Book Review: The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz

The House of Silk
by Anthony Horowitz
Orion Books
Mystery/Detective/Historical
The New Sherlock Holmes
4 stars

Blurb:

It is November 1890 and London is gripped by a merciless winter. Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson are enjoying tea by the fire when an agitated gentleman arrives unannounced at 221b Baker Street. He begs Holmes for help, telling the unnerving story of a scar-faced man with piercing eyes who has stalked him in recent weeks.

Intrigued, Holmes and Watson find themselves swiftly drawn into a series of puzzling and sinister events, stretching from the gas-lit streets of London to the teeming criminal underworld of Boston and the mysterious 'House of Silk'...

Review:

I've read some children's books by Anthony Horowitz and he wrote some of my favourite episodes of Robin of Sherwood in the 80s, so I was intrigued by this new Sherlock Holmes mystery written by him. It's been a while since I've read original Holmes, but I have to say that the story Horowitz has written had the same mysterious, intriguing feel as the originals. He has an excellent eye for description, but without going overboard. You can see what the characters see.

There are quite a few different strands that at first seem unconnected: Mr. Carstairs, an art dealer being stalked by the strange scarred man, the murder of one of the street boys Holmes uses as his eyes and ears, a wrongful arrest and the mysterious House of Silk. But as the story progresses, you see how the threads are all connected. I loved seeing how they all merged.

Reading the book you are transported back to Victorian London and surrounding countryside, but without it ever becoming a history lesson. It has a good sense of time and place, but I'm not so sure about the guns. There seemed to be an awful lot of guns about in this tale, were they really that easy to get hold of in Victorian London? The characters are well-drawn, well-rounded so that you could almost imagine talking with them.

I enjoyed the book, but I would have enjoyed it far more if I hadn't guessed what the House of Silk was quite early in the book. It may be that I've read too many mysteries and so it is very difficult to surprise me. I was disappointed that I had guessed correctly, I wanted to be proven wrong, with some outlandish theory from Holmes, but alas, that was not to be. There was one secret I didn't guess, so it was nice to be surprised on that one - and no I'm not going to give it away!

All in all, it's a good yarn well-told and I hope he writes some more Sherlock Holmes in future.

Reviewed by Annette Gisby

Book Review: The Caregiver by Astrid Cruz

Review copy supplied by author
The Caregiver
by Astrid Cruz
Book 1 of the Caregiver Series
Thriller/Crime/Romance
3.5 stars
ebook available now from amazon and smashwords

Blurb:

Scarlett Lang always dreamt of becoming an Interpol agent. When her hard work pays off and she's given the chance to work as an undercover agent with London's biggest drug lord, Armand Sayer, she can't help being ecstatic about it.

She's employed by Armand's sister (to aid in his recovery from a gun attack) as both caregiver and bodyguard. Her resourcefulness in both areas helps her win much more than Armand's trust, to the dismay of both his right-hand man and her ex-boyfriend / colleague.

As she makes her way into the business she swore to help tear down, she's faced with the dilemma of choosing between being loyal to her profession or her heart. And we all know it can't be both.

Review:

I'm in two minds about this book. On the one hand you have an interesting story and fascinating characters that you want to find more about but on the other some of the facts just don't sit right. From what I could discover, Interpol doesn't send undercover agents around the world, they work with the police in each country, it's the country's own police/detectives/agents who would handle arrests etc. and work undercover.

This book is set in the UK, but that was hard to discern. The names didn't sound very English and there were a lot of guns about, even with a story about drug dealers. Guns just don't play that big a part in the UK, even with criminals. More knife crimes would be more realistic in the book than guns. Then, when Scarlett and Armand went to a restaurant in London, the keys were handed to a valet. I have never seen anywhere in the UK with valet parking. Not to say it doesn't exist, I've just never seen it. Maybe I need to go to some better restaurants ;) It seems the author wanted to set the book in the UK, but a lot of it seemed very American to me. Not that that was a bad thing, it just jars a bit when you were expecting something more English-ey.

I did like the book and I loved Scarlett as a tough, no-nonsense woman. Too often in crime thrillers the woman is just there as decoration, not so here. Scarlett holds her own. Armand, I'm not so sure of. The romance between them seemed to happen suddenly, without any hint of foreshadowing. I think it might have worked better with Armand as Scarlett's mentor rather than lover. Personally I just didn't get the romance between them at all. But maybe that's just me, I was never one to fall for the 'bad boy' mentality.

It is a well paced and plotted book and is a fast read, but a bit of a let down with the cliffhanger ending. Even if it's part of a series, I like books to have a good, solid ending. It's good, but could have been so much better with a bit more research.

Reviewed by Annette Gisby.

Book Review: Shelf Life: Fantastic Stories Celebrating Bookstores

ARC From Netgalley
Shelf Life: Fantastic Stories Celebrating Bookstores
Edited by Greg Ketter
Introduction by Neil Gaiman
4 stars

Blurb:

Bookstores are the greatest places on earth, yet there's never been an anthology devoted just to them. Here are sixteen stories, fourteen original to this anthology, each of which includes a bookstore at its core. Science fiction, fantasy and horror. Authors included are David Bischoff, P.D. Cacek, Ramsey Campbell, Charles de Lint, Marianne de Pierres, Harlan Ellison, Rick Hautala, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Gerard Houarner, John J. Miller, A.R. Morlan, Lisa Morton, Melanie Tem, Patrick Weekes, Jack Williamson, Gene Wolfe. Introduction by Neil Gaiman. Cover art by John Picacio.

Review:

Anyone who knows me knows I love books and bookshops and here we have an anthology where the bookshop is the setting for each of the stories. All the stories are different, but each have an element of the fantastic. They range from SF, to Horror, to fantasy to some with a fairy tale feel. From stories set in Nazi Germany to stories with kittens who can read. As with any anthology, you tend to prefer some stories over others, but all of them are good here. One of my favoruites was The Hemmingway Kittens, even though I'm not really a cat person, but they were just so cute. I didn't even know they were an actual breed, so I learned something too.

This is a great collection for anyone who loves books, it would make an ideal gift for a bibliophile. My one niggle is to do with the editing - some typos and the wrong words used take you out of a story very quickly. Things like 'an' instead of 'and' for example. But still a good read.

Reviewed by Annette Gisby

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

Reviewer's purchased copy.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
by J. K. Rowling
Fantasy
Signature Edition
Bloomsbury
5 Stars

Blurb:

Harry Potter is midway through his training as a wizard and his coming of age. Harry wants to get away from the pernicious Dursleys and go to the International Quidditch Cup. He wants to find out about the mysterious event that's supposed to take place at Hogwarts this year, an event involving two other rival schools of magic, and a competition that hasn't happened for a hundred years. He wants to be a normal, fourteen-year-old wizard. But unfortunately for Harry Potter, he's not normal - even by wizarding standards. And in his case, different can be deadly.

Review:

Books aimed at children or the YA market don't usually appeal to me, so I was surprised how much I enjoyed the Harry Potter books, and still do. I first got into it when we went to a midnight showing of the first film and my husband bought me a set of the Harry Potter books for my birthday. There were five then and he didn't know what he'd started! I was hooked and am a big fan and waited eagerly for the last two.

Because I am a fan, it's difficult to write a review without too much gushing, but I have to admit that I loved Goblet of Fire and I re-read it quite a bit. Here, we get to see Harry, Ron and Hermione growing up and navigating the choppy waters of adolescence, with arguments, heartache and facing up to the fact that no one is safe from Voldemort.

Harry and Ron's attempts at finding dates for the Yule Ball were hilarious with just the right tone of akwardness and humour. The romance parts I could take or leave really, but you do feel for Harry when he finally gets up the courage to ask Cho to the ball but she's already going with Cedric. That was very realistic.

There was so much to love about this book - the Triwizard Tournament, Quidditch world cup, dragons, secret discoveries, learning more about the Death Eaters and Voldemort's past. It was a long book but as I was reading it for the first time (before the film came out) I really couldn't see what they should cut. Every scene seemed essential to me, from Ron's old-fashioned dress-robes and his falling out with Harry over being chosen as a champion, to Hermione seeking emancipation for the house-elves. They cut the house-elf storyline for the film, but I loved it in the book and it lets you find out more about Hermione too.

Some of the book is quite light and jolly, like Harry getting to see the Quidditch world cup for the first time and the Yule Ball, but the book sets a darker tone towards the end. I like how things were set up before hand, such as Harry discovering about Portkeys on the way to the world cup and how they play a part much later on. It's like parts of the book have been set out like a giant jigsaw puzzle and it's only as you get near to the end that you see how they all fit together as a whole.

The writing is simplistic, but that same simplicity draws you in and before you know it you've read 200 pages and have to stop because you need some sleep, but really, you just want to keep reading to see what happens next. Even though I've read it before. My husband asks why I re-read things that I've read before and know the story, well for the Harry Potter books, the answer is simple: I love Harry as a character and every time I'm re-reading the books, it's like getting to know a friend all over again. Will I still be re-reading the Harry Potter books in ten years time? I don't know for sure, but I'd like to think so.

The Goblet of Fire is a great, escapist read.

Reviewed by Annette Gisby

Book Review: The Devil Will Come by Glenn Cooper

The Devil Will Come
by Glenn Cooper
Conspiracy/Thriller
Arrow Books
3.5 Stars
Reviewer Purchased copy.

Blurb:

A terrifying secret.A shocking discovery has been made deep within Rome's ancient catacombs. One that the Vatican is determined must never be made public – for the sake of all mankind.

A deadly conspiracy.But there are others who want to keep the truth hidden for far more sinister reasons, others who believe that not only are the church and the faith of a billion at threat, but life as we know it is about to be destroyed – for ever. And only one woman – a young Italian nun – can save us...

The nightmare is about to begin...


Review:

I've read and enjoyed Glenn Cooper's other books and am eagerly awaiting the next book in the Library Trilogy. As with his other novels, the book is fast-paced, filled with interesting characters and divides the narrative between different timelines, in this one that is ancient Rome, present day Rome and Elizabethan England.

The modern day story deals with the death of the pope and the election of a new one as well as the discovery of skeletons in the catacombs of men, women and children who all seemed to suffer some terrible fate. They all had one thing in common besides the manner of their death - they all had tails. Who were they? Why were they killed and are their descendants still around today? And what has the prophecy of Malachy, twelfth century Irish saint got to do with it all?

I don't mind a book changing timelines but with this one the parts on ancient Rome were my least favourite and the weakest in the book. They didn't seem to be part of a novel, but more of a history report and that let it down for me. There were lots of historical facts, but we were told them, not shown them. I couldn't get to grips with the characters in that part, they were just names on a page to me.

The parts on Elizabethan England were my favourites, there we got more inside the heads of the characters, especially the playwright, Christopher Marlowe. It was interesting having a nun, Elisabetta, as the lead character in the modern day parts and I really liked her. She is sympathetic without becoming a token female in distress who has to be saved, here it's Elisabetta doing the saving.

An interesting read let down a bit by the execution of the parts in ancient Rome.

Reviewed by Annette Gisby

Book Review: Amy Red Riding's Hood

Amy 'Red' Riding's Hood
by Liz Adams
Adult Fairy Tale/Erotica/Short Novella
Barany Publishing
Available for Kindle
Review copy supplied by author.

4 Stars

Now, first off, I don't normally go for shifter stories and I've avoided M/F erotica for a while as a lot of it just seemed to be thinly disguised porn. So, why might you ask, did I read Amy's 'Red' Riding's Hood? Well, I do have a soft spot for fairy tale retellings, especially adult retellings. After all, fairy tales were originally written for adults, not children.

And I have to say with Amy's 'Red' Riding's Hood, I was pleasantly surprised. Amy Riding, our heroine, is fed up with being a virgin and after a disaster with the blacksmith's son, who failed to rid her of it, she sets her sights on Sean, her childhood friend who also happens to be a Lycan. Sean is the epitome of the Alpha male and very hot to boot. Amy is not some trembling wallflower, though, far from it. She knows what she wants and goes right after it.

But there is a lot of prejudice against Lycans and humans getting together, so if they want to be together, they will need to fight for it.

The story is well-paced and the characters have depth you don't expect to find in such a short story. Even the side characters are well-drawn, Amy's parents and her aunt mostly. Most of the time the writing gives a very old-fashioned fairy tale flavour, but there were some words that jarred me out of it a bit, such as using OK. I also didn't like the use of the word (children close your eyes here!) 'pussy'. I just kept thinking of a cat when it appeared. Not what you need in a love scene. The love scenes are erotic and fit in with the characters, with emotional depth, not just physical reactions. Bodice-ripping could have been invented for this book.

Sean and Amy were distinct characters in their own right, not just a male and female body who have sex. I was glad we got to see some parts from Sean's point of view as well as Amy's, which gave the story a more rounded feel. There's even a bit of humour laced throughout the story too.

If you're looking for a romantic, erotic story without too much angst, then try this one. I'm glad I did. You'll be rooting for Amy and Sean.

Reviewed by Annette Gisby

Book Review: Altar of Bones by Philip Carter

Altar of Bones
by Philip Carter
Thriller/Conspiracy
Simon and Schuster
Reviewer's Purchased copy

4 stars

Blurb:

"They didn't have to kill him . . . he never drank from the altar of bones."

In San Francisco, a homeless woman is fatally stabbed by an assailant she's been expecting for years—and her cryptic last words unlock a decades-buried secret that changed history.

In Galveston, an old man makes a chilling death-bed confession—"I am not who you think I am"—that serves as a warning to his sons of danger and deception.

In Massachusetts, a cold-blooded female assassin makes an insidious pact with a corporate billionaire over a highly incriminating film.

Each of these people has ties with a woman who, decades ago, fled a Soviet prison camp with an ancient knowledge people would sell their souls to possess

Drawn in to this web of danger are Ry O'Malley, a man desperate to outrun his own deadly fate; and Zoe Dmitroff, a San Francisco attorney who recognizes the slain homeless woman—a woman she was told had died nearly half a century ago. No one can be trusted in the corrosive game of cat-and-mouse that ensues—one that spans a century, from the frozen Siberian terrain to the serpentine streets of Paris, from the shocking revelations of a doomed Hollywood legend to the deadly machinations of the KGB and the highest office of the United States . . . and ultimately to the guardians of an ancient religious icon ...

A priceless artifact worth killing for. The dark and unimaginable promise of a power that could change the world as we know it.

Review:

This was on roller-coaster of a book. The term page-turner hardly does it justice. I was hooked from the first page and just had to keep reading to find out what was going to happen next. Some if it I had guessed, which disappointed me a bit, I would have preferred it if the 'big kill' referred to in the book had been a not so famous kill already.

Nevertheless, the writing flows so well you just want to keep reading. It's a different sort of conspiracy, in that the reader knows quite early on what the altar of bones is and what it can dd. Maybe more mystery as to what it was would have been better because I, as a reader, prefer to discover things at the same time as the characters, rather than earlier than them.

Parts of it read like an action movie, but there is more depth in these 600 odd pages than a lot of films.

The characters were spot on, I adored Zoe and Ry, although I did feel the romance between them felt a bit forced. Just because we have a man and a woman forced together by circumstances as they evade the bad guys and find out the secrets of the altar of bones, doesn't mean they have to become romantically involved. It's not a rule or anything. Women will still read books even if there is no romance in it. Really.

Reviewed by Annette Gisby

Book Review: The Seventh Veil by Heidi Cullinan

The Seventh Veil
by Heidi Cullinan
Loose-Id
Fantasy, M/M, M/F, Romance, Erotic
Reviewer's Purchased Copy

4 Stars

Blurb:

As a bisexual bastard born to a country stuck in antiquated mores and ideals, Charles Perry had learned long ago to set his sights low: all he wants is a drink, a dram, and a whore of each gender to share them with. But strange visions haunt his dreams, and now the ghosts are following him into his waking hours. Charles must seek help from an alchemist or risk running mad. Charles’s House blood makes him a high prize in magical circles, so he’ll have to be careful.

But what the alchemist discovers in Charles's blood turns the whole world on its head. And in the arms of an exotic male pleasure slave, Charles will discover a destiny so huge it doesn't seem possible, but it's true. Charles Perry, noble bastard, is the lost consort of the Goddess of All Creation. And as the forces of darkness converge on him, Charles must learn to channel his power to save the world--or risk becoming the pawn that destroys it.

Review:

When a book's first scene takes place in a brothel, you know this is going to be interesting.

I really, really enjoyed this book. The prose was well-written, the characters were well-drawn and the world building was extensive. We have magic, alchemists, witches, gods and goddesses, demons and daemons, family secrets and betrayals. The love scenes were erotic without resorting to cheesy porno dialogue, which some books I've read have done.

So why only four stars?

Take a look at the cover, this book is obviously being marketed as M/M, isn't it? And yes, we do have an M/M couple, Charles, the bastard son of the noble Perry and Whitby families and the pleasure slave, Timothy. But here's the rub, the book is not focused on them and in fact the first love scene in the book (not counting Charles' time at the brothel) is between Jonathan, Charles' half-brother, and Madeline, an apprentice witch.

There are so many characters that I found it hard to keep track of who was who and once when the author mentioned Emily, I thought, is that a typo? Did the author mean Madeline? No, it was me who'd forgotten all about Emily, Madeline's sister. And now we have another couple's thread to keep track of, Emily and another one of Charles' half-brothers, Stephen (and I had to skim back through the book to remember his name, see what I mean about too many characters?)

From the blurb, this book sounded like it was going to be about Charles and Timothy and that's what I wanted. I was disappointed we got to see so little of them.

It's not that I don't like M/F romances, I do, I read and enjoy them too, but I was expecting this book to be an M/M romance and I was disappointed that it's not. To me, it reads more like traditional fantasy with romantic elements and we just happen to have some gay characters in it. Not what I was expecting.

Reviewed by Annette Gisby

Book Review: The White Devil by Justin Evans

The White Devil
by Justin Evans
Horror/Ghosts/Literary Fiction
Orion Books
3 Stars
Library Copy Reviewed
Blurb:

An elite public school. An outsider. Rumours of a haunting.


Fleeing expulsion and the death of a close friend, Andrew Taylor is sent by his father to spend his final year at the prestigious public school Harrow. It is an eccentric place, a rambling ancient building filled with the sons of the rich and famous. Shortly after he arrives, the other pupils notice Andrew's striking resemblance to Lord Byron, a former pupil of Harrow, and Andrew is persuaded to play Byron in the forthcoming school play.

This is where his troubles begin. Before long Andrew senses a malevolent presence. His fellow Harrovians joke about 'The Lot Ghost' but when a classmate dies, the haunting becomes all too real. Soon another classmate falls ill and Andrew discovers old letters hidden in a bricked-up basement. Aided by his housemaster Piers Fawkes - a once famous poet turned alcoholic - Andrew realises he must discover the secret history behind the letters to prevent further deaths.


Review:
The ghost mystery plot is well done. Who is the ghost? What does he want? Why is he being drawn to Andrew most of all? Why are people getting ill and dying? The reader finds out these things at the same time as Andrew, so we feel drawn into the story and relate to the characters. I also loved finding out more about Lord Bryon too.

I really enjoyed it right up until Persephone Vine appeared. I thought to myself, are you really going to go there? Really, Mr. Evans? To the most clichéd love interest ever? The only girl at an all-boys school, daughter of one of the teachers, who disapproves of Andrew, of course? That was where you lost a lot of my attention. I've seen that too many times for it to interest me.

I did read and finish the book because I wanted to know what happened with the ghost, but the love story parts between Persephone an Andrew just seemed shoehorned in. It was as if the author had written the book, then realised he hadn't written a girl and needed to go back and put her in somewhere. Since the blurb mentions it was an all-boys school, I wasn't expecting any girls to be there and wouldn't have been disappointed with that, rather than have the stereotypical trope that we actually got. It would have been all right if I could sense Persephone as an individual character, but she just seemed a placeholder for Andrew to fall in love with, no other reason for her presence there.

Set an all-boys school, this could have been a good gay coming of age story (there is a lot of gay subtext in the book), but instead we got a clichéd love story which came across as rather lacklustre.

It was interesting, but not one I'd re-read.

Reviewed by Annette Gisby.

Book Review: The Druid Stone by Heidi Belleau and Violetta Vane

The Druid Stone
by Heidi Bellau and Violetta Vane
Carina Press
M/M Romance, Urban Fantasy, Myth, Legend, Ireland
5 stars
Review copy courtesy of the publisher via Netgalley.

Blurb:

Sean never asked to be an O'Hara, and he didn't ask to be cursed by one either.

After inheriting a hexed druid stone from his great-grandfather, Sean starts reliving another man's torture and death...every single night. And only one person can help.


Cormac Kelly runs a paranormal investigation business and doesn't have time to deal with misinformed tourists like Sean. But Sean has real magic in his pocket, and even though Cormac is a descendant of legendary druids, he soon finds himself out of his depth...and not because Sean's the first man he's felt anything for in a long time.


The pair develop an unexpected and intensely sexual bond, but are threatened at every turn when Sean's case attracts the unwelcome attention of the mad sidhe lords of ancient Ireland. When Sean and Cormac are thrust backward in time to Ireland's violent history--and their own dark pasts--they must work together to escape the curse and save their fragile relationship.

Review:

Ever since his great-grandfather gave him a strange stone, Sean O'Hara has been having the same nightmare every night. He relives again and again the torture and death of someone in the distant past. His sleep disturbed, his days getting more and more surreal as he tries to survive on little sleep and an array of pills, he's at his wits' end. Psychiatrists are no help but he thinks he might have found the solution: Cormac Kelly, an Irish druid.


Unfortunately, Cormac wants nothing to do with him. Emails and letters go unanswered. With nothing left to lose, Sean leaves Boston for Ireland to seek out the one man who is sure can help him. Cormac is reluctant to believe Sean at first, convinced he is one of those "plastic paddies", as he calls them, who think every hill holds a leprechaun or two, everyone drinks Guinness and there really is gold at the end of the rainbow.


But it's when Sean attracts the attention of a sidhe king, Finnbheara, that Cormac realises that perhaps Sean is really cursed after all.

Now, I'm not normally a fan of urban fantasy, but when I read the blurb for this one, I was drawn in with the references to Irish mythology. Being Irish myself, how could I resist? I'm glad I gave it a go, it was a wonderful tale.


Both Sean and Cormac have tortured pasts, which might have come off a bit of a cliché but there was nothing clichéd about this story, it was evocative and imaginative. It was very well-written and I couldn't tell which author wrote which part, it flowed so well.

Sometimes the romance between Cormac and Sean took a back-seat to the plot, which didn't bother me, I like a good bit of plot with my romance. This is certainly a roller-coaster ride of a plot. The book had a bit of everything: romance, adventure, ancient and mythical beings, magic and suspense. It was moving, romantic, funny and heart-wrenching in parts, everything a good novel should be.

I loved the characters, Sean and Cormac's pasts were just part of who they were, it didn't seem to be used as an excuse for cheap drama.

The book was great, I'm glad I read it, but there were a few little niggles that took me out of the story when I first read them. In a few scenes form Cormac's point of view, him being Irish, he referred to being "blocks from home" and walking on a sidewalk. I've never heard any Irish person refer to blocks, it should probably have been street or road. And no sidewalks either, it would have been pavement or footpath.
All in all an excellent read, especially if you like a good bit of plot with your romance.

Reviewed by Annette Gisby

Book Review: A Master's Love by Marty Rayne

A Master's Love
by Marty Rayne
M/M Romance, Erotic, BDSM
Loose-Id
amazon
Reviewer's purchased copy.

3.5 Stars

Blurb:
Nate Jacobs has his health, a roof over his head, food in his stomach, and a best friend to keep him grounded. What more does a Dominant need? That's what he always thought until Kyle Turner knocked on his door.

In a slump since his last break up, Kyle Turner decides to try something different. Angel's Heart. A House of Dominants. Kyle has no idea what to expect, but he definitely gets more than he bargained for when he puts himself at Nate's mercy. Literally.

Irresistible attraction draws Kyle deeper and deeper into Nate's world of domination and submission. But in order to find love, the Master will have to surrender and allow his submissive's love to dominate him.


Review:
    A Master's Love tells the story of Kyle and Nate. Kyle, who thinks there is something missing in life, decides to go to the fetish parlour, Angel's Heart, in order to see if he might be a submissive. Nate is the handsome Dominant who opens the door for their first session and the story continues from there. More could have been made of this. Why did Kyle think he was submissive? Had he seen something somewhere? Read about it and thought it might be for him? The reader never knows.

They are both attracted to each other from the moment they meet, which seemed a bit too sudden for me, as they don't really know anything much about each other yet, and neither do the readers.

There is sexual tension between the two heroes which sizzles throughout. Nate has never fallen for a client before and it takes all his willpower to keep from touching Nate, which is not really allowed during their sessions. The sex scenes are well written, as is the whole book, Ms. Rayne has a way with words but I felt there was something lacking in the character development. It might have been because it's a short book, and if longer, those issues may well have been addressed. There's also a bit of telling, rather than showing. We're told in the narrative about Nate's past, rather than have it revealed as the story goes along.

I did like both Nate and Kyle as characters and you root for them to get their happy ending. If you're a bit wary about reading something with BDSM in it, this one is fairly light on that aspect. There are some toys, some bondage and some Dominant/submissive scenes (Kyle has to obey orders such as not touching himself etc.)

All in all it was a good book. although it had a few problems, they didn't detract too much from my enjoyment of the book. I will certainly give other books by this author a go.
Reviewed by Annette Gisby, author of The Prince's Guard.

Book Review: Curse This House by Barbara Wood

Curse This House
by Barbara Wood
Historical, Mystery, Suspense
4 Stars
Reviewer's purchased copy.

Blurb:

After her mother’s death in 1857, Leyla’s only links with her heritage and family are a letter and her last name—Pemberton. Resolved to seek out her past, she travels from London to the brooding countryside mansion of Pemberton Hurst. Leyla longs to find a loving family, but more importantly, she needs to uncover the truth of her past.

But the Pembertons seem strangely reluctant to discuss family history, and the house feels smothered by the weight of untold secrets. Increasingly torn between the safety of life with her sophisticated fiancé in London and a new, dangerous love, Leyla is no longer sure where to turn and whom to trust.

Then terror strikes. A murderer roams the corridors of Pemberton Hurst, and Leyla is suddenly thrown into a maelstrom of deceit, madness, and horror. With her life in jeopardy, Leyla must uncover the truth of her past before it destroys her.

Review:

Leyla Pemberton returns home to Pemberton Hurst after the death of her mother and a twenty year absence. She remembers little of the time she spent her first five years of life there, save for the fact that she was severely traumatised by witnessing the death of her father and brother and has no memory of the incident.

Her relatives are strangers to her, a grandmother who rules the house with an iron fist from her room, nervous Aunt Anna, sickly uncle Henry, eccentric cousin Martha, boorish cousin Colin and Theo, her eldest cousin who is the only one to welcome her.

What are they hiding?

Shocked by Leyla's return, the residents of Pemberton Hurst have no choice but to give up their secret. All the Pembertons are cursed...

Leyla doesn't believe it and sets out on her own investigation into her father and brother's deaths. Her enquiries are fraught with danger, because there is someone who doesn't want her to remember that fateful day, but who?

This is a well paced and plotted novel, a real page turner. The historical detail is very accurate, but without detracting from the story so that it reads like a novel rather than a history lesson. Leyla is a very likeable character, and I could almost see cousin Martha sitting everywhere, her knitting needles clicking away.

My one gripe would be the spelling. It is written in the first person, supposedly by Leyla, a young Victorian English lady, but her spelling was American. It distracted from the story when supposedly reading about an English girl going to "the center of the coppice." She would have spelled it "centre."

Despite the American spelling, (which is really just a personal opinion) it was a good read, something to curl up with on a rainy day and let the outside world disappear...

Reviewed by Annette Gisby, author of The Prince's Guard.

Book Review: Broadmaw Bay by F G Cottam

Broadmaw Bay
by F G Cottam
Hodder & Stoughton
Horror
Available now
ARC from amazon vine.

Blurb:

Brodmaw Bay seems to be the perfect refuge for James Greer and his family. When his young son is the victim of a brutal mugging, Greer wants to leave London - the sooner the better - for the charming old-fashioned fishing port he has just discovered.

But was finding Brodmaw Bay more than a happy accident? What is the connection between the village and his beautiful wife? When his friendly new neighbours say they'd welcome some new blood - in a village where the same families seem to have lived for generations - are they telling the whole truth?

Perhaps the village isn't so much welcoming them as luring them. To something ancient and evil. As it has lured others before . . .

Review:
3 Stars

After their son is beaten up on his way to school, the Greer family decide that it is now the right time to move out of London and go to somewhere idyllic beside the sea, something that they've talked about for years but never done. James (the father) finds a children's book in the hospital as he is standing vigil at his son's bedside. The book has lovely illustrations of Broadmaw Bay, illustrations very reminiscent of his wife Lily's work, but she insists she's never been to the place. James decides that Broadmaw Bay is where they should relocate too.

For a book called Broadmaw Bay, it was almost half-way through the book befre we got to see the place. James goes there first to see if would be a suitable place for his family, which I found rather strange. Shouldn't all of them have some hand in the decision rather than just him? The locals seemed warm and friendly and up for having some new blood in the village and yes, they would be able to buy a house there.

Most of the first half of the book seemed to dwell far too much on the Greers' disenchantment with London, which to me slowed the plot down considerably. A few chapters in we also discover that Lily was having an affair, which seemed to come out of nowhere and added nothing at all to the story. Why do very few books seem to have any happily married couples in them? I'm fed up reading about affairs and that soured the rest of the book for me. If I wanted a soap opera, I'd watch Eastenders (which I don't.) Why couldn't it have been a happily married couple coping with their son's trauma? Why bring an affair into it at all?

This book had interesting characters, but the writing seemed very old-fashioned and it seemed to plod along with not very much happening for quite some time. I was expecting more pace and more menace from a book billed as horror. I found it a bit predictable, but not a bad story in its way.

Reviewed by Annette Gisby, author of The Chosen.

Book Review: River's End by Nora Roberts

River's End
by Nora Roberts
Suspense/Romance
4 stars
Reviewer's purchased copy.

Blurb:

Olivia MacBride still has nightmares about the night her father murdered her mother. Her parents had been Hollywood's golden couple, until Olivia woke one night to see her raging father, scissors in hand, holding her mother's dead body. After her father's imprisonment, Olivia is sent to live with her grandparents on the Washington coast. But as she grows older, she is tormented by the need to discover what really happened that night. With the help of young writer Noah Brady, Olivia is compelled to revisit the ghosts of her past. What she doesn't know is that the past is still very much alive - and a shocking truth is about to be uncovered ...Strong women. Powerful suspense. Fall into the grip of a Nora Roberts novel and it will never let you go.

Book Review: The Dark Mirror by Juliet Marillier

The Dark Mirror
by Juliet Marillier
Book One of the Bridei Chronicles
Publisher: Tor
Genres: Historical fantasy
Available as ebook, paper book and audio
5 stars
Reviewer's purchased copy.

Blurb:

In the mid 6th century the Pictish kingdom in northern Britain is under threat from the Gaels and the Christian faith, which leaves the leaders of the northern realm struggling to maintain their ancient traditions.

All hope rests on the shoulders of young Bridei, a little-known son of the royal line, who is seen as the perfect candidate for future kingship. At his remote forest home of Pitnochie, Broichan, a powerful druid, sets about training the boy in the ways of the ancients and in the all-important preparation to be a leader of men.

But Broichan has not allowed for the Good Folk, inhabitants of the ancient forests of Fortriu and well-known workers of tricky magic. When Bridei discovers a strange baby girl abandoned on Broichan's doorstep in the chill of the winter solstice, he takes her into the house. And the druid has to realise that there is one unpredictable power at work that may be too strong for him to control and could become the death of his dreams.

Book Review No Lady and Her Tramp

No Lady and Her Tramp
by Kristie Leigh Maguire and Mark Haeuser
Genres: Humor, erotic romance
5 stars
Review copy supplied by authors.
Buy Link

Blurb:
No Lady and Her Tramp will have you rolling in the aisles as you follow the exploits of the residents of President Park, the trailer park to top all trailer parks. When Beth Ann Dixon buys herself a computer and decides to write a steamy erotic novel, her husband, Billy Ray, can't do much of anything right, not even shoot a gun. Janet Higgins is the resident Peeping Tom - and Troy Finkmyer is the guy we all love to hate. Everybody gets into the act and there are showdowns all over Grapevine - Grapevine, Kentucky that is. Shirley Snodgrass is the local gossip columnist for the Grapevine Gazette and records it all in her column, 'I Heard It Through the Grapevine'.

Book Review: A Still, Small Voice by D. W. Marchwell

Galley supplied courtesy of the publisher through Netgalley.
Cover art used with permission from publisher.



A Still, Small Voice
by D. W. Marchwell
Dreamspinner Press
M/M romance
Print and ebook available
3.5 Stars

Blurb:

After a student’s accusation of sexual assault destroyed his reputation, Noah Birchwood left the teaching career he loved. The school system that should have protected him and an ex-lover who should have known better shattered his confidence, and it took Noah six years and another university degree to finally get his life back on track.

He loves his new job as a computer programmer and keeps busy on weekends performing at a drag club with his best friend, Aiden. It’s there that he meets shy, chivalrous Oscar, the owner of the club and, just maybe, the love of Noah’s life. But everything turns upside down when a specter from his former life moves in next door. Noah will have to face his fears and discover the truth about his ordeal if he wants to move past it once and for all and face the future with Oscar at his side.

Review: Ghost Song by Sarah Rayne

Library copy reviewed.

Ghost Song
by Sarah Rayne
Psychological Suspense/Thriller
Pocket Books
4 Stars
Buy Link
Sarah Rayne's Website
Reviewed by Annette Gisby, author of The Chosen, Silent Screams and Shadows of the Rose.


Blurb
The old Tarleton music hall is the subject of a mysterious building restriction that has kept it closed for more than 90 years. When Robert Fallon is asked to survey the structure, he finds clues indicating that its long twilight sleep may contain a sinister secret. Joining forces with researcher Hilary Bryant, Robert discovers the legend of the Tarleton's ghost, a mysterious figure that was first glimpsed during the era of Toby Chance, a charismatic performer who vanished suddenly and inexplicably in the early 1900s. After almost a century the Tarleton's dark silence is about to end, but there are those who find its reopening a threatening prospect. As Robert and Hilary delve into the macabre history, they both become menaced by the secrets of the past. A secret that has its roots in a shattering event that had to be kept hidden at all costs.

Book Review: The Unseen by T.C. McMullen

The Unseen: Book One in the Manipulated Evil Series
By T.C. McMullen
SF/Thriller
Star Publishing
Available from amazon.com
Review copy supplied by author.

Reviewed by Annette Gisby, author of Drowning Rapunzel and The Chosen.

Kyle D'Arcy is a spoilt young man attending college, where he is more interested in studying the women there, rather than his classes. But after his father's murder brings him home, he is dumped straight into the middle of a war that has been raging unseen for decades.

His father Carter D'Arcy was a renowned geneticist and leaves Kyle with an envelope full of scientific papers and a key. But someone else knows about it and a few days later, Kyle's mother, Beverly, is murdered too and the killers wait in ambush for Kyle.

Kyle is saved by a strange woman, Ravyn, the most beautiful woman Kyle has ever seen. And what was a picture of her doing in Carter's wallet? Was Carter having an affair with her?

At first Kyle thinks she is insane with her talk of other worlds and portals, there is only one reality, right? But gradually Kyle comes to believe and finds out things about his heritage that he wasn't sure he wanted to know. For Kyle's whole life has been constructed on a lie, a lie to keep him alive.

And what was Carter's involvement in this war? A war fought not with guns and tanks, but diseases that have no cure...

Oh, this book was difficult to put down, it twists and turns every which way and just when you thought you had it figured out, another piece of the puzzle is revealed.

The reader finds out things at the same time as Kyle, so that you are almost in his shoes, feeling everything he is going through. The book ends on a cliffhanger, ready to dive into book two and I almost screamed with frustration. Ms McMullen has certainly left the readers wanting more!

Although the story itself is on a grand scale, the author has delved deep into the heart of the characters and you have to read on to know what is going to happen to them. It is a story of love, sacrifice and ethics. Is it just to do wrong things for the right reasons? Can the end ever justify the means? Is evil a force of nature or nurture?

The book makes you think long after the last page has been read.

~~~~

About the Reviewer

Annette Gisby writes in multiple genres and styles. Her latest novel, an M/M fantasy romance called The Chosen is out now from Lyrical Presas. Her website can be found at
www.annettegisby.n3.net

Book Review: The Trespass by Barbara Ewing

Reviewer's purchased copy.
The Tresspass
by Barbara Ewing
Publisher: Sphere
Genre: Historical
Purchase Link: Amazon
Author website: www.barbaraewing.com

Reviewed by Annette Gisby author of Drowing Rapunzel and The Chosen


In the London cholera epidemic of 1849, MP Sir Charles Cooper is worried for his youngest daughter, seventeen year old Harriet, and resolves to send her away to the country until the danger has past.

Harriet is pleased to get away from her father, but also worried that he won't send her elder sister, Mary, with her. Isn't she in danger from the cholera too? (More danger than either of them know, for Mary has been helping a doctor treat the cholera patients in the poorest parts of London.) Harriet enjoys her stay in the country with her cousins, and wonders at the easy way the family has with each other, for there is a dark secret at her London home, one she has no words for, because how can a young lady speak of the unspeakable?

Harriet plans a daring escape to New Zealand, following in the footsteps of her cousin, for surely even her father's reach cannot get so far as New Zealand? This book is excellent, with a little dash of history thrown in now and then, but without turning the novel into a history book. The main emphasis is on the characters, and what characters they were. So realisitic and evolved. I was on tenterhooks the whole time wondering of Harriet could ever escape. At a time when women had no money of their own (unless they were lower class and could work), they were owned first by their fathers and then by their husbands, and were not even allowed to work, how could a young girl escape her terrible fate?

'Everything you say is yours, belongs to me, is provided by me, everything, every breath that you take belongs to me. I am your father. And as you well know you owe me absolute obedience.' I devoured this book in two days, you just have to keep reading to find out what happens next. With a wealth of historical detail and well drawn characters, it's one you'd want to read again and again.

About the reviewer

Annette Gisby writes in multiple genres from horror to fantasy, romance to thrillers and everything in between. Her latest novel, The Chosen, a male/male fantasy romance will be relased by Lyrical Press.
Author Website: www.annettegisby.n3.net