MEET DETECTIVE NICKI HARDCASTLE IN THIS GRIPPING SUFFOLK-BASED CRIME SERIES.
One broken body. Seven missing teeth. A killer who’s only just begun.
Detective Nicki Hardcastle is midway through painting her living room — she’s supposed to be off-duty — when the call comes in. ‘You might want to see this one, boss.’
Minutes later, she’s standing at the foot of a four-storey townhouse in the heart of Bury St Edmunds. A man lies impaled on a black iron spike, his body blood-soaked and broken.
It appears Jacob Towers took his own life. But the details don’t add up. Why was the dead man carrying seven of his own teeth in his pockets?
Then a chilling voicemail surfaces: ‘It’s time to pay for what you did.’
Two days later, there’s another death. Just as sudden. Just as brutal. And once again — seven teeth.
Someone is dealing out justice, one gruesome death at a time. And they’ve only just begun . .
Michelle Kidd is a crime fiction author best known for the DI Jack MacIntosh and DI Nicki Hardcastle series. Michelle qualified as a legal executive in the early 1990s, spending ten years practising civil and criminal litigation. But the dream to write was never far from her mind and in 2008 she began writing the first book in what would later become the DI Jack MacIntosh series. Michelle now works full time for the NHS and lives in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. She enjoys reading, wine and cats — not necessarily in that order.
My thoughts: I’m not a fan of teeth, I hate going to the dentist, I go but it really sets my anxiety levels to sky high. There was a task in the last series of Taskmaster involving teeth that made me feel sick. And there’s a very disturbing scene in this book that I really didn’t like.
Having said that, it’s a very clever case, the team are often completely stumped because there’s nothing the victims have in common, beyond the seven teeth.
Whoever is behind these deaths, that at first glance appear to be suicides or accidents, is clever, manipulative and possibly a sadist.
Their motive is so well hidden, and without a key piece of evidence, they might never get the answers. It’s very well done, with plenty of shocking moments and twists. Michelle Kidd really knows how to hook you and keep you hooked.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
A conspiracy that will test Art Marvik to the limit.
Meet Art Marvik. A battle-hardened commando with the scars to prove it. He’s used to high-stakes operations. But nothing has prepared him for what awaits in the coastal town of Ballycotton, Ireland . . .
Marvik receives a disturbing call from the Garda. His friend and former comrade, Shaun Strathen, is missing. His yacht’s been found drifting in Ballyandreen Bay. But there’s no sign of Strathen.
A cryptic note is discovered onboard: Art, sorry it’s come to this. Look after things for me. Per Mare, Per Terram.
Marvik wastes no time. He heads straight for Ireland, determined to find his friend. His search leads him to a cottage by the sea. A decomposing body is discovered inside. It’s not Strathen.
If the body isn’t his comrade’s, then who is it? And where the hell is Strathen?
As Marvik digs deeper, the truth begins to unravel, but so do the dangers.
Can Marvik survive this lethal storm long enough to expose a network of criminal masterminds, and save his friend?
Adventure, mystery and heroes have always fascinated and thrilled Pauline, that and her love of the sea has led her to create her exciting and gripping range of crime novels.
Born and raised in the coastal city of Portsmouth in the UK, Pauline Rowson draws her inspiration for her crime novels from the area. When she isn’t writing (which isn’t often) she can be found walking the coastal paths on the Isle of Wight and around Langstone and Chichester Harbours looking for a good place to put a body!
Pauline is the author of twenty-four crime novels — sixteen featuring the rugged and flawed Portsmouth detective, Inspector Andy Horton; four in the mystery thriller series featuring Art Marvik, the troubled former Royal Marine Commando now an undercover investigator for the UK’s National Intelligence Marine Squad (NIMS); two standalone thrillers, the award-winning In Cold Daylight and In For the Kill, and the 1950 set mystery series featuring Scotland Yard detective, Inspector Alun Ryga, who makes his debut in Death in the Cove with his second investigation Death in the Harbour.
Her crime novels have been highly acclaimed in the UK, USA and Commonwealth and they have been translated into several languages. Multi-layered, fast-paced, and compelling, they are full of twists and turns and are played out against the dramatic and powerfully evocative British marine landscape of the south coast of England. Pauline is a member of the Crime Writers’ Association and the Society of Authors.
Before becoming a full-time writer, she was a renowned marketing and training guru, with a collection of ‘how to’ business books and a successful marketing, media and training career behind her.
My thoughts: Art Marvik finds himself in the middle of a complete nightmare situation after his friend Shaun goes missing in Ireland. His boat is at anchor in the bay, a strange thing to do if he really committed suicide. The clues lead Marvik to an old cottage and a dead body – which thankfully isn’t his friend.
But it all seems to be part of something much larger – a conspiracy that leads to murder, where Marvik can’t be sure who to trust, where a friend may not be quite who they seem to be.
A tangled web, full of dead ends, lies, and a knotty mess that Marvik must unravel before he ends up dead too.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
A love that will change them forever A treasure that will bring them home
West Mercia, AD 873 – Merewen’s settlement is on guard against the outside threat of the ‘Heathen’ Norsemen. But for Merewen, the real threats come from within, as her future is cruelly snatched away from her.
Eirik, a Norseman, finds himself abandoned and injured after his uncle’s plunder of Mercian land goes wrong. He thinks his fate is sealed – until Merewen saves his life.
Hereford, Present Day – Left reeling after a huge betrayal, Alix moves to her grandfather’s farm in Hereford to heal her broken heart. There, after being given a family heirloom, she soon finds herself haunted by memories of a life she never lived, a relationship she never had, and a time in which she never existed.
Local farmer Noah is being hounded by the police to find the Viking hoard that his sister and her criminal boyfriend stole from his farm. Noah must prove his own innocence while struggling to decipher the curious connection he has to newcomer Alix – a bond that seems to transcend their own reality.
As they search for the lost treasure, Alix and Noah start to feel the whispers of a love they never expected, one powerful enough to echo through history.
Christina Courtenay writes historical romance, time slip/dual time and time travel stories, and lives in Herefordshire (near the Welsh border) in the UK. Although born in England, she has a Swedish mother and was brought up in Sweden – hence her abiding interest in the Vikings. Christina is a Vice President and former chairman and of the UK’s Romantic Novelists’ Association and has won several awards, including the RoNA for Best Historical Romantic Novel twice with Highland Storms (2012) and The Gilded Fan (2014) and the RNA Fantasy Romantic Novel of the year 2021 with Echoes of the Runes. RIPPLES THROUGH TIME (dual time historical romance published by Headline Review 21st November 2025) is her latest novel. Christina is a keen amateur genealogist and loves history and archaeology (the armchair variety).
My thoughts: I really enjoy these dual timeline romances, this one set in early Britain during the time of the Saxons and Viking raids and modern day Herefordshire.
As farmer Noah and his neighbour Alix grow closer and search for the missing hoard of gold that his sister and her rubbish boyfriend stole from his land, in 873, Viking raider Eirik is injured and healer Merewen helps him and takes him back to her village, where her father is in charge.
The two couples, separated by hundreds of years, are similar in many ways, they are all good, genuine people who deserve happiness and good fortune. Noah works hard, looks after his sheep and is a good neighbour, Alix has been disappointed in love, and having moved to Hereford to be nearer her grandfather and start again. Eirik is also starting over, having been left for dead by his uncle, Merewen is another hard worker, acting as healer to her community and dealing with her jealous sister.
A necklace Alix’s grandfather gives her seems to connect to the past, both she and Noah have seen glimpses of another life, and are both confused and fascinated by this. Noah’s farm seems to be the same place the Eirik and Merewen meet, the land contains an ancient stone structure, which acts as a conduit between time periods.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Something is terribly wrong at Angiras, a family-owned medical start-up. Neddy Emory and her brother Charles are about launch a revolutionary life-saving therapeutic device. But they’ve hit a major snag. Critical research is unraveling and, to their shock and horror, one-by-one, team members are falling mysteriously ill.
Neddy and Charles race to move the project forward, while struggling to keep their employees safe. Failure is not an option. Without the device, their younger brother Daniel will die. But Neddy begins to suspect the company’s innovative research methods are being tampered with. When probed, Charles gaslights her. He refuses to slow down, claiming he is Daniel’s only hope.
Torn between loyalty to her family and the welfare of the staff, Neddy desperately searches for the truth. Then the unspeakable happens. A fatality. Charles appears to finally be persuaded. But his next move shocks her, and she realizes: the danger is only beginning. And she is on her own.
For fans of THE MAIDENS who will appreciate Neddy’s determination and perseverance as she fights to keep her family together despite fractured relationships, greed, and treachery.
Judy Kroll worked for over twenty years in large and small corporations, including four years in the pharmaceutical industry, as a human resources professional and later as a career counselor. She provided job search assistance to hundreds of individuals, including physicians, pharmacists, medical device developers, chemists, and other scientists impacted by mergers and downsizings. She is a practicing yogi (twenty-three years.)
Both corporate experiences as well as many years ‘on the mat’ inspired her book, Breakthrough. Specifically, in both of these very disparate worlds, she observed the same phenomenon: the devastation wrought when a much-respected boss or mentor turns out to be unethical, and one must find a new path forward, seemingly alone.
She lives in northern New Jersey, and in addition to writing, gardening, and practicing yoga, Judy co-chairs a not-for-profit conservation organization.
My thoughts: Neddy and her older brother Charles are developing a revolutionary medical device that might help younger brother Daniel, as well as millions of others, their company is due to complete a merger with another firm and raise some more capital, but then Neddy realises something very wrong is going on at the company.
As she investigates the strange things that have happened to their engineers, she risks destroying everything they’ve built, but is that a risk worth taking?
Clever, intriguing and compelling, this might be the author’s first book but I couldn’t tell, it’s such a well plotted and enjoyable read.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Suzannah is pregnant with her third child. The first is in prison. The second is dead. How far will she go to keep her unborn baby safe?
When Suzannah learns she is pregnant, she feels like safety and happiness are finally within reach. Her handsome, successful fiancé, Alec, is over the moon about the baby. He proposes and pampers her. He thinks this is Suzannah’s first marriage and first child, but she’s keeping a few secrets. Actually, a lot of secrets. And they are dangerous…putting Suzannah in a position where she must choose who and what she’s willing to sacrifice to keep her baby and her freedom.
Drowning in her lies, Suzannah is desperate to bury her past, but her ex-husband, who abandoned her years ago, returns, stalking her and demanding to know what really happened to their daughter.
When the imprisoned serial killer who lured and groomed her son, threatens to sell his story to the press, Suzannah feels like the life she’d built and the precious one she’s growing, teeter on a precipice. Now the two children she’s hidden from Alec may be the least of her worries.
Heidi Field was raised in the beautiful countryside of the South of England with her parents and her two sisters. In her twenties she was a freelance Sports Massage Therapist. She achieved a Degree in Zoology at the age of thirty and then went on to raise two boys and became the stepmother of three more young children.
She still lives near her family home with her partner, their Great Dane and the children that have yet to fly the nest. In her early forties Heidi completed a Masters in Creative Writing at Winchester University. She entered the course hoping she would become a children’s fantasy writer and left with a burning desire to write contemporary mysteries and thrillers. Heidi wanted to put relatable people in extraordinary situations, challenge them, push them to their limits and watch them fight for their sanity.
The Other Mother is Heidi’s second novel, the next book in The Peasedale Woods Killers series.
FaceBook page: Heidi Field Author Insta: Heidi.field.75 Tiktok: @fieldheidi11
My thoughts: Suzannah’s whole relationship with her fiancé is about to fall apart because of the many, many secrets she’s been keeping. She hasn’t told him about her previous marriage, her children, their fathers, or where she goes every few weeks.
She’s hoping she won’t have to, until an unwelcome blast from the past forces her to. Now things are falling apart completely, because she just can’t seem to tell the whole truth, and Alec’s patience is getting short, he’s worried about her mental state and whether their baby’s safe.
Suzannah’s an unreliable narrator, even to herself she keeps up the pretence and doesn’t share the full truth.
There are plenty of shocking things that come out and more that happen as Suzannah scrambles to stop some of the secrets from spilling out and destroying her life.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
A sweeping tale of secrets and survival set against the mystical backdrop of Nepal, and the tropical heat of 1940s Malaya.
In the heart of bustling Kathmandu, Chloe Rai’s quaint bookshop is a sanctuary for those seeking solace within the pages of timeworn stories. But when she discovers a collection of letters hidden within the crumbling walls of a forgotten Rana palace, her world begins to intertwine with a narrative from a different time and place.
Penned in the 1940s by a woman named Alice Lacey, the letters tell the story of the Malayan Emergency, a time of turmoil and conflict. As Alice’s life becomes intertwined with that of Anil, a Gurkha officer, their bond is tested by the chaos and violence surrounding them. Chloe’s discoveries not only reveal family secrets, but also mirror her own struggles in the present. As she delves deeper into Alice’s story, she begins to understand the power of the past in shaping the present.
With a rich cultural backdrop and a poignant exploration of friendship, resilience, and truth, ‘The Bookseller of Kathmandu’ is a beautifully woven tale that showcases the enduring power of storytelling. Join Chloe on a journey through time as she uncovers the truth and learns to navigate the complexities of her own life.
If you enjoy captivating storytelling, then you won’t want to miss ‘The Bookseller of Kathmandu.’ And if you loved ‘The Fortune Teller of Kathmandu,’ then you will be enthralled by Chloe and Alice’s intertwined stories…
Ann Bennett is a British author of historical fiction. Her first book, Bamboo Heart: A Daughter’s Quest, was inspired by researching her father’s experience as a prisoner of war on the Thai-Burma Railway and by her own journey to uncover his story. It won the Asian Books Blog prize for fiction published in Asia in 2015, and was shortlisted for the best fiction title in the Singapore Book Awards 2016.
That initial inspiration led her to write more books about WWII in Southeast Asia – Bamboo Island: The Planter’s Wife, A Daughter’s Promise, Bamboo Road: The Homecoming, The Tea Planter’s Club, The Amulet, and The Fortune Teller of Kathmandu. Along with The Lotus House, published in October 2024, they make up the Echoes of Empire Collection.
Ann is also the author of The Oriental Lake Collection – The Lake Pavilion and The Lake Palace, both set in British India during the 1930s and WWII, and The Lake Pagoda and The Lake Villa, set in French Indochina.
The Runaway Sisters, USA Today bestselling The Orphan House, The Child Without a Home and The Forgotten Children are set in Europe during the same era and are published by Bookouture.
Her latest book, The Stolen Sisters, published on 29th November 2024 is the follow-up to The Orphan List (published by Bookouture in August this year) and is set in Poland and Germany during WWII.
A former lawyer, Ann is married with three grown up sons and a granddaughter and lives in Surrey, UK. For more details, please visit her website.
Giveaway to Win a Paperback copy of Fortune Teller of Kathmandu (Open to UK and Europe only)
My thoughts: I really enjoyed this story of love told through letters and a diary, hidden inside a beautiful old palace in Kathmandu. Chloe runs a bookshop, and her husband’s second cousin Rajesh comes to see her, asking if she would take his late father’s books. Inside one of these volumes is a letter from a British woman, Alice, to Anil, Rajesh’s father, a former Gurkha who had been stationed in what was then British Malaya, now Malaysia.
As Chloe looks through the books, she finds more letters, and when Rajesh finds his father’s diary, they piece together a love story set against the backdrop of the Malayan Emergency.
Reflecting on Alice’s life, Chloe works through some of the issues of her own, and as they unravel the secrets of the past, forms a friendship with Rajesh, helping him learn more about his often distant father.
Enjoyable, moving and with a rather lovely ending, this was an interesting love story that illuminated a time not taught in history lessons, at least not in mine, and brings both modern Kathmandu and 1950s Malaysia to life.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
**Terms and Conditions –UK and Europe entries welcome. Please enter using the Gleam box below. The winner will be selected at random via Gleam 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.**
The Secret Sauce, the third book in the Erdington Mysteries
Birmingham, England, November 1944. Chief Inspector Mason of Erdington Police Station is summoned to a suspicious death at the BB Sauce factory in Aston on a wet Monday morning in late November 1944.
Greeted by his enthusiastic sergeant, O’Rourke, Sam Mason finds himself plunged into a challenging investigation to discover how Harry Armstrong met his death in a vat containing BB Sauce – a scene that threatens to put him off BB Sauce on his bacon sandwiches for the rest of his life.
Together with Sergeant O’Rourke, Mason follows a trail of seemingly unrelated events until something becomes very clear. The death of Harry Armstrong was certainly murder, and might well be connected to the tragedy unfolding at nearby RAF Fauld.
While the uncertainty of war continues, Mason and O’Rourke find themselves seeking answers from the War Office and the Admiralty, as they track down the person who murdered their victim in such an unlikely way.
Join Mason and O’Rourke for the third book in the quirky, historical mystery series, as they once more attempt to solve the impossible in 1940s Erdington.
I’m an author of historical fiction and non-fiction (Early English (Saxon), Vikings and the British Isles as a whole before the Norman Conquest, as well as five twentieth-century mysteries), born in the old Mercian kingdom at some point since the end of 1066.
Historical mysteries allow me to use such modern inventions as the telephone and the car, which is very exciting when I spend so much of my time worrying about feeding the horses my warriors usually ride.
I was raised in the shadow of a strange little building and told from a very young age it housed the bones of long-dead kings of Mercia, it’s little wonder my curiosity in the early English ran riot. I can only blame my parents! I like to write. You’ve been warned!
A quick note for non-British readers; BB Sauce isn’t real but is inspired by HP Sauce, which is. As far as I know, no one has ever drowned in a vat of it. Sometimes referred to as brown sauce (as opposed to tomato ketchup aka red sauce), some people enjoy it on their bacon sandwiches, chips and other savoury dishes. I am not a fan.
My thoughts: A rather strange death, a man drowned in a vat in a sauce factory near Birmingham. He was the delivery driver for the factory and shouldn’t have been inside after they closed half day on Saturday, so why was he there and who killed him?
There don’t appear to be many clues, most of the workers had been heading off to the football after finishing up for the weekend. The few clerical staff had gone too, and the owner had locked up. There was no reason for Harry to even be inside that part of the factory, as the driver he only needed access to the yard and loading dock.
The police are stumped. But as they investigate the BB Sauce factory, its staff and Harry’s own history, it becomes clear that plenty of people have something to hide. There are secrets galore.
There’s also a terrible explosion at the nearest RAF base, and as the case goes on, there’s a worry that it might be connected. Could someone working at the factory in fact be some sort of enemy agent? With the war still raging on, people are supposed to be on the lookout for anyone suspicious, and several of the employees certainly are.
In the end this is a much more complex case than the accident it has been made to look like, Harry didn’t put himself in the vat, he certainly didn’t trip and fall from the gangway above, and the stench of vinegar is overwhelming. A bit like guilt.
Clever, complex and occasionally quite funny, this was a very enjoyable outing for Mason and the excellent O’Rourke (who will probably end up running the place one day!)
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
A body in a suitcase. A woman in a coma. A cold case that’s suddenly red-hot.
When a child’s mummified body is discovered in a suitcase hidden in the loft of a rundown terraced house in Bournemouth, even Sophie Allen and her hardened team of detectives are shocked to their core. The only clue to the victim’s identity is a badly-spelt note: Im Jan. im only 10. plees help me.
Meanwhile, a young woman lies in a coma in the local hospital. Student Holly Evans was jabbed in the thigh with a potentially lethal drug while out clubbing with friends. Was Holly simply in the wrong place at the wrong time — or was she deliberately targeted?
When Sophie’s team uncovers a link between Holly and the body in the suitcase, the case takes a shocking twist. Twenty years ago something very nasty happened inside 68 Crawley Terrace — and someone is prepared to go to any lengths to ensure the truth remains hidden.
I try to write thoughtful, contemporary crime novels and include several plot layers in my books. The adult novels feature DCI Sophie Allen and her close-knit team of detectives. I don’t write simple whodunnits, nor violent, all-action, gun-toting thrillers.
My thoughts: This was an excellent addition to this series of crime novels featuring Sophie Allen and her team.
The body of a young child has been found in a suitcase, wedged inside a hidden alcove in the attic of a house. The house belongs to a woman in prison for murder, but before that it belonged to her uncle. She knows something about it, but won’t disclose anything unless the police give her something in return to help with her case.
Meanwhile a student at the University has been ‘spiked’ while out with friends, jabbed in the leg with something in a club. She has a heart condition and is now in a coma. Wrong place, wrong time? It appears so at first, but once they gather more information, something more sinister appears to have been going on.
Could these cases, despite the twenty odd years between them, be connected?
Clever, full of twists and with a team of dedicated detectives on the case, along with some rather suspicious types, who know more than they’re saying, this is the kind of case that will keep you guessing!
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
When anarchist poet Katya Efremova is transferred to the prison colony on Solovetsky Island, she finds an enigma among her returned possessions – a blood-stained book containing a cipher left by her murdered mother, written on the day she died.
Following her mother’s clues, Katya begins to unravel a centuries-old mystery woven into the history of Solovetsky Island. Finding the island’s legendary power might be the key to overthrowing the Bolshevik regime, but Katya wasn’t sent to Solovetsky by chance. The head of the government’s spy network is watching, and there will be no hope of a free Russia if he takes hold of the magic hidden beneath the White Sea snow.
My thoughts: mixing history and real figures with fantasy and Russian folklore, this is a magical, heartbreaking and mystical book about secrets, power and the Russian revolution.
I studied Russian history and am fascinated by the folklore and mythology of this vast country. The history is often bloody and brutal, and the period following the Bolahevik revolution in 1917-18 especially so.
Solovetsky island was home to a monastery, but turned into a prison, and it is here our story takes place. Katya is the daughter of an anarchist revolutionary, now deceased, while Dima comes from an aristocratic family, both are considered enemies of the new regime.
Sentenced to hard labour in this frozen and miserable place, they are under the watchful eye of Commissar Boky (a real person, obsessed with magic and mysticism), who believes they can lead him to a magical item with the power to make him unstoppable.
Katya’s mother left clues that only her daughter can decipher, Katya has special powers, gifts from her parents’ bloodlines, as does Dima. As the two natural enemies grow closer, and unravel the clues to this mysterious item, their lives are in danger more than ever before. Will love win out or will the forces ranged against them defeat the two young people?
Tragic, moving and utterly beautiful, I was captivated and transported to the frozen tundra by this book. It reminded me of some of the Russian fairy tales I love, though thankfully no Baba Yaga, and the dark, bitter days after the overthrow of the last Tsars, a period I know a fair bit about. But you could read this knowing nothing about Russia and still be swept up in its love story and the epic quest Dima and Katya are on.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
After one toxic relationship too many and more failed jobs than she can count, spirited Scarlett Finch has lost her sparkle and doesn’t think she can face this year’s festive season. The last thing she expects is to land a Christmas job at Glenbriar’s Little Station Bookshop, especially not thanks to a slightly unhinged older woman with a parrot, a pug, a wild imagination, and some crackpot ideas for displays – not to mention a flair for making unexpected decisions, like hiring Scarlett without telling the owner.
Widowed dad-of-three Lloyd Miller is just trying to keep life on track. Between moving house, juggling his day job, and preparing to take over the bookshop from his retired mum, the chaos inside the shop is the last thing he needs, particularly when it includes Scarlett, the woman he shared a no-strings summer fling with… and hasn’t stopped thinking about since.
While Glenbriar twinkles with Christmas lights, both Scarlett and Lloyd are haunted by their pasts, drawn together in their present, and uncertain of their future. A bookshop full of anonymous wishes might just give them the courage to make their own – but with neither convinced they deserve a second chance, it’ll take more than festive magic to open the book on a new romance. They can’t change the past – but they can still choose how the story goes.
Margaret Amatt is a bestselling Scottish author, professional daydreamer, and certified chocolate addict. She’s been making up stories for as long as she can remember – some of them even made it onto paper (and, tragically, onto floppy disks that no computer can read anymore).
After two decades of writing in secret, she finally unleashed her first novel on the world in 2021, kicking off a ten-book series set on the stunning Isle of Mull. But why stop there? She’s also the creator of The Glenbriar Series, where romance, small-town drama, and a pinch of spice keep readers coming back for more. This series is still going strong, with more books planned!
Margaret has spent her whole life in Scotland’s breath-taking Highland Perthshire, despite her entire extended family coming from the Glasgow area. Her books are romantic and emotional, sweet and funny, and each one can be read as a standalone, but long-time readers know the joy of familiar faces popping up, adding to the chaos.
So, if you love relatable characters, sizzling chemistry, and plenty of banter, you’re in the right place – just don’t blame Margaret when you stay up way too late reading just one more chapter.
My thoughts: If you’re looking for a fun romance with a bit of Christmas sparkle, you can stop now. Set in Scotland, in a small town called Glenbriar, this is a funny, charming love story with plenty of festive fun. Scarlett gets a job at the bookshop, after accidentally accepting one from Eunice, who works there, with her pug and parrot (the pug makes another appearance later, thankfully the sweary parrot doesn’t). Hired properly, Scarlett starts to make the shop more appealing, with new displays and decorations.
The owner, Lloyd, has taken over from his mum and isn’t really thrilled to do so. He’s got a lot on his plate – three bereaved children, a new house, his other job, and an interfering mother. He needs plenty of help, and even though his past fling with Scarlett makes things a bit awkward, he’s actually really pleased she’s happy to stick around and keep the shop running.
As Christmas comes to town, the pair realise they still have a lot of feelings for each other, but Lloyd’s kids aren’t so sure, and his mum still doesn’t really like Scarlett. Can they all be reassured and won over before the 25th or is love not allowed this year?
It’s cute, fun, jolly and funny, what more could you ask for? Some hot chocolate? Definitely get that going for reading time!
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 