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Book Blitz: His Dark Reflection – Marvellous Michael Anson

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A special hardcover edition of His Dark Reflection complete with beautiful sprayed edges will be available for pre-order from June 26th till the 30th. Don’t miss out on this chance!

HIS DARK REFLECTION- EBOOK COVER

His Dark Reflection

A gripping tale of love, secrets and murder: They’ll take his secrets to their graves

Publication Date: March 9, 2023

Genre: Thriller/ Suspense

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LOVE . SECRETS . MURDER
Mote was keeping secrets when she married Jack. So was he.
When the single shot that takes their son’s life blows open all they’ve kept hidden, they have to face their worst nightmares alone.
Their daughter, Ara, remembers one thing from the night her brother was killed. She knows who pulled the trigger.
She knows Mote is sleeping in the same bed as the man who killed her child.
She knows something is off with the man pretending to be her father.
And she will get her revenge.

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About the Author

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Marvellous Michael Anson, the best-selling author of Birthmarked, is devoted to giving her readers fast-paced, high-stakes stories that explore the multi-faceted human condition. She has been writing poems and short stories for over a decade, as well as directing short plays and being a writer’s favourite soundboard.

Marve is not limited to the art of stringing words together; she wrote and produced her award-winning short film in 2016. She is a recipient of the 2017 AFRIFF Film School Scholarship Program.

Marve works as a technology consultant during the day and a storyteller at night. She is a member of the Society of Authors, Alliance of Independent Authors and Abuja Literary Society. She hosts an online writing group called Writers Connect on Facebook (All are welcome!)

Her website is www.justmarve.org

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Blog Tour: Maybe Tomorrow – Penny Parkes

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What a difference a year could make…
 
Jamie Matson had once enjoyed a wonderful life working alongside her best friend, organising adventures for single-parent families, and her son Bo’s artistic flair a source of pride rather than concern.
 
She hadn’t been prepared to lose her business, her home, and her friend. Not all in one dreadful year. And now she finds herself reeling – rebuilding her world, with Bo at its heart – swallowing her pride and asking for help.
 
Jamie certainly hadn’t expected to find such hope and camaraderie in the queue at her local Food Bank – thrown together with an unlikely and colourful group of people – all of them struggling to get by, yet still determined to reclaim their lost careers and agency over their lives. Even if just choosing their own groceries again is a goal they can all share.
 
As their friendships flourish, they quickly find it’s easier to be objective about each other than about themselves, and decide that – when you’re all out of options – it’s okay to bend the rules a little and create your own.
 
A story of friendship, possibilities, and hope, that maybe tomorrow will be brighter than today…

Penny Parkes survived a Convent education largely thanks to a ready supply of inappropriate novels and her passion for writing and languages.

She studied International Management in Bath and Germany, before gaining experience with the BBC. She then set up an independent Film Location Agency and spent many happy years organising shoots for film, television and advertising – thereby ensuring that she was never short of travel opportunities, freelance writing projects or entertaining anecdotes.

Penny now lives in the Cotswolds with her husband, two children and a geriatric spaniel. She will often be found plotting epic train journeys through the Alps, baking gluten-free goodies or attempting to prove that you can, in fact, teach an old dog new tricks.

Twitter: @CotswoldPenny

My thoughts: this is a happy/sad book set in our current, post pandemic, economic slump, underemployed times. Jamie lost her home, her best friend and her business. She’s trying to put her life, and that of son Bo, back together. Working in a posh deli for a boss who needs a slap, for minimum wage, dealing with a mouldy flat and a creepy landlord who keeps letting himself in, rushing to A&E with Bo, who has chronic asthma. None of this is good for either of them. And she’s really lonely.

But,in the queue for the food bank, she meets Bonnie and Kath and Amy. Three other women facing their own predicaments. Together the four new friends will pull each other up, help out and support one another.

A lucky break comes when, just as everything seems to be completely fallen apart, Jamie is offered a live in job with Ruth and Henry. This charming couple are starting to struggle, and with their son in the States, need a hand. Could this be the first step towards a better life for Jamie and Bo?

I was completely charmed by this book, despite recognising bits of my own current disaster of a life in Jamie and her friends, I thrilled to the moments when things went well for people. When Amy showed off her art, when Bo was happy in the garden, when Jamie was able to take a breath. I loved the whole gang, and I’d love a sequel, showing them in a few years time, when hopefully things are better for all of us.

*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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Book Blitz: Promenauts: The Averune Necklace – J.C. Williams

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Promnauts copy

Such a great cover and the reviews are stellar!

Check out Promenauts: The Avarune Necklace by J.C. Williams and maybe treat yourself to a copy today!

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Promantheus: The Avarune Necklace

Genre: Fantasy Adventure/ Mystery/ Young Adult

Grades: 3 – 12

Azuelo is a strange boy who has woken up in the middle of the woods with no memory of his former life. When he finds his way to the city of Stormhold, he is quickly inducted into the ranks of the promenauts, a group of warriors sworn to protect their city from the violent gurgans lurking just outside their walls. Now, Azuelo must fight to help defend his new home, all while trying to reclaim his forgotten past with only one thing as his guide, the avarune necklace.

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About the Author

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Justin Williams, the author of Promenauts, The Avarune Necklace as well as the CEO, president and supreme imperial pooh-bah of Justin Williams Books LLC.

Promenauts

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Blog Tour: Death in the Highlands – Fliss Chester

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There’s a dangerous killer lurking by this loch… and only canny Cressida can track them down.

Scotland, June 1925. Socialite Cressida Fawcett has been invited to cast her interior design eye over the Stirling family’s new seat, Ayrton Castle, up in the Scottish Highlands. Thrilled to be spending the summer at the historic estate, Cressida fills her suitcase with this season’s hunting jackets – and some tartan for her little pug Ruby, of course!

But before the party is ready to tramp through the glens, shocking news puts paid to their plans. Hamish Glenkirk, former owner of Ayrton, has been found dead inside a turret room of the castle. The door was bolted from the inside, and the room is three storeys up, surrounded by impenetrable stone walls… How did the murderer get in? And out?

With Detective Andrews of Scotland Yard at least a day’s journey away, Cressida knows she needs to get to the bottom of this case – and fast. There’s no end of suspects among the hunting party. Could it be the local doctor whose wife left him for a fling with the now-dead laird? Or is the gamekeeper hiding secrets under his kilt?

Just as Cressida is closing in on the truth, a blood-curdling scream echoes through the mist. Another member of the party, and one of the suspects, has been shot. With a wee dram in hand, can Cressida find the killer before the bagpipes play for another victim?

An unputdownable and gripping cozy mystery which fans of Agatha Christie, T.E. Kinsey and Lee Strauss will love.

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Fliss Chester lives in Surrey with her husband and writes historical cozy crime. When she is not killing people off in her 1940s whodunnits, she helps her husband, who is a wine merchant, run their business. Never far from a decent glass of something, Fliss also loves cooking (and writing up her favourite recipes on her blog), enjoying the beautiful Surrey and West Sussex countryside and having a good natter.

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My thoughts: I do enjoy this series, Cressida, Dotty and Ruby are lots of fun and getting very good at crime solving.

This time they’re in Scotland, for the 12th August, the “Glorious Twelth” when the grouse shooting season starts. Only someone has decided it’s not birds that need to die but a local laird, Hamish Glenrick. Found stabbed in his former home, which just so happens to be where our intrepid detectives are staying, of course.

Once they start putting the clues together, a story of sadness, betrayal and long held grudges starts to emerge. Plenty of people had motive to kill Glenrick, but who is DM and why was he found clutching a blackmail letter?

With police inspector Andrews on his way, Cressida explores secret passages, interviews her suspects and builds up a picture of a deeply unpleasant man, up to his eyeballs in debt, disliked by his children and peers. But the clues, and red herrings, might lead closer to home than Cressida originally suspects. Another cracking case for this flapper detective and friends.

*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 First Bright Thing – J.R. Dawson

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If you knew how dark tomorrow would be, what would you do with today?

“This is the magic circus book that I have been looking for all my life.”―Seanan McGuire, New York Times bestselling author of Every Heart A Doorway

Ringmaster — Rin, to those who know her best — can jump to different moments in time as easily as her wife, Odette, soars from bar to bar on the trapeze. And the circus they lead is a rare home and safe haven for magical misfits and outcasts, known as Sparks.

With the world still reeling from World War I, Rin and her troupe — the Circus of the Fantasticals — travel the midwest, offering a single night of enchantment and respite to all who step into their Big Top.

But threats come at Rin from all sides. The future holds an impending war that the Sparks can see barrelling toward their show and everyone in it. And Rin’s past creeps closer every day, a malevolent shadow she can’t fully escape.

It takes the form of another circus, with tents as black as midnight and a ringmaster who rules over his troupe with a dangerous power. Rin’s circus has something he wants, and he won’t stop until it’s his.

J. R. Dawson (she/they) is a writer and educator who has published shorter works in places such as F&SF, The Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy, and Lightspeed. She lives in Omaha with a loving spouse and three dogs. Having earned a BFA from The Theatre School at DePaul, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Stonecoast, Dawson works as a teaching artist. Her clients include assorted Midwestern non-profits that teach kids the power of performance and storytelling.

My thoughts: one of my literary loves is circus themed books, I blame Angela Carter’s Nights at the Circus. I am fascinated by the history too, of circuses and side shows and the terribly poorly treated “freaks” who worked in them.

Here, instead of freaks we find Sparks, people gifted with strange powers or abilities, something that happened during the dark days of the First World War. No one knows why or how, but there it is.

Rin, Odette and Mauve try to use their gifts for good, taking in other Sparks and offering them a home in their travelling circus, while also trying to make the world a better, happier place, even if it is one person at a time.

They find Jo, and her twin Charles, and invite them to join the family. Jo can create vivid, realistic illusions with her mind, and Charles has invulnerable skin. But Jo’s power could be dangerous in the wrong hands – like the sinister Circus King.

Rin has a past she keeps secret, and it’s starting to catch up with her. Can she and her friends outwit the cruel man chasing them, can they prevent another war?

It’s beautiful and magical and sad and hopeful and I cried and laughed and rooted so hard for Rin and the family she built, for her wife Odette, for Mauve and her ability to see the future but not always fear it, for Bernard. For Jo and Charles too, two sweet kids caught up in something so much bigger than them. I need a sequel, I want to know that Rin’s plan works and they’re all ok. It’s so very, very good.

*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: Not So Perfect Strangers – L.S Stratton

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Two strangers – a Black woman and a white woman – who discover that each has a husband she’d be better off without, find their lives entangled in increasingly sinister ways following one fateful encounter, leading to a shocking and violent conclusion.

Tasha and Madison may live in different parts of the country and have different everyday realities, but they have one thing in common: marriages they need out of. Tasha and Madison want to help each other, but they have very different ideas of what that means…The women are on a collision course that will end in the case files of the D.C. MPD homicide unit. Unravelling the truth of what really happened may be impossible…and futile. Because what has the truth ever done for women like Tasha and Madison?

Combining dark humour with classic domestic thriller tropes, Not So Perfect Strangers offers a fresh take on a classic story, in a brilliantly updated homage to Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train. Featuring a cast of diverse female leads living in modern America, L.S. Stratton’s latest release delves into pressing contemporary issues regarding feminism, gender dynamics, racism, and the white saviour complex.  

Fans of Lucy Foley’s The Guest List and Oyinkan Braithwaite’s My Sister the Serial Killer are sure to enjoy this highly anticipated domestic thriller.

Writing under numerous pen names, L.S. Stratton is an NAACP Image Award-nominated author who has written dozens of books across multiple genres from romance to thrillers.

L.S. Stratton is a NAACP Image Award-nominated author and former crime newspaper reporter. She is a member of the Crime Writers of Color organization founded by Kellye Garrett, Walter Mosley, and Gigi Pandian and has written more than a dozen books under different pen names. Her writing varies from thrillers to romance to historical fiction – she enjoys writing just about every genre. She currently lives in Maryland with her husband, their daughter, and their tuxedo cat.

Instagram: shellystrattonbooks Twitter: ellisromance

My thoughts: I really enjoyed this clever thriller, with its unhinged murderer, Madison, Tasha – who really doesn’t want to be involved in Madison’s craziness, and the twists that come out of nowhere and that ending, excellently done.

After a row with her husband, Madison gets in Tasha’s car and begs for a lift. Tasha, already in her own crisis, agrees and sets in motion a chain of events she just can’t seem to stop.

Madison wants to trade their husbands’ deaths, Strangers on a Train style, only Tasha isn’t a killer. And when she doesn’t hold up her end of their “bargain”, Madison becomes threatening. Tasha’s also worried about her son – could be become an abuser like his dad?

But as she tries to warn people about Madison, no one believes her, her life starts to fall apart and she needs to prove that Madison killed her husband. Tasha’s doing everything she can, if only she’d thrown the crazy woman out of her car. One good turn leads nowhere nice it seems.

*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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Cover Reveal: Kingdom of Hearts – D.M. Simmons

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Another GORGEOUS cover for the Children of the Fallen series by D.M. Simmons! Pre-order Kingdom of Hearts now!

Kingdom of Hearts ebook

Kingdom of Hearts (Children of the Fallen Book 3)

Expected Publication Date: July 24th, 2023

Genre: Dark Paranormal Romance/ Why Choose

Tropes:

💙Friends to Lovers
💙Fated Mates
💙Chosen One
💙Found Family

Fire and ash.

No matter what I do, it all seems determined to go up in flames. My existence, my heart, my family….all that matters to me, one breath away from destruction.

Yet, no matter how battered or scarred I may be, I am no longer who I was. I am becoming what I was meant to be. Thanks to the powers thrust upon me, and the hearts to which they are connected, I am no longer a pawn to be protected. I am a force to be feared.

Created by Heaven’s own hand, I wasn’t just born to rule…I was born to destroy. And the next time The Augury takes from me, will be their last. I am a child of the Fallen. We don’t play games. We play to win.

Only, I have one heart left to claim before the final battle. And when I do, I will be ready for my kingdom. Because I may have been born a princess, but I am destined to be a queen.

Author’s Note

Kingdom of Hearts is a dark fantasy, why choose romance, meaning the FMC will gain multiple love interests over the course of the story. It is the third book in the series and should be read after Legacy in Ruin. It is told in dual POV and for mature audiences and contains strong language and graphic sexual situations. TW’s include praise & submission, dark play, breath play, primal play, breeding kink, violence, kidnapping, and MFMM situation(s).

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About the Author

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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 | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | LinkTree

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Blog Tour: The Moose Paradox – Antti Tuomainen, translated by David Hackston

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Out now in paperback from Orenda Books and all good bookshops!!

And in case you’re not sure, I’m resharing my review from last year’s hardback blog tour so you can see what I thought below.

Insurance mathematician Henri Koskinen has finally restored order both to his life and to YouMeFun, the adventure park he now owns, when a man from the past appears – and turns everything upside down again.

More problems arise when the park’s equipment supplier is taken over by a shady trio, with confusing demands. Why won’t Toy of Finland Ltd sell the new Moose Chute to Henri when he needs it as the park’s main attraction?

Meanwhile, Henri’s relationship with artist Laura has reached breaking point, and, in order to survive this new chaotic world, he must push every calculation to its limits, before it’s too late…

Finnish Antti Tuomainen was an award-winning copywriter when he made his literary debut in 2007 as a suspense author. In 2011, Tuomainen’s third novel, The Healer, was awarded the Clue Award for Best Finnish Crime Novel and was shortlisted for the Glass Key Award. With a piercing and evocative style, Tuomainen was one of the first to challenge the Scandinavian crime-genre formula, and his poignant, dark and hilarious The Man Who Died became an international bestseller, shortlisting for the Petrona and Last Laugh Awards. Palm Beach Finland (2018) was an immense success, with The Times calling Tuomainen ‘the funniest writer in Europe’, and Little Siberia (2019) was shortlisted for the Capital Crime/Amazon Publishing Readers Awards, the Last Laugh Award and the CWA Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger, and won the Petrona Award. The Rabbit Factor, the prequel to The Moose Paradox, will soon be a major motion picture starring Steve Carell.

My thoughts: back to Finland’s maddest adventure park we go. Just as Henri thinks he’s solved all his problems, more appear. There’s shady businessmen/gangsters who seem to be determined to ruin the park, with inferior equipment and a hostile takeover, the staff are in revolt, and he’s not sure about whether to take the next step with the lovely Laura. Just another day’s work at YouMeFun then.

Although we never find out exactly what the Moose Shute does (and some of the other creations of Toy Finland sound downright nuts and beyond dangerous), the lengths Henri goes to to secure it are hilarious. For someone who spends their time calculating risk, he’s prepared to go to extremes for the park.

This book might actually be even more fun and ridiculous than The Rabbit Factor, as chaos lurks around every corner, not to mention the police, furious criminals, the park’s own staff (no one else would hire them) and a blast from the past that could destroy everything Henri has worked so hard for. 

*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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Book Blitz: Solstice Child – Wendy L. Anderson

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Solstice Child copy

Happy publication day to author Wendy L. Anderson and congrats on the release of yet another stunning fantasy!

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Solstice Child

Publication Date: June 21, 2023

Genre: Romantic Fantasy/ Nordic Fantasy/ Standalone

A blood debt owed. Two enemies love the same woman. One of them must die. At the summer solstice festival passion and destiny collide.

Runa, a solstice child, is denied the love and protection of her family, pushing her to desperate lengths to escape their cruelty. Guided by the goddess Freya, she decides to weave her own destiny. When two men enter her life, she must choose between them and risk everything for love.

Brand vowed to collect a blood debt from the Viking raiders who slew his family. His hunt has led him to a village harboring his enemy. Bound by the sacred peace of the solstice festival he must wait to take his revenge. He never anticipated the captivating allure of Runa who threatens to disrupt his path to vengeance.

Eiland, on the verge of death after being hunted for years, must pay for the crimes of his youth. Then he finds hope and a reason to fight back in the arms of a mysterious girl. As fate closes in on him, he is faced with a crucial decision: reclaim his hold on life or embrace the halls of Valhalla.

Passion, vengeance, and destiny intertwine as two bitter enemies contend for the love of one woman. Who will emerge triumphant in the battle between the two men Runa loves?

Solstice Child is a mesmerizing stand-alone adventure that will captivate readers from beginning to end. With its intoxicating blend of sensual historical fantasy romance and elements of Norse mythology, this tale weaves a spellbinding tapestry of love, passion, and sacrifice. Brace yourself for a riveting love-triangle romance that will leave an indelible mark on your heart.

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About the Author

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Wendy L. Anderson is a writer of passionately charged fantasy. Breaking the barriers of typical fantasy themes, she created the Kingdom of Jior epic fantasy series, a lusty and poetic five-book series that will have you wanting more in her Legends of Everclearing spinoff series. Inspired by authors such as Robert E. Howard and Morgan Llywelyn, Wendy went on to write three other stand-alone works; A Cut Twice as Deep, Ulrik, and Rapunzel’s Tower. These fantasy works break free from the usual boundaries of fantasy genres.

A Colorado native and mother of two; she has decided it is time to write down the fantasies from her mind. Writing about everything from fantastical worlds to the stuff of her dreams she takes her stories along interesting paths while portraying characters and worlds she sees in her mind’s eye. Her goal is to deviate from common themes, write in original directions and transport her reader to the worlds of her creation.

Wendy L. Anderson’s fantasy has action, adventure, and suspense with just the right amount of romance!

Wendy L. Anderson | Facebook | Instagram | Goodreads

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Blog Tour: The Couple in the Photo – Helen Cooper

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From the author of The Downstairs Neighbor and The Other Guest comes a propulsive suspense novel that asks how far you would go to keep a friend’s secret.

Lucy and her husband, Adam, have been best friends with another couple, Cora and Scott, for years. The four are practically family at this point—they vacation together, co-own a beach cottage, and their young children are inseparable. So Lucy is devastated when, while looking at a colleague’s photos of a trip to the Maldives, she spots a picture of Scott, apparently on a luxurious holiday with another woman.

Lucy is determined to protect her best friend from her husband’s seeming infidelity, but when she learns that the woman in the photo has gone missing, she can’t help but fear that Scott was involved. As she searches for answers, she uncovers secrets about her friends and her own husband that could destroy the wonderful lives they have built…and she suspects that everybody around her knows much more about the missing woman than they are letting on. Is Lucy actually the one most in the dark? If so, what are the consequences of discovering the truth?

My thoughts: a glimpse of a photo with a familiar face, but the woman with him isn’t his wife, sends Lucy off down a wormhole into her best friends’ (and husband’s) past. What happened at university, how are they connected to a death in the Maldives and why can’t Lucy just leave it alone?

It gets tenser and tenser as Lucy digs into events that bound her husband Adam to his best pals, Cora and Scott, back when they were students, secrets they’ve been keeping for years, but it seems someone knows what they did, could it be the mysterious Juliet? And it involves Lucy’s newlywed colleague Ruth now in some way.

It gets ugly, and violent, with one of the trio willing to kill to keep the status quo. How much danger is Lucy in? Well, read it and find out. Also, modern children clearly have no curiosity, or at least the ones here don’t, happily playing while their parents argue and discuss murder. I’d have been under the table taking notes, Harriet the Spy style.

Gripping, a bit creepy at times, Scott needs to chill, as does Adam, they’re all a little unhinged to be honest. I rooted for Lucy, but also worried for her safety as she kept hanging around potential murderers. The ending, while not happy, at least meant I could relax, safe that Lucy and her children were out of harm’s way, for now.

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