parents are successful and beautiful and some say that the family are witches.  No one from school ever goes to their house or to their parties - only a whole range of outsiders who emerge from out of the blue, stay for a few days and then disappear again.  River becomes the first person to get invited to their house by Summer but what really goes on there?

The Graces is part one of a trilogy of books, of which the second was due out this September but I have it on good authority by the author that this will now be next year instead.  I'm not sure how she is going to work this out and where the story will take us but I'm certainly queuing up for a copy to see what is going to happen next to the Grace family. 

Happy Reading

Miss Chapters x

The One Memory of Flora Banks

The One Memory of Flora Banks by Emily Barr

Published by Penguin

January 2017

HOW DO YOU KNOW WHO TO TRUST WHEN YOU CAN'T EVEN TRUST YOURSELF?

I look at my hands. One of them says FLORA BE BRAVE.

Flora has anterograde amnesia. She can't remember anything day-to-day: the joke her friend made, the instructions her parents gave her, how old she is. Then she kisses someone she shouldn't, and the next day she remembers it. It's the first time she's remembered anything since she was ten.  But the boy is gone. She thinks he's moved to the Arctic. Will following him be the key to unlocking her memory? Who can she trust?

This is Emily Barr's first novel for children, and after finishing it in less than 24 hours I think I can safely say that it won't be her last.  Our central character is a 17 year old girl called Flora Banks who suffers from anterograde amnesia.  She has zero memory.  Everything she knows about herself is written in a journal, through notes left all over her house by herself and her family and by what she writes down on herself.  She lives with her mother and father in Cornwall and her best friend is called Paige.  One night she goes to a party and ends up on the beach kissing a boy called Drake (who is actually Paige's boyfriend but that's another part of the story).  The next day Flora wakes up and can actually remember kissing Drake - this is her first actual memory since she fell ill at the age of 10.

And so the book continues.... Flora is delighted at both remembering, and kissing Drake.  Paige is furious with her. Drake is off to the Arctic to study so Flora will see him no more.  At the same time as all of this is happening, Flora's brother Jacob, who we learn lives in Paris, is taken seriously ill and her parents have no option but to fly out to be with him.  They decide that due to Flora's condition the best thing that they can do is to leave her behind in Cornwall with Paige to look after her.  What they don't know, as they board their plane, is that Flora and Paige are no longer talking to each other, due to 'the kiss' and that Flora is seemingly on her own for the first time in seven years.

What continues is how Flora copes with this situation.  I don't want to give the plot away so won't reveal much more but suffice to say it involves heartbreak, travel and a breakthrough though not necessarily in that order.  Yes there have been some reviews that say that parts of this book are repetitive but I think that's the point - Flora has memory loss so when she remembers something she keeps referring to it again and again.  It didn't bother me one bit. 

If you like YA books, or have read any other of Emily Barr's books then I can't see why you wouldn't want to read this.  I was rooting for Flora throughout, she's a great character.

Happy Reading

Miss Chapters x

They All Fall Down

They All Fall Down by Tammy Cohen

Published by Black Swan

July 2017

Hannah had a normal life – a loving husband, a good job. Until she did something shocking.

Now she’s in a psychiatric clinic. It should be a safe place. But patients keep dying.

The doctors say it’s suicide. Hannah knows they’re lying.

Can she make anyone believe her before the killer strikes again?

This is the second Tammy Cohen book I've read since Dying for Christmas and I have to say I really enjoyed it.  It's principally set in a mental institution where our main character Hannah is residing after a breakdown.  As the story begins the second of Hannah's friends dies, both seemingly suicide attempts, though Hannah is not so convinced that either of friends actually wanted to die. No one else believes her theory though; this is a mental hospital and both women were suffering from serious issues so it is thought of as unfortunate and the deaths are overlooked.  Hannah though cannot stop worrying that something isn't right.

All Fall Down is told through three perspectives, that of Hannah, from her mother Corinne and through Laura, a member of staff at the hospital.  I have to admit, I got a little confused with who everybody was at the beginning but I'll put that down to not concentrating enough in the first place.  Through each of these characters we get to see a different perspective of life at the hospital, but is there actually a killer or is it all in Hannah's head, and what exactly did she do to end up in there?

Lots of twists and turns throughout with a dramatic final chapter.  I've got another of Tammy's books to read and I'll be heading toward it with haste.  Fancy a book to grab you by the pool this summer then you can't go far wrong with this one!

Happy Reading

Miss Chapters x