Month: Nov 2020

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Failsafe Query – Michael Jenkins

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TheFailSafeQuery

Welcome to the blog tour for action-packed thriller, The Failsafe Query by Michael Jenkins! Read on for an excerpt and a chance to win a print copy of the book!

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The Failsafe Query

Publication Date: July 2018

Genre: Thriller

The Failsafe Query is a gripping thriller set in the contemporary world of modern British espionage.

Sean Richardson, a disgraced former intelligence agent, is tasked to lead a team to search for Alfie Chapman, an Intelligence officer on the cusp of exposing thousands of secrets to the media. This includes a long lost list of Russian moles embedded since the Cold War, one of whom remains a public favourite in the British parliamentary system.

The action moves with absorbing pace and intrigue across Central Asia and Europe as the puzzle begins to unfold through a deep hidden legacy.

Tense, fast paced, and insightful, The Failsafe Query twists and turns to a satisfyingly dramatic finale.

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Excerpt

Sean left Baker Street, heading south towards Oxford Circus. The sun blinded him as he strode purposefully, but at a slow pace. A distant siren, merged with the heavy traffic, accompanied the persistent noises in his mind. His heartbeat rose. His thoughts became intense as he reminded himself of the trauma that people had inflicted on him.

He had one more thing to tend to before he left London. And it involved a kill.

He turned right onto Crawford Street, then back on himself, and made numerous turns down the quiet Marylebone back streets. He headed back towards the Edgware Road and made a deliberate U-turn, browsing occasionally at some of the antiques in shop windows. Finally, he turned left onto Enford Street and walked quietly into the Thornbury Castle pub. He made his way to the bar and ordered a pint of Rebellion beer. He paused, turned his back to the bar and cast his eye around the few local punters before making his way to the far corner of the pub, which provided an excellent view of the entrance.

Exactly twelve minutes later, ‘One-Eyed’ Damon walked through the entrance. A beast of a man, just shy of six foot seven inches of sheer bulk, he made his way to the bar with a white stick. No words were exchanged as the bearded barman slipped a pint of pale ale across the bar and indicated with a glance that Sean was sat on the higher deck in the corner.

One-Eyed Damon was a Northern Ireland and Iraq war veteran. A surveillance and weapons expert who, even with only one eye left, was still at the top of his game and who had contacts in the city who could do anything that was needed. Pick a lock, Damon was the man. Provide a weapon or plant some bugs, Damon was the man. He shuffled up the small steps and crouched over his pint next to Sean.

‘Long time, mate,’ Sean said.

‘You’re looking old and angry,’ One-Eyed Damon replied, smirking widely as his false eye glistened and twinkled in the low light. He was wearing a Union Flag lens.

‘Fuck off mate, you know I’m never angry. Just badly mad,’ Sean retorted. ‘And you can wipe that smile off your face, at least until you’ve paid me back for keeping your arse out of jail all those years ago.’ Sean had provided a glowing reference at Damon’s court martial in Colchester after Damon had ‘accidentally’ beaten up an RAF officer for touching up a woman in a Southend bar.

One-Eyed Damon broke into laughter. ‘Great days those, mate – he deserved it and you did indeed save my arse. But I hear it’s you who’s been in jail getting your arse pounded this time, Sean.’

‘Very fucking funny,’ Sean said. ‘Anyway, what’s the SP?’

‘No one is on your tail,’ Damon said, lifting his head from his beer and looking cautiously around the bar. ‘I followed you from that swanky hotel, all the way to Baker Street and then on your very obvious counter-surveillance route around Marylebone. You really need to sharpen up on your skills you know, mate.’

‘My mojo is coming back – don’t you worry about that.’

‘What’s next then, Sean?’

‘A kill,’ Sean said. ‘A slow one, but a purposeful one that I need you to look at. I’m going to be busy for a while with a job. Are you happy to do some stuff for me?’

‘Yep. Normal fees please though.’

‘Not a problem.’ Sean pulled out a small business card. ‘I need you to find this man. Find out everything about him, where he’s living, his pattern of life, who he’s shagging, what he loves, the lot.’ One-Eyed Damon turned the card over. The name on the card was Frazer, with a telephone number and a company address.

‘I assume this is the guy that got you shafted then?’

‘You could say that. Be careful though. He’s running Albanian gangs in the city as well as major drug-running operations across the continent. He takes pleasure in hurting his friends too.’

‘Fine. A real bastard then, who needs sorting out. I’ll find out everything about his movements and people. I look forward to hearing your plan on the kill.’

Sean stayed silent, smiled and stood up ready to leave.

‘Go via Samantha,’ he said. ‘She’s the conduit for this job. And feel free to leave a marker for him – just so he knows.’

Available on Amazon!

About the Author

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I started climbing at 13, survived being lost in Snowdonia at 14, nearly drowned at 15, and then joined the Army at 16. Risk and adventure was built into my DNA and I feel very fortunate to have served the majority of my working career as an intelligence officer within Defence Intelligence, and as an explosive ordnance disposal officer and military surveyor within the Corps of Royal Engineers.

I feel privileged to have served for twenty-eight years in the British Army as a soldier and officer, working in Defence Intelligence and Counter-Terrorist Bomb Disposal operations, rising through the ranks to complete my service as a major. I served across the globe on numerous military operations as well as extensive travel and adventure on many major mountaineering and exploration expeditions that I led or was involved in.

I was awarded the Geographic Medal by the Royal Geographical Society for mountain exploration and served on the screening committee of the Mount Everest Foundation charity for many years. It was humbling after so many years of service when I was awarded the MBE for services to counter-terrorism in 2007

The Failsafe Query is my debut novel, and I hope you enjoy the follow up novel, The Kompromat Kill, and my third in an ongoing series, The Moscow Whisper. Each can be read as standalone novels.

Michael Jenkins | Facebook | Twitter

To win a paperback copy of The Failsafe Query, click the link below!
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Blog Tour Schedule

November 2nd

Reads & Reels (Spotlight) http://readsandreels.com

Book Dragons Not Worms (Spotlight) https://bookdragonsnotworms.blogspot.com/?m=1

@the.b00keater (Review) https://www.instagram.com/the.b00kreader

November 3rd

B is for Book Review (Spotlight) https://bforbookreview.wordpress.com

Breakeven Books (Spotlight) https://breakevenbooks.com

The Faerie Review (Review) http://www.thefaeriereview.com

November 4th

I’m All About Books (Spotlight) https://imallaboutbooks.com/

Cocktails and Fairy Tales (Spotlight) https://www.facebook.com/CocktailsFairytales

Books Teacup & Reviews (Spotlight) https://booksteacupnreviews.wordpress.com/

Rambling Mads (Review) http://ramblingmads.com

November 5th

Tsarina Press (Spotlight) https://www.tsarinapress.com

Jessica Belmont (Spotlight) https://jessicabelmont.wordpress.com/

Banshee Irish Horror Blog (Spotlight) www.bansheeirishhorrorblog.com

@bookandwinelovers (Spotlight) https://www.instagram.com/bookandwinelovers/

November 6th

The Magic of Wor(l)ds (Spotlight) http://themagicofworlds.wordpress.com

Stine Writing (Review) https://christinebialczak.com/

Read & Rated (Spotlight) https://readandrated.com/

Sophril Reads (Spotlight) http://sophrilreads.wordpress.com

Blog Tour Organized By:

R&R Button

blog tour, books

Book Blitz: Unspoken – T.A. Belshaw

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A heart-warming, dramatic family saga. Unspoken is a tale of secrets, love, betrayal and revenge.

Unspoken means something that cannot be uttered aloud. Unspoken is the dark secret a woman must keep, for life.

Alice is fast approaching her one hundredth birthday and she is dying. Her strange, graphic dreams of ghostly figures trying to pull her into a tunnel of blinding light are becoming more and more vivid and terrifying. Alice knows she only has a short time left and is desperate to unburden herself of a dark secret, one she has lived with for eighty years.

Jessica, a journalist, is her great granddaughter and a mirror image of a young Alice. They share dreadful luck in the types of men that come into their lives.

Alice decides to share her terrible secret with Jessica and sends her to the attic to retrieve a set of handwritten notebooks detailing her young life during the late 1930s. Following the death of her invalid mother and her father’s decline into depression and alcoholism, she is forced, at 18 to take control of the farm. On her birthday, she meets Frank, a man with a drink problem and a violent temper.

When Frank’s abusive behaviour steps up a level. Alice seeks solace in the arms of her smooth, ‘gangster lawyer’ Godfrey, and when Frank discovers the couple together, he vows to get his revenge.

Unspoken. A tale that spans two eras and binds two women, born eighty years apart.

Buy

Author Bio

T A Belshaw is from Nottingham in the United Kingdom. Trevor writes for both children and adults. He is the author of Tracy’s Hot Mail, Tracy’s Celebrity Hot Mail and the noir, suspense novella, Out Of Control. His new novel, The family saga, Unspoken, was released in July, 2020

His short stories have been published in various anthologies including 100 Stories for Haiti, 50 Stories for Pakistan, Another Haircut, Shambelurkling and Other Stories, Deck The Halls, 100 Stories for Queensland and The Cafe Lit anthology 2011, 2012 and 2013. He also has two pieces in Shambelurklers Return. 2014

Trevor is also the author of 15 children’s books written under the name of Trevor Forest. The latest. Magic Molly The Curse of Cranberry Cottage was released in August 2015

His children’s poem, Clicking Gran, was long-listed for the Plough prize (children’s section ) in 2009 and his short poem, My Mistake, was rated Highly Commended and published in an anthology of the best entries in the Farringdon Poetry Competition.

Trevor’s articles have been published in magazines as diverse as Ireland’s Own, The Best of British and First Edition.

Trevor is currently working on the sequel to Unspoken and the third book in the Tracy series; Tracy’s Euro Hot Mail.

Website

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Forger & the Thief – Kirsten McKenzie*

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FIVE STRANGERS IN FLORENCE, EACH WITH A DANGEROUS SECRET. AND AN APOCALYPTIC FLOOD
THREATENING TO REVEAL EVERYTHING.

A wife on the run, a student searching for stolen art, a cleaner who has lined more than his pockets, a policeman whose career is almost over, and a guest who should never have received a wedding invite. Five strangers, entangled in the forger’s wicked web, amidst Florence’s devastating flood of November 1966.

In a race against time, and desperate to save themselves and all they hold dear, will their secrets prove more treacherous than the ominous floodwaters swallowing the historic city?

Dive into a world of lies and deceit, where nothing is as it seems on the surface…

Purchase

A full time author, Kirsten is a former customs officer and antiques dealer, and who has also dabbled
in film and television.

Her historical time-slip series – The Old Curiosity Shop Series, has been described as ‘Time Travellers Wife meets Far Pavilions’, an ‘Antiques Roadshow gone viral’.

Kirsten released her bestselling gothic horror novel Painted in 2017, with her medical thriller – Doctor Perry, following in 2018.
Her latest thriller – The Forger and the Thief, is set in 1966 Florence, Italy, amidst the devastating floods. Kirsten lives in New Zealand with her husband, her daughters, two rescue cats.

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My thoughts:

In the terrible flood of Florence, a disparate group of strangers fight for their lives and freedom, as the Arno pours her rage into the ancient streets.

I’ve been to Florence, a long time ago, and it is a beautiful city, but one that clearly needs better flood defences, as both Da Vinci and Michaelangelo told the authorities.

The characters in this novel are not all good people, and don’t necessarily deserve good things. But for most of them the flood offers a chance of redemption in some form or another.

It gets pretty dark and there’s a rather creepy killer/artist making girls disappear as well, adding a supernatural element to the apocalyptic drowning of the city of the Medicis.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

books, shopping

Introducing bookshop.org

ramblingmads

A new way to shop for books online has just launched in the UK, just in time for Lockdown 2: Hoarding Loo Rolls Again.

Bookshop.org is hoping to compete with Amazon by offering all the books you could ever want but from the over 150 independent bookshops signed up to the site.

And you might be thinking – doesn’t hive.co.uk already do that? Yes, they do, but with only about 3% going to tour nominated bookshop – bookshop.org (which launched in the US in January) aims to give a larger percentage to the shops – about 30% according to the various articles I’ve read.

I had a little play on the site and placed my first order to road test it for you. I haven’t been paid for this, and all books were paid for by me.

It’s super simple to use, although I don’t think you can currently pre-order books (use Waterstones for that) but it does tell you which books are available now and which will have to be ordered for you (backlist).

I ordered three books, some of which are for Christmas so I won’t name them, but two were in stock and one needs to be ordered in.

Shipping is First or Second Class Royal Mail, so not as swift as Amazon but the same as Waterstones or Hive. Which isn’t too bad at all. Plus your money helps keep independent bookshops in business, which this year is even more important.

I’ve set up an affiliate shop so you can buy the books I’ve talked about here on the blog or over social media if you’d like. I’ll earn a tiny commission which will then turn into more books, because that’s what I spend the most money on! I’d really appreciate you lovely people using my link.

Heres some facts and info from the team behind bookshop.org

Bookshop was founded with the belief that independent bookshops are vital to our culture. As consumers are increasingly realising that where they spend their money matters, Bookshop.org offers an entirely new approach to online shopping, giving customers the power to support the local high street when they buy books online.

Bookshop.org offers an ethical online marketplace that ensures independent bookshops receive the full profit margin (30 per cent of the cover price) from each sale they generate on the platform. Books are offered to consumers at a small discount and delivered within 2-3 days.

With over 150 British bookshops already signed up from all corners of the UK since it opened the site to them just over two weeks ago, the launch of Bookshop has been welcomed by independent booksellers and publishers, with the industry members describing it as “[a] revolutionary moment in the history of bookselling in the UK” and “the establishment of a brilliant online partner for our thriving independent bookselling community”.

Bookshop.org first launched in the USA in January and has already raised over $7.5m for independent bookshops in the States. Bookshop.org has brought forward its UK launch in response to the significant impact of the pandemic on independent retailers, which has seen Amazon enjoying an even greater advantage over the high street. Now more than ever, UK Bookshops need support from online sales in the busy pre-Christmas shopping period.

Bookshop.org founder and CEO, Andy Hunter, said: “Bookshops are essential to a healthy culture, and online sales are vital to safeguarding their future. We can’t afford to lose them. COVID-19 has added further urgency to the need for bookshops to compete for online sales. Bookshop.org’s mission is to empower customers in supporting local, brick and mortar bookstores, providing book buyers with an easy way to shop online while continuing to support their local high street.”

Nicole Vanderbilt, UK Managing Director at Bookshop.org, and formerly International VP at Etsy, added: “At a time when Amazon has enjoyed even greater advantage over high street competitors as a result of the pandemic, Bookshop.org offers a socially conscious alternative to customers wishing to shop online, while supporting bookshops in competing in an ecommerce environment. We’re delighted to be launching in the UK and look forward to working with bookshops, publishers, authors, and beyond across the UK, while offering customers an entirely new online shopping experience.”

Thanks to Midas PR for the info above.

Hope to see you on the site supporting our amazing independent bookshops and buying more fantastic reads over the next few months.

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Sherlock Holmes & the Ripper of Whitechapel – M.K. Wiseman*

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I am afraid that I, Sherlock Holmes, must act as my own chronicler in this singular case, that of the Whitechapel murders of 1888. For the way in which the affair was dropped upon my doorstep left me with little choice as to the contrary. Not twelve months prior, the siren’s call of quiet domesticity and married life had robbed me of Watson’s assistance as both partner and recorder of my cases.

Thus, when detective inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard required a lead—any lead—I found myself forced to pursue Jack the Ripper alone and without the aid of my faithful friend. And all for the most damnedable of reasons:

Early on in my investigations, Dr. John H. Watson, formerly of 221B Baker Street, emerged as my prime suspect.

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M. K. Wiseman has degrees in Interarts & Technology and Library &
Information Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her office, therefore, is a curious mix of storyboards and reference materials. Both help immensely in the writing of
historical novels.

She currently resides in Cedarburg, Wisconsin.

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My thoughts:

Interestingly Sir Arthur Conan Doyle never gave Holmes a real crime to solve, and certainly not this long unsolved one. There’s also a sixth victim included, which is unusual but I understand that there is some uncertainty about exactly how many poor women were butchered.

This reads like a decent Doyle story, capturing his tone well and feels very accurate in terms of London and the 19th Century (I studied the Strand stories at uni), which is good. I’ve read some Holmesian stories that really get themselves muddled regarding the historic setting.

It’s the right length too – just enough plot and red herrings to go along with, it doesn’t get overblown or bogged down in invented details. Instead real information is woven into the narrative, and real people too. Stitching Holmes, Watson and Lestrade into the plot rather than thr other way round, which gives it a sense of reality and the truly horrific acts the Ripper committed.

I thought the denouement was just enough, since no one knows the Ripper’s real identity, it’s always good not to give a definitive solution, and this allows him to fade into the history books.

A really enjoyable Holmes sequel all in all, paced and executed strongly and with plenty for fans of the original stories to enjoy.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

blog tour, books

Book Blitz: Facade – Melody Saleh

ramblingmads

Sex in The City meets Fifty Shades… (without the Red Room)

Amber can’t get Patrick out of her mind. Night after night he haunts her dreams . . . teasing her . . . pleasuring her . . . owning her body . . . until her alarm rings. Left unsatisfied night after night, she devises a plan to bring her fantasies to life—with a platinum wig, blue contact lenses, and a new persona.

Stay-at-home mom Debra adores her husband, but wishes for a little more spice and adventure in her life. She’s not even sure she’s ever had an orgasm! But when tragedy strikes, her dreams come true in ways she never imagined…or wanted.

Despite a hard life as a single black Muslim mother, up-and-coming fashion designer Zya finally has a successful business and a sense of security, despite the increasing persecution she and her daughter experience. But then a mysterious stranger comes into her life, challenging everything she thought she knew about love. But can it be real?

Gorgeous Dominque likes sex—wild, kinky, and lots of it. Secretly longing for something real and lasting, she settles for less, burying her insecurity and self-doubt between late-night trysts and anemia. But before long, she’s forced to face her fears, or succumb to them.

Four friends…each hiding behind a façade. But as fantasy clashes with reality, things aren’t always as they appear.

After 35+ years in operations for various businesses (including her own), Melody pursued her dream of writing a novel. Having written for business publications, local magazines and even publishing a poem, Chemo’s not for Sissies, during treatment after her first cancer diagnosis, it was time to finish the novel that was started many years ago. When she started writing, “Facade: Things Aren’t Always as They Appear,” she had no idea where her characters were going to take her. “The story basically wrote itself. It was like a movie projector playing in my mind,” is how she describes her experience. It soon became apparent, their voices were not to be silenced… “The Unbroken Series” was born. “Deja Vu: Here We Go Again,” Book II, to be released June 23, 2020, followed by C’est la Vie, Book III, in December.

Melody lives with her husband in her native home state Florida. She’s blessed to be alive today after two cancer diagnoses and enjoys watching her grandchildren grow up; something she doesn’t take for granted.

Amazon

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: One Kiss Before Christmas – Emma Jackson*

ramblingmads

A romantic festive read from the author of A Mistletoe Miracle, guaranteed to warm your heart this Christmas!

Could it be the start of her happy ever after?
Ashleigh could use a little Christmas magic. She’s still living in Brighton with her Nan — who could
give the Grinch lessons in how to be miserable — her acting career has been reduced to playing one
of Santa’s elves, and not even the prospect of a friend’s winter wedding can cheer her up…

That is until Olivier, the gorgeous French chef, reappears in her life. Or more accurately, next door.
When they were teenagers, Olivier would spend every other Christmas with his mother, who just happens to be Ash’s neighbour and owner of the best chocolate shop in England.
If anyone can bring a little sparkle back to Ash’s life, it’s Olivier. All she needs is one kiss before Christmas…

Feel-good and festive, this is the perfect romance to curl up with this winter!

Buy

Author of the Best Selling A MISTLETOE MIRACLE and contender for the Joan Hessayon Award 2020, Emma has been a devoted bookworm and secret-story-scribbler since she was 6 years old. When she’s not running around after her two daughters and trying to complete her current work-in-progress, Emma loves to read, bake, catch up on binge-watching TV programmes with her partner and plan lots of craft projects that will inevitably end up unfinished. Her latest romantic
comedy, SUMMER IN THE CITY, was released in June 2020.

Emma also writes historical and fantasy fiction as Emma S Jackson. THE DEVIL’S BRIDE was published
by DarkStroke in February 2020.You can find out news about Emma via her website, by signing up to her newsletter.

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My thoughts:

A lovely festive romance, complete with ice skating, elves and lots of chocolate.

Ash’s acting career has stalled and this Christmas she is once again playing Santa’s Helper, while struggling to get into the spirit. Until dashing French pastry chef Olivier comes to spend the festive season with his mum, right next door! Cue hearts and Hollywood montages.

Basically this is adorable, and also funny, with a grumpy Grandma, an over-affectionate dog, a lovely pair of gay best friends, a wedding, fairy lights galore and a Happily Ever After.

Perfect for reading under a blanket while the wind howls outside, just have the chocolate handy as this book makes you hungry!

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

blog tour, books

Spotlight: Five Wives – Joan Thomas

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Five Wives

Welcome to the blog tour for award-winning novel, Five Wives by Joan Thomas!

FiveWivesCoverArt_GG

Five Wives

Publication Date: September 2019

Genre: Historical Fiction

Publisher: Harper Collins CA

In the 1950s, in the aftermath of World War II, five American families moved to Ecuador, determined to take the Christian gospel to a pre-Neolithic Amazonian tribe they called “the Auca.” The Waorani (proper name) were just as determined to maintain their isolation, and killed the missionary men at their second meeting. Four of the wives remained in Ecuador and one, Elisabeth Elliot, went further into the rainforest with her three-year old daughter to live with the Waorani.

Joan Thomas’s fictional treatment of this incident explores themes that are both eternal and immediate: faith and ideology, autonomy and self-protection, cultural understanding and misunderstanding, grief and doubt, and isolation. Five Wives rises out of immaculate research, including a visit to the ruins of the Elliot house in Ecuador, and out of the author’s own experience with the thinking and imperatives of evangelical missions. The novel sinks into the points of view of characters who are bound by past choices, yet make their own personal bargains in the midst of a crisis.

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Excerpt

“You know, Marj, I haven’t told you everything. I didn’t tell you exactly how it happened.” “Okay. So tell me.”

“Well, remember there was a really low ceiling on Tuesday? The clouds were rock-solid all day, they never broke. But when I was flying home, just as I was crossing the Napo, a hole opened to the southwest. It was shaped exactly like a keyhole, and it was low, close to the horizon, so the sun was streaming through at an angle—it was like one of those pictures you see of the Rapture. Everything was in 3-D. The big old kapok trees were throwing shade on the canopy, and I could see the shadow of the Piper skimming over the jungle ahead of me, almost as if it was leading me on. That was how I spied that dimple in the forest. The chagra. I would never normally have seen it. It was like I literally saw God’s hand. I saw God reach down and open the clouds with a finger. He was saying, Look, Nate. Look. There you go.” His eyes are fixed on her through this whole story. “If God’s calling me, Marjie, he’s calling you. You made a vow.”

He drops back on his pillow, and after a minute she lies down too.

He has never, ever pulled this before. Not once since the day she stood with a bunch of woody-stemmed lilacs in her hand and promised to obey him. The minister explained what the vow meant: Nate obeyed the Lord, and Marj obeyed Nate with the same respect. It struck Marj then as an efficient arrangement—and she knew she had more hope of dealing with Nate than she ever did with God.

She lies on her back and listens to the song of the crickets and frogs and cicadas, and to Nate’s breathing, which, now that he’s said his piece, quickly turns to a gentle snore. Possibly she sleeps, because the next time she opens her eyes, the room is bright and her thoughts are clear and Nate is lying on his side looking at her.

Who can find a virtuous woman, her children rise up and call her blessed.

“Listen,” she says, rolling over to face him full on. “I’ll stop fighting you on this. But Debbie is not going to boarding school in Quito. I’m not sending my little girl to an orphanage on the other side of the Andes.”

In the morning light, she sees a blink of assent so quick only a wife would catch it.

Available on Amazon!

About the Author

Joan-Thomas-hi-res-600x543

Joan Thomas’s fourth novel Five Wives won Canada’s prestigious Governor General’s Award for Fiction. Described by the Globe and Mail as “brilliant, eloquent, curious, far-seeing,” it is an immersive dive into a real event, the disastrous attempt by five American families to move into the territory of the reclusive Waorani people in Ecuador in 1956.

Joan’s three previous novels have been praised for their intimate and insightful depictions of characters in times of rapid social change. Reading by Lightning, set in World War 2, won the 2008 Amazon Prize and a Commonwealth Prize. Curiosity, based on the life of the preDarwinist fossilist Mary Anning, was nominated for the 2010 Giller Prize and the IMPAC Dublin Award. The Opening Sky, a novel about a family navigating contemporary crises, won the 2014 McNally Robinson Prize and was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award.

Joan lives in Winnipeg, a prairie city at the geographical center of North America. Before beginning to write fiction, she was a longtime book reviewer. In 2014, Joan was awarded the Writers Trust of Canada’s prize for mid-career achievement.

Joan Thomas | Facebook | Twitter

Five Wives

Blog Tour Schedule

November 2nd

Rambling Mads (Spotlight) http://ramblingmads.com

Cocktails and Fairy Tales (Spotlight) https://www.facebook.com/CocktailsFairytales

Tsarina Press (Spotlight) https://www.tsarinapress.com

November 3rd

I’m into Books (Spotlight) https://imintobooks.com

Specks of Thoughts (Review) http://specksofthoughts.wordpress.com

Stine Writing (Spotlight) https://christinebialczak.com/

November 4th

Read & Rated (Spotlight) https://readandrated.com/

The Consulting Writer (Spotlight) https://theconsultingwriter.wordpress.com

@52weekswithbools (Review) https://www.instagram.com/52weekswithbooks/

November 5th

Book Dragons Not Worms (Spotlight) https://bookdragonsnotworms.blogspot.com/?m=1

@BrendaJeanCombs (Spotlight) https://www.instagram.com/brendajeancombs/

The Faerie Review (Review) http://www.thefaeriereview.com

November 6th

Misty’s Book Space (Spotlight) http://mistysbookspace.wordpress.com

Reads & Reels (Spotlight) http://readsandreels.com

@the.b00keater (Review) https://www.instagram.com/the.b00kreader

Blog Tour Organized By:

R&R Button
R&R Book Tours

books, fun stuff, upcoming

Independent Publishers – a celebration

ramblingmads

Starting this month I am going to be celebrating some of the incredible independent publishers and small presses out there, putting incredible books out into the world, and hopefully onto your bookshelves.

2020 has been a particularly terrible year for lots of reasons – I don’t think I need to name them, but for small businesses like these, it’s been a disaster. With no festivals, bookshops closed and no in person events, it’s had a dramatic effect on book sales for small presses.

So, as Christmas approaches, buy books, but not from that website named after a river in South America, instead buy direct from the publishers or order through your local independent bookshop – most of them are online.

And please do join in celebrating indie publishers with me, share the posts, sign up for their newsletters, and buy, buy, buy their books. Or you’ll be missing out!

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Unbroken Truth – Lukas Lundh*

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Beneath the arcane Rustpeaks lies the city of Lansfyrd, where visibility is at an all-time low and airships rumble through the skies. Detective Lentsay “Len” Yoriya is a former homicide detective stuck at a burglary assignment as punishment for loving the wrong person. But when a xenophobic radio-shaman is murdered and the killers try to frame the city’s oppressed insectoids, Len sees a chance to prove her worth. Though high-profile murders are rarely uncomplicated.

In the city’s affluent quarters, Len’s partner Vli-Rana Talie works as a lector at the university, studying the history of a species that once ruled the world. As the temperature rises for her partner, Vli will soon realize that delving into history, that some would prefer was forgotten, will carry risks of its own. Especially when the ambitions of empires are affected.

Meanwhile, there is an election coming up, and the tension simmering in the city is reaching a
boiling point. Vli and Len must findwhat allies they can and face the powers that threaten their home.

History never ends, and unless its lessons are heeded what was once the past might become the present.

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Lukas Lundh grew up around books and started writing in early childhood. He speaks English, Swedish and Japanese from living in New Zealand as a teen and studying for a year in Japan in early 20s.
He is educated in philosophy, game design, creative writing and is currently working on a history
degree.
Between reading course books which inspire history flash-fictions, Lukas writes everything in between space opera, fantasy steelpunk, and post-ap war dystopias.
His debut novel, a steelpunk spy thriller, Unbroken Truth, is available for pre-order. He doesn’t blog,
but he is active on twitter.

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My thoughts:

This was a fast paced crime thriller with a political edge, set in a city full of tension.

Len is a determined cop, racing against time to defuse racial tensions following the murder of a popular politician, a killing that frames an ethnic minority and stokes tension among the residents of Lansfyrd.

Her partner, Vli, is a post-grad lecturer at the university, where those same tensions are beginning to rise amongst the students, and Vli’s research may unearth further complications.

Despite being set in a dystopian other world, this feels very apt to our current situation. With racial tensions on the rise, lockdown, political rallies and riots, this could be Earth in 2020.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.