Month: April 2018

#ElizabethGoudgeDay 2018 | Announcing: read along with Jorie – “Towers in the Mist” by Elizabeth Goudge whilst I’m co-hosting this year’s event celebrating the author with Jean @ Howling Frog Books!

Posted Tuesday, 24 April, 2018 by jorielov , , , , , 2 Comments

Towers in the Mist Readalong hosted by Jorie for Elizabeth Goudge Day 2018. Badge created in Canva.

Last Spring, I stumbled across Lory @ Emerald City Book Reviews showcase on behalf of Elizabeth Goudge. She was hosting a series of posts celebrating the written works by an author I never had the pleasure of hearing about until then, whilst finding myself drawn into wanting to know more rather instantly! There was a bookaway being held during the event itself – wherein, I received quite the unexpectedly cheerful news I had won a copy of “Towers in the Mist”.

I was immediately looking forward to my participation this annual event in 2018, until I realised [2017] might be the last time Lory would be hosting the event for awhile. I had crossed paths with Jean @ Howling Frog Books round the same time, wherein we found we both have an equal love of reading and sharing our ruminative thoughts on the stories which interest us to be read – similar in vein, to how I loved visiting Lory’s bookish blog. The three of us share something else in common – our personal lives have their fair share of nuanced trials, tribulations and strife but somehow, we all come back to the heart of why we blog: the connections to other bookish souls who are equally ruminative about their own readerly lives.

I hadn’t realised Lory was taking a hiatus from blogging but I understood her reasons without knowing the fuller details. Sometimes you have to do what is right for you – especially if it’s a labour of love such as book blogging – I wish her well and I do hope whatever is happening will once again re-settle to the point where she can re-engage with her readers with the same joyfulness she had in sharing her bookish life previously. I am regretful due to my personal health being afflicted this past March and some personal strife of my own at the end of [2017] and the beginning weeks of 2018 – I was delayed in putting this event together with Jean.

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I am still hosting the Elizabeth Goudge Readalong – wherein we are reading ‘Towers in the Mist” – the breakdown of which will be as follows:

Week One: 24th of April til 1st of May – the first half

Week Two: 1st of May til 8th of May – the second half

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

Towers in the Mist by Elizabeth Goudge

 

“One was born a certain sort of person, and though by ceaseless struggle one might become as nice as that sort of person ever is, one could never become as nice as a nicer sort of person.” —Elizabeth Goudge, Towers in the Mist

It is late sixteenth-century London when awkward teenage Faithful travels to Oxford to study in England’s great university. When Canon Leigh takes him in, Faithful enters into a family as exciting and educational as the university itself.

Woven into the narratives of Faithful and the canon’s daughter Joyeuce is Oxford during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I with the pomp and sordidness of the spectacular era of England’s Golden Age. Not only a historical journey, Towers in the Mist is also a coming-of-age tale of young love and hope.

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Posted Tuesday, 24 April, 2018 by jorielov in Blogs I Regularly Read, Classical Literature, RALs | Thons via Blogs

Audiobook Review | “Sharpe Edge” (Book Two: Maycroft Mysteries) by Lisa B. Thomas, narrated by Kelley Hazen

Posted Monday, 23 April, 2018 by jorielov , , , , 0 Comments

Audiobook Review Badge made by Jorie in Canva.

Acquired Digital Audiobook by: I am a new blog tour hostess with Audiobookworm Promotions wherein I have the opportunity to receive audiobooks for review or adoption (reviews outside of organised blog tours) and host guest features on behalf of authors and narrators alike. I started hosting for Audiobookworm Promotions at the end of [2016] during “The Cryptic Lines” tour wherein I became quite happily surprised how much I am now keen on listening to books in lieu of reading them in print. My journey into audiobooks was prompted by a return of my chronic migraines wherein I want to offset my readings with listening to the audio versions.

I received a complimentary audiobook copy of “Sharpe Edge” via the publicist at Audiobookworm Promotions (of whom was working directly with the author Lisa B. Thomas) in exchange for an honest review. The difference with this complimentary copy I received is I had a 90 day window to listen and review the book whilst given a soft deadline where I could post my ruminative thoughts at an hour which worked for me on the day the review was due; this differs from a blog tour which has a more set schedule of posting. The audiobooks are offered to ‘adopt’ for review consideration and are given to readers to gauge their opinions, impressions and insight into how the audiobook is resonating with listeners. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.

NOTE: Due to my unexpected hiatus in September, my adopted audiobooks (‘Life as a Spectrum Mom‘, ‘Sharpe Shooter‘ and ‘Sharpe Edge’) as well as the blog tour ‘The Supernatural Pet Sitter’ were delayed from posting until I was able to listen to them due to a series of health issues which left me afflicted throughout Autumn 2017 and again in early Winter 2017/18.

[Due to technical difficulties, Winter/Spring 2018] I was delayed in listening to nearly all my audiobooks – as I never could technically fix a glitch which prevented me from downloading audiobooks to listen to offline from Audible.com as well as OverDrive (for library audiobooks). It wasn’t until I was able to touch base with a tech at a reciporcal branch in my library region and a third attempt to find a tech via Audible who could help me work through this glitch – where I found the freedom to finally be in a position to listen to all the lovelies I wanted to hear ‘offline’ without being co-dependent on a stable connection.

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Why I was excited about listening to this sequel & why I love the series overall:

As Deena grew closer to the truth – she was finding she wasn’t the only person investigating Matthew’s disappearance – in fact, she was nearly circling the same leads as the other ‘investigator’ who was either a few steps ahead of her or right in-line with where her own queries were leading her to venture future into the past to see where Matthew’s own footsteps might lead her to uncover the fuller truth of his disappearance. One of the best parts about her tenacious focus is how she was not afraid to follow every clue which might have insight into Matthew and thereby, a small trace of the truth which was so shrouded from sight now in the present day as if to be forever erased from the memory of those who might have known more than they were willing to share.

I had to agree with Deena about shopping at thrift and antique stores – you get caught inside your own memories and the memories of other times. I also like the fact you can find things no longer available and they can become part of the treasures you enjoy now in your own life. They have histories you might never know yourself but you can appreciate them with renewed love and find that sometimes the best way to curate your own style is looking for things which are being resold years after their original owners have parted with them.

I love how there are people who are in Deena’s life who provide her with new insights into Matthew’s life – such as the person who noticed something about a photograph. In other ways, it was interesting to see how Deena is connected to a lot of people who can aide her in her effort to understand Matthew’s unknown past. Meanwhile, as her path was on a collision course with the other investigator – you are partially surprised by what you find when the two actually meet! I was expecting this to go a different way, but he, in turn, ended up being one of the best people to point her in a direction she might not have considered otherwise! It was as if the closer she came to having all the loose threads resolved, the further she was from the actual truth which tried to remain out of reach.

Whilst Deena was trying to resolve the case, the police were trying to delegate the investigation and let things take their due even if that meant passing off some people to the family. I was truly impressed though how the conspiracy theory angle actually held weight and how Ms Thomas was able to knit this Cosy into a thread of such a well-known event in our History was quite impressive to listen to unravel – this is one thing that I admired most about how she told the story. You think at first it’s a simple answer to why Matthew disappeared and why his death went unknown for so many years – but then, there are other components being pulled into the tapestry of this mystery and which deepen the plausibility of why Matthew might have run into trouble.

I quite literally LOVED listening to this story – yet finding a way to articulate this admiration into a review took a bit of extra time! Sometimes you can find yourself devouring a story with wicked passion but then, how do you fuse your passion for a story and discussion of it’s heart?

– quoted from my review of Sharpe Shooter

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Audiobook Review | “Sharpe Edge” (Book Two: Maycroft Mysteries) by Lisa B. Thomas, narrated by Kelley HazenSharpe Edge
Subtitle: Cozy Suberbs Mystery Series

Buoyed by a new job and a spirit for the holidays, Deena Sharpe didn’t know she’d be investigating the town matriarch’s death at her own Christmas party. Everyone assumes it was an accident— everyone but her daughter, Estelle. Now Deena must rely on her craftiness to dig out the truth before anyone else gets hurt.

A little romance, some snarky suburban competition, and a lot of mystery will keep readers guessing in this cozy whodunit.


Places to find the book:

Add to LibraryThing

Find on Book Browse

ASIN: B072HTQCVY

on 11th May, 2016

Length: 6 hours, 8 minutes (unabridged)

Self-Published Audiobook

Order of the Maycroft Mysteries: (Read the Series Synopsis’s on the Author’s Site)

NOTE: Initially I thought this was the Cozy Suburbs Mysteries – however it’s really the Maycroft Mysteries series – as the sub-title on the audiobook versions revealled the other name.

Sharpe Shooter | Book One (see also Review)
Sharpe Edge | Book Two
Sharpe Mind | Book Three | Synopsis
Sharpe Turn | Book Four | Synopsis
Sharpe Point | Book Five | Synopsis
Sharpe Cookie | Book Six | Synopsis
+ Sharpe Image | PREQUEL Novella | Synopsis

Lisa B. Thomas | Blog | Site | @LBThomas2 | Facebook

Narrator: Kelley Hazen | Site | @KelleyHazen1 | Facebook

As an aside – I hadn’t realised I’ve known about the work of Ms Hazen previously – as two of my favourite holiday films on Hallmark Channel were “Single Santa Seeks Mrs Claus” & “Meet the Santas” whilst I loved watching “Strong Medicine” until the story-lines took a hard turn which took the joy out of watching the series. “Commander in Chief” is a dvd set I can’t wait to watch and I had wondered who did the voiceover on the montage within “What A Woman Wants”,… interestingly as a book blogger I love finding how my other creative interests in film, tv or music start to crossover into my bookish life as well. The reason I hadn’t known I knew of her work previously is because I have the tendency of remembering performances rather than names; not limited to those who act either – I’ll remember almost anyone on ‘sight’ before I recall their ‘name’.

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Posted Monday, 23 April, 2018 by jorielov in #JorieLovesIndies, 21st Century, Audiobook, Audiobookworm Promotions, Autism, Bits & Bobbles of Jorie, Blog Tour Host, Brothers and Sisters, Clever Turns of Phrase, Compassion & Acceptance of Differences, Debilitating Diagnosis & Illness, Disabilities & Medical Afflictions, Equality In Literature, Humour & Satire in Fiction / Non Fiction, Indie Author, Learning Difficulties, Memoir, Mental Health, Mental Illness, Modern Day, Mother-Daughter Relationships, Mother-Son Relationships, Motherhood | Parenthood, Non-Fiction, Post-911 (11th September 2001), Siblings, Special Needs Children, Vignettes of Real Life, Women's Health

Book Review | “Follow A Star” (Book No.2 of the Little Spitmarsh series) by Christine Stovell #ChocLitSaturdays

Posted Saturday, 21 April, 2018 by jorielov , , , 3 Comments

ChocLitSaturdays Banner Created by Jorie in Canva.

Why I feature #ChocLitSaturdays (book reviews & guest author features)
and created #ChocLitSaturday (the chat via @ChocLitSaturday):

I wanted to create a bit of a niche on Jorie Loves A Story to showcase romance fiction steeped in relationships, courtships, and the breadth of marriage enveloped by characters written honestly whose lives not only endear you to them but they nestle into your heart as their story is being read!

I am always seeking relationship-based romance which strikes a chord within my mind’s eye as well as my heart! I’m a romantic optimist, and I love curling into a romance where I can be swept inside the past, as history becomes lit alive in the fullness of the narrative and I can wander amongst the supporting cast observing the principal characters fall in love and sort out if they are a proper match for each other!

I love how an Indie Publisher like ChocLitUK is such a positive alternative for those of us who do not identify ourselves as girls and women who read ‘chick-lit’. I appreciate the stories which alight in my hands from ChocLit as much as I appreciate the inspirational romances I gravitate towards because there is a certain level of depth to both outlets in romance which encourage my spirits and gives me a beautiful story to absorb! Whilst sorting out how promote my book reviews on behalf of ChocLit, I coined the phrase “ChocLitSaturdays”, which is a nod to the fact my ChocLit reviews & features debut on ‘a Saturday’ but further to the point that on the ‘weekend’ we want to dip into a world wholly ideal and romantic during our hours off from the work week!

Coffee and Tea Clip Art Set purchased on Etsy; made by rachelwhitetoo.

Acquired Book By: I am a regular reviewer for ChocLitUK, where I hand select which books in either their backlist and/or current releases I would like to read next for my #ChocLitSaturdays blog feature. As of June 2016, I became a member of the ChocLit Stars Team in tandem with being on the Cover Reveal Team which I joined in May 2016. I reference the Stars as this is a lovely new reader contribution team of sending feedback to the publisher ahead of new book releases. As always, even if I’m involved with a publisher in this sort of fashion, each review is never influenced by that participation and will always be my honest impression as I read the story. Whether the author is one I have previously read or never had the pleasure to read until the book greets my shelf.

I received a complimentary copy of “Follow A Star” from ChocLit in exchange for an honest review! I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.

Coffee and Tea Clip Art Set purchased on Etsy; made by rachelwhitetoo.

Why I am enjoying my respite in Little Spitmarsh:

Not quite a village or hamlet, but in some ways it is both – if you consider how insular resorts can become when it feels like all of life is bubbling within it’s natural boundaries. I was quite delighted by the Prologue to cast a pointed eye on what Little Spitmarsh had been once in it’s heyday of popularity with visitors from away inasmuch as the cross-comparison of what it has become now; a sad remnant of it’s past. This is quite common I think, when urban and rural areas fall into decay from an absence of care – where it takes someone with vision to re-transitionalise the place into a new kind of beauty that will lure people back to a place they once knew. Although this isn’t merely a resort or a marina, it’s a small towne whose point of focus has fallen and whose re-development could change the way in which the townespeople will live in the future.

This felt like such an honest prospect of interest – right from the start – as who doesn’t like to see how developers with an eye for progress and a nod towards preserving certain bits of the past could lend a new lease of life on a place like Little Spitmarsh? Of course, that would be far too easy, of course! There was a small hinting of what would become fireworks (nearly certain!) lateron, as just because a land deal seems cut and dry on the offset doesn’t necessarily mean there aren’t hidden ‘obstacles’ that might test the patience of someone whose vision might be a bit misguided.

The scenery alone makes you hunger to visit this little niche of a small community if only for the pause of breath to drink in the natural joys you would be viewing. Stepping outside of civilisation where nature still had the larger bounty and has been allowed to thrive without too much interference are the places to cherish the most. They are kept away and hidden from the masses for a reason – to preserve what is able to be conserved. The book cover places you visually in the right kind of place that is being described inside the chapters as it truly is a place that hugs the water whilst ebbing you into a sync of natural harmony.

I liked too, how Ms Stovell has her own rhythm of threading a Contemporary with it’s own narrative pace and tone of telling a story set in such an interesting place. The setting and the vibe of the community have their own lifeblood in this Contemporary granting the reader a strong visual of not only the natural setting of how a harbour or seaside area can dictate but how a community is as quirky as it’s residents! The fuller personalities of how she rounded out her cast of characters and augmented such a normalcy out of the quirks of their everyday lives is part of what granted so much enjoyment to read the story! It’s truly a novel that paints it’s own portrait by how it’s writer chose to deliver it’s contents – loved her choices but also, the way in which she delves past the surface and digs in for the heartier story-line that is just bubbling under the drama.

-quoted from my review of Turning the Tide

I’ve taken my time to return back to Little Spitmarsh – I had aimed to continue my readings of this series closer to when I entered ‘Turning the Tide’, however, my own tides took me away from the series until now. Even over the past six weeks, where my health hasn’t been the best – I’ve had to put my ChocLit readings on hold, until I was in a better position to focus on reading again. One of the key issues was a relapse in my chronic migraines – I was able to handle listening to audiobooks here and there, but overall, reading and attempting to type on a screen was proving to be more than what I could handle.

There were a few moments where Twitter acted as a reprieve from my heath issues but even that has taken a bit of a backseat since my migraines resumed. I had planned to anchour April with a Georgette Heyer chat and a Women’s Fiction topical chat – however, just to return back into a ChocLit novel felt wonderful! I’ve also decided for the foreseeable future, the last two weekends of the month work best for me hosting @SatBookChat.

It is also coincidentally on the heels of helping to select the cover for the Little Spitmarsh novella “Moonbeams in a Jar”. Which I happily tweeted about previously as soon as I saw the release make it’s way into the twitterverse! Always a happy day celebrating a forthcoming release within a series you love reading!

Coffee and Tea Clip Art Set purchased on Etsy; made by rachelwhitetoo.

Notation on Cover Art: Little Spitmarsh is unique setting where the water, the tides and the small community round out the appeal of living there. I liked how this cover focused on sunset, as there is something quite special about the setting of the sun – of how even after hard days or the uncertainties of futures, seeing the sun set and rise is a lovely moment where you can draw a breath of serenity and simply appreciate the scenery for how the colours play against the natural landscape.

 Book Review | “Follow A Star” (Book No.2 of the Little Spitmarsh series) by Christine Stovell #ChocLitSaturdaysFollow A Star

Sometimes your heart’s the only navigator you need

May Starling’s had enough of her demanding career and even more demanding ex. Responding to a ‘crew-wanted’ ad, she follows her dreams of escape only to find herself at sea with red-haired Bill Blythe.

Bill warns May that close-quartered living can create a boiling pot of emotions, but even May is surprised by the heat building up inside the vintage wooden boat. And when May and Bill tie up at Watling’s Boatyard in Little Spitmarsh, May’s determined to test her new-found feelings on dry land.

But May’s dream of escaping her former life is in danger of being swept away when several unwelcome blasts from the past follow her ashore, all seemingly hell-bent on reminding her it’s never that easy to clear the decks.


Places to find the book:

Borrow from a Public Library

Add to LibraryThing

Find on Book Browse

Book Page on World Weaver Press

ISBN: 978-1781891360

on 1st July, 2014

Pages: 336

Published by: ChocLitUK (@ChocLituk)

Available Formats: Paperback, Audiobook, Large Print & E-Book

Order of Sequence of Little Spitmarsh series:

Turning the Tide by Christine StovellFollow a Star by Christine StovellMoonbeams in a Jar by Christine Stovell

Read my review of Turning the Tide

Read the Synopsis for Moonbeams in a Jar

Converse via: #Contemporary & #Romance + #ChocLit #LittleSpitmarsh

About Christine Stovell

Christine Stovell Photo Credit: Tim Jones

Winning a tin of chocolate in a national essay competition at primary school inspired Christine Stovell to become a writer! After graduating from University of East Anglia, she took various jobs in the public sector writing research papers and policy notes by day and filling up her spare drawers with embryonic novels by night.

Losing her dad to cancer made her realise that if she was ever going to get a novel published she had to put her writing first. Setting off, with her husband, from a sleepy seaside resort on the east coast in a vintage wooden boat to sail halfway round Britain provided the inspiration for her debut novel Turning the Tide and Follow a Star. Turning The Tide was a top 100 Bestseller with Amazon Kindle and spent months in the Top 10 Chart for Adult Contemporary Romance. Christine has also published numerous short stories and articles. Christine lives in Wales. Christine novels include: Turning The Tide, Move Over Darling and Follow a Star (July 2014).

Photo Credit: Tim Jones

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Posted Saturday, 21 April, 2018 by jorielov in #JorieLovesIndies, Bits & Bobbles of Jorie, Blog Tour Host, Britian, British Literature, ChocLitSaturdays, ChocLitUK, Debut Author, Debut Novel, England, Equality In Literature, Green-Minded Publishers, Indie Author, LGBTTQPlus Fiction | Non-Fiction, Modern British Author, Romance Fiction, Vulgarity in Literature

Audiobook Review | “Hell to Pay” (Book Four: the Kay Hunter Detective series) by Rachel Amphlett, narrated by Alison Campbell As this is the fourth and final Kay Hunter audio I have, there is an ache in my heart for having to leave on such a wrenching note as this but have a resolve of hope for what shall meet me in ‘Call to Arms’,…

Posted Thursday, 19 April, 2018 by jorielov , , , , 0 Comments

Audiobook Review Badge made by Jorie in Canva.

Acquired Audiobook By: I started to listen to audiobooks in [2016] as a way to offset my readings of print books whilst noting there was a rumour about how audiobooks could help curb chronic migraines as you are switching up how your reading rather than allowing only one format to be your bookish choice. As I found colouring and knitting agreeable companions to listening to audiobooks, I have embarked on a new chapter of my reading life where I spend time outside of print editions of the stories I love reading and exchange them for audio versions. Through hosting for the Audiobookworm I’ve expanded my knowledge of authors who are producing audio versions of their stories whilst finding podcasters who are sharing their bookish lives through pods (ie. AudioShelf and Talking Audiobooks; see my sidebar). Meanwhile, I am also curating my own wanderings in audio via my local library who uses Overdrive for their digital audiobook catalogue whilst making purchase requests for audio CDs. It is a wonderful new journey and one I enjoy sharing – I am hoping to expand the percentage of how many audios I listen to per year starting in 2018.

I received a complimentary audiobook copy of “Hell to Pay” via Audiobookworm Promotions who is working directly with the author Rachel Amphlett in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.

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What held me in the throes of “One to Watch” and why I was itching for the next novel:

I enjoyed watching Barnes and Kay sleuth together – they have a working partnership which aides them well on the job. Their bantering keeps the grim bits of their jobs at bay but it’s quite telling how comfortable they are with each other by how they work together to not just interview people interlinked to their investigations but how they brainstorm what they learn could lead their team towards understanding what went wrong in regards to the person who died. They each yield to each others’ strengths and make their hours go by easier for the understanding they share together. Their scenes have become some of my favourites, which worries me in some regards – as true to the nature of these kinds of stories, once you start to favour certain characters – their either the ones who are placed in danger or the ones who can become the ones you never should have trusted to begin with – ergo, I cautioned myself not to let anyone go overlooked as Kay continues to sort out who is conspiring against her; even Barnes!

There is so much anger percolating round the edges of One to Watch – where the parents are voicing their concerns with the kind of angered responses you’d expect them to have due to the circumstances but what was a bit muddling for Kay and her team to sort out who was involved and why this particular party was clouded over by a darkness of murder.

Larch isn’t my favourite character by half – not just because of his insistence of making Kay’s life harder through her continued persecution but because of his mannerisms and personality. He isn’t a team player, he likes to micromanage his team and you never feel he has trust in anyone under him. It leads to an uneasy tension between the detectives but also, for Kay to find her way forward when she’s constantly feeling she’s under the knife of his suspicious mind.

We gain more leverage into understanding Kay and Adam’s close relationship in their marriage by seeing his kindness for fixing the grave of their child. As this is a death they hadn’t prepared for happening and it was one which was somberly difficult to transition past, especially with the hangover effect of what Kay is facing at the precinct. Even after they decide to donate the clothes, you can feel the weight of their loss still being present in everything they do. They are allowing themselves the time to negotiate their grief, but as life rarely allows us to ‘take time off’ from everything else – it is in the background and foreground of all their hours.

The interesting bit for me was watching how this story developed mostly out of the investigation bits – of having to follow alongside the detectives as they did the grunt work, tried out leads which might have made sense in the moment of discovery but perhaps did not quite align in the end with the narrative of the crime. It is here, we start to see how Amphlett is building her world around Kay Hunter but also, of how due to her personal research, how she is opening up the components of being a detective like Kay Hunter is regulated through the proper order of how to investigate and what goes into following through with an investigation hinged to trace and forensic evidence.

She also only reveals ‘so much’ in regards to the furthering compounding conspiracy behind who is trying to destroy Kay Hunter – you aren’t sure what their motives are except that nothing is off the table for what they are willing to do in order to seek out new ways in which to give her a headache of adversity.

As you pull into this part of the series, you have to remain patient as it’s an overlay of the whole series – meaning, each installment draws both Kay Hunter and the reader one step closer to understanding the back-story of what is happening, but it’s the who, why and how which is being left open until what I presume is the conclusion of the series. I was slightly hoping it wouldn’t conclude the series – but perhaps offer a new arc of suspense to follow in it’s wake, or a redirection of purpose for all the characters involved. Similar to what they did after Rizzoli and Isles resolved their individual narrative arcs within Rizzoli & Isles.

Either way – these audiobooks narrated by Alison Campbell, truly are a reflection of the author’s agility in creating a believable world in which Kay Hunter is walking a tightrope between her civic duty as a detective and the vows she is committed to upholding to Adam. Somehow, I have a feeling she is going to have to make a choice between the two – the job or her husband, before someone else makes a choice she isn’t willing to make on her own. In this, Amphlett holds your attention to see how everything will come back round to centre, including how the supporting cast will either shock us or keep the traction we’re all presuming to be the course they are set to walk.

-quoted from my review of One to Watch

By the end of ‘One to Watch’, I was quite certain I was going to be moving into the harder bits of the character arc surrounding Kay Hunter. Everything was leading into this sequence of pulling back the layers of the conspiracy against her – whilst anchouring us directly into her working relationships with her team. It was there, I realised – depending upon how ‘Hell to Pay’ played out – I was either going to find myself treading water or finding myself able to swim.

There are portions of this series which are dearly beloved – especially in regards to adaptation on behalf of the work by Alison Campbell. Combined with the taut and authentic writing styling by Ms Amphlett – this series hugs close to it’s roots in a police procedural drama where an investigative team becomes an endearing part of your life during the hours in which you are following alongside their investigations. Yet, there are moments where you feel if you are quite prepared to go through all of their cases – as the darker shades of humanity are aptly explored, revealled and tackled from multiple points of view.

The key difference from the first novels in the series and the latter two I’ve been listening to is the absence of switching perspectives in tandem between Kay and her current ‘unknown’ villain. The focus is honed more into her team and the ways in which the team finds their rhythm with working with each other on the cases which make them feel restless in their off hours. These are the kinds of cases that are hard to shift out of one’s conscience and the hardest to resolve, even if you’re able to close the case.

I was hoping the bits of what I loved about the series would swing back into the central thread of the upcoming stories – where though terrifying gutting her job is there is a hopefulness about it as well – of how she is choosing to serve the dead and honour the lives lost. I was hopeful on the back half of the series – perhaps, even after the main obstacle is overturned (in regards to who is forcing Kay to remain on high alert) Kay can either make peace with the job itself or find a new path to pursue adjacent to being a detective. Perhaps a new beginning for her and Adam but still able to give her life in dedication in helping others overcome the worst bits of their lives?

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Audiobook Review | “Hell to Pay” (Book Four: the Kay Hunter Detective series) by Rachel Amphlett, narrated by Alison Campbell As this is the fourth and final Kay Hunter audio I have, there is an ache in my heart for having to leave on such a wrenching note as this but have a resolve of hope for what shall meet me in ‘Call to Arms’,…Hell to Pay

When a road traffic accident on a dark autumn night uncovers a disturbing conspiracy, Detective Sergeant Kay Hunter's investigation exposes a ruthless serial killer exploiting vulnerable young women.

With her enemies unmasked and her career spiraling out of control, Kay's determination to seek vengeance for the victims brings her dangerously close to those who want to silence her.

Undeterred, she uncovers the real reason behind a plot to destroy her career and sets in motion a terrifying chain of events.


Places to find the book:

Borrow from a Public Library

Add to LibraryThing

Find on Book Browse

ASIN: B079HQNK1Y

on 1st January, 2018

Length: 7 hours, 14 minutes (unabridged)

Published by: Saxon Publishing

Order of the Kay Hunter Detective series:
Scared to Death | Book One (see also Review)
Will to Live | Book Two (see also Review)
One to Watch | Book Three (see also Review)
Hell to Pay | Book Four
Call to Arms | Book Five | Synopsis

About Rachel Amphlett

Rachel Amphlettt

Before turning to writing, Rachel Amphlett played guitar in bands, worked as a TV and film extra, dabbled in radio as a presenter and freelance producer for the BBC, and worked in publishing as a sub-editor and editorial assistant.

She now wields a pen instead of a plectrum and writes crime fiction and spy novels, including the Dan Taylor espionage novels and the Detective Kay Hunter series.

Originally from the UK and currently based in Brisbane, Australia, Rachel cites her writing influences as Michael Connelly, Lee Child, and Robert Ludlum. She’s also a huge fan of Peter James, Val McDermid, Robert Crais, Stuart MacBride, and many more.

She’s a member of International Thriller Writers and the Crime Writers Association, with the Italian foreign rights for her debut novel, White Gold sold to Fanucci Editore's TIMECrime imprint, and the first four books in the Dan Taylor espionage series contracted to Germany’s Luzifer Verlag.

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Posted Thursday, 19 April, 2018 by jorielov in #JorieLovesIndies, 21st Century, Audiobook, Audiobookworm Promotions, Bits & Bobbles of Jorie, Blog Tour Host, Book Review (non-blog tour), British Literature, Crime Fiction, Death, Sorrow, and Loss, Debut Author, Debut Novel, Detective Fiction, England, Flashbacks & Recollective Memories, Good vs. Evil, Hard-Boiled Mystery, Indie Author, Lady Detective Fiction, Mental Health, Mental Illness, Modern Day, Mother-Son Relationships, Post-911 (11th September 2001), Psychological Suspense, PTSD, Realistic Fiction, Sociological Behavior, Trauma | Abuse & Recovery, True Crime