Category: reviews

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Winter Light – Martha Engber*

ramblingmads

Mary Donahue of suburban Chicago is a kid on the cusp of failure during the brutal blizzard winter of 1978-79, the end of a hard luck, hard rock era sunk in the cynicabrutal blizzard winter of 1978-79, the end of a hard luck, hard rock era sunk in the cynical aftermath of the Vietnam War.

Though a smart, beautiful kid, she’s a motherless girl raised by an uneducated, alcoholic father
within an extended family of alcoholics and addicts. Aware that she’s sinking, she’s desperate to
save herself and so reaches out to anunlikely source, Kathleen, a nice, normal kid from English class.

But when the real storm hits, the full force of a harsh adult world almost buries Mary. Only then does she learn that the only difference between life and death is knowing when to grasp anextended hand.

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Martha Engber’s next novel, WINTER LIGHT, will be published Oct. 6, 2020, by Vine Leaves Press.

She’s also the author of THE WIND THIEF, a novel, and GROWING GREAT CHARACTERS FROM THE
GROUND UP. A journalist by profession, she’s written hundreds of articles for the Chicago Tribune
and other publications. She’s had a play produced in Hollywood and fiction and poetry published in
the Aurorean, Watchword, the Berkeley Fiction Review and other journals. She’s also a freelance editor, workshop facilitator and speaker.

She currently lives in Northern California with her husband, bike and surfboard.

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Giveaway to Win an e-copy of Winter Light (Open INT)

Giveaway to Win a Book Club Chat from Martha Engber (Open INT)

Giveaway to Win a free hour book development consultation with Martha Engber (Open INT)

My thoughts:

This is a heartbreaking book, poor Mary, with her dead mother, deadbeat drunk dad and useless older brothers, except Danny.

Failing through life, she meets and befriends Kathleen, who with her loving and intact family, is Mary’s opposite. Their friendship offers her a glimpse at a better life.

But tragedy enters Mary’s life again and she freefalls. Luckily Kathleen’s kind mother is still on her side and in the lowest reaches of her despair, Mary calls her.

This is sad, and at times, hard to read. Thankfully there is rescue there for Mary and she’s young enough that all the darkness can’t completely overwhelm her.

Moving and powerful, this is a striking and effective novel about love, trust and pain.

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

Giveaway T&Cs

Worldwide entries welcome. Please enter using the Rafflecopter box
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blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Station Helix – Ash Greenslade*

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“I DON’T WANT YOU TO FEEL PARANOID ABOUT ME LYING TO YOU.” An inexplicable suicide… A devastating car wreck… A secret Ministry of Defence facility… Told with pace and tension, STATION HELIX is an exciting and modern novel rooted in the tradition of British thrillers. Alex Hannay makes a shocking discovery which draws him into a perilous world of conspiracy and murder. As operatives from the CIA pursue their own operation on the streets of London, Alex is torn between protecting those who share his secret and seeking retribution for a terrible crime.

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Ash Greenslade is a former police officer and trainer who became hooked on thrillers after reading David Morrell’s THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE ROSE. Despite dabbling with numerous writing projects since his schooldays, it took over two decades from reading Morrell’s landmark book for Ash to finally take writing seriously. Determined to accomplish an original novel, he embarked on STATION HELIX, a conspiracy thriller inspired by a visit to Orford Ness. Originally intended as a standalone novel, STATION HELIX prompted another two books, THE ELZEVIR COLLECTIVE and TORUS, plus the RYAN KERREK spin-off series (SINISTER BETRAYAL, DEADLY ACQUISITION, BLACK SCARAB and HUNTING CARACAL).

Ash credits his love of words to weekly spelling tests from the age of four, an incredibly enthusiastic English teacher who wrote children’s stories in the 1960s, and his collection of Enid Blyton, CS Lewis and Willard Price books. Captivated by the escapism of stories, the young Ash wanted to become a children’s author, and he still has a few early projects hidden away which might resurface one day. But it was the thriller genre which grabbed him as an adult. Although Morrell remains his favourite author, he’s a fan of the old-school British stalwarts such as Buchan, Ambler, MacLean, Bagley and Higgins.

Despite his working background, Ash doesn’t write crime thrillers, preferring the more secretive and enthralling world of espionage for his stories. Betrayal and conspiracy are recurring themes. And while he avoids revealing too much of his own character through his pages, some aspects of Ash’s books are very personal, such as the scuba diving scenes in BLACK SCARAB. (Ash worked as a divemaster in the Red Sea before qualifying as an instructor in Grand Cayman.)

When time permits, Ash researches his family tree and takes photographs. Several family surnames feature in his books, and he took the cover shots for the STATION HELIX series. And while he enjoys the occasional trip to London to meet friends, visit the theatre or conduct some research for his books, he’s more at home exploring the solitude of rural Essex in search of wildlife. He can be found online at www.ashgreenslade.net.

My thoughts:

This was insanely good, I love a good scientific/political thriller and this was so gripping and clever, I was completely hooked.

At first I thought it was going to be a bit more of a basic whodunnit and why but it just explodes outwards to take in spies, the MOD, CIA, MI5, government, assassins, secret science, hidden labs, hair raising drives through nighttime Scottish wilderness and a shootout on a Greenland glacier.

There’s a lot going on but it’s kept tight and to the point, everything coming together in a race to protect highly classified intelligence and the people involved, most of whom have no idea whats going on.

I am already planning to get a copy of the second book ASAP as I can’t wait to see what happens next.

*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: Plague – Julie Anderson*

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There are many ways to die. Plague is just one of them.

Work on a London tube line is halted by the discovery of an ancient plague pit and, within it, a very recent corpse. A day later another body is found, killed in the same way, also in a plague pit. This victim is linked to the Palace of Westminster, where rumours swirl around the Prime Minister and his rivals.

As the number of deaths climbs, the media stokes fear. Government assurances are disbelieved. Everyone feels threatened. This has to be resolved and fast.

The Westminster connection enables Detective Inspector Andrew Rowlands, working alone on a series of rapes and murders of vulnerable young people in central London, to finally persuade his superiors that there is a pattern. He is assigned to lead the case. Cassandra Fortune, a disgraced civil servant, is given the uncomfortable task of investigating the investigation, while joining forces with Rowlands to find the killers before Parliament rises for recess.

Together they navigate the arcane world of the Palace of Westminster as the body count grows. But someone is leaking important details about the case to the press and the media ratchets up the pressure. Misinformation and malice online feeds distrust and panic and the Black Death begins to stalk the streets of London once again.

Meanwhile the commercial and political world focuses on the launch of a huge government Thames-side building programme worth billions. Powerful forces, in Parliament and the City, are competing for its spoils. How, if at all, does this link with the killings? Drawn into the melee, Cassandra Fortune finds herself the object of the attentions of one of the major players, wealthy City broker, Lawrence Delahaye. The attraction is mutual. Fortune and Rowlands discover a shadowy underground network of influence and power as they race against the clock to prevent the death of more innocents and the destruction of the Mother of Parliaments itself. Cassandra will be forced to make a terrible decision as she faces ruin. Time is running out and it’s not clear what, or who, is going to survive.

Drawn into the melee, Cassandra Fortune finds herself the object of the attentions of one of the major players, wealthy City broker, Lawrence Delahaye. The attraction is mutual. Fortune and Rowlands discover a shadowy underground network of influence and power as they race against the clock to prevent the death of more innocents and the destruction of the Mother of Parliaments itself. Cassandra will be forced to make a terrible decision as she faces ruin. Time is running out and it’s not clear what, or who, is going to survive.

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Julie Anderson was a Senior Civil Servant in Westminster and Whitehall for many years, including at the Office for the Deputy Prime Minister, the Inland Revenue and Treasury Solicitors. Earlier publications include historical adventure novels and short stories. She is Chair of Trustees of Clapham Writers, organisers of the Clapham Book Festival, and curates events across London.

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My thoughts:

Inspired by the real plague pits rediscovered by things like HS2, and the very real stoking of paranoia around Covid-19 by the media, this is an interesting and twisting narrative, tracing the halls of power and influence as well as some forgotten parts of London’s history.

Underneath the city’s streets are networks of tunnels, sewers and rivers, long buried as London grew, and it is within those networks that Cassandra will discover terrible schemes and villainous murderers.

The fast paced plot, everything taking place in two weeks, the back and forth between the Houses of Parliament and New New Scotland Yard, the relationship that develops between Cassandra and DI Rowlands, all work together to create a truly modern thriller, riddled as it is with history.

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

books, reviews

Book Review – The Left-Handed Booksellers of London – Garth Nix

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I was very kindly sent a copy of this book by the publisher with no requirement to review.


Eighteen-year-old art student Susan Arkshaw arrives in London in search of her father. But before she can question crime boss Frank Thringley he’s turned to dust by the prick of a silver hatpin in the hands of the outrageously attractive Merlin. Merlin is one of the youngest members of a secret society of booksellers with magical powers who police the mythic Old World wherever it impinges on the New World – in addition to running several bookshops, of course! Merlin also has a quest of his own: to find the Old World entity who arranged the murder of his mother. Their investigations attract attention from enemies of the Old and New Worlds. Soon they become involved in an even more urgent task to recover the grail that is the source of the left-handed booksellers’ power, before it is used to destroy the booksellers and rouse the hordes of the mythic past. As the search for the grail becomes strangely intertwined with both their quests, they start to wonder… Is Susan’s long-lost father a bookseller, or something altogether more mysterious?

My thoughts:

As a left-handed book reader of London, I was very excited about the title of this book. One of my favourite sub-genres of books is books about books/libraries/bookshops and when things are set in London, I enjoy going “I know there!” like a small child. Part of the action even takes place just up the road from me in Totteridge (although I don’t know it very well).

Finally left-handers (10% of the population fyi) are getting some recognition – we have certain skills like using things designed for right-handers that are a struggle the other way round! (Lefties of the UK, and possibly elsewhere, google Anything Left-Handed and buy some scissors etc to make life easier for yourself, and also stab any righty who tries to borrow them, it wrecks the bolt that holds the blades together!)

Back to the book – this is tremendous fun, set in an alternate 1983, Susan comes to London for art school, and also to try and locate her long lost dad, her mum hasn’t been exactly forthcoming with the details.

She ends up getting mixed up with criminal elements, both human and otherworldly, and being rescued by a young Merlin, the aforementioned Left-Handed Bookseller of London. One of many it turns out.

He’s part of a secret organisation that keeps things from the Old World from popping up in the modern one. And when they do break through, the booksellers send them back. They also run two bookshops.

I really enjoyed this book, with all its literary references and the vital importance of books in helping the booksellers maintain order, even if fantasy writers are a complete nuisance!

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: One Fatal Night – Hèlene Fermont*

ramblingmads

One woman’s quest for revenge unearths a fatal secret from her past.

Astrid Jensen holds one man responsible for her mother’s suicide, and she’ll do whatever’s necessary to get close to Daniel Holst and destroy his life – even if it means sleeping with him to gain his trust. Astrid knows he’s not who he pretends to be. But before she can reveal his dark secret, people from her mother’s past start turning up dead, and it looks like she and Daniel are next. In order to survive, she might have to put her trust in the man she has hated for so long.

Daniel Holst has worked hard to climb into Norway’s most elite and glamorous circles, and he’s not about to let any woman bring him down. But when a psychopathic killer starts murdering people from his shadowy past, he discovers that the only person who might be able to save him is the woman who wants to destroy him.

As Astrid digs deeper into her past, she uncovers secrets long buried and realizes everything she once believed is based on lies. What began as a quest to avenge her mother’s death becomes a desperate struggle for survival and leads to the truth about what happened one fatal night ten years ago—and the surprising mastermind behind the most recent murders.

If you’re a fan of Gillian Flynn, Liane Moriarty, and Debbie Howells, you’ll love this character driven thriller with a noir edge.

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Hélene is an Anglo-Swedish fiction author currently residing in her home town of Malmo, Sweden, after relocating back from London after 20 years.

Her thrilling character-driven psychological fiction novels are known for their explosive, pacy narrative and storylines.

Hélene is the proud author of four novels – One Fatal Night, Because of You, We Never Said Goodbye and His Guilty Secret.

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My thoughts:

A lot happens very quickly in this novel as everything Astrid believes to be true unravels and the race to find the real killer of her mother kicks into high gear.

The body count increases and more secrets are revealed as both Astrid and the police desperately search for a killer with no remorse.

Fast-paced and full of twists, the plot unfolds in snowy woods outside Oslo as the killer goes to ground.

*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: Kingdom of Sea & Stone – Mara Rutherford*

ramblingmads

Ever since Nor was forced to go to a nearby kingdom in her sister’s place, she’s wanted nothing more
than to return to the place and people she loves. But when her wish comes true, she soon finds herself cast out from both worlds, with a war on the horizon.
As an old enemy resurfaces more powerful than ever, Nor will have to keep the kingdom from falling
apart with the help of Prince Talin and Nor’s twin sister, Zadie. There are forces within the world more mysterious than any of them ever guessed—and they’ll need to stay alive long enough to conquer them…

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Mara Rutherford began her writing career as a journalist but quickly discovered she far preferred fantasy to reality.

Originally from California, Mara has since lived all over the world along with her Marine-turned-diplomat husband.

A triplet born on Leap Day, Mara holds a Master’s degree in Cultural Studies from the University of London.

When she’s not writing or chasing after her two sons, she can usually be found pushing the boundaries of her comfort zone, whether at a traditional
Russian banya or an Incan archaeological site.

She is the author of CROWN OF CORAL AND PEARL (2019), its sequel, KINGDOM OF SEA AND STONE (2020), and LUMINOUS (2021)

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Giveaway (US Only): Finished copy of Kingdom of Sea and Stone. This giveaway will end on October 13th.

My thoughts:

I recommend reading Crown of Coral and Pearl first as this follows pretty much straight on from the events of the first half of this duology.

Nor and her sister Zadie are finally reunited but the threat of war looms, and together with their friends they must find a way to save their people and the kingdom.

The plot whizzes along, pulling you in its wake, as the twins and their friends travel across the country seeking allies against the despotic prince who is determined to hold everyone in his thrall.

I liked how Nor’s character continued to develop and grow as she met new people and learnt more about her world, her friendships with new people and her determination to save the people around her makes her a fascinating and likeable protagonist.

I think the two books are just long enough to sustain the narrative and another would be too much, as the ending leaves you hopeful for the kingdom (and Nor’s) future.

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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.

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Love Songs for Sceptics – Christina Pishiris*

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My brother’s getting married in a few weeks and asked for help picking a song for his first dance. I suggested Kiss’s ‘Love’s a Slap in the Face’. It didn’t go down well.

When she was a teenager, Zoë Frixos fell in love with Simon Baxter, her best friend and the boy next door. But his family moved to America before she could tell him how she felt and, like a scratched record, she’s never quite moved on.

Now, almost twenty years later, Simon is heading back to London, newly single and as charming as ever . . .

But as obstacles continue to get in her way – Simon’s perfect ex-girlfriend, her brother’s big(ish) fat(ish) Greek wedding, and an obnoxious publicist determined to run Zoë – Zoë begins to wonder whether, after all these years, she and Simon just aren’t meant to be.

What if, despite what all the songs and movies say, your first love isn’t always all it’s cracked up to be? What if, instead Zoë and Simon are forever destined to shuffle around their feelings for each other, never quite getting the steps right . . .

Love Songs for Sceptics is perfect for fans of Mhairi McFarlane, Lucy Vine and Lindsey Kelk.

Christina Pishiris was born in London to Greek Cypriot parents, who used to bribe her to go to family weddings by promising that George Michael might be there.

To deal with the inevitable disappointment, she began scribbling stories on napkins and has been writing ever since. She started her career as a journalist, specialising in the TV industry, before going freelance.

Since meeting her film-maker husband she’s also moved into production, working on music documentaries.

Her hobbies include compiling cheesy 80s playlists, coveting the neighbour’s cat and writing protest letters to Guerlain after they discontinued her favourite perfume.

My thoughts:

This was lovely, I’ve been feeling a bit rubbish lately and this book was a balm. A funny, wry tale of first loves, friendship, musicians and Greek food.

The food had me licking my lips at the thought (I love Greek food), the characters and plot had me laughing and nodding my head in sympathy as Zoë tries to find love, first with her childhood pal, then with her nemesis, PR to the difficult pop stars, Nick.

Meanwhile her brother and his lovely fiancée are planning their Greek wedding, and Zoë is needed to teach the bride and her pals Greek dancing, and play the ukulele!

This is such a fun book and could easily be a great TV show or film, it’s got everything you need! Definitely one for to curl up on the sofa under a blanket and enjoy.


*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 Accidental Medium Series – Tracy Whitwell*

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Tanz is a wine soaked, potty mouthed, once successful TV actress from Gateshead, whose career has shriveled like an antique walnut. She is still grieving her friend Frank, who died in a car crash three years ago, and she has to find a normal job in London to fund her cocktail habit.
When she starts work in a new age shop, Tanz suddenly discovers that the voices she’s hearing in her head are real, not the first signs of schizophrenia, and she can give people ‘messages’ from beyond the grave. Alarmed, she confronts her little mam and discovers she is from a long line of psychic mediums.
Despite a whole exciting new avenue of life opening up to Tanz, darkness isn’t far away and all too soon there’s murder in the air.

Amazon

After a fast paced introduction to the world of clairvoyance, ghost busting, mystery and murder, Tanz is currently hiding in bed, having nightmares about a suicidal psychopath, drinking red wine, irritating her cat and waiting to be evicted. Life as she knew it seven months ago has turned on its head and only the prospect of a new TV job in Newcastle and a month with her best friend Milo can help pick her up off the floor.
But when she gets home, the Newcastle of more than a century before decides to haunt her bringing all kinds of spooks and horrors with it. She also finds that her new job involves more than it’s own share of intrigue and humiliation. Then it’s a case of six of one and half a dozen of the other, as Tanz, along with her dead friend Frank, attempts to expose a brutal murder that nobody even knows about. Join Tanz and her friends on another crazy, supernatural ride in GIN PALACE, the second in The Accidental Medium series.

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Tracy Whitwell was born, brought up and educated in Gateshead in the north east of England. She wrote plays and short stories from an early age, then had her head turned and ran off to London to be an actress. By 1993 she was wearing a wig and an old fashioned dress and pretending to be impoverished on telly in a Catherine Cookson mini-series, whilst going to see every indie/rock band she could afford.

After an interesting number of years messing about in front of the camera and traveling the world though, Tracy discovered she still loved writing and completed her first full length play. A son, many stage-plays, screenplays and two music videos followed until one day she realised she was finally ready to do the thing she’d longed to do since she was six. She wrote her first novel. A crime/horror/comedy tale about an alcohol-soaked, gobby, thrill-seeking actress who talks to ghosts. (Who knows where the inspiration came from, it’s almost like she based it on her own ridiculous life.) Then she wrote a follow up and realised she couldn’t stop writing books.
Now Tracy lives in north London with her son, still travels whenever possible and has written novel number four. Now being edited.
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My thoughts:

Both of these books were tremendous fun, I wish Tanz was my pal, she’s so full of life and determined to help people, she solves murders modern and historic, frees people from terrible, cruel ghosts.

Discovering she can hear the voices of the unsettled dead, she teams up with two older woman (one in each story) to help the dead and the living.

The writing is funny, moving and the plots kept me entertained and intrigued all the way through. I look forward to more tales of Tanz and her pals.

*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: Attack Surface – Cory Doctorow*

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Returning to the world of Little Brother and Homeland, Attack Surface takes us five minutes into the future, to a world where everything is connected and everyone is vulnerable.

Masha Maximow has made some bad choices in life – choices that hurt people. But she’s also made some pretty decent ones. In the log file of life, however, she can’t quite work out
which side of the ledger she currently stands.

Masha works for Xoth Intelligence, an InfoSec company upgrading the Slovstakian Interior Ministry’s ability to spy on its citizens’ telecommunications with state-of-the-art software (at least, as state-of-the-art as Xoth is prepared to offer in its middle-upper pricing tier).

Can you offset a day-job helping repressive regimes spy on their citizens with a nighttime hobby where you help those same citizens evade detection? Masha is about to find out.
Pacy, passionate, and as current as next week, Attack Surface is a paean to activism, to courage, to the drive to make the world a better place.

Cory Doctorow is a science fiction author, activist, journalist and
blogger – the co-editor of Boing Boing and the author of many
books: In Real Life, a graphic novel; Information Doesn’t Want To Be Free, a book about earning a living in the Internet age; and Homeland, the award winning, best selling sequel to the 2008 YA novel Little Brother. Cory has been on the frontline of international debates on privacy, copyright and freedom of information for over a decade.

My thoughts:

This feels like a very prescient novel, with its protests and dodgy tech companies and complicit governments. It feels very 2020 minus the virus that’s killing people and the fact that governments are no longer pretending to care about people more than money.

Masha has been building spyware and surveillance for tech companies to sell to dangerous and unstable governments, to watch their own citizens and turn righteous anger at injustice into terrorism charges and making people just disappear.

She becomes steadily disillusioned by this and realises she’s on the wrong side of history and what’s right.

I don’t even pretend to understand how some very clever people can do all these things with computers, but I can see that there needs to be more checks and balances in place. Things need to be more transparent and honest, governments should remember they work for the people, not against them.

While this is taken to extremes in the book, some of the scenes of police brutality we’ve all witnessed in the last few years, and especially the last few months, aren’t far off the grim future Masha and her friends are living through and trying to fight against.

Incredibly powerful, insightful, and actually quite funny, this is very much a book that speaks to our times and reminds us all to pay attention.

*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: Tudor Christmas Tidings – Blythe Gifford, Jenni Fletcher & Amanda McCabe*

ramblingmads

Make Merry at Court… with three Tudor Christmas stories!

In Christmas at Court Sir John Talbot and Lady Alice’s secret betrothal must wait until Henry Tudor
claims the throne.

Next in Secrets of the Queen’s Lady the lady-in-waiting to Anne of Cleves isunexpectedly reunited with a handsome—younger—diplomat at the palace’s festivities!

And in His Mistletoe Lady Catherine seeks help from a mysterious Spaniard to free her father in time for
Christmas!

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Jenni Fletcher is from the north coast of Scotland and now lives in Yorkshire where she writes historical romance novels. She studied English at Cambridge University before doing a PhD on Edwardian literature & psychology at Hull. She has been nominated for 4 RoNA awards and won for Short Romantic Fiction in 2020. In her spare time she loves baking and, of course, reading.

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After many years in public relations, advertising, and marketing, Blythe Gifford started writing seriously after a corporate layoff. Ten years and one layoff later, she became an overnight success when she sold to the Harlequin Historical line. Her books, set in the 14th to 17th centuries, typically incorporate real historical events and characters. The Chicago Tribune has called her work “the
perfect balance between history and romance.” Blythe lives and works along Chicago’s lakefront.

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Amanda wrote her first romance at the age of sixteen–a vast historical epic starring all her friends as
the characters, written secretly during algebra class (and her parents wondered why math was not
her strongest subject…)

She’s never since used algebra, but her books have been nominated for many awards, including the RITA Award, the Romantic Times BOOKReviews Reviewers’ Choice Award, the Booksellers Best, the
National Readers Choice Award, and the Holt Medallion. She lives in Santa Fe with a Poodle, a cat, a wonderful husband, and a very and far too many books and royal memorabilia collections.

When not writing or reading, she loves taking dance classes, collecting cheesy travel souvenirs, and watching the Food Network–even though she doesn’t cook.
Amanda also writes as Laurel McKee for Grand Central Publishing, the Elizabethan Mystery Series as Amanda Carmack, and the Manor Cat Mystery Series as Eliza Casey.

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My thoughts:

These three novellas in one are set at different points during the Tudor period, skipping from the very beginning of Henry Tudor’s reign, to his son’s fourth marriage (Katherine Howard, beheaded) and finally to Mary I’s court at its height.

The one thing that never changes is love, monarchs (and religions) might but the desire to find someone to kiss under the mistletoe (a much more recent tradition though that is) remains.

Each story centres on a couple revolving round the court, and there’s plenty of intrigue, politics, family loyalty and other machinations to keep it interesting. In an age where few could marry for love, can you ever fall and be able to make your own choice?

Perfect for curling up and dipping into in the warmth of your centrally heated home, a far cry from the Yule logs of Tudor England.


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