Wednesday 28 February 2018

Book of the Month for February - Paradise Girl by Phill Featherstone


Paradise Girl

has RECEIVED 


Book of the Month Award
for
February


A highly infectious and incurable virus spreads worldwide. Seventeen-year-old Kerryl Shaw and her family live on a remote farm and think they will be safe, but the plague advances. Despite deaths around them, the Shaws survive. However, this changes when a stranger arrives, and it soon becomes apparent he has brought the infection to their door. One by one the family succumbs, leaving Kerryl alone.

Kerryl is sure it’s only a matter of time before she, too, dies. She decides to record what she thinks will be her final days in a diary. She realises that it will never be read, so she imagines a reader and calls him Adam. As loneliness and isolation affect the balance of her mind, Adam ceases to be an imaginary character and becomes real to her.

Communications break down and services fail. Unexplained events build fear and menace: Kerryl hears her name called in the night; she’s attacked by stray animals; she’s molested when she visits the town; she sees a stranger outside her house, who vanishes when she tries to make contact; objects appear and disappear. The climax comes when she finds a text message on her phone. Who is texting her? How? She thinks it can only be Adam, because by now there is no one else left. Another text invites her to a rendezvous at the Bride Stones, a beauty spot popular with lovers, and she leaves for what she is sure will be a meeting with Adam...

“This is such an engrossing read I found it impossible to put down...This is writing of a high literary standard, with the kind of psychological depth which lingers in the mind long after reading.”
– Sarah Vincent, critic and author of The Testament of Vida Tremayne.


Genre: Dystopian
Approx Pages: 329





All books receiving a Book of the Month Award are automatically considered for Book of the Year 2018

All books receiving a Chill with a Readers' Award in March will automatically be considered for Book of the Month – March.





PB Special Award goes to Sons of the Wolf by Paula Lofting


Sons of the Wolf

has RECEIVED a


PB Special Award



On the battlefield, Wulfhere fights for his life but elsewhere the enemy is closer to home, sinister and shadowy and far more dangerous than any war.



1054, pious King Edward sits on the throne, spending his days hunting, sleeping and praying, leaving the security of his kingdom to his more capable brother-in-law Harold Godwinson, the powerful Earl of Wessex. Against this backdrop we meet Wulfhere, a Sussex thegn who, as the sun sets over the wild forest of Andredesweald, is returning home victoriously from a great battle in the north. Holding his lands directly from the King, his position demands loyalty to Edward himself, but Wulfhere is duty-bound to also serve Harold, a bond forged within Wulfhere's family heritage and borne of the ancient Teutonic ideology of honour and loyalty.

Wulfhere is a man with the strength and courage of a bear, a warrior whose loyalty to his lord and king is unquestionable. He is also a man who holds his family dear and would do anything to protect them. So when Harold demands that he wed his daughter to the son of Helghi, his sworn enemy, Wulfhere has to find a way to save his daughter from a life of certain misery in the household of the cruel and resentful Helghi without compromising his honour and loyalty to his lord, Harold.

Sons of the Wolf is a panoramic snapshot of medieval life and politics as the events that lead to the downfall of Anglo Saxon England play out, immersing the reader in the tapestry of life as it was before the Doomsday Book. With depictions of everyday life experienced through the minds of the peoples of the time; of feasts in the Great Halls to battles fought in the countryside, it cannot help but enlighten, educate and entertain.


Genre: Historical Fiction
Approx pages: 568








Sons of the Wolf  has also received...











Tuesday 27 February 2018

Sons of the Wolf by Paula Lofting


Sons of the Wolf

has RECEIVED a


Chill with a Book READERS’ Award


On the battlefield, Wulfhere fights for his life but elsewhere the enemy is closer to home, sinister and shadowy and far more dangerous than any war.



1054, pious King Edward sits on the throne, spending his days hunting, sleeping and praying, leaving the security of his kingdom to his more capable brother-in-law Harold Godwinson, the powerful Earl of Wessex. Against this backdrop we meet Wulfhere, a Sussex thegn who, as the sun sets over the wild forest of Andredesweald, is returning home victoriously from a great battle in the north. Holding his lands directly from the King, his position demands loyalty to Edward himself, but Wulfhere is duty-bound to also serve Harold, a bond forged within Wulfhere's family heritage and borne of the ancient Teutonic ideology of honour and loyalty.

Wulfhere is a man with the strength and courage of a bear, a warrior whose loyalty to his lord and king is unquestionable. He is also a man who holds his family dear and would do anything to protect them. So when Harold demands that he wed his daughter to the son of Helghi, his sworn enemy, Wulfhere has to find a way to save his daughter from a life of certain misery in the household of the cruel and resentful Helghi without compromising his honour and loyalty to his lord, Harold.

Sons of the Wolf is a panoramic snapshot of medieval life and politics as the events that lead to the downfall of Anglo Saxon England play out, immersing the reader in the tapestry of life as it was before the Doomsday Book. With depictions of everyday life experienced through the minds of the peoples of the time; of feasts in the Great Halls to battles fought in the countryside, it cannot help but enlighten, educate and entertain.


Genre: Historical Fiction
Approx pages: 568


Sons of the Wolf was read and evaluated by Chill's readers against the following...


Were the characters strong and engaging?
 Was the book well written?
Did the story / plot have you turning the page to find out what happened next?
Was the ending satisfying?
Would you recommend to someone who reads this kind of story?





Amazon co uk

Sons of the Wolf  has also received...







Friday 23 February 2018

Resisting Mr Rochester by Sharon Booth


Resisting Mr Rochester

has RECEIVED a


Chill with a Book READERS’ Award


Cara Truelove has always been a romantic, burying her head in books and dreaming of being swept off her feet by her very own Brontë hero. When she was a gullible teenager, she believed boyfriend Seth to be a modern-day brooding Heathcliff. Fourteen years later, when Seth has proved to be more like Homer Simpson, Cara vows never to fall in love again, and turns her back on romance for good.

Leaving Seth behind, Cara secures a job as nanny at Moreland Hall on the Yorkshire Moors, but is shocked to discover her new employer is none other than the tall, dark, and disturbingly handsome Mr Rochester.

Her resolve to be more level-headed is soon tested when strange things begin to happen at Moreland Hall. Why is Mr Rochester's mother hidden away upstairs? What are the strange noises she hears from the attic? Why is the housekeeper so reluctant to leave her on her own? And where is Mr Rochester's mysterious wife?

As events unfold, Cara knows she must keep a cool head, curb her imagination – and resist Mr Rochester at all costs. After all, one Brontë hero in a lifetime is more than enough for any woman. Two would be downright greedy.

Wouldn't it?

Genre: Romantic Comedy 
Approx pages: 438


Resisting Mr Rochester was read and evaluated by Chill's readers against the following...


Were the characters strong and engaging?
 Was the book well written?
Did the story / plot have you turning the page to find out what happened next?
Was the ending satisfying?
Would you recommend to someone who reads this kind of story?





Amazon co uk



Thursday 22 February 2018

Crone by Jeannie Wycherley


Crone

has RECEIVED a


Chill with a Book READERS’ Award



“I stood in front of the tree once more, the bark rough beneath my fingertips. This time I knew the truth. I swore on my son’s life that somehow, someway, I would have my revenge.”

Heather Keynes’ teenage son died in a tragic car accident. Or so she thinks. However, deep in the wilds of the Devon countryside, an ancient evil has awoken … and is intent on hunting the residents of Abbotts Cromleigh. 

No one is safe.

Heather is drawn reluctantly into the company of an odd group of elderly Guardians when she delves into a series of coincidental deaths. Who are these Guardians, and what is their connection to the Great Oak? Why do they believe only Heather can put an end to centuries of horror? Who is the mysterious old woman in the forest and what is it that feeds her anger? 

When Heather determines the true cause of her son’s death, she is hell-bent on vengeance. Determined to halt the march of the Crone once and for all, hatred becomes Heather’s ultimate weapon. Furies collide in this twisted tale of murder, magic and salvation.


Genre: Mystery, Contemporary Thriller 
Approx pages: 323


Crone was read and evaluated by Chill's readers against the following...


Were the characters strong and engaging?
 Was the book well written?
Did the story / plot have you turning the page to find out what happened next?
Was the ending satisfying?
Would you recommend to someone who reads this kind of story?





Amazon co uk



Wednesday 21 February 2018

Flowers of Resistance by Ros Rendle


Flowers of Resistance

has RECEIVED a


Chill with a Book READERS’ Award



It is France in 1940. Delphi, Rainier and their daughter Flora must flee the Nazi advance. They go to the vineyard of Flora's step-cousin, Luca, in the Vichy Zone Libre.

Despite Luca's resentment of Flora she is attracted to him, but there is a traitor among them and, mysteriously, he is absent much of the time.

Then there is her employer, Andre, mayor, sponsored by the Nazis, but he is lonely after the death of his wife and young daughter. Should she spy on his activities, betraying his trust and friendship and putting herself and her family in danger?


Resistance fighter or collaborator; petulance or passion; divided loyalties and discovered love. This is a love story and a mild thriller set during turbulent times in France.


Genre: Mystery, Thriller Suspene
Approx pages: 362


Flowers of Resistance was read and evaluated by Chill's readers against the following...


Were the characters strong and engaging?
 Was the book well written?
Did the story / plot have you turning the page to find out what happened next?
Was the ending satisfying?
Would you recommend to someone who reads this kind of story?





Amazon co uk