The Weight Of A Thousand Feathers by Brian Conaghan

Bobby is a boy with a lot on his mind, getting his mum her pills and aiding her around their home as well as looking after his brother, Danny a few years younger than his seventeen, too.
He has a good friend in Bel whom fancies him but nonetheless stays his best friend and helps watch over his mum while he goes to young carer meetings.

It's at the young carer meetings he has the chance of a break, a short holiday whilst also making friends with other young careers including Lou a boy he has strong feelings towards as he doesn't romantically like Bel but Lou.

At home he watches his mum deteriorate more into her illness day by day and it saddens him, upsets and frustrates his mum that she can't care for her children but that they have to role reverse and care for her. As her MS starts to cause more and more bodily failures, she asks her Bobby to end her life as is worsening quicker and wishes for no more suffering.

Meanwhile his friend Lou becomes a rock for him as well as his poetry to release his emotions and he finds out secrets can make or break a bond as truths get shared.

This is a heartbreakingly beautiful story. I picked this book as I know an MS sufferer and seen her struggles develop year after year since her diagnosis. I personally have the pain condition fibromyalgia and osteoporosis and spend days in a different but not dissimilar completely status of pain. Sharing tales of suffering and hardship on family members like in this book is key to letting others know they can reach out no matter how hard it may seem, someone will get it, guaranteed. The struggles the family face are alike so many real life experiences and the moral right or wrong of what their mum asks for is often talked about and debated.

Overall, this book has many fun moments that are sweet between mum and son but mostly is a heartbreaker.

Many thanks to the publishers for allowing me to review this book for them!

The Escape by C. L. Taylor

Jo is late leaving her student support officer job at university to pick up her daughter, Elise when a strange woman walks up wanting a lift, has Elise's glove and a creepy exchange, chilling for Jo takes place as Paula knows her family and says Jo's husband Max whom works as an investigative journalist, will know more.

Jo already suffers with agoraphobia and seems to have some form of anxiety and panic attacks related to that also after she lost a previous pregnancy of a baby boy. She obviously feels over protective of her daughter, a natural mother's instinct but on a much severer level to others normally.

Paula, knows Max as Martin and confronts him at one point about him taking something which wasn't his and Paula wants it back.

She'll destroy his family to do so.

The book is gripping, gritty, suspenseful and engaging enough for you to devour it in one sitting as I have done!

Towards the end as missing person enquiries ensue, all I can say is to watch out as all the lies and mislaid trust become obvious as links are made. The book shows just how scary it is to realise  around you aren't as you seem to think.

C. L. Taylor hasn't disappointed me yet, I have all her work up to now as well and they just are the best crime, mystery thrillers you could wish for.

Thanks so much to the publishers for allowing me to review her latest book!