Rachel Bustin

Book Review: First One Missing by Tammy Cohen

Here we are at the beginning of February, where did January go? and another #BookReviewMonday. January seemed to flyby this year it must be because I’m still waiting for my baby girl to arrive and I have had so much to organise and prepare ready for her arrival! She really is a little stubborn baby! I will be going in on Saturday to be induced if shes not here this week so I won’t be around for next weeks #BookReviewMonday, but hope to be back really soon.
On to my book review for today. This weeks book is called First One Missing by Tammy Cohen. I recieved this book by being selected to review it through Netgalley. I also have one of her other books callled When She Was Bad on my To-Read list.

Book Description:

There are three things no-one can prepare you for when your daughter is murdered:
– You are haunted by her memory day and night
– Even close friends can’t understand what you are going through.
– Only in a group with mothers of other victims can you find real comfort.
But as the bereaved parents gather to offer support in the wake of another killing, a crack appears in the group that threatens to rock their lives all over again.
Welcome to the club no one wants to join.

 My Review:
What drew me to this book was the the book description. It’s very fast paced, to the point with no waffle. It makes the book very intriging and part mystery as you don’t even get to know who the characters are.
The story is a very emotional, chilling and psychological thriller. It envolves the abduction and murder of young girls, and what this does to the families left behind. The mother of the first murdered girl, Helen Purvis set up a support group for the other mother’s called Megan’s Angels named after her murdered daughter.
I think it gives the reader lots of questions throughout, like how many killers are there? Why are some of the family members acting strangly? It will keep you on your toes while you are reading through.
The book is told through various points of view from the different character’s throughout the book, which does make it fairly hard to start with figuring out who is who. Once I got into it though it developed very quickly and was hard to put down near the end. Especially when I got right to the end to a really great twist that I never saw coming.
First One Missing is really well written by Tammy Cohen and I cannot wait to read more of her books.
Thanks to Netgalley and Random House UK for the review ebook copy.
I have given First One Missing by Tammy Cohen 4 out of 5 stars.
Kindle Edition: 266 pages
Published 2nd July 2015 Random House UK

MamaMummyMum



Disclosure I am also a part of the Amazon Affiliate scheme so if you click on a link to Amazon and buy, I will recieve a little bit back, so thanks if you do.

Book Review: Exposure by Helen Dunmore

Well it’s Monday again so time for #BookReviewMondays. I aim to provide you all with a book review each Monday, of a book I have been reading the previous week and finished over the weekend. I seem to have the most time to finish a book on Sunday afternoons. I find it a very relaxing way to end the weekend.
Today’s book review is a book called Exposure by Helen Dunmore. I am a huge fan of Helen Dunmore’s books and this one looked really intriguing, full of mystery, suspense – the perfect spy story.

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Book Review: Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller

I was approved to read and review Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller from Netgalley ( a place where bookbloggers can request books to feed their readers!). 
What drew me to the book was the mystical type of cover and that it was about a little girl living in the woods. This reminded me of old fairy tales like Hansel and Gretel. So I was eager to make a start reading the book on my Kindle.

Book Description:

1976: Peggy Hillcoat is eight. She spends her summer camping with her father, playing her beloved record of The Railway Children and listening to her mother’s grand piano, but her pretty life is about to change. Her survivalist father, who has been stockpiling provisions for the end which is surely coming soon, takes her from London to a cabin in a remote European forest. There he tells Peggy the rest of the world has disappeared. Her life is reduced to a piano which makes music but no sound, a forest where all that grows is a means of survival. And a tiny wooden hut that is Everything.
                 
My Review:
The book started off a bit slow for me. The first chapter was set in London 1985 and tells us about someone which I assumed to be Peggy telling her story about a photograph which showed us the last photo of her father before everything happened. 
The next chapter goes on to say about her survivalist father ordering stock piles of food and necessities for the basement. Peggy’s mother Ute is a well known German piano player who travels around playing concerts. She is gone when Peggy’s father takes it in his head to take Peggy to die Hutte in 1976, ‘a magical secret place in the forest, our very own little cabin with wooden walls, and wooden floors and wooden shutters at the windows’ is the way her father describes it.  When they finally get there it’s not quite what they hoped for. 
The story is well written and describes the area in the woods beautifully. It is a bit slow paced at times which is the only negative for me. Peggy’s father comes cross as a cruel man for bringing her to live in these woods with no other human interaction for 9 years and making her believe that her mother and all other humans are dead.
It is a great debut novel from Claire Fuller and I will keep and eye out for any future books.
I have given Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller 4 out of 5 stars.
Kindle Edition 304 pages
Published 26th February 2015 by Fig Tree (Penguin)

MamaMummyMum


Disclaimer: All the views and opinions expressed are my own. eBook supplied by Netgalley for purpose of this review only. Book cover and description taken from Netgalley for purpose of this review only. 

Book Review: Bairdston by Robert Cook

Bairdston

I requested to read this book through Netgalley as I thought the cover looked interesting and I love to read young adult novels from time to time.

Book Description:
Karim and Salima Kufdani have survived the streets of Tangier on their own. Orphaned and alone they’ve found their own way, until a fateful night and a cafe brawl see them shipped away from everything they’ve ever known. Now in the cold, barren expanse of Scotland, Karim and Salima must learn to navigate the waters of the exclusive Bairdston School and cross a cultural divide neither ever expected to face.

Can Karim overcome the vendetta of a coach who doesn’t want him on the team? Will anyone ever accept uneducated Salima for the prodigy she really is?

A story of love, acceptance and perseverance, Bairdston asks if the principles of peace and the virtues of intelligence can ever truly light the darkest of all places.

Award-winning novelist, Robert Cook paints an irresistible portrait of teen life in a Muslim meets Western world. Bairdston is a triumphant tale that will capture readers and leave them breathless with every exhilarating page. 

My Review:
I’m not sure where to start with this book. It is rather strange!
Two Muslim teens, brother and sister Karim and Salima Kufdani are saved from the rough and dangerous streets of Morocco by Cooch and his team. They want to educate the siblings in subjects such as Martial Arts and Maths. After they have learned the basics they are shipped off to a boarding school in Scotland called Bairdston, where Cooch wants them to learn to live in a Westernised world. Learn to live, eat and play with others.
I think the book lacked a plot and all the way through I wasn’t quite sure where it was leading. I would have loved to have heard more about the siblings background, but this seemed to have been missed out.
I did however like the way the story was told from each of the brother’s and sister’s eyes and how they saw the Western world and people around them.

I have given Bairdston by Robert Cook 3 out of 5 stars

Kindle Edition
Published 7th December 2015 by Royal Wulff Publishing

MamaMummyMum


Disclaimer:  All the views and opinions expressed are my own. Book description taken from Netgalley for purpose of this review only. Netgalley kindly supplied a Kindle edition for this review free of charge.

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Book Review: Green Beans and Summer Dreams by Catherine Ferguson

As soon as I saw the title of this book Green Beans and Summer Dreams by Catherine Ferguson, I knew I would love to read it. With Green Beans in the title I knew it would involve gardening of some sort, and I wasn’t wrong. 
I requested to read this book from NetGalley, due to the title only, before I even read the description. I am so glad I was successful. Due to it being an ebook, I’m afraid you will have to make do with another picture of my trusty Kindle! It is getting quite a few shots in these days.
        
Book Description

When Izzy Fraser’s long-term boyfriend walks out on her, she’s left in a bit of a pickle. Yes, she has the house of her dreams, but she now has a crippling mortgage to pay on her own.


So she takes matters into her own hands and, having always been a keen gardener, decides to set up Izzy’s Organics, delivering crates of fresh fruit and vegetables to local villagers.

Along the way she meets all sorts of characters, including the very handsome Erik and the very Grumpy Dan. But can Izzy sort the wheat from the chaff? And will her new business sow the seeds of change that she wants? 

The main character in this book is Izzy Fraser, she gets dumped by her cheating boyfriend and has to start making money to pay the mortgage on her gorgeous little house that she inherited from her Aunt. Izzy knows nothing about growing vegetables but she is very determined to start her own vegetable delivery box business, and somehow make her land pay for itself. 
Along the way Izzy has the help of her best friends Anna and Jess and the attention of Erik and Dan. There are lots of other characters in this book as well that you will grow to love. 
A beautifully written perfect summer holiday read that will leave you laughing and cringing in places for poor Izzy.
I have given Green Beans and Summer Dreams by Catherine Ferguson 5 out of 5 stars.
Publication date 19th May 2015
Rachel xx

Disclaimer: I received this ebook free of charge in exchange for a honest review. All opinions and views expressed are my own. Book cover image and Book Description taken from NetGalley .com for purpose of this review only.


 *I am a part of the Amazon Affiliate scheme so if you click on a link to Amazon and buy, I will receive a little bit back, so thanks if you do

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Book Review: Too Many Cooks by Dana Bate

The lovely people at Netgalley and The Little Brown Book Group UK have let me read a proof ebook copy of Too Many Cooks by Dana Bate. It combines two of my favourite things, reading and cooking. Prepare to never look at a cookbook in the same way again!
                

Book Description

Kelly Madigan seems to have it all: a fabulous boyfriend, a supportive – if eccentric – family, and a flourishing career as a cookbook ghostwriter. But after finding a letter from her recently-deceased mother, criticising her stable but unexciting life, Kelly knows she needs to make a change. When a mysterious new writing opportunity in London presents itself, she jumps at the chance to get away from it all. 

Enter Natasha Spencer – Oscar-winning actress and health nut, not to mention a total nightmare. She’s working on a new cookbook and has asked for Kelly’s help. What Kelly didn’t factor in was meeting Natasha’s dishy MP husband, Hugh Ballantine.
I absolutely loved reading this book, it tingled my taste buds and made me drool with all the lovely recipes especially the banana bread one. Some of which the author has included at the back of the book as an extra little snippet which is fab!
Before I read this book, I never realised what hard work goes into being a cookbook ghostwriter. The main character Kelly has to redo the same recipe over and over again for Natasha Spencer her boss day after day to get the recipe correct. As a reader this gave me sympathy for Kelly and made me dislike the character of Natasha from the start, who gave Kelly very little information to go on, yet expected food miracles from her. Although I don’t condone the actions of Kelly with Natasha’s husband Hugh. There was a little bit of me that was rooting for them in this twisted affair. 
The only thing I would change about this great read is that I would loved to have seen Kelly’s dad included more into the story line. He is such a funny character and we don’t hear too much about him and his eccentric ways. 
A perfect light-hearted, funny romantic read for the summer, very enjoyable.
I have given Too Many Cooks by Dana Bate 4 out of 5 stars.
Publication date 4th June 2015 by Little Brown Book Group UK
Rachel xx

Disclaimer: I received this ebook free of charge in exchange for a honest review. All views and opinions expressed are my own. Book cover image and book description taken from Netgalley.com for purpose of this review only.