Book Review - The Poison Thread by Laura Purcell

Photo Credit - Amazon

Two young women who are complete opposites of each other, find their lives intertwined. Ruth Butterham is a poor seamstress awaiting trial for murder. Dorothea Truelove is a wealthy socialite with an interest in phrenology. Following her mother's footsteps, Dorothea volunteers at the Oakgate Prison where she meets Ruth. Dorothea believes that the shape of a person's skull can help predict a person's traits and personalities including, the ability for murder. 

Ruth maintains that she can kill someone with just a needle and thread. Ruth believes she has a supernatural power that transfers to her stitches. As Ruth begins to tell her tale of betrayal and bitterness, will Dorothea be able to trust Ruth's story?

I thought the novel had an interesting premise and was an enjoyable read. However, I felt like the writing was choppy and hard to follow during some parts of the story. I also felt like that the story was drawn out and the ending was a bit rushed and out of place. I wish the story was a bit more developed and the author spent more time building out the ending. Since I enjoyed the premise of the story, I would be open to reading more books from the author.

 **Disclosure -  This post may contain affiliate links which means I earn advertising and/or referral fees if you purchase an item through my link. Please note, there will be no extra charges to you. Thank you for your support.**

Book Spotlight - Anyone by Charles Soule + Giveaway

Imprint: Harper Perennial
On Sale: 12/03/2019
Pages: 432
List Price: 21.99 USD
ISBN: 9780062890634
ISBN 10: 0062890638

Praise for ANYONE

“(Anyone) is fast-paced and suspenseful. Soule’s uncomfortable vision of the future will please readers of cutting-edge speculative fiction. ” —Publishers Weekly

“With his second novel, Anyone, Charles Soule establishes himself as an author that readers of speculative fiction will love for years to come. The book will leave you thinking about gender, power, and what it means to be human for long after the final chapter.” —Jennifer Wright, author of Get Well Soon: History’s Worst Plagues and the Heroes That Fought Them

“Soule has wrapped a sharp, prescient investigation of the human mind inside a breakneck thriller that will have you riveted until the very last twist. Anyone is truly a book for everyone.” —Peng Shepherd, author of The Book of M

“I spent much of my childhood inside DARPA, where my father was Deputy Director, and this book captures the imagination and double-edged sword of our greatest scientific leaps. The same technology that can cure the world’s ills might also cause us to spiral into our own greed, selfishness, and vanity. Charles Soule’s Anyone is a remarkable, consequential novel and a terrifying wake-up call.” —Susan Henderson, author of The Flicker of Old Dreams

“Anyone is an intense, superbly crafted, edge of your seat thrill ride. I loved the two slowly converging storylines, not to mention the most dedicated, hardcore character I’ve read in a long, long time. Who would you be if you could be anyone? I’d really like to be Charles Soule and have written this book.” —Sylvain Neuvel, author of Sleeping Giants

“An imaginative, time-fragmented thriller about the bitter and potentially deadly consequences of body-snatching. Readers won’t feel that they’re on the edge of their seats as much as they’re on a balance beam above a pit of lava while trying to solve a Rubik’s Cube.” —Kirkus Reviews

Charles Soule brings his signature knowledge—and wariness--of technology to his sophomore novel set in a realistic future about a brilliant female scientist who creates a technology that allows for the transfer of human consciousness between bodies, and the transformations this process wreaks upon the world.

Inside a barn in Ann Arbor, Michigan, a scientist searching for an Alzheimer’s cure throws a switch—and finds herself mysteriously transported into her husband’s body. What begins as a botched experiment will change her life—and the world—forever…

Over two decades later, all across the planet, “flash” technology allows individuals the ability to transfer their consciousness into other bodies for specified periods, paid, registered and legal. Society has been utterly transformed by the process, from travel to warfare to entertainment; “Be anyone with Anyone” the tagline of the company offering this ultimate out-of-body experience. But beyond the reach of the law and government regulators is a sordid black market called the darkshare, where desperate “vessels” anonymously rent out their bodies, no questions asked for any purpose - sex, drugs, crime... or worse.

Anyone masterfully interweaves the present-day story of the discovery and development of the flash with the gritty tale of one woman’s crusade to put an end to the darkness it has brought to the world twenty-five years after its creation. Like Blade Runner crossed with Get Out, Charles Soule’s thought-provoking work of speculative fiction takes us to a world where identity, morality, and technology collide.

You can purchase Anyone at the following Retailers:

        

Photo Credit: Marc Lemoine

Charles Soule is a Brooklyn, New York-based novelist, comic book writer, musician, and attorney. While he has worked for DC and other publishers, he is best known for writing Daredevil, She-Hulk, Death of Wolverine, and various Star Wars comics from Marvel Comics (Darth Vader, Poe Dameron, Lando and more), and his creator-owned series Curse Words from Image Comics (with Ryan Browne) and Letter 44 from Oni Press (with Alberto Jimenez Alburquerque.)

His first novel, The Oracle Year, about a man who can see the future and way this ability changes the world, will be released in April 2018 by the Harper Perennial imprint of HarperCollins.

        

WEEK ONE

DECEMBER 2nd MONDAY JeanBookNerd INTERVIEW

DECEMBER 3rd TUESDAY Movies, Shows, & Books EXCERPT

DECEMBER 4th WEDNESDAY Two Points of Interest REVIEW

DECEMBER 5th THURSDAY Stephanie's Life of Determination REVIEW

DECEMBER 5th THURSDAY Crossroad Reviews REVIEW

DECEMBER 6th FRIDAY Insane About Books REVIEW

WEEK TWO

DECEMBER 9th MONDAY BookHounds REIVEW

DECEMBER 10th TUESDAY Wishful Endings INTERVIEW 

DECEMBER 11th WEDNESDAY A Backwards Story REVIEW

DECEMBER 12th THURSDAY Little Bookish Thoughts REVIEW

DECEMBER 12th THURSDAY TTC Books and More EXCERPT 

DECEMBER 13th FRIDAY Casia's Corner REVIEW

*JBN is not responsible for Lost or Damaged Books in your Nerdy Mail Box*

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Book Spotlight - Deadly Little Scandals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes + Giveaway

Photo Credit - Amazon

Title: DEADLY LITTLE SCANDALS (Debutantes #2)

Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Pub. Date: November 5, 2019

Publisher: Freeform

Formats: Hardcover, eBook

Pages: 352

Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, TBD

"Think of the White Gloves like the Junior League-by way of Skull and Bones?"

Reluctant debutante Sawyer Taft joined Southern high society for one reason and one reason alone: to identify and locate her biological father. But the answers Sawyer found during her debutante year only left her with more questions and one potentially life-ruining secret. When her cousin Lily ropes her into pledging a mysterious, elite, and all-female secret society called the White Gloves, Sawyer soon discovers that someone in the group's ranks may have the answers she's looking for. Things are looking up... until Sawyer and the White Gloves make a disturbing discover near the family's summer home--and uncover a twisted secret, decades in the making.

No one is quite who they seem to be in this twisty, soapy, gasp-inducing sequel to Jennifer Lynn Barnes' unputdownable Little White Lies. 

Title: LITTLE WHITE LIES (Debutantes #1)

Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Pub. Date: November 6, 2018

Publisher: Freeform

Formats: Hardcover, Paperback, eBook, Audiobook

Pages: 390

Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle, Audible, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, TBD

"I'm not saying this is Sawyer's fault," the prim and proper one said delicately. "But."

Eighteen-year-old auto mechanic Sawyer Taft did not expect her estranged grandmother to show up at her apartment door and offer her a six-figure contract to participate in debutante season. And she definitely never imagined she would accept. But when she realizes that immersing herself in her grandmother's "society" might mean discovering the answer to the biggest mystery of her life-her father's identity-she signs on the dotted line and braces herself for a year of makeovers, big dresses, bigger egos, and a whole lot of bless your heart. The one thing she doesn't expect to find is friendship, but as she's drawn into a group of debutantes with scandalous, dangerous secrets of their own, Sawyer quickly discovers that her family isn't the only mainstay of high society with skeletons in their closet. There are people in her grandmother's glittering world who are not what they appear, and no one wants Sawyer poking her nose into the past. As she navigates the twisted relationships between her new friends and their powerful parents, Sawyer's search for the truth about her own origins is just the beginning.

Set in the world of debutante balls, grand estates and rolling green hills, Little White Lies combines a charming setting, a classic fish-out-of-water story, and the sort of layered mystery only author Jennifer Lynn Barnes can pull off. 

About Jennifer: 

Jennifer Lynn Barnes (who mostly goes by Jen) is the author of more than a dozen critically acclaimed young adult novels. She has advanced degrees in psychology, psychiatry, and cognitive science, including graduate degrees from Cambridge University, where she was a Fulbright Scholar, and Yale University, where she received her Ph.D. in 2012. Jen wrote her first published novel when she was nineteen-years-old and sold her first five books while still in college. In additional to writing YA novels, Jen has also written original pilot scripts for television networks like USA and MTV, and she is one of the world's leading experts on the psychology of fandom and the cognitive science of fiction and the imagination more broadly. Jen is an Associate Professor at the University of Oklahoma, where she holds a dual appointment in Psychology and Professional Writing.

Website | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads 

Giveaway Details:

3 winners will receive a finished copy of DEADLY LITTLE SCANDALS, US Only.

Rafflecopter Link:

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/e2389ba21013/?

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

11/4/2019	The Heart of a Book Blogger	Review
11/5/2019	Avid Reader	Review
11/6/2019	Don't Judge, Read	Review
11/7/2019	Here's to Happy Endings	Review
11/8/2019	A Dream Within A Dream	Review

Week Two:

11/11/2019	Jena Brown Writes	Review
11/12/2019	Bookhounds YA	Excerpt
11/13/2019	Book-Keeping	Review
11/14/2019	Wonder Struck	Review
11/15/2019	The Reading Corner for All	Review

Week Three:

11/18/2019	Lisa Loves Literature	Review
11/19/2019	A Gingerly Review	Review
11/20/2019	Confessions of a YA Reader	Excerpt
11/21/2019	YA Boo k Nerd	Review
11/22/2019	THE BOOK NUT	Review

Week Four:

11/25/2019	Riddle’s Reviews	Review
11/26/2019	@fictitious.fox	Review
11/27/2019	Savings in Seconds	Review
11/28/2019	Book Briefs	Review
11/29/2019	Geronimo Reads	Review

Week Five:

12/2/2019

Two points of interest

Review

Tokyo Milk Bon Bon No. 6 Dead Sexy Hand Lotion

The creamy hand lotion has scents of vanilla, wood, white orchid, and ebony. It is enriched with Japanese green tea, shea butter, macadamia seed oil, avocado oil, milk thistle, aloe vera, Argan oil,  cocoa butter, and vitamin E. I didn't find the hand lotion to be greasy and it absorbs quickly. However, I found myself constantly reapplying throughout the day even though, it's packed with hydrating ingredients.  I find myself mostly using this hand lotion when I want to refresh my scent instead of providing hydrating to my dry skin.