📚’Very well-written’. @AlisonW_Editor Reviews #Thriller Hush Delilah by @AngieGallion for Rosie’s #BookReview Team #RBRT

Today’s team review is from Alison.

Alison blogs here https://alisonwilliamswriting.wordpress.com/

Rosie’s Book Review Team

Alison has been reading Hush Delilah by Angie Gallion

This is a very well-written book, gripping and intelligent, and, unfortunately, all too believable.

Delilah is portrayed very authentically, and, while it is quite frustrating to read the novel at times because of her reactions and inaction, it is very clear why she behaves as she does, and why she feels so trapped and powerless.

Chase is very accurate, the way he manipulates Delilah so terrifying to read, and the influence he has on the couple’s son one of the most disturbing aspects of the narrative. The way he has ‘chosen’ Delilah to be his wife is so telling, and the reasons she has for believing his lies, and becoming so cut off from everyone and so reliant are easy to believe. It is unsettling and upsetting to feel her fear and trepidation when she is simply doing things we take for granted and wouldn’t think about twice. That the author has done this in a way that makes you want to read on, wanting to know what happens to Delilah, rooting for her all the while, is a testament to the skill of the writing.

Recommended. Five stars

Book description

On the surface, Delilah Reddick’s life looks perfect. Her husband is a pillar of the community, and with her as his quietly supportive wife, they appear to be the picture of success and happiness. But there are deep cracks in the foundation, dark secrets Delilah has never shared with anyone.

Delilah knows what her husband is capable of when the evil inside him finds its way to the surface, but running would only delay the inevitable. Chase would hunt her to the ends of the earth before allowing her to take his only son from him. Delilah would rather die than leave her fourteen-year-old behind, but when her son begins displaying his father’s violent tendencies, she knows she must act.

In her quest to save her son, Delilah sets off a chain of events that could rock the community and reveal the darkest secret of them all. After years of staying quiet, Delilah must find her voice before her husband silences her forever.

AmazonUK | AmazonUS

📚’I thoroughly enjoyed this book’. @TerryTyler4 Reviews #SuspenseThriller Hush, Delilah by @AngieGallion For Rosie’s #Bookreview Team #RBRT #BookTwitter

Today’s team review is from Terry.

Terry blogs here https://terrytylerbookreviews.blogspot.com/

Rosie’s Book Review Team

Terry has been reading Hush Delilah by Angie Gallion

4.5*

Wife and mother Delilah wonders if she will ever be brave enough to escape years of domestic violence – and whether she can discover the truth about the crimes she fears her husband may have committed.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, it’s so well-written and a real page-turner. The portrayal of Chase Reddick’s character is so typical of the misogynist violent male, and anyone who has ever been in a relationship with this sort of man (or those with addiction problems) will be so familiar with that ‘waiting for the other shoe to drop’ situation that Delilah finds herself in, every minute of every day. The side-plot is interesting and convincing, and added another dimension to the story.

As with any tale about a person stuck in similar circumstances, Delilah’s tale will make you want to scream at her to be brave, to take friend Carmen’s offer of a way out. The intricate way in which the author details her constant strategies to hide what she’s doing from Chase is artfully depicted, and also the confusion she feels when she discovers that Chase is sleeping with another woman. She knows she shouldn’t care, but an atom of jealousy creeps in, and meetings with the woman concerned only increase her feeling of inadequacy.

The reasons why the glamorous Chase chose Delilah are all totally feasible – aside from the immediate, practical reason, men like him often make a point, either consciously or subconsciously, of choosing women who will accept the treatment they are likely to dish out. Why Delilah wanted Chase is also clear – the infatuation, obsession, lack of self-esteem. The only question for me is why she had such rock bottom self-esteem in the first place – that she stayed with a man who made it clear to her that he didn’t find her attractive (and worse). Just a few lines to say something about why she was such a doormat would have rounded her character out nicely; I kept wondering, all through, if we were going to find out, maybe in flashbacks, about the relationship she had with Chase when she was younger.

That said, this is an extremely good book and one I most definitely recommend!

Book description

On the surface, Delilah Reddick’s life looks perfect. Her husband is a pillar of the community, and with her as his quietly supportive wife, they appear to be the picture of success and happiness. But there are deep cracks in the foundation, dark secrets Delilah has never shared with anyone.

Delilah knows what her husband is capable of when the evil inside him finds its way to the surface, but running would only delay the inevitable. Chase would hunt her to the ends of the earth before allowing her to take his only son from him. Delilah would rather die than leave her fourteen-year-old behind, but when her son begins displaying his father’s violent tendencies, she knows she must act.

In her quest to save her son, Delilah sets off a chain of events that could rock the community and reveal the darkest secret of them all. After years of staying quiet, Delilah must find her voice before her husband silences her forever.

AmazonUK | AmazonUS

Rosie’s #BookReview Team #RBRT Tropical Shadows by @SusieVereker #Suspense #Thriller

Today’s team review is from Judith, she blogs here http://judithbarrowblog.com/

Judith has been reading Tropical Shadows by Susie Vereker

My Review:

Firstly,  I’d like to say I think the Blurb gives away  too much of the plot. When I read a book I like to find out for myself what happens; to discover the story for myself.

Tropical Shadows begins interestingly and sets up the story in the long first chapter.  The reader is thrust into the plot right away and I was looking forward to a tense read.  A young girl caught with drugs and imprisoned into a primitive prison in a foreign country has all the ingredients of a disturbing, even sinister tale. Add to that a disquieting parallel plot of a missing child and the expectation of tension grows.

There are quite a few portrayals of interesting characters who add background to Tropical Shadows, some well-written descriptions of the settings that give a good sense of place, and a quite good insight to how Embassies could be run. It’s a good plot.

But, as a whole, I’m afraid it didn’t work for me. I found difficult to have any empathy with both the protagonist or any of the main characters because I didn’t feel I got to know them. And, somehow, the dialogue isn’t emotional enough; it doesn’t show the fear, the anxiety, the hopelessness of the some of the situations.  The words are there but there is no showing of rise and fall of crisis and conflict in the characters or the action. And every now and again the story falls into telling, rather than showing, especially when relating the past.

Perhaps a tighter, final edit  could resolve these issues.

Book Description

Respectable Julia is horrified to receive a phone call from the British Consul saying that her teenage sister Emily has been thrown in jail on a South-East Asian island for alleged drug smuggling.

Immediately she takes the next plane for Maising, leaving her disgruntled husband behind.

Even more bad news, nobody knows the whereabouts of her sister’s child.

Julia visits the jail where Emily insists toddler Rosie is safe because she’s with a trusted friend.

But where the trusted friend is, no one knows.

Emily, a teenage single mum on a belated gap year plus toddler, says she bought a padded cotton bag from an itinerant seller at the bus station.

Yet when she went through airport security, the bag was found to have a false bottom containing cannabis.

Julia believes Em’s claims that she’s been framed, but the young Consul says the penalties for drug smuggling are severe, as in many other parts of South East Asia.

Obviously Julia wants to rescue her sister and find her child as quickly as possible.

The British Embassy vainly tries to help and so does Duncan Hereford, an expat doctor with something of a past, and Julia’s pompous husband keeps phoning with his ideas too.

The Embassy advises it is imperative the British Press don’t get to hear about Emily because the tabloids are bound to write nonsense about backward foreign Maising and offend the Prince, making Emily’s chances of receiving a royal pardon highly unlikely.

But she’s innocent, Julia keeps saying but no one will believe her.

Meanwhile there are constant rumours from the outlying islands that a white child has been seen and Duncan offers to take Julia on several boat trips to investigate, all in vain.

But then the tabloids get hold of the story of the beautiful imprisoned British girl and her lost baby and all hell breaks loose. And Emily’s bad-news ex-boyfriend, the toddler’s natural father, begins to take an interest.

Tropical Shadows is a delightful story of sibling love and loyalty that will capture your heart.

About the author

Born in the English Lake District, Susie Vereker has spent much of her life travelling round the world, first as an army daughter then as a diplomat’s wife. She worked in publishing in London, au paired in Germany, taught English in Surrey, and raised her three sons in Australia, Greece, Thailand, Switzerland and France. Now she has returned home to a small village in the south of England, complete with a black Labrador.

Goodreads | AmazonUK | AmazonUS | Twitter

#FridayBookShare OUTCAST by @dianneanoble1 #fridayreads

#FridayBookShare founded by ShelleyWilson Anyone can join in.

With the weekend approaching it’s the perfect time to seek out new books to read, so Shelley has created a Friday Book Share game to help search for that ideal read.

Anyone can have a go – all you need to do is answer the following questions based on the book you are currently reading/finished reading this week and use the hashtag #FridayBookShare

First line of the book.

Recruit fans by adding the book blurb.

Introduce the main character using only three words.

Delightful design (add the cover image of the book).

Audience appeal (who would enjoy reading this book?)

Your favourite line/scene

I’ve just started reading OUTCAST by Dianne Noble

First line of the book.

“The minute she heart Tom’s voice Rose knew it meant trouble.”

Recruit fans by adding the book blurb.

Rose leaves her Cornwall café to search for her daughter in the sweltering slums of Kolkata, India.
In the daily struggle for survival, she is often brought to her knees, but finds strength to overcome the poverty and disease, grows to love the Dalit community she helps.
But then there are deaths, and she fears for her own safety.
Her café at home is at risk of being torched, and finally, she has to make the terrible choice between her daughter and the Indian children.

Introduce the main character using only three words.

Over protective, caring, chaotic

Delightful design (add the cover image of the book).

Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

Audience appeal (who would enjoy reading this book?)

This book is labelled as a suspense thriller. It is has two settings; Cornwall and the Indian slums of Kolkata.

Your favourite line/scene

“Mrs Benson didn’t want solutions, only sympathy.”