Category: reviews

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Buried Deception – Amanda McKinney

ramblingmads

In the pulse-racing first installment of the On the Edge series, a criminal psychologist teams up with a former marine on a deadly wildland mission. Not even their hearts can stay out of harm’s way.

In the swamps of East Texas, alligators aren’t the only danger lurking in the shadows.

After a young woman is brutally attacked on a popular hiking trail, the evidence points to the notorious Black Cat Stalker. The town of Skull Hollow enlists Dr. Mia Frost to provide a psychological profile and assist in the investigation.

When another person goes missing, Mia partners with Easton Crew, former marine and current CEO of a tactical tracking company. Both Mia and Easton are stubborn, strong-willed, and independent, but neither can deny the smoldering attraction between them.

As professional lines blur, Easton starts to question Mia’s motives and worries she’s getting too close to the investigation. The mystery begins to unravel, but so does Mia’s mental health as the clues dredge up her own haunted past.

It soon becomes evident that things aren’t as they seem … and people aren’t always who they say they are.

My thoughts: I found Mia and Easton an interesting pairing – she’s determined to hide her traumatic past from everyone, and yet he breaks her down without even trying. The case they’ve become embroiled in is awful, violent and cruel. And it triggers her PTSD in the worst way.

But they’re both determined to help the cops catch the Black Cat Stalker and bring his reign of terror on the hiking trails to an end. If they can learn to work together and trust each other.

Dark and gripping, with twists and turns, this is a clever and heart racing thriller.

*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: The Countess of the Revolution – Lana Kortchik

ramblingmads

Russia, 1917

Petrograd is on the eve of revolution. For Countess Sophia Orlova, the city of her childhood – the only home she has ever known – has become her deadly enemy. The mob are ready to get rid of anyone connected to the old regime, including Sophia.

When rebels threaten to shoot Sophia and her husband, they are saved by Nikolai, a fervent supporter of the revolution. Determined to help Nikolai’s cause, Sophia sets up a hospital wing in the house, nursing injured victims by his side.

Her kindness has captured Nikolai’s heart, but their burgeoning romance is forbidden. With battle lines drawn between the new and the old, both their lives are in danger…

Will their love be strong enough to overcome the horrors of war?

My thoughts: this was really interesting, I studied the Russian Revolution at school and have been fascinated by the country ever since. I’ve been to St Petersburg aka Petrograd, and it is a beautiful place. They’ve preserved many of the old historic buildings like the Winter Palace – which houses the Hermitage museum. Places Sophia would recognise, a real blend of the old and new. Which was what was happening in the novel. As Lenin and his Bolsheviks seized power during the First World War, taking Russia out of the international conflict and into its own civil war, the old – represented by the tsar and the countless princes and princesses in their palatial homes, and the new – Lenin and the rise of the working people, collide.

Nikolai is Sophia’s brother-in-law, but she falls for him the moment he saves her life and that of her husband Dmitry. The two brothers fall either side of the political divide but their relationship, complex as it is, means the Count and Countess survive. But Sophia is not simply the well dressed, spoilt woman she appears. She works as a nurse, caring for soldiers returned from the front. She volunteers to help care for Nikolai’s men and they bond.

Fleeing St Petersburg puts them in more danger and they have to keep running from the Red Army as it progresses across Russia. But despite her attempts to be a good wife and resist her feelings, Sophia can’t stop falling harder and harder for Nikolai. Will she swap sides and brothers?

Gripping, sweeping historical fiction with a heart wrenching love story at its centre.

*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: The Whisperling – Hayley Hoskins

ramblingmads

When you’re dead, you’re dead. When you’re gone, you’re gone. Unless, of course, you’re not. And that’s where I come in.

The year is 1897, and Peggy Devona can speak with ghosts.

She hides her gift from those afraid of a girl with such powers, terrified of the secrets the dead could reveal through her. But when her best friend is accused of murdering her rich mistress, Peggy knows only she – a  hisperling – can save her.

Peggy escapes to her uncle’s psychic emporium in the city, seeking out new ghosts to help her solve Sally’s case.

Yet time is running out, and each step towards uncovering the truth also brings Sally one step closer to the gallows. . .

Long listed for the Bath Children’s Novel award, Hayley Hoskins writes in the space between family and work, with much support from her writing group.

Mum to a teenage boy, she spends a disproportionate amount of time hoping that her son’s life is far less complicated than those of the characters in her books, and trying to ensure he becomes a ‘good egg’.

 Originally from the Forest of Dean, Hayley lives with her family and hairy breezeblock of a dog in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. Twitter

My thoughts: inspired by the real life executions of teenage girls in the past and the Victorian fascination for séances and the afterlife, this is a clever, fun story of a young woman with an extraordinary gift and how she uses it to get justice for the living and the dead.

Peggy Devona has inherited the family gift for talking to the dead – she’s a Whisperling – and while it isn’t as bad as being a 17th century witch, there are still those who see it as evil. Like the local vicar, Tate, who has a real issue with Peggy. And a few other people.

Sent to live with her uncle at his psychic emporium (he has two clairvoyants living and working there – Oti and Cecily, who are a joy fyi) for her own safety, she is determined to save her best friend Sally from the noose after she is accused of murdering her employer.

But in order to solve the crime, she must give in to the power of the Devonas and allow the dead to speak. Assisted by her friends and family, can she stop Sally’s terrible fate and right a wrong?

Really enjoyable, lots of fun and Peggy is a great protagonist. Her gift frightens her, not unsurprisingly, and in embracing it she realises she can do good and help people. She also discovers she is surrounded by people who love her – living and dead.

*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: The Rise – Shari Low & Ross King

ramblingmads

When we bury our secrets, they always come back to haunt us…
Their rise was meteoric.
Only a few years before, they had been three friends from Glasgow, just trying to survive tough lives of danger and dysfunction.
But on one Hollywood evening in 1993, they were on the world’s biggest stage, accepting their Oscar in front of the watching world.
That night was the beginning of their careers. But it was also the end of their friendship.
Over the next twenty years, Mirren McLean would become one of the most powerful writers in the movie industry.
Zander Leith would break box-office records as cinema’s most in-demand action hero.
And Davie Johnson would rake in millions as producer of some of the biggest shows on TV.
For two decades they didn’t speak, driven apart by a horrific secret.
Until now…
Their past is coming back to bite them, and they have to decide whether to run, hide, or fight.
Because when you rise to the top, there’s always someone who wants to see you fall.
An exciting new glam thriller for the fans of Taylor Jenkins Reid, Liane Moriarty and Jo Spain
Purchase


Shari Low and Ross King MBE is a writing partnership forged in a friendship of over 30 years. Scottish author Shari is the bestselling writer of over thirty novels including bestsellers My One Month
Marriage, One Summer Sunrise and The Story of our Secrets. Los-Angeles-based Ross King is a four times news Emmy award-winning TV and radio host, actor, producer, writer and performer, and is
currently the Los Angeles correspondent for ITV’s Lorraine and Good Morning Britain. They are publishing their Hollywood thriller trilogy with Boldwood, the first of which is called The Rise and is
due for release in September 2022.

Shari Low: Facebook Twitter Instagram
Newsletter Bookbub
Ross King: Facebook Twitter Instagram

My thoughts: this was a lot of fun. I love Shari’s books and this had her trademark humour mixed with a shot of Hollywood glamour. Three friends from a rough Glasgow council estate escape their lives and with a script based on a terrible incident somehow blag their way to fame and fortune and then never speak again.

Until a journalist starts digging, wanting to write about their upbringing, dig up the past. Something they would do anything to stop. Might be time to catch up.

I was hooked, this was so good, written like a thriller but with lots in common with vintage Jackie Collins or Taylor Jenkins Reid, that behind the scenes everything is falling apart vibe, the glitz is fake feel to it. And it’s really shocking too. I won’t go into details but wow. Lots of twists you will not spot.

*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: All That’s Left Unsaid – Tracey Lien

ramblingmads

They claim they saw nothing. She knows they’re lying.

1996 – Cabramatta, Sydney

‘Just let him go.’

Those are words Ky Tran will forever regret. The words she spoke when her parents called to ask if they should let her younger brother Denny out to celebrate his high school graduation with friends. That night, Denny – optimistic, guileless Denny – is brutally murdered inside a busy restaurant in the Sydney suburb of Cabramatta, a refugee enclave facing violent crime, and an indifferent police force.

Returning home for the funeral, Ky learns that the police are stumped by her brother’s case. Even though several people were present at Denny’s murder, each bystander claims to have seen nothing, and they are all staying silent.

Determined to uncover the truth, Ky tracks down and questions the witnesses herself. But what she learns goes beyond what happened that fateful night. The silence has always been there, threaded through the generations, and Ky begins to expose the complex traumas weighing on those present the night Denny died. As she peels back the layers of the place that shaped her, she must confront more than the reasons her brother is dead. And once those truths have finally been spoken, how can any of them move on?

My thoughts: this is a powerful book, as Ky (pronounced Key) tries to solve the mystery of her brother’s horrific murder, she reflects on growing up the children of immigrants, her parents are from Korea, and the legacy that leaves her and her generation with. The microaggressions, the overt or not racism, the way none of the white Australians will admit it must have been hard.

There’s also poverty, parental expectations and fears, violence, gangs and grief in the mix. Why won’t her brother’s friends or even his teacher speak up? And what does her long lost best friend Minnie have to do with it?

Ky doesn’t just advocate for her brother with the indifferent, all white, police force, she investigates, using her skills as a journalist to interview and question witnesses, hunt down potential leads and unravel the silence around the crime. Even her own parents seem reluctant to dig deeper, lost in their grief.

Powerful, compelling and moving. This is a book I won’t be forgetting soon.

*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: A Chance in a Million – T.A. Williams

ramblingmads

Fate brought them together, now it’s up to them to make it work…
Having left the army to recover from a traumatic experience, Captain Jane Reed is on her way to Venice to assist Lady Veronica Cooper, a world-famous writer who has lost her mojo. Plagued by
grief and sleepless nights, Jane soon finds a kindred spirit in Veronica, coping with her own loss after the death of her husband.
When the two relocate to Veronica’s villa in the countryside to escape the summer tourists, Jane meets the rest of the Cooper family – including Veronica’s brooding son, David. With his own tragic past, David has resigned himself to a life of solitude. Jane finds herself determined to bring joy back
into his life, even if it means finally spilling her secrets.
Can Jane and David help each other heal, and find love in the process, or are some scars too deep to treat?
Purchase

I’m a man. And a pretty old man as well. I did languages at university a long time ago

and then lived and worked in France and Switzerland before going to Italy for seven years as a teacher of English. My Italian wife and I then came back to the UK with our little daughter (now long-since grown up) where I ran a big English language school for many years. We now live in a sleepy little village in Devonshire. I’ve been writing almost all my life but it was only seven years ago that I finally managed to find a publisher who liked my work enough to offer me my first contract.
The fact that I am now writing escapist romance is something I still find hard to explain. My early books were thrillers and historical novels. Maybe it’s because there are so many horrible things happening in the world today that I feel I need to do my best to provide something to cheer my
readers up. My books provide escapism to some gorgeous locations, even if travel to them is currently difficult.

Website Twitter Facebook

My thoughts: Jane has my dream job, in one of my favourite countries, in the beautiful city of Venice (I’ve been once and I would love to go back). Assisting a writer and writing my own books would be heaven. Lucky Jane.

The Cooper family are all super lovely and Jane fits in well with them. She’s really landed on her feet. The slow burn romance between her and David – still recovering from a terrible incident and a broken heart – is lovely and his past is sensitively handled. This is just a really nice, sun soaked, book.

*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: The Ultimate Village Game – Beth Merwood plus Giveaway!

ramblingmads

Riddled with guilt and tormented by desire, Lucy Short keeps notes about newcomers to the village, but why?

The misfit with the rescue dog has a mysterious past. She’s been biding her time, plotting and scheming, and now she’s determined to get what she deserves. It won’t be straight forward.
Someone is sure to be watching her every move, and there seems to be something more sinister going on.
Mr. Lester Senior is dead. The family is in turmoil. The future of the famous village treasure hunt is in doubt, but for Lucy a new world beckons. She must stick to her task. The rewards could be huge, but will there also be a price to pay?

Amazon UK Amazon US


Beth Merwood is a writer from the south of England. Her debut novel, The Five Things, was published in 2021.

Instagram Twitter Goodreads Website Facebook BookBub TikTok

Giveaway to Win 1 x Paperback and 1 x e-copy of The Ultimate Village Game (Open to UK Only)
1st Prize- Paperback copy of The Ultimate Village Game
2nd Prize – E-copy of The Ultimate Village Game

My thoughts: I found Lucy very intriguing, her mysterious note keeping, the fact she kept herself apart from the other villagers despite how friendly they were, thankfully that didn’t last. She seemed a bit removed from reality at the beginning, just her and Morsel the dog. But working at the local retirement home and walking Morsel draws her into the lives of others and opens her world up.

The mystery of her past and her interest in the Lester family is slowly revealed, and the endless gossip never really tells anyone anything – I think that might be the real village game, not the treasure hunt that we never get to see but hear a lot about.

I really liked a lot of the villagers and the residents of the home seemed like lovely people. As odd as Lucy seemed, she was surrounded by friendly souls and comes out of her shell. I was a bit shocked when her secrets came out, it suggested a whole other dimension to her character. Clever and enjoyable stuff.

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

*Terms and Conditions –Worldwide entries welcome. Please enter using the Rafflecopter box below. The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over. Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will
not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to. the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random
Resources will delete the data. I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Reason – Catherine Bennetto

ramblingmads

How much is the smile from the person you love worth to you?
 
Brooke’s life has derailed. Her social life and career have evaporated, her daughter is desperately unhappy and being bullied at school, and, for a 43-year-old, she probably spends way too many weekends at her parent’s. But the reason for all this is no mystery. A year and a half ago, Brooke’s husband died.
 
But Brooke does have one secret. Her husband’s death, the worst thing that has ever happened to her, has made her unbelievably rich.
 
Despite her despair, Brooke suddenly realises she has the power to make her daughter’s life, and the world a little brighter.

My thoughts: this was genuinely very, very lovely. A hug of a book, something to cheer up the gloomiest Gus. Brooke is mourning her husband and worried about her daughter, Hannah. She’s turned from a smiley, rainbow of a girl into someone sad and lonely because of a bully at school. Who needed a good shake. Honestly. And the head teacher, my goodness.

Thankfully Brooke has a lovely family and great friends. She comes up with a plan to cheer Hannah up, and a whole lot of other people too. Enter #NoReason, a rainbow of joy, from free ice cream to flash mobs, surprises hidden inside books and handed out in Tube carriages.

It turns their lives upside down but it brings such utter glee and happiness to so many. If only Brooke can keep anyone from finding out she’s behind it. And there’s a possible romance in store for her too. But will it be the drum teacher or the orthodontist? I hate going to the dentists and I really want to learn to play the drums so I know who I’d pick!

If you’re feeling a bit deflated and sad, this is a lovely, fuzzy warm book and I really recommend it. Only you can’t borrow my copy – my mum already has!

*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: Dogs of the Deadlands – Anthony McGowan

ramblingmads

Chernobyl, 1986. The world is coming to an end. Dragged from her bed in the middle of the night and forced to leave her beloved puppy behind, Natasha has no idea if she’ll ever return home. Growing up in the shadow of the ruined nuclear power plant, pups Misha and Bratan need to learn how to live wild – and fast. Creatures with sharp teeth, scythe-like claws and yellow eyes lurk in the overgrown woods. And they’re watching the brothers… But will the dogs survive without humans? And can humans live without them?

Anthony McGowan is one of the most widely acclaimed young adult and children’s authors in the UK. His books have won numerous major awards. In 2020, he was awarded the CILIP Carnegie Medal for Lark. He was also shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal with Rook and won the Booktrust Teenage Prize and the Catalyst Award for Henry Tumour. His YA novel The Knife that Killed Me was made into a critically-lauded film in 2014. Anthony lives in London, with his wife, two children and dog.

My thoughts: this had so many White Fang and Call of the Wild (both by Jack London) vibes. I loved it. We all know I’m a sucker for any story with an animal in it and in this the animals were the stars. The Chrrnobyl disaster and I are the same age (a few months apart) so I don’t remember it, but my parents do and I watched that incredible drama about it during lockdown.

It was really interesting to read a story set in the evacuated area, where only animals and a few tricky people (like Katerina in this book) remained behind. It must have been a real shock to the domesticated animals when their people left. I liked the idea of some of them bonding with their wild cousins, as Zoya does, and joining wolf packs or like Shepherd, staying and guarding their homes. I imagine cats going completely feral. I grew up reading Colin Dann’s City Cats and Animals of Farthing Wood (sob), Watership Down, K.M. Peyton’s horse books, Dick King-Smith (The Sheep Pig among others) and Brian Jacques’ Redwall series. This certainly would sit nicely alongside all of those. Bits are sad and bits are frightening – “nature, red in tooth and claw” in action but the ending is lovely. I liked the Natasha sections less – the wolf-dogs were more interesting but I did enjoy the way the two stories wove together. Definitely one for any young (or not so young) animal lovers.

*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: Folly Ditch – Anna Sayburn Lane

ramblingmads

A Dickensian murder mystery. A brutal modern-day gang. Can Helen Oddfellow outwit an old enemy – or will she be his next victim?

When literary researcher Helen Oddfellow finds an old newspaper cutting in an antiquarian bookshop, she uncovers a mystery dating back 200 years. Her quest to find the real woman behind one of Charles Dickens’ best-loved characters takes an unexpected turn, when the bookshop owner goes missing. 

Helen befriends his distraught teenage daughter as they try to find the missing man. But the marshes of north Kent are home to a criminal gang more brutal than anything Dickens imagined. Murky money, royal connections and desperate people link the past with the present. But it’s the unexpected return of an old enemy that puts Helen herself in mortal peril. 

FOLLY DITCH is latest in the series of mysteries featuring literary sleuth and London tour guide Helen Oddfellow.

Long-listed for the Stockholm Writers’ Festival 2022 First 5 Pages prize.

Anna Sayburn Lane is a writer, editor and journalist. She lives on the Kent coast, at Deal. 

Anna has published award-winning short stories and was picked as a Crime in the Spotlight new author at the 2019 Bloody Scotland International Crime Writing Festival. Her 2018 debut novel Unlawful Things was shortlisted for the Virago New Crime Writer award.

Contact Website

My thoughts: while I continue to have mixed feelings about Charles Dickens (DM me on Twitter if you’d like to hear the rant), I did enjoy this book, which revolves around a mysterious reference to a Nancy Love – could she be the inspiration for Oliver Twist‘s doomed character and if so, what could so many people want with a letter she might have written and given to a child Dickens to deliver? As Helen Oddfellow, a literature scholar, delves into the life of Nancy, she’s caught up in a terrible dark conspiracy that costs the lives of innocents and links her to a gang of people traffickers.

Aided by her journalist friend Nick, and a young woman called Wiz, she fights back and they might just bring down a right wing group while they’re at it.

Set mostly in Kent, where Dickens lived at various periods in his life, and referencing at least two of his books at various points, you don’t have to know much about him to enjoy this, or the secrets Helen unwittingly discovers.

Lots of fun and I do love a literary conspiracy, so I’m off to check out the rest of this series, apparently my old fave Kit Marlowe pops up in at least one. And if you subscribe to the author’s newsletter (link to website above) you get a free book.

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