What I read in September

This post contains affiliate links. Books were received as advanced review copies via NetGalley

The night are drawing in, the leaves are turning brown and with life still feeling incredibly surreal at times, I have fully embraced the snuggling up under a blanket with my kindle and read a fair few books this month, despite juggling working and a home schooling child again (yes really!)

Here are some of the books that have been released this month and my reviews!

The Baby Group by Caroline Corcoran 

At the start of The Baby Group we are introduced to Scarlett, a 35 year old new Mum who is rapidly approaching the end of her 12 months of maternity leave and is shortly due to return to her day job in Marketing. During her maternity leave Scarlett set up a blog called Cheshire Mama, which whilst successful, hasn’t yet been monetised. As much as she’d love to stay at home longer with her daughter, she can’t afford to.

Thankfully, she has the support of her NCT group through all of the emotions of leaving her baby in childcare. 4 strangers bought together by the timing of their babies arrival. they quickly became close friends and support each other through all of life’s up and downs with a young baby.

But on her first day back in the office, her life gets turned upside down. She arrives to a frosty reception, with guarded hellos and avoiding eyes, only to be pulled into the office by her boss. Assuming she’s about to be made redundant, she gets an even bigger shock when she learns that a sex tape of her with two men, taken some years ago has been circulated on the internet. Not only that, it appears that literally every one she knows has seen it – all her colleagues, her sister, her DAD! She is mortified, and through humiliation decides to leave the job she loves.

The only people who weren’t made of the sex tape are her new NCT friends, presumably because they are only a recent addition in her life.

From this point onwards, the narrative of the book switches between Scarlett and Anon (the person who shared the video), and slowly but surely the detail of who shared the sex tape and why are pieced together, with lots of twists, turns and unexpected revelations along the way. Scarlett hires a lawyer to assist her, but this opens more questions about her relationships – both with her husband and the people she thought were her friends.

This was a very different ‘thriller’ to the kind I am used to, and for me personally, lacked a bit of the fast pace and ‘darkness’ that I was hoping for. The emotions, feelings and experiences side is explained in detail throughout, and I did at times find myself skim reading a little willing it to hurry up a bit, I like rapid twists and turns, and for me, this was a bit of slow burner.

The second half of the book did however capture my attention much more, and I found the last few chapters with some unexpected twists at the end to be a great conclusion.

Overall, The Baby Group was an enjoyable read, but perhaps with a little less grit than my usual.

Rating 3 out of 5

The Child Behind The Wall by Steve Parker

First up, I have to admit I didn’t realise at the point of requesting that this was Book 6 in a series, so my first ever experience of the main characters – detectives Ray Patterson and Johnny Clocks. I don’t think it is necessary to have read the others (it works well as a stand alone), however presumably you would have a bit more back story and awareness of the characters and their traits had you read the others.

The Child Behind the Wall starts with a bang – the scene of a suspected burglary; but what the two officers find inside the house defies any of their expectations. A man lays dead on the floor, a knife in his back. and a small woman stands over his body, wearing his face as a mask. She is highly volatile and distressed, lashes out, killing one supporting officer and seriously injuring another. She claims to hear singing, and says that the childmaker is coming.

What follows is a truly grizzly discovery, in that this house holds some fairly horrific discoveries as well as a room behind a hidden wall in the basement. The plot of this crime is NOT for the faint hearted, so if you’re of a nervous disposition, you may want to give this one a miss. It’s really quite shocking in some of the narrative.

Patterson and Clocks find themselves thrown into a race against time to find the childmaker; especially when he starts making threatening phone calls to the station towards Patterson himself.

There will be no spoilers here, but the crime investigation is fast paced, action filled and has lots of twists and turns and I found myself willed to keep on reading and learn what happened next. I will be honest in that I felt at times like the crime didn’t need to be quite as brutal as it was. It. makes hard reading in parts, and I felt that even without it being quite so extreme the book would have worked just as well.

The characters have a great friendship and a hell of a lot of banter, but if you are a feminist, the way they speak towards women and the use of words like ‘love’ may start to grate after a while. There is lots of masculine bravado and jostling for authority and I did find myself laughing at some of the cockney dialect throughout.

Overall I enjoyed my first experience of Steve Parker, a well written crime / thriller with a back story and fab ending – however a bit too extreme for me and for that reason I’d struggle to recommend it to friends.

Overall Rating – 3 out of 5

The Neighbours by Hannah Mary McKinnon

At the start of The Neighbours we meet Abby, who is in her 20s and has been dealt a bad hand. Her Dad walked out on their family and her boyfriend just dumped her on New Years Eve. Then she meets Liam, and her world is turned up side down. They are young and in love and life seems pretty perfect.

Then one night after a night on the town with her brother, she is involved in a car accident that kills her brother. She blames herself – she had been drinking, and vows that she doesn’t deserve to be happy ever again, walking away from the man she loved most in the world.

Fast forward 20 years and she’s in a relationship with Nate, the man who was first on the scene of the car accident and who has doted upon her ever since. They are happily married with a teenage daughter and when new neighbours move in next-door, Nate is hopeful that they can be good friends,

However in an ironic twist of fate, the man that moves in next-door with his family is none other than Liam – Abby’s first true love from all those years ago. The physical attraction and pull to each other is as strong as ever; but they try their hardest to stay away from each other; to protect their new partners and children from the secrets of their past.

The story is told through multiple points of view – that of Abby, her husband Nate and their teenage daughter Sarah, and flicks between two different points of time – THEN and NOW. As the story develops, we learn more and more about the history between Abby and Liam and undercover even more secrets and lies.

I guessed part of the storyline fairly early on (the hints were fairly strong) however this lulled me into a false sense of security. So certain was I that this book had a predictable ending that the other twists and the final chapters in particular completely took me off guard and caught me totally by surprise! A definite ‘woah” moment with some real shocks and gasp moments towards the end.

The Neighbours was fast paced and dramatic, full of twists and turns and I read it from cover to cover in less than 24 hours. I always judge a book by how often I find myself thinking about it once its over, and I thought about The Neighbours a lot – wondering what might have happened if things had turned out differently.

With underlying themes of trust, love, lust and betrayal, this book is very hard to put down. I will definitely be seeking out more books from Hannah Mary McKinnon.

Overall Rating – 4 out of 5

What are Friends For? by Lizzie O’Hagen

Ahh what can I say about this book – I absolutely loved it. My previous read had been a fairly dark crime / thriller and as such, I was desperate for something a little more light hearted and romantic – a classic chick lit if you will – and What Are Friends For was just the ticket! I found myself smiling and laughing all the way through. If you are a fan of Sophie Kinsella’s books such as Can You Keep a Secret you’ll love this.

What Are Friends For? tells the story of Becky and Tom – both serial daters who have been swiping right for months, going on lots of dates, but ultimately always ending up with someone who isn’t right for them. Queue lots of awkward hangovers and mornings after the night before. It is starting to look like they’ll never meet ‘the one’ – that is until their friends step in to help.

Becky’s best mate Eve helps Becky update her online profile to try and attract someone who would be perfect for her, but little does she realise she is actually describing herself. Meanwhile in Tom’s flat, his best mate Max is doing exactly the same, tweaking Tom’s profile with elements of his own personality.

Two two end up matched and agree to go on a date; but in order to keep some of the pretence from the profiles alive, the best friends Max and Eve end up messaging through the app, pretending to be their friends. Little do they realise that as this communication builds, they start to develop feelings of their own – for what they think is their best friends date!

You can of course see where this is going right from the outset; so whilst the plot is of course very predictable, there are also lots of sub plots and details to this story including Eve’s relationship with her Dad, her career challenges and Max’s guilt over the loss of his grandma, and his compensating relationship with an elderly Alzheimers sufferer Peggy.

Watching the story unfold is really enjoyable, and I did really laugh when some of the facades started to slip.

The ending is just perfect and I could so see this book being made into a movie – definitely one I would watch with a blanket and a tub of Ben and Jerrys after a rubbish day.

If you like a bit of happy escapism, romance and a chilled out Sunday read this is the ideal choice!

Overall Rating 5 out of 5! 

With October starting wet and windy, I have a feeling there will be lots more books to come in October!

What are you reading at the moment?