She’s snowed in with the family. The only problem? They’re not her family.
A family gathering This Christmas the Miller siblings have one goal – to avoid their family’s well-meaning questions. Ross, Alice and Clemmie have secrets that they don’t intend to share, and they are relying on each other to deflect attention.
An uninvited guest Lucy Clarke is facing a Christmas alone, and the prospect of losing her job – unless she can win a major piece of business from Ross Miller. She’ll deliver her proposal to his family home in the Scottish Highlands and then leave. After all, she wouldn’t want to intrude on the Miller’s perfect family Christmas.
A Christmas to remember When Lucy appears on the Miller’s snow-covered doorstep, she is mistaken for Ross’s girlfriend. But by the time the confusion is cleared up, a storm has hit and Lucy is stuck. As everyone settles in for a snowed-in Christmas, tensions bubble to the surface and suddenly Lucy finds herself facing a big family fallout with a family that isn’t hers…
My thoughts: it’s time once more for the classic Sarah Morgan Christmas romance. And this time we’re in the Scottish Highlands with the Miller family and Lucy – a PR exec with a plan to save her boss and the company. But a few feet of snow means a change of plans.
The Millers are warm and welcoming, and meddling (I see you Nana Jean with your old lady schemes) and won’t let Lucy leave without some serious festive cheer. And will the Miller siblings find love in the snow?
These books are always a cheer, every family in them is delightful and they’re always very jolly – perfect in fact to read during Christmas.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Welcome the book tour for the second installment in the Endymion College trilogy, A Study in Survival by W.H. Lockwood!
A Study in Survival (Endymion College #2)
Expected Publication Date: October 27th 2022
Genre: Cozy Horror Romance/ Dark Academia
She survived the spirit. She survived the demon. She survived term one.
Winter at Endymion College should mean only good things for Anna James: books, best friends, and studying Gothic Literature under the most handsome professor Anna has ever laid eyes on. Unfortunately, just as she prepares to relax and enjoy her very hard-earned place at this coveted university, an impossibly dashing stranger arrives to turn everything upside down.
Suddenly, Anna finds herself caught in a life-or-death struggle against a fiendish new supernatural assailant, and with explosive revelations and closely held secrets forced out into the open, a tragic history comes back to haunt Anna and her friends.
Knife skills and friendships will be put to the test as enemies, both human and paranormal, work to destroy everything Anna has fought to build.
Can Anna get to the bottom of her haunted apartment mystery and resist the eerily familiar charms of a gorgeous new interloper, all while trying to keep herself and her friends alive? Or will she and those she holds dearest be torn apart by a new kind of evil?
Equally as gothic, just as romantic, even more dangerous, packed full of ghost stuff and demon stuff, Endymion College 2: A Study in Survival is the inappropriately-amusing, cosy-horror sequel you’ve been waiting for. It’s time to enrol.
W.H. Lockwood writes feminist gothic and historical fiction, dark academia and cosy horror, all with a romantic twist.
Raised on a diet of Point books and Pepsi, only willing to leave her den to attend chess club at public school, W.H. Lockwood started writing at a young age and has kept this passion throughout her life.
Always a voracious reader, she obtained an undergraduate degree in literary studies from a gorgeous sandstone university, following that with a master’s degree in publishing and editing, then another master’s degree in astronomy, thus uniting her two great loves of the arts and science, leaving her utterly unqualified to cope with the real world.
These days, W.H. Lockwood works as a professional editor and can often be found aimlessly wandering through the coffee shops and bookstores of the beautiful city she calls home.
My thoughts: we’re back at Endymion College for a second term, and while Anna is getting to grips with her relationship with Eve and her insane jealousy, making a new friend in Percy and reading a lot of books (oh I remember that from my undergrad days, so many books!) new danger is coming, because of course it is.
Dark, funny, clever and entertaining. I think I actually liked this even more than book 1 as the characters are more rounded and bedded in. They know themselves and each other a bit better but when new horrors show up, Anna needs to depend on her wits and the skills she picked up last time to survive. I think I would have transferred schools by now!
When entrepreneur Flosi arrives home for dinner one night, he discovers that his house has been ransacked, and his wife Gudrun missing. A letter on the kitchen table confirms that she has been kidnapped. If Flosi doesn’t agree to pay an enormous ransom, Gudrun will be killed. Forbidden from contracting the police, he gets in touch with Áróra, who specialises in finding hidden assets, and she, alongside her detective friend Daniel, try to get to the bottom of the case without anyone catching on.
Meanwhile, Áróra and Daniel continue the puzzling, devastating search for Áróra’s sister Ísafold, who disappeared without trace. As fog descends, in a cold and rainy Icelandic autumn, the investigation becomes increasingly dangerous, and confusing.
Chilling, twisty and unbearably tense, Red as Blood is the second instalment in the riveting, addictive An Áróra Investigation series, and everything is at stake…
Icelandic crime-writer Lilja Sigurdardóttir was born in the town of Akranes in 1972 and raised in Mexico, Sweden, Spain and Iceland. An awardwinning playwright, Lilja has written four crime novels, with Snare, the first in a new series and Lilja’s English debut shortlisting for the CWA International Dagger and hitting bestseller lists worldwide. Trap soon followed suit, with the third in the trilogy Cage winning the Best Icelandic Crime Novel of the Year, and was a Guardian Book of the Year. Lilja’s standalone Betrayal, was shortlisted for the Glass Key Award for Best Nordic Crime Novel. In 2021, Cold as Hell, the first in the An Áróra Investigation series was published, with Red as Blood to follow in 2022. The film rights have been bought by Palomar Pictures in California. Lilja is also an award-winning screenwriter in her native Iceland. She lives in Reykjavík with her partner.
My thoughts: this was very good, much like my favourite Russian dolls, this was plot within plot. The kidnapping, Flosi’s dodgy financial arrangements, the family’s complex relationships, all neatly stacked inside one another as Daniel and Áróra dig into Flosi and Gudrun’s lives and business, more things start coming to light and it gets scary.
And then there’s Daniel and Áróra and their tangled personal relationship. He wants her but she wants him to find her sister more. Throw in an extravagant drag queen who believes in the little folk, Helena’s system and you have a complicated, messy world that this case makes more so by throwing people together in new and not entirely happy ways.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Niro is a photographer who’s lost the joy of taking photos. Burned by a bad break-up, she’s in desperate need of inspiration.
Vimal is determined to win back his ex-girlfriend. When he hears she’s bringing her new boyfriend on a group holiday, he impulsively declares that he’s bringing a plus one too.
Their mutual friends have the perfect solution: Niro can pretend to be Vimal’s new girlfriend and join the holiday. Imagine the incredible photographs she could take in the Swiss alps…
She’s not thinking about love. He’s thinking about someone else. Can they fake a picture-perfect relationship – or will real feelings get in the way?
My thoughts: this was a fun and uplifting rom com set in a fancy lodge in the Swiss Alps. Vimal and Niro are thrown together by an interfering auntie (both are Sri Lankan, and like Asian aunties everywhere, they love to interfere). But Niro might just be able to help Vimal out with his ex-girlfriend, who’s also going to be on this trip.
There’s lots of romantic tropes to spot, and the characters are aware of them from rom-com movie nights. From the strangers to lovers, sharing a bed (awkward) and more!
There’s also some important messages about colourism, racism and privilege too, hidden in amongst the fun in the snow. It’s well done and subtle, but the author’s notes at the end remind you of their importance.
Niro needs to get her confidence back and Vimal needs to see he can move on from a relationship going nowhere. Both of them need a friend, and thankfully they’ve got each other and more in common than they thought.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
The sixth instalment of the bestselling season guide is here!
Reconnect with the seasons in Britain and Ireland with this month-by-month guide to the world around us – including key dates, tide tables and garden tasks; constellations and moon phases; sunrises, folk songs, seasonal recipes plus a ‘bun of the month’; and – because 2023 will be a good year for planet spotting – the solar system and the zodiac.
The Almanac: A Seasonal Guide to 2023 gives you all the tools and inspiration you need to celebrate, mark, and appreciate each month of the year in your own particular way.
Divided into the 12 months, a set of tables each month gives it the feel and weight of a traditional almanac, providing practical information that gives access to the outdoors and the seasons, perfect for walks, expeditions, meteor-spotting nights and beach holidays. There are also features on each month’s unique nature, with this instalment following the swirling micro world of the garden pond through the year. You will find yourself referring to The Almanac all year long, revisiting it again and again, and looking forward to the next edition as the year draws to a close.
Lia Leendertz is an awardwinning garden and food writer based in Bristol. Her reinvention of the traditional rural almanac has become an annual must-have for readers eager to connect with the seasons, appreciate the outdoors and discover ways to mark and celebrate each month. Now established as the bestselling almanac on the market, this is the sixth instalment. Find out more about Lia at: Lialeendertz.com @lia_leendertz @lialeendertz
My thoughts: this is a delightful little book, beautifully illustrated and currently at risk of being permanently “borrowed” by anyone who has spotted it on my book stack.
I know farmers used to use almanacs to predict weather patterns and I think my Grandad used to have a cricketing one years ago so I was fascinated by this lovely book. I really want to reconnect with nature a bit more and I think this will be useful as it explains all sorts of things and offers up recipes, songs and other almost forgotten folk knowledge.
It’s also a lovely object to have and keep out where anyone can leaf through it and learn a bit about the month and nature. Delightful.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Two women separated by centuries, the threads of their lives drawn together by one beautiful silk dress
Textiles historian Jo Baaker is drawn back to the Dutch island where she was born to investigate the provenance of a valuable seventeenth-century silk dress retrieved from a sunken shipwreck. Her research leads her to Anna Tesseltje, a poor Amsterdam laundress who served on the fringes of the Dutch court.
But how did Anna come to possess such a precious dress? Jo is determined to trace the threads and find out, all while battling with professional egos and personal demons.
My thoughts: I studied material culture as part of my MA so this really appealed to me academically as well as a reader of historical fiction. The things people leave behind them can tell us so much. The beautiful dress found in a shipwreck off Texel tells the story of Anna.
Once a merchant’s daughter, she’s reduced to doing other people’s laundry when the opportunity comes to be companion to a female artist – Catherina. And to love, a freedom she didn’t know she could have and then to tragedy. Her mother’s dress, silk with intricate embroidery outlives her and textile historian Jo carefully teases out Anna’s life story.
Both Anna and Jo are determined women in world’s dominated by men – for Anna the obnoxious Maarten, for Jo her so-called colleague Liam. But both are clever and capable and use all their resources (and in Anna’s case, a storm) to prove their worth.
I really enjoyed this book with its slip back and forth between the two narratives, hundreds of years apart, the insight into the Dutch court that Anna gets was interesting and the lives of the modern islanders was too. A fascinating and informative story of two women, ordinary but in their own way extremely remarkable 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.
Death at Francis Court Now Confirmed as Murder! Speculation is rife that the victim, estate manager Alex Sterling (44), was found by Lady Beatrice (35), the Countess of Rossex, niece of King James. Lady Beatrice, who has finally come out of hiding following her son’s departure to boarding school, has been managing the project to refurbish and redesign the Events Suite at Francis Court, alongside Perry Juke. Heading up the murder investigation is Detective Chief Inspector Richard Fitzwilliam. Rumour has it that he and Lady Beatrice have a fractious history… Awful man! How dare Fitzwilliam suggest Lady Beatrice’s sister is the number one suspect for Alex’s murder. It could be any one of the staff who were on-site that morning. Well, she’ll show Mr High and Mighty Fitzwilliam! With her attention to detail, her clever dog Daisy, Perry’s imagination, and his partner’s contacts at Fenshire CID, they’ll find the murderer before him. Unless the murderer finds her first…
Hello. I’m Helen Golden. I write British contemporary cozy whodunnits with a hint of humour. I live in small village in Lincolnshire in the UK with my husband, my step-daughter, her two cats, our two dogs, sometimes my step-son, and our tortoise. I used to work in senior management, but after my recent job came to a natural end I had the opportunity to follow my dreams and start writing. It’s very early in my life as an author, but so far I’m loving it. It’s crazy busy at our house, so when I’m writing I retreat to our caravan (an impulsive lockdown purchase) which is mostly parked on our drive. When I really need total peace and quiet, I take it to a lovely site about 15 minutes away and hide there until my family runs out of food or clean clothes InstagramTik TokWebsiteFacebook
My thoughts: this was a fun crime caper with a fictional Royal family, which includes Lady Beatrice, niece of the King, and now murder detective. She literally stumbles onto the body of the estate manager along with Perry Juke, her sister’s assistant, while upgrading the interiors of the public facing parts of the family estate.
Unfortunately the DCI overseeing the investigation is someone she has history with and isn’t too fond of. So she decides to solve the case herself, along with Perry, his partner Simon and her beloved pooch Daisy.
As amateur detectives go, they’re not half bad, finding clues the police missed, and having more access than anyone else would get. Helps that Simon’s an ex-copper turned writer, people genuinely like Bea and Perry and open up to them more than they would the police.
This is the first in a series and as long as she occasionally gets off the estate (otherwise I’m saying someone is a serial killer if all the murders happen on it!) then this could be really fun with Bea’s upper crust society links and Perry and Simon keeping her grounded. And obviously Daisy. As long as there’s bacon.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
A remote retreat… Nestled high in the Tuscan hills lies Villa Volpone, home to renowned crime writer Jonah Moore and his creative writing course. It’s also the last place retired DCI Dan Armstrong expected to spend his retirement! Dan’s no writer, but maybe this break will help him to think about the next chapter in his own life story? A gruesome murder… But only days into the course, Jonah Moore is found stabbed to death with his award-winning silver dagger! And Dan finds himself pulled out of retirement with a killer to catch. Eleven possible suspects. The other guests all seem shocked by Jonah’s death, but Dan knows that one of them must be lying. And as he and Italian Commissario Virgilio Pisano begin to investigate it quickly becomes clear that everyone at Villa Volpone has secrets to hide… But can Dan discover who the murderer is before they strike again? Purchase Link
T A Williams is the author of over twenty bestselling romances for HQ and Canelo and is now turning his hand to cosy crime, set in his beloved Italy, for Boldwood. The series will introduce us to retired DCI Armstrong and his labrador Oscar and the first book, entitled Murder in Tuscany, will be published in October 2022. Trevor lives in Devon with his Italian wife.
My thoughts: two warnings, 1, this book will make you hungry so don’t forget your reading snacks and 2, you will immediately want a dog.
Otherwise this is a charming cosy mystery set in the stunning rolling Tuscan hills, a place I’ve only been to once but would happily visit again tomorrow if someone can lend me the cash!
Retired DCI Dan Armstrong is on a writers course – an erotic writing course – his retirement gift from his friends in the Met. He’s not sure he wants to be there. But after befriending the local detective and the host of the course being murdered, well that’s a bit more his thing. So he offers to help out.
In between solving a peculiar murder, he falls in love with Tuscany, and a lovely labrador, and eats amazing Italian food. Minus the murder, it sounds like heaven.
I really enjoyed reading this book, it’s funny and clever and I’m hoping Dan will be wheeled out to assist the Italian constabulary in more capers.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
After the traumatic events of the past year, Tuva is back as deputy editor reporting for the Gavrik Posten, but her world will never be the same.
A closed community. Rose Farm is home to a group of survivalists, heavily armed and completely cut off from the outside world.
A missing person. A young woman, Elsa Nyberg, goes missing within the perimeter of the farm compound. Can Tuva talk her way inside the tight-knit group to find her?
A frantic search. As Tuva attempts to unmask the culprit, she gains unique access to the residents. But soon she herself is in danger of the pack turning against her. Can she make her way back to safety and expose the truth?
Will Dean’s most heart-pounding Tuva Moodyson thriller yet takes Tuva to her limits, both professionally and in her personal life. Can she, and will she, make the right choice?
WILL DEAN lives in the middle of a vast elk forest in Sweden, where the Tuva Moodyson novels are set. He grew up in the East Midlands. After studying Law at the LSE, and working in London, he settled in rural Sweden and built a wooden house in a boggy clearing, where he lives with his wife and son, and it’s from this base that he reads and writes. Will Dean is the author of Dark Pines, Red Snow, Black River and Bad Apples in the Tuva Moodyson series. His debut novel in the series, Dark Pines, was selected for Zoe Ball’s Book Club and shortlisted for the Guardian Not the Booker prize. The second, Red Snow, won Best Independent Voice at the Amazon Publishing Readers’ Awards and was longlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2020, as was his third novel, Black River. The series is in development for television. Will is also the author of two stand-alone novels, The Last Thing to Burn, shortlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2022, and First Born, both published by Hodder. Will Dean posts regularly about reading and writing on YouTube and you can find him on Twitter, TikTok and Instagram. @willrdean TikTok: will_dean_author YouTube: Will Dean – Forest Author
My thoughts: I love Will Dean’s writing and I love Tuva Moodyson – she’s a great character, clever, stubborn and determined to get to the root of the story, even when she gets into trouble and puts herself in danger.
Investigating a missing person case on a private and somewhat sinister farm, which hosts a group of “preppers” with some extreme beliefs and a disturbing number of weapons, Tuva gets in a little too deep.
The people on the farm are planning to basically cut themselves off and go entirely self sufficient – because they don’t believe the world as we know it can sustain itself. They grow their own food, produce their own power with solar panels, and plan to defend their land and lives with their huge arsenal.
But a worker on their farm is missing and that brings unwanted scrutiny from the police and from Tuva – as the press.
Tuva is still reeling from her last case, which ended with her girlfriend Noora now reduced to a vegetable, cared for by her loving parents, but no longer able to communicate. This is portrayed incredibly sensitively. Tuva still loves her very much, but is beginning to lose hope that Noora will recover. Much as with Tuva’s own deafness, Noora’s terrible sad condition is not sensationalised and is so moving and heartbreaking. It adds another dimension to Tuva’s character and as she’s such a loner, it gives her another connection to the world.
This series in general is brilliant and this latest condition continues to cement Will Dean as one of my favourite writers.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
The world of warfare is changing, and a new weapons delivery system developed secretly in the UK is targeted by an international terrorist gang who set out to steal it on instructions from “The Voice”. “The Voice” is a mysterious mastermind who uses an electronic device to disguise his voice and keep his identity hidden.
DCI Steve Burt is asked by his old Army Commander to search for his son, a serving Army officer who is missing. This unofficial inquiry becomes part of an official investigation and takes the DCI into a world of international intrigue, terrorism, murder and corruption at the highest level of government and the Metropolitan Police. The evidence always leads back to “The Voice” but who is he? Unearthing a phantom is a difficult task even for DCI Burt.
John Reid is the creator of the DCI Steve Burt series of thriller and suspense crime fiction at its very best.
Retirement has given John the time to fulfil his passion for writing, creating the mystery series through his unique creative process. Each main character is fully developed at the beginning of the writing process, with the part they play in each journey evolving organically within the confines of the underlying plot line. This freedom and flexibility creates inventive and compelling story telling that keeps the reader intrigued throughout.
John was born in Scotland and, after serving in the Army, embarked on a career in industry. He has worked in several different sectors in senior roles and was latterly CEO of a large international data capture company. He retired for the first time in 1995 to take on a consultancy designed to help new businesses become established. In 2018 he finally retired from business life to become a full-time author. John lives in Scotland and Portugal with his wife, and they have two grown-up sons.
My thoughts: I really like this series, it’s gritty and well written, enjoyable and realistic. Even when the crimes are quite extreme. This book is a case in point, a mysterious voice at the end of the phone is prompting people to commit terrible crimes – they can’t really explain why. These crimes seen connected to a new military technology.
DCI Steve Burt is on the case however, and determined to find the person behind The Voice. And he will get his man. He understands how criminals think and this insight guides his investigation.
