Category: books

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Nightshade – Briar Black

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Nightshade (The Cheshire Set #2)

Release Date: June 21, 2025

Genre: Small-town Romance

Forbidden Love 💔
Age Gap 🕰️
Slow Burn 🔥
Small Town Romance 🏡
Grumpy x Sunshine 🌦️
Morally Grey Hero ⚖️
Healing Romance 🩹
Dark Cottagecore 🍄

When eco-warrior and budding bee expert Suzie returns to Ashfordby, she expects a peaceful summer solving the mystery of Hugh Delaware’s dying bees and spending time with her best friend.

After a recent run-in with The One That Got Away (and made her swear off relationships for life), she needs the break. Peace, quiet, and a chance to focus on what she loves sounds perfect—until she stumbles into a tangled web of sabotage, murder, and secrets threatening to destroy the estate Hugh has dedicated his life to saving.

As Suzie and Hugh join forces to unravel the mystery, a shocking discovery leaves the estate reeling and the pair questioning everyone around them—except each other. But with a struggling marriage and the weight of the estate on his shoulders, Hugh’s world is a far cry from Suzie’s council-house upbringing. Any connection between them feels impossible—and forbidden. She would never entertain an affair, yet the more she tries to stay away, the more she’s drawn back in.

Caught between her growing feelings for Hugh, the painful wounds of her past, and a sinister plot targeting the estate, Suzie must summon the courage to expose the truth—and keep her heart out of the crossfire—before more lives are lost.

With its blend of romantic tension, murder, and environmental intrigue, Nightshade is a gripping tale of love, loyalty, and uncovering beauty in the most unexpected places. Perfect for fans of romantic suspense and age-gap romance.

My thoughts: This was really good, it works as a standalone, so if you haven’t read Bane (about Michael and Aimee) that’s ok.

Suzie returns to her hated hometown to help out some bees who are dying, the owner of the tea farm that needs the bees to do their pollinating thing is worried that without them, his business is over and he’ll have to sell his family’s ancestral home to developers.

She’s not keen as her awful ex lives in the area and she’s not especially close to her parents, but her best friend Aimee and her boyfriend Michael also live there. She moves into the spare room at Aimee’s and starts investigating the bees’ deaths.

The book is both a romance and an eco-murder mystery – the victims might be bees, but their deaths lead to other shocking actions as someone is trying to sabotage the tea farm and the estate.

Suzie’s investigation has ramifications for all of the residents and staff, especially Hugh, who runs it and will eventually inherit it. His whole life revolves around the estate and even though he and Suzie have an instant attraction – he’s married to Victoria, a not entirely happy woman. He’s also a lot older than Suzie.

The story gets more intriguing as Suzie discovers what’s been going on and who has been killing the bees. She also meets the resident witch, her crow and badger (totally normal), and has an eventful run in with her scummy ex (urgh).

Will love flourish? Will Hugh leave his wife and will they solve the mystery of who is trying to bring the estate down? Well, you’ll have to read it!

IG: @briarblackbooks @rrbooktours

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*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: The Manuscript – Steven L. Wright

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A newly married couple from Harrogate purchased a manuscript from an antiquarian bookseller titled, The Universal Language Isn’t Love or Music but Loneliness. Completed in 1940 by unknown author, William Travers, it was one of several items offered at the estate
auction of a local family. Reading and discussing the work changed their lives … and their marriage.

Waking in hospital Lieutenant William Travers learns the war’s over. The Armistice has been signed.
Physically wounded and emotionally crippled, Travers shuns convention and, armed with an alto saxophone, turns his back on America to remain in Paris. He’s a jazzman at heart, so a jazzman he’ll remain. Throughout the Roaring ‘20s and Lean ‘30s, he encounters a bevy of
characters: the artists of Montparnasse; the ladies at the Paris brothel; the curator at the Musee du Luxembourg; fellow band members in Paris; the stiff-collared Edwardians and the Bright Young Things who dance at London’s Savoy Hotel; the fiery Yorkshire sheep farmer who is half-American; the hard-bitten landlady in London; and, the owner of a Soho night club – the epicentre of everything considered illegal. On the eve of the Blitz in September 1940, he decided to perform one more gig.

A parallel narrative where the three protagonists, although separated by eighty years, confront the existential meaning of life.

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Steve earned a BA and MA in history from the University of Cincinnati. After serving five years as a captain/attack helicopter pilot in the US Army’s 9th Infantry Division (1980-1985), he worked as a professional archivist and historian for twenty-five years. He has published several articles in peer-reviewed history journals in addition to three works of scholarly non-fiction including, Britain’s Battle to Go Modern: Confronting Architectural Modernisms, 1900-1925 published in 2018.

After relocating from London to the Yorkshire Dales National Park in 2014, he set himself a challenge: to write a work of fiction. His first attempt, Grey, Red, Blue … Gone was published in 2021. Steve enjoyed the process so he set his sights on a work of historical fiction hoping to incorporate his passion for history. The Manuscript is the culmination of years of research and
writing concerning the period in Paris and London known as the Jazz Age. An era when syncopated music nursed by cocktails comforted the bored and disillusioned and propelled the Bright Young Things toward an uninhibited lifestyle unknown to earlier generations.

Since his early days in secondary school, Steve has been interested in the lives and published works of several notable writers of the 1920s to the early 1940s, from F. Scott Fitzgerald and Richard Aldington to Ernest Hemingway and W. Somerset Maugham. He believes their work helped define those unique and troubling decades.

He still lives in the Yorkshire Dales National Park with his wife, Suzanne, a studio potter, whom he met twenty years ago at a Chicago jazz club, and a three-year-old rescue cat named Vesper.

My thoughts: The framing device of couple Fiona and Peter who have bought this mysterious manuscript allows the reader to feel as though they too are embarking on uncovering the mysteries about the document that forms the main body of this book.

Starting in the years after the First World War, the Manuscript is a memoir and philosophical meditation on life, love and loss. It’s author, William Travers, is the only survivor of his cohort of American airmen. Injured and alone, he has nothing to return to his hometown of Cincinnati for. Finding himself in Paris with his alto sax in hand, he sets himself up as a jazzman for hire.

Finding a small flat, a few paying gigs and eventually a lover, Veronique, he makes himself at home amongst the Roaring Twenties, the artists, musicians and other characters of the Left Bank. These are happy years, he joins a jazz band of fellow American ex-pats, serenades the ladies of a high class brothel, and befriends a British bartender who supplies him with free whisky.

When tragedy hits, he abandons this life for the Savoy in London and the turbulent years of the 1930s. The Bright Young Things, disaffected and outrageous, the Edwardians (my own great-grandparents are products of that time, my Grandad was born in 1930).

William meets the delightful Helena, only remaining child of her family’s sprawling farm in the Yorkshire Dales. She farms the sheep and contends with her broken hearted mother. Their romance brings a sparkle back to his life, but sadly it doesn’t last and here he starts to develop the philosophy that will rule the rest of his life and provide his memoir it’s title – The Universal Language isn’t Love or Music – it’s Loneliness. But then in 1940 as the Blitz begins, William disappears.

Peter becomes obsessed with finding out what became of William and how his memoir ended up in an estate sale in Harrogate. It begins to affect his marriage, as obsession can, and while he will find some answers, he might just lose his wife.

I found William’s story both moving and compelling, the interwar years are complicated and unlike any other time before or since. Huge loss of life brackets those years, and many of the people who lived then were profoundly affected by the social, political and financial shifts that took place. I studied the period in both Britain and German history, contrasting the two countries as they recovered from one devastating war and into the next.

William’s wartime experiences are never far from his mind, he struggles with survivors’ guilt and probably has PTSD, as well as his physical injury from being shot down in his plane. It colours everything he does and experiences, his relationships with women and friendships with other men. There were actually a couple of moments so gut-wrenchingly sad I actually teared up.

The writing is compelling and gripping, you are right there with William as he sees the newly built Cenotaph and rages at the loss of life, the pointless futility of war. It reminded me so much of the poetry of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, furious at the way so many were betrayed into giving their lives, and for what?

*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: One More to Die – Joy Ellis

ramblingmads

Detective Kate Carter is called out to a fatal car accident on a remote fen lane.
At first glance it looks like a drunk driver simply lost control and crashed headlong into a ditch.

But nothing about the scene adds up. The number plate is fake. The driver’s licence doesn’t belong to the dead man in the car. One tyre doesn’t match the other three. And what is a vinyl 1960s pop record doing in the glove box?

A neat puncture wound to the driver’s neck reveals this was no accident.
The following day, the body of a young woman is found in an old barn out on the fens. She’s been dead at least two years. Placed on the body is another vintage pop record.

And then the nightmare becomes personal. A mysterious package arrives at the station addressed to Kate: a 45-rpm record, and a chilling note scrawled in block capitals: ONE MORE TO GO.

It’s just the start. Sinister phone calls, creepy notes left on her car, unwanted gifts on her doorstep: Kate can no longer deny that she’s being pursued by an obsessive stalker . . .
Is she next in the killer’s sights?

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I was born in Kent but spent most of my working life in London and Surrey. I was an apprentice florist to Constance Spry Ltd, a prestigious Mayfair shop that throughout the Sixties and Seventies teemed with both royalty and ‘real’ celebrities. What an eye-opener for a working-class kid from the Garden of England! I swore then, probably whilst I was scrubbing the floor or making the tea, that I would have a shop of my own one day. It took until the early Eighties, but I did it. Sadly the recession wiped us out, and I embarked on a series of weird and wonderful jobs; the last one being a bookshop manager. Surrounded by books all day, getting to order whatever you liked, and being paid for it! Oh bliss!

And now I live in a village in the Lincolnshire Fens with my partner, Jacqueline, and three Springer spaniels and four little rescue, Breton spaniels. I had been writing mysteries for years but never had the time to take it seriously. Now I write full-time, and as my partner is a highly decorated retired police officer; my choice of genre is a no-brainer! I have an on-tap police and judicial consultant, who makes exceedingly good tea!

I have set my crime thrillers here in the misty fens because I sincerely love the remoteness and airy beauty of the marshlands. This area is steeped in superstitions and lends itself so well to
murder!

I am lucky enough to be one of the amazing Joffe Books team of authors and am really enjoying being able to spend time doing what I love… writing!

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My thoughts: This was really good, I have enjoyed every one of Joy’s books I’ve read, she’s very good at hooking you with a mystery, in this case the 1960s records, and what a clever case too, the police are stumped when it comes to the old vinyl, but the slightly odd pathologist has an idea, his uncle is a bit of an expert and might be able to help them.

Then the case gets a bit too personal as it becomes clear the killer is stalking Kate, and with her as SIO, it might be best to keep a low profile until they get closer. After sending her kids and animals to friends and family to keep them safe, although her husband won’t go and gets parked at an empty desk in the station (which made me laugh) for his own safety, she keeps working the case. 

As this case seems to hark back to unsolved one in the cold case archives, the team start looking into that one, which might just slot a few more things into place…

Absolutely cracking stuff, could not put it down, fiendish and clever, with plenty at stake as the team race to find the killer before anything happens to their boss. So good. 

Side note: Joy, please write a memoir, you seem to have led a really interesting life. 

*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: Private Lives – Emily Edwards

ramblingmads

In the sleepy seaside sleepy town of Waverly, Rosie and Seb Kent are happily married. Now that Seb has achieved his dream of becoming headmaster of the local school, their lives couldn’t be any better.

Then Abi arrives.
Abi, a young, single mother, has come to Waverly for a fresh start. She plans to reinvent herself and give her children a new life.
Then she sees Seb.

As their complicated hidden past threatens to destroy them both, they try their hardest to keep it contained. But in a small town, secrets don’t stay hidden for long and soon, what should be their private business becomes a very public scandal.

How far will everyone – them, their
families and the whole community – go to protect everything they hold dearest?

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After studying at Edinburgh University, Emily Edwards worked for a think tank in New York before returning to London where she worked as a support worker for vulnerable women at a large charity. She now lives in Lewes, East Sussex with her endlessly patient husband and her two endlessly energetic young sons. Her previous novel, The Herd, was a number one bestseller.

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My thoughts: I went to school before the internet, if there was gossip about teachers it was confined to our theories on the playground, and to parents at the school gates, you didn’t really believe they had private lives and you certainly didn’t know anything about them.

Now of course that isn’t the case, quite a few of my friends are teachers and they work hard to separate their professional and private selves. Occasionally bumping into your students in the supermarket is one thing, but the kind of drama in this book is something else entirely.

Seb might have done something that will harm his marriage, but is it really anyone else’s business? The scandal that follows comes from his best friend’s wife, Anna. She’s the one that decides it should be everyone’s business and in doing so ruins relationships and lives, including her own.

The repercussions from her decision to tell everyone what Seb did are shocking and violent, her inability to keep things to herself lead to some very nasty reactions. But what emerges from the rubble are in some cases, stronger relationships, healthier ones with no secrets. Maybe small town living isn’t for everyone, in a larger place, where people don’t know you quite so well, you can keep your past private.

*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: Home Before Dark – Eva Björg, Ægisdottir, translated by Victoria Cribb

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November, 1967, Iceland. Fourteen-year-old Marsí has a secret penpal – a boy who lives on the other side of the country – but she has been writing to him in her older sister’s name. Now she is excited to meet him for the first time. But when the date arrives, Marsí is prevented from going, and during the night her sister Stína goes missing – her bloodstained anorak later found at the place where Marsí and her penpal had agreed to meet. 

November, 1977. Stína’s disappearance remains unsolved. Then an unexpected letter arrives for Marsí It’s from her penpal, and he’s still out there…  Desperate for news of her missing sister, but terrified that he might coming after her next, Marsí returns to her hometown and embarks on an investigation of her own. But Marsí has always had trouble distinguishing her vivid dreams from reality, and as insomnia threatens her sanity, it seems she can’t even trust her own memories. And her sister’s killer is still on the loose…

Born in Akranes, Eva Björg Ægisdóttir studied for an MSc in Globalisation in Norway before returning to Iceland and deciding to write a novel. Her debut, The Creak on the Stairs, was published in 2018, becoming a bestseller in Iceland and going on to win the Blackbird Award and the Storytel Award for Best Crime Novel of the Year. It was published in English by Orenda Books in 2020, and became a number-one bestseller in ebook, shortlisting for Capital Crime’s Amazon Publishing Awards in two categories, and winning the CWA John Creasey New Blood Dagger.

Girls Who Lie, Night Shadows, You Can’t See Me and Boys Who Hurt soon followed suit, shortlisting for the CWA Crime in Translation Dagger, the Capital Crime Awards, and the Petrona Award for Best Scandinavian Crime Novel. You Can’t See Me won the Storytel Award for Best Crime Novel of the Year in Iceland in 2023. In 2024, Eva won Iceland’s prestigious Crime Fiction Award, the Blood Drop, for Home before Dark and was shortlisted for the coveted Glass Key. The Forbidden Iceland series has established Eva as one of Iceland’s bestselling and most distinguished crime writers, and her books are published in eighteen languages with more than a million copies sold.

My thoughts: This was really good, sinister and full of twists and red herrings. Marsí has returned to her parents’ house on the tenth anniversary of her older sister’s disappearance when they were teenagers. She’s determined to find out what happened to Stina, and who killed her.

She’s received a letter from the penpal she failed to meet on the very evening Stina vanished. Something she has always thought connected. Could the boy she was writing to be the person who harmed her sister? She was using Stina’s name and parts of her identity, like her age, in her letters. But she doesn’t think her sister knew anything about them.

With dual timelines, showing Stina and Marsí in both 1967 and ’77, the truth is slowly revealed to us, and it is shocking. Marsí also finally confronts her parents about their reluctance to search for their missing daughter and the limited police investigation. What they believe happened completely changes everything for her.

*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: The Whistle of Revenge – KD Sherrinford

ramblingmads

Sometimes, our deepest fear is not the darkness but the light that blinds.

If you loved Conan Doyle’s, The Hound of the Baskervilles, prepare to be enthralled by KD Sherrinford’s captivating follow-up, The Whistle of Revenge.

The deadly antagonist, Jack Stapleton, makes a spectacular return to the city of Milan in pursuit of his old nemesis, the celebrated Detective Sherlock Holmes.

Adopting the enigmatic persona of Janus, a vengeful Stapleton, along with the Italian mafia, wreak havoc on the Italian horse racing fraternity and fledgling car manufacturing industry, and kidnapping Holmes’s beloved son as part of their evil and well-executed master plan— Operation Whistle.

Will Holmes, Irene Adler, and their trusted ally, Inspector Romano, crack the code, rescue the boy, and unmask the deadly Janus?

Set against the backdrop of modern Milan, mind games and misdeeds of the highest order play out as the story reaches its thrilling and memorable conclusion.

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KD Sherrinford was born and raised in Preston, Lancashire, and now resides on The Fylde Coast with her husband John, and their four children.
An avid reader from an early age, KD was fascinated by the stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie, she read the entire Doyle Canon by the time she was 13.
A talented pianist, KD played piano from age six, the music of some of her favourite
composers, Beethoven, Schubert, Stephen Foster, and Richard Wagner, all strongly feature in her novel.
KD had a varied early career, working with horses and racing greyhounds, she and her husband won the Blackpool Greyhound Derby in 1987 with Scottie.
Then to mix things up KD joined Countrywide, where she was employed for over 20 years and became a Fellow of The National Association of Estate Agents.
Retirement finally gave KD the opportunity to follow her dreams and start work on her first novel. She gained inspiration to write” Song for Someone” from her daughter Katie, after a
visit to the Sherlock Holmes museum on Baker Street in 2019. It had always been a passion to write about Irene Adler, she is such an iconic character, and KD wanted to give her a voice.

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My thoughts: This is an interesting series, imagining that Irene Adler, the infamous woman who beat Sherlock Holmes, later became the detective’s wife, although he uses an other identity in an attempt to keep his family safe from his enemies.

Unfortunately that has failed – a vengeful Jack Stapleton, presumed dead at the end of The Hound of the Baskervilles, has returned to destroy the detective. Working with the Italian mafia, in a rather intricate plot to steal a painting, fix a horse race and kidnap Holmes’ son Nicco for an extortionate ransom.

As Holmes and the police race to find Nicco and foil the rest of the plot, the gang Stapleton has assembled carry out the rest of the plot, but Holmes is one step ahead of them. Inspector Romano (think an Italian Lestrade, but smarter) has liaised with colleagues across Italy to stop the bigger conspiracy from going ahead.

Clever, engaging writing, with lots of twists, a devastated Irene and Sherlock must put aside their fears, rely on the police and Holmes’ genius as well as Nicco’s inherited brilliance to bring the boy safely home to them.

*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: The Reunion – Sonya Bateman

ramblingmads

I almost didn’t come.
Even with the free champagne, the five-star resort, the promise of closure.
Even though it’s fifteen years since we all finished high school.
But now I’m here. Snowed in.
And someone’s already dead.

It should’ve been a reunion. Laughter. Memories. Old friends — even if
they never  really saw me. But our old prom dates are waiting tables. Our teachers are lurking in  corridors. And one by one, the people I once called friends are acting like we’re back  in school. There are eight of us.

There were eight of us then.
But one vanished after prom.
And someone knows what really happened that night. They invited us here for a reason.
And they’re not going to let us leave.

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Sonya Bateman is an award-winning copywriter and novelist, a mid-eighties to late-nineties fantasy movie enthusiast, coffee hoarder, and collector of cool rocks who spent a not-insignificant portion of her childhood climbing trees in order to read books in peace. She grew up in Central New York, where the seasons are Winter and Road Construction and “not the city” is officially part of everyone’s address.
Sonya has been writing professionally for more than 15 years. She currently lives in a big house in a little city, still in Central New York (not the city), with her husband, son, and feline overlords. She writes fast-
paced urban fantasy and twisty, shocking psychological fiction that may leave you suspicious of your friends and neighbors—and sleeping with the lights on.

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My thoughts: We don’t really do high school reunions in the UK, thankfully. There aren’t a huge number of people I’d want to see again, those I do I am by and large still in contact with.

But they do seem a popular thing in films, books and TV shows (I don’t know how realistic that is) in the States. And having read this, I’m not sure why. You change a huge amount after leaving school, hopefully. And going back in time, no thank you.

Desiree isn’t entirely sure why she’s decided to attend this reunion, she’s avoided all the previous ones, but here she is, in a luxury resort at the top of a mountain in the snow with some of her old “friends”.

And someone has arranged for her a selection of other old faces from school to be there too, and the events of that rather dramatic prom night – where one student died and another disappeared – are brought shockingly back to them.

Terrifying moments are in store for the assembled group, someone wants revenge and is willing to kill for it.

Gripping, with its mysteries and twists, it will make you glad your high school days weren’t quite so dramatic (I hope).

*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: .Dot/Slash (Magic) – Liz Shipton

ramblingmads

Welcome to the ARC tour for Dot Slash Magic, a truly genre-blurring with magic, AI and punk culture, and spice, all in an academy setting! Follow #rrbtDotSlashMagicTour for early reviews and more!

Dot Slash Magic

Expected Release Date: August 19, 2025

Genre: Spicy Urban Romantasy/ “Romantas-topian”

Perfect for fans of I am Number Four and Zodiac Academy

Tropes:

  • Romantas-topian
  • Academy setting
  • Found family
  • Forced proximity
  • Strangers to lovers
  • Slow burn
  • New adult

Micro Tropes:

☆Unique Magic System

☆Bonkers Spice

☆College Setting

☆Punk Vibes

☆🍆Jokes

☆Monsters & Mayhem

☆Enby & Ace Folks

☆Cat

Blurb:

When twenty-something coder Seven Jones goes back to school at a community college in San Diego, the last thing she wants is to join some stupid club. And the last thing she expects is for that club to be an underground magic club. Like, actual wizards and sh*t.

Surrounded by a motley crew of magic weirdos, Seven discovers her own power and struggles to control it…until she figures out how to channel her magic through an artificially intelligent computer program.

But when terrifying creatures from all sorts of mythologies show up and start hunting students, Seven fears her magic AI is somehow summoning them. When another student is killed, blame falls on Seven and her “artificial magic.”

With only one person – cute ex-Navy seal Logan – on her side, Seven fights for her life against the monsters, and struggles to convince everyone that her AI has nothing to do with them.

But how can she convince her peers when she isn’t totally convinced herself?

Dot Slash Magic is a “Romantas-topian” about love and friendship and how we can work together to bring down the real bad guys.

PRE-ORDER HERE

My thoughts: Seven agrees to go to college in exchange for her late uncle’s boat, Dragonfly, to use as her home. She signs up for some courses, not entirely sure what she wants to do. A coder, one of the courses is in computing, she has to design a program, which she does. Only Dot is a little more sentient than most AI.

At the same time Seven has also stumbled into a secret club operating at the college. A club of magic users – not wizards, and not all very friendly. Seven it seems has magic powers and with the help of Dot, she can do all sorts of things, like levitate. But something has gone terribly wrong.

This was a really fun read, I liked Seven, I felt for her as she struggles to fit in and make friends, being a bit older than some of the other students and a bit socially awkward. She is a good person, nothing she’s done is malicious. Not intentionally.

I’m keen to see what happens next, as the end third of the story is very different and puts a different spin on the preceding story so it would be interesting to see how it proceeds.

IG: @lizshiptonauthor @rrbooktours

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#rrbooktours #rrbtDotSlashMagicTour #dotslashmagic #dotslashmagic #lizshipton #urbanromantasy #spicyromantasy #urbanfantasy #scifantasy #arctour #booktours

*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: You Can Trust Me – Miranda Rijks

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They were the best of friends. And the worst of enemies.

When yoga teacher Amelia falls victim to an online scam, her colleague Paige really comes through for her. And with their daughters Marnie and Taryn becoming best friends, the two families grow even closer.
But all is not as it seems. Paige has an agenda.

Once she has won Amelia’s trust, Paige starts to execute her carefully laid plan… stealing Amelia’s money, destroying her business, undermining her marriage. All the while pretending to be Amelia’s closest friend.

Will Amelia realize what’s going on before it’s too late? Or will Paige succeed in turning her life into a living hell before finally extinguishing it?

Two women trapped in a fight to the bitter end – the best of friends, the worst of enemies.

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Miranda Rijks is a writer of fast-paced, twisty psychological thrillers many of which have been Amazon bestsellers. She has an eclectic background ranging from law to running a garden centre.
After surviving bone cancer, Miranda turned to writing and is now living the dream, writing suspense novels full time.
She lives in West Sussex, England with her Dutch husband and two black Labradors and spends as much time as she can in the Swiss Alps.

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My thoughts: Amelia is a bit naive, falling for an online scam rather easily, then as things start to get worse in her life, she doesn’t really try to resolve anything, just expecting things to just sort themselves out. But when the crunch comes and her daughter’s the one at threat, she comes through.

Paige’s plan has been a long time coming, and is very cruel. It isn’t actually Amelia’s fault, but her pain and grief have twisted things in her mind and Amelia is the person she pours that rage into destroying.

An enjoyable, intelligent thriller with two mothers who will do whatever they can for their children.

*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: Murder at Castle Vyne – Louise Marley

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More than a decade ago, the body of eighteen-year-old Sarah Grove was found floating among the water lilies in the pond at Castle Vyne. The case was never solved. Now her sister Natalie is determined to finally uncover the truth.

But when Natalie appears publicly to discuss Sarah’s murder, she never expects it to unleash a deadly chain of events. Within hours, bodies start turning up in the nearby village of Calahurst… it
seems someone will do anything to keep the past buried.

As Natalie delves deeper into her family’s history – with the help of mysterious castle gardener Bryn Llewellyn – she finds that nothing is truly what it seems. Behind the charming castle walls and chocolate-box cottages, the respectable villagers of Calahurst are hiding some very deadly secrets indeed.

When another young woman is found dead in the very same lily pond where Sarah died, Natalie realises the killer has returned to finish what they started. But in a village where everyone has something to hide, who can she trust? And will she become the next victim of Castle Vyne’s deadly legacy?

Set in the world of Raven’s Edge, this standalone gothic cosy mystery will have you up all night!

Perfect for fans of Clare Chase, Fiona Leitch and Agatha Christie.

This book was previously published as Nemesis and has since had significant rewrites.

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Most of my stories are set in small villages filled with quirky characters. These are partly inspired by the places I’ve lived in over the years, although the characters are straight out of my imagination!

I currently live in Wales, close to a famous library and two ruined castles. My husband thinks we moved here by accident.

My first published novel was Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, which was a finalist in Poolbeg’s Write a Bestseller competition. As well as nine novels, I’ve written short stories for women’s magazines such
as Take a Break and My Weekly. Before becoming a full-time writer, I worked as an administrative officer for the police.

When I’m not writing, I enjoy visiting big old houses, which I use as inspiration for the houses in my novels, and reading other people’s books when I ought to be writing my own…

Website Raven’s Edge Bluesky

My thoughts: Another excellent mystery thriller from Louise, I really enjoyed her previous books and this was just as good.

Natalie’s sister Sarah was murdered over ten years ago, and now a crime novelist herself, she’s determined to find the killer. During a TV interview about her latest book, she mentions a diary her sister wrote, hoping to lure the killer out. Instead she unleashes chaos. Her home is broken into and ransacked, her dad’s care home goes up in flames and she’s nearly killed herself.

With the help of Welsh landscaper Bryn, she carries on, someone in the small town knows something and the killer might just be closer than she thinks.

With lots of twists and turns, a genuinely unpleasant mother (if Cruella DeVil was a parent), some rather dodgy suspects (all of the men in her life up till now are a bit…odd) and a very determined protagonist, this was a really fun read, clever and compelling.

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