#netgalleyuk

July 2021 Round Up

Well I haven’t managed to write any book reviews but I have managed to read 13 books during July. Which has helped me to complete my GoodReads 2021 Reading Challenge. Which I really pleased about as for the last couple of years I have struggled to complete it. You can find my GoodReads Challenge Here.

July Reviews:

Non This Month.

Books Read This Month:

No More Secrets (Carter Island Trilogy #3) by Cate Beauman

Wicked Idol (Hellfire Club #1) by Becker Gray

Re-read House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City #1) by Sarah J Maas

Bastard and Whisky (Top Shelf #1) by Alta Hensley

Seal of Protection Box Set 1 by Susan Stoker

Securing Caite (Seal of Protection Legacy #1) by Susan Stoker

Securing Sidney (Seal of Protection Legacy #2) by Susan Stoker

Securing Piper (Seal of Protection Legacy #3) by Susan Stoker

Securing Zoe (Seal of Protection Legacy #4) by Susan Stoker

Securing Avery (Seal of Protection Legacy #5) by Susan Stoker

Securing Kalee (Seal of Protection Legacy #6) by Susan Stoker

Trusting Molly Silverstone #3 by Susan Stoker

The Girl at the End of the World by Richard Levesque

Recently Acquired Books This Month:

Pre-Ordered Books:

The Magic of Found Objects by Maddie Dawson

Trusting Cassidy Sliverstone #4 by Susan Stoker

House of Sky and Breath (Crescent City #2) by Sarah J Maas

Amazon First Read:

For the Love of Friends by Sara Goodman Confino

Amazon Purchases:

Securing Zoe (Seal of Protection Legacy #4) by Susan Stoker

Securing Avery (Seal of Protection Legacy #5) by Susan Stoker

Securing Kalee (Seal of Protection Legacy #6) by Susan Stoker

Striker (No prisoners MC #1) by Lilly Atlas

Hardback Purchases:

Non this month

NetGalley:

The Spanish House by Cherry Radford

BookBub Free Books:

For a list of all the FREE books Via BookBub please go to Books Acquired Via BookBub July 2021 Post.

July’s Favourite BookBub Cover

Night of the Wolf Moon by Kimberly Loth & Nina Walker

I’m not sure what it is about this book cover but it just makes me want to read the book.

July’s Favourite NetGalley Cover

The Spanish House by Cherry Radford

Book Review: This Lovely City by Louise Hare

This was a really enjoyable read. Based in 1950’s London. When we still needed help to rebuild the city after the blitz. This scheme is now known as Windrush, as the men and women came over on the Empire Windrush.

Lawrie Matthews and his friends, Aston, Sonny and Moses came over to the UK hoping to get jobs and make better lives for themselves. Except they didn’t get the welcome and jobs that they had been promised.

Lawrie eventually found himself a job as a postman. He found that he had to work twice as hard as his fellow colleagues just to keep his job. His days were long and he walked for miles delivering peoples mail.

He eventually found a room to rent closer to work and he ends up falling in love with the girl next door called Evie. Evie lives with her strict mother, in the house her mother grew up in until her father threw her out. For getting pregnant and to top things off the babies father was coloured.

All though Evie’s life she’s had to fight prejudices’ against her because of her colour. When these man and women arrived on the Empire Windrush, for once she started to feel less alone. She started to date Lawrie from next door and he introduced her to his friends.

Lawrie played in a band with some of his friends in clubs down in Soho. Some nights Evie would go to the night club with one of her friends, just so she could see Lawrie and have a little dance with him during his break.

Eventually Lawrie and Evie become engaged. But things become very difficult for them, when Lawrie finds and pulls out a black baby from a pond on Clapham Common. The police arrest Lawrie as they are sure he is the babies father.

One of the police men that interviewed Lawrie starts harassing him. Turning up at his home, work place and anywhere else Lawrie goes. Then they turn to Evie and try to get her to confess to the baby being hers and that she killed it. The same police man that harassed Lawrie starts to harass them both any chance he gets.

Eventually secrets come out that could jeopardise Lawrie and Evie’s future wedding and happiness. When certain secrets come out Lawrie understands Evie’s dislike of his best friend. Can Lawrie and Evie overcome all of the secrets that had been kept? Who will be charged with the murder of the baby girl and what has Evie’s mother got to do with what’s been happening?

Such an interesting book to read. Telling us about the hardships and prejudices’ that the Empire Windrush people had to overcome along with the realisation that life in London wasn’t what they expected. A lack of housing, the lack of people either wanting to give them jobs or even willing to let them rent a room or house. Also the country was still rationing food along with the cold bleak weather.

I look forward to seeing what else this author writes next.

Book Review: Gingerbread by Helen Oyeyemi

OK well I really don’t know where to start with this book. Even though I have finished this book I feel non the wiser as to what I have read. I feel as though this book doesn’t flow and that it jumps all over the place. When I did think I was starting to understand this book the story change. So I felt as though I was just in a world of confusion.

It was well written in some parts. The part that I enjoyed the most as well as the most interesting part was all about the Gingerbread Girls. How they were taken from their farms and taken to the city. Where they had to behave like young girls and give the impression of being sweet and innocent. When the girls got to a certain age they were sent home or they ended caring and looking after the younger Gingerbread Girls.

This book is about a girl called Perdita and her mother Harriet. Harriet comes from a fictional country, that most people aren’t even aware of as it’s a closely guarded secret. Harriet also has a special recipe for gingerbread which has been passed down by the women of her husbands family.

One day Harriet comes home to find that her daughter has made herself some gingerbread but it has in an extra ingredient. So her mother called the emergency services as she was unresponsive.

Perdita was in a coma for a few days and she said that she travelled to the fictional country Druhastrana, where I think she comes in to contact with Gretel. When she comes out of her coma she has a wooden ring with her that he mother knows is proof that she went there.

While Perdita recovers at home her mother Harriet tells he about her life in Druhastrana, about the farm she lived on, her friends and meeting a girl called Gretel who pretended to be the daughter of the woman in charge of the Gingerbread Girls.

Perdita also has some sort of magical dolls made out of strange things and they can all talk together.

The book is full of magic and this other country that seems to be full of magic, but I didn’t enjoy it as I’ve already said I kept getting lost. When I did think I was starting to understand it I got lost again. This book may be enjoyable for some but it certainly wasn’t for me. So I can only give it 2 stars.

By Shaun Curry

This book may not be for everyone. To enjoy it I think you will have to have some interest in Japan and it’s culture. Maybe have a little knowledge about way the country used to be run by warlords and their armies of Samurai warriors.

For me this is book was a very enjoyable read, I have read many a non fiction book on Japan, it’s Warlords, Samurai warriors, Geisha’s and Concubines. So this is the sort of book I enjoy reading. I did notice that this book is classed as historical fiction, which I would expect but it’s also classed as Sci fi and Fantasy. In my opinion there wasn’t really anything Sci Fi and Fantasy in the book, but this is only book one in the trilogy. So maybe the Sci Fi and Fantasy come more into play in the next two books.

I’m really looking forward to reading the next two books in the trilogy and I hope that they are out sooner rather than later, as I’m impatient to find out how the story continues.

by Nuala Ellwood

I don’t read many books in the mystery & thriller genre, and I’m glad to say that I was given the opportunity to read and review this book. I enjoyed this book, so much so I know that I could read it again. I don’t say that very often about the books I read so this tells you how much I enjoyed reading this book. The book is full of mystery with many thrills along the way.

This book has two different timelines one in 2018 and the other in 2003.

In December 2018, Lisa runs away from her husband Mark taking their 3 year old son Joe with her. Her husband is a control freak when it comes to Lisa. He treats her like a child that can’t do anything without being given instructions. He criticises her on everything and anything. Making Lisa think and feel as though she is incapable of doing anything, and he is even worse when it comes to looking after their son Joe.

The day she decides to run from her husband Mark. All Lisa has are a few things she hastily packed and a crumpled piece of paper with an address with a couple of instructions, that a good friend had given her. Telling her that she could stay there anytime free of charge. The place is called “Rowan Isle House” and it is situated in rural Yorkshire.

To read the rest of my review click the LINK