lisa /

Title: The Bachelorette Party

Author: Carissa Ann Lynch

Pages: 264 Pages

Publisher: Harper Collins

The Blurb

New Orleans: live music, endless drinks, brightly-coloured attractions, the perfect place for a party…

The bride-to-be

The best friend

The cousin

The mother-in-law

The sister

The groom’s friend

The bachelorette begins on a Friday night; all six women are excited for a chance to escape their everyday lives. But then friendly rivalries turn vicious, and a game of truth or dare turns deadly.

By the end of the weekend one of them will be dead…

The Review

Holy cow, what a fun, intense thriller.

I am not the sharpest tool in the box and so I am aware that all the things that I loved about The Bachelorette Party a seasoned reader would hate but since the thriller genre is not my ‘go-to’ choice then I am going to revel in the fact that I just did not see things coming.

The story centres around the bachelorette party of Rosalee. Organised by her friends and family, the party takes off to New Orleans for a few days of fun and frivolity. However, some members of the party (in particular Rosalee’s soon to be mother-in-law) are not to happy that the wedding is taking place.

Midway through the bachelorette party a body is found and everyone is a suspect.

The Bachelorette Party kept me on the edge of my seat and I genuinely had no idea who the murderer was and I loved the style of writing that included a multi-perspective narrative with updates from the detective. It was really well written and engaging.

I will be reading more from Carissa Ann Lynch.

The Bachelorette Party by Carissa Ann Lynch is available now.

For more information regarding Carissa Ann Lynch (@carissaannlynch) please visit her Twitter page.

For more information regarding Harper Collins (@HarperCollinsUK) please visit their Twitter page.

For more information regarding One More Chapter (@OneMoreChapter) please visit www.onemorechapter.com.

lisa /

Title: The Club

Author: Ellory Lloyd

Pages: 308 Pages

Publisher: Pan Macmillan

The Blurb

From the author of R&J pick, People Like Her, and for fans of The White Lotus and Succession, Ellery Lloyd’s The Club is an exhilarating, addictive read, telling a story of ambition, excess, and what happens when people who have everything – or nothing – to lose are pushed to their limit.

The opening of Island Home is tipped to be the biggest celebrity event of the decade.

Famous around the world as an ultra-exclusive private members’ club, the Home Group is about to launch its most ambitious location yet, set on a remote island that offers guests complete privacy as well as utter luxury.

For the past few weeks, rumours have been swirling about who will be attending the extravagant opening weekend.

But things are far from perfect at Home and, with long-suffering staff struggling to satisfy spiralling demands, secrets at risk of being exposed, and careers at stake, the weekend slowly turns deadly – because in a world where your reputation is everything, you’d do anything to keep it…

The Review

The Club by Ellory Lloyd is the story of what it is like to be famous. The good part – parties, celebrity friends, exclusive freebies and also the seedy underbelly where every move you make is watched, scrutinised and used to bring you down.

It is a fast paced thriller with mulitiple threads to the story which is both the story’s credit and detriment. The detriment because at times I fiound myself a bit lost with the characters and didn’t feel that they were fully fleshed out enough for me to discern who was who but to its credit I did struggle to guess who had caused the crimes.

For me, The Club by Ellory Lloyd is a story of two halves – there are great aspects to it but it needed more in the character development – because I couldn’t always fully create a character in my mind I failed to care enough about them. It is, however, a great beach read. Perfect for the summer holidays,

The Club by Ellory Lloyd is available now.

For more information regarding Pan Macmillan (@panmacmillan) please visit www.panmacmillan.com.

lisa /

Title: The Paris Apartment

Author: Lucy Foley

Pages: 360 Pages

Publisher: Harper Collins

The Blurb

Welcome to No.12 Rue des Amants

A beautiful old apartment block, far from the glittering lights of the Eiffel Tower and the bustling banks of the Seine.

Where nothing goes unseen.

And everyone has a story to unlock.

The watchful concierge

The scorned lover

The prying journalist

The naïve student

The unwanted guest 

Something terrible happened here last night.

A mystery lies behind the door of apartment three.

Only you – and the killer – hold the key . . .

The Review

You know, I have always loved Paris and would really love to live there…just not in No.12 Rue des Amants. Definitely anywhere but that apartment because bad things happen there. It also happens to be the setting of Lucy Foley’s impressive new thriller The Paris Aparment (or appartement if you live in France).

The story centres around Jess – herself a bit of a waif and stray – who turns up in Paris to stay with her brother in his apartment. However, when she gets there brother Ben is nowhere to be seen and thus starts Jess’s desperate attempt to find her brother.

With a wonderful cast of characters you are constantly kept o your toes trying to figure out who is the bad guy whilst dealing with the uneasy feeling that something worse is going to happen.

Overall, The Paris Apartment is a good story, one that ticks all the boxes for a mystery thriller. Two hearty thumbs up.

The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley is available now.

For more information regarding Lucy Foley (@lucyfoleytweets) please visit her Twitter page.

For more information regarding Harper Collins (@HarperCollinsUK) please visit their Twitter page.

lisa /

Title: Wahala

Author: Nikki May

Pages: 384 Pages

Publisher: Random House UK

The Blurb

‘Sex and the City‘ with a killer edge for fans of QUEENIE, EXPECTATION and MY SISTER, THE SERIAL KILLER

See me, see trouble

Ronke, Simi, Boo are three mixed-race friends living in London. They have the gift of two cultures, Nigerian and English, though they don’t all choose to see it that way.

Everyday racism has never held them back, but now in their thirties, they question their future. Ronke wants a husband (he must be Nigerian); Boo enjoys (correction: endures) stay-at-home motherhood; while Simi, full of fashion career dreams, rolls her eyes as her boss refers to her ‘urban vibe’ yet again.

When Isobel, a lethally glamorous friend from their past arrives in town, she is determined to fix their futures for them.

Cracks in their friendship begin to appear, and it is soon obvious Isobel is not sorting but wrecking. When she is driven to a terrible act, the women are forced to reckon with a crime in their past that may just have repeated itself.

A darkly comic and bitingly subversive take on love, race and family, Wahala will have you laughing, crying and gasping in horror. Boldly political about class, colorism and cooking, here is a truly inclusive tale that will speak to anyone who has ever cherished friendship, in all its forms.

The Review

Okay. Wahala is a hard one for me to review because I liked it but there were some things that I didn’t like about it. Yeah.

I really liked the premise of the story: a new girl infiltrates a group of friends and chaos ensues. I am all for stories like this. The character development was great. Each character had clearly defined roles – you knew the voices of the three protagonists. Again another plus.

The thread of the protagonists wanted what the others had – really clever and relatable. Again another positive.

For me though the problem lay with the pacing. There was too much exposition and character development to the detriment of the plot. The action took place in the last 100 pages. Before I knew it the story was over and I kind of felt cheated.

What is good that you can the kind of writer that Nikki May is going to be and that is quite exciting. I am really intrigued to see what more Nikki May has to offer.

Wahala by Nikki May is available now.

For more information regarding Nikki May (@NikkiOMay) please visit www.nikki-may.com.

For more information regarding Random House (@randomhouse) please visit www.randomhousebooks.com.

lisa /

Title: The Hawthorne Legacy

Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Pages: 368 Pages

Publisher: Penguin Random House Children’s UK

The Blurb

Intrigue, riches, and romance abound in this thrilling sequel to the New York Times bestselling The Inheritance Games perfect for fans of Karen McManus and Holly Jackson.

The Inheritance Games ended with a bombshell, and now heiress Avery Grambs has to pick up the pieces and find the man who might hold the answers to all of her questions – including why Tobias Hawthorne left his entire fortune to Avery, a virtual stranger, rather than to his own daughters or grandsons.

As the mystery grows and the plot thickens, Grayson and Jameson, the enigmatic and magnetic Hawthorne grandsons, continue to pull Avery in different directions. And there are threats lurking around every corner, as adversaries emerge who will stop at nothing to see Avery out of the picture – by any means necessary. 

With nonstop action, aspirational jet-setting, family intrigue, swoonworthy romance, and billions of dollars hanging in the balance, The Hawthorne Legacy will thrill Jennifer Lynn Barnes fans and new readers alike.

The Review

When I read The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes I knew I had read something special. So much so that I was willing to forgo my avoidance of book series and fully invest in Avery Grambs story. As soon as I had finished The Inheritance Games I pre-ordered the sequel – The Hawthorne Legacy. I hoped that I would enjoy it just as much as the first in the series. I was not disappointed.

The story follows on from The Inheritance Games. We follow Avery and the four Hawthorne brothers as they try to solve the puzzle as to why they had been disinherited and Avery – a stranger – was left it all.

With more danger and drama than The Inheritance Games, Jennifer Lynn Barnes has cleverly begun to slowly peel away at the clues from the original and woven them seamlessly into The Hawthorne Legacy. There are jaw-dropping moments when you realise this. Your brain starts to hurt with just how clever Jennifer Lynn Barnes is at creating mystery and thriller.

Needless to say I loved The Hawthorne Legacy and hope beyond hope that there is a third in the series.

The Hawthorne Legacy by Jennifer Lynn Barnes is available now.

For more information regarding Jennifer Lynn Barnes (@jenlynnbarnes) please visit www.jenniferlynnbarnes.com.

For more information regarding Penguin Random House Children’s UK (@penguinrandom) please visit www.penguinrandomhouse.com.