#BlogTour: Right Behind You by Rachel Abbott @RachelAbbott @annecater #RightBehindYou #RachelAbbott #RandomThingsTours

Book Synopsis:

Some doors should not be opened.
Some can never be closed.

Jo Palmer’s peaceful and happy life is about to end.

Ash – the man she loves – will be arrested by the police.
Millie – her precious daughter – will be taken from her.

She will lose her friends.
She will doubt her sanity.

Someone is stealing everything Jo loves, and will stop at nothing.

But right now, Jo is laughing in her kitchen, eating dinner with her family, suspecting nothing.

It’s raining outside.

There’s a knock at the door. They are here.

Right Behind You is available in ebook and paperback now. You can purchase your copy using the link below.

My Review:

I’m a huge fan of this author’s books so I was incredibly excited to be asked to be on the blog tour for Right Behind You, her latest book. Once again she has written an extremely gripping, dark and atmospheric thriller that was hugely enjoyable to read.

Firstly this book was like the author had seen inside my head and written my worst nightmare down. I can’t imagine anything worse then losing my family in any circumstances so this added to the tension in the book for me as I had to keep reading to find out what happens.

DCI Thomas Douglas is one of my favourite fictional detectives and I always enjoy following him as he tries to solve his cases. I love the subtle way he leads his team and how he plays to each of their strengths which is lovely to read about. The rest of the characters were very interesting creations who I weren’t really sure whether I liked them or whether they were trustworthy.

This was an incredibly gripping book which was hard to put down as it was very fast paced. I found myself trying to hide away from the children to read few more chapters as I had to know what happened next. I was kept guessing as to who was behind everything the whole way through the book which I thought was very clever. Just when I thought I had figured everything out, something happened which sent the story in completely different direction. The twist at the end was truly amazing and took me completely by surprise which I always love.

Huge thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me onto the blog tour and for my copy of this book.

About The Author:

Rachel Abbott’s debut thriller, Only the Innocent, was an international bestseller, reaching the number one position in the Amazon charts both in the UK and US. This was followed by the number one bestselling novels The Back Road, Sleep Tight, Stranger Child, Nowhere Child (a short novel based on the characters from Stranger Child), Kill Me Again, The Sixth Window, Come a Little Closer and And So It Begins. Her most recent novel, The Shape of Lies, was released in February 2019.

Rachel’s novels have now been translated into over 20 languages and her books have sold over 3 million copies in the English language.

In 2015 Amazon celebrated the first five years of the Kindle in the UK, and announced that Rachel was the #1 bestselling independent author over the five-year period. She was also placed #14 in the chart of all authors. Stranger Child was the most borrowed novel for the Kindle in the first half of 2015.

Rachel splits her time between Alderney – a beautiful island off the coast of France – and the Le Marche region of Italy, where she is able to devote all her time to writing fiction. For more information, see Rachel’s website, or follow her on Twitter.

Rachel’s website can be found at

Website : http://www.rachel-abbott.com
Blog : http://rachelabbottwriter.com/
Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/RachelAbbott1Writer
Twitter: @RachelAbbott

#BlogTour: Pine by Francine Toon @FrancineElena @DoubledayUK @TransworldBooks @annecater #Pine #FrancineToon #RandomThingsTours #5Stars #mustread

Book Synopsis:

They are driving home from the search party when they see her. The trees are coarse and tall in the winter light, standing like men.

Lauren and her father Niall live alone in the Highlands, in a small village surrounded by pine forest. When a woman stumbles out onto the road one Halloween night, Niall drives her back to their house in his pickup. In the morning, she’s gone.

In a community where daughters rebel, men quietly rage, and drinking is a means of forgetting, mysteries like these are not out of the ordinary. The trapper found hanging with the dead animals for two weeks. Locked doors and stone circles. The disappearance of Lauren’s mother a decade ago.

Lauren looks for answers in her tarot cards, hoping she might one day be able to read her father’s turbulent mind. Neighbours know more than they let on, but when local teenager Ann-Marie goes missing it’s no longer clear who she can trust.

In the shadow of the Highland forest, Francine Toon captures the wildness of rural childhood and the intensity of small-town claustrophobia. In a place that can feel like the edge of the word, she unites the chill of the modern gothic with the pulse of a thriller. It is the perfect novel for our haunted times.

Pine is published in ebook and hardback on the 23rd January 2020. You can pre-order your copy using the link below.

My Review:

Pine is a wonderfully different book which manages to combine a few different genres making it a very interesting read.

This book drew me in from the start as the author sets the scene beautifully with her vivid descriptions of the small Highland village which has some interesting inhabitants. The beauty of the area is constrasted nicely with the eerie, almost oppressive forest which seems to hold a lot of mystery. I loved the little details the author has included in this book which just helped me envision everything that was happening even more clearly.

Lauren is a wonderful main character who I felt very sympathetic towards. She’s just starting to like boys and wants to be able to act like the older kids she sees at school. She’s being bullied at school by people who thought her mother was a witch which made me want to give her a huge hug.

Overall I thought this was an enthralling read which was easy to get lost in for hours at a time. The inclusion of witchcraft and some of the Scottish Legends was very interesting and gave the book an eerie feel. I really liked how the book manages to be both frightening but also quite emotional at the same time which has meant I’ve continued to think about it long after I finished reading it.

Huge thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me onto the blog tour and to Antonia from Doubleday for my copy of this book.

About The Author:

Francine Toon grew up in Sutherland and Fife, Scotland. Her poetry, written as Francine Elena, has appeared in The Sunday Times, The Best British Poetry 2013 and 2015 anthologies (Salt) and Poetry London, among other places. Pine was longlisted for the Deborah Rogers Foundation Writers Award. She lives in London and works in publishing. Follow her on Twitter @FrancineElena

#BlogTour: The Guest House by Abbie Frost @FrostyAbbie @fictionpubteam #TheGuestHouse #AbbieFrost #5Stars

Book Synopsis:

Not all the guests will survive their stay…

You use an app, called Cloud BNB, to book a room online. And on a cold and windy afternoon you arrive at The Guesthouse, a dramatic old building on a remote stretch of hillside in Ireland. 

You are expecting a relaxing break, but you find something very different. Something unimaginable. Because a killer has lured you and six other guests here and now you can’t escape. 

One thing’s for certain: not all of you will come back from this holiday alive…

The Guest House is available in all formats now. You can purchase your copy using the link below.

My Review:

Ooh I really enjoyed this creepy, dark and atmospheric read which is perfect for curling up with on a cold night.

The setting in this book of an isolated guest house is brilliant and helped make the book deliciously creepy. There are definitely some strange things going on there which made me very intrigued. The isolation helps add to the atmosphere and tension in the book, especially when the reader realises that the characters are trapped together so the murderer must be one of them.

The story is told from the point of view of Hannah who we are first introduced to in the prologue when she is running away from a burning building which immediately piqued my interest. The story then goes back six days to Hannah’s arrival at the guest house. The reader learns about Hannah’s first impressions of the guest house and her fellow guest which prove to be very interesting.

This story gripped me from the first page, with all the twists and surprises ensuring the book was hard to put down. I was kept guessing about who the murderer was and think I suspected everyone at one point. I thought the ending and final reveal was brilliantly done- a great ending for a fabulous book.

Huge thanks to Rebecca from Harper Collins for inviting me onto the blog tour and for my copy of this book. If you like creepy, atmospheric thrillers then you’ll love this book.

About The Author:

Abbie Frost has worked as a teacher, an actor and scriptwriter, and now reviews fiction for various publications and blogs. She is a published thriller writer whose work has been shortlisted for various awards.

#BlogTour: The Violinist's Apprentice by Isabella Mancini @IsabellaManci10 @darkstrokedark @rararesources #TheViolinistsApprentice #IsabellaMancini

Book Synopsis:

A dark journey through time.

On a group trip to Rome, musician Clementina is whirled back in time to 17th century Italy.

Amidst court intrigue and creaking carriages, Italy becomes a chiaroscuro backdrop to her growing feelings for young violin-maker Antonio Stradivari. They kiss under an orange tree, and she persuades him to help a poor young boy from the nearby orphanage.

But people begin to notice just how ‘strange’ the young woman at the artist’s side is. She must be a witch!

Meanwhile, in present-day Scotland, her brother suffers a life-threatening accident, and in an icy corner of the Arctic, a professor frets about global warming.

Can Clementina find a way to return to the 21st century?

The Violinist’s Apprentice is available in ebook and paperback now. The ebook is currently only £1.99. You can purchase a copy of both using the link below.

My Review:

This was a very interesting, original read which is perfect for readers who like books containing time travel and magic.

Firstly the author does a great job of setting the scene so that the reader really feels like they are there watching everything unfold. It was definitely an interesting period to live in and I enjoyed learning more about it.

Clementina is an interesting character who I thought was quite brave going off on adventures by herself. I quickly warmed to her as I thought her interactions with her blind brother was very sweet and her confusion when she time travels made me wish I could reach into the book to give her a hug. Tina’s relationship with Antonia was wonderfully described and I enjoyed watching it develop. I almost wanted her to stay in the past forever as I didn’t want it to end.

Overall I thought this was a fun and entertaining read which I hope is the start of a series as I’d definitely like to visit Clementina again. The plot is perhaps a little confusing at the beginning with all the different stories but once you’ve read a little bit it soon becomes obvious.

Huge thanks to Rachel from Rachel’s Random Resources for inviting me onto the blog tour and for my copy of this book.

About The Author:

Isabella Mancini is the nom de plume of prolific author Olga Swan, published by Crooked Cat Books.  She has a BA Hons (Open) in English Language and Literature and a lifelong love for writing and language. For 12 years she lived in SW France, but returned to the UK in 2017, where she now lives in the West Midlands with her husband and elderly French rescue dog Bruno.

Author Links 

Twitter: @IsabellaManci10

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ManciniIsabella1

Facebook Group: Books, Music and the Past

Amazon page for Isabella Mancini: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Isabella-Mancini/e/B08127KJJW/

Amazon page for Olga Swan:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B013IBD4PU

#BlogTour: Stasi Winter by David Young @djy_writer @ZaffreBooks @Tr4cyF3nt0n #StasiWinter #DavidYoung #KarinMuller5

Book Synopsis:

IN EAST GERMANY, SOLVING A MURDER CAN GET YOU KILLED . . .

A gripping and intelligent thriller set in East Germany, during the worst winter in one-hundred years.Perfect for fans of Tom Rob Smith, Phillip Kerr and Joseph Kanon.
____________________________________

In 1978 East Germany, nothing is at it seems. The state’s power is absolute, history is re-written, and the ‘truth’ is whatever the Stasi say it is.

So when a woman’s murder is officially labelled ‘accidental death’, Major Karin Müller of the People’s Police is faced with a dilemma. To solve the crime, she must disregard the official version of events. But defying the Stasi means putting her own life – and the lives of her young family – in danger.

As the worst winter in living memory holds Germany in its freeze, Müller must untangle a web of state secrets and make a choice: between truth and lies, justice and injustice, and, ultimately, life and death.

Stunningly authentic and brimming with moral ambiguity, Stasi Winter is the thrilling new novel from the award-winning author of Stasi Child.

Stasi Winter is available in ebook and paperback now. You can purchase your copy using the link below.

My Review:

Stasi Winter is another superb addition to the Karin Miller series that was a very gripping read.

I always enjoy books set in the Cold War a I think it was a very interesting period in history. This story provides an interesting insight into the DDR when they were at the height of their powers. The author paints a frightening picture of a very uncertain time where residents were under constant surveillance and there were awful penalties when the rules were broken, even though these rules were unclear at times. I didn’t know much about the DDR so found these descriptions utterly fascinating.

The story is told from the point of view of two women Irma and Karin which gradually merge together in an intriguing way. Both women are strong characters but had flaws which made them seem realistic. I enjoyed following their story through the book and found that both stories were well developed.

This was a fast paced book which manages to be a murder enquiry and an adventure on the frozen North Sea. It’s a very exciting read which is incredibly atmospheric so that the reader can almost feel the cold and fear of the characters. Despite the era it’s set in, this isn’t a sad story as it also has an element of hope to the story which I thought was clever. I’m very excited to see where the series goes next.

Huge thanks to Tracy Fenton for inviting me onto the blog tour and to Zaffre for my copy of this book via Netgalley.

About The Author:

East Yorkshire-born David Young began his East German-set crime series on a creative writing MA at London’s City University when Stasi Child – his debut – won the course prize. The novel went on to win the 2016 CWA Historical Dagger, and both it and the 2017 follow-up, Stasi Wolf, were longlisted for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. His novels have been sold in eleven territories round the world. Before becoming a full-time author, David was a senior journalist with the BBC’s international radio and TV newsrooms for more than 25 years. He writes in his Twickenham garden shed and in a caravan on the Isle of Wight. You can follow him on Twitter @djy_writer

#BlogTour: Six Wicked Reasons by Jo Spain @SpainJoanne @QuercusBooks @Millsreid11 #SixWickedReasons #JoSpain

Book Synopsis:

From the international number one bestseller comes the most clever and gripping thriller of 2019

It’s June 2008 and twenty-one-year-old Adam Lattimer vanishes, presumed dead. The strain of his disappearance breaks his already fragile family.

Ten years later, with his mother deceased and siblings scattered across the globe, Adam turns up unannounced at the family home. His siblings return reluctantly to Spanish Cove, but Adam’s reappearance poses more questions than answers. The past is a tangled web of deceit.

And, as tension builds, it’s apparent somebody has planned murderous revenge for the events of ten years ago.

Six Wicked Reasons is published on the 16th January 2020 in ebook and hardback. You can purchase your copy using the link below.

My Review:

I’ve loved all of this author’s previous books so it’s always very exciting to get to read a new book from her. This was another fabulous, intriguing read which I thoroughly enjoyed.

This book provides an interesting look into the life of a big Irish family which was fascinating to read about. The reader slowly gets to know each of the six siblings and the father as the story develops. We learn more about their lives, especially their past which also lets us know more about the grievances they have which was very interesting.

Frazer is a really horrible person who I loved to hate and was actually very glad had met such a sticky end. Throughout the book we learn of the nasty things he’s done to his children and his wife which gives any one of them reason to kill him. I think it would be fair to say that he’s caused most of his children’s problems.

The setting of this book was very clever and I think helped add to the tension throughout the book. The boat and it’s inaccessibility gave the story a bit of a classic crime story feel to it as it had to be one of the people. As the reader has a fly on the wall view of everything I felt very involved in the story almost as if I had actually been there too.

This book does start off slow but slowly builds as we discover more about the families history and their relationship with each other. Each of the characters have reasons to want to kill their father and I enjoyed trying to unravel everything to work out who might have done it. The ending was brilliant and I thought a very clever way to end everything.

Huge thanks to Quercus for my copy of this book via Netgalley and to Milly Reid for inviting me onto the blog tour.

About The Author:

Jo Spain’s first novel, top ten bestseller With our Blessing, was one of seven finalists in the Richard and Judy Search for a Bestseller Competition. It was named as an Irish Times crime fiction book of the year by Declan Burke. Beneath the Surface (2016) and Sleeping Beauties (2017), the second and third in the DI Tom Reynolds series followed, to further critical acclaim. Her standalone thriller, The Confession, released in January 2018, became a number one bestseller and sold in multiple territories. Jo is releasing the fourth Tom Reynolds, The Darkest Place, in 2018 and a new standalone Dirty Little Secrets in 2019.

Jo also writes for TV and is the co-writer of new series Taken Down.

A graduate of Trinity College Dublin, Jo lives in Dublin with her husband and their four young children. Jo previously worked as a policy advisor in the Irish parliament and as vice-chair of the business body InterTrade Ireland.

Jo’s debut novel is set against a background of the infamous Irish Magdalene Laundries and Mother and Baby homes. The author’s own father was born in one such home in Dublin and the novel’s backdrop was constructed based on the in-depth research she undertook while attempting to trace her family roots.

Her favourite writers include Pierre LeMaitre, Fred Vargas, Louise Penny, Jo Nesbo, Ann Cleeves, B.A. Paris, Elizabeth Haynes and Agatha Christie.

#BlogTour: Critical Incidents by Lucie Whitehouse @LWhitehouse5 @midaspr @4thEstateBooks #CriticalIncidents #LucieWhitehouse

Book Synopsis:

Description

Product description

A missing girl.

A murdered friend.

No one left to trust.

‘Seriously good suspense … trust me, you’ll need to know what happens’ Lee Child

‘Superb characterisation, humour and galloping plot’ Susie Steiner

‘This is that deeply satisfying thing, a strong, deft thriller with real depth’ Tana French

Detective Inspector Robin Lyons is going home.

Dismissed for misconduct from the Met’s Homicide Command after refusing to follow orders, unable to pay her bills (or hold down a relationship), she has no choice but to take her teenage daughter Lennie and move back in with her parents in the city she thought she’d escaped forever at 18.

In Birmingham, sharing a bunkbed with Lennie and navigating the stormy relationship with her mother, Robin works as a benefit-fraud investigator – to the delight of those wanting to see her cut down to size.

Only Corinna, her best friend of 20 years seems happy to have Robin back. But when Corinna’s family is engulfed by violence and her missing husband becomes a murder suspect, Robin can’t bear to stand idly by as the police investigate. Can she trust them to find the truth of what happened? And why does it bother her so much that the officer in charge is her ex-boyfriend – the love of her teenage life?

As Robin launches her own unofficial investigation and realises there may be a link to the disappearance of a young woman, she starts to wonder how well we can really know the people we love – and how far any of us will go to protect our own.

Critical Incidents is available in all formats now. You can purchase your copy using the link below.

My Review:

I’ve been a huge fan of this author since I read her first book when it was featured on Richard and Judy’s book club, so I was very excited to be offered an early copy of her latest book to read. I was not disappointed as this was another engrossing and thoroughly intriguing read.

This book has quite a complicated plot in that there is a few different threads running alongside each other so there is always lots going on. I didn’t find this overly confusing though and found it quite easy to follow each story as it develops.

The most interesting part of this book for me was the way the reader gets to follow the main character Robin both through her investigation but also in her home life and her difficult move back home following her suspension. I especially enjoyed the descriptions of Robin’s relationship with her mother which was definitely a complicated one as they drive each other mad but still love each other and want a better relationship between them. I have to admit to not being a huge fan of Robin’s at the start as I found her very opinionated and quite a selfish person who always thinks she knew best which meant it took a while for me to warm to her.

This is a slightly unusual police procedural as due to her suspension Robin isn’t able to have access to certain things and isn’t able to command the same authority in her investigation. It was very interesting to see her try to adapt and change how she works.

I thought this was a very well written book which had lots going on to keep the reader interested. The tension is slowly built up until the book becomes almost impossible to put down. There are lots of twist which I thought were very cleverly thought out and took me by surprise which I always enjoy. I will definitely look forward to reading more of this intriguing new series.

Huge thanks to Martina from Midas PR for inviting me onto the blog tour and for my copy of this book.

About The Author:

Lucie Whitehouse was born in Gloucestershire in 1975, read Classics at Oxford University and now lives in Brooklyn, New York. She is the author of The House at Midnight, the TV Book Club pick The Bed I Made and Before We Met, which was a Richard & Judy Summer Book Club pick and an ITV3 Crime Thriller selection.

@LWhitehouse5

#BlogTour: Haven't They Grown by Sophie Hannah @sophiehannahCB1 @HodderBooks @JennyPlatt90 #HaventTheyGrown #SophieHannah

Book Synopsis:

All Beth has to do is drive her son to his Under-14s away match, watch him play, and bring him home.

Just because she knows that her former best friend lives near the football ground, that doesn’t mean she has to drive past her house and try to catch a glimpse of her. Why would Beth do that, and risk dredging up painful memories? She hasn’t seen Flora Braid for twelve years.

But she can’t resist. She parks outside Flora’s house and watches from across the road as Flora and her children, Thomas and Emily, step out of the car. Except…

There’s something terribly wrong.

Flora looks the same, only older – just as Beth would have expected. It’s the children that are the problem. Twelve years ago, Thomas and Emily Braid were five and three years old. Today, they look precisely as they did then. They are still five and three. They are Thomas and Emily without a doubt – Beth hears Flora call them by their names – but they haven’t changed at all.
They are no taller, no older.

Why haven’t they grown?

Haven’t They Grown is published in ebook and hardback on the 23rd January 2020. You can pre-order your copy using the link below.

My Review:

I thought this was a chilling story that was an utterly gripping read. It’s going to be a hard book to review as I don’t want to give anything away.

The reader is immediately drawn into the story by the very intriguing opening which set my brain whirling as to why the children hadn’t changed. I think I thought of every possibility as to why and I had to keep reading to discover what was going on.

The characters in this book are absolutely brilliant, especially the teenager children of Beth, who the author has depicted brilliantly. Zanny was definitely my favourite though and I enjoyed watching her trying to help her mum solve the mystery of what was going on. Beth was an interesting character too though and I liked how much she seemed to care about her old friend despite them not speaking for years.

This was a fast paced book and there was always something going on to keep the reader interested. The ending was unexpected and chilling which I found very satisfying. It was perhaps a little unrealistic (at least I hope so!)but this didn’t detract from my overall enjoyment of the book and I will definitely be recommending it to others!

Huge thanks to Jenny Platt for inviting me onto the blog tour and for my copy of this book. If you like chilling thrillers you’ll love this book.

About The Author:

Sophie Hannah is an internationally bestselling crime fiction writer, translated into 49 languages and published in 51 countries. Her psychological thriller The Carrier won the Specsavers National Book Award for Crime Thriller of the Year in 2013. Sophie is the author of the bestselling Poirot continuation mysteries. The Point of Rescue and The Other Half Lives have been adapted for television as Case Sensitive, starring Olivia Williams and Darren Boyd. Sophie is also a bestselling poet who has been shortlisted for the TS Eliot award. Her poetry is studied at GCSE and A-level. Sophie is an Honorary Fellow of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge. She lives in Cambridge with her family.

#BlogTour: Nine Elms by Robert Bryndza @RobertBryndza @TheCrimeVault @Kirsteenastor #NineElms #RobertBryndza #KateMarshallThriller

Book Synopsis:

From the breakthrough international bestselling author of The Girl in the Ice, a breathtaking, page-turning novel about a disgraced female detective’s fight for redemption. And survival.

Kate Marshall was a promising young police detective when she caught the notorious Nine Elms serial killer. But her greatest victory suddenly became a nightmare.

Fifteen years after those catastrophic, career-ending events, a copycat killer has taken up the Nine Elms mantle, continuing the ghastly work of his idol.

Enlisting her brilliant research assistant, Tristan Harper, Kate draws on her prodigious and long-neglected skills as an investigator to catch a new monster. But there’s much more than her reputation on the line: Kate was the original killer’s intended fifth victim . . . and his successor means to finish the job.

Nine Elms is available in hardback and ebook now. The ebook is currently only £1.99. You can purchase your copy using the link below.

My Review:

I’ve been a huge fan of this author from the start and am always very excited to read new books from him. As this was a new series with new characters I was a little nervous at the beginning, but these soon dissipated as I started reading.

This story definitely starts off strong with a very dramatic opening chapter which quickly draws the reader into the book and sets the scene for what is to come. Some of the murders are pretty gruesome and quite shocking which might not be to everyone’s taste. I actually found myself skipping some parts as it was making me feel quite sick. There are some very messed up characters in this book which I loved to hate and found myself hoping they’d come to a sticky end themselves.

The main character Kate was a fantastic character who despite having a difficult past manages to rise above it all to do a brilliant job in a tough situation. She’s a very strong, intelligent woman and I found I really enjoyed following her as she tried to solve the case. I really liked how she never gives up even when she has lots of reasons to and just kept going. Her partnership with Tristan was great to read about and I look forward to reading more books with the two of them in it.

This is a very dark, twisty thriller which was incredibly gripping. The pace of the book never lets up and there are lots of developments and shocks which ensured I kept reading. There is a lot of tension in the book that slowly increases as the story goes on and a feeling of unease creeps in as the reader wonders what was going to happen next. I read this book in two sittings which is no easy feat with two kids. If you are looking for an intriguing new crime series then I thoroughly recommend this one!

Huge thanks to Kirsteen from Little Brown for inviting me onto the blog tour and for my copy of this book.

About The Author:

Robert Bryndza is the author of the international #1 bestselling Detective Erika Foster series. Robert’s books have sold over 3 million copies and have been translated into 28 languages. He is British and lives in Slovakia.

You can find out more about me at http://www.robertbryndza.com and on Twitter and Instagram @RobertBryndza

Sign up to my New Release Mailing List here: http://eepurl.com/UITxz

#BlogTour: Are You Watching by Vincent Ralph @VincentRalph1 @PenguinUKBooks @annecater #AreYouWatching #VincentRalph #RandomThingsTour

Book Synopsis:

A page-turning new thriller for the social media age, perfect for fans of NOW YOU SEE HER, YOU and Liane Moriarty.

Ten years ago, Jess’s mother was murdered by the Magpie Man.

She was the first of his victims but not the last.

Now Jess is the star of a YouTube reality series and she’s using it to catch the killer once and for all.

The whole world is watching her every move.

And so is the Magpie Man.

Are You Watching is available in ebook now for only 99p and in paperback on the 6th February 2020. You can purchase or pre-order your copy using the link below.

My Review:

Ooh I really enjoyed this intriguing thriller which had a very modern feel to it as it’s centered around reality shows and a you tube channel which seems to be everywhere at the moment. It reminded me of a cross between Big Brother and The Circle which made it seem very realistic.

I really liked Jess who I warmed to quickly and felt a lot of sympathy for. She’s a typical teenager with lots of flaws which made her feel like someone I might have known at school. I thought she was actually incredibly brave to try and tempt her mother’s killer out of hiding. My fondness of her ensured I kept reading as I wanted to make sure she was safe.

This was a fast paced book with lots of things going on which made the book impossible to put down. The tone of the book and the short chapters make the book easy to read, enabling the reader to just relax and enjoy the story. I liked the little tests that the producers do on society especially when they test if people would continue to watch even if nothing was happening just incase there was a last minute twist. I felt this was quite true of modern society and made me smile as I think it would be very true.

The ending and the identity of The Magpie Man was very cleverly done. I didn’t manage to work out his identity which I always like!

Huge thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me onto the blog tour and to Penguin Books for my copy of this book.

About The Author:

Vincent Ralph has been writing in one form or another since his teens and always dreamed of being a novelist. He owes his love of books to his mother, who encouraged his imagination from an early age and made sure there were new stories to read.

Vincent has lived in London, Cornwall and Chester but he now lives in his home county of Kent with his wife, son and two cats.