Welcome to the tour for Becky Jane Fox’s slowwww burn fantasy romance, Veins of Power!
Veins of Power (Threads of the Fifth Realm Book 1)
Release Date: January 2026
Genre: Epic Fantasy Romance
Slow-burn, enemies-to-lovers tension
Morally grey MMC
Forced proximity & dangerous bargains
Dragons in exile & forbidden magic
A fierce, flawed heroine who would rather set the world on fire than bow to it
Your Next Obsessive Slow-Burn Fantasy Romance: Dragons, Forbidden Magic, and Unbearable Tension!
Meet Lyra Bloom—a sharp-tongued redhead with a quick mind and a volatile vein of magic she can’t quite control.
Raised scraping by in the lawless Outerlands, survival meant learning to fight, lie, and rely on no one but herself until one fatal mistake changes everything.
Captured crossing the border into the Inner Lands, Lyra is dragged into the very world she’s spent her life resenting—and forced into service under the power she swore she’d never bow to.
Inside the walls of the Citadel, her magic grows stronger. Wilder. But so does something else: a rising lust and desire for something she doesn’t truly understand. Something shadowed. Something dangerous. Something that threatens to unravel her—and everything around her.
And as whispers of rebellion spread and dragons strike from exile, Lyra must decide whether she’ll be forged into the weapon the Citadel wants… or become the spark that burns it all down.
This novel is intended for adult readers (18+). It contains explicit sexual content, strong language, violence and peril, injury detail, psychological manipulation, and references to self-harm and suicide. It also includes implied off-page rape and on-page non-consensual sexual contact (kissing, touching). If you are sensitive to any of these themes, please take care while reading.
🐙 Monster Romance ❤️ Leviathan x Human 🐙 Sapphic ❤️ Plus Size FMC 🐙 Hurt/Comfort ❤️ Touch Her and Die 🐙 Tentacles ❤️ Insta-Love
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
The plans were perfect. Her dress was a froth of white lace. Her maid of honor had just finished pinning her veil in place. The buzz of excitement and fizz of champagne filled her ears. She just wanted to take a breath alone to soak it in before the emotion of the day blurred her mind. What she couldn’t have planned was the pain lying in wait on the other side of her hotel room door ready to topple it all.
When Georgia runs from the picture-perfect life she had meticulously built, taking her honeymoon trip alone, she prays the secluded seaside resort will wash away her shame. The private beach surrounding her villa offers her seclusion and peace, but the grief and betrayal threaten to drown her. And each night, the quiet cove tucked behind no trespassing signs whispers her name, calling for her to slip into the glittering blue water.
The creature had lived in this cove for centuries and never had she seen a human alone and with such an endless stream of tears. Styx watches the broken woman as she lounges on the sand and moves like a ghost around the small house just beyond the boundaries of her cove. Quietly, she calls to her, desperate to find out what stole her spirit. She wants nothing more than to hold the woman in the lull of the waves as she rips the source of her grief from the world. As obsession rises like the tide, Styx finds herself desperate to fix the fragile human.
But all vacations end, and as Georgia’s past comes hunting her down, the only way to survive may be to call to the storm beneath the surface and let its vengeance consume her entirely. She’ll have to stare into the depths and grapple with the fear that trusting a monster may be taunting the same fate that already burned her.
Love is an anchor that drags you into the deep…where even the tides have teeth.
Violet Manville knows everything about manners—and murder.
Violet is looking forward to taking some time away from the advice column she writes under the nom de plume Miss Hermione. She canʼt wait to head off to Venice to spend some time with Eli Marsh, a mysterious, annoying, and extremely attractive American.
Little does she suspect that the specter of death will come calling at her front door in the person of Ash Kumar, a man she once knew—and loved—when she lived in India. She certainly doesnʼt expect Ash to be arrested for his wifeʼs murder on her front door step. As Violet tries to unravel the murder, she is pulled between between the two men.
As the past and present become blurred, she soon discovers that the truth can be deadly.
For Anastasia Hastings, there is nothing as intriguing as a fog-filled, gas-light street, the clip-clop of a horse pulling a hansom cab, and the possibility of murder and mystery around every corner!
She has been lucky enough to bring it all alive in the Dear Miss Hermione mystery series which follows the adventures of Violet Manville, Victorian Englandʼs most famous (and enigmatic) agony aunt. Book #1, Of Manners and Murder, was a finalist for the 2024 Mary Higgins Clark Award presented by Mystery Writers of America, and The Wall Street Journal said it “evokes the shocking revelations of Wilkie Collins, the social acuity of Jane Austen and the comic melodrama of Oscar Wilde.ˮ Book #2 of the series, Of Hoaxes and Homicide, was called “captivatingˮ by Publishers Weekly.
Under a variety of names and throughout a career than spans more than 30 years, Anastasia has published 70 novels. The Secrets of Bones, written as Kylie Logan, was recently made into a Hallmark Mystery movie.
Anastasia lives in Ohio with her husband and two dogs, an Airedale named Eliot Ness and his best friend (even if he doesnʼt know it yet), Tequila Elizabeth, a Russell Terrier. She enjoys various fiber arts including knitting and spinning, as well as exploring old cemeteries and in the summer, watching the hummingbirds while she contemplates her next murder.
My thoughts: Violet is much more independent than many Victorian women would have been, which means she can investigate crimes as well as write her advice column without the need for worrying about chaperones and she clearly isn’t too worried about what anyone else thinks of her.
At the beginning of the book she’s about to head off to Venice in pursuit of possible love interest Eli. But a blast from the past, in the form of the man she might have married had things been different, Ash Kumar. His wife has recently died and he drops by to see her.
Then he’s arrested for murder, his wife’s. Violet knows he isn’t capable of it, or of the theft of a priceless ruby due to be presented to Queen Victoria. And it turns out Eli isn’t in Venice either, he’s in London, on the case of the stolen ruby.
As Violet works to clear Ash’s name and find the real killer, she keeps coming face to face with Eli. Can she choose between her past love and a possible future with this American detective? Can she catch a killer in time to save Ash from the hangman and celebrate Christmas with her sister Sephora?
It’s a clever and twisting tale, with Violet rushing all over the place, down to Southampton and across to Windsor as the Christmas season spins around her and she struggles to juggle her feelings with her work. It even comes out in the replies she pens as Miss Hermione. With time running out, the answers might be closer to home (Ash’s home, that is) than she first thought. But what does the future hold for them, if anything?
Enjoyable, funny (Sephora is very entertaining) and with a smart and intuitive protagonist in Violet, I think I’ll have to look for the previous volumes of this series soon.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Paint store owner Laura Meehan must prove her amateur sleuthing skills (again!) when her small townʼs public library starts burning in this installment of the Haunted Paint Store cozy mystery series.
Donʼt mess with a paint store ownerʼs safe haven!
Laura Meehan has her hands full with her paint store, but also with another case (that she will definitely leave to the police to solve)! The Sea Breeze Public Library is burning and itʼs clear from the beginning that it must be arson. Who would want to burn a library down and why? Was it a group of moms protesting what they see as inappropriate book content? Maybe it was someone who didnʼt like a title they lent? Or is there something more alarming going on?
As a library volunteer, Laura simply has to find out, and together with her IT-savvy husband Roy and her ex-detective fatherʼs ghost (real or imagined still yet to be determined), she stumbles upon a lot of obstacles on her quest to find the truth—and maybe even an arsonist who might strike again!
E.J. Copperman is the nom de plume for Jeff Cohen, writer of intentionally funny murder mysteries. As E.J., he has written the Haunted Guesthouse and Agent to the Paws series, as well as the Jersey Girl Legal Mysteries, the Fran & Ken Stein Mysteries, and the new Haunted Paint Store Mysteries; as Jeff, he has written the Double Feature and Aaron Tucker series; and he collaborated with himself on the Samuel Hoenig Aspergerʼs Mysteries.
A New Jersey native, E.J. worked as a newspaper reporter, teacher, magazine editor, and screenwriter before his first book was published to critical acclaim in 2002. In his spare time, Jeff is an extremely amateur guitar player, a fan of Major League Baseball, a couch potato, and a crossword addict.
My thoughts: This was a fun mystery caper with the added twist of Laura’s dad haunting the family business and offering her his advice as a former cop.
The local library may not be big and fancy, but to Laura and the other patrons, it’s important, whether they’re locals or holiday makers needing something to read, the library acts as a safe haven and a community hub (I am very pro-library FYI as a former librarian and lifelong reader). Laura volunteers there once a week as a break from running her paint shop.
When someone starts a fire in the teen section, for some reason the main suspect isn’t the crazy woman trying to stop the library stocking “pornography” in the children’s and teens section (bet I can guess what she really means….), but the head librarian. Which for Laura, just doesn’t make sense. Except that Evelyn the librarian has disappeared.
So, armed with absolutely no alternate suspects, or investigative powers, Laura and ever loyal husband Roy are on the case. Her dad provides his two cents from the afterlife, only Laura can see him, and her therapist thinks he’s imaginary, but he does have actual experience and knowledge.
Driving the town’s one detective crazy, and upsetting the arson detective, several residents and the librarian, Laura is determined to get to the bottom of it. But will she do a better job than the actual cops?
Fun, funny and entertaining to read, I really liked Laura, her golden retriever husband and her ghost dad. They make a surprisingly good team. She’s got her heart in the right place, but tends to just charge ahead not really thinking about how her actions affect others or how she might actually be muddying the waters for the police. She does get results, but not in the way you might suspect and if she’s not careful, the four customers she does have might eventually be none, causing too much upset can make you unpopular! But hopefully not as her adventures are enjoyable to read.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
When the mayor turns up dead and a violent ghost haunts her basement, pub owner Wanda Atkins must solve a murder on one leg—literally. Spirits, secrets, and small-town scandal are all on tap in Ales and Alibis.
Wanda Atkins owns and works at her family pub, Pour Decisions, even after inheriting millions from the Prohibition Booze they discovered. Things should be easier now that sheʼs started her counseling practice, but money canʼt stop whatever malevolent entity is in her basement.
After the mayor is found dead in his own office, his wife, Wandaʼs first client, is the main suspect according to Wandaʼs boyfriend and deputy. Then, Wanda breaks her ankle after encountering the evil basement ghost.
Wanda must rely on her found family, her ghostly ancestors, and a little creative sleuthingto find a way to prove her clientʼs innocence and get rid of the whatever nonliving entity is in the basement.
Tobi Doyle writes meet-cutes and mysteries. With a questionable internet search history, she writes to make mom-time more enjoyable. Margaritas are optional!
My thoughts: This was a fun read, with a murder to solve, ghosts to wrangle and a puppy to walk, Guy is very cute and I loved the scene where he encounters snow and ice for the first time.
Wanda runs Pour Decisions with her mum and grandma, a bar that serves delicious food popular with the residents of Atkinsville, the town her ancestors founded. However, she and the other Atkins women aren’t exactly embraced by all because of their unusual talents – Gran reads tarot, mum reads palms and Wanda sees and talks to ghosts. And the town is full of them.
When the mayor is found dead in his office, it’s foul play, and there are plenty of suspects – firstly his wife and daughter. He was well known as an adulterer, and the women in his life all had reason to kill him. But Wanda is pretty sure it wasn’t Alicia, his wife and her new therapy client.
Her boyfriend Jack, a sheriff’s deputy, won’t tell her how the investigation is going, but Wanda is running her own, with a little help from the not-so-recently deceased.
I liked the characters, the town seems very quirky, and the Atkins and their closest are very intriguing, the case was resolved very nicely and I am going to keep an eye out for the next book in the series.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
After a painful divorce, Maya Landry is in desperate need of a fresh start, which she finds deep in the Rocky Mountains of Montana. Maya’s relieved when she’s hired as a summer keeper of billionaire-owned ski lodges left empty after snow season ends, and her new life of peace and isolation is going exactly as hoped . . . until she stumbles across a dead body on the living room floor of one of the lodges. There’s no cell service on the resort, and by the time she’s able to find a signal and call the police, the body is gone. In fact, there’s no evidence a body was ever there at all.
The police think Maya is unstable, and she’s not convinced they are wrong. But later that night, a stranger walks up to her and tells her that someone knows she was up on the mountain that day, someone willing to kill to keep their secrets. She’s not sure whether to believe him . . . until the killers come for her in the dead of night. Maya narrowly escapes, only to find that same mysterious man waiting to rush her away. But can she trust him? Can she trust anyone?
Only one thing is certain: The people who committed the murder are coming for her. Maya is the only person alive who might reveal what happened up on the mountain. And they want her gone.
Dubbed ‘The new queen of spy fiction’ by The Guardian, ‘The real thing’ by the Washington Post and ‘A worthy heir to the James Bond mantle’ by James Patterson and shortlisted for the CWA Steel Dagger, Ava Glass is the UK’s leading female spy fiction writer and has sold over 2 million copies worldwide.
The Hiding Season follows Ava Glass’ successful Emma Makepeace series, which included The Chase,The Trap, and her critically acclaimed 2023 thriller The Traitor, which wasa Grazia Book of the Month, a Washington Post Book of the Year, a Cosmopolitan Book of the Year and a Richard and Judy Book Club pick. Film rights to The Chase and The Traitor serieshave been acquired.
Ava Glass’ spy novels are based on first-hand experience working with spies for the British government alongside several years working as an investigative journalist and crime reporter in America. One of vanishingly few female authors writing spy fiction, Ava Glass is breaking down the door to the most male-dominated genre in fiction.
Ava Glass is an experienced broadcaster and a go-to talking head when something’s going on in the world of spies, and frequently appears on Sky News, BBC News and BBC Radio 4. She has also co-presented a true crime documentary TV series for Channel 4 and is a regular guest expert on current affairs podcasts.
My thoughts: This was a bit different from the other Ava Glass books which are about professional spies, instead the protagonist here is Maya Landry, whose job cleaning the holiday homes of very wealthy people in a private ski resort brings her into the orbit of a terrifying criminal mastermind who even the FBI can’t seem to bring down.
Maya sees something she very much shouldn’t have, and it means she has to run. FBI agent Riley appears at the local bar and tells her she needs to run, and he’ll help her.
A year later, having successfully laid low in Texas, some dangerous people turn up and she calls Riley for help. Now they’re on the run with both the FBI and the crime boss on their trail. Can things get any worse? Can Maya really trust Riley?
Gripping and full of moments of surprise, there are still questions Maya needs answers to, but first of all, she needs to stay alive and one step ahead of law enforcement and criminals.
I really liked Maya, she was genuinely in the wrong place at the wrong time – she doesn’t know who the victim was, or the killer. But that’s not enough it seems, and she has to go on the run, despite her innocence and ignorance. It’s only a mistake that puts her back into the sights of the people who want her dead. She has no choice but to trust Riley, and by extension his friend Amber, to help her, and they have their own agendas.
I enjoy Ava’s books, they’re fast paced and intelligent with interesting characters and compelling plots, and while this was very different from her Emma Makepeace books, it was very readable and I couldn’t put it down.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review but all opinions remain my own.
We’re proud to present the cover for Valaztein, an upcoming dark fantasy release by Emilia Ramos!
Valaztein
Expected Release Date: August 23, 2026 (Paperback)
Genre: Dark Fantasy
What to Expect: Enemies-to-Lovers Dragons World Travel Sailboats Slow Burn Dark Magic Found Family Sirens Royal Houses Poetry & Music Theaters, Grottos, & Enchanted Libraries
A kingdom whose deadliest secrets live only in its memories.
After two years, Naomi escapes the dungeons of the very castle where she was once a princess. Exiled and cursed with Dark magic, Naomi has one chance to retake her throne and save her kingdom from her tyrannous mother.
She crafts her crew—a curious array of thieves, assassins, and young royals. They sail to the edges of the known world in search of an army, from frozen fighting rings on the dark side of the moon to siren grottoes, dragon caverns, and camel races across upside-down deserts.
And then there’s Ez.
The man she loved… and the traitor whose choice lost her the last war.
Shelves of sequins in a kaleidoscope of colours. Bolts of silk and tulle against the back wall. The sewing room was the last place anyone had seen her daughter alive.
Northern Ireland, 1942. Flora Toussaint packs parachutes for the RAF, haunted by the twin daughters she was forced to give up eighteen years ago. When British intelligence shows her photographs of her girls – now young women in occupied Paris – her world shifts. One is safe. One has vanished. And their father, the celebrated couturier Lucien Lumineau, is suspected of collaborating with the Nazis.
Flora agrees to a dangerous mission: parachute into France, pose as a seamstress at the Moulin Rouge, and uncover the truth. Lodging above a brothel where Edith Piaf sings after hours and where Pablo Picasso still holds court, she mends costumes between shows, searches for any trace of her missing daughter between curfews, and circles closer to Lucien.
But Lucien isn’t the man she remembers. Neither is their history. And what Flora discovers will unravel everything she thought she knew – about Lucien, about her daughters, and about the night she gave them away.
A sweeping tale of wartime Paris, family secrets and impossible choices. Fans of Kate Quinn, Pam Jenoff and Kristin Hannah will be mesmerised by The Secret Dressmaker.
Jenny O’Brien writes complex thrillers and heartbreaking historical fiction, as well as intriguing romances. Silent Cry, initially self published, topped the Amazon kindle chart in both the UK and the USA. Most of her books have followed suit.
Jenny has over 40 years experience as a qualified nurse. She turned to creative writing as a hobby when her children were born. Now, 20 years later, she’s retired from the day job to focus on writing. She’s currently working on the third book in the Threads Series.
Born in Ireland, she now lives in Guernsey with her husband and children.
My thoughts: I really enjoyed this story of Flora, returning to her native France during the war, while Paris is under occupation in order to find out if her former lover, couturier Lucien Lumineau is a collaborator and what has happened to their daughters, the babies she handed over to him and his wife eighteen years ago.
Taking a job at the Moulin Rouge as a seamstress brings into the world one of her daughter’s Marguette inhabited as a performer, taking lodgings above a notorious brothel introduces her to Edith Piaf, living next door. Pablo Picasso is a close friend of Lucien’s and it is this glamorous, artistic world she once escaped.
But danger is always close, working undercover puts her in the path of the Nazi secret police, and one officer in particular seems keen to find her. Flora must be as careful as she possibly can to stay ahead of those who wish to stop her.
Intense and gripping, this feels more like a thriller than anything else, Flora’s life is in danger, as are her daughters the longer she remains in Paris, where dark secrets must come to light and she risks everything for the answers.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Black Ledger (Furyverse: Volume 1) Expected Release Date: September 24, 2026 Genre: Dark Romance/ Mafia
*Childhood Friends to Lovers to Enemies to Lovers *Second-Chance Romance *Female Serial Killer *Ruthless Mafia Boss *Cat & Mouse *He’s Hunting Her—She’s Hunting Him *She kidnaps him *Obsessive MMC
They destroyed me, and they will die.
Ten years ago, members of a powerful cult carved their sins into my body and called it holy. They thought I would disappear.
Instead, I learned how to break them.
I study my targets until I know how they breathe, whom they love, and what keeps them awake at night. Then I begin—quietly dismantling their lives until paranoia replaces sleep and fear replaces air. By the time I strike, they’re grateful to die. Every name goes into my black ledger. One name is saved for last.
Severin Volkov.
My ex. The heir to the Russian mafia and the man who betrayed me. When his turn comes, I won’t be merciful.
For years, powerful men in the Russian underworld have been disappearing without a trace. It looks random—until I inherit my father’s empire and uncover a pattern.
Someone is hunting us.
Whoever is behind it knows our secrets—and how to destroy us from the inside. I will find her. And when I do, she will learn exactly what kind of man I am. I expect resistance. I don’t expect obsession.
As the truth unravels about my father, my empire… and her, one thing becomes clear:
This war won’t end in surrender. It will end with one of us on our knees.
BLACK LEDGER is a dark romance featuring a female serial killer hunting the men who destroyed her life. This is an episodic series with five shorter books that combine to tell one larger story. Perfect for readers who loved the psychological intensity of the Mindfck Series* and the dark mafia power dynamics of the Dark Verse series.
Explicit sex, BDSM/dom-sub dynamics, rough sex, choking, toys, light stalking (the fun kind), sexy obsessive MMC, sexy obsessive FMC, hunter/prey, serial killer protagonist.
Kidnapping/captivity, confinement, restraint (not the fun kind), deprivation, rape/sexual assault (mentions, flashbacks and mostly fade to black, not by MMC), Torture (physical and psychological), severe trauma and PTSD, murder, embroidery (not the pretty kind), physical abuse, most of the sexual violence is backstory/flashback, not the main present-day plot.
Revenge Driven Triggers: murder/attempted murder, dismemberment, mutilation, gore, amateur surgery, actual surgery, multiple dick dismemberments, and gun, knife, and weapon violence.
Rite of Unity Release Date: August 6, 2026 Genre: Dystopian
The Bachelor meets The Handmaid’s Tale
• Dystopian • Love Triangle • Morally Grey Love Interest • Deadly Trials • Forbidden Romance • Slow Burn • Oppressive Patriarchal Society • Arranged Matching • Deadly Trials • Not a traditional HEA • Standalone
You have until twenty-eight to be chosen. Marry or die.
In the Covenant States, marriage isn’t a choice. It’s a countdown. Every woman is watched, ranked, and evaluated until a man selects her or her time runs out.
Maryn Veil has always known the rules. She just never expected to be chosen by him.
When Elias Hale, the president’s son and the most powerful bachelor in the nation, selects her for his Rite of Unity, Maryn finds herself in a world of televised trials, formal balls, and twelve women competing for the same future. The prize is safety. The cost is everything she thought she was.
Elias is not what she expected. Thoughtful, genuine, and desperate to be better than his father, he’s the kind of man she could almost believe in. But someone else is watching from the shadows, and he sees Maryn far more clearly than she’s comfortable with.
As the trials tighten and the stakes become impossible to ignore, Maryn begins to understand that surviving the rite and surviving the Covenant are not the same thing. And that the most dangerous thing she can do, in a system built on compliance, is want something for herself.
Rite of Unity is a dystopian standalone with a slow-burn love triangle and a world where the wrong choice doesn’t just cost you everything. It erases you entirely.
ramblingmads 