Luke Harkness, Author at Luke’s Blog

19Jan 2022 by Luke Harkness No Comments

Book Review of The Appeal by Janice Hallett

I picked up The Appeal after randomly finding it during my search for books on Amazon. The concept gripped me - a book written in the form of messages, emails and texts where you could work out who the killer was as the evidence was presented. It is done brilliantly and could already be in my favourite books of the year list. Please note that this article contains affiliate links. This means if you choose to purchase The Appeal via any of the links in this article, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. These affiliate links do not affect my final opinion of the product. The Appeal is all about a small group of people who are taking part in the local play which…

16Jan 2022 by Luke Harkness No Comments

Book Review of Girl A by Abigail Dean

Book reviews, Mystery, Thriller

How many of my reviews start "I bought this because I saw it online"? Well, Girl A by Abigail Dean is another example of that. I'd seen it feature on a lot of people's Instagram feeds as a book you must read. It's a dark and mature story that's well written, but is it worth your time? Pin me to Pinterest! Please note that this article contains affiliate links. This means if you choose to purchase Girl A via any of the links in this article, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. These affiliate links do not affect my final opinion of the product. Girl A is kind of a thriller but that's already happened. It focuses on Lex Gracie or Girl A who…

14Jan 2022 by Luke Harkness No Comments

Blogger Spotlight on Donna Latvis

Blogger Spotlights, Features

Welcome back to another Blogger Spotlight. For these articles, I have sent out a request o anybody who would be interested in having their blog shown on another blog to reach out and answer some questions for me. Today we'll be highlighting Donna Latvis. Donna Latvis isn't your typical 20 or 30-something blogger. She's a self-deprecating 62-year-old who struggles with technology but loves to write and hopes to influence people with her writing. What made you get into blogging? I am new to blogging. I am 62 and have loved to write since my early teens. On August 24 2021, my new Inspirational novel was released "On The Edge". So I wanted to start a blog to let people know about my published books. What I am working on now.…

12Jan 2022 by Luke Harkness 2 Comments

Book Review of The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Book reviews, Classics, Fantasy

If you do any searching on the internet for "books that changed my life", many people will list The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho as one that will affect your life in some way. But did it have any effect on mine? Pin me to Pinterest! The Alchemist is a novella that comes in under 150 pages and took me less than a day to complete the audiobook. It tells the story of a boy who goes on a journey to find a treasure and to fulfil his dream but along the way meets people who teach him more about life than he thought there was to learn. The Alchemist plot – 4/5 The Alchemist, as I stated above, is the story of a boy (who is only ever called 'the…

09Jan 2022 by Luke Harkness No Comments

New Year’s Book Tag

Blog Tags, Features

Hi everyone and welcome to 2022! I know we're over a week in now and the New Year and Christmas were nearly two and three weeks ago, but I saw this Tag and really liked the look of it so thought I'd join in. Pin me to Pinterest! Please note that this article contains affiliate links. This means if you choose to purchase any of the books listed in this article, I'll received a small commission at no extra cost to you. These affiliate links do not affect my final opinion of the product. I saw this tag over on Books Are 42's blog whom I follow on Twitter. This is in fact my second book tag, you can read my first here. As you could probably guess, this Book…

06Jan 2022 by Luke Harkness No Comments

Book review of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling

Book reviews, Fantasy

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is the second book in the Harry Potter series and is the first to really delve deeper into Lord Voldemort’s background, increasing the magical world we found ourselves enveloped in the first book. Pin me to Pinterest! Please note that this article contains affiliate links. This means if you choose to purchase The Chamber of Secrets via one of these links, I'll receive a small commission to support the blog at no extra cost to you. These affiliate links do not affect my final opinion of the product. As I read the penultimate book in the Harry Potter series, Half-Blood Prince, I thought I’d carry on my reviews of the previous books in the series which I’ve read over the past year. The…

04Jan 2022 by Luke Harkness

Book Review of Sweetpea by C.J. Skuse

Book reviews, Contemporary Fiction, Crime, Thriller

As I start many book reviews, I’d seen quite a lot of good things about Sweet Pea on my Bookstagram before I picked it up with some even stating it’s their favourite book series. Therefore when it came on offer on Kindle and was a cheap Audible buy, I had to pick it up! [caption id="attachment_1573" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Pin me to Pinterest![/caption] Sweet Pea by C.J. Skuse is a book about a psychopath who lives a normal life alongside her murderous other life. We follow Rhiannon as she goes about her everyday duties via the entries of her diary. Plot – 3.5/5 Rhiannon seems like a very regular person to most people - she may be a little odd, but no more so than everybody these days. However, little does…

02Jan 2022 by Luke Harkness No Comments

The Four Fantastic Books I Read in December 2021

Features, Monthly Round Ups

Rounding off the final month of 2021, I managed to finish four books in December. Not the most I've read in a month, but a month that contained the longest Harry Potter book so I think I can let myself off. Also, it was a month where for a solid week I did no reading as I was eating, with family or drinking! However, I did read a couple of great books in December and some not-so-great books too. Keep swiping scrolling to see which is which and whether you agree with my final verdicts and whether you've read any of these books either. [caption id="attachment_1562" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Pin me to Pinterest![/caption] Please note that this article contains affiliate links. This means that if you choose to purchase any products…

31Dec 2021 by Luke Harkness No Comments

My Most Successful Articles from 2021

Features

Today marks the last day of 2021, the first year in which I decided to start a blog all about books and blogging. It's been a fascinating year and one that ai've enjoyed a lot! There's a lot that I've learned about what works and what doesn't work with blogging and in 2022 I hope to optimise this workflow even further. I decided I wanted to find out what my best-performing articles from 2021 were. This is to not only gauge which posts I should focus on, but also give any budding bloggers some ideas on posts they could copy on their very own blogs. Therefore, below, counting down from the fifth most viewed to the most viewed post on my blog throughout the year. A few of these went…

28Dec 2021 by Luke Harkness 2 Comments

Book Review: Graceling by Kristin Cashore

Book reviews, Fantasy

I picked up Graceling by Kristin Cashore because it was, what I thought, a relatively short fantasy novel to dig my teeth into before the festive period started. However, it ended up being a bit more of a slog than I would have hoped. [caption id="attachment_1548" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Pin me to Pinterest![/caption] Please note that this review contains affiliate links. This means if you decide to purchase Graceling via any of the links in this article, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you from Amazon which supports the blog. These affiliate links do not influence my final opinion of the product. Graceling focuses on the story of Katsa who has learned from a young age that she has something called a “Grace” which means she…

Author: Luke Harkness