Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

Wow! Just wow! For a debut novel, this just exploded from the pages and carried me through to the end far to quickly.
Ollie's special forces pedigree is evident in the way he describes the kinetic nature of combat, which add legitimacy to his story.
I liked Alex, a warrior with hidden scars, and then a missing son, but still able to do what he needs to do. I found him relatable and credible.

I think I'll be reading more from Ollie in the future. I gave Scar Tissue five stars

This was a fantastic debut fiction novel from Ollie. I read his non-fiction book Break Point last year and really loved it.
You can really tell that Ollie knows exactly what he's talking about whilst reading this book as ex-special forces and he's put everything into his character, Alex. From the bad job, to his missing son, the PTSD and alcohol abuse, this book feels incredibly real. It was action packed from beginning to end and Ollie has done such a fantastic job.

I really enjoyed this book. I love the SAS guys and so was eager to read this one. I thought it wasn’t gimicky and it felt really authentic.

Abbot, alcoholic former special forces with ptsd, still working in Singapore as a private soldier for hire finds himself dragged back to Iraq when his son is kidnapped. A huge can of worms from the past is opened, who can he trust? Can he stay sober long enough to finish the mission,? Can he save his son? A in depth story of a flawed man

Oh my this really didn’t disappoint, I loved this book and my husband also read it and loved it too - we need another please. This really wasn’t what I was expecting and went above and beyond, absolutely recommend,

The writing style is relentless, ruthless and all too real. To know that Ollie Ollerton is the real thing is to realise that although you may be appalled by the violence, which is graphic, you have to be reassured that these are the type of men who do their utmost to protect us, our way of life and our country. The greed of others is always a little soul destroying and even more so when interwoven in a fast paced thriller such as this. I recommend this story which also has a too real ending to anyone who enjoys this style of story....fact or fiction or faction, who knows except those who live this life. Thank you Netgalley, the publishers and author for the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.

Some beautiful descriptions of Singapore and vivid depitctions of Bhagdad that managed to bring both places to life straight off the page.
Abbott was a difficult character to like but empathy for him grows as he searches for his missing son, returning to his own personal hell to do so.
The story is never linear, twisting in and back on itself in a series of events that keep you guessing tothe very end.
Fast and furious from the get go!

Scar Tissue is the authors debut novel and clearly brings his special forces experience to life with this cracking story. I have friends who are in the special forces and this story is truly an eye opener.

The story kicks off with plenty of action and doesn’t let you go until the very last page. When we are introduced to Alex Abbott. Alex is a damaged character who you cannot help but like. We totally get to know what goes on inside Alex’s head he is a brilliant character. When we follow him on a pulse racing journey to find his son.

This is what a thriller is all about. It is full of twists and turns and OMG moments. A very exciting on the edge of your seat read….I couldn’t put it down. With some added romance. I love that this book gives the reader a mixture of everything.

All the foundations have been laid down for what is set to be the start of a brilliant new series. Now I cannot wait for the next book.

Thank you to Tracy Fenton for a copy and for inviting me to take part on this epic tour.

May I just take the opportunity to say that I am in awe of the special forces in this country. I have seen and read about some of what they have done or got up to and they have my total respect. When I was a fair bit younger, I had aspirations to join the special forces but then I read ‘Bravo, Two, Zero’ and it scared the doo doo out of me and I swiftly changed my career plans. Anyway enough of my burblings and back to the point. I haven’t really watched or read anything in which Ollie Ollerton appears but the synopsis of ‘Scar Tissue’ really appealed to me and I knew I had to read it as soon as I could. Oh boy, what a flipping fantastic read it is too. I thoroughly enjoyed reading ‘Scar Tissue’ but more about that in a bit.
It didn’t take me long at all to get into this story. In fact by the time I finished reading the synopsis I just knew that I would find it nigh on impossible to put the book down for any length of time. This book seemed to develop a hold over me and it was a hold that I didn’t want to break. To say that reading ‘Scar Tissue’ became addictive is a massive understatement. I would pick the book up only intending to read a chapter or two and I would become so wrapped up in the story that I read way more than I had intended. I think in a way I had taken to the character of Alex Abbott and I had to keep reading to see if he managed to survive the book in one piece. Abbott has his flaws but at heart he seems like a decent sort of chap. I galloped through the latter half of the book as my desperation to find out what happened grew and grew. I soon got to the end of the story and I had to bid a temporary farewell to Alex Abbott.
‘Scar Tissue’ is extremely well written. The author certainly knows how to start a story in an attention grabbing way and then draw you into the story. For me, the story hit the ground running and maintained a fast pace throughout. Some of the details were rather gruesome in nature but I didn’t let that put me off. In fact it probably encouraged me to keep reading. The fact that a former member of the SAS wrote ‘Scar Tissue’ only made the story seem that bit more authentic. Reading ‘Scar Tissue’ was much like being on a very fast, unpredictable and at times scary rollercoaster ride with lots of twists and turns along the way. I found ‘Scar Tissue’ to be a gripping read, which held my attention throughout and had me on the edge of my seat throughout.
In short, I thoroughly enjoyed reading ‘Scar Tissue’ and I would definitely recommend it to other readers. I will certainly be reading more of Ollie Ollerton’s work in the future. The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a very well deserved 5* out of 5*.

Alex is a man beset by demons, ones that make climbing into a bottle seem to be the only escape from them. An ex soldier with a past he tries to escape from yet he ends up having to run towards one part of that past in a personal quest. His son is missing and its up to Alex and the skills he possesses to search for him. Along the way he meets not only old friends but new rivals that would see him out of the way in a terminal capacity. Can he unravel the web of lies and deceit in time to find his son or will this be a mission doomed to failure.

What an action packed , rush of a story this was. The authors specialised knowledge shone through in the details he used to describe manoeuvres, weapons and the mindset of a soldier. This gave the book a realistic feel that took me the reader on a journey into the dark and dangerous world of ex military . The demons that Alex was fighting shone a light on what these men go through to protect those around them regardless of the consequences they themselves face. Fast paced the book never faltered or let the reader go from its vice like grip. A book that makes Bond look tame in comparison. A hero that men can admire and women swoon over and want to make whole again. So if you want pulse racing, fast auctioned thriller with heart then this is for you.

I was so excited about reading Ollie Ollerton’s first fictional book - and it didn’t disappoint! I thoroughly enjoyed it! Drawing on his vast personal experiences this is a great, pacy, hard to put down thriller.
I felt like I really got to know the characters and I enjoyed the little bits of humour as well.
A great read! Hope there’s more to come!

I’d like to thank Bonnier Books UK and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘Scar Tissue’ by Ollie Ollerton in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Ex-special forces soldier Alex Abbott is living in Singapore when he receives a text message from his soldier son Nathan saying he needs to speak to him urgently. Alex has had too much to drink so it isn’t until the following day that he reads the message, by which time he learns that Nathan is missing in Iraq. Alex left Baghdad under a cloud and doesn’t want to return but knows he must if there’s a chance of him finding Nathan. He gets on the next flight and meets up with his old special forces acquaintances but when they start dying from unexplained accidents it doesn’t take long for him to realise his own life could be at risk.

‘Scar Tissue’ is a well-written, exciting and thoroughly entertaining thriller that will appeal to all readers who enjoy gritty and bloodthirsty stories. It’s crammed full of action, bloodshed and carnage, double-crossing and quick-thinking, and despite getting the impression initially that it might be more suitable for male readers I got into the story and thoroughly enjoyed it. Congratulations to Ollie Ollerton as this is his debut in fiction writing and I’m delighted that this is just the start of a series featuring Alex Abbott as he comes over as being flawed but genuine, having a tough life, drinking too much, and just about scraping a living in Singapore. The final page is definitely a cliff-hanger and I’m looking forward to reading the next in this series.

Tense, Fast-Paced and Addictive!

Full disclosure, I’m an avid Lee Child fan, I’m obsessed with history (particularly 20th century history), and I’ve read more John le Carre than I care to think about. I’ve largely avoided special forces fiction because the few I’ve read concentrate too much on losing limbs than building characters.

Scar Tissue, by Ollie Ollerton came across my desk, and it caught my eye as it was pitched “as pacey as Lee Child”, and as thrilling as Die Hard. Surely worth a read!

This is the first adventure into fiction for Ollie Ollerton, and I’m already waiting for the second installment, the end of the book (spoiler alert) tells us that there is definitely more to come and I, for one, cannot wait.

Scar Tissue definitely lives up to the hype of being fast-paced, as ex-special forces soldier Alex Abbott escapes the Middle East and we find him living harshly in Singapore. Using his skills as an operative, he manages to feed himself as a gun for hire, but through drink and ghosts from the past, he quickly finds himself in trouble.

We are thrust into his son going missing in Baghdad, and Alex has to face his demons quickly, and remember who he used to be whilst revisiting his past life. We are shot forward, literally and figurately at every step of the way.

I love broken characters, and Alex really embraces that. He’s a drunk, he’s flawed, and he’s probably had one fight too many. Better still, the ending is not at all predictable, and I was yanked from page to page.

For his first fiction outing, this book has a huge amount of realism sown up with the drama you need to grab you from the first page. Ollie Ollerton was a director on the British TV series ‘Who Dares Wins’, as well as being an ex-Special Forces Soldier, and it really shows.

No more will I ignore this genre, highly recommended, especially for people who, like me, haven’t ventured into this type of book before.

A brilliant and very authentic read! I enjoyed every page of this book.

Its a story about a flawed guy who is struggling with his demons and the only way he can find comfort is in a bottle. But this old trusted friend has also cost him so much. When he finds out his son has gone missing he is determent to find him and to start acting like a father but is this 1 fight too many and will he be able to find redemption?
I love how flawed the main character is. It's not a pretty read and the outcome is also not what you would expect. One where the hero drives away in the sunset after he saved the world.
I can't wait for the follow up after the killer ending!
Thank you to NetGalley,Bonnier books UK and Blink Publishing for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

This is Ollie Ollerton’s first venture into fiction and he does it with perfection. From the opening pages, I was left with a racing heart and pounding pulse that never seemed to subside till I came to the end. The adrenaline-filled pages are fuelled with situations that feel like this author has experienced, seen and survived in different scenarios in real life being an ex-Special Forces Soldier himself. So with tweaking, twerking and twisting them into fictional settings this book makes for compulsive reading.

I never felt that the characters had been created from ink, they felt like people with pasts that the author moulded into these characters. One character was particularly broken, he had seen too much, done too much and for a long time drunk too much. Alex Abbott is an unforgettable character who worked as a mercenary but when the current job he was on goes belly up it has repercussions for his son who is serving in the military himself.

The beginning of this book is pretty busy and moves smoothly between events and characters. I really liked how each event is set out before the story drops back to Abbott’s past and his relationship with both the love of his life and the mother of his son. In present-day, the action is at times brutal which had me in conflict of wanting to know what came next and yet dreading it at the same time.

This author really knows how to build up to a climactic ending, it had been a gripping story from the start but whoa Ollerton had a couple of gears that I never knew existed. There are some fabulous characters in this story that I hope will continue in future books, Abbott and Cuckoo were just a couple of them. I am still giggling at the pair of them. Brilliant!

I wish to thank the publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this book which I have reviewed honestly.

Unfortunately this book didn't suit me, I wasn't inclined to pick it back up so didn't finish it, I made try it again at another stage.

Ex-special forces soldier Alex Abbot may have been considered a hero once but these days he's far from that, after leaving his military career behind him he went from one bad situation to another and ended up in Singapore haunted by the demons of his past service, reminiscing about what might have been and taking the occasional job as a gun for hire to fund his drink habit by the few that will still hire him.

Divorced with a grown up son who against his advice joined the military he doesn't think things can't get much worse. They can and they do, his son Nathan has gone missing and was last seen in Baghdad, a place Abbott thought was firmly in his past. Its time for Abbott to put down the bottle, pull up his big boy pants, get on a plane and try to become the man he used to be.

The character of Abbott may be stereotypical of many ex-special forces soldiers who feature in this type of fiction but that's where the similarities end, the back-story reveals a character who isn't that different to the rest of us, a mere mortal with the same feelings and insecurities we all have. With plenty of action, intrigue and interesting characters this book moves at a good pace throughout. As Abbot revisits his past, old friends and acquaintances resurface and there's enough twists to keep you guessing right to the end.

I enjoyed this book!
The main character, Abbott, was interesting from the start. His flaws and dangerous decision making left you wanting to know more and find out what would happen to him.
An ex-military man, Abbott appears scared by his service but the burden and guilt he carries comes from much further back and he drinks to forget! Now working in security the story moves between Singapore, Baghdad and England and takes a personal twist when Abbott’s son Nathan is kidnapped.
Full of twists and turns; who is behind the kidnapping and why? Can Abbott save his son and save himself?
4 out of 5 from me! The way the book flipped from one part of the story to another was confusing at times but other than that it was really good.

What a brilliant first foray into fiction by Ollie Ollerton. A no point in this novel did you feel the author was holding back, it was full on action, fast and furious living, and dying. Plenty of twists and twisted characters, human strength and frailties in equal measure. I really enjoyed this book and hope there are more so we can see how Alex Abbott develops, I’m sure there must be more Special Forces adventures in him! Thanks for Netgalley for the advance copy of this book.