#Blog Tour #You Should Have Seen This Coming by Shani Michelle #YA Thriller @Xpresso Book Tours15/4/2022
You Should Have Seen This Coming
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GIVEAWAY! Hosted by:
My thoughts:
When I read this amazing blurb I just knew I needed to read it! Being able to discover someone's deepest secrets just by touching something that belonged to them sounds like a wonderful gift ...that could of course get you in all sorts of trouble. Do you ignore it, use it to help others to get justice (call it a modern version of Robin Hood) or try to gain something for your benefit? Seeing future could be even more problematic for all sorts of reasons. What if you happen to see something personal that will hurt you or people you love, but feel you can't change the course of events? Do you try anyway or just brace or emotionally distance yourself? These are the dilemmas Hayden and Cassie, the protagonists of Shani Michelle's amazing YA thriller You should Have Seen This Coming grapple with on a daily basis. Now imagine one of them gets kidnapped and it's up to the others to save her life? You see why I simply couldn't put the book down? To be honest, I was gripped from the word go. There's just something special about Shani's writing style and the way she structures the narrative. Chapter after chapter, I needed to read on and find out how Hayden's visions of past and Cassie's prophecies are going to help them survive. The pace was perfect- everything seemed well-developed, but there was never a dull or slow scene. Both Hayden and Cassie are likeable protagonists. Don't let Hayden's prickly attitude at the beginning fool you. You'll soon discover what has made her feel and behave that way. One of the best things about this book is seeing how she finds new, true friends and finally gets a chance to have a stable, 'normal' life. I loved the dual POV narrative which takes the phrase 'put the events in perspective' to a whole new level. Overall, it was a very entertaining, fast-paced YA mystery (with a touch of paranormal) that I would have no trouble recommending to anyone who loves the genre. Thank you to NetGalley and Swoon Reads for the ARC provided in exchange for an honest opinion. 
#Blog Tour #Book Review of He'll Be Waiting by Liz Alterman #Young Adult#Thriler @Xpresso Book Tours11/8/2021
Today I'm delighted to participate in the blog tour for He'll be Waiting, a new, gripping thriller by Liz Alterman.
He’ll Be Waiting
Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Indiebound 
My thoughts:
What a ride!Liz Alterman's newest thriller He'll Be Waiting proved to be such a gripping, compelling read, I just had to finish it in one sitting and here I am writing this review five hours after I picked the book! 17-year-old Tess Porter wakes up in a hospital with broken bones, bruises all over her aching body, stitches on her head after a surgery and, for better or worse, no memory of the 'accident' that caused all of this. Her parents are there taking shifts looking after her, doctors, nurses, a psychologist- the only person who is missing is her boyfriend James. Tess remembers that James was supposed to come back home from his college a day early to spend it with her, but probe further and her mind draws a painful blank. When she does see him, his visits are hurried, full of apologies and half-memories. What exactly is going on? Why would people who love her or are supposed to make her well-being their highest priority would force her through this torture of trying to remember the events of that snowy day on her own, without help? Why not just tell her what happened? This is about as much as I can tell you without spoiling the story. Pay attention- the clues are there all there. When it all slowly and gradually gets revealed, you'll see how well-thought-through this compelling plot is. Personally, I don't like it when crucial information comes out at the end and there's no way you could have guessed who the culprit is and what their motivation was. This isn't the case here. Everything is foreshadowed and developed later. The same can be said about the characters. When we first meet Tess, she is hurting, she's confused, she's focused on herself, but through her eyes we get to see the people who are most important to her and who are all somehow involved in this mystery. Part of the message of this book is that everything is interconnected and even the smallest of our actions can have unpredictable consequences. Unpredictable because we can't control other people, their feelings and their actions, but we can do our best to be there for people we love and pay real attention to them. The book is very easy to read, it just grips you and compels you to keep turning pages until you solve Tessa's mystery and go through a rich mix of masterfully-portrayed emotions - grief, anxiety, anger, sadness, forgiveness. An extremely well-written YA thriller from the author I didn't know much about, but certainly hope to read more in future. Thank you to Giselle from Xpresso Book Tours, the publisher and the author for the review copy provided in exchange for an honest opinion.
The Mary Shelley Club
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GIVEAWAY! 
My thoughts:
Loved it! Sooooo good... First things first, I'm not a kind of person who would be overly enthusiastic about a blurb mentioning One of Us is Lying. Scream? now we are talking. Mary Shelley? oh, yes, please. I love Frankenstein (with its monumental influence on our popculture) and I love the story behind its creation. In this case, the publicist's description was spot on and I enjoyed every minute of this wild ride. Rachel Chavez is the proverbial new girl in a new school. Something bad happened to her last year which made her mum and Rachel move and change their job and school respectively. The only thing Rachel's mum insists on is Rachel keeping up her grades (you begin to wonder what exactly happened to have sent her into a spin last year, right?) and make friends. Which she kind of does. She even gets dragged (not literally, we haven't started on the horror part, but we'll get there, don't get too comfortable) to a teenage party in an abandoned house. A prank is played and the scene is set. Rachel makes an enemy of a popular girl who won't stop spreading her unsolicited opinion of Rachel ('Freak!). When Rachel finally confronts the prankster, she discovers the existence of the most mysterious and be default exclusive The Mary Shelley Club. Perhaps,she has finally found 'her own tribe', people who appreciate horror movie tropes in all their marvelous variety and see the genre the way Rachel does- as a cleansing mechanism to flush out all the wrong things in one's life, an injection of adrenaline and courage. Perhaps, this is her way to face what happened to her, the changes in herself and her biggest fear. Perhaps, she can belong. But first, she needs to pass the Fear Test, and this is where what seems an innocent game is going to get deadly serious. As it would in any decent horror movie.... The writing style is effortless and easy to follow. You get so immersed in what Rachel experiences that it is as if you've stepped into her life. Or at the very least, a brilliant horror movie. you are a bit edgy and suspicious,but you can't turn your eyes off the screen. Ups! I meant to say off the page... Rachel is a likeable and relatable protagonist. Don't we all want to fit in and belong without sacrificing what makes us unique? How far would we go in this desire? How far would we push other people to get what we want and what would it do to us? Goldy Moldavsky masterfully renders this universal teenage angst in this exciting YA thriller. Well-written, gripping, perceptive, The Mary Shelley is wickedly entertaining. I'm glad to have found a new author to watch out for- Goldy Moldavsky. Thank you to Giselle from Xpresso Book tours, NetGalley and Henry Holt and Co. (BYR) for the review copy provided in exchange for an honest opinion. 
Hosted by: #Blog Tour #Book Review of Playing with Fire by April Henry # Giveaway @Xpresso Book Tours19/1/2021
 Book details: Playing with Fire by April Henry Published by: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR) Publication date: January 19th 2021 Genres: Thriller, Young Adult  Synopsis: When a fire cuts off a popular trail in the Oregon forest, a small group trapped by the flames must find another way out―or die―in Playing with Fire, an unrelenting teen-vs-nature YA thriller by New York Times bestselling author April Henry. Natalia is not the kind of girl who takes risks. Six years ago, she barely survived the house fire that killed her baby brother. Now she is cautious and always plays it safe. For months, her co-worker Wyatt has begged her to come hiking with him, and Natalia finally agrees. But when a wildfire breaks out, blocking the trail back, a perfect sunny day quickly morphs into a nightmare. With no cell service, few supplies, and no clear way out of the burning forest, a group of strangers will have to become allies if they’re going to survive. Hiking in the dark, they must reach the only way out―a foot bridge over a deep canyon―before the fire catches them. Goodreads Purchase Amazon / B&N  My thoughts: A seventeen year old girl with a traumatic past and minimum first aid training, an eighteen year old Eagle Scout and ten other unfortunate hikers trapped in a forest ravaged by a roaring wildfire... April Henry's latest YA thriller took me on a roller coaster of emotions and kept me reading until the small hours. Playing with Fire is an intense story. Told in short chapters with catchy titles, it is full of twists and nail-biting, heart-stopping moments. Everything that could go wrong for Natalia, Wyatt and their companions goes wrong. How likely is it that a small group will experience all these misfortunes and medical emergencies within twenty four hours? We are talking about broken bones and dislocated joints, an encounter with an extremely dangerous wild animal, an asthma episode, a panic attack, a hypoglycemic shock in a person with diabetes and a potentially lethal allergic reaction. I'd say statistically impossible, but, boy, does it make for an exciting read! First things first...Natalia, a survivor of a domestic accident that resulted in a fire that destroyed her home and killed her little brother, goes on a first date/ hike with her co-worker Wyatt. Both of them are well-prepared and even have basic first aid kits. Of course, they do not expect that careless actions of a few criminals are going to set the forest where they are hiking on fire. There are other people on the same trail, although you wouldn't even call them a group at the beginning of this incredible adventure. You have to admire April Henry's skill at creating such a diverse group of characters with a huge range of ages, dispositions and medical conditions. They all have one goal: escape the fire and get to safety as soon as possible. They all have to face and overcome pain and fear and keep moving. They also have to pull together their meager supplies, share, support each other and work together. I learnt a lot about survival techniques and the importance of being prepared when you go on a trip in nature. Fire safety, the mnemonics for checking life signs, a technique for reducing anxiety by focusing on what your senses perceive in the real world- this book isn't just entertaining, it also has a great educational value. I would definitely recommend this exciting YA thriller, inspired by the true events of the Eagle Creek Fire. If you like adventure and survival stories with a touch of mystery and a tiny bit of romance, don't miss this book. Thank you to NetGalley, Henry Holt & Company and Xpresso Book Tours for the advanced review copy. All opinions are my own and were not influenced in any way.  AUTHOR BIO: April Henry is the New York Times–bestselling author of many acclaimed mysteries for adults and young adults, including the YA novels The Girl in the White Van; Girl, Stolen; The Night She Disappeared; The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die; The Girl I Used to Be, which was nominated for an Edgar Award and won the Anthony Award for Best YA Mystery; Count All Her Bones; The Lonely Dead; Run, Hide, Fight Back; and The Body in the Woods and Blood Will Tell, the first two books in the Point Last Seen series. She lives in Oregon. Links: website / twitter / goodreads/ facebook  Thank you for reading the post. If you would like to see what other bloggers thought of Playing with Fire, here is the full blog tour schedule: January 18th –breen.rb >> Review –Living in a Bookworld >> Excerpt –InAshleysWorld >> Review –The Bouncing Tigger Reads >> Guest post January 19th –Archaeolibrarian – I Dig Good Books! >> Review –Jazzy Book Reviews >> Interview –Reading Tonic >> Review –Bookworm for Kids >> Review –The Avid Reader >> Review January 20th –Kait Plus Books >> Guest post –It Starts at Midnight >> Review –mayahlwrites >> Review –The Wandering Wordsmith >> Review January 21st –Valerie Ullmer | Romance Author >> Excerpt –The Phantom Paragrapher >> Review –Literary Gold >> Excerpt –Pine Enshrined Reviews >> Interview January 22nd –Books A-Brewin’ >> Guest post –Adventures in Writing >> Review –hauntedbybooks >> Review –Sweaters and Raindrops >> Excerpt |
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