GUIDE STAR by JOY ELLIS
About the Book
Who do you turn to when life goes wrong?
Stella’s life has changed forever. Her only support is her amazing grandmother, Beth. But Beth also faces the biggest challenge of her life.
Stella North, a rising star in the police, has her life torn apart by a gunman’s bullets. All her life she has faced danger, but these injuries mean she must give up the job she loves. Her grandmother Beth is her rock. And Beth is no ordinary woman. At seventy, she runs marathons and has an exciting past that Stella knows very little about.
Will Stella find the strength to overcome the challenges of her new life, and will her grandmother at last resolve the deep emotional turmoil of her past?
By UK #1 best-selling author, Joy Ellis, this is a gripping and emotional departure from her acclaimed crime fiction.
My Review
This book is a deviation from the usual crime fiction that Joy writes and I was therefore unsure what to expect.
The book begins when Stella is in the hospital recovering from gunshot wounds and that is where the suspense begins on what develops as a rollercoaster ride through every emotion you have. Joy has very cleverly managed to portray the characters so the reader really gets into their head and can feel all the emotions. It is gripping and the reader just turns page after page until the ending which is a real curve ball. Every time I thought I had worked out where the book was going another twist appeared I can honestly say this is one of the best most gripping reads I have had the pleasure to read for a long time that wasn’t a ‘thriller’. It was a very refreshing change from the norm and it shows the author is talented at more than one genre.
Stella is a policewoman who ended up in a life threatening situation while off duty and ends up putting her own life in danger in an attempt to save the lives of innocent civilians. She ends up seriously injured in hospital with life changing injuries.
Her partner, Robbie also suffers as a result of Stella’s injuries as he feels guilty that he wasn’t able to save her. Their boss is an unfeeling woman who abandons Stella in spite of her bravery and gives Robbie a hard time pushing him over the edge.
The book has many characters. All of them unique and well developed and Joy has also managed to bring characters from one of her crime fiction series’ into this book making it an excellent side story.
Stella struggles with her recovery as she tries to find a way forward through a difficult rehabilitation pysically and mentally as she sees the job she worked towards and loved so much is out of reach. Her beloved Gran puts her heart at risk to help Stella by contacting an old friend.
I was very interested to learn about Urbexing and again Joy opened my eyes to things I hadn’t considered such as how Urbexers document decay before it is lost forever. At first this seemed a very strange and pointless thing to do but now my eyes have been opened and I have found I look at old buildings in a completely different light.
This is an excellent book and well worth the 5 stars. I would like to read more of this type of book as spin offs to the crime fiction as it brings the people to life and makes a refreshing change from the bad things in life.
The title is perfect but I will let you read the book to find out why that is.
A very big thank you to Joffe Books for providing me with an advance copy of this book.
#joyellis #joffebooks #5stars #booksnall @joffebooks @books_n_all
About the Author
Joy Ellis grew up in Kent but moved to London when she won an apprenticeship with the prestigious Mayfair flower shop, Constance Spry Ltd.
Many years later, having run her own florist shop in Weybridge, Ellis took part in a writer’s workshop in Greece and was encouraged by her tutor, Sue Townsend to begin writing seriously. She now lives in the Lincolnshire Fens with her partner Jacqueline and their Springer spaniels, Woody and Alfie.
