My daughter has always had a thing about lifts.

Every time she walks in, I imagine it’s the last time I’ll see her.

That leaves a gap of thirty seconds. You’d be surprised what can happen in that time. I was.

Daddy Dearest is written a bit differently than most books you read.  It is told from the first-person perspective of a father who remains unnamed.  Right at the beginning we learn that his worst fear has come true.  While enjoying his custodial visit one weekend, his beautiful little girl got into the elevator and the doors closed before he made it in.  When daddy gets to the bottom floor, his daughter is nowhere to be found.  As the police investigation into his little girl’s disappearance unfolds, daddy goes back in time to tell us more, more about himself, more about his daughter, more about his distinctive view on life.

Let me just say that right from the start of this book I found the father unlikeable.  He’s a balding, middle-aged, anti-social actor who complains about his neighbors’ noise, makes comments about race, gays, bohemians, the underclass…and yet, he proclaims himself to be PC!  He just seems to hate the outside world in general and comes off as a real creepazoid.  Don’t get me wrong, I think that this is definitely what the author wants you to feel.  He paints a picture of a very troubled man with some real problems who seems to have only one redeeming quality.  The one thing this daddy dotes on in life is his little girl.  She is his treasure and life is just better when she’s around.  Even his ex-wife thinks he’s a wonderful father and that counts because he really cares about what other people think.  His very existence has been validated since becoming a father.

The book is well-written and as a side note, there were quite a few words here that had never made it into my vocabulary which I found interesting.  That’s quite uncommon but I love looking up new words!  If you are looking at the cover and the title of this book thinking it’s a bit spooky, you’re not wrong there.  Daddy Dearest is a dark and deeply disturbing psychological thriller.  One of those books that makes your skin crawl.  Here it’s because the author takes an unflinching look at a very flawed human being, and he’s manipulating the reader as he goes about it.  I feel like you will either love it or hate it.  As for me, I was somewhere in the middle, but I did keep turning the pages to find out what really happened.  This is where I think the author shows some real talent because I have to say it went in a direction I was so not expecting.  But then I really wondered…why didn’t I expect that?  As I said, manipulation, people!  So I will leave you to decide for yourself.  Check it out!

I want to thank the author Paul Southern for providing me with a copy of this book through the BookLikes Giveaways program for an honest review.

When I first requested this book, I didn't realize it was part of a series so I when I saw it was #14 in the series, I was worried that I missed a lot of what happened in previous books but it didn't matter too much. I may have missed some of the backstory on the main characters but the story itself was stand alone. Colton and his ragtag team race to secure Phoenician stones that tell who really discovered America, before another group of thieves gets there first. The story is pretty much non-stop action the whole way through but a lot of it didn't come across as very believable for example, their ability to "Freud-a-Size" someone which is to make someone remember only what you want them to remember. Also, some of the dialogue and the way the women were portrayed was pretty cheesy and ridiculous. If you're just looking for a B rated action movie then this is it right here. 2.5 stars would be more accurate.

**I received this copy from a Booklikes giveaway & the author in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

2 1/2 stars because honestly I'm a little confused about what this was suppose to be. The story is only 100 pages long and it very, very abruptly ends so I'm not sure if this was the entire book or if this was just the beginning of a book. It seemed like the book was cut off right in the middle of the story. Also, the introduction  started out a little shaky for me. The writing describing the main character, Callia's, awakening from an attack and subsequent memory loss felt forced and clunky. After I got passed the introduction though, the writing style improved and I really started to get into it. It kept my attention throughout and I read the 100 pages very quickly.  There were however, grammatical errors throughout and that is one of my biggest **pet peeves. I do think the story has potential though but more chapters need to be added along with a smoother and more complete ending.

*I won this ARC from Booklikes and the author in exchange for an honest review.

**Authors, if you do not have an editor, before you distribute your work to a large audience, I would recommend having a couple of friends, family, fellow writers, book club etc. review and redline it. It will make a huge difference to your ratings. If the story lacks unnecessary grammar and spelling errors, regardless if the story is good, readers will notice and remember those errors and rate you lower for it.

Reading this book after reading Pines by Blake Crouch was like taking a dose of NyQuil. It brought me down real fast. It's a crime thriller about FBI Agent Rick Clark who is searching for a murderer they call the Bedsheet Serial Killer. If crime thrillers/police procedurals aren't written well they can be very dry and boring. Unfortunately that was the case here so I just couldn't get into it. For one, there were various grammatical errors. For example, the author wrote "dosed off" instead of "dozed off."

Also, the prose wasn't very elegant at all. It felt amateurish and unrefined. Take this sentence for example: "Leaning over the toilet, he watched the yellow vomit swirl around in the bowl before disappearing with a gurgle down the hole." I personally don't care to hear about the color of vomit or how it goes down a toilet. Need I say more?

Lastly, there wasn't a whole lot of cohesiveness from chapter to chapter. There were several times I found myself backtracking to see if I missed something. I gave up about midway through because I couldn't bear to trudge through it any longer.  I definitely think it needs a lot more work and an editor's touch.

*I won this book from Booklikes in exchange for an honest review.   

Wow what a fascinating story! It's hard enough for me to keep up with all of the Presidents of the United States much less all of the Dukes and Duchesses, Earls, Viscounts and all of the other royals that graced the peerage of England and other countries through the years so I honestly wasn't familiar with Eleanor Cobham's story going into this. What little I did know about her came from the couple minutes of Wikipedia and Internet research I did before reading. Basically the story itself is about Eleanor's life and rise to Duchess of Gloucester and then her subsequent fall from grace following accusations of sorcery, witchcraft and necromancy which she was convicted of and then imprisoned for life. The story is told in first person, through Eleanor's eyes in the form of a secret diary that she has written while imprisoned. Her life story and rise to Duchess is alternately told in parallel along side her current daily struggles with prison life. I normally don't like to read books that have two parallel storylines because I always seemed to end up totally confused but I thought the author, Tony Riches, did a fabulous job with it. He writes really well and once you realize how the story is alternating, then its smooth sailing throughout. The author also does an exceptional job of keeping you in suspense so it doesn't feel like your reading a dull history lesson. It feels more like your reading a suspense novel. I was enthralled the entire time wondering what was going to happen to Eleanor next. He also does a great job of developing Eleanor's character so that you really sympathize with her and her predicament. Anyone interested in historical fiction and 15th century England I think would immensely enjoy this story.

*I won this ARC from Booklikes in exchange for an honest review.