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.
Alisha Jones, or Princess Christmas as she is affectionately known, is joint heir to her Grandpa Frost’s family fortune, but being third behind an older sister and brother means she has to work three times as hard to prove herself. Marsha Underwood, her Grandpa’s PA and ever-present thorn in her side, is determined to undermine her at every turn and Alisha finds herself powerless to prevent this. An encounter with a fortune teller at the Frost Christmas Ball leads to a bewildering dream of the future; and the added complication of Tom Walker, the son of Frost’s new business partner leads to a tumultuous year. With her friends by her side, will she be able to turn things around? And what exactly does the strange dream mean? A story of family, friendship and love at first sight with a sprinkle of Christmas magic. Purchase Follow Charlie Dean on Twitter
A twenty-year-old cold case unearths dark secrets in the scorching-hot destination thriller from Emily Freud.
Twenty years ago, Mari vanished while backpacking through Thailand with her boyfriend, Luke. He was accused of murder, but has always insisted he’s innocent. Besides, her body was never found.
Now, he’s finally ready to talk. And filmmaker Cassidy Chambers wants to be the one to uncover what really happened, back then, in the dark of the jungle.
But as she delves deeper into the past, Cassidy begins to fear what lies ahead, and the secrets buried along the way.
Emily Freud is the author of My Best Friend’s Secret and What She Left Behind. She has worked on Emmy and BAFTA award winning television series including Educating Yorkshire and First Dates. Emily lives in North London, with her husband and two children. She is currently working on her next novel.
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.
You keep it on the inside because it’s the safest place to hide.
Fifteen-year-old Elliot ‘Matchstick’ Hart spends his days caring for his mum and hiding from the school bully.
Fifteen-year-old Josh McBride spends his days tormenting Elliot and avoiding his abusive stepdad.
Inspired by a picture in an old newspaper, Elliot embarks on an adventure to the city. Little does he know that Josh has decided to join him. On their journey, strangers and surprises force them to look at each other in a different light.
As secrets are uncovered, can the boys bury their differences or will it tear them further apart?
Kate S. Martin is a high school English teacher and Young Adult author. She likes to write ‘gritty’ stories that tackle tough issues whilst also encouraging empathy and hope. When she isn’t spending time her family, she can often be found going on long dog walks with Jessie, the miniature schnauzer. She can be found on Twitter @katemartin100 and Instagram @katemartin100.
We’re thrilled to present the cover of Expanded Roster by Aimee Rivkin! Coming January 2024!
Expanded Roster: A Why Choose Sports Romance
Expected Publication Date: January 25, 2024
Genre: Sports Romance/ Why Choose
⚾ Baseball Romance
⚾ Black Cat/ Golden Retriever
⚾ Doing it for the Fans
⚾ He Falls First x 3
⚾ MMMF
⚾ Bi-Awakening
⚾ Step-brother Romance
⚾ Spice
An overachiever who needs the money, two members of the college baseball team she works for—and her jerk ex-stepbrother—get down for the cameras in this steamy, angsty why choose romance.
In retrospect, putting up a flier advertising that I was planning to lose my v-card on camera—and was looking for a partner—isn’t the best idea I’ve ever had. I’m the Type A one, the person who does all the work on the group project. I’ve never even thought about doing something like this, but I don’t have a choice: I need fast cash so my sister can achieve her dreams.
No one even answers my ad…until I’m sitting at an off-campus café, looking over the questions I prepared like this is a job interview—
And he shows up.
I can’t do this. We shouldn’t do this. He’s on the college baseball team that I work for. I could lose my job. He could get cut from the team.
We shouldn’t do this… until we do. And we definitely shouldn’t get his best friend—who might have a crush on me, who might have a crush on him—involved. Or my ex-stepbrother, who’s threatening to take custody of my sister.
And I shouldn’t get involved with them all at once. Suddenly, I’m involved in a group project of an entirely different kind, one that definitely can’t last. I said yes on camera—a lot of yes—but do I have the courage to say yes to my happily ever after?
Aimee Rivkin is a writer living on the East Coast. She writes steamy, angsty why choose romances including EXPANDED ROSTER, her debut in the genre. She can be found drinking coffee, herding cats, and hollering at sports on TV.
It’s 1965, and 18 year old Jess escapes her stifling English home for a gap year in Ghana, West Africa. But it’s a time of political turbulence across the region. Fighting to keep her young love who waits back in England, she’s thrown into the physical and emotional dangers of civil war, tragedy and the conflict of a disturbing new relationship. And why do the drumbeats haunt her dreams? This is a rite of passage story which takes the reader hand in hand with Jess on her journey towards the complexities and mysteries of a disconcerting adult world. This is the first novel in the acclaimed Drumbeats trilogy: Drumbeats, Walking in the Rain, Finding Jess. For fans of Dinah Jefferies, Kate Morton, Rachel Hore, Jenny Ashcroft Purchase
Award-winning author Julia Ibbotson herself spent an exciting time in Ghana, West Africa, teaching and nursing (like Jess in her books), and always vowed to write about the country and its past. And so, the Drumbeats Trilogy was born.
She’s also fascinated by history, especially by the medieval world, and concepts of time travel, and has written haunting time-slips of romance and mystery partly set in the Anglo-Saxon period. She studied English at Keele University, England, specialising in medieval language, literature and history, and has a PhD in linguistics. She wrote her first novel at age 10, but became a school teacher, then university lecturer and researcher. Her love of writing never left her and to date she’s written 9 books, with a 10th on the way. She’s a member of the Romantic Novelists Association, Society of Authors and the Historical Novel Society.
My thoughts: I found Jess’ adventures in 1960s Ghana utterly fascinating, I will admit it’s a period I don’t know a lot about, so it was really interesting to learn some history, as well as join Jess in her personal voyage of discovery. Breaking free of her mother’s restrictive rules and seeing the world for the first time, Jess is a lively, fun and intelligent protagonist.
She’s trying to forget some of the unpleasant things that happened to her when she was younger and discover who she is now she’s an adult with her whole future ahead of her. Teaching in a school outside Accra, she’s delighted by her pupils and wants to help the impoverished villagers she meets. She also meets a somewhat mysterious American, who hints at being involved in the politics of the time, but never outright says he’s a spy.
Full of life and adventure, this is a great book, I can’t wait to read the next installment of Jess’ life.
**Terms and Conditions –UK entries welcome. Please enter using the Rafflecopter box below. 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 Random Resources 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.**
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
“I don’t know what to say” and “I don’t know what to do” are common responses to a life-threatening diagnosis. Voices of Cancer is here to help. Every cancer story is different, but there is one commonality: both patients and the people supporting them often struggle to properly articulate their wants and needs through particularly challenging and in many cases, uncharted territory. Lynda Wolters knows firsthand: she was diagnosed with stage 4 terminal mantle cell lymphoma in August of 2016. Voices of Cancer offers a candid look into the world of a cancer patient, informed by Lynda’s own story and conversations had with dozens of patients weighing in on their needs, wants, and dislikes as they navigate the complex world of diagnosis, treatment, and beyond. With comprehensive and accessible insight from people who’ve been there, Voices of Cancer helps educate, dispel fears, and start positive conversations about what a cancer diagnosis truly means, while shining a light on how best to support a loved one on their own terms.
Lynda was born and raised in a tiny farming community of 400 in northern Idaho. She worked on the family farm, with her first job being picking rocks out of the fields and ultimately graduating up the ladder to driving a grain truck and combine during harvest. Following high school, Lynda continued her education in Las Vegas before she moved back home to Idaho to raise her three sons. Lynda still resides in Idaho with her husband and their peekapoo, Max. Lynda has worked in the legal field for 30+ years and enjoys ballroom and swing dancing, horseback riding, kayaking, and river rafting. She has a heart for people and enjoys regularly volunteering. She spends the bulk of her spare time reading and writing. Lynda was diagnosed with terminal stage 4 Mantle Cell Lymphoma (MCL) in August 2016. She touts herself as being a thriving warrior of the disease. Lynda has completed two books of nonfiction: Voices of Cancer, released in October 2019, and Voices of LGBTQ+, released in August 2020. The Placeholder, Lynda’s debut novel, was released in November 2022. Lynda has published the following articles: Navigating the Workplace with Chemo Brain, February 23, 2020, Elephants and Tea. and When Masks Weren’t Popular, March 24, 2020, Patient Power. She has spoken on several podcasts, been a guest on a local talk show regarding Voices of Cancer, and given interviews for other outlets and print.
Jane Brody wrote up Voices of Cancer in the New York Times, her article entitled What to Say to Someone with Cancer, on January 13, 2020, with a follow-up on January 20, 2020, entitled, When Life Throws You a Curveball, Embrace the New Normal. The Chinese translation rights of Voices of Cancer have been purchased by a grant to offer the book to medical students in Tawain. Lynda donates Voices of Cancer books and a portion of its proceeds to Epic Experience, a nonprofit camp for adult survivors and thrivers of cancer located in Colorado.
“A strange thing occurred when I was diagnosed with my cancer, which I need to point out for this post, is incurable and I have currently outlived “predictions” by two plus years and counting. I say this because what that means is that I wait daily for that proverbial shoe to drop, for the cancer to flare back up and set my life and health back into a tailspin. So, given this type of life sentence, people are not really sure what to make of my dark humor about the matter. I too, am unsure what to make of it at times, but, as the saying goes, it is what it is. Examples – If my youngest son, who along with my husband was my primary caregiver, hasn’t heard from me within what he considers a prescribed amount of time, he will send me a text: Are you dead? Usually followed by a skull and crossbones emoji. Now, I think this is hysterical; others, including my husband, are mortified. I guess my son and I figure one of these days my usual response, “Not yet,” isn’t going to come, but at least we had some good laughs in the meantime. Recently, I was asked by a young man at a beauty clinic if I would like to consider putting money into a savings fund for my future beauty treatments. (Of note, my medical history is in bold letters on my chart – no missing it.) “Now, at just $75 per month, in 18 months almost anything you would like will be significantly reduced or free.” I agreed with him it would be a really good deal for most people but not for me. Undeterred he continued with the benefits and how much I could have saved on this day had I had the savings plan. He then tried to close me, “So, what do you think?” I shot him down again as politely as I could by saying, “No, thank you. I may well be dead by then.” And in his sweet, innocent way, he gasped and said, “You’re not that old!” I nearly felt bad when I had to drop the joke and explain, “No, really, I may not be here,” pointing to my chart. Poor kid. Writing Voices of Cancer I learned from many patients that they too suffer from macabre humor, and find the dark jokes hilarious and as a way of wrapping their minds around their circumstance. I also learned that like me, most of these people would prefer for those on the outside of our diagnosis to continue to poke fun at us and treat us just as they once did. Sensitivity is great until it turns into coddling.”
Amazing news! From now until October 18th this beauty will be on sale for ONLY $0.99 on Amazon! I can’t think of anything better to read at this time of year!
Echo of the Evercry
Genre: NA Dark Fantasy/ Dark Academia/ Dark Fantasy Horror
The cost of magic has never been clearer.
✨ Friends-to-Enemies-to-Allies
✨ Found Family
✨ Secret Order
✨ Secret Magic
✨ Everything You Thought You Knew was a Lie
Larissa’s inability to kill is a disgrace to her absent mother, Sword Matriarch of the Fair Lady’s order, a sisterhood whose purpose is to hunt down sorcerers corrupted by the Evercry and slay them. But Larissa hides an even more sinful secret: she is drawn toward magic, and it grows stronger in her every day.
Larissa keeps a stranglehold on her gift until the day of her graduation test, when her misuse of magic leads her to failure. Prepared to be cast out of the sisterhood, she is instead brought into the scorned caste of the darkkins, those who study and wield magic in the fight against the Evercry. In their halls she discovers that her proclivity for magic makes her powerful, and a little dangerous.
Gone for years, her mother suddenly sends word that she needs help to defeat a formidable sorcerer, help only Larissa can give. Larissa will do anything to save her mother, even travel with the girl who bullied her all through school. But as they battle monsters and mercenaries, Larissa must grapple with dark truths about the sisterhood and her heritage, and decide who she can really trust with her mother’s fate…and her own.
Ejay writes scifi, fantasy, and horror, with a dash of the paranormal. She has two books with Literary Wanderlust, gothic noir Behind the Veil and all female cast fantasy Echo of the Evercry. She also has a nonfic story with Seaside Gothic, a dark paranormal with Grendel Press, and hopeful scifi with Savage Planets. She is devoted to writing and the community, as a mentor for Write Hive, Futurescapes Alum, a previous SPSFC judge, Flights of Fancy volunteer, in the Australian Writers Centre Write Your Novel Program, and studying a post-grad diploma in creative writing. When not writing she’s walking her rescue dogs, or becoming obsessed with a new computer game.
IT’S IN THE BLOOD. Two brothers from the same criminal family die within hours of each other, five miles apart, one on the edge of a Newcastle industrial estate, the other in a busy A & E department of a local hospital, unseen by the triage team. Both victims have suffered horrific injuries. Who wanted them dead? Will they kill again? Investigating these brutal and bloody killings leads DCI Kate Daniels to break some rules, putting her career as well as her life on the line.
As the body count rises in the worst torture case Northumbria Police has ever seen, the focus of the enquiry switches, first to Glasgow and then to Europe ending in a confrontation with a dangerous offender hell-bent on revenge.
My thoughts: starting with the grisly double murder of two brothers, tortured and dumped, this case has Kate and Hank heading all over the place – Glasgow, Edinburgh, Whitby and Spain, in the pursuit of justice.
The two men were sons of a notorious, now deceased, Scottish thug, and it seems their deaths are revenge killings. But no one can find their killers, have they gone to ground north of the border?
The case gets twistier and knottier when one of the killers turns up dead, is someone turning the tables on them? The trail leads to the Spanish coast – famous retirement haunt of many a British criminal and retiree. The dead Allen brothers’ father supposedly died out there, but Kate smells a rat…or a parakeet!
Another truly gripping and grisly installment of the Kate Daniels books, with Kate ordered to take some time off at the end of the case, but can she ever truly unwind?
Gallows Drop is Maria Hannah’s sixth gripping crime novel featuring DCI Kate Daniels.
At dawn on a lonely stretch of road, a body is found hanging from an ancient gallows the morning after a country show. Hours earlier, DCI Kate Daniels had seen the victim alive. With her leave period imminent, she’s forced to step aside when DCI James Atkins is called in to investigate. There’s bad blood between them.
When Kate discovers that Atkins’ daughter was an eyewitness to a fight involving the victim, the two detectives lock horns and he’s bumped off the case. It’s the trigger for a vicious attack on Kate, exposing a secret she’s kept hidden for years and unearthing an even darker one.
Shaken but undeterred, Kate sets out to solve a case that has shocked a close-knit village community. As suspects emerge, she uncovers a curious historical connection with a hangman, a culture of systematic bullying, a web of deceit and a deep-seated psychosis, any one of which could be motive for murder.
My thoughts: this is a horrible and senseless crime, the young man murdered and hung from the gibbet, even DCI Kate Daniels is shocked. And the connections to her one time nemesis DCI Atkins, doesn’t help. Atkins’ daughter Beth, who notably doesn’t use his last name, was best friends with the victim, and is clearly scared.
Kate is supposed to be going on a make or break holiday with Jo, but this case needs her. Atkins is her cover, a drunk, obnoxious man with serious anger issues, he wants to sweep the case under the carpet and pin it on his daughter’s boyfriend. Whether he’s guilty or not. Kate can’t let him do that. Thankfully her bosses have her back. Sadly, it might just be time though for her and Jo.
Hank is struggling, refusing to stay home and recover from his injuries on their last case, he’s still there for Kate, but also still meddling. Straining their friendship to its limits. And now Kate’s awful father is in hospital, seriously ill. With so much on her plate, can Kate solve the case, deal with Atkins and support her dad?
The case is complex and knotty, people’s relationships often are, and Atkins’ bull headed behaviour isn’t helping. Beth won’t tell anyone everything she knows, her fear is eating her alive and her secrets almost overwhelm her. Kate tries to be a friendly ear, but she’s desperate to catch the killer.
I wonder whether Kate will break at some point, she’s yet again put off the rest she needs and has been ordered to take, there’s so much going on and losing Jo will hurt.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own
We are thrilled to present the next gorgeous cover in the Realm of Monsters series by Amanda Aggie! Read on for more!
This Wicked Bond (Realm of Monsters #3)
Expected Publication Date: November 28, 2023
Genre: Dark Fantasy Romance
🐉 Dragon Shifters
🐉 Enemies-to-Lovers
🐉 Robin Hood Inspired
🐉 Found Family
🐉 Morally Grey Hero
🐉 Fated Mates
🐉 Magical Bonds
🐉 Spicy Dream Manipulation
🐉 Crew of Thieves
🐉 Who Hurt You?
🐉 Banter for Days
A captive princess.
A rogue dragon shifter.
A bond that could save or doom them all.
Unlike my sisters, I was never arranged to marry a monster. I was imprisoned from birth.
I have a unique gift and my father– the King of Solaria–fears it. Yet, he’s far too curious about how my magic works to let me go.
Everything changes the day I’m pulled from my cell. It’s never happened before. The only explanation is that I’ve outlived my usefulness. Except, it’s not a chopping block awaiting my head. It’s a handsome rogue in a green cloak.
The man’s a thief who owes the dungeon warden a life debt. To repay it, he’s been tasked with smuggling me out of the kingdom.
I know nothing about him. Not his name. Not even his species. Yet, his alter ego has made it clear that this isn’t just an assignment. I’m his, and though he’ll see me safely out of Solaria, he has no intention of letting me out of his sight.
The monster might want me, but I can assure you the man housing him does not. My father murdered his twin sister and devastated his kingdom.
All it would take is for him to go back on his word, and I might become the means of how he gets his revenge.
This Wicked Bond is an enemies-to-lovers tale featuring a morally gray, shifter hero with a slew of red flags. The world is dark, but it’s also full of adventure and magic. This story is a spellbinding fusion of Robin Hood, dragons, and monsters, and takes place within Amanda Aggie’s Seven Realms World.
Best known for her #1 Amazon bestselling series, Dark Halos, Amanda Aggie writes steamy dark fantasy romance. She’s a wife, a mother to two beautiful tiny humans, and has a stellar caffeine addiction. More importantly, she writes choking-hazard fantasy romance that will have you laughing out loud, swooning, and biting your nails all in one sitting.
Almost all of her books take place in the seven realms of Hell, which she’s often described as, “If Hell and Wonderland got together and had a baby.” You’ll find creatures of all kinds—fae, demons, dragons, witches, and more—along with morally gray villains, and steam. So, grab you some pearls to clutch before you enter the seven realms, and get lost in the chaos.
Alexander Blix is a broken man. Convicted for avenging his daughter’s death, he is now being held in one of Norway’s high security prisons. Inside, the other prisoners take every opportunity to challenge and humiliate the former police investigator.
On the outside, Blix’s former colleagues have begun the hunt for a terrifying killer. Walter Kroos has escaped from prison in Germany and is making his way north. The only lead established by the police is that Kroos has a friend in Blix’s prison ward. And now they need Blix’s help.
Journalist Emma Ramm is one of Blix’s few visitors, and she becomes his ally as he struggles to connect the link between past and present, between the world inside and outside the prison walls. And as he begins to piece things together, he identifies a woodland community in Norway where deeply scarred inhabitants foster deadly secrets … secrets that may be the unravelling of everyone involved.
Jørn Lier Horst and Thomas Enger are both internationally bestselling Norwegian authors.
Jørn Lier Horst first rose to literary fame with his no. 1 bestselling William Wisting series. A former investigator in the Norwegian police, Horst imbues all his works with an unparalleled realism and suspense.
Thomas Enger is the journalist-turned-author behind the internationally acclaimed Henning Juul series. Enger’s trademark is his dark, gritty voice paired with key social messages and tight plotting. Besides writing fiction for both adults and young adults, Enger also works as a music composer.
Death Deserved, the first book in the bestselling Blix and Ramm series, was Jørn Lier Horst and Thomas Enger’s first co-written thriller and was followed by Smoke Screen and Unhinged.
My thoughts: Blix is in prison for the killing of his daughter’s murderer, and as a former detective, he’s a target but keeping his head down seems to be working.
But now his old colleagues need his help, a double murderer is headed to Norway and looking for another inmate at the prison Blix is in. He’s tasked with trying to find out the link between the two men.
His eyes and ears outside are courtesy of Emma Ramm, one of the few people who has stood by him. She’s following a lead to Osen, home town of Blix’s fellow inmate. The answers lie somewhere in the past. And she’s determined to find them.
There’s a lot of leads that seem to go nowhere, with a woman gone missing, and locals with different stories. When the German killer was there as a young teenager, something terrible happened. Is it connected to his current visit? And what really happened?
Blix takes risks to solve the case and catch the killer or killers, putting his safety and freedom at risk. Emma is also put in danger, and she’s no longer sure the story is worth it. Could everything be about to change?
Gripping and carefully building up the tension as the details of the past slowly come to the surface, this is an intelligent and multilayered thriller.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 