Welcome Back!

Again it has been a good couple of years since we have been on this page. Neglect of its worst kind. Books have not been neglected and more than a couple have been devoured in our absence.

Excuses for the absence? None can be given. Just seemed to fade into the background whilst at work and then keeping our noses in whatever books takes our fancy.

Finally gained access back in, after forgetting our password and thinking we had lost everything. But we are back and hopefully be more of a presence on here and Instagram and not favoring one above the other.

So, back to the regular scheduling…hope you enjoy 🙂

My Best Friends Exorcism

This is an amazing book, thought I’d get that in there right from the start.

Whilst I sit in my back garden, thinking over the books that I have read this year, one sticks out the most. Not for anything in particular than I just really enjoyed it. There’s nothing in there that I connect with, nothing I have been through myself but it drew me in from the first few chapters.

The 80’s song titles used as chapter headings resulted in me making a playlist to listen to as I read and then promptly turned off as I can’t read and listen to songs that have lyrics (weird I know).

It’s a story about a group of friends, who are unlike each other in every way, Gretchen, Abby, Glee and another character whom I can not remember the name for (yes, I will hang my head in shame, or edit it in when I find my copy and you will never know) who try Acid (drugs are bad mmmkay?!) and it ends up with Gretchen disappearing and returning the next morning in a state of confusion. As Abby soon comes to realise is that there is something wrong with Gretchen, something seriously wrong.

The book really does launch you into the challenging times that Abby goes through battling the demon that is within Gretchen, her other friends, the school she attends and even adults. You will really feel for all characters in this book, even the one I can’t remember her name (although to be honest I wouldn’t have seen me feeling that way about her, but I did).

There is so much I could say about parts of this book, but they are serious spoilers. I wouldn’t want to ruin the book for anyone. It is my #1 book of 2019 and recommend it to the highest level and you need to go out and read this book. I very VERY rarely recommend any book I read, cant really say why exactly. I can count on 1 hand how many I recommend and I will, maybe, make a blog post about them one day an you never know I might have added one or two more to it.

The Breakfast Club meets The Exorcism – My Best Friends Exorcism

~Groot~

Follow the White Rabbit….

Review contains spoilers: if you have not read the book, go no further!

I have never had such an emotional attachment to a book as I have with Christina Henrys’ – Alice.

For those of you who are triggered, this book is not for you. This book talks of rape culture, girls being bought and sold, slavery, murder and mental illness.

This book is emotional, dark and disturbing.

Alice isn’t the Alice we remember as children. Falling asleep under a tree then waking up and following a white rabbit down the rabbit hole and ending up in Wonderland. The magical thrilling Wonderland we all wished we could wake up in. With singing flowers, caterpillars teaching you lessons. Tea party with the Mad Hatter and singing mice.
No this wonderland isn’t Wonderland at all! It begins with Alice in an asylum. Being locked up in a cell and force fed tablets. Where she cannot remember who she is or why she has been placed there. She makes a friend who she talks through the walls too, known as Hatch. Who she considers mad and is connected to the Jabberwocky. He feels him growing stronger and his madness and nightmares allow the Jabberwocky to gain strength.
Alice was born into the New City, where she lived a good life. But now has to fight next to Hatch to be able to survive the Old City after escaping the asylum, during a fire. As the story goes along she meets Chesire, the Caterpillar and the Walrus. Who all know who Alice is, yet taunt her with their knowledge of her and the White Rabbit.
Why is Alice so special to the Rabbit and what does the scar mean? Slowly her memories come back and she remembers being sold, beaten and raped. But facing the White Rabbit will give her what she needs to beat the Jabberwocky.
Hatcher has his own demons. His own past with the Rabbit and the Walrus. He also must battle with the past to remember who he is and keep sane enough to protect not only himself but also keep Alice from being ‘bought’.
Disguised as a boy Alice aka Alex and Hatch travel the Old City, encountering many dangers around every turn, while trying to find themselves, their enemies and who Hatches daughter as been sold too.

I thoroughly enjoyed the story. Falling down this rabbit hole will keep you gripped. I felt for Alice and all the girls and what they went through. You just want to jump right in and save them all from their captors and stop the torture.

Beware the claws that catch

Alice by Christina Henry

Hello Darkness, My Old Friend…

Even though most of us bookworms, we have more than one book on the go at any one time. This book has been uncompleted on my Currently Reading since November 2017. That’s right folks, 1yr 5months and picking it up today I am 57% of the way through the 1166 pages. What book has taken you so long to get just over half way, I hear you ask? Well…

Stephen King’s IT, my nemesis, the rock of a book that has plagued me for half of my lifetime. My mother first gave me this book to read when I was 15 and I have tried to read it so many times and not gotten very far each time. It’s an intimidating book of sorts and at the grand old age of 31 I have picked it up off the shelf and dusted it off and decided that I might just finish this beast by the end of this year. The only thing I am not looking forward to was the way it changed my mood as it did the last time I picked it up.

I have an natural ability to remember what has happened in a book that I have not completed no matter how long it has been. I have, in the past, picked up a book that I DNF 2yrs previous and as soon as I read one line I remember what had happened up to the point that I put it down. This one however I have had some difficulty with. Bit by bit it has slowly come back to me, as I remember what parts I have read but not in order of the book, which is quite strange and is throwing me off my reading game.

Challenge to myself: FINISH THIS DAMN BOOK BEFORE I’M 33!

Do you guys have any books that has given you as much grief as this one has me?

Do I Have A Problem?

Do I have a problem? To walk into a library knowing full well that I have a book in my bag that I am a quarter of the way through plus another 3 on my TBR list for this month but continue to look and then walk out with 3 other books. Also to start reading the Introduction to one on the taxi ride home.

I have no idea if I will read and complete these but I just knew that I could not walk out without them. The offending items are:

Beren and Luithien by J.R.R. Tolkien
Classic Ghost Stories by David Pickering
Classic Ghost Stories Vol 2 by David Pickering

Apart from The Hobbit and Lord of The Rings I have not read anything else by J.R.R. Tolkien and this, I’m still wondering what it is, jumped off the shelf at me. This is what I started to read in the taxi on the way home and the language is still a slight challenge.

Who doesn’t like a good horror story right? And having a collection of 40 will keep this book worm busy for a little while. There is one I can not wait to get to, that is ‘The Signa-Man by Charles Dickens. I loved that one as a kid and remember listening to it whilst lying in bed at night. Maybe one of the 1st stories that sparked my love for Ghost Stories.

Do you have the same problem as me? No matter where I am if there are books I will walk out with one under my arm.

Groot.

Another Book, Another Story

I have taken the longest time to write a post about this book. It also was a book that it took me a long time to read, and for no particular reason other than I just wasn’t into reading .

The book in question was HEX by Thomas Olde Heuvelt. A tale about a village plagued by a witch, Katherine. The book itself was originally written in Dutch and translated into English so it could be published in the US, UK and other regions.

The story was as funny as it was a little creepy. The witch would show up in peoples houses, around the town. The town developed a mobile phone app that the residents could check in where Katherine was at any one time. With her eyes and mouth sewn shut by the townsfolk of long ago she casts a creepy image in the head of the reader but then uttering a giggle as she is mocked by a towel being strewn over her head so that she wouldn’t be staring blindly at the family while they sit and eat dinner. It does have the vibe of The Blair Witch Project meets The Village.

Given how long it took me to read this book I did actually enjoy it. Giggling at some parts, gasping at others and many ‘What the f**k are you doing?’. The main plot follows a group of kids who believe that they are not lost to the hold that Black Springs, the village that you can never leave, hence The Village reference. Things go too far which doesn’t bode well for the town and everyone in it.

Again, just like Frozen Charlotte, I highly recommend it. It’s a book that will have you wanting to know what is gong to happen next on a massive scale. If you’ve read it let me know what you thought and if you haven’t…GO READ IT!!!!!

Groot.

Frozen Charlotte

“When her best friend dies under mysterious circumstances, Sophie sets off to stay with her cousins on the remote Isle of Skye. It’s been years since she last saw them–brooding Cameron with his scarred hand; Piper, who seems too perfect to be real; and peculiar little Lilias with her fear of bones.”

Well this is was an easy read for me, from the Introduction I was hooked and as I sat on the chair in Waterstones waiting on the other half to pick her books I decided that I was not leaving without that book. With that the deal was struck and I carried that book in my bag and it shared my attention with HEX by Thomas Olde Heuvelt.

Given that this book location was somewhere that I knew that I could travel to if I so chose to, so far that I had to have a quick Google search to see a physical if the image conjured in my head matched up. Dunvegan, a village on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. It is as beautiful in my mind as it is in life. It made the story that much more realistic when reading it. Reading about storms, winds and such the like I could see them in my mind and found it in the images of a Google image search.

Frozen Charlotte Dolls, Ghosts, Weird acting cousins in an isolated house in the middle of nowhere…Hmm what else it is there to want from a book. Even as someone who has a disliking to dolls in the 1st instance. I did have more than one occasion where I thought I felt the touch of little hands coming from my mattress. The littlest of sounds sounded as if, again, little hands scratching at glass. So yeah to say that I enjoyed this book might be a understatement.

This review is vague as I find myself ruining plots, twists and turns if I start writing and I would like others to read the book and not feel like it was spoilt. I could put up a *SPOILER* disclaimer but then I would be afraid that no one will read a book post I put up. Pick up a copy and read for yourselves. You won’t be disappointed.

Groot.

Long Time, No Write

Well, I don’t exactly know how long it has been since either me or Harley has written in our blog. To be honest we can’t give any reason for this large gap in posting. Neither of us has been without a laptop or internet connections, it’s just seemed that the writing had all dried up and we were concentrating more on our Facebook and Instagram pages and completely abusing this platform. We are going to be trying harder not to let that happen and for our content to be regular so we are more active for those who have followed us.

So I will leave this one here and then get onto another 2 entries about the 2 books I have finished this week.

Until next time…

 

Groot

The Book Unfinished

I am sat after finishing my current read ‘The Butterfly Tattoo by Philip Pullman’ updating and looking through my Goodreads since my kindle decided that after being faithful and full of life, that at the most pivotal moment. It was going to die!

But not the kind of death that would require me to order another. The kind that would require me to plug in my charger and leave it on the side for what seemed a lifetime.

So while I’m entering that I have finished my current read, I notice, I have left New Moon unfinished.

The HORROR!!

BUT, but how!? How is it possible that the second book of The Twilight Saga that I realised I had been enjoying far more than the first time I opened its pages, lay there awaiting me to caress it’s pages and soothe it’s spine, digitally of course (hey I was reading it on the kindle ok). I can’t begin to fathom. I, I swear that I had finished! Or had I? Mmmmmm….We have hit a blank, a conundrum even. I would’ve updated my Goodreads had I finished. But then in comes my better half, handing me my kindle. I look and THERE! New Moon 100% completed.

I’ve drawn a blank, I can’t even remember finishing it. I go to the contents section of the book and yes! I remember! Of course I completed the book about a month ago. Sat in this very spot. I’m just overly confused how I could have forgotten that I had.

But it happens. Nothing to get emotional about, I just simply had other things on my mind and forgot to update my reading challenge. It is done now and onto…

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson.

I shall see you there

×Harley×

Edward Cullen: Leaving you was the hardest thing I’ve done in 100 years. I swear, I will never fail you again.

Haunted Locations – Glamis Castle

In the Deepest winter, icy winds blow across the rooftops and howl through the courtyards of Glamis Castle. Crows gather here on dry winter days, and at night a barn owl shrieks in the distance. Dating back to the 14th century, the castle is the historic seat of the Bowes-Lyon family, the ancestral line of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. Numerous ghosts are rumoured to wander through its rooms and grounds.

It is said that spectres tiptoe behind the visitors with the kindest hearts in the hope of warming their own chilly souls. The Grey Lady, considered to be the spirit of Lady Douglas (burned at the steak for witchcraft), has been seen in the chapel and above the clock tower. ever searching for her son, she runs like a burning shroud up the stone staircase, then disappears, leaving a trail of ash.

A woman with no tongue is reputed to run through the parkland, pointing at her mutilated face in horror, while a young boy, the ghost of a black servant who was badly treated in the 18th century, haunts a stone seat by the door of the queen’s bedroom.

One of the most notorious ghosts is Earl Beardie, the Earl of Crawford, once a castle guest. After a heavy drinking session, he returned to his room in a drunken rage, demanding that someone play him at cards. If not, he said, he would play the devil himself. Then a man, hooded and dressed in black, knocked on the castle door and offered to play with Beardie. Allegedly, a nosy servant peeping through the keyhole of the door were the game took place was blinded in one eye by a bright light, and the next morning Earl Beardie had disappeared. It is said that his ghost still lurks in a secret room, and reports of swearing, loud voices, the rattle of dice, and clinking glasses are evidence of his pact with the devil for eternity.

Taken from “SUPERNATURAL written by SARAH BARTLETT