Category: blog tour

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Pact – Sharon Bolton*

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A golden summer, and six talented friends are looking forward to the brightest of futures – until a daredevil game goes horribly wrong, and a woman and two children are killed.

18-year-old Megan takes the blame, leaving the others free to get on with their lives. In return, they each agree to a ‘favour’, payable on her release from prison.

Twenty years later Megan is free.
Let the games begin . . .

My thoughts: this was a clever, knotty thriller about friendship, promises and keeping them. The friends are not particularly nice people – spoilt rich kids who grew up into adults who aren’t much better. They let Megan take the blame so as to not ruin their futures, with no real regard for the lives they destroyed with their stupid game.

So when Megan is released from prison – instead of offering her support, friendship or anything, it’s not really a surprise that they turn their backs and so she begins to toy with them, to make them acknowledge their behaviour.

It all begins to spin out of control and terrible events unfold. Can any of them retain their grip on things, can Megan be stopped? Or is something else going on?

Full of suspense and horror, dark and twisted, this is a brilliant and gripping read.

*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, giveaway

Giveaway: The Shards of Earth – Adrian Tchaikovsky

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This blog tour is a little different – it’s all about prizes! Instead of me telling you about the book (which I have done here), head over to Twitter and enter the competition. And then follow the blog tour to enter again and again. The winner of each giveaway will receive 1 Hardback copy of Shards of Earth and 1 Doors of Eden bundle including a paperback copy, branded torchlight keyring and vinyl sticker. The competition is open to residents of UK/Ireland for shipping purposes and is run in conjunction with Tor UK & Black Crow PR. It runs from May 27th to June 8th and is hosted by some fab book bloggers, as you can see below. Good luck!

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Blacktongue Thief – Christopher Buehlman*

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Kinch Na Shannack owes the Takers Guild a small fortune for his education as a thief, which includes (but is not limited to) lock-picking, knife-fighting, wall-scaling, fall-breaking, lie-weaving, trap-making, plus a few small magics. His debt has driven him to lie in wait by the old forest road, planning to rob the next traveler that crosses his path.

But today, Kinch Na Shannack has picked the wrong mark.

Galva is a knight, a survivor of the brutal goblin wars, and handmaiden of the goddess of death. She is searching for her queen, missing since a distant northern city fell to giants.

Unsuccessful in his robbery and lucky to escape with his life, Kinch now finds his fate entangled with Galva’s. Common enemies and uncommon dangers force thief and knight on an epic journey where goblins hunger for human flesh, krakens hunt in dark waters, and honor is a luxury few can afford.

My thoughts: this was really fun, really enjoyable and I completely forgot the time while reading it and went to bed an hour later than normal! I was so absorbed.

Narrated by protagonist Kinch, this is an adventure of unlikely compatriots, facing nasty goblins that want to eat them, sea monsters that want to eat them and giants – not sure if they want to eat them!

Kinch is a thief by profession and his black tongue marks him out as Galtian – one of the races that make up humankind in this world. A world increasingly at threat from creatures big and small. Sent by his former masters at the Takers Guild to accompany a formidable Knight across the continent to giant infested lands, but for a purpose they haven’t revealed to him, he gets himself in and out of trouble along the way.

I liked Kinch, he’s unapologetically himself, while he’s an accomplished liar, he’s also pretty honest about his motivations and plans. He wants to be very rich, get the Guild off his back and stay alive long enough to do both. He’s a reluctant sort-of-hero and would probably far rather be somewhere else entirely than fighting monsters, almost drowning and almost ending up a goblins’ supper.

The first in what looks to be a very entertaining and enjoyable series, The Blacktongue Thief is tremendous fun and very charming.

*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: Body on the Rocks – Rachel Green

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Mourning the death of her police inspector husband, Margot Renard moves to a small seaside town
in the south of France. But when the body of a small boy washes up on a beach, Margot is drawn into a dangerous world of drug smugglers and people trafficking, and forced to cross paths with two feuding gangsters.

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Rachel Green is the pen name of a writer from the UK. Rachel has twice been longlisted for both the Bath Novel Award and the BPA First Novel Award, as well as being on the shortlist for the Capital Crime New Voices Award. Rachel lives in a tiny village in England, but travels frequently to the south of France where the stories from the Madame Renard Investigates series are set.
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My thoughts: this was interesting, I liked Margot a lot – her determination to solve the deaths of two immigrants, and get justice for them was heartening but the plot was a bit slow at times. I just wanted more to happen – I have no chill!

I felt a bit sorry for the friends who tried to help her, or stop her, she wasn’t going to let anything – not even death threats – stop her. I’m going to look out for the second book as I want to see where things go for Margot. I imagine she’ll get into a lot more scrapes but solve a lot more crimes the police seem unbothered by. I did enjoy this book, the second half was definitely faster moving and more engaging, once Margot got into her stride hunting down the perpetrators and refusing to be cowed, she’s a force to be reckoned with.

*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

Cover Reveal: What Remains – An Anthology by Inked in Gray

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Cover Reveal Banner

What Remains

Check out the cover for upcoming release of What Remains! A chilling collection of Horror, Sci-Fi, and Fantasy!

What Remains: An Anthology by Inked in Gray

Expected Publication Date: Summer 2021

Genre: Anthology/ Short Stories/ Fantasy/ Sci-Fi/ Horror

Publisher: Inked in Gray

Victory at all costs. Even at the price of our own life, the desire to survive transcends all rational thought. 

What Remains brings together fifteen tales of horror, fantasy, and science fiction. From sacrificing loved ones or oneself, to doing what it takes to keep them alive, these stories shake the soul, rip out its insecurities and flay them on the page. 

Careful who you trust. Some quandaries have no right answer when we cannot save what we love most—or when isolation, desperation, and betrayal leave you no choice.

Take the journey with us to see What Remains when civility, decency, and sanity have all but fled.

Coming Soon!

Authors:

R.A. Busby 

About the Author: An award-winning literature teacher and die-hard horror fan, R. A. Busby is also the author of “Bits” (Short Sharp Shocks #45), “Street View” (Collective Realms #2), “Not the Man I Married” (Black Petals #93), “Holes” (Graveyard Smash, Women of Horror Anthology, Vol. 2), and “Cactusland” (34 Orchard, forthcoming). 

“I was always instructed to write about what I know,” she states, “and I know what scares me.”  In her spare time, R.A. Busby watches cheesy Gothic movies and goes running in the desert with her dog. 

She can be found on Twitter and at  RABusbybooks.weebly.com

David-Christopher Harris

About the Author: David-Christopher Harris’ fantasy publications include “Olam Ha-Ba” in speculative fiction and poetry magazine Arsenika, “Last Call”  in The Arcanist Magazine, “Falselight”  on PageHabit, and “Children of Ozymandias” in 50WordStories,  among others. He received his M.A. in Medieval Literature, which he uses exclusively to teach his cat Latin. He is currently querying.

He can be found on Twitter and at www.dcharriswriting.com

Andy Dibble

About the Author: Andy Dibble is a healthcare IT consultant who lives in Madison, Wisconsin. He has supported the electronic medical record of healthcare systems in six countries.  His work appears or is forthcoming in Writers of the Future, Star*Line, Sci Phi Journal, and others.  He is Articles Editor for Speculative North magazine.

He can be found on Twitter, Facebook, and andydibble.com.

LT Ward 

About the Author: LT writes mostly speculative fiction shorts and novels while spending her days raising her children and satisfying her never-ending thirst for knowledge through reading, meeting people, and first-hand life experiences. She has short story publications with Dancing Lemur Press, Me First Magazine, Jazz House Press, and forthcoming with Black Hare Press and Cardigan Press. She currently volunteers with WriteHive, a nonprofit literary organization. 

She can be found on Twitter, Instagram, and at ltwardwriter.com.

Ben Armstrong

About the Author: Ben is a young author who has been writing stories for over six years now. Recently he has been published in his town’s newspaper.

Maxwell I Gold

About the Author: Maxwell I. Gold is a Rhysling Award nominated prose poet, focusing on weird and cosmic fiction. He is a regular contributor to Spectral Realms, edited by Lovecraft scholar S.T. Joshi and his work has also appeared in Weirdbook Magazine, Space and Time Magazine, Startling Stories, Baffling Magazine, and many others.

His debut prose poetry collection, Oblivion in Flux: A Collection of Cyber Prose is forthcoming this August from Crystal Lake Publishing.

Maxwell can be found on Facebook, Instagram, Amazon, and at www.thewellsoftheweird.com

Damir Salkovic

About the Author: Damir Salkovic is the author of novels Kill Zone and Always Beside You. His shorter work has been featured in the Lovecraft eZine, Dimension6 Annual Collection 2020, and in multiple horror, science and speculative fiction anthologies.

Find him on Goodreads and at his blog, Darker Realities.

Lawrence West

About the Author: Lawrence J West has been on his writing journey since he was fourteen years old and has always been drawn to fantasy, sci-fi, and horror because of the way these genres allow for the exploration of human experience in unique ways. Since becoming a husband and father he has also found that his writing has a greater degree of empathy and insight. 

Lawrence can be found on Twitter.

Sharon Frame Gay

About the Author: Sharon Frame Gay is an award winning author whose work has appeared in many anthologies and magazines, including Chicken Soup For The Soul, Typehouse, Fiction on the Web, Literally Stories, Lowestoft Chronicle, Thrice Fiction, Saddlebag Dispatches, Crannog, and others. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee. 

A collection of her short stories, Song of the Highway, was released in August, 2020.

Sharon can be found on Twitter and Amazon.

Timothy Johnson

About the Author: Timothy Johnson is a writer and editor living outside of Washington, D.C. His published work includes the novels The Pillars of Dawn and Carrier as well as short fiction appearing in various professional and semi-professional markets. He is an MFA candidate in George Mason University’s creative writing program and an affiliate member of the HWA. 

Find Timothy on Twitter and at timothyjohnsonfiction.com.

DL Shirey

About the Author: DL Shirey lives in Portland, Oregon, where it’s probably raining. Luckily, water is beer’s primary ingredient. His stories and non-fiction appear in 60 publications, including Confingo, Page & Spine, Zetetic and Wild Musette. 

You can find more of DL Shirey on Twitter and at www.dlshirey.com.

Dan Eveloff

About the Author: Dan Eveloff is a lawyer and sports agent living in Chicago, Illinois with his dog, Reuben. He studied accounting at the University of Kansas, and subsequently earned his law degree from Northwestern University. His short fiction “The Price of Recompense” has appeared in AHF Magazine, “Shakespearean Justice” in Aphelion Webzine, and “Prevenge” can be found in Close to the Bone Magazine. 

His social media presence can be found on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter 

Valerie Hunter

About the Author: Valerie Hunter teaches high school English and has an MFA in writing for children and young adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her stories and poems have appeared in publications including Cicada, Storyteller, Edison Literary Review, Other Voices, Room, and Wizards in Space.

Find Valerie on Instagram.

Nicholas Barner

About the Author: Nicholas Barner has farmed, cooked, and written variously in Oakland, Chicago, Maine, and Los Angeles. He lives with his partner, Shelby, and their Dog, Nuni.

He can be found online at nicholasbarner.com. 

Thomas Canfield

About the Author: Thomas Canfield lives in the mountains of North Carolina. His phobias run to politicians, lawyers and TV pitchmen. He is still trying to plumb the logic of the sales pitch; The more you buy, the more you save. It never quite seems to work out that way in the real world. Canfield occasionally reviews books on Goodreads.

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Book Blitz: Come Midnight – Kat Martin

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Comemidnight

Congratulations to author Kat Martin on the release of her latest novella, Come Midnight! 

510Sfk+fJCLCome Midnight

Publication Date: June 1st, 2021 (Today 🎉)

Genre: Suspense/ Thriller

Length: 84 Pages

A routine flight turns into a suspenseful race through the remote jungles of Honduras

When strangers Breanna Winters and Derek Stiles met on a flight to Colombia, they never imagined they would need to rely on each other for survival. Taken hostage by a group of radical environmental vigilantes, Bree worries her secret identity has been discovered—and her fears are confirmed when she learns a ransom request has been sent to her father. Though she’s the daughter of a prominent tech mogul, Bree’s wealth can’t guarantee her safety, so former Navy fighter pilot Derek pretends to be her fiancé in order to accompany her on a dangerous jungle trek led by the radicals. With chemistry building between the pair, a romance isn’t hard to fake, though they can’t let their attraction distract them. If Bree and Derek ever want to see civilization again, they’ll have to work together and rely on their wits to escape their captors.

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Available on Amazon

About the Author

Kat Martin head shot (high res)

New York Times Bestselling author Kat Martin, a graduate of the University of California at Santa Barbara, currently resides in Missoula, Montana with Western-author husband, L. J. Martin.  More than seventeen million copies of Kat’s books are in print, and she has been published in twenty foreign countries.  Fifteen of her recent novels have taken top-ten spots on the New York Times Bestseller List, and her novel, BEYOND REASON, was recently optioned for a feature film. 

Kat Martin | Facebook| Twitter | BookBub

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blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Talk Bookish To Me – Kate Bromley*

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Inspiration can come from the most unlikely—and inconvenient—sources.
Kara Sullivan’s life is full of love—albeit fictional. As a bestselling romance novelist and influential Bookstagrammer, she’s fine with getting her happily-ever-after fix between the covers of a book.
But right now? Not only is Kara’s best friend getting married next week—which means big wedding stress—but the deadline for her next novel is looming, and she hasn’t written a single word. The last thing she needs is for her infuriating first love, Ryan Thompson, to suddenly appear in the wedding party. But Ryan’s unexpected arrival sparks a creative awakening in Kara that inspires the steamy historical romance she desperately needs to deliver.
With her wedding duties intensifying, her deadline getting closer by the second and her bills not paying themselves, Kara knows there’s only one way for her to finish her book and to give her characters the ever-after they deserve. But can she embrace the unlikely, ruggedly handsome muse—who pushes every one of her buttons—to save the wedding, her career and, just maybe, write her own happy ending?

My thoughts: I really enjoyed this one, Kara has basically my dream job – author and bookstagrammer, there’s an excellent dog, a trip to Italy (I love both dogs and Italy) and a possible romance rekindled. If Ryan and Kara can just get out of their own way!

The supporting characters are great too, I loved Maggie with her no nonsense approach to life and Kara’s sister Jen. I wanted more Duke the dog – like the whole thing from his perspective maybe!

This was a sweet, funny rom com and I needed that today – this week has left me feeling drained. Grab a copy and some snacks (there’s a lot of food in the book) and relax!


*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 Summer of Second Chances – Carol Thomas*

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Does first love deserve a second chance?
Ava Flynn sometimes feels like the clothes donated to her charity shop have seen more life than her, but ‘maximum dedication for a minimal wage’ is what it takes to keep her mother’s beloved wildlife charity, All Critters Great and Small, running – especially in the village of Dapplebury, where business is certainly not booming.
But when Ava’s first love, Henry Bramlington, returns to the village, suddenly life becomes a little too eventful. Henry escaped Dapplebury many years before, but now he has the power to make or break the village he left behind – All Critters Great and Small included. Can Ava trust the boy who ran away to give both her and her charity a second chance?
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Carol Thomas lives on the south coast of England with her husband, four children and lively Labrador. She has been a primary school teacher for over twenty years and has a passion for reading, writing and people watching. When she is not in school, chasing after her children, or stopping her dog from eating things he shouldn’t, she can be found loitering in cafes drinking too
much tea and working on her next book.

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My thoughts: this was a lovely, heart warming rom com of errors. As Ava and Henry reconnect as adults, both misunderstand their intentions and it takes puppies, good friends, a festival and a ball to get things on course. There’s also some themed evenings at the local pub, lots of selling things in the charity shop (along with some worrying donations – flashbacks to my own time managing a charity shop!) and cake.

I really enjoyed this book, it was great fun and cheerful, I wish Dapplebury was a real village as it seems like a great place to live, did I mention the puppies?

*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: Your Life or Mine – Vicki Bradley*

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Alana Loxton was part of the all-female team to take down Barratt, a notorious serial killer.
He is safely behind bars when one of the detectives goes missing.
Her disappearance, and the connection to the killer, could be a coincidence – but when her body is
discovered days later, a link begins to form. Then another detective from the team goes missing and the situation becomes horrifically clear.
Someone is picking them off one by one – and Alana’s name is next on the list . . .

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Vicki Bradley is a detective constable in the Metropolitan Police Service. She has had a varied career, as a uniformed response driver in Brent and then as a Detective Constable in Southwark CID. She has managed High Risk Sex Offenders and worked on the Serious Organised Crime Command.

Before I Say I Do won the Write Here, Right Now competition, came 3rd in the First Novel Prize and has been
shortlisted for the Virago New Crime Writer 2017 and Peters Fraser and Dunlop Prize 2016. Vicki lives in London with her husband and baby.
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My thoughts: this was a really good, gripping police thriller, set in South London, where the author works as a police detective, adding extra authenticity. I used to work in Elephant & Castle so recognise some of the places the detectives go to as they investigate the kidnappings and murders of several female detectives, emulating a serial killer, safely locked away in Broadmoor.

Is there a copycat or did Barratt have an accomplice? Alana Loxton is in the killer’s sights but she’s determined to solve the case and save the lives of her friends as well as her own.

The story was fast paced, never letting up as we follow Loxton and her partner, Polish transfer Dominik, across London, out to Kent and back, with the killer closing in. They turn up a few suspects, and think they’re getting close, keeping the suspense up as the killer taunts them and manages to be one step ahead.

*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: Version Zero – David Yoon*

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From the brilliant mind of New York Times bestselling author David Yoon comes a lightning-fast and scorchingly observant thriller about how we can save ourselves from the very real perils of a virtual world.

Max, a data whiz at the social media company Wren, has gotten a firsthand glimpse of the dark side of big tech. When he questions what his company does with the data they collect, he’s fired…then black-balled across Silicon Valley.

With time on his hands and revenge on his mind, Max and his longtime friend (and secretly the love of his life) Akiko, decide to get even by rebooting the internet. After all, in order to fix things, sometimes you have to break them. But when Max and Akiko join forces with a reclusive tech baron, they learn that breaking things can have unintended–and catastrophic–consequences.

My thoughts: this was an interesting, chaotic adventure in cyberspace as two young programmers, attempt to put right all the wrongs of social media and the internet. Taking on the big companies by hacking into them is one thing, but when they’re co-opted into a reclusive tech billionaire’s slightly less hopeful schemes, things go a bit sideways.

Max is incredibly optimistic and slightly naive, he genuinely thinks he can make people reject the mega corporations that own their data and rule their lives by pulling back the curtain, and it seems to work but we all know the wizard is some guy in a black polo neck or grey t-shirt. It isn’t enough in a way, as angry as people get, the convenience and addiction to the internet won’t be replaced quickly or easily.

Pilot – the worrying former tech god turned total hermit taps into Max’s naivety and manipulates the hopeful bright young things by offering them access and support, a back way in to the CEOs and programs they want to bring down, but he has other plans.

It all becomes a spiralling nightmare for Max, and saving his friends becomes his priority, but can he save the world too? A timely and thought provoking book, which ironically I’m telling you about via a blogging platform and sharing it over social media. Max would not be impressed.

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