What Rachael Reads

The Dead Tracks by Tim Weaver My rating: 5 of 5 stars Read this for the second time four years later. Increased my rating from 4 to 5 stars. Fantastic book and I love the series. David Raker is an incredible character - a bit like a Smartie; hard as nails on the outside but incredibly soft on the inside, driven by emotion and the events of his past. The Dead Tracks is gripping, thrilling and creepy. Weaver has transformed modern London into a Victorian dystopia here, in a Jack the Ripper style mystery, meshed with more contemporary crimes. The Dead Tracks setting really gives you a feeling of wanting to satisfy curiosity, but also stay away from the danger. You can almost feel the tension through the pages, and I was genuinely both saddened and impressed to discover that the location described as The Dead Tracks, doesn't exist in real life. Tim has expertly brought it to life and created the perfect setting for the grisly storyline. 5 stars and on to the next in the series. 😊 ...

 Just a short update this Monday evening to remind any of you lovely readers that the blog is back! (And very much still under construction!) I am using my non-reading, non-reviewing, non-working, non-parenting time to learn a few skills, including web design; so watch this space!  In the meantime, I am currently re-reading the David Raker series by Tim Weaver. I first came across the series around 4 years ago, and there may (or may not) be a previous blog post about it because I loved it! I saw a post on Twitter last week advertising the latest release in the series and having just finished the Kate Marshall series by Robert Bryndza, I thought it's probably a great time to start the Raker series all over again to really dig deep into the character. When you read (or binge watch) a series consecutively, I feel like you really get to know the characters on a deeper level and you don't have that time lapse in between where you can forget some of their quirks and flaws. I raced t...

I can't believe it's been over two years since my last post. I feel like I'm sitting at a Confessional right now! Lol. Do people even say "lol" on blogs now? Who knows? Anyway, what a crazy two years it has been. Life has taken some pretty unexpected turns since my last post, and some pretty unexpected turns for most of the developed world in 2020 with the arrival of COVID-19. Yes, I said the c-word. Let's face it, it's pretty inevitable right now that any form of life update or even regular conversation will include at least one reference to coronavirus. April 2018 was the last time I posted. I left you on the cusp of a new business venture, which, although short-lived, I very much enjoyed. I had endured a health scare at the beginning of that year and had begun to make some changes to my lifestyle, mainly diet-related, and had already started to lose some of the weight that I had gained over the previous 18 months or so. Thankfully this weight loss and l...

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

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 adventu...