Book Review: The Certificate

Book: The Certificate*

Author: Priscilla Masters

Jane Ziegler is a district nurse. Her job is to help those most in need, the sick, the needy, the long term ill. On paper Jane sounds wonderful, going from the GP practice to home care cases to oversee patients. The problem is Jane has spent her whole life getting overlooked. By her family, her daughters barely send a Christmas card. An ex husband who at best tolerated her when they were married. Her colleagues barely notice when she is there or not. And her patients are difficult and abusive.

She passes the time thinking of ways to commit the perfect crime. Then one day it comes to her. Surely it can’t be that simple? She works up the courage and finds that maybe it is. Spurred on by her success she tries again. But then things start to fall apart….

I enjoyed this book, you build no sympathy whatsoever for Jane, unusual for a main character. She is a horrible person, and you don’t want her to succeed. However you keep reading as the suspense is built, will she commit the crime, will she evade suspicion, or capture? There were some great little unexpected twists in the story, that only served to deepen my dislike of Jane and want to see her fail. My only complaint is that the story ended too soon. But it was certainly a gripping and engrossing read!

I received this book from NetGalley for review, but all opinions are entirely my own.

This review is also listed on Amazon, Goodreads and NetGalley.

*No affiliate links, I am just linking to make your life easier!

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Balloon Box Card

Hi all,

I have this very fun and cute card up over on the Papermilldirect blog, to celebrate a little girls first birthday. It is very dimensional but deceptively simple to make! I used lots of Papermilldirect products on it and made it sparkle and shine. Head on over to the blog for more details!

I love the fun balloons on this card, who doesn’t love cake and balloons on their birthday?

Book Review: Immortal

Book: Immortal – Curse of the Deathless: Volume 1 (The Immortal Chronicles)*

Author: Derek Edgington

Immortality is a gift – or so you would think. For Asher Hearst, it means in his job as a small time investigator it becomes his main talent, he can take a punch, or a stabbing, and get right back up. He wears his opponents down with his undying nature and his witty banter (or so he likes to think). So when he takes on a job that against all advice he should have simply walked away from, he is going to need all his ‘talents’.

The job brings him into a dalliance with the Inquisition, a jaunt into supernatural packed world of Tír na nÓg, a romance beyond any that he could have ever imagined and more enemies than you could shake a ever healing fist at. With every action seeming to make him more vengeful enemies, will there be a limit to his immortality?

When I started this book I initially thought it was slightly similar to some that I had read before, supernatural detective-esque. I almost dismissed it. Luckily I persisted, because I quickly found myself drawn into the action, and was kept surprised by the constant twists and turns of the story. It was gorey, it was funny, it was entertaining, it kept the pace up and most importantly, it left me hanging and wanting more at the end. This book is volume 1, and my biggest question is – when is volume 2 out?!

I received this book from NetGalley for review, but all opinions are entirely my own.

This review is also listed on Amazon, Goodreads and NetGalley.

*No affiliate links, I am just linking to make your life easier!

Autumn Inspiration

Hi everyone,

I have this lovely autumnal inspired clean and simple card up on the Papermilldirect blog this week. I have few images to show how I created it – as always it is the super simple looking ones that take more to plan and execute, but once you get started they are super fun! Head on over to the Papermilldirect blog to see how this one came together.

Booke Review – One Two Three

Book: One Two Three available on Amazon*

Author: Elodie Nowodazkij

Just last year, Natalya Pushkaya was living her dream. Attending the School of Performing Arts in New York, and determined to become a prima ballerina. Then she lost it all. Her father, her dreams of dancing on stage and she blames herself for it all. She is back home in her home town of New Jersy to recuperate, scared, badly injured with only a slim chance of recovering her dream, but endless determination. But life gets in her way. Her mother, once a prima ballerina, is now an alcoholic, and Natalya spends her time caring for her. But her mother has a terrible secret she has been keeping from her, that drives her even further to drink.

In the meantime Natalya is rebuilding friendships that she let slide when she had no time for anything but dance, and learning to let people in. Then along comes Antonio, charming, sexy, but with problems of his own. His problems come to light just when Natalya’s mothers devastating secret comes out, driving Natalya to drink herself. Can she learn to trust and let people help her before she destroys her life?

This book is not one I tend to gravitate towards. But I found that once I started reading it, I was drawn in. The characters were so real, hurt by life, with everything seeming to break, yet they fought to regain control. When they fell down they picked one another up, the strength of bonds forming forged even stronger by their life situations. Natalya’s struggle to try and keep plates spinning, keep her mother in her job, keep herself in school, cope with the loss of her father and keep on trying to get back to dancing is a heartbreaking one, and seeing her try to do it along even more so. I found myself almost cheering when she started reaching out to people, and when her love interest blossomed cheered even more. She needed love, stability and hope. Ballet previously gave her all of that, and watching her have to find it in other ways was poignant, but beautiful at the same time. A beautiful and moving read.

I received this book from NetGalley for review, but all opinions are entirely my own.

This review is also listed on Amazon, Goodreads and NetGalley.

*No affiliate links, I am just linking to make your life easier!

Book Review – The Beautiful Ones

Book: The Beautiful Ones available on Amazon*

Author: Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Take a regency style romance, bring in a fantasy twist and combine with a coming of age story, threaded through with the angst of one’s self identity in society whilst ever being questioned and you have a novel that is both an enthralling escape of a read, and yet strangely relatable on many levels.

Antonia ‘Nina’ is a young woman from the country, sent to the big city to stay with her cousin and his wife, Valerie, to finish her training as a lady. Valerie is tasked with teaching Nina city etiquette – the who’s who of society, how to dress, when not to speak (most of the time according to Valerie), and a long list of must not’s besides. But all Nina is concerned with is her bugs and reading, and she is quick to speak her intelligent and enquiring mind, has a quick temper – all things that don’t make for a fine lady. To top this off, when her temper arises, so do objects around her, as he has poor control of her telekinetic abilities. This is a further embarrassment as a lady in Valerie’s eyes. Powers are for street performers and low class people, not the rich, and certainly not ladies. The sooner Nina can be married off and out of her house, the better in her eyes.

But then along comes telekinetic performer Hector Auvray. A chance meeting at a party sends Nina’s world into a spin. He has majestic control over his powers, and quickly charms Nina. But all is not as it seems. There is a sour past with Valerie that he keeps hidden. This secret can only end in tears. But for who?

While I loved the twist of the supernatural powers in this book, I would have liked to have seen maybe more of them. However it still did keep me gripped through the development of the characters. At first I feared it would be a predictable love story. Yet the book kept me enthralled, just as the magic tricks did, even though only written. The visual imagery was beautiful when describing them, and this added another layer to the story.

A story of love, passion, magic tricks and self discovery. I felt like I was really brought along on the journey, sailing on a flying mirror, and I wanted to send message to Nina, to shout at Hector, to slap Valerie! It has been a long time since I have felt that invested in characters in a book. Perhaps I discovered a little about myself along the way too….

I received this book from NetGalley for review, but all opinions are entirely my own.

This review is also listed on Goodreads and NetGalley.

*No affiliate links, I am just linking to make your life easier!

Giraffe Baby Card

Hi All,

I have this fun and cute card up on the Papermilldirect blog today, sharing a fun technique – negative die cutting. I love this technique for making really simple but elegant cards. I left this card really clean and simple and resisted the urge to add any enamel dots, sequins etc, I just wanted the giraffe and sentiment to be the key focus. There is a lot of foam tape on the card so the giraffe really pops on the card, so it really stands out in real life!You can head over to the Papermilldirect blog to see the super simple way I constructed this card with step by step photos.

Enjoy!