I Found You by Lisa Jewell

Alice is in her forties, living up north after moving from her home in Brixton with her children, leaving her parents suffering Alzheimer's in full time care. She is able to run her unique map crafting business in peace by day to keep her family afloat.
Derry is her best friend she met through taking her children to school day in day out and worries for Alice when she takes in the possibly forty year old strange man she has watched sitting on the beach getting soaked by the pouring rain.

Carl is missing and Lily his new Ukranian wife is clueless how to find him when he doesn't exist on police database as reporting him missing.

Carl has no memory of who he is but goes with Alice and so becomes 'Frank', the mystery man.

Rabbit cottage has been Kirsty, Gray, Pam and Tony their mum and dad's holiday home full of happy memories year after year.
That is until stranger Mark starts hanging around Kirsty and Gray becomes suspicious of him.

Throughout the book, the story is unravelled around twenty years apart in actions to consequences to date.

Highly intoxicating reading, mysteries and questioning ahead when you pick this book up, you have to!

One Of Us Is Lying by Karen McManus

Four students and one teacher, Simon,Nate, Addy, Bronwyn and Mr. Avery are in a detention, when two cars crash into each other.

They were chosen for that detention due to phones going off in their backpacks which weren't theirs.

Whilst Mr Avery goes to check on the events outside, the students on detention are talking when Simon drinks water he says tastes weird. Then he's on the floor, having an allergic reaction.
But all the medication in the college and on Simon, was gone.
An hour after he started reacting, he was dead.

Then police and councillors get involved and each character undergoes investigation as the truth as to how Simon died comes out as peanut traces in the water and cup he drank from.

The story is obviously not one that's simple, it's a mystery after all. I'm using no spoilers so I'm summing this one up on my thoughts throughout reading it. It uses Tumblr as the outlet of the murderer's voice in their messages and through them we find out they were in the room when he died which makes the book more gripping. It was a little slow in parts, but I'm impatient at finding out more details too so it worked both ways there. We definitely learn more about the suspects characters as we go on and how Simon wasn't liked by a lot of people for the things he did as he ran an app which revealed a lot of secrets people had hidden and could, would and have destroyed relationships. The last part of the book really changes the normal idea back around and then more comes to light around the death of Simon, I certainly didn't predict this one!

The book app messages are written in a style alike Gossip Girl whilst the secrets and lies remind me of Pretty Little Liars.

This book was kindly sent to me by the publishers for review!

The Witch's Kiss & The Witch's Tears by Katharine and Elizabeth Corr

I never usually enjoy fantasy books, yet, these two have won me over!

Merry is a young witch, living with her brother, Leo and her mum. She and her gran have practised magic but her mum and brother don't her mum believes it is dangerous, which it is and can be as we find out.

An ancient love gone wrong between Gwydion who was unrequitedly in love with his childhood friend, Edith. Gwydion made the kingdom same and the reward was to be marriage to Edith, however, the king didn't want to allow the lower class Gwydion into royalty and so Edith marries Aiden and has a baby boy, Jack whom Gwydion places a curse on to be the King Of Hearts.

Merry and the neighbours around them who are magic including Merry's young friends, whom support Merry on what she is facing in that she needs to stop Gwydion and keep them all safe and unharmed.

An ancient parchment reveals to Merry and Leo, they need to go to the lake and retrieve the two puppet hearts which can stop Gwydion and the King Of Hearts from what they are doing which is stabbing people whom believe themselves to be in love.

It is at the Black Lake where Merry and Leo first encounter Jack, though they soon learn he has two sides, the evil killing side which he feels trying to take him over all the time yet he can be normal for bouts of time between it having control of him again. They learn how Gwydion controls Jack to make him obey him and Merry dreams of Jack as well as fancying him!

I'm not spoiling this book further but it was an enticing and gripping read I read in one afternoon and then read the next sequel in the evening!

The Witch's Tears is the sequel and this book focuses on Merry learning and failing still how to manage her magic and finally get it to work right for her.

We also see the arrival of some new male characters, Leo's new love interest, Ronan, whom steps in to stop Simon beating up Leo after he's come out as gay. Then we meet Finn whom ends up trapped in a protective spell cast on Merry and Leo's Grans home after she has disappeared mysteriously and so the main aim of the book is to find their Gran and stop the evil at work quite literally.

We soon learn of enchantment extractors whom steal wizard and witch magic have also killed Flo, Merry's friend so just whom has Merry and Leo's Gran and what are their plans?

The Witch's Tears being set only three months apart, shows how love and loss can be healed and then another form of the same issue can arise. Grief is big in the book and I expect more to come in the next book but I'm not going to spoil anymore of the plot in The Witch's Tears.

Many thanks to the publisher's for sending me The Witch's Tears!

 

I Have No Secrets by Penny Joelson

Jemma's fourteen and has cerebral palsy, all the children are adopted in their house and they all deal with separate issues such as autism and behavioral based problems too.

Ryan from their road was murdered, a teenager stabbed one night by an unidentified hooded figure.

Sarah her carer is seeing both horrible Dan and kind and caring Richard. Yet Dan is always turning up, wants Sarah to quit her job and whispered in Jemma's ear, he killed Ryan.

So for poor Jenna, who has also been hit by the fact she has a long lost twin Jodi to meet, dealing with going away to college, she now has a suspected murderer in her house and dating her carer!

Yet, the harsh reality is she can't tell anyone, Dan presumes as parts of her don't work or work right, nothing does in her like her mind. We witness that Jenna is a highly intelligent character and is very caring about those around her she loves.

This book is a read you can't put down, it's gripping and thrilling whilst also eye opening in a life with cerebral palsy.

Thank you to the publishers for allowing me to review this book!

Gilt Hollow by Lorie Langdon

Ashton has been stuck in prison for four years, he is now eighteen and being released from serving his manslaughter charge. His mum signed release papers but like the rest of his friends and family, didn't want to see him.

Willow is new to working in a coffee shop, yet an awkward scene occurs early on between her and a lady whose son, Daniel was killed by Willow's accused possible boyfriend Ashton.
At school she's best friends with Lisa, a new girl and mostly has her head in a book, she's super smart and wants to study biochemistry. She also testified Ashton was innocent at his trial as they had been friends for years, since she has suffered panic attacks and anxiety.

We also see Willow going on a few dates with Brayden who told her of Ashton's release originally to warn her. Ashton seems to accept that she needs to be happy and seems okay with her and Brayden as the book goes on initially.

There is also the factor that Willow keeps hearing creepy sounds and creaking around the house and woods which its seems her brother also hears too. Their mum doesn't believe them but it really freaks Willow and makes a lot of suspense and intrigue build up throughout the book.

It really keeps you guessing and especially to really find out what happened around the whole Daniel issue and how his death really occurred. Overall, it was a great book to read and especially when you read it at night as I did during this storm we have right now!

Thank you to the publishers for allowing me to review this book!