BOOK REVIEW: Girl Number One by Jane Holland

3/5 stars

Blurb:

As a young child, Eleanor Blackwood witnessed her mother's murder in woods near their farm. The killer was never found.

Now an adult, Eleanor discovers a woman's body in the same spot in the Cornish woods where her mother was strangled eighteen years before. But when the police get there, the body has disappeared.

Is Eleanor’s disturbed mind playing tricks on her again, or has her mother’s killer resurfaced? And what does the number on the dead woman’s forehead signify?

Review:

I really enjoyed the author's writing style. It was easy, gripping and always kept interesting, even when nothing major was happening. I did find it slowed a little in the middle but the beginning and the end kept me gripped. From about 70% onwards I read until the end.

Speaking of 70%, the sex scene at this point made me cringe a little bit. I found it a bit awkward and not brilliantly written. At one point the character describes them 'making love' later in the book, but at the time it seemed more like a quick hookup. I would have liked to have seen Eleanor choose a guy throughout the book, rather than flitting from one to the next.

The whole way through I was trying to guess who the murderer was, and I thought it was going to be predictable. I won't say who I thought it was because of spoilers but it wasn't who I thought it would be. While I liked the fact I didn't guess it, the reasoning behind it wasn't that solid. It seemed slightly far fetched an explanation but I don't suppose I'd know a better answer for it all.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. It wasn't the best thing I've ever read but it kept me entertained for a few days. It's not very often I read thriller genres so it was a good introduction. I might start to read this genre a little bit more now.

BOOK REVIEW: Thinner by Richard Bachman (Stephen King)

2/5 Stars Blurb: Billy Halleck, good husband and loving father, is both beneficiary and victim of the American good life: He has an expensive home, a nice family, and a rewarding career as a lawyer...but he is also fifty pounds overweight and edging into heart attack country. Review: I didn't even finish this book, because quite frankly, it was boring me, and there were more interesting things to spend my time reading.  Stephen King is regarded as one of the greatest horror writers of all time. I don't doubt that he has an excellent imagination, but I have something to say that will probably be considered controversial. I don't think I enjoy Stephen King books. He is great at ideas, yes, but the actual reading of his books bores me and I think I've just thought of why.  I don't relate to any of his characters. They haven't done anything for me to care about them or root for them. I didn't sit there reading thinner thinking 'aww I hope Billy Halleck doesn't die, I love him' or anything to that sentiment. I'm reading because I'm curious about the gypsy curse and if it's real and if it is, whether it will kill him.  If he does die, fair enough. I don't care enough about him to be devastated about it, and I think that's a sign of a bad book. Readers are supposed to care about the characters and I just don't. At this point someone just telling me the ending in bullet points would satisfy me, hence why I closed it and decided to read something else.

BOOK REVIEW: Twirling Naked in the Streets and No One Noticed: Growing Up With Undiagnosed Autism by Jeannie Davide-Rivera

5/5 Stars

Blurb: 

Jeannie grew up with autism, but no one around her knew it. Twirling Naked in the Streets will take you on a journey into the mind of a child on the autism spectrum; a child who grows into an adolescent, an adult, and becomes a wife, mother, student, and writer with autism. 

This is a gripping memoir of a quirky, weird, but gifted child who grows up never quite finding her niche. It took 38 years to discover that all the issues, problems, and weirdness she experienced were because she had Asperger's Syndrome (AS), a form of high-functioning autism.

Review: 

I read this book in a day and a half. I don't think I've ever read a book so quickly in my life! While I suppose it could be partly due to having a new Kindle, it is also definitely the book itself. 

I have worked with people with Autism in my professional life, and so I wasn't completely unaware of the classic symptoms and traits. However, to see these come to life from a perspective of somebody with Autism, it was insightful. 

Jeannie grew up not knowing about Autism. It was a time when it wasn't widely known or diagnosed and she was seen, even by her own parents, as naughty, or spoilt, or a 'princess'. They didn't understand her stimming behaviours, the need to smell her food before she ate it, or why she was so choosy about which materials her clothes were made out of. 

Even when she was an adult, Jeannie was misdiagnosed with depression and anxiety, even Bipolar, before they came to the conclusion that she in fact, has Asperger's Syndrome. She was failed by society and her parents as a child, and then failed by her doctors as an adult. 

I can't imagine how difficult life must have been for Jeannie not understanding her own behaviours and finding the world confusing with no answers. I teared up toward the end of the book when she finally got her diagnosis, because finally she had some answers. 

I loved this book, because it's one thing to know about Autism but it's another to see it from the eyes of an Autistic person. Insight is useful to us all. 

Watty's Award and Facebook Page

I was absolutely shocked to hear I won a Watty award this year. Over 80,000 titles were entered so to come away with one is absolutely amazing. I love my Wattpad readers!

The award was a hot genre award for Urban fiction. I always considered my book to have a secondary sub genre of urban fiction, leaving the overriding story to romance, but I guess it can really be both. Either way, I'm thrilled. I even got a sticker put onto my existing cover (below)

In other news, I have a new author page on Facebook. If you get a spare second, please like the page to show your support. Many thanks.

P.S - Hope everyone is ready for Christmas!

https://www.facebook.com/GeorgiaPayneAuthor

BOOK REVIEW: This Would Be Paradise by N.D Iverson

                                       

4.5/5 Stars

Blurb:
In a world where a virus has spread turning most of the population into flesh eating monsters, there are two friends partying it up in New Orleans when the infection hits. Far away from home, they are trapped and trying to make sense of all that has happened with the help of new friends and enemies along the way. Zombies aren't the only thing to fear...

Review: 

Where do I start with this? 

On the whole, I shouldn't have liked this book that much. It was a zombie story, something I'm not that keen on anyway and it was also pretty cliche. I mean, we've all seen end of the world, zombie apocalypse stories done time and time again. 

In saying all that, I loved this book! The characters were very relatable and real, and the story had me hooked at almost all points. 

There were even points where it could have been predictable where the author changed it around. For example, I was 99% sure there was going to be a romance element with one of the 3 guys. Though there was a tiny glimmer, it didn't work out that way. 

Honestly, I would have awarded this book 5 stars. The only things that brought it down a little for me was the fact that the story wasn't the most original and that it didn't wrap up at the end. It's going to be a sequel. I would have liked to see it finish on one book. 

4 Copies of 'Synergy' to Giveaway!

In 7 days time, my GoodReads giveaway will be LIVE, and you will have chance to win 1 of 4 free copies of my debut paperback. The giveaway is available to anybody based in the US, UK, Canada and Germany.

 
 

    Goodreads Book Giveaway
 

   

       
   

   

     

          Synergy
     
     

          by Georgia  Payne
     

     

         
            Giveaway ends November 11, 2015.
         
         
            See the giveaway details
            at Goodreads.
         
     
   
   

    Enter Giveaway

A Musing On Genre

One thing that I've noticed when it comes to my book 'Synergy' is that people often comment 'It's not what I would usually read', or 'it's not what I expected.' These are all genuine comments from people who have or ARE reading the book and are enjoying it. Which begs the question, why wouldn't they have usually picked it up, and furthermore, why do they end up enjoying it?

I think it all comes down to genre. This has been a big area of debate in my own mind when I started writing/selling, because I feel like the Synergy series, primarily the first book, falls into a few different categories, or should I say, is borderline.

In some respects it's a romance. That is, after all, the overall theme of the story. It follows two people who end up in a romantic relationship. However, there is a lot more background involved other than the romance. A lot of people have added my book to their bookshelves labelled 'Urban.' Even Wattpad Romance put my book into an 'urban' category. So what does this mean? It's an Urban Romance? Because I've never personally seen that option anywhere.

I changed the genre on Wattpad from 'Romance' to 'General Fiction' because I felt like there was too much going on to label the book JUST a romance, but maybe I'm reading too much into it. Maybe I'm overthinking this whole thing, or maybe, just maybe, some books can't be categorised into one 'box' or 'genre.' Maybe some books can be borderline genres.