BLOG TOUR: Hostage - Clare Mackintosh

Save hundreds of lives. Or save your child?

You're on board the first non-stop flight from London to Sydney. It's a landmark journey, and the world is watching.

Shortly after take-off, you receive a chilling anonymous note.

There are people on this plane intent on bringing it down - and you're the key to their plan.

You'd never help them, even if your life depended on it.

But they have your daughter . . . So now you have to choose.

DO YOU SAVE HUNDREDS OF LIVES? OR THE ONE THAT MATTERS MOST?

 

What did I think?

WOW! What a book!  This is one of those books where I want to tell you to stop reading my review and just buy the book now - it's THAT good.  So for anyone still with me, I'll try to sum up my thoughts of a book that left me completely speechless (and incredibly tired as I really couldn't put it down).

The moment I opened this book, I knew I was going to be hooked.  The prologue is an emergency call transcript that is so chilling it made all of the hairs stand up on the back of my neck.  It haunted me throughout the book and I couldn't read fast enough to get to that point but also felt terrified of reaching it.

Mina is in the middle of a marriage breakdown so she signs up to be a flight attendant on the first ever non-stop flight from London to Sydney, even though this means she will be separated from her daughter Sophia for several days.  Someone on the plane knows all about Sophia and they're banking on Mina being willing to do anything to keep her safe.  Can Mina really sentence hundreds of people to death just to save one life?  That's all I'm going to say about the outstanding plot that kept me reading late into the night.

There is a lot going on behind the scenes of Mina's life and I was very intrigued as to how she ended up becoming a flight attendant.  Clare Mackintosh very cleverly weaves a story into the main thread that shows we can be physically held hostage but also metaphorically held hostage to our past.  This felt like a pearl of wisdom from the Dalai Lama; how often do we hark back to something we wish we'd said or done differently?  Let it go!  It's holding you hostage.

Claire Mackintosh scoops all the stars as well as all the adjectives in her exceptional new novel.  Hostage is breathtaking, jawdropping, awesome, stunning, gripping and terrifying; it's an absolute must read and very highly recommended.

I received an ARC to read and review for the blog tour; all opinions are my own.

My rating:

Buy it from:

UK.Bookshop.org

Amazon

About the author:

Clare Mackintosh is the multi-award-winning author of five Sunday Times bestselling novels, including I Let You Go, which was the fastest-selling debut thriller in the year it was released.

Translated into forty languages, her books have sold more than two million copies worldwide, have been New York Times and international bestsellers and have spent a combined total of 64 weeks in the Sunday Times bestseller chart.

Clare spent twelve years in the police force, including time on CID, and as a public order commander. She left the police in 2011 to work as a freelance journalist and social media consultant and is the founder of the Chipping Norton Literary Festival. She now writes full time and lives in Wales with her husband and their three children.

www.claremackintosh.com / www.facebook.com/ClareMackWrites / @ClareMackint0sh

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Hostage - Clare Mackintosh

 

You can save hundreds of lives.

Or the one that matters most . . .

The atmosphere on board the first non-stop flight from London to Sydney is electric. Celebrities are rumoured to be among the passengers in business class, and the world is watching the landmark journey.

Flight attendant Mina is trying to focus on the passengers, instead of her troubled five-year-old daughter back at home - or the cataclysmic problems in her marriage.

But soon after the plane takes off, Mina receives a chilling anonymous note. Someone wants to make sure the plane never reaches its destination. They're demanding her cooperation . . . and they know exactly how to get it.

It's twenty hours to landing.

A lot can happen in twenty hours . . .

What did I think?

WOW! What a book!  This is one of those books where I want to tell you to stop reading my review and just buy the book now - it's THAT good.  So for anyone still with me, I'll try to sum up my thoughts of a book that left me completely speechless (and incredibly tired as I really couldn't put it down).

The moment I opened this book, I knew I was going to be hooked.  The prologue is an emergency call transcript that is so chilling it made all of the hairs stand up on the back of my neck.  It haunted me throughout the book and I couldn't read fast enough to get to that point but also felt terrified of reaching it.

Mina is in the middle of a marriage breakdown so she signs up to be a flight attendant on the first ever non-stop flight from London to Sydney, even though this means she will be separated from her daughter Sophia for several days.  Someone on the plane knows all about Sophia and they're banking on Mina being willing to do anything to keep her safe.  Can Mina really sentence hundreds of people to death just to save one life?  That's all I'm going to say about the outstanding plot that kept me reading late into the night.

There is a lot going on behind the scenes of Mina's life and I was very intrigued as to how she ended up becoming a flight attendant.  Clare Mackintosh very cleverly weaves a story into the main thread that shows we can be physically held hostage but also metaphorically held hostage to our past.  This felt like a pearl of wisdom from the Dalai Lama; how often do we hark back to something we wish we'd said or done differently?  Let it go!  It's holding you hostage.

Claire Mackintosh scoops all the stars as well as all the adjectives in her exceptional new novel.  Hostage is breathtaking, jawdropping, awesome, stunning, gripping and terrifying; it's an absolute must read and destined to be one of THE books of 2021.  Very highly recommended.

I chose to read a digital ARC received via NetGalley and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:

Buy it from:

UK.Bookshop.org

Amazon

Away with the Penguins - Hazel Prior

Veronica McCreedy is about to have the journey of a lifetime . . .

Veronica McCreedy lives in a mansion by the sea. She loves a nice cup of Darjeeling tea whilst watching a good wildlife documentary. And she's never seen without her ruby-red lipstick.

Although these days Veronica is rarely seen by anyone because, at 85, her days are spent mostly at home, alone.

She can be found either collecting litter from the beach ('people who litter the countryside should be shot'), trying to locate her glasses ('someone must have moved them') or shouting instructions to her assistant, Eileen ('Eileen, door!').

Veronica doesn't have family or friends nearby. Not that she knows about, anyway . . . And she has no idea where she's going to leave her considerable wealth when she dies.

But today . . . today Veronica is going to make a decision that will change all of this. 

What did I think?

I discovered Away with the Penguins when it popped up on my Twitter feed one day and as soon as I saw the fabulous cover I didn't need any further encouragement to buy myself a copy.  I was so eager to read it that it jumped straight to the top of my reading queue and it's such compulsive reading that I devoured it within a period of 24 hours.

I absolutely loved the main character of mid-octogenarian Veronica McCreedy.  Veronica isn't exactly cuddly granny material but she's very strong willed, a little bit naughty and sharp as a tack.  From first appearances, some people might think that Veronica has been lucky in life; she lives in a mansion but she's all alone and has a heartbreaking backstory.  I loved reading the flashbacks to Veronica's childhood, living through World War II and the devastating effects of the war which made her into the woman she is today.

The storyline is absolutely perfect and I don't want to say too much in case I release any spoilers as it's such a wonderful story to experience first-hand for yourself.  It's impossible to put down once you start reading and there are some amazing characters, both human and penguin, that you can't help but take into your heart.  

Away with the Penguins is completely wonderful and incredibly heart-warming.  Delightfully quirky, extraordinarily charming and tremendously uplifting, Away with the Penguins is an absolute must read and well deserving of five shiny stars.

My rating:

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UK.bookshop.org

Amazon

BLOG TOUR: The Red Book - Davide Cortellucci

DON’T UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF THOUGHTS.

Martin’s life as he knows it has turned upside-down, and he decides to embark on a trip to give sense to his existence. Via coincidences and fabricated non-coincidences, he finds a group of people that helps him enhance the power of his thoughts to modify the physical world around him.

In a journey within a journey, Martin discovers the powers of visualisation and its pull.  And he acknowledges why he’s flooded by negative feelings when he’s close to certain people.

DON’T UNDERESTIMATE THE ENEMIES.

Unless Martin finds the strength within himself to fight, he and everyone around him will cease to exist.

What did I think?

I have always said that I read anything except sci-fi but I was intrigued by the synopsis of The Red Book, which is officially in the science fiction genre.  I have to change that statement now as I rather enjoyed The Red Book and, it being the first in a trilogy, I'm looking forward to reading more.  The Red Book concludes very nicely though, as there's no cliffhanger ending which often leaves me unsatisfied until the next book comes along.

The main character is a young man from London called Martin Cloud who is given a red book by Professor Conti, one of his customers in the coffee shop where he works.  After a devastating event, Martin decides to go travelling and takes the red book with him.  When he begins his journey his eye catches a girl at the station and he glimpses her several times during his journey.  I love this twist of fate;  how two unrelated people take the same journey and run into each other several times.  On his travels he meets an American named Chuck and he finally catches up with Maria, the girl that fate has chosen for him.

Unbeknown to him, or perhaps more unacknowledged by him, Martin has a gift of visualisation and can turn his thoughts into reality.  He is drawn to a similar group of people led by Caesar, who reminded me of a cross between Yoda and Professor X, where he is taught to control his gift.  Martin has to undergo some rigorous training as a group of Sinisters are intent on destroying Caesar's group and a fight between good and evil must begin.

The Red Book is a very well written book, especially considering that English is not Davide Cortellucci's first language.  There are a few hints that this is so, coincidentally with 'a few' being one of them as Davide uses 'few' instead.  This isn't a criticism at all, more of a quirk, and for it to be the only one I noticed is remarkable.

I loved reading about how we are affected by our thoughts and how people can get inside our head and change our mood, although this was in a sci-fi setting you can easily relate this to things that happen in real life.  The Red Book is a really good introduction to the sci-fi genre for me, I think more so because I consider Star Wars and X-Men among my favourite films.  With the visualisation reminding me of Yoda and the gifted group fighting evil reminiscent of the X-Men, this book really was more my kind of thing than I expected.

Real life challenges mixed with super-human powers make The Red Book an action packed thrill a minute.  Real life makes it sad at times but where there is negative there is positive so it is also hopeful; ultimately, The Red Book is extremely thought-provoking.  Thanks to Davide Cortellucci's The Red Book, the sci-fi genre can consider my head officially turned.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

My rating:

Buy it from Amazon



About the author:

Davide Cortellucci is a writer and the author of The Red Book. He has spent the last few years working on an unnamed trilogy, friendly referred by him as Little Yellow Rubber Duck. The Red Book is the first book in the trilogy. He was born on the 25th of July 1978 in Belgium, to Italian immigrant parents. He grew up in Belgium, Italy, and in London, UK. Davide has done several jobs, from waiter to inventories, from sound engineering in shows to events manager, and many more. Davide is a college dropout with a couple of creative writing courses on his back. He has spent many years travelling around Europe, learning about cultures, and keeping an interest in the power of the mind. Davide loves writing stories that awaken the epic feeling within the reader. He now lives in South East London with his partner, he's curious about life, and he also makes a great pasta sauce.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/D.CortellucciAuthor/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/d.cortellucci/

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