Book Review: Bad Habits by Sarah Evans

 Bad Habits

by

Sarah Evans

 

Publisher: Clan Destine Press

 

Publication date: 1st September 2021

 

Genre: Crime / Humour

 

Series: D.I. Eve Rock #2

 

Pages: 264

 

RRP: $29.95AUD

 

Format read: paperback

 

Source: courtesy of the publisher

 

My review of Bad Habits

 

Grisly crime, romance and comedy all in one. And it works!

 

With D.I. Eve Rock Sarah Evans has created a likeable and complex character. She is sassy and full of spirit, very feminine but also likes the occasional cigar with her glass of wine.

Eve is currently on leave recovering from injuries sustained when her house and car were blown up and with no place to stay she is lodging at her mother Sister Immaculata's boarding school.

Eve can't stay away from the office for long, it's a good excuse to avoid Christmas lunch with her dysfunctional family, and she is soon back into the thick of it. New cases are mounting up; body parts found in a freezer, a major jewellery heist and an upmarket art gallery theft.

As the team start investigating the body count mounts and her mother, an ex sex-worker turned nun, has been acting very strangely. 

 

Bad Habits is a story rich in humour. Sarah Evans' writing is witty and entertaining. There is a lot going on and Eve is always in the midst of it. Eve Rock attracts trouble, it follows her around. This is the cause of lots of friendly ribbing between workmates, mostly at Eve's expense and she takes it all in her stride.

It's not all laughs, Bad Habits is a grisly tale of murder and butchery however the constant humour lightens an otherwise gruesome tale.

 

The multiple mysteries kept me turning the pages and the sweet romance between Eve and workmate D.I. Quinn Fox had me eager to see where it would go. Quinn is another likeable character, he seemed resigned to Eve's flightiness.

 

Bad Habits is the second book featuring D.I. Eve Rock and there is some backstory included making it read well as a standalone. It did leave me keen to read book 1, Operation Paradise.

 

A gruesomely good story for those that need lots of action in their books!

 

My rating 5 / 5  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 

 

About the author

 

Sarah Evans, an English ex-pat journalist and former home-schooling mum, is the author of a lifestyle / recipe book Seasons and Seasonings in a Teapot, romance and crime novels, novellas, short stories and poetry.

She gives author talks and teaches memoir, creative writing, poetry and song-writing. She lives on a 20-acre hobby farm in rural Western Australia with her family and a menagerie of fur and feather and has added granny duties to her repertoire.

 

 

 

Book Review: The Bellbird River Country Choir by Sophie Green

 The Bellbird River Country Choir

by

Sophie Green

 

Publisher: Hachette Australia

 

Publication date: 27th July 2022 

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

 

Pages: 432

 

RRP: $32.99AUD

 

Format read: Uncorrected Paperback

 

Source: Courtesy of the publisher via Better Reading Preview

 

 

My review of The Bellbird River Country Choir

 

Set over the twelve months of 1998 Sophie Green’s latest novel, The Bellbird River Country Choir is a totally immersive read about the importance of female friendships.
 

Five women from different backgrounds and age groups become unlikely friends when each of them, for different reasons, join the local country choir.

 

At first the women are quiet and even a little judgy however they soon start supporting each other to face their challenges allowing them to grow in self-confidence. 

 

Single mother Alex, who has moved to the country from the bustle of the city to spend more time with her young daughter, joins the choir to make friends.

Janene has lived in the town all her life. She works in her parents bakery and the choir is her social outlet.

Debbie, who is a house-keeper and nanny on a local farm, is encouraged to join the choir to foster some self-confidence.

Famous opera singer Gabrielle is back in Bellbird River staying at cousin Victoria’s family home. She needs to rebuild her confidence after surgery affected her singing voice.

Victoria, a stalwart in the local community, joins the choir, not due to loneliness since her husband left her but to support her cousin Gabrielle.

Each of the women are at a cross-roads in their life and find that confiding and trusting in one another gives them the confidence to move forward.

Sophie Green includes themes of single parenthood, life after prison, mental illness, bullying, gaslighting and regaining self-confidence. These themes flow around a centric topic of love; for children, in marriage, forbidden love, self love, love for family and friends.

 

The Bellbird River Country Choir is an easy read with likeable characters with relatable problems and realistic solutions. Well worth a read!

 

My rating 4 / 5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

 

 About the author

 

Credit: Goodreads

Sophie Green is an author and publisher who lives in Sydney. She has written several fiction and non-fiction books, some under other names. In her spare time she writes about country music on her website, Sunburnt Country Music. She has been practising yoga since 1993 and teaching since 2002. Sophie's debut novel, THE INAUGURAL MEETING OF THE FAIRVALE LADIES BOOK CLUB, was a Top Ten bestseller and was shortlisted for the Australian Book Industry Awards for General Fiction Book of the Year 2018, and longlisted for both the Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year 2018 and the Indie Book Award for Debut Fiction 2018.

 

 

 

Mailbox Monday - July 25th

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week (or month). I post my new books on the last Monday of the month. Mailbox Monday now has a permanent home at the Mailbox Monday Blog

 

 

  Happy Monday!

 

Another busy month for me with looking after the grandchildren during two weeks school holidays,two birthdays in the family and a book fairy drop for a children's book Loki, a Bad God's Guide to Being Good. I hope those who found the books enjoyed them.

 

My husband's radiation therapy has finished and he is managing the after effects of fluid retention, burnt and cracked skin and a sore jaw well enough. The hospital will continue to monitor his recovery.

 

During the school break we visited lots of parks, when it wasn't raining, and the days we were stuck indoors we played games and did lots of craft. 

 

 

We celebrated Jay's 6th birthday and my eldest son's 37th birthday

 

 

My latest knitting project - Minecraft fans will recognise this.

Books I received for review, won and purchased over the last month

 

Books for review

 

 Books I've won in giveaways

Children's books

 You can read my children's book reviews at Little Squirrel's Bookshelf

 

 

Winner of a copy of The Brightest Star announced!!

 

A huge thank you to everyone who entered my giveaway for a paperback copy of The Brightest Star.   The giveaway closed on the 21st July and the winner was randomly selected (using Random org) from all correct entries. 

Congratulations to........   Cheryl M 

 

 The winner has been notified and has seven days to provide a mailing address.

 

Please look under the giveaway tab for more chances to win great books.

 

 

Book Review: Love Never Chose Me by Rosanna M.I.

 Love Never Chose Me

by

Rosanna M. I. 

 

Publisher: Cherry Publishing 

 

Publication date: 16th December 2021

 

Genre: Romance / New Adult

 

Pages: 246

 

Format read: eBook

 

Source: Courtesy of the publisher

 

My review of Love Never Chose Me

 

Love Never Chose Me is an easy light read. Emily at  twenty-three is already an accomplished thriller writer however her agent tells her she must write a romance (okay, we need to suspend our disbelief a little with that.)

 

Emily hates romance! She has sworn off love since her heart was broken three times. She has been single now for 4 years.

 

The story follows Emily as the three boys (now men) who broke her heart come back into her life. Emily must work through the pain and rejection before she can fall in love again.

 

Emily comes across as a bit of a drama queen with lots of meltdowns and tantrums. I felt bad for her love interest, Andrew, who never gave up even though she treated him badly.

 

I found Love Never Chose Me to be a fun read and I chuckled over how disillusioned and cynical Emily was at such a young age. as with any romance read it ends nicely, after much drama, with a HEA.

A story to be enjoyed by upper teen readers 15 - 19 years.

 

My rating 3 / 5 ⭐⭐⭐

 

About the author

 

Rosanna M.I. is a Japanese-Brazilian author who loves New Adult and Young Adult Romance novels.
As an avid reader from an early age, she found herself writing poems and stories as a hobby, not imagining that creating fiction would become her biggest dream and main goal later in life.
Most of her works are full of emotional roller coasters, drama, not-perfect characters, second chances and changes, as she would like to read them.
When Rosanna M.I. is not going crazy with her books, she is spending time with her three cats, listening to music and taking care of her mental health.

 

 
 

Book Review: Double Negative by Susan Marshall

 Double Negative

by

Susan Marshall

 

Publisher: Evernight Teen

Publication date: 12th November 2021

 

Genre: Young Adult

 

Pages: 306

 

RRP:  $6.70AUD (Amazon Kindle)

 

Format read: eBook

 

Source: Courtesy of the author via Netgalley 

 

My review of Double Negative

 

Double Negative is a story many teenagers will relate to. Narrated by 17 year old Reece who is an elite swimming star attending the Elite Sports school. However after a shoulder injury she is transferred to the local high school, that her brother attends, until she recovers.

 

Reece's brother Jamie is in grade 12 and is running for school President and asks Reece to support him as Vice President

 

Not being American I don't really understand the US school system. High schools in Australia do not have Presidents. However I do understand campaigning and elections and Susan Marshall clearly explained the system, including campaign promises, obligations, constitutions, guidelines and rules, in a way that would appeal to a teenage audience.

 

There is lots of angst and drama throughout the novel as Reece loses her place in the elite training squad, loses her boyfriend, crushes on her brother's nemesis and needs to adjust to a new school.

Another strong theme is the pressure of elite sport and the mental health of athletes. The addition of an amputee basketball player brings in the extra theme of how athletes cope with and work through a permanent disability.

 

Double Negative has an interesting plot and realistic characters. There was a little too much angst and too many meltdowns for me. I had the patience of an adult whilst reading. 

Teens will love it and relate wholeheartedly!

 

Recommended: 16+

My rating 3 / 5   ⭐⭐⭐

About the author

Photo: Goodreads

A lover of libraries, Susan obtained a Master’s Degree in Library Science but found that she was too disorganized for the profession. Instead, Susan worked at The Globe and Mail newspaper and then Seneca College. Four kids later, she decided to stay-at-home, spending her quiet moments indulging her love of writing.

The old adage is to "write what you know," and in Double Negative, Susan channels her experience as a parent of a teen amputee and her misguided belief that she was once an athlete.

NemeSIS was inspired by the complicated sister dynamic in Susan's estrogen fuelled household growing up in Hamilton, Ontario.

Susan lives in Toronto with her husband, three sons, a daughter, rescue dog Bean and Indy the cat.

 

 

 

Book Giveaway - Friday Freebie: The Brightest Star by Emma Harcourt

 I received an extra paperback copy of The Brightest Star by Emma Harcourt from Harlequin Australia so I am giving it away to one lucky reader.

The Brightest Star

by

Emma Harcourt

About the book

 

1496 It is the height of the Renaissance and its flowering of intellectual and artistic endeavour, but the city state of Florence is in the grip of fundamentalist preacher Friar Girolamo Savonarola. Its good people believe the Lord speaks through him, just as certainly as the Sun circles the Earth.

For Leonarda Lunetta, eldest daughter of the learned Signore Vincenzo Fusili, religion is not as interesting as the books she shares with her beloved father. Reading is an escape from the ridicule flung her way, for Luna is not like other girls. She was born with a misshapen leg and that, and her passion for intellectual pursuits - particularly astronomy - alters how society sees her and how she sees the world.

Luna wants to know, to learn, to become an astronomer who charts the nights sky - certainly not the dutiful, marriageable daughter all of Florence society insists upon. So when Luna meets astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, she is not surprised that his heretical beliefs confirm her view that world is not as it is presented - or how it could be. These dangerous ideas bring her into conflict with the preacher Savonarola, and her future is changed irrevocably as politics, extremism and belief systems ignite in a dangerous conflagration.

Luna is a woman born out of time, the brightest star of her generation, but can she reconcile the girl of her father's making with this new version of herself? And if she does, will Renaissance Italy prove too perilous and dark a place for a free-thinking woman?

 

I haven't read the book yet but it is getting some fabulous reviews on Goodreads!

 

 Giveaway

 

I have one paperback copy of The Brightest Star to give away.

 Enter via the form below. (Open to Australian addresses only). Entries close at 6pm (AEST) on Thursday 21st July 2022.

 

 This giveaway is now closed and the winner was announced HERE