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.
We’re celebrating the release of the highly anticipated sequel in the Never Never duet, Never Mine by Monique Shepherd!
Never Mine: A Forbidden Age-Gap College Romance
Series: The Never Never Duet Book 2
Release Date: November 10, 2025
Forbidden age-gap
Gothic Academia
K!nk exploration
Touch her & 💀
A big F-U to the University President
Revenge
Feminine Rage
HEA
Kieran: They tried to take her from me. And I wasn’t there to stop him. I’ve walked through hell. But nothing—nothing—prepared me for the terror of almost losing her.
Now, she’s fighting to recover, and I’m battling the darkness inside of me, the need for revenge. I’ve killed for her once. I’ll do it again. This time, with her by my side.
I am no longer just her professor and she is more than just my student. We’ve crossed every line, broken every rule. But none of it matters now because all I care about is keeping her safe…even if it means becoming a man I don’t even recognize.
Deirdre: He saved me, but I don’t know how to save him from the rage burning in his eyes. He’s angry. Haunted. Ready to burn the world down to find the man who hurt me.
We’re thrilled to announce the audio release of The Curse of the Siren by S.E. Nielsen, narrated by Stefanie Kay!
The Curse of the Siren
Release Date: November 11, 2025
Genre: Dark Romantasy
Narrator: @stefaniekaysays
Dark, gritty fantasy
Fast pace
Love triangle
Meddling deities
Anti-hero FMC
One tent
She’s still learning her powers
There is but one lesson humans are slow to learn and quick to forget: the fae lie . . .
When half-fae Bronwyn is caught fleeing the scene of a robbery, a Crusader arrow finds its mark. But as her roguish partner-in-crime Eoin tends to her wounds, a spark between them replenishes Bronwyn’s magic—revealing her as part-Siren. And quite possibly cursed.
Meanwhile, word is spreading of the two thieves and the illegal magic they left behind them. To escape discovery, Bronwyn and Eoin accept a dangerous yet tempting job: a wedding heist that leads them into the depths of the fae realm.
But August, the merciless vampire lord of the Selene Court, is used to getting what—and who—he wants.
In a land of deception, seduction, and meddling gods, Bronwyn puts her life on the line, only to discover temptation may be her undoing. And time is running out for her to make a choice, before she’s stuck on the wrong side of a looming war.
The Curse of the Siren is a steamy, plot-driven romantasy with magic, political intrigue, and two tempting MMCs.
We’re thrilled to announce the release of Santa Cutie by Jenny Alexandra! Perfect for readers who love a little naughty with their nice!
Santa Cutie (Cherryville Book 1)
Release Date: Nov 11, 2025
Genre: Holiday Romance/ Spicy Romcom
❄️ Grumpy X Sunshine
❄️ Forced Proximity
❄️ Slow Burn
❄️ Holiday Romance
❄️ Guaranteed HEA
This Santa is more of a Scrooge...
Melody Whitaker doesn’t just love Christmas—she worships it. After fleeing a holiday-hating cult, she’s gone all in: thousands of twinkle lights, a storage unit of trees, and more sparkle than a Hallmark movie marathon.
This year, she’s signed up to play Mrs. Claus at a local nursing home, eager to spread some holiday cheer—until she meets Eben Golding: a brooding, grumpy, Christmas-hating hottie. Maybe it’s the mistletoe, but Melody can’t stop flirting with this surly Santa…
Falling in love with someone who sees your sparkle—even the parts you thought you had to hide—might be the greatest gift of all. But when the nursing home pageant goes ho-ho-horribly, Melody is left wondering if her Christmas spirit can really save the season…and thaw Eben’s frosty heart.
Santa Cutie is a spicy Christmas rom-com from the Cherryville series—bursting with laughter, mischief, and heartfelt healing. HEA guaranteed!
Triggers: Cult/Religious abuse, Alzheimer’s, sexual harassment
Twenty-three years ago, a young woman was murdered on the Swedish island of Lidingö.
The island has kept its silence.
Until now…
As autumn deepens into darkness in Lidingö, on the Stockholm archipelago, the island is plunged into chaos: in the space of a week, two teenaged boys are murdered. Their bodies are left deep in the forest, dressed in white tunics with crowns of candles on their heads, like offerings to Saint Lucia.
Maïa Rehn has fled Paris for Lidingö after a family tragedy. But when the murders shake the island community, the former police commissioner is drawn into the heart of the investigation, joining Commissioner Aleksander Storm to unravel a mystery as chilling as the Nordic winter.
As they dig deeper, it becomes clear that a wind of vengeance is blowing through the archipelago, unearthing secrets that are as scandalous as they are inhuman.
But what if the victims weren’t who they seemed? What if those long silenced have finally found a way to strike back?
How far would they go to make their tormentors pay?
And you – how far would you go?
Born in Marseille, France, and with a degree in Political Science, Johana Gustawsson has worked as a journalist for the French and Spanish press and Her critically acclaimed Roy & Castells series, including Block 46, Keeper and Blood Song, has won the Plume d’Argent, Balai de la découverte, Balai d’Or and Prix Marseillais du Polar awards, and is now published in nineteen countries. A TV adaptation is currently under way in a French, Swedish and UK co-production. The Bleeding was a number-one bestseller in France and is the first in a new series. Johana lives in Sweden with her Swedish husband and their three sons.
My thoughts: This was so good, shocking and horrible, and totally gripping. There’s something very haunting, and deeply twisted, about dressing the victims as Saint Lucia, in her white dress and crown of light. But the killer is making a statement. It just takes a while for Commissioner Aleks Storm to join the pieces and work out the connection between the victims.
Aided by French detective Maïa Rehn, asked by the grandmother of the convicted killer from twenty-three years ago to take another look at that case, Storm must find the person who has decided to take terrible revenge on those who have gone unpunished. They have bided their time and held onto their grief for so long. The deaths and what they represent will tear the community apart and destroy lives.
Dark, haunted by the past, and full of righteous anger at the slow change of the law (which is the same everywhere, society fast outpaces the justice system), this is another absolutely brilliant read from Johana Gustawsson, an incredibly skilled writer, who draws you into her world and never really let’s you go.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
She can’t see the killer but the killer can see her.
Naomi Hannah has been blind since birth. Struggling with living in a small, claustrophobic town, Naomi contemplates ending her life. But then she stumbles across the body of a young woman who has been brutally murdered. She senses someone else there at the scene – watching her. Naomi may not be able to see the killer’s face, but she is still the only person who can identify him.
As the police begin hunting the person responsible and more victims are discovered, Naomi is forced to answer the question on which her fate hangs: why did the killer let her live?
In a town this small, the murderer must be close, perhaps even before her very eyes…
My thoughts: Naomi is a deeply unhappy person, struggling with depression following the end of her marriage, having trouble talking to her family, she’s contemplated ending it all a few times.
Making her way home from work one evening, she takes a wrong turn and ends up in an alley. In the alley is a dead woman and her killer. Naomi can’t see the person standing right in front of her, and the killer uses that.
A series of truly terrible things happen to Naomi, who has the very serious misfortune of getting onto the radar of two different psychopaths. As her life is endangered, can the police solve the murders and keep Naomi alive?
Twisted, shocking and violent, the small town Naomi has lived in her whole life is rocked by the events, could it all be connected to the disappearance of a teenage girl years before, and if so, why does someone want to torment the blind woman?
The story of course has a signature Jack Jordan end twist, that is so well hidden, you won’t have any idea what’s coming, poor Naomi.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Detective Inspector Michael Angel returns to face his toughest case yet — and this time, he’s missing his right-hand man!
Discover a brand-new, page-turning murder mystery in the bestselling series. One million books read!
A detective who’s no angel despite his name . . .
Meet Detective Michael Angel. An old-school policeman who sometimes rubs his team up the wrong way. He’s got his flaws, but he never gives up on a case.
One dead actor, murdered on set while the cameras roll. When dashing Rodney Pertwee is shot dead at Northern Film Studios, everyone assumes it’s part of the script. Until Rodney’s leading lady spots a bloodstain that’s anything but fake.
Enter Inspector Angel. He arrives to find a room full of shaken witnesses. They all watched Rodney die. Yet no one saw the real-life shooter. Who’s telling the truth — and who’s turning in an award-winning performance?
Out of the corner of his eye, Angel glimpses a mysterious woman in green, slipping out the exit. No one knows her name. Or what she was doing on the closed set.
Angel’s determined to find out. But he can’t do it without his loyal DC Scrivens — who’s disappeared without a trace.
Can Angel track down his friend before the killer returns for one final cut?
Roger Silverwood is a mystery crime writer who lives in Barnsley in Yorkshire at the foot of the Pennines. He has worked as a salesman and sales manager covering the UK and Ireland.
He has been a copywriter in an advertising agency and an antique dealer in precious jewellery until he retired in 1989 to write full-time.
His big success is the series of 29 books featuring Inspector Angel. He has also written 5 standalone novels and a radio play. His books are available in all English-speaking countries.
My thoughts: This was really good, there was so much mystery around the identity and whereabouts of the probable murderer. This figure that was just out of Inspector Angel’s reach multiple times – he got so close.
But even before we got onto the murder, Angel had to rescue his number two, DC Scrivens, who had been abducted by the gang he brought down by arresting their leader.
Twoinvestigations for the price of one!
This was hugely enjoyable and now I have the immense fun of exploring the rest of the series. Join me!
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
If Cat Caliban’s not your favorite crime-solving grandma, you just haven’t met her yet.
Meet Cat Caliban: former housewife, widow, cat lady — and private eye in training. Who said fifty-something was too old to start again?
But if Cat’s not old, the case that lands on her desk sure is. Back in the summer of ’69, rebellious teen Leila Perle secretly boarded a bus to Woodstock, and never came home. What really happened at the legendary music festival — if the missing girl even made it there at all?
Some say that if you can remember the Sixties, you weren’t there. But Cat’s certain someone from the hazy, drug-addled era of peace, love and rock ‘n’ roll remembers exactly what happened to the missing music-lover. And they’ll do anything to keep their terrible secret buried.
ELEVEN HOURS TO MURDER — a whip-smart, witty mystery featuring Cincinnati’s sharpest-tongued sleuth, three cats, one retired Black cop friend with a very unruly beagle, and a case where justice is long overdue.
D. B. Borton is the author of two mystery series—the Cat Caliban series and the Gilda Liberty series —as well as the standalone mystery novels Smoke and Bayou City Burning and the humorous science fiction novel Second Coming.
In graduate school, Borton converted a lifetime of passionate reading and late-night movie-watching into a doctorate in English. She is Professor Emeritus of English at Ohio Wesleyan University.
Borton currently lives with Zoe the cat in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she gardens, practices aikido, a martial art, and, of course, reads.
My thoughts: This is easily one of my absolute favourite crime series out there. I love Cat and her band of merry housemates, especially juvenile delinquent Sidney (he’s a cat) and of course Foggy, the voice of reason and experience, that Cat often ignores!
This case takes them back in time to 1969, when Cat was busy raising her children, and the summer of love was underway.
A teenage musician with dreams of making it big, Leila Perle disappeared, supposedly on the way to Woodstock. But as they investigate, Cat becomes certain she never left town.
This might be the saddest case Cat and co have investigated yet, there’s no joyful reunion or humour in what they discover. But it’s all done with such grace, the narrative really buoys you along.
Cat and a few other regular characters are such colourful, genuine people, you can’t help but love them. And it’s Valentine’s Day so Kevin has decorated the building in a way that’s guaranteed to annoy Foggy. And there’s Leon, who must be the hardest-working person ever. He’s on his 600th job here and still has time to help Cat out. It’s just the best.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
We’re celebrating the newly release dark romantasy A Fate Drawn to Flame by Skylark Melody!
A Fate Drawn to Flame (Realm of The Halo Book 1)
Release Date: October 30, 2025
Genre: Dark Romantasy
A dark, slow burn epic fantasy romance and a bit of spice.
A unique premise and delicious angst with a genre-blending, multi-layered plot.
A soft but confident FMC and a strong but conflicted MMC.
MORE TO LOVE:
Found family
Fated mates
She falls first/he falls harder
A Fate Drawn to Flame is the first book of the Realm of The Halo series and ends with a satisfying cliffhanger.
Is their love fated in forever, or will it be the beginning of the end?
Marked by a life of tragedy and sorrow, Araxia Arevin’s search for a new start begins with a harrowing accident in a place filled with old memories and ancient mysteries.
While she recovers, Arax meets the mercurial Konstantine. Cold and harsh, he wants nothing to do with her, but she is drawn to him.
Who is this man? What is this place? And why, of all things, does she feel most at peace by his touch?
An alpha meant to rule since birth, Konstantine has had a life filled with political turmoil, betrayal, and loss. To deny himself almost everything for the sake of duty means survival, including keeping the one destined for him from being dragged into the uncertainty of his world
A dark folk horror tale of a deadly family curse, crime and murder that is sure to turn your blood cold, from the award-winning, New York Times bestselling author of Netflix’s The Silence.
When Jodi, BB and Matt decide to burgle a derelict country home as a thrilling dare, they become embroiled in a twisted legacy of supernatural terror. There are rumours of a bizarre curse hanging over the hoard of antiques and jewellery within the house. And unbeknownst to the others, one member of the trio has darker motives for breaking into the property.
Lem is a brutal man obsessed with a gruesome family legend. He is determined to right the wrongs of the past and lift the curse placed on his bloodline. By completing the work of his father and bringing a bizarre selection of scattered relics back together, he hopes to be free of the malign influence that has hounded every generation of his family for two centuries.
Across a single day, a deadly pursuit will culminate on the desolate, storm-swept Crow Island, and those involved are given cause to wonder… can believing in a curse deeply enough bring its own bad luck?
TIM LEBBON is a New York Times-bestselling writer from South Wales. He’s written over fifty novels, as well as hundreds of novellas and short stories. His latest novel is Secret Lives of the Dead. He has won a World Fantasy Award, four British Fantasy Awards, a Dragon Award and a Scribe Award. His novel The Silence is a movie on Netflix starring Stanley Tucci and Kiernan Shipka. The movie of his novella Pay The Ghost stars Nicolas Cage.
Tim has written extensively in existing universes including Alien, Conan the Barbarian, Predator, Star Wars, Firefly and Hellboy novels. He also novelised the movies 30 Days of Night, The Cabin in the Woods, and Kong: Skull Island.
He has written computer games, comics, and audio dramas. He is currently developing more novels, and both original and adapted screen projects. He loves the outdoors, and spends a lot of time walking, running, cycling and swimming around the Welsh countryside. He’s competed in many Ironman and other triathlons. He’s a huge music fan and believes you’re never too old to jump up and down in a mosh pit.
My thoughts: This was a creepy, sinister book with a rather terrifying but apparently ordinary man in pursuit of something rather extraordinary.
Having convinced boyfriend BB and best friend Matt to go with her, Jodi and her pals break into an abandoned manor house. In the basement is a treasure trove, and if that was all they took, things would have been very different.
But Jodi has an ulterior motive, one that ends in death and destruction as her theft attracts the attention of a determined and murderous Lem.
He’s attempting to reverse a curse laid on his family many generations ago, and he doesn’t care who gets hurt along the way. He and Jodi have crossed paths before, and this spurs her need for revenge.
As the two pursue each other, and the strange relics Lem so needs, chaos unfolds. Neither is willing to back down, and innocents will be the price they pay.
Gripping, dark and sinister, this was fascinating and disturbing in equal measures.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own..
We’re thrilled to present the cover for the next book in Vows & Valor Trilogy, In the Name of Pride! ARC sign ups are now open (link on author page).
In the Name of Pride (Vows & Valor #2)
Expected Release Date: January 27, 2026
Genre: Adult Fantasy w/ Romance
Cover Designer: @best.selling.premades
Mental health rep
Wounded MMC
Princess/knight slowburn
Mild spice
Mr Darcy hand flex
Fueled by spite
Unsexy forced proximity
Chaotic cousins
Genderfluid rep
Quid pro quo coercion
Sinister magic
What happens when the Happily Ever After comes with consequences?
After a lifetime of separation, Kaleela now reconnects with her elven family inside the Sun’Din Forest as a beloved member of the royal family. But not everyone supports a greater union between the elven and human lands, and a fission enters the great forest.
Dimitar now serves as a knight in the city of Blackburn, his life’s dream come true. Everyone he cares about thrives, yet his life darkens with the weight of failure. All he wants is Kaleela’s nearness, their growing love a beacon in his shadows.
When extremist exiles overtake the elven kingdom, Kaleela doesn’t hesitate to return to the forest. She must ensure her family’s safety, and Dimitar insists on protecting her. An unthinkable threat rises from within, and an exile sets his special attention on Kaleela. Dimitar must overcome his inner demons and find a way to reach Kaleela before her greatest wish becomes their worst nightmare.
IN THE NAME OF PRIDE is the highly anticipated sequel in the award-winning Vows & Valor adult fantasy trilogy. What happens when the Happily Ever After comes with consequences? Intense yearning, a battle of the wills, the most hate-able villain, and an unhealthy amount of stakes await readers in this page-turning, emotionally devastating sequel to IN THE NAME OF HONOR.
ramblingmads 