Deadly Cure by Mahi Cheshire | Book Review

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Deadly Cure by Mahi Cheshire

Star rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Publisher: Vintage

Publication date: 14th April 2022

Blurb:

Dr Rea Dharmasena is devastated when she loses out on her dream research job to her med-school rival and best friend, Dr Julia Stone.

To add insult to injury, Julia used Rea's own cutting-edge research to get it.

But just as Rea finds it in her to forgive the betrayal, Julia, after a life-changing medical discovery, is found murdered.

Now Rea has the dream job she's always wanted.

But at what cost?

Review: 

This book took me by surprise. I hopped in to read it because I saw that Adventures With Words were doing a readalong over on Instagram and went in basically blind and I was pleasantly surprised!

Rea Dharmasena and Julia Stone have been best friends since they were young. Both are doctors and going for the same research job. The book draws you in with a traumatic accident in A&E that Rea attends and discovers that it's her best friend and roommate, Feng Tanaka. Rea had recently received a voicemail from him saying that he needed to talk to her about Julia. At this point I am hooked already.

Julia and Rea are both flawed characters in their own ways. Julia is desperate for this research job and will stop at nothing to get it. Rea thinks Julia has stolen her work in order to get it and the two have a falling out. Julia thrives in the job and is convinced she has found a cure for cancer. This is where it gets interesting.

Julia is murdered but who did it? Who has motive? What really happened? I cannot give too much away about the plot because there are just so many twists and turns. The writing is totally gripping.

Rea ends up taking over Julia's job as she is the best person to carry on her research but she discovers a lot more than she intends to. I really enjoyed this one!

Fuzzy Felts from John Adams - Review

Do you remember Fuzzy Felts? These little sets have been around since 1950 so I'm sure almost everyone had a set at some point. John Adams still produce them and I was so excited to introduce my children to the wonder of Fuzzy Felts.

As soon as the box arrived it was like nostalgia hit me smack, bang in the face. I remember having a set (or two!) as a child some 20-odd years ago and after bringing our new set to my parents house, my 15 year old sister gasped and exclaimed, "Remember those?! I loved mine!"

We received the My House Fuzzy Felt set but there are 15 different sets to choose from Dinosaurs to On The Farm to Little Princess. Inside the box you get one A4 Fuzz-Felt board and four sheets of felt pieces. 

Before you begin, you do need to remove the felt pieces from the sheets. I'd advise doing this before getting your children excited about playing. My daughter wasn't particularly happy about having to wait on me getting it set up. They were easy to remove and although I did worry that I'd accidentally rip some, it didn't happen. The felt sheets are four different colours so we had a range of different shapes and colours to use on our board. For example, we had lots of flowers in white, red, blue and green and some shapes only came in the one colour such as the slide and fences.

E was so excited to get creating a picture and as she is only three (the sets are recommended for ages 3-6), I loved that the set comes with a prompt sheet to give you some ideas of the type of picture to make. I gave her a bit of help when it came to making the actual house as you need to use a range of rectangles and triangles to create it and I knew that she wouldn't be able to see the finished picture in her head before she started.

Once the house was ready, she had tons of fun adding the curtains, windows and doors before making a start on the "outside". The set comes with everything you can think of. E was able to put a fence around the house, a pond with swans swimming, trees, a boy going down the slide and a woman watering a plant.

It has been so much fun for me rediscovering Fuzzy Felts but also seeing the excitement of my children and being able to encourage their creativity. I loved that the premise hasn't changed. The felt pieces are still in their traditional silhouette style and I love that even 60 years on, it hasn't been updated. It's still just as a fun as ever! The set comes with over 100 pieces so no matter how many times you play, you can always create different scenes.

The Fuzzy Felt sets are from John Adams and are available to buy from all good retailers at a price of around £10.00.

(We received this item for the purpose of this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.) 

 

Christmas Gift Ideas for Dad

My dad is in his mid-fifties (don't tell him I told you that!) and I find it really hard to buy presents for him. He always says that he doesn't want anything but we both know that something has to/will be bought. 

IWOOT is a fab place to start looking for gift ideas, even the name of the website is great as I do always find myself saying "I want one of those!"

IWOOT recently sent me out a pack of their Vinyl Bookends and as soon as I clapped eyes on them, I knew that my dad would love them. They're so retro and kitsch and he always tells me about records he used to own (he still owns a record player but it doesn't get used). 

When I first opened them, I'll admit that I did think that they might be a little too flimsy to hold up books but I was wrong! They work fantasticly well and I love that both the records have different images on them. IWOOT don't just sell vinyl bookends, you can even pick up bowls and coasters to match!  

I can't wait to give them to my dad! He'll be over the moon. 

You can buy your own Vinyl Bookends here for £9.95 and you can find them on Facebook and Twitter. 

(Disclaimer: I received these bookends free of charge in exchange for an open and honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own).