I am delighted to welcome the lovely Tracy Fenton to damppebbles today and it’s her blogiversary, whoop whoop!  One year ago today Tracy leapt into the world of book blogging with the awesome Compulsive Readers and hasn’t looked back since.  Happy blogiversary Tracy, long may you blog.  Tracy is also the founder member of a super secret book group on Facebook *wink, wink* and she’s here today to share her #R3COMM3ND3D2017 reads with us.

#R3COMM3ND3D2017 is where I ask book bloggers and authors to name three must-read books published in 2017.  That’s it.  It’s that simple.  Three books from one awesome bookish year.

Here are Tracy’s choices…

You Don’t Know Me by Imran Mahmood
Once in a while you read a book that not only gets under your skin, but it leaves you breathless and gasping out loud. You Don’t Know Me is an incredible debut novel. Told entirely through Court Transcripts – a young man charged with murder sacks his lawyer and tells his defence story in his own voice to the jury over a period of ten days. Covering gang culture and social issues, our young narrator breathes life in his story and brings it vividly into the readers imagination. Keeping the reader interested for over 400 pages highlights the skill of this author. A truly fascinating, enthralling, thought-provoking book which will stay in my thoughts for a long time.

Exquisite by Sarah Stovell
Oh My! Where do I begin? Firstly I apologise as I don’t think my ramblings will give this book half the credit it deserves and as I am not a writer myself I am finding it difficult to put my emotions and thoughts down coherently. However I will give it a go. Bo Luxton is a successful author, married with a two young daughters and living a life of harmony in the Lake District. Alice Dark is a young aspiring writer without much direction in her life and meets Bo on a Creative Writing course. Almost instantly you can feel the connections both intellectually and physically grow between these women which escalates into a very dark, intense relationship. This is a very tense and beautifully crafted psychological thriller which keeps the reader captivated until the final page. Each chapter, whether it was Bo’s or Alice’s narrative, kept me gripped and holding my breath. I absolutely adored this book and wish it every success it deserves and highly recommend it to all lovers of intelligent psychological thrillers.

All The Wicked Girls by Chris Whitaker
Having only recently discovered Chris Whitaker and raved about Tall Oaks (I was rather excited (jumped up and down several times) to receive an advanced copy of his 2nd novel All the Wicked Girls from his publishers. I was told it was nothing like Tall Oaks and quite dark. Dark? Dark doesn’t even begin to describe this book – how about a complete black-out? I found myself reading this book so slowly as I was savouring each page/chapter and character instead of my usual rapid read and that is because each page is a literal work of art. Chris Whitaker has the ability to pick up the reader and transport them into the fictional small town of Grace, swelter in the heat, feel the fear and tension amongst the town folk and connect with the characters. Once again he created two wonderful characters in Noah and Purv and whilst their stories were heartbreaking, tragic and sad, their friendship and humour made me smile throughout. A beautifully written story of love, friendship, beliefs, fear, passion and I’m not embarrassed to say I cried at the end.

***

Thanks for these tremendous recommendations, Tracy.  I’ve recently read and reviewed ‘All The Wicked Girls’ myself and completely agree with what you say.  ‘Exquisite’ is a book which will feature in my books of the year post on New Year’s Eve and I am DESPERATE to read ‘You Don’t Know Me’.

If Tracy has managed to tempt you or if you would like to find out more about the books she has recommended, then please see the following amazon.co.uk links:

You Don’t Know Me by Imran Mahmood | Exquisite by Sarah Stovell | All The Wicked Girls by Chris Whitaker |

About Tracy:
I am a self-confessed Compulsive Reader. In Oct 2014 I set up THE Book Club on Facebook, a secret group for readers, authors, publishers and book addicts. With an international membership of over 7800 readers and 1200 authors THE Book Club (TBC) is now considered one of the most influential online book clubs in the publishing industry. In December 2016 I set up Compulsive Readers reviewing and recommending only the books I LOVE and also interviews with all my favourite authors.

Tracy’s Blog and Social Media Links:

Compulsive Readers | Twitter | Facebook |

My thanks to Tracy for joining me today.  Make sure you pop back tomorrow when I will be welcoming the lovely Melisa Broadbent of Broadbean’s Books to damppebbles.