Must Reads - 20th December 2017

Here are the books I am adding to my To Be Read pile today - another 5 beauties well worth having a look at!

Beware the Past by Joy Ellis

A stunning new standalone crime thriller from #1 best-selling author Joy Ellis.

 Detective Matt Ballard is haunted by one traumatic case he never solved. In the 1990s three boys were murdered in the same area, the remote and bleak Gibbet Fen. When the main suspect was killed in a hit-and-run, the killings stopped. But Matt was never satisfied that the real murderer had been caught.

 25 years later, Matt gets a photo in an unmarked envelope. It’s of the Gibbet Fen crime scene. Taken before the murder.

 More photos arrive, relating to the historic murders, and intimate pictures of Matt’s secret relationship.

 Another killing takes place, with some of the hallmarks of the old case. Has the killer returned or is this just a sick copycat determined to ruin Matt’s life and reputation?

 In an absolutely breath-taking conclusion, Matt and his colleagues, race against time to stop a vicious killer who knows no limits.

 The setting

Rural fenland is a strange place, with its never-ending fields, winding tracks, and long straight droves that lead to nowhere. The lonely lanes are flanked either side by deep drainage ditches and are, for a good part of the year, filled with tall, whispering reeds. Closer to the Wash, high sea-banks form a barrier between river and marsh, and the richly fertile soil of the drained land. But when the mists come down, as they so often do, perspective is destroyed and all sense of direction lost, and then the fens become a rather frightening place of mystery and danger. Somewhere that you do not want to be at night.

Raising Independent, Self-Confident Kids by Wendy L Moss & Donald A Moses

Nine Essential Skills to Teach your Child or Teen

Parenting is a delicate dance. One of the hardest parts of parenting is knowing when to let your child struggle, in order to learn and grow, and when to intervene. In this book, child development experts Wendy Moss, PhD, and Donald Moses, MD, examine the key skills parents need to help their kids emerge as confident, and capable adults.
Throughout this book, parents will discover ways to build their child’s confidence, decision making abilities, tolerance for frustration, patience, and self-sufficiency. Lessons and examples based on the authors’ professional experience illustrate how to teach skills such as self-monitoring, understanding social cues, using technology, and recognizing opportunities for growth, even in life’s more stressful moments. True-to-life stories and conversation-starters demonstrate specific ways parents can empower children to think for themselves, and learn to meet life's challenges head-on.

Fallen Star by Steven Drake

The Demon's Blade Saga Book 4

The Star Blade has been found, but at a terrible cost. Jerris and Niarie must pick up the pieces after the battle that cost the lives of their friends. With Darien lost, Jerris and Niarie set out to report the treachery of the inquisitor, Traiz Tiberius, and discover just how deep his conspiracy reaches. They must uncover the corruption in the Order of the Golden Shield in time to prevent a war between the newly crowned Empress, and her former rivals in the Order. Jerris and Niarie must rely on their own wits, their own strength, and the power of the growing bond between them, to build an alliance against the Demon King. Hundreds of miles away, in the town of Exire, a refuge for misfits, rogues, and outcasts of all stripes on the snowy slopes of the Leaning Mountain, a young woman with a special gift for healing is awakened by a dread premonition. Mirisa, a refugee from the hidden forest kingdom of Catarina, looks to the sky and witnesses a terrible battle between light and darkness. Following her instincts, she finds a wounded half-elf with a black sword dying on the side of the mountain. Though she does not know his name, Mirisa pulls Darien back from the brink of death. Weeks later, Darien awakens, tortured by his failure to foresee Traiz's betrayal, and tormented by the knife wound that returns daily and refuses to heal. Though determined to return to his friends, Darien finds himself completely dependent on Mirisa's healing talent to keep the mysterious injury at bay. Trapped in Exire, Darien discovers Mirisa has other abilities, a latent magical talent that she has suppressed for the sake of her brother and the laws of his people, and a disturbing ability to perceive the demonic energy of the Demon’s Blade. Though he attempts to remain quiet until able to fully recover, Darien finds himself unwillingly drawn into the problems of Mirisa and the people of Exire. He must attempt to discover the truth behind Mirisa’s mysterious powers, and find a way to heal his injury, before his enemies inevitably find him.

Odd Child Out by Gilly Macmillan

 

Two best friends. One terrible event.

Abdi Mahal and Noah Sadler have been inseparable since they met. They've stuck together, even when their peers have excluded them. But when a horrifying incident leaves Noah in a coma and fighting for his life, Abdi is too traumatised to say anything about what happened.

DI Jim Clemo, freshly returned to work after an enforced leave of absence, is tasked to investigate. And against a backdrop of a city where racial tensions are running high, he must determine what really happened to drive two teenage boys into a situation so desperate.

Everything rests on one of the boys talking.

But one can't talk.
And one won't.

The international bestselling author of WHAT SHE KNEW and THE PERFECT GIRL returns with a whip-smart DI Jim Clemo crime thriller about buried secrets and how the truth will always hurt.

The Switch by A W Hill & Nathanael Hill

Five travellers lost in a parallel reality—If they get home, will it be the same place they left behind?  Imagine that you could change your world with the flip of a switch. You might be prettier, more athletic, more popular, or even living on an exotic island, because your history—your  world-line—would be different. But here’s the catch: you have no way of knowing if the reality on the other side of that switch will be better…or much worse  .JACOBUS ROSE is a fifteen-year-old who believes—as many fifteen-year-olds do—that his life could use improvement. School is a numbing routine, and his parents’ marriage seems to be imploding before his eyes. ‘Maybe I was born into the wrong world,’ he thinks. Lured by his best friend, CONNOR, into a strange little house containing nothing but empty rooms and an oversized circuit breaker, he’ll discover that reality comes in a plural form, and that our choices create a continuous web of branching worlds, any of which is as ‘real’ as another. A solo odyssey becomes a duo, a trio, and then a quartet, as Jacobus befriends other interdimensional travellers along the way: GORDON NIGHTSHADE, the veteran pilgrim and chief theorist; MOSES DeWITT, the alley cat with an old soul; JEMMA DOONE, a girl of many-worlds who becomes the main river home for Jacobus and his crew; and finally, his lost friend Connor, who just may have preferred an alternate universe to his own.

Thanks so much for cheking out this post - if you liked it have a look at my complete listing of all my Reading Lists.

Happy Reading!!!