[REVIEW] The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton @BloomsburyRaven

I have seen this book all over social media and when I say all over I truly mean all over – Twitter, Instagram, Goodreads, Youtube and book blogs. What first attracted me to it was the synopsis because it sounds so good and unique. I’m sure that the synopsis of Seven Deaths will intrigue every lover of mystery books (if one could classify it as such).

The story revolves around one woman called Evelyn Hardcastle who upon attending a party thrown for her by her parents gets murdered. This happens every night and the quest of saving Evelyn falls upon one man called Aiden Bishop. Aiden re-lives this whole day through the eyes of different guests and what he’s tasked with is solving the mystery around Evelyn’s death. But solving her death is very tricky and Aiden must give his all in order to find out the truth behind her death[s].

I have kept this synopsis short and sweet because it’s all you need before going in. The first question that pops into my mind is – is Seven Deaths worth the hype it got and still gets? I would say that it is because it offers something unique and something I haven’t read before. The story is complex and interesting and very rich in terms of characters and happenings. Because I’ve been busy with tests/exams I’ve been reading it for a longer period than usual but I have to note that I’ve read around 400 pages in two days which says something about the book as well as Turton’s writing. I found the characters as well as different timelines to be confusing at times because a lot of stuff happens in it. I enjoyed the mystery around Evelyn as well as Aiden’s attempts at trying to figure out what exactly happens every night. The last one-hundred pages were so good and fast-paced that I couldn’t look away so even though I was in class at one point I just kept reading instead of paying attention [sorry professor]. I love the complexity of the story Turton has created because even when I was trying to guess what Aiden was missing, Turton managed to add a new layer to the story and point to a different direction. I found the conclusion to the book to be very interesting and wanted at least twenty more pages just so I could see what happened! What bothered me the most and what I mentioned at the beginning are the characters and switching timelines but other than that I found the book to be such a strong mystery.

If you’re someone who gets sort of distanced when it comes to hyped-up books I can assure you that with this one you won’t be disappointed because it will thrill you, mislead you and entertain you. The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle stands as a strong mystery book and one of the most interesting ones I’ve read in a while.

I would like to thank the publisher Bloomsbury UK (Raven Books) for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and weren’t influenced by the fact that I got this book free from the publisher.

My rating: 

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**I am in no way compensated by these sites. I am simply sharing it so people can find this book easier.

Stuart Turton lives in London with his amazing wife and daughter. He drinks lots of tea.

What else?

​When he left university he went travelling for three months and stayed away for five years. Every time his parents asked when he’d be back he told them next week, and meant it.

Stuart is not to be trusted. In the nicest possible way.

He’s got a degree in English and Philosophy, which makes him excellent at arguing and terrible at choosing degrees.

Having trained for no particular career, he has dabbled in most of them. He stocked shelves in a Darwin bookshop, taught English in Shanghai, worked for a technology magazine in London, wrote travel articles in Dubai, and now he’s a freelance journalist. None of this was planned, he just kept getting lost on his way to other places…

Find him on: Website, Goodreads and Twitter.

[COVER REVEAL + TITLE] Millennium Series: Book VI by David Lagercrantz @QuercusBooks #TheGirlWhoLivedTwice

I’m very excited to be one of many book bloggers who are participating in revealing the cover and the title for the Millennium book VI. Without further ado here’s the title and the cover for the sixth book:

THE GIRL WHO LIVED TWICE

 

Doesn’t it look stunning!? Let me know your thoughts on it below in the comment section.

*You can pre-order The Girl Who Lived Twice by clicking on this link –> 

*I am in no way compensated by this site. I am simply sharing it so people can find this book easier.

David Lagercrantz, born in 1962, is a journalist and author, living in Stockholm. His first book was published in 1997, a biography of the Swedish adventurer and mountaineer Göran Kropp. In 2000 his biography on the inventor Håkan Lans, A Swedish genius , was published. His breakthrough as a novelist was of the Fall in Wilmslow (Fall of Man in Wilmslow) , a fictionalized novel about the British mathematician Alan Turing. In David Lagercrantz ‘writing you can thwart see a pattern: the major talents who refuse to follow the convention. He has been interested not only in what it takes to stand out from the crowd, but also in the resistance That Such creativity inevitably faces.

Find him on: Website and Goodreads.

[REVIEW] The Parting Gift by Evan Fallenberg @OtherPress

When it comes to books that feature LGBTQ+ themes I’m all ears so getting a chance to read The Parting Gift was very exciting for me. Oh boy, was this book brilliant! I have to mention the hardcover copy and how brilliantly it was designed. Wow, just wow. Well done Other Press!

The story centers around an unknown narrator who upon coming back from Israel crashes in his friend’s apartment and the book is written in a form of one long letter addressed to that friend, Adam. Since our narrator has found a new location to live in he decides to leave an explanation as to why he came to crash at his place for four months. Our narrator tells Adam the story of Uzi, a spice merchant he met during his trip as well as meeting Uzi’s family, of love, of obsession, of dedication and more.

I think that my summary is enough to read before going in and that’s why I kept it short. I’ve no idea what’s happening lately because I’ve been reading fantastic books – let’s not jinx this because I want to read more fantastic books in the future. I read The Parting Gift in a day because it was so fast-paced and so good that I couldn’t look away. I just made breaks to make more cups of tea. Fallenberg writes so masterfully and keeps your attention at all times and the way he crafted this tale was fantastic. I love how he created the characters in it especially our unknown narrator who is so fascinating and whose psyche I loved examining throughout the book. Unknown narrator is so interesting and his actions made me question many things about him. The story is developed very well and there’s no dull moment in it. If I was to compare this book to other ones I would definitely say that it reminded me of Gone Girl in a way – now I know everything is compared to Gone Girl nowadays but this book really left me with that impression. When I reached the end of The Parting Gift I found myself wanting more and exactly this ability the author has to make the reader want more is what amazes me. I honestly don’t know what else to say because I fear I’ll ruin your experience with this book so just do yourself a favour and pick this book up.

The Parting Gift is a fascinating tale of love, paranoia, jealousy and deviance set in a in a small town north of Tel Aviv.

I would like to thank the publisher Other Press for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions written here are my own and weren’t influenced by anything.

My rating: 

Add ‘The Parting Gift‘ to your TBR:  

*Purchase ‘The Parting Gift‘ here:

*Purchase ‘The Parting Gift‘ with free international delivery here: 

**I am in no way compensated by these sites. I am simply sharing it so people can find this book easier.

A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Fallenberg is a graduate of Georgetown University and the MFA program in creative writing at Vermont College of Fine Arts and has lived in Israel since 1985. He is coordinator of fiction for the Shaindy Rudoff Graduate Program in Creative Writing at Bar-Ilan University; coordinator of literary translation in the Department of English Literature at Bar-Ilan University; and an instructor in the low-residency MFA program in creative writing at City University of Hong Kong. The recipient of fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, Vermont Studio Center and the National Endowment for the Arts, Fallenberg serves as an advisor to several literary prizes, including the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature. He is the father of two sons.

Find him on: Goodreads

[BLOG TOUR: Q&A] Deliver Me by Karen Cole #DeliverMe @QuercusBooks @QuercusUSA

Today is my stop at the blog tour for Deliver Me by Karen Cole and I am very pleased to share a Q&A with the author with you.

ABOUT DELIVER ME

A gripping psychological thriller, perfect for fans of Teresa Driscoll’s I Am Watching You and C.L. Taylor’s The Fear.

THE NIGHT SHE DOESN’T REMEMBER WILL BE THE ONE SHE CAN’T FORGET

When Abby’s doctor tells her she’s two months pregnant she doesn’t believe him. She can’t be – she hasn’t had sex for over a year. But to her astonishment and dismay, multiple tests confirm it’s true.

Desperately searching for an explanation, Abby recalls New Year’s Day – the terrible hangover, the hole in her memory where the night before should have been and the inexplicable sense of unease – and realises that this baby must have been conceived at her best friend Danny’s NYE party.

Horrified that someone would have taken advantage of her intoxicated state, Abby enlists the help of Danny to find out which of the party guests assaulted her. But, when she starts to receive anonymous messages, it seems that while she has been looking into the father of her baby, someone has been watching her…

Published in ebook by Quercus on 1st November, £1.99

Q&A WITH KAREN COLE

First of all I would like to thank you for taking the time out of your schedule to answer a few questions for Breathing Through Pages.

Breathing Through Pages: Your novel Deliver Me has such an interesting premise – tell me, what inspired you to write Deliver Me?

Karen Cole: The original premise came to me in embryo form, years ago, when I was pregnant with my first son and I thought, what if…? But I didn’t develop it until much later.

BTP: Has your degree in psychology inspired any part of your novel?

KC: Not directly, no. But I’m fascinated by motivation and memory and I think some of that knowledge and interest has probably seeped in to the book.

BTP: What is your writing process like?

KC: I don’t really have a process. I tend to write early in the morning. I don’t overplan as ideas seem to come to me as I’m writing.

BTP: How long did it take you to write this novel?

KC: Hard to say. The actual writing probably took about a year but as I mentioned the idea had been evolving for some time before that.

BTP: Do you have any strange writing habits?

KC: I don’t think so!

BTP: By reading the synopsis of Deliver Me the reader can see that assault plays a big part in it – Was there a particular scene which you found hard to write (spoiler-free if possible)?

KC: I think writers always have to draw on unpleasant memories and emotions for distressing scenes but there was no one scene that was particularly hard to write.

BTP: Which character in your book do you most relate to?

KC: It has to be Abigail though I don’t think I’m at all like her and I tried to keep my own personality out of the book as much as possible.

BTP: Are you an introverted or an extroverted person?

KC: I’m quite introverted. I think writers have to be happy in their own company as it comes with the territory.

BTP: What authors have influenced you and made you fall in love with reading and eventually writing a novel?

KC: Too many! I’ve read and enjoyed so many psychological thrillers over the years. Some authors that stand out are Gillian Flynn, Nicci French and Rosamund Lupton. But my first love and the deepest is of course the queen of Crime fiction, Agatha Christie.

BTP: If you could only read one book for the rest of your life what book would it be?

KC: Actually, it would probably be a big, thick non- fiction book like Bill Bryson’s ‘A short History of Nearly Everything’ or ‘Sapiens’ by Yuval Noah Harari. Books that make you see the world in a new light and imagine that you understand it a little more.

BTP: I love finding new books so I want to ask you what are your favourite books?

KC: This is an impossible question to answer. I love so many books. Classics would include any Jane Austen, Crime and Punishment andWatership Down. Recently I’ve enjoyed and would recommend ‘Good me bad Me’ by Ali Land,‘Longbourne’ by Jo baker and‘The Power’ by Naomi Alderman.

BTP: What are you currently reading?

KC: A book of short stories by Joyce Carol Oates called ‘The Female of the Species.’

BTP: Are you currently working on a new book?

KC: Yes, I’m currently working on a psychological thriller set in Cyprus, where I live.

BTP: Thank you.

KC: That was fun. Thank you!

Add ‘Deliver Me‘ to your TBR:  

*Purchase ‘Deliver Me‘ here:

**I am in no way compensated by this site, I am simply sharing it so people can find this book easier.

Karen Cole grew up in the Cotswolds and got a degree in psychology at Newcastle University. She spent several years teaching English around the world before settling in Cyprus with her husband and two sons, where she works at a British army base as a primary school teacher. She recently completed the Curtis Brown writing course where she found her love of writing psychological thrillers.

Deliver Me is her debut novel.