The Dilemma by B A Paris @BAParisAuthor @HQstories #TheDilemma #BAParis #BookReview #BlogTour

Hello Book Friends,

I’m so please to be able to be on the Blog tour for this incredible read, I had so many emotions reading this, and I may have even shed a tear or two.

My Thoughts

Well knock me down with a feather, only 3 books in 2019 made me have feelings, I said 2 in my previous post but I remembered another one lol.

This book made me have such a range of emotions, and it is going to be really difficult to write about it because you absolutely have to go into this book blind, my suggestion would be don’t read ANY reviews (except this one of course) as you don’t want to catch an accidental spoiler.

The story is centered around a 40th birthday party that is for Livia, she has been literally planning this party for 20 years, she didn’t get to have the big extravagant wedding that she wanted, so this is something that is very close to heart, and she hasn’t spared any expense.

Her friends and family all know about her big party obsession and have just left her to revel in the organising for her big day, after all you are not 40 every day.

Livia’s husband Adam and her two children Marnie and Josh are well aware how important this day is Livia, and have done their best to fit in and help where they can.

With friends, family, colleagues and a few surprise guests arranged to arrive to the party, what could possibly go wrong?

This story is so cleverly written that you almost don’t see the twist coming, I had that puppet face when it did, you know, this one –

B A Paris has written such a clever book, because it is such a difficult choice to make, and without going into any spoilers, I know that is really vague, #SorryNotSorry

Honestly grab this one when you can, you won’t regret it, I’ve already pre-ordered the audiobook so I can listen to it as well!

**Thank you so much to HQ Stories and B.A. Paris for sending me the gorgeous copy of the book.

Enjoy

Vicci📚💛✨

About the Book

Only 99p on Kindle – Amazon UK*

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It’s Livia’s 40th birthday, and she’s having the party of a lifetime to make up for the wedding she never had. Everyone she loves will be there except her daughter Marnie, who’s studying abroad. But although Livia loves Marnie, she’s secretly glad she won’t be at the party. She needs to tell Adam something about their daughter, but she’s waiting until the party is over so they can have this last happy time together.

Adam wants everything to be perfect for Livia, so he’s secretly arranged for Marnie to come home and surprise her on her birthday. During the day, he hears some terrible news. He needs to tell Livia, because how can the party go on? But she’s so happy, so excited – and the guests are about to arrive.

The Dilemma – how far would you go to give someone you love a last few hours of happiness?

One day that will change a family forever, The Dilemma is the breathtaking, heartbreaking new novel from the million-copy-selling Sunday Times best seller BA Paris.

The Institute by Stephen King @StephenKing @HodderBooks @SantinoFontana #TheInstitute #StephenKing #BookReview #ViccisBestBooksof2019

Happy New Year book friends,

2019 was a great year for reading, and I had a great time doing it!

Here is a late entry for me that I read in November.

My Thoughts

Oh My, I have finally found a new favourite Stephen King since 11.22.63

This one came with a slow start, I couldn’t really see where it was heading, and then a few chapters later, BAM I was invested!

This book follows 12 year old Luke Ellis, who is a normal boy, well except for the fact that he can move things with his mind, but he thinks that is just normal really, it doesn’t happen all the time, just when he’s mad.

Except, you and I both know that it isn’t normal, and so do the people that break into his house one night, kill his parents, kidnap him, and take him to The Institute.

We also meet Tim, an ex Cop, who was on his way to somewhere completely different, until he decides at the last minute to gives up his seat on a packed flight, and then just goes on his merry way. He finds a random old town, and gets a job as a Night Knocker, that he is way overqualified for, but seems to enjoy, and everything in his life seems to be going Hunky-Dory.

Luke has woken up in his bedroom, except is isn’t his, it just looks like it, turns out, that The Institute has a lot of kids just like Luke, and they are subjected to some horrific experiments by the adults in charge.

Do Luke and Tim have a connection? Well it wouldn’t be a SK if people were randomly shoved in his story for no reason would it?

Am I going to tell you what the connection is? OF COURSE NOT YOU FOOLS!!!

If you loved watching shows like Stranger Things, or reading SK’s older books like Firestarter, or even newer books like The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken or Vicious by V E Schwab (personal favourites of mine) then you will LOVE this book!

It reads more like a YA than most of his books, so don’t let the STEPHEN KING thing scare you, if you’ve never read any of his books before, then this would be a great starter for you.

Mr King is not known as The King for nothing, his books are usually huge, and this one is no exception, but if you go in knowing that it is going to be a wild ride, then you are going to have a great time.

🎧🎧

When I knew that Santino Fontana was narrating this one, I just KNEW that I was going to love it, if you’ve already listened to YOU by Caroline Kepnes then you’ll know what I mean (if you haven’t, what are you waiting for, add it to your never ending TBR)

Narration = Perfection
Story = Perfection
Me = Happy
Stephen = KING!

Enjoy

Vicci📚💛✨

About the Book

Amazon UK *

Amazon US

*Affiliate Link

Deep in the woods of Maine, there is a dark state facility where kids, abducted from across the United States, are incarcerated. In the Institute they are subjected to a series of tests and procedures meant to combine their exceptional gifts – telepathy, telekinesis – for concentrated effect.

Luke Ellis is the latest recruit. He’s just a regular 12-year-old, except he’s not just smart, he’s super-smart. And he has another gift which the Institute wants to use….

Far away in a small town in South Carolina, former cop Tim Jamieson has taken a job working for the local Sheriff. He’s basically just walking the beat. But he’s about to take on the biggest case of his career.

Back in the Institute’s downtrodden playground and corridors where posters advertise ‘just another day in paradise’, Luke, his friend Kalisha and the other kids are in no doubt that they are prisoners, not guests. And there is no hope of escape.

But great events can turn on small hinges, and Luke is about to team up with a new, even younger recruit, Avery Dixon, whose ability to read minds is off the scale. While the Institute may want to harness their powers for covert ends, the combined intelligence of Luke and Avery is beyond anything that even those who run the experiments – even the infamous Mrs Sigsby – suspect.

Thrilling, suspenseful, heartbreaking, The Institute is a stunning novel of childhood betrayed and hope regained.

Regretting You by Colleen Hoover @colleenhoover #BrillianceAudio #ColleenHoover #RegrettingYou #BookReview #ViccisBestBooksof2019

Hello again book friends,

Well Ms Hoover did it again and made my black heart melt

My Thoughts

Just as I was finishing the year with Zero tears spilled on a book, 2 of them come along at the same time and wipe me out!

This one was just such a good story, with the usual CoHo WTF thrown in, I was shouting at my phone so many times (I listened to the audiobook obvs)

This is a story of a mother (Morgan) and daughter (Clara), and was written so well. Morgan got pregnant and married young, something that Clara absolutely doesn’t want to do, she has goals and aspirations, something that her mother had once, but put on hold to have her.

Clara’s father Chris is the glue that holds the family together, and they all live in a perfect family bubble.

Until one day.

An accident brings the family dynamic to a screeching halt.

With Morgan and Clara at loggerheads, Morgan has secrets that she cannot discuss with Clara, and Clara has her own secrets that she needs to hide.

Secrets, Lies and other things I can’t discuss because of spoilers, make this a book that you should definitely add to your TBR.

🎧🎧

The audiobook was narrated by Tanya Eby and Lauren Ezzo who were just perfect for the characters, they slipped from Mom to Teenager so brilliantly.

This book is well worth a credit.

Enjoy

Vicci📚💛✨

About the Book

Amazon UK*

Amazon US

*Affiliate link

Morgan Grant and her sixteen-year-old daughter, Clara, would like nothing more than to be nothing alike.

Morgan is determined to prevent her daughter from making the same mistakes she did. By getting pregnant and married way too young, Morgan put her own dreams on hold. Clara doesn’t want to follow in her mother’s footsteps. Her predictable mother doesn’t have a spontaneous bone in her body.

With warring personalities and conflicting goals, Morgan and Clara find it increasingly difficult to coexist. The only person who can bring peace to the household is Chris – Morgan’s husband, Clara’s father, and the family anchor. But that peace is shattered when Chris is involved in a tragic and questionable accident. The heartbreaking and long-lasting consequences will reach far beyond just Morgan and Clara.

While struggling to rebuild everything that crashed around them, Morgan finds comfort in the last person she expects to, and Clara turns to the one boy she’s been forbidden to see. With each passing day, new secrets, resentment, and misunderstandings make mother and daughter fall further apart. So far apart, it might be impossible for them to ever fall back together.

Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid @Putnambooks @librofm #audiobookreview

Happy Thursday all!

It is the second day of 2020 and the perfect day to share my review for one of my favorite books of 2019!🧸

My Thoughts

Such a fab book! Kiley Reid’s debut was extremely readable, tremendously thought-provoking, and very hard to review. On the surface this was an engaging story about Emira, A 25-year-old African-American woman finding herself and her voice. But there really was so much more to it, it really was a story about privilege, race, and economic status. The story starts with Emira being accused of kidnapping when she is at the grocery store late at night with A little white girl. The truth of it was she was babysitting and doing a favor for the couple she works for and taking the little girl out of the house, because things were happening at home. I grew up in a biracial family so I do know what it’s like for people to assume things. Many times people did not believe my African-American brother was my brother, but if he were ever out with my white children and somebody accused him of kidnapping them, I would probably lose it. There was much more to the story there was Alix Emira’s boss. Alix lived a privileged life and had an obsessive need to bond with Emira. I have to say I found this really strange, disconcerting, and borderline stalkerish. Then there was love interest Kelly who ironically also had a past Thai to Alix. Still really don’t know what to think of him? There were many other characters in the story most of them having very strong opinions as to what Emira should do with her life. Then there was three-year-old Brier the little girl she babysat. Brier was so adorable, precocious, and loving. I love the relationship between Brier and Emira they were just so completely loving and accepting of one another. I have to say I found Emira a much more sympathetic character. The poor girl had so many people trying to tell her what she should be doing, even though she was perfectly fine with being a nanny. I just loved this book so much it was so brilliant in its subtlety so beautiful in its nuance.

🎧🎧🎧 The audiobook was narrated by Nicole Lewis. She really brought the perfect voice to this exceptional story.

This book in emojis. 🧸 🖌 🖍 🥂

*** Big thanks to Putnam Books, Libro fm, and Penguin Audio for my gifted copy of this book ***

About the Book

A REESE WITHERSPOON x HELLO SUNSHINE BOOK CLUB PICK

“Our January pick is Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid. You’ll follow a young women’s journey of self-discovery after she’s wrongfully accused of kidnapping a child. This story is a beautiful conversation starter about race, privilege, work dynamics…. I can’t wait to hear your thoughts!” (Reese Witherspoon)   

A striking and surprising debut novel from an exhilarating new voice, Such a Fun Age is a compelling and big-hearted story about race and privilege, set around a young black babysitter, her well-intentioned employer, and a surprising connection that threatens to undo them both. 

Alix Chamberlain is a woman who gets what she wants and has made a living with her confidence-driven brand, showing other women how to do the same. So she is shocked when her babysitter, Emira Tucker, is confronted while watching the Chamberlains’ toddler one night, walking the aisles of their local high-end supermarket. The store’s security guard, seeing a young black woman out late with a white child, accuses Emira of kidnapping two-year-old Briar. A small crowd gathers, a bystander films everything, and Emira is furious and humiliated. Alix resolves to make things right. But Emira herself is aimless, broke, and wary of Alix’s desire to help. At 25, she is about to lose her health insurance and has no idea what to do with her life. When the video of Emira unearths someone from Alix’s past, both women find themselves on a crash course that will upend everything they think they know about themselves and each other. 

With empathy and piercing social commentary, Such a Fun Age explores the stickiness of transactional relationships, what it means to make someone “family”, and the complicated reality of being a grown up. It is a searing debut for our times. 

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Have a magnificent day!🌼

Berit☀️✨

Berit’s Top Reads of 2019

Happy New Year’s all!

I read over 300 books this year, please don’t be impressed this just means I have to get a life! 😂

It was so hard to pick and choose what my favorites were of the year, but this is a list of the books that have stuck with me, made me really think and/or feel something.

Top reeds of 2019

• 💕The Most Fun We Ever Had🎧

• 🎸Daisy Jones and the Six🎧

• 🤫The Silent Patient🎧

• 🤯An Anonymous Girl

• 🍄The Line Between

• 👑American Royals🎧

• 🍍The Unhoneymooners🎧

• ⚔️Well Met

• 💗Regretting You🎧

• 🏖This Is Not How It Ends

• 🌲Where the Forest Meets the Stars

• 🗽Park Avenue Summer

• ⚾️The Bromance Book Club

• 📖Verity🎧

• 🧸Such a Fun Age🎧

• 🔪Cold Heart Creek

🎧 means I listen to the audiobook.

A few of the books did not make the picture and that’s because I have loan them out to friends and family.

Here’s to a wonderful 2020 filled with even more fabulous books! 🥂