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: Under a Gilded Sky – Imogen Martin

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In this epic and unforgettable love story, set in the wilds of Missouri and the glamour of high society Boston at the dawn of the Gilded Age, one woman’s life changes forever the day that a stranger turns up on her doorstep.
Missouri, February 1874: The last thing struggling homesteader Ginny needs is a scandal on her hands. But when a badly injured drifter arrives at Snow Farm in desperate need of medical attention,
Ginny’s kind nature and good upbringing means she has no choice but to treat his wounds and care for him until he’s back on his feet, no matter the danger he might pose.
Ginny’s been running the farm and looking after her fourteen-year-old sister Mary-Lou since their papa died two years ago, each morning pulling on his old leather coat and pushing her feet into stout boots that come up to her knees, before heading out to tend to the cattle. She’s determined to hold onto the one thing that connects them to memories of their parents – whatever the cost. And when their uninvited guest – Lex – is well enough he offers his help, and she surprises herself by accepting it.
But not long after Lex moves on, Ginny realises that her heart has gone with him. And when the farm’s fortunes take a turn for the worse, she faces her hardest test yet. Can she save the only home she’s ever known, and everything she holds dear? And what if doing so means risking a chance at love and happiness she never expected to come her way?
An utterly spellbinding story perfect for fans of Amy Harmon, Olivia Hawker and Kristin Hannah.
Readers will love this breathtaking and vivid historical novel of passion, destiny and divided family loyalties.
“Captivating…will leave an indelible mark on your heart.” Rachel Wesson

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Imogen writes sweeping, historical fiction. Her first two novels are set in nineteenth century America.
As a teenager, she took the Greyhound bus from San Francisco to New York. Over those three days of staring out of the window at the majestic mountains and endless flat plains, stories wound themselves into her head: tales of brooding, charismatic men captivated by independent women. Since then, she has worked in a coffee-shop in Piccadilly, a famous bookstore, and a children’s home.
She has run festivals, and turned a derelict housing block on one of the poorest estates in the UK into an award-winning arts centre.
During 2020 Imogen was selected by Kate Nash Literary Agency as one of their BookCamp mentees, a mentorship programme designed to accelerate the careers of promising new writers.
Married with two children, Imogen divides her time between Wales and Sardinia.
She hopes her books will bring you the tingle of a new love affair whilst immersed in a different time and place.

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My thoughts: it has never been easy to be a woman in a man’s world, but what else was Ginny supposed to do when her father died? Taking on the burden of running their family’s farm with only her younger sister to help wasn’t easy. And Ginny doesn’t like asking for help.

When a stranger, Lex, winds up on their doorstep with a broken ankle after being thrown from his horse, the sisters nurse him back to health, and he repays them in ways they’d never imagine. He has secrets, but not ones that aim to hurt. The fiercely proud Ginny might just have to accept help for a change.

Falling hard for this handsome stranger comes with complications – but can love conquer all and will Ginny and Lex return to the farm or wind up in high society?

A moving and sweet story about love and learning to let someone in, set against the vistas of Missouri and the bustling streets of Boston. Ginny is a wonderful protagonist, strong, fierce and brave. Her decision to keep the farm going, against sometimes impossible seeming odds, to fulfil her parents’ dreams is inspiring, and the bond she shares with her sister and cousin is lovely. When she meets Lex, new possibilities appear and she has to decide whether to follow her heart.

*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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Out of the Margins auction for refugee artists and exhibition

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From 15th September to 6th October the Good Chance Theatre with the Auction Collective and Christie’s are hosting an incredible event – Out of the Margins, with 60 playwrights donating items for auction in order to raise money for refugee artists. It sounds incredible and there’s also an exhibition of the donations that anyone can visit – details below.

Tony Kushner, Aaron Sorkin, Lynn Nottage,Tom Stoppard, Wole Soyinka, Caryl Churchill,David Hare, Jez Butterworth, Richard Curtis, Tina Fey, Tanika Gupta, V (formerly EveEnsler) and Inua Ellams are just some of the 60 leading playwrights who are donating annotated first and special editions of play texts and musical scripts to be auctioned in support of refugee artists in the UK for the Out of the Margins Auction organised byGood Chance Theatre, hosted by the Auction Collective, in collaboration with Christie’s.

As of 4th September, a further 10 leading names of stage and screen have confirmed they will be contributing to the auction, including Aaron Sorkin(West Wing), Lynn Nottage(Clyde’s) Alexander Zeldin (Faith, Hope & Charity), Kate Mosse (The Taxidermist’s Daughter), Mark Rylance (a private donor is donating a copy of Shakespeare’s Antony & Cleopatra annotated by Mark Rylance in 1999 when he played Cleopatra), Bryony Lavery (Frozen) and Tony Kushner (title of play to be announced).

 The 60 annotated texts being auctioned in aid of refugee artists include some of the world’s best loved theatrical productions: Leopoldstadt, Jerusalem, Prima Facie, The Vagina Monologues, The Doctor, Closer, The Empress, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, The Play What I Wrote, Wicked, Jerry Springer: The Opera, Mean Girls and Matilda the Musical.Each text has been annotated by hand, giving unique insight into the writer’s creative process, and reflections, memories, thoughts and feelings since, in a highly personal and intimate way.

 During the run of the Auction from 15th September – 6th October, several of the participating playwrights will have new shows opening, including:

·       Anupama Chandrasekhar’s The Father and the Assassin opens at the National Theatre on 8th September

·       Roy Williams’ Death of England: Closing Time opens at the National Theatre on 13th September

·       Simon McBurney’s Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead is back on international tour from October

·       Tanika Gupta’s The Empress transfers from the RSC to the Lyric Hammersmith on 4th October

·       James Graham’s Dear England transfers to the West End from 9th October

·       Lynn Nottage’s Clyde’sopens at the Donmar Warehouse on 13th October

·       while Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman ends at the Duke of York Theatre on 9th September

·       and Mean Girls starts its US tour this month, and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Matilda: The Musical, Wicked and Six continue national and international runs.

The Out of the Margins auction represents the largest collection of annotated play texts and scripts in theatre history, providing an unprecedented record of the private thoughts and feelings of some of the world’s greatest living contemporary playwrights, covering some of the most significant moments in the last fifty years of theatre. Out of the Margins brings these texts together for the first time, providing a unique opportunity for members of the general public, theatre lovers, and collectors alike to bid for a piece of theatrical history.

The proceeds of the Out of the Margins charity auction will fund Good Chance Theatre’s work supporting refugee artists in the UK. Since it was founded in the Calais Jungle refugee camp 8 years ago, Good Chance Theatre (which does not receive public subsidy) has provided 150 refugee artists with 1-2-1 support in the UK as well as providing over 750 artists from refugee and migrant backgrounds with paid employment and training. 

To register your interest as a bidder, click here

Exhibition Details

Dates: 21st – 28th September 2023

Address: 8 King Street, St. James’s, London SW1Y 6QT

Entry: Free

About Good Chance Theatre

Good Chance creates ground-breaking “theatre that shakes hands with the world” [Sunday Times]. The Good Chance story began in Calais in 2015 inside a white canvassed dome – a theatre, a concert hall, an art studio and a town hall in one. Created with and curated by refugees, the original Good Chance Theatre of Hope offered people from all over the world, uprooted by circumstance, a space to come together and share their stories, their songs, their culture, to create, feel and dream.

Since then, through their award-winning productions The Jungle, The Walk with Little Amal and Fly With Me, Good Chance has continued to create new kinds of communities through theatre and art, working closely one-on-one with 150+ refugee artists and providing employment and training opportunities to 750+ more. Their mission is to bring people together to create new connections and encourage new conversations and action on the big issues of our time – migration and climate change – and make real change possible, all with displaced artists centre stage.

*post created with and images supplied via press release, all opinions are my own.

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Blog Tour: The Opposite of Lonely – Doug Johnstone

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EVEN DEATH NEEDS COMPANY…

The Skelf women are recovering from the cataclysmic events that nearly claimed their lives. Their funeral-director and privateinvestigation businesses are back on track, and their cases are as perplexing as ever.

Matriarch Dorothy looks into a suspicious fire at a travellers’ site, and takes a grieving, homeless man under her wing. Daughter Jenny is searching for her missing sister-in-law, who disappeared in tragic circumstances, while grand-daughter Hannah is asked to investigate increasingly dangerous conspiracy theorists, who are targeting a retired female astronaut … putting her own life at risk.

With a body lost at sea, funerals for those with no one to mourn them, reports of strange happenings in outer space, a funeral crasher with a painful secret, and a violent attack on one of the family, The Skelfs face their most personal – and perilous – cases yet. Doing things their way may cost them everything…

Doug Johnstone is the author of sixteen novels, many of which have been bestsellers. The Space Between Us was chosen for BBC Two’s Between the Covers, while Black Hearts and The Big Chill were longlisted for the Theakston Crime Novel of the Year. Three of his books – A Dark Matter, Breakers and The Jump – have been shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize. Doug has taught creative writing or been writer in residence at universities, schools, writing retreats, festivals, prisons and a funeral home. He’s also been an arts journalist for 25 years. He is a songwriter and musician with six albums and three EPs released, and he plays drums for the Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers, a band of crime writers. He’s also co-founder of the Scotland Writers Football Club and lives in Edinburgh with his family.

My thoughts: Skelfs, Skelfs, Skelfs, they’re back!!

OK, so this is one of my favourite series and I get super excited to read each installment. And this one is excellent.

Each Skelf is on a case of their own, and still running the funeral home, which is going green under Indy’s lead. Buying a plot of land for green burials and using a water based process to break down remains.

Dorothy is looking into the arson attack on a local travelling community, is it simply a local who hates them or is there something more sinister going on?

Jenny is still dealing with her ex-husband Craig’s trail of chaos and looking for his sister, who was last seen making off with Craig’s body. Her former mother-in-law is dying and wants to say her farewells.

Finally Hannah has come up against the old adage about never meeting your heroes, when she gets drawn into the lives of a female astronaut and her wife. Indy is a bit worried, and not without reason.

There’s also a potential new employee at the funeral home, some fab gigs for Dorothy’s band, Jenny and Archie’s friend dates, while Schrodinger the cat gets plenty of love from everyone.

It’s another brilliant, funny, clever book about these incredible women and their work. The ghost phone in the garden is proving popular, helping the grieving to deal with their feelings and share what they need to say to their loved ones.

Can’t wait to see what happens to them next, have they finally reached a good place as a family and as a business?

*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: Roman Nights – Dorothy Dunnett

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If Ruth had stayed on leave, none of it might have happened…

An astronomer working at the Maurice Frazer Observatory, Ruth Russell is enjoying her time in Rome. That is until Charles Digham, top fashion photographer and Ruth’s lover, has his camera stolen and the thief ends up a headless corpse in the zoo park toletta.

When Ruth meets the enigmatic Johnson Johnson, in Rome to paint a portrait of the Pope, she’s confident he’ll help unravel the mystery. But as they begin the search for clues it soon becomes clear that more is at stake than the secrets of a couture house … something far more deadly.

Dorothy Dunnett (1923-2001) gained an international reputation as a writer of historical fiction. She moved genres and turned to crime writing with the acclaimed Dolly books, also known as the Johnson Johnson series. She was a trustee of the National Library of Scotland, and a board member of the Edinburgh International Book Festival. In 1992 she was awarded an OBE for her services to literature. A leading light in the Scottish arts world and a renaissance woman, Dunnett was also a professional portrait painter and exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy on many occasions.

My thoughts: the bifocal clad painter is back in another case of international intrigue and skullduggery, this time in the Eternal City – Rome.

The strange things that have been happening at an observatory outside the city, from stolen cameras to break ins have bigger consequences that someone wanting some fashion photos.

A jaunt around the Italian coast in Dolly follows, as the various parties involved chase after each other. But who Ruth Russell, an astronomer at the observatory, trust? Is one her friends or acquaintances the one she needs to be wary of?

Another fantastic and highly enjoyable adventure, with an entertaining cast and some silly moments as well as a heady dose of danger.

*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: A Disappearance in Fiji – Nilima Rao

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1914, Fiji: Sergeant Akal Singh would rather be anywhere than this tropical paradise – or, as he calls it, ‘this godforsaken island’. After a promising start to his police career in Hong Kong, Akal has been sent to the far-flung colony of Fiji as punishment for a humiliating professional mistake. Lonely and
embarrassed, he dreams of solving a big case, thereby redeeming himself and gaining permission to leave. Otherwise, he fears he will be stuck in Fiji for ever.

When an indentured Indian woman goes missing from a sugarcane plantation and Fiji’s newspapers scream ‘kidnapping’, the inspector-general reluctantly assigns Akal the case, giving him strict instructions to view this investigation as nothing more than cursory. But as soon as Akal arrives on the plantation, he identifies several troubling inconsistencies in the plantation owners’ stories, and it seems there is more to this disappearance than meets the eye . . .

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Nilima Rao is a Fijian Indian Australian who has always referred to herself as ‘culturally confused’.
She has since learned that we are all confused in some way and now feels better about the whole thing. When she isn’t writing, Nilima can be found wrangling data (the dreaded day job) or
wandering around Melbourne laneways in search of the next new wine bar. A Disappearance in Fiji is her first novel and she is currently working on a second.

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My thoughts: I didn’t know much about the British occupation of Fiji, other than that it happened, so this was really interesting to read, and obviously a lot of what went on was appalling. I really like Sergeant Akul Singh, a Sikh Indian police officer, formerly in Hong Kong, dispatched rather unhappily to Fiji, and sent to investigate a missing indentured Indian woman, a “coolie”, working on a plantation.

He encounters racism, sexual violence towards the women, murder and cruelty. The living quarters are horrific and so are the working conditions. Slavery might have been abolished, but this felt like it under a different name.

Akul is an educated man, his father a teacher, and he too is appalled by what he finds. Torn between the orders of his superior and the desire for true justice, he risks being sent back to India in disgrace. But he won’t be deterred and assisted by the British doctor who accompanied him, he sets about getting answers.

I felt sorry for him, the career defining mistake he made in Hong Kong was genuine – he was naive and a bit stupid, but he worked to rectify things. Hopefully as this series develops, people see that is a very good detective, and not a bumbling idiot. I look forward to reading more about him.

*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: The Last Train to Paris – Juliet Greenwood

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For Iris, each visit to her mother in St Mabon’s Cove, Cornwall has been the same – a serene escape from the city. But today, as she breathes in the salt air on the doorstep of her beloved childhood home, a heavy weight of anticipation settles over her. Iris knows she’s adopted, but any questions about where she came from have always been shut down by her parents, who can’t bear to revisit the past.

Now, Iris can’t stop thinking about what she’s read on the official paperwork: BABY GIRL, FRANCE, 1939 – the year war was declared with Nazi Germany. 

When Iris confronts her mother, she hits the same wall of pain and resistance as whenever she mentions the war. That is, until her mother tearfully hands her an old tin of letters, tucked neatly beside a delicate piece of ivory wool. 

Retreating to the loft, Iris steels herself to at last learn the truth, however painful it might be. But, as she peels back each layer of history before her, a sensation of dread grows inside her. The past is calling, and its secrets are more intricate and tangled than Iris could ever have imagined.

The year is 1939, and in Paris, France a young woman is about to commit a terrible betrayal…  

A beautifully written and addictively compelling historical novel about the terrible choices ordinary people were forced to make in the horrors of World War Two. If you loved The Tattooist of Auschwitz, The Alice Network and The Nightingale, you will devour this book.

What readers are saying about Juliet Greenwood:

“This was fantastic! Perfect for a Kate Morton or Lucinda Riley hangover, this book will draw you in and won’t let go until you’ve read the last page. This book was unputdownable – fascinating characters, excellent writing, and a plot that keeps you turning the pages. I loved every second of it.” Reader review, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

“I found myself reading chapter after chapter, unable to put it down. A first-time read by this author but certainly not the last.” Reader review, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

“For readers of Kate Morton and Lucinda Riley, this book will be one of your favorites… A historical novel that will keep you reading until the end.” Reader review, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

“An absolutely brilliant read. I could not put it down…I loved how the war changed everyone and it was a gripping story… I really loved it. Cannot recommend it enough.” Reader review, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

“Did everything that I was looking for… it left me wanting to read more from Juliet Greenwood.” Reader review, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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Publication Date: 23rd October 2023

Juliet Greenwood is a historical novelist, now published by Storm Publishing. Her first novel was a finalist for The People’s Book Prize and two of her books reached the top 5 in the UK Kindle store. Juliet has always been a bookworm and a storyteller, writing her first novel (a sweeping historical epic) at the age of ten. She lives in a traditional cottage in Snowdonia, North Wales, set between the mountains and the sea, with an overgrown garden (good for insects!) and a surprisingly successful grapevine. 

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blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Without Trace – Leigh Russell

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With a terrifying certainty, she knew she was going to die.

DI Geraldine Steel knows people go missing all the time. So when her partner Ian asks her to look into the disappearance of his football-buddy’s girlfriend, her first instinct is to reassure him there’s no need for concern. Until she’s called to a suspected murder. The young woman has earth and fragments of twigs in her hair. It’s as if she’d been completely encased in earth. And yet she was found on the pavement, at the side of a suburban road, where she wasn’t in contact with any soil or mud.

Without a crime scene, the investigation focuses on her boyfriend. But then another young woman is reported missing. Unless he has an accomplice, they have an innocent man in custody. And Steel is running out of time . . .

A page-turning puzzle of a case with an unexpected final twist. If you’re a fan of Angela Marsons, Mel Sherratt and Karin Slaughter, you’ll love Leigh Russell.

Leigh Russell is the author of the internationally bestselling Geraldine Steel series, which has sold over a million copies worldwide. Her books have been #1 on Amazon Kindle and iTunes with Stop Dead and Murder Ring selected as finalists for The People’s Book Prize.

My thoughts: another gripping and perplexing case for DI Geraldine Steel and her team. Several young women have gone missing in a small area of York, and now another. But this time, she survives just long enough to stumble into a road and be found, only to die in hospital.

She was covered in leaves and dirt, like she’d been buried alive and clawed her way out. Was her boyfriend the one who did this to her or is something more sinister going on?

Meanwhile Geraldine has been feeling a bit off, is her relationship with Ian in trouble? Maybe she just needs a holiday.

As the case unfolds, we’re offered the killer’s obsession and his strange justification for the deaths he’s responsible for. A twisted mind that the police can’t understand.

Clever, twisted and compelling, this is another excellent book in this 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.

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Eternally Artemisia – Melissa Muldoon

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Welcome to the tour for Eternally Artemisia by Melissa Muldoon. Read on for more details!

EternallyArtemisia-gold

Eternally Artemisia
Some loves, like some women, are timeless.

They say some loves travel through time and are fated to meet over and over again. For Maddie, an art therapist, who wrestles with the “peculiar feeling” she has lived previous lives and is being called to Italy by voices that have left imprints on her soul, this idea is intriguing. Despite her best efforts, however, proof of this has always eluded her. That is, until one illuminating summer in Italy when Maddie’s previous existences start to bleed through into her current reality. When she is introduced to the Crociani family—a noble clan with ties to the seventeenth-century Medici court that boasts of ancestors with colorful pasts—she finally meets the loves of her life. One is a romantic love, and another is a special kind of passion that only women share, strong amongst those who have suffered greatly yet have triumphed despite it. As Maddie’s relationship develops with Artemisia Gentileschi—an artist who in a time when it was unheard of to denounce a man for the crime of rape, did just that—Maddie discovers a kindred spirit and a role model, and just what women are capable of when united together. In a journey that arcs back to biblical days and moves forward in time, Maddie encounters artists, dukes, designers, and movie stars as well as baser and ignoble men. With Artemisia never far from her side, she proves that when we dare to take control of our lives and find the “thing” we are most passionate about, we are limitless and can touch the stars.

Available on Amazon

About the Author

MelissaMuldoonAuthorPix

Melissa Muldoon is the author of four novels set in Italy: “Dreaming Sophia”, “Waking Isabella”, “Eternally Artemisia”, and “The Secret Life of Sofonisba Anguissola.” All four books are set in Italy and tell the stories of women and their journeys of self-discovery to find love, uncover hidden truths, and follow their destinies to shape a better future. For more information visit: MelissaMuldoon.com

Melissa is the author also of the Studentessa Matta website, where she promotes the study of Italian language and culture through her dual-language blog written in Italian and English (studentessamatta.com). “Studentessa Matta” means the “crazy linguist” and has grown to include the podcast “Tutti Matti per l’Italiano”, and the “Studentessa Matta” YouTube channel, Facebook page, and Instagram feed. Melissa also created Matta Italian Language Immersion Programs, which she co-leads with Italian schools in Italy to learn Italian in Italy while immersing in language and culture. Through her website, she also offers Homestay opportunities to live and study in Italy in the private home of a teacher.

Melissa has a B.A. in fine arts, art history and European history from Knox College, a liberal arts college in Galesburg, Illinois, as well as a master’s degree in art history from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. She has also studied painting and art history in Florence. She is an artist, and professional book designer, and designed the interiors of all three of her books as well as illustrated their covers. Melissa is also the managing director of Matta Press.

Melissa Muldoon

My thoughts: I really enjoyed this time travelling novel inspired by three real women – artist Artemisia Gentileschi, designer Elsa Schiaparelli and writer Anna Bruni, who lived at very different times, but were connected by their love of art, Florence and the desire to live on their own terms.

Artemisia has only really been recognised in recent years for the extraordinary talent that she was. And for the terrible way she was treated. A victim of rape, she was tortured to ensure she was telling the truth, while her rapist never served a moment of his sentence. But she got her revenge.

As art therapist Maddie, in Florence to run a retreat for survivors, soon learns. And then we are falling through time to meet Artemisia and a woman with a familiar name… Maddalena. I felt a kinship with the various Maddie’s in this book as we travelled around the timeline – my name is the French version of hers, both come from another woman who lived on her own terms – Mary Magdalene, a female disciple of Jesus.

These passionate, brilliant women throughout the book and into the future, are talented, intelligent and inspiring, carrying the spirit Artemisia in their hearts as they achieve wonderful things. And yes, I would quite like to wear a shocking pink shoe hat sometimes! A delight.

Book Tour Organized by R&R Book Tours

*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: The Hotel – Emily Shiner

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As we welcome the Rowe family to our beautiful clifftop hotel, a shadow passes over my husband’s face. In that moment I see it: my husband is hiding a terrible secret. Has he put us all in danger?

Mark and I pride ourselves on giving visitors to our hotel, high on the rugged Maine cliffs with views of the ocean, a vacation they won’t forget. But the Rowes arestrangely over-familiar when they arrive with their teenage daughter. The wife puts a hand on Mark’s forearm and her husband meets my eyes with a knowing look as I hold my little son tight. They gush that they loved their previous stay here… But I’m certain I’ve never seen them before.

Mark reassures me that the Rowes are just being friendly. We have so many visitors, maybe we forgot meeting them. When I am locked in the master bedroom for over an hour, he later soothes my panic and says it was just an accident. But I know one of the Rowes was out in the hallway listening to me cry for help. I hear one of them whispering a lullaby to my baby on his monitor. I cannot trust these people.

But as the relentless icy rain gives way to the biggest blizzard of the season and we become cut off, I realize my son and I are trapped. Mark knows more about the Rowes than he’s letting on. I’ll do anything to protect my gorgeous baby boy. But how far will I have to go, to keep him safe?

The Hotel is a totally twisty locked room thriller that you won’t be able to put down. Fans of Shalini Boland, Freida McFadden and Jeneva Rose will be glued to the pages!

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Audio: UK US

Listen to a sample here

Emily Shiner always dreamed of becoming an author. After spending years devouring stacks of thrillers, she decided to try her hand at writing them herself. Now she gets to live out her dream of writing novels and sharing her stories with people around the world. She lives in the Appalachian Mountains and loves hiking with her husband, daughter, and their two dogs.

It’s nice to meet you!

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My thoughts: everyone in this book, except the toddler, has an agenda, you can’t trust any of them to be telling the truth. As two families with a lot of secrets get snowed in at a remote Maine B&B, things get ugly and deadly.

The Rowes book out the whole house, so there’s no other guests, nowhere to go and no way to avoid the confrontations that are coming. Cosy dinners can’t mask the tension, and once the power goes out, the danger increases.

The Rowes have something on Mark, who thinks his wife doesn’t know, but she does, and she has plans of her own, that don’t include her husband. But who is playing who? This tense cat and mouse game kept me gripped and then the twists as the book ends, shocking. You can’t run far enough.

*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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Blog Tour: The Trail – M.A. Hunter

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Sometimes it’s best to let the past stay buried…
Thirty years ago, Jess’s mother, Nora, disappeared while on a charity hike in the US. The devastating loss has afflicted Jess well into her adult life and even inspired her decision to become an investigative journalist.
So when Jess receives an anonymous tip telling her that remains have been recovered in the spot her mother disappeared, she wastes no time in jumping on a plane.
They say the Appalachian Mountains have secrets, but as she begins to ask around, she learns that the locals do too. But no matter how much they lie, she is determined to find the truth – even if it will
irrevocably change her future.
Someone wants to keep the past buried. And they will stop at nothing to keep Jess as quiet as the tranquil mountain trail itself…
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M. A. Hunter is the alter ego of Stephen Edger, the bestselling author of psychological and crime thrillers, including the Kate Matthews series.

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My thoughts: I don’t think I’d be very keen on hiking the Appalachian Trail, which passes through a huge amount of America, passing through 14 states (says Google) and covering hundreds of miles of mountains and forest, small towns and some probably quite grumpy bears.

This book doesn’t make me want to do it at all, though Bill Bryson put me off first, at least no one he knew went missing somewhere along the trail (A Walk in the Woods, if you’re interested).

Jess lost her mother thirty years before, while hiking a section of the trail to raise money for Jess’ best friend Ashley, who happened to also be Nell’s goddaughter. Despite some pretty huge setbacks, Nell was determined to complete her section. But then she vanished. Her fellow hikers had no idea where she went or what happened. Jess was devastated, and after her dad died, all alone. Except for Bruce, who stepped in to look after her.

Now, Nell’s remains might have been found, can Jess finally get some answers or will someone stop her learning anything?

Nell’s hike was terrifying, honestly some of the things she saw were downright awful, and Jess doesn’t have a much better experience. It all gets a bit Deliverance-esque in a small town, Rockston, where the locals have some unusual beliefs. But did they, as Jess’ strange informant insists, harm Nell or is something else going on?

Twists and turns, much like the path through the mountains, abound, and there are a few times it seems the hikers in both timelines are done for, but the ending is surprisingly upbeat and hopeful.

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