Tropical Girl Reads

Souvenirs from Kyiv – ARC Book Review

Title:- Souvenirs from Kyiv

Author:- Chrystyna Lucyk-Berger

No. of pages:- 155 pages

Date published:- will be published on 22nd April 2022

Publisher:- Bookouture

Genre:- Historical Fiction

Rating:-

Russia has been trying to wipe Ukraine off the world map for thousands of years. They haven’t succeeded yet. Now, I’m picking up my stone and throwing it at Goliath. I want people to understand. I want to save this country.’ Chrystyna Lucyk-Berger, March 2022

Larissa is a renowned embroiderer, surviving in occupied Ukraine during World War II as a seamstress in her ruin of a workshop. Surrounded by enemies, she expresses her defiance by threading history into her garments. But at what cost?

Mykhailo is a soldier on leave, returning to Ukraine from the front on Christmas Eve. As he travels through his country, he is confronted by the hardship the war has brought to his fellow countrymen. Will what he sees this Christmas change the course of his life forever?

Marusia and her family are woken early one morning by the arrival of the Nazis, who have come to search for her partisan brother. As the soldiers move through their house, her family has just moments to make choices that will determine their survival.

Chrystyna Lucyk-Berger’s stories bring to life the true history of her Ukrainian family who fought to survive World War II. Laced with hope, Souvenirs from Kyiv celebrates the endurance and resilience of the human spirit.

Souvenirs from Kyiv was awarded 2nd Place in the 2014 HNS International Short Story Award and the collection won the silver medal in the IPPY Book Awards 2020 for Military and Wartime fiction.

This is such a beautiful story–of heartbreaking experiences of Ukrainian families during WW2. The author herself belongs to the Ukrainian-American generation and these stories are based on the stories of her own grandparents and relatives in Ukraine, during the Nazi rule. This story was written in the light of the Ukrainian-Russian war that is happening right now.

Each of these stories tells a story about bravery and courage. Larissa sews clothes, Mykhailo is a soldier, Marusia and her family are approached by the Nazis, all these stories are touching tales of how a person survived living under the Nazi regime. A heartbreaking story. The author does a good job of transporting the readers into the story, making the readers feel like they are also a part of the story. I actually enjoyed reading all the stories and felt touched by those stories.

Overall, this is an emotional heartbreaking stories of brave Ukrainian people on how they survived WWII. Worth five stars,

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.

The Little Cornish House – ARC Book Review

Title:- The Little Cornish House

Author:- Donna Ashcroft

No. of pages:- 289 pages

Date published:- will be published on May 6th 2022

Publisher:- Bookouture

Genre:- Romance

Rating:- 4/5 stars

Step into stunning Indigo Cove on the beautiful Cornish coast, where you’ll find sunshine, secrets, and a summer that will change everything for Ruby Caldwell.

Thirty-year-old Ruby’s life is safe and predictable: no dramas, no complications, no men. And that’s just the way she likes it – there’s no way she wants to get her heart broken again. But her whole life is turned upside down when her grandmother calls to say she’s in danger of losing her beloved little Cornish house by the sea.

She needs Ruby to come back to Cornwall and save the day…

Returning to Indigo Cove stirs up memories of her family’s past that Ruby would rather forget, but she’s determined to do everything she can to save her grandmother’s home. As the summer hots up so does the pressure on Ruby and she’s in need of a distraction. Although quite literally walking into Gabe Roskilly, the sexy and brooding owner of the local brewery, wasn’t part of her game plan.

Ruby tries to ignore her attraction to Gabe, but her resolve to stay away from men is truly tested to the limit. It’s impossible to avoid the tall, dark, handsome stranger as Gabe seems to be at the centre of village life. And then when Ruby’s plans for the little Cornish house start to fall apart, Ruby discovers something about Gabe that could ruin the building romance between them…

Will Ruby leave Indigo Cove for good? Or can she save her grandmother’s cottage and find true happiness this summer?

I love a book that has a beautiful front cover and this is one of them. The Little Cornish house tells a story of a thirty soemthing year old woman named Ruby, who moves to Indigo Cove to save the beloved Cornish cottage, at the request of her grandmother. She meets Gabe Raskilly, who owns the local brewery, and as much as she tries to distance herself away from him, the two fall in love.

This book is cheesy, romantic book. Ruby sounds like my personality a little bit. The writing was great and I do like how the romance developed between Ruby and Gabe. I also like how Ruby was trying to find who the father of Ruby’s friend Anna’s child was, suspecting that it was Gabe’s twin brother Aaron. The story also tells about Ruby’s estranged relationship with her father and of course, Aaron’s heaps of debts.

Overall, I did enjoy the story and it was a heartwarming story as well. Worth four stars.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.

Donna Ashcroft was born in London, England and grew up in Buckinghamshire. She went to university in Lancashire and, among other things, worked as a copywriter, buyer, waitress, secretary and marketing manager.

Donna was shortlisted for the RNA Debut Romantic Novel of the Year in 2019, has had eight books published with Bookouture and is working on her next which is due out in 2022.

Donna loves a happy ending and is never happier than when she’s escaping into a romance novel or movie. When she’s not reading or writing she’ll probably be found hoovering … or negotiating with her two teenagers about who is doing the washing up.

You can find Donna on Twitter @Donnashc or visit her at http://www.donna-writes.co.uk

The Night They Vanished- ARC Book Review

Title:- The Night They Vanished

Author:- Vanessa Savage

Date published:- will be published on 5th May 2022

Genre:- Psychological Thriller

Rating:- 4/5

A family with a secret.
A past about to catch up with them.

At thirty, Hanna has finally decided she’s better off without her family. They hold her responsible for the incident that ruined their lives fourteen years ago and they’ve barely spoken since.

But then, whilst browsing a true crime website, she sees her family home listed as the site of a brutal murder. Number of victims: three. Date of crime: today. When the police investigate, they find no bodies, but the house is abandoned. Hanna’s family have disappeared.

To find them, Hanna will have to confront what happened all those years ago.

And the person determined to make her pay for it . . .

The plot line of the story sounds fascinating to me. A young woman with a troubled past named Hanna while going through a website with Adam discovers her own childhood house described as the scene of gruesome murders. And as the investigation continues, Hannah’s own past comes back tormenting her.

I actually did enjoy the story–as I really thought the plot sounded intriguing and intense. It was a bit of a slow burn but the story actually grew into me. The story is told from Hannah’s perspective and Sasha’s perspectives, Sasha being Hanna’s sister. Although the first part of the story was slightly boring, it got really intense and interesting by the second part of the book. Twists and turns started developing along the well, and the ending was really good. Hanna was kind of lucky to have good friends who actually helped her to deal with the trauma.

Overall, this is a good thriller–I would like to read more books from this author. Worth four stars!

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.

anessa Savage lives by the sea in South Wales with her husband and two daughters.

She started out writing women’s fiction but soon realized she wanted her characters to kill each other rather than kiss each other…

Turning to (fictional) crime, she now writes psychological thrillers.

An English Garden Murder (Book 1 of Julia Bird series) – ARC Book Review

Title:- An English Garden Murder

Author:- Katie Gayle

Date published:- will be published on May 5th 2022

Publisher:- Bookouture

No. of pages:- 262 pages

Genre:- Cozy Mystery

Rating:-

Julia Bird’s picturesque Cotswolds cottage has everything she could want. Rustic charm, cosy fireplaces and, it turns out, a dead body in the garden…

Recently divorced and reluctantly retired, Julia Bird has fled London to enjoy idyllic rural life in the Cotswolds. Determined to have the perfect English garden, her first job is to tear down the old shed, where she unearths much more than she’d bargained for… A body, apparently buried for decades. But who could it be, and who killed them? The police draw a blank, and even the gossip-fest that is the local bookclub can’t remember anyone going missing in the village.

Unable to get on with her garden until the mystery is resolved, Julia decides to conduct her own clandestine investigations. So, together with her wayward chocolate Labrador puppy Jake, Julia begins a whirlwind tour of the local residents. And everyone, it seems, has something to hide in this village. As she gets closer to the truth, Julia uncovers something even more shocking… Another body, this time of someone she actually knows.

Determined to unmask the killer and find out what connects the two dead bodies, Julia – newly nicknamed the Grim Reaper – ups the stakes and hones in on the most likely suspect. But if she hasn’t deduced correctly, then there is someone else in the village who has killed twice already. Will they be prepared to make it third time lucky to keep their secret safe?

The first book of the Julia Bird series! This is a cozy mystery novel but I actually enjoyed reading it.

Julia Bird moves to a small town into a cottage after her divorce to her husband, leaving behind the city life. While trying to get used to the countryside living, she wanted to make a chicken coop by the garden shed near her cottage. But when they start digging, they find skeletal remains of woman dated nearly twenty years ago. And so begins the mystery.

I just loved the title of the book and thought I will try out the first book of the cozy mystery series. And to my surprise, I actually enjoyed reading this one. It was really entertaining and I really got into the story. The author(S) did a good job of making the reader feel like they are a part of the story and I actually really enjoyed this book that I simply couldn’t put the book down. There were some funny parts in the book as well and the descriptions of those countrysides and Julia’s life in the countryside with her newly adopted dog Jake was too enjoyable to read. So as much as I enjoyed this novel, I cannot wait to read for Julia Bird’s next adventure!

So if you like a cozy mystery series set in an English countryside, then this book is one for you–worth five stars!

Many thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.

The Doctor’s Daughter – ARC Book Review

Title:- The Doctor’s Daughter

Author:- Shari J Ryan

Date published:- will be published on April 28th 2022

Publisher:- Bookouture

No. of pages:- 285 pages

Genre:- Historical Fiction

Rating:-

Auschwitz, 1941: It was her father’s job to save the lives of the SS. But she chose to risk everything and save the lives of prisoners.

In Nazi-occupied Poland, Sofia cannot look her father in the eye. Sofia’s mother, her papa’s cherished wife, is Jewish—how dare he work as a doctor for the SS? She cannot forgive him, even if the bargain was made to spare their lives.

In the middle of the night, Isaac emerges from a packed train with hundreds of others. Beneath Auschwitz’s barbed wire, soldiers surround them, and gunshots pierce the dark sky. The SS decide prisoners’ fates on the spot—and Isaac is chosen to work, rather than to die.

Every day, Isaac and his fellow inmates are sent to a nearby farm. From sunup to sundown, they toil the land with barely a scrap to eat. Every breath feels like it could be Isaac’s last, so when he sees a beautiful auburn-haired girl peering out of the farmhouse window, it feels like a dream…

Sofia refuses to accept what she is seeing. Disobeying her father and evading the guards, she risks her life to sneak a letter to the green-eyed boy outside. She explains that she has hidden them food, and that she’ll do everything in her power to save them.

This secret exchange sparks an escape that should have been impossible—and a love story that is unforgettable. But is love enough in the face of evil? And when Sofia and Isaac are concealed underground, holding their breath as the Nazis hunt them, will they survive?

After reading Shari J Ryan’s book, The Bookseller from Dachau which actually captivated me, I was happy that I got this ARC.

The story this time sets in Poland, during the Nazi occupation and WWII. The story is told from the perspectives of Sofia–whose mother is Jewish and whose father, a doctor work with the Nazis and Issac, a Jew who moves to the Warsaw ghetto with his parents and his sister, Olivia. Isaac’s parents dies and both Issac and Olivia are separated when they reach the concentration camp, Auschwitz, where Olivia, with her ability to sew works in Kanada where they sort the items of the people who come to the camp. Issac starts to work in the garden owned by Sofia’s family and the two become friends with Sofia determined to save Isaac’s life.

The author must have done tremendous research about the life in a Warsaw Ghetto and the conditions of being in Auschwitz concentration camp. Despite the fact that the story is fictional, the events that occur in the story are real and you couldn’t imagine that these types of horror did occur in real life. The writing was good, the author doing a good job of drawing the reader into the story, making the reader feel like they are part of the story. It is interesting to read both Sofia’s and Isaac’s views and I like how the friendship between them developed. There were some emotional moments and heartbreaking moments although the ending was good and expected.

Overall, if you like a heartbreaking emotional historical fiction, then this one is for you–worth five stars!

Many thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.

Shari J. Ryan is a USA Today Bestselling Author of Women’s Fiction, WWII Fiction, and 20th Century Historical Fiction with a focus on the Holocaust and Pearl Harbor.

Shortly after graduation from Johnson & Wales with a bachelor’s degree in marketing, Shari began her career as a graphic artist and freelance writer. She then found her passion for writing books in 2012 after her second son was born. Shari has been slaying words ever since.

With two Rone Awards and over 125k books sold, Shari has hit the USA Today Bestseller List, the Amazon’s Top 100, Barnes & Noble’s Top Ten, and iBooks at number one. Some of Shari’s bestselling books include Last Words, The Other Blue Sky, Unspoken Words and A Heart of Time.

Shari, a lifelong Boston girl, is happily married to her personal hero and US Marine and have two wonderful little boys. For more details about her books, visit: http://www.sharijryan.com

The Book of Cold Cases – Book Review

Title:- The Book of Cold Cases

Author:- Simone St James

Date published:- March 15th 2022

No. of pages:- 350 pages

Genre:- Thriller/Supernatural

Rating:- 4.5/5 stars

A true crime blogger gets more than she bargained for while interviewing the woman acquitted of two cold case slayings in this chilling new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Sun Down Motel.

In 1977, Claire Lake, Oregon, was shaken by the Lady Killer Murders: Two men, seemingly randomly, were murdered with the same gun, with strange notes left behind. Beth Greer was the perfect suspect—a rich, eccentric twenty-three-year-old woman, seen fleeing one of the crimes. But she was acquitted, and she retreated to the isolation of her mansion.

Oregon, 2017. Shea Collins is a receptionist, but by night, she runs a true crime website, the Book of Cold Cases—a passion fueled by the attempted abduction she escaped as a child. When she meets Beth by chance, Shea asks her for an interview. To Shea’s surprise, Beth says yes.

They meet regularly at Beth’s mansion, though Shea is never comfortable there. Items move when she’s not looking, and she could swear she’s seen a girl outside the window. The allure of learning the truth about the case from the smart, charming Beth is too much to resist, but even as they grow closer, Shea senses something isn’t right. Is she making friends with a manipulative murderer, or are there other dangers lurking in the darkness of the Greer house?

I have made a point of reading all Simone St James books after I enjoyed reading The Sundown Motel and The Broken Girls. Just like her two previous books, the Book of Cold Cases has a thriller background with a supernatural element in it.

Shea Collins is a true crime blogger and gets a chance to interview the mysterious and elegant Beth Greer, who back in the 1970’s was accused of being the “Lady Killer”. In the late 1970’s, the “Lady Killer” murdered two men by shooting them at gun point, leaving behind a message – AM I BITTER OR AM I SWEET – LADIES CAN BE EITHER. Shea herself had experienced a near death experience as the hands of a pedophilic serial killer. But as Shea goes to Beth’s gloomy mansion, she realizes that something sinister is inside the mansion.

The first few parts of the book was interesting. Like her two previous book, I was kept at the edge of the seat and was quiet unputdownable and felt like I was watching a horror movie. The story is told from the perspectives of Shea and Beth, where Beth’s part is divided to her childhood in the 1960’s to her arrest as a Lady Killer and acquittal in the 1970’s. I was literally hooked into the story and the author has done a good job as always of making the reader immersed into the story! Beth’s story was particularly interesting and so was Shea’s as she and the private detective Michael work together to see if Beth was a real killer or if someone else was framing Beth as the killer.

But here’s the thing, I almost gave the review five stars but I realized, I didnt like the ending. The story felt intense and unputdownable but the ending kind of ruined it for me, hence I gave 4.5 stars.

If you have not read Simone St James, I suggest you read The Sundown Motel, before reading this book. I am not saying this book is bad–it was intense and gripping and really good, altough in my opinion, ending could have been better.

Simone St. James is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Sun Down Motel and The Broken Girls. Her debut novel, The Haunting of Maddy Clare, won two RITA Awards from Romance Writers of America and an Arthur Ellis Award from Crime Writers of Canada.

Simone spent twenty years behind the scenes in the television business before leaving to write full-time. She lives just outside of Toronto, Canada with her husband and a spoiled rescue cat.

Valleyesque – ARC Book Review

Title:- Valleyesque

Author:- Fernando A Flores

Date published:- will be published on May 3rd 2022

Rating:-

Psychedelic, dazzling stories set in the cracks of the Texas-Mexico borderland, from an iconoclastic storyteller and the author of Tears of the Trufflepig.

No one captures the border—its history and imagination, its danger, contradiction, and redemption—like Fernando A. Flores, whose stories reimagine and reinterpret the region’s existence with peerless style. In his immersive, uncanny borderland, things are never what they seem: a world where the sun is both rising and setting, and where conniving possums efficiently take over an entire town and rewrite its history.

The stories in Valleyesque dance between the fantastical and the hyperreal with dexterous, often hilarious flair. A dying Frédéric Chopin stumbles through Ciudad Juárez in the aftermath of his mother’s death, attempting to recover his beloved piano that was seized at the border, while a muralist is taken on a psychedelic journey by an airbrushed Emiliano Zapata T-shirt. A woman is engulfed by a used-clothing warehouse with a life of its own, and a grieving mother breathlessly chronicles the demise of a town decimated by violence. In two separate stories, queso dip and musical rhythms are bottled up and sold for mass consumption. And in the final tale, Flores pieces together the adventures of a young Lee Harvey Oswald as he starts a music career in Texas.

Swinging between satire and surrealism, grief and joy, Valleyesque is a boundary- and border-pushing collection from a one-of-a-kind stylist and voice. With the visceral imagination that made his debut novel, Tears of the Trufflepig, a cult classic, Flores brings his vision of the border to life—and beyond.

Valleyesque is a collection of short stories that will take you to an unforgettable journey. These stories takes place in the Texas Mexican border and will give you lessons about the values of life.

My favorite stories including old Frederic Chopin who finds his old piano and is grieving at the death of his mother. Being a piano teacher and the fact that Chopin is one of my favorite composers, this story actually fascinated me. The other story that fascinated me was Lee Harvey Oswald–the person who assasinated John F Kennedy in 1963. and in the story, young Lee Harvey Oswald embarks on his musical career. There were some heartbreaking ones as well as some funny parts that will make you laugh out loud.

Overall, if you looking for a good set of short stories, I recommend this book for you all–truly the author has done an amazing job of drawing the reader into the story and making the reader feel like they are part of the story. Worth five stars!

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.

About the Author

Fernando A. Flores was born in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico, and grew up in South Texas. He is the author of the collection Death to the Bullshit Artists of South Texas and the novel Tears of the Trufflepig, which was long-listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and named a best book of 2019 by Tor.com. His fiction has appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books Quarterly, American Short Fiction, Ploughshares, Frieze, Porter House Review, and elsewhere. He lives in Austin, Texas. –This text refers to the paperback edition.

The Silent Child – ARC Book Review

Title:- The Silent Child

Author:- J.G. Kelly

Date published:- will be published on 14th April 2022

Publisher:- Hodder and Stoughton

Genre:- Historical Fiction

Rating:-

1944

LEO STERN arrives at the Nazi camp at Borek with his wife Irena and his two daughters. The Sterns are spared from the gas chamber when they witness a murder. But in a place that humanity has deserted, Leo is forced to make unimaginable choices to try to keep his family alive.

1961

For seventeen years, Hanna has been unable to remember her identity and how she was separated from her family at the end of the war, until the discovery of a letter among her late uncle’s possessions reveals her real name – HANNA STERN – and leads her to Berlin in search of her lost past.

Helped by former lover Peter, Hanna begins to piece together the shocking final days of Borek. But Hanna isn’t the only one with an interest in the camp, and lurking in the shadows is someone who would prefer Hanna’s history to remain silent.

Based on in-depth research and beautifully written, this a novel of memory and identity, and the long shadow of war.

Any book that is based on WWII and Holocaust will catch my eye and I was over the moon when I got this ARC.

This is actually an unusual setting which I actually enjoyed reading.

In 1941, Leo Stern arrives to the camp with his wife Irena and their two children. In order to survive he was forced to do unimaginable things in order to survive his family.

In 1961, Hanna wants to find her real identity and while going through her uncle’s possession, she finds that she is Hanna Stern. Along with her friend Peter, they travel to Berlin to find the truth about Hanna’s family but there’s someone who didnt want her to find the truth.

I was actually engrossed into the story. What interested me most in the story was background of WWII and the Holocaust–the brutal treatment of Jews by the Nazis in the camps was too unbearable and emotional to read that at times, you still couldn’t believe that these things did happen in real life. I am guessing the present day is mostly based on Nuremberg trials when the Nazi soldiers were put on trial for their crimes but maybe I was wrong. The past, set in 1940’s was the one that was heartbreaking and emotional to read. The author has done tremendous research about the war, the conditions of the camps, the brutal treatment of Jews by the Nazis and did a good job of drawing the reader into the story. I actually enjoyed reading this book and was glad I requested the ARC!

Overall, if you love a historical fiction with an emotional and heartbreaking story that will bring tears, then this book is one for you–worth five stars!

Many thanks to Netgalley and Hodder and Stoughton for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only.

The Other Son – ARC Book Review

Title – The Other Son

Author:- J.M. Hewitt

No. of pages:- 326 pages

Date published:- will be published on 7th April 2022

Genre:- Psychological Thriller

Rating:- 2.5/5 stars

She saved her son once. Would she do the same again?

Sara and her family needed a fresh start after a tragedy that ruined many lives. They have found peace since arriving at their new home in the Kielder Forest National Park twelve months ago. That is, unless you count the dark cloud that has settled over them, and the crippling tension behind closed doors. Sara tries to pretend everything is normal, but in reality she is haunted by a devastating truth about one of her children.

Travis has a reputation as a counsellor skilled at helping troubled teens. He has been watching Sara. He sees her fragility, and believes that he can fix her and her eldest son. Like his mother, Scott barely speaks, and has a look in his eye that hints at unimaginable trauma. If Travis could only get close to Sara she would see that he can protect her, and put an end to their suffering.

Yet below the surface, Sara is anything but weak. No matter what, she won’t give up on her child. And when she is cornered, she will go to extreme lengths to protect her most precious boy.

A compulsive tale of family secrets with twists you won’t see coming. Perfect for fans of Lisa Jewell, Shalini Boland and K.L. Slater.

This book actually talks about the aftermath of a school shooting and how a mother deals with the death of her son.

The story talks about Sara who moves to a new place to start a fresh new life after a tragedy that took away the life of her younger son, Ryan. Her older son, Scott is undergoing therapy and his new therapist Travis seems to have an interest towards Sara.

Although to me the plot of the story was good, it was a bit flat out boring to me. The story divides between the present day and the past, during the time when shooting was taking place. Not really a fast paced thriller and not much of twists and turns you would expect in a good thriller. The ending was predictable.

Anyway, this was an OK thriller to me and I feel this was more like a family drama. Worth 2.5 stars.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Canelo for the ARC. The review is based on my honest opinion only

AUTHOR WEBSITE: http://www.jmhewitt.net

J.M. Hewitt is the author of eight crime fiction novels. Her work has also been published in three short story anthologies. Her books usually incorporate twentieth and twenty-first century events and far flung locations, and her novels explore the darker side of human behaviour.

In contrast to the sometimes dark content of her books, she lives a very nice life in a seaside town in Suffolk with her dog, Marley.

When she was ten years old she’d read all the books she owned, all those on her mother’s bookcase and everything the library had to offer. She decided the only course of action to take was to write her own stories. Thirty years later, she is still writing them.

Books with an academia setting

Whether it’s a thriller or a romance or even a fantasy book, some of these books are based on the academic setting i.e. based with a school setting or university setting where the main characters are either teachers or students. Here are some of the books with academia as a background setting.