Author: ramblingmads

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.
blog tour, books

BBNYA Semi-finalists: The Warriors of Bhrea; The Lost King – T.M Kohl

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This year, the Book Bloggers’ Novel of the Year Award (BBNYA) is celebrating the books that made it into Round Two with a mini spotlight blitz tour for each title. BBNYA is a yearly competition where book bloggers from all over the world read and score books written by indie authors, ending with 15 finalists and one overall winner.

If you want some more information about BBNYA, check out the BBNYA Website https://www.bbnya.com/ or take a peek over on Twitter @BBNYA_Official. BBNYA is brought to you in association with the @Foliosociety (if you love beautiful books, you NEED to check out their website!) and the book blogger support group @The_WriteReads.

She’s trapped on another world. With a strange voice in her head. What will it take to get back to Earth?

Lauren Strauss wanted a normal life, but fate had another idea in mind. Plagued by bizarre dreams and questions about her family’s past, Lauren hopes the day of her college graduation will lead to her getting answers…

When she’s caught up in a violent attack that rocks downtown Chicago, her mother arms her with a mysterious amulet which she will soon realize has a mind of its own. Tearing her from Earth and dropping her in an alien place, it abandons Lauren and leaves her to navigate this new world by herself. With the help of a young warrior, she discovers the secrets of her past and a new destiny she must embrace.

She will do anything to return home. But can she?

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T. M. Kohl’s passion is writing fantastic stories with unique worlds, cultures, and languages. Every day, her worlds grow a little bigger as she learns and gets inspired. Her current works include the epic fantasy series, The Warriors of Bhrea. When not writing, she enjoys hiking, playing the piano, and cuddling her cat Loki. Visit her website at www.tmkohl.com

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Season For Murder – Anna A Armstrong

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Enjoy a visit to the idyllic Cotswolds where the blackberry jam is delicious, the pumpkins are ripe and a killer is plotting death.

Vivian Plover is an unlikely murderer but needs must. If her bumbling husband is ever going to reach the exalted office of Lord-Lieutenant, Vivian, in sensible shoes, twin set and pearls has some murderous work to do. She is beset by challenges, from her godson’s fake fiancée to Dee’s meddling.

With the worthies of Little Warthing falling foul of accidents, can Dee FitzMorris thwart her scheme or will she find herself yet another victim?

Rarely has murder been so amusing.

Indulge in this quirky and humorous cozy crime novel that will keep you entertained from start to finish. Set in modern-day England, amidst the charming British Cotswold countryside, “Season for Murder” delivers a captivating blend of mystery and comedy. With its light-hearted atmosphere and engaging whodunit plot, this British detective series is a must-read for fans of cozy crime murder mysteries.

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My thoughts: this was an entertaining murder mystery, that was only a mystery to the characters. The killer was known to me (and all readers) from the offset. But her reasoning is of course completely bizarre.

Vivian wants her husband to be Lord-Lieutenant, whether he wants to or not, without even knowing if he’s in the running or what the people who decide these things think. She’s decided it has to happen and anyone who gets in her way will simply have to go. Including Dee FitzMorris, purely because Vivian thinks she’s a nuisance. And then there’s godson Tom’s “fiancèe” Emily, she’ll have to go too,as Vivian thinks Tom should marry her choice of bride.

Vivian should see someone about her god complex issues – instead she embarks on blackmail and attempted murder, but isn’t exactly a great killer. She almost offs her husband by accident at one point.

As the strange murder attempts continue, Dee and her family are confused by it all. Who is trying to kill these unconnected village residents, even the police are at a loss.

There’s plenty of other village goings on to enjoy too, fetes, new residents, Dee’s many attempts to drop off jars of jam, Tom and Emily’s blossoming love affair, it’s all very charming. And funny, this book did make me giggle.

*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, reviews

Blog Post: Clytemnestra’s Bind – Susan C. Wilson

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The House of Atreus is spiralling into self-destruction—a woman must find a way to break the family curse. Queen Clytemnestra’s world shatters when Agamemnon, a rival to the throne of Mycenae, storms her palace, destroys her family and claims not only the throne but Clytemnestra herself. Tormented by her loss, she vows to do all she can to protect the children born from her unhappy marriage to Agamemnon. But when her husband casts his ruthless gaze towards the wealthy citadel of Troy, his ambitions threaten to once more destroy the family Clytemnestra loves. From one of Greek mythology’s most reviled characters—a woman who challenged the absolute power of men—comes this fiery tale of power, family rivalry and a mother’s burning love.

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Author Bio:

Susan C Wilson has a degree in journalism from Napier University and a diploma in classical studies from the Open University. She has worked in such environments as the Scottish Courts and the Scottish Parliament. As a writer she loves to explore what makes us human: the eternal motivations, desires and instincts that cross time and place. She also aims to make ancient stories resonate with a modern audience, through historical fiction and contemporary retellings. Her debut novel, The House of Atreus: Clytemnestra’s Bind was longlisted for the Mslexia Novel Competition 2019 and will be published by Neem Tree Press in June 2023. This is the first of an epic trilogy and explores the Greek myth of Queen Clytemnestra from a feminist perspective.

Author Website

Author Twitter: @BronzeAgeWummin
Author Instagram: susancwilsonauthor

My thoughts: Greek tragedy is full of unhappy women and tragic families, the House of Atreus is particularly full of terrible deaths. Atreus murdered his nephews and fed them to their father, who brought an army to tear down Atreus. Agamemnon and Menelaus’ avenged their father’s murder and seized the throne of Mycenae, but then Agamemnon did something terrible in order to garner a fair wind for the attack on Troy – yes that one.

This book follows the story of Agamemnon’s wife, the unhappy Clytemnestra. Her first husband, Tantalus, is murdered by Agamemnon (his cousin) as is her infant son, and she is forced to marry their killer. Menelaus marries her sister Helen, who eloped to Troy with Paris and started off that whole war.

Agamemnon is not kind or loving, not to his wife or their children. He’s a bully and a killer, so it’s no surprise Clytemnestra falls for his foster-brother, with whom she plots his downfall, should he survive Troy.

The play cycle The Orestaia (named for their son Orestes) is where this story is most familiar to me – from studying it at uni many years ago, and of course from The Iliad. So it was interesting to actually get Clytemnestra’s perspective. She’s a character in these earlier works, but like most Greek women in the poems and plays, she’s mostly silent. Things happen to her, she has little agency.

This book gives some of that back to her. It’s a violent, bloody story but that was the world she lived in. One where murder and revenge play out in every day life.

Her love for her children, Iphigenia, Electra and Orestes, as well as her murdered infant son, are what sustain her through her horrible marriage to Agamemnon. It will be interesting to see how the author chooses to tell the next part of this bloody and brutal tale.

*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

BBNYA Semi-finalists: The Ventifact Colossus – Dorian Hart

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This year, the Book Bloggers’ Novel of the Year Award (BBNYA) is celebrating the books that made it into Round Two with a mini spotlight blitz tour for each title. BBNYA is a yearly competition where book bloggers from all over the world read and score books written by indie authors, ending with 15 finalists and one overall winner.

If you want some more information about BBNYA, check out the BBNYA Website https://www.bbnya.com/ or take a peek over on Twitter @BBNYA_Official. BBNYA is brought to you in association with the @Foliosociety (if you love beautiful books, you NEED to check out their website!) and the book blogger support group @The_WriteReads.

Banished to an otherworldly prison for centuries, the monstrous Emperor Naradawk is about to break free and wreak havoc upon the world of Spira. The archmage Abernathy can no longer keep the monster at bay, and has summoned a collection of would-be heroes to help set things right.

Surely he made a mistake. These *can’t* be the right people.

Dranko is priest-turned-pickpocket, expelled from his church for his antics. Kibilhathur is a painfully shy craftsman who speaks to stones. Aravia is a wizard’s apprentice whose intellect is eclipsed only by her arrogance. Ernest is a terrified baker’s son. Morningstar is a priestess forbidden from daylight. Tor is a young nobleman with attention issues. Ysabel is an elderly farm woman. Grey Wolf is a hard-bitten mercenary.

None of them are qualified to save the world, but they’ll have to do. Even Abernathy himself seems uncertain as to why he chose them.

What starts with a simple scouting mission soon spirals into something more far-reaching and sinister. The heroes will contest with dream warriors, evil cultists, sentient gemstones, and a devious yet infuriatingly polite gentleman with a perfect mustache, on their way to a desperate encounter with the unstoppable: The Ventifact Colossus.

The Ventifact Colossus is Book One of The Heroes of Spira.

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Dorian Hart is the author of the five-book Heroes of Spira epic fantasy series, which starts with The Ventifact Colossus.

In a bygone century, Dorian graduated from Wesleyan University with a degree in creative writing. This led circuitously to a 20-year career as a video game designer, where he contributed to many award-winning titles including Thief, System Shock, System Shock 2, and BioShock.

Now he writes books in his Boston-area study, serves as the stay-at-home dad for his two daughters, plays as much pickleball as he can arrange, and happily allows his wife to drag him off on various wilderness adventures.

You can find him online at:

Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/DorianHart 

Bluesky: @dorianhart.bsky.social

books

Cover Reveal: In The Shadows – L.B. August

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Amidst a realm on the brink of chaos, two souls collide in “In The Shadows,” defying gods and risking everything for love, in a captivating tale of power, sacrifice, and the battle between destiny and desire.

Goodreads

To be published February 2024

Born and raised in Ohio, where she still resides with her spouse, young child, and sweet senior dog, L.B. August’s most significant memories are Cedar Point and failing Hooked on Phonics (true story). Thrill seeking and difficulty reading followed L.B. into adulthood until, in 2022, she discovered a genre that tapped into the excitement of escapism and world building while capturing her attention and turning her into a voracious reader of fantasy. As she devoured book after book, L.B. found herself desperately wanting to read more empowered female characters within the genre, so she set off to write her own. Encouraged by her best friend, she wrote her debut novel, In The Shadows. Now she can be found hyper-fixating on new projects, downing copious amounts of black coffee, and pretending to be a corporate professional, all while crafting intricate, rich stories with captivating characters that she hopes will pass on her newfound passion for reading.

Social media:

Cover reveal organised by Zooloo’s Book Tours

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: After the Sleepover – Kerry Wilkinson

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“Gone. They’re gone.” Dylan’s wide-eyed mother bites her nails in desperation. “All three kids. They wanted to sleep outside. But I went to check this morning and… the tents are empty. They’re gone.”

Twenty-five years ago: teenage Leah had a sleepover with her three best friends. By morning, the other girls were missing. This small town has been searching for answers ever since. Now it’s happened again…

Three boys decide to camp in a field next to one of their homes. When dawn comes, dew glistens on their empty tents.

Overgrown farmland is searched. Three distraught families are desperate for news. A mother herself now, Leah’s heart breaks as terrible memories flood back…

Leah thought she knew what happened at the sleepover years ago but now another three children are missing. What if she was wrong? And how far will Leah have to go, to finally discover the truth, before it’s too late?

A completely addictive psychological thriller packed with twists, that will have you up all night racing through the pages. After the Sleepover can be enjoyed as a standalone read, and anyone who loves Shari Lapena, Lisa Jewell, or The Perfect Marriage won’t be able to put it down.

Amazon

Kerry Wilkinson is from the English county of Somerset but has spent far too long living in the north. It’s there that he’s picked up possibly made-up regional words like ‘barm’ and ‘ginnel’. He pretends to know what they mean.

He’s also been busy since turning thirty: his Jessica Daniel crime series has sold more than a million copies in the UK; he has written a fantasy-adventure trilogy for young adults; a second crime series featuring private investigator Andrew Hunter and the standalone thriller, Down Among The Dead Men.

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My thoughts: Leah is only finally coming to terms with the secrets she learnt about her own friends’ disappearance when the mother of a teenage boy the same age as her son asks for her help. She was at school with Leah and now she’s living every mother’s nightmare – her son and his friends have disappeared…or have they?

Leah is uncomfortable supporting Jennifer, a woman she barely knows, but does it anyway, she’s a good person and feels sorry for her.

However when Jennifer’s son reappears, minus his friends, with a weird story about being kidnapped by a man who threatened to kill them “like those girls”, with what Leah knows, something isn’t quite right.

Turning to her dad, despite him being the last person alive she would normally contact, Leah does some digging. And actual bones are found on Jennifer’s land too. Something very strange is going on.

Shocking, twisting and full of gasp out loud moments, this is a great follow up to The Night of the Sleepover although you don’t have to have read it to enjoy this. Leah is a wonderful protagonist, willing to help people but not gullible or naive enough to fall for everything people say. Putting her amateur detective skills to work preventing a sort of copycat from getting away with it pushes her to reconsider how she’s seen by the people in her home town.

*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

Blog Tour: More Than Our Fake Vows – Katie Richard

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We’re celebrating the release of Katie Richard’s latest romance, More than Our Fake Vows! Read on for more details and visit one of our Bookstagram hosts for a chance to win a book box!

More Than Our

More than Our Fake Vows

Publication Date: December 12, 2023

Genre: Contemporary Romance

🎵Marriage of Convenience
🎵Friends to Lovers
🎵Slow Burn
🎵Small Town
🎵Spicy
🎵Country Music Star

After catching her fiancé cheating, Natalie leaves the city she’s grown to love. Starting over in Hickory Valley, Georgia, a one-redlight town that makes for the perfect escape, or so she thought. Natalie makes quick friends with a local bartender and they both decide to make a pact- no men for a year. Natalie doubles down on her career until a handsome stranger strolls into the bar and threatens her resolve.

Teagan’s gold-digging ex is threatening to ruin him, his band and anything else she can get her greedy hands on. Hickory Valley looks like just the place to hide out while the press calms down. Nobody would think to look for him in this dust covered farm town.

With a cruel twist of fate, Natalie finds herself needing a husband, and fast! A fake marriage could fix both of their problems and what did they have to lose? Neither Teagan nor Natalie wants an actual relationship, it only has to look real to everyone else.

A string of events, tests their friendship and when emotions run high are they able to keep their feelings at bay? Or will they fall victim to the other’s charm and throw caution to the wind?

Available on Amazon

About the Author

newauthorphoto

Katie is an Indie Author who lives in Vermont with her husband and their children. When she’s not busy working, writing, or spending time with loved ones, she enjoys getting lost in a good book. Katie loves all types of gardening but especially enjoys flowers. When she’s not hard at work writing the next novel in the Destiny Of Graystone series or the standalone romantic suspense novels, she likes creating things in Canva or Procreate!

Katie Richard

Book Tour Organized By:

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blog tour, books

BBNYA Semi-finalists: The Unadjusteds – Marisa Noelle

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This year, the Book Bloggers’ Novel of the Year Award (BBNYA) is celebrating the books that made it into Round Two with a mini spotlight blitz tour for each title. BBNYA is a yearly competition where book bloggers from all over the world read and score books written by indie authors, ending with 15 finalists and one overall winner.

If you want some more information about BBNYA, check out the BBNYA Website https://www.bbnya.com/ or take a peek over on Twitter @BBNYA_Official. BBNYA is brought to you in association with the @Foliosociety (if you love beautiful books, you NEED to check out their website!) and the book blogger support group @The_WriteReads.

IF YOU COULD ALTER YOUR DNA WITH ONE PILL…WOULD YOU?

When the president declares all unadjusteds must take a nanite, sixteen year old Silver Melody has no choice but to flee the city. She has no genetic enhancements. She is 100% human, and wants to stay that way.

Escaping with her family and friends, Silver plans to hide out and deal with an awkward love triangle while her scientist father makes a cure. But she doesn’t count on her father being captured, on the president setting an immortal army and hellhounds on her tail, or dealing with her crippling anxiety.

Her only chance to recover her father involves teaming up with a new group of unlikely friends and rescuing him before the unadjusteds are wiped out.

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Marisa Noelle writes tense and pacy novels in dystopian, science-fiction, fantasy, and horror. The ocean and mental health are her two deepest passions (besides her family, naturally, and let’s not forget the dog). Although quite a few ocean settings a have made it into her novels, she can’t find an excuse to set everything by the sea. After dealing with her own mental health issues, mental health representation will always be reflected in her writing and 10% of her profits go to mental health charities.

Her books include:

The Unraveling of Luna Forester (Short listed for the Booklife Prize (Publishers Weekly))

The Shadow Keepers

The Unadjusteds Trilogy

The Mermaid Chronicles (5 book series)

Screen Writing:

When the Water Runs Dry was shortlisted for the 666 horror film competition.

Marisa’s side freelance editing and mentoring aspiring MG & YA authors through the Write Mentor program — helping many authors to achieve agent representation and gain traditional publishing deals. With dual citizenship, Marisa has lived on both sides of the Atlantic and uses both UK & USA settings as inspiration for her novels.

You can find her on Twitter and Instagram @MarisaNoelle77, TikTok @MarisaNoelle12, or her website www.MarisaNoelle.com 

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Make Her Pay – Miranda Rijks

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Leonie has the perfect life. Someone wants to take it away.

Leonie is living her best life. Still in her twenties, she’s beautiful, successful and has just met Markus, the man of her dreams.

But Leonie has a secret. Ten years ago, she was involved in an accident in which another driver died. Leonie shouldn’t have been behind the wheel that night – no license, no insurance – so she fled the scene. And ever since, she’s been struggling to deal with the terrible guilt.

Now, as her wedding to Markus draws near, it seems someone is out to get her. It’s little things at first – botched work appointments, a cancelled bridal dress – but it soon escalates into a terrifying campaign which threatens her business, her family and even her life.

Leonie, caught up in a relentless nightmare, has no idea why anyone would set out to destroy her. Until she realizes there’s a link to the accident that happened all those years ago.

Someone knows what she did. Someone is determined to make her pay.

Goodreads – Buy Link

Miranda Rijks is a writer of psychological thrillers and suspense novels. She has an eclectic background ranging from law to running a garden centre. 

She’s been writing all of her life and has a Masters in writing. A couple of years ago she decided to ditch the business plans and press releases and now she’s living the dream, writing suspense novels full time. 

She lives in Sussex, England with her Dutch husband, musician daughter and black Labrador.

This is her twentieth psychological thriller with Inkubator Books.

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My thoughts: this was twisting, clever and dark thriller about revenge, guilt and the terrible ways people betray one another.

Leonie was involved in a terrible car accident as a teenager, and her parents covered it up. She thinks there were no survivors and has had to live with that guilt – and her dad’s controlling ways, ever since.

But someone wants to destroy her life, someone wants to make her suffer and they’re closer than she thinks.

After marrying the man of her dreams – Markus, who turns out to not exactly be who he said he was. She thinks life is set, until he dies. Then things start to unravel and she ends up fighting for her life, right back where it all started years ago.

Can Leonie survive her worst nightmare, and can she finally break free from her parents and their control over her life?

Right up until the very end the plot takes sudden turns and throws new curveballs, leaving you wondering how it can get worse. Gripping and entertaining stuff.

Click on the image for more on the tour

*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, reviews

Blog Tour: Mourned by Men – Katie Frendreis

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We’re celebrating the release of Mourned by Men this week, and if you love fantasy mixed with Greek mythology, you are going to want to read it!

Mourned by Men 1800x2700

Mourned by Men

Publication Date: December 12, 2023

Genre: Historical Fantasy/ Greek Mythology

Her mother told them they were daughters of a god. But can the children of gods hurt? Can they die and fail like any other mortal?

Penthesilea knew her life was different. Growing up on the lush island of the Amazons, she and her sister lived on the cusp of two worlds—the warlike one of men and the soft and mothering one of women. But Amazonian girls learn to fight, to defend their home, to battle their enemies. They are neither soft nor cold, neither fully female nor male in their traditions. However, the outside world breaks their peace, and Pen finds her sister drawn to the men outside in a way she herself cannot understand. When tragedy befalls the sisters, Pen and her warrior women journey to Troy, the site of the legendary war between friend and foe, where the Amazon queen must decide between tradition and a new sort of life that only she can define.

The Trojan War made famous Hector, Achilles, and Aeneas, but there are also Penthesilea and her Amazons and a host of legendary characters, their stories stripped of magic and deus ex machina, bared to the world as simple men and women, struggling against the often-deadly fates foretold in myth.

Available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble

About the Author

katie hshot

Katie Frendreis grew up in Chicago, reading mythology and illustrating her own fantastical adventures. This is her first published novel. She earned her BA in Classical Civilization from Loyola University and has worked in such diverse places as museums, dance studios, and funeral homes. Collecting hobbies like some people collect stamps, she also draws, paints, teaches tap dancing, and trains as an aerialist. She currently lives just outside Chicago with her husband, an adorable fruit bat/dog, a massive collection of books, and a rather large Lego community in her basement.

Katie Frendreis

My thoughts: Penthisilea (her name means “mourned by men”) is the queen of the Amazons at the time of the Trojan War, and according to Homer, dies on the battlefield. Interestingly her warrior women fight for Troy, honouring a long connection between King Priam and her mother.

Greek mythology is littered with terrible men, and this story has several – Paris spoilt son of Troy who quite frankly should know better than to steal the wife of a belligerent Greek king – Menelaus (another terrible man), then there’s Heracles (wife killer, child killer, reason a lot of people end up dead), Theseus (general shit) who marries her sister Hippolyta, has a son with her (Hippolytus) and then decides he wants a different wife. Hippolyta’s terrible death, defending him, doesn’t stop him from being a terrible person either.

Penthisilea only really likes Priam, his son Hector and Hector’s killer, her enemy the Greek hero Achilles, who treats her with respect. Otherwise she’s not keen on men. Can’t really blame her.

This is a really interesting retelling of the life of another incredible character from Greek mythology to file alongside those of Circe, Penelope, Medea and Ariadne (another of Theseus’ victims).

Book Tour Schedule

December 11th

http://rrbooktours.com Landing Page

https://www.instagram.com/emerald.moon.reads/ – Review

https://justmeandmyblogreviews.blogspot.com/ – Review

https://www.instagram.com/fathomsamidstthelines/ – Review

https://www.instagram.com/bookgrlobsessed/ – Review

https://www.ladyhawkeye.com/ – Feature

December 12th

https://www.instagram.com/joyreadingbooks/ – Review

https://instagram.com/redbookreview – Review

https://www.instagram.com/robin.bookish.escape/ – Review

https://www.instagram.com/tkeyahreads?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA%3D%3D – Review

December 13th

https://www.instagram.com/_books.in.wonderland_/ – Review

https://www.instagram.com/fionaisreading/ – Review

https://www.instagram.com/bookwyrmlayne/ – Review

https://www.instagram.com/bookmarkedbymaddie/ – Review

https://www.instagram.com/bookreviewsbytaylor/ – Review

http://www.ismellsheep.com/ – Feature

December 14th

https://www.instagram.com/calhoun.crew/ – Review

https://www.instagram.com/jlreadstoperpetuity – Review

http://ramblingmads.com – Review

https://www.instagram.com/bookloversamantha?igshid=NzZlODBkYWE4Ng%3D%3D – Review

https://www.instagram.com/cupcakes_books – Review

https://www.instagram.com/authormariereed/ – Feature

December 15th

https://www.instagram.com/countrymamaswithkids – Review

https://www.instagram.com/emmabeeslibrary/ – Review

https://www.instagram.com/excavating.my.tbr/ – Review

https://www.instagram.com/thebookishbrunette20?igshid=MTNiYzNiMzkwZA%3D%3D – Review

https://www.instagram.com/alibraryforfairies/ – Review

Book Tour Organized By:

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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.