Book Review: Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn

Publisher's Synopsis:
'What are you thinking, Amy? The question I've asked most often during our marriage, if not out loud, if not to the person who could answer. I suppose these questions stormcloud over every marriage: What are you thinking? How are you feeling? Who are you? What have we done to each other? What will we do?'"

Just how well can you ever know the person you love? This is the question that Nick Dunne must ask himself on the morning of his fifth wedding anniversary, when his wife Amy suddenly disappears. The police immediately suspect Nick. Amy's friends reveal that she was afraid of him, that she kept secrets from him. He swears it isn't true. A police examination of his computer shows strange searches. He says they aren't his. And then there are the persistent calls on his mobile phone. So what did really did happen to Nick's beautiful wife? And what was left in that half-wrapped box left so casually on their marital bed? In this novel, marriage truly is the art of war...


Product Details
Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 745 KB
Print Length: 412 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0297859382
Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson (24 May 2012)
Source: Purchased
Available to purchase on Amazon in e-book and paperback formats

My Review:
There's nothing quite like a good crime novel every now and then and "Gone Girl" most certainly did not disappoint! It was a nail-biting, edge of my seat, gripping thriller from start to finish. It is a book in which the author very skillfully weaves the story between the characters and plot. The story is told from the point of view of the two main characters, Nick and Amy. I was wondering who exactly were these characters? Were they exactly what they seemed at first or did they have secret, hidden depths?
The tension and drama in the book slowly builds, before reaching its final and very surprising crescendo.
I found "Gone Girl" to be a compelling read. It was well-written and thought-provoking. This is the first book that I've read by Gillian Flynn and I've already added her other books to my ever-expanding "to be read" pile!

"Gone Girl," by Gillian Flynn is available to purchase on Amazon in e-book and paperback formats. Click here to buy.

Book Launch and {G!veaway}

I am very happy to announce that my latest release, Secrets & Lies, will be free to download on Amazon next Monday through Wednesday. The paperback will be available in July and I will be running a giveaway on my blog to celebrate.





Available now on Amazon!


Synopsis:
Kerry Darcy has loved Conor, her childhood sweetheart, for more than twenty years. They’ve built their dream home together, raised a happy family and are still madly in love.
Hope Kennedy seems to have it all; a fabulous job, a luxurious apartment and best of all she’s married to her soulmate, Niall.
Two very different women, two perfect husbands; but what happens when their lives horribly collide?
The terrible force of chaos ensues; a force that takes its fateful hold on time and place. It ruptures the present, warps the future, replacing order with confusion, confidence with trepidation and control with powerlessness. Lives are ended for some, changed forever for others and a most significant chain of events is about to unfold with catastrophic results.


Prologue:
Kerry Darcy's life, as she knew it, ended just before three o’ clock on Friday, the eleventh of March 2011.
The Great East Japan earthquake was one of the most powerful earthquakes that the modern world had ever known. The earthquake battered coastal communities with waves of up to forty metres tall. It triggered a series of devastating tsunamis along the Japanese coast and the aftershock could be felt as far away as Russia, the west coast of America and even in the Antarctic where the tsunami destroyed icebergs that were the same size as Manhattan Island.
It killed more than fifteen thousand people and injured over twenty six thousand. It was one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history and was the fifth largest earthquake ever measured, causing the entire planet to shift on its axis by up to twenty five centimetres. The energy released on the earth's surface was equivalent to more than one thousand five hundred times that of the Hiroshima atomic bomb.
Saoirse Darcy, a young student, had studied tsunamis in geography at school and recognised the telltale signs of the receding ocean and frothing bubbles. She warned the others on the beach about the impending killer wave and they were evacuated to safety just in time, before the tsunami struck its deadly blow, wreaking havoc on so many unsuspecting lives.
Giant forces that had been building up deep in the Earth for hundreds of years were explosively released on that fateful day in March, shaking the ground violently and unleashing a series of killer waves that raced across the Pacific Ocean at the speed of a jet airliner. Hours later, deadly waves radiating from the earthquake zone slammed into the coastline of Pacific countries; snatching people out to sea, drowning others in their homes or on beaches, and demolishing property from Japan to America and beyond.
Along a stretch of coastline equivalent to the distance from London to Edinburgh, a tower of water reaching up to twelve metres tall burst over reinforced sea barriers, destroying sixteen towns and ninety-five thousand buildings. It travelled six miles inland, in some areas, before dragging millions of homes, possessions and vehicles back into the open sea.
The earthquake had the largest duration of faulting ever observed, lasting between eight and ten minutes; the most devastating minutes of Kerry Darcy's life. Kerry could hear the screaming and crying of the people all around her. Everyone was clinging to whatever piece of debris they could find, watching the waves spread out in vast tentacles as it reached further and further in all directions.
The killer wave had taken its fateful hold on time and place. It had ruptured the present, warped the future, replaced order with confusion, confidence with trepidation and control with powerlessness. Lives were ended for some, changed forever for others and a most significant chain of events was about to unfold with catastrophic results.

Available now on Amazon!

Book Cover Reveal: Secrets and Lies

I am very excited to reveal the cover of my latest book, Secrets and Lies, which will be released exclusively on Amazon next Monday! It is the first book in the Secrets and Lies Trilogy.
Aftermath, the second book in the trilogy, will be released in Autumn 2012 and Redemption, the final book, will be released before Christmas.
I will post the link to the book next week and it will also be accessible via my Amazon author page from Monday.


Synopsis:
Kerry Darcy has loved Conor, her childhood sweetheart, for more than twenty years. They’ve built their dream home, raised a happy family and are still madly in love.
Hope Kennedy seems to have it all; a fabulous job, a luxurious apartment and best of all she’s married to her soulmate, Niall.
Two very different women, two perfect husbands but what happens when their lives horribly collide?
The terrible force of chaos ensues, a force that takes its fateful hold on time and place. It ruptures the present, warps the future, replacing order with confusion, confidence with trepidation and control with powerlessness. Lives are ended for some, changed forever for others and a most significant chain of events is about to unfold with catastrophic results.

Book Review: Just The Way You Are, by Barbara Freethy

Publisher's Synopsis:
A baby brought them together -- and even though Alli has always loved her strong, sexy husband Sam and the life they've made together, she's now decided to set him free to follow his youthful dreams. For although she worships Sam, it's no longer enough for her to be wife and lover when she knows she holds so little of his heart.
Sam has always dreamed of a life away from the close-knit world of Tucker's Landing, but marriage and fatherhood ended all that. Now Sam is torn between what was and what was meant to be. He must decide if it's time to rekindle the dreams of the past...or accept Alli, and her love, just the way she is.


Product Details:
File Size: 483 KB
Print Length: 349 pages
Publisher: Barbara Freethy; Kindle Edition edition (June 22, 2011)
Source: Purchased


My Review:
"Just the way you are" was an emotional read that brought a tear to my eye. I felt very sorry for Alli and the unconditional love that she gave her husband, Sam, for so long only to have him constantly reject her one way or another. He spends most of the novel behaving as if being married to her is a punishment to him and even though they have been married for years and have a beautiful daughter, he still doesn't appreciate his wife.
I was glad that Alli finally decided she'd had enough of begging for his love and accepting the few crumbs of affection that he occasionally threw her way. She gave him an ultimatum and basically told him that she was setting him free to pursue the life he always wanted with the woman he never forgot, Alli's older sister Tessa.
I'll never understand why Sam was hankering after Tessa all those years. He built her up in his head as being the perfect woman; a blonde, beautiful model with an international jet-setting career. I thought Tessa was shallow and hollow and Alli had ten times the character and soul that Tessa would ever have.
Sam and Tessa were childhood sweethearts who broke up suddenly one Christmas. Alli seduced a very drunk Sam and became pregnant. Sam decided to "do the right thing" and marry Alli but he made sure she knew throughout their marriage what a huge sacrifice he'd made. Tessa returns to their hometown of Tucker's Landing when her grandmother falls gravely ill.
Sam spends most of the novel deciding whether he should leave Alli and the life they'd built together to pursue a new life with his long-lost childhood sweetheart Tessa.
"Just the way you are" is a touching, poignant tale of love lost and found. The author draws beautiful characters who immediately pulled me into the story. The dialogue and plot flow steadily and the ending is happy if a little bittersweet.
I very much enjoyed the book and look forward to reading more of Barbara Freethy's novels.

Click here to buy "Just the way you are," by Barbara Freethy on Amazon.

Book Review: Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins (the third book of The Hunger Games trilogy)

Publisher's Synopsis:
Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games twice. But now that she's made it out of the bloody arena alive, she's still not safe. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge. Who do they think should pay for the unrest? Katniss. And what's worse, President Snow has made it clear that no one else is safe either. Not Katniss's family, not her friends, not the people of District 12.


Product Details:
File Size: 502 KB
Print Length: 404 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0439023513
Publisher: Scholastic Press; 1 edition (August 24, 2010)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
Language: English
ASIN: B003XF1XOQ
Source: Purchased


My Review:
Why must all good things come to an end? I read Mockingjay from start to finish in one sitting as I just had to find out what would happen next! The only disappointing thing is that I don't think I'll find anything as amazing to read again in quite a while. I was left emotionally and mentally exhausted by the time I finished, in a good way, of course!
Mockingjay, the final book of The Hunger Games trilogy, was even better than the first two books. I've read trilogies before this and usually the first book was the best, but Mockingjay surpassed the previous two books.
I imagined that the final book would conclude with the usual happy ever after, but that was not the case, which made the story all the more rewarding for me. Don't get me wrong, I love my happy ever afters, but for a story as violent, thought-provoking and emotional as The Hunger Games, a happy ever after would have been very wrong. How could someone who has suffered as much as Katniss ever be able to live a "normal" life? It would be impossible. Mockingjay made me think about the soldiers who go off to war and fight for us. They leave as relatively "normal" people like the rest of us but return forever scarred. How could they not be scarred after the atrocities and violence they would have experienced?
Suzanne Collins is an outstanding writer and I feel privileged to have read The Hunger Games trilogy.

Click here to purchase Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins on Amazon