Short Story – 'Till Death Do Us Part – Spooky Season Week, Day 5!

I had long since zoned out, absentmindedly stirring the pot of soup I was attempting to make. I had never had much luck with cooking before, but my mother had always made soup out of the scooped out insides of the pumpkins my sister and I used to carve, and this year, I decided I wanted to try and do the same.

I snapped back to attention at the sound of a clatter behind me, and I spun around to look, the wooden spoon still in my hand and flicking soup across the room as I turned. The utensils I had used to open up and empty out the pumpkin, that had been sat nicely on the table, were scattered across the floor as if someone had pushed them all aside. Frowning, I crouched to pick them up, and I set them back on the table, certain that there was no way they could’ve rolled themselves off the surface.

I turned back to my soup, which had started furiously bubbling in the few moments I had left it alone, and started stirring it quickly in an attempt to placate it. I froze at the sound of another clatter, and turned again, this time much slower. The utensils I had just picked up off the floor were sat nicely on the table, but the Tupperware I had on the side across the room was now on the floor. I tried to remember how haphazardly it had been stacked, and shook my head at the memory of them being laid out safely and unable to fall by themselves. 

I turned back to the soup, but the second I started stirring again, I heard a smash, outside the kitchen, further into the house. I turned the heat down for the soup, and put the spoon down on the side. I strode across the room, stepping over the Tupperware and leaving the kitchen. The pictures I had hung on the wall of me and my boyfriend were shattered on the floor. Another noise. I stepped over the broken glass, and ventured on, trying to find the source of the newest noise. Maybe a stray cat had managed to get inside my house, or something. If I could catch it, I could let it back out, hopefully before it broke everything.

I walked into my living room, and looked around at the destruction. Anything that had been on a surface was on the floor. I hadn’t heard anything that warranted a mess such as this. My sofa was on it’s side, as if someone had tipped it by leaning too far back on it. My coffee table was in the corner of the room, rather than the middle of it. I jumped back, gasping, as my television fell off the wall and smashed, screen down, on the floor. My hand covered my heart, and I could feel it pounding. That wasn’t the work of a stray animal, I had watched that fall with nothing touching it. It just tipped forward and ripped itself off the wall of its own accord.

I backed out of the living room, and went back to the kitchen, rushing forward to the hob when I saw my pot of soup bubbling over and spilling out onto the hob. I reached for the pan, but the heat coming from the handle, which had boiling liquid all over it, like the entirety of the hob, made me stop and look around for oven gloves or something to wrap around the handle. I grabbed a tea towel from the side, and folded it several times before using it to pick up the pot, and carry it over to the sink. I dumped it on the draining board, and went back to the hob to turn off the heat. Everything was wet. There was a pool of water across the hob, which thankfully hadn’t started to overflow onto the floor, but it would take more than a single tea towel to dry it out.

I turned to get some more tea towels, only to find a pile of them on the counter next to me, where there had been nothing a few seconds ago. I looked around the room, but there was no one there. I watched the utensils fling themselves off the table again, and chose to try and focus on one thing at a time, and dry out my hob before something broke. Of course, I didn’t anticipate the fact that it was boiling liquid, and that the hob would still be hot. Within seconds, I was across the room, with my hand under the cold tap, the tea towels and hob abandoned. Could this day get any worse?

I heard another shattering noise, and turned to face the direction of the sound.

“Why is this happening?” I shouted in frustration, my hand throbbing and somewhere between burnt and half frozen, the cold water trickling over my fingers.

“Don’t worry, it’s just me.”

If I had thought a voice would reply, I wouldn’t have said anything. I stood shock still, the only sound now the water going down the drain. It wasn’t just the fact that someone had said something, when I lived alone and didn’t have anyone around, that had me so scared. It was the fact that I recognised the voice. How could I not? My boyfriend’s voice was ingrained into my very being, one of the only things I felt I could trust sometimes. He would spend hours whispering into my ear, his breath tickling my neck and moving my hair.

But my boyfriend had died last year. I had been sat next to him as the steady beeping turned into one, continuous, noise, as his eyes slipped closed never to open again. I had held his hand as he died, so there was no way he could be in our home. 

A breeze tickled my neck, and I shivered as he whispered in my ear, like he had so many times before. This time, though, it didn’t make me laugh as it tickled me, or make me smile with the words. It made the hair on my arms stand up, and my heart feel like it had given up trying to keep beating.

“I’ve come home.”

And done!

Once again, a late post because I only just wrote it. Whoops.

I've been busy though! I carved five pumpkins this afternoon!

I was hoping to do a book review tomorrow... I haven't even started reading the book. We shall see what happens.

Anyway, that's all for now...

Bye!

Movie Reviews – Horror Films – Spooky Season Week, Day 4!

I have no internet at the moment, or I have internet in my building, it just doesn't quite reach my bedroom. While this is very useful in making me go to sleep and stop me staying awake and scrolling for hours, it also means I don't have many options when it comes to actually watching anything. So during the day, I've been downloading things, and watching them in the evening/at night. Which probably isn't the best way to consume horror films, really late at night, and with nothing downloaded to watch afterwards, but still.

Anyway, here are the movies I watched, and the reviews!

Bodies are turning up around the city, each having met a uniquely gruesome demise. As the investigation proceeds, evidence points to one suspect: John Kramer, the man known as Jigsaw, who has been dead for over 10 years.

My Review!

I haven’t watched a lot of very popular movies, and some that I have never seen is any movie in the Saw franchise. I have obviously heard about the films, but I had no idea what they were about or anything. To be fair, I didn’t even realise this was a part of that franchise, although I should’ve been able to guess, given the title. I am not sure how this film compares to the original Saw films, but I really enjoyed it. The story itself was simple to follow, although I’m sure knowledge of the previous films would’ve added to the viewing experience. It got a little confusing towards the end, but again, it wasn’t particularly hard to figure out what was happening. There were certainly characters I liked more than others, although this is a film where good guys and bad guys don’t really exist. It is just a case of who was worse, for there weren’t really any people I would class as ‘good’. Everyone had flaws and most had done terrible things. But still, some characters were much more likeable than others. I am not one who finds horror movies particularly scary, to the point where I was so tired I fell asleep watching this and had to rewind a bit to continue watching it the next day. This film didn’t scare me at all. I would almost go as far as to class it as more of a thriller than a horror film. But still, I did enjoy watching it, and would very much like to go back and watch the rest of the movies in the Saw franchise. 

After firing up a lost 1980s survival horror game, a young coder unleashes a hidden curse that tears reality apart, forcing her to make terrifying decisions and face deadly consequences.

My Review!

This film is one that I, once again, knew absolutely nothing about, and just decided to watch on a whim. I am not generally the kind of person to get at all freaked out at horror films, my inability to be fazed by them is actually something I pride myself on, but this movie had me physically gagging at several scenes. It is not for those with a weak stomach. This film is almost a horror version of Jumanji, in a way. A game that affects the real world. The choices are sometimes presented as incredibly clear, or vague, and the things that happen afterwards are more often than not, completely unexpected. Either way, whatever choice is made usually involved horrific deaths. Kayla is a character completely torn apart by things that have happened in her life, but she doesn’t get a chance to break down and mourn. She is forced to keep going, no matter what, and the game Curs>r, the cause of everything that happens in this film, only makes her grief worse. A curse to some may be a blessing to others, but either way, Kayla goes through hell and has to suffer the consequences of loading up the game in the first place. Not for the faint of heart, but this film is wonderful. I did really enjoy it, even though it did make me feel a little sick. 

After being forced to take a room in a boardinghouse, an immigrant in search of the American Dream finds herself in a nightmare she can't escape.

My Review!

This film was very much one of suspense, that emitted the feeling of being trapped, and not being able to do anything about it. Ambar is desperately trying to improve her situation, but is running into dead ends wherever she turns. She doesn’t have the ID she needs, and can’t get any. She can’t improve her job, can’t find anywhere safe to live. The best she can find is a boarding house, but there is something wrong with the place. The more time she spends there, the more desperate she is to leave, but how can she? She needs to spend money she doesn’t have in order to make more money. She is lost, alone, and desperate. The whole horror aspect of this film almost takes a back burner in comparison to Ambar’s struggles, although that in itself was enough to give this film a sense of dread and uncertainty. I really felt for Ambar, she has no one to help her and no way to escape the things she needs to. And the horror aspects of the film, which do only really come into play in the last half hour, certainly add to the overall sense of not knowing whether Ambar was safe or not, or where she would find herself the following day. I can’t say this is one of the best horror films I’ve ever watched, it had it’s moments, but it didn’t keep me gripped throughout it. Mostly, I felt sorry for Ambar, and was just hoping she would find what she needed and would find somewhere safe to properly start her life. 

And done!

This post went up late because it literally wasn't written. I wrote most of it in the last half hour before it went up. I was supposed to include five films, but only ended up actually watching three before this post was meant to go up. Whoops.

This Spooky Season Week is a little unplanned...!

Anyway, that's all for now...

Bye!

Short Story – Deathly Boring – Spooky Season Week, Day 3!

When I stepped through the front door, I wasn’t expecting confrontation of any kind. No one knew what had occurred between me leaving the house and returning, so why would anyone question anything? Of course, as I confidently walked into the house, pretending that everything was fine, that nothing was different, or strange, I was unaware of the blood I had missed.

“Peter? Why is there blood on your cheek?” My wife, Rebecca, asked. When I frowned, and reached up to my face, she gestured towards the cheek the smear of blood must’ve been on.

“Um, I had a nosebleed. Must’ve missed a spot.”

“But you never get nosebleeds. What happened?” She asked, dampening a tea towel in the kitchen sink as I sat down at the table. She used the towel to gently wipe the blood from my face. If only she knew, she wouldn’t be as gentle, nor as caring. 

“I don’t know, I was just leaving work and felt my nose running, and wiped it, and there was blood there.” My lie was terrible, but Rebecca had no reason not to trust me. That was the best part about the marriage. She loved me entirely, she had no reason not to believe I didn’t love her back. She would defend me with her whole heart. She was the greatest alibi I could ever ask for.

“That’s so strange.” She grabbed my chin gently, and moved my head to the side. “I think it’s all gone now. Do you want a drink? I was just putting dinner on, but it’ll be a while still.”

“No, thanks. I still have some work I need to finish up on the computer. I won’t be long.” I rose from the chair, and kissed her on the cheek, the kind of gesture a husband who loved his wife would do. It made her smile, so I presumed she suspected nothing. What did she have to suspect? I had given her no inkling that we weren’t just a regular couple, and I didn’t have a regular office job. 

I shut the office door behind me, and turned on my computer. Rebecca used the office during the day, but I had never told her the password to my computer, never given her a way to unlock it. I had passwords on every file, every folder, and every single one of them was different. If she managed to get into anything, it would be either a miracle from God, or a devious intervention from the Devil.

I opened the file so cleverly titled ‘work projects’, and then double tapped on the file titled with today’s date. Another password, this time one I hadn’t personally set. I typed in the name ‘Daniel Gussier’, and the file popped open with a picture of Daniel, and a form. Forms were the bane of my existence. Sometimes, it felt like I really was working an office job. 

First question – alive or deceased? Then method of death. Time of death. Body location. Body disposed of? Space for a write up report of the exact actions I took to remove Daniel Gussier from this world. Any witnesses? The questions went on and on. 

“I know you said you didn’t want a drink, but I made you a hot chocolate anyway. You looked like you needed one,” Rebecca walked into the office, and leant over me to set a mug down on the desk next to me. I paused my typing, fully expecting the next question. “Any witnesses? What kind of form are you filling out?”

“It’s something to do with a deal we signed at work. The boss always wants to know who was present when it was signed in case the other company decides to try and lie about what was said when we signed.” She had never come into the office while I was doing the forms before. Why today, after I had already walked in with blood on my face? 

“Oh. That seems like a waste of time, aren’t deals and things usually written out and signed? And everyone has a copy for future reference?” 

“Yes, but my boss is paranoid. It’s easier just to fill in the form and be done with it than question it.” Why wouldn’t she just go away? She was a wonderful alibi, sure, but she was the most annoying one I had ever had. It would be so simple to shut her up, but I needed her still. There was a big job coming up, one that I had to collaborate with two others on, and I needed all the cover I could get. Time of death would be set up to happen at 5:43pm, by which time I would be home with Rebecca, probably eating dinner. I didn’t trust the other two I would be working with, so, for now, Rebecca had to remain.

“That sounds so annoying.” She kissed the top of my head. “I have to go and check on dinner, it shouldn’t be too much longer now.” She left the door open when she walked out of the room, and I instantly got up to close it. That was too close for comfort. Much too close. I would have to do something to get her to back off for a bit. Stage an argument, make it so she doesn’t want to talk to me for a few days. She would still cover for me if the police came sniffing around, even if we were having a ‘lover’s spat’. 

I sat back down, and moved onto the next section of the form. The date, time, and place of where I had to go to collect payment had been listed, and I typed ‘agree’ in the appropriate box. The details for payment collection changed every time, most likely to make sure the entire operation remained undercover, but sometimes it seemed like they only did it to make sure we read and filled out the entire form. If it weren’t such good money, I might quit and move to an office job. The forms were probably easier, and took less time to fill out. The ones I had to do? You might go as far as to call them ‘deathly’ boring.

“Dinner’s ready!” Rebecca called from the other room, and I quickly finished typing in the last box, before saving the document. The boss had access to it, so the second I saved it, they would have a notification that another job had been carried out successfully. For me, though, I had to go and play the part of husband.

For the time being, that is.

Until Rebecca ceases to be any use to me. 

And done!

I may or may not have written this entire thing mere minutes ago. I may be completely behind on Spooky Season Week, and am trying desperately to get every post done before they actually have to go out. Ahh!

Anyway, that's all for now...

Bye!

A Review – Heaven's Peak: A Gripping Horror Novel by Miguel Estrada – Spooky Season Week, Day 2!

With the time for spooks and scary reads upon us, I scrolled through my e-reader in the search of something that looked like it fell into the horror genre. This book was the one I stopped on, and opened.

Now I'm making this post, I realise that this book is by the same author as Seven Sins, the book I read for my Spooky Season Week last year... coincidence?! Anyway, you can read my review of Seven Sins here, and read on for my review of this book!

The beautiful resort town of Heaven's Peak is home to gorgeous landscapes and terrifying secrets.

After the tragic death of his mother, teenage photographer Kevin Miller moves to a new town with his alcoholic father and eight-year-old sister in the hope of bringing the family together and starting over. However, everything changes when Kevin witnesses his sister being kidnapped by a bizarre creature. The police are skeptical of his story, so he decides to unveil the mysteries surrounding the town on his own.

On the other side of the investigation, FBI agent Norman James will do anything to solve the baffling case, except believe a traumatized teenager's nonsense.

Meanwhile, newscasts predict a blizzard approaching in the next couple of days, as people in the town begin to behave strangely.

Will Kevin and Norman find Kevin's little sister before Heaven's Peak is consumed by darkness?

Heaven's Peak is the first full-length horror-thriller novel from author Miguel Estrada. If you like suspense, mystery and dread, prepare for a ride you won't forget.

Amazon UK • Amazon US (it's free, so go grab a copy!)

My Review!

Heaven’s Peak is the place Kevin has been dragged to, the place he must now make his home. After the death of his mother, his father is hardly fit to parent any longer, preferring the company of a bottle of alcohol over the company of his children, and so Kevin must step up to look after his younger sister, Jenny. 

But Heaven’s Peak already has a history of people going missing. A girl in one of Kevin’s classes, Sofia, is the older sister of a young boy who went missing recently. And when Kevin sees what is really behind the kidnapping, the night when he comes home to find his sister gone, he knows he can’t simply sit back and let the police deal with it. Sofia’s brother hasn’t been found yet, and the police absolutely did not believe Kevin when he described the humanoid monster that took Jenny. There is nothing left to do, but for Kevin to find Jenny himself. 

Kevin is a flawed character. He is not a hero, who knows exactly what needs to be done to move forward, although others may view him as such a strong person. His only goal is to find Jenny, no matter what he has to do, but he also drags Sofia into things she is not comfortable doing. She is desperate to find her brother, but she would rather not put herself in dangerous scenarios, and Kevin rarely sees things from her point of view. He also struggles with sanity as he learns more. There is no way a sane person would claim so surely that a monster is behind the disappearances, but Kevin cannot deny what he saw. 

Other than Kevin and Sofia, this book also gives the perspective of FBI agent Norman James. I love books, whether thriller or horror, that give the view of the people who are supposed to be investigating the case, as well as those who are doing it of their own accord. James is one of the only officers who seems to be actually trying to find any of the missing people, he finds himself in a force of officers who don’t appear to care, and he is the only person who believes Kevin may be telling the truth when he talks of monsters. James is a character I really enjoyed reading about. He is focused, and gets incredibly frustrated when he is treated as inferior and the people around his don’t take things as seriously as they should. He is stuck within a corrupt group, and as you read, you too become more and more frustrated. He doesn’t have what he needs to properly move forward his investigations, and things fall apart without the proper protocols and dedication. 

The monsters themselves are difficult to talk about without giving away important parts of the plot. I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that they really are monsters, for this is a horror book with supernatural elements. They are incredibly unique, I have not come across anything supernatural fiction with monsters such as these before. The author has done a wonderful job in making a new kind of horrific being, which is just as scary as any mythical or supernatural creature I have read about before. I have read some reviews of this book, and quite a few have described this book as missing some key details. However, while some may say there was an air of incomplete about this book, with a lack of explanation about the creatures, such as why they were taking people, or how they came to be, I actually liked the way the author left out these details. At no point does the reader know any more than any of the characters, so you are drawn more into the story, desperate to find out more, and for the truth to be revealed. By still not revealing these details at the end, you are left feeling incredibly uneasy, not sure if the characters are safe or not. It is incredibly difficult to explain without giving away the ending, but the author has certainly succeeded in writing a book that is full of suspense! 

I did really enjoy reading this book. There is intrigue and suspense all the way through, which makes it next to impossible to put this book down. Like the last book I read by this author, I stayed up late to finish reading, as I simply had to know what was going to happen, and whether Kevin was going to be able to find Jenny. If you like monsters and unease, this is certainly the book for you.

And done!

I think, out of this book and Seven Sins, this is certainly the superior book.

I don't have much to say down here, other than trying to do Spooky Season Week this year was probably a mistake, considering it is the Sunday before I start as I write this, and I have yet to actually schedule any posts for the week at all...!

Anyway, that's all for now...

Bye!

Short Story – Never Checking Out – Spooky Season Week, Day 1!

There was something not quite right about the little hotel on the side of the road. I could tell that from the moment I saw it through my slightly fogged up windscreen, my windscreen wipers going a mile a minute in an attempt to keep up with the relentless rain falling from the sky. But this hotel was where the company I worked for had booked in a room for me, and at eleven at night, I wasn’t up to trying to find someplace else. Not that I could afford to rent a room myself anyway.

The hotel was part of a restaurant, with a bar and dining area downstairs, and the letting rooms upstairs. I went unnoticed as I walked in, but the second I announced to the woman behind the bar that I was supposed to be staying in one of the rooms, heads spun to face me, almost to examine me, before people turned to each other and started talking in hushed whispers. 

“You’re blooming brave, love. I wouldn’t want to spend a night here,” someone called out. Someone responded sarcastically, saying ‘what are you on about, you spend nearly every night here!’ and the whole bar laughed, most seemingly moving on from the short conversation, but I couldn’t shake the man’s words. 

I was escorted upstairs, and shown to my room. I thanked the man who had shown me up, and made to step towards the door of the room, but the man stopped me short.

“Take no notice of anything they say down there. They’re a bunch of superstitious bastards, and the drink just makes them worse.” He walked off after saying that, which did nothing to quell my unease. I looked around the hall, before quickly unlocking the door to my room, and stepping in. I had a strange feeling that I was the only person staying at this hotel.

After freshening up, and changing out of my work clothes into a pair of jeans and a comfy jumper, I made my way back downstairs, and ordered myself a drink. Word seemed to have spread, and people started coming up to me, talking to me. The things I was told as I sat there were unbelievable. That the building was haunted, that lights flicker and footsteps can be heard when there’s no one walking around. That someone once got hit by a bar stool that a ghost sent flying, and ended up in hospital. That the pervious owners of the building had left fearing for their lives and their sanity. It’s not like I was superstitious in the slightest, I’ve always been of the mindset that when you die, you’re dead and gone, and that the supernatural has always simply been stories to scare people. But the amount of people that came up to me with a different ghostly story had me a little on edge.

I lay in bed that night, exhausted but somehow unable to sleep. After hours of ghost stories, my brain had started to actually believe some of the stuff that was said, and every little noise I heard made me jump and clutch the duvet a little tighter. A creak here, a quiet clatter there. Whether it was just the building owners or a manager closing up for the night, and making sure the building was secure, I didn’t know, but in my head, a spirit was roaming the halls outside my locked room door.

I woke up the next morning with no idea when I fell asleep, but feeling disorientated and like something was wrong. I sat up, rubbing at my eyes, and realised as I looked around the room what it was that was off. There was a chest of drawers in my room, and when I went to bed, all three drawers were shut. I knew for certain, because I looked through them to see if anything had been left in them. Now, the top drawer had been pulled all the way open, and bent to the side on an angle to hold it open. I climbed uneasily out of bed, and checked the drawer, closing it when I found nothing else strange about it.

And then the next night, I definitely heard footsteps in the hall, that stopped just outside my room, and lingered beyond the door for at least half an hour of me panicking and being frozen in bed for fear that movement would alert whatever was by the door to my presence. The next morning, everything in the room had been unplugged, the plugs were lying on the floor next to the sockets. I requested a room change after that, but apparently it wasn’t possibly, because every room had been booked out. Strange, considering there was clearly no one in any of the other rooms.

In my spare time, the time I was supposed to be using for relaxing, watching television, and sleeping, I started researching the building. Simply searching the name of the building on the internet, along with the word ‘ghost’ brought up a string of web pages about the people who had died in the building, and stories of people who have stayed here, and what they experienced overnight. Flickering lights, footsteps in the hall when there was no one out there. Things moving around in the rooms. Terrible nightmares every night they spent here. 

I started dreading coming back to the hotel, a cold shiver ran down my spine every time I stepped through the door, and settled in my bones until I left the building the following morning. The end of the week was slowly nearing, and I would be going home, and I couldn’t wait, but voicing my concerns to my boss, asking to be moved to a different hotel… I had only just managed to get this job, and I didn’t want to come off as paranoid before I had a chance to prove myself.

I stared up at the ceiling, the duvet pulled up to my chin. A coldness had settled over the room in the last couple of minutes, and I started to shiver, but quelled the shaking and froze at the sound of footsteps approaching my door. They paused for but a moment, outside of my door, before continuing. Not down the hall, like every time before, but continuing towards me, the footsteps coming through the closed door and stopping right next to me.

I could barely breathe, frozen in place as the bed dipped, as if someone was sitting down on the side of it. I tried to pretend to be asleep, but my eyes refused to close, and my breath kept catching in my throat as air come in and out in shaky pants. When I saw a figure appear before me, I stopped breathing all together. He was pale, colourless, almost see-through. He slowly reached a misty hand out towards me, and touched it to my cheek. Icey coldness ran through my body, starting from the contact of his hand on my cheek, and I felt my body go numb, even though my mind raced on.

In weeks to come, people would talk of the woman who was found dead in one of the rooms upstairs. In months to come, when gossip quietened down, and people started renting out that room again, they would complain that it felt like someone else was lying in the bed with them, and whenever they lay down, a wave of fear would wash over them. They would describe it in online articles as if the woman who had died was still around, and in her final moments, she felt nothing but terror.

And done!

I'll be honest, I was going to scrap the idea of doing Spooky Season Week this year entirely. It was supposed to start yesterday, and go from Monday to Sunday. But obviously, I didn't have any posts ready to go out yesterday. So I'm going to try and do Tuesday to Monday instead. At least this will actually include Halloween.

And hopefully, I'll actually get some posts scheduled. I currently have one ready for tomorrow, and that's it.

Anyway, that's all for now...

Bye!

A Review – The Man Who Didn't Call by Rosie Walsh

I will preface this post to add that I wrote this three months ago, completely forgot I had done so, and have just found it in my drafts. So here it is!

I am dog sitting for a week (as I write this, but not when this post comes out) in a friend's house. Alone. Their dog is here, I am here, they are not here.

But in the room I am sleeping in, there is a stack of books. And do you think I could resist that?!

I found this book in the stack, and read it. I am only dog/house sitting for a week, so I know there's no way I'd ever get through the entire stack, but there are other books there that look good, so we'll see.

Anyway, let me introduce the book, and I'll get into my review!

Imagine you meet a man, spend seven glorious days together, and fall in love. And it’s mutual: you’ve never been so certain of anything.

So when he leaves for a long-booked holiday and promises to call from the airport, you have no cause to doubt him.

But he doesn’t call.

Your friends tell you to forget him, but you know they're wrong: something must have happened; there must be a reason for his silence.

What do you do when you finally discover you're right? That there is a reason – and that reason is the one thing you didn't share with each other?

The truth.

Amazon UK • Amazon US

My Review!

Sarah had just got out of a loveless marriage and returned to England, from America, to visit her family when she met Eddie. But after seven days of completely falling in love with him, Eddie leaves to go on holiday, with a promise to call Sarah. But Sarah’s phone never rang, and she can’t seem to get in touch with Eddie at all. It seems like he’s simply disappeared.

Sarah’s friends tell her to move on, to forget about the guy she only knew for a week, but she can’t. Deep inside, Sarah is concerned for Eddie, scared something might’ve happened to him to prevent him from replying to her. Her theories develop as she tried to justify his lack of a response, but the more time that passes, she starts to wonder just how long she can keep up trying to get hold of him. She’s not just had an emotional impaction, she is struggling to eat, to sleep, to focus. She has been thrown into a whirlwind, and she can’t quite figure out how to escape.

There are a lot of secrets in this book, secrets kept between the characters, and also some kept from the reader. The more you read, the more you learn, until a twist will completely flip things, and change your perspective of entire chapters. The truth is something that neither Sarah, or Eddie, have told each other. And while neither was dishonest, the truths that they withheld left them both lost.

Sarah is a character that I instantly liked. She clings to those seven days she spent with Eddie, even though her friends think it’s ridiculous. I can see how some readers might see the situation like her friends see it, as a seven day fling, that ended as soon as it started. But Sarah has spent her entire life in loveless relationships, trying to give love but gaining little in return, and when she met Eddie, she finally felt that love, that passion, from his end, not just her own. And for her, feeling something so strong, so quickly, is difficult to move on from.

With different characters come different problems, different emotional states and challenges. There is plenty of representation of different medical problems, which I think were depicted fabulously. In particular, I thought Eddie’s relationship with his mother was incredibly realistic. His mother has several mental illnesses, and although he doesn’t consider himself to be her carer, he is the person she completely relies on. If she calls, he feels an obligation to go and make sure she is alright, even though she doesn’t really realise how much he does for her, and how thankful she should really be. Eddie’s feelings of guilt, that he should be putting her needs above his own, were incredibly realistic, especially as he struggled to figure out how he could live his own life while trying to accommodate for her needs. The sub-plots, like this one, really added to the story, and fleshed out already incredibly realistic characters.

Sarah and Eddie’s relationship isn’t really something that happens in this book. This isn’t a love story, where the characters fall in love over the course of the novel. They barely see each other throughout this book, and it’s the separation, and lack of communication, that builds the doubt, the emotion. There are several rather large twists in this book, the author has a knack for being able to make the reader think one way, and then reveal that they’ve been thinking wrong the entire time. By releasing Sarah’s backstory slowly, giving the context piece by piece, the truth slowly pieces itself together for the reader, as well as the characters. Withholding the truth is what put Sarah and Eddie in such a mess, but it makes a wonderful writing style!

When I started reading this book, I wasn’t quite sure what I was getting myself into. I had never heard of it before, didn’t know anything about it, I just picked it up on a whim and started reading. It is, quite honestly, an absolutely amazing book, that spoke to me on so many more levels than I was expecting. I borrowed the copy of this book that I read, but this is a book I’m going to have to get myself a copy of, because I’ll definitely be reading it again and again.

And done!

I've seen quite a few reviews saying that this book was boring, that people didn't like the characters, and it dragged. I thought it was absolutely amazing – I do wonder if I read a different book than they did. Definitely going up high on my list of 'books I absolutely loved'.

Anyway, that's all for now...

Bye!

Time for a life update...

So I figured it was probably time for a little life update. I haven’t posted for over a month, and even before that my posts were a little sporadic. Really, it all comes down to an unexpected job change. First, though, I need to give a little background on my previous job experience.

Growing up, I never knew what I wanted to do as a job. I changed my mind every several weeks, which didn’t particularly help when trying to figure out what I needed to study. I settled on training to be an accountant, and tried to organise everything I needed to go forward with a course. Unfortunately, the entire thing fell through, and I gave up on that idea.

So I decided I was going to become a lorry driver instead. To be fair, I got further with this than I got with the whole accountancy thing. I actually hold a full Class 2 lorry licence, and did two days of work in a lorry. However, it was only 2 days. I absolutely could not do the early mornings, and I was nearly falling asleep on the motorway, which completely put me off getting up so early and driving large vehicles on such little sleep. Getting up at 5, to drive somewhere an hour and a half away, before actually getting in the lorry and then driving around the country making deliveries… it just wasn’t something I could do. I might go back to it at some point, as I did enjoy the driving aspect, but I know for sure it is not something I can do full time.

And then we get to the reason I haven’t been posting. And no, I didn’t get a job that’s anything like accountancy or lorry driving. Me and my Dad have taken over a pub. Yes, you read that right. I’m currently running a pub. My Dad is landlord, although I would like to say that I am more in charge than he is. I’ve been doing this for just over two months now, and it feels like something I’ve been doing for much longer. I did my first shift behind a bar the night before we took over. Of course, I’ve had a lot more practice since then!

The pub itself is a very large building, with three floors, including a flat on the top floor, and a function room and letting rooms on the second floor. And, obviously, the bar itself on the ground floor. There is a skittle alley, beer garden, pool table… and every single part of the place is run down. Plenty of people thought the pub itself had closed down, it was in such a state, although it only shut for a couple of months at the beginning of 2020. Everywhere you look, there is work that needs to be done. It just so happens that me and my Dad have plans upon plans, and actually have the drive to execute those plans. We have had many different workmen in to sort the bigger jobs, like flattening the second garden, that was overgrown with 20 foot of buddleia, while we have been trying to sort the things we can do while the pub is shut in the mornings. It’s taken a while, but we finally have some free time in the day again, hence this post!

I have been living in the flat on the top floor, which brought issues in itself. First off, the place was left an absolute mess. And when I say mess, I mean it might have even classified as a biological hazard. It is a lot better now. I actually now have a bedroom, lounge, bathroom and kitchen that are liveable, albeit rather bare. I have yet to properly decorate and make it my own, and a fair few of my belongings are still in my room in my family home. The one I’m really missing is my bookcase! But I do have ideas for the place, such as making a reading corner, and I am excited to actually get moving forward with these ideas. Plus, I have heating now, so I am happy (for the first month and a half, I had absolutely no heating. We thought it was because the thermostat was broken. Turns out, the flat radiators are on a separate boiler system than the rest of the building, and the boiler had been switched off.) 

So, yeah. Bit of an unexpected change, but I think it is a good change. Plus, one of my dearest friends worked at the pub before we even took over, so I get to spend most evenings behind the bar working with her. We have a great time, although some of the customers think it’s a bit strange that we spend the entire evening dancing to whatever the jukebox is playing.

I will have to do another update, telling the story of the resident pub ghost, although I am wondering if I simply write a short story about all the activities he involves himself in. Keep an eye out for ghostly stories, although I’m not sure what format they will arrive in!

I think that’s all for now! I have only just skimmed the surface of everything that has happened in the last two months, although I think this post would go on forever if I write about everything in detail.

So in that case…

That’s all for now…

Bye!