An edge-of-your seat murder mystery set in a forgotten, ocean-facing town on Vancouver Island!
A body washes up on the shores of Lake Templeton, a small town on the coast of Vancouver Island. Sharon Reese, the victim, was a dedicated government employee. Everyone liked her, but no one knew much about her. Was she hiding something? Maybe a questionable past riddled with scandal. And did it lead to her plunge to death, in a drunken stupor, off the dock outside her secluded lakefront lodge?
Was it an accident? A suicide? Or cold-blooded murder? Private Investigator, Fati Rizvi, is determined to find out.
Fati arrives in Lake Templeton to find secrets that run as deep as the City’s sewers. Everyone is hiding something and nothing is as it seems. A cult escapee. A corrupt politician. A struggling airline. A multi-million dollar public-private project to revitalize the Lake Templeton waterfront. How are they all connected?
As Fati valiantly unravels the knots, another body is found on the shore. Is it the same killer? And can Fati stop them before they strike again?
HS Burney writes fast-moving, action-packed mysteries set against the backdrop of majestic mountains and crystalline ocean in West Coast Canada. She loves creating characters that keep you on your toes. A corporate executive by day and a novelist by night, HS Burney received her Bachelors’ in Creative Writing from Lafayette College. A proud Canadian immigrant, she takes her readers into worlds populated by diverse characters with unique cultural backgrounds. When not writing, she is out hiking, waiting for the next story idea to strike, and pull her into a new world.
My thoughts: I really liked Fati, the PI in this book, she’s smart and funny and never lets anything stop her including rude mayors and potentially corrupt politicians. She seems to have a sense for when she’s being lied to and spots things the police seem to miss. She might not be popular in the small town of Lake Templeton after exposing crooked goings on and catching a killer but she’s not bothered. Justice must be served, and she’s the one to do it.
The case looks pretty straightforward but Fati isn’t persuaded it’s as open and shut as the local cops would like it to be and the mire she digs the more it seems that there’s a lot going on. Clever and gripping, funny and enjoyable.
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*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Hungry for scandal, the villagers of Rathmichael congregate in the grand Hatchwood House. Before the night is over, the elusive Kate Millington will lie dead at the bottom of the Hatchwood stairs – her death opening a disturbing window into the past for three women.
Alice, Kate’s daughter, is faced with her grief for a mother who was forever distant. As the circumstances of Kate’s death, and her state of mind, are drawn into question, Alice struggles to understand the appalling truth about her mother’s past.
In New York, a death bed secret brings Faith Cranston to Ireland, where news of a shocking accident in a rural community leads her to a distressing discovery.
Nancy Canning has only seen Kate from afar. Ashamed of her past, an overwhelming fear of human relationships drives Nancy. As the news of Kate’s death spreads through the village, she is forced to overcome her fear of connection, and come to terms with the fact that the shame she feels may not be hers alone.
Over the course of a harsh Irish winter, the women battle misogyny and impediment as they struggle to reveal the secrets about Kate’s past. But will they ever be able to make peace with the devastating truth they’re about to uncover?
Antoinette’s dream in life is to be paid to read books but as a close second, she’s happy to write them instead. She studied English and History at NUI Maynooth, followed by a career in public relations. Her debut novel, Home to Cavendish, was published by Poolbeg Press in 2019, the same year that Antoinette decided she’d had enough of 9 to 5 life and endless commuting.
Her decision to set up her own writing consultancy coincided neatly with the start of a global health pandemic but despite some setbacks, she has established herself as a successful business and ghost-writer. She recently moved to the Costa Blanca with her partner Ahmed. True to her Irish roots she spends most of her days convinced that it is going to start raining, any minute now.
The Secrets Left Behind, her second novel, is a multi-layered tale of the savage severing of maternal ties, a crumbling marriage built on conjecture, and the devastating impact on the next generation of women. It is set against the backdrop of the patriarchal regime once imposed by the Catholic Church in Ireland and spans the period from 1952 to 1981. FacebookInstagramTwitterWebsite
My thoughts: this was really interesting, covering one of the saddest things that women in the recent past were subjected to – religious run homes for unwed mothers and forced adoption of their babies. Kate Millington is a deeply unhappy woman, carrying secrets and shame all her life. Even married she can’t shake the pain of her past and it wrecks her relationships.
After her death, her daughter starts to dig, at the same time two other women, Nancy and Faith, on opposite sides of the Atlantic are also asking questions about their pasts. Nancy was raised in an orphanage and Faith was adopted, but on her deathbed, Faith’s adored mother tells her a secret.
Between them, these women (and a few helpful men) investigate their pasts, the terrible cruelties done to young women and finally bring two very different mothers some peace in their deaths.
The story is sad and shocking, but ultimately redemptive for Alice, Nancy and Faith. Situations like Kate’s should never have happened and the terrible secrecy around it needs to be lifted. The Catholic Church doesn’t come out well in this book – it’s the priests and nuns who did these terrible things after all. Thankfully it doesn’t happen in modern Ireland, though probably in some developing countries something similar goes on but there are people living now who are affected by this and they need all the support and understanding that Faith finds completely absent.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
War Hero. Thiefmaster’s apprentice. Traitors. Every title comes with a price.
Arkaen is a gods-damned saint. He sacrificed his childhood innocence fighting for the beleaguered rebellion in a civil war and relinquished a comfortable life with the man he loves to reclaim his place as high lord from corrupt nobles. Now, a hidden enemy is manipulating his lower lords into talk of rebellion, including the powerful Rogue Baron who is slowly swaying the city into questioning every move Arkaen makes.
With the help of his near-omniscient lover’s gift of foresight, Arkaen finds a potential ally in Niamsha, a reluctant thief trying to pay for her brother’s education. But Niamsha owes an insurmountable debt to the mysterious leader of her thieves guild and failing to pay means death—for her entire family. When her guild leader demands she join forces with the Rogue Baron himself, she finds herself caught in a political battle beyond her skills. Torn between protecting her family and following her conscience, Niamsha doesn’t know who to trust.
If Arkaen can win Niamsha’s loyalty, he might just prevent a second civil war and the destruction of everything he fought to protect. Or he might get them all killed.
Nudging his mare forward, Arkaen rode out of the courtyard. The streets beyond his lord’s castle were quiet, only a few wealthier citizens outside. Most backed away at the sight of him, cautious gaze watching him through down-turned lashes. Arkaen kept an eye on the citizens he passed. That hint of fear hadn’t been there when he’d ridden out a few weeks before to see to Lasha’s vision. He’d deposed a baron since then, bringing the threat of war to the forefront of everyone’s mind. This felt more specific, though. Like they feared he might personally harm them. Another corner and a crowd of young men and women bantering and flirting scattered at the sight of him. Arkaen pulled his mare to a halt. Should have brought his swords. But the image of the high lord riding through his home streets armed as for a battle could only stoke the fires of unrest. Confidence was the best image he could build. He rode on, the few remaining people he passed seemingly prepared for his arrival now. Anyone on the street had already lined against the walls, eyes firmly stuck to the cobbles by the time he arrived, and he never again came across a group careless of his approach. As if some runner ahead warned every street before he turned on it. As if someone—or something—led him toward a certain goal. His muscles tightened, nerves strung for combat in the peaceful streets. “I should turn back.” He muttered the words under his breath, one hand rubbing at his bare belt loop as he turned the final corner to a broad alley that led to Brayden’s home. Four men, barely older than boys, loitered in the middle of the street. Arkaen pulled his mare to a halt again, the scrape of leather on stone clearly audible behind him. “Sayli’s going to kill me.” A deep chuckle from behind. “Nay, milor’, I ain’t think ya gotta worry ’bout that.” Arkaen half turned in his saddle to scout the threat behind him. Only two, though one was a heavy built man with thick mats of blond hair who filled a good chunk of the street by himself. That one would be tough to push past. The other boy with him, similar in build and coloring but much slighter, looked wide-eyed and terrified. One frightened child likely facing an early initiation and the leader. The four in front would be skilled enough to hold their own without direct leadership, then. Arkaen had no weapons but his wits and what he could re-appropriate. And Lasha, who wouldn’t miss the fight if Arkaen needed him. He offered a grim smile. “You gentlemen may want to stand down. I’ve no desire to take lives today.”
Chelsea Harper is the author and publisher of Wake of the Phoenix, book one of the Artifice of Power Saga. She lives in Colorado with her husband, daughter, two dogs, one cat, and countless imaginary friends. When she isn’t writing she enjoys games, from World of Warcraft to Elder Scrolls to tabletop RPGs and even the occasional board game. Musings, Mythos, and Magic
My thoughts: politics, power plays, love, duty and secrets all combine in this new fantasy series. As the characters lives bring them together, a future might be secured if they can learn to trust, and perhaps even like, each other.
Niamsha just wants to pay off her debts and get herself and her brother out of there, to start over somewhere new. But life has other plans for her. She’s needed to undermine the Rogue Baron running the city so the heir can finally take his father’s throne and quash the stories of him being a traitor. Arkaen came back a war hero, but there are those that think otherwise and are plotting against him. He needs all the help he can get.
Clever, twisting and enjoyable, this is the first in a new fantasy series combining political intrigue with magic and the secret world of thieves and others who hide in the shadows.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Welcome to the book tour for Lessons Learned from Dating by Karla L. McCullum! Read on for more info and a chance to win a $50 Amazon e-Gift Card!
Lessons Learned from Dating: Moving Past the Hurt Into Your Blessings
Publication Date: July 2021
Genre: Dating Guide/ Self-Help/ Non-Fiction
Lessons Learned from Dating is a nonfiction book written by Karla that tells the stories of her different dating experiences during various stages of life. Each dating experience had a unique lesson, but she didn’t take the time to pause and heed the teachings. After a really painful relationship, Karla finally realized she needed to pause from dating and reflect on herself. This led Karla to start the work to heal completely, practice self-discovery, and find peace and her life’s purpose. In her book, Lessons Learned from Dating, Karla reveals how she went from a place of hurt and pain to a healed place of receiving.
Karla L. McCullum also known as Coach K, became a Certified Life Coach in 2020 through the Life Purpose Institute in San Diego, CA . Karla is a Veteran of the United States Army. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management and a Master’s degree in Human Resource Management.
Karla is the owner and founder of Full of Joy Life Coaching LLC, where she specializes in helping women work on their mindset, discover their purpose, and pursue their life goals to lead joyful and meaningful lives. Her most important job is being a mother to her beautiful teenage daughter. When Karla is not spending time with her daughter or providing Life Coaching Services, she loves traveling and seeing the world.
Karla is currently pursuing the Associated Certified Coach Credentialing through the International Coaching Federation (ICF).
THIRTY-TWO WOMEN. ONE ARENA. A BATTLE TO THE DEATH.
After a long war, corporations have replaced countries. Sports are fought to the death. The most popular game is Last Valkyrie, a live tournament where women kill each other for marriage into a powerful family.
For Nova, living in poverty with her mother and sister is a harsh reality that she cannot escape. But when she is kidnapped and forced to fight on the show, her world changes. If she refuses to fight, the bomb in her head goes off. Now winning means her freedom.
With death lurking at every moment, Nova has no idea if her next fight will be her last. But one thing she knows for certain: only one is making it out alive.
Perfect for fans of Hunger Games, The Selection, and The Princess Trials. You won’t want to put down this exciting page-turner!
Will Scifi is a pen name for an author from and based in California. He loves writing mainly science fiction that touches on themes surrounding modern day culture and society. Outside of writing, he loves going to the gym, theater, watching tv, reading comics and books, and playing video games. He thanks all of his fans for their support and highly encourages anyone who has read his work to always leave a review. Reviews go a long way in helping the author!
My thoughts: with elements of The Hunger Games, this dystopian sci-fi book focuses on Nova, the latest in a long line of young women forced to participate in a fight to the death in The Last Valkyrie. She doesn’t want to be there, but it’s kill or be killed.
As she competes in the televised matches, she’s increasingly angry at the hypocrisy of the society she lives in, where some people struggle to get by and others have all the wealth and power. Her anger grows with each dead woman and when she snaps finally, chaos ensues. Nova isn’t going to toe the line, she’s going to tear it all down.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own
Carole Gunn leads an unfulfilled life and knows it. She’s married to someone who may, or may not, be in New York on business and, to make things worse, the family’s deaf cat has been run over by an electric car.
But something has been changing in Carole’s mind. She’s decided to revisit places that hold special significance for her. She wants to better understand herself, and whether the person she is now is simply an older version of the person she once was.
Instead, she’s taken on an unlikely journey to confront her past, present and future.
Everyday Magic is an uplifting book filled with humour and poignancy, and reminds us that, while our pasts make us who we are, we can always change the course of our futures.
What Readers are Saying…
‘Everyday Magic’ serves as a wake-up call for us readers to find the sparks of joy we have lost along the way and live while we can‘ – Zany Bibliophile
‘It’s an uplifting read that shows us that if we want to change then we can but we have to do it for ourselves… [it might] help people realize they are not alone‘ – Echoes In An Empty Room
‘Charlie writes stories that touch a reader’s soul… I highly recommend you to read this book. Witty, thought-provoking and charming story‘ – Rekha, Goodreads
When Carole was little, she found a magic clearing in the woods near her home. She had been exploring, surrounded by oak, birch, and hazel trees, picking her way carefully between bramble and nettle. There was birdsong, squirrels darting across branches, and patterns of sunlight on the woodland floor. She had been looking for bilberries, and her hands were full of small black berries. She stopped to sit on an outcrop of rock by a wide stream that, in winter, could quickly become a torrent of brown water. In summer, it was comforting; in winter, treacherous. She ate her bilberries, the stream cascading over a small waterfall; the sound of water in her ears. It was summer and the stream bubbled crystal clear. The woodland rose in folds from the stream, and she climbed steadily upwards. Here, the trees crammed in on her; it was darker. When she looked up, she could only see sunlight trapped on leaves far above. It was a part of the old woodland that she’d never been to before, but she pushed on, feeling that she was on an adventure and might suddenly come across a gingerbread house or wizard’s cottage. At the top of the hill she found herself in a small clearing. It was only a few yards across, framed with oak trees, and perfectly round. Sunlight from directly above made the clearing warm, and she stood at its centre, wondering if she was the first person to have ever discovered it. Each of the oak trees around the clearing seemed precisely set, each one a perfect distance from the next, and she walked around them, touching each one, wondering if someone had planted the oak trees, or if the clearing really was a magic place. She still sometimes believed in magic. Then she stood again at its centre, wondering at its symmetry and why a long-dead sorcerer might have planted the oak trees. Then, realising that the sorcerer might not be dead, and that she had walked uninvited into his private domain, she hurried away, not sure whether to be frightened or excited. It was a place she often went back to that summer, and on following summers, sometimes alone and sometimes with her little brother. They would sit in the centre of the woodland circle, eating bilberries, hoping to meet the sorcerer who had built the clearing. She wasn’t frightened of him anymore; the clearing was too peaceful to have been made by a bad wizard. It was their secret place, but mainly Carole’s, because she had found it. It was a comforting place: it was somewhere she would go if she was sad or angry about something, because the woodland circle and its shifting half-shadows offered calm and new perspectives. She could almost hear the trees speak to her, the wind in their branches making the leaves whisper, but so softly that she couldn’t understand. She would listen, eyes closed, the leaves rustling, but she never understood what they were saying. The circle of trees stood solid and immovable, dark and stoic, old and wise, and each one the colour of stone.
Charlie Laidlaw lives in East Lothian, one of the main settings for Everyday Magic. He has four other published novels: Being Alert!, The Space Between Time, The Things We Learn When We’re Dead and Love Potions and Other Calamities. Previously a journalist and defence intelligence analyst, Charlie now teaches Creative Writing in addition to his writing career.
My thoughts: Carole, with an e, is an archeolgist by training and stuck in her life, starts to go back through her own past to see where she went wrong. Married to Ray, who she’s suspicious of, and mother of Iona, a typical teenager, she’s bored and feeling lost. Retracing her time at university, her first love and her work on digs as part of her degree, she starts to feel a need to make some changes, to pick up a trowel and return to the things that make her happy.
Tracing Carole’s life, from her parents home in Berwick, to Edinburgh University, and beyond, this book reminds us that it’s never too late to change.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but
Worn down by a job he hates, and a stressful family life, middle-aged, middleclass Bradley picks up a teenage escort and commits an unspeakable crime. Now she’s tied up in his warehouse, and he doesn’t know what to do. Max is homeless, eating from rubbish bins, sleeping rough and barely existing – known for cadging a cigarette from anyone passing, and occasionally even the footpath. Nobody really sees Max, but he has one friend, and she’s gone missing. In order to find her, Max is going to have to call on some people from his past, and reopen wounds that have remained unhealed for a very long time – and the clock is ticking…
Publication coincides with International Women’s Month and Homeless Women’s Day, with a percentage of profits to SHELTER
Vanda Symon is a crime writer, TV presenter and radio host from Dunedin, New Zealand, and the chair of the Otago Southland branch of the New Zealand Society of Authors. The Sam Shephard series, which includes Overkill, The Ringmaster, Containment and Bound, hit number one on the New Zealand bestseller list, and has also been shortlisted for the Ngaio Marsh Award. Overkill was shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger. Twitter @vandasymon, Instagram @vanda-symon, Facebook, @vandasymonauthor, www.vandasymon.com.
My thoughts: It’s easy to imagine that violent criminals are different from ordinary people, that no one with a 9 to 5 job, a family, a suburban life could do anything terrible. But that’s just not true. Behind that Pleasantville facade can be some really twisted people.
Billy is a street kid, doing what she has to in order to survive after being kicked out by her parents. Max is also homeless. They look out for each other, and when she goes missing, he’s the only one who cares. And he will do anything to find her.
Max is a fascinating character, there’s something sad and lost about him, and as his story is revealed, you understand why he’s so broken. But he’s also kind and loyal and he cares so much for Billy, she reminds him of someone he lost. Billy is street tough, brave, resourceful and terrified. I rooted for them both the whole time, hoping their story would end well. Bradley however, can get in the bin. What an awful creep. A very angry, disturbed man. I felt sorry for his family.
What follows is a clever, twisted tale of a good man using whatever resources he can, including turning to people he never thought he’d see again, to save an innocent life. Although he doesn’t know it, there is a deadline as Bradley’s rage and desperation to avoid being caught build. It’s also the story of a brave and rather incredible young woman who won’t be a victim and is channelling her grandmother’s love to stay alive and find a way to fight back.
I do sometimes wonder where crime writers get their ideas and characters from, especially the awful ones. Plumbing the depths of human depravity needs to be offset by the Maxs and Billys of this world. Good people in bad places. A hope of redemption and a fresh start.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own
Logan Hall is a Vagrant, one of the disenfranchised living beneath the mega city of New Washington. The Vagrants have to hide from the Company who is rounding all of them up and shipping them to newly discovered planets to work in the mines. That’s what happened to Logan’s father.
Shayna is one of the privileged. She has a chip, a credit disc, and lives in a shiny stainless steel and glass high-rise above ground. Shayna is allergic to corn so she is one of the few above ground people who is not stoned on Sopore. Sopore is a drug found in genetically altered corn. It’s in almost all food. The Vagrants know about Sopore and avoid it.
These two teens from wildly differing environments meet by accident and fall in love. Logan will stop at nothing to rescue his friend Raj, captured and sent to the moon. Together, he and Shayna will follow his dream of finding his father who was sent to work in the mines of Gliess 67.
Logan opened the heavy door to the cold locker slowly and peered out. It was night. He knew only a skeleton crew manned the morgue at night because there was a shortage of qualified help in the cities. There was a shortage of trained workers all over the world. Ever since John Demaris discovered what he named the warp drive after the hyper drive in Star Trek, and space travel to far worlds became a reality, the government had been rounding up every able-bodied man on the planet and shipping them off-world to work the mines of faraway galaxies. That’s where Logan’s father was. He’d been caught and shipped off to what the Mole People called Planet 666, Gliese 667, a brown planet with enough water to maintain life and lots and lots of gold. “Come on,” he said to Raj. “We have to make the pickup in five minutes.” They found hospital scrubs in a cupboard and put them on. Dressed like every hospital employee, the two boys slipped through the dark hallways of the hospital, took the stairs to the ground floor and then ducked outside. Logan led the way around the building to the alley in the back and the row of garbage containers behind the Emergency Room. He shoved Raj behind one marked with a red biohazard tag and squatted down to wait. “What’re we waiting for now?” Raj asked. Logan took out half of a cigarette and lit it with a match he took from a plastic bag. He inhaled deeply and Raj shook his head. “Why do you do that?” “Cause my dad did. He loved a good smoke and so does I. It’s relaxing to me. I get pretty cranked runnin’ through the tunnels and you need a calm head about you to survive.” The glass doors of the ER slid open with a sucking sound and Logan peaked around the edge of the trash container and there she was . . . his angel. “Wow!” Raj breathed. “What a dynamite chick.” “Don’t even look at her, mole. She’s so far above us, she don’t even exist. She’s a vision, an angel from above.” “Well, your angel is toting a white plastic bag. Is that our package?” Logan nodded. When Raj leaned across Logan to get a better look, he accidentally shoved Logan who reached out to catch himself from falling on his face and banged the edge of the container. The angel gasped and looked right into his eyes. She was so beautiful. Her long black hair swung over one shoulder when she bent over to look at him through the clearest brown eyes Logan had ever seen. They were filled with the innocence of the protected, a girl who had never eaten roasted rat or run for her life into tunnels so deep beneath the city you encountered an even worse nightmare, the Worms. And then it hit him. Her pupils were small, her gaze focused. Unlike the majority of the people who lived topside, she looked straight. “Who are you?” his angel asked. Logan stood up and brushed the top layer of filth off his borrowed scrubs. He straightened his back and shoved a lock of dirty blond hair out of his eyes. “I’m Logan. I come from down there.” He pointed to his feet then grabbed Raj by the shoulder. “This is my little buddy, Raj.” She backed up rapidly still clutching the white-plastic bag. “You’re one of them? You live underground?” Logan thrust his well-developed chest out and lifted his chin. “Yeah, we’re not animals you know. We’re people, too.” Shayna Nagata was in shock. All her life she’d been bombarded with horror stories about the people who lived underground. The homeless, the poor, the mutated animals no one wanted would come out of the manholes at night and feed on the children of the rich and privileged. Her parents had drummed it into her head. Never, ever, ever talk to anyone you think does not belong above ground. They have no chips. They have no credit and no job. They kill people like her and steal children away to feed on under the earth. She reached out a shaking hand and touched his arm. It was thick and corded, not like the soft white arm of her father who was a lawyer. “You’re real.” “Yeah, I’m real and you’re not stoned. What’s wrong with you?” She backed away again clutching the plastic bag. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” “Your eyes, doll, you’re not bombed, stoned, high on drugs, you’re not sedated.” Then she understood. “I can’t eat corn. It gives me bumps.” The larger boy who said his name was Logan laughed and elbowed his smaller friend. “She’s gotta be the one person topside besides the doctor that ain’t zonked. How funny is that?” He turned back to her and she noticed his blue eyes were clear, his gaze sharply assessing, and he was laughing at her because she was different. “It’s not my fault.” And then he smiled and she noticed how white his teeth were. He even had big eye teeth and two crooked ones on the bottom. Everyone she knew had perfect, white, dental implants or veneers. “I’m allergic.” “So you can’t take the drug. Your life must be really weird.” She shrugged. “They try to give me pills. I don’t like them.” The entire population was addicted to a drug called Sopore. Sopore was a sedative genetically bred into corn by the chemical giant Monsonta. Corn, corn syrup, corn flour, corn starch, corn everything was in all the food. Shayna couldn’t eat it so she had to eat special food her mother bought. Her parents tried to feed her the pills prescribed by her doctor to make her like everyone else, but she didn’t like the way they made her feel, so she spit them out when no one was looking.
My mother and I started writing young adult and action novels together about five years ago. We work well together because we share many of the same interests. I have a degree in journalism and currently teach middle school in Jacksonville, Florida where I live with my wife and twelve-year old son.
I’m the daughter of a Marine Corps colonel. I lived the military life until I got out of high school. At that point I was a wild child. I got married and moved to Canada where I lived up the Sechelt Inlet, the scene for Spellcast Waters. I lived in a log cabin, with wood heat and a wood cook stove fifteen miles by boat from the nearest town. I’ve moved a lot. Between the military upbringing and just rambling around the country, I’ve moved 40 times.
I lived in Hawaii and worked as a polo groom for fifteen years. I love horses and I paint, and I write. Now I live in the swampland of Florida with too many dogs and my fifteen-year old granddaughter. Life is beautiful. Live in the moment.
My thoughts: this was really good, I felt like I’d only just started it but was actually half way through, that’s how hooked I was. The premise is really clever and the characters are engaging and you’ll find yourself rooting for them.
The idea of a vast evil corporation essentially drugging everyone with a sugar derivative doesn’t actually feel that unrealistic, and I did laugh at the name the authors chose for it, just rearrange a couple of letters. There’s a lot of racing against time and I get claustrophobic so I felt for Shayna when she first encounters all the tunnels and forgotten pipes Logan and his friends crawl through beneath the city. I would not be able to do that.
The ending sets up a new adventure for the next book, and you wonder whether Eddie’s plan has worked and how the Vagrants are going to survive when they’re being hunted by the evil security forces of the corporation and the gangsters they upset. Fingers crossed they’ve got a plan!
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Keep your enemies close But keep your friends closer…
Six women:
Each receive a copy of an old school group photo, in which their own face has been savagely scratched out. Within a week, two of the women are dead.
Detective Sergeant Tina Bassett:
Known to colleagues as the Hound, she believes both women were murdered by the same person and that someone is intent on killing off the class of 98 one by one ..
As the death toll rises , DS Bassett finds herself in a desperate race against time, as she delves deeper into the past to help uncover the catalyst to the unfolding rampage in the present.
Will she succeed in stopping a killer hell bent on having their revenge ?
Or will the class of 98 finally pay their price ..
Bad Sweet Things is the new gripping Irish Crime thriller from Maria Hoey, perfect for fans of Jane Casey , Claire McGowan and Claire Allan.
Maria is an author and poet from Dublin, Ireland. Her poetry has appeared in Ireland’s foremost poetry publication, Poetry Ireland. Her short stories have featured in various publications and been shortlisted for a number of awards.
In 2017, Maria’s debut novel, The Last Lost Girl was published by Poolbeg Press, and went on to be shortlisted for the Kate O’Brien Debut Award 2018.
Maria’s second novel, On Bone Bridge was published by Poolbeg in 2018. She has also had a book for children published by Poolbeg in 2019, The Little Book of Irish Saints.
Bad Sweet Things was published in 2021 and listed in the Amazon Kindle Bestseller chart (Irish Crime).
Maria has one daughter, Rebecca, and lives in Portmarnock, Co Dublin, with her husband, Garrett, and their moustachioed cat, Midge.
My thoughts: teenage girls are monsters and what these women did back when they were teenagers was pretty awful, it went beyond the usual bullying and became something far nastier. It’s finally come back to haunt them, someone wants them to pay for their crimes. Or these are just unfortunate accidents – as DS Bassett’s boss, known as Colonel Mustard (he’s called Coleman) would prefer. But Tina knows there’s something a bit off about these things, something isn’t right and she’s determined to prove it.
Clever, twisting and gripping this really makes you rethink the way you might have behaved and whether someone might be coming for you! Tina is a great character, tenacious and smart, she follows her gut and chases the tiniest scraps of evidence to try to prevent more deaths before it’s too late.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Two couples, best friends for half a lifetime, move in together. What could possibly go wrong…?
Harriet and Mark have it all: successful careers, a lovely house in a leafy London suburb, twin boys on the cusp of leaving home. Yvette and Gary share a smaller place with their two daughters in a shabbier part of the same borough.
But when the stars align for a collective move north, it means a fresh start for them all. For Mark, it’s a chance to escape the rat race; for Harriet, a distraction from her unfulfilled dream of a late third child. Gary has decided to reboot the Madchester band that made him famous, while Yvette hopes it will give her daughters what she never had herself.
But as the reality of their new living arrangements slowly sinks in, the four friends face their own mid-life crises, and the dream becomes a nightmare…
My thoughts: do not move in with your friends, I feel like I’ve read several books that start with this premise and everything always goes horribly wrong. The only thing worse would be moving in with your in laws. I love my pals but I don’t think we’d cope with living together, not when you’re all settled in your ways and like how you do things. Which is why two middle aged couples doing just that in this book.
Harriet and Mark have two sons who’ve just graduated from uni, Jack who’s off to work in the City and Ollie, who doesn’t appear to have a plan, at least to his parents. Yvette and Gary have two daughters, one off to Oxford and one about to have a baby. All their kids are settled more or less.
The parents, on the other hand, Gary’s reforming his Madchester era band, Yvette’s lost her TA job, Harriet’s latest redevelopment (she’s an architect) is way over budget, Mark’s in a spot of bother at work and keeping it a secret. So of course they all decide to live in a converted factory together. Can you say mid-life crisis!
I was going “don’t do it!” and then of course they did. Bad idea guys. Bad idea. But very entertaining for the reader, lots of schadenfreude.
Things go wrong from there. Or at least more things than were already wrong. Yvette is easily the nicest of the four and I’m glad she was ok at the end while the others got their comeuppance in various ways. I’m glad things worked out for Ollie too. But yeah, definitely never moving in with friends. I’m going to be a recluse and live on my own on an island instead. It just feels safer.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 