Category: books

Bryan lives in Idaho with his wife and two kids. He’s a happy follower of Jesus and an often-disappointed yet always dedicated fan of the Jacksonville Jaguars (This is our year!). He started writing later in life, because his little buggers wanted to eat every day and have health insurance.

To learn more, head to www.bryanrsaye.com

books

Cover Reveal: Empire of Shadows – Jacquelyn Benson

Nov 13, 2023 ramblingmads

Nice Victorian ladies don’t run off to find legendary lost cities.

ebook

Empire of Shadows (Raiders of the Arcana Book 1)

Expected Publication Date: April 2, 2024

Genre: Historical Fantasy/ Gaslamp Fantasy

Nice Victorian ladies don’t run off to find legendary lost cities.

One trifling little arrest shouldn’t have cost Ellie Mallory her job, but it’s only the latest in a line of injustices facing any educated woman with archaeological ambitions.

When Ellie stumbles across the map to a mysterious ancient city, she knows she’s holding her chance to revolutionize Pre-Colombian history. There’s just one teensy complication. A ruthless villain wants it, and Ellie is all that stands in his way.

To race him to the ruins—and avoid being violently disposed of—she needs the help of maverick surveyor Adam Bates, a snake-wrangling rogue who can’t seem to keep his dratted shirt on.

But there’s more than Ellie’s scholarly reputation (and life) on the line. Her enemies aren’t just looters. They’re after an arcane secret rumored to lie in the heart of the ruins, a mythical artifact with a power that could shake the world.

Between stealing trousers, plummeting over waterfalls, and trying not to fall in love with her machete-wielding partner, will Ellie be able to stop the oracle of a lost empire from falling into the wrong hands?

Empire of Shadows is the first book in Jacquelyn Benson’s smart, swashbuckling Raiders of the Arcana series. Read it now and dive into a rip-roaring historical fantasy adventure perfect for fans of Romancing the Stone and The Mummy.

PRE-ORDER HERE

Cover Reveal Organized By:

R&R Book Tours

Blog Tour: After the Fall – D.M. Simmons

Nov 13, 2023Nov 13, 2023 ramblingmads

AftertheFall copy

We’re going back to the beginning when the first angels fell…

This special omnibus includes both books in the After The Fall duet—the story of Dante and Diablo, fallen angels, bound since The Fall—as well as bonus content previously unreleased. A fresh, new taken on fallen angels unlike any out there, readers call it “super-hot with all the tingles,” a “fascinating enemies to lovers tale, “a story that is “as swoony as it is steamy,” and “a whirlwind, with twists that come at you!”

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After the Fall: The Duet of Dante & Diablo

Genre: Spicy Fantasy Romance

❤️‍🔥Spicy Fantasy Romance
❤️‍🔥Fallen Angels
❤️‍🔥Enemies to Lovers
❤️‍🔥Found Family
❤️‍🔥Soul Mates

Dante

What courses through me, if not the need for desire and corruption?
It is after all, what I am.
Daemon. The worst of The Fallen.
And my job is clear.
Secure fealty from the Undecided to whom we are bound.
Diablo has not wavered in five thousand years.
And I not only wanted her on our side. I will stop at nothing to make it happen.

Diablo

What will I become if I swear my fealty and surrender to the dark?
It is not who I once was.
I may no longer be an angel, but I will be Undecided until the end of time.
Dante doesn’t intimidate me. Not anymore.
The fire that drives him, is now alive in me.
I’ve been paying since The Fall. And I’m done paying in blood and tears.
I will break myself from our bond. And will stop at nothing to make it happen.

Get it on Amazon or Order the Special Gift After the Fall Gift Box

About the Author

D.M. Simmons is an award-winning author of adult and new adult fiction. She is passionate about creating atmospheric worlds and telling captivating stories that take readers on an adventure. Fascinated by the indelible power of love, romance is usually at the heart of her stories, along with the narrator’s journey. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, sons and crazy cats.

D.M. Simmons

My thoughts: this was an interesting (and spicy) take on the story of angels turned demons after the Fall from Heaven. Dante and Diablo are in a way two sides of the same coin, both somewhat tormented and trapped together, unable to break free and be themselves. Dante is essentially meant to get Diablo to swear allegiance to the dark side, their fight is centuries old and both are driven to a sort of despair by it but at the same time drawn towards one another.

This special edition brings both books together with additional materials and it is rather beautiful (I was only sent an ebook but I went and had a look at the gift set – see link above) and if you enjoy reading this and want something to treasure, then I say go for it!

Book Tour Organized By:

R&R Book Tours

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

BBNYA Semi-finalists: Storm and Flame – Mallory Wanless

Nov 12, 2023Nov 13, 2023 ramblingmads

Elena has always been a disappointment to her mother, the headmistress of the country’s best school for magic. On her sixteenth birthday, she is expelled by her mother, and she and her familiar are turned out in the cruel world of the magept (the magically inept normies).

Quinn is a thief, a hunter, and a hothead. His unexpected friendship with Elena brings out a fiery side of him that he didn’t know he had, including uncovering magical abilities no one thought were possible since men weren’t supposed to be capable of magic.

With Quinn’s help, Elena creates a safe new life as a barmaid at a small inn. But when a group of drunken men attack Elena, her magic awakens with shocking ferocity. Elena’s explosion of magic creates a power surge that reaches the mountain where her mother runs the world from her magic school, and investigators are sent to uncover the source of the power surge.

With investigators now on their heels, Elena and Quinn are on the run. The awakening of their powers kickstart a prophecy and send the two teens on a quest to save all the magic in the world from being destroyed by the turmio, a sentient black cloud that’s been created to absorb and erase all magic and magical beings from their world.

Content warning: the story mentions incidents of child abuse, sexual assault, and birth trauma. May not be suitable for some readers.

Amazon: UK USA Canada

Mallory lives in Texas with her husband and their two young boys. She spends her days homeschooling and full-time parenting. Her nights, and any free time she manages to carve out during the day, are devoted to reading and writing.

Blog Tour: The Boatmore Butcher – L. Stephenson

Nov 12, 2023Nov 13, 2023 ramblingmads

Three paramedics are drawn into the mystery of a bizarre spree unfolding on a quiet island town.

Devastated by the loss of his son, Liam Price, must hold it together whilst leading his team against a killer who finds new and twisted ways to prevent them from saving the lives of their victims.

But one serious mistake puts them and everyone they love in grave danger.

As the island starts to slip into hysteria, our villain goes to gruesome lengths to keep their identity a secret.

Able to hide in plain sight, the killer is out for revenge as they close in on their prey.

Can they escape the wrath of the Boatmore Butcher?

Goodreads – Buy Links

L. Stephenson has been telling stories of killers and boogeymen to his friends and writing them on his computer since the summer before he began high school. A university degree in Film & TV Screenwriting, a handful of anthologies and a novella later, and not much has changed, it seems!

Stephenson’s first short story was published as part of a Halloween-themed collection by Dark Ink back in 2018. Nearly five years later, terror just came full circle as the author has returned home to Dark Ink to release his debut slasher novel, The Boatmore Butcher.

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My thoughts: if I lived on this island, where people keep getting brutally murdered, I’d leave. The body count is very high and since the killer is very good at framing others for his crimes, moving far away is the best plan.

Brutal, bloody, but very creative, this butcher knows what he’s doing. Terrorising the community for his own ends and hiding in plain sight. If you love slasher films and jump scares, this is the book for you, packed with shocking twists and turns, it’ll make your hair stand on end.

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

BBNYA Semi-finalists: Starlight Jewel – E.L. Lyons

Nov 11, 2023 ramblingmads

The human city of Minalav is renowned for its lavish balls, where nobles bring wealth from distant lands to the Starlight Palace, to be romanced—and robbed—by the half-human hybrids who live below the city. The wealthy guests leave without their treasure, and with no memory of their evening—except the unforgettable feelings that bring them back, season after season. But the magic of Minalav is built on dark secrets and lies.

Axly, a hybrid assassin and seductress-thief, will do anything to protect her human half-brother. The path of blood and chaos she carves will tip the precious balance of Minalav, and the world around it.

https://www.LyonsPen.com/books for more info on the world and characters!

Amazon UK Canada USA

Reader and writer of dark adult SFF, feeder of cats and raccoons, hermit of the suburban swamp.

BBNYA Semi-finalists: Sea State – J.M. Simpson

Nov 10, 2023 ramblingmads

This year, the Book Bloggers’ Novel of the Year Award (BBNYA) is celebrating the books that made it into Round Two with a mini spotlight blitz tour for each title. BBNYA is a yearly competition where book bloggers from all over the world read and score books written by indie authors, ending with 15 finalists and one overall winner.
If you want some more information about BBNYA, check out the BBNYA Website https://www.bbnya.com/ or take a peek over on Twitter @BBNYA_Official. BBNYA is brought to you in association with the @Foliosociety (if you love beautiful books, you NEED to check out their website!) and the book blogger support group @The_WriteReads.

Jesse Stevens needs to escape her past, start a new life and feel safe.

The rugged coastline and tight-knit community of Castleby offers her that chance. Her new job with the local lifeboat crew gives her the stability and comfort she craves.

Her skipper, Doug Brodie, faces his own demons. He is struggling with survivor’s guilt, physical and mental scars, and a marriage teetering on the brink.

Jesse is desperate to put aside the dark nightmares and terrible memories. As she and Doug grow closer, she wonders whether she can ever really live a normal life and be happy. But Jesse is in grave danger. Someone is watching her; trying to control and manipulate her life. Someone plans to make her life a living nightmare and return her to the hell she thought she had left behind. Will she ever be free?

Mystery and suspense sprinkled with humour and romance in the first of the author’s Castleby Series.

Amazon UK USA Canada

J.M. Simpson was born in Essex, but was raised primarily in the West Country, never far from a rugged coastline, a sandy beach, or harbour. With a degree and PhD, much of Jo’s working career has been spent undertaking research in a variety oStaying in the Welsh town of Tenby some years ago and watching the local lifeboat launch one stormy winter night, gave Jo the beginnings of an idea for a book. Jo’s debut novels are the Castleby series; Sea State and Sea Change; suspense thrillers set against the backdrop of a lifeboat crew in a coastal town. The third in the series, Sea Shaken is out at the end of September, and there are two further books in the series to come.

f subjects; most notably in construction where her expertise lies.

Jo lives in Kent, with her two (occasionally stroppy) teenage daughters, her extremely long-suffering husband and her two writing partners Max and Merlin, both rescue Border Collies. She also runs a successful research consultancy, but dreams of becoming a full-time writer.

In what little spare time Jo has, she spends writing, walking the dogs, being an armchair movie critic, dreaming of Scotland or the Pembrokeshire coast; drinking endless coffee’s in various local café’s (on the pretense of writing) or drinking copious amounts of wine in her most favourite pub with friends, (where no writing occurs whatsoever).

Blog Tour: Private Inquiries – Caitlin Davies

Nov 10, 2023Nov 13, 2023 ramblingmads

The female private detective has been a staple of popular culture for over 150 years, from Victorian lady sleuths to ‘busy-body spinsters’ and guntoting modern PIs. But what about the real-life women behind these fictional tales – what crimes did they solve, and where are their stories?

In Private Inquiries, Caitlin Davies traces the history of the UK’s female investigators, uncovering the truth about their lives and careers from the 1850s to the present day. Women such as

• Victorian private inquiry agent Antonia Moser – the first woman to open her own agency
• Annette Kerner, who ran the Mayfair Detective Agency on Baker Street in the 1940s
• Liverpool sleuth Zena Scott-Archer, who became the first woman president of the World Association of Detectives

Caitlin also follows in the footsteps of her subjects, undertaking a professional qualification to become a Private Investigator, and meeting modern PIs to disentangle fact from fiction.

Female investigators are on the rise in the UK – and despite the industry’s sleazy reputation, nearly a third of new trainees are women. After a century of undercover work, it’s time to reveal the secrets of their trailblazing forebears.

CAITLIN DAVIES is a novelist, non-fiction writer, award-winning journalist and teacher. She is the author of six novels and seven non-fiction books, including Bad Girls: The Rebels and Renegades of Holloway Prison, nominated for the Orwell Prize for Political Writing (2019), and Queens of the Underworld, a history of professional female crooks. She lives in Kent and is a trained PI.

My thoughts: I’d heard of a couple of the earliest female detectives before – Maud West and Kate Easton, but there were ones in this book I’d not come across before, and Caitlin Davies brings it into the 21st Century as well as training to become a PI herself, which was super interesting.

I really enjoy this sort of history, women who have somehow faded into the background, ordinary women, but once revealed are often so much more interesting than the men around them. It was such a fascinating and enjoyable read. Puts all those crime novels into context too – women really are out there digging into things and doing a better job at going unnoticed than the men in many cases. If you’re interested in women’s history, social history, crime and that sort of thing, this will be right up your street and written in an engaging and enjoyable way too, with a full list of resources if you want more.

*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: Death at Paradise Park – Ross Greenwood

Nov 10, 2023Nov 7, 2023 ramblingmads

Death at Paradise Park (DS Knight Book 2)

When Alfie Hook settles down to eat his fish and chips by the Hunstanton seaside he hasn’t anticipated it is going to be his last meal. DS Ashley Knight and her Major Investigation Team are called to investigate and when they discover who Alfie is married to, they realise this case is not going to be straightforward.
A second body is found in gruesome circumstances at the nearby Paradise Caravan Park, but the team struggle to connect the two victims. Even after hours of interviews with the residents, and
many questionable stories, to the police’s frustration, all their alibis check out. What are they concealing?
As the bodies mount up and the leads get ever more complicated, Ashley and her rookie partner Hector Fade finally join the dots. But then it’s a race against time to stop the killer striking again…
Bestselling Ross Greenwood is back with an unputdownable seaside thriller, perfect for fans of Mark Billingham, Ian Rankin and Peter James.
Purchase Link

Ross Greenwood is the author of crime thrillers. Before becoming a full-time writer he was most recently a prison officer and so worked everyday with murderers, rapists and thieves for four years.
He lives in Peterborough.

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My thoughts: this was another clever and enjoyable crime thriller from Ross Greenwood, set in Norfolk’s seaside towns. This time Hunstanton. When a local delivery driver is found murdered in his van mid way through his fish and chips, it sets off a chain of killings centred around the Paradise caravan park.

There are lots of red herrings and the police go down several cul de sacs looking for answers, following potential suspects, but the more bodies, the more complicated the case. As Ash and her team race to prevent more deaths and find the killer, could the answer have been staring them in the face all along?

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

BBNYA Semi-finalists: Queen and Conqueror – Isabelle Olmo

Nov 9, 2023Nov 2, 2023 ramblingmads

In this gripping epic fantasy, a young woman desperate for peace decides to marry the king who killed her husband, setting off a chain of events that will test her strength, resilience, skill, and determination. With a richly imagined world and complex characters, Queen and Conqueror is a must-read for fans of fantasy, adventure, and feminist literature.

Amazon UK Canada USA