I received a free digital copy of this book from the publishers/author via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Madison has run away to a mountain resort to get over her divorce from her cheating ex when she meets the solitary Luke. Luke has suffered PTSD since the war and prefers being alone, but Madison ends up becoming his world, and he hers.

This book starts more or less straight away with some sexy things, and from then on, they don’t really stop. I did enjoy the chemistry and relationship between Madison and Luke, and it helps that Luke is a total dreamboat. This book was a great read with a story that wasn’t complicated whatsoever and just two people having a good time…or a GREAT time.

There were parts that were super cringe with some things said by the characters that had me red with second hand embarrassment, and obviously nothing like this would ever happen in real life, work. At one point in the book, there was a fight in this bar/restaurant and I thought it was totally pointless.

I received a free copy of this book via Netgalley from the author/published in exchange for an honest review.

When Caitlin runs away from her alcoholic father shortly after the death of her mentally ill mother, she goes to New York to be somewhere new and alone. When she meets Jake, everything falls into place until he brings her to his 'family' - a strange commune in the countryside, and she's immediately sucked into their strange reclusive way of living and listening to their charismatic leader.

This is a really well-written twisty turny thriller that I throughly enjoyed from start to finish. Caitlin is definitely a bit of a lost case from the start and as a reader I really felt for her and while at the same time I was slightly embarrassed by how desperate she was for friends, I also really wanted to her find someone and Jake was perfect.

So much in this book feels off but right at the same time. The camp is almost like a fitness camp for a majority of the book, and I mean who wouldn't want to go somewhere where you get thin and eat healthy. It didn't seem so bad until it did. I loved how much I just wanted Caitlin to get out of there but at the same time understood why she wanted to stay. I find the way cult leaders are written in books really interesting and I think Emma Didin nailed Don in this book. He's very fatherly and just wants to take care of everyone - why wouldn't you confide in him and want to listen to him.

I enjoyed the end but I maybe would have liked a bit more of a thrill. This had more of an uncomfortable feeling. I also would have liked more info on what happened to everyone else - especially Tyra and Mary/Robin.

I received a free copy of this book from Penguin Ireland in exchange for an honest review.

Lola Quinlan is 85 years old when she decides to return to her home country of Ireland after over 60 years away with her granddaughter and great granddaughter. However, Lola quickly realises there’s some memories of Ireland she may need to confront, and finally talk to her family about her past.

This was a fun, family-orientated book that I quite enjoyed, and I would recommend people who have read and loved The Alphabet Sisters to read this too as it focuses on the same family, just five years later. I really enjoyed seeing where the sisters had gone in the past five years since the events of The Alphabet Sisters.

Lola is just as mad and eccentric as ever, and I enjoyed seeing the family adventures in Ireland. There wasn’t as much Ireland as I would have liked, and I was surprised at the direction the book took but it wasn’t an overly unpleasant turn either. One of my favourite things about this book was the hired chauffeur Des. He was hilarious, and I just felt like his gift of the gab, and his penchant for putting his foot a bit too over the line in friendly helpfulness and earnestness so funny and typically Irish.

There were parts of this I didn’t like - mainly the relationship between Geraldine and Lola at the end. I was a bit disgusted that Geraldine raised doubts over Lola’s story about Edward and why she left him. And I felt a bit flat that near the end of the story there was the unpleasant exchange between Beth and Geraldine and that Geraldine was still so awful. I’m not sure if it’s a hint that another book could come focused on Geraldine and Jim, but I didn’t like those scenes at all and I really dislike Geraldine as a character.

1.5 stars

I received a free digital copy from the author/publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Wow, this book was so bad. I mean, it was written well hence the .5 star instead of just one star but the story itself was awful. This story is about Hawthorn Creely, who becomes obsessed with finding out the mystery behind local woman Lizzie Lovett's disappearance. Armed with strange theories, Hawthorn steps into Lizzie's life and takes her job and her boyfriend to figure out what happened (cause, ya know...that makes sense).

Okay, yeah, this will probably be a ranty review because this book and Hawthorn just made me so mad. I could have DNF'd this at 50% through when I realised it wasn't going to redeem itself but I'll be honest, I did something I hate to do which is hate-read it just so I could fuel myself up for tidbits I could rant about in this review. And O BOY, there were some.

The first thing you need to know about this book is that Hawthorn Creely's just a terrible person. She's rude, snide, uncaring, unforgiving and basically blames the entire world for being happy and content when she's not. She has hardly any friends and it's no surprise as who would want to be friends with someone who never cares about anyone except herself and can't be happy for you when things are going well. There were certainly people in the school that were awful and bullies, but Hawthorn was a fairly toxic person to be around on account of her negativity. She wasn't nice to the one friend she had and she wasn't nice to her family. The author kept playing Hawthorn off as being quirky and cute because she always had insane ideas but no, I couldn't accept that.

Hawthorn's obsession with Lizzie Lovett was weird to begin with because she didn't even like her. And not because Lizzie ever did anything to Hawthorn, no Hawthorn hated her because Lizzie was pretty and popular and was basically everything Hawthorn wanted to be but couldn't admit to herself that she wanted. So naturally, she had a deep hatred for Lizzie? But then Hawthorn decided that Lizzie went missing because she was a werewolf. Like I;m sorry but WHAT? This made no sense whatsoever, and what was worse is that people just went along with it like Enzo. And let's get started on him...what.a.creep.

I understand Enzo feeling a bit alone and horrible after Lizzie's disappearance but the way he was okay with being so friendly with a 17-year-old girl and he was 25 was weird and creepy to me. I am 25 now and I would hate to have to be around 17 year olds. Also, where were his friends and family? Did he have no friends except Lizzie because that's what it seemed like but it was never explained.

I also felt the sex scene here was extremely problematic because it seemed like Hawthorn didn't really give proper consent and she obviously didn't know what she was doing or how she was feeling. And it made me feel icky. I'm not saying the author had to write a first time with bows and sparkles cause it's not real life, but younger readers shouldn't read this sex scene and think it's a proper first time with someone much older than you, and someone who doesn't seem to care that much. Also Enzo showed how much of a creep he was at the end when he seemed to get with the Mycelle girl who was also 17 and that was never even explained. Why did he end up being with her when he had heard how horrible she was from Hawthorn and why did he spill all of of Hawthorn's secrets. I guess we will never know

I also thought there was a problem in this book with mental health. You can't throw what was done in this book into a story and not have appropriate conversations around it ESPECIALLY when a book is aimed at a YA audience.

I mean, one could argue that Lizzie's suicide showed that what you see on the outside isn't always what you get on the inside and people can be suffering internally and you wouldn't know but this was glossed over. It was like, hey she killed herself and that's sad but whatever. No deeper look into why or how she was suffering. Nothing. I just hope the finished copy of this book comes with some sort of page about hotlines to call if someone is suffering because I feel all books that touch on this subject should have this.

Overall, I'm glad this ended up being a fast read because I wouldn't have wanted to spend any more time on it. I'm happy I read this book though just so I can recommend that other people don't.