Another Historical read for me that I never would have even looked at if it hadn't been recommended in a Facebook group I am in (Thanks Cyndi)

This story was one that made me absolutely stunned, I had no idea that this was something that was practised, and also that it was STILL being practised up to the 1980's!!

I was crazy mad listening to this book, how people can have been given this much authority over other human beings is just mind blowing.
If you are a Jodi Picoult fan then you will probably love this one too.

Anyhoo, back to my review!

Set in the 60's in Rural Grace County, Jane Forrester goes for an interview for a job as a social worker, much to the dismay of her fiance, he is unhappy in the fact that she is getting a job, let alone a job that might undermine his position as a doctor, and make him a laughing stock at the Golf Club, none of his friends wives work after all!

Jane wants to work, and feels that this would be an ideal position for her, that she may be able to do some good, she may even be able to help people less fortunate than her.

She gets the position and shadows another worker until an accident sets her on her own to carry on the job.

Ivy is one of her cases.

15 year old Ivy lives on a Tobacco farm with her family, her parents both died so she is now in the full time care of her grandmother, but her grandmother is ill, so it is Ivy that is doing the caring. Looking after her grandmother, her mentally ill sister and her sisters 2 year old son William is no mean feat, they rely on Welfare to get money for the family, they work on the Tobacco farm to pay for their lodgings.

Ivy has her own problems, she is epileptic, and because she is 15, she is "obviously" going to start sleeping around, I mean, look at Mary Ella her "feeble minded" sister, she had William after all!
They managed to fix that though, at least she won't be bringing any more "retards" into this world! Ivy is an ideal candidate for the program, it just needs to be signed off by the Social Worker, of course you don't tell her what it is you are doing, just tell them that they look ill, Mary Ella had her "appendix" out, and look, she's perfectly fine now!!

Jane cannot believe what is happening to these young girls, but what can she do, she's already been reprimanded for something she did wrong, she may even lose her job.

This story is based on true events that happened, in the authors notes she does say that she didn't want to focus on the actual deed, but to focus on the families and the aftermath, but some of the stories that she read about it were truly horrifying.

🎧🎧 - Brilliantly narrated by Alison Elliot, this story is one that will probably stay with you for a while!

Well this fancy little midfluff was certainly something that I didn't see coming.

Why did I pick it up? - Well, if you know me at all you will know that I cannot let everyone have all of the fun, I saw this book being read, reviewed and enjoyed all over the place.....That was my queue to jump into that madness, and what a ride it was!

Jason has a great life, he is married to the woman of his dreams Daniela, and they have a fantastic 15 year old son Charlie.

Did his life go the way he planned it? Not really, he didn't see himself as a Physics Professor at a college, and his wife Daniela didn't see herself giving up her budding art career to be a housewife, but they are happy with the choices they made, I mean who ever manages to get there ultimate dream?

Jason pops out to quickly say congratulations to his buddy at a bar as he has just won a prestigious award, Daniela tells him that dinner will be ready for him when he comes back, and to grab some Ice cream for her. He does exactly that.

Except he gets back to the car, only to be held up by a masked gunman, who makes him drive at gunpoint to the middle of nowhere, just before he promptly bonks him on the head, the man asks him “Are you happy with your life?”

After eventually waking up with a sore head, Jason finds he can't move, looking around he finds that he is strapped to a gurney, surrounded by people in hazmat suits, asking where he is, he is told “Welcome back, my friend.”

Jason doesn't understand what is going on, he tries his best to get back to his wife and child, but the thing is, he was never married to Daniela, and Charlie was never born, even stranger than that, Jason is a celebrated genius who was the person to discover the impossible!

🎧🎧 - Narrated by Jon Lindstrom, this crazy clever little Sci-Fi book had me sitting on the edge of my seat multiple times.

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Well Urban Fantasy isn't something that I would chose to pick up as a rule, but it was for a reading challenge, so I pulled up my big-girl panties and dove in, I'm so glad I did as I loved it!

I kind of knew what i was getting into as I had watched the True Blood series on TV, however I only watched about half of the first season, so I have no idea where it goes from there.

Sookie Stackhouse is a waitress in a bar, she is very ordinary and has nothing special about her, well apart from the fact that she can read your mind and hear your thoughts!

She hates that she can do this, and tries her best not to, but it isn't always that easy.

Now the town that she lives in is very open, in fact it is so open that they are OK with the fact that vampires live there, they keep themselves to themselves and there isn't usually any trouble.

I loved the way that it is seemed as quite normal for Vampires to be living there, I mean they are not your normal neighbourly have-a-chat friendly type, but the world has grown used to these things now, Vampires can go into a local bar and have a beer, or a synthetically modified bottle of blood, and nobody really cares that much.

Bill is such a character, Sookie is drawn to him because unlike the others, she cannot hear his thoughts or read his mind, it is quiet for her for the first time, and she likes that.
They soon become friends and then more.

Her grandmother is horrified that she is seeing a vampire, until she meets Bill and is taken by is manors and how handsome he is.

With a mystery, and a few sub plots going on, I think that this is a series that I am going to really enjoy, there was lots of blood, violence and actually a nice love story.

🎧🎧 - Perfectly narrated by Johanna Parker, I just fell in love with her accent, the way she pronounces words was just beautiful, I've always been a sucker for a southern accent, and this made my heart swell with love for it even more

This one is a bit of a slow burner, it starts off at a steady pace, but once it gets it's heels in, it's a race to the finish line, and I think a photo finish is just what it deserves!

1997 - Laurel and Primrose (Rosie for short) are sisters, Laurel is 10 and Rosie is 6, they are out playing in the park when they entice a small toddler to play down the canal path with them.

The body of that toddler is later discovered brutally murdered and the 2 girls dubbed The Flower Girls in court are arrested, unfortunately Rosie is too young to be prosecuted, so Laurel stands trial for murder.

Rosie and her parents are given new identities because of the media backlash and they move far away.

Laurel serves her time, and 19 years later is up for parole, but the family of the murdered toddler have strong objections.

Meanwhile, Hazel and her boyfriend are at a fancy hotel celebrating her 25th Birthday when a little 5 year old girl goes missing.

The similarities between Hazel and the lesser known Rosie are noticed.

Could she be the missing Flower Girl?

Could she be responsible for the missing girl?

🎧🎧 - Narrated by Emilia Fox who is a regular on TV in the UK in things like Silent Witness.

Emilia did an outstanding job narrating this one, I was very impressed with her narration skills, and will certainly not hesitate in buying another book that he has narrated again.

If you are familiar with the news in the UK, then you may remember the murder of James Bulger, this was the first thing that popped into my head while reading this, I remember it being on every TV channel, and in every newspaper when I went into the shops, so I think that the media portrayal in this book was very well done.

⭐⭐⭐⭐🌠 Sinning is Good Stars

Sean Bell, brother of the (ex) Priest Tyler Bell is a bad man....in his own words a Sinner.

He is a ruthless business man who likes to work and play hard.

After the death of his sister Lizzy to suicide (which we read about in book #1) he kind of associated God and the Church in a bad light, which is understandable considering Lizzy was abused by a Priest.

Tyler went one way, into Priesthood to try and atone somehow, and Sean......Well Sean went the other way.

I never did therapy after Lizzy’s death; I was young and stubborn and certain I didn’t need it. Instead, I buried the pain and anger with drinking and sex and chasing after money.

One evening Sean goes to a big firm party, he does all of his usual schmoozing and eyes up a few potential ladies for later.........until he sees her on the balcony.

After speaking and flirting mercilessly with her, he has an almost kiss, when he is interrupted by an important phone call.
The girl (Mary) says she can't see him again as she is going away, and although he doesn't want to, be leaves.

Sean is given a big case in his firm, basically he buys and sells buildings, there is a perfect building that he wants......trouble is, it's being used as a homeless shelter.

Off he pops to the shelter to try and move these people on, but when he knocks at the door, who should answer???
Of course it's Mary!!!!! What are the chances???

Only Mary isn't actually Mary, turns out that Mary is actually Zenobia "Zenny" Iverson his best friends little sister, oh and they have a secret kiss in the kitchen.........

Umm, did I also forget to tell you that she is in training to become a nun 😱😱😱😱

Fortunately, "Mary's" Novice Mistress is quite modern and 'down wid da kids' and lets them make up their own minds about becoming a part of the church.
She thinks that there should be at least some temptation for the Novices, otherwise, how do they know what they will be giving up? .....Makes sense I suppose 😦

Anyhoo......

Mary/Zenny decides that if she is going to be tempted away from the church then she doesn't want it to be anyone else but Sean that does it, but with Sean and his beliefs about the church, this proves to be a sticky subject.

Zenny clearly spells out to Sean that she wants him to have sex with her, and the inner turmoil begins!

Does he do it???? OF COURSE HE DOES, 😇😇😇

And the 2 of them together is scorching hot, Sean is a patient teacher to Zenny
and both of them together is off the scales hot.

If you loved Preist you're gonna flip over this one, go grab it now.

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A heartbreaking read of true events, in May 2012 nine men were convicted of sex trafficking and other offences including rape, trafficking girls for sex and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child.

This is the story of one of those girls.

Only known as Girl A in the news, this is the harrowing story of a young girl that were groomed, raped and then ultimately sold for sex, all under the eyes of the police, social workers and her parents.

The men involved were all of Indian/Pakistani descent, and occurred within their community, however this is not a book about race, this is something that happened and is still happening to young girls.

Girl A or Hannah for the purpose of the story was from a well off family who fell onto bad times, her father lost the business he had,and they had to downsize their house and move to a different area.

This is where she met Emma.

After finding new friends "Hannah" used to go to the local kebab shop with Emma, there they were given free kebabs, chips and drinks, this soon led to Vodka.

Only being 14, this was the best thing ever, her parents didn't know, and the owners of the kebab shop gave her and her friends everything she wanted, they even picked her off and dropped her off, as the friend of the shop also had friends that ran a taxi company, all of this was done for free, they never asked for any money, or anything in return......until they did!

Hannah is then drawn into a spiral of harrowing and horrifying despair, and when she finds the courage to speak up, she is let down by the very authorities that are supposed to be there to protect her!

I can't tell you how angry I was reading this book, these poor girls were failed time and time again by the authorities, and the one lady that knew what was going on and told the police time and time again was brushed aside, even Social Services who KNEW what was happening in that area, brushed it aside and said that it was a "lifestyle choice" by the girls!! 14 YEAR OLD GIRLS!!!!

This is not a lifestyle choice, this is RAPE!! These men were all 40-50 years old!

This book was heartbreaking, and I really hope that "Hannah" is now happy and living a normal and happy life, she is one brave lady to tell her story.

Sixteen-year-old Bri is an OK student, she is easily distracted though and the teachers are noticing it more and more, Bri is also black.

She lives in Garden Heights, yes that Garden Heights where THUG was based, and although you don’t meet any of the old characters from the other book, it certainly references the riots etc that it held.

The school is still taking no chances because of the riots, and have installed metal detectors and security guards at the entrance, but they seem to have a problem with a few of the kids, especially the black ones.

Brianna, Bri for short lives in a poor part of the neighbourhood, her family is poor and her single mother raised her and her brother after her father, who was a famous up-and-coming rapper was murdered, her mother has now lost her job.

Her auntie is part of a gang, and drugs and guns are pretty much every day things, but Bri doesn’t want to be part of this, her auntie is her music manager, not her life coach.

You see, Bri is a rapper, just like her father, and her dream is to make it big, so school isn’t a huge part of her life, but rapping, that is everything!

After finally getting her chance to perform her stuff at the local “ring” Bri nails-it, and makes a bit of a local name for herself, unfortunately for her, this isn’t always a good thing.

🎧🎧 – Narrated by the incredibly talented Bahni Turpin, this book is well worth a credit…..”But wait, does she rap?” OF COURSE SHE DOES, and she does it brilliantly!

I love a YA love story, yes they can be a little Insta-love, but they are great, you can get lost in a fabulous book for a few hours, and when you look up, all is right with the world!

This story is about a girl called Natasha, who is basically living in NYC illegally, her parents moved to America from Jamaica and never returned, they have been working, but a silly mistake by her father has now brought the authorities aware of their situation and the family are now being deported back to Jamaica.

Natasha is obviously very upset by this, she came to America when she was very young so she thinks of it as home, she has never even been to Jamaica and has no desire to go there again, her school and friends are here, and she is looking forward to going to college, so she finds the one person that she thinks may be able to help her stay, a lawyer.

Daniel is our other MC in this book, he is a Korean American boy, who is legal. His parents moved to the US many years before he was born. His parents are very strict and like him to be as Korean as he can.

Daniel is about to go for an interview for a place in Yale, somewhere he doesn’t particularly want to go, but his parents (mainly his father) have pushed him into it, Daniel wants to be a poet.

A ‘meet-cute’ happens, and the two meet and decide to spend the day together, Daniel does not know about Natasha’s situation.

I loved the fact that this was not only told in dual POV, but it also goes into the background of some of the other characters so that you can see why they are the way that they are (if that makes sense)

Because Natasha is Black and Daniel is Korean I loved the way that they explain their different cultures etc to each other, and that it wasn’t just fluffy ‘I love You’s’ in fact Natasha doesn’t believe in all that, she is a science geek, it is actually Daniel that is a hopeless romantic.

I LOVED the ending, it was done so perfectly, i’m not sure if I would have liked it any other way!

🎧🎧 – Narrated as always beautifully by Bahni Turpin with Raymond Lee and Dominic Hoffman who are 2 new narrators for me, but made this book sound so good.

If you haven't got your hands on this one yet, it should be bumped up your TBR list ASAP!

A great dose of thriller, with a sprinkle of chiller, topped off with a blood red cherry on the top!