Hello 2018!

I know, it's April. The first 3 months of this year have been somewhat of a blur. As any busy parent knows, time flies when you have so much to do! Add to that the ever-growing Fibromyalgia struggle and a hospital stay for iron-deficiency and before you know it, we have reached the second quarter of the year without a single blog post!

Fear not, I have still been glued to my Kindle (in between my business, starting a totally new business and the odd few Netflix binges!). I have read some incredible books over the last few months, some of which I will be blogging about this week, plus I have a whole host of new authors on my list to try out this month.

Happy Easter everyone! I'll be spending the rest of the weekend updating the blog and cracking on with the reading, with a cuppa and an egg of course!

Rachael
xo

Latest read...

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House UK for the advance copy.

I was looking forward to this after reading The Bone Field a while ago, which was the first in the series. I love a good detective thriller, especially when it's on home soil, and some of the action in the first book took place in my beloved home of Wales.

I was excited to discover it would be a series, and waited eagerly for the next instalment. I am pleased to say that it didn't disappoint and only served to remind me how much I thoroughly enjoyed the first book.

The Hanged Man by Simon Kernick
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved the first instalment, The Bone Field and The Hanged Man has followed up brilliantly. Ray Mason has a character not unlike that of Mark Billingham's Thorne; a hard-nosed, experienced London cop who isn't afraid to bend the rules a little and it makes for exciting reading. The Hanged Man has a fantastic plot, expertly executed by Kernick and I am looking forward to more adventures with Mr Mason.

View all my reviews

Pre-order The Hanged Man today...

And so she returned...

Hello fellow readers. It's been a while. Over two months now, in fact. I have dearly missed blogging and reading some of the lovely feedback I get from my readers. Fear not, I am still lurking in the community and I am still reading, perhaps less ferociously than before, but reading nonetheless. A family of 5, life sometimes gets in the way!

I would like to share with you some of what I have read over the last few months, which, as you will notice, is mostly non-fiction, a genre I haven't really blogged about much before. Sometimes I think non-fiction requires a certain frame of mind, or headspace. I have read lots of non-fiction over the years, particularly in the self-help and business sections and I very rarely encounter a book that I don't like.

I cannot tell you how I came to read this first novel. I am a massive fan of Queen and grew up in the late eighties and early nineties so Freddie Mercury & Co. featured heavily in my childhood. I read a news piece a while back about the upcoming biopic of Freddie's life and came across Somebody To Love by Mark Langthorne and Matt Richards. I jumped in, expecting a standard look at the life of a famous rock star in the 70s and 80s but instead, what I found was a pretty in-depth history lesson on the AIDS epidemic, and it's devastating effect on one of the World's biggest stars.

It truly fascinated me and led me into many, many documentaries, books and articles on HIV and AIDS. It was bordering on obsession at times, this thirst for knowledge and understanding of something that has always been present for me but never really comprehended. If you have any understanding of the Myers-Briggs personality types you probably wouldn't have a hard time figuring out that I am an INTJ and when we stumble upon a topic, we have to pursue it to it's end. It's a dogged and unrelenting trait that I often loathe because, in the moment, all else is forsaken and forgotten. When you are a parent of three children, their needs have to come first and so it is often frustrating for an INTJ to have to put certain pursuits on the back-burner whilst tending to responsibilities.

It is this dogged research that has kept me busy the past few weeks, and only now that I feel I have exhausted the topic can I move on with my newly acquired knowledge and opinions. So, I am back to the real world, back to some of my favourite fictional genres and back to writing some views and reviews on what Rachael is reading next.

Until next time...

Rachael xo

Some of what I've been reading and watching...

What a week!

Hello readers!

It's been a busy week here! Not managed to read as much as I would like, and been a little pre-occupied with a possible new venture! I will keep you posted on that.

I have almost finished my current read, The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. This is another that has been on my to-read list for ages. I still don't know how it ends, but I have really enjoyed it so far. The reviews I have read have been a bit like Marmite. People seem to either love it or hate it. But one thing almost everyone agrees on is how beautifully it is written.

Hoping to finish it tonight, so keep your eyes peeled for my rating and short review.

Rachael xo

Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible...

So, you may have noticed already, but I've been a little quieter than normal on the blog! Fear not fellow literature lovers, I am still here! I have been inundated with book review requests, end of term madness, (normality with 3 children!) and taken some time out to actually read the books I need to review! (It does help if you actually read them first, trust me!)

This is just a little update for you. My current read is The Roanoake Girls by Amy Engel. It's been on my 'to-read' pile for quite a few months now and I am enjoying it immensely. My last read was the amazing Lie to Me by J T Ellison. I was fortunate to receive an advance copy and gave it the 5 stars it fully deserved. A brilliant psychological thriller, perfect for fans of Gone Girl, kept me guessing until the end.

My next post will be a short review of The Roanoake Girls once I have finished it. I will then be moving on to a few independent authors of differing genres, so watch this space for details.

Rachael xo