Stacking the Shelves #1 (2 January 2016)

I enjoy reading all the various book themed memes but find it hard to find the time to commit to taking part in them all but a New Year, New Start! One that I particularly enjoy reading is Stacking the Shelves, hosted by Tynga’s Reviews, which several other book bloggers take part in.   (Check out Cleopatra Loves Books who usually has some very interesting book acquisitions). Stacking the Shelves highlight books which have been received that week.  Paper books, e-books, ARC’s received, books bought or borrowed, all are shared.

So, for the start of the New Year, I would like to join in with this and will do my best to keep it up to date.  

Books received for review:

Published by Pan in paperback on 12 January 2016

A funny, bitter-sweet romantic dramedy set to an 80’s soundtrack.
The problem with first love is that it never truly dies.
Libby London fell in love in with the 80s, came of age in the 90s, and now, in the 21st Century, she’s completely falling apart… Her New York City fashion sensibility is more ‘vintage tragedy’ than ‘retro babe’ and might just be what’s holding her back in all matters of life and love…
At least that’s what her well-meaning friends think. They’ve staged a #80sIntervention in an effort to bring Libby bang up-to-date. But how do you move forward when the one you love holds you in the past? Between her dreaded birthday party, friend’s madcap ambush, and being forced to relocate her Pretty In Pink thrift shop, Libby’s nearing the end of the rope… If her therapist isn’t quick, it could be a literal one.

Paper Books I’ve bought:



I’ve had my eye on this one for a while and spotted it whilst out shopping the other day. It’s one of the few books on the new Richard & Judy Spring 2016 list that I haven’t already read or have on my TBR. 

It only took one night to tear a family apart.

Artist and illustrator Edwina Spinner used to have a busy family life. Now she lives alone, in a house that has grown too big for her. She has decided to sell it. As Edwina takes the estate agent from room to room, she finds herself transported back to her life as a young mother. Back to her twins, Rowena and Charlie, and a stepson she cannot bring herself to mention by name.

As the house reveals its secrets, Edwina is forced to confront her family’s past, and a devastating betrayal that changed everything. But Edwina doesn’t know the whole story. And to discover the truth, she will have to face the one person she vowed never to see again.

ebooks I’ve bought:



I’ve gone a bit click happy in the Kindle 12 days of Christmas Sale – these are shown below but The Darkest Secret is one that I pre-ordered at the beginning of SEPTEMBER and have been anxiously waiting to be downloaded on 1 January this year.  

Apologies for the general email, but I desperately need your help.  
My goddaughter, Coco Jackson, disappeared from her family’s holiday home in Bournemouth on the night of Sunday/Monday August 29/30th, the bank holiday weekend just gone. Coco is three years old.

When identical twin Coco goes missing during a family celebration, there is a media frenzy. Her parents are rich and influential, as are the friends they were with at their holiday home by the sea.

But what really happened to Coco?  
Over two intense weekends – the first when Coco goes missing and the second twelve years later at the funeral of her father – the darkest of secrets will gradually be revealed…

The Moonlit Garden is currently a Kindle First for January purchase for just 99p.  The translator, Alison Layland mentioned this one on the Book Connectors Facebook group (run by Anne Cater for authors and bloggers) that I am a member of and this looked appealing. 

The Moonlit Garden – Corina Bomann (translated by Alison Layland)

Antique dealer Lilly gets an unusual old violin offered: On its underside a rose is burned into the wood. Lilly is fascinated by the ancient instrument and wants to decipher the mystery of the rose essential. She seeks help from the charming music experts Gabriel. Together, the two find out that the violin a famous violinist over a hundred years ago was one who suddenly disappeared then. Banned from the mysterious fate of the beautiful woman embarks Lilly their traces that lead them to Italy and finally to Sumatra. There she finds the riddle – It also undermines their own life to its foundations …

Invisible – Barbara Copperthwaite

There’s one victim of crime no one notices. 
Something is wrong. With her marriage, with her husband, with her. But as she pours her heart out to her diary, it’s clear she doesn’t know what. 
Until one explosive night she finds a possible answer. 
Suddenly hated and vilified by everyone, she clings to her relationship – even while wondering if she really knows her husband at all… 
INVISIBLE is a stunningly powerful, gripping and original psychological thriller of subtle insight that takes you on a twisted journey through one woman’s marriage. 

Untouchable – Ava Marsh

They know who she is. She knows too much.
Stella is an escort, immersed in a world of desire, betrayal and secrets. It’s exactly where she wants to be. Stella used to be someone else: respectable, loved, safe.
When a fellow call girl is murdered, Stella has a choice: forget what she’s seen, or risk everything to get justice for her friend. In her line of work, she’s never far from the edge, but pursuing the truth could take Stella past the point of no return.

The Hotel on Mulberry Bay – Melissa Hill

Mulberry Hotel, perched on a clifftop above a sweeping bay, was once the heart and soul of pretty seaside town Mulberry Bay. Run by the Harte family for years, the place itself is almost as beloved as cheery landlady Anna. 
The hotel was also once home to thirty-something sisters Eleanor and Penny, and while youngest sister Penny still lives close by, it’s been some time since Elle has visited. But following a family tragedy, Elle is forced to return from her busy London life and reassess her past.  When it becomes apparent that the hotel is in dire straits, Elle and Penny are unprepared for the reaction of their father, Ned, He steadfastly refuses to give up the family legacy, revealing that he’s given up something equally precious once before. Startled by their father’s surprising revelation, the sisters unite, with the local community behind them, in their efforts to save the hotel – and, in the process, heal the fractures in the Harte family.

These were my Kindle sale buys:

Inside the O’Briens – Lisa Genova

Joe O’Brien is a forty-four-year-old police officer from the Irish Catholic neighborhood of Charlestown, Massachusetts. A devoted husband, proud father of four children in their twenties, and respected officer, Joe begins experiencing bouts of disorganized thinking, uncharacteristic temper outbursts, and strange, involuntary movements. He initially attributes these episodes to the stress of his job, but as these symptoms worsen, he agrees to see a neurologist and is handed a diagnosis that will change his and his family’s lives forever: Huntington’s disease.  Huntington’s is a lethal neurodegenerative disease with no treatment and no cure. Each of Joe’s four children has a 50 percent chance of inheriting their father’s disease, and a simple blood test can reveal their genetic fate. While watching her potential future in her father’s escalating symptoms, twenty-one-year-old daughter Katie struggles with the questions this test imposes on her young adult life. Does she want to know? What if she’s gene positive? Can she live with the constant anxiety of not knowing?  As Joe’s symptoms worsen and he’s eventually stripped of his badge and more, Joe struggles to maintain hope and a sense of purpose, while Katie and her siblings must find the courage to either live a life “at risk” or learn their fate.

Twisted – Lynda La Plante

Amy Fulford, excellent pupil and gifted athlete at a girls’ public school in Ascot vanishes one Saturday afternoon.   DSI Marshe runs the local missing persons unit. He is responsible for overseeing the disappearance of Amy Fulford. But, as a late joiner and with only ten years of service, and a bullish DCS on his back, he tends to be unsure of himself.   While the spiral of media interest in the missing daughter of a well-connected couple heats up, the spotlight turns on the parents who are embroiled in a bitter divorce. Amy’s journal surfaces with disturbing entries about her mother’s abilities – and also her father’s sordid sexual activities.   Marshe’s DCS is convinced Marcus Fulford is responsible for his daughter’s death. But Marshe himself is not so sure. He discovers some startling and disturbing discoveries about Amy’s teachers and peers. Did Amy Fulford have a need to escape . . . or was she driven by abuse and despair to disappear into another world?

A Line of Blood – Ben McPherson

You find your neighbour dead in his bath. Your son is with you. He sees everything.  You discover your wife has been in the man’s house. It seems she knew him.  Now the police need to speak to you.  One night turns Alex Mercer’s life upside down. He loves his family and he wants to protect them, but there is too much he doesn’t know.  He doesn’t know how the cracks in his and Millicent’s marriage have affected their son, Max. Or how Millicent’s bracelet came to be under the neighbour’s bed. He doesn’t know how to be a father to Max when his own world is shattering into pieces.
Then the murder investigation begins… 

That’s my haul for this week!  My TBR grows and my Kindle gets heavier ..! 

What books have come into your house this week?