Monday 19 September 2011

An entertaining read in 'The Siren's Sting' by Miranda Darling

Thanks to the lovely people at Allen & Unwin for this great read!

'The Siren's Sting' is a thriller, a favourite genre of mine, and is Miranda Darling's latest book featuring international action-girl Stevie Duveen. An entertaining piece of fiction, it boasts some unexpected twists in the plot while remaining light enough to take on holiday.

Stevie is a strategic analyst at Hazard Ltd, knows a thing or two about the risks involved in international shipping and can hold her own with the European 'glamourati'. The action races us from one corner of the Jetset's Mediterranean playground to the other; encountering Somalian pirates, an opera diva, wealthy play-boys and ruthless arms-dealers, interspersed with sun-soaked interludes of R&R in a sea-side cottage in Sardinia.
As the novel opens we find Stevie assigned with protecting a famous soprano on a cruise ship, something she isn't happy about but which results in her successful defence of the ship when it comes under attack from pirates. Recuperating from this experience Stevie heads to her Sardinian haven in her grandmothers cottage where she encounters old friends, unwanted relatives and a mystery or two. It's not long before Stevie is given another assignment (albeit not strictly official) to protect an old girlfriend of her boss and this time apppearing under the guise of a wealthy partygirl. Initially a relaxed venture, this assignment brings Stevie face-to-face with a number of real threats to her own life. At the twelfth hour she finds an unexpected ally as she endeavours to save a kidnapped child in a daring manouvre, played out right under the nose of a ruthless international arms-dealer.


With James Bond type thrills and spills involving high-tech speedboat chases, glamourous soirees and a pinch or two of some cultural sight-seeing; this is escapist chick-lit at it's best...particularly when there are also irresistible men of mystery involved!

I thoroughly enjoyed this action-packed, glamourous thriller and look forward to reading more of Stevie's adventures.

Tuesday 6 September 2011

Testing

Well this is my first go at testing a post on my blog. It's taken me a while to get here partly because I couldn't decide how to make my blog look or what to name it  and fear of the unknown I guess!(it's still a work in progress anyway)
I want to blog about things that are important to me, things that catch my eye or make me smile. I don't want to restrict myself to art and I probably won't post every day.