Parasite? The Secret Diary of a Landlord - The Secret Landlord

Get ready to learn what really happens behind closed doors.

Landlords have become one of the most hated groups in society. Parasites, they’re often called. And there’s a lot of them. The Treasury estimates there are almost 2.6 million landlords in the UK with around 5.45 million rental properties.

But the real life of a professional landlord is very different to what most people think. From burglaries and break-ins to drug raids, police warrants, crazy tenant antics, bailiffs, squatters, lawsuits, wrecked properties, interfering council officers, game-playing freeholders to moments of heartfelt joy and happiness, the life of a landlord is never dull. Especially when the government keeps moving the goalposts.

This explosive front line exposé blows the lid off what it’s really like to be a landlord and the shocking reality of renting out a property. Hovering close to a nervous breakdown and likely suffering PTSD, The Secret Landlord exposes truths rarely shared. Stories that will grip you, move you and smack you in the face.

This is the truth, the other side of the door.

What did I think?

What a complete eye-opener!  I really enjoyed reading Parasite? The Secret Diary of a Landlord.  It's written in diary format, which I often feel guilty about reading, but the voice of the Secret Landlord really stands out and I felt like I had her approval to read her honest account of some very busy and tiring days.

My heart really went out to the Secret Landlord, being on call 24/7/365 and I could have cried when reading about the wrecked properties.  I felt the frustration with the council housing department and the inability to take even a single day off without hassle.  It's not all doom and gloom though as there are plenty of funny moments; I laughed out loud when the Secret Landlord cleared up after a hoarder and went for a bone crunching Thai massage.  

I did briefly consider renting my property when house prices fell during the 2008 recession but, after seeing how tenants treated the rental property next door with total disregard, I thought it would be more hassle than it was worth.  Parasite? The Secret Diary of a Landlord certainly proves me right and makes me so glad that I'm not a landlord.  

Honest, humourous and horrifying, Parasite? The Secret Diary of a Landlord is a superb read whether you're a landlord, a tenant or a nosy neighbour.  I sometimes forgot it was actually non-fiction as it's a highly addictive book and I couldn't put it down; I'm sure there are many more stories that the Secret Landlord can share with us and I do hope that there are more books to follow.

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

My rating:

Buy it from:

Amazon UK

Amazon US

About the author:

The Secret Landlord has been renting, refurbishing and selling properties across the UK for almost two decades. An award winning landlord, as judged by the National Landlords Association, The Secret Landlord has provided accommodation for hundreds of tenants from all walks of life. 

Social Media Links – 

Website: www.thesecretlandlord.com

Twitter: @landlord_secret

Follow Rachel's Random Resources Publication Day Push:

BLOG TOUR: The Winter Garden - Heidi Swain

***The sparkling new Christmas novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author Heidi Swain!***

Will love bloom this winter?

 

Freya Fuller is living her dream, working as a live-in gardener on a beautiful Suffolk estate. But when the owner dies, Freya finds herself forced out of her job and her home with nowhere to go. However, with luck on her side, she’s soon moving to Nightingale Square and helping to create a beautiful winter garden that will be open to the public in time for Christmas.

 

There’s a warm welcome from all in Nightingale Square, except from local artist Finn. No matter how hard the pair try, they just can’t get along, and working together to bring the winter garden to life quickly becomes a struggle for them both.

 

Will Freya and Finn be able to put their differences aside in time for Christmas? Or will the arrival of a face from Freya’s past send them all spiralling?

The Winter Garden is the perfect read this Christmas, promising snowfall, warm fires and breath-taking seasonal romance. Perfect for fans of Carole Matthews, Cathy Bramley and Sarah Morgan.

What did I think?

The Winter Garden may be book 3 in the Nightingale Square series, but you definitely don't need to have read the earlier books to enjoy it.  I haven't read the first two books and I had absolutely no idea that it was part of a series until I was reading the final few chapters; Heidi Swain focuses on a particular character to make each book read so well as a standalone that you can't tell they are part of a series.  

Freya is such a wonderful character that I wish I had some of her amazing qualities; she is a strong independent woman with a heart of gold.  Freya's manages the grounds of a country estate and her story starts at a very sad time when the owner of the estate dies.  Eloise was as much of a friend as a boss so her death hits Freya very hard and it's made even worse when Eloise's nephew inherits the estate and decides to sell, leaving Freya out of work.  On a chance trip to Norfolk, Freya gets offered a new job complete with a new home in Nightingale Square and the next chapter of her life is about to begin.

There are some amazing characters to get to know in The Winter Garden, or to revisit if you have read the earlier books.  I loved Harold, whose house Freya takes over after Harold moves into assisted accommodation and the way that Freya handles the move so sensitively and respectfully gave me a warm glow.  I also have to mention Freya's dog Nell, who is quite a character, and seeing how she evolved from being jittery and scared to relaxed and happy really did warm my heart.

Of course, to really get the reader's pulse racing and temperature rising we need a love interest and Heidi Swain has created a Norse god in dark, brooding Finn.  After a rocky start and several misunderstandings, I had high hopes that Freya would manage to thaw Finn's heart.

I could write so much more about this book: the sparkly Christmas market, the cosy local pub, the wonderful winter garden that Freya is tasked to create and the fabulously festive Winterfest but these magical things should be left for every reader to experience for themselves.

The Winter Garden is a snuggly warm hug of a book.  As the temperature drops outside, let the fabulous community of Nightingale Square warm your heart so grab a hot chocolate and snuggle up on your favourite chair with The Winter Garden.

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

My rating:

Buy it from Amazon

Follow the tour:

Hysteria (The Alexander Gregory Thrillers Book 2) - LJ Ross

FROM THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE DCI RYAN MYSTERIES

In a beautiful world, murder is always ugly…

Recently returned from his last case in Ireland, elite forensic psychologist and criminal profiler Dr Alexander Gregory receives a call from the French police that he can’t ignore. It’s Paris fashion week and some of the world’s most beautiful women are turning up dead, their faces slashed in a series of frenzied attacks while the world’s press looks on.

Amidst the carnage, one victim has survived but she’s too traumatised to talk. Without her help, the police are powerless to stop the killer before he strikes again – can Gregory unlock the secrets of her mind, before it’s too late?

Murder and mystery are peppered with dark humour in this fast-paced thriller set amidst the spectacular Parisian landscape.

What did I think?

Whenever I recommend books, one author springs to mind time and time again: LJ Ross.  As much as I love the DCI Ryan series, I'm really enjoying the Alexander Gregory books and Hysteria is the second instalment of that series.  Don't worry if you haven't read Imposter though; Hysteria works very well as a standalone.

Alexander Gregory is a forensic psychologist and criminal profiler, delving into the dark and murky depths of some twisted human minds.  His latest case sees him helping the Parisian police when a model is attacked in her hotel room.  The victim has been unable to speak since her attack and nobody else saw the perpetrator so the police are completely baffled.  Only the skill of Dr Gregory will reveal what truly happened behind that locked door.

Hysteria is well named as it felt like my brain was being put through the wringer whilst I was reading.  I was struggling to see how some parts of the story fit and couldn't for the life of me work out where the story was heading.  It's not my first LJ Ross book though, so I knew that everything was there for a reason.  All I'll say is well played, LJ Ross.  Very well played indeed.

The setting of Paris fit well with the modelling story but I've never been to Paris so I'm not familiar with the various arrondissements.  It is clear that the author knows the area well, but maybe too well as I couldn't really conjure a vivid picture of the setting in my mind.  Not that it bothered me too much, as I was more interested in the storyline than the Parisian sights.  Something else to note in relation to the setting, there are a couple of phrases in French that some people might have difficulty with.  I grasped most of it but anyone who hasn't studied French will struggle.  Don't let it put you off though; just remember, that's what Google Translate is for.

Hysteria is a real mind-bender; it's a slick and clever mystery filled with shocks, surprises and Parisian style.  Although it hasn't knocked Imposter off my Alexander Gregory number one spot, I really enjoyed it and wouldn't hesitate to recommend.

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

My rating:

Buy it from Amazon

The Big Chill (The Skelfs Book 2) - Doug Johnstone

 

Running private investigator and funeral home businesses means trouble is never far away, and the Skelf women take on their most perplexing, chilling cases yet in book two of the darkly funny, devastatingly tense and addictive new Skelfs series!

Haunted by their past, the Skelf women are hoping for a quieter life. But running both a funeral directors' and a private investigation business means trouble is never far away, and when a car crashes into the open grave at a funeral that matriarch Dorothy is conducting, she can't help looking into the dead driver's shadowy life.

While Dorothy uncovers a dark truth at the heart of Edinburgh society, her daughter Jenny and granddaughter Hannah have their own struggles. Jenny's ex-husband Craig is making plans that could shatter the Skelf women's lives, and the increasingly obsessive Hannah has formed a friendship with an elderly professor that is fast turning deadly.

But something even more sinister emerges when a drumming student of Dorothy's disappears and suspicion falls on her parents. The Skelf women find themselves sucked into an unbearable darkness but could the real threat be to themselves?

Following three women as they deal with the dead, help the living and find out who they are in the process, The Big Chill follows A Dark Matter, book one in the Skelfs series, which reboots the classic PI novel while asking the big existential questions, all with a big dose of pitch-black humour.

What did I think?

Since meeting the wonderfully quirky Skelf family in A Dark Matter, I have been looking forward to The Big Chill, the second book in the series.  As with all series, it's always best to read them in order, however, Doug Johnstone provides enough of a recap in The Big Chill to ensure that anyone who hasn't read A Dark Matter will not feel at a disadvantage.

Doug Johnstone has such an amazing sense of humour that you never know what's going to happen in his books.  The Big Chill has such an outstanding first chapter; it's so blackly comic that I struggled to contain my laughter at what certainly wouldn't have been a funny situation if it had happened in real life but is written in such a way that it wouldn't have looked out of place in a comedy sketch.  That's the beauty of Doug Johnstone's writing; if you have a good sense of humour you can pick up a lot of the witty little gems he has sprinkled through his prose.

The Skelf women (mother Dorothy, daughter Jenny and granddaughter Hannah) are such strong female characters that they effortlessly carry the hugely entertaining storyline along with them.  The Skelfs run a funeral home and a private investigation business which keeps them busy and when a homeless man turns up on the slab, the PI side of the business comes in useful as Dorothy tries to find out who the man is.  I absolutely loved this part of the story and felt like I was travelling the streets of Edinburgh with Dorothy as she attempted to identify the man she had named Jimmy X.

What I love about The Big Chill is that there are so many little strands of storylines running through the book that I could have knitted a multi-coloured scarf with them all.  It never gets confusing though as everything is perfectly timed and new minor characters are introduced at just the right time.  I think it's a female characteristic to personalise things and things certainly feel quite personal in The Big Chill as the Skelfs don't go looking for cases, cases definitely find them!

I absolutely loved The Big Chill; Doug Johnstone couldn't have written a better sequel to A Dark Matter.  Fast paced and deeply, darkly compelling my only disappointment was when I reached the end far too quickly.  I certainly can't recommend it highly enough, so pick up a copy for yourself; you won't be disappointed.

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

My rating:

Buy it from Amazon

BLOG TOUR: Fire Burn, Cauldron Bubble: Magical Poems - Paul Cookson

 

Can you hear the distant dragon's rumble of thunder? And smell the sweet swampy aroma of the ogre? Can you taste the tangy tarantula tarts? And see the girl who's really a wizard? From magic carpets and wands to unicorns, potions, creams and lotions, Paul Cookson's brewing a spell of fantastically magic poems. 

On this tattered magic carpet 

You can choose your destination 

For nothings quite as magical 

As your imagination 

Beautifully illustrated, this enchanting anthology brings together work from a range of classic, established and rising poets including Shakespeare, Lewis Carroll, Benjamin Zephaniah, John Agard, Valerie Bloom, Matt Goodfellow, Joshua Seigal and A.F. Harrold. Whether you're in the mood for a haunting or a spell gone wrong, this collection of mesmerising poems will have you bewitched from beginning to end!

What did I think?

Bloomsbury have really outdone themselves with this beautiful cloth bound hardback; it's a book to be treasured and brought out every year as the nights become cold and dark.  Not only is it beautiful on the outside but the poems chosen by Paul Cookson and the illustrations by Eilidh Muldoon on the inside are absolutely breathtaking too.

Paul Cookson has done a wonderful job of gathering together magical poems in this Halloween anthology.  Poems from the classic such as Shakespeare, Carroll and Tennyson alongside modern poems that tickled and delighted me.  I couldn't possibly pick a favourite as they are all wonderful and some made me laugh while some gave me the shivers but the quality of the writing is exceptionally high.  

It's amazing how the writing from the likes of William Shakespeare and Lewis Carroll have stood the test of time, the former's poem from Macbeth lending the title of the book.  They really didn't seem out of place set among the modern poems, which undoubtedly had more fun and humour in them but seem like modern classics in their own right.

Fire Burn, Cauldron Bubble is a wonderful mix of classic and modern magical poems that are perfect for, but not limited to, Halloween.  It's a wonderful book for kids of any age from 8 to 80 and I'll certainly be treasuring my copy.

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

My rating:

Buy it from Amazon

About the author:

Paul Cookson lives in Retford with his wife, two children, a dog and several ukuleles. He has worked as a poet since 1989 and has visited thousands of schools and performed to hundreds of thousands of pupils and staff. Paul is the official Poet in Residence for the National Football Museum, the Poetry Ambassador for United Learning and Poet Laureate for Slade. He worked as the Poet for Everton Collection at Liverpool Library, was Poet in Residence for Literacy Times Plus and, as part of the National Year of Reading, was nominated a National Reading Hero and received his award at 10 Downing Street. Paul has 60 titles to his name and poems that appear in over 200 other books. His work has taken him all over the world from Argentina, Uganda and Malaysia to France, Germany and Switzerland.

Follow the tour:

COVER REVEAL: The Running Wolf - Helen Steadman

I'm a huge fan of Helen Steadman's books so it's an absolute honour for me to take part in the cover reveal of her new novel, The Running Wolf.  I'm so excited for this one, so let's have a look at the cover...

Oh my word, the cover is absolutely stunning and it looks so intriguing; it's published on 10th November 2020 and I can't wait to read it. You can read the synopsis of the book below, where you can also find out more about the author and most importantly, click on that preorder link.

Here's a little bit about the book:

When a Prussian smuggler is imprisoned in Morpeth Gaol in the winter of 1703, why does Queen Anne's powerful right-hand man, The Earl of Nottingham, take such a keen interest?

At the end of the turbulent 17th century, the ties that bind men are fraying, turning neighbour against neighbour, friend against friend and brother against brother. Beneath a seething layer of religious intolerance, community suspicion and political intrigue, The Running Wolf takes us deep into the heart of rebel country in the run-up to the 1715 Jacobite uprising.

Hermann Mohll is a master sword maker from Solingen in Prussia who risks his life by breaking his guild oaths and settling in England. While trying to save his family and neighbours from poverty, he is caught smuggling swords and finds himself in Morpeth Gaol facing charges of High Treason.

Determined to hold his tongue and his nerve, Mohll finds himself at the mercy of the corrupt keeper, Robert Tipstaff. The keeper fancies he can persuade the truth out of Mohll and make him face the ultimate justice: hanging, drawing and quartering. But in this tangled web of secrets and lies, just who is telling the truth?

About the author:

Helen Steadman lives in the foothills of the North Pennines, and she particularly enjoys researching and writing about the history of the north east of England. Following her MA in creative writing at Manchester Met, Helen is now completing a PhD in English at the University of Aberdeen to determine whether a writer can use psycho-physical techniques to create authentic fictional characters.   

Visit Helen's website: helensteadman.com

Follow Helen on Twitter: @hsteadman1650 and Instagram: @helensteadman1650

Preorder link:

Amazon UK 

BLOG TOUR: The Choice - Alex Lake

A kidnap…

Matt Westbrook only turned his back for a moment. But when he looks around, his car – with his three young children inside – has vanished.

A ransom…

Panicked, Matt assumes a car thief has got more than he bargained for, but then he starts to receive text messages: This is a kidnap. If you want to see your children again, you will exchange them for your wife.

A choice…

Matt and his wife Annabelle are horrified. They can’t involve the police, or their children will be killed. Which means they have to choose: Annabelle, or their children. Either option is unthinkable. But one is inevitable. And they have only hours to make their decision… 

What did I think?

It is every parent's worst nightmare to have their child go missing, but the anguish is tripled when Matt loses all three of his children.  What a plonker!  He thought they'd be fine left in the car for a few minutes when he popped into the shop but when he returns his car and his children are gone.  What a fantastic start to The Choice.  It starts at breakneck speed and doesn't let up; I certainly couldn't read it fast enough.

When Matt gets text messages from the kidnapper, not only do you think it's somebody he knows (how else would they have his mobile number?) but it's someone who doesn't want money in exchange for the kids, they want Matt's wife Annabelle.  Through flashbacks to the past, the most likely suspects are set out before us and by some miracle I actually guessed the right person.  I'm not saying it's obvious by any means; it really was pure luck as something innocuous jumped out at me and tingled my spidey-sense.  

This isn't so much a 'what would you do in the same situation' kind of book as I'm sure any mother wouldn't think twice before swapping herself for her children.  What it did though, is make you think back over your own past and think of situations you might have been in where other people seemed innocent but they could easily have been hiding an ulterior motive.  Scary thoughts indeed.

Taut, tense and suspenseful, The Choice is an excellent psychological thriller.  The pacing is fast and the hunt for the kidnapper is relentless making it a gripping and riveting read.  I really enjoyed it and I'm now bumping my other Alex Lake books up my reading queue.

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

My rating:

Buy it from Amazon

About the author:

Alex Lake is a British novelist who was born in the North West of England. After Anna, the author’s first novel written under this pseudonym, was a No.1 bestselling ebook sensation and a top-ten Sunday Times bestseller. The author now lives in the North East of the US.

Follow the tour: