Ben and Sally by Oliver Sparshot

Ben has ditched his entire life to move to London, and Sally needs a roommate. A match made in heaven? Maybe not - because Ben is more interested in sleeping in other men's beds than finding one of his own, and Sally is probably the worst housemate in the entire city!

Based on a real life diary, this funny, heart-warming and true story leaves NOTHING to the imagination.

Okay, so this book opens with a bang (literally by the way)! I was gutted I missed out on being on the tour, so I decided to buy it on release day and read it as quick as I could. It is absolutely hilarious, and down right rude! In a good way though.

I love the way each chapter starts with a little text conversation between Ben and Sally (& Kate), and it had me guessing for so long as to who Kate was, we find out about halfway through the story, and it made so much sense! I love both Ben and Sally, and think they would just be perfect friends. Ben’s mother also plays a brilliant role, and has some smashing crack.

There were so many laugh out loud parts, at one point I even snorted and the dog looked at me funny! The best line from the story is ‘Yes! It’s too much for a fucking ice cream.’ This was the snorty part.

Along with all the laughs is a whole butt load of sex (don’t pardon the pun, the pun was intentional), and boy oh boy is it graphic! But don’t let that put you off, as the story is just brilliant, a hoot and a half. 

I’m really looking forward to season 2, and I’m definitely going to try to jump on the tour for that one (so keep me informed Instabooktourstours!!)

Falling by T.J Newman

You just boarded a flight to New York.

There are one hundred and forty-three other passengers onboard.

What you don't know is that thirty minutes before the flight your pilot's family was kidnapped.

For his family to live, everyone on your plane must die.

The only way the family will survive is if the pilot follows his orders and crashes the plane.

Enjoy the flight.

I read this with my friend Kath, I love our buddy reads as we always chat loads.

Well if this book isn’t gripping then I don’t know what the hell is! I was glued. I read the first 8 chapters, then stopped to let Kath catch up. But once we both started properly again, we had to finish. I raced through the last 100 or so pages in one morning as I just couldn’t put it down!

The book all takes place within 6 hours I think, either on the plane or down on the ground with the Bad Guy, and the pilot’s family. All I kept thinking was what would I do in this situation. The pilot is amazing, Bill his name is. I loved reading his parts, trying to figure out what he was going to do, how he was feeling, and how was he staying so calm? There were so many times me or Kath messaged each other saying things like ‘OMG ch8’! OMG ch 18’.

Honestly I’d recommend everyone read this, what a debut novel it is! Fast paced, edge of your seat thriller. Very exciting read . Well done Ms Newman… I don’t know if I’ll fly again!

How To Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie

I have killed several people (some brutally, others calmly) and yet I currently languish in jail for a murder I did not commit.

When I think about what I actually did, I feel somewhat sad that nobody will ever know about the complex operation that I undertook. Getting away with it is highly preferable, of course, but perhaps when I'm long gone, someone will open an old safe and find this confession. The public would reel.

After all, almost nobody else in the world can possibly understand how someone, by the tender age of 28, can have calmly killed six members of her family. And then happily got on with the rest of her life, never to regret a thing.

How To Kill Your Family was Tsundoku Squads May read. We done this one a little different, one of us found a book group app where comments are hidden until you click the post. So we decided to make little chats for each chapter so we could choose which ones to discuss when we wanted.

This meant though some of us finished the book quickly, so we had to catch up on others comments when we were done. I liked doing it this way, it meant I could get on with reading the book instead of pieces each week, I think it helped me enjoy it more.

I gave this book 5 stars, I loved it. It was a bit far fetched at times but I think that added to the excitement. I realised I was rooting for the main character the whole time, and she’d offed most of her family, she was not a good person! The killings are all different, one was extremely strung out and a lot of work went into it. Others were still researched but happened a little quicker.

I was a little disappointed with the end but not enough to lower the rating I gave it. I’d recommend this one, a funny book with some mad twists.

Check out Em’s collective group thoughts over on her blog emandherbooks.com

Book Tour - The Setup by Lizzy Dent

There are two men in my life. But this is not a love triangle.

Mara Williams reads her horoscope every day - but she wasn't expecting to be in a whole other country when destiny finally found her. Just as a fortune teller reveals that her true love is about to arrive, a gorgeous stranger literally walks into her life. And now Mara is determined to bring them together again . . . Surely even fate needs a nudge in the right direction sometimes?

But while Mara is getting ready for 'the one', the universe intervenes. Her new flatmate Ash is funny, and kind, and sexy as hell . . . There was no predicting this: it's as if her destiny just arrived on her doorstep.

So will Mara put her destiny in fate's hands - or finally trust herself to reach for the stars?

I was very excited when this book dropped through my door, I loved The Summer Job and love being part of Lizzy’s Lobster Army!

I ended up giving The Setup 3.5 stars. I was drawn in at first, but felt the second half dwindled a bit. I liked Mara, but at times I found her quite annoying. There were things she done which I just thought probably wasn’t a good idea. I loved the fact that she started concentrating on herself, making herself feel better etc.

 I loved the character of Ash, and found him a very kind person. I also really liked Joseph, the gorgeous stranger, I loved the idea of him being in the orchestra, and I imagined him like someone’s from 2 Cellos. 

I know who I was rooting for throughout the story, I wonder if you were or will root for the same person!

Thanks to Viking Books for my beautiful proof, and for asking me to be on the tour. Good luck to Lizzy for the release!

BLOG TOUR - Wild Fires by Sophie Jai

Grief is like an inside joke: you have to have been there to really get it.

The only things Cassandra knows about her family are the stories she's heard in snatches over the years: about the aunt and cousin she never got to meet, about the man from the folded-up photograph in one of her aunt's drawers, and of course about her cousin Chevy, and why he never speaks - but no one utters a word about them any more.

When a call from one of her sisters brings Cassandra news of Chevy's death, she has to return home for the funeral. To Toronto and the big house on Florence Street, where her sisters are hiding more than themselves in their rooms, where the tension brewing between her mother and aunts has been decades in the making, and where sooner or later every secret, unspoken word and painful memory will find its way out into the open.

Moving between Toronto and Trinidad, Wild Fires is a vivid and compelling story exploring the ways we mourn and why we avoid the very things that can save us.

I was very excited to be on the tour for Wild Fires, and love the beautiful physical copy HarperCollins sent me.

Wild Fires is a story of grief, it delves so deep into how grief and death effect everyone differently. I loved the character Cass, and I loved her mother. What a character her mother was! I did laugh out loud at a couple of phrases she used, I could picture her perfectly in my head. Big, headstrong, no nonsense woman, who wouldn’t be afraid to smack you round the head if you were cheeky.

Cassandra’s family seemed so shrouded in mystery and secrets, and I loved figuring things out from the past. I particularly enjoyed the parts which went back to the past, to Trinidad, when the aunts were young, getting jobs, meeting boys etc. The sound of the fresh food in the store, the colours and the heat. Made me want to be there. 

I think you’d like this book, it stays with you for a while after. Try it. 

Thanks again to HarperCollins for letting me join the tour, and the book. And of course to Sophie Jai for writing it.

Isaac and the Egg by Bobby Palmer

 

A young man walks into the woods on the worst morning of his life and finds something there that will change everything.

It's a tale that might seem familiar. But how it speaks to you will depend on how you've lived until now.

Sometimes, to get out of the woods, you have to go into them. Isaac and the Egg is one of the most hopeful, honest and wildly imaginative novels you will ever read.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley and the publisher Headline Books, in return for an honest review. 

I’ve had my eye on this book for quite a while now, the minute I saw it on Twitter I knew I wanted to read it. So when I was approve on Netgalley after months of waiting for it to be there, I was so excited.

I devoured this book over 2 days, if I hadn’t been so tired the first day and kept falling asleep I would have read it in one sitting. But finishing the last 50% while I was on the exercise bike, was not the best idea. By the end I could barely see through the sweat, and the many amounts of tears I cried reading the final chapters.

This is a beautiful story of grief, loss, love, and acceptance. The relationship between Isaac and the Egg is a lovely one, and it grows so much in ever so slight ways, that you don’t realise for a while they’ve gone from acquaintances to friends. I loved getting to know Egg, his funny little language, and the helpful things he tries to do for Isaac. The toaster scene made my smile. 

I really think everyone should read this book, and I think if you have been struggling with some grief or loss in your life, you might even find a bit of comfort in it. Thank you Bob Palmer, for bringing Isaac and the Egg into my life.

Thanks again to Headline Books for my arc copy, Netgalley, and of course Mr Palmer for breaking my heart, then mending it again.