Month: November 2017

Small Publishers – what authors should know #throwbackthursday #indieauthors

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I recently heard about yet another ‘publisher’ who has let their authors down. I wrote this post two years ago, and since then I have heard numerous tales about unpaid royalties, hidden fees, lack of promotion, publishers who ignore emails – the list goes on. Please writers, read this post and all the other advice out there about this issue before you sign with anyone.

via Small publishers – a bit of a rant! #WWWBlogs #writingtips

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The Walking Dead S8E05 ‘The Big U’ #TVReview

‘Finally Back on Track” – @ByTheirHalos take on Episode 5 of The Walking Dead #TWD

Boy in a Well

This was everything I guessed it would be- the kind of deep human drama that attracted me to The Walking Dead in the first place.

‘The Big U’ was a throwback to the earlier seasons of the show in more ways than one. There were echoes of Rick and Shane during Rick and Daryl’s squabble over the bag of dynamite; guts were back in fashion for Father Gabriel and Negan, and the latter’s demagogic reception back in Sanctuary hearkened back to The Governor, duping the whole of Woodbury and presenting himself as their father-protector, when, in fact, he was half-blind leading the blind and terrified into a war over nothing.

Season eight has been plagued with problems, from latent cinematography to a needlessly abstruse plot. I’m more than happy to admit that because I love this show, and I want it to succeed; what that means today is telling hard…

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‘Best Day Ever’ by Kaira Rouda #bookreview #FridayReads

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Amazon.co.uk   Amazon.com

A loving husband. The perfect killer?

‘I wonder if Mia thinks I have a dark side. Most likely as far as she knows, I am just her dear loving husband.’

Paul Strom has spent years building his perfect life: glittering career, beautiful wife, two healthy boys and a big house in the suburbs.

But he also has his secrets. That’s why Paul has promised his wife a romantic weekend getaway. He proclaims this day, a warm Friday in May, will be the best day ever.

Paul loves his wife, really, he does. But he also wants to get rid of her. And with every hour that passes, Paul ticks off another stage in his elaborately laid plan…

Behind Closed Doors meets Liane Moriarty in this creepy, fast-paced psychological thriller with a twist you won’t see coming!

This is a really tense, and, at times, deeply disturbing read. I deliberately didn’t look at any reviews before reading, because I wanted to be surprised. And I was.

Paul and Mia are having a weekend away, some time together as a couple. But something isn’t quite right. Paul keeps calling it the best day ever, he seems desperate to make it so, but the dynamics between the couple tell a different story.

As the weekend unfolds, things are obviously falling apart – and Paul’s idea of the best day ever isn’t what the reader expects.

What works so well in this book is that we are in Paul’s point of view – a decidedly uncomfortable place to be. Paul is an unusual narrator. He is vile, and the author does a splendid job of revealing him to the reader. As we get to know him better, we slowly realise what he is and what he’s up to, and this is what makes for some difficult reading – his justifications and his motivations are really hard to accept, but they are completely believable too.

My one issue with the book is that I wasn’t keen on the epilogue. I won’t say too much here for fear of spoilers, but it felt very ‘told’ and, while it was necessary to have this information, from this point of view, I felt that it could have been done in a more interesting way.

That said, I really enjoyed this and would definitely read more by this author.

4.5 out of 5

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the review copy