Book Review - One Moment by Linda Green - #HolidayReading Mexico - Blog Tour

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Amazon UK

Title:  One Moment

Author: Linda Green

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: Quercus

Publication Date: 1st December 2019

Rating: 5 Stars

Finn and Kaz are about to meet for the first time...

Ten-year-old Finn, a quirky, sensitive boy who talks a lot and only eats at cafes with a 5-star hygiene rating, is having a tough time at school and home.

Outspoken Kaz, 59, who has an acerbic sense of humour and a heart of gold, is working at the café when Finn and his mum come in.

They don't know it yet, but the second time they meet will be a moment which changes both of their lives forever . . .

A story about how one moment in time, can change the course of many people's lives forever. 

There are two main characters and voices to this book, and it alternates not only between them, but both in the before and after..

After what you may ask... well I had many theories none of them correct, but I was unable to put the book down until I discovered just what lead to the moment, and what exactly it was. 

We have Finn, a 10 year old boy who thinks he is weird, we meet him as his parents are trying to sort out a divorce,, and he is being bullied at school. 

He doesn't have the same interests as a "typical" young boy, and as such feels like an outcast, and his parents don't exactly seem to know what to do with him. 

And then there is Kaz, who is sole carer to her younger brother Terry, who has mental health issues. They also have financial issues, and struggle to make ends meet. 

It's a story that takes in themes such as bullying, unconventional parenting styles, mental health problems and how on earth you are treated as a non individual at the job centre and benefits office, more as a box to tick, rather than seeing the humanity in a situation. 

They are worlds apart, an unlikely pairing and yet their interactions just felt right.  

I couldn't read this book fast enough, I found the pages seemed to keep on turning, as I was drawn further and further into this story. 

Another cracking read from Linda Green, who keeps on writing fabulous books that I can't get enough of.

Thank you to Quercus on Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily. 

Book Review - The Last Thing She Told Me by Linda Green - #HolidayReading Mexico

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Amazon UK

Title: The Last Thing She Told Me

Author: Linda Green

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: Quercus

Publication Date: 7th March 2019

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Even the deepest buried secrets can find their way to the surface...

Moments before she dies, Nicola's grandmother Betty whispers to her that there are babies at the bottom of the garden.

Nicola's mother claims she was talking nonsense. However, when Nicola's daughter finds a bone while playing in Betty's garden, it's clear that something sinister has taken place.

But will unearthing painful family secrets end up tearing Nicola's family apart?

What starts off as a simple enough request on a deathbed, turns into a rather fraught suspenseful book, with some huge family secrets to unravel. 

Taking in 3 generations of the family, with some of the past revealed at the end of each chapter, this is an epic story. 

It was also a book that was close to impossible to put down.  

At times it is dealing with uncomfortable topics that may upset some people. I won't say what they are as it does give an element of spoiler. 

Maisie was perhaps my favourite character, as she could be counted upon to relive the tension in any scene she was in. She is very funny and cute as an 8 year old can be. 

Loved the storytelling of this book, and it is another great story from Linda Green.

Thank you to Quercus and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

Book Review - After I've Gone by Linda Green - #HolidayReading Book 22

Book 22 of 30 that I read on my holiday to Fuerteventura in December 2017

Amazon UK

Title: After I've Gone

Author: Linda Green

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: Quercus

Publication Date: 15th June 2017

Rating: 5 Stars

Status Update - You have 18 months left to live . . . 
Jess Mount goes online one wet morning in January, and discovers that her Facebook timeline appears to has skipped forward 18 months to a day when shocked family and friends are sharing heart-breaking tributes to her following her death in an accident. Jess is left scared and confused: is she the target of a cruel prank or is this a terrifying glimpse of her true fate? Amongst the posts are photos of a gorgeous baby son she has not yet conceived. But when a post from her best friend suggests her death was deliberate, Jess realises that if she changes the future to save her own life, the baby boy she has fallen in love with may never exist.

Hooked from the first few lines, I realised this was going to be a fabulous book and I wasn't in the slightest bit disappointed. 

In a rather strange turn of events, Jess discovers she can view facebook posts from the future, 18 months time to be precise, of friends and family mourning her death. 

As time goes on we see what appears to be a dual time line story as Jess struggles to work out what do do about all the future information she is seeing about herself, while at the same time, setting in motion what appears to be the same chain of events that will lead to her downfall. 

If that sounds confusing, then don't worry as it isn't and the author is far more eloquent than Iam and everything just works incredibly well. 

This was compulsive unputdownable storytelling at its finest, and a bit different to other books I've read in the genre. It isn't the first book I've read by Linda Green, but it is the first I've read since she changed genres  and thankfully she is just as good if not better with this sort of book. 

I loved every second of this story and was open mouthed in shock at the end of it.  Clearly well researched it deals with tricky topics in a sensitive manner, not overtyl shocking, but in ways that you feel a great deal of sympathy for Jess. 

Fantastic book that i would happily recommend to anyone that is even slightly intrigued by the blurb. 

Thank you to Quercus and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily. 

Book Review - While My Eyes Were Closed by Linda Green - Rachel Reads Randomly Book #85

Amazon UK

Title: While My Eyes Were Closed

Author: Linda Gren

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Purchased

Publisher: Quercus

Publication Date: 28th January 2016

Rating: 4 Stars

One, two, three . . . Lisa Dale shuts her eyes and counts to one hundred during a game of hide-and-seek. When she opens them, her four-year-old daughter Ella is gone. Disappeared without a trace. The police, the media and Lisa's family all think they know who snatched Ella. But what if the person who took her isn't a stranger? What if they are convinced they are doing the right thing? And what if Lisa's little girl is in danger of disappearing forever?

This book features what must be every single parent's worst nightmare - turning on back just for a moment and your child has disappeared.  For Lisa Dale that is exactly what happens and the book focuses on how she and her family cope in the aftermath of four year old Ella not being found during a game of Hide and Seek. 

What we get as readers though is also chapters from the person who has taken Ella, which as the story proceeds becomes slightly disturbing.  They have in their own mind valid reasons for having walked out of a park with someone else's child, and not owning up to the police when they realise how far its gone. 

Due to being able to see what was going on from all sides, meant I found the book easy to follow, but apart from one "oh that's how it fits together" moments,  nothing seemed to surprise, and it didn't really get under my skin the way psychological drama books tend to  normally. 

I did though find it a fabulous look at the emotions on both sides of this, and also seeing how Ella was adapting to the situation. It is clear there is a lot of family love in this book, although at times perhaps the characters were too loving. 

If I had children, the odds are I would have been far more affected by the story. As it is I was interested in what was going on, I hoped that the child would be ok, but I didn't feel the compulsion to keep reading the whole time, which is what I want from books of this genre. 

Still this was the author's first book writing in a slightly dark genre and its a very good book, and I having already  read After I've Gone, I know its a groove she is just starting to form, and I am looking forward to seeing more from the author, as I used to love her women's fiction books too. 

Thank you to everyone that voted for this book this week, it was a tie and I picked this purely because I am familiar with the author, so knew there was a greater chance of enjoying it.  I'm looking forward to seeing what this week will bring.