See Me by Nicholas Sparks

Do you want to be in with the chance of winning Nicholas Sparks brand new novel ‘See Me’? Simply enter your name and email address into the form at thelockdown.co.uk/competitions and you’ll be entered into the prize draw. The winner will be selected at random today. Good luck!

See me just as I see you . . .

Colin Hancock is giving his second chance his best shot. With a history of violence and bad decisions behind him and the threat of prison dogging his every step, he’s determined to walk a straight line. To Colin, that means applying himself single-mindedly toward his teaching degree and avoiding everything that proved destructive in his earlier life. Reminding himself daily of his hard-earned lessons, the last thing he is looking for is a serious relationship.

Maria Sanchez, the hardworking daughter of Mexican immigrants, is the picture of conventional success. With a degree from Duke Law School and a job at a prestigious firm in Wilmington, she is a dark-haired beauty with a seemingly flawless professional track record. And yet Maria has a traumatic history of her own, one that compelled her to return to her hometown and left her questioning so much of what she once believed.

A chance encounter on a rain-swept road will alter the course of both Colin and Maria’s lives, challenging deeply held assumptions about each other and ultimately, themselves. As love unexpectedly takes hold between them, they dare to envision what a future together could possibly look like . . . until menacing reminders of events in Maria’s past begin to surface.

As a series of threatening incidents wreaks chaos in Maria’s life, Maria and Colin will be tested in increasingly terrifying ways. Will demons from their past destroy the tenuous relationship they’ve begun to build, or will their love protect them, even in the darkest hour?

Rich in emotion and fueled with suspense, SEE ME reminds us that love is sometimes forged in the crises that threaten to shatter us . . . and that those who see us for who we truly are may not always be the ones easiest to recognize.

Amazon Link

Nicholas Sparks is one of the world's most beloved storytellers. All of his books have been New York Times bestsellers, with over 100 million copies sold worldwide, in more than 50 languages, including over 65 million copies in the United States alone.

http://uk.nicholassparks.com/

Review: Wow! A romantic thriller like no other. This is another amazing book from the wonderful Nicholas Sparks. Maria and Colin have a steamy chemistry that sizzles despite their obvious differences - he's a bad boy, fighter with a dreadful past, whereas she is a straight laced lawyer who has always followed the rules. When a past case comes back to haunt her and her family (including the amazing Serena - you can't help but fall in love with her), Colin has to prove that he truly is worthy of her love. The surrounding characters in this book are just as well written as the protagonists, which makes the plot that much more gripping - a must read!

Flesh Without Soul by Pochassic

Flesh Without Soul is the newest book in The Book Review Club – sign up for free books and gain readers and feedback for your book.

What would you do to save the world? Eliminate racism? End Religious intolerance? Or simply destroy evil all together?

Michael Kerr, a recent drop out from his PHD program in bioengineering, is sure he can save the world. It’s a simple plan. Kill everyone on the planet who doesn’t believe in God. Problem is Michael’s unfaltering belief that he is the one and only true God. Now that his plan to cleanse the world has been unleashed all he needs to do is tie up a few loose ends. First save his sister Kara, who runs a small pizza joint in town, and second kill his other sister Jane, a Lt Commander in the Navy SEALS. As for the rest of the world, the zombie infection Michael released will kill every last human on Earth in six weeks, or less.

Then Paradise begins… One world united under one God… Michael, hallowed be His name.

From the exciting beginning as a commercial airliner is battered by a thunderstorm above Tokyo, to the unexpected ending in a small town nestled in the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts, Flesh Without Soul, delivers a rarity in the crowded zombie genre, a story with a beginning, middle, and end. No sequels, no trilogies, no stringing you on forever. So sit back and sink your teeth into the zombie book you’ve been waiting for. 

Amazon, Amazon UK and Goodreads.

A Murder County by Brandon Daily

A Murder County is part of The Book Review Club – sign up for free books and gain readers and feedback for your book.

The nineteenth century looms just a few years away, bringing with it the belief in progress and a new world. But for Josiah Fuller, William Corvin, and the Rider in the Appalachian backwoods and small towns of the late nineteenth century, there is nothing but a world where bloodshed is paid for in blood, and violence is the ultimate law of the land.

When seventeen-year-old Josiah Fuller comes home to find his parents hanged and mutilated and the family house burned to the ground, he sets off to find the man responsible for their murders and avenge their deaths. His journey takes him through new towns and wildernesses he has not seen before. He meets people who show him the realities of living in a violent world, forcing Josiah to decide what is most important to him: vengeance or grace.

Years after running away from home as a young boy, William Corvin returns with his new bride to take over the family's coal mining operation. Though he is haunted by the violence of his past, he sets out to live a peaceful life and start a family there. However, Corvin's hopes of peace are challenged when a horrible act of violence causes him to revert back to the man he once was.

After being visited by an angel in a dream years earlier, the Rider has become a man with violence in his blood, believing himself to be appointed by God to collect the souls of sinners. He travels around on his horse, killing whoever he feels is deserving of God's wrath and vengeance. These three men move along their own individual paths, their stories intersecting with one another, continually searching for an understanding of the violent world in which they live and their own actions within that world.

The novel examines the power and fragility of belief and conviction within humans, showing how one small act often leads to consequences that reach far beyond anyone's imagining.

  Amazon and Goodreads

Review: This book is dark, edgy and exciting! I've never read anything like it before. The author really captures the human spirit in unusual situations well. It isn't often that I can say my heart was pounding whilst reading a book, but this was certainly one of them. I loved the mysterious rider whose morals dictate everything he does. Outstanding, highly recommended! 

The Soldiers Wife by Pamela Hart

It is 1915 and the world is being torn apart, but newlyweds Ruby and Jimmy Hawkins are sure their love will survive the trauma and tragedy of war. Sent away to fight in the desperate battles raging in Gallipoli, Jimmy plans for the future they promised each other and struggles to keep his dreams whole amidst the brutality of the trenches.

Back home in Sydney, Ruby reads his romantic letters, full of longing. But as weeks slip into months she is forced to forge her own life. A new job throws her into a man's world fraught with complications and as the lives of those around her begin to shatter, a powerful new attraction beckons. Realising she must change to truly find her way, Ruby discovers her own strength and independence - but will the price be her marriage?

An unforgettable love affair set during WW1 and inspired by the true story of the author's own family history, The Soldier's Wife is a heart-soaring saga of passion, loss and learning how to live when all you hold dear is threatened.

Amazon Link

Pamela is an award-winning author for both adults and children. Writing under the name Pamela Freeman, she wrote the historical novel THE BLACK DRESS, which won the NSW Premier's History Prize for 2006 and is now in its third edition. Pamela is also well known for her fantasy novels for adults, published by Orbit worldwide: the CASTINGS TRILOGY and her Aurealis Award winning novel, EMBER AND ASH. She has a Doctorate of Creative Arts from the University of Technology, Sydney, where she has also lectured in creative writing. Pamela lives in Sydney with her husband and their son, and teaches face-to-face and online at the Australian Writers' Centre. THE SOLDIER'S WIFE is her 28th book.

Review: This novel is a beautifully written masterpiece! The fact that it's based on a true story makes it that much more compelling. In her time, Ruby is feisty, powerful, a force to be reckoned with and the effect that the war has on her life and marriage is devastating. However, the overall tone of the book is uplifting. Highly recommended!

The Shadows by J.R. Ward

Two brothers bound by more than blood fight to change a brutal destiny in the heart-wrenching new novel of the Black Dagger Brotherhood by #1 New York Times bestselling author J. R. Ward.

Trez “Latimer” doesn’t really exist.  And not just because the identity was created so that a Shadow could function in the underbelly of the human world.  Sold by his parents to the Queen of the S’Hsibe as a child, Trez escaped the Territory and has been a pimp and an enforcer in Caldwell, NY for years- all the while on the run from a destiny of sexual servitude.  He’s never had anyone he could totally rely on... except for his brother, iAm.

iAm’s sole goal has always been to keep his brother from self-destructing- and he knows he’s failed.  It’s not until the Chosen Serena enters Trez’s life that the male begins to turn things around... but by then it’s too late.  The pledge to mate the Queen’s daughter comes due and there is nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, and no negotiating.

Trapped between his heart and a fate he never volunteered for, Trez must decide whether to endanger himself and others- or forever leave behind the female he’s in love with.  But then an unimaginable tragedy strikes and changes everything.  Staring out over an emotional abyss, Trez must find a reason to go on or risk losing himself and his soul forever.  And iAm, in the name of brotherly love, is faced with making the ultimate sacrifice...

Amazon Link

J. R. Ward lives in the South with her incredibly supportive husband and her beloved golden retriever. After graduating from law school, she began working in health care in Boston and spent many years as chief of staff for one of the premier academic medical centres in the nation. She is the author of the Black Dagger Brotherhood and Fallen Angels series.

Website – Facebook – Twitter

Review: I like this series of books and thought that this one was a great addition to the overall story line. The fantasy world surrounding these well-written characters is detailed, epic and really exciting. Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys the paranormal romance genre - this one is filled with love, lust and a hole lot of supernatural!

Nicholas Sparks #Competition

Do you want to be in with the chance of winning Nicholas Sparks brand new novel 'See Me'? Simply enter your name and email address into the form at thelockdown.co.uk/competitions and you'll be entered into the prize draw. The winner will be selected at random on October 15th. Good luck!

See me just as I see you . . .

Colin Hancock is giving his second chance his best shot. With a history of violence and bad decisions behind him and the threat of prison dogging his every step, he's determined to walk a straight line. To Colin, that means applying himself single-mindedly toward his teaching degree and avoiding everything that proved destructive in his earlier life. Reminding himself daily of his hard-earned lessons, the last thing he is looking for is a serious relationship.

Maria Sanchez, the hardworking daughter of Mexican immigrants, is the picture of conventional success. With a degree from Duke Law School and a job at a prestigious firm in Wilmington, she is a dark-haired beauty with a seemingly flawless professional track record. And yet Maria has a traumatic history of her own, one that compelled her to return to her hometown and left her questioning so much of what she once believed.

A chance encounter on a rain-swept road will alter the course of both Colin and Maria's lives, challenging deeply held assumptions about each other and ultimately, themselves. As love unexpectedly takes hold between them, they dare to envision what a future together could possibly look like . . . until menacing reminders of events in Maria's past begin to surface.

As a series of threatening incidents wreaks chaos in Maria's life, Maria and Colin will be tested in increasingly terrifying ways. Will demons from their past destroy the tenuous relationship they've begun to build, or will their love protect them, even in the darkest hour?

Rich in emotion and fueled with suspense, SEE ME reminds us that love is sometimes forged in the crises that threaten to shatter us . . . and that those who see us for who we truly are may not always be the ones easiest to recognize.

Amazon Link

Instinct by Sherrilyn Kenyon

Being a teen is never easy...

Zombies, demons, vampires, shapeshifters-another day in the life of sixteen-year-old Nick Gautier-and those are just his friends. But now that he's accepted the demon that lives inside him, he must learn to control it and temper the very emotions that threaten the lives of everyone he cares for. Something that's hard to do while trying to stay off the menus of those who want his head on a platter. And no one wants him more than the dark gods who created his race. Now that they know where he is, they will stop at nothing to reclaim him. And without knowing it, Nick has just embraced the one person he should never have trusted. The one person who will hand him over to his enemies to get back the life they lost.

Nick has finally accepted his fate, now he must learn to defy his destiny, and the dark, deadly forces that will stop at nothing to destroy everyone he loves so that they can again return to the world of man and own it, in the next Chronicles of Nick novel, Instinct, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Sherrilyn Kenyon.

Amazon Link

The #1 New York Times bestselling author, Sherrilyn Kenyon, who is proud of her mixed Cherokee heritage, lives a life of extraordinary danger… as does any woman with three sons, a husband, a menagerie of pets and a collection of swords that all of the above have a major fixation with. But when not running interference (or dashing off to the emergency room), she’s found chained to her computer where she likes to play with all her imaginary friends. With more than thirty million copies of her books in print, in over one hundred countries, she certainly has a lot of friends to play with too.

Her books appear regularly at the coveted #1 bestselling spot. This extraordinary bestseller continues to top every genre she writes. Her current series include: The Dark-Hunters, The League, Chronicles of Nick and Beladors. Since 2004, she has placed more than 80 novels on the New York Times list in all formats including manga.

Her Lords of Avalon novels have been adapted by Marvel and her Dark-Hunter novels are now a New York Times bestselling manga published by St. Martins, and her Chronicles of Nick series is adapted by Yen Press. Her Dark-Hunters and Chronicles of Nick series are both soon to be major motion picture releases.

http://www.sherrilynkenyon.co.uk/

Review: I really enjoy this book series! Nick has a complex life of battling zombies and demons, etc in his high school, and as the stories progress, it unravels that there is a much bigger plot line building. One that I can't wait to discover! This book delves much deeper into Nick's character and gives the reader a bigger insight into his life - all surrounded by an intriguing mystery. I would love to see these books turned into films, I think they'd work amazingly on the big screen. Can't wait for the next!