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.
books

Cover Reveal: Woodborn – Heather Nix

ramblingmads

Cover Reveal Banner

We’re thrilled to share the cover for the soon to be released epic, sapphic fantasy, Woodborn by Heather Nix — Coming January 2023!

Woodborn Cover- Ebook Crop

Woodborn (Song of Gods #1)

Expected Publication Date: January 21, 2023

Genre: Sapphic Fantasy/ High Fantasy

“I do not know how I lived in darkness for so many years with this bright world just waiting for me to grasp it.”

Maelwen is a young witch trapped in a harsh and unforgiving life. Friendless and alone, she endures terrible abuse in order to survive in the desolate land of Iowain.

Across the continent, Cicerine, a virtuous young faun, lives in the idyllic glade of Kanitosh Woods. Alongside her mother and closest friend, she is raised with dutiful reverence for the god, Idyth—led by the mysterious Father Farragen.

After escaping her tormentor and seeking a new life of her own, Maelwen finds a fresh start in the seedy trade city of Konidas. Meanwhile, a terrible tragedy befalls the glade, and Cicerine must flee to the same seaside town, leaving behind all she has ever known.

As a dark and menacing force spreads across Idythia, can Maelwen’s gifts and Cicerine’s developing power stand against the threat which faces them all? Alongside found family, new friends, and a crew of sapphic pirates, the line between good and evil is tested as the continent prepares for an epic battle.

CW: This is a sapphic fantasy novel, featuring a great deal of blood. Full list here

Coming Soon! Pre-order here!

*Cover Art by Anna Doušová

About the Author

image1

Heather Nix is the debut author of Woodborn, the first book in the Song of Gods series. Born and raised in sunny San Diego, CA she longs to return to the forests of the Pacific Northwest. She is the mother of two human and three cat children, and enjoys tattoos, tabletop RPGs, and creating feminist art in her limited spare time. Heather is passionate about writing queer fantasy and strives to create nuanced characters who resonate with underserved communities.

Books by Nix | Instagram | TikTok|ARC Team

Cover Reveal Organized By:

R&R Button

R&R Book Tours

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Heart of Neverland – Natalie J. Reddy

ramblingmads

TheHeartofNeverland copy

I am thrilled to be part of the book tour for The Heart of Neverland by Natalie J. Reddy! Read on for more details!

eBook - The Heart of Neverland

The Heart of Neverland (The Neverwitch Chronicles #1)

Expected Publication Date: November 30th, 2022

Genre: Fantasy/ Romance/ Adventure/ Pirates/ Pan Retelling

One night.

That’s all it takes to turn my life upside down. It’s not like I had the most stable childhood to begin. Most of it was spent on the run from the villains in my mom’s head. It isn’t until after she’s murdered right in front of me that I realize maybe they weren’t in her head after all.

After her death I go to stay with an uncle I didn’t know existed to try to make sense of my life and find some answers about who I really am. As I search for the truth a guy named Peter shows up and makes it his mission to constantly get in my personal space. He’s gorgeous, flirty and completely infuriating. And possibly not actually human or from this world.

The things he tells me sound insane and I don’t think I can trust him. It doesn’t matter that each heated touch draws me deeper into his web. Things like magic, pirates and Peter Pan just aren’t real.

PRE-ORDER HERE!

About the Author

Author

Natalie J. Reddy is a Canadian Author who spends her days trying to escape reality by making up stories about the characters in her head.

Natalie realized at an early age that she had a passion for storytelling and that passion followed her into adulthood. There is nothing she loves more than to be pulled into a fictional world whether it’s in her own writing or the writing of others. Natalie is the author of the Scar of Days Forgotten series, a New Adult Urban Fantasy series with characters who have supernatural abilities and dark and sometimes unknown pasts to overcome.

When she’s not writing, Natalie can be found having all sorts of real-life adventures with her husband and daughter or curled up with a good book and a cup of tea.

To keep up to date on upcoming books, subscribe to Natalie’s newsletter at nataliejreddy.com

Natalie J. Reddy | Instagram | Facebook | Goodreads

My thoughts: this was a very interesting take on the Peter Pan story. There’s a lot of darkness in the original and Natalie J. Reddy has certainly explored that element here, Pan is not a sweet innocent, but a grown man who will do whatever it takes to get what he wants. With strong adult themes (consent, sex, murder) this is not the Disneyfied story you might be expecting.

Book Tour Schedule

November 28th

R&R Book Tours (Kick-Off) http://rrbooktours.com

@atrailofpages (Review) https://www.instagram.com/atrailofpages/

@over.on.my.bookshelf (Review) https://www.instagram.com/over.on.my.bookshelf/?hl=en

Rambling Mads (Review) http://ramblingmads.com

@accio_mischief (Review) https://www.instagram.com/accio_mischief/

November 29th

@amber.bunch_author (Review) https://www.instagram.com/amber.bunch_author/

@the.brooke.library (Review) https://www.instagram.com/the.brooke.library/

@ecce.libri (Review) https://www.instagram.com/ecce.libri/

@mels_booksandhooks (Review) https://www.instagram.com/mels_booksandhooks/

@_toris.thoughts_ (Review) https://www.instagram.com/_toris.thoughts_/

November 30th

@its_b.e.l.l.e (Review) https://www.instagram.com/its_b.e.l.l.e/

I Smell Sheep (Review) http://www.ismellsheep.com/

@the_pageling (Review) https://www.instagram.com/the_pageling/

Bunny’s Reviews (Review) https://bookwormbunnyreviews.blogspot.com/

I Love Books & Stuff (Spotlight) https://ilovebooksandstuffblog.wordpress.com

@ better_0ff_read (Spotlight) https://www.instagram.com/better_0ff_read/

December 1st

@alexis.reads__ (Review) https://instagram.com/alexis.reads__?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

@thelibrocubicularista (Review) https://www.instagram.com/thelibrocubicularista/

@mandioyster (Review) https://www.instagram.com/mandioyster/

@wendyreadsforfun (Review) https://www.instagram.com/wendyreadsforfun/

Freelance Writer, Janny C (Spotlight) https://freelancewriterjannyc.com/

December 2nd

Cheryl’s Book Nook (Review) https://cherylsbooknook.blogspot.com/

Liliyana Shadowlyn (Review) https://lshadowlynauthor.com/

@takealookatmybookshelf (Review) https://www.instagram.com/takealookatmybookshelf/

@wolfesbooks (Review) https://www.instagram.com/wolfesbooks

Book Reviews by Taylor (Review) https://www.bookreviewsbytaylor.com

Book Tour Organized By:

R&R Button

R&R Book Tours

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Children of Memory – Adrian Tchaikovsky

ramblingmads

The modern classic of space opera that began with Children of Time continues in this extraordinary novel of humanity’s battle for survival on a terraformed planet.

Earth failed. In a desperate bid to escape, the spaceship Enkidu and its captain, Heorest Holt, carried its precious human cargo to a potential new paradise. Generations later, this fragile colony has managed to survive, eking out a hardy existence. Yet life is tough, and much technological knowledge has been lost.

Then strangers appear. They possess unparalleled knowledge and thrilling technology – and they’ve arrived from another world to help humanity’s colonies. But not all is as it seems, and the price of the strangers’ help may be the colony itself.

Children of Memory by Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author Adrian Tchaikovsky is a far-reaching space opera spanning generations, species and galaxies.

My thoughts: every time I read an Adrian Tchaikovsky book I decide I really don’t get it, then I read it again, and sort of get what is happening. And that’s how I ended up feeling like Miranda does in the later sections of this complex, clever and slightly infuriating book. There are dozens of clever little literary and cultural references throughout, it takes time to spot them and I certainly felt silly when it hit me that The Tempest might be a source, the main character is called Miranda after all!

Visiting a planet that may or may not be occupied by the descendants of fleeing humans, refugees from the end of Earth, the crew of the Skipper hope to find a colony. But something strange is going on.

On Irma, Liff, the granddaughter of Captain Holt of the Enkidu, has a new teacher. And she keeps seeing her grandfather and she’s also pretty sure there’s a witch in the hills. But no one will listen to her, so she’s going to find out herself.

Clever, richly metatextual, intelligent science fiction that asks big questions about reality, life, memory and who gets to decide. Very pleasing.

*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 Restless Truth – Freya Marsk

ramblingmads

A Restless Truth is the second entry in Freya Marske’s beloved, award-winning Last Binding trilogy, the queer historical fantasy series that began with A Marvellous Light.

Magic! Murder! Shipboard romance!

Maud Blyth has always longed for adventure. She expected plenty of it when she volunteered to serve as an old lady’s companion on an ocean liner, in order to help her beloved older brother unravel a magical conspiracy that began generations ago.

What she didn’t expect was for the old lady in question to turn up dead on the first day of the voyage. Now she has to deal with a dead body, a disrespectful parrot, and the lovely, dangerously outrageous Violet Debenham, who’s also returning home to England. Violet is everything that Maud has been trained to distrust yet can’t help but desire: a magician, an actress, and a magnet for scandal.

Surrounded by the open sea and a ship full of suspects, Maud and Violet must first drop the masks that they’ve both learned to wear before they can unmask a murderer and somehow get their hands on a magical object worth killing for—without ending up dead in the water themselves.

My thoughts: I didn’t think this would be better than A Marvellous Light, one of my favourite books of recent years, but oh it is. I loved Maud, I loved Violet, I even like grumpy Hawthorn. Basically I adored this book. A sapphic murder aboard a ship with magic and hijinks and lots of Maud getting a very private education from Violet. And it’s so, so, so good. Elements of Tipping the Velvet, Titanic (do not tell me the hiding in the car scene wasn’t a huge nod, that ended very differently), Agatha Christie style crime novels (made me think of the recently published A Fatal Crossing and Miss Aldridge Regrets) and just tremendous fun.

Maud is undercover, when the lady she’s accompanying across the Atlantic is murdered and she needs to solve the crime, identify the piece of the very important Last Contract, and avoid getting murdered herself, so she can report back to Robin and Edwin safe and sound. So obviously she recruits a team – an actress, a Lord and a reporter/jewel thief, and those are just the people who know they’ve been recruited (there’s a menagerie involved too – cheetahs at sea!)

I loved this and I can’t wait for my fancy Illumicrate edition to arrive and sit next to its siblibg on the bookcase and there’s still a book three to come and I am very excited as you might be able to tell…

*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: Deuce – Gail Meath

ramblingmads

One for sorrow, two for spice triggers a game of three blind mice.

While vacationing in New England, PI Jax Diamond and his courageous canine partner, Ace, bite off more than they can chew when two small town deaths reveal two big time killers, and the locals don’t take too kindly to strangers.

Laura Graystone, Broadway star, auto expert, and Jax’s heartthrob, is once again front and center digging for clues while trying to ditch an old boyfriend. That is, until her brother becomes Jax’s prime suspect. Then all hell breaks loose, and Ace is left in the lurch, tracking down leads with his new sidekick, Susie.

A crazy duet of crimes sends Jax, Laura and Ace into a tailspin in small-town USA during the Roaring Twenties. Where no one is above the law, everyone is a suspect, and time is running out before the clock strikes one.

Buy Links Goodreads

Award-winning author Gail Meath writes historical romance novels that will whisk you away to another time and place in history where you will meet fascinating characters, both fictional and real, who will capture your heart and soul. Meath loves writing about little or unknown people, places and events in history, rather than relying on the typical stories and settings.

Facebook Instagram Twitter Website

My thoughts: another cracking case for Jax and Co, most importantly Ace, always the best canine PI the Roaring Twenties has. Things are going great till they’re very much not and Jax and Laura find themselves on opposite sides of the case. Ace is helping new pal Susie, while the lovebirds are at odds and the clock is ticking.

I love this team, obviously Ace makes them extra good at crime solving. This was another corker and the historic setting is a bonus as I’m a history nerd!

*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 Judas Tree – Amanda Jennings

ramblingmads

At a bleak boys’ boarding school in Cornwall in the eighties when bullying is rife, Will and his best friend, Luke, are involved in a horrific incident that results in Luke leaving.

Twenty-five years later their paths cross again and memories of a painful childhood come flooding back to haunt them both.

Will’s wife, Harmony, is struggling after a miscarriage that has hit her hard, and wishes Will would open up about what happened. But as Will withdraws further, she finds herself drawn to the charismatic stranger from her husband’s past, Luke, and soon all three are caught in a tangled web of guilt and desire . . .

My thoughts: childhood trauma is never completely left in the past in this thriller. Luke inviegles his way into old friend Will’s adult life, and slowly forces his way between Will and Harmony. The problems in their marriage mean there’s a weakness, they’re not as rock solid as they like to think. And Luke is happy to manipulate that. He’s had years to plan his revenge.

None of the characters are hugely likeable and they all do pretty mean things to each other but Luke is so damaged and takes everything to an extreme in his desire to avenge his child self. He’s twisted things in his mind for so long, his childhood was awful, his parents absent but it doesn’t excuse the monster he becomes. Therapy would probably have been more help. Creepy and sinister, perhaps looking up old friends on Facebook needs to stop. Just in case.

*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 Good News Gazette – Jessie Wells

ramblingmads

Because we all need something to smile about!
She may be down but don’t count this determined single mum out just yet…
Nine years ago, Zoe Taylor returned from London to the quiet hamlet of Westholme with her tail between her legs and a bun in the oven. Where once her job as a journalist saw her tearing off to Paris at a moment’s notice after a lead, now the single mum covers the local news desk. At least, she did…until she’s unceremoniously let go.
When Zoe invites her friends over to commiserate, wine and whining soon turns into something more… and before the night is out she’s plotted her next step: The Good News Gazette.
Now, as a developer threatens to force Westholme into the twenty-first century, Zoe’s good news movement finds her leading a covert campaign as a community crusader. She may have started The
Good News Gazette as a way to save herself, but she might just be able to save Westholme in the process…

Waterstones Blackwells Foyles Amazon UK WH Smiths Amazon US


Jessie Wells lives with her husband and two children in Merseyside. She has always written in some form, and previously worked as a journalist on the Liverpool Echo and Sunday Mirror and as a freelancer for various national women’s magazines and newspapers before moving into finance. She loves nothing more than getting lost in her imaginary worlds, which are largely filled with romance, communities bursting with character and a large dose of positivity.

Instagram Facebook Tiktok Twitter

My thoughts: this book is such a joyful hug of a read, I loved Zoe and her determined attitude, she will find good news stories, she will save the Parade, and she will support herself and her son Charlie. And so she does. With the support of her mum, her pals and the new friends she makes as she goes about finding the positive things for the Good News Gazette’s pages, she discovers she can do pretty much anything she puts her mind to.

Funny, entertaining and with lots of heart, this was a cheering sort of book, with a dash of romance, the righting of a few wrongs, and a happy ending all round. Definitely the antidote to all the grim realities at the moment.

*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 Blitz: The Automobile Assassination – M.J. Porter

ramblingmads


Erdington, September 1944
As events in Europe begin to turn in favour of the Allies, Chief Inspector Mason of Erdington Police Station is once more prevailed upon to solve a seemingly impossible case.
Called to the local mortuary where a man’s body lies, shockingly bent double and lacking any form of identification, Mason and O’Rourke find themselves at Castle Bromwich aerodrome seeking answers
that seem out of reach to them. The men and women of the royal air force stationed there are their prime suspects. Or are they? Was the man a spy, killed on the orders of some higher authority, or is
the place his body was found irrelevant? And why do none of the men and women at the aerodrome recognise the dead man?
Mason, fearing a repeat of the cold case that dogged his career for two decades and that he’s only just solved, is determined to do all he can to uncover the identity of the dead man, and to find out why he was killed and abandoned in such a bizarre way, even as Smythe demands he spends his time solving the counterfeiting case that is leaving local shopkeepers out of pocket.
Join Mason and O’Rourke as they once more attempt to solve the impossible in 1940s Erdington.
Purchase

MJ Porter is the author of many historical novels set predominantly in Seventh
to Eleventh-Century England, as well as three twentieth-century mysteries. Raised in the shadow of a building that was believed to house the bones of long-dead Kings of Mercia, meant that the
author’s writing destiny was set.

Website Blog Twitter Facebook LinkedIn
Instagram Pinterest BookBub
Amazon Author Page Goodreads Linktr.ee

My thoughts: this was a good old-fashioned whodunnit, with an intriguing victim – a man with no identifying documents or even clothes, found bent double near the airfield in wartime. Easy to see why Mason and O’Rourke look closely at the RAF stationed there.

Theres other strange goings on too, someone is tampering with the AA’s road side boxes, and there’s still a case Mason doesn’t even want to be investigating to be resolved – Jones would love the counterfeiting case.

But there’s more crime than coppers, so Mason, aided by the very resourceful O’Rourke (not limited to filing and tea making as sadly female police officers really were for a long time) to solve all of these cases and identify the mysterious dead man in order to return him to his family and find his killer. Highly enjoyable.

*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: Suicide Thursday – Will Carver

ramblingmads

If words could kill…

Eli Hagin can’t finish anything.

He hates his job, but can’t seem to quit. He doesn’t want to be with his girlfriend, but doesn’t know how end things with her, either. Eli wants to write a novel, but he’s never taken a story beyond the first chapter.

Eli also has trouble separating reality from fiction. When his best friend kills himself, Eli is motivated, for the first time in his life, to finally end something himself, just as Mike did…

Except sessions with his therapist suggest that Eli’s most recent ‘first chapters’ are not as fictitious as he had intended … and a series of text messages that Mike received before his death point to something much, much darker…

Will Carver is the international bestselling author of the January David series and the critically acclaimed, mind-blowingly original Detective Pace series that includes Good Samaritans (2018), Nothing Important Happened Today (2019) and Hinton Hollow Death Trip (2020), all of which were ebook bestsellers and selected as books of the year in the mainstream international press. Nothing Important Happened Today was longlisted for the Goldsboro Glass Bell Award 2020 and Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. Hinton Hollow Death Trip was longlisted for Guardian Not the Booker Prize, and was followed by three standalone literary thrillers, The Beresford, Psychopaths Anonymous (both optioned for TV) and The Daves Next Door. He lives in Reading with his family.

My thoughts: another strange adventure inside the psyches of some more Carver characters. This time Eli, who can only write first chapters, Jackie, his girlfriend, and Mike, his best friend.

Leading up to and away from Mike’s terrible, tragic death, Eli struggles with what kind of person he is, hates his awful, soul destroying job (reminiscent of Office Space) and keeps planning on dumping Jackie. Who’s cheating on him, and visiting a confessional every week to appease her guilt.

Mike’s death makes them both feel guilty, and wonder whether they could have stopped it. But someone has been nudging him along, will his phone reveal their identity? And what’s with the two Teds in the coffee shoppe next door?

With little references to other Carver books for the careful reader, and clever little moments where you wonder just what’s real and what’s maybe in Eli’s head, like his invisible therapist, this is another clever, twisty turny book from one of my favourite authors.

*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 Murder at the Castle – Chris McGeorge

ramblingmads

King Eric is dead. And when the motive is succession, murder is a family affair…

During a violent snowstorm, the Royal Family gather at the Castle for a traditional Christmas together. Amid rumours that he plans to name a new successor, King Eric stands to make his traditional after-dinner speech. He sips from a glass of his favourite whisky- and drops dead.

The king has been poisoned, and only one of the royals could have done the deed. Trapped by the raging blizzard, it is up to Eric’s beloved head chef, Jonathan Alleyne, to play detective and get to the bottom of this heinous crime.

Jon is determined to expose the truth, even if it puts him in grave danger, and threatens to shake the entire monarchy to its core…

My thoughts: this was a really interesting and fun read. Set in an alternate world where Edward VIII didn’t abdicate (and married someone else), his son (?) Eric is king. The Royals are gathered for Christmas at Balmoral. Until after a huge lunch, the king dies.

The only staff on site are a security guard, who’s a bit too full of himself, and chef Jon. He’s tasked by the family to solve the crime. But can he? And will they tell him the truth?

I liked Jon, he seemed like a nice guy stuck in a horrible situation – he had a good relationship with the king, his boss, but the rest of the family are fairly grim. Over entitled and pretty toxic when together.

This was an enjoyable, country house style mystery, with the castle snowed in and the suspects all in one place, Jon’s not quite Poirot but he does a good job with the information at hand.

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