Emma's Bookish Lifestyle

Fire Damage by Kate Medina My rating: 3 of 5 stars This is a psycholigical thriller kindly received from Netgalley for a fair and honest review. Jessie is a psychologist working within the Army when she is asked to council a disturbed 4 year old boy after his father returns from Afghanistan with severe burns. Sami refers to himself as "The Girl" and is in constant fear of "The Shadowman", could this be his father? Ben Callen is a former patient of Jessie and MP investigating a death in Afghanistan when his case converges with Jessie's. This book jumps in feet first with its plot based character development and with the initial introduction draws you in with your concern for Sami, the tension building with each new turn of events. Although this book was easy to read it did feel at times formulaic and somewhat lacking in originality (especially for the beginning of a new series). I often wonder why these types of books have to b...

The Fatal Tree by Jake Arnott My rating: 4 of 5 stars This book is based on real life characters of the 18th Century. Elizabeth Lyon "Edgeware Bess" is portrayed with a fictional backstory however, she was indeed a prostitute and a thief during these times in London and was well acquainted with the Black Lion Pub, Jonathan Wild "The Thief Taker" and Jack Sheppard. Jonathan Wild was notorious for working both sides of the law and eventually was handed over by his own men for his duplicity. Jack Sheppard grew up in a workhouse with his mother after his fathers death before taking on an apprenticeship in his fathers trade of Carpentry. What is unique about this book is the language, the back of the book has a useful glossary of terms for the slang used however, I found it extremely easy to work out the meanings and it never stopped or stilted the path of the story. The story itself is based around actual events noted in the archives ...

The Night Watch by Sarah Waters My rating: 3 of 5 stars First of all I would like to begin by saying I enjoyed Sarah Walters writing style and the format in which she wrote this plot backwards from the end to the beginning, the descriptive prose made you feel part of the atmosphere of the story. The only thing I struggled with was the pacing of the story, for me I much preferred the pace of the third and final part of the book, at times throughout the rest of the book I felt I had to compel myself to return back to it. The main characters left me feeling somewhat flat and lacked a personality within their roles of the story which meant at times it was hard to empathise with the circumstances they were finding themselves in. There were a number of areas however, that did interest me and which I wish had been looked into with more depth. I enjoyed the bits involving Kay's involvement in the Ambulance Service during the bombings of London, I actuall...