Category: blog tour

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Tempted by the Runes – Christina Courtenay

ramblingmads

Born centuries apart. Bound by a love that defied time.
She couldn’t believe her eyes. The runes were normally so reliable and she had never doubted them before.
Madison Berger is visiting Dublin with her family for a Viking re-enactment festival, when she chances upon a small knife embedded in the banks of the Liffey. Maddie recognises what the runes on the
knife’s handle signify: the chance to have her own adventures in the past.
Maddie only intends to travel back in time briefly, but a skirmish in 9th century Dublin results in her waking up on a ship bound for Iceland, with the man who saved her from attack.
Geir Eskilsson has left his family in Sweden to boldly carve out a life of his own. He is immediately drawn to Maddie, but when he learns of her connection to his sisters-in-law, he begins to believe that
Fate has played a part in bringing them together. Amidst the perils that await on their journey to a new land, the truest battle will be to win Maddie’s heart and convince her that the runes never lie…

Amazon UK Amazon US

Christina Courtenay writes historical romance, time slip and time travel stories, and lives in Herefordshire (near the Welsh border) in the UK. Although born in England, she has a Swedish mother and was brought up in Sweden – hence her abiding interest in the Vikings. Christina is a former chairman of the UK’s Romantic Novelists’ Association and has won several awards, including the RoNA for Best Historical Romantic Novel twice with Highland Storms (2012) and The Gilded Fan (2014), and the RNA Fantasy Romantic Novel of the year 2021 with Echoes of the Runes. Tempted by the Runes (time travel published by Headline 9th December 2021) is her latest novel. Christina is a keen amateur genealogist and loves history and archaeology (the armchair variety).

Website Facebook Twitter Instagram

Giveaway to Win a signed paperback copy of Tempted By The Runes, a pair of silver Thor’s hammer earrings and a Thor’s hammer Christmas tree bauble (Open INT)

a Rafflecopter giveaway**

My thoughts: oh yes, the time travelling Viking romance series is back, following on from Tempted by the Runes and Whisper of the Runes , this time it’s Linnea’s younger half-sister Maddie who finds herself in the Ninth Century with a handsome (and infuriating) Viking to deal with. Geir rescues her from harm on the banks of the Liffey in Dublin and spirits her away to his planned new settlement in what’s now Iceland.

Bickering all the way, the pair fall hard for one another as they build a new community in sparsely populated land north of Reykjavik. Maddie has to reconcile her twenty-first century thinking with the realities of living in the past. And Geir has to understand that a thousand years from his time, women are very different. Luckily both his brothers are married to time travellers (Linnea and Sara).

I really enjoy this series and was delighted by this book as it joins the series, I love seeing the way each couple combines their knowledge and learns to live together in the past, with the odd trip to the present.

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

**Terms and Conditions –Worldwide 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.**

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Songbird – Gail Meath

ramblingmads

It’s all fun and games, until someone gets killed.

Meet Jax Diamond, a sharp, sophisticated, skilled, no-nonsense private detective.  Or is he?  Glued to his side is his canine partner, Ace, a fierce and unrelenting German Shepherd whose mere presence terrorizes criminals into submission.  Well, maybe not.

But the two of them are a whole lot smarter than they look.  And they have their hands full when a playwright’s death is declared natural causes, and his new manuscript worth a million bucks is missing.

Laura Graystone, a beautiful rising Broadway star, is dragged into the heart of their investigation, and she’s none too happy about it.  Especially when danger first strikes, and she needs to rely on her own ingenuity to save their hides.

Join Jax, Laura and Ace on a fun yet deadly ride during the Roaring Twenties that takes twists and turns, and a race against time to find the real murderer before he/she/they stop them permanently.

Amazon UK Amazon US

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

Facebook Instagram Twitter Website

My thoughts: if you’ve watched the TV series Hudson & Rex (based on a German series called Kommissioner Rex) you’ll know that having a German shepherd in a partnership makes crime solving so much better, and that’s the case here as detective Jax Diamond has a canine partner of his own called Ace.

In this case they’re investigating some suspicious deaths and keeping the titular songbird, actress Laura Greystone, safe from a particularly keen stalker. Ace is key in rescuing innocent parties and defending his preferred humans from harm.

Set during the Roaring Twenties, this was a fun and charming read, Laura is perfectly capable of looking after herself, but Jax’s instincts as a detective help them track down the dastardly duo behind a series of shocking murders rocking the theatre world. I’m hoping there will be more of these fun and enjoyable stories to come.

*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: Whitesands – Johann Thorsson

ramblingmads

THE BREAKOUT SUPERNATURAL THRILLER FROM ICELANDIC WRITER JOHANN THORSSON

Detective John Dark’s daughter has been missing for two years. In his frantic and unfruitful search for her two years ago, John Dark overreached and was reprimanded and demoted.

Now suddenly back into the homicide department, Dark is put on a chilling case – a man who killed his wife in their locked house and then dressed the body up to resemble a deer, but claims to remember none of it. A few days later an impossibly similar case crops up connecting the suspects to a prep school and a thirty year old missing persons’ case.

Just as he is getting back into his old groove, a new lead in his daughter’s disappearance pops up and threatens to derail his career again.

Time is running out and John Dark needs to solve the case before more people are killed, and while there is still hope to find his daughter.

In the style of True Detective and Silence of the Lambs, WHITESANDS is a thrilling supernatural crime novel.

“Tense, breakneck storytelling. WHITESANDS is a dash of Thomas Harris swirled with supernatural elements that leave you speeding through the pages.” – Kristi DeMeester, author of SUCH A PRETTY SMILE and BENEATH

“Johann Thorsson’s fast-moving debut WHITESANDS, packs enough incident for a novel twice its size, until it’s impossible to turn the pages fast enough.” – John Langan, author of Children of the Fang and Other Genealogies

“… certainly one of the best thrillers I have read this year.” – Khasif Hussain, The Best Thriller Books

Johann Thorsson is a writer of fiction with a supernatural slant, mainly short stories, mainly in English.

He was born in 1978 in a small town in Iceland (dark and cold, close to the sea). When he was nine he moved to Israel, and later to Croatia. He now resides in the Reykjavik area with his beautiful wife and two little kids.

His work has appeared in numerous publications, including Every Day Fiction, eFiction Magazine, eFiction Horror and Fireside Fiction.

Most recently, a story of his was selected for in the forthcoming anthology Apex Book of World SF 4 and Garden of Fiends

His favorite books are 1984, Flowers for Algernon, I am Legend, The Things They Carried and Neil Gaiman’s Sandman graphic novels. Oh, and Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient. Daniel Woodrell’s Winter’s Bone. Romeo and Juliet. (This could go on for a while).

Website

 My thoughts: this was a clever and creepy crime story with revenge at its heart. After a man murders his wife and insists someone else did it, despite all the evidence, Detective John Dark thinks something weird is going on, a second murder convinces him. The only link is that the two killers attended the same boarding school – Whitesands. Did something happen in their shared past that’s finally manifesting?

Dark is an interesting character, tormented by the disappearance of his daughter some years before, he’s never stopped looking, but his bosses need him to focus on his career before he loses his job. He’s willing to believe in the supernatural in order to solve this case, since it genuinely seems to be the case.

I can imagine this book growing into a series where Dark investigates other strange crimes while still hunting for his daughter and turning to both his wife and his partner at the police station Monique as well as his new friend, schizophrenic psychic Daniel, to access as much support as he can.

*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: Under the Rainbow – Celia Laskey

ramblingmads

When a group of social activists arrives in a small town, the lives and beliefs of residents and outsiders alike are upended, in this wry, embracing novel.

Big Burr, Kansas, is the kind of place where everyone seems to know everyone, and everyone shares the same values—or keeps their opinions to themselves. But when a national nonprofit labels Big Burr “the most homophobic town in the US” and sends in a task force of queer volunteers as an experiment—they’ll live and work in the community for two years in an attempt to broaden hearts and minds—no one is truly prepared for what will ensue.

Furious at being uprooted from her life in Los Angeles and desperate to fit in at her new high school, Avery fears that it’s only a matter of time before her “gay crusader” mom outs her. Still grieving the death of her son, Linda welcomes the arrivals, who know mercifully little about her past. And for Christine, the newcomers are not only a threat to the comforting rhythms of Big Burr life, but a call to action. As tensions roil the town, cratering relationships and forcing closely guarded secrets into the light, everyone must consider what it really means to belong. Told with warmth and wit, Under the Rainbow is a poignant, hopeful articulation of our complicated humanity that reminds us we are more alike than we’d like to admit.

My thoughts: each chapter is a glimpse into the life of a different resident of Big Burr, from the newcomers trying to change prevailing attitudes to the lifelong residents who want things to either stay the same or who long for change.

This was a really interesting way to tell the story of a small town, everyone has a different perspective on things and some events you only learn about second or third hand, the way you might in real life. On the whole the LGBTQ+ activists are left alone, apart from a few really obnoxious individuals (who kidnaps a cat like that?). Big Burr might have been seen as the most homophobic town but underneath the surface, things are not quite so clear cut.

*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: The Blue Pendant – Rob James

ramblingmads

TheBluePendant copy

Welcome to the book tour for genre-blurring novel, The Blue Pendant by Rob James! This will be the first book in a new series called When Gods Clash. Read on for more info and enter the giveaway for a chance to win a $25 Amazon e-gift card!

Blue_Pendant_final_high res 031021

The Blue Pendant (When Gods Clash #1)

Publication Date: November 15th, 2021

Genre: Paranormal Thriller/ Greek Mythology

Debilitated in Afghanistan, Angus MacDonald struggles to find peace and escape his nightmares. He visits Culloden Battlefield, Scotland, where ancient voices traumatize him. They reveal a shocking connection to his ancestors who died in 1746 where he now stands. They compel him to fight again, but this time against an unworldly enemy. Inexplicable and uncanny changes wrack his mind and body.

To protect humankind from slavery Angus must face the past, but more troubling, his future while unraveling the mystery of his heritage. He strives to discover millennia-old truths from Olympus, Greece, and the violent history that produced them. The truth of who bred him to die saving humanity.
The most crucial battle of Angus’s story begins on the same infamous field of his clan’s decimation, but worse, when he returns to Washington, D.C., war follows.

Rob James’ WHEN GODS CLASH includes a fascinating take on Greek mythology through vivid world-building; a work of supernatural fantasy. Olympians are not what books describe. Here, they are real. The book is a searing, unique makeover of loved themes.

Add to Goodreads

Book-1-3dMockup

Available on Amazon

International Giveaway: Enter for a chance to win a $25 Amazon eGift Card!

Rafflecopter

About the Author

819450648161768041

Rob James is a student of history and geopolitics and writing novels with historical themes is his passion. Dramatic events and tales from history help to create thrills and suspense. They also color flawed but compelling protagonists.

Since childhood, stories of Rob Roy MacGregor, and the ancient Greek heroes heightened Rob’s passion for reading. He knows them and the history of their times intimately, lighting the richly layered backstory of his novels.

When referencing ancient characters, tradition can become repetitive so Rob takes care to provide unique takes on the often-repeated tales. As his plots are set in the present day, intertwining the old with the new demands respect for the old, while giving them a modern punch; a lift to provide relevance and resonate with readers.

Rob James  

Book Tour Organized By: 

R&R Button

R&R Book Tours

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Queen of Heaven – Catherine Clover

ramblingmads

The White Tower.

A terrible vision.

Her home invaded and precious documents stolen.

Lady Isabelle must flee her pursuers, posing as a young male scholar in the New College of St Mary in Oxford. But when she learns she is with child it won’t be long until she is discovered amongst their ranks.

Can she bring herself to love an infant conceived in evil?

And will she ever be reunited with her beloved Richard, or will Sir Henry Lormont’s dagger find him first?

This deftly plotted 15th century novel traverses the well-trodden pilgrimage routes from Oxford to Rome encountering lepers, assassins, sea rovers and historical figures Lady Margaret Beaufort and Edmund Tudor along the way. Superbly researched by a scholar of the period, Clover blends history with the riveting story of a woman who overcomes the restrictions placed on her sex to create a page-turning novel.

Catherine Clover completed her doctoral degree from Trinity College, Oxford and her research about the end of the Hundred Years’ War informs the Maid of Gascony series. She has a particular professional interest in one of the great surviving English medieval treasures, the two-panel painting known as the Wilton Diptych, which plays a key role in the trilogy. Catherine is also producing a series of choral music albums that connect with the characters in the series. Visit www.catherineclover.com to learn more about Catherine and her work.

The story features textual references to a number of choral music pieces. The choir of New College plays a central role in the book. The author has produced an album in collaboration with the New College choir in Oxford, which accompanies the book.

My thoughts: this was an interesting look at a period in history that I’m particularly interested in, as it preceeds the Cousins’ War or War of the Roses, immediately. A volatile time in English history when things could change very rapidly.

Lady Isabelle has endured tragedies and heartbreak, travelling across Europe to Rome in order to carry out an important task, while under threat from an awful man and his allies. Her return to England is hasty, and she loses much that’s important to her, including her faith. But gradually she recovers and becomes guardian to the young Margaret Beaufort – later the mother of Henry VII.

Isabelle is an interesting character, not one of the main figures in this period, she is a mystic from Gascony, given to religious visions, she spends much of her time with priests, monks and nuns. Her family are all murdered as traitors and she is left with nothing. However she is incredibly strong, brave and resilient. Disguised as a man she is able to get into places denied to women at this time – from an Oxford University college to the hostel of the Knights Templar in Rome.

I found her an interesting protagonist and although I haven’t read the first book in the series yet, someone I would like to read more about.

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

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Renegade Spy Project – Terri Selting David

ramblingmads

Wren is impulsive, curious, and always in trouble. Can her flaws become her greatest asset?

Wren Sterling has a problem. She knows she’s super smart and a good friend, but no matter how hard she tries, she can’t shake her reputation as a troublemaker. It feels like the only people who believe in her are her three best friends in the Renegade Girls Tinkering Club. She’d hoped middle school would be different, but when her inability to control her temper causes an accident, even her beloved STEM Club is no longer a safe haven.

She has to find a way to fix it. When her idea to start a business inventing and selling spy gadgets succeeds, it looks like she’s finally done something right! But then the Club is accused of a crime. Can they use their own gadgets, and a little bit of trouble to solve the mystery? If they can find the real culprit, Wren may just discover she has a bright future after all. If they can’t, she could lose her best friends forever.

“It’s The Babysitter’s Club meets MacGyver!”

Build your own SPY GADGETS! Instructions included in this charming story about friendship, middle school, and the Engineering Design Process for kids ages 8-12.

Add to Goodreads Available on Amazon

Excerpt
Technically it was Wren’s Greenhouse, hidden behind her family's small home in the middle of San Francisco, but all the Renegades felt at home there. In the Greenhouse, they didn't have to worry about other people's rules and opinions. Or try to be boring or be like everyone else. The Greenhouse was their safe space. They could just be themselves. Wren's parents let them use it as their workshop and clubhouse as long as her little sister, Trixie, could be part of the club.
When they'd formed the Renegade Girls Tinkering Club, the Greenhouse had been abandoned and filled with broken pots and spiderwebs. It was small and dirty, but had everything they needed. A door hidden like a secret behind an overgrown wisteria vine. A back wall with shelves from floor to ceiling, and excellent light from a front wall made entirely of glass. A small but sturdy potting table sat against the windows. It was pleasant and warm, with one electrical outlet and a small work sink. They loved it from the first time they saw it.
Amber, Kammie, Ivy, Wren, and even Trixie had worked tirelessly last summer, cleaning and gathering assorted leftovers, recyclables, and a mishmash of bins to put them in. They categorized and labelled, collected cardboard by cutting down shipping boxes, and saved empty toilet paper rolls from the trash. They snuck random scissors from kitchen drawers, ribbons, buttons, anything that looked useful or had an interesting shape. Amber had borrowed a folding card table from her garage, and Kammie brought in some stools her parents were getting rid of. Wren found an old glue gun, and they had even managed to find an unused sewing machine. The first purchase with their club dues had been copies of the side gate key, so everyone could head directly into the backyard when they came over.
Amber rocketed through that side gate, clutching a cardboard box protectively to her chest with her delicate arms. Beneath a spring green sundress her feet, in their pristine white flats, skipped quickly and skillfully over the ground. The September afternoon sun lit up her auburn hair like a fiery halo.

In 1996, Terri left Colorado, where she grew up, and headed even more West until she couldn’t get any West-er. Landing in San Francisco, her career spanned more than a decade in 3D character animation for video games, films, television shows, and even a comic book (but mostly video games.) Her work encompassed character animation, art direction, and story development before she had children and, imagining a better world for them, co-founded the Renegade Girls Tinkering Club with her friend Vicky in 2015. Since then she’s created over a dozen curricula and assisted in creating half a dozen more, encompassing more than 230 individual projects.

She lives in San Francisco with 2 rowdy children and a fabulous, brilliant husband who brings her tea every night.

Spiderdust Studios – Girls Who Make Stuff

International Giveaway: The Renegade Girls Tinkering Club Trilogy (Digital)

My thoughts: I wish the Renegade Girls Tinkering Club had been around when I was a kid, I liked all the science-y stuff they did, building cool gadgets and learning about circuits and things. My dad’s an engineer and I got quite into that side of science at school.

The book is a lot of fun and there are illustrated guides to building your own cool spy gadgets, and templates to download on the website. There’s also a mystery to solve and one very smart little sister too.

I felt sorry for Wren, it can be really hard when your brain works differently from other people and I didn’t like maths lessons either. But she has great friends and I’m glad she and Amber patched things up, those years just before your teens can be tough and good friends are worth hanging onto as you get older.

*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

12 Days of Clink Street: The Lottery – Peter J. Venison

ramblingmads

The annual celebration of publisher Clink Street is back and full of great books. Check out the poster below my review to see all the fab bloggers taking part.

If you found an unsigned lottery ticket, what would you do if it turned out to be worth millions? Hand it in or claim the prize? Follow the twisting path of Maggie and Greg when faced with this dilemma. Who are the winners and who are the real losers? What is the price of honesty and does winning bring happiness? Can you do more good in the world if you are rich or poor? Find out in this intriguing tale of an ordinary family.

Amazon

My thoughts: this was an entertaining and enjoyable read about what happens to an ordinary family whose whole world is turned upside down when they find a winning lottery ticket in the park. Suddenly insanely wealthy, Greg and Maggie decide to keep it quiet while also doing things they’ve always wanted to do.

Greg starts investing and growing his hospitality recruitment business, splashing out on a fancy car once he feels he can justify it to friends with his business successes, meanwhile Maggie wants to donate to wildlife charities, specifically ones that save African elephants (something my sister, who is obsessed with pachyderms, could definitely get behind).

Of course their plan to do all this but not let their sudden and obscene wealth change them doesn’t quite work and over the next few years things change massively for them and their children. Maggie becomes an international environmental champion and Greg becomes one of the wealthiest businessmen around. Things in their personal lives change dramatically too. Can their family survive all of this?

*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: Sherlock Holmes & the Singular Affair – M.K. Wiseman

ramblingmads

Before Baker Street, there was Montague.
Before partnership with a former army doctor recently returned from Afghanistan, Sherlock Holmes had but the quiet company of his own great intellect. Solitary he might be but, living as he did for the thrill of the chase, it was enough.
For a little while, at the least, it was enough.
That is, until a client arrives at his door with a desperate plea and an invitation into a world of societal scandal and stage door dandies. Thrust deep in an all-consuming role and charged with the
safe-keeping of another, Holmes must own to his limits or risk danger to others besides himself in this the case of the aluminium crutch.

Amazon UK Amazon US Barnes and Noble Kobo Apple Books

M. K. Wiseman has degrees in Interarts & Technology and Library & Information
Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her office, therefore, is a curious mix of storyboards and reference materials. Both help immensely in the writing of historical novels. She
currently resides in Cedarburg, Wisconsin.

Website Twitter Facebook Instagram Goodreads

My thoughts: I enjoyed the previous one of these (here) and was pleased to be reading another of M.K Wiseman’s Sherlock stories, this one set before Dr Watson entered Holmes’ life.

This was quite a complicated case involving false identities, gangsters, land deeds in America, a jilted lover, and a rich uncle keeping secrets. Hired to solve a missing person case, that is slightly more complex due to another person impersonating the missing man, Holmes soon finds himself drawn into the complex lies of Price family. Trying to figure out the whereabouts of the real Tobias-Henry Price, he comes across a safe cracker who is happily in custody and Price’s uncle insists the foppish dandy using his nephew’s name is the real Tobias, but his fianceè insists her Toby is someone else entirely.

Eventually Holmes resorts to disguise and goes undercover in society, where he feels intensely uncomfortable, as well as keeping track of a gang of criminals he thinks are involved. And why is everyone so interested in Price’s aluminium cane?

Obviously Sherlock Holmes is Sherlock Holmes and he solves the case, probably a lot sooner that he says he has, through deduction and his acute understanding of how humans think.

A fiendishly clever case and at times very confusing but all is revealed in the end.

*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: Three Little Girls – Jane Badrock

ramblingmads

THREE COLD CASES  ONE DETERMINED COP

Someone’s playing tricks on Karen at home and at work. When two cold case files about missing girls turn up on her desk, she’s fuming. When a third file arrives…she blows a fuse. 

Her boss demands she takes holiday leave just as Karen discovers her late father was involved in one of the cases. Now she’s compelled to investigate them. 

Karen’s accompanied by sometime boyfriend John – but can she trust him or his friend and mapkeeper Mr Binks? 

She has formidable detective skills but will they work in places where old-world magic is still powerful? 

Karen’s life is in serious danger… but from whom…. or what?

Jane writes novels, short stories and poems, usually with a good dose of humour in them. She’s probably owes it all to her late grandmother who, she’s just found out, also wrote short stories and poems. She tends to get an idea and then run with it whether it be a 100 word short story or an 80 thousand word novel. It all depends on the voices in her head at the time…


Facebook Instagram Twitter Amazon Goodreads

My thoughts: this was a quirky blend of crime fiction and supernatural shenanigans. As Karen digs into the cases of 3 missing girls from 50 years ago, she finds a strange link to her father’s death and some seriously spooky goings on. With boyfriend John and partner Macy in tow, she sets off to unravel this mystery.

Then there’s Mr Binks, owner of a curious bookshop, he knows a lot more than he’s willing to share but he also has answers to a few things about the case. But can he be trusted and is he acting in the best interests of himself or the case?

With the team racing across the country and even up into Scotland, this case stretches inter-force cooperation and nearly makes Karen’s boss blow his top (she’s supposed to be holiday, not having around solving cold cases).

A clever and occasionally very peculiar addition to supernatural police procedural novels, a bit like Rivers of London or The King’s Watch.

Click the poster to find the other stops on the tour

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