About Book:

A suited man runs from a burning tower in Melbourne as bodies rain down upon him.

Before the city’s millions can compose, he boards a train into the countryside. Hiding his identity and changing his appearance, the man finds his way to Sulley Ridge, a lawless town in the heart of the harsh Victorian outback.

The following day, a burned man wakes up in a hospital bed. Surging with rage, he speaks a name. Within an hour, the suited man’s face is across every screen in the country. It’s the greatest manhunt Australia has ever seen.

But as he tries to camouflage in Sulley Ridge, he soon realises the town has its own problems. Under the iron fist of a violent leader, the locals are trapped within slow and torturous decay…

As we learn more about the night of the burning tower, the connection between the suited man and the burned man threatens to leave a trail of destruction across the state.

Here is the story of a man on the run from his past, as the line between sanity and evil is danced upon.

Here is the tale of This Strange Hell

About Author

J. Sutton is a writer based in Melbourne, Australia. He holds a Master of Communication degree and supports the value of study through correspondence. His fictional writing delves into the unpredictability of the human mind and the fears that drive us. As a professional writer C.J. Sutton has worked within the hustle and bustle of newsrooms, the competitive offices of advertising and the trenches of marketing. But his interest in creating new characters and worlds has seen a move into fiction, which has always pleaded for complete attention. Dortmund Hibernate is his debut novel. This Strange Hell, his exciting new thriller, will be released on March 15.

• Publisher: Crooked Cat Books (March 15, 2019)
• Publication Date: March 15, 2019
• Print Length: 369 Pages

 My Review:

Thank you The Fiction Café-Review and C. J. Sutton for this arc copy.

This is the first book that I have read from this author, and it won’t be my last.  What an awesome book.  The first chapter of this book had me wondering and from there on I could not put this book down. This is a tale of the power of fear…….of corruption, brutality and also of the strength and kindness of strangers.

I dare you to read the first chapter and not continue on… impossible.  This book was addictive and had me wondering why is he running and what are his ties to the injured man?  Little does he know that he becomes the prime suspect of the arson attack in Melbourne; and on the run now he has no choice but to stay hidden.   This is an author had me up past my bed time just so that I could read what was happening, I really enjoyed this book,  and will be looking for more from this author.   My rating on this is 5-stars.  I recommend this to all.

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Happy reading everyone.

Hello everyone, I wasn’t going to post this review, but I thought I would share what I thought of this book.  I know we all have our likes and dislikes of books, but this one just seemed a little unreal to me.   No former education, and self taught herself basic math and then on to pass the ACT.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES, WALL STREET JOURNAL, AND BOSTON GLOBE BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW • ONE OF PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR • BILL GATES’S HOLIDAY READING LIST • FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE’S AWARD IN AUTOBIOGRAPHY • FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE’S JOHN LEONARD PRIZE FOR BEST FIRST BOOK • FINALIST FOR THE PEN/JEAN STEIN BOOK AWARD

An unforgettable memoir about a young girl who, kept out of school, leaves her survivalist family and goes on to earn a PhD from Cambridge University

Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Her family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education, and no one to intervene when one of Tara’s older brothers became violent. When another brother got himself into college, Tara decided to try a new kind of life. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge University. Only then would she wonder if she’d traveled too far, if there was still a way home.

“Beautiful and propulsive . . . Despite the singularity of [Tara Westover’s] childhood, the questions her book poses are universal: How much of ourselves should we give to those we love? And how much must we betray them to grow up?”—Vogue

“Westover has somehow managed not only to capture her unsurpassably exceptional upbringing, but to make her current situation seem not so exceptional at all, and resonant for many others.”—The New York Times Book Review.

About Author:

Tara Westover is an American author living in the UK. Born in Idaho to a father opposed to public education, she never attended school. She spent her days working in her father’s junkyard or stewing herbs for her mother, a self-taught herbalist and midwife. She was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom, and after that first taste, she pursued learning for a decade. She graduated magna cum laude from Brigham Young University in 2008 and was subsequently awarded a Gates Cambridge Scholarship. She earned an MPhil from Trinity College, Cambridge in 2009, and in 2010 was a visiting fellow at Harvard University. She returned to Cambridge, where she was awarded a PhD in history in 2014.

• Hardcover:352 pages
• Publisher:Random House; 1st edition (February 20, 2018)

My Review:

I know this is an extremely popular book. I did not like it at all,  The whole book dragged along , I forced myself to finish but disliked the energy that was no where. The whole tone was monotone.

I really don’t believe ìn most of what she wrote. Mostly the education part of the book. It is impossible. Never studied trigonometry…algebra…and she magically had an 28 ACT. She was so poor and then she went to BYU with her few dollars.  You don’t just teach yourself trigonometry.   Sadly, this book is not encouraging or inspiring, but dark and depressing till the end.

Sorry this book was just too unreal for me.  This is just my opinion, I am giving this 3 stars.

Happy reading everyone.

About Book:

#1 New York Times Bestseller and #1 International Bestseller

This beautiful, illuminating tale of hope and courage is based on interviews that were conducted with Holocaust survivor and Auschwitz-Birkenau tattooist Ludwig (Lale) Sokolov—an unforgettable love story in the midst of atrocity.

“The Tattooist of Auschwitz is an extraordinary document, a story about the extremes of human behavior existing side by side: calculated brutality alongside impulsive and selfless acts of love. I find it hard to imagine anyone who would not be drawn in, confronted and moved. I would recommend it unreservedly to anyone, whether they’d read a hundred Holocaust stories or none.”—Graeme Simsion, internationally-bestselling author of The Rosie Project

In April 1942, Lale Sokolov, a Slovakian Jew, is forcibly transported to the concentration camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau. When his captors discover that he speaks several languages, he is put to work as a Tätowierer (the German word for tattooist), tasked with permanently marking his fellow prisoners.

Imprisoned for over two and a half years, Lale witnesses horrific atrocities and barbarism—but also incredible acts of bravery and compassion. Risking his own life, he uses his privileged position to exchange jewels and money from murdered Jews for food to keep his fellow prisoners alive.

One day in July 1942, Lale, prisoner 32407, comforts a trembling young woman waiting in line to have the number 34902 tattooed onto her arm. Her name is Gita, and in that first encounter, Lale vows to somehow survive the camp and marry her.

A vivid, harrowing, and ultimately hopeful re-creation of Lale Sokolov’s experiences as the man who tattooed the arms of thousands of prisoners with what would become one of the most potent symbols of the Holocaust, The Tattooist of Auschwitz is also a testament to the endurance of love and humanity under the darkest possible conditions.

About Author:

Heather Morris is a native of New Zealand, now resident in Australia. For several years, while working in a large public hospital in Melbourne, she studied and wrote screenplays, one of which was optioned by an Academy Award-winning screenwriter in the US. In 2003, Heather was introduced to an elderly gentleman who ‘might just have a story worth telling’. The day she met Lale Sokolov changed both their lives. Their friendship grew and Lale embarked on a journey of self-scrutiny, entrusting the innermost details of his life during the Holocaust to her. Heather originally wrote Lale’s story as a screenplay – which ranked high in international competitions – before reshaping it into her debut novel, The Tattooist of Auschwitz.

• Paperback:  288 pages
• Publisher:  Harper Paperbacks; Reprint edition (September 4, 2018)

My Review:

”Based on an incredible true story” as this states on the cover, this is the story of Lale Sokolov and Gita, the woman who he meets at Auschwitz, both prisoners there.

After a long wait from the library, I finally received an email that; it was now available to me and I absolutely loved it. What a wonderful, miraculous story of love and perseverance in amongst the horror and devastation of Auschwitz.  There are times you read books for entertainment and times you read for knowledge. This may be a bit of both because it involves a love story too – Lale and Gita. But oh, the horror of their situation.

This is the first that I have heard of this author / Screenplay writer, and I have to say that I really liked her style of writing. I hope to find more from this author in the future.

I have read other books about the Holocaust but this left me really thinking of those that were affected by it, and how it effects some that are still alive.  I highly recommend reading this book.

I am definitely giving this 5 stars.

Happy reading everyone.

About Book:

A whip-smart, hysterical dramedy about a family in crisis after the disappearance of its brilliant, misanthropic matriarch.

Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she’s a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she’s a disgrace; to design mavens, she’s a revolutionary architect, and to 15-year-old Bee, she is a best friend and, simply, Mom.

Then Bernadette disappears. It began when Bee aced her report card and claimed her promised reward: a family trip to Antarctica. But Bernadette’s intensifying allergy to Seattle–and people in general–has made her so agoraphobic that a virtual assistant in India now runs her most basic errands. A trip to the end of the earth is problematic.

To find her mother, Bee compiles email messages, official documents, secret correspondence–creating a compulsively readable and touching novel about misplaced genius and a mother and daughter’s role in an absurd world.

About Author:

Maria Semple wrote for the television shows Arrested Development, Ellen and Mad About You. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker and The Los Angeles Times. She lives in Seattle.

• Paperback:352 pages
• Publisher:Back Bay Books; Reprint edition (April 2, 2013)

My Review:

I heard so much about this book and really looking forward in reading and to learn that they were making a movie about it although I really enjoyed this book – even though it wasn’t remotely what I was expecting. Told through a series of narrators, with emails, letters, and texts, this is a tightly-woven contemporary epistolary novel. Chapters were long and seemed to drag.  There’s also basically no closure. It ends with a letter sent before the final event in the book and so the reader learns nothing about what actually happens just what that character hoped for   I have seen some of the reviews on this. And they were 5 stars; I maybe the only one that is giving it 3 stars; like I said I enjoyed it, but it just wasn’t my style. There was a long waiting list at my local library to read it, I was at the point that I was going to purchase it through my kindle account, I am so glad that it came available through my library and I didn’t have to waste my money in buying it.

Good Morning my book followers here it April 8, 2019 and I have ready a few books, and now on to my reviews of them.  I have some scheduled for later posts on this book review blog; but I just had to post this review.  This was a awesome read.  And this is one Author that I will be following and looking for more from him, as this was his first book.

If you want a good read check out this book.

Happy reading everyone.

About Book:

The instant #1 New York Times bestseller

“An unforgettable―and Hollywood-bound―new thriller… A mix of Hitchcockian suspense, Agatha Christie plotting, and Greek tragedy.”
―Entertainment Weekly

The Silent Patient is a shocking psychological thriller of a woman’s act of violence against her husband―and of the therapist obsessed with uncovering her motive.

Alicia Berenson’s life is seemingly perfect. A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London’s most desirable areas. One evening her husband Gabriel returns home late from a fashion shoot, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face, and then never speaks another word.

Alicia’s refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London.

Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations―a search for the truth that threatens to consume him….

About Author:

Alex Michaelides was born in Cyprus to a Greek-Cypriot father and English mother. He has a MA in English Literature from Cambridge University and a MFA in Screenwriting from the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. The Silent Patient is his first novel.

• Hardcover:  336 pages
• Publisher:  Celadon Books (February 5, 2019)

My Review:

Whoa! This was brilliant!

After hearing about this book I knew I had to read it, I had to wait for it to be available from my Library.  I had finally received the email that the book was available for download.  Oh I was so excited,  And I must say it was worth the wait.

Alicia Berenson seemed to have it all. She’s a successful painter and her husband, Gabriel, is a famous fashion photographer.  But what lead her to end it all by shooting her husband 5 times in the face and then never speaking again.  But Theo is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited for a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia and to learn the truth.

Alex Michaelides is an author to watch! This is his first novel, and it is a humdinger! It is a murder mystery, told from the point of view of a psychotherapist who switches jobs so he can try to help Alicia, the silent patient of the title.   This was an awesome book, one that I could not but down as I wanted to learn the reason of Alicia not speaking.

 Good Reads

About Book:

Amelia O’Sullivan is a photographer who has always viewed herself through the wrong lens. When her marriage publicly crashes around her, she flees to the safety of her aunt’s country property to pick up the pieces. Can she adjust her focus to what she really wants from her life?

Born into a wealthy and powerful family, Frederick Doyle may seem like a man who has it all, but behind the scenes, a bitter business feud threatens an irrevocable family split. As he fights for control of the winery he’d built from the ground up, he finds a supportive ally in Amelia and becomes increasingly beguiled by her creative spirit.

Jill McMahon is a successful novelist suffering from writer’s block over her latest manuscript. Finding her niece, Amelia, at her door, reminds her of the bonds of family, but in seeing Amelia and Frederick’s relationship grow, a long-forgotten and painful secret threatens to re-surface.

Can Amelia, Frederick and Jill untangle themselves from their pasts or will history simply repeat itself?

About Author:

Megan Mayfair is an Australian writer who writes women’s fiction with a dash of family intrigue, a sprinkling of humour and a spoonful of romance. Megan lives in Melbourne with her husband and three children, loves a good cup of coffee and believes you can never have too many scarves. Her debut novel, The Things We Leave Unsaid, is published by Crooked Cat Books. Her second novel, Tangled Vines, and third novel, The Problem with Perfect were also published by Crooked Cat Books in 2018 and 2019.

• Print Length:279 pages
• Publisher:Crooked Cat Books (December 3, 2018)
• Publication Date:December 3, 2018

My Review:

I am grateful to The Fiction Café – Review Group and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for the honest review.
This is the first that I have read anything by this author, I normally don’t read romance novels, but this one had a twist with family saga.  There are three main characters in this Australian drama story: Jill McMahon is an author and the person who links everyone else in the story. Her niece is Amelia O’Sullivan who seeks sanctuary for herself and her two young children with her aunt after her infamous husband is caught cheating on her and the press descend. Jill’s neighbor is Frederick Doyle; he’s embroiled in a family dispute as his father is determined to sell the winery Frederick has built up to someone he doesn’t trust despite knowing how important it is to Frederick. His father is determined to have his son join the family business . . . .

I really enjoyed reading and learning more about the characters.  I  Highly recommend this book the author kept my interest until the very end.

I’ll definitely be looking out for more from this author in future!

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Happy Reading everyone.

About Book:

Lyn, Cat, and Gemma Kettle, beautiful thirty-three-year-old triplets, seem to attract attention everywhere they go. Whenever they’re together, laughter, drama, and mayhem seem to follow. But apart, each is very much her own woman, dealing with her own share of ups and downs. Lyn has organized her life into one big checklist, juggling the many balls of work, marriage, and motherhood with expert precision, but is she as together as her datebook would have her seem? Cat has just learned a startling secret about her marriage — can she bring another life into her very precarious world? And can free-spirited Gemma, who bolts every time a relationship hits the six-month mark, ever hope to find lasting love? In this wise, witty, hilarious new novel, we follow the Kettle sisters through their thirty-third-year, as they struggle to survive their divorced parents’ dating each other, their technologically savvy grandmother, a cheating husband, champagne hangovers, and the fabulous, frustrating.

About Author:

Liane Moriarty is the Australian author of six internationally best-selling novels, Three Wishes, The Last Anniversary, What Alice Forgot, The Hypnotist’s Love Story and the number 1 New York Times bestsellers, The Husband’s Secret and Big Little Lies.

Her breakout novel The Husband’s Secret sold over three million copies worldwide, was a number 1 UK bestseller, an Amazon Best Book of 2013 and has been translated into over 40 languages. It spent over a year on the New York Times bestseller list. CBS Films has acquired the film rights.

With the launch of Big Little Lies, Liane became the first Australian author to have a novel debut at number one on the New York Times bestseller list. An HBO series based on Big Little Lies is currently in production, starring Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon.

Writing as L.M. Moriarty, Liane has also written a children’s book series, The Petrifying Problem with Princess Petronella, The Shocking Trouble on the Planet of Shobble and The Wicked War on the Planet of Whimsy.

Liane lives in Sydney with her husband, son and daughter. Her new novel, Truly Madly Guilty, will be released in July 2016.

• Paperback:376 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial; Reprint edition (May 24, 2005)

My Review:

Definitely not my favorite Liane Moriarty.  I had a hard time getting into this book. Usually, I enjoy this author. The three sisters are a bit complicated and the story was hard to follow in the beginning. These sisters have a strange way of getting along.  I wish I could give this more than 3 stars.

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About Book:

About Book

A three-time winner of Goodreads Choice Awards

Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.

Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.

But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.

About Author:

Angie Thomas was born, raised, and still resides in Jackson, Mississippi as indicated by her accent. She is a former teen rapper whose greatest accomplishment was an article about her in Right-On Magazine with a picture included. She holds a BFA in Creative Writing from Belhaven University and an unofficial degree in Hip Hop. She can also still rap if needed. She is an inaugural winner of the Walter Dean Meyers Grant 2015, awarded by We Need Diverse Books. Her debut novel, The Hate U Give, was acquired by Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins in a 13-house auction and will be published in spring 2017. Film rights have been optioned by Fox 2000 with George Tillman attached to direct and Hunger Games actress Amandla Stenberg set to star.

• Hardcover:464 pages
• Publisher:Balzer + Bray; First Edition Later Printing edition (February 28, 2017)

My Review:

Wow…just wow!  Powerful Book. I am still trying to process this book; but in today’s society this is an everyday problem.  I highly recommend this book.  And if you have the chance rent the movie of this; it’s an awesome movie. 

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