Do you ever feel that screen time is running the lives of you and your children? Do you arrange your evening around a favourite soap or just despair at the amount of time that your children spend playing computer games or scrolling on their phones?
The concept of a week away from your screen started in the US in 1994 as TV Turn-off Week. For a short time it was known as Digital Detox Week before becoming Screen-Free Week in 2010. It is an opportunity to try not watching TV or to stop scrolling mindlessly on your phone for a week and see what other interesting things you could be doing instead.
Reading is a uniquely enriching and joyful experience that allows us to escape into new worlds, explore different perspectives, and expand our understanding of ourselves and the world around us. Whether we're curling up with a good book on a rainy day or losing ourselves in a captivating story on a long flight, there's nothing quite like the feeling of getting lost in a great read. Reading can help reduce stress, improve cognitive function, and even boost empathy and emotional intelligence. It's a magical way to transport ourselves to new places, learn new things, and connect with other readers across time and space. So this Screen-Free Week, let's celebrate the joy of reading and all the ways it can enrich our lives!
Take some time out to enjoy the stories that unfold. Here are some book recommendations that might interest you and at the time of publishing were free on amazon.
Love Alis x
Title: One Left Alive
Author: Helen Phifer
Series: Detective Morgan Brookes Book 1
Genre: Crime Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Psychological Thriller
Publication Date: 2020
About: A gentle breeze blew her blonde hair across her face, her glazed eyes staring blankly into the sunset. Her small frame looked lost hanging from the large oak tree. On the branch next to her was a worn child’s rope swing. She looked too young and beautiful to be dead. When the body of a woman is found hanging from a tree in her front garden, rookie Detective Morgan Brookes is first on the scene. But Olivia Potter is past saving. And when her husband and daughters cannot be traced, Morgan knows there is more to this tragedy. And then she finds them. Lying huddled together in the dark basement, each of their faces covered with a small cotton cloth, their bodies cold to the touch. But as Morgan kneels beside the family, she realises that one of the girls is still breathing. As she holds Bronte’s fragile hand in hers, begging her to hold on, she vows to find out who has done this. Every day Morgan wakes at 4.25 a.m., her old insomnia now mixed with a new fixation on the case. But every clue about the murdered family leads to a dead end. Until, trawling through old files, she discovers a link to a cold case from years ago. Another family was found murdered, their innocent faces covered with white cloths. When Morgan returns to the scene of the crime to discover more about this forgotten case, she finds another body. With Bronte still unconscious in hospital, Morgan must act fast to solve this case before the killer returns for the girl left alive… A chilling and gripping crime thriller that will have fans of Angela Marsons, Rachel Abbott and Rachel Caine glued to the page.
Title: One Day With You
Author: Shari Low
Genre: Romantic, Suspense
Publisher: Boldwood Books
Publication date: 2023
About Book: One day, five lives, but whose heart will be broken by nightfall?
It started like any other day in the picturesque village of Weirbridge. Tress Walker waved her perfect husband Max off to work, with no idea that she was about to go into labour with their first child. And completely unaware that when she tried to track Max down, he wouldn’t be where he was supposed to be. At the same time, Max’s best friend Noah Clark said goodbye to his wife, Anya, blissfully oblivious that he would soon discover the woman he adored had been lying to him for years. And living alongside the two couples, their recently widowed friend, Nancy Jenkins, is getting ready to meet Eddie, her first true love at a school reunion. Will Nancy have the chance to rekindle an old flame, or will she choose to stay by Tress’s side when she needs her most? One Day with You - two fateful goodbyes, two unexpected hellos, and 24 hours that change everything.
Title: The Keeper of Stories
Author: Sally Page
Genre: Romance, Domestic
Publisher: One More Chapter
Publication Date: 2022
About Book:She can’t recall what started her collection. Maybe it was in a fragment of conversation overheard as she cleaned a sink? Before long (as she dusted a sitting room or defrosted a fridge) she noticed people were telling her their stories. Perhaps they always had done, but now it is different, now the stories are reaching out to her and she gathers them to her…
When Janice starts cleaning for Mrs B – a shrewd and tricksy woman in her nineties – she meets someone who wants to hear her story. But Janice is clear: she is the keeper of stories, she doesn’t have a story to tell. At least, not one she can share.
Mrs B is no fool and knows there is more to Janice than meets the eye. What is she hiding? After all, doesn’t everyone have a story to tell?
Title: Are You Awake?
Author: Claire McGowan
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Publication Date: 2022
About Book: With two young children, Mary hasn’t slept in what feels like years. For his part, Tim never feels safe enough to sleep. And so one hot, exhausting night, the two strangers meet while seeking solace in a nearby park. There, they witness something horrific: a violent attack in the window of a neighbouring house.
Bonded by what they’ve seen, Tim and Mary are desperate to find answers. And when they see news reports of a missing woman who was last seen walking alone not far from them, the pair are convinced it’s her they saw being attacked—no matter what the police say.
But with her marriage under strain and the police on their tail, Mary begins to doubt her own mind…and Tim’s. And as the pair are drawn into a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse, the culprit appears to be even closer to home than they thought. Have they got it all wrong, or is something even more sinister going on?
Title: The Lost Notebook
Author: Louise Douglas
Genre: Mystery
Publisher: Boldwood Books
Publication Date: 2022
About Book: It’s summer and holidaymakers are flocking to the idyllic Brittany coast. But when first an old traveller woman dies in suspicious circumstances, and then a campaign of hate seemingly drives another victim to take his own life, events take a very dark turn.
Mila Shepherd has come to France to look after her niece, Ani, following the accident in which both Ani’s parents were lost at sea. Mila has moved into their family holiday home, as well as taken her sister Sophie’s place in an agency which specialises in tracking down missing people, until new recruit Carter Jackson starts.
It’s clear that malevolent forces are at work in Morranez, but the local police are choosing to look the other way. Only Mila and Carter can uncover the truth about what’s really going on in this beautiful, but mysterious place before anyone else suffers. But someone is desperate to protect a terrible truth, at any cost…
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