Category: books

blog tour, books

Blog Tour: Battle Within – Christina Mattingly

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BattleWithin copy

Welcome to the tour for Christina Mattingly’s Battle Within. A shifter romance with bite!

Battle-Within-Claimed-Series

Battle Within (Claimed: Emma & Ryder)

Publication Date: October 26, 2022

Genre: Shifter Romance

Emma, a sound mage, needs to get away from her fast-paced life as a magical nightclub owner in the city, so she decides to visit her brother’s small mountain town for the winter. After years of living without long-term commitments or consistent relationships, she’s ready to settle down and find something real.

After finding herself in her roommate’s bed, what she thought was a one-night stand turns into a big mess when she discovers Ryder’s wolf imprinted on her, irrevocably claiming Emma as his. He’s just the kind of guy that she could see herself settling down with, but Ryder doesn’t want anything to do with a relationship with her.

His wolf’s possessive nature won’t let Ryder leave her alone so she can move on, but with Ryder pushing her away at every turn, their relationship seems doomed to fail before it’s ever had a chance.

Available on Amazon

About the Author

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Christina Mattingly enjoys spicy romance novels with strong characters and phenomenal world-building.

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Christina Mattingly

Book Tour Schedule

June 19th

http://rrbooktours – Kick-off

https://www.instagram.com/book_lover_danny/ – Review

https://www.instagram.com/squeakeysundergroundlibrary/ – Review

https://www.thereadingdiaries.com/ – Review

https://www.instagram.com/readingdiaries/

https://www.instagram.com/ripples_and_embers/ – Review

https://www.thesexynerdrevue.com – Feature

https://www.instagram.com/shannonl0vesbooks/ – Feature

June 20th

https://countrymamaswithkids.com/ – Review

https://www.instagram.com/countrymamaswithkids/

https://www.instagram.com/jenalreads/ – Review

http://readsandreels.com – Feature

http://ramblingmads.com – Feature

June 21st

https://www.instagram.com/its_b.e.l.l.e/ – Review

https://www.instagram.com/kristens_book_nook_/ – Review

https://www.tiktok.com/@kristen2ya?_t=8cabFcA3Fal&_r=1

https://www.instagram.com/bookishlyrieka/ – Review

https://www.instagram.com/_toris.thoughts_/ – Review

https://www.instagram.com/kemalareadsbooks/ – Feature

June 22nd

https://www.instagram.com/katierichardauthor/ – Review

https://www.instagram.com/fargoanbookmoth/ – Review

http://www.ismellsheep.com/ – Feature

https://lshadowlynauthor.com/ – Feature

https://christinebialczak.com/ – Feature

June 23rd

https://cherylsbooknook.blogspot.com/ – Review

https://rissreviewsx.wixsite.com/website – Review

https://www.instagram.com/katslovesbooks/ – Review

http://www.tiktok.com/@katslovesbooks

https://www.instagram.com/addicted.to.romance73/ – Review

https://www.instagram.com/mommasbookies/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D – Review

https://ilovebooksandstuffblog.wordpress.com – Feature

Book Tour Organized By:

R&R Button

R&R Book Tours

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Cover Reveal: Upstairs at the Beresford – Will Carver

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Upstairs at the Beresford by Will Carver

Publication date: 23rd November
Formats: Paperback and e-book
Ebook – Print

Hotel Beresford: a grand old building, just outside the city, where any soul is welcome, and strange goings-on mask explosive, deadly secrets. A chilling, darkly funny sequel to Will Carver’s bestselling The Beresford…

There are worse places than hell…

Hotel Beresford is a grand, old building, just outside the city. And any soul is welcome.

Danielle Ortega works nights, singing at whatever dive bar will offer her a gig. She gets by, keeping to herself. Sam Walker gambles and drinks, and can’t keep his hands to himself. Now he’s tied up in a shoe closet with a dent in his head that matches Danielle’s broken ashtray.

The man in 731 has been dead for two days and his dog has not stopped barking. Two doors down, the couple who always smokes on the window ledge will mysteriously fall.

Upstairs, in the penthouse, Mr Balliol sees it all. He can peer into every crevice of every floor of the hotel from his screen-filled suite. He witnesses humanity and inhumanity in all its forms: loneliness, passion and desperation in equal measure. All the ingredients he needs to make a deal.

When Danielle returns home one night to find Sam gone, a series of sinister events begins to unfold. But strange things often occur at Hotel Beresford, and many are only a distraction to hide something much, much darker…

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Last Dance at the Discotheque for Deviants – Paul David Gould

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Moscow, 1993. The end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union have brought unimaginable change to Russia. With this change come new freedoms: freedom to travel abroad and to befriend Westerners, freedom to make money, and even the freedom for an underground gay scene to take root.

Encouraged by the new climate of openness, twenty-one-year-old Kostya ventures out of the closet and resolves to pursue his dreams: to work in the theatre and to find love as his idol Tchaikovsky never could. Those dreams, however, lead to tragedy – not only for Kostya, but for his mother and for the two young men he loves, as all three face up to the ways they have betrayed him.

‘The venue was the canteen block of the Red Hammer Cement Works. It was the usual set-up: way out of town, secretive directions to get there, and disco lights blazing…’

Paul David Gould grew up on a Huddersfield council estate and studied Russian at the University of Birmingham. His experiences of work, life and love in Russia have inspired Last Dance at the Discotheque for Deviants, his first novel. He works as a sub­editor at the Financial Times.

Paul worked as a journalist in Russia in the early nineties, and his experiences from that time have informed his debut novel, while he still occasionally writes about Russia for the Financial Times.

Last Dance At The Discotheque For Deviants is one of the first titles in Unbound’s new imprint: Unbound Firsts -for debut writers of colour. Gould said:

‘I’m not only thrilled to be getting published by Unbound Firsts, I’m also honoured to be one of this new imprint’s inaugural writers at a time when we so need to champion diversity. My novel is set in Russia in the 1990s, a more hopeful time for peace and friendly relations with the West, I’m horrified to see those hopes trampled on by Putin’s unprovoked and brutal war against Ukraine.’

My thoughts: take a trip back to Russia in 1993, the age of glasnost, of the fall of the Soviet Union. There’s a McDonald’s in Moscow and a sense of openness, of freedom in the air.

But not for everyone – homosexuality is illegal and the only club night around is secret and moves venues to avoid both the police and the gangs of violent homophobes out to beat gay men up. Kostya is a young man from a small town, working for a US organisation, he speaks English and is intelligent and hard working. His friendship with Jamie, a British journalist, means he’s been to the West and sees through the old Soviet lies his mother clings to.

Jamie is investigating Kostya’s death – the tiny announcement of it, that he died of “natural causes” in an unnamed hospital outside of the city is suspicious. As he, and Kostya’s boyfriend Dima, begin to dig, they uncover a terrible thing that was done to their friend and a web of US investment that allowed it to happen. Even Kostya’s mother, Tamara, comes to understand that she was wrong to question his sexuality, wrong to push him to be “normal”.

This book is terribly sad in places, Kostya is so lost and heart sore. I wanted to reach into the pages and give him a hug, tell him it would get better. Although Russia is stilla terrible place to be gay, as we all saw highlighted by the Sochi Winter Olympics, there are people fighting to change things and government policy doesn’t always go with the will and beliefs of the people.

I’ve been to Russia, and met Russians, many of whom were lovely and open, friendly people. I know that the changes the early 90s brought, the promises that decade held, haven’t all been achieved but, as with the end of this book, there is hope out there.

Beautifully written, and supplied by the author’s own experiences, although hopefully not as dark as some of Dima and Jamie’s, this is an intelligent and thought provoking thriller, with real heart and strong characters that draw you into their hard scrabble lives.

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

books

Cover Reveal: The Beaver Theory – Antti Tuomainen

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The Beaver Theory by Antti Tuomainen, translated by David Hackston

Publication date: 12th October
Format: Hardback and e-book
Ebook – Print

Book 3 in the Rabbit Factor Trilogy

Can everyone’s favourite insurance mathematician, Henri, combine the increasingly dangerous world of adventure parks with the unpredictability of blended-family life? He’s about to find out in the final instalment of the hilarious, nail-biting Rabbit Factor Trilogy.

Henri Koskinen, intrepid insurance mathematician and adventure-park entrepreneur, firmly believes in the power of common sense and order. That is until he moves in with painter Laura Helanto and her daughter…

As Henri realises he has inadvertently become part of a group of local dads, a competing adventure park is seeking to expand their operations, not always sticking to the law in the process…

Is it possible to combine the increasingly dangerous world of the adventure-park business with the unpredictability of life in a blended family? At first glance, the two appear to have only one thing in common: neither deals particularly well with a mounting body count.

In order to solve this seemingly impossible conundrum, Henri is forced to step far beyond the mathematical precision of his comfort zone … and the stakes have never been higher… 

Warmly funny, quirky, touching, and a nail-biting triumph of a thriller, The Beaver Theory is the final instalment in the award-winning Rabbit Factor Trilogy, as Henri encounters the biggest challenge of his career, with hair-raising results…

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Love Theorem – Camilla Isley

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Are a rocket scientist and one of Hollywood’s brightest stars a match made in heaven or is it a catastrophe headed for a crash landing?
Lana loves four things: science, her cats, her friends, and her books. She’s on her way to earning her professorship when she finds out her long-term boyfriend has been sleeping with her best friend!
That discovery has her hiding in the broom closet at a posh hotel.
Only, it turns out broom closets are the place to be these days.
Christian Slade, America’s sexiest man alive (as voted by fans), in a desperate attempt to escape the paparazzi finds himself in a broom closet with one sobbing occupant. Unable to leave a damsel in
distress, he offers help, only to realise she has no idea who he is! It’s like he’s been given a gift. A smart, beautiful woman, who isn’t after him for fame and fortune . . .
Soon Christian is buying a Tesla to impress his scientist with his eco credentials and taking her on dates where no one will recognise him.
Purchase


Camilla Isley is an engineer who left science behind to write bestselling contemporary rom-coms set all around the world. She lives in Italy and her first title for Boldwood, The Love Theorem, a
Hollywood-meets-STEM romance, will be published in June 2023.

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My thoughts: this was a fun LA set rom com about the world’s most handsome man, actor Christian Slade, and a clueless but super intelligent scientist, PhD student Lana. She doesn’t own a TV so has no idea who he is, preferring to read a book and hang out with her cats. A girl after my own heart.

When they accidentally hide in the same broom cupboard – for very different reasons – there’s a spark. Cue romantic picnics and over the top presents.

Things don’t go as smoothly as you’d hope, there’s a few bumps in the road, but as they’re both genuinely nice people, and it’s a love story, it all eventually works out for the best. But getting to the HEA is lots of fun. With a great set of supporting characters, and obviously two cats (who doesn’t enjoy feline friends?), this is a sweet and enjoyable, Notting Hill-esque, romance.

*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, books, reviews

Blog Tour: We Are Family – Beth Moran

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Thirty-three-year-old Ruth Henderson and her daughter Maggie have some hard choices to make.
Following the tragic death of Maggie’s father, they are left with a mountain of debt and broken hearts. So, despite her vow never to return home after the fall-out from her teenage pregnancy, Ruth
can’t see any option other than for the two of them to move back in with her parents.
Going home means many things – finally confronting her estranged father, navigating her mother’s desperate need to make everything ok despite the wobbles in her own marriage, not to mention helping a still-grieving Maggie to settle into a new school, find new friends, and stop expressing her emotions through her ever-changing hair colour.
What Ruth needs are friends, but she abandoned her childhood ones when she left all those years ago. Luckily for Ruth, they haven’t abandoned her. Slowly she lets herself be embraced by a group of
women who have always had her back – even when she didn’t know it. And as the grief and shock recede, Ruth can even begin to imagine sharing her life with someone other than just Maggie – if Maggie will let her.
Purchase


Beth Moran is the award winning author of ten contemporary fiction novels, including the top ten bestseller Just the Way You Are and #1 bestseller Let It Snow. Her books are set in and around Sherwood Forest, where she can be found most mornings walking with her spaniel Murphy. She has the privilege of also being a foster carer to teenagers, and enjoys nothing better than curling up with a pot of tea and a good story.

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My thoughts: there’s lots of different families in this book, from the Henderson clan, to Lois and Matt and their five hundred foster kids (ok, just five, but still), to Ruth and Maggie, and David, Arnold and Ana Lucia. Families are not just born, they’re made, built from love. There’s also the family Ruth finds in her friends, and in the church her parents go to.

I grew up in the church and some of my oldest, closest friends are part of my church family, so I really resonated with that. You can find family all over the place.

And Ruth really needs them all – her parents, her sisters, her daughter, her pals. Even grumpy Veronica and Hannah, who lives mostly in her memories. She’s been through a really rough time, losing her partner, leaving her horrible job, having to sell her house and discovering a mountain of secret debts her partner didn’t deal with.

And then there’s creepy Carl, who won’t leave her alone. She really doesn’t need his weird and scary nonsense on top of trying to get her life back together. And Maggie needs her mum, she just doesn’t know what to say. My heart was aching for her. Fourteen is a horrible age, without all the grief and trauma she’s dealing with.

But the book isn’t all sadness and bleak misery, there’s a lot of cake, there’s dancing, there’s new life (literally a baby is born), there’s new jobs and new love and parties and I loved girls’ night. When Ruth lets the people in her life help her, support her, then she can thrive. A joyful book really.

*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: White as Snow – Lilja Sigurđardóttir

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White as Snow by Lilja Sigurdardottir, translated by Quentin Bates

Publication date: 12th October
Format: e-book and paperback
Ebook – Print

Book 3 in the Arora Investigation series.

Daníel and Áróra hunt a brutal killer when a shipping container with the bodies of five women is found outside Reykjavik, as Áróra continues the search for her missing sister. Book three in the addictive, chilling An Áróra Investigation series.

On a snowy winter morning, an abandoned shipping container is discovered near Reykjavík. Inside are the bodies of five young women – one of them barely alive.

As Icelandic Police detective Daníel struggles to investigate the most brutal crime of his career, Áróra looks into the background of a suspicious man, who turns out to be engaged to Daníel’s former wife, and the connections don’t stop there…

Daníel and Áróra’s cases pit them both against ruthless criminals with horrifying agendas, while Áróra persists with her search for her missing sister, Ísafold, whose devastating disappearance continues to haunt her.

As the temperature drops and the 24-hour darkness and freezing snow hamper their efforts, their investigations become increasingly dangerous … for everyone.

Atmospheric, twisty and breathtakingly tense, White as Snow is the third instalment in the riveting, award-winning An Áróra Investigation series, as crimes committed far beyond Iceland’s shores come home…

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Shenkin’s Vengeance – Davey Davies

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It is 1834 and Daniel Shenkin a Welsh coal miner, political activist, and bare knuckle fighter has spent two years in the convict barracks prison of Sydney’s penal colony. Together with his fellow convict Regan O’Hara they have been granted their ‘Tickets of Leave’ on the understanding that any misdemeanour would result in the removal of the Tickets and their full sentences imposed. Twenty years hard labour.

They find themselves on the streets. Penniless but for the diamond pendant that Shenkin had hidden away in his ponytail head scarf. This together with the help of the woman he loves and Doctor Tarn from the convict ship The Runnymede, they go looking for the one time London fence Abe Goldspick to sell him the diamond.

After a bare knuckle fight their sworn enemy Lord Feltsham, who wants both the woman and the diamond for himself, arranges a conspiracy headed by Feltsham’s henchman Ketch. It results in Shenkin and O’Hara being sent to the notorious Port Arthur penal settlement. It is a brutal place from where few convicts ever return. But in a two-fisted action-packed story they plan an escape from what seems an inescapable prison. They do it in a way no one would dare risk. The hard way.

It’s a breathtaking adventure set in the grim world of the 19th century. Against all the odds Shenkin is a one-man fighting machine. Survival is his mantra he is not for the faint hearted. Take a deep breath and enter his harsh brutal world with great care.

Born into a Welsh mining village in South Wales Davey Daviesis a former Opera Singer, actor and entrepreneur. A traveller to remote parts of the world he has climbed a number of the worlds mountains including Everest. He now lives in Spain with his partner the artist Celia Vodden where he is busy writing and enjoying Rioja between chapters.

My thoughts: this is a cracking adventure story set in Australia when it was a penal colony, and in the harsh environment, so foreign to British soldiers and convicts alike. Shenkin, a Welsh miner sentenced to transportation for his part in an uprising, alongside his Irish friend Regan has been released, essentially for good behaviour, but he can’t leave Sydney. He’s determined to avenge himself on those who’ve wronged him. Especially slimy Lord Feltsham. When he gets his comeuppance, it feels richly deserved, though I don’t think, after everything Shenkin goes through, that I would have his restraint. I’d have fed him to the sharks in Sydney Harbour.

Shenkin and Regan go through hell on Earth, sent to the extreme prison on Tasmania, where corporal punishment is the norm not the exception, where food is scarce and the punishments are for “offences” so ridiculous that you can’t help but break the rules.

But they also have incredible friends, from Doctor Patrick Tarn to the Aboriginal medicine man Tinker to Sir Edward Standish and fellow bare knuckle fighter Charlie Benson and his ship’s captain brother John Saxon. These friends won’t leave them stranded in a living nightmare, and with their kindness and aid, Shenkin survives to build up his sheep station and become wealthy and successful. He is finally able to take his revenge and even return to his beloved Welsh valleys a free man.

I love good historical fiction and this is well researched and written, with interesting characters and a plot that packs a punch.

*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: Mirror Image – Gunnar Staalesen

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Mirror Image by Gunnar Staalesen, translated by Don Bartlett

Publication date: 31st August
Format: e-book and paperback
Ebook – Print Number 0 in the Varg Veum series

As Bergen PI Varg Veum investigates two different cases, it becomes clear that they are uncannily similar to harrowing events that took place thirty-six years earlier… A gripping instalment of the award-winning Varg Veum series, by one of the fathers of Nordic Noir.

Bergen Private Investigator Varg Veum is perplexed when two wildly different cases cross his desk at the same time. A lawyer, anxious to protect her privacy, asks Varg to find her sister, who has disappeared with her husband, seemingly without trace, while a ship carrying unknown cargo is heading towards the Norwegian coast, and the authorities need answers.

Varg immerses himself in the investigations, and it becomes clear that the two cases are linked, and have unsettling – and increasingly uncanny – similarities to events that took place thirty-six years earlier, when a woman and her saxophonist lover drove their car off a cliff, in an apparent double suicide.

As Varg is drawn into a complex case involving star-crossed lovers, toxic waste and illegal immigrants, history seems determined to repeat itself in perfect detail … and at terrifying cost…

A chilling, dark and twisting story of love and revenge, Mirror Image is Staalesen at his most thrilling, thought-provoking best.

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Other Couple – Diane Jeffrey

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Two couples. A fatal accident. And a decision that changes everything…
Kirsten and Nick are enjoying a weekend away until, on their drive home, they accidentally run over and kill a man. They should call for help – but they have too much to lose, and no one can know the real reason they’re here. Instead, they make a split-second decision to conceal the accident.
Amy and Greg have just celebrated their tenth wedding anniversary. Amy is expecting a baby, and they couldn’t be happier. So when Greg fails to come home from a dog walk one weekend, Amy knows the police are wrong to believe he left of his own accord. Someone must be behind Greg’s disappearance, and Amy won’t give up until she gets justice – or revenge.
If you had nothing left to lose, how far would you go to find the truth?

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Diane Jeffrey is a USA Today bestselling author.
She grew up in North Devon and Northern Ireland. She now lives in Lyon, France, with her husband and their three children, Labrador and cat.
Diane has written six psychological thrillers, all published by HQ /HarperCollins.
THE GUILTY MOTHER, Diane’s third book, was a USA Today bestseller and her fourth
novel, THE SILENT FRIEND, was a Karin Slaughter pick for ASDA.
THE COUPLE AT CAUSEWAY COTTAGE, Diane’s fifth thriller, is set on the remote island of Rathlin, off the Northern Irish coast and has recently been shortlisted for an International Thriller Writers award.
She is currently working on her seventh psychological thriller.
Diane is an English teacher. When she’s not working or writing, she likes swimming, running and reading. She loves chocolate, beer and holidays.
Above all, she enjoys spending time with her family and friends.

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Giveaway to Win a previously released Diane Jeffrey book of your choice (Open Internationally)
Prize – you can choose between the following books – The Couple at Causeway Cottage, The Silent Friend, The Guilty Mother, He Will Find You or Those Who Lie.

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My thoughts: this started off going one way and then twisted and turned, much like some of the roads in North Devon (I know it well) to somewhere completely different.

After Kirsten and Nick knock down a man in North Devon and hightail it out of there, along with his body and dog, planning to cover up their crime and say nothing, the police don’t exactly look for them that hard. But someone does.

Amy heads to London to take her revenge and it’s here that the story starts to twist and turn. She bides her time, not taking any of the obvious options. She inserts herself into Kirsten’s life, but doesn’t reveal who she is or make a threat. She waits. It makes the suspense so much greater. And Amy’s likeable – she is kind and sweet and it is really easy to feel sorry for her, she’s lost so much. And Kirsten and Nick aren’t. They’re both rather unpleasant, especially Nick.

The interspersed letters from someone waiting to be sentenced in court aren’t from who you might think either. I didn’t figure it out till the end. The story’s clever like that. Not often you cheer for someone who does what Amy does, but it’s so well done and I enjoyed every moment of it.

*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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