Nora is done with dating, but still dreams of finding the one. So when a handsome stranger comes to her rescue one night and vanishes leaving only a business card, it’s like a scene out of a movie…
It doesn’t take long for the two to ‘bump’ into each other again, and Nora falls for the perfect-on-paper Gabe. Only a few weeks later, he invites her to Sicily, and she cannot believe her luck!
Until Gabe is forced away for work, leaving her alone with his big and warm family in gorgeous Sicily who welcome her with open arms. Everyone but Luca, his older and distrustful brother, who is always around.
Soon Nora finds herself on a dreamy, romantic getaway-just with the wrong brother.
A charity-working, dog-walking, child-wrangling, dust-ignoring bookworm, Jessica lives in the beautiful and historic city of York with one patient husband, one daughter, one very fluffy dog, two dog-loathing cats and a goldfish called Bob. As day dreaming is her very favourite hobby and she loves a good happy-ever-after Jessica can’t believe she’s lucky enough to write romance for a living. Say hi on Twitter at @yrosered or visit sprigmuslin.blogspot.com
My thoughts: I seem to be reading a lot of books set in Florence recently, maybe it’s a sign! Nora visits Florence while staying with her sort-of fiancé’s family in Sicily, on the trail of her father, the great love story of her mother’s sadly cut short life.
Her own love story is a bit bumpy too. She’s dating Gabe, who doesn’t really seem too interested in her as a person and abandons her at the airport with his entire family, who she has never met before, and goes off to New York for work. Which considering he works in finance and the internet exists seems suspicious. I’m sure he could have stayed in Sicily and worked from there. I’m onto you Gabe.
However, Gabe aside, the Catalano family are a delight, loud, loving Italians (Sicilians don’t always identify as Italian, I was told once, the island’s history being quite complicated) who feed her, give her a place to stay and take her to their hearts. And then there’s Gabe’s older brother Luca. Well, I think he might be the perfect Italian Stallion. And so does Nora. Which might be a bit awkward.
I loved Nora and her supportive and charming friends, the Catalanos never stop talking and embrace her so thoroughly, and it just has such a sweet and charming ending. Delightful, lovely heartwarming stuff.
*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 Jake Meredith is arrested for the murder of his wife, he’s adamant he isn’t guilty, even though her blood is all over his hands and his prints are on the murder weapon. He has no memory of attacking her.
His solicitor brother claims Jake is a sleepwalker, and he is sent to a revolutionary new sleep clinic for assessment.
Jake is convinced he didn’t kill his wife, and is intent on finding answers. But locked away in a clinic, he’s impeded at every turn. Is his incarceration accidental, or part of a larger web of lies? And worse still, is he losing his mind or the unwitting victim of something far more sinister? All he knows is there’s something going on in the room with the red door…
A dark and twisty psychological thriller that’ll have you guessing right up until the end, perfect for fans of Freida McFadden, The Silent Patient and Anna O.
M. A. Hunter is the alter ego of Stephen Edger, the bestselling author of psychological and crime thrillers, including the Kate Matthews series. Living in Southampton, he uses his insider knowledge to deliver realistic and unsettling suspense on every page. M.A. enjoys reading anything that will keep him awake at night and is a passionate advocate for contemporary cinema.
My thoughts: Jake is admitted to a sleep clinic on Lundy Island off the coast of Devon, he’s been accused of killing his wife, something he can’t remember, and according to his brother he might have been sleepwalking.
As the assessment begins he starts to lose time, his memory seems to be getting worse and the other patients unnerve him. Worse still he’s dreaming about his experiences in the army, terrible nightmares that might be PTSD.
It all gets a bit Shutter Island, things are much stranger than Jake first thinks, and his fractured reality is more complicated than he remembers.
Full of twists and turns, this is a compelling and clever thriller.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
We all have that friend – the one who doesn’t quite belong. Dinah Marshall is that person and knows it. After someone drops out, she’s invited to spend the weekend at a luxury holiday home with women she’s known since university. However, the gulf between them has widened since then, and Dinah is conscious of being the only one with no money, career, partner or children. Feeling like an outsider, she takes to snooping around the house. She’s fascinated by its owners, Sarah and Isaac Rivers – and when she discovers she can secretly stay an extra night, that fascination quickly spirals into obsession.
When Isaac Rivers meets ‘Diana Malone’ at an exclusive members club, he introduces her to his wife and friends, and she’s soon welcomed into the group. She seems to be trying a little too hard, however, and as her somewhat intense behaviour starts to raise both eyebrows and questions, one of her new acquaintances begins to suspect she isn’t who she says she is. For Diana – or is it Dinah? -this is a disaster: she’s worked hard to get where she has, and these suspicions threaten everything. But Diana isn’t the only one with secrets, and if she’s going down, then she might just take everyone else with her . . .
My thoughts: Dinah is very strange, we all wish we lived different lives, how the other half live etc, but she inveigles her way into Sarah and Isaac’s life, leaving a trail of disruption and chaos. Their friend (frenemy?) Evangeline aka Vanjie, suspects her of being someone she’s not, and is not welcoming, their perfect foursome doesn’t need a fifth wheel. Only it’s not so perfect and Dinah’s intrusion causes the cracks to show and everything starts to crumble.
What she discovers and puts together is shocking, someone in this tight knit group has risked everything to keep things the way they want them and will even stoop to harming the children if they get in their way. For all Dinah’s pretending and slightly creepy behaviour, she’s far from the worst person around.
Tense, clever and a bit disturbing, this is an excellent psychological thriller that takes the whole “grass is greener”, “I’ll have what they’ve got” to extremes. Delicious.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Kara Bryant is everything Chris Abrams ever wanted. She’s passionate, beautiful, and smart.
She’s also married to his boss.
When millionaire Perry Bryant offers psychologist Chris a position on his healthcare staff it seems the perfect chance for Chris to escape the mistakes of his past and start over.
But then he meets Perry’s wife, Kara. She takes his breath away. It soon becomes clear she wants him just as much as he wants her. And more… much more.
In fact, she wants everything.
Kara asks Chris to help her kill her husband. In spite of himself, Chris can feel himself falling under her spell. It makes him question everything – his friendship with Perry, his loyalty, even his own character.
Until finally he’s faced with the ultimate question – just how far will he go for love?
My thoughts: this was very clever, I really didn’t see the twists and turns coming. Perry just seemed too trusting and naive to be real, and Chris didn’t even seem to really care about betraying him for Kara. Who was a total nightmare. Anyone can get a job, but she’s decided she just wants to have a nice life spending someone else’s money and never work, despite not having any of the issues that Perry deals with in order to be able to make all that money.
But oh, the shock twists, so nicely done, so clever. So yes, read this and while I give nothing away, it’s jaw dropping stuff. Trust me.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
An ostentatious party descends into violence—and a disgraced cop sets out to redeem herself by solving the case . . .
Susan Grey’s fiftieth birthday party promised to be a talked-about event—an over-the-top extravagant gathering of a hundred guests at her sprawling Georgian home. But it would be talked about for all the wrong reasons . . .
From an escalated argument to the disappearance of an expensive piece of jewelry, the party was quickly spiraling out of control. But the worst was yet to come, when Susan suffered a horrific fall down the grand staircase. Was it an accident or was she pushed?
For DI Grace Roth, relegated to desk duty due to an internal investigation, this could be a high-profile case and a chance to redeem herself. But every lead seems to send her in circles. As the badly injured Susan lies in her hospital bed, DI Roth must try to gather the scattered pieces of the puzzle and make them fit—before anyone else gets hurt . . .
When I’m not working within the NHS as a Health Visitor, or stood on the side of a football pitch watching my son play football, I can be found hauled up in my favourite spot with a good book in my hand. I could literally spend all day every day reading books, talking about books and writing books. I especially enjoy women’s fiction, crime and fantasy.
My thoughts: Susan has organised a big 50th birthday bash, despite the many problems in her life, she’s hoping to enjoy herself while her husband Martin sulks in his study. But then she takes a tumble down the stairs – did she fall or was she pushed?
DI Grace Roth is assigned the case, while it might have been an accident, there’s some questions that still need answering. Susan’s in critical condition and her family all seem to be hiding things, making them all a bit suspicious. As she investigates, those secrets come to the surface and Grace unravels the whole story.
An intelligent police procedural with sympathetic characters and an interesting case to solve – what more can you want?
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Lee Goldberg, comes an explosive, page-turning investigative thriller – with a mind-blowing twist.
There’s a saying in Barstow, California, a decaying city in the scorching Mojave desert . . .
The Interstate here only goes in one direction: Away.
But it’s the only place where ex-LAPD detective Beth McDade, after a staggering fall from grace, could get another badge . . . and a shot at redemption.
Over a century ago, and just a few miles further into the bleak landscape, a desperate stranger ended up in Calico, a struggling mining town, also hoping for a second chance.
His fate, all those years ago, and hers today are linked when Beth investigates an old skeleton dug up in a shallow, sandy grave . . . and also tries to identify a vagrant run-over by a distracted motorhome driver during a lightning storm.
Every disturbing clue she finds, every shocking discovery she makes, force Beth to confront her own troubled past . . . and a past that’s not her own . . . until it all smashes together in a revelation that could change the world.
Lee Goldberg is an ex-Navy SEAL, nuclear physicist and a professional Daniel Craig impersonator.
Okay, that’s not true. But he wants this biography to be really exciting, so pay attention. If things bog down, I’ve been instructed to add a car chase or some explicit sex.
Here’s the real story. Lee Goldberg writes books and television shows.
His mother wanted him to be a doctor, and his grandfather wanted him to go into the family furniture business. Instead, he put himself through UCLA as a freelance journalist, writing for such publications as American Film, Starlog, Newsweek, The Los Angeles Times Syndicate, The Washington Post and The San Francisco Chronicle (He also wrote erotic letters to the editor for Playgirl at twenty-five-dollars-a-letter, but he doesn’t tell people about that, he just likes to boast about those “tiffany” credits).
He published his first book “.357 Vigilante” (as “Ian Ludlow,” so he’d be on the shelf next to Robert Ludlum) while he was still a UCLA student. The West Coast Review of Books called his debut “as stunning as the report of a .357 Magnum, a dynamic premiere effort,” singling the book out as “The Best New Paperback Series” of the year. Naturally, the publisher promptly went bankrupt and he never saw a dime in royalties. (But the books are available on the Kindle as “The Jury Series”)
Welcome to publishing, Lee.
His subsequent books include the non-fiction books “Successful Television Writing” and “Unsold Television Pilots” (“The Best Bathroom Reading Ever!” San Francisco Chronicle) as well as the novels “My Gun Has Bullets” (“It will make you cackle like a sitcom laugh track,” Entertainment Weekly), “Dead Space” (“Outrageously entertaining,” Kirkus Reviews), “Watch Me Die” (“as dark and twisted as anything Hammet or Chandler ever dreamed up,” Kirkus Reviews).
“Take me now,” she moaned, “you hot writer stud.”
She tore off her clothes and tackled him onto the floor, unable to control her raging lust. Nothing excited her more than being around a writer with a big list of books.
Got your attention again? Good. I don’t know about you, but I was starting to nod off. Where was I? Oh yes…
Goldberg broke into television with a freelance script sale to “Spenser: For Hire.” Since then, his TV writing & producing credits have covered a wide variety of genres, including sci-fi (SeaQuest), cop shows (Hunter, The Glades), martial arts (Martial Law), whodunits (Diagnosis Murder, Nero Wolfe), the occult (She-Wolf of London), kid’s shows (R.L. Stine’s The Nightmare Room), T&A (Baywatch), comedy (Monk) and utter crap (The Highwayman). His TV work has earned him two Edgar Award nominations from the Mystery Writers of America.
His two careers, novelist and TV writer, merged when he began writing the “Diagnosis Murder” series of original novels, based on the hit CBS TV mystery that he also wrote and produced, and later wrote the 15 bestselling novels based on “Monk,” another show that he worked on. He is co-creator of the hit Hallmark movie series “Mystery 101.” He also he teamed up with Janet Evanovich to write the #1 New York Times bestselling Fox & O’Hare novels (“The Heist,” “The Chase,” “The Job,” “The Scam,” “The Pursuit”). His most recent books include “Movieland” (the 4th novel in the Eve Roninseries), “Malibu Burning” (the first novel in the Sharpe & Walker series) and the genre-bending thriller “Calico.”
But perhaps he’s best known for his pioneering work mapping the human genome and negotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Goldberg lives in Los Angeles with his wife and his daughter and still sleeps in “Man From UNCLE” pajamas.
My thoughts: this was a great genre bending crime novel, blending science fiction and time travel with the small town cop trying to solve the appearance of a man from the 1800s with the disappearance at almost exactly the same time of a man driving through the same town. There’s a mysterious explosion on a military base, that’s definitely not a bin fire and all sorts of other weirdness for Detective Beth McDade to sort through as she attempts to solve the case.
Clever, blackly comic and entertaining, this is a great and compelling read. I can’t decide which of the storylines and characters I liked more, the accidental time traveller or the world weary, cynical detective discovering that things are both stranger and yet more believable than she first thought. I’d love more peculiar crimes in the desert for Beth to solve, especially now she knows the X-Files aren’t entirely fiction. A really fun 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.
In an alternative Elizabethan London, Fang awakes from his death to discover he is not quite human anymore. In fact, despite having somehow acquired the power of immortality, he’s also not quite vampire, zombie, werewolf or any of the other supernatural beings who roam the twin cities of Upper London and its underground counterpart, Deep London.
A jaded traveller from the Ming Empire, Fang is desperate to find a way to reverse the spell and get on with being dead when he stumbles upon Lazare de Quitte-Beuf, a theatrical Frenchman who is afflicted with the same mysterious condition. Thrown together by the curse they share, the two men set out to undo the strange magic that binds them. As they are drawn further into the shadowy world of Deep London, they unearth a dangerous plot which they appear to be right in the middle of…
And, surely, when in grave danger, the worst thing they could do would be to fall in love, wouldn’t it?
My thoughts: this is very very funny, very silly and just a bit brilliant. I loved it.
Fang is cursed not to die, he gets stabbed a fair bit, but nothing seems to kill him. He’s fed up, tired and a long way from home. Lazare also gets cursed but nothing (except maybe not getting cast in Kit Marlowe’s play) gets him down, he’s basically happy all the time. Thrown together in an attempt to undo their curses, successfully avoid getting arrested and finding themselves in Deep London, literally under the city, with a small dragon called Amber (I would love a small dragon pal), Nell the apothecary and a little girl who is very scared, they’re on the adventure of a lifetime and right in the middle of a total lunatic’s scheme!
It’s just a lot of fun, there’s so many fantasy (and romance) tropes and little references and I just had a ball reading it. The first in a new series, it’s an absolute treat.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Lose yourself in Lakeville Hills in this gorgeous new romance from bestselling author Camilla Isley…
When she’s ghosted by yet another Tinder match, Leighton swears off dating for life. Who needs apps and blind dates when she has the perfect-in-every-way (apart from being fictional) heroes of her beloved romance novels?
That night Leigh finds a second-hand book on her TBR pile, which transports her to the small-town of Lakeville Hills, where the heroines wear shorty-shorts and the men drink bourbon. And as Leigh drifts off to sleep, she dreams of billionaire cowboy Killian St Clair, who could win a gold medal for smouldering and bicep flexing. For a while, Leigh finds it easier to stomach misogynistic supervisors, newly coupled friends, and extravagant bridesmaid duties knowing she can return to Lakeville Hills each evening.
Until one day, she wakes up to find she’s brought a bit of Lakeville Hills back with her: the impossible sexy and entirely implausible Killian St Clair is in her apartment. Now Leigh must help Killian navigate the real world. But as she gets to know the man behind the trope, can she keep her heart safe, or does she risk falling in love with her book boyfriend in real life?
Camilla is an engineer who left science behind to enter the whimsical realm of romantic fiction. She writes contemporary rom-coms. Her characters have big hearts, might be a little stubborn at times, and love to banter with each other. Every story she pens has a guaranteed HEA that will make your heart beat faster. Unless you’re a vampire, of course. Camilla is a cat lover, coffee addict, and shoe hoarder. Besides writing, she loves reading—duh!—cooking, watching bad TV, and going to the movies—popcorn, please. She’s a bit of a foodie, nothing too serious. A keen traveler, Camilla knows mosquitoes play a role in the ecosystem, and she doesn’t want to starve all those frog princes out there, but she could really live without them.
My thoughts: this was lots of fun, we all have that romantic lead that we think we’d fall in love with if they were real, and suddenly right there. Well, Leighton wakes up with her book boyfriend in her bed.
Killian St Cloud is a cowboy billionaire, suddenly in Chicago, no billions in the bank, because he doesn’t exist. Except he does, other people can see him and now they have to make him a life. First there’s getting him some non-cowboy clothes, a job, an ID, and are they really in love?
Funny, silly, entertaining and with a fantastic pair of protagonists, this is a fab read and will keep you amused for hours.
*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 story about love and madness, of obsession and revenge.
Paris, 1938: a mysterious studio fire kills runaway heiress artist Juliette Willoughby and destroys her surrealist masterpiece Self Portrait as Sphinx.
Cambridge, 1991: two art history students make a discovery that threatens to expose the Willoughby family and will change the course of their lives forever.
Dubai, present day: an art dealer is accused of murdering his oldest friend just as the Willoughby secrets are about to be uncovered.
Three suspicious deaths over the course of a century.
Is the key to unlocking them all hidden in Juliette Willoughby’s lost masterpiece?
Ellery Lloyd is the pseudonym for London-based husband-and-wife writing team Collette Lyons and Paul Vlitos. Collette is a journalist and editor, the former content director of Elle (UK) and editorial director at Soho House. She has written for The Guardian, The Telegraph, and the Sunday Times. Paul is the author of two previous novels, Welcome to the Working Week and Every Day is Like Sunday. He is the program director for English Literature with Creative Writing at the University of Surrey.
My thoughts: I really enjoyed this intriguing time slip mystery. It’s clever and entertaining with a great plot twist that I didn’t see coming (although I had my suspicions!)
When university students Caroline and Patrick stumble across a painting long thought destroyed at the artist’s family home, they make some rather crazy decisions that change everything.
Juliette Willoughby was a surrealist painter, her one known art work destroyed in a fire that killed her and her lover. But is that really what happened?
Moving between Juliette’s time in Paris, Caroline and Patrick’s past and present, slowly the mystery of the painting, and the story it tells, is revealed. It’s shocking and tragic stuff, with twists and turns that change how the reader sees the various characters and the Willoughby family’s secrets are revealed.
Absolutely brilliant stuff from one of my favourite writing duos. I couldn’t put it down (apologies to the person who rang me mid read and got sent to voicemail).
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
In the suburbs of near-future London, two childhood friends discuss the creation of a technology company that elevates awareness and well-being. What begins in a garage grows into a ubiquitous enterprise that changes what it means to be alive. The Consciousness Company is a funny, philosophical and prophetic story about companies without limits, and technology that can rewire minds.
On the way to a New York stock market listing, the company’s founders join forces with a sceptical investor, a venture capital fund impressed by their early success, and an ethics committee buckling under its godlike responsibility. As the company’s artificial intelligence reads, analyses and inserts thoughts into its members’ minds, the lines between individuals blur, and the company’s users wade through their own psyches, guided by devices that know them better than they know themselves.
A question lingers—in what form will humanity survive after all this? Step into The Consciousness Company and lose yourself in the substance of existence.
M. N. Rosen has worked for more than 20 years in the financial services industry, most recently for a foundation which invests in climate-focused technology businesses. In The Consciousness Company he draws on his experience working with early-stage technology and impact businesses, as well as for private equity andventure capital firms, and, at the beginning of his career, an investment bank.
M.N. Rosen is 44 years old and lives in North London with his wife and three young children. He graduated from New College, Oxford in 2001 with a first-class degree in philosophy, politics and economics.
My thoughts: This was something different to my usual reading and it took me a while to get into it, the writing style is very distinctive and the decision not to use names, but instead the roles of the different characters takes getting used to. It’s a genre bending exploration of business, high finance and who has the right to your thoughts. The company itself contains, processes and manipulates the thoughts of its users – social media on steroids.
It’s a thought provoking read, and leaves the reader with a lot of questions about the role of technology in our lives. It’s certainly timely as AI becomes ever more prevalent and debates about the role of intelligent software grow more common. I found it very interesting and stimulating, as well as wryly entertaining.
*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 