The Castaways - Lucy Clarke

You wake on a beautiful, remote island.

Sparkling blue seas, golden sunsets, barely a footprint in the sand.

Yet this is no ordinary escape.

 

Next to the wreck of a plane, a stranger paces. Another sharpens a knife, scoring a list of the dead onto a palm tree. Others watch from the shadows of a campfire – all with untold stories, and closely-guarded secrets…

This is no ordinary holiday.

This is no ordinary island.

This is no ordinary beach read.

Gripping, twisty and full of sun-soaked atmosphere, THE CASTAWAYS will whisk you far away to the island – and never let you go.

 

What did I think?

Oh wow, I enjoyed this book.  It had my eyes glued to the page from start to finish and I couldn't read it fast enough - what a page turner!

Through a dual timeline, I immersed myself into Lori's story in the 'Then' chapters and her sister Erin's story in the 'Now' chapters.  Erin has never given up hope that her sister might be still be alive following the disappearance of her flight en-route to a remote Fijian island.  But, with so many islands in the area, nobody even knows where the plane actually crashed.

Lori's plane crash left me breathless and I didn't realise I had been holding my breath until I actually released it.  All of the scenes are so vividly described that I felt as if I was there.  I can't imagine anything worse than being trapped on an island with strangers.  When it comes to survival, you really can't trust anyone.  I don't want to say any more about the stunning plot for fear of releasing any spoilers as each reader needs to experience the shocks and surprises for themselves.

Twisty, gripping and so very addictive, The Castaways is a real page turner.  It's vivid, atmospheric and breathtaking - I loved it.

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

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Scare Me To Death (Dan Forrester Book 4) - CJ Carver

 

Thirteen survived. Now someone wants them dead.

A homemade bomb exploded mid-air, killing 214 people on board.

Thirteen people survived.

Sixteen years later one of the survivors is found brutally bludgeoned to death. It looks like a crime of passion but DC Lucy Davies knows something is wrong. They were trying to find the bombers.

Lucy’s search for the killer brings her into conflict with her long-lost father – who has his own secrets. Dangerous secrets which Lucy must expose so she can confront a vicious murderer with only one thing on their mind.

Keep on killing to stop the truth from being revealed.

What did I think?

With a horrifying prologue that chilled me to the bone, I knew from the very start that I was going to love CJ Carver's latest novel, Scare Me To Death, and I was not wrong; it's absolutely brilliant.  Although it's the fourth book in the Dan Forrester series, it's the first one I've read so I can state with confidence that it can definitely be read as a standalone. 

Dan is a wonderfully complex character who lost a lot of his memories when he witnessed a traumatic event.  There's something very odd about that as it is only memories from a specific period of his life (and that of the traumatic event) that are missing; it's like they've been erased on purpose and it's certainly piqued my interest and made me want to read more about Dan in the previous books.

As if that wasn't tantalising enough, Dan's old friend DC Lucy Davies has one heck of a back story both in her career and her personal life.  I loved how Lucy's story developed as her family history was untangled whilst she was investigating a brutal murder.  With all this going on, I'm surprised her head didn't explode!

The story of the murder of Kaitlyn Rogers is so perfectly plotted that it left me breathless.  When Dan follows a lead to Morocco I was on the edge of my seat as the danger level increased and I became even more intrigued by what Kaitlyn had discovered that led to her murder.

Gripping from start to finish, Scare Me To Death is a thriller with a capital T.  Filled with danger and intrigue that left me breathless, I couldn't read this fantastic book fast enough.  Very highly recommended and I'll definitely be reading the earlier books in the series now.

Many thanks to CJ Carver for sending me a digital ARC to read and review; this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

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Dear Edward - Ann Napolitano

A luminous, life-affirming novel about a 12-year-old boy who is the sole survivor of a deadly plane crash

One summer morning, a flight takes off from New York to Los Angeles. There are 192 passengers aboard: among them a young woman taking a pregnancy test in the airplane toilet; a Wall Street millionaire flirting with the air hostess; an injured soldier returning from Afghanistan; and two beleaguered parents moving across the country with their adolescent sons, bickering over who gets the window seat. When the plane suddenly crashes in a field in Colorado, the younger of these boys, 12-year-old Edward Adler, is the sole survivor.

Dear Edward depicts Edward's life in the crash's aftermath as he struggles to make sense of the meaning of his survival, the strangeness of his sudden fame, and find his place in the world without his family. In his new home with his aunt and uncle, the only solace comes from his friendship with the girl next door, Shay. Together Edward and Shay make a startling discovery: hidden in his uncle's garage are sacks of letters from the relatives of the other passengers, addressed to Edward.

As Edward comes of age against the backdrop of sudden tragedy, he must confront some of life's most profound questions: how do we make the most of the time we are given? And what does it mean not just to survive, but to truly live?

What did I think?

Oh my!  Once in a while a book comes along that makes your heart ache and Dear Edward is that book for me.  Against the terribly emotional backdrop of a plane crash is a beautiful story filled with love and hope that left me feeling very emotional.  Having gotten to know Edward through the book I was surprised how deeply I felt the loss of his family; it was if I was experiencing some of his own emotions along with him.

The story is told in three timelines: Edward in the aftermath of the crash, the last hours of the crash and back stories of some of the passengers.  All three timelines are equally poignant and often distressing, knowing the conclusion that we are hurtling towards.  It's quite a dilemma when the book is so good that you don't want to put it down, yet knowing that the quicker you read, the sooner you will reach the devastating ending for most of the characters.  Reading the last moments of the flight was so heart-achingly poignant that I still feel emotional thinking about it now.

Ann Napolitano writes so beautifully and rhythmically that the story flows like a piece of music.  Dear Edward not only pulled my heart strings but played them like a violin virtuoso as I experienced a full musical spectrum; from deep mournful doloroso tones, gradually rising through the crescendo, to making my heart sing with joy in the finale.

Stunning, breathtaking and heart-achingly poignant, Dear Edward is absolutely superb and very highly recommended.  

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

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The Three - Sarah Lotz

Four planes crash on one day in different parts of the world; Japan, America, Europe and Africa.  Three children survive three of the crashes and the world goes crazy as they search for a survivor of the fourth crash in Africa.  Is this a miracle or the start of the apocalypse?

One of the casualties of the plane crash in Japan survived long enough to leave a message:

They're here ... The boy. The boy watch the boy watch the dead people oh Lordy there's so many ... They're coming for me now. We're all going soon. All of us. Pastor Len warn them that the boy he's not to­­--

The last words of Pamela May Donald (1961 - 2012)

This is enough for the religious fanatics to link the four planes to the four horsemen of the apocalypse as Pastor Len builds up his following of Pamelites and sets out to destroy the three survivors of Black Thursday. 

This book was written in such a refreshing unique way - it is a series of interviews and transcripts of the survivors' families telling their stories for a book about Black Thursday.  It feels like you are building up the evidence in front of you in order to come to your own conclusions, which ultimately you have to do at the end.

I was completely gripped by the story and it made me think about our own souls and what happens when we die - the relationship between the survivors and their main family member left me thinking about the belief that part of a soul transfers to the people you leave behind.  Whether it was the soul of a person or something more sinister I'm not really sure so, whilst I really enjoyed reading this book, I felt I had to launch straight into the sequel "Day Four" as the ending felt like it was "to be continued".

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