Friday Face Off : to flee, to fly

Here we are again with the Friday Face Off meme created by Books by Proxy . This is a great opportunity to feature some of your favourite book covers. The rules are fairly simple each week, following a predetermined theme (list below) choose a book (this doesn’t have to be a book that you’ve read), compare a couple of the different covers available for that particular book and choose your favourite. Future week’s themes are listed below – if you have a cover in mind that you’re really wanting to share then feel free to leave a comment about a future suggested theme. I’ve also listed events that take place during the year, that I’m aware of, so you can link up your covers – if you’re aware of any events that you think I should include then give me a shout. This week’s theme:
Flight – any type of flight – to flee, to fly
I hope this week was a good theme for everyone, I kind of like the ambiguity, is it somebody running away, a bird maybe or a plane? This week I’ve gone for The Birds by Daphne du Maurier. Here are the covers:
My favourite:

I also like the first cover. But this blood red cover is very ominous.
So, which is your favourite?
I’ll be updating the list in order to include forthcoming events that I’m aware of so that you can perhaps link your themes up where possible (if you know of an event you’d like to share then let me know in the comments). As always, if you wish to submit an idea then leave me a comment – or if you’d like to host a week then simply let me know.
Next week –The bodice ripper – exactly as it seems
Future themes: (if you’re struggling with any of these themes then use a ‘freebie’ or one of your favourite covers) (I’ve added some new themes – some of these are slightly different, in order to avoid too much repetition I’m trying to make the themes more of a suggestion that everyone can interpret how they like.
2019
12th June – The bodice ripper – exactly as it seems
19th June – Time – time waits for no one
26th June – Windows – windows to the soul?
3rd July – Tentacles – ‘The sea brought you. The sea shall have you back’
10th July – Tunnel – ‘At the end of every light, is a tunnel of darkness.’
17th July – holding an object – just as it seems
24th July – Framed – more meaning than one. A cover with a frame, a picture within a cover or a murder mystery set up??
31st July – White – a cover that is predominantly white
7th August – Action – a cover that depicts action of some sort
14th August – Glasses or spectacles – “One could mention many lovable traits in Smee. For instance, after killing, it was his spectacles he wiped instead of his weapon.”
21st August – Potions – hubble bubble
28th August – Dark road – ‘the road goes ever on and on’
4th September – Cold and crisp – any cover that gives you winter vibes
11th September – A cover with a pattern
18th September – Minimalistic and lacking clutter
25th September – A very busy cover full to bursting with detail
2nd October – A standout font
9th October – Mist/fog – “A thin grey fog hung over the city, and the streets were very cold; for summer was in England.”
16th October – Spider web – “Farewell, Aragog, king of the arachnids, whose long and faithful friendship those who knew you would never forget!
23th October – Ripped/torn – interpret it as you wish
30th October – Forest/jungle – ‘None of the Jungle People like being disturbed.’
6th November – Planets – “You’re on Earth. There’s no cure for that.”
13th November – Bright – ‘The future’s so bright, I gotta wear shades’.
20th November – Words only – “Words are pale shadows of forgotten names. As names have power, words have power. Words can light fires in the minds of men. Words can wring tears from the hardest hearts.”
27th November – Modern sci fi
4th December – Fae – or fairy??
11th December – Lake – the mysterious lake
18th December – Highly Stylised
25th December- Freebie – or day off.
Dead to Her by Sarah Pinborough
My TL:DR Five Word Review : Jealousy, Lust, Secrets and Murder
Dead To Her is another Sarah Pinborough book that kept me pretty much glued to the page. This is a winning combination of steamy Southern gothic meets modern retelling of DuMaurier’s Rebecca and the combination of Steel Magnolias, gold diggers and unfaithful husbands makes for a boiling pot of intrigue.
If you’re picking up Dead to Her don’t imagine for one moment that you’re going to like any of the characters. This is one big mess of nasty that goes to prove that beauty really is sometimes simply skin deep.
Meet Marcie – second wife to successful and wealthy Jason. Marcie has completely reinvented herself and has finally achieved her heart’s desires. She has a rich husband, money is no object, she’s younger than the other wives in her wealthy set and moves in elite circles. Of course, Marcie, will never truly be satisfied because there’s always ‘one more goal’ before she has truly reached the pinnacle of success and having married a man who cheated and divorced his first wife she can never totally relax because she’s walking on pins waiting for the very same thing to happen to her.
Meet Keisha. Recently married to William Radford IV, Jason’s boss, powerful and rich, Keisha is barely in her twenties. She waltzes in with her designer gowns, curvaceous body, drop dead gorgeous looks and wild nature and steals Marcie’s crown without batting one perfectly outlined eyelid. The two are rivals but at the same time, not being truly part of the inner circle their ‘outsider’ status pushes them together.
I’m not going to elaborate too much on the plot as this will fundamentally spoil the reveals as they naturally occur. And there are plenty of reveals and a tangled web of deceit and red herrings along the way.
Characters – as I said don’t expect to make any friends among these pages. I have sat here and thought about all of them and to be honest none of them are basking in the glow of innocence. Whether it be greed, betrayal, bullying behaviour, vanity or revenge there are many shades of grey here and a number of different agendas.
The setting is modern Savannah. Hot and sultry, full of history and elite families with cupboards full of skeletons that will never be publicly displayed. This is how the other half lives. Money no object. Yachts, lavish dining, afternoon cocktails around the pool, shopping sprees simply to break the monotony. And, keeping up – everyone is jostling for position.
As I mentioned, I’m not going to elaborate on the plot. Pinborough is becoming the queen of twisted storytelling. Building things up and then knocking them back down. In terms of the murder and the police investigation, I will say I’m not sure how everything stacks up but, to be honest, I don’t think it really matters here. This is more about the dark underbelly and the glorious reveals which make it such an entertaining read. There is also a play on magical realism in the form of voodoo and bad juju although this is a light touch that feeds more on superstition and fear than anything else.
In terms of criticism. I think the novel takes a little while to really gather momentum but I didn’t find it a problem. This felt like a very quick read and the set up is necessary. And, as I said, I’m not sure how realistic some elements of the story are but, again, I don’t think it really matters as this is more about entertainment value than police procedure.
Overall, this was, as I hoped and expected, a very entertaining read. I loved the play on a well loved classic story and the writing is easy, persuasive and cheeky all at once.
I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.
My rating 4 stars
#SPFBO 6 Introductory Post

300 books 10 Judges 1 winner
The 1st of June marked the start of the sixth Self Published Fantasy Blog Off. The brainchild of Mark Lawrence this is a competition for self published authors, it’s mission statement :
‘The SPFBO exists to shine a light on self-published fantasy. It exists to find excellent books that might otherwise have gone unnoticed. It exists to help readers select, from the enormous range of options, books that have a better chance of entertaining them than a random choice, thereby increasing reader faith in finding a quality self-published read.’
For further information check out Mark Lawrence’s post here. To check out this year’s entries, judges and allocations check here. (My allocated books are cut and paste below for ease of info).
Now, a quick introduction.
I usually aim to read at least 30% (or 100 pages) of all the books I’ve been allocated, often more than 30% depending on how I’m getting along with the book in question. I will review all the books that I complete, the other books I will provide mini reviews for. I usually aim to choose between 4 or 5 semi finalists over the course of the first five months and then choose my finalist. My batch of books will be randomly split into five groups with six books in each and I aim to read one batch per month (more if I get ahead of schedule – although, this doesn’t usually happen).
In terms of my reading I have a very wide range of ‘likes’ and very few ‘dislikes’ and I will give every book a fair shot. This blog is a hobby as is reading and so I tend to focus on the positives of the books I review rather than the negatives.
I think the best advice I can give to all the authors taking part is to enjoy the competition, make friends, become part of the community, enjoy yourself as much as possible and take part in any events being offered. There can be only one winner but that doesn’t mean that everyone can’t take something good away from the competition.
There is also the cover competition, each blog chooses 3 covers from their selection of books and these are then voted on by both the judges and the public. Go ahead and take a look at all the lovely covers and make sure to vote on your favourites – the link is here.
Finally, as with previous years, I would like to extend an invitation to all the authors taking part to visit my blog. This year I was hoping to include some excerpts from as many of the books in the competition as possible. If you’d like to throw your book into the ring and choose an excerpt for me to post then please don’t be shy, get in touch in the comments and let me know, let’s get some tasty teasers out there. I’m also going to be focusing on some of the covers and also some of the books that really stand out to me. Also, for those authors who have books in audio – even if you’re not in my group, I’d love to hear from you and listen to your book.
That’s it for now. Feel free to reach out and leave a comment.
Thanks
Lynn 😀
The other judges:
Fantasy-Faction; Fantasy Book Critic; Booknest; Kitty G; Weatherwax Report; The Fantasy Hive; Rockstarlit Book Asylum; The Critiquing Chemist; The Fantasy Inn
My three cover contestants:
Follow the competition on Twitter using #SPFBO or join the Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/122875124938545/
Can’t Wait Wednesday : Over the Woodward Wall (Untitled #1) by A. Deborah Baker
3 June 2020
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: A Deborah Baker, Can't wait Wednesday, Over the Woodward Wall, Wishful Endings

“Waiting On Wednesday” is a weekly meme that was originally created by Breaking the Spine. Unfortunately Breaking the Spine are no longer hosting so I’m now linking my posts up to Wishful Endings Can’t Wait Wednesday. Don’t forget to stop over, link up and check out what books everyone else is waiting for. If you want to take part, basically, every Wednesday, we highlight a book that we’re really looking forward to. This week my book is : Over the Woodward Wall (Untitled #1) by A. Deborah Baker. Here’s the description to entice you:
Avery is an exceptional child. Everything he does is precise, from the way he washes his face in the morning, to the way he completes his homework – without complaint, without fuss, without prompt.
Zib is also an exceptional child, because all children are, in their own way. But where everything Avery does and is can be measured, nothing Zib does can possibly be predicted, except for the fact that she can always be relied upon to be unpredictable.
They live on the same street.
They live in different worlds.
On an unplanned detour from home to school one morning, Avery and Zib find themselves climbing over a low stone wall into the Up and Under – an impossible land filled with mystery, adventure and the strangest creatures. And they must find themselves and each other if they are to also find their way out and back to their own lives.
Expected publication : October 2020
Top Ten Tuesday : Summertime reading
2 June 2020
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Summer reading, That Artsy Reader Girl, Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme where every Tuesday we look at a particular topic for discussion and use various (or more to the point ten) bookish examples to demonstrate that particular topic. Top Ten Tuesday (created and hosted by The Broke and Bookish) is now being hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl and future week’s topics can be found here. This week’s topic is :
Books that Give Off Summer Vibes
Well, predominantly I read the same type of books regardless of the time of year, but, that being said, I do recognise that as the nights close in I tend to opt for more murders/horror and dark urban style reads as oppose to summer when I’m probably more likely to pick up retellings or magic/fantasy books. With that in mind here are some of my forthcoming books for the next few months:
Feathertide by Beth Cartwright : ‘The hunt leads her to the City of Murmurs, a place of mermaids and mystery, where jars of swirling mist are carried through the streets by the broken-hearted’

Grave Secrets by Alice James – I couldn’t resist, ‘croquet, romance, vampires and zombies’

Automatic Reload by Ferrett Steinmetz – quirky, genre-mashing cyberpunk romance – a high-octane adventure about a grizzled mercenary with machine gun arms who unexpectedly falls in love with a bio-engineered assassin – what’s not to love about all that?

Flyaway by Kathleen Jennings – “half mystery, half fairy tale, all exquisitely rendered and full of teeth.” Flyaway enchants you with the sly, beautiful darkness of Karen Russell and a world utterly its own.

A Chorus of Fire by Brian D Anderson – the second in the epic Sorcerer’s Song trilogy.

The Doors of Eden by Adrian Tchaikovsky – doorways to other worlds, Bodmin Moor, Monsters – I don’t care what time of the year it is I’m reading this one very soon

The Glass Hotel by Emily St John Mandel – tbh, I really don’t know what to expect with this one but – come on, it has ‘hotel’ in the title so it makes me think of vacactions – although I’m sure it has nothing to do with such things!

Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman – every month of the year is a good month to read this author

The Once and Future Witches by Alix E Harrow – There’s no such thing as witches. But there will be. I can’t wait to read this book. Wtiches!

My tenth spot is left open for suggestions please ??



