Now That I Have Your Attention

 

Nicolas Hamilton has been exceeding expectations since day one.

Born with a form of cerebral palsy, Nicolas was told that he would never walk and would need a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Today he not only walks everywhere but he is the first disabled athlete to ever compete at the top level of British motorsport, The British Touring Car Championship, where he lines up on the grid alongside some of the world's best drivers.

Now That I Have Your Attention follows Nicolas's remarkable journey and shares the valuable, tough, and often surprising lessons learned throughout his life.

Nicolas's journey has at times been hostile and has forced him to navigate periods of anger and resentment, but by building his mental strength and pushing himself beyond the physical limits of what anyone had ever expected of him, Nicolas has changed his life - and believes you can too.

With each of these 7 Lessons, Nicolas's message is simple and universal: with self-discipline and self-compassion you can defy the limitations imposed upon you.

 I'll come right out and say it, Self Help books are not usually my thing. I occasionally read biographies and autobiographies but it has to be someone who interests me. Also, I had never heard of Nicolas Hamilton before seeing this book. I'm glad I took a chance on this though as this guy is a true inspiration.

 As it says in the blurb above Nicolas Hamilton was born with a form of cerebral palsy and I think it is safe to say he has been fighting since Day 1. After being told he would most likely never walk and would need a wheelchair he basically said "yeah, right, let's see about that."

 To get to where he has is no easy task even before you take his disability into consideration and with the 7 lessons in this book he passes on his knowledge, his experience and his 'Life doesn't need to hold you back' attitude to the reader. Not all of the lessons will be for everyone but if even just one speaks to you Hamilton and his book will have done what they set out to achieve and it's certainly left me with a few things to take away from it.

 Now That I Have Your Attention is not always an easy read but it is certainly a worthwhile one and one I will be recommending to others.

 Nothing less than the full 5* for this.

Thanks to Anne Cater and Random Things Tours for inviting me onto this blogtour and to Octopus Books for providing me with a review copy (all views and opinions are my own).

Below is the blogtour poster so please, if you can, have a look at what the other bloggers have to say.

Fall River by Meredith Miller

 

 

One young woman disappears as another returns. Alice has turned to the river looking to drown the voices in her head. Khadija has come home to uncover the terrible history hidden beneath its surface. The London train screeches by while the rest of the town is still asleep along the banks of the Tamar. They'll wake up that morning to find that everything, and nothing, has changed. Sooner or later, the river pulls them all. Sooner or later, someone falls...

 This was, for me, a strangely evocative novel. For someone who has never visited the area there was enough of a sense of place to "put me there" (I'm a very visual reader).

 In the small Cornish town of Saltash a 15 year old girl disappears, while at the same time her 25 year old cousin returns from a spell in London. The story follows events both before and after the disappearance and as Saltash is only a small town it feels like it covers the stories of all the people who live there. It's the kind of place where everybody knows everybody else's business (or at least they think they do) and outsiders are looked on with suspicion, even those coming back after a few years away.

 This felt like it could be a decent TV series as well as a cracking read and I would certainly recommend it - 4.5/5*

 Thank you to Anne Cater and Random Things Tours for inviting me onto this tour (and sorry for the delay in posting). Please see below for the other bloggers on the tour and give their posts a read if you can.

The Atlas Complex: Olivie Blake

 

 So, here we are at the end of the journey (well, for my part it is nearly the end, I've still got 120 pages or so to go but it is my date on the blog tour so for me it's all about what I think so far).

 The reasoning behind my not being at the end yet is simple, I loved The Atlas Six, quite enjoyed The Atlas Paradox but by the time I got to Complex I was having to dip back into Six and Paradox quite a bit to remind myself what the heck was going on, who was siding with who at what point etc. It's an enjoyable read but sometimes makes my head hurt.

 The basic premise behind the series is that 6 of the most gifted students in the world (think early twenties not Harry Potter age) are selected to study at The Alexandrian Institute for a year - but after a year only 5 will survive to carry on their studies (but if you've read this far you will know this already I guess).

 By the time of Complex what had been realised before - that all at the Institute was maybe not as it seems - has escalated, alliances are shattered and reformed and Atlas himself is just as crazy as you expected. The game is afoot.

 Much as I am enjoying The Atlas Complex I am finding it slow going for the reasons mentioned earlier and do think it could have done with being a tad shorter (there does seem to be a good bit of waffle early in the book) but as an ending things are going in the right direction. I'm looking at a reread of the series as a whole in a year or so which may make it clearer.

 I will say, I am a fan of Blake's writing style and will be looking for more of her works in the future.

Thank you to Black Crow PR and UK Tor for supplying the review copy - all views and opinions are my own.

The Lost War & The Bitter Crown by Justin Lee Anderson

 

Oh, this series just keeps going from strength to strength. I was lucky enough to receive both volumes in the post for review so got to lose myself in Anderson's worldbuilding for twice the length of time. 

When we start The Lost War the war, as the title suggests, is over and has been lost, there are bandits, demons and disease running riot across the land. For Aranok though there is no time to rest, as King's Envoy it is his mission to restore a deposed Queen and for that he needs to assemble a 'gang' to help him, and as you would expect they all come with their own skills, attitudes and issues. Reminded me of a Grimdark version of The Belgariad - and there's no way I'm not gonna love it. As the twist comes at the end I wondered if I should leave it a while before starting The Bitter Crown but I couldn't stay away. 

So, The Bitter Crown . . . Our heroes have learned the truth they (and everyone else) and to say they are reeling is possibly an understatement. But there is no time to rest, the game may have changed but it still needs to be won. For all the pieces to be in place the gang needs to be split up again and heading in different directions. We get to see deeper into the characters and more of the land and I'm up for that 100%. Throw into the mix battles, magic, politics and a whole heap of "how the hell are they going to get out of it this time" and what you have, in my opinion, is up there on a level with Game of Thrones.

Justin Lee Anderson has gone from self-published author (The Lost War) to an author who was picked up, professionally published and deserves his place at the High Table. 

7/5* (It's my blog so I can do what I want) and one of the best series I've read this year

Thanks to Black Crow PR for inviting me onto the tour and providing me with the review copies (which did not influence my opinions at all - these are all my own.) Please have a look at the posts by the other bloggers on the tour (below) and with a week to go as I write this it's not too late to drop hints to Santa.

The Art of Destiny - Wesley Chu

 

 I was lucky that, when I was invited to review The Art of Destiny there was an opportunity to read the first book in the series, The Art of Prophecy too. It was one of those books that looked just my thing but I just hadn't gotten around to it. Both books arrived, one paperback and one hardback but both looking glorious - I mean, seriously, that artwork is top notch.

 I had the day off, things to do, places to go but I decided to give TAoP a go with my morning coffee. Y'know, just to get a feel of things . . . Well, things didn't get done, places didn't get gone to but half a book was finished in no time. The series reads pretty much like the old Eastern series I used to watch when younger - Monkey, The Water Margin, that kind of thing - and I did see the story in my head (I'm a very visual reader) looking very much like those.

 The general gist for TAoP is that there is a chosen one, Jian, whose destiny is to fight and defeat The Eternal  Khan and save the kingdom. Turns out though that due to poor training and mollycoddling by his assortment of masters he isn't actually any good.

 Enter the elderly Grandmaster Taishi who clears out his whole retinue and starts his training her own way - whether Jian. Think Karate Kid and you won't be far off the mark.

 The Art of Destiny (TAoD) starts up a few years down the line from TAoP and sees our character leads (there are multiple points of View in this series) a bit older, sometimes wiser and basically just "grown".

Jian is no longer the Chosen One but that doesn't stop Master Taishi (still as grumpy, irascible and fun to read as ever) getting a host of other equally elderly Grandmasters out of retirement to help whip him into shape for a mission. He may not be THE Chosen One but he could still be A Chosen One I guess. 

 Where Chu excels here is the conversations, banter, but downs etc between his characters. Don't get me wrong, the world building is excellent and the fights and battles are off the chart but the chat is what makes it for me. I found myself in awe of events only to find myself chuckling or laughing out loud even a couple of pages further on.

 Yes, this is a big chonk of a book but it doesn't feel like one. I lost myself for hours at a time and loved every minute of it.

 

Bookshops and Bonedust by Travis Baldree

 

Today is my spot on the Blogtour for Travis Baldree's NYT #1 Best Seller Bookshops and Bonedust.

B&B is a prequel to last year's Legends and Lattes and I guess if you've already read that you know what to expect - you won't be disappointed. The story takes place 20 years before L&L and features our favourite orc, Viv who is injured in battle and left to recover in the town of Murk. With very little to do Viv soon discovers the titular Bookshop and its grumpy owner and an unexpected love of books. 

The people and creatures she meets in Murk and through the bookshop are what really makes the story stand out for me, the interactions and banter are even more enchanting than in L&L. The bookshop owner, Fern, a grumpy, foul mouthed ratkin was an absolute gem, one of those characters you would happily spend more reading time with.

B&B was a comfy (if not as much so as L&L) read with magic, intrigue, friendship, adventure and was just as much fun as I had hoped it would be. The added snippets from other books only added to the overall enjoyment.

Now, I know a lot of genre fans may turn their noses up at the idea of Cosy Fantasy (and yeah, I would have been one of those before last year) but both Legends and Bookshops were a massive surprise. Sometimes you just don't know that the book you need isn't always the book you would choose.

5/5* and a definite contender for my favourite book of the year.

Thanks to Black Crow PR for inviting me onto this tour and providing me with a review copy (which in no way influenced my thoughts or opinions). Please have a read of the reviews by the other bloggers on the tour (below) 

The Darkness Before Them - Matthew Ward

 

 I really enjoyed Matthew Ward's Legacy Trilogy so a chance to read an early review copy of The Darkness Before Them was a definite no-brainer for me.

 The setting here is more of a Middle Eastern one, so certainly different to Legacy's more British feel and while I liked that I did find myself struggling with some of the pronunciation and that did cause me to take a bit longer reading it than I had hoped. But I got there just this afternoon and very satisfying it was too.

 Right, the story . . .

 TDBT starts off at a run with Kat and her girlfriend in the middle of a heist. We are quickly introduced to the magic system which, is a kind of spirit magic I guess. It has the spirits of the dead watching over the treasure rooms of the wealthy making them practically impregnable. Kat has a special gift though, she can talk to, and command the spirits. This heist, the one big job, is the one that will clear her debt, which she had to take on from her father when he died, will be a doddle then.

 Nah, of course not. As expected things go wrong and our hero is in a whole world of trouble.

 The other POV is that of Damant, castellan to one of the ruling families and this allows us to see things from the wealthier side of the city.

It is very much a case of the rich getting more and the poor making do with scraps (if they're lucky) but rebellion and uprising is in the air and Kat and Damant are going to end up in the middle of it.

 There is a lot going on in this story, the world building is top notch (apart from my struggles with pronunciation . but that's on me), the battles exhausting (in a good way) and, most importantly the characters have me invested in their plight that I am already Jonesing for the next in the series.

 Thanks to Matthew Ward for inviting me onto this blogtour and arranging the review copy. All opinions and views are my own and not influenced in any way. Please have a look at the posts from the other bloggers on the tour (below).