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Barrowbeck by Andrew Michael Hurley [BOOK REVIEW] Barrowbeck by Andrew Michael Hurley [BOOK REVIEW]
Book Review · Books

Barrowbeck by Andrew Michael Hurley [BOOK REVIEW]

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Barrowbeck by Andrew Michael Hurley [BOOK REVIEW]

About The Book:

Barrowbeck by Andrew Michael Hurley [BOOK REVIEW]

Pages: 304

Genre: Horror, Paranormal, Short Story, Mystery

Publisher: John Murray

Format I read it in: Paperback

Rating: ★★★★

For centuries, the inhabitants of Barrowbeck, a remote valley on the Yorkshire-Lancashire border, have lived uneasily with forces beyond their reckoning. They raise their families, work the land, and do their best to welcome those who come seeking respite. But there is a darkness that runs through the village as persistently as the river.

A father fears that his daughter has become possessed by something unholy.
A childless couple must make an agonising decision.
A widower awaits the return of his wife.
A troubled man is haunted by visions of end times.

As one generation gives way to the next and ancient land is carved up in the name of progress, darkness gathers. The people of Barrowbeck have forgotten that they are but guests in the valley. Now there is a price to pay. Two thousand years of history is coming to an end.

My Thoughts:

“Wean them off this drivel about sorcery. Such things belong to the centuries of the past, not ours. They work among the marvels of science every day at the will, and yet they talk of goblins.”

I have enjoyed Andrew Michael Murray’s “Starve Acre” and I was very excited to read this one. When I started reading Barrowbeck, I didn’t know it would be an anthology of short stories. Even so, I enjoyed the eerieness.

The stories come in chronological order, and the first story is about how it all started. When the marsh-folk escaped and found a new home by the river in Barrowbeck. From marsh-folk they became valley-folk and settled. But as their old shaman warned them – they owed this new start to the gods and would be forever their servants.

As the years go on, we follow different characters and different stories.

Each of them have one thing in common – the unsettling vibe and the price that comes with living in Barrowbeck. A daughter and a mother are sharing the same vivid dreams. The Sicilian man that visited and brought bad luck. Fear of witchcraft. One girl was murdered in the woods in a very peculiar way. A choir where the fallen soldiers decided to join in the singing. A travelling fair with animals so small, you can keep them in the palm of your hands. One child being born by spawning from a flower.

All the stories have something unique in them, and although the stories themselves are very different to one another, the same theme continues throughout the book. The stories move on with the times. We go from shamans and witchcraft, to trials for murders, to doctors and mental health institutions. The last story is set in 2041, and features technology and the village flooded. Whilst we think it’s the effects of global warming, it brings the question of whether it could just be the wrath of the gods.

I really enjoyed every single story. It’s true, some stories left a bigger impression than others, and some I will remember more than others. What I found intriguing is that we never get an answer. We don’t really know what is going on. And I think that is the case with everything eerie and all things we cannot explain. There will always be room left for personal interpretation and it’s certainly a great book that can prompt a lot of discussions. It’s certainly worth giving it a go!

About The Author:

Barrowbeck by Andrew Michael Hurley [BOOK REVIEW]

Andrew Michael Hurley is currently based in Lancashire. His first novel, The Loney, was originally published by Tartarus Press as a 300-copy limited-edition, before being republished by John Murray. It went on to sell in twenty languages, win the Costa Best First Novel Award and Book of the Year at the British Book Industry Awards. Devil’s Day, his second novel, was picked as a Book of the Year in five newspapers and won the Encore Award. Starve Acre was published by John Murray in 2019, with a film adaptation starring Morfydd Clark and Matt Smith in production. Andrew also wrote a short story for The Haunting Season, a best-selling anthology of ghostly and gothic tales published by Sphere in 2020.

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Haunted World by Theresa Cheung [BOOK REVIEW] Haunted World by Theresa Cheung [BOOK REVIEW]
Book Review · Books

Haunted World by Theresa Cheung [BOOK REVIEW]

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Haunted World by Theresa Cheung [BOOK REVIEW]

About The Book:

Haunted World by Theresa Cheung [BOOK REVIEW]

Pages: 288

Genre: Horror, Paranormal

Publisher: Michael O’Mara

Format I read it in: Paperback

Rating: ★★★★

Paranormal expert Theresa Cheung shares 101 of the most mysterious and spooky true stories of hauntings from around the world together with the latest afterlife science and research, providing fascinating insight into our never-ending love affair with ghosts.

Belief in ghosts is surprisingly common worldwide. Mysterious glowing orbs, unexplained chills, things that literally go bump in the night: signs of paranormal activity have reportedly surged during the pandemic. As have specialist investigators, organised ghost hunts, eerie podcasts, TV shows and reports of everyday hauntings.

Sharing the details of some well-known and particularly mysterious hauntings together with some less-well-known tales and personal stories from her readers and listeners, Theresa explores these ghostly encounters and the latest research behind paranormal activity in this timely and entertaining book.

My Thoughts:

“Decades ago, when I first moved to London – rich in youth and a sense of adventure but poor in cash and a sense of direction.”

We’re getting into October. The days are getting colder and shorter. And soon, we’ll enter the spooky season and get the Halloween candy out. And just a note – for all the supermarkets selling Christmas decorations and advent calendars before Halloween is over – shame on you!

I have always been intrigued and curious about things we can’t explain. And of course, all things paranormal naturally intrigue me. I love reading about it and having discussions.

“Haunted World” is separated into a few different parts, each part deep diving into many stories and examples. I enjoyed the introduction. It gives an explanation on all things paranormal. After life, do ghosts exist, paranormal possibilities, signs of haunting. I love how open the book is. If you are a sceptic or a non-believer, it’s not designed to change your mind. It’s just a summary of events noted through history, and you can make your own opinions about them. I think it’s the perfect book for people that are not too into the paranormal, but just curious about all things spooky.

The residual ghostly places section was my least favourite. Even though I liked reading about these stories, they were too vague and didn’t satisfy my curiosity. Many of them were quite short and generic, and could be repetitive. Then the poltergeist stories started, and things became quite interesting. My favourite parts were the inhuman and intelligent stories. When I read the story about the Fox sisters, I knew I had read about this before. And I remembered I read a fiction book about it a few years ago called “We Played With Fire”. That was a wonderful moment for me. 

As a whole, I enjoyed this book and I think it adds a good spooky sparkle during October. Some of the stories are hit and miss, but one thing I know for certain is that this is one of those books that you can keep coming to every year during the spooky season, and it will always deliver.

About The Author:

Haunted World by Theresa Cheung [BOOK REVIEW]

Theresa Cheung was born into a family of psychics and astrologers. She has a degree from Kings College, Cambridge University in Theology and English, and much of her life has been spent researching and writing about spirituality, dreams and the paranormal.

She gave her first public psychic reading at the age of 14 and has been involved in the serious study of the psychic world ever since.

In addition to being a tarot reader, she has lectured and organised workshops on numerology, tarot, dreams and other aspects of the psychic world. Theresa has contributed to women’s magazines such as Red, She and Here’s Health as well as MBS magazines such as Fate and Fortune.

Author Website

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A Fire in the Sky by Sophie Jordan [BOOK REVIEW] A Fire in the Sky by Sophie Jordan [BOOK REVIEW]
Book Review · Books

A Fire in the Sky by Sophie Jordan [BOOK REVIEW]

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A Fire in the Sky by Sophie Jordan [BOOK REVIEW]

I devoured “A Fire in the Sky” in a day. I loved everything about it, and I would give anything to be able to read it for the first time again.

About The Book:

A Fire in the Sky by Sophie Jordan [BOOK REVIEW]

Pages: 336

Genre: Romance, Fiction, Fantasy

Publisher: HQ

Format I read it in: Hardcover

Rating: ★★★★★

Get your copy HERE

Dragons are extinct. Witches are outcast. Magic is dying.

But human lust for power is immortal.

Dragon fire no longer blisters the skies over Penterra, but inside the lavish palace, life is still perilous…especially for Tamsyn. Raised in the glittering court alongside the princesses, it’s her duty to be punished for their misdeeds. Treated as part of the royal family but also as the lowliest servant, Tamsyn fits nowhere. Her only friend is Stig, Captain of the Guard…though sometimes she thinks he wants more than friendship.

When Fell, the Beast of the Borderlands, descends on her home, Tamsyn’s world becomes even more dangerous. To save the pampered princesses from a fate worse than death, she is commanded to don a veil and marry the brutal warrior. She agrees to the deception even though it means leaving Stig, and the only life she’s ever known, behind.

The wedding night begins with unexpected passion—and ends in near violence when her trickery is exposed. Rather than start a war, Fell accepts Tamsyn as his bride…but can he accept the dark secrets she harbors—secrets buried so deep even she doesn’t know they exist? For Tamsyn is more than a royal whipping girl, more than the false wife of a man who now sees her as his enemy. And when those secrets emerge, they will ignite a flame bright enough to burn the entire kingdom to the bone.

Magic is not dead…it is only sleeping. And it will take one ordinary girl with an extraordinary destiny to awaken it.

My Thoughts:

Tamsyn and Fell have their own points of view, which I really liked. It gave me a chance to understand how they are both feeling and get to know their story.

Tamsyn is such a strong female character. As a whipping girl, she is used to taking punishment, but she will never be ashamed of who she is.

“I would take the long march to the chapel on my own, through the deepening day. I understood this. There were some walks you must go alone in life. This would be one of them.”

And Fell is quite a strong character as well. A leader and a fighter, spreading fear wherever he goes. And yet Tamsyn is slowly getting under his skin and he starts to get a soft spot for her. But he’ll never admit it.

“She was a peculiar thing. A puzzle I could not quite piece together. A non-princess. I didn’t care what they called her. No royal took a beating with a smile and called it duty.”

Their attraction for each other is instantly evident, even though they are both trying to hide it and fight it. The whole tension made this book such an enjoyable read. They go through an incredibly hard journey together, a journey that will change their lives forever.

I won’t reveal anything else, as I don’t want to spoil anything, but I gasped at the big twist. Thinking about it now, I have no idea how I didn’t see that coming. I did, however, anticipate the twist at the end. It turns out, the story doesn’t end here and I can’t wait to come back for more! I loved this book with all my heart. Every single thing about it.

“She had not looked for it. Had not wanted it. And yet it had found her… And when love found a dragon, it could not be denied. Before she knew it, they were bonded. There was no severing them. For as long as she lived, there would be no other for her. Like a seed to the pod, they were a set, a duo, a pair.”

About The Author:

A Fire in the Sky by Sophie Jordan [BOOK REVIEW]

Sophie Jordan took her adolescent daydreaming one step further and penned her first historical romance in the back of her high school Spanish class. This passion led her to pursue a degree in English and History.

A brief stint in law school taught her that case law was not nearly as interesting as literature – teaching English seemed the natural recourse. After several years teaching high school students to love Antigone, Sophie resigned with the birth of her first child and decided it was time to pursue the long-held dream of writing.

In less than three years, her first book, Once Upon A Wedding Night, a 2006 Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Nominee for Best First Historical, hit book shelves. Her second novel, Too Wicked To Tame, released in March 2007 with a bang, landing on the USA Today Bestseller’s List.

Author Website

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My Rules by T L Swan (Kingston Lane #2) [BOOK REVIEW] My Rules by T L Swan (Kingston Lane #2) [BOOK REVIEW]
Book Review · Books

My Rules by T L Swan (Kingston Lane #2) [BOOK REVIEW]

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My Rules by T L Swan (Kingston Lane #2) [BOOK REVIEW]

I knew “My Rules” would be filled with spiciness and red flags and boy, oh, boy, it still surprised me!

About The Book:

My Rules by T L Swan (Kingston Lane #2) [BOOK REVIEW]

Pages: 465

Genre: Romance, Contemporary Romance, Fiction

Publisher: Montlake (Amazon Publishing)

Format I read it in: Paperback

Rating: ★★★★

It started with a list.

Tired of meeting nightmares, I decided to study the dos and don’ts of dating.

And who better to help me with my master list than the king of red flags himself?

Blake Grayson—neighbor, friend, mischief maker, and player extraordinaire.

He knows how to spot a playboy from a mile away. He is the prime example, after all.

So when he offers to help me avoid Mr. Wrong by sharing what to look for, I have no choice but to take him up on it.

We start a game.

He will become my wingman, and I’ll become his.

He coaches me through my singledom, while I go on his journey of play.

We double-date, eat ice cream at midnight, and laugh.

Boy, do we laugh…

But while I watch every woman he meets fall madly in love with him, I stumble across a major problem: I know exactly why they fall.

Because I can feel it too.

His charm is intoxicating, and damn it, the man is addictive as drugs.

But it’s not happening. I won’t let it.

I’m not that gullible young girl anymore.

Blake will never settle down, and I know in my heart he’s not the man for me.

I have one go at this second chance of happiness, and I am not going to mess it up.

This time, I play by my rules.

Even if he won’t.

My Thoughts:

I was reading “My Rules” as part of a book loop with the team at Tandem and a number of other bookstagrammers. The aim was to read the book over 14 days and annotate whilst reading. I failed both. In truth, I binged the book and finished it in two sittings. I am also too afraid to write inside a book, so I didn’t permanently ink it. I did, however, leave a lot of sticky tabs and pencil annotations so I feel like I did artistically contribute to the cause.

The story is spicy and toxic and at times very unbelievable, but I didn’t really care. I was invested in Rebecca and Blake’s story. I was consuming the words, chapter after chapter, desperate to know how their story ends.

One park I really loved was the neighbourhood. On the street they live on (Kingston Lane), everyone is friends and gets on well with each other. This also meant a good support network when things went south. We meet a lot of the characters that live on Kingston Lane, and it turns out that this book is part of a series, but can be also read as a standalone. Each book in the series focuses on one character from the street, so everyone you meet, you are likely to meet again if you continue with the books. 

“My Rules” ended with a hint that the next book will feature Antony’s story, and I am very much looking forward to that.

If you love smutty romance books, you’ll very much enjoy this one. It does exactly what it says on the tin! A tin full of spice, may I cheekily add.

About The Author:

My Rules by T L Swan (Kingston Lane #2) [BOOK REVIEW]

T L Swan is a Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and #1 Amazon Best Selling author. With millions of books sold, her titles are currently translated in twenty languages and have hit #1 on Amazon in the USA, UK, Canada, Australia and Germany. Tee resides in Sydney, Australia with her husband and their three children where she is living her own happy ever after with her first true love.

Author Website

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The Missing Family by Tim Weaver (David Raker #13) [BOOK REVIEW] The Missing Family by Tim Weaver (David Raker #13) [BOOK REVIEW]
Book Review · Books

The Missing Family by Tim Weaver (David Raker #13) [BOOK REVIEW]

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The Missing Family by Tim Weaver (David Raker #13) [BOOK REVIEW]

I absolutely devoured “The Missing Family” by Tim Weaver

About The Book:

The Missing Family by Tim Weaver (David Raker #13) [BOOK REVIEW]

Pages: 545

Genre: Thriller, Mystery, Crime, Fiction

Publisher: Penguin Michael Joseph

Format I read it in: Paperback

Rating: ★★★★★

One family…
On a beautiful summer’s day, at a remote lake in the middle of Dartmoor, three members of the Fowler family take a dinghy out onto the water, leaving mother Sarah at the shore.

Less than sixty seconds later, she checks to see where they are.
The boat is drifting in the middle of the lake. It’s empty.

Sarah’s family have completely vanished.

One killer…
At the Skyline Casino in London, the security team have just made a headline-grabbing they’ve spotted and detained a man suspected of murdering a high roller.

After locking him in one of their holding cells, the team station themselves outside and wait for the police. But when the cops arrive, they find something impossible.

The killer is no longer inside the cell.

Two detectives…

David Raker is an expert at solving missing persons puzzles – but these mysteries are unlike anything he’s ever seen.

As he digs into the Fowler’s, his long-time ally – ex-detective, Colm Healy – tries to get to the bottom of what happened at the casino.

But the men are in danger. Because, buried in the shadows of both cases, is a deadly secret that was never meant to come out…

My Thoughts:

“But if those tethers did exist, if they bound us to people in our lives that would eventually matter, and through those relationships we could find endings and perhaps a measure of peace for those who were hurting, I wanted to believe in them.”

David Raker is an expert at solving missing people cases. He is summoned to have a look into the disappearance of three members of the Fowler family, in the middle of a lake in Dartmoor.

At the same time, at the Skyline Casino in London, the security team detained a man suspected of murdering a high roller. When the police come to the cell, the strangest thing happens, the killer is no longer inside the cell. 

I absolutely devoured this book. It was written at a very fast pace and I couldn’t stop reading, whilst thinking about all possible theories. There are a lot of stories happening at the same time, and in the end, they will all tie together and wrap the story up. 

Although I enjoyed all the stories and it really did come together well, it felt a bit unrealistic. There is no way so many of those events were a pure coincidence and happened like that. And even if the events somehow happened, there is no chance that David Raker is the one involved with all of them at once.

Apart from that, I really have no complaints. The book is part of the David Raker series, in fact, the 13th book in the series. I had no clue it was part of a series, so I can say with absolute certainty that it can be read as standalone and in any order. This is quite often with detective book series. They all feature the same main character, it’s only the story and case that differ. I would warmly recommend this book. It was mysterious, entertaining and had me guessing until the very end.

About The Author:

The Missing Family by Tim Weaver (David Raker #13) [BOOK REVIEW]

Tim Weaver is the Sunday Times Top 3 bestselling author of the David Raker missing persons series, the standalone thriller, Missing Pieces, and the novella collection, The Shadow at the Door. His novels have been selected for the Richard and Judy Book Club three times, and his work has been nominated for a National Book Award and the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger. He is currently developing an original TV drama with the team behind Line of Duty. A former journalist and magazine editor, he lives near Bath with his wife and daughter.

Author Website

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