Hannah's book blog. This is my place where I share my favourite reads and chat about books.
Author: Hannah
Hi I am Hannah and I am a book blogger, I like to read most genres apart from sci-fi and dystopian novels. I post my reviews on Amazon, Goodreads and twitter where I can be found @bookbloghannah
I currently am reading and reviewing for Avon, Harper Collins and Lovereading aswell as being part of a few blog tours for various publishers.
If you would like me to read and review your book or you are a publisher, please don't hesitate to contact me on echoesinanemptyroom@yahoo.co.uk. I look forward to hearing from you.
I am currently only reading print copies.
Happy reading
t is an ordinary Thursday and things should finally be returning to normal.
Except trouble is never far away where the Thursday Murder Club are concerned. A decade-old cold case leads them to a local news legend and a murder with no body and no answers.
Then a new foe pays Elizabeth a visit. Her mission? Kill…or be killed.
As the cold case turns white hot, Elizabeth wrestles with her conscience (and a gun), while Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim chase down clues with help from old friends and new. But can the gang solve the mystery and save Elizabeth before the murderer strikes again?
My Thoughts:
This is the third book in the Thursday Murder Club Series and even though you can read them as standalone, I would recommend reading them in order. We catch up with the members of the Thursday Murder Club and I was excited to see what case they were going to solve this time. This time it is a very very old case that was a murder but with no body and the trail went cold very quickly. Can they work out what happened all those years ago? I like how we see the perspective for each of the members of the group, the main characters are well written and you just feel as though you want to make friends with them, they seem such a lovely bunch. Richard has done a superb job of putting in some very smart twists that literally blew my mind. I was expecting one thing and got another which was a lot better than I could ever of imagined. It was such a good easy read, though I did prefer book two more. It is a great little series to get your teeth into and I would definitely recommend.
Last weekend I decided to venture to Hemel Hempstead to a Book Warehouse and I wanted to share my experiences of my time there. So 66 Book Club is a place which is open to the public once a month, it is a huge warehouse that stocks over 15,000 titles and is 70% off all books. If your buying for a school it is 80% off ( you need to let them know this). Also you need to pay £2 for membership but that gets you the discount and that includes your household. You can only buy membership at one of the weekends, the book club is closed during other times. Opening times are 9am – 6 pm, I wouldn’t advise going after 5pm because you will need time to peruse and look at the vast selection of books.
I have posted the dates that they are open each month, please don’t turn up on any other day and you will not be able to enter. Check the website for any other information.
So, my experience of the place, we got there at dead on 9am and there was a queue already to get in, they do have a car park and we did get the last spot thankfully. Before I forget the do have toilets as I needed to go whilst waiting in said queue, it is through the black door on your right. They are plenty of staff members who will show you where they are. There is a staff member that keeps a check on the queue and anything else you may need. We waited in the queue for an hour, which I don’t think was too bad, I was expecting a shorter queue to be honest but it was not too bad. They were letting 180 people in at a time and everyone seemed to be fine with it. When you get in, we were met by a friendly staff member who told us to take a basket. When you walk up the stairs, I was like yes this is my kind of place, some people can feel overwhelmed with the sheer size of the place, it is a warehouse and spans over two floors and it is packed. It was like a dream come true. The aisles are quite narrow but it was easy to look, I had the idea of just scanning the shelves for authors I wanted not particularly hovering for two long, everyone was really polite and I felt at ease. A little tip is look high and low as books at the top and bottom shelves always seem to get missed and they are usually the best ones. There is no real structure to the place, the books are just as you find them. So don’t expect it to be easy to find a specific book. The books are mainly older books, so none of the latest releases but there is a wide selection of genres. I also found that the majority of hardbacks, I did see paperbacks for them in other places. The basket I found tricky to manoeuvre as you have people coming from both ways and then you have this basket that just keeps getting in the way. But I made it work. It was also interesting for me to see what books other people were looking at or had in their baskets, Book people are just the best kind of people on the whole. We spent just over an hour and I picked up 7 books including one for my husband.
If you get to the queue to pay and suddenly realise you didn’t want a book, you have to go back and put it where you found it, as otherwise when the place closes the staff have to go around and put all the books back.
We waited in a 10 minute queue to pay and had to sign up to the membership where you just fill out a form and they give you a membership card for next time. The staff were all really friendly and helpful, my total came to £69.99 which made my heart drop until I realised she had not taken the 70% off. I paid £22.95 with the £2 membership included in the price. I think it was a really good price. When leaving the building at about 11 am, the queue was snaking it’s way outside of the warehouse carpark and into the road. It is a very popular place.
Would I go back?
Yes I would, probably not every month but I am already planning to go back next year. It overall is worth the trip and I would highly recommend going, especially as book prices are going up (as is everything in this world) and it is more affordable for people. It was a nice morning out. I didn’t expect it to be so popular but I can now see why as it is such a brilliant. The staff were all wonderful and do a sterling job, they run it really well and I cannot wait to go back.
If you require any other assistance have a look at their website which is listed above.
66 Books Ltd
Unit 2 Eastman Way,
Hemel Hempstead
HP2 7DU
With Next and the recycling centre on your left look out for the sign on your left. They are at the end of the cul-de-sac.
All Freya has ever wanted to do is paint. So when she fails her Master’s Degree in Art, on the same day that her boyfriend decides he needs a ‘more serious’ partner, to Freya it feels like the end of the world.
Luckily, she has a saviour in the shape of best friend Lola, who invites her to the sleepy Cornish village of Polcarrow, to work in her café. With nothing keeping her in London, Freya jumps at the chance of a summer by the sea.
Freya needs time to focus on herself. But then dark and mysterious biker Angelo blows into town on a stormy afternoon, with his own artistic dreams and a secretive past, and Freya’s plans of a romance-free summer fly straight out of the window…
My Thoughts:
I really enjoyed this story about Freya she has real life issues and the author has been sensitive towards them. Freya loves to paint but her luck is not in when she fails her Degree and then her boyfriend decides to end things with her. She does not know where to turn to until Lola her best friend decides that she needs help in her Cafe. The Cafe is in Polcarrow in Cornwall. Freya leaps at the chance to get away from it all. Then she meets Angelo. There is humour, romance, secrets all wrapped into this enjoyable and delightful read. I cannot wait to read more by Jennifer, she has a really lovely way with her words and her writing is fantastic.
I received an ARC copy of this book for an honest review.
Novelist J.B. Blackwood is on a cruise with her husband, Patrick, to celebrate their wedding anniversary. Her former professor, Patrick is much older than J.B.. But when they met, he seemed somehow ageless, as all new gods appear in the eyes of those who worship them. He is a film director. A cult figure. But now his success is starting to wane and J.B. is on the cusp of winning a major literary prize. Her art has been forever overseen by him, now it may overshadow his. For days they sail in the sun. They lie about drinking, reading, sleeping, having sex. There is nothing but dark water all around them. Then a storm hits and Patrick falls off the ship. J.B. is left alone, as the search for what happened to Patrick – and the truth about their marriage – begins.
My Thoughts:
This was a psychological mystery that is tense and full of dread about what is going to happen. Reading the first few chapters you get an idea about the story and back story but after that you will never have guessed what in the world is going on. When J. B and her husband go on a cruise, they have the first few days relaxing and having a good time but when a storm hits, something terrible happens to Patrick and J. B is left all alone but this is where J.B’s story begins and we follow her on her journey to discover who her husband really was. It was an ok read, it pulls you in but I felt as though it didn’t have me hooked, I wanted to find out what was going to happen but I didn’t feel invested in the story. It could of been so good.
I received an ARC copy of this book for an honest review.
No one survives war unscathed. But even in the darkest days, seeds of hope can grow.
It is 1946 and in the village of Oakbourne the men are home from the war. Their bodies are healing but their psychological wounds run deep. Everyone is scarred – those who fought and those left behind.
Alice Rayne is married to Stephen, heir to crumbling Oakbourne Hall. Once a sweet, gentle man, he has returned a bitter and angry stranger, destroyed by what he has seen and done, tormented by secrets Alice can only guess at.
Lonely and increasingly afraid of the man her husband has become, Alice must try to pick up the pieces of her marriage and save Oakbourne Hall from total collapse. She begins with the walled garden and, as it starts to bear fruit, she finds herself drawn into a new, forbidden love.
My Thoughts:
The cover of this book is stunning, and brings the story more to life. The book is set in 1946 and the men are home from the war. Alice’s husband Stephen is experiencing the side effects that the war has had on him. Alice doesn’t know to be around him and doesn’t like the man he is now. So to try and distract herself she goes and gets her herself stuck in with transforming the walled garden and she falls in love with the dramatic changes she can make if she sets her mind to it. I liked how the story flowed and it was interesting to learn a little bit more about PTSD and how it can affect one’s mind. It is heart breaking, tender and full of hope. I want to re-read this book multiple times and always remember it.
I received an ARC copy of this book for an honest review.
After losing her job and her boyfriend, Emily is devastated. As she is puzzling over what to do with the rest of her life, she is surprised to learn that her great aunt has died, leaving Emily her cottage in the picturesque Wiltshire village of Ashton Mead. But there is one condition to her inheritance: she finds herself the unwilling owner of a pet. Not knowing what to expect, Emily sets off for the village, hoping to make a new life for herself.
In Ashton Mead, she soon makes friends with Hannah who runs the Sunshine Tea Shoppe and meets other residents of the village where she decides to settle. All is going well… until Emily’s ex-boyfriend turns up and against the advice of her new friends, she takes him back. When Emily decides to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a neighbour, she unwittingly puts her own life in danger…
My Thoughts:
This is book one in the Poppy Mystery Tale and is about Emily who is having a bad time at the moment, she has lost two things that meant the world to her and doesn’t know how to move forward. She has some big decisions to make for her future. When she finds out her Great Aunt left her a cottage, she wonders if this is the way forward, Can she be happy ever again? It was lovely to meet some of the residents of Ashton Mead where Emily moves to, interesting bunch, I look forward to getting to know them more through out the series. It was a good and simple read and I can’t wait for book two.
I received an ARC copy of this book for an honest review.
On the lush green island of Corfu, Melodie’s new husband, Anton, is missing. With no clues to his whereabouts, Melodie and her step daughter Gaia are broken from the fear that they may never see him again. When Anton’s car is found by the side of the road, Gaia fixates on the idea that Melodie’s malicious half-sister is somehow involved.
Will Melodie ever find out what has happened to Anton, the love of her life? Can Melodie accept the final piece of her lost past when she is faced with so much confusion? Can she get back her life in Corfu, or will she have to give up on chasing dreams and return to England?
My Thoughts:
The cover of this book is absolutely stunning, I love all the purple and it made me feel like I am going to be whisked away somewhere hot and beautiful. The story is set in Corfu, somewhere where I have always wanted to go and now after reading this book I definitely need to go. Melodie’s husband is missing, but no one knows where he has gone, can Melodie track down her new husband before it is too late? I loved how relaxing and at ease I felt reading this book, the story is a slow burner but in a good way. This is book three in the Little Blue Door series, I have read it as a standlone but personally wished I had read the two books before to get more of a back story. I loved escaping with this book.
I received an ARC copy of this book for an honest review.
As a kid, Nina O’Brien spent all her summers at her grandparents’ cabin by the beach at Stepping Stone Bay. Long, sunny days full of fun and laughter with her best friends, Leo, Adrian, and Maeve, her friendship with Leo slowly blossoming into love. Until one fateful night changed everything for them all…
Twelve years later, Nina must return to the bay to renovate the old cabin and pass it on to a new owner. But not only does Leo still live in the cabin next door, he works at his family’s boathouse right there in the bay. As they begin to work through their differences and what happened all those years ago, can Nina really walk away from him twice?
Maeve has finally returned home to face the past. Her eleven-year-old son, Jonah, loves the sea, unlike Maeve who is terrified of it. But she knows she can’t keep Jonah away from the sea or the truth forever..
My Thoughts:
If you need a great feel good story then this is the one for you to get stuck into. It brought warmth and comfort to me reading it. After something terrible happens when spending a summer with her grandparents Nina is not looking forward to going back many years later, she has to confront the love of her life that she left behind so many years ago and how will that reunion be? also she is there to sort out her grandfather’s boathouse but she can’t think of anything worse than selling it. Can she change his mind before it is too late? We meet a few other characters in this book with real life situations. It was lovely to see how friends can still be friends after so many years apart. A great community to feel your heart with goodness. I got swept away into this book and I hope you do too.
I received an ARC copy of this book for an honest review.
Charlie Wynwood and Silas Nash have been best friends since they could walk. They’ve been in love since the age of fourteen. But as of this morning… they are complete strangers. Their first kiss, their first fight, the moment they fell in love… every memory has vanished.
Now Charlie and Silas must work together to uncover the truth about what happened to them and why. But the more they learn about the couple they used to be… the more they question why they were ever together to begin with.
Forgetting is terrifying, but remembering may be worse.
My Thoughts:
I thought this story sounded interesting, it is about Charlie and Silas who have been together since they were young. But one morning when they wake up they don’t know who each other is. Every memory has gone, but why and why them? We see them struggle to work out what is happening to them. But when doing this they find out stuff about themselves that they could never imagine. I found it hard to write a review for this book as I liked it but there were parts that confused me but once I had got to the end it all made more sense. I felt as though the story had not come to the best of endings, I felt as though things needed to be cleared up when they weren’t. I really have enjoyed most of Colleen’s books but this one I really did struggle with.
Her father, Sir Peter Lange, says she is a danger to herself and has been admitted to a private mental health clinic.
Her ex-husband, Finn, and best friend, Nell, say she has been kidnapped.
The media will say whichever gets them the most views.
But whose side are you on? #SaveMelanie #HelpPeter
My Thoughts:
This is such a clever idea of a book, I have never read anything like it before and it really intrigued me about what was going to happen. The story is told very cleverly through interviews, transcripts and diary entries also you get the perspective of everyone involved which I really liked too. As the reader you have to work out who’s side you are on Melanie’s or Peters. Each chapter peels of a different layer and we start to see the story unfold. It is a dark and fast paced thriller done really well . I loved it.
I received an ARC copy of this book for an honest review.
Echoes In An Empty Room 