I am a thirtysomething from London, with a cat, a husband, bookshelves which keep threatening to crush me under their load and chronic health conditions. Basically your average over stressed millennial. Welcome.
We’re thrilled to present the brand-new and stunning covers for the Beyond the Veil series by Hypatia Rae! Visit our Instagram page for a chance to win the entire series!
Beyond the Veil (3 Book Series)
The Witch of Faymeria Wood
Blood of the Dragon
Beyond the Veil
Tropes:
✨Gender swapped Sleeping Beauty
✨Only one horse
✨Hurt/comfort
✨Hidden identity
✨She saves him
✨True love’s kiss
✨Animal companion
A cursed prince A reclusive chemist A darkness lurking in the shadows
Cursed as an infant to die on his twentieth birthday, Prince Silas was saved by Chemist Chantria Hardacher, who transformed the death curse into a sleeping one.
Then she disappeared.
Now the prince slumbers, waiting for true love’s kiss to wake him.
Everleigh Hardacher wants nothing to do with the spoiled prince who got himself cursed to sleep; she only wants to find her missing mother. But when the king and queen make a royal decree that all eligible maidens must try their luck breaking the curse, Everleigh vows to wake the pompous prince without a kiss.
Although Everleigh doesn’t believe in true love, saving the prince just might prove her wrong about everything she thought she knew.
The Witch of Faymeria Wood is Book 1 in Beyond the Veil Trilogy. It is intended for readers 16+ and ends on a cliffhanger. This is a Romantic Fantasy book.
Perfect for fans of Sylvia Mercedes Scarred Mage of Roseward trilogy or Gothel and the Maiden Prince by W.R. Gingell. Fans of fairytale retellings and twists on classic stories will enjoy The Witch of Faymeria Wood.
Triggers : Missing parent/child abandonment, child loss/grief, wound depiction and wound care, brief fight scenes, blood depiction/collection and needle use, Mental Health including depression and anxiety, mild spice in book three
Everything familiar to Eliza has been ripped away. Even worse, the cruel deed was done by her own hands.
Nassau, Bahamas, 1791…
Eliza Sharpe, recently wed to a mysterious and brooding soldier, departs for the West Indies with him to begin their new life.
Once there, she realizes their marital arrangement is ill-fated and that she has made a disastrous choice. Charles, the man she finds herself bound to, is nothing short of a monster.
On their very first night in New Providence, her innocence is irrevocably shattered. The walls of her new home hide a dark family secret, and Eliza realizes that the freedom she sought within marriage is a worse cage than the constraints she faced before.
Eliza struggles with her new existence, her exposure to Charles’ explosive temper, the brutality of slavery, and her isolation as she tries to grow accustomed to life on distant shores. The only source of comfort she finds is swimming in the startlingly clear ocean, an activity Charles expressly forbids.
As she attempts to flee her deteriorating situation, an unexpected encounter with a beguiling stranger named Jean offers a promise of escape. Despite the dark rumors that swirl around her recent acquaintance and his mysterious past, he captures Eliza’s interest, and ultimately, her heart―with deadly consequences.
On an island where nothing is as it appears, Eliza is confronted with the harsh realities of living on the fringe of empire, of womanhood, and the overt corruption that festers in the governor’s mansion on the hill. Will she ever be able to secure her freedom―and possibly even find redemption in love?
Gina Giordano always had an insatiable curiosity and a penchant for history. Born in New York City, she is a writer, artist, and a conjurer of the past. She holds a BA in history and a master’s degree in historical fiction from New York University, and has traveled to over sixty-five countries across the globe. When she is not climbing ancient ruins or exploring forgotten palaces, she enjoys swimming with sharks in remote pristine waters. Her debut novel, Strange Eden, was longlisted for the 2023 Bath Novel Award.
My thoughts: Eliza wants out of her existence in England, where at 24 she is considered an old maid. But her sheltered, privileged existence doesn’t prepare her for marriage. Marrying the next man to ask for her hand is a terrible mistake, one she cannot undo. Charles is a violent, controlling monster.
Practically kept prisoner in her new home, thousands of miles from anywhere familiar, where she can’t even rely on the slaves that look after her – after all they belong to her husband, and the cook raised him and seems to be unable to see who he really is.
She had no idea life could be like this, for herself and certainly not the slaves, she tries to defend them, to stop her husband and his overseer from abusing them, and makes matters worse.
No wonder then, that she falls for Jean, a handsome stranger who, while he is Charles’ friend, is so different from the cruel and brutish men around her.
But love cannot last in this false paradise as Eliza learns to her cost. She still cannot escape, society has no place for a woman like her, in the Bahamas or back in England.
Dark, moving and at times incredibly chilling. This is a reminder of the true underbelly of humanity – of its violence and abuse of others, Charles might be monstrous, but he is far from alone in that.
I felt sorry for Eliza, her gender, her class, all conspire against her. Twenty-four seems so young to me now, but to the society at the time, she was getting on. She probably felt she had no real choices, and Charles turned on the charm while she was still under her father’s protection.
The Bahamas now is very different to then, and it can be hard to imagine how truly horrendous life was for the abducted and enslaved Africans who lived there and worked the plantations. They had no choices at all about their lives, and Eliza might feel a prisoner, but they really are. Harrowing.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
We’re celebrating the release of Binding the Baron, a gaslamp romantasy by Charlie Lane! Get your copy today!
Binding the Baron (Alchemy of Desire Book 1)
Release Date: December 19, 2025
Genre: Gaslamp Romantasy
Marriage of convenience
Class difference
He falls first
“Mating” bond
Love potion
Found family
A magical society divided. A web of lies. On the eve of Queen Victoria’s reign, a forbidden love could tear it all down.
In a dark, West London bed chamber, Diana Chester sees the truth—she’s inherited her dying grandfather’s transcendent magic. And she’ll be killed for it. It should be heating up her cousin’s blood. He’s the heir. She’s an aberration. And he wants the magic that’s rightfully his, no matter what he must do to get it.
Diana runs.
And is caught by a disgraced alchemist prince.
Exiled from alchemist society, Temple Grant, Baron Knightly blames himself for his family’s downfall. With no connections and dwindling opportunities, he joins the glamoured, transcendent world of West London to make it right. But the King demands absolute loyalty: Temple must take a wife from their ranks or lose the king’s favor.
Diana Chester possesses the right pedigree to please the king. She’s intriguing, too, and with her own reasons for a hasty marriage.
A convenient binding.
Complicated by desire.
Made almost impossible by a city divided.
The might of metal. The glitter of glamours. Diana and Temple belong to different sides of London. Love can bind them, but is it enough to bridge their dueling worlds?
Forbidden love, class difference, and a marriage of convenience makes for binge-able reading in this historical fantasy romance brimming with magic and a touch of steampunk.
Riley earns a living by digging up the past. But some secrets are better left buried.
Archaeologist Riley Donovan has had it rough. Her beloved fiancé has passed away, her career is crumbling, and lately she feels like she’s losing the will to live.
But when she meets Corbin Cross, a charismatic YouTube historian, Riley finally sees a glimmer of hope. He’s charming, brilliant, and seems to understand her pain. With the support of her loyal friend Grace, Riley begins to rebuild her shattered life.
But there’s a problem – nothing is as it seems.
And when Riley wakes in a hotel room with a dead body beside her and blood on her hands, the police immediately have her down as suspect number one.
As they close in, Riley desperately tries to piece together the truth of what happened that night. And the deeper she digs, the more she realizes that it’s Corbin’s dark secret life that has landed her in this terrifying situation.
Now Riley must navigate a deadly web of treachery and obsessive revenge to prove her innocence. But in a world built on lies, can she trust anyone—including herself?
Forget Me Not – the gripping psychological thriller perfect for fans of Lisa Jewell, Liane Moriarty, and Sally Hepworth.
Leah Cupps is a Multiple-Award Winning Author and Entrepreneur. She writes Thriller, Mystery, and Suspense as well as Middle-Grade Mystery Adventure Books. Leah’s novels are fast-paced thrillers that will keep you up at night as you can’t wait to see what happens in the next chapter. Leah lives in Indiana with her husband and three children. When she isn’t losing sleep writing her next novel or scaling her next business, she enjoys reading, riding horses, working out, and spending time with her family.
My thoughts: Riley is struggling when she meets Corbin – and as she knows he’s lost his fiancée too, a friend of hers as it happens, they bond over their trauma, but not everything Corbin says can be trusted.
Did he really just accidentally stumble over the archaeological find of the century or is he lying? Did his fiancée really just tumble over a cliff? It doesn’t entirely add up.
But Riley is determined to rebuild her life, to finish the book her publishers are waiting on, to move on. Even with the warning signs. And it isn’t just Corbin who’s lying to her.
When things take a dark turn, who can Riley trust? Piecing together the truth will be the only thing that can save her.
Full of twists, unreliable characters and with a protagonist who is only just about hanging in there, this is gasp out loud 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.
After a two-day train journey, peripatetic dressmaker Jemima Flowerday makes the final approach to her new job on foot, following the canal to Castle Gloaming, which stands in the rugged North Wales countryside overlooking the foaming River Dee.
Jemima has come to clothe Mrs Cornelia van Doorn, a wealthy South African widow who has leased the castle from its impoverished aristocratic owner, intending to launch herself and her young stepdaughter, Honor, into London society.
But on her arrival she’s told she’s actually been summoned to investigate the disappearance of the girl. Even in a place still haunted by mystery and magic, the seventeen-year-old can’t have melted into thin air…
Kay Blythe, who also writes as Natalie Meg Evans, is an award-winning historical author on both sides of the Atlantic, having reached the New York Times top 100 list with her debut novel, The Dress Thief. Writing crime as Kay Blythe fulfils a long-held ambition. Her dressmaker-sleuth, Jemima Flowerday, follows in the tradition of clever women set free by the social upheaval of the years after the First World War. Jemima combines her skills as a dressmaker and sleuth to solve crime in the crumbling stately homes of Britain.
My thoughts: Dragged out to the wilds of West Wales, Jemima thinks she’s there to design a wardrobe for a wealthy South African widow in a castle with a Scottish name (gloaming is an excellent word fyi).
On arrival, she’s told that she’s actually been hired to find the widows 17 year old stepdaughter, who appears to have vanished. Using her keen understanding of human nature, she soon figures out the truth, but that’s before things take a nasty turn.
Stuck in the castle with a motley cast of residents and staff, Jemima must keep her wits about her, there’s a killer amongst them and plenty of secrets and lies too.
I like Jemima, her unusual job allows her access to both upstairs and downstairs, by marriage she’s a Lady, but her parents ran a grocery shop so she’s actually just as at home in the kitchen with the help.
She’s also very clever, a student of human behaviour and highly observant, even without a friendly sidekick (unless you count Mrs Beddoes the housekeeper/cook) she works through the clues and the strange occurrences in this rather depressing castle and then lays it all out for the police when they finally show up. They’ll take the credit, but she’s just happy to go home.
*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 crumbling old manor house with its own sinister folly.
A cast full of suspects with secrets to hide.
And a killer waiting in the wings . . .
Retirement suits actress Rina Martin just fine. Until she’s tempted back for one last hurrah, reprising her role as sharp-witted TV sleuth Lydia Marchant.
But Rina’s return to the spotlight soon turns deadly!
Rina’s seen plenty of drama over the years. But nothing like the chaos she finds on location at Septon Hall. Her costar, the decidedly sour Grace Sweeting, gets a poison pen letter — in what looks like a tasteless prank. Until . . .
Phil Perry, the show’s charming leading man, is found dead! Plunged in his neck is a glinting brooch, last seen on Grace’s stylish coat.
Suddenly, everyone’s ready to point the finger at Grace. Only Rina has her doubts. Just because Grace is playing a murderess on TV that doesn’t make her one in real life. But if Grace didn’t do it, then who?
It’s up to Rina to pin down the truth, before the devious killer strikes again!
If you love Agatha Christie, Jeanne M. Dams, Glenda Young, Stella Cameron, M.C. Beaton and Frances Evesham, prepare to be hooked by this enchanting, character- driven mystery!
Jane Adams is the author of more than thirty published crime novels. The first, The Greenway, was nominated for both the Authors’ Club award and the CWA John Creasey for best debut novel. Jane is constantly amazed at where life has taken her. Writing had never been on her ‘possible careers’ list, but she says once stories take root in your brain, they just have to be told – and she feels very fortunate that people want to read them. In addition to writing, Jane teaches creative writing, read and mentor for The Literary Consultancy, and is a Royal Literary Fund Fellow and FRSA.
My thoughts: I really enjoyed this, a good old fashioned whodunnit. A TV mystery being filmed in an old and slightly decrepit house, a murdered actor, plenty of suspects, no obvious motive. Lovely.
I liked Rina and Mac, Grace was a nightmare, but not necessarily the killer just because she’s a bit of a grande dame. As the police investigate, there’s another death, even more puzzling than the first. Just what is going on on this set?
Clever, highly enjoyable crime writing, with a nice reveal and some risk for our investigators. Good 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.
Human suspicion. AI manipulation. Who can you trust when truth has no meaning?
DCS Kat Frank returns to work at the Future Policing Unit after a tragic loss, only to find herself thrust into a new high-profile case. On the night of Halloween a local MP is found murdered, with a taunting message written in binary code that seems to target Kat specifically: Catch me if you can.
The victim’s anti-AI sentiments suggest a political motive, and as Kat investigates with her partner AIDE Lock – the world’s first AI detective – she finds herself once again battling her own prejudices about the technological future he represents. But when a cyberattack takes out the National Grid, Kat and Lock have to race against the clock to track down the hacker before thousands die.
Tangled in a web of suspicion and deception, Kat must choose who and what to believe when the truth seems to defy both instinct and logic.
Can she set aside her old doubts and put her faith in her AI partner one last time? Or will this case send Lock down a path she just can’t follow – a path that will leave humanity behind for good?
Publishing 21st May 2026
PRAISE FOR JO CALLAGHAN:
‘Terrifyingly timely and provocative’ VAL McDERMID ‘The most original crime novel you’ll read this year’ CLARE MACKINTOSH ‘Just brilliant!’ LISA JEWELL ‘Sharp, perceptive writing and a brilliant new take on the detective duo’ T. M. LOGAN ‘Everything you could hope for in a thriller: heartbreaking, intelligent, deftly plotted and so original’ FIONA CUMMINS ‘A fresh take on the buddy-buddy cop trope . . . Provocative and compelling’ VASEEM KHAN ‘Wildly original, heartfelt, funny, and properly thrilling. Take a bow, Jo Callaghan’ CHRIS WHITAKER
I won’t let my four-year-old daughter Skylar go through what I had to. I won’t let my father do to her what he did to me and my sister.
I know how to play the good daughter. The perfect mother. The wife who smiles on cue.
But you don’t grow up in a house like mine without learning how to survive—how to keep secrets buried so deep they almost stop hurting.
Almost.
Last night I finally did something unforgivable. I tried to kill my father. Only . . . my mom picked up the wrong glass.
Now she’s lying in a hospital bed, unconscious. And I’m the dutiful daughter by her side, pretending to be shocked . . .
Alesha Dykema is a thirty-something-year-old author of thriller novels.
She lives in the dreadful Midwest with her strange husband, head-banging toddler son, a neurotic dog, and warden cat.
Besides writing, Alesha loves to read (like every other author in the world). Alesha is also a health and fitness junkie and a dabbler in furniture refinishing. She is extremely anti-social and wishes she lived off-grid in the middle of the woods, but her husband hates good ideas and happiness and won’t allow this to happen.
Even though she’s pretty anti-social, she still likes to make new friends and have casual chats about people’s childhood traumas.
When Amelia relocated to Cambridge for love, she never imagined her new life would become a nightmare. After uprooting her beauty therapy business to be with her fiancé Noah, Amelia receives the first message—anonymous, threatening, impossible to ignore.
As more sinister messages follow, Amelia’s new life begins to fall apart. It seems someone is watching her every move and now her clients are abandoning her for no reason she can see. It’s as if she’s done something wrong, but what?
And Noah is no help. He seems strangely distant, then conveniently vanishes to care for his sick father. Alone and terrified, Amelia suspects everyone. Then, when a photo arrives which proves she’s being stalked, Amelia realizes she’s not being paranoid – the danger is very real.
Trapped in her flat, jumping at shadows, Amelia must uncover who’s tormenting her—and why. Because in this game of psychological warfare, the people closest to her might be the most dangerous of all. Trust no one. Question everything. Survive.
Pretty Little Lies – the gripping psychological thriller perfect for fans of Lucy Foley, Ruth Ware, and Freida McFadden.
Jessica Huntley is an author of dark and twisty psychological thrillers, which often focus on mental health topics and delve deep into the minds of her characters. She has a varied career background, having joined the Army as an Intelligence Analyst, then left to become a Personal Trainer. She is now living her life-long dream of writing from the comfort of her home, while looking after her young son and her disabled black Labrador. She enjoys keeping fit and drinking wine (not at the same time).
My thoughts: I felt really sorry for Amelia, she’s uprooted her whole life, her business, everything, to move to Cambridge with Noah and just as things seem to be going well for her, she starts receiving nasty messages, someone is posting anonymous bad reviews of her services, and Noah basically abandons her.
She doesn’t know who to trust, she only has a few friends in the area and her fiance is MIA. The messages keep getting nastier and she’s completely bewildered as to why whoever this is, is targeting her.
When she finally gets some answers, it’s upsetting and a bit of a shock, but she’s incredibly understanding and just wishes she hadn’t been kept in the dark. Luckily so are her friends, and now she knows who she can trust.
The twists in this are pretty good, compelling and I spent ages trying to figure out what Charlotte (one of the characters keeping her secrets) was up to. Amelia was great, she was just trying to be good at her job and be present in her relationships.
I really liked this one, Jessica’s books are always good and she tackles some big issues here well.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
The world is on fire. Only one man can extinguish the flames.
Snakeriver – a shadowy private company that handles missions the U.S. government can’t touch. Former Navy SEAL Travis Delta is Snakeriver’s top gun. When Mossad and the CIA discover that Russia and Iran may be plotting to seize control of Eastern Europe and the Middle East, Travis is tasked with stopping them – by whatever means necessary.
The intel is chilling: first, Iran will obliterate Israel with Russian nuclear weapons. Then, while the Middle East burns, Russia’s ruthless president will seize Europe and resurrect his empire.
Delta covertly crosses into Iran, extracting critical intelligence with unexpected help from Nickie Chandler—a journalist and former lover.
From the treacherous streets of Tehran to a black site interrogation in Poland, Delta follows the conspiracy all the way to the heart of the Kremlin itself. There he embarks on what seems like a suicide mission – while the fate of the world hangs in the balance.
Hollow Point – book 1 in the stunning action series featuring ex-Navy SEAL, Travis Delta.
Perfect for fans of Lee Child, Jason Kasper & David Archer.
Russ Stone’s longtime interest in counterintelligence prompted him to create Travis Delta, the protagonist of his international conspiracy series. Each of these fact-based novels explores the growing threat posed by rogue nations, foreign agents, and terrorists, both foreign and domestic. Reviewers point to Stone’s crisp prose and highly credible plots as the twin engines that drive his stories.
He has published twenty-nine novels, among them police procedurals, satiric comedies, and psychological thrillers. His multifaceted career includes time spent as a university literature teacher, a U.S. military officer, a college vice president, a managing director of a major U.S. investment bank, and a professional watercolor artist.
A ninth-degree black belt in taekwondo, he has been a martial artist for more than fifty years and is a two-time U.S. national champion.
This is his first action thriller with Inkubator Books.
My thoughts: Snakeriver operates outside of the law, they do the jobs that the alphabet agencies can’t, but fully aware that everyone will deny knowing anything about the organisation. Travis Delta is their top operative.
When Russia and Iran decide to join forces and enact a rather terrible plan to eradicate Israel and rebuild the Soviet Union by throwing the world into chaos, neither the Israelis nor the Americans can be seen to interfere. But Snakeriver can.
Travis is tasked with putting an end to this plot, by any means necessary.
This means travelling around the globe to put his plans into action. His enemies are everywhere, but he’s an intelligent and ruthless operator.
This was a really cracking geopolitical thriller, while Travis’ methods may not be to everyone’s taste, they certainly get the job done.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 