BLOG TOUR: Dark Things I Adore by Katie Lattari

Title: Dark Things I Adore by Katie Lattari
Pages: 480
Published by: Titan Books
Publication date: 14th September 2021
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Format: Paperback
Amazon UK – Waterstones

Synopsis:

1988. A group of outcasts gather at a small, prestigious arts camp in the Maine woods. They’re the painters: bright, hopeful, teeming with potential. But secrets and dark ambitions develop, and the truths they tell will come back to haunt them in ways more deadly than they dreamed.

2018. Esteemed art professor Max Durant arrives at his protege’s remote home to view her graduate thesis collection. He knows Audra is beautiful, brilliant, and being invited into her private world is a rare gift. But he doesn’t know that Audra has engineered every aspect of their weekend together. Every detail, every conversation. Audra has woven the perfect web.

Only Audra knows what happened that summer in 1988. Max’s secret, and the dark things that followed. And even though it won’t be easy, Audra knows someone must pay.

BLOG TOUR: Fran Dorricott’s Mini Spoiler-Free Fan Cast for The Final Child

Hi everyone! Today is my stop on the blog tour for The Final Child and I’m thrilled to be sharing a guest post from Fran Dorricott with her thoughts on a spoiler-free fan cast. I hope you enjoy!

I have to confess that I’m not normally very good at “Fan Casts” when it comes to my own books, but The Final Child is something of an exception to the rule. I have a very clear image of most of the characters in the book, and I’d love to share a few, plus a few images of the settings through the novel, with you today.

This is entirely spoiler-free. I’ve focused on protagonists as well as locations/settings.

Erin Chambers:

Erin is one of the protagonists of The Final Child. She was abducted along with her brother when she was a child by a serial killer known in the press as The Father. Erin was found days later on her own in the woods. She had no knowledge of the whereabouts of her brother and sadly could not provide the police with any usable information that might help locate him. She also remains The Father’s only living victim. 

Imogen Poots has the perfect vibe for Erin, who is brave despite her fear, and reckless in her desire to prove herself after years struggling with her guilt over what happened to her and her brother. Imogen Poots has a certain vulnerability about her, doesn’t she?

REVIEW: All Down The Line by Andrew Field

Title: All Down The Line by Andrew Field
Pages: 208
Published by: Boomslang Books
Publication date: 7th December 2020
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Format: Paperback
Amazon UK – Boomslang Books

Synopsis:

MANCHESTER: Cain Bell thought he had closure over his daughter’s hit and run death after Ted Blake confessed he was behind the wheel just before he died.

Fast forward twenty years and Cain’s fiancée claims the driver was lying. Before she can say more, a savage attack leaves her in a coma fighting for her life. To make sense of the assault, Cain must discover why four friends swore blind to never reveal the tragic truth about the circumstances surrounding the killing of his daughter.

He can only succeed if he persuades Manchester’s most terrifying gangster to talk. But Billy McGinty is in no mood to break his own wall of silence.

Illumicrate Unboxing: August 2021 ‘Dark Academia’

Hey guys! Today I am sharing my unboxing for Illumicrate’s August box and I’ve been so looking forward to this one. It sounds so good and I was so excited to see what changes they’d make. Without further ado, let’s get into it!

August 2021 Wrap Up!

Hey guys! Today I’ll be sharing all the books I read in August. I managed to read eight books and I’m very happy with that. I read a lot of thrillers and I enjoyed the majority of them. Here’s what I read:

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Never Saw Me Coming by Vera Kurian: My first read was this absolutely brilliant psychological thriller that follows a group of psychopaths who are taking part in a study at John Adams University. When two students in the study are murdered, Chloe, Charles and Andre form an uneasy alliance to catch the killer. It’s a very dark, twisty read but also fascinating to be in the mindset of Chloe and Charles. Chloe is plotting the murder of another student, while Charles is trying to live a normal life despite his inability to feel emotions such as empathy and fear. Andre is caught between the two of them and just wanted to have a normal college experience, but instead has ended up tangled in a murder investigation. This was a great debut and I’m really hoping there’s a sequel because I’d love to see more of these characters. 

Triflers Need Not Apply Camilla Bruce: This is a harrowing story that recounts the life of Belle Gunness, a real life serial killer whose murderous rampage began in Chicago in 1900. I knew it was going to be dark since it’s about a serial killer, but I still felt unprepared for just how chilling some scenes were. There’s definitely some scenes that will haunt me for a while just because they were so shocking. I can’t imagine how much the research the author had to carry out to get in Belle’s mindset. There’s also some chapters from her sister, Nellie, but, truth be told, they don’t really add much to the story and felt very repetitive. I’d definitely recommend this for fans of true crime, but expect some gruesome murder scenes. 

ARC REVIEW: Dare to Know by James Kennedy

Title: Dare to Know by James Kennedy
Pages: 304
Published by: Quirk Books
Publication date: 14th September 2021
Genre: Speculative Fiction
Format: Paperback
Amazon UK – Waterstones

Synopsis:

Dark Matter meets Annihilation in this mind-bending and emotional speculative thriller set in a world where the exact moment of your death can be predicted—for a price.
 
Our narrator is the most talented salesperson at Dare to Know, an enigmatic company that has developed the technology to predict anyone’s death down to the second. Divorced, estranged from his sons, and broke, he’s driven to violate the cardinal rule of the business by forecasting his own death day. The problem: his prediction says he died twenty-three minutes ago. 
 
The only person who can confirm its accuracy is Julia, the woman he loved and lost during his rise up the ranks of Dare to Know. As he travels across the country to see her, he’s forced to confront his past, the choices he’s made, and the terrifying truth about the company he works for. 

ARC REVIEW: Never Saw Me Coming by Vera Kurian

Title: Never Saw Me Coming by Vera Kurian
Pages: 400
Published by: Harvill Secker
Publication date: 9th September 2021
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Format: Paperback
Amazon UK – Waterstones

Synopsis:

Meet Chloe. First-year student, ordinary, legging-wearing, girl next door…and highly intelligent diagnosed psychopath.

Chloe is part of a secret clinical study of young psychopaths run by the university’s Psychology Department. Most psychopaths aren’t criminals, but when a string of murders on campus causes upheaval, Chloe’s private vendetta is sidelined. Partnered with fellow study participants she can’t trust – and distracted by typical university life – Chloe has to walk the line between hunter and prey.

Perfect for fans of My Sister the Serial Killer, Killing Eve and The Secret History, Never Saw Me coming is a sharp, electrifying and hugely entertaining thriller with an antiheroine who will work her manipulative magic on you.

ARC REVIEW: Triflers Need Not Apply by Camilla Bruce

Title: Triflers Need Not Apply by Camilla Bruce
Pages: 448
Published by: Michael Joseph 
Publication date: 5th August 2021
Genre: Historical Fiction/True Crime
Format: Paperback
Amazon UK – Waterstones

Synopsis:

Bella loves men. She loves them to death . . .

Bella Sorensen knows the world is made for men. But she also knows what few others do: where women are concerned, men are weak.

A woman unscrupulous enough can take from them what she wants. And so Bella sets out to prove to the world that a woman can be just as ruthless, black-hearted and single-minded as any man.

Starting with her long-suffering husband, Mads, Bella embarks on a killing spree the like of which has never been seen before nor since.

And through it all her kind, older sister Nellie can only watch in horror as Bella’s schemes to enrich herself and cut down the male population come to a glorious, dreadful fruition . . .

Based on the true story of Belle Gunness whose killing spree began in Chicago in 1900, Triflers Need Not Apply is a novelistic tour de force exploring one woman’s determination to pay men back for all they have taken.

ARC REVIEW: The Ex-Husband by Karen Hamilton

Title: The Ex-Husband by Karen Hamilton
Pages: 368
Published by: Wildfire
Publication date: 19th August 2021
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Format: Paperback
Amazon UK – Waterstones

Synopsis:

Charlotte and Sam were partners. In life, and in crime. They never stole from anyone who couldn’t afford it. Wealthy clients, luxury cruise ships. It was easy money, and harmless. At least, that’s what Charlotte told herself, until the world caved in on her.

But now, years after she tried to put that past life behind her, it comes rushing back when her estranged ex-husband Sam suddenly goes missing – and someone threatens to expose what they did.

Desperate to escape whoever is tormenting her, Charlotte takes a job as events planner for an engagement party onboard a superyacht in the Caribbean. For a while, her plan seems to have worked, nothing but open ocean and clear skies ahead. Until it becomes clear that she’s no longer a thousand miles away from harm.

Because whoever is behind it all is onboard too. And now there’s nowhere left to run.