3.5 Stars

CW: Sexual assault, drugs addiction, suicidal thoughts

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

When Maggie Cooper was 15 years old, she was snatched from the street by a stranger, and held captive in an underground room. Now 12 years later, Maggie is counting the days until her son - born in captivity and conceived through rape - turns three. She's had two other sons and both were taken by their captor on their third birthday. Maggie is not prepared to lose a third son and will do anything she can to save him.

This was a fast-paced gripping read, and I really enjoyed the mix of Room and The Lovely Bones this book felt like. Maggie is a character to root for - amazingly resilient and still full of love for her children and her family. The storyline in this book flashed back and forth from when Maggie was taken and the police reaction to present day and what she was up to planning how to save Max, and what her family was doing while trying to survive the tragedy of her disappearance.

I did find the police quite inept in this and I did think the immediate pin pointing of a culprit a bit strange - and then I also wondered at the author choice to have the culprit be known so early on odd., But then as was in the family's lives, it gave the book a perversity that was difficult to read because he was so vile but also added a lot to the story.

I don't think the actual writing in this was the best I've ever read - but in saying that, I was still gripped to the story and what was going to happen to Maggie and Max. I also don't think that the addiction storyline the author tried to go down with James wasn't handled as well as it could have been and it didn't feel particularly believable.

I also found it highly implausible that Maggie and Max wouldn't be taken to the hospital straight away after the rescue, and the police station instead and just allowed to go home then. If I learned anything from Room, it was the amount of deficiencies you would end up having being locked up without direct sunlight and proper food/exercise for 12 years will have on a person.

I received a copy of this book from the publishers via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

William, Brian and Luke Drumm are all brothers but not particulalry close. And now one of them is dead, and his death may not have been an accident.

This book is not a fast-paced action thriller - it's very similar to all of Liz Nugent's other books in that it's very much a character study of the three Drumm brothers and all the nice and horrible parts of their personalities, the complexities of their relationship with each other and their mother, and what could have led to two brothers killing the third.

I really enjoyed examining the three brothers as we heard each of their stories and trying to figure out who could have done what, and honestly which out of the three I'd be tempted to do in myself as they're all so irritating and selfish. The story is not told in a linear way - it jumps back and forth over the years but with each brother we end up getting a really well-rounded version of their life. For example, in William's part we learn about their cousin Paul who died from leukaemia, in Luke's part we learn about the day Paul died and in Brian's we hear how close he was to Paul and the day of Paul's funeral.

There is possibly trigger warnings for extreme mental illness in this book. We learn early on that Luke suffers from depression as well as psychotic episodes which could be linked to some form of schizophrenia. The reader learns from Luke what he's seeing/hearing and struggling with pretty much all the time and how that affects him.

I just love Liz Nugent's style of writing and story-telling. Our Little Cruelties is full of characters so horrible, we can't look away from their ugliness to see how it will all play out. Nugent is a master at wickedly-evil people who are actually very ordinary.

3 - 3.5 stars

I received this book from Little Island in exchange for an honest review.

Once Upon a Place is a lovely compilation of short stories and poems made for children in mind, all set in Ireland, about Irish families and people growing up in Ireland and all embrued with some sort of magic that only Ireland deliveries. Some of the magic in this book is from fables and myths, with sparks and wonder - and some of it is the magic of the ordinary, of the peace in a quiet day in the Phoenix Park, and the feeling of being with family.

I really enjoyed the majority of stories in this book - my favourites belonging to John Connolly and Eoin Colfer. I think this is a great book for kids and adults alike, and is also full of some lovely illustrations as well!

Grace After Henry is a beautiful Irish contemporary book about Grace - who, far too young, loses the love of her life Henry in a tragic cycling accident. Now left in the home they bought together alone, Grace doesn't know what to do or how to go on. And then there's a knock on the door from the man whose come to fix her boiler - and appears to be Henry's doppelgänger. Grace welcomes Andy into her life as she tries to deal with her grief but there's a lot of complications on the horizon.

This is a sweet book that is full of love but also full of grief and mourning. It's one that made me smile but also made me want to weep and I really liked all the emotions it made me feel. I think Grace's grief for Henry is so strong in the book, and there's never a point where Andy really replaces Henry, or makes that grief go away for Grace - but he helps her to heal, and helps her to process her emotions without feeling completely alone.

There were times in this book that I wanted a little bit more to the story, and it felt a bit simpler than it had to be but it flowed very well for me, and it had characters that I really enjoyed and could believe existed - like the three wise men in Glasnevin Cemetery.

I would have wanted a bit more to the ending of this book. I didn't feel 100% satisfied.

I received this book from the publishers/author via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Ten years ago, Adam Lattimer disappeared and his family had no idea what had happened to him or where he went - or even if he was dead or alive. Now he's back, and his siblings have been gathered from all corner of the globe to celebrate his reappearance with a party hosted by their father in the family home in County Wexford, Ireland. But the family is full of secrets, and some of them might be out by the time the weekend is over. And why did Adam decide to return now of all times?

This was an intriguing and suspenseful family drama that really brought me a lot of entertainment and took me a whole load of twists and turns. I loved how this story was told, in a past and present narrative - with the present taking place in a garda station following the suspected murder of one of the family members. I loved being brought back and forth from all angles of the story through each of the family members and seeing how each sibling saw each other, thought of each other and their relationship with their father.

I liked the reveals in this book, and while I do wonder at the plausibility of all of it, it's not completely unbelievable either. I guessed at some things and not others which I also enjoyed. I think this is a great book for fans of Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty as the story structure is a little bit similar!

I received this book from Penguin Ireland in exchange for an honest review.

Amy believes she is happily married to her husband of 20 years when suddenly he turns around, and tells her he wants a break - from their life and their marriage - for six months. Amy is devastated but allows Hugh to walk away from her and then realises her life doesn't have to stop either. She can also be on a break and possibly rediscover herself and what she really wants too.

I really enjoyed the majority of this book. It was very witty, and fun and I really felt for Amy throughout the novel as a mother of three just trying to keep everything together, and also not eat too much cheese, drink all the wine and spend all her money online shopping! Marian Keyes' voice came through so warmly in this story, and at times I felt like I could hear her narrate it to me. I could see so much of her own online personality in Amy and I really liked it.

I thought Amy's family relationships and friendships were portrayed really well - in all their loveliness and selfishness, and I also thought it was fantastic that Marian Keyes showed that friendships can fail for different reasons even when you're in your forties. I loved that Amy was still a sensual person who could still have fantastic sex with a man she fancied even though she was middle-aged and her life was certainly not over - but just beginning.

This book also tells a really amazing yet harrowing and upsetting story of what many, many Irish women had to go through for years when they wanted to have an abortion - and had to travel to the UK to get the proper medical care they deserved. It was so upsetting reading this, knowing that it hundreds of women have gone through that year after year until Ireland finally repealed the eight amendment and provided the proper medical care for its women and people who could get pregnant.

I do think this book was a little bit long for me. It could have been cut about 100 pages shorter possibly. I found myself skim reading by the end of it, as I felt the story had wrapped up.

I received this book from the publishers/author via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Andrew is an Irish journalist living and working in Mexico City when he and his photographer boyfriend stumble across the body of a person brutally murdered by a cartel. When Andrew's boyfriend Carlos asks too many questions about the body, he is also killed. Now Andrew is faced with a dilemma - turn the other way or begin to probe into the killings which lead back to oil fields, big corporate boardrooms, and a lot of people who have been silenced in terrible ways.

This is a fantastically told story, and something unlike anything I have read before, and I cannot recommend this book enough!

The atmosphere and setting of this book is superb, and I really feel like Mexico City became alive for me while I was reading it, as well as other parts of South America Andrew visits in the novel. The danger towards Andrew and others in his field is clearly stated several times throughout the story, and we see it physically affect Andrew at times, but also shown is the vibrancy of the city and culture and the adrenaline rush that comes with a great story told that is why Andrew lives and breathes Mexico City instead of his Dublin hometown.

You can definitely tell while reading this book, that Tim MacGabhann knows what he was writing about, and has an amazing knowledge of the types of goings-on he is reporting about in the book - the corrupt police force, drug cartels and all those affected by it. His author note at the end of the story is a really good addition, and I would definitely urge people to read it once finished as you learn about where he got inspiration for this story which isn't 100% fictional.

I loved this book, and can't wait to see what Tim MacGabhann writes next. I think the character of Andrew was beautifully portrayed and I was just so sucked into this story - even when it was a little bit scary, and fairly brutal and gruesome at others times.