Happy Saturday book lovers!

We are fast approaching the day of love! Excited to share with you my review for this lovely story filled with a tremendous amount of heart! Big thanks to Rachel for my invitation to the tour and to Victoria Cook for her beautiful story!💕

The Secret to Falling in Love

Lifestyle journalist and thirty-something singleton Melissa hashtags, insta’s and snapchats her supposedly fabulous life on every social media platform there is.

That is until she wakes up on her birthday, another year older and still alone, wondering if for all her internet dates, love really can be found online? The challenge: go technology free for a whole month!

Forced to confront the reality of her life without its perfect filters, Melissa knows she needs to make some changes. But when she bumps into not one, but two gorgeous men, without the use of an app, she believes there could be hope for love offline.

If only there was a way to choose the right guy for her…

My Thoughts

A fun lighthearted love story guaranteed to make you smile!

This was an entertaining story all about unplugging and finding love the old-school way… while this was amusing, it also made me feel old, because this is exactly how it was when I was dating… no online dating sites, no apps, no social media, no cell phones… back in the Day we had to go out and meet people, exchange phone numbers on paper, and then*gasp* wait for a phone call on the landline, I know, crazy right!

Melisa is a 35-year-old independent and single woman… just like a lot of us she can’t go very long without looking at her screen… so when she decides to unplug it is a bit of culture shock… she Hass to pick her head up and start living in the real world… so how different is it to find love off-line, especially because Melisa was not very successful with the modern methods…. soon she finds she has met two handsome men, and is in a bit of a pickle and a bit of a love triangle… so will Melisa successfully stay unplugged for an entire month? Will she find true love the old-fashioned way? You’ll need to read this book to find out!

Such a fun upbeat love story… mellisa was a warm wonderful character that you can’t help but route four… The rest of the characters were charming and quirky as well… really the perfect pick me up read especially suitable for Valentines week!💕

🎵🎵🎵 song running through my head, yes it’s old-school, but so appropriate!😃

… Well, I’ve spent a lifetime lookin’ for you;
singles bars and good time lovers were never true.
Playin’ a fools game hopin’ to win;
and tellin’ those sweet lies and losin’ again.
I was lookin’ for love in all the wrong places,
Lookin’ for love in too many faces,
searchin’ their eyes and lookin’ for traces
of what I’m dreamin’ of.
Hopin’ to find a friend and a lover;
I’ll bless the day I discover
another heart lookin’ for love.
And I was alone then, no love in sight;
and I did ev’rything I could to get me though the night.
Don’t know where it started or where it might end;
I turned to a stranger just like a friend.
I was lookin’ for love in all the wrong places,
Lookin’ for love in too many faces,
searchin’ their eyes and lookin’ for traces
of what…

*** many thanks to HQ Digital for my copy of this book ***

Purchase Link – getBook.at/TheSecrettoFallinginLove

Author Bio – Victoria Cooke grew up in the city of Manchester before crossing the Pennines in pursuit of a career in education. She now lives in Huddersfield with her husband and two young daughters and when she’s not at home writing by the fire with a cup of coffee in hand, she loves working out in the gym and travelling. Victoria was first published at the tender age of eight by her classroom teacher who saw potential in a six-page story about an invisible man. Since then she’s always had a passion for reading and writing, undertaking several writers’ courses before completing her first novel, ‘The Secret to Falling in Love,’ in 2016.

Social Media Links –

https://www.facebook.com/VictoriaCookeAuthor

Tweets by VictoriaCooke10

https://www.instagram.com/victoriacookewriter

Giveaway – Win an ARC of The Secret to Falling in Love and a box of Belgian Truffles (UK Only)

*Terms and Conditions –UK entries welcome. Please enter using the Rafflecopter box below. The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over. Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data. I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

have a wonderful weekend full of books! Berit☀️✨

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Scary Stars

The Blurb

The Golden State Killer. The East Area Rapist. The Original Night Stalker. The Visalia Ransacker.

The monster who preyed on Californians from 1976 to 1986 was known by many aliases. And while numerous police sketches tried to capture his often-masked visage, the Golden State Killer spent more than 40 years not only faceless, but nameless.

For his victims, for their families and for the investigators tasked with finding him, the senselessness and brutality of the Golden State Killer’s acts were matched only by the powerlessness they felt at failing to uncover his identity. To be sure, the chances of obtaining closure—or any form of justice—after so many years were slim to none, at best.

Then, on April 24, 2018, authorities arrested 72-year-old Joseph James DeAngelo at his home in Citrus Heights, Calif., based on DNA evidence linked to the crimes. After a decades-long hunt, a suspect was behind bars. Could it be that evil finally had a name?

Delivering all-new details about the investigation and a stunning final act to the events of Michelle McNamara’s haunting bestseller, I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, this is the true story of how the suspected Golden State Killer was captured, as told, first-hand, by those closest to the case:

Paul Holes—the forensic criminologist and retired Costa County detective who spent 20 years trying to crack the Golden State Killer case, and finally did.

Jim Clemente (Host)—a retired FBI profiler and former New York City prosecutor who has investigated some of the highest profile criminal cases in U.S. history, including the Unabomber.

Please note: This work contains descriptions of violent crime and sexual assault and may not be suitable for all listeners.

My Thoughts

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Scary Stars

Wow, this one is going to be a hard one to review because it is real, real scary, real horrid, really really sad!

You may already be aware of this story as it hit the headlines last year after the real Golden State Killer was caught, after 40 years!!!

This audio book reads more like a pod cast in that it has interviews with all of the people involved in the investigation.

Paul Holes was the chief investigator, stumbling across the case completely by accident as it was stored away in an old filing cabinet under “Unsolved”

Paul was training and wanted to further himself in the force, so in his spare time he started studying old “Cold” and Unsolved cases, this one caught his eye, and it soon became his project, and his life!

The Golden State Killer was not always know by this name, he has also been known as The Visaila Ransacker, The Original Night Stalker and The East Area Rapist, finally working his way up the Psycho Tree to The Golden State Killer.

This mans known crimes involve at least 120 burglaries, at least 53 rapes, and at least 13 murders, and the most chilling thing about this is that he got away with it for so very long, for over 10 years, this predator broke in to houses, raped and then eventually started killing his victims.

You hear from some of his victims themselves, who amazing call themselves lucky, and also from some of the families of the victims who unfortunately were not so lucky. Some of the descriptions are very graphic, so be warned if “little ears” are listening with you!

Paul became obsessed with this case, even up to his last day when he retired, he thought he had his “Last Lead” and even sitting with his boxes of belongings and a borrowed car went to check it out, and thank goodness he did!

With the help of another lady that he met by chance (a blogger) Michelle McNamara, they both became firm friends, and immersed themselves in the case, sharing tips and information with each other.

Sadly Michelle died recently, but Paul gives a lovely talk about her and how she helped him.

We now know that The Golden State Killer is 72 year old Joseph James DeAngelo and this would never have been possible without Paul Holes using Genealogical DNA, something he tried as a last resort, much to the sneers and laughs of the others, by tracing the family tree back generations.

Paul Holes and his team caught the killer that was stuffed in a filing cabinet from 1976 – 1986 and the killer that was free to roam the streets for the next 40 years.

20 years of investigations and a man that never gave up.

Evil now has a name, that name is Joseph James DeAngelo.

Joseph James DeAngelo mugshot with sketches suspected Golden State Killer.jpg.jpg_11751057_ver1.0_640_360

If you like True Crime reads then you will love this one, although it was difficult sometimes to listen to the heartbreak of others, it was also a great Audio Book.