Category: reviews

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Forgotten Palace – Alexandra Walsh

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In an underground labyrinth a lost soul wanders, waiting for revenge, waiting for love…

London 1900
Alice Webster has made the worst decision of her life. When her Aunt Agatha offers her the chance to go on a Grand Tour she jumps at the opportunity to get away from the glare of scandal. Heading off to see the world as the century turns, Alice begins to believe her broken heart can be healed, and a chance encounter on a train bound for Paris changes everything. When their journey takes them to a Cretan house thick with history, and the world-famous dig at Knossos, stories from the past begin to echo through Alice’s life.

London Present Day
Eloise De’Ath is meant to be a grieving widow. But if people knew the truth about her late husband, they’d understand why she can’t even pretend. Needing to escape, Eloise heads to Crete and the house her father-in-law Quinn left her, and slowly Quinn’s home begins to reveal its mysteries. In his office Eloise discovers his life’s work: the study of the Victorian excavation to find the Minotaur’s
labyrinth. Fascinated by the diaries of a young woman from the dig, Eloise is drawn into Alice’s tale of lost love and her growing obsession with Ariadne, the princess of the labyrinth.
Three women divided by time but connected by the long-hidden secrets of the past. As their stories join in a golden thread, a terrible injustice might finally be undone…
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Alexandra Walsh is the bestselling author of dual timeline historical mysteries, previously published by Sapere. Her books range from the fifteenth century to the Victorian era and are inspired by the
hidden voices of women that have been lost over the centuries. Formerly a journalist, writing for national newspapers, magazines and TV, her first book for Boldwood will be published in Spring 2023.

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My thoughts: I have always been fascinated by myths and legends and Crete contains so many of them, predating the Ancient Greeks too. No wonder Alice and then Eloise are drawn into the story of the Minotaur and the labyrinth.

Moving between the two women, and a mysterious third figure – Ariadne, the story weaves an intriguing web of love and loss, sacrifice and suffering from the ancient world to the present day. Both Alice and Eloise find healing in Crete, and new hope for their futures.

A beguiling and evocative book, replete with archaeological digs, myths and love stories, oh and lots of delicious Greek food. One to keep you dreaming in your living room.

*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: Death Before Coffee – Desmond P. Ryan

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By 2:27 on a Thursday afternoon, the one-legged man from Room 8 at 147 Loxitor Avenue had been beaten to death with a lead pipe. Twenty-eight minutes later, Detective Mike O’Shea is testifying in a stuffy courtroom, unaware that, within an hour, he will be standing in an alleyway littered with beer cans and condoms while his new partner uses a ballpoint pen to flick bugs off of a battered corpse. 

When a rogue undercover copper leaves Mike balancing what is legal with what is right, an unlikely rapport develops between Mike and the lead homicide investigator, a cop’s cop in stilettos. 

At the end of his seventy-two-hour shift, three men are dead, and Mike O’Shea is floating in and out of consciousness in an emergency room hallway, two women by his side.

In the second of the Mike O’Shea Series, Death Before Coffee weaves a homicide investigation through the life of an inner-city police detective intent on balancing his responsibilities as a son, brother, and newly single father with his sworn oath of duty and the promise he made himself to find the man who murdered a former partner.

Born and raised in Toronto, Desmond P. Ryan graduated from UofT and joined what was then the Toronto Police Force. He has been a front-line officer, a beat cop, a patrol sergeant, an instructor at the Toronto Police College, and a detective over the almost thirty years of his career.

Whether as a beat cop or a plainclothes detective, Desmond dealt with good people who did bad things and bad people who followed their instincts. Now a retired detective, he writes crime fiction. Des is presently working on the Mike O’Shea Series and the Mary-Margaret Series, both published by Level Best Books.

Desmond lives in the Toronto neighbourhood known as Cabbagetown, where he can be seen wandering about, considering his next plot point or on his way to the pub.

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My thoughts: we rejoin Detective Mike O’Shea 13 years after the events of 10-33 Assist PC which have shed his optimism, he’s not that cop any more. Now he just wants to get through the day and get a decent cup of coffee at some point.

That’s not to say he’s not a good detective, he is, one of the better ones, but he’s a bit more jaded, a bit less hopeful. And they still haven’t arrested Sal’s killer. Now with several cases on the go, in court and at the station, Mike’s a busy man. His personal life’s in free fall, he hasn’t had time to iron his clothes and there’s a murderer to find. All in a (very long) day’s work.

There’s plenty of action and familiar faces from the first book pop up, adding to the continuity. It’s the same city, but different, the passing of time and all that. But there’s still Sunday dinner at his mother’s, there’s still crime and he still hasn’t really spent any time with his son Max. The only rest he really gets is a trip to A&E.

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

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Blog Tour: From The Ashes – Melissa Addey

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They called it the Flavian Amphitheatre. We call it the Colosseum. Let the Games begin.
Rome, 80AD. A gigantic new amphitheatre is being built. The Emperor has plans for gladiatorial Games on a scale no-one has ever seen before. But the Games don’t just happen by themselves.
They must be made. And Marcus, the man in charge of creating them, has just lost everything he held dear when Pompeii disappeared under the searing wrath of Vesuvius.
Now it will fall to Althea, the slave woman who serves as his scribe, to ensure the Colosseum is inaugurated on time – and that Marcus makes his way out of the darkness that calls to him.
Can a motley crew comprising a retired centurion, slaves, a prostitute and an ex Vestal Virgin pull off the greatest gladiatorial Games ever seen? Or will they fail and find themselves in the arena as
punishment? Time is running out to deliver an unforgettable spectacle.
From the Ashes is the first, fast-paced novel in the gripping new Colosseum series. Follow the quick-witted and fiercely loyal backstage team of the Colosseum through the devastation of Pompeii,
plague and fire. This is historical fiction at its most captivating: both action-packed and tender.
Take a front row seat at the Colosseum’s inaugural gladiatorial Games. Buy From the Ashes today.
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Melissa Addey writes historical fiction set in Ancient Rome, medieval Morocco and
18th century China. She is a fulltime self-published author and runs workshops for authors wanting to be entrepreneurial. Her books have been selected for Editor’s Choice by the Historical Novel Society and won the inaugural Novel London award. She has been the Leverhulme Trust Writer in Residence at the British Library, has a PhD in Creative Writing and works with the Alliance of Independent Authors on their campaigns.
If you’d like to try her writing, visit http://www.melissaaddey.com to pick up a free novella, The Cup.
Website – where readers can get a free novella that starts another series (medieval Morocco).
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My thoughts: return with me to the first century CE, a time of great upheaval and the horror of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, the destruction of Pompeii and the construction of Rome’s famous Colosseum.

Greek slave Althea is given to Marcus, the director of the Colosseum’s inaugural festival of games, as his scribe. But she becomes his friend after his family die amid the chaos of Pompeii. She is instrumental in getting him back to Rome and back to work, before their masters realise he left the city. There isn’t a lot of time to organise the kind of events that will satisfy the emperor, and the crowds.

This was a fascinating and interesting read, vividly bringing the past to life, the sights, sounds, smells of ancient Rome, the people who lived in its streets, the sheer number packed into what’s actually quite a small amount of space. The characters are well created too, I liked Althea and the friends she makes, from Fausta the former prostitute to Julia – once a Vestal Virgin, now their landlady. There’s plenty of action to keep you interested and the story itself, full of tragedy and loss, as well as the creating and staging of the epic spectacle in the Colosseum is enjoyable and draws you right in.

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

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Blog Tour: Home Sweet Home – Amy Lavelle

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Four sisters. One house. It’s about to get messy…

Poppy, Saffron, Rosemary and Sorrell might be sisters, but they could not be more different…

Oldest Poppy has hit all the milestones before turning thirty, but constantly being in control is starting to feel a bit suffocating; peacemaker Saffron will do anything to keep her sisters together even at her own expense; Rosemary has crafted a perfect façade, but cracks in her engagement are beginning to surface; youngest Sorrell is pregnant after a one-night stand, and is determined to do it all on her own for once – without any help from her sisters!

But when they inherit their family home, the four must make the decision to keep or sell the house – and they’re about to discover that no one gets under your skin quite like family…

Can they ever put their differences aside and find a way to move forward together?

Heartwarming, uplifting and hilarious, Home Sweet Home is a novel about sisters, misunderstandings and growing up. Perfect for fans of Emma Gannon, Olivia Beirne and Helly Acton.

My thoughts: sibling relationships are complicated, and I only have the one sister. I think I’d go mad if there were more. In this book, there are four. All with floral names – Poppy, Saffron, Rosemary and Sorrel. All very different people, dealing with their lives in their own way. And now they’ve been given the family home to squabble over, as their rather absentee parents have decided to base themselves permanently in France.

This adds further strain to a not entirely harmonious sibling relationship. Poppy gave up her childhood to help look after her younger sisters, Saffron has always been the organiser, looking after the others, Rosemary feels a bit invisible and neglected and Sorrel as the youngest, would appreciate not being told what to do all the time.

None of them have ever really aired their resentments and grievances, so nobody realises how they feel, but somehow the house is bringing old grudges to the surface and it’s probably time to have it out so they can all move on.

Narrated in turn by each of the sisters, you see the stuff that’s really going on, how each of them feels unhappy with aspects of their lives, how they mess things up and how they feel they can’t talk to each other. Which is a bit sad really. Thankfully they do eventually actually sit down and talk, and deal with some of the stuff each of them has been hanging onto for years.

I really enjoyed this book, although I found the sisters a bit annoying in different ways, but was pleased when they finally got over themselves and made changes for the better. An interesting look at family dynamics.

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

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Blog Tour: A Truth for a Truth – Carol Wyer

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DI Kate Young’s team is hunting for a killer. What they don’t know…is that the killer is her.

DI Kate Young has known for years that her boss, Superintendent John Dickson, is a violent and evil man. But when she finally confronts him and accidentally shoots and kills him, she’s forced to cover her tracks before anyone can pin his death on her. With revelations about his corruption soon to become public knowledge, Kate sets up a trail of evidence to make it seem that Dickson has conveniently vanished…

But Kate knows the corruption doesn’t end with Dickson. As she heads up the team investigating his supposed disappearance, she also pursues other loose ends. Stanka, the sex worker who supplied the evidence against Dickson, leads her to crucial information on another corrupt officer, DI Harriet Khatri, and her dubious involvement with sex traffickers.

As the noose starts to tighten on Kate, she finds herself targeted by traffickers, the bent cops on her force and even her own team of detectives. Can she stay one step ahead of them all and bring Harriet to justice? Can she trust anyone around her? And can she possibly get away with murder?

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USA Today bestselling author and winner of The People’s Book Prize Award, Carol Wyer’s crime novels have sold over one million copies and been translated into nine languages. 

A move from humour to the ‘dark side’ in 2017, saw the introduction of popular DI Robyn Carter in Little Girl Lost and proved that Carol had found her true niche.

February 2021 saw the release of the first in the much-anticipated new series, featuring DI Kate Young. An Eye For An Eye was chosen as a Kindle First Reads and became the #1 bestselling book on Amazon UK and Amazon Australia. 

Carol has had articles published in national magazines ‘Woman’s Weekly’, featured in ‘Take A Break’, ‘Choice’, ‘Yours’ and ‘Woman’s Own’ magazines and the Huffington Post. She’s also been interviewed on numerous radio shows discussing ”Irritable Male Syndrome’ and ‘Ageing Disgracefully’ and on BBC Breakfast television.

She currently lives on a windy hill in rural Staffordshire with her husband Mr. Grumpy… who is very, very grumpy. When she is not plotting devious murders, she can be found performing her comedy routine, Smile While You Still Have Teeth.

To learn more, go to http://www.carolwyer.co.uk, subscribe to her YouTube channel, or follow her on Twitter: @carolewyer

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My thoughts: this series just gets better and better, my heart was in my mouth as Kate digs herself in deeper, putting everything at risk to bring down the syndicate and stop Superintendent Dickson and his cronies. Although now she’s got her own neck in the noose.

She’s having to put her trust in a lot of people, and some she barely knows. Like Stanka, a young woman who’s been trafficked and wants to rescue her little sister from the same criminal gang. She needs Kate’s help and Kate needs hers.

The person Kate thought she could trust perhaps isn’t the one she should, as secrets come tumbling out of various closets.

I was totally hooked once more, Carol Wyer has created characters that just pull you in and Kate is chief among them. I was rooting for her but also wondering how long she could stay out of the suspicions of some of her colleagues.

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

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Blog Tour: Bewitching – J. E. Nice

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A teenage girl tempted from this world over a carpet of bluebells…
A house full of shadows and a presence waiting to be let in…
Finally, everything is going well for Erica Murray, witch and paranormal investigator. That is, until the mother of a missing teenage girl recognises Erica’s fae lover, Alfie, for what he is and begs for his
help. Erica must step into Alfie’s world to find the girl, but it means discovering secrets about her lover that might tear them apart.
Meanwhile, Jess Tidswell has other things on her mind. Her parents are meeting Jess’s new dog and, more importantly, her fiancé for the first time.
That’s not the worst of her problems. Her parents, keen for a new adventure, have bought a house and it comes with some unexpected residents. Shadows that move of their own accord, a curious spirit and something malevolent that lives on the periphery.
Unable to contact Erica, can Jess handle this terrifying ordeal on her own and protect her family?
Deep in another world, can Erica find the missing teenager and bring her out of harm’s way?
It’s going to be a long weekend.

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J E Nice is a fantasy author who lives in a city filled with dragons, woodland where the fae hang out, on an airship home to a crew of sky pirates and, sometimes, on the outskirts of Bristol in England. Wherever she is, there is always cake.
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My thoughts: this isn’t my usual fare, as someone who remains deeply sceptical about the existence of ghosts and other things (although my mum insists there was a presence in my childhood home when we moved there), I actually quite enjoyed this book about paranormal investigators Jess and Erica.

This is book four and can be read as a standalone, as I did, but you might prefer to read the whole series and have the full back story. I did get a bit lost in Erica’s romantic plot line – what with the time travelling detective ex/future husband and the fae lover Alfie – so the previous stories might make sense of all of that.

Jess has gone to introduce her new fiancé to her parents, only for them to spring a surprise – they’ve bought a new house and it needs a lot of work. Especially when Jess (and daughter Ruby) sense all is not well in the house. There’s a ghost and something else – something nasty. Can Jess get rid of this malignant presence?

Erica meanwhile has gone into the land of the fae with Alfie to carry out a wellness check of sorts on a teenage girl spirited away by a fae who insists they’re meant to be. If that’s the case, why all the bluebells?

A fun adventure story with magic, witches, and lots of tea and cake. I might just have to work backwards and read the rest of the series!

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

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Blog Tour: 10-33 PC Assist – Desmond P. Ryan

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D/C Mike O’Shea, a young cop with a knack for working hard and following hunches, is on the verge of cracking a prostitution ring when an undercover from another unit burns him. 

With only days left before their pimps shuttle the girls out of the country, Mike pushes his team into overdrive. Hours later, with too little information, sleep, or luck, the unthinkable happens.

And now, the chase is personal.

In the first of the Mike O’Shea Series, 10-33 Assist PC draws us into the dirty world of human trafficking through the eyes of the cops who put their lives on the line every day to shut it down.

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Born and raised in Toronto, Desmond P. Ryan graduated from UofT and joined what was then the Toronto Police Force. He has been a front-line officer, a beat cop, a patrol sergeant, an instructor at the Toronto Police College, and a detective over the almost thirty years of his career.

Whether as a beat cop or a plainclothes detective, Desmond dealt with good people who did bad things and bad people who followed their instincts. Now a retired detective, he writes crime fiction. Des is presently working on the Mike O’Shea Series and the Mary-Margaret Series, both published by Level Best Books.

Desmond lives in the Toronto neighbourhood known as Cabbagetown, where he can be seen wandering about, considering his next plot point or on his way to the pub.

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My thoughts: the team that are the the focus of this book are the good guys, tough, wise cracking cops who deal with one of the worst crimes – sex offences, in this case human trafficking, involving minors. The underage teenage girls Mike and his colleagues are looking for have been tricked, kidnapped, raped and abused. But that doesn’t mean everyone has given up on them.

Unfortunately a tangle with another team means their cover’s blown and now the risks are worse, the danger becomes personal when Mike’s partner is hurt and Mike determines to stop at nothing to get these young girls home and safe, bringing down the ring and locking up the cruel men involved.

There’s time for humour in amongst the grimness of their jobs, teasing their partners, asking for new ones, winding up the boss. There’s Sal, with his horrible sunflower seed habit, Julia and her Italian swearing. There’s even time to drop by Mike’s mother’s house for family dinner – even cops have to eat. Until it turns deadly, then everyone becomes laser focused.

A solid new police procedural set in Toronto, with realistic characters and intelligent plotting. This series should be really enjoyable if this first book is anything to go by.

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

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Blog Tour: The Messenger – Megan Davis

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Wealthy and privileged, Alex has an easy path to success in the Parisian elite. But he and his domineering father have never seen eye to eye. Desperate to escape the increasingly suffocating atmosphere of their apartment, Alex seeks freedom on the streets of Paris where his new-found friend Sami teaches him how to survive. But everything has a price – and one night of rebellion changes their lives forever.

A simple plan to steal money takes a sinister turn when Alex’s father is found dead. Despite protesting their innocence, both boys are imprisoned for murder. Seven years later Alex is released from prison with a single purpose: to discover who really killed his father. Yet as he searches for answers and atones for the sins of his past, Alex uncovers a disturbing truth with far-reaching consequences.

In the heart of Paris, against a backdrop of corruption, fake news and civil unrest, The Messenger is a mind-racing new thriller that follows one son’s journey to find redemption and expose the truth.

Megan Davis was born in Australia and grew up in mining towns across the world. She has worked in the film industry and her credits include Atonement, In Bruges, Pride and Prejudice and the Bourne films. Megan is also a lawyer and is currently an associate at Spotlight on Corruption. She has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia. Her debut The Messenger won the Bridport Prize for a First Novel in 2018, judged by Kamila Shamsie, as well as the Lucy Cavendish Prize for unpublished writers in 2021. She has lived in many places, including France for a number of years, but now lives in London.

My thoughts: Alex was convicted of a serious crime but he knows he’s innocent, and now he’s out of prison he wants to prove it. His journalist father was working on something big but no one wants to tell him anything and one of his dad’s friends supposedly committed suicide too.

As he digs into his dad’s last story, he’s threatened and beaten up. He and old school friend Lisa get trapped in a riot, tensions are running very high in Paris. Could it be connected?

Clever and twisting, this is an intelligent and complex thriller with interesting things to say about the world we live in and how we can resist the manipulation of society and stand up for what we believe in. Inspired in part by real cases of undercover operatives and planted articles, this is an impressive and well written debut. I expect we’ll see more good writing from Megan Davis.

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

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Blog Tour: The Lazarus Solution – Kjell Ola Dahl, translated by Don Bartlett

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Daniel Berkåk works as a courier for the Press and Military Office in Stockholm. On his last cross-border mission to Norway, he carries a rucksack full of coded documents and newspapers, but before he has a chance to deliver anything he is shot and killed and the contents of his rucksack are missing.

The Norwegian government, currently exiled in London, wants to know what happened, and the job goes to writer Jomar Kraby, whose first suspect is a Norwegian refugee living in Sweden, whose past is as horrifying as the events still to come…

Both classic crime and a stunning expose of Norwegian agents in Stockholm during the Second World War, The Lazarus Solution is a compulsive, complex, richly authentic historical thriller from one of the godfathers of Nordic Noir.

One of the fathers of the Nordic Noir genre, Kjell Ola Dahl was born in 1958 in Gjøvik. He made his debut in 1993, and has since published fourteen novels, the most prominent of which is a series of police procedurals cum psychological thrillers featuring investigators Gunnarstranda and Frølich. In 2000 he won the Riverton Prize for The Last Fix and he won both the prestigious Brage and Riverton Prizes for The Courier in 2015. His work has been published in 14 countries, and he lives in Oslo.

My thoughts: oh this is clever, sending you all over Sweden and occupied Norway, looking for a killer, a conspiracy, when actually it’s something else entirely. Nobody seems to be able to explain, people are double crossing every way, and somehow writer Jomar Kraby, who’s very good at pretending to be a bit thick, must solve it to satisfy the government in exile, and more importantly himself.

Even when he’s told to stop digging, he doesn’t, even when the Germans are on his heels, he keeps going. He wants answers and he’s not satisfied with only knowing a little. He wants the whole lot.

Dragging along behind him is the man he suspects killed Daniel Berkåk, brother to another man who is linked to this whole mess. Soldier, sailor, internment camp inmate, Kai Fredly claims to want to go to the UK and join the Norwegian army, but hasn’t left Stockholm and has some interesting acquaintances. Sucked into a conspiracy, not exactly connected to the one Kraby’s chasing, he’s afraid to leave and recruited by both sides, he’s stuck.

As the plot winds it’s way through the Venice of the North, through bars and restaurants, homes for refugees, the offices of the Norwegian delegation, apartments and parks, taking in more and more people for Kraby to wonder about, it slowly reveals who the players are and the game they’re all in. Oh, and the reason it’s called The Lazarus Solution…well maybe Kraby has the answer to that too. Deliciously ingenious and thoroughly enjoyable, a spy thriller that hooks you in and definitely not just another WW2 read.

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

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Blog Tour: Always on my Mind – Beth Moran

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Sometimes when you can’t see the way forwards, the best thing to do is to look back…
When Jessie left home at eighteen, she swore she’d never go back. But when life takes a turn for the complicated, she’s forced to move in with her twin, Isaac, and his two best friends. To her dismay, one of these is Elliot, the boy Jessie once loved, until his life was changed forever by a terrible accident that Jessie still blames herself for.
Cohabiting with three alarmingly unhouse-trained males was not in Jessie’s life plan so when Isaac, Elliot and Arthur offer her a generous rent discount if she’ll help them with their ‘Boys to Men Project’, designed to end years of disastrous dating, she reluctantly accepts the challenge.
As Jessie embraces the comfort of being home, revelling in her new job at her parents’ day centre, full of people determined to grow old disgracefully, she realises her housemates aren’t the only ones needing to make some changes. And maybe, if she can finally forgive herself for Elliot’s accident, she can start to look forward to a future, with or without him by her side.
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Beth Moran is the bestselling author of romantic novels including Christmas Every Day and Just The Way You Are. She regularly features on BBC Radio Nottingham and is a trustee of the national
women’s network Free Range Chicks. She lives on the outskirts of Sherwood Forest.

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My thoughts: this was lovely, I want to be an Outlaw now, please don’t tell me I have to wait till I’m older! Jessie moves home after things take a downturn and into the house her twin shares with his two equally hopeless housemates and best friends. Honestly I knew a few men at uni that were like this – the never washed multi cooker might even be a gross thing too far for them. These three, Isaac, Arthur, and Elliot are hopeless. Not at everything, but their home is a pit, they’re all single and not thrilled about it, and they dress like teenagers (and a funeral director).

They ask Jessie to help them out of their life slump, and in the process the four become closer and Jessie realises a few things about her life too.

Her job as the activities manager at the day centre is hilarious, those Outlaws are a handful, but what joy! Even if they drive everyone crazy, throw water fights at a Jubilee picnic (I always thought the Queen had a gleam in her eye, she might we have joined in), dye their lifelong nemesis’ hair green, potentially run away and give the centre’s cook a breakdown, but they’re having a great time.

The friendships between Jessie, her housemates, Connie, Wilf, and the football team are delightful. This is just a rather lovely book with a sweet and charming cast, and some love stories too!

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