Category: blog tour

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Dark Memories – Liz Mistry*

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Three letters. Three murders. The clock is ticking…

When the body of a homeless woman is found under Bradford’s railway arches, DS Nikki Parekh and her trusty partner DC Sajid Malik are on the case.

With little evidence, it’s impossible to make a breakthrough, and when Nikki receives a newspaper
clipping taunting her about her lack of progress in catching the killer, she wonders if she has a personal link to the case.

When another seemingly unrelated body is discovered, Nikki receives another note. Someone is
clearly trying to send her clues… but who?

And then a third body is found.
This time on Nikki’s old street, opposite the house she used to live in as a child. And there’s another
message… underneath the victim’s body.

With nothing but the notes to connect the murders, Nikki must revisit the traumatic events of her childhood to work out her connection to the investigation.

But some memories are best left forgotten, and it’s going to take all Nikki’s inner strength to catch the killer…

Before they strike again.

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Born in Scotland, Made in Bradford sums up Liz Mistry’s life. Over thirty years ago she moved from a small village in West Lothian to Yorkshire to get her teaching degree.

Once here, Liz fell in love with three things; curries, the rich cultural diversity of the city … and her Indian husband (not necessarily in this order). Now thirty years, three children, two cats (Winky and Scumpy) and a huge extended family later, Liz uses her experiences of living and working in the inner city to flavour her writing.

Her gritty crime fiction police procedural novels set in Bradford embrace the city she describes as ‘Warm, Rich and Fearless’ whilst exploring the darkness that lurks beneath.

Struggling with severe clinical depression and anxiety for a large number of years, Liz often includes
mental health themes in her writing. She credits the MA in Creative Writing she took at Leeds Trinity
University with helping her find a way of using her writing to navigate her ongoing mental health
struggles.

Being a debut novelist in her fifties was something Liz had only dreamed of and she counts herself lucky, whilst pinching herself regularly to make sure it’s all real. One of the nicest things about being a published author is chatting with and responding to readers’ feedback and Liz regularly does events at local libraries, universities, literature festivals and open mics. She also teaches creative writing too.

Now, having nearly completed a PhD in Creative Writing focussing on ‘the absence of the teen voice in adult crime fiction’ and ‘why expansive narratives matter’, Liz is chock full of ideas to continue writing.

In her spare time, Liz loves pub quizzes (although she admits to being rubbish at them), dancing (she does a mean jig to Proud Mary – her opinion, not ratified by her family), visiting the varied Yorkshire landscape, with Robin Hoods Bay being one of her favourite coastal destinations, listening to music, reading and blogging about all things crime fiction on her blog, The Crime Warp.

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My thoughts:

This was a really dark, gripping read. As bodies of seemingly unrelated victims turn up in Bradford, and Cambridge, DS Nikki Parekh is receiving anonymous messages and starts to realise that she might be the connection. Which means contending with her past.

The plot jogs along at a good pace and the characters are well written and realistic, I particularly liked Nikki’s cheeky nephew and her partner, Saj, with his immaculate suits and pocket hankies.


*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: Winter’s Orbit – Everina Maxwell*

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A famously disappointing minor royal and the Emperor’s least favorite grandchild, Prince Kiem is summoned before the Emperor and commanded to renew the empire’s bonds with its newest vassal planet. The prince must marry Count Jainan, the recent widower of another royal prince of the empire.
But Jainan suspects his late husband’s death was no accident. And Prince Kiem discovers Jainan is a suspect himself. But broken bonds between the Empire and its vassal planets leaves the entire empire vulnerable, so together they must prove that their union is strong while uncovering a possible conspiracy.
Their successful marriage will align conflicting worlds.
Their failure will be the end of the empire.

My thoughts:

This was so good. I did not know I needed a gay space conspiracy thriller in my life, turns out I did.

The relationship between Kiem and Jainan is lovely to watch blossom as they investigate what really happened when Prince Taam was killed, unravel a plot to destabilise the treaty that keeps the Empire and its vassals from war, get to know each other better and wind up the security service.

Kiem is one of those people who lead a charmed life, people like them, even their worst moments are amusing and humanising. He can be a lot (I have a friend who is exactly the same) but he means well.

Jainan is a lot more reserved, and with reason as his story is revealed, he’s learnt to keep his thoughts to himself and make himself smaller to avoid attracting attention.

I also loved Bel, Kiem’s aide, who does her best to keep him on the straight and narrow, but has secrets of her own and not just about how she’s so organised.

This was a tremendously fun read, with lots of action and a labyrinthine conspiracy that goes all the way to the top, with the risk of serious danger the closer they get to the heart of it.


*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: Oujinaut – Phil Motel

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We’re thrilled to share the cover of upcoming novel, Ouijinaut by Phil Motel! Read on for more details!

Ouijanaut cover

Ouijanaut

Expected Publication Date: February 19th, 2021

Genre: Dark Fiction/ Psychological/ Romance

The bleak loneliness of a seaside town in winter.

A bereaved man with many secrets tries to escape the ghosts of his past.

His passionate relationship with Rachel comes with its own complications; the scars from losing her father at a young age remain.

Trying to escape from a past that haunts him, he meets Hanna, a Hungarian mystic. The meeting will change his life…

Ouijanaut is a psychologically dark love story with themes of life, death and the afterlife, and may be unlike anything you’ve read before.

Warning: Contains scenes of an explicit sexual nature.

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About the Author

Phil Motel

Phil Motel was born in North London, England but has now been a resident of the US for a decade. Having spent time in Colorado and New Jersey, he currently lives just outside of Philadelphia, PA.

Ouijanaut is his second novel. His first, Rum Hijack, was published last year.

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blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: White Trash Warlock – David R. Slayton*

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Not all magicians go to schools of magic.

Adam Binder has the Sight. It’s a power that runs in his bloodline: the ability to see beyond this world and into another, a realm of magic populated by elves, gnomes, and spirits of every kind. But for much of Adam’s life, that power has been a curse, hindering friendships, worrying his backwoods family, and fueling his abusive father’s rage.

Years after his brother, Bobby, had him committed to a psych ward, Adam is ready to come to grips with who he is, to live his life on his terms, to find love, and maybe even use his magic to do some good. Hoping to track down his missing father, Adam follows a trail of cursed artifacts to Denver, only to discover that an ancient and horrifying spirit has taken possession of Bobby’s wife.

It isn’t long before Adam becomes the spirit’s next target. To survive the confrontation, save his sister-in-law, and learn the truth about his father, Adam will have to risk bargaining with very dangerous beings … including his first love.

David R. Slayton grew up in Guthrie, Oklahoma, where finding fantasy novels was pretty challenging and finding fantasy novels with diverse characters was downright impossible. Now he lives in Denver, Colorado, with his partner, Brian, and writes the books he always wanted to read. White Trash Warlock is his first novel. In 2015, David founded Trick or Read, an annual initiative to give out books along with candy to children on Halloween as well as uplift lesser-known authors or those from marginalized backgrounds. Find him online

My thoughts:

This was a really fun read, it reminded me a bit of the very short lived TV series Midnight, Texas (of which I may be one of a total of three viewers) in that there’s a hero with the Sight and a ragtag band of supernatural friends along for the ride.

It’s also hella gay, which is very much my bag. Supernaturals, gays, monsters, yes please!

Adam is an everyman figure who really wishes he didn’t have any magical powers thanks all the same, but he does and he wants to use them for good. He’s been tracking a warlock making artifacts containing the souls of various creatures and then his brother, who he very much does not like, calls and he, being a better person than he wants to be, goes to help.

I basically love, want to be his best friend, although the scary elf queen might have a problem with that, and why are you still here? Go read the book.

As someone who would quite happily drown a certain boy wizard and his Terfy creator, this was a balm, sometimes you need to learn what they can’t teach you in any fancy pants wizard school, and the only way to do that is by, well, doing.

This was a fun, funny (the dry humour was very much my thing too) and clever romp of magical proportions and I enjoyed it very muchly. It has really heart too, in the shape of Adam and Vic and the whole reluctant hero thing.

Can’t wait to see what madness book two will hold in store, since Adam still has a few things left to tick off his to do list…

*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: Keeper – Jessica Moor*

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An addictive literary thriller about a crime as shocking as it is commonplace.

When Katie Straw’s body is pulled from the waters of the local suicide spot, the police are ready to write it off as a standard-issue female suicide. But the residents of the domestic violence shelter where Katie worked disagree. These women have spent weeks or even years waiting for the men they’re running from to catch up with them.

They know immediately: This was murder.
Still, Detective Dan Whitworth and his team expect an open-and-shut case–until they discover evidence that suggests Katie wasn’t who she appeared.

Weaving together the investigation with Katie’s final months as it barrels toward the truth, Keeper is a riveting mystery and a searing examination of violence against women and the structures that allow it to continue, marking the debut of an incredible new voice in crime fiction.

My thoughts:

Years ago I worked for an organisation that supported victims of domestic violence, I saw how hard the IDVA (Independent Domestic Violence Advocates) and ISVA (same but for sexual violence) teams worked to support women and children living with the effects of this particularly insidious crime, an often ongoing, sometimes non-physical abuse.

Refuges are few and far between, they’re poorly funded and despite attempts at keeping them secret, not always as safe as they want to be.

The refuge Katie works at in Keeper, has some of these problems, and unfortunately the paranoia, totally understandable as it is, often means reports of a man hanging about outside aren’t taken very seriously.

Katie has secrets, but as her story is revealed to the reader, they too are completely understandable.

The police do cursory investigation, never taking the women’s claims that Katie was murdered seriously, and once the twist at the end is revealed (no spoilers) you’ll see an entire new narrative.

Powerful, shocking and sadly still necessary, this puts human faces to the terrible things that some people go through.

*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: Revenge of the Sluts – Natalie Walton*

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Double standards are about to get singled out.

In this stunning debut, author Natalie Walton tackles privacy and relationships in the digital age.

As lead reporter for The Warrior Weekly, Eden has covered her fair share of stories at St. Joseph Secondary. And when intimate pictures of six female students are anonymously emailed to the entire school, Eden is determined to get to the bottom of it.

In tracking down leads, Eden is shocked to discover not everyone agrees the students are victims. Some people feel the girls “brought it on themselves.” Even worse, the school’s administration seems more concerned about protecting its reputation than its students.

With the anonymous sender threatening more emails, Eden finds an unlikely ally: the six young women themselves. Banding together to find the perpetrator, the tables are about to be turned. The Slut Squad is fighting back!

Natalie Walton has been writing for as long as she can remember, completing her first ‘book’ in second grade. She began posting her stories on Wattpad at the age of fourteen and has since amassed over 18 million reads on her works. Natalie is a Delaware resident and wrote Revenge of the Sluts while being a full-time student at the University of Delaware, working toward her degree in sociology and criminal justice.

My thoughts:

This is a powerful, thought provoking and timely novel about revenge porn, the rights of victims and taking a stand.

Eden is a high school senior working on the school paper, when an email sharing personal photos of seven of her schoolmates is sent out to the entire student body.

The school’s response is lacklustre to say the least and the young women involved are infuriated by the double standards, slut shaming and general disinterest they’re shown in trying to bring “Eros” to justice.

All over the world young women are mistreated for being sexual beings, for having sex, wanting sex, sending nudes (which they’re often pressured into doing by boys) and it is endlessly frustrating how little is done. Laws take years to come into play, and women suffer. Once it’s on the internet, it’s there forever.

The stance Sloane and the other girls take, the support Eden and the newspaper team give them, the way they decide to claim back their narrative, is so powerful and striking and hopefully empowers readers, of whatever gender, to realise that they too don’t have to be OK with the attitude that anyone “deserves what they get”.

It’s a brilliantly written, honest, enjoyable book too, I’m stunned it’s a debut as it’s so confident and assured and I for one can’t wait to see what Natalie Walton does next if this is where she’s starting from.

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Tripping the Multiverse – Alison Lyke*

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As a science journalist, Jade has seen more than her fair share of peculiar oddities—none weirder than her socially inept fellow reporter Antigone. When the test of a teleporter using an electron collider goes awry, the two women find their world changed in subtle ways, with anomalies breaking out in their personal lives. Their increasingly unstable dimension gives Jade the ability to shapeshift while Antigone can see portals into other worlds.

When the test of a teleporter using an electron collider goes awry, the two women find their world changed in subtle ways, with anomalies breaking out in their personal lives. Their increasingly unstable dimension gives Jade the ability to shapeshift while Antigone can see portals into other worlds.

A fellow journalist who attended the experiment is trapped in another dimension and Jade and Antigone hold the key to saving him. Of course, their task is not just a simple rescue mission. Realizing they will continue to drift into increasingly stranger worlds until they straighten out the paradox, the women reluctantly agree to travel through the multiverse in search of a solution.

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Chapter 2: “Bluebird”

When Jade peered into the mirror, she saw her sister’s face reflected in place of her own. Jade reached toward her sister’s face and watched as her sister’s hand reached forward, all framed by the mirror’s fading, pink roses. She pulled her hand back and touched her face. The mirror Amber touched her own face. Jade tapped the mirror again, and her reflection reached out toward the surface in unison.

After a few more moments of introspection, Jade closed the closet and reached for her smartphone. She had never used the “selfie” function before, so it took some finagling before the front-facing camera turned on. Jade saw her sister’s face on the phone, just like she had in the vanity.

I’ve turned into Amber, she thought, then assumed she was dreaming, since turning into her sister was not possible. Jade slapped her own arm, which had turned into Amber’s silky, hairless arm. She hit herself softly at first, then harder. She slapped her face, even harder, and watched as a red hand mark stained her sister’s beautiful face in the phone’s camera.

This isn’t a dream; this is a nightmare. When Jade was little, and she had nightmares, she would wake herself up by jumping from something high off the ground. She might climb a bookshelf or ladder, then jump off and wake up. If there was nothing nearby to climb, or if jumping from a mundane object didn’t work, Jade would wake herself up by jumping out of a window.

Dreams can read your mind, she knew, so she had to work quickly and with little thought. If she gave the nightmare too much time, it might figure out what she was up to, and try to stop her. Jade raced across her room, flung open her window and climbed onto the windowsill, and then she jumped. A nanosecond too late, she realized that she was not dreaming.

As she fell, a sudden instinct overtook her. She felt movement under her skin again, and she sensed she was lighter and smaller than before. I am a bird, she thought, I can fly; I am a bright bluebird. She pictured a bluebird in her head.

Not an actual bluebird, because she’d never seen one, but the drawing of one she’d seen in an ornithology book. She repeated the idea of a bird and its image over and over in her mind.

Blue feathers burst from her arms, her face elongated, and she was no longer falling—she was flying. As a bluebird, Jade landed on her windowsill. She perched there, thinking in a mix of Jade thoughts and bird thoughts. Jade investigated her bedroom, her bluebird eyes resting on Amber’s dress, which was now an abandoned lump of green cloth on the floor.

She heard someone approaching her door, so she flew inside, transforming back into Jade as she landed on the floor.

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I’m an author and an English and Communications professor from Rochester, NY. I’m an insatiable reader and a dedicated writer. I’ve spent many years honing my skills and I now enjoy helping others find and explore their own voices. I write fantasy and science fiction and I aim to captivate and inspire. I’ve written two published novels: a modern mythology titled Honey, which came out in 2013 and Forever People, a cyberpunk science fiction slated to come out in the spring of 2019. I also regularly contribute poetry and short stories to literary magazines.

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My thoughts:

This was a really fun sci-fi adventure, with Jade and Antigone travelling through multiple worlds trying to get back home and repair the strange anomalies that the dimensional shift has created.

Funny, engaging and clever, I really enjoyed reading this and as Jade comes out of her shell and starts to develop more, she grew on me, although I liked Antigone, she was probably a bit too much for her quieter friend. Their new found powers could be very useful or very dangerous, I just hope in their next adventure they make good decisions!

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

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Blog Tour: No Good Deed – Ewan Lawrie*

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Moffat the Magniloquent returns. Events at Gibbous House are over a decade in the past. Penniless, he heads south to St Louis. On murdering one Anson Northrup, Moffat assumes his identity and becomes involved with an Underground Railroad scheme to free slaves and rob the New Orleans Mint. Moffat meets another cast of grotesques and occasional real-life characters, including Marie Laveau, when he gets to New Orleans.

The scheme is complex and involves two riverboats and hiding both the silver and slaves from the authorities and a traitor in the ranks. Moffat learns more of the truth behind his origins, his past and what happened at Gibbous House. Moffat encounters the redoubtable and attractive Miss Pardoner – a woman seemingly unaffected by the passage of time – once again.

Until recently Ewan lived in the south of Spain, inland from the Costa Del Sol, where he used to enjoy an occasional beer in bars where no-one spoke English, at least not to him, in case they ended up in his notebook or somewhere worse. When not doing that he used to write, but occasionally he taught English to Andalucians and other hispanophones.

Having spent 9 months renting in Manchester’s hipster equivalent of Shoreditch, West Didsbury, , Ewan is now living in Elland in the Calder Valley, where the scenery is as inspiring in its way as that of Spain and the beer is cheaper than in Manchester.

My thoughts:

After spending ten years roaming the globe, Moffat arrives in America and immediately gets in way over his head. Having stolen yet another identity, he gets involved with the Underground Railroad and several small scams on the Mississippi river boats. He runs into a few old friends, and makes some new enemies.

Gibbous House was a weird Gothic nightmare and this is equally strange and surreal. Moffat appears to just blunder into things and somehow survive, despite some dodgy situations. He even almost becomes a hero in this one, having tried to help some slaves flee the South.

I have absolutely no idea what he’ll end up doing next – founding a colony on a South Pacific island probably, trying to outrun the past and avoid another meeting with Miss Pardoner.

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

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Blog Tour: Crow Court – Andy Charman*

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Spring, 1840. In the Dorset market town of Wimborne Minster, a young choirboy drowns himself. Soon after, the choirmaster—a belligerent man with a vicious reputation—is found murdered, in a discovery tainted as much by relief as it is by suspicion. The gaze of the magistrates falls on four local men, whose decisions will reverberate through the community for years to come.

So begins the chronicle of Crow Court, unravelling over fourteen delicately interwoven episodes, the town of Wimborne their backdrop: a young gentleman and his groom run off to join the army; a sleepwalking cordwainer wakes on his wife’s grave; desperate farmhands emigrate.

We meet the composer with writer’s block; the smuggler; a troupe of actors down from London; and old Art Pugh, whose impoverished life has made him hard to amuse. Meanwhile, justice waits…

Andy Charman was born in Dorset and grew up near Wimborne Minster, where Crow Court is set. His short stories have appeared in various anthologies and magazines, including Pangea and Cadenza. Crow Court is his first novel, which he worked on at the Arvon course at The Hurst in Shropshire in 2018. Andy lives in Surrey and is available for interview, comment and events.

My thoughts:

This was a really interesting piece of historical fiction that follows the residents of a small Dorset town after the suicide of a young boy and the murder of the choirmaster who mistreated him.

Each chapter follows a different person, from the four men who are thought to be involved in the murder, to interested and nosy neighbours.

I really enjoyed the use of the local dialect, as someone who loves hearing people’s accents and local phrases it was a treat, I find it brings books to life as it gives you a real feel for place and time.

Moving, powerful and slightly magical at times, this is an extraordinary debut novel and promises much more to come from the author.

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

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Blog Tour: The Conspiracy – Jack Probyn*

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Candice Strachan can’t breathe.

A small jewellers is raided in Guildford High Street and leaves police chasing their tails. Reports suggest that it’s The Crimsons, an organised crime group the police have been hunting for years.

The device wrapped around her neck is suffocating her, crushing her chest.

But for rookie detective, Jake Tanner, something doesn’t seem right. The heist doesn’t fit any of their previous patterns. And the last time Jake met them, he was staring down the barrel of their gun, bargaining for his life.

The men who put it there have left her to die.

When the shop owner is kidnapped and a collar bomb is attached to her neck, Jake learns one of his own is involved – a police officer.

Her life now rests in Jake Tanner’s hands.

As Jake follows the group on a wild goose chase, he questions everything he knows about his team. Who can he trust? And is he prepared to find out?

The Conspiracy by Jack Probyn is a tense crime thriller full of hooks and twists that will leave you guessing to the end. If you like Luther and Line Of Duty, you’ll love this series that combines tension, gripping plots, and police corruption.

(Warning: This book is intended for mature audiences and contains disturbing and potentially offensive material.)

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Jack Probyn is the author of the DC Jake Tanner series. He hasn’t spent much time on the planet, but he knows what he wants: to entertain and enthral readers across the globe with his stories. Growing up as an only child and never owning a pet – something he reminds his parents of constantly – Jack spent a lot of time reading and writing.

After just about completing an English degree, he decided to turn his passion from a hobby into a career. When he’s not writing, he’s usually enjoying a sudoku or a true crime drama on Netflix. He lives in Surrey with his partner – who also one day dreams of owning a pet. Preferably a dog.

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My thoughts:

This was a really good read, gripping and fast-paced, racing from Guildford town centre to the docks of Southampton, on the trail of a murderous gang of brothers with bags loaded with diamonds and cash.

The Crimsons have never used violence in their heists before and DC Tanner has spotted the aberration, something else is going on here. Racing against the clock to save Candice from the bomb around her neck and to stop the three men before they leave the country, can Jake make it in time?

Whizzing along on a deadline from the gang, the plot takes no prisoners and keeps the reader hooked from page one.

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