Sometimes, the Last Place You Intended to Go is Exactly Where You Need to Be.
When 26-year-old Daisy’s life in London comes crashing down around her, the only thing she canthink of is getting away – far away. That’s how she found herself stumbling off a train in England’s picturesque Peak District – 150 miles from home, with no idea why she’d gone there and even less idea how she intended to get home. As Daisy explores the gorgeous village of Upper Finlay, she glimpses the possibility of a different life. The Derbyshire Dales offer up new friends, new opportunities, and a distractingly dishy object of attraction in the form of local bookstore owner Alex (and his bumbling Great Dane.) When Daisy discovers Alex’s business is in trouble she steps in to save the day. But London’s Calling – literally. The life Daisy ran away from is calling her back. Why then, is she so reluctant to heed its call? Daisy’s got a decision to make: Will she play it safe, and return to what she knew? Or is she brave enough to take a leap of faith and create a bold, new life for herself in the last place she’d ever expected? Daisy Does it Herself is a sweet, uplifting romantic comedy about the power of self-confidence, friendship and of course love! Fans of warm and witty romantic comedies with a guaranteed happily-ever-after will be entranced.
Gracie is the author of the romantic fiction novel Daisy Does it Herself. Gracie loves to create strong, quirky heroines and hopes to introduce you to your latest book-boyfriend crush. She makes her home in the stunning Peak District in Derbyshire. Where she lives with her partner — amid ongoing negotiations over the size of her book collection and whose job it is to take out the bins!
My thoughts: this was a lot of fun and I really liked Daisy. She loses her job, her (actually quite awful) boyfriend all in the same day and finds herself in Derbyshire after falling asleep on the train.
A bookshop offers her shelter and there she meets Wolf the dog and Alex the bookshop owner. Offering to stay for a month for room and board in exchange for helping out in the shop, designing a website and generally avoiding the mess of her London life, Daisy stays put. And has a wonderful, happy month. And even comes up with a way to save the bookshop for closing. She’s basically awesome. And her stupid boyfriend who belittles her belongs in the bin.
Luckily she realises that she doesn’t want her old life when she can make herself a new, happier one with new friends and perhaps a new love in Upper Finlay. Thank goodness. Honestly if she’d gone back to stupid Phil I’d have been cross. Daisy feels like someone I’d want to be friends with, a fellow bookworm and a fun person. More Daisy please!
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Have you ever wondered how normal you are? What if you were perfectly average? More than anyone else.
For Emily – it’s true. When she watches a documentary on the average human she sees her life. Her job, her hair, her favourite food. All of her – plainly, horrifically average. Even her blood group. Right there and then, she decides she wants more.
She’ll travel the world (i.e. venture out of her hometown)
She’ll become a vegan (it’s interesting to hate cheese, right?)
She’ll do something daring (As long as it’s safety tested)
Nothing will stand in the way of Emily living her best life. Not even Josh and his dimples. Because she absolutely can’t fall in love… that would be too ordinary.
And from now on, Emily is going to be extraordinary.
My thoughts: Emily is stuck in a rut, and grieving a terrible loss she won’t discuss, even with best friend Kaz. She thinks she’s too ordinary, and now she’s planning on shaking things up and becoming extraordinary.
I’ve been there, Emily is very relatable, I’m sure we’ve all had days, weeks, months, years, where we struggle to work out who we are and what we want from life.
Not all of us are dealing with the kind of loss Emily is, but the rest of her misadventures, from somehow surviving a Tough Mudder (I’d be dead about 2 minutes in) to not falling in love because that’s so ordinary, she’s going to become something better, something extraordinary. Or maybe discover she’s been that all along.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Today I’m excited to participate in the Creative Blog Tour for Over the Moon by S.E. Anderson hosted by MTMC Tours. An illegal clone of the recently murdered princess of the galaxy. A flying kitchen timer bot. A girl out of time with some defrost issues. A theme park droid with the mind of a prince. And a lost beast who’s not sure who he’s meant to kill. Over the Moon is an exciting F/F YA Science Fiction Fantasy published on January 10th, 2023 from Sea Breeze Books!
Title: Over the Moon
Author: S.E. Anderson Publisher: Sea Breeze Books
Publication Date: January 10th, 2023 Genres: F/F Young Adult, Sci-Fi Fantasy
As an illegal clone of the murdered galactic princess, Dora’s face would get her killed the minute she steps off her dull farming moon. She spends her days tinkering with gadgets and gears, with Tau, her kitchen-timer-bot, for company. But when forces close in and threaten her family, her escape attempt lands her deep in the Outer Zone — and on top of the Technowitch of Night, crushing her in the process.
Now a fugitive in two solar systems, Dora’s only chance of survival is to find her way to the mysterious Technomage on his Emerald moon. In a place where science has advanced to be indistinguishable from magic, she must accept the help of an unlikely trio: a cryogenically-preserved girl with no memory, an obsolete theme park droid, and a bioengineered beast with a penchant for the dramatic.
As Dora realizes there’s more to the princess’s death than what the universe has been told, she must choose — save her family, or risk everything to right a centuries-old wrong.
——– Character Art Reveal:
Meet the main characters of Over the Moon with these stunning character illustrations!
Dora (and Tau)NemoNekkan Crow
INTL Tour-wide Instagram Giveaway!
Enter the Rafflecopter below where One Grand prize winner will receive: a hardcover of Over the Moon with a woodmark, postcard + other spacey swag AND Two Runner-ups will get: an Ebook copy of Over the Moon + signed postcard! Ends on January 18th, 2023. Winner will be announced in the Rafflecopter & contacted via email. Enter Here
S.E. Anderson can’t ever tell you where she’s from. Not because she doesn’t want to, but because it inevitably leads to a confusing conversation where she goes over where she was born (England) where she grew up (France) and where her family is from (USA) and it tends to make things very complicated.
She’s lived pretty much her entire life in the South of France, except for a brief stint where she moved to Washington DC, or the eighty years she spent as a queen of Narnia before coming back home five minutes after she had left. Currently, she is working on her PhD in Astrophysics and Planetary sciences in Besançon, France.
When she’s not writing, or trying to science, she’s either reading, designing, crafting, or attempting to speak with various woodland creatures in an attempt to get them to do household chores for her. She could also be gaming, or pretending she’s not watching anything on Netflix.
My thoughts: this was a great, fun Wizard of Oz/Wicked inspired sci fi adventure. Dora is desperate to get off the farming moon she lives on with her aunt and uncle. Her life is boring and she wants more. But unfortunately she’s an illegal clone of the recently deceased princess and wanted by various factions – some to destroy her and some to undermine the ruling class.
So when she escapes (by accident) during a storm, drops the ship on top of a technowitch, liberates some tiny droids and gets sent on a mission to see the technowizard (as you do), makes some new friends and accidentally starts a war. It’s all going so well. But there’s more. And to find out what, you’ll have to read it!
Lots of fun, spot the Oz-ian references as you go and meet the gang – Crow, Nemo, Nekkan and Tau, who help Dora to get across the scary planet to the wizard’s moon in the hope he can help them too.
Story time!
Over the Moon is inspired by Frank L. Baum’s classic The Wizard of Oz, where Dorothy Gale is swept away from her aunt and uncle’s farm to the mysterious land of Oz. There are actually 14 books in the series. Only a couple have been adapted into films (and musicals) and imo Return to Oz (1985) should be a horror film, definitely not the Judy Garland technicolour extravaganza.
I’m related to a real life Dorothy Gale – my great-great-aunt, known as Doll. No wizards or witches would mess with her. She was an incredible woman and a bit of a character, mother of 3, Win (who lives in America and is still going in her 90s), Mick and Jeff (aka The Baby!). During the war my Nan lived with them too in West London.
Auntie Doll had a job cleaning the buses at the depot. When the bus she needed to get to was blocked in, she hopped in and moved another one of the way. The manager said to her “I think we’d better teach you how to drive that Mrs Gale” and she spent the rest of the war as a bus driver! She also introduced my grandparents to each other, she worked in a laundry in the early 60s where my Grandad was working too, and decided he’d be perfect for her niece. I’m glad she did or I wouldn’t be here! She was a feisty, hard working woman and I’m really proud to be related to Dorothy Gale.
A dead body. A hoard of forged banknotes. A gangster out for blood. Newcastle, December 1955. Returning home after a weekend away, singer and amateur sleuth Rosie Robson discovers a man lying on a baggage trolley with his throat cut. After the police get involved, an attack on Rosie and her boss prompts Inspector Vic Walton to find a safe house for the pair. But the bad guys seem to be one step ahead of them and Rosie is forced to track down a possible witness to the murder in a bid to learn the truth. Can the canny crooner solve the mystery before a Newcastle gang boss catches up with her? Set on Tyneside, Blood on the Tyne: Red Snow is book #3 in the Rosie Robson Murder Mysteries series. Purchase Link
True-born Geordie Colin Garrow grew up in a former mining town in Northumberland and has worked in a plethora of professions including taxi driver, antiques dealer, drama facilitator, theatre director and fish processor. He has also occasionally masqueraded as a pirate. Colin’s published books include the Watson Letters series, the Terry Bell Mysteries and the Rosie Robson Murder Mysteries. His short stories have appeared in several literary mags, including: SN Review, Flash Fiction Magazine, The Grind, A3 Review, Inkapture and Scribble Magazine. These days he lives in a humble cottage in Northeast Scotland.
My thoughts: this is a fast paced thriller set during one snowy winter in 1955. Without mobile phones or CCTV, the race is on to find a killer. All they can go on is Rosie’s memory and the evidence, all of which points in one direction but the prime suspect says it wasn’t him and scarpers.
Is there a new gang boss making a play for Newcastle? Rumours of a woman with a penchant for red hot pokers and a man with a scarred face have Rosie running scared, nowhere is safe and her friends are at risk too. Can Vic arrest the villains before anyone else gets hurt?
I was totally gripped, the pacing was relentless and I could not put this down. Rosie is a compelling protagonist and her friends and colleagues are a great bunch.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Welcome to the book tour for Queen and Conqueror by Isabelle Olmo! Read more about this stunner below!
Queen and Conqueror (The Queen’s Guard #1)
Publication Date: August 2022
Genre: Fantasy/ Romantic Fantasy
How does one conquer a kingdom without spilling blood? You offer your hand in marriage to the king who killed your husband.
Almira’s father raised her in political cunning. Since childhood, she’s prepared for this moment. She lays out the players one by one like pieces on a board.
One. King Alton, the brother-killer. The spare heir who killed his brother for the throne.
Two. The perfect seamstress. The people must admire a queen and welcome her with open arms even when she arrives with a deadly armada behind her.
Three. The Queen’s Red Guard. These warrior women have one purpose; to protect the queen at all costs. Even from her husband. Even from herself.
Queen & Conqueror is the first book in an epic feminist fantasy series told from the perspective of the women who rule and shape the future.
He cleared his throat. “The High Lord seeks aid from Istok. Your native country hasn’t been plagued with war like we have. Perhaps if your father–“
“Istok did not begin a war. My father will not risk Istokian lives because my husband has a vendetta against a king that toys with our Suidian forces. We should retreat and regroup. Sit with King Alton and negotiate,” she said with a steady voice.
She surprised herself. She’d never challenged a messenger as such. But she was damn tired of sitting like a protected porcelain plate, while the world crumbled.
He looked at her incredulously. “My lady, forgive me, but shouldn’t you let your father decide that?”
His words filled Almira with sudden anger, but she controlled and subdued it. She moved slowly as she stood and faced the captain. He was a large man, and she was small even for a woman. That mattered little.
“Captain, your job is to deliver news of the front. You’ve done that. But to presume I would take advice on state matters from you is insulting.”
He stepped forward and opened his mouth.
“Apology accepted,” she said and raked him over in disapproval. “You didn’t mean to insinuate anything. You have, after all, the utmost respect for my house. However, you will deliver a message from me, captain. Each day I sit in this room while my husband fights a war that drags on and continues killing our soldiers. Each day more lives are lost. At first it was fifty. Now, you tell me 2,000. Inform High Lord Edgar that I want the number.”
He blustered. “The number?”
“Yes. I want the number.” She pressed her index finger against the map. “I want the exact number of deaths we must reach to determine this cause is folly. It’ll give me something to look forward to while I practice my half-stitch.”
She sat and pushed her dinner plate away with disgust. The time had finally come for her value to be placed on the table. Even at a young age she knew he married her because of her connections to Istok. Her father wisely kept their country out of the squabbles and in the years since the war started, her home country grew rich with trade.
“That means you’re dismissed, captain,” Sanaa said.
Clearly astounded at being addressed in such a manner, he left. Not before his helmet slipped and rolled about on the stone floor. It caused a great deal of noise. He rushed after it, while the women watched the display.
Isabelle Olmo was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico and was raised on a steady diet of 80’s fantasy films and Sweet Valley High. Her love of literature was developed at an early age when her grandmother gifted her a poetry collection. Queen & Conqueror will be her first published novel.
She graduated with a degree in English Literature and a minor in Political Science from the University of Central Florida.
When she’s not writing she loves to travel, cook, and drink wine. One day she hopes to live in Barcelona, her favorite city in the world.
An unbelievably believable time travel escapade. Casual antique dealer Jake Patch picks up an unusual object and can’t put it down. Literally. His find is a time travel device, and he hatches a bold plan to acquire objects from the past and sell them at modern day prices. But when the mysterious Infinity Glass leaves Patch stranded in a dangerous past, it falls to his teen daughter Cass to save him. With hints of The Time Traveller’s Wife and Back to the Future and a smattering of Lovejoy, Patches through Time will send you spinning headlong into the past, then spit you back into the twenty-first century. This book contains occasional profanities. Trigger warning: bereavement (parent, spouse).
Sian Turner was born in Wales, but lives in East Sussex. She has recently started learning Welsh (and can categorically testify that Welsh is difficult). She works as a part-time volunteer in her local RSPCA cat re-homing centre, from where she keeps adopting new family members (only one or two at a time). Sian enjoys reading and reviewing some of the many truly amazing novels by Independent Authors, and she is secretary of her local writers’ group, Shorelink Writers.
My thoughts: this was a fun time travelling adventure, with lots of pop culture references and some reminders of learning history at school – Jake’s first trip is to 1066, but he’s a bit far away from the battlefield, probably a good thing as it was pretty bloody.
Getting stuck in 1943 means his daughter Cass and her new friend Mia have to travel back and rescue him, while bombs are falling on the south coast. Luckily the sarcastic sprite Drusilla, their “guide” is on hand to help them figure out the time travelling rules.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
When Teddy Colne arrives in the small town of Rye, he believes he will be able to settle down and leave his past behind him. Little does he know that fear blisters through the streets like a fever. The locals tell him to stay away from an establishment known only as Berry & Vincent, that those who rub too closely to its proprietor risk a bad end.
Despite their warnings, Teddy is desperate to understand why Rye has come to fear this one man, and to see what really hides behind the doors of his shop.
Ada moved to Rye with her young son to escape a damaged childhood and years of never fitting in, but she’s lonely, and ostracised by the community. Ada is ripe for affection and friendship, and everyone knows it.
As old secrets bleed out into this town, so too will a mystery about a family who vanished fifty years earlier, and a community living on a knife-edge.
Teddy looks for answers, thinking he is safe, but some truths are better left undisturbed, and his past will find him here, just as it always has. And before long, it will find Ada too.
Ronnie Turner grew up in Cornwall, the youngest in a large family. At an early age, she discovered a love of literature and dreamed of being a published author. Ronnie now lives in the South West with her family and three dogs. In her spare time, she reviews books on her blog and enjoys long walks on the coast. Ronnie is a Waterstones Senior Bookseller and a barista, and her youth belies her exceptional, highly unusual talent.
My thoughts: this was really good, it got creepy very quickly and I really felt for Ada and Albie, terrified and trapped in Rye. With Teddy and the really disturbing Mr Vincent (he never speaks and collects really odd things). Teddy claims to want to escape the shadow of his father but proves to be more like him as the book goes on.
There is something a bit creepy about seaside towns, especially out of season, something sad and haunted about them. I don’t know Rye itself but it serves as the perfect setting for this tale of obsession and loneliness.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
We are thrilled to share A Deal with Darkness by Alexis L, Menard with all of you! This romantic fantasy will keep you warm during the long dark months of winter!
A Deal with Darkness (Eternal Night #2)
Publication Date: November 10, 2022
Genre: Dark Romance/ Dark Fantasy Before the Eternal Night or the Huntress, there was a deal with darkness.
Isoldra Maan is drowning in debt, specifically over 250 souls deep. As a Hound for the diabolical yet irresistible Lord of Lost Souls, she’s been stuck serving the fallen god and hunting his contracts in order to be free of her own. But when Haalarcus strikes a bargain with a divine, he places her freedom finally within reach.
A dark power threatens the integrity of the realm, splitting open the world and starting a series of plagues that force humanity to point fingers at the heavens. Isoldra reluctantly agrees to work with the divine who turns out to be the self-righteous watcher, Evander, in order to track down the heretic causing all this, but the simplicity of this bargain complicates when the stakes become much bigger than her freedom.
An evil has awakened. A darkness unleashed. When death is not the end, how far will she go for a love crossing realms, lifetimes, and the very concept of mortality?
Don’t miss out onA Night of Wings and Starlight, the first book in the Eternal Night series
A Night of Wings and Starlight (Eternal Night #1) Breaking the curse will risk her heart, her life, and the future she never thought possible.
Before Arya was Chosen, she knew nothing of what lay waiting in the eternal night—certainly not alluring yet arrogant winged Watchers, a cursed queen, nor the possibility that she could be more than a runner, carrying messages through the vampyre-infested wastelands of Valdihr.
But the biggest surprise waiting in the dark is the brazen Watcher who sparks her heart and calls her a Huntress.
A hundred years shrouded in darkness and Arya is the only one who can finally bring back the dawn. With a blessing that marks her for death and an infuriatingly tantalizing man at her side, Arya must embrace her calling and her courage in order to face the danger lurking in the shadows. Because the night holds more than just secrets, and the monsters are closer than she realizes.
Alexis is a registered nurse based out of Louisiana where she lives with her husband, toddler, and two oversized dogs. She enjoys long walks through the Renaissance Fair, reading smutty romance into the dark hours of the night, and wine nights with her “Finer Things Club.” She hopes to enrich the lives of her readers with worlds they can both escape in and take with them long after the final chapter.
They hired an assistant to help them. But she has other plans.
High-flying duo Goldie and Braun Delucci run a major film production company. But recently their gilded lives were touched by tragedy when one of their leading actors, Ally, died in a car crash.
What the Deluccis don’t realise is that their newly hired private assistant is actually Ally’s sister. Simone is convinced Ally’s death was suspicious and she is determined to find out what happened on that terrible night.
Simone’s new job puts her at the heart of a rich, dysfunctional family. As she digs for the truth about Ally’s death, she realises someone is watching her. And they want her gone.
That just makes Simone more determined to discover whatever terrible secret the Deluccis are hiding. But she doesn’t understand she is about to uncover something so dark, so shocking that her own life may never be the same again.
Miranda Rijks is a writer of psychological thrillers and suspense novels. She has an eclectic background ranging from law to running a garden centre. She’s been writing all of her life and has a Masters in writing. A couple of years ago she decided to ditch the business plans and press releases and now she’s living the dream, writing suspense novels full time. She lives in Sussex, England with her Dutch husband, musician daughter and black Labrador.
My thoughts: this was a clever premise and paid off nicely. Simone goes undercover with her sister’s former employers to find out what really happened to her and gets caught up in a messed up family and a terrible situation.
No one is particularly honest about things, apart from maybe the children, though not teenager Rose, who’s hiding all sorts of nasty little secrets. But her dad isn’t very truthful either and his secrets put people in harm’s way.
Simone finds that her sister, far from the drug addicted car thief the media are spinning her as, was, as expected, an innocent caught up in something bigger than her and with someone who can’t be trusted.
I felt for Simone but she took things incredibly far, pretending to be someone else and her niece almost paid the price. Honesty tends to be the better policy. Luckily Goldie was a really nice person and not to blame and able to forgive the deception, of Simone at least.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
“Welcome to the Brennenbach of Midnight! The Curse Hours have begun.”
West Germany, 1968
When ten-year-old David Saidel’s parents are murdered, he is sent to live with his grandfather in the anti-Semitic village of Brennenbach. Miserable and lonely, David finds solace in his kindly Grandpa Ernst, who has one strict rule: never go out after midnight.
When David breaks curfew to search for his missing dog, he discovers why Ernst is so serious about his curfew: Brennenbach is cursed. When midnight strikes, the town is thrown back to 1943, the height of Hitler’s reign.
The Nazi ghosts that infest Brennenbach are just as dangerous as they were in life. They’re hunting for David, thinking he is the last member of a family they’ve been ordered to destroy.
Through the help of a little girl named Maria Rahm, David sets out to end the Curse before it claims more victims.
Award-winning author Elyse Hoffman has crafted an expertly woven tale of World War II’s horrors – perfect for readers of Marcus Zusak’s “The Book Thief,” or Michael Reit’s “Beyond the Tracks.”
Check out the wonderful reviews on Goodreads and grab a copy today!
Elyse Hoffman is an award-winning author who strives to tell historical tales with new twists. She loves to meld WWII and Jewish history with fantasy, folklore, and the paranormal. She has written six works of Holocaust historical fiction: The Barracks of the Holocaust five-book series and The Book of Uriel. Elyse’s books are the way to go if you love history and want to read some unique stories.
ramblingmads 