Category: books

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Blog Tour: Reformed – Holly Monroe

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We’re celebrating the upcoming release of Reformed, book one in The Rift Wars series by Holly Monroe! Pre-order or get it February 21st!

Reformed (The Rift Wars Book 1)

Expected Publication Date: Feb 21

Genre: PNR/ Why Choose/ Academy

– Why choose
– MFMMM
– Academy (prison reform school)
– Mythology and folklore inspiration
– Slow burn
– Virgin MMCs
– Shy cyclops
– Golden retriever reaper
– Hot for teacher
– Mystery to solve
– Politics and subterfuge

In a realm where being supernatural is all but illegal, Stella Mikers has hidden her supernatural spirit and done it well for over a decade. Up against the wire to produce a piece of hard-hitting journalism to solidify her career and no other ideas, she decides it’s time to come out of hiding and embrace what she truly is – a Valkyrie.

She dusts off her wings and goes undercover at Robert Sinclair’s Reformation Academy, the prison alternative that boasts the ability to turn supernaturals into simplynaturals, removing what makes them different and allowing them to better assimilate into society.

But there is something fishy about a vampire who can now be a phlebotomist and a necromancer who works as a mortician. Stella is determined to discover what is going on behind those golden gates and expose the Academy to the realm.

What she didn’t expect to find at the Academy were starving vampires who wanted to feed from her feet, a shy cyclops suitemate, or a reaper who is sunshine personified. Even one of her simplynatural professors draws her attention in a way she can’t explain. Stella’s plan didn’t include making friends, but now that she has, she’s dead set on doing whatever it takes to keep them safe.

Robert Sinclair’s Reformation Academy has a dark secret, and it’s up to Stella to uncover it before all of them are reformed.

Reformed is the first book in a planned four book why choose paranormal romance series, meaning Stella will not have to choose between her love interests. This slow-burn MFMMM book is intended for adult audiences and contains explicit content.

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Blog Tour – Late Venetian – GN Lawson

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A disgraced former MP, Teddy Chesterton, is dying. He wants to put things right with
his ex-wife, Laura, the only woman he has ever loved, but who left him after
believing he deceived her. Teddy finds out that Laura has recently been widowed
and invites her to come with him to Venice. To his surprise, she accepts.

They first meet at a gallery where Teddy’s university friend, Paul Merrick works, and
Laura is offered the chance to work in London to help stage an exhibition of
paintings by Tiepolo. Paul asks Laura to do him a favour and authenticate a sketch
by the younger Tiepolo. She is told subsequently that what she believed to be a genuine Tiepolo was a fake, and her reputation in the art world is ruined.
She blames Teddy for his part in getting her involved with Paul. They divorce, and
Teddy goes to prison for money laundering.

Upon his release, he visits Paul, who explains that he had nothing to do with the sketch being a fake and that it was copied by a forger to whom he had unwittingly sold the original.

In Venice, Teddy gives Laura a pile of papers that prove Paul did not set out to
deceive her about the sketch he asked her to authenticate. Teddy knows that he
has done what he set out to do, even if everything is just too late.

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Apart from three years studying History of Art and Philosophy at University College
London, I have lived my entire life in the North West – born in Warrington, lived and worked in Manchester, and fourteen years ago moved to north Cumbria.

After several years of freelance arts journalism, I ran a NW-based public relations agency called Lawson Leah in the 1990s, then worked for various organisations in the construction industry, as CEO of Construction for Merseyside Ltd and then Director of the Civil Engineering Contractors’ Association. I have been a guest lecturer on urban regeneration and chaired a housing association for three years, and now work part-time as a consultant.

I have had articles on a range of topics, including the arts, construction,
engineering, housing and economic development published in numerous
magazines, as well as poetry and a guidebook to waterway walks in the NW.

My approach to writing tends to involve identifying a problematic situation and then finding a means of resolving it. I derive particular pleasure from finding the right words to achieve that. I was first inspired to write, as a teenager, after reading The Catcher in the Rye, and latterly find inspiration in the daunting novels of Bellow, Nabokov and Pynchon.

My thoughts: Teddy invites his ex-wife Laura to join him on a short trip to Venice, she is the only woman he’s ever loved and he doesn’t blame her for divorcing him when she did.

The story of their relationship is told in turns by them, the story of how a Jewish New Yorker art historian met a Home Counties Tory MP (as he became). It’s bittersweet as you know from the beginning that they aren’t together any more and that Laura moved on. It’s also the story of an art fraud that they were implicated in, one that could have ended very badly.

Teddy is dying, something he keeps from Laura even as they relive their previous trips to Venice and their life together. He leaves her with the proof that the art fraud that destroyed their marriage was not done with malice towards them, that it was in fact the buyer of the piece that perpetrated it and they were merely caught up in. While we’re not given Laura’s reaction, after everything else we as readers know, it would be a shock.

Once you get into the narrative flow, and the way it passes back and forth between Teddy and Laura, between the past and the present, it’s a well written and quite engaging story, Teddy is a bit of a rogue and Laura slightly naive and unworldly, but somehow it worked and they have two adult children together, keeping them always just in each other’s lives long after their marriage ended. A fascinating and thoughtful read. 

*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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Book Blitz: Escape to the French Riviera – Helga Jensen

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Can Lucy find her second-chance romance in the glamour of the French Riviera?
When aspiring author Lucy attends a rich friend’s 50th birthday party in glamorous Monaco, she has no idea that her life is about to change forever.

Heartsore after a broken marriage, she is not looking for love so when she meets Elias, and he offers to take her sailing on his employer’s boat, she agrees only as research for the book she desperately
wants to write. They bond over their adult children – who seem to want to clip their wings and force them into living like pensioners – and the chemistry is undeniable.
But is he all he seems? And is she ready to trust again?

An uplifting, later-in-life romance perfect for fans of Milly Johnson, Jo Thomas and Julie Caplin.

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Helga Jensen is an award-winning British/Danish best-selling author and journalist. Her debut novel was a winning entry in the 2017 Montegrappa First Fiction competition at Dubai’s Emirates Literary Festival. Her debut was also a contender for the coveted 2021 Joan Hessayon
Award for new writers. Helga’s best-selling novel, Fly me to Paris, was a finalist for the 2024 Popular Romantic Fiction Award.
Helga holds a BA Hons in English Literature and Creative Writing, along with a Creative Writing MA from Bath Spa University. She is currently finishing a PhD.

Twitter – @HelgajensenF
Instagram – @Helgajensenauthor
Facebook – @Helgajensenfordeauthor

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Blog Tour: The Case of the Christie Conspiracy – Kelly Oliver

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Agatha Christie is about to embark on a new, gripping murder case. But this time, she’s not the author – she’s a suspect…

1926 – Christie is a darling of the literary circuit and the most desired guest in London’s glittering social scene. She can often be found at meetings of the Detection Club – where mystery writers
come together to share ideas, swap secrets and drink copiously. But then a fellow author’s initiation ceremony takes a gruesome turn, and one of the group ends up dead. Now, Agatha is no longer just
the creator of great mystery plots – she’s a player in one.

And when Agatha disappears the day after the murder, she’s widely assumed to be guilty. Only Eliza Baker, assistant to the Club’s enigmatic secretary, Dorothy Sayers, is interested in investigating the case. But in a world where murder is the ultimate plot device, can Eliza piece together the evidence and find the killer before it’s too late?

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Kelly Oliver is the award-winning, bestselling author of three mysteries series: The Jessica James Mysteries, The Pet Detective Mysteries, and the historical cozies The Fiona Figg Mysteries, set in
WW1. She is also the Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University and lives in Nashville, Tennessee. She is bringing new titles in the Fiona Figg series to Boldwood, the first of
which, Chaos in Carnegie Hall, will be published in November 2022.

Facebook: @KellyOliverAuthor
Twitter: @KellyOliverBook
Instagram: @kellyoliverbooks
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Bookbub profile: @KellyOliverBook

My thoughts: Blending fact and fiction, this is a fun historical crime caper. Agatha Christie was indeed a member of the Detection Club, a group of the top crime writers of the era, and she did disappear for a while in 1926, turning up in Harrogate with apparent temporary amnesia. This is usually attributed to the fact that her husband had asked for a divorce so he could marry his secretary. Agatha never revealed anything about this episode and after some time refused to discuss it at all.

But here an alternative theory is proposed, following the murder of a fellow crime writer, one of which she is accused of doing, she flees in fear. Although shooting someone in the dark isn’t very Christie – a former pharmacist she knew her poisons very well and many of her books feature death by deadly dose.

Luckily for her, Dorothy Sayers, the club’s secretary is on the case (Sayers and Arthur Conan Doyle did really look for her when she went missing) and so is her assistant Eliza Baker (sadly, fictional), who has some experience in these matters after working at Scotland Yard during the war.

I really liked Eliza, she was smart, resourceful and a lot more intuitive than the police, solving both the murder and Mrs Christie’s disappearance with apparent ease and playing a lot of chess along the way. I hope this is the start of a cracking series featuring the Detection Club and Eliza, who is a better detective than the creators of some of the most famous. She also has a faithful canine companion, and as you probably know by now, an animal detective is always a bonus in my book.

And don’t worry about Agatha, as well as being one of the most successful writers of all time, she also found love again with archaeologist Max Mallowen, and even went on digs with him, which inspired some of her more far flung books like Death on the Nile. Yes, I am a huge fan and a total nerd, why thank you.

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

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Cover Reveal: The Imminent Return of History – Catalina Matei

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We’re thrilled to share the cover for the next book in Catalina Matei’s Vials of Fate series, The Imminent Return of History!

The Imminent Return of History (Vials of Fate Book 2)

Expected Publication Date: April 15, 2025

Genre: Dark Fantasy

  • Dragons
  • Fated mates
  • War
  • Found family
  • Hidden truths
  • Banter
  • Strong FMC
  • Dual POV
  • Magical creatures

In a world shaped by the rippling effects of war, free will became the chain that tied a king’s vanity to his greed.

Having survived her trials, Tiadola discovered that appearances were deceiving. As secrets unravel, she must navigate the darkness clouding her mind while fighting for a chance at happiness with Zadrohn.

History repeats itself as magic and power intertwine, shifting the tides in King Tuddn’s favour. The looming war between humans and Soronians is inevitable, and every conflict demands a victor.

Outnumbered and overpowered, yet resolute, can Tiadola and Zadrohn secure the human nation’s independence, or will their efforts crumble under the weight of forces beyond their control?

PRE-ORDER HERE

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Blog Tour: Happily Ever After – Jane Lovering

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Andi Glover loves nothing more than a good book.
Any book in fact because when you’re raised by unconventional parents who think school’s for squares, alongside a deeply conventional sister who escapes home as soon as she can, fiction is
eminently preferable to reality.
The only problem is that fiction isn’t the best way to learn about the real world.

When Andi starts her new live-in job at Templewood Hall for the eccentric Lady Dawe and her enigmatic son Hugo, it’s
tempting to think she’s fallen into the pages of one of her favourite gothic novels.
But the plot twists at Templewood Hall are stranger than fiction and it’s not long before Andi questions if she’s living in a romance novel or a whodunnit. Bumps in the night, a missing heir, ghostly apparitions and secrets that have been kept for generations – the mysteries mount up. Then there’s the inscrutable gardener who seems to appear when needed – is Andi right to hope for a happily-ever-after end to her story?

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Jane Lovering is a bestselling and multi-award winning romantic comedy writer. Most recently Jane won the RNA Contemporary Romantic Novel Award in 2023 with A Cottage Full of Secrets. She lives in Yorkshire and has a cat and a bonkers terrier, as well as five children who have now left home.

Facebook: @jane.lovering
Twitter: @janelovering
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Bookbub profile: @janelovering

My thoughts: This was a lot of fun, I liked Andi, and her job cataloguing the dusty and neglected library is pretty much my dream (although the dust is a health hazard, I’m asthmatic!) accompanied by resident feline, The Master.

She’s supposed to be looking for the diaries of the house’s one time master, grandfather to Hugo, Lady Tanith’s father-in-law, with whom she is obsessed. But the diaries don’t seem to be anywhere Andi can find, and Lady Tanith is not happy.

What Andi does find is a whole heap of secrets, and considering that there’s only a few people in the house, it’s impressive that they’ve managed to keep them. She also finds a deaf gardener, Jay, with whom she develops a slightly awkward relationship. He almost drowns her in the fountain, she catches him peeing in the bushes, it’s very rom-com esque.

She’s slightly worried that Lady Tanith will either sack her or marry her off to poor Hugo, who doesn’t really want that either. Although he does need a friend. His mother is completely nuts and horrible.

As Andi’s time at the house is under pressure, and she’s still sort of falling for Jay, things take a few twists and turns.  It’s lots of fun to read, but probably quite stressful to live, so maybe I won’t hire myself out as a librarian archivist just yet.

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

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Cover Reveal: Roar of the Sky – Calla Zae

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We’re thrilled to present the cover for Roar of the Sky: An Asian Romantasy Story by Calla Zae!

Roar of the Sky (Infinara Dragons #1)

Expected Publication Date: October 23, 2025

Genre: Asian Romantasy

  • Age-Gap Relationship
  • Slow Burn Romance
  • Morally Gray Alpha
  • Mentor/Mentee
  • Vengeance Driven
  • Found Family
  • Steam and Suspense
  • Magical Connection
  • Happily Ever After

Hardened by heartache and too many bloody battles, General Wen Hung is focused on protecting his land and nothing more. When a beautiful healer uses a unique skill to save him from a deadly attack, she shifts something inside his heart. Now, he wants something that both terrifies and comforts him.

Determined to pave her own path, Zhao Mei Su is a talented healer with the passion of a warrior. But she has no teacher to educate her until she dares an adept warrior much older than her to give her lessons. The more she practices, the more her energy field transforms, connecting her to a cosmic realm she never knew existed. When a dragon roars for her, confusion and wonder set in as the unavoidable battle between the dark and the light erupts.

As darkness intensifies around them, Su and Hung join forces with the dragon realm to protect something more precious than they could ever imagine.

KICKSTARTER

Triggers:

  • Death of a young child
  • Violence
  • Steamy Scenes

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Blog Tour: Hollow Ground – Freya Wallace

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In the rugged wilderness of Dartmoor, school teacher Sophie Parsons vanishes without a trace during a weekend trek. For Detective Inspector Jacob Knox, Sophie’s disappearance stirs unsettling echoes of a previous case involving another woman who vanished in the same desolate moorland six months earlier.

As Knox delves deeper, he uncovers the complexities of Sophie’s personal life, including a secret affair with a charismatic colleague and a tense relationship with her long-term boyfriend, Peter. But Sophie’s tangled love life is just the beginning of Knox’s troubles. A local legend about a beast stalking the moors resurfaces, fueling public fear and media speculation. Is it just a myth, or could something more sinister be at play?

With time running out and the possibility that two women have been claimed by the moor, Knox faces his toughest case yet—one that will test him professionally and personally. As the case unfolds, Knox realizes the dark truths buried beneath the surface of Sophie’s life may be the key to unlocking the mystery.

Introducing DI Jacob Knox, Hollow Ground is a gripping crime thriller set in the eerie
beauty of Devon’s Dartmoor, blending elements of mystery, suspense, and psychological depth to explore the blurred lines between human vulnerability and the unknown.

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Freya Wallace is a crime writer based in Devon. Her debut novel, Hollow Ground, introduces DI Knox in the first book of an atmospheric new series set against the backdrop of her local area. A lifelong reader, she always wanted to see a gripping crime series unfold in the place
she knows best.
When she’s not writing or reading, Freya can be found walking her two German Shepherds
along the local beaches.

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My thoughts: This was a really good, tense, crime thriller. Women have been going missing on Dartmoor – not an easy place to find a missing person. The local police are up against it, not helped by rumours that the infamous beast of legend is roaming once more.

As DI Knox and his team dig into Sophie’s life, trying to work out what her connection to the previous victim might be, if any, and whether she was targeted or just convenient, they uncover her secrets, do either her longterm boyfriend or colleague lover have anything to do with her disappearance?

Knox’s personal life also becomes more complicated in the form of his troubled brother, he wants to help him but needs to focus on the case. There’s also potential romance with her dog walker, Lucy, but when does he have time to date, there’s missing women and a dangerous person to find.

Clever, twisting and totally gripping, this is a great start to hopefully a new series of crime set in Devon.

*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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Book Blitz: Unbound – Brittany Gossin

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Download Unbound by Brittany Gossin Amazon for only $0.99 TODAY!

Unbound (Dragonflight #1) by @brittanygossinwrites

✨ Dragon shifters
✨ Stabby FMC
✨ Blood Witches
✨ Slow burn
✨ Forbidden love
✨ Quests and adventure
✨ Spice 🌶️🌶️🌶️
✨ Banter
✨ One bed
✨ Wingspan

What binds a Dragon shifter, a Princess seeking salvation in the North, and a desperate crime syndicate?

Welcome to Vicerona, a hub of debauchery ruled by crime lords, where Dragon shifters are imprisoned for crossing the wall, and Blood Witches threaten from the North.

Keagan Ragnor faces a dire threat: a plague ravaging Dragon shifters. To save his family, he must brave the perilous journey across the wall to secure the elusive Crimson Shard.

Princess Avalon Tremaine refuses to accept her fate of an unwanted marriage. With the Crimson Shard as her only hope, she must defy her destiny.

Meanwhile, Malcolm Thorpe, Rowena Blackridge, and Zedock Cannon—a trio of audacious criminals—embark on their most daring venture yet: the pursuit of the elusive Crimson Shard, a gamble that could erase their debts or seal their doom.

Who will reach the shard first and at what cost?

🔗 https://www.amazon.com/Unbound-Dragonflight-Brittany-Gossin-ebook/dp/B0DT4RPWVL

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@brittanygossinwrites @rrbooktours

#rrbooktours #rrbtUbound #ebooksale #naromantasy #romantasybooks #dragonshifters #kindlebookdeals #kindlesale

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Blog Tour: You Are Fatally Invited – Ande Pliego

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Six thriller authors. One writing retreat.
You’d die to be on the guest list . . .

The Host
Legendary mystery author J. R. Alastor’s books are sold all over the world, but no one knows his real name. After years hiding in the shadows, he has sent out six invitations to an exclusive murder mystery retreat on his private island.

The Assistant
Mila del Angél has been hired to ensure the week runs smoothly. She has yearned for revenge on a ghost from her past for years – and this could be her chance to get it.

The Players
The six bestselling thriller writers accept their invitations without question – it’s an opportunity any author would kill for.

The Game
What should have been a week of trope-filled games takes a sinister turn when one guest is found dead, and the others find themselves in the midst of a nightmare drawn from Alastor’s
dark imagination. They may have written thrillers – but now they and Mila must survive one…

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ANDE PLIEGO began writing stories when she discovered she could actually wield her overactive imagination for good.
A lover of stories with teeth, she writes books involving mind games, dark humour, general murder and mayhem, characters pushed to the edge of themselves, and most importantly, finding the hope in the dark.
When not reading or writing, she can usually be found dabbling in art, scheming up her next trip, or making constant expeditions to the library.
Born in Florida, raised in France, and having left footprints all over the globe, Ande is settled in the Pacific Northwest, USA, with her craftsman husband and little son.

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My thoughts: I really, really enjoyed this. It was just a very “me” book, thriller writers on a murder mystery weekend that ends up in more murder than expected, on a deserted island. Hello, have you ever read any Agatha Christie? Ever seen the movie Clue? Do not go on this retreat.

Obviously as a reader I am delighted that authors continue to send their characters into red flag draped bad ideas. But I will not be accepting invitations to these things. People always get killed. Messily, and entertainingly, yes, but I want to live to read more blackly comic, twisted, fun things like this.

I’m still not 100% a Mila fan, I think she still needs to deal with some stuff, but I do love a Final Girl or two. Even a Final Boy.

There are twists galore, as the victims end up killed like their characters, and someone has a very personal vendetta. Can you work out who J.R is? I didn’t quite get there fast enough, and there are clues to how it’s all connected. But the characters don’t have all the pieces.

Lots of fun, really enjoyed it, cannot wait to see what Ande does next.

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