Every now and then we get to share something special with you all and The Peddler is a fantasy anthology which is the very definition!
The Peddler
Release Date: January 2026
Genre: Fantasy Short Stories/ Fantasy Anthology
A traveling peddler enters a tavern on a stormy night.
She takes a seat at a table, opens her sailcloth bag, and removes a number of trinkets, ready to weave tales from her travels to her rapt audience… But where to begin?
…a mermaid seeking to walk on land to avenge a murder.
…a daughter of powerful nobles battling how she was raised and what she believes.
…a lighthouse keeper holding vigil for her long-lost love across the sea.
…a petty thief scamming the rich to help the poor.
…or perhaps something else to keep her audience on the edge of their seats.
This collection of fairytale retellings will introduce you to familiar characters you may no longer recognize. Perfect for fans of shadowy plots, criminals with hearts of gold, star-crossed lovers, and happily-ever-afters, The Peddler is sure to entertain you as much as her captive audience.
We’re celebrating the August release of the audiobook edition of Twisted Bond by Katlyn DeRouen!
Twisted Bond (Twisted Bond Series #1)
Release Date: August 4, 2026
Genre: Portal Fantasy
Narrators: Monica Cannon & Dallin Bradford
Found family
Enemies to lovers
Hidden identities
Royalty
Closed door
Prophecies
Fae
Portal to another world
Enemies to friends to lovers
Good vs. Evil
Three Girls.
Three Lives.
One Bond.
After almost a decade apart, Cammie, Hannah, and Sabina never expected their paths to cross again so suddenly. But when Cammie is plagued by memories of a person she has never met, she has no choice but to reach out to the friends she lost touch with years ago.
A charismatic stranger—by the name of Caelan—claims he holds the answers to her mounting list of questions. Instead, Cammie winds up in a comatose state. With Caelan’s help, Sabina races against time to find the man in Cammie’s memories who holds the key to an unseen world… before her friend is lost within her own mind forever.
Meanwhile, Hannah finds herself fighting for her life after being thrust into the middle of a war between beings rumored to be myth. In the midst of the chaos, one element holds true… fate pulled them back together for a reason. Will the trio uncover the truth they seek? Or run from an answer they fear will shatter their world as they know it?
Trigger warnings in this book include kidnapping, minor descriptions of blood, a few on screen character deaths, and characters you will love/hate to root for.
Jen is confident she has complete control over the things that are trying to control her. Until she isn’t. Until she hasn’t. Until she realises she has never been in control at all. She’s been papering over it for years.
It’s the start of the year 2000. A new millennium has arrived. For Jen and her three friends, university life in Manchester is full of possibility and endless fun. Sassiness, spontaneity, marvellous mayhem and youthful optimism reign in the Manchester rain.
But beneath the sometimes brash bravado sometimes even the most resilient, carefree, fun-loving characters who, on the surface look like they are living their best lives, are perilously close to falling apart. Over the course of one unforgettable year, the young women confront their own realities and truths. Some make foolish mistakes and others life changing choices. Sometimes heartwarming and other times heartbreaking, but always brutally honest.
This is a story of friendship, mistakes, self-discovery and acceptance; identity, love and the messy reality of becoming an adult. It’s about the masks we wear, the mistakes and choices we make, and the courage it takes to stop papering over it and face ourselves when everything feels like it’s falling apart.
It’s real, raw, raunchy, sometimes random and frankly rude at times. Just like Jen and her friends.
Ruth has worked in Marketing for twenty-seven years and has always loved writing and storytelling. Understanding people and their behaviour, creating stories that resonate and developing engaging and enduring narratives have all been key to success in her professional background.
From a personal perspective, Ruth is a Manchester born, bred and based menopausal mum of three boys (twelve, fifteen and twenty seven). She spends most of her weekends trying to manage the family mayhem with her partner Simon and watching their younger boys on the sideline of various sports pitches hunting for a loo (occasionally having to resort to a wild wee), a sausage sandwich and a brew while trying to keep warm in doubled-up big socks (mainly stolen from the males in her house) and multiple layers (having had it drilled into her since childhood that it is the number of layers that count, not the thickness of each layer – the complete opposite of friendships).
A nasty accident on Good (Bad) Friday in 2024 meant she spent several months sat on her arse with one leg having to be perpetually higher than said arse. As an energetic, self-confessed curator of chaos, she needed something to focus on and keep her from going frankly crazy. And keep her family from going crazy too. She found that you can’t do much when you’re in acute pain with one leg in the air (including the jigsaws and ‘paint by numbers’ well-wishers had kindly gifted her). But you can read, reflect, think and you can definitely reminisce and daydream. And you can write. Which is what she did.
Her debut novel, Paper Over It, combines her sometimes over-enthusiastic imagination with insights gained from growing up in the 80s and becoming a young mum in the late 90s, her silent struggle with eating disorders in her earlier years, the power of some relationships and the destructive nature of others, and the joy of family, friendship, loyalty, hope and laughter.
My thoughts: I’m a bit younger than the characters in this book, but I do remember the early 2000s, I was a teenager and the music the girls listen to was the soundtrack to my year back then too.
Jen, Em, Lou and Kate are all at Manchester uni, with their final year (except for Kate who’s on a 4 year course) and their futures all ahead of them.
Over the course of a tumultuous year, they’ll fall in love, figure out their next steps, party hard and deal with heartbreak, unexpected surprises and learn how to be adults.
I really enjoyed the book, I liked the four young women at the heart of the story, their adventures, mistakes, and the bond they share. It was funny, life affirming and enjoyable, a book with real heart.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Extravagant medium Mrs Ashton and her lover, blunt working-class Mrs Bradshaw, run a spiritualist scam. Mrs Ashton secretly reads minds.
Believing that Mrs Ashton is genuine, grieving Lady Violet craves the truth behind her mother’s untimely death. But Lady Violet’s powerful husband Sir Charles hates spiritualists. Has he killed before?
Uncovering this MP’s wicked crimes will put all three women in terrible danger… To solve a shocking murder, look both sides of the grave.
“I loved this book! Victorian murder mystery meets “ghost” story, with delicious sprinklings of compassion and mischief…” Caroline Day, author of Sunday Times Bestseller Hope Nicely’s Lessons for Life
Exciting News: Book 2 in the Crooked Medium series is now available for pre-order!!
My grandmother told me I read too much. I remember walking in the garden when I was small, telling myself stories. It was over thirty years of wanting to be a novelist before I tried… and succeeded.
The Crooked Medium’s Guide to Murder arose because I wanted to write about Britishness and specifically about Englishness; about our complex relationship with the past; I wanted leads who were morally grayer but still capable of kindness. It was time for a novel with queer leads. And in quite desperate times, I needed to write something with some uplift. It’s the first book intended to start a series.
My first books, Our Child of the Stars and Our Child of Two Worlds are set in the 1960s USA. It’s about Gene and Molly, a childless couple, and Cory, the little boy from the stars that they adopt, under such challenging circumstances. The books got lovely reviews and are available on both sides of the Atlantic.
I spent nearly all my childhood in Bristol, and I’m now an adoptive Londoner. I live with my partner, and it’s the best thing our two adult children come back from time to time. Our garden rages wild.
Giveaway to Win 4 x Signed Books by Stephen Cox (Open to UK Only) Prize includes – Our Child of the Stars, Our Child of Two Worlds, The Crooked Medium’s Guide to Murder and the Crooked Medium’s Guide to Terror.
My thoughts: This was really good, Mrs Ashton, a spiritualist, and her companion/partner Mrs Bradshaw (Braddie) are often in trouble, having to leave places at short notice but they’re trying to settle, although Braddie wants a cottage somewhere quiet and not in London.
Unfortunately they’ve got themselves involved with a truly unpleasant man. He’s an MP and violent. His wife wants their help, but he threatens them, and worse. As they get more and more mired in the relationship between Lady Violet and Sir Charles, and end up at the country estate, things get worse.
I loved Maisie, the leader of their Baker Street Irregulars, she’s fiery, smart as a whip and could be a brilliant detective. She also looks after her younger siblings and her Pa, making sure they have what they need.
The case is knotty and clearly Mrs Ashton has form, with the police, creditors and trouble. But she also knows how to read people – both with and without her mysterious powers. Her relationship with Braddie is delightful, although faltering at times as Braddie wants to stop running and settle down while Mrs A enjoys her work and the people she meets.
I’m looking forward to book two – keen to see how much trouble they get themselves into.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
*Terms and Conditions –UK entries welcome. Please enter using the Gleam box below. The winner will be selected at random via Gleam 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.
Welcome to the ARC tour for psychological thriller, Dark Ugly Places by Ashley Mansour!
Available in all formats at your favorite retailer on September 15th!
Dark Ugly Places
Expected Release Date: September 15, 2026
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Some wounds don’t heal. They fester. They whisper. They take over.
In Dark Ugly Places, trauma isn’t something you survive — it’s something that survives you.
Thirty-four-year-old Nicola Holiday loses everything in a hit-and-run: her husband dead, her body broken, her fourteen-year-old daughter Emmy forever changed. With no one held accountable, she spirals into grief, panic attacks, and financial ruin — awakening a hereditary darkness she’s spent her life trying to outrun.
That darkness has a voice now. Her name is Martha, and she aches for revenge.
As Nicola’s grip on reality loosens, Martha slips into another life — one of wealth, glamour, and moral rot. When she crosses paths with the wife of a famous actor, Nicola’s suspicions ignite.
Pulled between vengeance and annihilation, Nicola and Martha collide with a woman whose secrets may be the key to everything — or the thing that destroys them both.
Dark, provocative, and deeply unsettling — a haunting psychological portrait of female rage, obsession, and the terrifying lengths the mind will go to survive unbearable pain.
Because sometimes the most dangerous place isn’t the past. It’s inside your own head.
Dark Ugly Places is a psychological thriller of identity, grief, and revenge — a haunting domestic suspense for readers of Verity, Behind Her Eyes, and The Silent Patient.
CONTENT WARNINGS:
Violence (hit-and-run accident), grief and loss, panic attacks, mental health themes (dissociative identity), revenge, and mild language.
Dungeons & Dimwits is a fantasy comedy series about a group of gamers trapped inside their own tabletop role-playing campaign. This first volume begins their journey as they discover that their imaginary world is now very real―and very dangerous. The series follows the party as they face monsters, magic, rival adventurers, impossible quests, and the consequences of their own chaotic
storytelling. Readers should begin with Volume 1, which introduces the characters, the world, and the hilarious disaster that launches the adventure.
James Mascia is the founder and publisher of Dren Productions, where he creates sci-fi, horror, and fantasy comics and novels packed with imagination, humor, and thrills. He is the author of titles including Flesh-Eating Cheerleaders, Dungeons & Dimwits, The Poe Murders, and High School Heroes. When he’s not writing strange and exciting stories, James works as a high school English teacher in Maryland. A lifelong fan of Comic Cons, cheesy sci-fi and horror movies, and Dungeons & Dragons, he brings his love of genre storytelling into everything he writes.
Facebook/Instagram – @DrenProductions
My thoughts: Sucked into the role playing tabletop game (rptg) that shares it’s initials with this book’s title, a group of friends discover that things have just got very real. And that two of them are apparently girls now.
Trying to find a way out of the fantasy world where everything is trying to kill them only seems to make things worse. They’re not powerful to escape and they need to level up and also defeat a sorceress who seems to be the reason they’re stuck. So side quests it is. Once they escape the dwarf dungeons they’re currently stuck in and stay alive long enough to get home.
It’s funny, silly and perfect for anyone you know who likes D&D or other role playing games. You don’t need to know all the ins and outs of the games to enjoy it though, I have beginner’s knowledge gleaned from having friends who play these games, and I found it very entertaining.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Lord Karolan, endowed with an arcane knowledge of alchemy, knows immortality comes at a price, for any lover perishes at his touch. His only companion is his ‘familiar’ – a greedy, wanton spirit that attached itself to him during his transformation and feasts on his fleshly desires as it yearns to become human.
Karolan saves Garnetta from the plague sweeping through early gothic Europe, by bestowing the ‘dark gift’ upon her, but without her permission. A bond of desire develops between the two, and a future for them seems possible. Until Garnetta learns the shocking truth about what Karolan’s laboratory holds, and what he has done to her.
Fleeing in horror, she unwittingly falls into the hands of the inquisition. Found guilty of heresy, she is to be subject to a fate even she cannot survive. Dare she open her heart to Karolan now she knows what he is? All while risking attracting his ‘familiar’ – now attached to her also and eager to inhabit her enticing female form. Karolan is desperate to find the woman he has grown to love, knowing that only a leap of faith can lead him to her, before time runs out.
Sue’s first love is gothic fiction, both to read and to write. Her books for adults are inspired by classics like Frankenstein, Dracula, the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch and William Blake, Victoriana,and the dark fairy tales and folklore of the British Isles.
She has published a number of novels using pen names, notably for Virgin Publishing’s Black Lace imprint – erotic fiction for women, written by women. And for Little, Brown’s, XLibris list. She is also the author of a Sunday Times, worldwide bestselling children’s series for Penguin Random House.
During recent years she has returned to writing for adults, exploring her favourite themes with two dark fantasy novels for Joffe Books. Her short stories have also been published in a number of anthologies.
Flesh Endures is the product of her latest journey into the dark underworld of her imagination.
Unassuming Emma, a blogger turned wannabe social media influencer, moves to an exclusive enclave in SW19 to get her son into the best school in the area. On the first day of school, she bumps into Annabel, a gregarious journalist who is head of the PTA.
An unfortunate misunderstanding leads to a clash, and the school gate mothers taking sides. Emma’s world has been blown apart by motherhood. As she struggles to find her new identity, she has to defend herself against Annabel and her clique. The mean girls with mortgages.
Emma learns a devastating secret about Annabel that could destroy her entire life. Will Emma play dirty to win, and what lengths will Annabel go to protect what she has?
There can only be one winner. But what will be the cost?
Catherine Yardley is a freelance journalist and author. She writes for The Sunday Times, Stylist, The Times, Telegraph, Metro, Huffpost and the i paper. She’s the editor-in-chief of Frost Magazine. The Mothers of SW19 is her third novel. Her two other books published are Ember and Where The Light is Hottest. Both did well and got fantastic reviews. She has been on numerous podcasts, including The Conversation with Nadine Matheson and Confessions of a Debut Novelist with Chloe Timms. She lives in SW19 with her husband and children.
My thoughts: Emma is hoping to make friends with the other mums at the school gate, but after a brief encounter with Queen Bee Annabel and her Mean Girls with Mortgages (MGwM), she’s left feeling a bit deflated, and when they start a campaign to discredit her and destroy her fledgling social media career, because Annabel says so, she’s totally thrown. It doesn’t help that her son and her nemesis’ son are now best friends, thrusting the two women constantly into each other’s lives.
However, a brief indiscretion on Annabel’s part, caught on Emma’s phone, gives her potential leverage. Will she utilise it as they go head to head for the vacant governor’s position at the school? And when things spiral out of control and lead to tragedy, can either woman come back from that?
What starts as a silly Mean Girls feud rapidly overwhelms both of their lives, threatening to destroy everything. Can they de-escalate and back down in time? Or will SW19 be gossiping about them forever?
Clever, funny and with a truly shocking twist, this is what happens when mean girls get older but don’t really grow up.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
We’re thrilled to announce the release of The Vanished Queendom by S.T. Fernandez! strong>
The Vanished Queendom (The Heir of Atlantis Book 3)
Release Date: August 25, 2026
Genre: Romantasy
Sky Realm
Bermuda Triangle Folklore
Elemental Fae
Rightful Heir
Political Intrigue
Power Awakening
Strong FMC
Breeding
One of four sacred relics lies hidden in the skies… and a malevolent darkness hunts her every step.
Branded a traitor to Atlantis, Asherah Delmar—the goddess’s chosen—must flee through the Bermuda Triangle to the realm of Airelandia, a queendom lost to time and space. On her mission to recover the goddess’s next artifact before she’s forced to reveal the truth of what she is, she must risk every soul depending on her to succeed, and the one she’d burn the world to protect.
Dark forces move to exploit her bondmate, Draevyn Eliron—her greatest strength and deepest vulnerability. Queen Leanah offers sanctuary, but in a realm woven with illusion, even peace proves fleeting. Asherah soon discovers that the evil she thought she escaped has already taken root in Airelandia’s skies.
When vengeance comes for her, Asherah must wield her conviction and her fury, or watch the light of her world vanish with the Queendom itself.
The Vanished Queendom is the third book in The Heir of Atlantis series and is intended for readers 18+. It is recommended to start with The Veiled Heir (The Heir of Atlantis, Book One).
For a full list of trigger and content warnings, please visit STFernandez.com.
We’re celebrating the release of Emila Ramos’s new epic fantasy, Valaztein!
Valaztein
Release Date: August 23, 2026 (Paperback)
Genre: Epic Fantasy/ Young Adult
What to Expect:
Enemies-to-Lovers
Dragons
World Travel
Sailboats
Slow Burn
Dark Magic
Found Family
Sirens
Royal Houses
Poetry & Music
Theaters, Grottos, & Enchanted Libraries
Her mother crushed the war and erased her from history. But dead princesses are not supposed to return with an army.
Naomi Elistaire never planned to become the face of a revolution. She had to. After leading a rebellion against Valaztein’s crown, she loses her kingdom, her army, and the life she was born to inherit.
So, Naomi gathers an unlikely crew and sails across the known world in search of an army. Every kingdom offers new wonders, every alliance demands a price, and every secret brings her closer to the truth about the magic in her veins.
But rebellion is never simple.
Old rivalries, the man she once loved, and impossible choices begin to surface, pulling Naomi and her crew toward a war that could free Valaztein—or destroy what remains of it.
Because reclaiming a throne is not enough.
She must build something better.
UNDER THE COVER:
Original siren songs
A found family of royals, thieves, soldiers, and magical beings bound by secrets
Upside-down deserts, enchanted libraries, siren grottoes, and dragon caverns where charm hides danger
Buried histories, kings, enemies-turned-lovers, and old magic…
One haunting question: Are we defined by what we inherit—or by what we choose?
Warning: This book may steal your sleep. Once the journey begins, putting it down may no longer feel like a choice.
