Such a beautiful day. A day for sitting in the garden with a book and a coffee.
The Dog Who Dared to Dream
This is the story of a dog named Scraggly. Born an outsider because of her distinctive appearance, she spends most of her days in the sun-filled yard of her owner’s house. Scraggly has dreams and aspirations just like the rest of us. But each winter, dark clouds descend and Scraggly is faced with challenges that she must overcome. Through the clouds and even beyond the gates of her owner’s yard lies the possibility of friendship, motherhood and happiness – they are for the taking if Scraggly can just hold on to them, bring them home and build the life she so desperately desires
My thoughts:
| I was looking for a change from crime and this book was it. It was a world populated by animals who can converse with each other and humans who think they understand them. A book that shows animals have feelings just like humans. They feel pain ,grief and happiness in their too short lives. They are also capable of unconditional love and loyalty. We can all take a leaf from from the books and lives of so called dumb animals. For any who likes a lighthearted and paradoxically a read that makes you think, then this is the book for you. The heroes? of the book are Grandpa Screecher and Scraggly. Opposites who are bonded by love if not understanding ABOUT SUN-MI HWANG
Hwang Sun-mi (born 1963) is a South Korean author and professor who is best known for her fable The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly, which has also been made into a successful animated film in South Korea, Leafie, A Hen into the Wild.
she was Born in 1963, Hwang was unable to attend middle school due to poverty, but thanks to a teacher who gave her a key to a classroom, she could go to the school and read books whenever she wanted. She enrolled in high school by taking a certificate examination and she graduated from the creative writing departments at Seoul Institute of the Arts and Gwangju University, and from graduate school at Chung-Ang University. She lives in Seoul, South Korea.Hwang is an adjunct professor at the Faculty of Literature in the Seoul Institute of the Arts. Hwang’s career as a writer began in 1995, and since then she has published nearly 30 books over various genres. She is most famous for her work “The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly” which was also made into a movie that broke Korean box office records for animated films, earning nearly 7 billion won in its first month of release.Awards: Nong-min Literay Award (1995) Tamla Literary Award (1997) SBS Media Literary Award (2001) Sejong Children’s Literature Prize (2003)[7] The Best Book of the Year in Poland (2012).. |
I Hear the Sirens in the Street (Detective Sean Duffy #2)
Detective Inspector Sean Duffy returns for the incendiary sequel toThe Cold Cold Ground.
Sean Duffy knows there’s no such thing as a perfect crime. But a torso in a suitcase is pretty close.Still, one tiny clue is all it takes, and there it is. A tattoo. So Duffy, fully fit and back at work after the severe trauma of his last case, is ready to follow the trail of blood – however faint – that always,always
connects a body to its killer.A legendarily stubborn man, Duffy becomes obsessed with this mystery as a distraction from the ruins of his love life, and to push down the seed of self-doubt that he seems to have traded for his youthful arrogance. So from country lanes to city streets, Duffy works every angle. And wherever he goes, he smells a rat … . My thoughts and review|
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The Cold Cold Ground (Detective Sean Duffy #1)
Northern Ireland, Spring 1981. A homophobic serial killer with a penchant for opera and a young woman’s suicide that may yet turn out to be murder. On the surface, the events are unconnected, but then things – and people – aren’t always what they seem.
My thoughts and review:
| This is the first in the Sean Duffy series, set in Northern Ireland in 1981. A time of troubles, sectarian strife and hunger strikes. Sean finds himself a stranger in a strange land. A Catholic in a predominately Protestant R.U.C. He finds himself battling demons on all sides. Paramilitary gangs on both sides of the divide, A serial killer who breaks the norm in which killing and associated crime which is the domain of the IRA and UDA etc. And also certain elements within the R.U.C. As Sean sets off on his investigation inti these killings, he comes up against lots of things that don’t make sense. Doors that open and then shut behind him; or simply refuse to open. Cover ups and deceptions and things that just don’t up. Sean is a well drawn character, naive but determined. Looking for answers but not always getting them. A well told tale, brilliantly drawn cast and an unlikely hero. A book that grips and pulls the reader by the bootlaces and drags them to an exciting and satisfying conclusion. I urge you to read this book and I’m looking forward to book2
Adrian McKinty is an Irish novelist. He was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1968 and grew up in Victoria Council Estate, Carrickfergus, County Antrim. He read law at the University of Warwick and politics and philosophy at the University of Oxford. He moved to the United States in the early 1990s, living first in Harlem, New York and from 2001 onwards Denver, Colorado where he taught high school English and began writing fiction. He currently lives in Melbourne, Australia with his wife and two children.
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88 Guys for Coffee by Diane Solomon #Humour # Contemporary Women’s Fiction @dianesolomon @EloquentRascals
Great review
BOOK DESCRIPTION
Abandoned and feeling lost, her self-worth in tatters, Laura decides to try online dating sites. What an education. And what a long, five years she has ahead.
Hilarious and heartbreaking, soul-searching and spiritual, “88 Guys for Coffee” shares Laura’s roller coaster of experiences as she searches for her soul mate, for her true partner in life.
No matter how crazy it gets, no matter how disillusioned she becomes, she can’t give up. She won’t give up.
Laura learns all there is to know about online dating, but she learns the most about herself.
HERE ARE MY THOUGHTS AND REVIEW
Isn’t this cover just fab and the title just made me smile. Imagine 88 guys for coffee, from that I guessed that a lot of them didn’t get asked back for a second cup! Diane Solomon based this novel round some of the actual events from her own life…
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THE FOURTH MONKEY by J.D. BARKER #Blog Tour #4MK @jdbarker @HarlequinBooks
I avree with Sue. In your face stuff!!
Firstly I wish to thank Maxine Groves for inviting me to take part on this super Blog Tour for THE FOURTH MONKEY by J.D. BARKER
BOOK DESCRIPTION
The most anticipated thriller of the year – Optioned for both film and television
Se7en meets The Silence of the Lambs in this dark and twisting novel from the author Jeffery Deaver called, “A talented writer with a delightfully devious mind.”
For over five years, the Four Monkey Killer has terrorized the residents of Chicago. When his body is found, the police quickly realize he was on his way to deliver one final message, one which proves he has taken another victim who may still be alive.
As the lead investigator on the 4MK task force, Detective Sam Porter knows even in death, the killer is far from finished. When he discovers a personal diary in the jacket pocket of the body, Porter…
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London Calling (Mirabelle Bevan Mystery #2)bySara Sheridan
In the years following World War II, former Secret Service employee Mirabelle Bevan has found a refuge in the quiet coastal town of Brighton. But she can’t seem to resist an attraction to danger and a thirst for justice . . .
1952: Eighteen-year-old debutante Rose Bellamy Gore was last seen outside a Soho jazz club in the company of a saxophone player named Lindon Claremont. Now her mysterious disappearance is front-page news in the London tabloids.
When Lindon turns up the next day in Brighton, desperately seeking help, Mirabelle counsels him to cooperate with the authorities. After the local police take the musician into custody and ship him off to Scotland Yard, Mirabelle and her best friend, Vesta Churchill, hop a train to London in search of the truth.
As they scour smoky jazz clubs searching for clues to the deb’s disappearance, they descend into a sinister underworld where the price of admission can be one’s life. Mirabelle will need to draw on her espionage skills to improvise her way out of a disappearing act of her own . . .
Praise for the first Mirabelle Bevan mystery, Brighton Belle
“Beneath that prim exterior lies a fearless, fly-by-the-seat-of-her-pants kind of gal. One part Nancy Drew, two parts Jessica Fletcher, Mirabelle has a dogged tenacity to rival Poirot.” —Sunday Herald
“Unfailingly stylish, undeniably smart.” — Daily Record
“I was gripped from start to finish.” — Newbooks
“Fresh, exciting, and darkly plotted, this sharp historical mystery plunges the reader into a shadowy and forgotten past.” — Good Book Guide
“Early 1950s England is effectively portrayed in this intriguing mystery story . . . An excellent read for the beach or a long flight.” — Historical Novel Review
“After many twists and turns, she finally unravels the mystery in an entertaining romp pitting her wits against underworld characters and scheming impostors.” — Bookseller
“An entertaining mystery read–light, intriguing and ideal for a weekend escape. Bits of history enhance the plot without overwhelming it, and a handful of unexpected twists keep the reader guessing.” — RT Book Reviews
1952: Eighteen-year-old debutante Rose Bellamy Gore was last seen outside a Soho jazz club in the company of a saxophone player named Lindon Claremont. Now her mysterious disappearance is front-page news in the London tabloids.
When Lindon turns up the next day in Brighton, desperately seeking help, Mirabelle counsels him to cooperate with the authorities. After the local police take the musician into custody and ship him off to Scotland Yard, Mirabelle and her best friend, Vesta Churchill, hop a train to London in search of the truth.
As they scour smoky jazz clubs searching for clues to the deb’s disappearance, they descend into a sinister underworld where the price of admission can be one’s life. Mirabelle will need to draw on her espionage skills to improvise her way out of a disappearing act of her own . . .
Praise for the first Mirabelle Bevan mystery, Brighton Belle
“Beneath that prim exterior lies a fearless, fly-by-the-seat-of-her-pants kind of gal. One part Nancy Drew, two parts Jessica Fletcher, Mirabelle has a dogged tenacity to rival Poirot.” —Sunday Herald
“Unfailingly stylish, undeniably smart.” — Daily Record
“I was gripped from start to finish.” — Newbooks
“Fresh, exciting, and darkly plotted, this sharp historical mystery plunges the reader into a shadowy and forgotten past.” — Good Book Guide
“Early 1950s England is effectively portrayed in this intriguing mystery story . . . An excellent read for the beach or a long flight.” — Historical Novel Review
“After many twists and turns, she finally unravels the mystery in an entertaining romp pitting her wits against underworld characters and scheming impostors.” — Bookseller
“An entertaining mystery read–light, intriguing and ideal for a weekend escape. Bits of history enhance the plot without overwhelming it, and a handful of unexpected twists keep the reader guessing.” — RT Book Reviews
Hardcover, 256 pages
Published March 28th 2017 by Kensington Publishing Corporation (first published February 1st 2012)
My thoughts:
| This was such a change from my usual read. In lots of ways similar to Agatha Christie in language and setting. But Sara has her voice and it shines through in this novel. I liked her evocation of the times and her characters are well drawn and not superfluous to the story. Mirabelle and Vesta run a debt collection agency in Brighton and when Vesta’s friend Lindon Claremont is arrested in connection with disappearance of debutante Rose Bellamy Gore. He later dies in police custody’ a death that is classed as suicide. This sends Mirabelle and Vesta off on a quest to clear his name, a quest that involves the Establishment, Secret Service and assorted shady characters. It is a story that keeps the reader turning the pages and following the story to its satisfying conclusion. I urge you to read this book
Sara Sheridan
Born
Edinburgh, The United Kingdom Website
Twitter
Genre
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