Hi, and welcome to my Flashback Friday feature!
On the first Friday of each month, I like to look back at the books I was reading the previous year during the same month.
Please do join in if you have the time, I’d love to see your posts 🙂
A big thank you to those who already join in regularly! xx
Here are my reviews from April 2023 + a link to previous April FBFs….
I absolutely loved this book!
I listened to book 1, The Thursday Murder Club, on Audible a few months ago and I really enjoyed it, but I think I enjoyed The Man Who Died Twice even more. It kept me guessing all the way through, providing more than one surprise along the way. It has the most wonderful cast of characters who you can’t help but love (for the most part). Joyce is my absolute favourite! I enjoyed her POV being told in the form of diary entries. I think this added something a little different and she amuses me, a lot! I love her.
This book ticks all the boxes for me as far as murder mysteries go. It has an intriguing plot, is full of suspense, and has awesome characters. There are sad times, but also plenty of humour. A highly entertaining read! I’m looking forward to book 3.
** Many thanks to my Bookstagram friends for the buddy read. I read the hardcover edition. **
26th March 2024
I finished Good Girl, Bad Blood a little while ago now but this is the first chance I’ve had to write a review. I read this as a part of a buddy read with some of my Instagram friends. I was so looking forward to it as I loved A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, and I was not disappointed! I’m not sure if I loved it quite as much as AGGGTM, but it comes a very close second.
I love Pip and Ravi and I love how their relationship develops throughout this book.
I love how dedicated Pip is when it comes to helping her friends, even when it gets her in trouble with her parents. She’s such a brilliant character! In this book she is investigating a missing person rather than a murder, but her dedication to the case is equal to that of the first book.
As with book one, GGBB is full of twists and turns. It’s fast paced, suspenseful, and compelling. It has shocking moments, moving moments, and often funny moments. I highly recommend it to all! (But please read book one first if you haven’t already.)
I’m looking forward to reading book three, As Good As Dead.
OH. MY. GOODNESS!!
If you’re looking to get your teeth in to a new crime thriller series, full of action, and clever plot lines, then look no further!
Mission Black is the first in a new series by Mick Williams and it is quite simply awesome!
I love Fr. Black. He’s a fabulous character and one I can’t wait to catch up with again in book 2. He’s ex-military turned priest which I find an interesting change of career for a start. He’s a charismatic character and obviously still has a certain appeal with the ladies. Maybe more so because he’s off limits, but he sounds quite easy on the eye too.
This book has two kickass female characters, Lyndsey, and Emmy.
Lyndsey is also ex-military but now devotes her time to Fr. Black’s church as his treasurer, amongst other things. As a church treasurer myself I could relate to her from a church finance perspective but that’s pretty much where our similarities end. Lol! I certainly wouldn’t argue with her. I love the professional relationship and friendship that they obviously share.
Emmy is a truly inspiring character. When Fr. Black finds himself working alongside Emmy it’s easy to see how she might test his faith. He’s true to his vows, but they do grow to be quite fond of each other within a short timeframe. They are thrown into a volatile and dangerous situation together but make a great team. I’d want them on my team. The banter between them is hilarious at times too. I hope to see more of Emmy in book 2.
The humour throughout this book is typical of Mick Williams’ writing and I love it!
I’m so excited that this is the first of a brand-new series. I can’t recommend it highly enough.
(Review written 12th July 2022)
Malcolm Havard is re-launching Contrail (Book 1 of the Harry Jones series) on 31st March 2024!
Book 2 will be available in the very near future so make sure you catch up with Harry Jones in Contrail in the meantime….
It’s Spring 1951. Harry Jones is on the run.
Again.
He’s upset so many people in the past; his family, the Communists who go him out of the mines, the RAF who gave him the chance to be a hero and British Intelligence who wanted him to work for them. Now he’s in Italy and he’s upset the mafia.
But a chance meeting reunites him with an old friend and introduces him to a woman who could be his future.
And plunges him into a deadly plot that involves Britain’s latest wonder plane; the DH Comet airliner.
Father Black has a mission to complete – and it has nothing to do with God’s work.
When an assignment goes wrong and a member of a Royal Family is killed, Marine Connor Black puts America in the crosshairs of a bloody war. With his career seemingly over, a secret organization covers up the death with one condition – Connor owes them.
Ten years later, it comes calling.
Tasked with killing a psychotic drug lord, Connor’s conscience is torn since, on leaving the Marine Corps, he tries to atone for his sins by taking his vows as a priest.
To refuse the demand would follow his holy vows, but send his country into another war. Is it better to call on old skills to take one life or risk the loss of thousands?
Mission Black is the first book in the action-packed Father Black series.
Fiona Alderton is fast approaching her fortieth birthday. Her life is chugging along a track she carefully laid twenty years ago. Successful husband, beautiful Highgate home, vast walk-in-wardrobe, and two delightful sons. But the sky is not all brilliant azure, there are clouds: a diminishing sex life, a teaching job she loathes, and an increasing dependence on alcohol. Still, her decision, twenty years earlier, to cut adrift a life of libertine excess to hitch herself to sensitive, geeky David Alderton, her Safe Bet, looks like the right one.
Until, two days before her birthday, Fiona and David are rushing around preparing for the school run, and their mobiles get muddled. Fiona sees a text meant for her husband, and her Safe Bet suddenly resembles a ruinous roll of the dice. How will she react?
Get your copy now!
5 out of 5 stars
“This is Elliott’s second book and it’s a real page turner! Enjoy, and I hope he has plans for another soon.” – Amazon reviewer
5 out of 5 stars
“Well-written, witty, narrative that will stay with you long after you have turned the last page!
Elliott Fassbinder’s depth of observation, compassion and character development added immensely to a refreshing way to tell the story of marriage, regret, apathy, and the struggle of the human condition, which all make this a very well-written, poetically witty, relatable narrative that will stay with you long after you have turned the last page.
Is there really such a thing as a Safe Bet?” – Amazon reviewer
The Rabbit Girls has been waiting patiently in my kindle library for some time and it’s quite a coincidence that I came to read it at the same time as listening to The Tattooist of Auschwitz on Audible.
The Rabbit Girls is set in Berlin, in 1989, as the wall came down. The story centres around Miriam who is a troubled character. I really felt for her. She is dealing with an abusive husband at the same time as caring for her dying father. As if that isn’t enough to deal with, she discovers an Auschwitz tattoo on her father, under the strap of his watch, that he’d always kept hidden. This leaves her with so many questions about her father’s life. When he starts to call out another woman’s name, Frieda, (not her mother’s name) she becomes determined to find out who this woman is. When she finds letters written by Frieda, she begins to piece things together revealing secrets of her father’s past. All she wants is to find out what happened to Frieda in the hope of helping her father pass in peace. What she discovers is unbelievably shocking and heart-breaking.
This book is so beautifully written. It’s full of intrigue and is incredibly heart-wrenching. Such a captivating read. I highly recommend it to all.
** According to Amazon I purchased this book on the 1st of August 2019. My ‘spin-the-wheel’ app chose it at random on the 25th of February 2024 **
Hi, and welcome to my Flashback Friday feature!
On the first Friday of each month, I like to look back at the books I was reading the previous year during the same month.
Please do join in if you have the time, I’d love to see your posts 🙂
A big thank you to those who already join in regularly! xx
Here are my reviews from March 2023 + a link to previous March FBFs….
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