The ‘Zon in its wisdom has stopped me from leaving any Amazon reviews, but hey, I can still write reviews on my WordPress blog and Goodreads (currently trying to sort out why they think I’ve been a naughty girl):
Anyway – on with the show. I’ve just finished reading an awesome book. It’s a traditionally published book called ‘Our House’, and the author is Louise Candlish.
They say you have to grab the reader on the first page, and Candlish does this rather well. Her character Fiona Lawson returns home after a few days away, walks along the road towards her house, but then wonders whether her eyes are playing tricks when she sees somebody moving into her house. However, it’s no trick; new people are unpacking, and all her furniture and also her husband Bram have disappeared.
We learn how this has come about during the rest of the story, which flits back and forth between Bram’s point of view and Fiona’s. The suspense builds, with clever twists and turns of the plot, which to me is not quite realistic but it makes for a good story.
I didn’t like the silly podcast comments that kept cropping up (Fiona narrates her side of the story through a podcast), but apart from that it’s an intelligently thought-out story and well-written. Because of the podcast comments I’m giving it 4.5 instead of 5 stars, but it’s nevertheless a compelling page-turner and all the way through the 400 pages I was eager to read more.
I would call this a suspense/thriller story, and I would definitely recommend this book.
OIKOS™-Publishing said:
Thank you for another lovely review, Stevie! Have a nice weekend. Michael
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Stevie Turner said:
You too Michael!
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OIKOS™-Publishing said:
:-)) Sorry for the late revisit. I will try to change some publishing routines. Michael
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Smorgasbord - Variety is the Spice of Life. said:
Reblogged this on Smorgasbord Blog Magazine and commented:
Stevie Turner with a review of Our House by Louise Candlish.. They say you have to grab the reader on the first page, and Candlish does this rather well. Her character Fiona Lawson returns home after a few days away, walks along the road towards her house, but then wonders whether her eyes are playing tricks when she sees somebody moving into her house. However, it’s no trick; new people are unpacking, and all her furniture and also her husband Bram have disappeared. Head over and read the rest of the post..
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Stevie Turner said:
Thanks Sally. x
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dgkaye said:
Great review Stevie. Of course I’m going to check it out! And boo on the Zon! Now you too? Do make sure if you’ve received a book for free you start an Amazon review with a disclaimer like: I was gifted with a copy of this book from the author. It seems to be working for me. That informs Amazon why I didn’t purchase it. And NEVER add , . in exchange for a review. 🙂
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Stevie Turner said:
All books were purchased.
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dgkaye said:
Then you must have got caught in one of their ‘sweeps’ where the innocent are taken down along with the guilty. Have you questioned them yet?
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Stevie Turner said:
Yes but there’s no reply as yet.
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dgkaye said:
Typical! 😦
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Stevie Turner said:
Still can’t leave a review…
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dgkaye said:
Grrr! It may take them a few days, since they’re so disorganized! 😦
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Stevie Turner said:
I had an email today to say all my reviews are back.
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dgkaye said:
Omg, lol, crazyiness! Well thank goodness! 🙂
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Stevie Turner said:
Just got told it was all a ‘technical error’ and I will be able to add reviews in 24 hours.
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dgkaye said:
Yayyyy, just as I suspected!! Grr, so annoying! 🙂
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jwebster2 said:
with regard the review issue, have you seen this article?
https://www.which.co.uk/news/2018/10/the-facts-about-fake-reviews/
It sounds like Which found a fake review network, asked Amazon difficult questions about it and Amazon has panicked and just dumped a lot of people for no good reason
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Stevie Turner said:
Thanks Jim, but we bought books and gave honest reviews. Still haven’t heard from them.
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jwebster2 said:
Ah but Amazon can say that they’ve ‘done something.’
Admittedly they’ve merely hacked people off and screwed things for a lot of decent reviewers but since when did the mighty zon care about anything other than it’s bottom line
Read something today when it was pointed out Amazon sells books at a loss just to get to sell people other stuff on which they make a profit. Screwing we writers over is just part of the business plan
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Stevie Turner said:
Sounds like the ‘Zon.
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Don Massenzio said:
Reblogged this on DSM Publications and commented:
Check out this review of the book ‘Our House’ by Louise Candlish as featured in this post from Stevie Turner’s blog.
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Stevie Turner said:
Thanks Don.
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Phil Huston said:
Two rules about reviews on Amazon. It is impossible to be honest, posting negs is a Nono. Language that is not even close to foul or profane and euphemisms/analogies that the scanner interprets as demeaning, or somehow racial or non pc get you denied for a while, particularly if you try to figure out what they didn’t like and try to fix it on the same target. You can even try positive hyperbole and get called out. But only in the books. You can call a thingy a cheap Chinese piece of crap, the designer was a retard and they should all rot in hell and it flies, I’ve seen them. But books one must tread lightly. I found the word “unpolished” got kicked out. Go figure. Maybe it’s the everybody gets a trophy even if they suck mentality. God bless technology and collaborative rubrics. Don’t be naughty on Amazon, Alexa will forget your wake up alarm.
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Stevie Turner said:
It was probably the Verified Purchase Review Group. I’ve closed it down now, but we bought the books and gave honest reviews. The trouble is that although it ended up with 23 members, only a few of us took part and so the ‘Zon might have thought we were swapping reviews.
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Phil Huston said:
It’s mostly done by robots, and that might have been their assumption, tit for tat.
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