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Blog Tour: Vicious Luna – C.J. Primer

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Welcome to the book tour for Vicious Luna by C.J. Primer! Read on for more details!

Vicious Luna: An Enemies to Lovers Wolf Shifter Romance (Shadowed Heirs Book Four)

Publication Date: September 17, 2024

Genre: PNR/ Shifters

  • Fated Mates
  • PNR (Wolf Shifters)
  • Enemies to Lovers
  • Forced Proximity
  • Hostage Situation
  • Strong FMC who takes no shit
  • Morally grey MMC
  • Primal play
  • Secrets & Lies

I usually dance on bars, not find myself waking up behind them.

I’m in a cell, captured by the enemy that has been hunting my kind for the past decade. They’re holding me hostage to use for leverage in their sick extermination effort, forcing me to live through my worst nightmare and subjecting me to unspeakable horrors. While a lesser woman would give up, I’ll stop at nothing to find a way to escape this place, even if it means crossing a few lines.

The guy who’s keeping me under lock and key is stone cold, but there’s no mistaking the way he looks at me. As much as he hates himself for it, he wants me, and that’s something I can work with.

Little by little, I’ll let him get closer. I’ll make him believe I’m playing his game while setting a honey trap he can’t help but get caught in. He’ll think he’s breaking me down, but I’ll just be biding my time, waiting for an opening to shove a knife in his back and set myself free.

There’s only one problem with my plan, though…

There’s a fine line between love and hate.

Vicious Luna is book four in the Shadowed Heirs series, a collection of paranormal romance novels centered around a group of aligned packs of wolf shifters. These books contain mature content (steamy scenes!), frequent use of profanity, and darker themes. While each book in the series concludes with a HEA for the main couple featured, there are some loose ends concerning the overarching storyline that runs throughout the entire five-book series. This book can be enjoyed as a standalone. The first three books in the series are available on KU.

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TRIGGERS:

This book contains darker themes that may be triggering for some readers. Possible triggers include, but are not limited to: bullying, kidnapping, hostage situation, emotional blackmail, manipulation, dubious consent, rough sex, primal play, graphic violence, blood, gore, use of firearms, death, threat of sexual assault (not between MCs), anxiety, depression, and thoughts of self-harm. I have tried to handle all of these with care, and this story WILL have a happy ending. It’s just a rough road to get there, but if anyone can go through hell and come out stronger on the other side, it’s Avery. I hope you enjoy her story.

IG: @c.j.primer @rrbooktours

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#rrbooktours #rrbtViciousLuna #viciousluna #werewolfbooks #romancebooks #paranormalfiction #pnr #fatedmates #cjprimerbooks #shadowedheirsseries

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Blog Tour: A Curse So Wicked – River Ash

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We’re celebrating the beautiful and newly released book by River Ash, A Curse So Wicked!

A Curse so Wicked (Cursed Bloodline Book 1)

Publication Date: October 6, 2024

Genre: Romantic Fantasy

  • Deadly Bites
  • Vampire/Witches
  • Curse Witch
  • Elemental Witch
  • Vampire MMC
  • Witch FMC
  • His Bites Can Restore Her Magic

She’s anxious for a cure. He has the answer. With mutual magical enemies, will their sizzling chemistry survive a dangerous betrayal?

New Orleans. Hailey Knox needs a miracle. Born to a long line of powerful witches, the fire-haired bartender has tried everything to break a curse that stifles her magic. So when a mysterious, sexy bloodsucker claims he can crack the spell, she throws caution to the wind for the sake of her deathly ill granny.

John is frantically pursuing a deeply personal agenda. So the vampire seizes the opportunity to further his desperate aims by offering the despairing green-eyed goddess a deal too sweet to be true. But despite his hunger for the lovely redhead, he refuses to be distracted as he vows to pursue his goal to the treacherous end.

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Blogathon: Cold Reckoning Russ Thomas

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THE DARKNESS FROM HIS PAST WILL FINALLY COME TO LIGHT

The death of DS Tyler’s father irrevocably changed his life. As a child, he believed Richard had killed himself but, as the years have passed, Tyler has grown convinced he was murdered.   

When a cold case lands on Tyler’s desk, there’s nothing immediately notable about it, apart from the link it has to his father. Richard was investigating the same case shortly before he died.

Finally, Tyler has a tangible link to the past, one that could give him the answers he has been looking for. And while there are dangerous people who will do anything to keep him quiet, he knows he has to keep digging.

Because you’d risk anything for your family – even your life.

Russ Thomas grew up in the 80s reading anything he could get his hands on, writing stories, watching television, and playing videogames: in short, anything that avoided the Great Outdoors. After a few ‘proper’ jobs, he discovered the joys of bookselling, where he could talk to people about books all day. Now a full-time writer, he also teaches creative writing classes and mentors new authors.

My thoughts: Tyler is getting closer to answers about his father’s death and the seam of corruption running through the city. He’s getting info from crooks as well as his father’s former colleagues. He knows his father’s suicide wasn’t right and he’s sure he’ll prove it.

There’s a frozen body in the lake, frozen before it even hit the water, and a teenage girl to protect. So it’s business as usual in that regard. But Tyler is also looking for his missing boss/godmother, sure Stevens has done something terrible to her.

As some of the storylines running through the series finally come to a conclusion with answers that Tyler (and I) finally get as the evidence and events combine in shocking twists. 

*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: A Random Kill – Andrew Barrett

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DS Regan Carter never imagined she would end up in the Major Crime Unit, surrounded by the one thing she despises most: death. But when a young mother is brutally killed and her baby kidnapped, Regan is thrown into a terrifying battle with a local organized crime group. As she closes in on the gang-members, she must also face the horror of her own past. Regan struggles to keep her head above water.

But this is just the beginning. As the OCG begins to crumble and secrets are revealed, Regan finds herself facing a threat that hits dangerously close to home. With her job, her reputation, and her life on the line, she must use all her skills and ferocity to take down the criminals before they take her down first.

For fans of gripping police procedurals, and crime thrillers with strong female leads, A Random Kill is a must-read. Don’t miss out on this heart-pounding debut in the DS Regan Carter series.

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Andrew Barrett has been a CSI since 1996, and one way or another, his life has revolved around crime ever since.

In 1997 he finished his first crime thriller, A Long Time Dead, and it’s still a readers’ favourite today, some 150,000 copies later, topping the Amazon charts several times. Two more books featuring SOCO Roger Conniston completed the trilogy.

Today, Andrew still produces authentic crime thrillers with a forensic flavour that attract attention from readers worldwide. He’s also attracted attention from the Yorkshire media, having been featured in the Yorkshire Post and interviewed on BBC Radio Leeds a couple of times.

He’s best known for his lead character, CSI Eddie Collins, and the acerbic way in which he roots out criminals, and administers justice. Eddie’s series is seven books and five novellas in length, and there’s still more to come.

There’s a new trilogy featuring feisty DS Regan Carter due out soon.

He’s a proud Yorkshireman and sets his novels there, using his home city of Leeds as another major, and complementary, character in each of the stories.

You can find out more about him and his writing at http://www.andrewbarrett.co.uk

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My thoughts: Regan Carter has been reassigned following her divorce (from her senior officer  – oops) to the Major Crime Unit where she’ll have to deal with the one thing she hates – death and dead bodies.

Called out to the scene of a terrible incident – a murdered young woman and her baby missing, taken by the person who killed her, Regan has to prove herself to her new team and to her new bosses.

The case gets more and more complicated, as the detectives dig into it, nothing is as straightforward as it seems and there are more bodies to come, the gang at the centre of the case is unravelling, and someone in the police might be passing on info.

Smart and fast paced, this book cracks along, with twists and turns at every step.

*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 for Christmas – Heidi Swain

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Bella is living her best life in Wynbridge, with her beloved Spaniel, Tink. She’s found a way to keep the house she inherited from her grandparents while expanding her dream business – Away With the Fairies – and she’s ecstatic that Christmas is on the horizon!

In fact, everything is perfect until family friend, Catherine Connelly asks Bella if she’d be willing to rent part of the house to freelance author, Jude who is researching the history of the Connelly Clan and Wynthorpe Hall ahead of turning his findings into a book. The plan had been for Jude to stay at the hall, but he can’t cope with the chaos and Bella reluctantly agrees to open her door to him.

Initially, the pair clash but then friendlier feelings begin to grow and Bella finds herself wondering if Jude could become more than just another guest before it’s time for him to leave. That is, until he announces he has no time for Christmas!

With her favourite time of the year suddenly in jeopardy, will Bella ever feel like she’s home for Christmas?

Heidi Swain is a Sunday Times Top Ten best-selling author who writes feel good fiction for Simon & Schuster. She releases two books a year (early summer and winter) and the stories all have a strong sense of community, family and friendship. She is currently writing books set in three locations – the Fenland town of Wynbridge, Nightingale Square in Norwich and Wynmouth on the Norfolk coast, as well as summer standalone titles.

Heidi lives in beautiful west Norfolk. She is passionate about gardening, the countryside, collecting vintage paraphernalia and reading. Her tbr pile is always out of control!

Heidi loves to chat with her readers and you can get in touch via her website or on social media.

My thoughts: I do enjoy a Heidi Swain Christmas book and this is really good, fun and charming, and it made me feel all cosy inside.

Bella makes fairies at her business Away With the Fairies, inspired by her love of Cicely Mary Barker’s Flower Fairies (my Nan gave me the whole series as a child, one book per birthday till I had them all) and other fairy related things. She’s good at it, and they sell well, especially in the run up to Christmas, so she’s going to be really busy.

And then she’s asked to take in a temporary guest – a writer called Jude, who’s been staying at the Hall but needs somewhere quiet to put together the history he’s writing. And she can’t really say no, as the Connollys have been so good to her over the years.

Cue chaos, Jude hates Christmas, Bella’s little flat is too small for all the fairy making paraphernalia and her dog, Tink, is disturbing him by barking. 

But as the festive season intensifies, and the pair get to know each other better, there’s a distinct something in the air…

Filled with Heidi’s charming characters and festive fun, this is a terrific cosy, mug of hit chocolate wrapped in a blanket with your favourite festive film (Muppets’ Christmas Carol for me) on the TV read. So get comfy and enjoy!

*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 Ravenswood Witch – Jenni Keer

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‘There are a lot of shadows at Ravenswood, so you will need to be strong…’

The year is 1885 and a young woman is on the run, knowing if she’s caught, she’ll be hanged for murder. Moments from a safe haven, she collides with a gruff stranger, falling and breaking her ankle.

To her surprise, the man – Marcus Greybourne – convinces the local constable that she is his reclusive wife of ten years, Luna. He carries her back to the neglected and crumbling Ravenswood
Hall, promising if she agrees to maintain this charade, he will keep her safe until her injuries have healed.

But the house is haunted by shadows and secrets. What’s more, the real Luna Greybourne is missing, without trace. Scratches and marks made by her around the house suggest witchcraft; and indeed
Luna is known locally as the Ravenswood Witch; her reputation in tatters, like the wallpapers of the padlocked rooms she’d destroyed.

As strange happenings in the house continue, outside the screech of a raven echoes across oppressive woods that seem alive with dark magic. And the woman who is now pretending to be Luna can’t help but fear she’s escaped the noose for a far more terrible fate…

A completely compelling and unforgettable historical bookclub read – fans of Jane Eyre, Weyward and The Binding will be utterly spellbound.

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Jenni Keer is the well-reviewed author of historical romances, often with a mystery at their heart.
Most recently published by Headline and shortlisted for the 2023 RNA Historical Romantic Novel of the Year.

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My thoughts: I’m not sure pretending to be a complete stranger’s wife and then not just fleeing, but actually going on with the pretence is the best plan in the world, especially when you start to learn that his missing wife is seen as a witch and feared by the locals.

Set at a time when mental illness was even less well understood than it is now, Luna Greybourne is clearly a very unwell and unhappy woman. Her husband, Marcus, has tried to help her to no avail and things have gotten so bad most of the servants have fled and the local community regards him with distrust.

Posing as his wife might help this young woman hide from her current troubles but it could just as well backfire and see her arrested for something else. They may not be hanging witches anymore (England did not burn them at the stake, that was for heretics) but even in the 19th Century, there was superstition and plenty of asylums filled with “mad women”.

The house has seen some terrible things, the rooms need repairs and redecoration, the furniture is battered and the whole place is heavy with neglect. Marcus requests that “Luna” oversee the restoration of his home while she recuperates. The rather peculiar servants, a married couple who appear to hate each other, will assist.

I loved Luna’s little feathered friend, ravens are highly intelligent, as he demonstrates and remember their friends, use tools and can even learn to talk. But his presence adds to the rumours that she’s a witch and responsible for various things that happen. All of which means more scrutiny, not less. Especially when Marcus’ aunt comes for a visit.

Women had very few rights and there wasn’t much justice at this time  – you could be locked away or even executed without much evidence, and I can sort of understand wanting to be someone else till the furore dies down, but “Luna” puts herself into more danger by having to trust others not to tell, and she can’t seem to follow a simple instruction – stay out of the woods and away from the healer man.

This gets quite dark and turns into something of a supernatural thriller as events build to a head, we learn about both the original Luna and her replacement, the fate of our heroine’s supposed victim and delve into the politics at play in this small place. Clever, gripping and fascinating.

*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: Undead Gods – Caitlyn Battelle

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We’re celebrating the release of Undead Gods by Caitlyn Battelle this week! This is one you’re going to want to bump up to the top of your TBR list!

Undead Gods (Book 1)

Genre: Romantic Fantasy / Dark Gaslamp Fantasy

Publication Date: October 1st, 2024

Readers are loving the…

  • Dark, moody gaslamp worldbuilding
  • Strong women
  • secrets and mysteries
  • forbidden magic
  • everyone’s favorite raccoon
  • feminine rage

WELCOME TO KAVA, WHERE THE UNDEAD GODS NEITHER HEAR NOR CARE…

Elysia Parker lives each day in fear it will be her last.

The magic the gods carelessly gifted mortals disappeared years ago, and Elysia Parker is all too familiar with what happens when someone is found to be harboring magic in her land. Death.

Cursed but hiding in plain sight within Kava’s royal court, Elysia has her eyes on the crown and its prince. But an unexpected change in her magic throws her carefully laid plans into chaos. In love with the man who could order her death, she searches for an answer to her curse before it’s too late.

From underground tunnels to pleasure houses and rebels who demand payment of the highest kind, Elysia will journey to the death realm and back to find her answers.

But is she willing to face the harsh demands of the truth?

Inspired by Hades and Persephone, Undead Gods is a dark, moody fantasy filled with magic, danger, and a love that may be the heroine’s downfall. Follow Elysia Parker into the soot drenched world of Kava as she navigates secrets, betrayal, and ultimately, finding herself amidst a world of lies.

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Book Blitz: The Dragon Favorite – Onika Howdyn

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The Dragon Favorite is the first book in a dark fantasy duology about broken promises, forbidden magic, and hopeless hearts with a strong focus on motherhood and navigating the treacherous waters of postpartum depression (oh, and dragons of course).

The Kickstarter campaign runs until October 5th. Both standard and illustrated versions will be available along with bookish goodies and some pretty awesome bonus rewards.

The illustrated version will not be published outside of Kickstarter.

WHAT YOU’LL FIND INSIDE:

  • Robust world-building and lore…
  • A mother’s struggle with mental health…
  • Dark themes and equally dark villains…
  • Forbidden love and loyalty…
  • Spicy yet poetic adult themes…
  • An underground realm of magic and its wielders…
  • Reading between the strands of fate and prophecies
  • Dragons… (that’s a given)

Welcome to Jöro…

…a land once teeming with the majestic presence of dragons, known as the Draughtrìnd, now reduced to ashes by the insatiable greed of a malevolent king. Though the war between man and dragon has faded into the past, the lingering aversion towards magic and its wielders remains.

In the river city of Rau, Amalya dreams of adventure beyond her father’s cozy farm. When she stumbles upon a wounded dragon with the farmhand, Wesley, her dreams of adventure take flight. As the years pass, love and family gradually fade that memory into the background of her life, becoming the only remaining beacon of hope.

Now, Amalya finds herself trapped in the clutches of depression, forced to observe the vestiges of her joy in the eyes of her son. The realization that she will never genuinely reclaim that joy plunges her further into the depths of despair.

When a mysterious man arrives to help on the farm, Amalya feels an unexplainable sense of familiarity. Could he be her only chance to break free from the torment that has haunted her since motherhood? And what consequences must she face to reclaim her light?

THE DRAGON FAVORITE

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Blog Tour: Of Warriors and Sage – Jenn Lees

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Welcome to the tour for new release, Of Warriors and Sages by Jenn Lees! Read on for more details!

Of Warriors and Sages (Arlan’s Pledge #2)

Publication Date: September 20, 2024

Genre: Portal Fantasy Romance

A dragon egg to obtain and a Quest to win.
A portal to master and a love to retrieve.
A lineage to discover and a high kingship to secure.

Arlan has returned to Dál Gaedhle, taking Rhiannon’s heart with him. Two years have passed since the handsome Dál Gaedhle warrior travelled back through the portal to his own world, but daily Rhiannon waits for him to come and take her to her true home.

Rhiannon has mastered horse riding and martial art, and can now speak Gaelic.

She’s ready.

With the high king of Dál Gaedhle dead, slain by a mage-controlled fire-breathing dragon, Arlan must win the Quest and gain the high kingship to save his land from Ciarán Gallawain’s greedy desires.

The task for this Quest—to find a dragon egg—is the most difficult since the Dragon Wars. For millennia, the beasts have been scarce and the stuff of legend.

But a greater quest still dogs Arlan… to prove Rhiannon’s lineage. For if she is not noble, their relationship will be impossible.

Rhiannon has a mission of her own: to get to Dál Gaedhle, learn to be a warrior, and discover her place in the world of Dál Cruinne.

Frustrated by his master’s unfulfilled promises, Lord Ciarán plans his great and final battle while his mage Bram grows in skill and power.

But Rhiannon’s major challenge will be to keep her true feelings for Arlan in check.

If Arlan cannot beat his banished cousin, Dál Gaedhle will suffer the same fate as the east of Dál Cruinne and any thought of liberty and love be a mere fleeting wish.

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Blog Tour: The Plague Doctor Murders – Ellis Blackwood

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A killer dressed as a plague doctor is prowling London’s docks.

Able seaman Humphrey Wilkes is dead, shot between the eyes by the murderer known as the Plague Doctor. When Samuel Pepys’s naval colleague, Robert Drake, finds a black cross daubed on his door, it marks him out as the next victim.

Pepys dispatches his inquisitors, Abby Harcourt and Jacob Standish, to the docks. Can they unmask the killer and save Drake’s life before he strikes again?

Death is a way of life to hardened seafarers. The dockyard is theirs – a dangerous domain of secrets, lies and grudges dating back to the grim days of the plague. Anyone could be the Plague Doctor. But who lurks beneath that ghastly disguise?

When the Plague Doctor targets Jacob himself, the battle to save Drake becomes personal.

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Ellis Blackwood fell in love with the writings of Samuel Pepys, and the 17th-century England he inhabited, through the great man’s published diaries. The Samuel Pepys Mysteries are the result of that literary love affair.

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My thoughts: The Great Fire of London is cooling, the buildings are smouldering and Samuel Pepys has a problem he needs his two inquisitors to look into.

Down in Deptford, at the docks, a world away from Pepys’ home and life at court, a murderer dressed as a plague doctor has been at work. Abby and Jacob are sent to investigate. It’s something of a closed world at the dockyard and hard work to get anything out of the residents. Life at sea and on the docks is hard and death happens suddenly, but even here, a murderer is a strange event.

Clever and full of historical detail – one of my favourite historical facts is that Pepys buried his cheese in the garden to save it from the Fire, and the flavour of 17th Century London, both familiar and completely alien at the same time.

This series just gets better with every book and Abby is really coming to the fore as a crack investigator, despite regarding herself as just a house maid. She really needs to talk to Pepys about a proper promotion and pay rise! Jacob is still a bit wet, and needs to stop worrying about what people think of him – Samuel Pepys clearly thinks he’s a man who’s going places. 

It’s a good plot too, lots of suspects and twists and the duo find more than they expected in a dockside pub, clever little tattoos that lead them to gambling and other secrets.

Don’t forget to head to the author’s website for the free short story that started it all, when Samuel Pepys’ famous diaries go missing.

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