Now before I announce the winners there is just one small
adjustment I need to make. The fourth prize (50 Books to read before you die
bookmark) has been replaced by a copy of Animal Farm by George Orwell. I had to
change it because I could find the bookmark anywhere and thought Animal Farm
would be a great substitute!
Anyway onto the winners! Thanks to everyone who entered, congratulations
to the winners and commiserations to all those who didn’t win.
1.One Amazon.co.uk £10 gift voucher- Book Shelf Central
2.Sworn Sword and The Splintered Kingdom by James
Aitcheson- Billy Lyons
3.The Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien- Josh Hardy
4.
Animal Farm, George Orwell- Pearl
Wilson
5.75g tube of sweets + Lego Minifigure- Jon-Paul Coyne
6.The Curious Case of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark
Haddon- Lisa Cooke
7.75g tube of sweets- Kim Renshaw
8.The Silmarillion, J. R. R. Tolkien- Sam Wilkinson
9.Fatherland, Robert Harris- Finley Harnet
10.75g tube of sweets- Lucy Jordan
If you guys could e-mail me your
addresses to adampreviews@gmail.com
I’ll get your prizes sent off as soon as possible! Thanks again to everyone who
entered! I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!
Today's the last chance to enter my Happy Booking Christmas Competition! There are ten prizes up for grabs including a £10 Amazon.co.uk! If you'd like to enter click on the link here.
Clifton Falls in a small rural town in Yorkshire where
nothing much happens. The economy of the town is based on farming and one of
the town’s most well-known farmers is Blake. Farming is not an easy game and Blake
needs to find a new way to increase his yearly yield and protect his crops from
a menacing insect that is poised to destroy them. Blake comes across a new fertiliser
that is designed to kill these bugs and help his crops grow. He manages to
secure the first batch of fertiliser that is released for public use and
spreads it on his vast crops and fields. Blake even gives some of the fertiliser
to his wife’s boss Vincent, so he can use it on his garden. Vincent has been putting off doing the
gardening. His mother died recently and her final wish was to be buried in the
garden of the house that she had lived in (the house in which Vincent now owns!).
Even now after a few months, Vincent is still freaked out that his mother is buried
in the garden! Nevertheless, Vincent finally plucks up the courage and uses the
fertiliser to try and reinvigorate the plants he has recently being neglecting.
Unluckily for Vincent, his hard work does not pay off as a storm washes away
most of the fertiliser whilst the rest just soaks into the soil.
What Blake and Vincent don’t realise is that the fertiliser
contains a dangerous chemical called Moltovenium. When this new chemical comes
into contact (with the help of the storm) with dead cells, it reanimates them
causing the corpse to come back to life! What’s even worse is that the newly
revived bodies come back to life with a hunger for human flesh and will do
anything to get it! One of the first zombies to rise is Vincent’s mother and unfortunately
for Vincent and his wife, the reunion is not a happy one.
With the zombie epidemic in full flow, the local police
force is tasked with keeping the virus inside Clifton Falls and preventing it from
spreading to the local city. But when the fertiliser washes down to the local cemetery,
the task is made much, much harder as a dozen new ghouls are brought back to
life. The fate of human kind is held in the hands of the local Police Chief Mike,
but this fate does not look good with these cunning and devious zombies out on
the hunt!
I really enjoyed reading Clifton
Falls! I have never really read a horror book before but have always wanted
to. I think that is because there are so many good horror books out there and I
never knew where to start. I’m glad I waited and luckily read Clifton Falls because it was such a good
read! I really liked how the novel was set in a small town, which I thought
made the book and the reactions of the characters much more believable. I also
liked the fact that the book wasn’t over gory on the zombie killing front. I think,
especially in films and games, the zombie genre sometimes ends up more about
the killing and violence instead of actually sticking to the story of the
epidemic and the characters. I think Taylor did a great job of telling the
story with some gory scenes, which made the book really interesting and thrilling
to read. There was also some humour in the novel. This further made it exciting
to read and helped balance the book from it just been a horror novel and again
made it much more believable.
However, I did have one little issue with the book and that
was when the characters (especially the police officers) came across a zombie.
They would nearly always be sneaked up on, go to get their gun out, fail to
shot and then be attacked. It sort of made me think ‘Just shoot it!’ but
instead they’d stand there looking at it! I just thought that if I was in that
situation I’d either run or shoot, whereas most of the officers just stood
there!
Nevertheless, this was just a small issue and all in all I
really enjoyed the book! I would like to say a massive thank you to Lee Taylor
for getting in touch and being patient with my review! I’d suggest this book to
anyone who enjoys reading horror novels or to anyone who is a fan of movies like
Dawn of the Dead or Resident Evil.
P.S. Don’t forget to enter my Happy Booking ChristmasCompetition for your chance to win a FREE £10 Amazon.co.uk gift voucher and some other bookish treats! For more information on how to enter the competition please click here.
A life of
crime is a circle that is hard to break. This is especially true for Harry; who
having just been released from prison and surviving cancer is hoping to get his
life on the straight and narrow. However, fate is not on Harry’s side and when he
is asked to become a police informer, Harry's life radiates back towards crime.
Harry
becomes the head of the local gang in Barton; a town in Lincolnshire in the
north of England. As the new leader of the gang, Harry has to deal with the
problems left from his predecessor. The main issue is the rival Polish gang
that operates in Barton. The Poles have started to smuggle weapons into England
which they then plan to sell on to gangs in Italy and Tunisia. Harry’s gang
manages to steal one of these shipments and plans to sell the weapons on for a
nice profit. However, the Polish gang also has a new, ruthless leader; Kudron
Overbury. Overbury is placed at the head of the gang by his superiors in
Warsaw. He is tasked with getting back the stolen arms and is willing to do
anything to achieve this goal.
Overbury
has an obsession with killing Harry and has numerous cunning and violent plans
on how he will do this, even using Harry’s family to draw him into a trap! But,
will Overbury's obsession meet fruition or will Harry lead his gang and his
family to safety?
I really
enjoyed this book. I really liked the grungy feeling that surrounds the gang
and the violence that occurs in the book. It really shows the extreme measures
that Harry and Overbury have to take to secure their dominance in the town,
which makes the criminal underworld in the book seem much more believable. I
also liked the fact that the book was based in Lincolnshire. This is because I
live quite close to some of the places the book is based in (like Whitby) so it
was really easy for me to visualise many of the events in the novel and to some
extent I could relate to some scenes in the book (which I loved!). However, I did feel
that there were some editorial issues with grammar, but I think the story
really makes up for this because it is fast paced and exciting to read!
All in
all this was a good read that I really enjoyed! I would suggest this book to anyone
who likes a good crime, thriller or drama novel and if like me, you live near
the area the book is based in it should really appeal to you!
P.S. Don’t forget to enter my Happy Booking ChristmasCompetition for
your chance to win a FREE £10 Amazon.co.uk gift voucher and some other
bookish treats! For more information on how to enter the competition
please click here.
It’s finally here! (Well it should be if I’ve got my timing right!) Today is the 13th December 2012 and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has been released in British cinemas! I’ve been looking forward to this film since the day I heard Peter Jackson was making it! To celebrate the release of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, I decided that I would review the book (I actually read the book a few months ago but I thought I’d save my review until today!). I think this is the only book I’ve ever read more than once. I remember being in primary school and my teacher reading The Hobbit to the whole class and ever since then it has been one of my all-time favourites! So here we go, here’s my review. I won’t say too much about the plot because most of you will already know what happens! (And I don’t want to spoil the film!)
Bilbo Baggins is a shy Hobbit who enjoys peace and quiet in his own company. However, when the mischievous wizard Gandalf the Grey turns up at Bilbo’s door, his peaceful and quite life will be changed forever! Gandalf asks Bilbo to accompany him and thirteen Dwarves on a quest to reclaim the Dwarf’s old home of Erebor and recover their lost treasure that is hidden there. However, what Bilbo isn’t told is that a huge and vicious Dragon called Smaug lives in The Lonely Mountain which Erebor is built in to. To make things worse for Bilbo, it will be his job as the thief to sneak past Smaug and steal the treasure he is sleeping on. However, Bilbo is aided in his task with a small ring which he manages to find in the dark, damp lair of Gollum; deep under the Misty Mountains. Bilbo tricks Gollum with the riddle; ‘what have I got in my pocket’ and manages to escape the Mountains with his life and The Ring. The Ring has the power to make Bilbo invisible, but will this be enough to get him past the cunning Smaug? Will Bilbo become the hero and capture the treasure; will the Dwarves regain their homeland? You’ll just have to read the book (or watch the films) to find out!
Like I said, this is one of my favourite books and it opened me up to the wonderful world J. R. R. Tolkien creates in his epic fantasy series. After reading some early reviews of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, it seems like Jackson has drawn out the film somewhat by adding parts from some of Tolkien’s other books based in Middle-Earth. For me, I think this is great because it adds parts from books that will probably never be made into a movie, because they are either not finished or not well known enough to be made into a film. However, I can see why some people might be annoyed by this because the film is meant to be based on The Hobbit and not other books like Unfinished Tales. Nevertheless, I still think the movies are going to be great, even if they are three hours long (each!).
So there you go, that’s my quick review of The Hobbit and my thoughts on the film. I’m actually going to see the movie tomorrow so I may post a review of the film as well as the book. Please tell me what you thought of the book and the film. Which parts you like/didn’t like and why in the comments below.
I would suggest this book to anyone who is a Tolkien or Lord of the Rings fan. Also if you enjoy reading fantasy books then you should definitely read The Hobbit, it’s like the Godfather of them all!
The winner of my November Book of the Month Competition is… Tony Cordwell! Congradulations Tony, I’ll get Sword and Scimitar sent to you as soon as possible! If you could just e-mail me your details at adampreviews at(@) gmail dot(.) com (I’m spelling it out so I don’t get spammed!).
Thanks to everyone who entered, sorry to all of those who didn’t win, better luck next time. Please remember to enter my Happy Booking Christmas giveaway where you could win a £10 Amazon gift voucher and some other epic bookish prizes. For more info on how to enter click here.
Before I start my review, I have a quick confession to make… I didn’t actually read this book! A few weeks ago I signed up to Audible, which as most of you will know, is an audiobook website. For signing up I got a free download (which I thought was great). After searching through Audible’s extensive library, I finally chose to download Dominion by C. J. Sansom. I chose this book because I am a massive fan of C. J. Sansom and because Dominion is quite a long book and I wouldn’t have had time to read it! I have to say that I was really pleased with my download. The novel is narrated beautifully by Daniel Weyman, who does an excellent job of narrating the various characters’ voices. I thought this really gave depth to the novel and made listening to the audiobook such an enjoyable experience. Anyway, I’m glad I got that off my chest! Let’s get on with the review.
The book is based in an alternative history where Winston Churchill gives up his claim to become the British Prime Minister when Neville Chamberlain steps down from the position in 1940. Because Churchill was not there to push the war effort, Britain surrenders to Germany after the failed Dunkirk campaign and becomes a close ally to the Germans. Also, because of politics in America, the U.S. does not enter the war with Germany, leaving the Germans to sure up their Western front and focus all of their military forces against the Russians.
Twelve years after the defeat at Dunkirk, Britain looks a very different place. Churchill and his anti-fascist supporters have gone into hiding forming ‘The Resistance’, which aims to remove the German hands that are poised around Britain’s throat. Meanwhile, with the support of the Nazis, a fascist government is set up in Britain which aims to copy the totalitarian state of Germany. In amongst this political and social turmoil there is David, a civil service worker who works in the Dominions office. After the death of his son and the ever growing presence of the Nazis in British politics, David becomes a member of The Resistance and passes information onto the Resistance from the Dominions office. However, David’s position in The Resistance becomes much more important. News arrives that one of his old University friends my hold information which could aid the Nazis. David is tasked with getting his friend (Frank) out of the mental hospital he is currently living in and has to transport him safely out of the UK.
However, the task is made much harder by a German policeman called Gunther Hoth. Gunther is on the tail of Frank and suspects that his secret may be about the American Nuclear Program, which the Germans are desperate to get their hands on! The chase and flight of Frank and David is gripping! But who will succeed? Will the Germans gain the A-Bomb and finish their war with Russia or will David and Frank get away?
As you could probably guess from above; I thought this book was amazing. I love C. J. Sansom and am so glad he released this book because I love these alternative history novels. I would suggest this book to anyone who liked Sansom’s other 20th century novel; Winter in Madrid or to anyone who is a fan of Robert Harris’s book Fatherland (which I’m giving away btw). Also, if you have any interest in this period of history, I think you’d really enjoy this book!
P.S. Don’t forget to enter my Happy Booking ChristmasCompetition for your chance to win a FREE £10 Amazon.co.uk gift voucher and some other bookish treats! For more information on how to enter the competition please click here.
Hey guys, don't forget to enter my Happy Booking Christmas Competition and you could win a FREE £10 Amazon gift voucher and some other great prizes. Check out the video below to find out how to enter!
For my Facebook click here and for my original post click here.
Hey guys. Some of you might remember that I posted a review of Wolf Dawnby Susan Cartwright the other week and said that I was not a fan of the cover.
Well....
Susan e-mailed me with her new cover, here it is!
I think the new cover looks great! It really shows what the book is about with the spaceship crashing onto a foreign world. It also clearly defines the book as a sci-fi novel which I didn't think the old cover did.
But what do you think, let me know in the comments below and go and check out Susan's great book at Amazon.co.uk
Based in the near future, set in the two great cities of
Dubai and Abu Dhabi, Psychs tells the
story of Hassan, a man with a unique gift. Hassan has eight spiritual guardians
who protect him throughout his life. One of them is his mother Sara and the
other seven are U.S. soldiers who died in the attempt of protecting Sara from
Iraqi soldiers during the First Gulf War. The ghosts protect Hassan as he grows
from a boy into a man and guide him throughout his life in Abu Dhabi and his
days as a student in Liverpool.
However, the ghosts also teach him some of their own skills
that give Hassan an edge. These include first aid, martial arts and other techniques
that the ghosts learned during their time in the U.S. army. Hassan believes
that the ghosts were sent to protect him for a reason and that with this gift,
he can do real good in the world. Hassan decides to use his guardians and the
skills they have taught him to become a vigilantly and help stop bad people
from operating in his city. However, when an international terrorist organisation
plans to destroy parts of Abu Dhabi and Dubai, Hassan soon finds that he is in
over his head. He will need help not just from his ghosts, but also from a former
U.S. Seal to overcome this threat!
Although I did enjoy the story behind this book, I did have some issues with it. The first of these was A.H. Amin’s style
when writing. At times, it really confused me. I found the grammar in the book hard
to read and in some parts; it just did not make sense! For me, this made the
book really hard to get into because sometimes you’d have to stop and re-read
the sentences to understand what was been said/meant. At first, I thought the grammar
was unintentional, but after reading some other reviews of Psychs, I discovered that other people enjoyed this style. I don’t
know if it was me or if Amin’s writing style went totally over my head, but I just
couldn’t get into the book as much as I usually would.
Another problem I had was the dialogue between Hassan and
the ghosts. I found it difficult to follow what was been said by them and who
said it because the characters were so similar. The ghosts were also always
chopping and changing between who went to scout, or who was communicating
between Hassan and another ghost or who was watching the bad guys. This further
confused me when trying to picture which ghost was where! Plus, when you add in
the fact that I was having problems following the story anyway, this issue made
it even harder to get into the book!
I know it probably sounds like I’m making this book sound totally
unappealing but I am giving an honest review and these were the problems I had
with it. Of course, there were parts of the books I enjoyed. I really liked the
idea of the ghosts and them teaching Hassan their skills and him using them for
the greater good. I also liked that the fact that it was set in the UAE, because
it was refreshing reading a book that was not based in Britain or America. But
most of all I really liked Adam’s story; I just wish Amin did a better job
putting that story across to me!
Overall, I did enjoy the book but couldn’t get into it
because of how it was written. I would suggest this book to anyone who enjoys
these sorts of paranormal thriller novels. If you would like to purchase a copy
of this novel, it is available on Kindle at Amazon.co.uk or for Kobo click here.
P.S. Don’t forget to enter my Book of the Month Competition for your chance to win a FREE copy of the Sword and Scimitar by Simon Scarrow! To enter, just follow the instructions on this post and for more information click here.
Hello everyone! There’s only about six weeks left until
Christmas day and it got me thinking ‘I should do something special for all of
you guys’. As some of you know, I have been blogging now for over one year! I
wanted to do something special on that anniversary but because of university
deadlines and other commitments I didn’t have the time to do it. Anyway, as
part of that celebration and because it’s Christmas, I am going to do a massive
give away where ten of you could win one of ten Christmas presents including books,
sweets and a £10 Amazon gift card for absolutely FREE! Here are the prizes you
could win:
1.One Amazon.co.uk £10 gift voucher.
2.Sworn Sword and The Splintered Kingdom by James
Aitcheson
3.The Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien
4.50 Books to Read Before You Die Book Mark.
5.75g tube of sweets
6.The Curious Case of the Dog in the Night-Time,
Mark Haddon
7.75g tube of sweets
8.The Silmarillion, J. R. R. Tolkien
9.Fatherland, Robert Harris
10.75g tube of sweets
If you would like the chance to win a FREE £10 Amazon
voucher or one of these other great prizes then all you have to do is go to my Facebook page and ‘like’ it. Once you have liked it, please leave me a quick
comment on my wall telling me you would like to enter this Christmas
competition. If you have already liked my Facebook page all you have to do is
leave me a comment saying you would like to enter J
The winners will be chosen my putting all the entrants’
names into a hat and picking the names out one at a time. The first named
picked out will win the 10th Prize (75g tube of sweets) and the last
name picked out will win the 1st prize (£10 Amazon gift voucher). I
will make a video of the winners been chosen and post it on my YouTube channel
on Christmas Eve (24th December). I will announce the winners on my
blog, Facebook page and the prizes will be posted as soon as the Post Offices
have re-opened after Christmas.
I must stress that the competition is only open for people LIVING IN THE U.K. I’m afraid it would
cost me too much to send the prizes abroad.
Thanks for taking the time to check out my post. If you have
any questions then just let me know J
Good luck to anyone who enters and have a great Christmas.
Hundreds of centuries in the future, where humans have conquered
and settled the galaxy, Wolf Dawn tells
the tale of Ashton Chayton; the Prince of Delian. Delian was one of the first
planets in the galaxy to become colonised by the human race. Because of this
fact, the long period of habitation there has given the Delians a unique
evolutionary gift, the ability to mind-touch. Mind-touch lets Delians read
another being’s mind and for a time, lets them jump into that being’s body and
become them. However, the gift is also a curse on the Delians as the evil and
cunning Admiral Neopol Jones and his overlord John Andros attack Delian in an attempt
to exterminate the Delian race because of this unique gift!
Luckily, Ash’s father, the King of Delian, mind-touches
Neopol Jones and discovers his plans. The King smuggles Ash and his mother off
Delian in an attempt to save his life and in an attempt to save the Delian
race. They make it just in time and escape into space. However, this is only
the first trail in young Ashton’s life. The death of his home world will plague
him for the rest of his life. Ash’s need for revenge will see him grow older and
stronger in the hopes of killing the man who was wrongly accused of destroying
Delian; Larren Forseth. But during that time, Ash will learn to control his
gift and find love as he tries to answer the many questions asked about his
past and his future.
This book was amazing, but I must confess that when I
picked it up to read I didn’t think it was going to be as good as it was. I don’t
know why, but I got the feeling the book was going to be about werewolves! I
think the front cover threw me a little bit. However, when I started reading it, I
was pleasantly and excitingly surprised to find that it was an epic sci-fi
novel and I mean it was really epic! From the first page, I was hooked! I love
Ashton as a character. He is so vulnerable at the start of the book but he
grows to become the hero he is destined to be!
I also loved the detail Susan Cartwright puts into the book.
At the top of each chapter there is a short verse giving some context to the
themes that happen in the chapter. I thought it was great how Cartwright used
these to subtly give some more depth to her universe by giving the reader a
little bit of history to help explain events in the book.
What I will say is that there are some weird parts to the
book like Ash mind-touching a man who is making love to his mother! It may seem
a bit of a strange topic, but stick with it because it is a crucial part in
explaining what Ash’s motives and goals are and why he is the way he is.
Overall, this book was great and is by far one of the best
books I’ve read this year. I think I liked it so much because it was not what I
was expecting. Also, I was already looking for a sci-fi epic to read and Wolf Dawn really fits the bill!
I’d like to say a massive thank you to Susan Cartwright for
getting in touch and introducing me to her wonderful work, I can’t wait to get
my hands on the next book in the series Wolf
Revenge! I would suggest this book to anyone who is a sci-fi lover! If you would like to purchase this novel, it is available in both paperback and for Kindle at Amazon.co.uk.
P.S. Don’t forget to enter my Book of the Month Competition for your chance to win a FREE copy of the Sword and Scimitar by Simon Scarrow! To enter, just follow the instructions on this post and for more information click here.
A man, with a
mysterious past and an attitude for violence, From Man to Man tells the short tale of Draven Reinhardt. After
giving up his old life as a ‘Merc’, Draven retires to a small village with his
woman in the hope of living out a simple, peaceful life. What he doesn’t know
is that the life of an average villager is hard and good wages aren’t easy to
come by. With the desire to earn more money, Draven grudgingly takes on an easy
job that brings him back into his old life. With his trusty axe and his friend
Shrike, Draven sets out on his mission to escort the local tax collector to the
village. He soon finds out that the job isn’t as easy as it seems but as Draven
says ‘Any coin’s a coin’.
This was a great book. The story had me from the start and I
really liked the character of Draven. He has a dark past, is quick to temper
and is funny at the same time, which for me is an ideal character. The only
problem I had was the length of the story, it was only twenty-five pages long
and by the end, I wanted to just keep on reading! Luckily for me, David E. M.
Emrys is writing a full-length novel based around Draven and I can’t wait to
read it!
If you would like to buy this novel, it is available at Amazon.co.uk and for author’s official website click here.
P.S. Don’t forget to enter my Book of the Month Competition for your chance to win a FREE copy of the Sword and Scimitar by Simon Scarrow! To enter, just follow the instructions on this post and for more information click here.
Simon Scarrow is back with his brand new novel the Sword and Scimitar! The book is based
around the Ottoman/Turk invasion of Malta in 1565 and tells the tale of an English
Knight called Thomas. Thomas is part of the Templar Order of St. John that has
its base on Malta. However, as a young man Thomas is exiled from the order
because of a love affair he has with a young noble woman who is in the Order’s protection.
Thomas returns home
to England and lives out the next twenty years of his life on his small land
holding. But, one day a French Knight turns up at Thomas’s farm with a summons
from the Order’s new leader, telling Thomas to return to Malta to help fight
off the imminent Ottoman threat. He decides that he will return to Malta, but
not to help fight the Turks, but in the vain hope that his love (Maria) will
still be there. Unluckily for Thomas, the French Knight has been noticed by the
authorities in London and Thomas has to travel there to explain why a Catholic,
French Knight has been in correspondence with a Catholic English Knight, in
what is now a Protestant Kingdom. Thomas is confronted by Robert Cecil and
explains about his summons back to the Order. Cecil seizes this opportunity and
sets Thomas a mission to receive an important document that was lost in Malta
with the death of Henry VIII. To aid him in this mission, Cecil sends one of
his best agents called Richard to act as Thomas’s squire and to look for the document. What Thomas
and Richard don’t know is that their coming together is not a coincidence, but
part of a thorough plan of the Queen of England’s spymaster.
When the duo reaches Malta, they soon discover that finding
the document is the least of their worries. They will have to fight the hardest
battle of their lives to help the small Christian garrison stem the flow of the
Ottoman horde that looks to conquer the whole of Europe! Plus, enemies within
the Order of St. John will make it harder for Richard to find the document and
Thomas to find Maria.
This was an excellent book from Simon Scarrow and shed some
light on a period of history that I was not that familiar with, but which
defined the era of conflict between Christianity and Islam. The story was also
interesting because it told the tale of a Catholic Knight living in Elizabethan
England. It showed the dual loyalties to both the crown and the church which
many Catholics had, but which over the centuries were discriminated against
because they were seen (by Protestants) as been only loyal to the Pope. The
story of the siege was also brilliant and extremely detailed, telling of the
new war techniques, which both sides used as warfare moved away from sword,
shield and bow, to gun, cannon and pike.
However, I did have one issue with this book and that was
the ending; it seemed to drag! I personally think if Scarrow ended the book a
hundred pages earlier then it would have been much better. I thought the last
hundred pages really didn’t need to be there, it sort of reminded me of a movie
when it cuts to black and you think ‘that’s the ending’ but then it goes on for
another thirty minutes which doesn’t really need to be there.
Nevertheless, I did enjoy the book and would suggest it to
any Simon Scarrow fans. I would also suggest it to fans of C. J. Sansom’s Shardlake series because they are both
set in the Tudor period and both revolve around a mystery.
P.S. Don’t forget to enter my Book of the Month Competition for your chance to win a FREE copy of this book!. To enter, just follow the instructions on this post and for more information click here.
Wow I can't believe it's already November! Where has this year gone? What's even weirder is that today is adam-p-reviews' first anniversary! It was exactly one year today that I posted my first ever post 'My First Post: About me' and I'd like to say a massive thank you to all of you that have read my posts, liked my pages and commented on my reviews, you guys are the best!
Anyway moving onto the Competition! This month's Book of the Month is Simon Scarrow's brand new novel the Sword and Scimitar. Now, as I'm sure some of you are aware, I haven't actually finished or reviewed the Sword and Scimitar yet (I've about one hundred pages to go)! Nevertheless, the book so far has been brilliant and it has just been released so I think it would make a brilliant prize to any of you hisfic fans out there, and you can win it for FREE! The review for Sword and Scimitaris now up on my blog!
All you have to do is click on this link to my Facebook page, ‘like’ my page and then write a comment saying you would like to enter the competition. If you are not on Facebook but are a member of Blogger, you can enter the competition by following my Blog directly through Blogger by clicking on the ‘join this site’ button on the right hand side of the page. Remember it’s FREE to enter and it will not cost you a penny to get the book in the post. So why not have a go? You could win an excellent novel for absolutely FREE!
Good luck to everyone that enters, I hope you’ll have as much fun with the competition as I will. I’ll be choosing the winner on the 3oth November . For further details on the competition such as how the winner will be chosen and how the winner will be announced please click here.
And the winner of my October Book of the Month Competition is... Billy Lyons! Congratulations Billy I hope you enjoy Prince of Thorns it is an amazing book! If you could just e-mail me your details at adampreviews@gmail.com and then I can send your prize off as soon as possible!
Thanks to everyone that entered, sorry to all of you that didn't win, better luck next time. November's Book of the Month will be Simon Scarrow's brand new novel Sword and Scimitar (review of which will be up shortly) so why not enter for that competition?
Sins of the Father tells
two tales that are separated by centuries of time but become linked with one
little boy. The first tale is that of a young boy living in England during some
point in the early medieval period. The boy is an orphan who lives within a monastery.
The people who put him there hoped he would gain an education and become
someone great. What they didn’t know is that the monastery is run by a group of
sadist monks who love to inflict pain on the poor boy by giving him nightly whippings!
The second tale is based in the present and tells the story of
a dissatisfied Reverend called Aaron. Aaron is a religious man but is having
doubts about that religion and his position within the church. But things
become much worse when Aaron trips in church and has a vision. He finds himself
in a dark, stone library watching a group of monks whipping a small child.
Outraged by their activities, Aaron shields the boy from the blows of the whip.
Even though the monks can’t see or hear Aaron, Aaron can feel the blows. The
monks give up on beating the boy and Aaron returns to the present to discover
that the vision has only taken seconds (when it felt like hours) and that his
back is crossed with bloody whip marks.
After showing his friend Lena (who is a nurse) the scars on
his back, Aaron is prescribed some sleeping pills to stop him hurting himself
when he ‘sleep walks’. The pills stop any more visions, but on a visit to his
local psychiatric home, Aaron is introduced to a severely autistic boy called
Lucien who looks exactly like the boy from the dark library in his visions!
Eventually, Aaron becomes Lucien’s guardian and soon
discovers that it is something much darker than a mental illness that haunts
him. That the strong link Aaron feels towards Lucien is not just that of a
carer towards a child, but stretches back over the centuries!
I enjoyed reading this book and I’m glad R.J. Palmer got in
touch and supplied me with a copy of her novel! I think the thing I liked most
was that Palmer put a supernatural twist on to a historical novel (or maybe
that should be the other way round?) and as most of you all know, I love all
things history. If I had one issue with the book, it would be that the ending
did seem a little rushed. Throughout the whole book Lucien cannot talk, but
within the last 20 or so pages he snaps out of his condition and starts telling
his life story. It just seemed like the novel was rounded off quickly.
Nevertheless, I did enjoy the ending, as Palmer ties all the plot strings
together very nicely!
I would suggest this book to anyone who likes books like Inquisitionor the Da Vinci Code. Novels that have a historical, religious or a
supernatural twist to them. Again, I’d like to say a massive thank you to R.J.
Palmer for getting in touch. If you would like to purchase this novel, it is
available from Smashwords.com or for kindle and in paperback from Amazon.co.uk.
P.S. Don’t forget to enter my Book of the Month Competition for your chance to win a FREE copy of Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence. To enter, just follow the instructions on the widget below and for more information click here.
