My Secret Lies With You by Faye Bird

“Three close friends…Two unforgettable summers… One girl’s deepest secret…

Alys appeared last summer, and then she vanished without a trace. Ifan fell in love with her. Hannah hated her. And Marko regrets what they did. This summer Cait is new in town, and a girl has been reported missing. Cait needs to uncover the truth. What happened last summer? And who is Alys?”

 

It’s a typical young adult mystery as so many are these days, but the mystery isn’t that deep. A young girl appears and changes the lives of three people forever. Cait is drawn into that intrigue the summer after and while the ending is sad, and yes, I cried, I wanted Alys to be happy and find a way to make things work because so much can go wrong with the life she’s chosen. And even though the end was somewhat resolved, there were other things that needed resolving and I don’t like it when books, like TV shows, end without the satisfaction of being neatly wrapped up in a bow.

I give it 7/10.

 

 

The Secret Orphan by Glynis Peters.

“Keep her secret. Keep her safe.

On the 14th November 1940, Hitler’s bombs rain down on Coventry. From the rubble of a bombed-out family home, a young girl is saved…

As the Nazis’ relentless bombs fall during the Blitz of Coventry, six-year-old Rose Sherbourne finds herself orphaned and under the guardianship of a Cornish farmer’s daughter, Elenor Cardew. Elenor knows that the only way to protect spirited Rose is to leave the city and make a new life for themselves away from harm. But soon Elenor discovers that Hitler’s firestorm is not the only thing she must fear when she learns a devastating secret about Rose…

With Rose’s life in imminent danger, Elenor turns to the only person she can trust to keep the deadly secret, heroic Canadian pilot, Jackson St John. And amidst the destruction of war, an unlikely romance blossoms as they find a way to protect the child they have both grown to love…and each other.”

 

Be prepared to go through a box of tissues.

I cried from the first few pages until the end, and I think that’s mainly because it’s a story involving a poor little girl losing her parents, orphans in particular get me, but it’s also about the war and how many lost their lives senselessly and how much needed to be rebuilt. And while this one ended in happier times, it ended without wrapping things up.

Without giving too much away, by the end of the book you learn nothing about what happens to the rest of the ensemble, even though you’ve read about them for most of the book. It’s all well and good for the story to end well for the orphan, but I would’ve liked to’ve known what happened to everyone else. Would’ve liked Titch to get her comeuppance, and wanted to know how Elenor and Jack went after moving to Canada and whether they had any more children. It needed to be filled out with details and finished off properly as each person’s story is left open-ended and you have to fill in the blanks and guess what happens.

The story itself has minor issues, and you need to have a good grasp of who’s who and what’s going on. One thing this book did was made me never want to read another orphan book again. Too damn sad.

I give it 7/10.

 

I finally managed to read the second Karen M. McManus book, Two Can Keep A Secret. Her sophomore book and follow up to One of Us is Lying, it’s just as exciting as the first.

Just as with the first, this book makes me want to buy it, it was enthralling and kept my attention all the way through, and you should be able to guess the twist at the end.

“Echo Ridge is small-town America. Ellery’s never been there, but she’s heard all about it. Her aunt went missing there at age seventeen. And only five years ago, a homecoming queen put the town on the map when she was killed. Now Ellery has to move there to live with a grandmother she barely knows. The town is picture-perfect, but it’s hiding secrets. And before school even begins for Ellery, someone has declared open season on homecoming, promising to make it as dangerous as it was five years ago. Then, almost as if to prove it, another girl goes missing. Ellery knows all about secrets. Her mother has them; her grandmother does too. And the longer she’s in Echo Ridge, the clearer it becomes that everyone there is hiding something. The thing is, secrets are dangerous–and most people aren’t good at keeping them. Which is why in Echo Ridge, it’s safest to keep your secrets to yourself. “

It gave me a Veronica Mars vibe, especially the first season when her best friend died and she was trying to find out the big secret. Which she did. That secret is this secret and well done for a young adult book. I definitely recommend both books by Karen.

I highly recommend this one too. 9/10

 

And, to add to the hysteria, a sequel to her first book, One Of Us Is Lying, is coming in Jan 2020.

The highly anticipated sequel to the New York Times bestselling thriller everyone is talking about, One of Us Is Lying! There’s a new mystery to solve at Bayview High, and there’s a whole new set of rules. Come on, Bayview, you know you’ve missed this.

“A ton of copycat gossip apps have popped up since Simon died, but in the year since the Bayview four were cleared of his shocking death, no one’s been able to fill the gossip void quite like he could. The problem is no one has the facts. Until now. This time it’s not an app, though–it’s a game. Truth or Dare. Phoebe’s the first target. If you choose not to play, it’s a truth. And hers is dark. Then comes Maeve and she should know better–always choose the dare. But by the time Knox is about to be tagged, things have gotten dangerous. The dares have become deadly, and if Maeve learned anything from Bronwyn last year, it’s that they can’t count on the police for help. Or protection. Simon’s gone, but someone’s determined to keep his legacy at Bayview High alive. And this time, there’s a whole new set of rules.”

Cannot wait.

 

 

I’ve also read The Half Sister by Catherine Chanter.

“When she was sixteen, Diana left her unhappy family and set out to make a new life. Twenty-five years later, she has arrived. Recently married to Edmund, she lives with him at his family’s historic country home.

But when Diana hears that her mother has died, she impulsively asks estranged half-sister Valerie and her nine-year-old son to stay. The night of the funeral, fueled by wine and years of resentment, the sisters argue and a terrible accident occurs. The foundations of a well-ordered life start to crack and the lies begin to surface, one dangerous secret after another. And then there’s the boy, watching, waiting.

The Half Sister is a profound and haunting portrayal of those who are imprisoned by their past and by the struggle to find the words which will release them.”

I read the large print version, because that’s the one I found at the library, and it was disjointed. The way it was written, a character would be having a thought and then hearing what another character was saying without anything actually being said. “Blah, blah, blah, I thought, and heard so and so say blah, blah and blah.” Confusing at times, I couldn’t keep up with who was actually thinking or talking and at the end; I just wanted to smack multiple characters.

There was also an error not picked up by the pub house before printing but it’s not a major issue.

I got through it, found the ending unfinished, and wished the story had’ve been filled out to bring the story to a close.

I don’t recommend it, but if you like the premise, go ahead. 5/10

 

It’s been four years since Jackie died.

Four years since I became determined to publish the Porn Star Brothers story that was thumping around in my head because of her.

And because of her, I wouldn’t have the stories I have today. So my gratitude goes to you, Jackie, on this fourth anniversary. And, as always, my series is dedicated to you.

 

 

Staying strong is sometimes hard to do, despite being kicked in the ass.

 

I don’t collect a lot of Jackie books these days. I bought so many in 2016 that I had most of what I was after. And with the rising conversion rates, it’s harder to buy from overseas. But I was determined, and still am, to finish off the collection.

I know I’m after paperbacks from the UK and US, plus first editions of the early books, such as The World is Full of Married Men, The World is Full of Divorced Women, The Bitch, The Stud, etc. And I do have several more to update to better versions. The state of some dust jackets are horrendous.

One of this years finds, for a price of $65.86US, was the first edition of The Stud from The World Publishing Company that first released it in the U.S.

It also has an awesome cover!

 

And I think, hopefully, this black cover version from the UK that I bought a couple of years ago is their first edition, so, that means I have both the UK and US hard covers of The Stud

 

I’ve also managed to update three books to their full 6.5×9.5 hardcovers. Vendetta, The Santangelos, and Confessions of a Wild Child. And found another Chances in better condition than the last one I bought. Thankfully, I received refunds on the first versions I bought as the state of the djs/sizes were wrongly described on the listings, so, money saved.

 

I also managed to score these UK hard cover editions of Married Men and Divorced Women.

 

I plan on buying as many as I can to fulfil the collection, but some seem to be few and far between. In fact, I don’t even know if some exist. It would be nice to have a picture database of UK and US covers so we cam see them and then try and find them.

Oh well, I’ll keep on dreaming!

 

Hopefully, he’s not related to Charles Manson, but then, I wouldn’t be surprised.

Mark was here in the country last month, giving a talk about not giving a fuck. Which is great, since I don’t in general. However, I thought I’d give the book a go to see what it was really about. I’d popped over to his website a couple of months ago and had a quick look, but didn’t stay.

So, let’s not give a fuck about this book…

It’s full of self-important shit.

He tells a lot of stories, and yes, it sucks that his friend killed himself, but in reality, the stories about Mark are of no importance to anyone BUT Mark. We all have our own, and yours are not money inducing, nor best-selling.

The book doesn’t help you in any way, shape or form, it’s just about him, or some stories of other people. It’s definitely not self-help, so don’t bother there. And if you can’t handle the word fuck, A LOT, then again, don’t bother. It’s everywhere.

What this is, is a whole book about one man claiming to not give a fuck when he actually does, he just doesn’t realise it, or maybe he does and just doesn’t give a fuck. It’s all about him, which, I guess was the publishing house’s point, but there is nothing to be learned or gained from the self-centred all important ramblings of a Gen Y who thinks his own shit don’t stink (Aussie saying).

As far as I know, he holds no degrees, certificates, licences in any kind of psychiatry, psychology, mental health areas etc, yet, here he is, spouting his typical narcissistic Gen Y bullshit that shows, in reality, how incompetent some Gen Ys really are.

He was, and possibly still is, incompetent at getting his shit together, and so, felt the need to possibly watch a lot of Oprah, or read a lot of books, and then spout everything he’d read that we’d all read and watched and heard thirty years ago and learned then to not give a fuck.

That’s what Gen Ys seem to be doing these days. They’re stealing good shit from experts, pretending to be experts themselves, and in actuality, that shit was seen thirty years ago on Oprah when you pissants were still shitting in your diapers, tucking your high school uniforms into your knickers, or pulling the wedgies out of your arse.

Gen Ys are so dead set on believing they come up with this shit, when they just come across as half-baked try-hards who think they can espouse top notch advice like a ten-degree-wielding expert.

You can’t, and that’s all there is to it.

God help the fact people think this dude is akin to Buddha, or the Dalai Lama, because he fuckin’ ain’t.

As for the second book, Everything Is Fucked…I’d say at least 2/3 was stories from everyone and everywhere else, not much from him except for him espousing his usual self-indulgent bullshit. Oh, and I didn’t think you gave a fuck, so why write a book about hope…

God knows how this guy was published, but then trad pub houses only want to make money, and if you have hundreds of thousands, if not millions of followers or likes, then they’re heading in your direction. You’re nothing but a cash cow to them, and when the well runs dry, like so many other authors, Mark will fade into obscurity because the only time he wrote books was when a trad pub house paid him to and he STILL owns nothing of his own books. Signed a deal and got screwed over for the long run. Bet he’ll give a fuck then…

But then, it’s not like I need to give a fuck, now, is it.