Category: books

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: A Corpse in Christmas Close – Michelle Salter

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When a pantomime turns deadly, Iris investigates a cast of killers…

Christmas, 1923.

When reporter Iris Woodmore is sent to cover the Prince of Wales’ visit to historic
Winchester, she discovers more than just royal gossip.
The leading lady in Winchester Cathedral’s charity pantomime is found dead in mysterious circumstances. And the chief suspect is Cinderella’s handsome prince, played by Percy Baverstock’s younger brother, Freddie.
For the sake of the Baverstocks, Iris must investigate the murder, even though it means confronting an old enemy. And as the line between friend and foe blurs dangerously, she’s ensnared by someone
she hoped she’d never see again…

Everyone’s favourite amateur sleuth returns for a Christmas mystery, perfect for fans of Verity Bright, Claire Gradidge and Emily Organ.

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Michelle Salter writes historical cosy crime set in Hampshire, where she lives, and inspired by real-life events in 1920s Britain. Her Iris Woodmore series draws on an interest in the aftermath of the Great War and the suffragette movement.

My thoughts: Iris gets drawn into a murder mystery at a charity pantomime in Winchester, when Cinderella is found dead outside the church hall at rehearsal. Now I’ve done panto and there are always times when you think about offing whoever is the most annoying member of the cast (or the director) but as far as I know, it’s not happened, at least in any show I’ve been involved with.

However the actress, Rachel, is involved with some rather dodgy people through her work as a receptionist at a local car dealership, both her boss and the manager have secrets, and so did Rachel. Could her death be related to her job and not her role as Cinders, or is something else altogether going on?

Iris digs a lot, asking questions the police don’t or haven’t, she’s determined to get to the truth, even if it puts her in danger. She’s pretty certain that Percy’s brother Freddie (Prince Charming) is innocent, despite his war career, he just seems too gentle, but when his boss also meets a sticky end, it points the finger of suspicion at him ever more firmly. Thankfully Iris doesn’t understand the concept of minding her own business!

Christmas is round the corner, and she’s hoping to get to the bottom of this case before the year ends. Unfortunately the horrible Archie is back in town, and Iris doesn’t need the distraction and upset as she investigates.

It’s another cracking case for the intrepid journalist, the twists are totally unexpected and brilliantly done. And who doesn’t love a festive murder?

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

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Cover Reveal & Book Review: The Passion of the Cross – Tony Lee Moral

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When famed curator Giovanni Montefiore is shockingly murdered at the Italian Opera in Rome following his bold proclamation regarding the authenticity of the True Cross, there are many suspects, but suspicion falls heavily upon his nephew, Mario Montefiore.

With his American girlfriend, actress Catriona Benedict, by his side, they embark on a perilous quest for truth and to uncover the real killer, leading them through some of Italy’s most iconic and glamorous cities.

But as the body count rises and the relentless pursuit of both law enforcement and paparazzi intensifies, they find themselves fleeing to Florence in search of the True Cross, which they hope holds the answers they need. Amidst the ancient streets of Florence, Catriona assumes a daring new identity, delving into a world of shadows and deception.

Will they uncover the secrets surrounding the True Cross before it’s too late?

Tony Lee Moral is a mystery and suspense writer who has previously published three novels, and four non-fiction books about the works of Alfred Hitchcock in both the UK and US.

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My thoughts: this was really good, a crime novel with all sorts of twists and turns, the plot is clever and involves a centuries old mystery – is the relic that the Vatican believes to be a piece of the True Cross real or just a random chunk of old wood?

Catriona and Mario are in Italy having recovered a lost Caravaggio in New York and returning it to the gallery it belongs to. They were expecting a reward, but Mario’s uncle says there isn’t any money – although he never really explains why. After a row, the men part ways on bad terms. Which is why when Giovanni is murdered at the opera, Mario becomes a suspect. But the dying man’s last words send them off on a treasure hunt and running away from the police to Florence chasing the clues.

The pair and their friend Freddie are put in danger as the search intensifies – there’s an FBI agent, the Roman police, dodgy collectors and a gangster too. The whole tale is like the Italian mountain roads, with turns and twists, sudden terrifying moments and blind corners (this is a terrible metaphor). 

I need to read the previous book in this series  – The Two Masks of Vendetta – to read all about Catriona and Mario’s Caravaggio adventure. Both books are being published this September and will be available in all the usual places.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review; all opinions remain my own.

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Blog Tour: Prey – Vanda Symon

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On her first day back from maternity leave, Detective Sam Shephard is thrown straight into a cold-case investigation – the unsolved murder of a highly respected Anglican Priest in Dunedin. The case has been a thorn in the side of the Police hierarchy, and for her boss it’s personal.

With all the witness testimony painting a picture of a dedicated church and family man, what possible motive could there have been for his murder? But when Sam starts digging deeper into the case, it becomes apparent that someone wants the sins of the past to remain hidden. And when a new potential witness to the crime is found brutally murdered, there is pressure from all quarters to solve the case before anyone else falls prey. But is it already too late…?

Vanda Symon is a crime writer from Dunedin, New Zealand, and the President of the New Zealand Society of Authors Te Puni Kaituhi o Aotearoa. The Sam Shephard series, which includes Overkill, The Ringmaster, Containment, Bound and Expectant, hit number one on the New Zealand bestseller list, and has also been shortlisted for the Ngaio Marsh Award. Overkill was shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger and Bound and Expectant have been nominated for USA Barry Awards. All five books have been digital bestsellers, and are in production for the screen. She is also the author of the standalone thriller Faceless, and lives in Dunedin with her family.

My thoughts: I did a happy dance when the lovely Anne sent over my review copy of this book, I enjoy this series so much. Sam is a fantastic character and the crimes she investigates are so well plotted and just twisty enough.

She’s just back from maternity leave, worrying about not being with her daughter, navigating breast milk pumping in the office and getting into a schedule so someone always does the pick up from childcare.

Given a very personal cold case by her awful boss, one where the witnesses are few and far between, that has been open for a long time with no answers. That’s because Sam wasn’t the one on the case. Now she is, she’s a dedicated detective, but the things she uncovers might not be what her boss wanted to hear.

Dealing with the office politics on top of everything else is a lot and if it weren’t for her colleagues, I’m not sure Sam would stick it out. The case is just interesting enough though for her not to bail and run home to snuggle up with her baby.

It’s a doozy, a murdered vicar, his family the last to see him according to the reports from the time. No one left in the church and no obvious suspects. The victim was well liked by his community and no one appeared to have a motive. But as Sam digs, that turns out not to be quite the truth.

I really enjoyed this book, I was so pleased to have more Sam Shepherd in my reading life, Vanda Symons is such a good writer. The case was clever and with some excellent twists and turns. Really good stuff.

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

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Blog Tour: RITA – Bianca Rowena

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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?

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Blog Tour: Minor Works of Melda – Juliette Caruso

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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_Meda

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.

…Even if it costs the whole world.

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Book Blitz: The Book of Lost Enchantments – Jessica Dodge

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The Book of Lost Enchantments by Jessica Dodge is now available for pre-order. When you do purchase a copy early, you’ll receive all kinds of bookish swag!

The Book of Lost Enchantments

Expected Publication Date: October 8, 2024

Genre: NA Fantasy/ Magic

At twenty-nine, Nora Cameron’s life feels adrift, her days are spent working in her parents’ bakery, and her nights are spent alone watching Hallmark movies. She yearns for something beyond her predictable existence, though she has no idea what that might be. That is, until fate intervenes, and Nora is swept into an unforeseen adventure to Scotland.

Guided by her grandmother’s cherished photo album from the 1940s, which documents her time spent as a medic-nurse in Scotland during World War II, Nora stumbles upon a mysterious old bookstore in Edinburgh. There, amidst the smell of old books and shelves lined with relics of forgotten lore, Nora’s eyes fall upon a peculiar little red book. As she delves into its pages, strange and unexplainable events unfold, including a sudden snowstorm that strands her in the Highlands with a handsome but surly journalist named Alistair.

Snowed in and at odds with one another, Nora and Alistair struggle to get along. With little else to do but tend the fire, Nora immerses herself in the red book’s tale of a young woman from centuries past, on a quest to save her grandmother and resist the pull she feels toward a dashing but aloof son of a Scottish Duke.

As the days pass, stranded in the cabin, Nora discovers a box of letters with an eerie connection to her grandmother’s past, uncovering a family secret buried deep in time. As the weather worsens and their supplies dwindle, bizarre events begin to escalate. With Alistair’s help, Nora starts to unravel the mystery, but what she uncovers not only threatens to fracture her idea of reality but may place her and Alistair in mortal danger.

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Blog Tour: Selfish Desires – Michelle Hall

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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?

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Blog Tour: Secrets of the Unborn – C.H. Lyn

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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.

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Blog Tour: Oceansong – C.W. Rose

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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.

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Tags

#rrbooktours #rrbtoceansong #oceansong #romanticfantasy #romanticfantasybooks #mermaidromance #romantasy #fantasy #romancebooks #summerreading #cwrose

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Cover Reveal: Neon is the Colour of Vengeance – Elanor Miller

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Anyone who is a fan of this time period and aesthetic will love the cover for the prequel companion novel in Elanor Miller’s Flappers & False Gods series.

NEON IS THE COLOUR OF VENGEANCE

✨MM Mafia Romance❤️‍🔥
✨Enemies to lovers 🔪
✨Spicy🌶️🥵
✨Tragic💔
✨Reveņge plot🩸
✨Set in a futuristic Gatsby era🍸
✨John Wick/Peaky Blinders vibes🔫

He loved. He lost. He killed.

NEON IS THR COLOUR OF VENGEANCE is a dark MM mafia romance about a hitman who fell in love with the man he was supposed to kill only to have that man murdered by the people he trusted most.

It’s a tale of love, death, grief and vengeance with no happy ending.

By night or neon light, he will have his revenge.

NEON IS THE COLOUR OF VENGEANCE can be read on its own, or as a prequel to the main series as it features new characters

COMING SOON!

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