Family dramas aren't usually my preferred genre but coming off the back of a traumatising thriller I needed a lighter read to lift my spirits (and stop the nightmares). Enter When We Believed in Mermaids, a tale of family complexity, addiction and secrets, well in some cases lies.

We've all been there. You read an epic book. One you can't put down. You rave about it to everyone you meet. You experience book grief when you finish reading it. Then weeks later you hear it is being made into a film. And your heart sinks, because you know there is very (very) strong chance the movie is going to ruin the book for you. So much so you consider not going to watch it. But of course you do because there is that slim hope it may just do it justice and you'll relive that high all over again. 

But have you ever considered which of those film flops let you down the most? It turns out there is a way to calculate the worst adaptations ever and I have the results. I wonder if it matches yours? Read on to find out... 

The Gargoyle’s nameless narrator is a porn star and cocaine addict who crashes his car into a ravine while high to avoid a shower of hallucinatory arrows he sees coming towards him. The accident leaves him fighting for his life in a hospital burns unit where he meets Marianne Engel, a sculptor and psychiatric patient who believe she and our narrator were lovers in the 14th century. And so begins the story of an enduring romance which defies time, pain and death.

On Cara’s graduation night tragedy occurs, an event so catastrophic it tears Cara’s family apart and sends her sister Anna into a tailspin of depression and alcoholism . But what really happened that fateful night? Is Cara really the victim or is all a cleverly crafted story to save her life?

Oz Jackson is an outcast amongst his Biologist and Ecologist peers who think he is a crack pot for proposing a theory that animal behaviour is changing. But when animals start attacking humans across the globe his radical theory doesn’t sound so crazy anymore...

I've sat down this week and sorted out my Kindle. It was a long process but I now have proper 'read' and 'TBR' folders which makes my soul happy. I can now see all the fab books I have lined up ready to read and prioritised the titles I aim to read over the Summer.

Ellie was her mother's golden girl. At just 15, happy and intelligent, she had her whole life ahead of her, but one day Ellie was gone.

A decade later Laurel has never given up hope of finding Ellie and when she meets her boyfriend's confident young daughter she is left speechless. Because she is the image of Ellie. All those unanswered questions come flooding back, unraveling Laurel's world. What happened to Ellie? Is she still alive? And who is hiding the biggest secret?

Twelve years ago Finn’s girlfriend disappeared.

He told the police the truth about that night. Well, most of the truth.

Finn has moved on and is about to marry but when an eerie reminders of his past start to appear he realises his secrets aren't buried as deep as he thought.

It's quite likely you have heard of Steig Larsson's Millennium series and his anarchic anti-hero Lisbeth Salander, the originalz Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Sadly Larsson died before a single word of his 80 million copy selling trilogy had been published. After a long drawn out legal battle between Larsson's family and long term partner for control of his literary estate, a new Millennium book was published 11 years after his death - but it isn't the continuation of the series Larsson had planned and has been heavily criticized by his partner.

So what do I make of this 4th novel? Is it a welcome addition to the Millennium Story or would it have been better to allow the series to die with Steig?

Last year I read the scariest book I have ever encountered: Behind Closed Doors by B.A.Paris. This was some feat as I've been reading the psychological thriller and horror genres for over 25 years and honestly believed I was immune! No wonder it has sold over 1million copies in 37 countries around the world. I couldn't wait to meet the author of my nightmares at the book signing of B.A. Paris' latest thriller Bring Me Back at Waterstones in Farnham last week and I'm intrigued to find out if it packs the same fearsome punch as Behind Closed Doors.