My Book Buying Habits

Just a side note, my husband I live in London, and we buy our physical books from two different chains of bookstores called Waterstones and Foyles. These the two brands are the biggest chains of bookstores you can find in London. In London, you can find independent bookstores, but generally where we’ve lived there has been a Waterstone’s or Foyle’s bookstore close to us and no independent ones. So, that’s where I buy physical books. I do read via audiobook and ebook as well and purchase from Amazon. So, my reading list is out of control.

About This Thriller Novel Book Haul

The books that I’m about to show you I purchased during May through to August. At the time of this filming, in September I hadn’t purchased any thriller related any books. My September book purchases had been fantasy, but I’ll do a separate haul at the middle of the month and be more on top of my book haul game. Spoiler alert, since it’s been a while between the filming of the video and the creation of the blog post, I did manage to buy a couple of thriller novels. What can I say? I couldn’t resist.

Glory in Death by J.D. Robb

So, the first book I purchased was Glory In Death by J.D. Robb. I started reading the first book in this series which is called Naked in Death, and I discovered that it was surprisingly sexy. This discovery was quite shocking to me because I read thrillers that are action-packed and are full of suspenseful moments; although Glory In Death, does have those elements. This series is a part of the crime genre because the protagonists, Eve Dallas, a lieutenant in the police force. And, this series is set in the future.

So, I’ve read Glory In Death, and I liked it. There’s a part of me that is invested in the relationship between Roarke and Eve even though it’s highly dysfunctional. In saying that, both of these characters are dysfunctional. So, therefore, their relationship is going to be a little bit dysfunctional as well. I’m absolutely hooked on this series. The next book I aim to read is going to be Immortal In Death unless I need to read something else for writing-related reasons. Naked In Death only took me like two or three days to read and absolutely loved it.

Camino Island by John Grisham

So, while I was in the St Pancras International, I was in a bookstore called Hatchards, which is actually a division of Waterstones. It was in that shop that I saw Camino Island by John Grisham on the shelves facing out. What intrigued me about this is the synopsis or blurb at the back. Valued at twenty-five million dollars, five manuscripts of F. Scott Fitzgerald only novels go missing. I think that alone made me pick up this book.

Very rarely do I go and flip a book over and read the blurb. Usually, it’s the genre, title, and cover that encourage me to buy books. I’m an impulse book buyer and I generally like the books that I’ve picked up. Occasionally there’ll be something in the book’s narrative that I don’t like, but generally, I do. And, if I’m still undecided about whether I want the book I will turn it around read the blurb, but I generally I buy books from authors that I know.

Kiss The Girls by James Patterson

So, the next book in my haul is, Kiss The Girls by James Patterson. James Patterson is known for his prolific writing. Is that what you call it? He seems to do a tonne of co-writing, but this particular Alex Cross series he writes on his own. I’m super keen to read something that only he has written. I have the first book in the series on my bookshelf it’s called Along Came A Spider, and apparently it has an ambiguous ending.

What made me purchase the first book in the series, was my annual subscription.I’m halfway through James Patterson’s class on writing fiction. In the lesson on ending,s James mentions the ending of Along Came A Spider, and I think that’s what made me purchase the first book in the Alex Cross series. And, I then realised I wanted the sequel. I’ve also got a big beautiful hardback on my bookshelves that I bought earlier this year. The title of that book, The People vs. Alex Cross, spoke to me, and it ended up in my cart. You’re sensing a theme here; aren’t you?

Kindle Whispersync for Voice

If you’re not familiar with Kindle Whipersync for Voice, it’s a feature on Amazon when you buy the audio and the ebook through the Kindle bookstore. The kindle follows along with audiobook and essentially reads to you. It’s not available on every title, but on some books, you purchase the audiobook from audible for an extra £2.99 or £3.99. I forget what the U.S. price for the audiobook is because I can’t purchase audiobooks and Kindle books through the US Amazon store. My Kindle is locked to the UK store.

A Female Stereotype

Up until this book, The Heretic’s Treasure I’ve loved the Ben Hope series. It’s not the story that I hated. I like Scott Mariani’s writing style because it’s fast-paced and I’m pulled through the book right to the end, and the endings are usually satisfying. To put it bluntly, I can’t stand the female protagonist, not only is she Australian which annoys the hell out of me. She’s a cliche who uses her sexuality to get what she wants. It’s as if that’s the only card in her deck that she can play. Why can’t she be intelligent or have another impressive skill set? She resorts to seducing men to achieve her goals.

Adults in Insta-Love

I hate the fact that she’s playing the Insta-love card. And to top it off, Ben Hope who must be in his 40s falls for this act. The love story is super cliche, and it casts Ben in a bad light. At the risk of spoiling the first books in the series, Ben has been through a bit of a tragedy, and as a result, he should be super sceptical of love at this point. He should be jaded. A fully grown man in his forties shouldn’t be able to fall for someone that quickly. You don’t fall in love with someone. Insta-love isn’t a thing, it’s something you believe as a teenager or young adult, but you grow out of that, but he’s 40 and still believes in Insta-love. Sorry, I’ll end the rant here, but I’m sure you get my point.

The Bach Manuscript by Scott Mariani

I’m super excited to read The Bach Manuscript, because of the title. The cover looks super cool. I’ve written one of one of my books Silence is actually set in Oxford which is where part of The Bach Manuscript is set. The books in the Ben Hope Series are set across multiple locations usually throughout Europe and Africa. I think that’s why I like this series. It reminds me of a series by J.F. Penn, but with her books, you get an extra side of the supernatural which I really love. I’m currently waiting for her to publish the next ARKANE novel. So, I’m reading all of these other things while I wait.

The Riviera Express by TP Fielden

This next book in this haul is called The Riviera Express by TP Fielden. It’s a Cozy Mystery and I’m thinking about writing a series of Cozy Mysteries. And, the only mystery novels that could be classed as Cozy are the Miss Marple series by Agatha Christie and I’ve just started to read the Hercule Poirot series. I like Miss Marple because she’s an elderly busy-body and people don’t really see her coming and don’t expect her to solve the crime. There’s something about an old lady walking around a small village solving crimes that I absolutely love. I love how the series is not based on the horror side of a crime scene, it’s more about so solving the facts. I want to read The Riviera Express to give me a taste of a modern Cozy Mystery. The cover is the reason why I purchased this book. I love these little illustrative style covers they’re really cute.

Vengeance in Venice by Philip Gwynne Jones

When Roland and I first moved to where we are now, there’s a short bus ride to our nearest Waterstone’s. I found the first book in this series which was called The Venetian Game. I’ve been to Venice. On my trip to Venice, I got eaten alive eaten alive by mosquitoes and Roland didn’t. And, the second in the series is called Vengeance in Venice. I like the concept of a murder or a crime novel being set in such a beautiful city like Venice. So, basically there’s a crime, someone’s murdered in Venice and I guess the story is probably about the protagonist figuring out who did it.

The Grey Ghost by Clive Cussler and Robin Burcell

This next book is called The Grey Ghost by Clive Cussler and Robin Burcell and is another action-adventure. They’ve opened a new bookstore, a WH Smith in St. Pancras, towards the end near the big Marks & Spencer and I saw this big beautiful hardback on the bookshelf. I do love hardback novels and I adore them. I purchased this because I wanted to try out another one of Clive Cussler’s co-authored series. This book is a Fargo Adventure, and it’s with this has Isaac Bell in it. I brought this book towards the end of August.

Concluding Thoughts

So, that’s my epic book haul. I foolishly thought to myself, “Oh, will only take ten minutes” and I’ve literally recorded twenty-seven minutes of footage. Hopefully, I can cut this down to something a little bit more reasonable. So, it’s not twenty-seven minutes worth of me babbling on about books I purchased.

Thank you for reading this blog or watching to the end of this super long video.

Amelia xx

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