xabbeylongx's reviews
167 reviews

hopeful reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

~~SPOILERS AHEAD~~
Book Review:

‘Afterlove’ by Tanya Byrne is absolutely one of my favourite books ever, so upon hearing she wrote another one fairly recently, I had to read it.

I must say, this book went for ages. With her first one, there was a lot of content and context needed, so the length was actually very beneficial, and it did’t feel like it went on for ages. However, this book is something different. Calling this book a slow burn would be an understatement. I think Nico almost drowned around the halfway mark, which meant that the first half dragged on so much. I think the genre was a bit muddled, because towards the end it felt a bit like a thriller. I was a little confused throughout, because we were lead to believe that she either jumped off or was pushed, and that wasn’t the case in the end, so it felt a little bit… forced, sort of? I wasn’t a fan of the characters, if I’m being honest. There were a few cute scenes between Mara and Nico, and I did like the way their relationship developed, but everything just felt a bit muddled, like a load of jigsaw pieces being forced to mould together. It took me ages to finish this read.

Book Summary:

We follow Mara in this book. Mara has a tight friendship group, though her best friend is Michelle. Mara has been on and off dating Nico, a reserved girl who’s very on and off with her. Sometimes she will really like Mara, and hold hands with her and everything, but other times she will ignore her in school, cancel plans at last minute, and even just not show up. On New Year’s Eve, they are about to hang out, and Mara gets really excited for it. However, when Mara arrives, she gets a text from Nico to say she isn’t coming, and then dumps her.

Mara is going through heartbreak, and returns home early, to her friend’s surprise. But, what is even more surprising, is that Nico ends up on the news.

Nico fell into the sea, and was rescued and carried to hospital. Some speculated suicide, whilst others speculated that she was pushed, either way, Mara is knocked for six. Her friends and her family try to help her through it, but Mara doesn’t know where she stands, and whether she should text her or not.

The problem is out of her hands when she goes to a cafe, picks up someone’s diary, and realises it is Nico’s. When Nico asks for her diary bak, she seems different. Nicer. Of course, she doesn’t remember anything from the accident. Meaning she doesn’t remember Mara. And Mara is left being confused still.

After talking to Nico’s mother, they decide to keep it from her that they know each other. This is because they want her to organically get her memory back, not create falsified memories.

Nico’s mum tells her to stay away, but Nico is smitten with her. Mara is there for some of her firsts again, like her coming out for the first time (again). Eventually, they fall in love again. Mara never fell out of love, but she’s still really confused, at the two different versions of Nice that have been created. When Nico starts becoming really sick, seeming like every time Mara was round, Mara starts to get concerned. Turns out, her mum has been making her sick, just like Nico’s nan did to her. Her mum is arrested, and Nico goes to stay with an aunt that she didn’t even know existed. But her relationships flourished, especially the one with Mara.

Content Warnings

The Housemaid by Freida McFadden

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mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

~~SPOILERS AHEAD~~
Book Review:

A really easy, flowing read. I read it over about 3 days, I physically could not put it down.

The beginning, oh my god; that was amazing. The intrigue it brought, the hook, and then looking back on it at the end and seeing who the POV belonged to, is just amazing. I really liked the style it was written in. I know first person is really hard to write in, personally, but I really liked it in this book. There were also many other really good things, such as Millie's character. I thought she was beautifully written, and very realistic too. You don't normally get ex-prisoners as the main characters, and I like that she stood up for what was right. I have a lot of time for Millie, and her attitude, and her ability to make mistakes. And I thought that when Eleanor, Andy’s mum, was talking about him getting his teeth ‘sorted out’ at the end, that was brilliant. Because, not only does Nina get let off the hook, but we can also see where Andy may have got it form. Did he suffer that sort of abuse from his mum, and that’s why he did it? It’s such an interesting thing to think about.

Unfortunately, this book would have got five stars, but the ending was a little too neat and tidy for me. You mean everyone gets away with murder, even with a dead body that has his won teeth pulled out? The stakes were somewhat high, but I needed them a little higher. That being said, when Nina was opening the door for Millie, and the readers knew that it was actually Andy in there, it did shit me up. I was proper nervous for a jumpscare. I don’t think I’ve been that thrilled by a book in ages.

In addition, there are only two things that I didn’t fully understand, minor things. The meds, and the taking out of the trash. There was emphasis on the meds, but it didn’t really account to anything - especially after Millie finds them. And why was taking out the trash such a big thing? Like there was a big struggle about it, but then it didn’t amount to much, which was a little unsatisfying.

However, it is such a good book, it flows really well and is such a gripping read. For those who agreed, and liked this book, this is quite similar to Jason Rekulak’s ‘Hidden Pictures’, which I have actually given 5 stars. Worth a read!

Book Summary:

We follow Millie as she has just applied for a job. Nina seems like a lovely woman, with a daughter called Cecilia, and she is applying to the be a helper around the house - a maid, if you will. Millie has a secret, though, and that is that she used to be in prison, for a multitude of reasons. She always had a temper, sticking up for people who don’t stick up for themselves, but it only seems to get her in trouble. Her friend was about to be r*ped, and she killed the guy who was on her, all 200lbs of him not being able to be budged by her. However, the friend looked at her like a monster. Ever since then, that record hasn’t gone away, and she struggles to get jobs. Even with Nina’s hospitality, she is sure that she won’t get the job.

After a few rejections, she has lost all hope. She knows that she is breaking her parole by not having a job (having got fired from her previous for beating up a man who groped her - it was only because he didn’t want people to know that he had been beaten up by a woman that she got away with it, otherwise she would have been whisked back to prison) and also living out of her car. So when Nina hires her, she is ecstatic.

That joy is quickly gone, when Nina turns out to be insane. After shopping through her cupboards and spotting the meds, seeing how she acted in her own home, and how other people saw her, it’s no surprise to learn that Nina had been in a psychiatric hospital - for trying to kill her daughter, no less. After medicating her daughter, and medicating herself, she tried to drown her. She doesn’t remember doing it but the psychiatrist said she suffered with delusions, so that is what she had to believe.

When Millie started the job, she quickly found out how difficult both her and Cecelia were. Cecilia point-blank refused to listen to her, and Nina was horrible. She left awful messes wherever she went, which Millie had to clean up, and was always telling her the wrong things, and then blaming it on Millie. It didn’t help that Millie had an attraction to Andrew, Nina’s husband. Several times, Andy stopped Nina from firing her, which only made her like him more. When an argument occurred (to do with Nina’s fertility, or lack thereof), he asked Millie to buy Nina tickets to cheer her up. But she got the dates wrong. Nina could no longer go, so Andy insisted that Millie take them. But she didn’t have any friends to go with.

So Andy went with her.

Nina was taking Cecilia to a bootcamp, so they had the house to themselves for the night. They went, and then had dinner afterwards. They both stopped mentioning Nina, and got a bit drink. Needless to say, the hotel that had been booked for Nina and Andy, was now for him and Millie.

The next morning, they acted as though nothing happened. Nina, obviously, found out. After an extensive blow-up, he kicked Nina out, and told her and Cecilia not to come back, that they were getting a divorce.

This was not the hardship that he thought it would be for Nina.

This was Nina’s plan all along. The attic (where Millie had been sleeping) was actually where Nina had been forced to stay. For minor inconveniences, like not getting her roots done or leaving the lights on, she was forced to stay in there, with no food, and only three mini bottles of water. This was to last her however many days he left her there for. They would always come with tasks she had to do to be let out, like pulling 100 hairs out of her head, or staying in the pitch black or bright light for hours on end. If she failed, she had to start again. And when he let her out, it was almost as if nothing happened, and he went back to the loving, doting husband she thought he was.

The first time, she was drugged, and when she woke up, Cecilia was drowning in the bath. He had called the police, saying she had tried to kill herself, and her daughter too. She was put in the mental institution. So, although she wanted to tell someone, she knew she wouldn’t be taken seriously. This is why she devised a plan to escape.

She figured Andy would go for someone younger, prettier. She let herself go. After she had taken infertility meds, and Andy was wondering why she couldn’t get pregnant, she knew he’d start looking, that he’d want kids of his own. She stopped doing her hair, taking care of herself. She decided she needed someone to come in, someone to take her place. After seeing Millie’s situation, she knew that Millie wouldn’t be picky about jobs, and brought her in. She had to sleep in the attic, so that her husband would psychologically see that Millie could take her spot. Luckily, there was a mutual attraction between the two, so that worked in her favour. She would make huge messes around the house, and make arguments, which Andy would inevitably save her from. Then she would get them together, they would make love, and their marriage would finally be over.

Once Andy kicked her out, she grabbed Cecilia, and they left. They were both so happy, especially after Cecilia had been picked up from camp. Enzo, the gardener, who worked for many of their neighbours too, had been only speaking broken Italian the entire time. However, when he knew Nina was in danger, he would speak English. He wanted to help her, so he helped them escape. However, after leaving Millie with Andy, and seeing she hadn’t left the house in a while, Enzo was adamant that she go back. It played on Nina’s conscience, until she did actually go back.

Millie had already been enduring the abuse, even though he waited until after marriage for Nina. She didn’t put the books away she was reading, and he made her balance them on her stomach. He said that she took them off far too early, and she had to do it again. The thing with Millie is, she does not put up with that. So, when he comes in to let her out, she takes her chances. Nina, for some reason, left pepper spray in the room, and she used that on him. She stole his phone, and locked him in there. Now, she has his phone, his CCTV camera, and him locked away.

She forces him to put the same books on his stomach, but he wasn’t in enough pain. She said about his groin, instead. And then made him do it again. There was so much hatred and rage in him, that there’s no way she could let him out now. She tells him he needs to pull out his teeth, one by one, if he wants to leave.

When Nina arrives, it is really quiet. Thinking Millie is locked in the room, she opens it, and she finds Andy. He’s on the floor, and dead. She tells Millie to get out of there, and calls the police. She takes the blame, knowing Cecilia is safe with Enzo. When the police get there, though, one of them is the father of someone else who dated him. She apparently had to move away after dating him, and create a new identity. So, the police officers don’t charge anyone, and take it as dehydration from being accidentally locked in the room.

Millie is then recommended to other people by Nina - other people that are in secretly abusive situations.

Content Warnings

Hack Your Hormones by Dr. Maureen Tigga

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informative fast-paced

3.0

~~SPOILERS AHEAD~~
Book Review:
This book has been very helpful! An informative read, one that's very factual but also very short too. It's an easy read, and has lots of different resources within, so you have plenty of places to do further research, if you wish. Would highly recommend, as it's full of lots of important information that I wish I knew a long time ago.

Book Summary:
This book focuses on the hormones that are released over the course of people's lives (people with periods), and how it can affect your mood. It explains how if certain hormones increase or decrease, the effect it can have on your body and your mind, and also ways that you can combat it.

Content Warnings

Baby Teeth by Meg Grehan

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.0

~~SPOILERS AHEAD~~

Book Review:

Honestly, I was really really excited for this book, but I’m not too sure how to process it.

For me, this book took ages to get through. Despite how short it was, despite how little words were on the page, it just didn’t seem to drag me in. I was waiting ages for that hook, but it never came. Even the fact that it was a short book and written in verse novel didn’t stop me taking ages to finish it. I couldn’t get into it at all. With the one word lines, on every line, I felt that it really interrupted the flow of the story, which was one of the main issues. Now, if there’s an artistic reason for this, I’ll take it all back. I normally really like verse novels, and they flow really well, but this one didn’t at all.

It took me until the end of the book to realise she’s a vampire, and it wasn’t just a blood f*tish. To continue on with that, there were a load of things I didn’t understand. For instance, what is the relationship between her, Freddie and Henry? I thought they were brothers, but then one of them disappeared for a while, and I had no clue what was going on. The whole story is very ambiguous, which is a very interesting way to write a story. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. For me, it doesn’t.

Book Summary:

We follow Immy as she goes through her life. She has all these voices in her head, telling her that she needs to have blood, to taste it.

When Claudia offers her a yellow rose, she takes it. Claudia is very cute, and they start hanging out. Immy’s desires get too strong for her to resist, and Claudia lets her taste her blood. Immy feels guilty, as she watches Claudia become weaker and weaker, but she cannot fight the urge.

Immy lives with her brothers (?) Henry and Freddie. Sometimes Freddie will run away for a bit, come back bruised, and they aren’t allowed to ask questions. Henry is quite moody sometimes, also.

Claudia sees Freddie run away, and wonder why they can’t do it. So, they run away together. But Immy is immortal, and Claudia is not. Immy missed the city when she’s there, and misses the silence when she leaves. She know it will not work with her and Claudia, but she still loves her.

Content Warnings

The Haunted Hills by Berlie Doherty

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mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

~~SPOILERS AHEAD~~

Book Review:

Honestly, I wasn’t a fan of this book. It went on for so long, was dragged on with actually very little horror in it, and it really wasn’t my cup of tea. There seemed to be two different stories, and I’m unsure as to whether they should have been connected. Both would have been really good as separate stories, as the plot didn’t really align as much as it should have done. I know there was probably an intellectual reason for doing it, but the story itself just wasn’t for me, and it did take a long time to finish. I liked the morals in the book, like how Carl learns to deal with the grief of his best friend - I do think that’s quite cool. Other than that, I don’t think this book was one of my favourites.

Book Summary:

We follow Carl as his parents take him to a holiday house. It’s a holiday house, but they’re not there on holiday. They’re there so that Carl can escape.

Carl and Jack were best friends since the day they were born. Their families intertwined, both each other’s parents saw the other boy as their son. They were so connected. Even when Jack started hanging out with Lamborghini, the school bully who liked to pick on everyone, they always seemed to stay friends.

Lamborghini liked to steal cars, drove them around and tell people that the cars belong to his uncle, and he’s just borrowing it. One day, after months and months of Lamborghini picking between the two boys and turning them against each other, he asks Carl to drive in one of his cars. He says no. But Jack says yes. Carl is furious. So furious, in fact, that he calls the police to report it.

However, Lamborghini ends up crashing. He makes it out alive, but Jack, unfortunately, is not so lucky.

Carl is struggling to come to terms with the tragedy. Everyone seems to be moving on, but he can’t. He blames himself. If the police hadn’t been called, and they hadn’t chased Lamborghini, he might not have panicked and sped up, and Jack would still be alive. He is irritable, and annoyed with both of his parents, who are trying to help but he doesn’t want it.

He becomes friends with a farmer nearby, with a very quiet wife and a girl who isn’t actually his daughter, but she pretty much is. He helps them with some farming, as he tries to get out of the house as much as possible. The farmer tells him a story about a lost lad, which Carl is sure he hears wallowing at night.

Eventually, Carl falls asleep in a cave. He hears someone yelling his name, although he’s not sure if it’s the lost boy, or Jack calling for him. But after that, he feels a lot better. He knows how to keep Jack’s memories alive, but also how to move on.

Content Warnings

Maybe tomorrow by Michael Wood

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

~~SPOILERS AHEAD~~
Book Review:

First of all, this book made me tear up multiple times. It had such a heartfelt, emotional way of making the reader bond with the characters, especially those with disabilities. I just want to curl up and take them in my hand. We only got a few chapters with Alice, and yet, I was heartbroken when she was killed. When Anthony was arrested, or every time he was beaten in prison, I hated it. The plot twist was not something I saw coming until last minute, either. I’m not too mad about it, but I I would have thought we’d have had more of a clue as to who it was the entire time. I mean, I knew I had a bad feeling about Malcom, but I thought it would have been a main character, someone who we’ve seen a lot and bonded with, so it’s all the more heartbreaking. Obviously, we now have this gut-wrenching feeling because Anthony’s lawyer was actually dating Malcolm, and he’s been fighting against her the whole time, and now she’s pregnant? Awful.

The blatant sexism in this book is something that made me feel violently sick. I almost couldn’t finish it, to be honest; it was disgusting. I can’t work out whether he’s written the characters that well, or whether he is actually sexist himself. Considering the theme in some of his other books, I’d assume it’s the latter. The way they spoke about ‘the women of the night’ - which is nicer than what Wood called them - is truly despicable. And the way they paint out that they’re only good for one thing? Truly awful.

I also, unfortunately, thought the book was very long winded. I know I’m court cases they are never straight forward, and in real life they take a long time, but I thought some of the writing felt like just a filler. Some of the stuff I didn’t need to read about, and contributed nothing to the story.

Finishing it off with a good thing, I loved that Anthony was so good with his lawyer’s babies. I thought it was such a sweet touch, and such an endearing quality to have. I’ll just say, the characters definitely make the book.

Book Summary:

We follow Alice as she’s going through college. She is being bullied, for her weight and because she’s a little bit different. She has Down syndrome, so people often make fun of her appearance, and tease her. She hates going into college. She won’t tell her parents about it either, because there’s not much more they can do. She’s trying not to eat too much, so people can’t pick on her for eating.

She loves to go to the library. She goes every Monday, and every worker in the library knows of her, and dotes on her. Anthony, a big boy with learning difficulties, likes her quite a lot, and often tries to tell her jokes to make her laugh. She talks to him quite a lot.

One day, there is a massive storm. And when Alice doesn’t return, they are, naturally, terrified that the storm ahead got her. She never does anything like this, and her mum told her to get back as soon as she could.

They find her body in the woods near her house. There is a tree on her, and it’s placed to look like she had been killed by a fallen branch. However, the marks on her neck and the bruises to her genitalia shows that it was not just a mere accident, but murder.

They find out about Anthony, about his mental disabilities and his large frame. And when they go and ask ‘the women of the night’ about a man who’s possibly a bit too frisky, they describe Anthony’s appearance. They say he’s a watcher, that he touches himself while they have sex. The police officer in charge has a lot of street on him, from the press and from his boss, to get results, due to the fact they fucked up at the beginning of the case. He pays the women money so that they can lie on trial.

They put it on Anthony. With the witness statement of the women, even though it was all lies, he was arrested. When interrogating him, they promised him a cup of tea, and a fresh cooked meal, and a chance to speak to his mum. So, not understanding the consequences due to his disability, he admits to the murder. Unfortunately, he doesn’t get all that he is promised. And he’s beaten until he confesses. And so he is arrested for the rape and murder of Alice, but he was coerced. Because he was a big, ‘scary-looking’ boy, people were quick to pin it on him. In prison, he was beaten up, and had to be put in solitary confinement for his own safety. He turned blind in one of his eyes during a nasty fight, but he wouldn’t stick up for himself.

His mum, his lawyer and a few police officers on the down low were rooting for him, trying to support him. He was in prison for years whilst they were trying to get him free. And when they finally get the women to say they were coerced to write a statement, he is set free. The police officer who coerced them finally got kicked out the squad, after years of being a sexist bully. And the hunt is still on to find the real killer.

When they develop a new technology years later (this book is set way in the past) they send Alice’s underwear to get tested. It just so happens that that is they day they also get a match. Someone was pulled over for drunk driving.

Anthony’s lawyer’s husband, who is cold, and also ran for the office - and got denied first time.

*this bit gets really graphic so TW*

He is arrested, and admits to it. He says he got horny, but because of the storm, the ‘women of the night’ weren’t around, so he was playing with himself and she saw him. He then decided to use her for his own pleasure, and then he saw what he had done, and killed her.

Anthony’s lawyer obviously refused to see her husband and broke up with him, and had her twins by herself. Anthony and his family often visit her, especially as she has a charity devoted to him and saving innocent people from prison. She has twins, and Anthony is naturally besotted with them, and treats them as his own.

Content Warnings

Before I Say I Do by Vicki Bradley

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

~~SPOILERS AHEAD~~
Book Review:

I bought this audiobook a while ago, and I finally got around to reading it. It was about 11 hours long, so not a bad time at all, and I finished it in a few sittings.

I really liked the characters in it. To be fair, although I didn’t like some of them, they were definitely all well written. Not the stereotypical ‘perfect’ characters, which I really really like. And the writing got a lot better towards the end, I must say. I wasn’t sure how good it was going to be, but the book grew on me.

The was the slight issue of repetition. In the first chapter, I reckon that Lucy’s hair colour was described as auburn like three times. And throughout the book, there was too much emphasis on hair colour, especially with that word, and it got a bit tedious in the end. Not only that, but there seemed to be a sort of hatred towards fat people, I felt. Everything was good, the only thing I felt was not needed was the leak part of the story. To me, it didn’t contribute anything, it just made things more difficult for the characters. It was an unnecessary detour, to be honest.

I really liked Loxton and Kovolski together. I was over the moon when they kissed. I’m so happy they waited until after the case was solved, too, and not just fuelled by the excitement of solving crime. And also, the bit where Julia talks of Rachel looking like her namesake is so goddamn sweet. I teared up a little bit, not going to lie. Bradley definitely has a way of describing emotional scenes, and it works really well for her. So, I was really, pleasant surprised by this book.

Book Summary:

We follow Julia Tolbert on her wedding day. She’s about to walk down the aisle, getting married to her best friend Mark Rowthorn (sorry if I’ve absolutely butchered the spellings) when she notices David Steele, Mark’s best friend, talking to the wedding officiator. She’s never had much time for him, and especially not today when he comes over and tells her that Mark hasn’t been seen for over 24 hours. She’s in shock. With Lucy Webb, her bridesmaid and best friend, by her side, they call the police.

Loxton and Kovolski are on the same police team. She was demoted, after a scandal involving Alex Saunders, an ex lover and a journalist, who sold stories to newspapers for his own fame. They became fast friends when she joined the team. They are also put on the Rowthorn case. At first, they are given it because they think he’s just got last minute nerves, and they think he’s done a runner.

However, when a body turns up, and they look into him and realise he has a load of debt, it’s starting to look like he might have killed himself.

Or, that he was murdered.

Loxton and Kovolski follow many leads, one of them being David. He’s a drug addict, and they find cocaine in his house, and blood, which they assume is Mark’s. It, unfortunately, isn’t, and although they can charge him for the assault of a police officer, they are still no closer to finding Mark.

Julia has a past - one that no one knows about, so much so that she had to change her name, and leave behind her parents. When she was younger, Kayleigh Webb (now Lucy) was her best friend, but Jenny (now Julia) was sick of her, and sick of everyone. Ever since Rachel, her little sister, came along, Jenny felt jealous. She never had her parent’s attention anymore. One day, she goes into the forest with Johnny. They decided to play a prank on Rachel, hide and seek, but they intend to run off so Rachel can’t find her. They were supposed to scare her, but after Johnny tried to touch her, she didn’t find it funny anymore. She went to get Rachel, and found her dead. Julia was arrested for murder, but was cleared, and Johnny got charged instead.

Having recently been released from prison, Johnny was contacting her. He was trying to get his name cleared, and was hoping Julia would help him. She didn’t trust him, though. She went looking for him, because she thought he knew where her husband was. He tries to attack her, and ends up killing him when he falls against a bin and hits his head.

Not wanting to drag Lucy through any more of her mess, she doesn’t tell her anything.

Julia starts to act very suspicious to the police. They are being fed a load of lies from her. They find out her parents didn’t die in a car crash, that they are just estranged. They didn’t know she was accused of murder. Just when they think they’re close to finding out who did it, something else is brought into the mix that confuses them.

There was a little bunny that Rachel had when she was younger. When she was killed, the bunny was gone. However, when looking through Lucy’s flat, they find that a patched quilt made by her grandma is using that exact patch. And even though Loxton is off the case (someone framed her for spreading information, again), she and Kovolski travel to Lucy’s house.

When Julia gets to Lucy’s, after finding out she’s pregnant and the sleeping pills that Lucy gave her were too strong for the dosage advised, she doesn’t know what to think. And when she finds someone whimpering from the basement, she has to free them.

The only issue is, it’s Mark.

Someone sets a fire. Lucy’s on one end of some rope, and Mark is on the other side. The fire is travelling towards them. Lucy is already burning, screaming so awfully. She tries to save Mark. However, she is stopped by someone…

Lucy.

The girl in the basement was Emily Hart. She looked like Lucy, and was having an affair with Mark. She was in love with him, and he was with her, too. Lucy was conducting and experiment, would Julia try and save her or Mark, and she chose Mark. Lucy has always wanted to be her one and only, so when she followed them into the woods the day Rachel was killed, she knew that to be close with her again, she would have to kill Rachel. And she injected Johnny with ketamine, too, which was why he died, and not because of the head wound - although that surely didn’t help. He was stalking Julia and Mark and David, though, waiting to ruin their lives the way Jenny did his. And Lucy stole Mark, to conduct the experiment. And she hurt Emily, because she was involved in hurting Julia. Lucy did all of this because she was in love with Julia.

The fire takes the house down, and Loxton and Kovolski get there as soon as the flames are rising. They manage to save Mark, but no one else. He is hospitalised, and when they return to the scene (which Loxton is banned from, due to ‘rat’ allegations again) they notice footprints leading to the back gate.

Lucy takes Julia back to the same place Rachel was found. She’s going to kill Julia - or is she? - because she wanted to be her first priority, but she always seemed to forget about her. Luckily, Loxton turns up just in time, and distracts her whilst Kovolski tackles her. She is arrested and confesses, so she is charged and Johnny, if he was alive, would have been cleared.

Julia decides that she can’t be with Mark anymore, because of his lying and his cheating, his drug problem which left them in loads of debt which meant she couldn’t afford her house anymore. He went to prison anyway, so she had the baby on her own. Although, she reconciled with her parents, and they’re helping to bring up little Rachel - who looks exactly ‘like her namesake’. Loxton and Kovolski also end up sharing a moment.

Content Warnings

Taming Seraphine by Gigi Styx

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adventurous tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

~~SPOILERS AHEAD~~

Book Review:

Where do I even start with this book? Firstly, it was so long that I put off writing this book review for ages, because I couldn’t bring myself to review it. There’s so much going on, so many different names and things to remember, that you need to be paying attention. Because I was listening to the audio, I often found myself having to rewind it back, because every but I missed seemed to be crucial to the plot. I hardly ever remembered the names - just the important ones. Writing this book review has been a nightmare, especially the summary!

I’ll start off by saying that Gabe end Sera’s relationship is so cute. I loved reading about it, much more than hers and Leroy’s. There is a genuine bond there, genuine love. Very well written. I think Sera and Leroy loved each other in their own way, but Gabe and Sera’s love was definitely more conventionally sweeter.

I found this book hard to understand at points, especially with all of the names. Some of them were just thrown in there with little information, and all at once, so it was hard to take in, especially with everything that was going on in the plot - and believe me, there was a lot: 14 hours of it! It was also very repetitive. 14 hours long, and half of the words were said more than once. Seraphine kept on saying about how she wanted Leroy dead, and how she wanted to taste his blood. Fair enough, not my cup of tea, but we move. However, when it is said at the end of every chapter, it gets a bit tedious. Especially considering somehow, at the end of the book, they admit their love for each other, and even though we all saw it coming, how did Leroy end up putting up with someone who wanted to kill him multiple times? It’s mad.

Honestly, I think that the part of the story where Evangeline, her mother, has actually been alive this whole time is severely overlooked. I just would have thought there would have been more of an ending for that storyline? Like how does Seraphine feel about it, and what happens to Evangeline. There’s minimal detail of it, and I think that would have been good to know about.

The plot itself is bizarre, and sex driven. Definitely not for the faint hearted. Lots of trigger warnings, and scenes that are very uncomfortable. And half of the characters are not likeable, I’ll be honest. Leroy’s cousin, supposed to be a good guy, I’m not sure about him at all. All of the characters are very peculiar, in my opinion, but I suppose it fits with the theme of the book. I also saw from another review that the ending was very similar to another book, and that’s why it mostly picked up the pace towards the end, which isn’t great.

Be wary when picking this as a read, and make sure to look at the trigger warnings.

Book Summary:

We follow Seraphine as she is put on another mission. Seraphine has been trained as a ‘Lolita Assassin’ (having researched what that is, I am even more disgusted). She has a trainer, who has taught her how to fight, endure battles, and also how to kill by herself. Her family is being used as blackmail. Her mother has already been raped and killed by her father and his cronies, and he is keeping her grandmother and her brother captive. She is sent into a club to kill someone who is a lot older, and preys on little girls. She’s over twenty, but she looks quite young, and manages to lure him in, before administering the poison she was going to use to kill him. When the job is done, she leaves, transported by a driver, and she is left a note, saying her grandmother has died from being kept in captivity. It is now just her and her brother, whom she hasn’t seen since being whisked away from her family. But she hasn’t seem him in a while, and is unsure if he’s safe.

When Leroy is on a job, trying to find dirt on the people who falsely accused his cousin of murder and sent him to prison, and he kills Seraphine’s father and everyone else in the house, he stumbles across Seraphine in the basement. He isn’t sure why, but he wants to save her. She looks only young, and he has an urge to protect women like her. So he takes her. He takes her back to his house, and he wants to look after her. But he doesn’t know who she is, and how dangerous she is.

When he brings men into his house to find out information, and one of them tries to touch Seraphine, she goes mental. She chops off his dick, until he bleeds out, and then makes it into a sandwich, ready to eat it, to show him she has power. And when the rest of them end up dead just by being there. She and Leroy make a deal. If she tries to stop her killing urges, he will give her orgasms. He has rules, like they can’t kiss. Eventually, they do end up kissing, and crossing a invisible barrier, even though he doesn’t want a relationship, and she isn’t capable of one.

She wants to avenge her mother, who was murdered by her father. She vows to kill everyone who had anything to do with harming her. Those are the only people Leroy allows her to kill, and he vows to protect her. Somewhere down the line, they end up falling in love, which is forbidden on both of their ends. But also, with it comes a whole lot of distrust.

Content Warnings

The Glitch by Leeanne Slade

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funny hopeful lighthearted sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

~~SOILERS AHEAD~~

Book Review:

I am a massive fan of Leeanne Slade, so I was very excited to see that she had released another book. But honestly, I wasn’t really feeling the characters in this novel.

I was so disappointed by Henry’s character! I really wanted to love him, I really did, and for a while, he did have my heart. Slide writes the BEST book boyfriends, so when I got to the end of the book and found out what he did with Ally, I was so disappointed, because the other book boyfriends would never have done that. And having Henry ‘try to move on’ and get with a girl as soon as Grace says she’s not interested is despicable. At least let wounds heal, mate. And Grace wasn’t much better… ‘professionally flirting’? Are you having me on? Just talk to him! All of these books would be so much better if the characters just spoke to each other, like a healthy relationship would.

I did think, especially in their younger days, that their relationship was quite cute. How they would still have their career, but make time for each other. And when Grace was talking about the best sex of her life, and she came up with a different name for him, but Henry already knew because he was five years younger… OMG, I ate that up! That is so sweet! I also really liked Grace’s and Sasha’s relationship, and the fact that Grace helped guide her to have a child when she knew down the line Sasha would have fertility problems. Grace’s character arc is immense! Apart from with Henry - for some reason, she seems to digress with him. They’re both better off alone, honestly.

Minor nitpicks, I think the story went on for ages. Could have done with being a teeny tiny bit shorter. I wouldn’t have minded, but some of it felt a bit repetitive. Like what do you mean Grace is going to say she wants him, act like she does and then tell him they can’t, and this happens multiple times over the chapters? Please, girl, make up your mind. Also, this isn’t even a negative, but I think Ally should have ended up with Henry’s colleague the second time. I thought that was such a sweet storyline, and that would have settled my aching heart. Although, we did get Dottie and Althea together (called it, btw), so I suppose that will have to do!

Sweet story, a little bit of a supernatural or otherworldly plot, slow-burn romance between ex-lovers - sort of. Definitely give it a read!

Book Summary:

We follow Grace as she is living her life at 30. It’s her birthday, and her restaurant, The Lucky One, is, unfortunately, not making enough money to stay open. Her beloved workers made her a red velvet cake to celebrate her birthday, but now she has to tell them they have no job. Some of them have families. She didn’t give them any time to find a new job, so they are, rightfully, angry. They leave her to work the shift by herself. She then finds out her best friend, Sasha, has plans with her husband and her fertility doctor (don’t be cheeky) and won’t make it to their annual birthday celebrations. The last straw is her mum messaging her to tell her that her grandmother, Dottie, is in hospital. She has a difficult relationship with her parents, in that they were always too busy with their jobs for her. Her mum doesn’t tell her anything other than that, so she is left wondering what’s going on. The last straw is when she is on the escalator heading to her train, and her old love, Henry, is there on the other side. She could talk to him, and wants to, but he goes straight past her, and then gets on her train (after smashing her cake on the floor).

When she gets home, she gets incredibly drunk. She wants her life to go back to the way it was before it was messed up. Dottie is a very big believer in other-worldly experiences, so she has crystals that were gifted from her. She places them around her, and the next thing she knows, she’s passed out.

And when she wakes up, she is in the past, five years earlier.

As she comes to terms with the idea that she is actually 30 in a 25 year old’s body, she can’t forget anything that happened to her, and although tries to keep the timeline how it is, she makes a few necessary adjustments along the way. For example, she convinces Dottie to not fall out with her best friend, Althea - and, it turns out, they’re lovers all along! She also convinces her to get her chest checked out, which put her into the hospital in the first place. She also helps Sasha and her partner Roman to see a fertility doctor quicker, which meant that they were able to just about conceive their own child. However, she desperately wanted things to be different between her and Henry.

She can’t be hurt by him again.

Despite trying to avoid him, she keeps getting thrown into his life. He makes his interest known, but she keeps rebuffing him. She says she just got out a relationship (technically she had, although it was for the first 25th birthday she had) and was cheated on, so she doesn’t want another relationship. She meets Reese, who seems to hang around with her, and he takes things fast. Until he cheats on her in the club. Her and Henry dance to try and make him jealous, and they end up going their separate ways.

Grace and Henry eventually do get together, as Grace stops fighting them getting together and allows them to be happy, but she is scarred by her relationship all those years ago. Five years ago, Henry promised Grace, when she was on a catering job, that he wouldn’t break her heart. They moved quickly, and Henry had never loved someone so much. They both worked long shifts, with Grace opening up her own restaurant (a dream of hers) and Henry being a nurse. Henry does everything he can to support her, even giving her the money for his house deposit so she can keep her business. However, Grace, having been cheated on before, struggles to trust him. They start spending less and less time together. He tries to surprise her, but she tells him she won’t be home. He goes to see her, and she’s ‘professionally’ flirting with a customer. She assures Henry it was nothing, that the man was just rich and she was struggling financially. She promised to give Henry his money back, which is why she didn’t come to him. He was in a contract for another house, because she promised she would get him his money.

He was so hurt. Despite never drinking (his past made him not want to be that person) he went out and got drunk, so hurt that she had lied to him. Ally, his roommate and best friend, the only one who ever really understood him when he was in care, had just. Broken up with her douchey boyfriend - he wouldn’t even be her boyfriend, as he didn’t want the labels - she doesn’t want to hurt anymore, and kisses him. She tries to hook up with him, and that’s when Grace enters.

It’s the last time he sees her.

Until he’s Dotty’s nurse. She’s dying, having never sorted out her condition like she said she would. She says to him that she’s going to reverse time, go back to five years ago when everything was okay with them. He didn’t believe it. However, when she passed, he woke up five years in the past, and he was shocked.

He tried everything to get Grace to believe him that he had changed, and Grace tried to change everything so that she could be better for him. But it still wasn’t working. Until they were honest. They spoke to each other. Grace apologised about his money, and Henry apologised for lying about his parents, and for what he did with Ally. They were meant to be with each other. So, with Grace about to go off to New York to own her own restaurant under her favourite chef, she is delighted to find out that he is coming with her. That he wants to find a house with her, not without her. And they are going to be okay.

Content Warnings

The Seventh Victim by Michael Wood, Mathew Horne, Joanne Froggatt

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

~~SPOILERS AHEAD~~

Book Review:

This book I actually really enjoyed. I thought the plot twist was magnificent, and I’m glad that my suspicions were correct! Wood’s books pan out over a long period of time, which I’m not usually a fan of, but I think it works quite well in this case.

I love the characters. Diane, Caroline and Alex, the trio I never knew I needed. I love how far all of them come, especially Diane - that bit at the end, with her husband? LOVE! I need more of that in books. I can never understand how people can ruin everyone else’s lives around them, just to keep their own secret safe. Diane’s husband (I’ll be honest, I can’t remember his name) was having an affair, granted it’s bad, but is it worth killing your own child over? And also, he left Diane for that same woman mere months after Zachary was killed, so it doesn’t take a genius to put two and two together, and know that he was cheating. What a spineless bastard.

I felt very uncomfortable whenever Jonathon was mentioned, which is awful, but Wood did such a good job at making such a detestable character, and I feel like that’s quite difficult to do. However, I despise Jamie - ironically, more than I do Jonathon. I think he is a nasty piece of work. I love my girl Caroline so much, and I think I don’t really see what Jamie is doing as anything but controlling, rather than comforting. I just wanted to get that off my chest.

The plot is fantastic, the plot twist even better, the twists and turns of the novel keep you so intrigued, and the characters and their arcs are so so SO good! The only minor point I have is that the novel went on and ON for a while, sometimes it was repeated, so it could have been made a bit shorter. Often, I was waiting for something to happen, and it would take ages to get to the other point. Other than that, a fabulous read.

Book Summary:

We start off the book as Jonathon tries to steal a child, Sam, waiting for his mother in the playground. She’s never late, but due to insane amounts of traffic, she is today. When she gets there, it is raining, and all the teachers are gone. In the distance, she can see someone walking away, hand in hand with her Sam. He tries to run off with him, but the mother manages to apprehend him, and they get him arrested.

When they go into Jonathon’s flat, they find clothes from a load of other children. There’s a pattern with his victims, they soon find out. The victims are often ‘taken care of’, washed, enclosed in a white sheet, buried in shallow graves, for dog walkers to find. They are often always near their homes. Jonathon targeted families that were unhappy, with neglected children. He wants to give them a better life. He befriends them, they trust him, and then he rapes them and ends them in a humane (!) way. So far, he has over 10 victims, and they keep finding these tiny graves buried all over the country, but he never admits to anything.

They form a support group, the parents of the victim’s of Jonathon, in a way to cope. Most have found their child’s, their little boy’s, body, and now they have closure and somewhere concrete to rest him. Unfortunately, for Diane Marshall, that isn’t the case. Her boy, Zachary, was thought to be the seventh victim of Jonathon’s, but yet they never found anything linking him to the murder. Diane and her mother write to Jonathon all the time, trying to get him to tell them where Zach’s body is hidden, so Diane can move on. Her ex-husband, who had an affair during Zachary’s disappearance and then left her and built another family, has already moved on without her, but she can’t move on until she has closure.

Unfortunately, when Jonathon dies in prison, after being diagnosed with cancer, the secret of where Zach’s body is buried goes to the grave with him. That is, until, Diane finally receives a letter from his in his death. In the letter, Jonathon admits to all the murders, all except one… Zachary’s.

Everyone says the letter is a sham, that Jonathon was manipulative and that he’s just sending her on another giant goose chase. Unfortunately, though, Diane hasn’t moved on, and needs to. She has another son, Marcus, who is married to Greta and they have a child together, but because of her attachment to Zachary, their relationships are stunted. She intends to investigate the letter. Caroline Turner, who was an integral part of Jonathon being charged in the police station (now, ironically, retired as a dog walker, after the Jonathon case took its toll on her) is sought out by Diane, who asks, pleads, for her help. She ends up saying yes, and inviting her journalist friend, Alex, who wrote a book on Jonathon, to help uncover the secret as to who killed Zachary.

They interview everyone close to the family, and try to find things left from Jonathon’s will to help them find Zach. They go up and down the country, talking to people and exploring leads. When they are taken to a holiday cottage, somewhere hidden, they expect to find him there. Although they find victims, it is not the victim they are looking for. They are being threatened from every angle, property being damaged and cars set on fire, threatening notes. Caroline, who was harassed by Jonathon when he was alive, is having issues with her husband, Jamie, because of her still looking into the case. Alex, whose wife was targeted by an ex-lover of Jonathon and now remains in a coma, also is finding it difficult, especially when they make the decision to remove her from her life support. They think that it’s that same woman who targets them now, but when they find out she’s dead, they don’t know what to think.

Diane’s husband goes missing one day. His partner (who’s much younger than him) phones up, wondering if she’s seen him. Her and her husband haven’t got on for years now, and he’s been adamant that she should drop looking into the letter, until he decided that he still loved her, and they were having an affair. That’s why Diane went after him. She found him on the roof of his work, and he admits to killing Zach. He saw him leaving Beth’s house, when he was having an affair, and Zach said he was going to tell. He shook him, he lost his footing, and he hit his head. He was dead. Whilst he was orchestrating a search to find Zach, he already knew that he was dead, and had his body on the drive in his van. Diane is shocked, and her world ends. She tells him to do everyone a favour and jump. So he does.

When Diane rings up, she tells them that her husband committed the murder of her son, and then took his own life. Alex thinks he knows better, because her husband screams, and people who commit suicide generally don’t tend to scream. However, they find Zach’s body, dig him up, and Diane gets the closure she needs. She now has a proper place to bury him, and can try and move on. As can everyone else, of course.

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xabbeylongx's reviews 167 reviews

xabbeylongx's reviews
167 reviews