Three’s A Crowd
By S.R. Booker

Three’s A Crowd is laugh out loud funny, not a phrase I use often and it may just be one of the rom-coms of the year! A phrase I don’t use lightly. It’s absolutely wonderfully entertaining from start to finish. It will make your heart sing with joy. Find out more in the blurb and the rest of my review below…
I first thank The publisher Simon and Schuster for the opportunity to review on the blog tour and for gifting a copy of the book.

Blurb

What happens when an estranged father and son unwittingly fall in love with the same woman?

Out-of-work actor Harriet is recuperating from a crash-and-burn affair with Damian – aka ‘Cockweasel’ – and making ends meet as a barista when she meets two rather lovely men. Tom is a regular at the café, and seems like such a nice guy. Smooth-talking DJ Richard is older, but in great shape – a real silver fox.

Deciding to take a chance on both of them, Harriet doesn’t realise at first that she is actually dating father and son. Tom and Richard aren’t on speaking terms, and don’t share a last name – so how was she to know? By the time everyone finds out, both Tom and Richard are truly madly deeply in love with Harriet, and she’s faced with an impossible choice.

But as the battle for her affections intensifies, ‘Cockweasel’ makes an unexpected reappearance and begs her to give him another chance…

Review

Set in London, Three’s A Crowd is absolutely divine to read with such sublime writing.

Tom, Richard and Harriet are the main characters, with George popping in. The opening chapter has Tom posing a question. One that no doubt not many people would have even the slightest reason to consider. It certainly isn’t your usual every day one and as he ponders it, so does the reader, because suddenly it has to be done, even with slightly raised eyebrows at the audacity of what is going on…

There are 2 main guys and 1 woman and romance to be had…
Hilarious and also tender scenarios play out in an ordinary sounding cafe, but with an unusual set of circumstances, beginning with the question posed on the first page…
The sentence structures and the way the narrative is written also adds to the humour and also the honesty of certain situations, perhaps observed or perhaps researched. Either way, it is very enjoyable.

Tom is the son and he is not on speaking terms with his dad and is a cafe regular.
Harriet has had a few boyfriend issues and has terrific nicknames for them. works in a cafe and knows her regulars and is a professional actress. One who happens to have intrusive thoughts. She thinks with great honesty about how she is feeling, now, I don’t mean always of the dark nature, some are of the more romantic nature, just incredibly direct. There is absolutely no filter, no subtleness.
Richard, Tom’s dad has secrets about his wife going to Goa. He is also a radio DJ who reckons he should be in a higher position such as being on BBC Radio 2.

Harriet meets both Tom and Richard and hasn’t got a clue they belong to the same family and the two guys also haven’t a clue of the other one falling in love with her because they don’t communicate to each other.

There is so much that people will relate to in either part or all, right down to how men operate, allowing their partner/wife to book appointments etc. S.R. Booker, bravely, is so candid.

The plot is refreshing with incredibly funny with many laugh out loud moments. For an author who is more known for grittier, darker work in books and on tv, S.R. Booker has really pulled this work of contemporary romance with aplomb!

I did find myself rooting for Harriet and her complex mind, which Booksr portrays very well, but also very much enjoying the writing of Richard and Tom. George also pops into the book, adding a twist. There is a further one at the end, making it an excellent ending to such a great book.

The Heights
By Louise Candlish

The Heights is a well-plotted, compelling psychological thriller with twists and large themes and buildings to explore… The Heights, by bestselling author – Louise Candlish, provides the reader with much suspenseful atmosphere and excellent characterisation, scenery and twists.
Find more about the book in the blurb and my full review below and then more about Louise Candlish and her exciting news about one of her books – Our House.

Thanks to Jess Barratt for inviting me to review as part of the blog tour and as part of Team Books And the City (TBATC) – Simon and Schuster and for sending my a physical proof copy of the book.

Blurb

From the author of Sunday Times bestsellers OUR HOUSE (Winner Best Crime Novel 2018) and
THE OTHER PASSENGER, comes a nail-biting tale of tragedy and revenge

The Heights is a tall, slender apartment building amongst the warehouses of Shad Thames, its roof terrace
so discreet you wouldn’t know it existed at all, if you weren’t standing at the window of the flat opposite.
But you are. And that’s when you see a man up there – a man you’d recognise anywhere.
He’s older now and his appearance has subtly changed, but it’s definitely him. Which makes no sense at all,
since he’s been dead for over two years. You know this for a fact.
Because you’re the one who killed him.

Review

The Heights tells the story from Ellen’s point of view and then from Vic’s viewpoint of what happened that fateful day and how they both view Kieran, within 4 parts of the book in this slow burn of a psychological thriller that will keep readers gripped and hanging onto the very end.
There are also several continuations of the newspaper article, titled – ‘Killing Time’, which is also a very prominent part in telling the story of what occurred…

The book begins with an article in the prologue about Felix Penney is a high profile author of crime novels and writing manuals. It starts with an acknowledgement of the underfunding of libraries. There are then more newspaper articles interjecting througout the story, an even bigger and darker story of a crime (yes, even more criminal than the underfunding of libraries)… one of every mother’s nightmare…
There is more to it than meets the eye in that first article, with a huge revelation at the end, as that first article comes full circle to reveal more…

There is an absolutely striking first chapter, that takes readers to Shad Thames (Louise Candlish explains very well what this is, as well as who Kieran Watts was). It grips from here because of course, I wanted to know more about what he had done that was so awful to a person, that it could have destroyed his victim, and I think other readers will too. This isn’t as black and white as that though. This also adds intrigue as to what was so awful that he himself could be dead… but the book questions this in the beginning and also what really happened in The Heights… Louise Candlish tells a sinister tale of credible characters and towering buildings. It all adds to this sinister feel from the beginning and creates an almost claustrophobic atmosphere as suspense builds throughout. This tells a story of Ellen, Vic, Lucas and Kieran with well-plotted layers of twists, crime, suspense, emotion and a question of how the reader may react, all in a thriller that may just keep you reading into the wee small hours…

Then there is an Edwardian house, where the family relationships can be seen. Attitudes to class, or rather those in lower classes, also comes into it and there is some great, cutting dialogue, that shows a certain truth of certain attitudes to those coming from different backgrounds from themselves and those usually around them.

Readers get to know Kieran, the crime and the criminal justice system pretty well. All of which has further depth and richness of what happened and is just as involving as this fascinating thriller moves ever onward.

In most pages, there are scenes that are rich and adeptly paint a picture in words, immersing the reader right there in the area and in the mood of what’s going on all around them.

This is a book that is easy to get so involved in and keeps you hanging on right to the end where there’s a clever twist and a huge reveal of what really happened in the characters lives, where not all, in a particular crime, is all as it first appears…

About the Author

Louise Candlish is the Sunday Times bestselling author of fifteen novels. Her 2018 thriller OUR HOUSE, which has sold over 250,000 copies in the UK to date, was a #1 bestseller in paperback, ebook and audiobook and winner of the Crime & Thriller Book of the Year at the 2019 British Book Awards. It is soon to be a major ITV drama series made by Death in Paradise producers Red Planet Pictures. THOSE PEOPLE (2019) was a #2 Sunday Times bestseller in paperback and is in development for TV by Company Pictures.
THE OTHER PASSENGER (2020) is a Sunday Times bestseller in paperback and under option for a feature film with Moving Image Productions. Louise lives in South London with her husband and daughter.