Saturday 28 January 2012

Voodoo Deadly by Sibel Hodge

Voodoo Deadly by Sibel Hodge is Amber Fox's third adventure.

Yet again Sibel has written a cracking story. 

Amber's mum is on her case as she's seen a hat she loves, but won't buy it until Amber has set a date for the wedding.  Amber is scared to set the date as she's afraid Brad is going to leave her again.

Amber's case this time involves a missing person and is all caught up with voodoo practitioners, dodgy clinics and the seedier side of medicine.

The story is well written, mostly light with a few "dark" bits and is classic Sibel Hodge.  If you enjoyed her previous Amber Fox mysteries, you'll be comfortable in Amber's world.  If you haven't, you don't really need to have read the others to enjoy this, but it will help.

www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0071NLG0W


Saturday 21 January 2012

Anne Droyd and the House of Shadows by Will Hadcroft

This is definitely a children's book, but I must be a child as I really enjoyed this.

This is the second book about Anne Droyd and her friends Gezz, Malcolm and Luke.  I haven't read the first book, so wasn't quite sure where Anne came from or why she was with Gezz, etc, but to be honest, I just accepted she was there and it didn't detract from the story.

I really liked the character of Anne.  Being a robot / cyborg and learning everything as she went along meant she would say exactly what she wanted to ask.  This often got her into trouble, but I'm sure everyone would love to ask the questions she does.

The story did evolve into being a bit scary towards the end.  I was thinking this would make a lovely family movie, with a bit of parental guidance for the end.




Survival Instinct by Declan Conner

This is definitely a book of many parts.  There's the light hearted dating experiences that our hero Jamie gets thrown into.  There's the serial killer going about his business "off stage" and then the other bits that are linked back to Jamie's time in Afghanistan.

I liked Jamie and had my suspicions about just about all the characters he comes across.  Needless to say my ideas about whodunit chopped and changed from chapter to chapter.  In this type of book you know there'll be a twist and boy, did this book twist and turn.

Once or twice I shouted to Jamie (in my head of course)  "tell the police", but that would be too easy for him, lol

I wasn't too fussed on one of Declan's short stories, but this was certainly a good read.  In fact I read it all today, I didn't want to put it down.

www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004PGN24G

Thursday 19 January 2012

Eulogy's Secret by Grace Elliot

Eulogy's Secret is the tale of Eulogy who turns up in town and loses her possessions and papers to prove who she is.  She gets taken in by someone who knew her secret mother (purely because she looks like her) and the story is how she goes about proving herself.  Since this is a romance, it is also how she falls in love with a man outside her station and all the smouldering looks and touches that come with that.

I'm not really one for this kind of romance, but I've tried a few recently and I think it will become a secret pleasure of mine.

I was drawn into the story and enjoyed the writing.  Nothing was too over the top and ridiculous.

www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005XD5IBA

Friday 13 January 2012

Hollywood Sinners by Victoria Fox

Many years ago, I loved Jackie Collins, Jilly Cooper, Shirley Conran with their sex and shopping bonkbusters.

It's been a long time since I read anything as good as those books, but this week, I have found someone that is up there with them.

This book is more modern than those books mentioned above with a bit more monogamy and less of the sleeping around, but the female characters are just as strong.

I did see Elizabeth's shock coming long before she did, though :)

I'm looking forward to reading more Foxiness.






Thursday 5 January 2012

The Mountain and the Flood by Sheila Perry

I really enjoyed this.  I've not been to Scotland and so don't know the geography, but could picture the newly evolving "features", like the ragiing river at the bottom of the garden.
As a side note, we'd visited Barry on the weekend where a nearby cliff had recently collapsed leaving caravans dangling over the edge www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-15540048 and we could see it from there.  And it was tipping down with rain and blustery
So it was things like that that I was envisioning.  Actually, I was so caught up in the story I was reading it in the car on the way there.
Again with the geography, it seemed like Gavin was covering a lot of land.  It took him and Jen a long time to get to the hut and hardly any to get back to Edinburgh.

As a future, this story sounded quite plausible.  Rules and regulations at each turn, it was quite scary.  It seems it was easy for one rule to follow another until it got out of control.

www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004HD64FQ/