Welcome to the tour for RITA by Bianca Rowena! Read on for more details
RITA (The Rita Series Book 1)
Publication Date: May 6, 2024
YA Sci-Fi Fantasy
Enemies to lovers
Chosen one
Medieval adjacent
Robot best friend
Mind reading
When her village is threatened by the evil Takano Rynn, leader of the Ruling Order, Rita defeats him in battle and believes him to be dead. She leaves her temple life behind to join the masses of Central City, where she befriends members of the Opposition including Parrin, Star and the little robot Beeps. But is Takano Rynn really dead? Or will Rita find herself drawn back to him by a mystical power that connects them both, only to face the biggest battle of all, the one for her heart?
Thanks to overwhelming demand, we got a chance to tour Juliette Caruso’s new release Minor Works of Melda! Read on for more details!
Minor Works of Melda
Publication Date: July 15, 2024
Genre: Fantasy Romance
rivals to lovers
cruel faeries
neurospicy MFC
trauma bonding & grief
found family
autistic rep
touch her & 💀
one bed
grumpy/grumpy
seafaring
loners & outcasts
She’d be the most gifted witch in centuries, if she had an ounce of power in her veins.
With weak magic and no social graces, Meda’s dreams of becoming a great witch are impossible. It doesn’t matter how much harder she works than her rival, Kalcedon: she’ll never win. The heartless half-faerie has so much magic that just being near him makes her blood sing.
When an ancient Ward-spell falters, a wave of devastation crashes across the islands of the Protectorate. If the spell fails for good, they’ll be at the mercy of the cruelest fae lord their world has ever seen. But if Meda can translate the ancient spell fast enough to understand who is destroying it, and how, she won’t just save the isles. She’ll finally prove her worth.
Meda’s sharp mind isn’t enough to win against an unknown enemy. She’ll also need Kalcedon’s endless well of power. And as they travel the Protectorate’s islands, navigating grief and racing against time, she begins to see a new side to the half-fae. Behind his cruel words, there may be a battered heart more human than Meda dares admit… and a man who will do anything to keep her safe.
We’re celebrating the release of Selfish Desires by Michelle Hall this week! The big day is August 23rd!
Selfish Desires
Publication Date: August 23, 2024
Genre: Contemporary Romance
❤️Second Chance
🧊Morally Gray MMC
❤️Spice in Ch2
🧊Light BDSM
❤️Destroy her to protect her
🧊Groveling
❤️40 Somethings
🧊“Good girl/sl*t/wh*re”
❤️Third act oopsie baby
The love of my life, the person I trusted most, abandoned me in the worst way possible. There was no warning, not a single clue—just pure, devastating abandonment. I was left to pick up the pieces of my shattered heart.
To survive, I fled. I left behind everything and everyone I knew and loved, all in the desperate hope of forgetting him.
But then Vincent came back, and all the healing I thought I had achieved crumbled in an instant. He begged for my forgiveness, claiming he had no choice in what he did. Yet, I knew he always had a choice—and he chose wrong.
He said everything he did was to keep me safe. But safe from what?
Emotions I thought I had buried resurfaced, and while my mind screamed no, my heart whispered otherwise.
How could I give a second chance to the man who ruined me? How could I even consider it?
We are thrilled to share thrilled to share The Leader of the Unborn duology with you this week! Both books will be released on September 6th! .
 Unborn Rising by Tracey Barski
They were created to end the decades-long war. But what happens when the war is over?
Victoria has only ever been one thing: a warrior. Scientifically designed to be perfect in every way, she was enhanced for optimal precision in war, the model Silver—a leader until the end.
But after the war, Vic and her people, the Unborn, return to a society that’s in shambles, and the last thing the worn-out population wants is more mouths to feed.
As tensions and prejudices mount, the effort to carve out a life for themselves becomes a fight for survival when Vic’s entire village is annihilated and she’s the only one to make it out.
She seeks shelter from an old war buddy, discovering that trust is hard-won among the group of Unborn and Organics she finds—for her and her new community. Especially with the safe haven’s enigmatic leader. Feelings surface despite their mutual suspicion, putting Vic’s staunch adherence to protocol on shaky ground.
When she learns a secret that changes everything about who she is and what is happening to her people, she and her new allies work to find the key to freeing her fellow Unborn before they become victims to their programming.
Corruption is revealed, lives are put in danger, and everything comes down to one question: what does it mean to be human?

War of the Unborn by C.H. Lyn
The war is over.
Decades of strife and ruin brought to a close through the use of Unborn—super soldiers created with more strength and stamina than the average man could fathom.
For Jamie, life after the war is mundane: fight nights in the evenings bloodying her knuckles against the jaws of fellow Unborn, and construction work during the day clearing out ruined sections of a once-great city.
There’s not much to complain about. She has a roof over her head, a sister by her side, and sometimes enough food to fill her belly.
So when Oliver, an old flame and a fellow Unborn, arrives with devastating news about their people, Jamie is reluctant to get involved. This darkness, this plague of horror affecting the engineered soldiers, has nothing to do with her.
Until it does.
Jamie has always known loss, but not like this.
With a shadow looming over her people, and her sister’s life on the line, she joins Oliver on a trek across a crumbling country that neither trusts them as people nor accepts them as citizens.
The clock is ticking, the secret behind the darkness is unfolding, and Jamie’s staunch refusal to care about Oliver again is put to the test.
We’re celebrating the upcoming release of Ocean Song this week! Pre-order a copy early a get one on August 27th!
Oceansong
Release Date: August 27, 2024
Genre: Adult Contemporary Romantasy
🧜🏼♂️Merfolk Mythology 🌊Ocean-based magic ⚔️Enemies-to-lovers 💘Forbidden & Slow Burn Romance 👨👩👧👦Asian family dynamics 😒🌞Grumpy (female) x sunshine (male) 💞HEAs 🥧Cinnamon roll male LI 🤨Prickly, snarky female MC who’s a softie inside 🏘️Small-town settings (Alaska)
Spice Level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️
OCEANSONG is an Adult Contemporary Romantasy that is an Asian Romeo & Juliet meets The Little Mermaid, set in the grittiness of the real world.
Fish are mysteriously disappearing, starving the people in Angie Song’s Alaskan hometown. Angie, an aspiring marine biologist and dock worker, enthusiastically joins the hunt to find out where the fish are gathering. When her family and the villagers discover that merfolk are responsible, they vow to destroy every last one. In the midst of the conflict, Angie faces off with a merman and fails to pull the trigger.
Inquisitive Mer-Prince Kaden is just as snarky as Angie, but he’s willing to talk and stop the brutal massacring of his people. The two form a cautious alliance to broker peace between the humans and mer before any more of them die.
As tensions clash between the two races fighting to control the sea’s resources, Angie and Kaden’s forbidden relationship ignites. And as she learns about the mer’s mysterious world and the reason why the fish are gone, Angie starts to question who the true monster is, and where her loyalties lie. Taking the wrong side means choosing between family and her job, or the man she’s fallen for and the merfolk she’s come to respect—or losing it all.
Life at Hopgood Hall is never boring, but Alexi Ellis hopes that there will be no more murders for the time being – she’s solved four already and is getting a reputation in the local area for being bad luck.
So when local gossip Polly Pearson arrives at Hopgood Hall, Alexi knows this can only mean bad news. Polly has made it clear that she dislikes Alexi and has campaigned for her to leave Hopgood Hall forever – so what could Polly want?
Then Polly reveals that her partner, Gerry, has been found murdered in her B&B and that she is the main suspect!
Alexi, her partner Jack, and Cosmo the cat are all left speechless. More so when Polly begs Alexi for help improving her innocence.
But Alexi isn’t sure she wants to help this spiteful gossip. Is she really innocent or as deadly as the police believe her to be?
E.V. Hunter has written a great many successful regency romances as Wendy Soliman and revenge thrillers as Evie Hunter. She is now redirecting her talents to produce cosy murder mysteries. For the past twenty years she has lived the life of a nomad, roaming the world on interesting forms of transport, but has now settled back in the UK.
My thoughts: My cat is very jealous of how much I enjoy this series and Cosmo the crime fighting feline. I was reading this book and Ted was furiously demanding attention – oops!
But it is a great read, Alexi’s nemesis in the village, a woman who has spread malicious gossip about her for a while, now needs her help. Oh, and Jack’s horrible ex-wife is in town too, she’s Polly’s friend and conveniently turns up to support her.
There’s a lot of twists and turns in what the police originally thought was a straightforward murder case. He was found stabbed in Polly’s home, in her bed, with a knife like the set she has in the kitchen. And the B&B guests had heard Gerry and Polly arguing before he was killed.
But as Jack and Alexi (and obviously Cosmo) dig into Gerry’s life and all his secrets (and there are many) there are more suspects than just Polly. The local CID are quite happy for the team to do the legwork while they work on other cases, being a small department. And most people are more or less happy to help, except for a shady livery owner who tries to set his dog on them. As Jack and Alexi get to the bottom of Gerry’s shady dealings, secrets and lies spill out from everywhere.
Another absolutely fiendish and intelligent read from E.V. and a great book for fellow crime fans. Enjoy!
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
When sisters Celine and Pip get a call telling them their reclusive mother has died, the women are reunited at her riverside home in Arundel to pick up the pieces. But someone is missing – their middle sister, Vanessa, brutally murdered years ago and the victim of an unsolved case. As the sisters confront ghosts from the past, the discovery of another body in similar circumstances throws new light on Vanessa’s death. Could there be more to her case than the police first thought? And what do the mysterious residents of Two Cross Farm, the neighbouring women’s commune, have to do with it? What secrets are lurking behind their locked gates? And what is the significance of the number 33?
My thoughts: Two Cross Farm is a rather strange place, they choose to cut themselves off from the rest of the world – which means that rumours about what happens there.
Celine and Pip are sorting out their late mum’s house, or trying to, when a woman’s body is found just down the road. Was she from the farm? Did someone there kill her?
A twisting, intelligent thriller, which slowly reveals the truth behind the gates of the farm, the connection to Celine and Pip’s sister Vanessa, and what happened to the woman whose body was found.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Lady Ashby is grieving the death of her beloved husband just two years earlier. Although still young and beautiful, Isabella is resolved never to marry again, and plans to leave London, return to her parents’ Yorkshire house, and resign from society before the year is over. But first, she wants one more taste of life…
Isabella has written a list, the contents of which, if discovered, would create a scandal that neither she nor her family would recover from. A list of things she would like to experience, just once more, before she surrenders herself to the life of a widow. And she knows just the man to help her: her friend, handsome and honourable Captain Leo Winterton.
But Captain Winterton has a secret of his own. He is in love with Isabella – and when she makes her most improper proposal to him, he is powerless to resist her, even if she is resolved never to love again. Can he persuade her they are destined to be together? Or will their impropriety be discovered, to the ruin of both?
Emma was born in Salford and studied English Literature at the universities of Edinburgh and York. Her first job after graduating was as a Copy-Editor at Mills & Boon, where she met her husband in a classic enemies-to-lovers romance. Emma has worked behind the scenes in television and as a Literary Agent, and in 2020 started writing Georgette Heyer fan-fiction.
My thoughts: There’s a belief that the Regency period was really buttoned up and unsexy but the king and queen had 15 children, what did people think they were doing? The Prince Regent was infamous for his behaviour (he couldn’t stand his wife, but he did have lots of lovers) so in a way, although people weren’t openly having sexual relationships, there was plenty going on as long as you kept it quiet, especially in the ton.
Lady Ashby has been widowed for two years and after recovering from a breakdown following her husband’s death, she’s determined to do things on her own terms – she doesn’t want a husband, she would prefer a no strings lover, she’s got a list and wants to get through it.
She’s picked handsome Captain Leo Winterton (who served with her husband in the wars against Napoleon) to be her first option – if he says no, she also has a list for that. Thankfully he agrees to a discreet, private arrangement.
This is a very sexy book, there’s lots of sex scenes, but thankfully they’re not too cringe worthy. And of course keeping the feelings out of it, doesn’t quite work out.
I really enjoyed this, Isabella was a very modern protagonist – she knows what she wants and she goes for it. Which I loved, she’s no shrinking violet. I also liked Leo, he’s the one dealing with feelings for once and it’s a refreshing change to the female lead with the crush.
*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 celebrating the newly released debut romantasy novel by Jodie Angell with a book tour this week! Make sure you grab a copy today!
Crimson Kiss (The Ancient Spells Trilogy Book 1)
Publication Date: August 5, 2024
Genre: Romantasy
Spice Level: 🌶️🌶️
✨ forced proximity
✨ he fell first
✨ it was always her
✨ cinnamon roll MMC
✨ four horsemen of the apocalypse reimagined
✨ elemental beings
✨ spice
A mage. A knight. A destiny…
When the Orcs lay siege to the Eyre, Evalyn’s family are murdered, and she finds herself the last surviving heir to the kingdom of Arogath. She has no choice but to flee the only place she’s called home. With Felix, a sworn bodyguard by her side, she desperately seeks refuge.
It’s not long before Evalyn discovers the brutal lengths the Orcs will go to in order to expand their territory, and with her people’s lives at stake, she is forced to unearth a long since buried magic. As she grapples to control her volatile powers and fill the role of queen, enemies rise in all corners of the kingdom—some with carefully curated disguises. And they are much closer than she thought.
Despite it all, Felix remains a constant. Her childhood friend, her loyal protector. With a war raging around them, she finds herself falling for him. And the cost of saving her people from a terrible fate might just be her heart.
She thinks she’s safe. She couldn’t be more wrong.
Elle, desperate to escape her abusive home, runs away to a seemingly cute small town where she gets a job as a waitress. And meets Vera, who offers her an attic room in her large house.
For the first time in years, Elle feels something like contentment as she bonds with Vera who becomes almost like a mother to her. Blossoming, Elle slowly begins to piece her life back together, make new friends and stand on her own two feet.
But all is not as it seems.
Because this old house contains a dark secret. And much as she cares for Elle, Vera will do anything to protect it. That’s why she’s warned her young tenant that she must never, ever go down to the basement.
But Elle doesn’t obey this simple rule and when she sees what’s down there, she finally understands that her lovely new life is actually the gateway to a special kind of hell…
Don’t Tell a Soul – the shocking psychological thriller perfect for fans of John Marrs, Shari Lapena, Kiersten Modglin.
Jessica Huntley is an author of dark and twisty psychological thrillers, which often focus on mental health topics and delve deep into the minds of her characters.
She has a varied career background, having joined the Army as an Intelligence Analyst, then left to become a Personal Trainer.
She is now living her life-long dream of writing from the comfort of her home, while looking after her young son and her disabled black Labrador. She enjoys keeping fit and drinking wine (not at the same time).
This is her first psychological thriller with Inkubator Books.
My thoughts: This ended up being way creepier and completely different from what I thought when I started reading it. At first it seemed to be about two girls who had been abused at home and how they dealt with that, but instead it became a sort of horror story in Vera’s big, empty house with all it’s locked rooms and secrets. Elle hasn’t quite learnt how to spot a bad idea yet, but she’s getting there.
Her experiences in the picturesque village will leave her changed but she’s a survivor and will only grow stronger now that she’s escaped the killers the village has in residence. I don’t think I’ll be booking a holiday there any time soon!
Clever, full of twists, I mean honestly, I was so shocked by some of them, completely blindsided – but in a good way. If you like a good thriller, you’ll love this.
*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 are thrilled to share thrilled to share The Leader of the Unborn duology with you this week! Both books will be released on September 6th!
ramblingmads 