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, reviews

Blog Tour: How Not to Murder Your Ex – Katie Marsh

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It is 5:30 am on Clio’s forty-fifth birthday and her hated ex is lying dead on her doorstep. Even worse, this is no accident. Someone’s killed him…
When single mum Clio’s ex Gary turns up dead on the doorstep of her caravan – the one she’s been forced to live in ever since he stole every penny she had – there’s only one suspect. Her.
What’s more, she doesn’t remember much about the night he was killed – not just because of the forgetfulness that’s been plaguing her along with the hot flushes – but because she definitely had one too many cocktails with her two best friends Amber and Jeanie.
Clio does remember them talking about how much they all hated him though. And, in the frame for murder, she has to ask herself – if she didn’t kill Gary, who did? One of his many enemies? Or someone a little closer to home? And can she and her friends find the real killer before it’s too late?
Unputdownable mystery set on the English coast – perfect for fans of The Thursday Murder Club, Bad Sisters, and How to Kill Your Family.
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Katie Marsh wrote five bestselling, uplifting women’s fiction novels before turning to cosy crime for Boldwood. Previously published by Hodder, the first in her new crime series How Not To Murder Your Ex, following the fortunes of the Bad Girls Detective Agency, will be published in December 2023.

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My thoughts: Clio didn’t kill her awful ex-husband but she certainly has a lot of reasons why she might. But so do quite a few other people, it turns out. Gary is a pretty terrible person and quite frankly it’s impossible to feel sorry for him.

Although Clio does end up in custody at one point, thankfully her besties – Amber, a former police detective with something to prove, and Joanie – a sleep deprived mother on twins currently on mat leave, are on hand to solve the case and stop Clio taking the blame for something she didn’t do.

Funny, entertaining, with a cast of very relatable and rather brilliant protagonists, this was a lot of fun and a good start to a new crime series.

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

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BBNYA Semi-finalists: The Rarkyn’s Familiar – Nikky Lee

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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.

An orphan bent on revenge. A monster searching for freedom. A forbidden pact that binds their fates together.

Lyss has heard her father’s screams; smelled the iron-tang of his blood. She’s witnessed his execution.

And plotted her revenge.

Then a violent encounter traps Lyss in a blood-pact with a rarkyn from the otherworld and imbues her with the monster’s forbidden magic. A magic that will erode her sanity. To break the pact, she and the rarkyn must journey to the heart of the Empire. All that stands in their way are the mountains and the Empire’s soldiers—and each other.

But horrors await them on the road, horrors even rarkyns fear. The most terrifying monster isn’t the one Lyss travels with…

It’s the one that’s awoken inside her.

Monsters of a feather flock together.

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Nikky Lee is an award-winning author who grew up as a barefoot 90s kid in Perth, Western Australia on Whadjuk Noongar Country. She now lives in Aotearoa New Zealand with a husband, a dog and a couch potato cat. In her free time she writes speculative fiction, often burning the candle at both ends to explore fantastic worlds, mine asteroids and meet wizards. She’s had over two dozen stories published in magazines, anthologies and on radio.

Her short fiction has been shortlisted six times in the Aurealis Awards with her novelette Dingo & Sister winning the Best Young Adult Short Story and the Best Fantasy Novella categories in 2020. In 2021, she received a Ditmar Award for Best New Talent. Her debut novel The Rarkyn’s Familiar won the 2023 Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Youth Novel, three 2022 Indie Ink Awards, Bronze in Young Adult Fiction at the 2022 Foreward INDIES Book of the Year Awards, and was a finalist in the 2022 Aurealis Awards for Best Young Adult Novel.

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Blog Tour: The Legend of Gasparilla – S.T. Fernandez

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The Legend of Gasparilla copy

Bridgerton meets Pirates of the Caribbean

Welcome to the tour for The Legend of Gasparilla by S.T. Fernandez, a gorgeous historical fantasy full or romance and pirates!

Ebook_Cover - The Legend of Gasparilla

The Legend of Gasparilla: A Historical Pirate Romance

Publication Date: November 7, 2023

Genre: Historical Fantasy Romance/ Pirates

Bridgerton meets Pirates of the Caribbean in a story many argue is not a myth but a legend.

Admiral José Gaspar of the Spanish Royal Navy had it all: the love of his life, Joséfa de Mayorga; the confidence of the King; and a plan to become one of the most successful merchants in all of Spain. But when a jilted former lover accuses him of stealing the crown jewels, he escapes Sevilla only to realize he’s duped into piracy, further staining his legacy. Gaspar continues down an immoral path he works relentlessly to resist. The dream life he yearned for with Joséfa slowly slips away, his reputation far too ruined to be worthy of her honor.

After having her beloved ripped from her life, Joséfa and Gaspar’s friends work tirelessly to clear his name to no avail. When fate finally hands her a chance, she sets sail to find José, but fate is both friend and foe. Joséfa discovers the man she lost is different from the viscous pirate she rescues from certain death.

When infamous pirate hunter Lieutenant Kearny of the USS Enterprise sets his sights on the new pirate, Gaspar must decide between a dark and perilous addiction to piracy or living a subdued life in the shadows. His darker inhibitions may take his soul hostage, and Joséfa’s love may not be enough to save him.

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About the Author

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S.T. Fernandez, known as Stephanie, is originally from Orlando, Florida, and was born to two parents from La Isla del Encanto, Puerto Rico. She now resides in the beautiful small beach town of Ventura, California with her husband and their two wiener puppies.
Stephanie is an avid reader of all levels of spicy, steamy romance—mostly in fantasy, historical, or paranormal genres. Just as much as she enjoys disappearing into a good book, creating a story that readers can disappear into brings her immense joy.
She is currently working on her second book in the fantasy romance genre, full of wonderfully diverse characters and themes. S.T. Fernandez’s fantasy romance intertwines Puerto Rico’s Taino indigenous culture’s beautiful themes and language into a fantasy world. She is thrilled and excited to present it to readers when completed.

ST. Fernandez

My thoughts: I love pirates, always have since I learnt about Edward Teach aka Blackbeard aged 5. So this was right up my gangplank.

A well respected Admiral in the Spanish Navy and advisor to the King, Josè Gaspard is horrified when an ex-lover and her new fiancé accuse him of stealing from the king and he is arrested. Escaping from prison and smuggled aboard a ship, which turns out to be captained by an English pirate. Forced to join the crew and separated from his love, Josefa, Gaspard becomes what he most dreads.

Back home Josefa has kept faith and petitioned the new king, son of the man who imprisoned Josè, for a pardon. But neither she nor the king know that he has become a pirate and killed Spanish sailors.

Josè’s story is related by the descendants of a crew mate and his own family years later, while living in Florida, still a wanted man.

There’s lots of swashbuckling adventure on the high seas, but it is Josefa’s love and devotion to him that holds this story together, whatever he has done she forgives.

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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.

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Cover Reveal: Odd Mom Out – Sandy Day

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Life just got life-y…

On the night that Trudy Asp discovers her ex is engaged to the same dental hygienist who’s been picking at her teeth for ten years, her daughter, Madison, suddenly announces that she too is getting married, in Europe.

Frumpy, floundering, and forced to live with her martini-swilling mother, Trudy is swamped by these revelations. And on top of it all, she’ll be wearing the second most scrutinized gown at the wedding.

Having packed on the pounds during the demise of her marriage, the idea of being eyeballed by her ex and his scrawny fiancée Zelda, is truly horrifying. To make matters worse, there’s the paralyzing fear of a transatlantic flight — something Trudy has avoided for decades.

When Zelda offers to stand in for her, Trudy is forced to confront the forces that stole her marriage and threaten to steal her daughter’s wedding too. With three months until the ceremony, Trudy must get to Europe, squeeze herself into a gown, and claim the role she wants more than anything: Mother-of-the-Bride.

Will this Odd Mom Out sink or swim? Or will she drown in a sea of humiliation?

Pre-order Links

Publication Date: 1st January 2024

Author Bio – 

Sandy Day is a recovering chatterbox and writer of riveting slice-of-life poetry, memoir, and fiction. She has authored five books to date, with two in the works. A graduate of Glendon College, she studied creative writing under Michael Ondaatje and bp nichol. A lover of cheese, coffee shops, and illustrations, she lives on the shore of Lake Simcoe in Georgina, Ontario, Canada. You can find and follow her on Substack and sandyday.ca – it rhymes!

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BBNYA Semi-finalists: The Point Where the Ocean Ends – Siobhan Murphy

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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.

Fate can conspire to put two people in the exact right place at the exact right time. And just as easily it can tear them apart.

As winter turns to spring on the North Cornish coast, Kerensa O’Connell receives an unexpected message relating to a passionate relationship from deep in her past. A message which stirs up vivid memories, and threatens to derail the comfortable life she has created for herself after years of drifting.

While the world is forced to press the pause button, Kerensa battles both mental and physical health issues and has no choice but to slow down and confront the demons that have plagued her throughout her life.

Simultaneously unfolding over a few months and several decades, the story moves from the windswept plains of East Africa to the stunning islands of the Great Barrier Reef, the tranquil mountains of the Himalayas, and the bustling cities of Europe. Kerensa confronts happiness and heartbreak through the lens of her camera and her connection to the people she loves. Piecing together her memories of love, loss, and adventure, she starts to make sense of the choices she has made and question the internal chaos that has always defined her.

Finally the secret she has been kept buried for years comes to light and Kerensa must decide once and for all what she is looking for from life and whom she wants by her side.

An unforgettable love story about wanderlust, heartbreak and colliding life paths.

A lyrical meditation on the importance of our memories and a reminder that sometimes, letting go of the past can take a whole lifetime.

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Siobhan Murphy a contemporary women’s fiction writer based in the UK. Over the years she’s drifted around the world in search of adventure, hoping to figure out what to do with her life. She is not sure if she’s found the answers, but loves to learn and has always wanted to write books.

As an impulsive and easily bored individual with hundreds of ideas spinning around her brain on any given day, she has turned her hand to many jobs over the years. Her favourite job was as a bookseller for Waterstones, recommending books to customers and applying those 3 for 2 stickers that people find so hard to remove. For the last 17 years she has been a professional photographer, taking portraits of humans – often the really, really small ones.  

She is unable to use 3 words where 300 will do and suffers from a condition called Pareidolia, which causes her to see faces in everyday objects. Her hobbies include eating sweets, talking nonsense and walking into rooms wondering why she is there.  She overthinks everything so will no doubt keep deleting and re-writing this bio for the forseeable future. 

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Blog Tour: The Haunting Scent of Poppies – Victoria Williamson

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A spine-chilling winter ghost story set in the months after the Great War. Perfect for lovers of MR James and Susan Hill

The War is over, but for petty criminal Charlie his darkest days are only just beginning.

Charlie Briggs is never off-duty, even when a botched job means he’s forced to lay low in a sleepy Hampshire town for the holiday season. Always searching for his next unwitting victim, or a shiny trinket he can pilfer, he can’t believe his luck when he happens upon a rare book so valuable it will set him up for life. All he needs to do is sit tight until Boxing Day. But there’s a desperate story that bleeds beyond the pages; something far more dangerous than London’s mobsters is lurking in the shadows.

Could the book be cursed? Why is he haunted by the horrors of war? Can he put things right before he’s suffocated by his own greed?

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Victoria Williamson is an award-winning author who grew up in Scotland surrounded by hills, books, and an historical farm estate which inspired many of her early adventure stories and spooky tales. After studying Physics at the University of Glasgow, she set out on her own real-life adventures, which included teaching maths and science in Cameroon, training teachers in Malawi, teaching English in China and working with children with additional support needs in the UK. Victoria currently works part time writing KS2 books for the education company Twinkl and spends the rest of her time writing novels, and visiting schools, libraries and literary festivals to give author talks and run creative writing workshops.

Victoria’s previous novels include The Fox Girl and the White Gazelle, The Boy with the Butterfly Mind, Hag Storm, and War of the Wind. She has won the Bolton Children’s Fiction Award 2020/2021, The YA-aldi Glasgow Secondary School Libraries Book Award 2023, and has been shortlisted for the Week Junior Book Awards 2023, The Leeds Book Awards 2023, the Red Book Award 2023, the James Reckitt Hull Book Awards 2021, The Trinity School Book Awards 2021, and longlisted for the ABA South Coast Book Awards 2023, the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2020, and the Branford Boase Award 2019.

Her latest novel, The Pawnshop of Stolen Dreams, is a middle grade fantasy inspired by classic folklore. Twenty percent of the author royalties for this book are donated to CharChar Literacy, an organisation working to improve children’s literacy levels in Malawi.You can find out more about Victoria’s books, school visits and free resources for schools on her website: www.strangelymagical.com

Thank you Victoria for this lovely book parcel

My thoughts: this slim little volume contains a creepy ghost story perfect for this time of year. Thief Charlie steals a rare French translation of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, but the book is haunted. Its former owner died from mustard gas exposure on the battlefields of WW1 France, while an obliging doctor wrote Charlie a false sick note.

Now the ghost of Arthur and the terrible death he suffered is haunting Charlie. He can’t sleep and it pursues him everywhere demanding “Remember me”.

He tries to return the book but can’t and in the end the scent of poppies and gas seem to drive him mad. A short but powerful tale of greed and guilt.

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

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BBNYA Semi-finalists: The Phoenix and the Sword – J C Snow

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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.

Cursed with immortality and destroying fire, Aili Fallon will cross life and death to find the truth.

Aili is desperate.

Determined to escape her past, the young woman refuses to let anything impede her training as a combat nurse. But when the woman she loves binds her with blood and disappears, Aili is transformed into a magical killer, a blood-bound healer, an immortal being.

Gambling with her own existence, she crosses through phoenix gates into a new world. But when she is reunited with her lost love, she learns they have been pawns in an ancient game of immortals, the keystone in a demon’s curse.

Will Aili’s newfound power and the secrets of her past destroy her, or can she and her lost phoenix unravel the binding of life and death?

The Phoenix and the Sword is the first book in the Crane Moon Cycle, a queer epic fantasy novel set in a world of spiritual powers, past lives, and beings of myth and legend. Unexpected, multilayered, and beautiful, The Phoenix and the Sword begins a tale of love and adventure that crosses centuries and worlds.

***

The Crane Moon Cycle is set in a world that includes war and violence, and themes that may be difficult for some readers. Please see the author’s website, jcsnow.carrd.co, for list and details.

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J. C. Snow (she/her) is a queer fantasy author. Her fantasy worlds are inspired by diverse historical and cultural settings, and her stories always center queer characters. She holds a PhD in Religious Studies from Columbia University and has written extensively on religion and race in American history, including a book on religion and early Asian immigration to the United States. She lives with her amazing partner and child in the Bay Area. When not writing she is mostly wishing she could be writing, or wandering around unsupervised at night listening to spotify character playlists.

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Blog Tour: Arsenic at Ascot – Kelly Oliver

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Saddle up for this first class historical mystery, perfect for fans of Helena Dixon and Verity Bright.


London, 1918
Fiona Figg finds herself back in Old Blighty saddled with shuffling papers for the war office. Then a mysterious card arrives, inviting her to a fancy house party at Mentmore Castle. This year’s Ascot-
themed do will play host to a stable of animal defense advocates, and Fiona is tasked with infiltrating the activists and uncovering possible anti-war activity.
Disguised as the Lady Tabitha Kenworthy, Fiona is more than ready for the “mane” event, but the odds are against her when both her arch nemesis, dark-horse Fredrick Fredricks, and would-be fiancé
Lieutenant Archie Somersby arrive unexpectedly and “stirrup” her plans. And when a horse doctor thuds to the floor in the next guest room, Fiona finds herself investigating a mysterious poisoning
with some very hairy clues.
Can Fiona overcome the hurdles and solve both cases, or will she be pipped to the post and put out to pasture by the killer?
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Kelly Oliver is the award-winning, bestselling author of three mysteries series: The Jessica James Mysteries, The Pet Detective Mysteries, and the historical cozies The Fiona Figg Mysteries, set in
WW1. She is also the Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University and lives in Nashville, Tennessee. She is bringing new titles in the Fiona Figg series to Boldwood, the first of
which, Chaos in Carnegie Hall, will be published in November 2022.

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My thoughts: released from the dreaded filing, Fiona Figg is finally given a case of her own and actually encouraged to don her collection of costumes with the War Office footing the bill!

She’s undercover at Porton Down – the MOD’s chemical warfare research facility, and also at a fancy Ascot themed country house party – what could possibly go wrong?

Obviously there’s a murder – it’s the perfect setting for one, and Fiona is on the case. Escorted as ever by Clifford, and with the arrival of Archie, Fredericks and Kitty (with Poppy on a lead) the gang’s all there to help solve, or possibly hinder, the investigation. As well as the murdered scientist, there’s some missing race horses, an anti-vivesectionist group to infiltrate and someone is leaking secrets from the research lab. It’s all go.

Tremendous fun as always, with Fiona never entirely sure where she stands but happy to have an official case to investigate. Her relationships with Archie and Fredericks continue to be more complicated than she’d like and Kitty is still a bit of a nuisance, but at least she brought her forensics kit along.

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

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BBNYA Semi-finalists: The Only Exception – Claire Huston

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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.

Lucinda Green knows something is missing from her life. But what? Her catering business is enjoying modest success and she loves her cosy house, even if she does have to share it with her irritating ex-fiancé.

Whatever’s making her unsettled and edgy, Lucinda’s certain that a lack of romance isn’t the problem. How could it be when she doesn’t believe in true love?

But Lucinda’s beliefs are shaken by a series of electric encounters with Alex Fraser, a newly notorious actor who gradually proves himself to be infuriatingly funny and smart, as well as handsome.

Not that any of that matters. Because Lucinda doesn’t believe in all that ‘The One’ nonsense. That’s the rule.

But doesn’t every rule have an exception?

A sweet, slow-burn romcom perfect for fans of Portia MacIntosh, Trisha Ashley and Kathryn Freeman. This standalone, grumpy-sunshine romance is part of the Love in the Comptons collection.

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Claire Huston lives in Warwickshire, UK, with her husband and two children. She writes uplifting modern love stories about characters who are meant for each other but sometimes need a little help to realise it.

As well as her website, clairehuston.co.uk, you can find her on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok: linktr.ee/clairehuston_author

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Book Blitz: Spread; Tales of Deadly Flora – edited by R.A. Clarke

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Green thumbs beware. Plants are beautiful, peaceful, abundant, and life-sustaining. But what if something sinister took root in the soil, awakening to unleash slashing thorns, squeezing vines, or haunting greenery that lured you in? Perhaps blooms on distant planets could claim your heart, hitch a ride to Earth on a meteor, or simply poison you with their essence. Imagine a world where scientists produced our own demise in a lab, set spores free to infect, even bred ferns to be our friends only to witness the privilege perverted. When faced with botanical terror, will humanity fight to survive, or will they curl and wither like leaves in the fall? Read ten speculative tales ripe with
dangerous flora to find out.
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Editor R.A. Clarke

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An excerpt from Spread: Tales of Deadly Flora (Page Turn Press).
Black Thumb by Alyssa Beatty.

When a woman encounters a mysterious plant on an alien planet that can make all of her pain go away, she must decide whether to let it.


Lexa’s dirty secret: for a botanist, she had a shockingly black thumb. She could identify and classify like nobody’s business but give her an actual houseplant, and she’d kill it within a month, despite knowing its preferred soil pH level, sunlight, and watering requirements. So, it
was a bit of a surprise to see a mutated version of Nepenthes Distillatoria, a pitcher plant, sitting in the arc of her windowsill, with a red bow on it.
She tiptoed toward it. The flora on this planet was more aggressive than the plants on Earth. The ice-shard leaves of the towering trees had a nasty habit of detaching and plunging to the ground, right through the skull of an unsuspecting settler below. Then the trunk sent out
winding tendrils that drank the blood up with a truly unsettling slurping sound. On the other hand, the little purple-leaved plants near the beach sang when you stroked them, a lilting melody that Ciara, Lexa’s boss, swore was an Irish lullaby.
The plant sat placidly in its pot. It didn’t hiss or try to bite. Smaller pitchers surrounded a large central one, all facing it like children sitting around a teacher at story time. Their lids were delicate blue, a rare colour in this red-tinged world. Lexa bent to the largest pitcher to smell the
phytotelmata, the reserve of nectar resting in the bottom of the trap. It smelled like real rain on real soil. She heard the tapping of raindrops on green leaves. She bent closer, then stepped back.
“Nice try,” she told the plant.
The lid snapped down over the pitcher. A little petulantly, Lexa thought.
She fingered the bow on the pot. The thought skittered across her mind, briefly, that maybe this was some sort of peace offering from Gary. He knew her affinity for carnivorous plants. Or at least the affinity she used to have. On this planet, where every other plant harboured
a murderous urge, the bloom was off the rose for her and Dionaea Muscipula. And anyway, it was unlikely Gary was in a peace offering mood.
And there it was, that pressure in her chest again, like some unseen hand squeezing the life out of her heart. She closed her eyes and breathed. It was probably her imagination, but when she opened her eyes, she swore the little plant looked repentant.
“It’s okay, ” she told it. “It’s nothing to do with you. You’re lovely, whatever you are. This is human stuff.”
The stems straightened, and the pitchers opened, releasing the sweet scent of rain into the pod.
“Thanks,” Lexa mumbled. Then felt like an idiot. She talked to plants all the time; they
were good listeners. But this was the first time she’d thanked one.
She shut off the lights and curled into the bed, which was just large enough for one body.
She scootched until her back met the curve of the wall. It was almost like being held.