Category: blog tour

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: You Shall Leave Your Land – Renato Cisneros, translated by Fionn Petch

ramblingmads

Renato Cisneros’s great-great-grandmother Nicolasa bore seven children by her long-term secret love, who was also her priest, raising them alone in nineteenth century Peru. More than a century later, Renato, the descendent of that clandestine affair, struggles to wring information about his origins out of recalcitrant relatives, whose foibles match the adventures and dalliances of their ancestors. As buried secrets are brought into the light, the story of Nicolasa’s progeny unfolds, bound up with key moments in the development of the Republic of Peru since its independence. 

My thoughts: families are complicated and messy and not always proud of their origins. Secrets are part of the author’s family, no one wants to admit to where they came from and what their ancestors were doing, he has to slowly tease out the stories and details from his relatives.

But what a story. Not the tragic story of a woman who as a priest’s mistress can never announce their love and give their children legitimacy, but the incredible story of a family who are so close to greatness and instrumental in the shaping of the independent Republic of Peru. From the declaration of their separation from Spain in the 1920s to the modern day, the Cisneros family descended from Nicolasa are right at the heart of everything.

Tracing his ancestors, from great-great-grandfather down, the author fills his pages with moving and heartbreaking love stories, cycles that seem doomed to repeat, of children neglected and wives betrayed, of oceans separating generations. There’s exile and intrigue, bravery and foolishness. But the family always survive.

With uncle Gustavo on hand to fill in some of the details from his own research, Renato builds an elaborate and detailed history of an incredible family, who should be proud of their name and place in Peruvian history.

*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: Murder in Chianti – T.A. Williams

ramblingmads

Murder in broad daylight…
When millionaire magnate, Rex Hunter is found with his head bashed in on the eighth hole of his prestigious golf and country club in beautiful Chianti, it’s a clear case of murder. Hunter was rich and
successful and the envy of many, so retired DCI Dan Armstrong thinks the case will be a hole in one to solve….
A despised victim…
But as Dan and his trusty sidekick Oscar begin to dig deeper into Hunter’s lifestyle, they discover a man despised by many. A renown womaniser, ruthless boss and heartless family man, it seems no one is particularly sorry to see Hunter dead. And the list of possible suspects is endless…
A murderer covering their tracks.
Dan is determined to catch this clever killer, but it seems every new lead brings another dead end.
Will this be one case Dan and his canine companion won’t solve?
Purchase


T A Williams is the author of over twenty bestselling romances for HQ and Canelo
and is now turning his hand to cosy crime, set in his beloved Italy, for Boldwood. The
series will introduce us to retired DCI Armstrong and his labrador Oscar and the first book, entitled Murder in Tuscany, will be published in October 2022. Trevor lives in Devon with his Italian wife.

Facebook Twitter

My thoughts: I probably shouldn’t enjoy crime fiction as much as I do, but when they’re this good, it’s a bit tricky not to!

A dead man on the golf course, head staved in with a club. Digging into the case Dan discovers he’s pretty awful and there’s plenty of suspects. Including his own children.

Oliver, an excellent canine detective, finds several clues, everyone eats and drinks delicious local produce. I start looking up flights to Florence. Murders not withstanding, it is a beautiful place (I’ve been, years ago).

This series is lots of fun, the characters are entertaining and I love the relationship between Dan and the local police – his years of knowledge and experience plus interpreter skills are a bonus. And he is a great protagonist, writing his novels but also solving crimes, and not always giving Oliver enough walks!

*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: Nothing Can Hurt You Now – Simone Campos, translated by Rahul Bery

ramblingmads

Lucinda has lived her whole life in the shadow of her glamorous and outgoing high-end model sister Viviana. But when Viviana suddenly disappears on a trip to São Paulo, Lucinda drops everything to track her down.

Met with indifference from the police, Lucinda joins forces with Viviana’s girlfriend Graziane to launch her own investigation. When she discovers that her sister had a thriving career as a sex worker, the list of possible suspects widens.

Then a cryptic text suggests that Viviana is still alive but being held hostage. With the minutes ticking by, Lucinda and Graziane must track down the men from Viviana’s past to discover who might want to do her harm.

A furiously contemporary and vibrant thriller that crackles with danger.

My thoughts: the relationships between the three women at the heart of this gripping thriller are vital to the plot. Lucinda’s decision to hunt down and rescue her sister from whatever danger she’s in, even after discovering the secrets Viviana has been keeping (sex work, a girlfriend, visiting their estranged dad) and reading the book Viviana is writing, is because of the love she has for her glamorous sister, but also the complicated childhood they shared. Graziane loves Viviana, and knows her secrets already so their connection is more straightforward.

Putting their own lives in possible danger, interviewing exes, looking into Viviana’s most recent movements, and then heading out to a remote place, where she’s most likely being held, with no real idea of the risks, is incredibly brave.

Viviana’s chapters are full of unexpected violence, terror and her desperate attempts to stay alive, escape and stop an increasingly fragile situation from falling apart. Caught in a complex web between two men, Davi and Cesar, who have clearly got a lot of their own issues, she’s afraid for good reason.

The flashbacks to how Lucinda and Viviana grew up, filling in gaps to who they are now, helps the reader understand their relationship, and as Lucinda confronts the fact that she actually doesn’t really know her sister as well as she once thought, all three women are heading for a dangerous confrontation on a remote ranch.

A short but compelling story of the dangers that lurk beneath the exterior and of the relationships that most connect us. Viviana never loses hope her sister and girlfriend will help her, even as the farmhouse becomes more terrifying.

*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

Blog Tour: West of Jaws – Capes

ramblingmads

As they hunt down a common enemy in a magical land, Helisent and Samson uncover troubling mysteries and a budding love that will change their lives forever. Think: The Witcher meets Sex and the City.

Welcome to the book tour for for brand new fantasy novel, West of Jaws by author Capes. Read on for more details!

ebookcopy

West of Jaws (Sennenwolf Series #1)

Publication Date: January 20, 2023

Genre: Adult Romantic Fantasy w/ Mature Themes
The only thing dumber than convincing the imminent Male Alpha of Velm to help me find Oko would be falling in love with him along the way.
Helisent West of Jaws, a witch, and Samson 714 Afador, a wolf, don’t have much in common.

He’s in line to become the Male Alpha of Velm, she’s a red witch with a questionable relationship to brandy. But that doesn’t matter. They don’t need to get along when they strike up a partnership to hunt down Oko, a mutual enemy.

All they need to do is survive a trip to Skull, the City of Ghosts… and then a run-in with a filthy bloodsucker, a prophecy-wielding selkie, a pack of wolves, and an irate phoenix.

As each hurdle brings Helisent and Samson closer to finding Oko, their discoveries begin to point to a single conclusion—one that will destroy the trust they’ve placed in each other and change their world forever.
West of Jaws is an adult comedic romantasy from indie author Capes. Think: Sex and the City meets The Witcher.

CW: West of Jaws is a romantasy with plenty of familiar tropes… but also deals with psychological and adult themes like addiction, including alcoholism. It’s important that all reviewers who receive my book understand that there is a deeper exploration of these themes than typically found in romance and fantasy.

Add to Goodreads

Available on Amazon

About the Author

About The Author logo

Capes is the pseudonym for author TL Adamms. She likes all things romantasy. And she likes spliffs. Mother Nature, too.

As a queer artist, she aims to infuse a music festival vibe into adult fantasy fiction. All are welcome. The weirder, the better.

The Sennenwolf Series is her third project.

Other works by Capes:

The Decagon Series (Decagon, Baphomet, Psychopomp, 2020)

The Unburied Queen (shortlisted for Foreword INDIES, 2021)

Capes Creates | Instagram | Newsletter

Book Tour Schedule

January 30th

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

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

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

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

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

Reads & Reels (Spotlight) http://readsandreels.com

January 31st

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

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

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

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

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

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

February 1st

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

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

@bookishly_kenia (Spotlight) https://www.instagram.com/bookishlykenia/

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

@thebiblioaddict (Review) https://www.tiktok.com/@thebiblioaddict?_t=8XUwgIVt2NO&_r=1

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

February 2nd

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

February 3rd

Breakeven Books (Spotlight) https://breakevenbooks.com

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

@books.and.salt (Review) https://www.instagram.com/books.and.salt/

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

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

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: One Day With You – Shari Low

ramblingmads

One day, five lives, but whose hearts will be broken by nightfall?
It started like any other day in the picturesque village of Weirbridge.
Tress Walker waved her perfect husband Max off to work, with no idea that she was about to go into labour with their first child. And completely unaware that when she tried to track Max down, he wouldn’t be where he was supposed to be.
At the same time, Max’s best friend Noah Clark said goodbye to his wife, Anya, blissfully oblivious that he would soon discover the woman he adored had been lying to him for years.
And living alongside the two couples, their recently widowed friend, Nancy Jenkins, is getting ready to meet Eddie, her first true love at a school reunion. Will Nancy have the chance to rekindle an old flame, or will she choose to stay by Tress’s side when she needs her most?
One Day with You – two fateful goodbyes, two unexpected hellos, and 24 hours that change everything.
Purchase Link


Shari Low is the #1 bestselling author of over 30 novels, including My One Month Marriage and One Summer Sunrise and a collection of parenthood memories called Because Mummy Said So. She lives near Glasgow.

Facebook Twitter Instagram Newsletter
Bookbub

My thoughts: Shari Low knows how to play on your emotions – this book made me laugh out loud and then want to sob, so keep some tissues handy.

On an ordinary day several lives will be changed forever. Births, deaths, old flames and new loves, truths revealed and lies told. The people at the centre of this story will go through it all in 24 hours.

Tress is pregnant with her first child, but not due for a couple of weeks, so waves husband Max off on a business trip. A trip his best friend Noah’s wife, Anya, is also on, she and Max work together.

Next door neighbour Nancy is getting all dressed up for a high school reunion that will bring her together with old boyfriend Eddie. She’d love pal Val (a familiar face if you know Low’s other books) to join her but husband Don has dementia and she worries about leaving him at home.

Things aren’t going to go to plan and a lot will happen to everyone before the end of the story and both characters and reader will be feeling differently by the end.

Another excellent, funny, sweet, clever and moving read from expert storyteller Shari Low.

*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

Blog Tour: A Cut Twice As Deep – Wendy L. Anderson

ramblingmads

This cover!!!!
Welcome to the book tour for A Cut Twice as Deep by Wendy L. Anderson. Read on for more info and be sure to enter the giveaway at the end!

Giveaway: Win 1 of 5 Physical Copies (US Only)

A Cut Twice As Deep

A Cut Twice as Deep

Publication Date: September 24, 2020 (First Edition)

Genre: Fantasy/ Romantic Fantasy/ Vikings
Twin Sisters with a bond forged in blood and fire, face betrayal and fear.

Twin sisters, Liana and Deirdre were inseparable like the two halves of a double-bladed axe, making the pain of having to leave each other a cut twice as deep. Their father, Gorsedd Gunnarson, King of the great country of Svartur Rokk, did not care about twin bonds or his daughter’s preferences and severed the pair with a single blow. Both Liana and Deirdre have been sold to the highest bidders for ships, weapons, and alliances. For Gorsedd Gunnarson these are very profitable and advantageous marriage arrangements, but the twin sisters would be torn from each other’s lives and sent to lands far apart forever! Liana is forced to leave her childhood sweetheart and marry a stranger. Sweet, timid Deirdre would be wed to a Viking warlord. One would leave her home on a ship and the other on a horse. Both would travel great distances to new lands. Given no choice but to embrace the lives planned for them, they find that the future holds more than they could ever have suspected. In a land where blood and ice reign, danger and betrayal war with love and hope.
Can they fight to find happiness in an ruthless world ruled by the sword and axe.

Add to Goodreads

Excerpt

Thorsten tried hard to draw blood on Tiernan, but the damned man would not stay still. They hacked at each other, and each time Thorsten got too close, Tiernan would nick him on the arm or hand. Soon Thorsten had cuts all over his body that bled, but none were serious. Thorsten tried to put a quick end to the fight and stepped in too close. Tiernan swung down and Thorsten’s thigh split open as if Tiernan sliced into a thick piece of meat. The pain lanced up and gripped Thorsten in his bowels as the muscle separated and hung from the bone. He knew he could not make that mistake again and stepped toward the side of his good leg swinging his sword overhead for a downward stroke. Tiernan had anticipated the move and darted in, slashing down in the same spot on Thorsten’s uninjured leg repeating the same wound. Thorsten roared in pain, slashed out wildly, and clumsily managed a cut across Tiernan’s upper arm.

So, the battle went. Now Tiernan easily cut and slashed at Thorsten, inflicting pain, and damaging him so that his blood began to soak the ground. He soon tired from the loss of blood. His wounded legs barely held him up. Each time Tiernan’s sword flicked out toward Thorsten he made another slice. Soon, Thorsten was covered in blood from head to toe. His shirt hung in shreds on his bloody chest, and he staggered with two wounded legs.

Gorsedd watched from atop his horse contemplating the fight, thinking if Tiernan won the fight he would be able to keep Thorsten’s share of the gold, and then he’d sell off Liana to some rich Lord over on the Isle of Jura. He would keep Kearn and Tiernan’s sons to assure Liana and Deirdre’s compliance and, what worked once, would work again. He had to stop himself from grinning and almost hoped Tiernan would win as this new plan unfolded inside his scheming mind. The sheer number of warriors he had assured him a quick victory.

Kearn chanced a look behind them and saw in the distance his men were approaching rapidly. Turning to Tiernan he shouted, “Finish it, Tiernan!”

That was the signal that Tiernan was waiting for, and his eyes turned darker stormy grey as his right hand swung his sword in a wide circle over his head. Thorsten had also heard what Kearn shouted and raised his sword to make a killing blow.

Available on Amazon

About the Author

image003

Wendy L. Anderson is a Colorado native and mother of two boys. She has an English Degree from Regis University and writes books, short stories and poetry. Wendy is a devout reader of the classics, fantasy, sci-fi and historical fiction. She has decided it is time to write down the fantasies from her own mind. Writing about everything from fantastical worlds to the stuff of her dreams she takes her stories along interesting paths while portraying characters and worlds she sees in her mind’s eye. Her goal is to deviate from common themes, write in original directions and transport her reader to the worlds of her creation.

Wendy L. Anderson | Facebook | Instagram | Goodreads

Click the link below for a chance to win a signed paperback!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Book Tour Schedule

January 30th

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

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

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

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

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

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

January 31st

@escape.to.fantasy (Spotlight) https://www.instagram.com/escape.to.fantasy/

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

The Faerie Review (Spotlight) http://www.thefaeriereview.com

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

February 1st

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

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

Emerald Reviews (Review) https://www.emeraldreviews.co.uk/

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

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

February 2nd

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

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

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

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

February 3rd

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

@inkspit.blog (Review) https://www.instagram.com/inkspit.blog/

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

@itsabookthing2021 (Review) https://www.instagram.com/itsabookthing2021/

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

Book Tour Organized By:

R&R Button

R&R Book Tours

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: A Village Fete Murder – Katie Gayle

ramblingmads

Julia Bird can’t wait to attend the annual village party at the local stately home, with its tea tents, cake stalls, and… dead body in the maze?

The annual village celebration at Berrywick House is underway, complete with over-decorated cake stalls, fiercely contested flower competitions, and even a maze for the disappointed losers to hide in. Julia Bird, now a well-known – even notorious – member of the community, with her trusty Labrador Jake, has thrown herself headlong into the festivities. But her reputation for adding drama to any event stands up yet again when she discovers a dead body in the maze…

It seems Ursula Benjamin, village know-it-all and prickly baking competition participant, has been strangled – and the killer has to be someone at the fete. As Julia grapples with finding yet another murder in Berrywick, she starts to wonder, could one of the competitive cake-bakers have taken the contest to deadly new heights? Or is there something darker in Ursula’s life that led to her untimely demise?

Embroiled once again in a murder enquiry, Julia isn’t about to leave the investigation to the police. Like it or not, she’s involved, and she’s going to help them solve the mystery. But when there’s another death, and it’s clear the murders aren’t isolated incidents, the stakes become even higher. Can Julia figure out the identity of the killer, and prevent any further dastardly deeds, before the wholesome spirit of the village is ruined forever?

If you like utterly gripping English mysteries, then you’ll love A Village Fete Murder. Perfect for fans of M.C. Beaton, Faith Martin and Betty Rowlands.

Amazon

Katie Gayle is the writing partnership of best-selling South African writers, Kate Sidley and Gail Schimmel. Kate and Gail have, between them, written over ten books of various genres, but with Katie Gayle, they both make their debut in the cozy mystery genre. Both Gail and Kate live in Johannesburg, with husbands, children, dogs and cats. Unlike their sleuth Epiphany Bloom, neither of them have ever stolen a cat from the vet.

Facebook

Sign up to be the first to hear about new releases from Katie Gayle here

You can sign up for all the best Bookouture deals you’ll love here

My thoughts: this series is a lot of fun, even with all the dead bodies. There’s a lot of food so have a snack handy, I was craving cake by the end!

Julia, Sean and a certain naughty chocolate lab (my grandparents had one and he was such a lovely dog) are at the village fete, when they find the body of local school teacher Ursula Benjamin in the maze.

Of course, Julia can’t resist “helping” out the local detectives, much to the chagrin of local detective Hayley, who keeps telling Julia to stop digging! Good thing they’re friends. After a second body linked to the first, it seems to all centre on the school where both victims worked. Will Julia’s social worker background and understanding of people help find the killer?

This was clever and entertaining as always, the writing team that comprise Katie Gayle are witty and insightful, so many of the motivations are about human nature – these ladies have the insights. Can’t wait for book 4!

*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 Notable Omission – Isabella Muir

ramblingmads

A 1970s debate on equality is overshadowed by a deadly secret…
Spring 1970. Sussex University is hosting a debate about equality for women. But when one of the debating group goes missing, attention turns away from social injustice to something more sinister.
It seems every one of the group has something to hide, and when a second tragedy occurs, two of the delegates – amateur sleuth Janie Juke, and reporter Libby Frobisher – are prepared to make
themselves unpopular to flush out the truth. Who is lying and why?
Alongside the police investigation, Janie and Libby are determined to prise answers from the tight-lipped group, as they find themselves in a race against time to stop another victim being targeted.
In A Notable Omission we meet Janie at the start of a new decade. When we left Janie at the end of The Invisible Case she was enjoying her new found skills and success as an amateur sleuth. Here
we meet her a few months later, stealing a few days away from being a wife and mother, attending a local conference on women’s liberation to do some soul-searching…

Amazon UK Amazon US


Isabella is never happier than when she is immersing herself in the sights, sounds and experiences of family life in southern England in past decades – specifically those years from the Second World War
through to the early 1970s. Researching all aspects of life back then has formed the perfect launch pad for her works of fiction. It was during two happy years working on and completing her MA in Professional Writing when Isabella rekindled her love of writing fiction and since then she has gone on to publish seven novels, six novellas and two short story collections.
This latest novel, A Notable Omission, is the fourth book in her successful Sussex Crime Mystery series, featuring young librarian and amateur sleuth, Janie Juke. The early books in the series are set
in the late 1960s in the fictional seaside town of Tamarisk Bay, where we meet Janie, who looks after the mobile library. She is an avid lover of Agatha Christie stories – in particular Hercule Poirot. Janie
uses all she has learned from the Queen of Crime to help solve crimes and mysteries. This latest novel in the series is set along the south coast in Brighton in early 1970, a time when young people were finding their voice and using it to rail against social injustice.
As well as four novels, there are six novellas in the series, set during the Second World War, exploring some of the back story to the Tamarisk Bay characters.
Isabella’s love of Italy shines through all her work and, as she is half-Italian, she has enjoyed bringing all her crime novels to an Italian audience with Italian translations, which are very well received.
Isabella has also written a second series of Sussex Crimes, set in the sixties, featuring retired Italian detective, Giuseppe Bianchi, who is escaping from tragedy in Rome, only to arrive in the quiet seaside town of Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex, to come face-to-face with it once more. Isabella’s standalone novel, The Forgotten Children, deals with the emotive subject of the child migrants who were sent to Australia – again focusing on family life in the 1960s, when the child migrant policy was still in force.
Find out more about Isabella and her books by visiting her website.

Facebook Twitter

My thoughts: having been raised by a feminist (hi mum!) who was a young woman in the 70s, and probably aware of similar events as the one Janie and Libby attended, gave me some idea of what it would be like. Some of the rights we take for granted were still being hashed out at this time and the women (and men) who campaigned for them are to be commended.

However, this particular group doesn’t seem that focused on women’s rights but on their own complicated connections – most of the group have known each other since school and not always been exactly friends. It’s all a bit messy and after one member disappears, and another has a potentially fatal accident, Janie and Libby start asking questions. The answers lie somewhere in the group’s past, but who’s telling the truth and who has plenty to hide?

A clever and engaging read, Janie and Libby are an interesting pairing, the married mother, happy in her library job, worrying about her family, and the no strings attached journalist, intent on building her career and seemingly happy to be single. Their respective skills and insights into human nature make them a good crime solving team and friends too.

*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: Tiding – Siân Collins

ramblingmads

December 1962. EleanorO’Dowd, a middle-aged piano teacher, is found stabbed and bludgeoned to death. As the Great Freeze of 1963 takes hold, local vicar’s daughter Daphne Morgan finds herself forced to navigate the confusing currents of the adult world, where she must face up to her own crimes and what she knows about the murder. A novel about memory and the power of the imagination…

SiânCollins was born in Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire. An Edinburgh graduate, she taught Anglo Saxon and Medieval Literature in South Africa, worked as an assistant editor on The Lancet, and ran English and Drama departments in several well-known London secondary schools. She returned to Carmarthenshire to teach, write, and relish life in the beautiful Tywi Valley. Her debut novel, Unleaving, was published in 2019.

My thoughts: seen through the eyes of a child, following the murder of her much disliked piano teacher, this charts the life of a small Welsh town, reeling from the tragedy. The police are convinced a local man – deaf mute Johnny – is their perpetrator, and his inability to communicate makes it all too easy to point the finger at him. But Daphne knows that’s not true, she saw something, or did she?

Meanwhile she and her school friends have worries of their own, have they been cursed? Are they responsible for the village’s recent troubles?

Told with a kind tone and full of the misunderstandings and tiny concerns of children, as well as the growing awareness of the unfairness of life, this is a gentle but moving story of a place and its people.

*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 House That Made Us – Alice Cavanagh

ramblingmads

One Day meets Up: The House That Made Us is a love story – and a life story – told through a series of photographs and inspired by a true story

When Mac and Marie marry and find a home of their own, Mac takes a snap of them outside their newbuild bungalow, the garden bare and the paint on the front door still wet. It becomes a tradition, this snap, and slowly the photographs build into an album of a fifty-year relationship.

Every year they take a photo and though things change around them – the garden matures, the fashions change, they grow older – the one constant is their love. Every year, come rain, come shine, from the Seventies through the decades, every photo tells the story of their love. But life never travels the path you expect it to, though they know that a life with love is a life lived to the full.

Now, in the present day, the photo album belongs to someone who doesn’t know the people in its pages. As they watch the lives from the past unfold, will the truth of their love story be told…?

A heart-breaking story about life and love for readers who love Holly Miller, Jojo Moyes and Hazel Prior.

My thoughts: this was a moving and heartfelt book about love, family and the bonds that hold us to one another. Every week our narrator visits an elderly woman and they look at a photo album, a yearly picture of a couple (and then a varying number of children and pets) each year taken in front of their house.

Who they are, and indeed who our narrator and his listener are, is slowly revealed through the pictures and the story behind them. The story of Mac and Marie, and their home.

At times very sad, and at others laugh out loud funny, the ups and downs of the couple and their extended family is a true celebration of what it is to build a life and make a house a home.

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