Now That I Have Your Attention

 

Nicolas Hamilton has been exceeding expectations since day one.

Born with a form of cerebral palsy, Nicolas was told that he would never walk and would need a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Today he not only walks everywhere but he is the first disabled athlete to ever compete at the top level of British motorsport, The British Touring Car Championship, where he lines up on the grid alongside some of the world's best drivers.

Now That I Have Your Attention follows Nicolas's remarkable journey and shares the valuable, tough, and often surprising lessons learned throughout his life.

Nicolas's journey has at times been hostile and has forced him to navigate periods of anger and resentment, but by building his mental strength and pushing himself beyond the physical limits of what anyone had ever expected of him, Nicolas has changed his life - and believes you can too.

With each of these 7 Lessons, Nicolas's message is simple and universal: with self-discipline and self-compassion you can defy the limitations imposed upon you.

 I'll come right out and say it, Self Help books are not usually my thing. I occasionally read biographies and autobiographies but it has to be someone who interests me. Also, I had never heard of Nicolas Hamilton before seeing this book. I'm glad I took a chance on this though as this guy is a true inspiration.

 As it says in the blurb above Nicolas Hamilton was born with a form of cerebral palsy and I think it is safe to say he has been fighting since Day 1. After being told he would most likely never walk and would need a wheelchair he basically said "yeah, right, let's see about that."

 To get to where he has is no easy task even before you take his disability into consideration and with the 7 lessons in this book he passes on his knowledge, his experience and his 'Life doesn't need to hold you back' attitude to the reader. Not all of the lessons will be for everyone but if even just one speaks to you Hamilton and his book will have done what they set out to achieve and it's certainly left me with a few things to take away from it.

 Now That I Have Your Attention is not always an easy read but it is certainly a worthwhile one and one I will be recommending to others.

 Nothing less than the full 5* for this.

Thanks to Anne Cater and Random Things Tours for inviting me onto this blogtour and to Octopus Books for providing me with a review copy (all views and opinions are my own).

Below is the blogtour poster so please, if you can, have a look at what the other bloggers have to say.

Fall River by Meredith Miller

 

 

One young woman disappears as another returns. Alice has turned to the river looking to drown the voices in her head. Khadija has come home to uncover the terrible history hidden beneath its surface. The London train screeches by while the rest of the town is still asleep along the banks of the Tamar. They'll wake up that morning to find that everything, and nothing, has changed. Sooner or later, the river pulls them all. Sooner or later, someone falls...

 This was, for me, a strangely evocative novel. For someone who has never visited the area there was enough of a sense of place to "put me there" (I'm a very visual reader).

 In the small Cornish town of Saltash a 15 year old girl disappears, while at the same time her 25 year old cousin returns from a spell in London. The story follows events both before and after the disappearance and as Saltash is only a small town it feels like it covers the stories of all the people who live there. It's the kind of place where everybody knows everybody else's business (or at least they think they do) and outsiders are looked on with suspicion, even those coming back after a few years away.

 This felt like it could be a decent TV series as well as a cracking read and I would certainly recommend it - 4.5/5*

 Thank you to Anne Cater and Random Things Tours for inviting me onto this tour (and sorry for the delay in posting). Please see below for the other bloggers on the tour and give their posts a read if you can.

The Atlas Complex: Olivie Blake

 

 So, here we are at the end of the journey (well, for my part it is nearly the end, I've still got 120 pages or so to go but it is my date on the blog tour so for me it's all about what I think so far).

 The reasoning behind my not being at the end yet is simple, I loved The Atlas Six, quite enjoyed The Atlas Paradox but by the time I got to Complex I was having to dip back into Six and Paradox quite a bit to remind myself what the heck was going on, who was siding with who at what point etc. It's an enjoyable read but sometimes makes my head hurt.

 The basic premise behind the series is that 6 of the most gifted students in the world (think early twenties not Harry Potter age) are selected to study at The Alexandrian Institute for a year - but after a year only 5 will survive to carry on their studies (but if you've read this far you will know this already I guess).

 By the time of Complex what had been realised before - that all at the Institute was maybe not as it seems - has escalated, alliances are shattered and reformed and Atlas himself is just as crazy as you expected. The game is afoot.

 Much as I am enjoying The Atlas Complex I am finding it slow going for the reasons mentioned earlier and do think it could have done with being a tad shorter (there does seem to be a good bit of waffle early in the book) but as an ending things are going in the right direction. I'm looking at a reread of the series as a whole in a year or so which may make it clearer.

 I will say, I am a fan of Blake's writing style and will be looking for more of her works in the future.

Thank you to Black Crow PR and UK Tor for supplying the review copy - all views and opinions are my own.