Emma's Bookery

Five On Brexit Island by Bruno Vincent

August 1, 2017 Leave a Comment

Five on Brexit Island by Bruno Vincent ~Goodreads~

Published by Quercus 2016

Hardback edition 112 pages ~Book Depository~

Thank you to my lovely Sam for buying me these Famous Five books, I know I’m going to enjoy each and every one of them xxx

It is the night of the referendum and the Five have retired to Kirrin Island to enjoy the fresh air and sunshine, fed up with the rancour of public debate. George is firmly a ‘remainer,’ whilst Julian, who is in the ‘Brexit’ camp, is tolerated on the grounds that Anne cannot bear to go camping without him. (Timmy, largely apolitical but not keen on cats or rabbits, joins them too.)

The night is tempestuous in more ways than one. George has managed to rig up a satellite link with the mainland so they can keep abreast of the news, and they sit huddled around the fire, amidst some tension, as George’s initial hope that the ‘remainers’ will triumph proves premature…

book blogger, discussion, open university, personal

Year 2 Term 3 Exams & Surprises / Open University

July 28, 2017 Leave a Comment

ANNNNNND RELAX.

It’s come as a shock that I have now officially finished by second year with the Open University. It only feels like yesterday that I was typing up about my upcoming exams and how much of a difference second year has had on my studying, and yet here I am now sitting here typing away telling you that I can finally relax and enjoy my summer. I admit that it hasn’t quite sunk in yet but boy am I loving not having the stress of exams and revision now.

blog tour, book blogger, book review, discussion

The Woman in the Wood by Lesley Pearse / 25 in 25 Blog Tour

July 3, 2017 Leave a Comment

Celebrating Lesley Pearse’s 25th novel, today I am providing you with a fact about Lesley’s novel Belle (part of Lesley’s only trilogy) as well as a review of her latest and 25th novel The Woman in the Wood.

Many thanks to Darran at ED Public Relations for inviting me on the tour!

Fifteen-year-old twins Maisy and uncan have always had each other. Until that fateful day in the
wood…

1960: Maisy and Duncan Mitcham are woken one night to find their mother is being committed to
an insane asylum. Soon after, their father packs them off to ‘Nightingales’, their grandmother’s
country house in the New Forest. Cold and distant, she leaves them to their own devices to explore;
a freedom they have never experienced before and which they love. That is, until the day Duncan
doesn’t come home from the woods.

When the bodies of other young boys are discovered in the surrounding area the police appear to
give up hope of finding Duncan alive and with Grandmother Mitcham showing little concern, it falls
to Maisy to discover the truth. And she knows just where to start. The woman who lives alone in the
woods. A woman called Grace Deville.

blog tour, book blogger, book review, discussion

The Mayfly by James Hazel \ Blog Tour Review and Extract

July 2, 2017 Leave a Comment

The Mayfly by James Hazel ~Goodreads~

Published by Bonnier Zaffre 2017

Paperback edition 432 pages ~Book Depository~

Thank you very much to the publisher for sending me this ARC for an honest review, and many thanks to James for providing an extract for this blog tour stop.

It’s happening again.

A mutilated body discovered in the woods.
A murderous plan conceived in the past.
A reckoning seventy years in the making . . .

Charlie Priest, ex-detective inspector turned London lawyer, is hired by influential entrepreneur Kenneth Ellinder to investigate the murder of his son. But Priest is no ordinary lawyer. Brilliant, yet flawed, this case will push him, and those closest to him, to the edge.

Priest traces the evidence back to the desperate last days of the Second World War. Buried in the ashes of the Holocaust is a secret so deadly its poison threatens to destroy the very heart of the establishment.
With more victims going missing, Priest realises that not everyone should be trusted. As he races to uncover the truth, can he prevent history from repeating itself?

blog tour, book blogger, book review, discussion

Sweet Little Lies by Caz Frear / Blog Tour Review & Guest Post

July 1, 2017 Leave a Comment

Hello everyone, today I’m pleased to provide you all with a review and extract of the fantastic novel Sweet Little Lies by Cat Frear. In the extract Cat discusses the tough female detective surviving in a sexist man’s world and whether this really exists in 2017, I would love to hear your thoughts too. I hope you’ll enjoy!

Sweet Little Lies, set in contemporary London but with flashbacks to late 1990s Ireland, sees police detective Cat Kinsella investigating the murder of Alice Lapaine. Alice’s body is discovered near the pub Cat’s father runs and when evidence links Alice to a girl who went missing in Ireland eighteen years previously – a girl Cat’s father denied knowing even though Cat knows he lied – the secrets and resentments of the past threaten to spill out.

book blogger, book review, discussion

Everything Beautiful Is Not Ruined by Danielle- Younge-Ullman

June 26, 2017 Leave a Comment

Everything Beautiful Is Not Ruined by Danielle- Younge-Ullman ~Goodreads~

Published by Scholastic 2017

Paperback edition 368 pages ~Book Depository~

Thank you to Scholastic for sending me this ARC for an honest review.

Ingrid has made a deal with her mother: she gets to go to the school of her choice as long as she completes a three-week wilderness programme. But when Ingrid arrives, she quickly realizes there has been a terrible mistake: there will be no marshmallows or cabins here. Instead, her group will embark on a torturous trek, with almost no guidance from the two counsellors and supplied with only the things they can carry. On top of this, the other teen participants are “at risk youth”, a motley crew of screw-ups, lunatics and delinquents. But as the laborious days go by, and as memories of her complicated past come flooding back, Ingrid must confront the question of whether she shares more in common with these troubled teens than she’s willing to admit.

book blogger, book review, discussion

Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart

June 21, 2017 Comment : 1

Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart ~Goodreads~

Published by Hot Key Books 5th September 2017

Paperback edition 272 pages ~Book Depository~

Thank you to Hot Key Books for sending me this ARC for an honest review.

The story of a young woman whose diabolical smarts are her ticket into a charmed life. But how many times can someone reinvent themselves? You be the judge.

Imogen is a runaway heiress, an orphan, a cook, and a cheat.
Jule is a fighter, a social chameleon, and an athlete.
An intense friendship. A disappearance. A murder, or maybe two.
A bad romance, or maybe three.
Blunt objects, disguises, blood, and chocolate. The American dream, superheroes, spies, and villains.
A girl who refuses to give people what they want from her.
A girl who refuses to be the person she once was.

book blogger, book review

S.T.A.G.S. by M. A. Bennett

June 19, 2017 Leave a Comment

S.T.A.G.S by M. A. Bennett ~Goodreads~

Published by Hot Key Books 2017

Paperback edition 304 pages ~Book Depository~

Thank you to Hot Key Books for sending me this ARC copy for an honest review.

Nine students. Three bloodsports. One deadly weekend.

A twisting thriller for fans of Looking for Alaska and The Hunger Games.

It is the autumn term and Greer MacDonald is struggling to settle into the sixth form at the exclusive St. Aidan the Great boarding school, known to its privileged pupils as S.T.A.G.S. Just when she despairs of making friends Greer receives a mysterious invitation with three words embossed upon on it: huntin’ shootin’ fishin’. When Greer learns that the invitation is to spend the half term weekend at the country manor of Henry de Warlencourt, the most popular and wealthy boy at S.T.A.G.S., she is as surprised as she is flattered.

But when Greer joins the other chosen few at the ancient and sprawling Longcross Hall, she realises that Henry’s parents are not at home; the only adults present are a cohort of eerily compliant servants. The students are at the mercy of their capricious host, and, over the next three days, as the three bloodsports – hunting, shooting and fishing – become increasingly dark and twisted, Greer comes to the horrifying realisation that those being hunted are not wild game, but the very misfits Henry has brought with him from school…

book blogger, book review, discussion, personal

The Graces by Laure Eve

June 16, 2017 Comment : 1

The Graces by Laure Eve ~Goodreads~

Published by Faber & Faber 2016

Paperback edition 415 pages ~Book Depository~

Everyone said the Graces were witches. They moved through the corridors like sleek fish, ripples in their wake. Stares followed their backs and their hair. They had friends, but they were just distractions. They were waiting for someone different. All I had to do was show them that person was me. Like everyone else in her town, River is obsessed with the Graces, attracted by their glamour and apparent ability to weave magic. But are they really what they seem? And are they more dangerous than they let on?

open university, personal

Exam Stress and Happy Things

May 27, 2017 Comment : 1

For the past few weeks I have been revising towards my end of year exams. They’re now only a week and a few days away, and I can’t convey how badly I want them over and done with. It hasn’t helped that this week it was my time of the month, and the stress of revision has really brought me down.

I don’t know about any of you but for me it gets to a point with revision where I feel like there’s nothing else my brain can absorb, and when this happens my brain just goes into meltdown. It doesn’t want me to keep going. I then get stress headaches and panic myself because I don’t feel like I’m doing enough revision (when really I’m probably over doing it).