The Marriage Trap by Sheryl Browne.

Diana is married to Robert and their daughter Karla is married to Jason, giving them two grandchildren, Holly and Josh. However, the adults in this story have some very sharp words will each other and are not living in married bliss. Follow these three generations of people as they try to muddle through the hustle and bustle of family life.

The cover of The Marriage Trap claims this novel is a psychological thriller. I did NOT find this book thrilling but found it to drag on and on. I thought The Marriage Trap was a MISERABLE read. All four adults were unhappy with their marriages and the mood was dreadful. The story got off to a BAD start in the first chapter when you are thrown into the situation of Jason leaving Karla. Then chapter two begins and the timeline goes back three whole months. From hereon you are given a day by day account of both marriages. It was off putting to read in the first chapter that Jason is leaving Karla and the rest of the book is background to that day. All four adults have their faults and you do not develop an empathy for any of them. Your gut feeling very quickly becomes that you are very glad you are not married to any of them.

There are plenty of secrets and lies to be revealed but each one takes forever, a hint here and a hint there until many chapters later you find out what the hints were all about.

I found the mood of this book very annoying, the three generations were living a miserable existence. There was no joy in their lives, making this novel a very sad read. The Marriage Trap did not stimulate me and I did not find it entertaining. I failed to engage with the story and found it a turn off. I think this book would put off any single people thinking of marriage.

In the acknowledgements at the end of The Marriage Trap, Sheryl writes…

Final thanks to every single reader out there for buying and reading my books. Authors write with you in mind.

...However, I did not enjoy reading The Marriage Trap. I found the domestic misery a chore to read. I was very disappointed with The Marriage Trap, I simply did not like the story. Having been happily married myself for the past 28 years, I thought the adults were behaving dreadfully towards each other. I think Sheryl has made a mistake by publishing such a negative novel.

I did like that each adult had their own chapters that represented their points of view. Sheryl can write very good novels as I thought her last book called The Second Wife was an OUTSTANDING 5 star read. Sadly The Marriage Trap left me COLD and I can only vote this latest from Sheryl the minimum score of 1 star. Sheryl can produce the goods, so hopefully better luck next time for her readers but if this was their first read, they may move onto other authors.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Bookouture for giving me a copy of this book on the understanding that I provide an honest review.

Elevator Pitch by Linwood Barclay.

There are 63,000 passenger elevators in New York City. What could possibly go wrong?

Linwood starts off his latest novel with a plunge as the reader is launched into a very busy and crowded New York. The tension starts from the first page as you are thrust through short chapters and as each scene quickly unfolds you do not know what is going to happen next.

There are tons of content in this thriller, there is no padding and as you wade through this avalanche of data it becomes clear Linwood’s writing quality is spot on.

Elevator Pitch is a plot based thriller with an abundance of characters thrown in. The head count is very high but each character is concisely introduced no matter how small or large a part they play in this story. New York is a very busy city and this novel really conveys the buzz on the street.

Linwood explores the everyday threat of terrorism to the citizens of New York. Threats from the Middle East like ISIS plus home grown activists like the Flyovers. Henry Olsen explained the concept behind Flyovers in 2017 when he wrote…

Although originally coined by a citizen of flyover country, the term has become a pejorative description of the interior states of the USA and is largely attributed to coastal and liberal Americans who – in more ways than one – are said to ‘look down’ on these lands and their peoples during their high altitude journeyings from one fashionable seaboard metropolis to another.

...Linwood has little snips of subtle humour sprinkled throughout his story, for example…

“But isn’t that exactly what you have reduced the so-called coasters to? A cliche? Sushi-eating, latte-drinking, gluten-avoiding, Prius-driving elites?”

Barbara sat back on the bench. Oh, no, she thought. She’s gone to the dark side. She’s working for Facebook.

But Twitter was not typically where one posted photos of friends. It was for mouthing off, something Barbara did plenty of.

...I loved how Elevator Pitch is quite topical, it includes real past events and has many, many social observations. I loved the realism of this story and found the threat of everyday terrorism the man in the street has to live with, very engaging. Elevator Pitch showed just how much some people use a mobile phone and how it has become an integral part of their lives. This was quite shocking and a sad but true reflection on how society has developed with many people so absorbed and attached to their mobile phones. They may be connected but can miss out on the really important things happening around them.

I loved reading Elevator Pitch and found it a great, entertaining and thrilling book. I think that Linwood is at the top of his game and that Elevator Pitch is an OUTSTANDING read that gets 5 stars from me.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Harper Collins UK for giving me a copy of this book on the understanding that I provide an honest review.

The Tree of Rebels by Chantelle Atkins.

Okay guys, let’s jump into the next century and become the role of Lissie Turner, a 13 year old girl living in the UK and asking lots of questions about our society and what lies beyond the fence surrounding her town.

WOW! What the devil has gone on? Has our world gone mad? When did the Old World collapse and the new world begin? Can 13 year old Lissie Turner uncover the truth?

Okay guys, the concept is GOOD. There are many conflicts and wars around the world today and nobody knows how our future will unfold. Many, many lies have been told in the past, YES listen at the back Tony Blair, Iraq did NOT have Weapons of Mass Destruction in 2003.

So onto the Tree of Rebels. Ah, I thought this book was a DRAG, it rambled on and on, poor old Grandma Elizabeth on her death bed, telling the same old stories time and time again. Lissie Turner being a typical annoying teenage girl, sorry Louise but Chantelle Atkins hits the button with the naivety of modern teenage girls and their smartphone, grab a Coke from Grandad’s fridge attitudes.

I found the plot to The Tree of Rebels very SHALLOW and the handful of critical points or issues were repeatedly reviewed, time and time again. This book seemed to be going nowhere and not a lot happened. The concept of the fall of the Old World, the development of the new world with the possibility of false histories was NOT developed properly. It was just hints that lies may have been told. I hoped this novel would get better as the pages dragged on but it continued to be a POOR 2 star read all the way to the end. I was clearly not entertained by this book and found the whole reading experience a big disappointment. At 61 years of age, I know that I am not in the target group for a YA novel but if this is what teenagers choose to read, I feel reading will become nothing more than a passing fad for them. Still, I read The Tree of Rebels to the very end only to find nothing much happened and then to be told this sad, sorry tale would be continued in the next book. The ending was like watching 90 minutes of football to end with a no goal score draw. Yes, I could have done better things with my time, those reading hours lost forever wading through a bloated novel with very little content.

The Tree of Rebels was written in 2017 and is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook.