The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix @grady_hendrix narrated by @TheRealBahniT #bookreview

Hello book friends, I hope you are all doing well?

I am not a huge paranormal reader, but occasionally one hits my radar and I have to check it out!

This was the book that did it for me!

My Review

Ok so I have to admit, this was a bit of a “Bookstagram made me do it” kind of thing, everyone was talking about this one, and I don’t like to be left out Lol

So I had a spare Audible credit, and checked to see who was narrating it, when I saw it was my favourite narrator Bahni Turpin, I was sold!!

I’m so glad I did, because I loved it!!

There is something about a book set in the South that gets me all grabby, I’m not sure if it is the accent (I think that’s what it is) or just the thought of one day travelling there myself, but I’m all in either way.

Hailed as Fried Green Tomatoes and Steel Magnolias meet Dracula, this book is exactly what it says on the tin, a Southern Book Club.

Patricia is our MC in this story, she is married with a couple of kids, and is in a marriage that isn’t perfect, her kids are brats, and her husband need Yeeting into a distant planet in my opinion!
The only thing that Patrica looks forward to every week is her Book Club, with the other local women of the Charleston neighbourhood.
After a rocky start with the group, with book choices etc. they eventually start reading True Crime stories and Thrillers.

When a handsome stranger moves into the neighbourhood, he is the new topic of conversation amongst the women, and Patricia in particular is intrigued.

She gets even more intrigued after a series of incidents involving children, especially after they go missing.

Patricia automatically goes back to her True Crime novels and assumes that the new stranger is involved and is some kind of serial killer, but she uncovers something a lot darker than she expected.

I absolutely loved this story, it was funny but also dark in some places, a few people have said that it was gory, I didn’t find that myself, but I am a Horror reader, and this wasn’t gory to me at all, but I can see some parts being a bit gruesome for some.

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I would absolutely recommend the Audiobook, Bahni Turpin is an absolute genius at narration as always, she always brings an extra oomf to a story, and that is why she is my favourite! If you have never listened to her before, please check her out as she is absolutely brilliant and deserves every award that she receives.

Enjoy
Vicci 📚💛✨

The Blurb

Fried Green Tomatoes and Steel Magnolias meet Dracula in this Southern-flavored supernatural thriller set in the ’90s about a women’s book club that must protect its suburban community from a mysterious and handsome stranger who turns out to be a real monster.

Patricia Campbell’s life has never felt smaller. Her ambitious husband is too busy to give her a goodbye kiss in the morning, her kids have their own lives, her senile mother-in-law needs constant care, and she’s always a step behind on thank-you notes and her endless list of chores. The one thing she has to look forward to is her book club, a close-knit group of Charleston women united by their love of true crime and paperback fiction. At these meetings they’re as likely to talk about the Manson family as they are marriage, motherhood, and neighborhood gossip.

This predictable pattern is upended when Patricia meets James Harris, a handsome stranger who moves into the neighborhood to take care of his elderly aunt and ends up joining the book club. James is sensitive and well-read, and he makes Patricia feel things she hasn’t felt in 20 years. But there’s something off about him. He doesn’t have a bank account, he doesn’t like going out during the day, and Patricia’s mother-in-law insists that she knew him when she was a girl, an impossibility.

When local children go missing, Patricia and the book club members start to suspect James is more of a Bundy than a Beatnik, but no one outside of the book club believes them. Have they read too many true crime books, or have they invited a real monster into their homes?

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The Storm by Amanda Jennings @MandaJJennings @HQstories #bookreview

Hello book friends,I hope that you are all doing well?

I was sent a copy of this book by another book friend, and once I had started , I couldn’t put it down!

My Review

Hannah and Nathan are married with a teenage son.

They have a beautiful house, Nathan is an established Lawyer and does a lot to help in the community, everyone loves Nathan.
Hannah is a Housewife.

From the outside, Hannah and Nathan have a perfect marriage, they are happy and loving life.

But behind closed doors, Nathan is a controlling Narcissistic Douchebag!

He controls everything that Hannah does, from what she wears, to what she spends her money on, or should I say *his* money, because Hannah has to produce receipts for every purchase that she makes, even counting the change, if it is wrong, then a swift punch will set her right!

He is manipulative and gaslights her at every opportunity to make her think that she is going crazy. Hannah knows what he is doing, but is helpless to do anything about it, as she is powerless in this relationship.

But this story isn’t just about Coercive Control, it also delves into the past, and you find out how a happy young Hannah, can eventually end up being a beaten down shell of what she used to be.

Because Hannah is living with the consequences of a night that she will never forget, and knows that she can never escape, and Nathan will make sure of this!

This book was a tough read, I have recently left a toxic marriage, and although it was nowhere as bad as what Hannah endured, I was still reminded of the manipulation, and gaslighting.
People need to realise that domestic abuse is not always a black eye, sometimes the bruises don’t show on the body, sometimes they are on your heart, and they take longer to heal.

A great read, but please take heed of the Trigger Warnings for Domestic Violence.

Enjoy
Vicci 📚💛✨

The Blurb

To the outside world Hannah married the perfect man. Behind the closed doors of their imposing home it’s a very different story. Nathan controls everything Hannah does. He chooses her clothes, checks her receipts, and keeps her passport locked away. But why does she let him?

Years before, in the midst of a relentless storm, the tragic events of one night changed everything. And Hannah has been living with the consequences ever since. Keeping Nathan happy. Doing as she’s told.

But the past is about to catch up with them.

Set against the unforgiving backdrop of a Cornish fishing port in the ‘90s, this is a devastating exploration of the power of coercive control in a marriage where nothing is quite as it seems…

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A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson @HoJay92 #bookreview

Hello book friends, I hope you are all doing well?

Let me introduce you to your new obsession!!

My Review

Pippa (Pip for short) is working on a school project for her final year, choosing a topic is difficult and she is finding it really hard. She wants to be a journalist when she leaves school, so wants to really prove her worth.

So what is the best thing to do as a budding journalist? Well investigate a crime of course! But not any old crime, she decides to investigate a crime from 5 years ago, where a young girl in the town was murdered by her boyfriend, only she thinks that he didn’t do it, and she’s going to prove it!

A body was never found, and some blood in a car, and a text on the evening of the murder was all the police needed to pin the murder on Andrea Bell’s boyfriend Sal, but little things seem to be out of place for Pip, because Sal then killed himself in the local woods, which then adds to the guilty verdict.

And so her final year project is chosen, Pip along with the help of Sal’s younger brother Ravi, start to investigate the murder, but not everyone wants her to interfere into something that is already closed!

For a debut novel this was such a fun read, and I’ve already bought book 2, although I’m holding out for the audiobook.

🎧🎧

Narration was so brilliantly done, it is a full cast, and done exquisitely, if you loved Sadie last year, then you’ll love this one too.

Enjoy
Vicci 📚💛✨

The Blurb

The case is closed. Five years ago, schoolgirl Andie Bell was murdered by Sal Singh. The police know he did it. Everyone in town knows he did it.

But having grown up in the same small town that was consumed by the crime, Pippa Fitz-Amobi isn’t so sure. When she chooses the case as the topic for her final project, she starts to uncover secrets that someone in town desperately wants to stay hidden. And if the real killer is still out there, how far will they go to keep Pip from the truth … ?

Perfect for fans of One of Us Is Lying, Gone Girl, We Were Liars and Riverdale

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Berts Books

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Waterstones

Precious You by Helen Monks Takhar @HelenMTakhar @HQstories @NetGalley #bookreview #blogtour

Hello book friends, I hope you are all doing well?

I am so happy to be a part of this Blog Tour for this fabulously twisty read!

My Review

Katherine Ross is a 41 year old Magazine Editor, she has been working at Leadership for just over 20 years, and she loves it.

She has recently returned back after a spell away after some mental health issues, but she is chomping-at-the-bit to get back to work again.

Unfortunately, new management have taken over the magazine, so she has lot of new people to impress, and she supposes that she’ll be working with the new intake of Interns, and they’ll all be GenX ‘Snowflakes’ as usual!

After a strange coincidence with actually getting to work on her first day back, Katherine meets Lily the new Intern, Lily is 23, gorgeous, and as it happens, really good at the job.

Lily also happens to be the niece of the new boss!

Told from the POV of Lily and Katherine, this books starts to twist and turn in directions that I didn’t see coming.

Katherine is well aware of Lily’s manipulation tactics, but cannot seem to stay away from her, and Lily finds this fascinating, in fact she will do anything she can to infiltrate Katherine’s life, and all Katherine can do, is watch while her life tumbles down around her!

I sat on my sofa and read this book in one day, I was so intrigued, I needed to see where it was going, and I was stunned so many times, it was a complete ‘Knicker-Twister’

**Thank you to the Author, HQStories & Netgalley for asking me to be on this blog tour, and for providing me with a copy of this book**

Enjoy
Vicci 📚💛✨

Synopsis

An obsessive power struggle between an editor and her millennial intern turns dangerous in this debut psychological thriller–for readers of Luckiest Girl Alive and You.

Trusting you was my first mistake.

To Katherine, twenty-four-year-old Lily Lunt is a typical “snowflake.” Soft, entitled, unflaggingly earnest, the privileged, politically correct millennial will do whatever she can to make it big as a writer, including leveraging her family’s connections. She’s got it easy. To Lily, Katherine Ross, a career woman in her early forties, is a holdover from another era: clueless, old-fashioned, and perfectly happy to build her success on the backs of her unpaid interns.

When Lily is hired as the new intern at Leadership magazine, where Katherine is editor in chief, her arrival threatens the very foundations of the self-serving little world that Katherine has built. But before long, she finds herself obsessively drawn to Lily, who seems to be a cruel reminder of the beauty and potential Katherine once had, things she senses Lily plans to use against her. Is Katherine simply paranoid, jealous of Lily’s youth as she struggles with encroaching middle age? Is Lily just trying to get ahead in the cutthroat world of publishing? Or is there a more sinister motivation at play, fueled by the dark secrets they’re both hiding? As their rivalry deepens, a disturbing picture emerges of two women pitted against each other across a toxic generational divide–and who are desperate enough to do anything to come out on top.

As unsettling as it is provocative, Precious You cuts to heart of questions surrounding modern female rivalry, obsession and deceit. Helen Monks Takhar delivers an explosive take on the contemporary workplace and the disparate generations that power it, turning the professional roles women play on their heads in a razor-sharp, revenge-driven thriller for our age

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Not My Daughter by Suzy K. Quinn @SuzyKQuinn @HQstories @NetGalley #bookreview

Hello Book Friends,

I hope you are all doing well?

I am so happy to be one of the first on this blog tour for this fabulous page turner of a book.

My Review

Wow this one got me flipping pages so fast!!

Lorna had a bucket list when she was 16, she’d made this because she had been diagnosed with a terminal cancer which she managed to beat, so she was living her life to the fullest.

As is a lot of young teenage girls dreams, one of the items on her bucket list, was to meet & marry a rock star, not just any rock star though, it had to be Michael Reyji Ray!

So to be able to go to one of his concerts and to actually meet him, and to actually have him *choose* her and fall in love with her, well it was like a dream come true, except, it really wasn’t.

Fast forward 16 years and Lorna is a scared mother of Liberty, she doesn’t allow her to go out at night, or go out with friends, and she is fiercely protective over her, to the utter disgust of her daughter, who thinks she is just an ridiculously over protective mother.

But Lorna has high fences and security, and is over protective for a reason, a reason Liberty is not aware of, and thank goodness Liberty doesn’t know who her father is, otherwise everything she knows could change.

Except Liberty does find out, and she wants to meet her famous father and find out what he is really like, as her crazy mother has only told her bad things about what a monster he is, and she wants to find out for herself!

Told from the POV of Lorna and Liberty and with a sprinkling of the past from Lorna’s POV, Suzy K Quinn takes you on a heart stopping journey.

**Please be warned that this book deals with Domestic Abuse and has instances of sexual abuse, a LOT of Gaslighting and Manipulation.

It was very interesting to see how differently Michael acted in front of his friends and family, and then with Lorna and some others, the Red Flags were definitely waving, but unfortunately it is not always possible to see them while you think you are in love!

**Thank you to HQStories for asking me to be on this blogtour**

Enjoy
Vicci 📚💛✨

Synopsis

My child is missing. And it’s not safe out there…

After sixteen years of protecting my daughter from the dark secret of her past, I wake one morning to find her room empty, rucksack gone.

Most runaways return within 72 hours, but I’m not so sure. I think my daughter has gone to find her real father – the man I fled from years ago.

No one knows better than me that beneath his charm lies a monster.

I escaped him once. But will she see him for what he really is?

After all, blood is thicker than water…

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What Lies Between Us by John Marrs @johnmarrs1 #bookreview

Hello Book friends,

I hope you are all well?

Oooohhhhh are you in for a treat  🤯

My Review

Let me tell you a little story
Are you sitting comfortably?

Then let me begin!

Once upon a time there lived a woman called Maggie, she lives with her daughter Nina.

Maggie loves her daughter very very much, she loves her maybe a little too much, and this makes her very interfering in Nina’s life.

Nina doesn’t appreciate this and holds a lot of resentment toward Maggie, yet she still lives with her mother, even at nearly 40 years old.

Nina has become a bit of a bitter woman, holding grudges, and even though she projects these onto Nina, she has secrets that she is hiding, but Maggie has hers too!

They are civil with each other, and eat dinner with each other every other night, and because Maggie is older now and now quite frail, Nina helps her up the stairs to her room, well, I suppose she needs the help really because of the chains she is attached to.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention the fact that Nina has her mother chained up in the attic, sorry about that….My bad!!

You have to read this one to believe it.

🎧🎧

Narrated by Elizabeth Knowelden who is a fantastic narrator and made my goosebumps get goosebumps

Coming to a TV screen soon (The rights have been picked up by Rene Zellweger) I can’t wait to see what they do with this.

Enjoy
Vicci 📚💛✨

Synopsis

Nina can never forgive Maggie for what she did. And she can never let her leave.

They say every house has its secrets, and the house that Maggie and Nina have shared for so long is no different. Except that these secrets are not buried in the past.

Every other night, Maggie and Nina have dinner together. When they are finished, Nina helps Maggie back to her room in the attic, and into the heavy chain that keeps her there. Because Maggie has done things to Nina that can’t ever be forgiven, and now she is paying the price.

But there are many things about the past that Nina doesn’t know, and Maggie is going to keep it that way—even if it kills her.

Because in this house, the truth is more dangerous than lies.

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His and Hers by Alice Feeney @alicewriterland @HQstories @NetGalley_UK #HisAndHers #AliceFeeney

Hello there book friends, I hope you are all doing well in the current circumstances?

I am so happy to be on the blogtour for this fantastic thriller, pick this one up if you can, you won’t regret it!

My Review

Welcome to the book that makes you feel that you have it Allllllll worked out!!

Oh Yes!! There I was reading this shouting at the book (as I do) “IT’S THIS PERSON, I KNOW IT IS, CASE CLOSED!”

Turns out I might have been wrong, all of my smugness took a huge turn when BAM, in comes a twist, and I thought, Hmm didn’t see that coming, and then BAM, in comes another one, and to top it off BAM here’s another one to add to the pile.

So, I don’t feel so smug anymore, as I had no idea LOL

This is a difficult one to review as I don’t want to add any unintentional spoilers, so all you need to know is this:

Anna is a newsreader
Jack is a DCI
Jack and Anna were married
Jack and Anna are now divorced
A murder brings them both together again
One of them could be involved
One of them could be lying
Secrets and lies a-plenty

If you love a twisty thriller that will keep you on your toes, and your head spinning, this is the one for you.

Enjoy
Vicci 📚💛✨

**Thank you to HQstories, Netgalley, and the Author for a copy of the book**

Synopsis

If there are two sides to every story, someone is always lying…

Jack: Three words to describe my wife: Beautiful. Ambitious. Unforgiving.
Anna: I only need one word to describe my husband: Liar.

When a woman is murdered in Blackdown village, newsreader Anna Andrews is reluctant to cover the case. Anna’s ex-husband, DCI Jack Harper, is suspicious of her involvement, until he becomes a suspect in his own murder investigation.

Someone is lying, and some secrets are worth killing to keep.

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Little Secrets by Jennifer Hillier @JenniferHillier #JenniferHillier #LittleSecrets #BookReview

Hello book friends, I hope you are all doing well?

While I’m in lockdown I’ve been getting through some great reads, this one was no exception.

Review

This book starts with every parent’s nightmare, Marin our MC of this story is currently Christmas shopping with her 4 year old little boy Sebastian, Bash for short, it’s busy and there are people everywhere. She gets a text from her husband Derek, and takes her eyes off of Bash for 1 minute while she answers it, when she looks down, Bash is not there!

Jumping forward to over a year later, the FBI are still coming up with nothing, Bash is still missing, Marin is barely making it through the day, and she has just found out from her Private Detective, that Derek is having an affair with an Instagram famous twenty-something year old!

Marin and Derek are very very wealthy, and this book just shows that money can’t buy you everything you want……or can it?

With twists and turns i didn’t see coming, this one will keep you up reading way past bedtime!

🎧 🎧

Narration for the audiobook was by Kirsten Potter and who did a fabulous job, I would certainly recommend listening to it.

Enjoy
Vicci 📚💛✨

Synopsis

All it takes to unravel a life… is one home truth.

Marin used to have it all. She’s married to the love of her life, Derek, she owns a chain of upscale hair salons, and is admired in her community as head of a loving family. Until the world falls apart the day her son Sebastian is taken…

A year later, Marin is a shadow of herself. The police search has gone cold. The publicity has faded. She and her husband rarely speak. With her sanity ebbing, Marin hires a private investigator to pick up where the police left off.

But instead of finding Sebastian, she learns that Derek is having an affair with a much younger woman. This discovery sparks Marin back to life. She’s lost her son; she’s not about to lose her husband. Derek’s mistress is an enemy with a face, which means this is a problem Marin can fix. Permanently.

Purchase Links

Bert’s Books

Book-ish

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Pretty Things by Janelle Brown @janelleb #PrettyThings #JanelleBrown #BookReview

Hello book friends, I hope that you are all doing OK?

I absolutely loved this book, it was a slow burner up till about quarter of the way in, and then all of a sudden the WTF started falling out of the sky, and trying to dodge them was a head spinner let me tell you!

Review

This book is told from 2 POV, Nina who is a con artist, and Vanessa who is an Instagram Influencer.

Nina learned everything she knows from her dear old mum who is also a con artist, but she has now fallen ill and is no longer able to hustle like she used to, her medical bills are stacking up, and Nina doesn’t know what to do except what she is good at, Hustling.

Vanessa is an “it” girl, she is famous just for being famous, and rich!

She has millions of followers who love her, but for someone who is so loved, she is also very lonely, that is why she jumps at the chance to make new friends when she meets a lovely woman with her handsome Irish boyfriend.

But is everything as it seems?

Unreliable narrators and twists and turns a-plenty in this thriller which is soon to be made into a TV series starring Nicole Kidman, so read it before you watch it otherwise it will spoil it for you.

🎧🎧

Narrated by Hillary Huber, Lauren Fortgang and one of my favourite narrators Julia Whelan all did a fantastic job, all of the voices and accents were spot on and I LOVED IT!!

Enjoy
Vicci 📚💛✨

Synopsis

Nina once bought into the idea that her fancy liberal arts degree would lead to a fulfilling career. When that dream crashed, she turned to stealing from rich kids in LA alongside her wily Irish boyfriend, Lachlan. Nina learned from the best: her mother was the original con artist, hustling to give her daughter a decent childhood despite their wayward life. But when her mom gets sick, Nina puts everything on the line to help her, even if it means running her most audacious, dangerous scam yet.

Vanessa is a privileged young heiress who wanted to make her mark in the world. Instead she becomes an Instagram influencer – traveling the globe, receiving free clothes and products and posing for pictures in exotic locales. But behind the covetable façade is a life marked by tragedy.

After a broken engagement, Vanessa retreats to her family’s sprawling mountain estate, Stonehaven: a mansion of dark secrets not just from Vanessa’s past, but from that of a lost and troubled girl named Nina. Nina’s, Vanessa’s and Lachlan’s paths collide here, on the cold shores of Lake Tahoe, where their intertwined lives give way to a winter of aspiration and desire, duplicity and revenge.

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The Other People by C.J.Tudor @cjtudor @RCArmitage #BookReview #TheOtherPeople

Hello Book friends,

Are you all in for a treat with this one!!

My Review

Ooh you are in for such a treat with this book.

Welcome to crazy town,
Do not pass GO,
Do not collect $200

Meet Gabe, he drives up and down the motorway (freeway) all day every day, he’s hoping to catch a glimpse of his daughter, just once, just like last time.

You see, three years ago, Gabe was driving home, he was late as he’d been caught at work, and he wanted to get home to see his daughter, but the traffic was such a nightmare!
He happens to look at the back of the car near him, and he sees a little face peeping out of the window, after the initial thoughts of “why is that child not strapped in” he suddenly comes to the realisation, that the girl ahead looks very familiar! And a phone-call by the local police informing him that his wife and child have been found murdered makes even less sense.

We follow Gabe on his hunt for his daughter that he swore that he saw, Katie, who works in the roadside cafe, and has also lost a loved one, and Fran, who is on the run with her daughter.

Why can’t Fran’s daughter look in mirrors?
Why doesn’t anyone believe Gabe when he tells them about his daughter?
And who the hell are The Other People?

Intrigued yet?

I challenge you to put this book down once you have started it!

🎧🎧

Narrated by the always amazing Richard Armitage, who was just fantastic, you may have seen him on your TV screens recently in the also brilliant The Stranger!

Enjoy
Vicci 📚💛✨

Synopsis

She sleeps, a pale girl in a white room….

Three years ago, Gabe saw his daughter taken. In the back of a rusty old car, covered in bumper stickers. He was driving behind the car. He watched her disappear. But no one believes him.

Most people believe that his daughter and wife are dead. For a while, people believed that Gabe was responsible.

Three years later and Gabe cannot give up hope. Even though he has given up everything else. His home, his job, his old life. He spends his days and nights travelling up and down the motorway, sleeping in his camper van in service stations, searching for the car that took her. Searching for his daughter.

Katie spends a lot of her life in service stations, working as a waitress. She often sees Gabriel, or ‘the thin man’, as she has nicknamed him. She knows his story. She feels for him, because Katie understands what it’s like to lose a loved one. Nine years ago, her father was murdered. It broke her family apart. She hasn’t seen her oldest sister since the day of the funeral – the day she did something terrible.

Fran and her daughter, Alice, put in a lot of miles on the motorway. Not searching. But running. Trying to keep one step ahead of the people that want to hurt them. Because Fran knows the truth. She knows what really happened to Gabe’s daughter. She knows who is responsible. And she knows that if they ever find them, they’re dead.

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