A Collaborative Trio of Books @Rachelb75 @cats_herding

I’ve come to think of bookish twitter and it’s members as a kind of family, where we rack up many comments on an expectant individual’s tweet, usually culprit –  various memes! I’m sorry people who have become victim to blogger’s ramblings and wake up to 50 random comments!

This is how Rachel, Kerry and I were drawn together, regularly calling ourselves the book triplets due to being on the same blog tours or reading the same books etc. Instead of causing anymore Twitter congestion we decided to group chat (we are hilarious!) We all decided to take part in an end of month collab. review, where we all create a post containing mini reviews of our favourite books of the month.

I’ve linked the girl’s blogs to their reviews if you’d like to continue reading about their chosen books / follow them.

My choice of book is The Dangerous Kind by Deborah O’ Connor.

Here’s an extract of my review:

“We are initially told of a scene which occurs between two unknown individuals who appear to know one another, their meeting ends in the most shocking way. From that point the storyline had 100% of my attention, I couldn’t wait to see where this psychological thriller was going to take me.
The first known character we are introduced is Jessamine, who is a bbc radio show presenter of a segment concerning retrospectively, called ‘Potentially Dangerous People’ that delves in to the lives of convicted murderers and with the help of an ex – police officer and a criminologist discuss how their behaviour could have been avoided or if identified early on, could it have potentially prevented the crime from occurring. Jessamine is approached by a big fan of her show, Marnie Clark, who is seeking help to find her friend Cassie Scolari, who has gone missing, possibly at the hands of her physically abusive husband.
This whole read is the embodiment of a truly fantastic thriller! Usually I’m asleep by 11pm, 2am for two nights in a row I stayed up to devour this raw read.
The storyline was like a train crash (in the best way!) that you just could not look away from… or in this case put down. It’s based on a subject that should be brought to societies attention I feel, it’s something that has the potential to happen to anybody and I think that brings in the emotional rawness of the read. It’s eye-opening to say the least.  At parts of the read you can feel yourself getting chilly due to the complete heartbreak that is endured, not just by fictional characters but by real people. A hard-hitting storyline!”

To continue reading my review of The Dangerous Kind click here!

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Kerry chose ‘The Puppet Show’ by M.W. Craven, I also read this horror / thriller book this month and thoroughly enjoyed it. Great Choice Kerry!

Here’s an extract of Kerry’s review:

“What begins as an excellent detective novel, turns into something so much more dark and disturbing and just when you think you’d had all the shocks – along came another!
The story of the immolation man and the efforts to track him down is reverting in it’s own right but when you add into it the darker side of the story then finishing the book becomes an obsession and it’s hard to put it down (or turn it off as I listened via Audible).  Questions are raised that really make you consider your own stance on justice, revenge etc and the story is as heart-breaking as it is disturbing.  By the ending I couldn’t say whose side I was on.
In addition to the mind-blowing story line, I was completely enamoured by the two main characters who might just be the most lovable crime solving duo I’ve ever come across.
A mind-blowing rollercoaster of emotions.”

You can read the rest of Kerry’s review of The Puppet Show here!

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Rachel’s Choice for this January’s book was ‘Cull’ by Tanvir Bush. Rachel took part in the #RandomThingsTour organised blog tour of this book.

Here’s an extract from Rachel’s review:

“‘Brown Envelope Syndrome-an extreme anxiety created by waiting for, or appearance of, brown envelopes from a welfare agency resulting in depression, hypermania, disassociation and often leading to intensification of existing mental and physical health issues and on occasion to suicidal thoughts and actions‘
‘Cull’ is so close to what most of us know as reality ,that you find yourself following a laugh with  a wince. It is not too far-fetched to imagine a government (particularly the one in power) creating a Protect and Care Act which hands down powers to divide and conquer society.
Protagonist Alex has a degenerative visual condition that requires a guide dog, despite the fact that she ‘does not look disabled’ a constant theme of the novel is how normal she looks and the abuse she gets as though she must be pretending. The disappearance of a fellow guide dog owner and homeless man Phil, leads to Alex investigating other disappearances into the government sanctioned ‘rehab treatment’ programme, ‘Homeless Action!’. An awful lot of them are dying, but no one seems to care.
This is a novel with enormous heart and bravery that addresses the discrimination that disabled people face daily in an unflinching manner.”

If ‘Cull’ tickles your pickle and you’d like to read Rachel’s full review, click here!

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Both Cull and The Puppet Show are available to purchase now, The Dangerous Kind is due to be release in May.

Have you read any of these Books of the Month? What were your thoughts? Or are they waiting patiently on your TBR pile? If so you need to read them! Let us know in the comments.

Social Links
Me: @book_obsessed1
Rachel: @Rachelb75  Rachelreadit 
Kerry: @Cats_Herding  HerdingCats