Kate thought she knew her neighbors. But they’ve been keeping secrets…
Kate’s quiet evening at home is shattered when a car crashes into a neighbor’s fence. The police and emergency services are quickly on the scene.
Kate saw the crash. The neighbors saw it too. So why is everyone saying it never happened? And how is it possible that the neighbor’s fence doesn’t have a scratch?
Is Kate going crazy or is everyone lying?
Strange things start happening in Kate’s life. A man follows her home after work. An intruder tries to break into her house in the middle of the night.
Kate is convinced these events are connected to the crash. Someone wants to silence her. But why? Who was in that car on Saturday night?
And what is the deadly secret that everyone is trying to hide?
Mark Gillespie writes psychological thriller and suspense novels. He’s a former professional musician (bass player) from Glasgow, Scotland who spent ten years touring the UK and Ireland, playing sessions and having the time of his life. Don’t ask though. What happened on the road stays on the road.
He now lives in Auckland, New Zealand with his wife and a small menagerie of rescue creatures. If he’s not writing, he’s jamming with other musicians, running on the beach, watching mixed martial arts and boxing. Or devouring horror and thriller movies.
This is his third psychological thriller with Inkubator Books.
My thoughts: This is a book that will completely wrong foot you in a really good way. Reading the first section, Kate’s story makes you think one thing is happening and then that gets completely thrown up in the air and becomes a very, very different story and without spoiling it, a very interesting story.
I was totally hooked, at first I thought I knew what it was going to be about, but then, bam, it went off in another direction and it was so good, such an interesting, clever, almost a discussion about right and wrong, punishment and revenge. Absolutely cracking stuff.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Welcome to the tour for newly released charmer, Until the Last Page by Chantal Gadoury!
Until the Last Page
Publication Date: October 1, 2024
Genre: Fantasy Romance
Portal Fantasy
Fairytale Retellings
Witty Banter
Enemies to Friends to Lovers
For Fans of Princess Bride & Once Upon a Time
One Bed (A pillow, and a bowl of soup)
Discover what happens when a young woman unexpectedly finds herself inside a book of fairytales where she is charged with breaking a frog prince’s curse and searching for a way home.
Every good fairytale begins with “Once Upon a Time,” or they’re supposed to at least. But for twenty-five year old Josephine Hart, her “Once Upon a Time” began with her literally crash landing inside a book of fairy tales and nearly crushing a frog—who is actually a prince. An annoying, snarky frog prince named Aneurin, seeking the kiss of true love to break his curse. He vows that if Jo agrees to help him find his princess, he will get her home.
With every turn of the page, their adventure leads them deeper into fairytales familiar to Jo. Through their journey, they discover that despite their initial clashing, they’re both exactly what each other needs. It is only when they encounter a devious man with a talent for spinning straw into gold that they realize just how quickly their plot can take an unexpected twist.
Now in paperback, just in time for Halloween, I’m re-posting my review of this book from last year.
Original and engrossing, The Fortunes of Olivia Richmondis a gothic period drama set in late 19th century Norfolk thatcentres around the “Mistcoate Witch” – the teenage mistress of Mistcoate House who is rumoured to speak with the dead. When young governess Miss Julia Pearlie takes a job as companion to the aristocratic Olivia Richmond, with strict instructions to put an end to such “teenage nonsense,” Miss Pearlie is soon inducted into the chilling world of tarot, fortune telling and the “other side.” As the winter chill wraps around the dark woods surrounding Mistcoate, and the behaviour or Olivia becomes more and more terrifying, Julia must uncover the truth and save herself – before it’s too late.
The perfect read for a dark autumn night, with chapter headings and illustrations that correspond to specific Tarot Cards, from “The Hanged Man” to “The Stuck Tower,” this atmospheric gothic page turner deftly explores Victorian attitudes to the supernatural alongside the lot of women living and working in Victorian England.
For fans of Stacey Halls and Michelle Paver.
Born in 1988, Louise Davidson grew up in Belfast during the troubles with a Catholic mother and a Protestant father. The Catholic side of her family lived on Mountcollyer Street – the street featured in Kenneth Branagh’s Oscar winning film Belfast, that was badly affected by violent protests.
Louise’s earliest memory is of her parents deciding whether they should drive past a car that was on fire in the streets of Belfast. It was only when she left Belfast to study Creative Writing at University in the UK that Louise realised it was not normal to live in a permanent state of fear and anxiety. She says the sense of dread she has had from a young age drew her to Gothic fiction and is something she has tried to channel into The Fortunes of Olivia Richmond.
Louise was introduced to the idea of tarot, mediums and fortune telling from a young age as her Aunt Pat is an intuitive, with the ability to receive messages from the dead and to predict dreams. Louise grew up watching her aunt predict dreams and pass messages from the dead to bereaved families and this helped her to create the character of Olivia Richmond.
After a career working in theatre production with theatres including Tinder Box and Ransome Theatre in Northern Ireland and Intemission,RSC and the Lyric Hammersmith in London. Louise now teaches English and drama to A-Level students and lives in West London with her husband and stepson. The Fortunes of Olivia Richmond is her first novel.
My thoughts: Set in a suitably Gothic and somewhat sinister house, buried in the woods, this is a perfect Halloween read. Unreliable narrators, characters with buckets of secrets, ghosts, a violent figure hiding in the forest, suspicious locals, and a young woman who says she can see spirits, and reads the tarot to some of the townspeople, causing friction.
Julia must make her own way in the world, having inherited nothing useful from her mother, and with a brother who doesn’t want to help. So she was working as a governess, but after a terrible incident at her last post she’s floundering.
Hired as a companion to doctor’s daughter Olivia Richmond, at Mistcoate in Norfolk, she’s fully aware this is her last chance to get a good reference and earn some money. Her employer wants her to prepare his troubled daughter for the Season in London, where he hopes to find her a husband.
But things are not right at Mistcoate, Olivia is known locally as a witch, claiming to see the dead and be able to divine the future. She’s been looked after by the housekeeper since her mother died when she was very young. But the housekeeper, Mrs Hayes, isn’t all she seems, and is bitterly jealous of Julia’s relationship with Olivia.
As events unfold and take a dark turn, Julia becomes afraid of the household, apart from old Captain Reynolds and the maid of all work Marian. She also becomes close to the local vicar Ed and his sister Alice. These friendships keep her sane as things get stranger and more volatile. Her employer, Dr Reynolds, insists on holding “examinations” of his daughter, assisted only by the housekeeper, and threatens Julia with the sack.
The book amps up the tension and you really feel for Julia, although she also has secrets and the ghosts seem to cling to her, symbols of her guilt, perhaps.
The ending is ambiguous, will Olivia be alright in her new life in London and will Julia and Ed make a go of it? Have they truly escaped the ghosts and demons of their pasts?
In the photograph Martha Benn has kept for two decades, three girls lounge on the grass during a school field trip. Beside Martha, there’s Liv, petite and wickedly funny, and Juliet, their unofficial leader, brave, kind, and effortlessly beautiful. Back then, they meant the world to each other. But when Juliet disappeared, the bond between Martha and Liv unravelled too.
Martha was the last known person to see Juliet alive, and she still has no idea what happened after the two said goodnight on a towpath beside London’s Regent’s Canal. The next day, Juliet’s abandoned bicycle was discovered, but no sign of Juliet. Without witnesses or clues, the investigation fell apart.
Martha, now a TV celebrity preparing to host a show investigating cold cases, finally has a chance to get answers. As Martha tries to piece together what happened to Juliet, she realizes that her memories of those long-ago bonds may not tell the whole story. And someone else may know more about Juliet’s fate, and their friendship, than she could ever have imagined . . .
My thoughts: Friendship is a weird thing, it changes over time, sometimes getting stronger, sometimes it just falls away. But we never forget, not really.
Martha is trying to put the pieces together about the disappearance of her friend Juliet, years after the fact. The third member of their group, Liv, might have some idea but it’s been tricky getting in touch, she’s vague over email, and Martha is desperate to meet up and compare notes.
But there seems to be more to all this, and maybe one of the few witnesses, someone always on the sidelines, in the background, knows the truth.
It’s a bit creepy, with a stalker’s perspective on the events around Juliet’s disappearance and on Martha’s attempts to figure it all out. I imagine we don’t notice those people, the ones on the fringes of our lives, very often, and that’s certainly the case here, with a controlling and manipulative person who seems incredibly innocent as well.
Isabel’s books just get better, and more sinister, this is definitely the darkest one yet I reckon. I really enjoyed reading it, she has a brilliant knack at getting you to understand the characters and their strange minds without being put off or disturbed. I felt for Martha, and for Casey, both held in place by something that happened so long ago that many people have forgotten.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Have you read The Red Woman and the White Bear yet? We highly recommend you add this beauty to the top of your reading list! You won’t regret it!
The Red Woman and the White Bear
Publication Date: September 24, 2024
Genre: Romantic Fantasy
✨️Fae courts
✨️Enemies to lovers
✨️Hurt/comfort
✨️Shadow magic
✨️Court politics
✨️Opposing religions/religion is magic
✨️Slow burn forbidden love
✨️Hidden identity
✨️Morally grey characters
✨️Reluctant chosen one
✨️Soul-deep connection
It is both the fate and the burden of the Red Woman to bring peace.
The Fae are real—this is a fact that Aisling Morrow has believed with varying degrees of certainty since she was a child. Her late mother’s accounts of their beauty still linger in her mind, but always with the caveat: Do not involve yourself uninvited with matters of the Fae. Aisling has no plans to do so—until she discovers an arcane prophecy which names her the Red Woman, destined to turn the tides of war in the realm of Wyldraíocht by ensuring the fall of the Unseelie Court.
On a quest to understand her role, Aisling ventures into Wyldraíocht. Except Fae prophecies aren’t so easily interpreted, and she is soon ensnared in a dangerous web of political machinations, opposing religions, and dark magic—at the center of which stands the fierce and vengeful Unseelie King.
King Kael Ardhen, a vessel for raw power bestowed upon him by an eldritch god, is consumed by his own unbridled rage—a rage which he would not hesitate to turn on the human woman prophesied to destroy his court. Yet something about the way Aisling calls to his shadows draws him in, at once both granting him control over his violent magic and inviting him to relinquish control over his guarded heart.
As unsettling truths about the world her mother so loved challenge Aisling’s convictions and call into question the true purpose of the Red Woman, the Veil between realms grows ever weaker with the echoes of war. Soon, the crueler sorts of Fae will no longer be confined to Wyldraíocht. With time running out to protect those she loves, Aisling finds herself at the crossroads of fate and choice—and the ultimate price of peace may demand more than she is willing to pay.
“Invocation is a brilliantly crafted, action-packed romantasy thriller you won’t be able to put down.” – Erin Michelle Sky, Author
SAMANTHA
I never thought I’d willingly walk into Hell again, but I did.
I survived and am back where I belong—at home. But Gabe, my demon-dead friend, is still missing. And the guilt is crippling me.
While I’m laughing and happy with my boyfriend, Gabe is suffering. While I’m resting and healing, Gabe is being endlessly tortured. But every plan I come up with is a suicide mission. And despite what it sometimes looks like, I’m not ready to die.
So, when my werewolf friends ask me to help their pack with a problem, there’s no way I can say no—even if I’m not ready to jump into another fight. There’s a mysterious evil the werewolves can’t track, and they need me to help them kill it.
It’s the perfect distraction. The only problem? Phoenix, a mortal, wants to go with me.
Even though he’s proven he can handle the supernatural, I can’t help but think nothing good can come from him getting an even better glimpse of how not normal my work life is. But I can’t say no to him; all I can do is pray Phoenix is still by my side when this is over.
PHOENIX
My life pre-Samantha was turmoil. Soccer career, over. Family life, devastated after the loss of my grandmother. Dating? Laughable. Every relationship fell apart because the door in my heart had been shut tight. I was unknowingly holding out for the one girl who had completely changed my world.
Samantha is it for me; my heart knew it before I did. I’d go anywhere as long as it’s with her.
But her guardian angel, Eli, said something to me that makes me think something truly terrible will happen to Samantha. And I’m not about to let that happen. I’ll do anything to keep her safe.
“I absolutely loved this book, it blew my mind…I laughed, I cried, I swooned…it’s a heartfelt epic adventure! – Sheila Kay, Author
AUTHOR NOTE: The Days of Iron & Clay is a spin-off the Alpha Girls Series, but can be fully enjoyed alone and is best enjoyed in order! Infestation picks up right where Invocation left off. Be sure to read Invocation first!
Secret femme-fatale in training Millicent Whittenburg needs to escape her unpleasant betrothal.
Taking matters into her own hands, she plans her eventual ruin! Then she can disappear from society to carry out the Queen’s deadly missions. Step 1: seduce the one man who despises marriage more than her!
However, she hugely underestimates her target. Major General Beaufort Drake. Fearsome private investigator, he’s notoriously cold and visibly battle scarred. But Millie’s scandalously public kiss awakens a deeply suppressed desire in Drake. Instead of allowing them both to succumb to shame he does the unthinkable, and offers for her hand in a convenient marriage.
Nothing prepares them for the fireworks when a fearless damsel collides with a dangerous Major General! And as their secret missions align they face their hardest test on the glittering battlefield – a week long wedding house party where there is nowhere to escape…only new and wicked lessons to be learnt!
Darcy McGuire is a high school counsellor who grew up in the wilds of New Zealand but happily settled in the Pacific Northwest. In between dodging territorial geese, gathering duck eggs, taking the dog for long walks, Darcy loves writing about fierce female protagonists who may dodge daggers and bullets but never seem to escape Cupid’s Arrow.
My thoughts: I really like this series, we’re only on book two but it’s just a lot of fun. Queen Victoria’s lady agents have to basically avoid being trapped in a marriage to some miserable sod, as they’ll have to give up their role and play domestic angel instead.
Millie’s ghastly stepmother wants to marry her off to a fossil so Millie decides to go for disgrace and being packed off away from society in order to carry on her vital work as a spy. Only she’s picked the one man who won’t back down.
Major General Beaufort Drake is an agent for the Prime Minister – and they’re investigating the same case from different angles. Can they fall in love, stop bickering and stop the trade in young women?
So much fun, a bit saucy, quite romantic (they face off against the horrible stepmother, his wet blanket of a brother and miserable sister-in-law together) and just very enjoyable. Highly recommend.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
A city burning. A revolution raging. A woman on the run.
Nadezhda has never wanted to be a witch. But the occult is in her blood. Her mother, Militza, conjured Rasputin and introduced him into the Romanov court, releasing the devil himself.
Now he is dead, but Militza still dreams of him – stalking her sleep and haunting her waking hours. As Petrograd burns and the Russian Empire crumbles, Nadezhda escapes through the capital, concealing a book of generational magic. But as danger grows closer, she may be forced to embrace her heritage to save what she loves most…
Based on a true story, The Witch’s Daughter is an epic tale of women rising from the ashes of an empire, perfect for fans of Elodie Harper’s The Wolf Den and Madeline Miller’s Circe.
Imogen Edwards-Jones studied Russian at Bristol University. Her first book, The Taming of Eagles, was about the first 100 days of the collapse of communism. A writer and journalist, she has travelled extensively within the old Soviet Union, studying in Kyiv. She is the author of twenty books including the best-selling Babylon series. Married with two children, Imogen lives in London. She is also a member of the London College of Psychic Studies and an honorary Cossack. Her latest novel, The Witch’s Daughter, is the sequel to The Witches of St Petersburg.
My thoughts: I was really excited to read this book, I am a huge Russian history nerd and have been to St Petersburg some years ago, and even been to the palace that features in the opening of this book, where Rasputin was killed. It’s very creepy, our tour guide was a descendant of the Prince who organised the murder. And behind a door on the way out is a terrifying waxwork figure of the monk himself. I think she kept it there to traumatise visitors. It worked!
This is the sequel to The Witches of St Petersburg, but you can read it as a standalone if you haven’t read the first book (but I also recommend it). Opening with the dramatic death of the monk many blamed for the Romanovs’ downfall (he was poisoned, shot and drowned) is very dramatic, winter on the river Nev, beautiful and deadly.
It’s 1916, the First World War is consuming millions of young men from across Europe, including Russia, unrest is gathering as the serfs finally have enough of their aristocratic masters, the boyars and princes of the Russian Empire, there have been poor harvests, people are starving but the Imperial Family continue to throw parties and enjoy life.
As the wartime years gather pace, so do the Bolsheviks, including Vladimir Lenin, and the tide turns against the Romanov dynasty. It can be hard to feel sorry for them but when you read about the deaths, torture and imprisonment, including children, you do, all their wealth and privilege did not stop them being horrifically murdered (the deaths of the Tsar and Tsarina’s siblings, burnt alive in a mine shaft are particularly gruesome and cruel).
I have been to Peter and Paul Fortress where the Romanovs were interred after their bodies were recovered from Ekaterinberg, they lie under huge marble blocks in an austere and silent chapel, far more fitting than the holes they were thrown into by the furious soldiers.
The family members that survived, rescued from house arrest in Crimea, by the British navy, are the ones this story focuses on, the Dowager Empress never truly believing her son the Tsar, and his family had been murdered. Terrified and traumatised the extended remaining royals stayed in their summer homes, guarded by soldiers, surrounded by their enemies, the chef is something of a hero, valiantly scrounging up meals from potatoes and a few bits and pieces in the kitchen, providing a feast from almost nothing.
Militza and Stana are survivors, but the life their children are living is tough and frightening, Nadezhda loses her first love to war, and almost loses her second to the revolution. Struggling to survive in Yalta, she finally embraces the gifts of her mother’s line, the witchcraft she has long denied.
There is tragedy and heartbreak aplenty as the Russian Revolution takes grip, it’s something when the German army are seen as heroes, arriving to relieve the house arrest of the family and negotiate their eventual release.
This was a fascinating read, seeing the Revolution from a very different angle, not that of the Bolsheviks or the Soviets but from the perspective of the extended Romanov family, those that survived the horrific deaths of so many.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Who’s ready for another High Court of the Coffee Bean Book? Well, Wanted: A Roommate Who Who Isn’t Evil is LIVE!
Wanted: A Roommate Who Isn’t Evil (High Court of the Coffee Bean Book 3)
Publication Date: October 16, 2024
Genre: Fae Fantasy/Cozy Urban Fantasy/Funny
Enemies-to-brothers
Unlikely Friendship
Forced Proximity
The Cruel Prince meets New Girl (TV show)
The High Court of the Coffee Bean returns with a battle of wills and wit as two sworn enemies find themselves facing their worst nightmare—each other.
In this “enemies-to-brothers” humorous fantasy, two dangerous fae who hate each other sign a contract to share an apartment without realizing who their new roommate will be. One is Dranian Evelry, former assassin of the Brotherhood of Assassins. The other is Luc Zelsor, a deadly nine tailed fox more powerful than nearly any fae from the Dark Corner of Ever.
With several binding rules in their roommate contract such as, “No loud noises” (which means they’ll have difficulty trying to kill each other) and “No large messes” (which means once one finds a way to kill the other, they’ll need to discreetly dispose of the body) the two enemies find themselves trapped in a close quarters situation with only one solution: to try and live together until the three-month agreement runs out, unless one of them can force the other to break the contract and be kicked out of the apartment for good by management.
Thus a battle of wills begins as two fae on opposite sides of the fairy wars try to make the living accommodations unbearable for the other.
But Dranian has another problem he must hide from his new, evil roommate. When a dangerous dreamslipper infiltrates his dreams and takes his nights hostage, memories of a girl he cared for from his childling years begin to rise to the surface; a girl he may have liked far more than he ever let on. And as pieces come together, Dranian starts to wonder if there was more to the girl he left behind than he realized.
With his nights haunted and his sleep restless, the grumpiest of the fae assassins takes grouch to a whole new level in this story about a territory battle and a weird, unlikely friendship.
Wanted: A Roommate Who Isn’t Evil is book 3 of the High Court of the Coffee Bean series, a tale that follows a band of fairy assassins who enter the human world and try to live among them, hardly blending in at all. This BookTok-inspired series is for readers who will enjoy a mashup of books like The Cruel Prince by Holly Black and the comical TV show New Girl. It’s ‘cozy with a dallop of darkness’, loaded with cookies and ice cream, and sprinkled with a few epic deathmatches.
The world rests on Eliza’s shoulders. The kids, her husband, work, her elderly mother and don’t forget her newest friend, perimenopause. It’s too much to carry, but she’s been doing it for years. It’s just what a good wife and mother does, isn’t it?
When another Christmas rolls around, Eliza is drained by all the expectations and logistics of the holiday season. She’s fast approaching her breaking point, only no one around her notices she’s on the edge. After an incident at her in-law’s on Christmas Eve brings things to a boiling point, she finds herself with three unexpected visitors. The spirits of the past, present, and future take her on a journey through her life to shake her out of the rut she’s gotten into. Their messages leave her with new possibilities: reconnect with her past, reclaim her present, or forge a new future, and you, the reader, decide which option is best!
Alana Oxford is a Michigan author of romcoms, sweet romance, and humorous women’s fiction. She wants her stories to bring sunshine and smiles to her readers. She enjoys improv comedy, moody music, everything book related, and has an ongoing love affair with the United Kingdom.
Giveaway to Win an ebook of The Gingerbread Christmas Village by Kiley Dunbar (Open to UK & US Only).
Alana Oxford has kindly said that she would like to do an ebook giveaway for another author who writes charming and cozy Christmas books. A Kindle copy of The Gingerbread Christmas Village by Kiley Dunbar, which is a lovely holiday romance featuring a protagonist in her early 60s.
Click the link above to enter.**
My thoughts: This was a fun addition to the adaptations of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Transported to modern America, where an exhausted and perimenopausal Eliza has just about had enough. Her husband announces that they’ve been invited to his brother’s for Christmas, throwing the plans Eliza’s made up in the air and pushing her to breaking point. Her mother expects them for the day and is upset that plans have changed, her teenage children barely look up from their phones and she’s had enough.
Staying in her in-laws’ fancy guest room on Christmas Eve, wishing she was anywhere else, she’s visited by strange apparitions who offer her visions a bit like those Ebenezer Scrooge had. Except she’s not a grumpy old miser, just a woman in need of a break.
The twist is that there’s three different endings to the story – three lives Eliza can choose, and the reader gets to decide which ending they like the most – does Eliza choose her family or go a different way? Up to you. Like a Choose Your Own Adventure. Fun!
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
*Terms and Conditions –UK & US entries welcome. The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s RandomResources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over. Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data. I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.
ramblingmads 