Category: blog tour

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Shadow of Doubt – P.A. DePaul

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Michelle Alger flees when her secretly recorded tryst winds up on the internet. She has no option but to hide. Her one-night stand—the son of a powerful US senator—was murdered. Learning she’s the prime suspect is traumatizing. Already a member of witness protection thanks to a Colombian drug lord kidnapping her in college, she now has to run from the senator and law enforcement. To make matters worse, the drug lord finally knows her location and is hot on her trail. There’s only one man she trusts. He saved her once, can he do it again six years later?

Captain Jeremy Malone no longer wears a Green Beret. He’s traded in his fatigues for a new life leading Delta Squad, a covert unit within SweetBriar Group. His latest orders from the senator: find the unknown woman and bring her to me. But Jeremy knows her identity. He once rescued her from a Colombian cartel, and has never forgotten her. He assigns his squad a new mission: find Michelle first and learn the real story.

Michelle and Jeremy can’t deny their explosive chemistry. But, with every new piece of evidence, Jeremy’s faith in Michelle’s innocence is questioned. Is her plea for help a ruse…or a trap set by a beautiful woman determined to expose Jeremy’s own secrets…

This is the second book in the SweetBriar Group (SBG) series and can be read as a standalone. 

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Author Bio:

P. A. DePaul is a Publishers Weekly Bestselling and award-winning author.Her books are full of action, suspense, and romance.

As a hybrid author, she has books traditionally and independently published. Her traditional publishers include Berkley, a Penguin Random House imprint, and Harlequin Books. 

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A Key Element of Romantic Suspense That Keeps the Pages Turning

I absolutely love it when a book has me sitting on the edge of my seat with my heart pounding and pages turning so fast, I risk a papercut or dead battery. As a reader, I get to enjoy the ride, as an author it’s my job to transport someone else into that adrenaline space. Oh, excuse me, I should introduce myself. My name is P.A. DePaul and I write Romantic Suspense. I’ve had books traditionally published with Penguin and Harlequin, and I’ve indie published a romantic suspense series. 

Writing Romantic Suspense is a lot of fun, but like any genre it has rules. Since no one wants me to go on forever, I’ll talk about one of my favorite components with examples from my latest release, Shadow of Doubt.  

Golden Rule: Increase suspense through the use of High Action. This is the fun stuff. The heart-pounding, pulse-racing, page-turning situations the hero and heroine have to accomplish/escape/evade/stop/hurdle before something really bad happens. But, as the story progresses the stakes must rise or the story falls flat.  

In Shadow of Doubt, the heroine finds out someone filmed her drunken escapade with a senator’s son and posted it on YouTube. Normally that’d be embarrassing but nothing noteworthy. But when you pair that film with the next day’s headlines that the son was found dead in his hotel room, now you’ve got an attention getting opening. Now, I need to raise the stakes. So, add in her being wanted by the FBI, getting kicked out of Witness Protection which puts her back into a drug cartel’s sights, and I’ve raised the stakes. But we can’t stop there. We need the hero involved and he can’t just be a boy scout. Let’s make him wonder if she truly did murder the senator’s son and what he has to do about it in his investigation. Hopefully the readers’ heartbeats are thumping as they are turning the pages. 

In each High Action sequence, (think washed out smuggled plane rides, daring escapes, and cat-and-mouse with a villain just to name a few) I consistently increase the suspense. The risk-level of the outcomes affect the group if the hero/heroine fails. Putting more and more at stake in each action sequence keeps readers hooked until the very end. 

Are you hooked? I’m hoping you’re at least curious. You can pick up a digital or paperback copy of Shadow of Doubt, at your favorite retailer.

Extract from Chapter One

Cappy was going to hell.

The sight of Michelle’s perfect ass disappearing out the window was now permanently burned into his brain. He was such a bastard for avidly watching it wiggle as she forced her body through the tight opening.

Every nerve ending north of his toes still vibrated from touching her. Though he had sounded like a bumbling idiot earlier, he’d meant it when he’d blurted how amazing she looked, so healthy and whole. The antithesis of the bloody, broken woman damaged by the Osvaldo Cartel in that shithole room six years ago. This beautiful, vibrant, sexy woman surged his blood and overloaded his fantasies. God built her body for a man like him. Built her for deep, hard sex, be it up against a wall or bent over a chair . . . Goddammit.

Straight. To. Hell.

Remember the mission. He couldn’t think of her in any terms other than professional. For Christ’s sake, he had to find out if she killed the senator’s son. Not have her starring in his latest mental porno.

He pulled a disposable phone from his leg pocket and dropped it inside her overlarge bag. Once he zipped the thing closed, he called, “Heads up. Purse coming through.”

He gave it a little nudge over the sill, hearing it thud into her hands before he yanked the battery out of the back of her cell phone. Now no one could trace her from the GPS in the device—which had been his plan if she hadn’t called him.

He dropped the pieces into his leg pocket for later disposal. Putting on his sunglasses, he ensured his gun holster wouldn’t knock into the frame’s edges, and slid soundlessly through the small opening, then closed the window. Turning, he half expected to find her gone, but she stood just to the left, chewing on her lip with fear lacing through her irises.

“This way,” he whispered, grabbing her hand and motioning toward a grungy building next door.

The electricity from the contact instantly had him hard. He grunted and urged her forward. He pulled her around the back corner of a convenience store and stopped, shifting his hips to relieve the pressure.

“Cutting it too close, Cappy,” Talon admonished softly. Michelle jumped, squealed, then slapped a hand over her mouth.

Yeah. Talon had that effect on people. He was so damn good at blending into the background, he caught most by surprise.

Cappy seized Michelle’s hand to stop her from inching backward. “Relax.”

Her eyes were as large as her face, and she didn’t seem able to look away from his teammate. A sudden shot of jealousy spiked through his veins. Stow that shit. He had no time for the destructive emotion, and it was wrong on so many levels.

“Where’s the car?” he barked, jolting them all. Christ.

Engines raced into the parking lot next door and instantly shut off. Car doors opened, then slammed shut.

Cappy didn’t need to see his teammate’s eyes to know they were both thinking about how they had just barely made it. Michelle trembled underneath his palm.

“Car’s on the other side of the dry cleaners, as commanded.” Talon pointed to a building that had seen better days adjacent to the convenience store.

* * *

Dear God, who is this guy? Michelle couldn’t stop staring at the wicked knife with the onyx blade still protruding from SCK’s [Stone Cold Killer’s] fist.

She shivered.

A male voice yelled from the hotel’s parking lot, “You two cover the back. White, start peering in windows. I’ll talk to the desk clerk.”

“Our signal to move,” Jeremy whispered, jerking her arm as he pulled her forward.

She ran as fast as possible but knew she wasn’t close to the speed both men wanted. Tough darts. She didn’t live in a gym like them.

Had she done the right thing, calling Jeremy? She trailed behind the two men, still rattled by his apparent connection to the FBI’s investigation. He saved you before. Yeah, he did. Was he doing that now? Every TV show, movie, and book she’d ever read clearly pointed out how only those closely connected to a case were privy to details like a raid on a hotel room. Did that mean Jeremy saw the YouTube video?

Talon glanced over his shoulder. His dark shades had slid down and the cold light in his eyes sent fear racing down her spine. No. No! She pulled against Jeremy’s grip, her mind plunging back into Colombia without warning. Cold steel bit into her skin while the man with a pair of emotionless yet fanatical eyes stared at her. “You going to talk now, puta?”

“Michelle,” Jeremey snapped. “Stay with me.”

She blinked away the vision, disoriented at being ripped back into the present so fast. Jeremy tightened his grip and dragged her against his side. For a brief moment, she allowed her head to fall against his meaty shoulder. She inhaled his addictive scent and instantly felt better.

“Eyes front, Talon.” Jeremy flattened her body against the side of the dry cleaners. “We clear to make a break for the car on the other side?”

From beyond the hotel and as far as Michelle could glimpse in the other direction, the backs of the buildings were relatively flush with each other. Some had blacktop as if for additional parking while others had large dumpsters filling the space.

“O Romeo, Romeo. Wherefore art thou Romeo?” Talon crooned softly.

What the heck?

Jeremy flashed SCK a grin and placed his lips next to her earlobe. She shivered at the faint breath and almost missed his command. “Keep low but run as fast as you can. Don’t stop or slow down. Once you clear the corner, wait for us.” Her mind turned to mush at his whispered words. “We’ll use our bodies to block the view if someone should glance this way.”

It took everything she had not to giggle and lift her shoulder. Get it together, Michelle. This is serious.

He placed a large hand at the small of her back. “Go.” He gave her a little push.

My thoughts: want an action packed, thrill filled read with sexy secret agents, a damsel in distress and plots galore? Here you go!

Michelle went through hell aged 19 after being kidnapped and tortured by a Colombian cartel. She was rescued but left with more than physical scars. When she’s set up to look like the killer of a senator’s son, she calls the one person she thinks can help her.

Cappy – once Captain Jeremy Malone, is now the leader of a black ops squad, and he and his team leap into action. The senator is technically their boss, so it’s in their best interests to solve the case before any law enforcement anyway. Their former employer is in prison and out for revenge. As is an old friend of Cappy’s.

As all hell breaks loose and they hunt the killer, Michelle is also being stalked by a man with a grudge over what happened in the Colombian jungle. Can the team stop all these dangerous figures in their tracks and save the day? Can Cappy and Michelle out their mutual attraction to one side so they can survive long enough?

The team still find time to crack jokes (the ongoing hat gag had me smiling) and tease each other, the code names are amusing, and it’s easy to warm to them, even grumpy Talon. Highly enjoyable and entertaining, like an episode of your favourite cop/spy show.

*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: Hexed – Lisa Wakely

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After sixteen-year-old Harriet Flynn trips over an ancient gravestone etched with strange markings in a seventeenth-century holiday village and reads the inscription, she and her friends are alarmed to wake up with supernatural powers.

Having magical abilities is fun at first, but when a series of accidents cause the group to become frightened, Harriet becomes determined to find out what’s going on. 

While investigating the history of the gravestone they came across that night, Harriet realises she has unwittingly awakened a centuries-old, deadly curse and she is the only one who can put an end to it – and she has less than a day.

With time running out, Harriet must find the true magic key, to save herself and the ones she loves.

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Lisa Wakely is a writer, performer and radio presenter from Essex born to an Anglo-Indian mother and Anglo-Burmese father. She has been writing since she was twelve years old, after spending most of her evenings reading stories from the school library. Lisa lives in Colchester with her husband, dog and a cat. 

She enjoys engaging in heart-pumping activities such as skydiving and abseiling, all in the pursuit of charity. Her passion for writing and teaching performing arts is matched only by her boundless energy and unwavering determination. Her time working as a Guest Host at Madame Tussauds London really gave her a taste of what life at an entertainment attraction was like. 

Very much how it comes across in Hexed – minus the magic and 17th century madness!

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My thoughts: as a teenager my friends and I did occasionally wander through the various local church yards and cemeteries, but luckily never woke anything up! Harriet accidentally seems to have stirred up the ghost of a 17th Century woman executed as a witch. And she might actually have been one!

Passing on her powers and a warning to Harriet, she sets the teenager and her friends on a mission, but time is of the essence and there isn’t much of it.

Only by helping each other and working together can Harriet and her friends break the curse and stop Silas from destroying everything.

It’s a twisted, creepy story with lots of action and adventure, all in costume as they recreate the 17th Century village for a Halloween festival.

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

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Blog Tour: Death on the Scotland Express – Fliss Chester

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Someone on board has a deadly destination in mind… can Cressida stop them before it’s too late?

After an eventful trip to the Scottish Highlands, Cressida Fawcett is looking forward to being back among her society friends in London. Enjoying an ice-cold martini in the lounge car of the express train, loyal pug Ruby on her lap, she’s ready to blow off some steam!

But Cressida’s hopes for a relaxing journey are dashed when a gunshot resounds through the carriages. Industrial tycoon Lewis Warriner has been shot dead in his cabin. And as this train has been racing through the countryside, the culprit must be among Cressy’s fellow passengers…

Teaming up with Detective Andrews of Scotland Yard, also on his way back to London, they work their way through the suspects. Did Warriner’s mistress, a famous dancer, see his death as her ticket on to the silver screen? Or was it the mysterious man who can’t take his eyes off Lewis’s close companion?

When the murder weapon is found in the compartment Mr Warriner’s wife occupies alone, she becomes the chief suspect. Until there’s another gunshot. When Cressida finds out that Andrews is hit, panic sets in, but she must try to stay calm.

But with her friend and co-investigator out of action, can Cressida get the journey, and the investigation, back on track? And will she catch the murderer before they reach their final destination?

Fans of Agatha Christie, T.E. Kinsey and Lee Strauss will absolutely love this addictive Golden Age cosy mystery.

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Fliss Chester lives in Surrey with her husband and writes historical cozy crime. When she is not killing people off in her 1940s whodunnits, she helps her husband, who is a wine merchant, run their business. Never far from a decent glass of something, Fliss also loves cooking (and writing up her favourite recipes on her blog), enjoying the beautiful Surrey and West Sussex countryside and having a good natter.

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My thoughts: returning from their last (mis) adventure, Cressida, Dotty, Alfred, Ruby and Detective Inspector Armstrong are hoping for a peaceful night’s train ride back to London, but unfortunately it’s not to be.

A shot rings out and a man is dead, the obvious suspect is his wife, who’s followed him onto the train, catching him with another woman. But is it a setup? There seem to be other passengers with connections to the dead man – a wealthy industrialist with a history of shady behaviour.

As the night goes on, and more people are shot, Cressida and her friends begin to look into their fellow travellers and the deceased. Can they crack the case and identify the real killer before they reach London?

This might be my favourite one yet, it’s a bit Murder on the Orient Express with Cressida as Poirot, but funnier and with a pug as sidekick, and a sticky fingered (literally) nine year old Lord to help her out. Lots of fun and plenty of red herrings, dodgy suspects and clues to keep them all guessing.

*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: A Christmas Carol with Grandfather Time – Rose English

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A Christmas Carol with Grandfather Time
A modern lyrical re-telling of the Charles Dickens classic for children of all ages. Young Ebenezer hates sharing and is not very caring. Can a magical clock and a ghost puppy help him mend his ways?

SharingIsCaring

At least £1 from every book purchased will go towards donating a book to each child in Hereford County Hospital over the Christmas Season 2023

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Living on ‘England’s Green & Pleasant Land’, among the gentle rolling hills of the Herefordshire Countryside, Rose’s house is wall to wall books. She’s a Read-a-holic, whose hobby is to write stories for the young and young at heart.
Working as a school librarian, and sharing her love of books with children, was the best job she ever had. However, life moves on and another chapter was only a page turn away. Working in a very different library now, she is a key worker for the NHS helping to run the Medical Equipment Library in Wye Valley NHS Trust.
After winning FIRST PRIZE in a short story competition with ‘The Magic of Grandfather Christmas’ she is inspired to transform the tale into a collection of stories for all ages. ‘Young Ebenezer’ is inspired by the Dickens classic ‘A Christmas Carol’ and brought into modern times with a strong theme of sharing and caring.
Rose has a little sidekick called Miss Ruby Heart, a ruby King Charles spaniel from the Grandfather Time Series. The puppy is the Ghost of Christmas Past and features on the ‘Young Ebenezer’ covers.
She also has her own social media pages to check out.

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Giveaway To Win a #SharingIsCaring #Giveaway (To share between the whole family) (Open to UK only)*
Prize includes –
📚 Hardback picture book ‘A Christmas Carol with Grandfather Time’ (4 – 8 years average)
📚Paperback ‘Young Ebenezer ~ A New Christmas Carol’ (8+ years)
📚 Paperback ‘Young Ebenezer ~ Confronts the School Bully (8+ years)
📚Paperback ‘The Magic of Grandfather Time’ (older readers to adults) This is where the stories all began a short story of love and loss
📚Paperback/Pocket Treasure ‘Ruby’s Christmas Gifts’ (Families to share) short stories, poems, puzzles jokes.
📚Grandfather Time bookmarks, pen, fridge magnet, sticker
📚Miss Ruby Heart glitter sticker, badge, heart/pawprint bracelet
📚Sharing is Caring necklace
📚Christmas keyring

Hello I’m Rose English and I’m a Read~a~holic! I’m also an aspiring author progressing from short stories for adults, to stories in verse for children. My muse is a ruby King Charles Spaniel named Miss Ruby Heart and together we like to #ShareAStory
My addiction began as a child, being shy and not making friends easily I sought comfort in books. The local library was my second home. I even dare to dream that one day I might write a book myself and see it upon the library shelves. My real name is hard to pronounce (Susan S’ari pronounced Shari) so I created Rose English who would be that English Rose
upon the shelves. Books over spilled our home so I created our very own library in the garden shed. I even made us all library tickets to check books in and out. Heaven help the borrower who did not return a book on time. Dog-eared books were an absolute No-No and would mean a ban plus expulsion from the shed (for a time anyway).
As I grew, I dabbled in writing poetry and short stories, but life moved on and I soon found myself at college and then in permanent employment. I found little time to write as I was always reading for studying. However, there was always time to read a book for pleasure. I came back to writing when I had little money to spare for a gift for mum’s birthday so I dug out some old poems and created a personalised gift. Mum loved it more than anything money could buy and still has the original, but now she has a self-published updated print copy ‘Rainbows & Roses ~ Poetry & Prose’.
In 2014 whilst perusing my local library I came across a book about long case clocks and in it a quote that inspired my future writing.
‘A grandfather clock has a face and a voice. As it name suggests, it is more than a piece of furniture; it is a member of the family’
‘English Country Grandfather Clocks’ by Richard C.R. Barder 1983
Immediately my thoughts turned to magic and the idea of a magical clock who would be the guardian of his beloved family. Hence, the birth of ~ Grandfather Time. The clock first makes his appearance in a short story ‘The Magic of Grandfather Christmas’ it won 1st Prize in an online seasonal competition. I was later able to self-publish the story as ‘The Magic of
Grandfather Time’. Miss Ruby Heart also made her first appearance in this story.
As I struggled over the years to try and turn ‘The Magic of Grandfather Time’ into a full-length novel my sister-in-law encouraged me to try it as a story in verse. Amazon was around that time looking for a new version of the Charles Dickens classic ‘A Christmas Carol’ but for kids. Low and behold ‘Young Ebenezer ~ A New Christmas Carol’ was born. There can only be one winner and this time it was not me. However, I had great feedback from a couple of author friends and they encouraged me again to self-publish. Miss
Ruby Heart featuring as ‘The Ghost of Christmas Past’ and the model on the front cover.

So commenced my transition to children’s author. Now having found my niche I thought about turning Ebenezer’s story into a picture book and we finally get ‘A Christmas Carol with Grandfather Time.’ In the story he is the narrator and along with Miss Ruby Heart the pair encourage the boy to be more caring and share with others. #SharingIsCaring
Who knows what the future holds, my aim is to create stories of Grandfather Time for both the young and young at heart. I am currently focusing on promoting the latest book to enable me to raise money to have more picture books printed so I can gift them to the children in my hospital over Christmas.
Thank you for enabling me to spread my joy of reading. A big THANK YOU to Rachel’s Random Resources and all you lovely bloggers involved in this mini blog tour.
May the magic of reading be with you always.

*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.
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Blog Tour: What Happened at the Abbey – Isobel Blackthorn

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When Ingrid flees a violent husband to become a housekeeper in the Scottish Highlands, she discovers the family she works for has a much darker history than her own.
Who haunts Strathbairn? Why are the adult McCleod children at each other’s throats? And why does the youngest sneak off at night? As Ingrid searches for answers, she grows ever more fearful that her husband will track her down.
Set in late 19th century Scottish Highlands, WHAT HAPPENED AT THE ABBEY is a gothic mystery brimming with intrigue, ghostly drama, and family secrets.

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Isobel Blackthorn is a prolific novelist of unique and engaging fiction. She writes across a range of genres, including gripping mysteries and dark psychological thrillers.
The Unlikely Occultist: A biographical novel of Alice A. Bailey received an Honorable Mention in the 2021 Reader’s Favorite book awards. A Prison in the Sun was shortlisted in the LGBTQ category of
the 2021 International Book Awards and the 2020 Readers’ Favorite Book Awards. Her short story ‘Nothing to Declare’ was shortlisted for the Ada Cambridge Prose Prize 2019. Her dark thriller A Legacy of Old Gran Parks won a Raven Award in 2019. The Cabin Sessions was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award 2018 and the Ditmar Awards 2018.
Isobel holds a PhD in Western Esotericism from the University of Western Sydney for her ground-breaking study of the texts of Theosophist Alice A. Bailey. Her engagement with Alice Bailey’s life and
works has culminated in the biographical novel The Unlikely Occultist and the full biography Alice A. Bailey: Life and Legacy.
Isobel carries a lifelong passion for the Canary Islands, Spain, her former home. Six of her novels are set on the islands of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura. These standalone mystery novels are setting rich
and fall into the broad genre of travel fiction.
Isobel has led a rich and interesting life and her stories are as diverse as her experiences, the highs and lows, and the dramas. A life-long campaigner for social justice, Isobel has written, protested and
leant her weight to a range of issues including asylum seekers and family violence. A Londoner originally, Isobel currently lives in the Canary Islands, Spain.

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My thoughts: remote Scottish houses are strange places, every book I’ve read set in one ends badly. This is no exception.

Ingrid flees north to escape an abusive husband, with her young daughter Susan. Hired as the new housekeeper McCleod home, Strathbairn, she finds a place full of tension and secrets. The cook hates the McCleod daughter, Geraldine, the children (now supposedly grown up) spend all their time bickering and the patriarch is a drunk who avoids his own family.

When Hamish is hired to do some repairs on the house, he and Ingrid spend time together, picnicking in the grounds of the ruined Abbey on the hill above the house. But the ancient building is hiding dark secrets and when Ingrid discovers some of them, she is terrified and unsure what to do. But there’s more to come and her life will never be the same.

Sinister and full of menace, Strathbairn is a dark place with a dark past and it drags the residents in to its history, where the sins of the past will come to light.

*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: Christmas at the Cabin – Rebecca Boxall

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A festive, coming-of-age tale about an Oxbridge candidate and a young homeless man who find themselves in the bittersweet predicament of falling in love with exactly the right person at exactly
the wrong time.
Well-to-do Jed never imagined he’d end up homeless, but family circumstances have made it his only option. Local vicar, Ben, tries to help him but there’s an element of self-punishment to the homelessness that makes Jed continue to put up with his situation – until disaster leads him to re-
consider the vicar’s offer of a place to stay.
Hattie is on the cusp of adulthood, frantically trying to persuade her mum that she doesn’t want to attend an elite university, preferring the idea of pursuing her love of art and textiles. When she
meets Jed, she badly wants to understand his circumstances and why, when she has everything at her fingertips, he doesn’t.
Hattie’s mum, Christine, has had a hard life and is desperate for more for her only child. When she meets Ben, the vicar who’s trying to help Jed, she finds an unlikely ally, and the two heartbroken souls find themselves drawn to each other. Until they find their relationship suddenly tested to the limit.
One thing’s for certain: none of these characters is looking forward to Christmas. It’s the worst time of year for each of them, for different reasons. But perhaps this year, the festive season could defy all expectations.

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Rebecca Boxall was born in East Sussex in 1977 and grew up in a bustling vicarage always filled with family, friends and parishioners. She now lives by the sea in Jersey with her family and Rodney the
cat. She read English at the University of Warwick before she trained as a lawyer and more recently worked at a psychiatric unit.
She is the No. 1 bestselling author of Christmas at the Vicarage and Christmas on the Coast as well as the bestselling writer of Home for Winter, The Christmas Forest and Christmas by the Lighthouse, in
respect of which she was nominated for the Romantic Novel Awards in 2020. She is also the author of Christmas at the Farmhouse and her popular short story, A Winter’s Day.
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My thoughts: this was a lovely, charming book full of friendship, love and hope.

Ben, Jed, Hattie and Christine are four lonely people brought together and who slowly find new ways to be through their relationships with each other.

Ben is grieving and his well meaning sister doesn’t really see it, but his friendship with Jed gives him a way to help another person and open his horizons a little. Jed is punishing himself and struggling on the streets, becoming friends with Ben and Hattie helps him realise he doesn’t need to keep punishing himself for others’ mistakes. Hattie and Christine are a mother and daughter at loggerheads. When Hattie gets to know Jed and Ben, her mother sees red. But as she herself starts to fall for Ben, can Christine let go of the past?

With Christmas approaching, will the festive season work on these four people and bring them together? Can they be happily ever after? Well, you’ll have to read it and see!

*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: Pacific State – Grant Price

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PacificState copy

Welcome to the ARC tour for Pacific State by Grant Price. Read on for more details!

Pacific State eimage

Pacific State (Sundown Book 2)

Expected Publication Date: December 21, 2023

Genre: Cyberpunk/ Sci-Fi

“A rip-roaring cyberpunk novel… it’s definitely science fiction, but it’s frighteningly plausible.” –The San Francisco Book Review

On the streets of Berlin all morals can be bought for a price, and Owen Resler sold his long ago. Once an underground dissenter, now a corporate drone, he spends his days reluctantly manipulating data for Big Pharma.

Across town, notorious gun-for-hire Mia Warsaw is putting together a team to assassinate one of the city’s more unscrupulous business moguls and she needs someone to handle the ones and zeroes.

When Warsaw crosses paths with an increasingly desperate Resler, she hands the former radical an ultimatum: he can either succumb to death by a thousand bureaucratic paper cuts or take a chance with her.

Of course, there’s no guarantee he’ll survive that, either…

Pre-order on Amazon

About the Author

GrantPriceHR_MG_8576_small

Grant Price is the author of three climate fiction novels set in the near future: By the Feet of Men (Cosmic Egg, 2019; submitted for consideration to the Arthur C. Clarke Award); Reality Testing (Black Rose, 2022; Kirkus Top 100 Novels 2021); Pacific State (Black Rose, forthcoming 2023). He lives in Berlin, Germany.

Grant Price

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Blog Tour: Upstairs at the Beresford – Will Carver

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THERE ARE WORSE PLACES THAN HELL…

Hotel Beresford is a grand, old building, just outside the city. And any soul is welcome.

Danielle Ortega works nights, singing at whatever dive bar will offer her a gig. She gets by, keeping to herself. Sam Walker gambles and drinks, and can’t keep his hands to himself. Now he’s tied up in a shoe closet with a dent in his head that matches Danielle’s broken ashtray.

The man in 731 has been dead for two days and his dog has not stopped barking. Two doors down, the couple who always smokes on the window ledge will mysteriously fall.

Upstairs, in the penthouse, Mr Balliol sees it all. He can peer into every crevice of every floor of the hotel from his screen-filled suite. He witnesses humanity and inhumanity in all its forms: loneliness, passion and desperation in equal measure.

All the ingredients he needs to make a deal. When Danielle returns home one night to find Sam gone, a series of sinister events begins to unfold. But strange things often occur at Hotel Beresford, and many are only a distraction to hide something much darker…

Will Carver is the international bestselling author of the January David series and the critically acclaimed, mind-blowingly original Detective Pace series, which 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 both the Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award 2020 and the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award. Hinton Hollow Death Trip was longlisted for Guardian’s Not the Booker Prize, and was followed by four standalone literary thrillers, The Beresford, Psychopaths Anonymous, The Daves Next Door and Suicide Thursday.

Will spent his early years in Germany, but returned to the UK at age eleven, when his sporting career took off. He currently runs his own fitness and nutrition company, and lives in Reading with his children. children.

My thoughts: it won’t be a surprise to anyone else in the cult of Carver that this is very, very good. Set before The Beresford, this takes place in the hotel next door, where Mr Balliol watches everyone and everything that goes on.

Carol, the best manager of a hotel ever, ensures the smooth running of the building, making certain that nothing interrupts the guests day. Including a dead body or two.

There’s a conference taking place in the hotel and everything must be perfect, Mr Balliol expects nothing less. But an old friend of his has checked in, and he wonders why now.

Obviously nothing important happened today and the Beresford has its own unique way of ensuring that nothing ever will. The detective asking about the dead man in 731 gets distracted by a long term guest, so doesn’t notice anything else going on, which is probably a good thing.

It’s a brilliant, twisted and utterly engaging read, defying an easily defined genre – is it a crime novel, a thriller, something fantastical? I don’t know. I just know I was totally hooked.

*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 Hunting Moon – Susan Dennard

ramblingmads

In this heart-racing, jaw-dropping sequel to the New York Times instant bestseller The Luminaries, Winnie continues her fight against the monstrous nightmares of Hemlock Falls.

Winnie Wednesday has gotten everything she thought she wanted. She passed the deadly hunter trials, her family has been welcomed back into the Luminaries, and overnight, she has become a local celebrity.

The Girl Who Jumped. The Girl Who Got Bitten.

Unfortunately, it all feels wrong. For one, nobody will believe her about the new nightmare called the Whisperer that’s killing hunters each night. Everyone blames the werewolf, even though Winnie is certain the wolf is innocent.

On top of that, following her dad’s convoluted clues about the Dianas, their magic, and what happened in Hemlock Falls four years ago is leaving her with more questions than answers.

Then to complicate it all, there is still only one person who can help her: Jay Friday, the boy with plenty of problems all his own.

As bodies and secrets pile up around town, Winnie finds herself questioning what it means to be a true Wednesday and a true Luminary―and also where her fierce-hearted loyalties might ultimately have to lie.

My thoughts: This definitely felt more exciting than The Luminaries – probably because all the world building and lore explaining was done in that book, and in this one there’s just lots more room for adventure and Winnie’s mission, to redeem her family, prove her dad was framed and stop the Dianas who have something to do with the Whisperer in the woods.

Winnie’s relationship with Jay is still rocky, and now he’s Senior Hunter for the Fridays, it’s harder to get through to him.

Someone might be watching her, especially when all her notes get stolen and she makes a discovery that changes everything, but put someone she cares about at risk, she now has more secrets than ever, doesn’t know who to trust and still has a lot to unravel. The adventure really ramps up and there’s a lot more tension and peril.

*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: Merde at the Paris Olympics – Stephen Clarke

ramblingmads

Englishman Paul West is living in Paris (where he arrived long before Emily, by the way) and he’s gearing up for the 2024 Olympics.
Paul accepts a job with a French group who are campaigning to get pétanque adopted as an official Olympic event. In Paul’s opinion, lobbing lumps of lead around while drinking pastis is barely a sport – it’s more an excuse for Provençal men to avoid cooking dinner. But he needs the cash.
Meanwhile Paul falls in love with a French tech genius – who thinks he’s an idiot – and tangles with his treacherous ex, Elodie.
Paul also applies for French nationality and has to embark on a war of attrition with France’s Napoleonic bureaucrats.
In the background, Paul’s friend Jake the grunge poet decides that the Olympics and Paralympics discriminate against the lazy, and invents the “Nolympics”.
Let the fun and games begin.

Stephen Clarke is a British writer who writes mainly about France. He has published six novels featuring a British protagonist named Paul West.

My thoughts: this was very funny, I’ve played petanque in the beach in France as a kid, my family are all Francophiles and my great-grandmother was French. I have also been to Paris, which is very different to other parts of France, so I appreciated Paul’s constant bewilderment despite having lived there for some time.

French bureaucracy is infamous and he encounters it both in attempting to get citizenship and in trying to get petanque (sometimes known as boules) registered as an Olympic sport for the Paris Olympics in 2024. Although Olympic bureaucracy might actually be even more impressively labyrinthine than the French.

For Paul, it means tangling with ex-girlfriend Eloise, while attempting to impress solar panel entrepreneur Ambre, translate for a rather rude Provencàl petanque association president, in an attempt to not offend every Olympic official, and avoid being associated too closely with Eloise’s right wing politician and dodgy businessman father.

Paul is a bit hopeless and his friends are rather strange, see Jake the poet, but he’s well meaning and never intends to cause harm or offence. He has a very British take on the French (which is the author’s I imagine) and it comes through in the humour and gently teasing nature, much as we always do when talking about our closest frenemy. It’s been almost 1000 years since the Norman invasion and we will never stop ribbing the French and their strange ways!

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