Category: reviews

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Hungry Heart – Clare Finney

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Award-winning food writer Clare Finney presents a moving, heartfelt exploration of the intertwining influences of food and love
 
From family feasts to comfort foods, first dates to office cake; how does what we eat define us, and the relationships we have with others?
 
Award-winning food writer Clare Finney delves into these questions with a rare and insightful sensitivity, telling a powerful story of life and love whilst uncovering the manifold ways in which food touches all relationships: from perfect strangers to partners, parents and friends.
 
Beginning with a childhood spent in her grandmother’s hotel kitchen and ending at her grandfather’s bedside, she charts a course through the meals and recipes which have shaped the person she is today.
 
Finney also investigates the role food plays in a modern society which can often feel isolating, exploring how eating unites us in varied ways throughout our lives. From the dance of culinary courtship entailed in dating to the funeral foods that remind us of the connections between life and death, Finney examines the power of food and drink to attract, bind and define us – and of course, its power to divide and repel.
 
At a time when our relationship towards what, when and where we eat has become increasingly complicated, Hungry Heart is a feast; an honest, heart-warming account of humans breaking bread together and what that really means.

Clare Finney is a food journalist, Londoner and cheese lover. In 2019 she won the Fortnum & Mason Food Writing Award for her work with Foodism and Market Life, Borough Market’s magazine.

My thoughts: exploring her life and emotions through recipes and the meals that made them, the author (who grew up in the same town as me – some of the places she mentions have resonance for me too) charts her childhood trips to her grandparents’ hotel, her parents’ divorce, her teenage eating disorder and her university years.

As a food writer she has written extensively on the things we eat, but here she explores our emotional connection to food, her own and her friends and colleagues. Each chapter ends with a recipe, dishes that have been made with love and are imbued with memory and in many cases comfort.

It was a really interesting book to read and one I will come back to as a lot of the things discussed in the chapters were intensely thought provoking.

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

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Winter Killings – Wes Markin

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A gruesome find. A missing colleague. A case that hits closer to home…

As winter settles over Yorkshire, DCI Emma Gardner is hoping that work will calm down for everyone.
Distracted by the continued disappearance of DI Paul Riddick Emma can’t seem to get her head back in the game. But when a human skull is discovered in a local pub, Emma knows it’s time to get a grip.
With no one local reported missing, and with no body to be found, the team have their work cut and no obvious clues to follow. Who could the skull belong to and what message is the killer trying to
leave them? And then the first body is found…

As Emma and the team try desperately to identify the body and the killer, secrets from the past begin to reveal themselves. A home for single mothers. Babies who tragically didn’t make it. A coverup at
the highest level.
With the clock ticking, winter has one final cold reveal for Emma. Her old friend Riddick…

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Wes Markin is the bestselling author of the DCI Yorke crime novels, set in Salisbury. His new series for Boldwood stars the pragmatic detective DCI Emma Gardner who will be tackling the criminals of North Yorkshire. 

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My thoughts: When a real skull appears in the props box of a local storyteller, during a performance in a local pub, right in front of DCI Emma Gardner and her colleague, it sends them on a hunt for a body, the identity and into the past in search of a motive.

The trail leads to a former homeless shelter, where truly shocking secrets have been buried, but perhaps not deep enough. Someone is determined to drag all of the terrible things that went on into the light, and they’re using murder to do it. 

Emma and her team are working hard, despite not having enough manpower –  and one of the team having a personal connection to the case. It’s a tough one for everyone.

As well as the case, Emma is still trying to find Riddick, she’s asked a former colleague to hunt him down, and he’s in a bad situation. A very bad one, but it might just be enough to get him to leave it and finally make contact with Emma.

Gripping, shocking, filled with twists, this is the best in the series so far. Can’t wait for the next one.

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

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Love of my Afterlife – Kirsty Greenwood

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What if the end of her life was just beginning…

If she wasn’t dead already, Delphie Bookham would be dying of embarrassment.
She’s woken up in the afterlife after choking on a microwave burger, wearing the kind of pyjamas you’d be mortified if anyone saw you in, and has crashed headlong into the most handsome man she’s ever met. Who is also dead and smiling at her.

As they talk, Delphie starts to can feel that elusive spark between them – something she’s waited her whole life to feel. Perhaps the afterlife won’t be so bad if she’s potentially found her soulmate to spend it with… That is until someone comes running in, yelling something about a huge mistake, and sends the dreamy stranger back down to earth and leaving Delphie behind.

 Now the powers that be are offering Delphie a deal: go back down to Earth, find her mysterious maybe soulmate, and get him to fall in love with her. Or stay dead. The challenge? She only has ten days to find him, and he has no recollection of them ever having met…

Kirsty Greenwood is an internationally bestselling author of funny, fearless romantic comedies about extraordinary love. When she’s not writing books she composes musicals and explores London where she lives with her husband.

 Follow Kirsty Greenwood on social media and tag her using #LoveofmyAfterlife and Twitter – @KirstyStories | Instagram – kirsty_greenwood | Facebook – KirstyGreenwoodBooks

My thoughts: this was a clever premise and a fun rom com read, when Delphie chokes to death on one of those grim microwave burgers in her ugliest nightie, and finds herself in a heavenly launderette, her life finally starts.

Sent back to life to find her soul mate and get him to kiss her, with only ten days to do so, this normally isolated introvert has to get out of her shell and hunt down the mysterious Jonah. But of course there’s lots of plot twists and along the way she makes new friends, finds herself in all sorts of scrapes, and just possibly finally understands love at the last possible moment.

This was such a fun book, I wolfed it down, enjoying every second, funny, intelligent and filled with wonderful characters.

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

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Curse of Penryth Hall – Jess Armstrong

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An atmospheric gothic mystery that beautifully brings the ancient Cornish countryside to life, Armstrong introduces heroine Ruby Vaughn in her Minotaur Books & Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Award-winning debut, The Curse of Penryth Hall.

After the Great War, American heiress Ruby Vaughn made a life for herself running a rare bookstore alongside her octogenarian employer and house mate in Exeter. She’s always avoided dwelling on the past, even before the war, but it always has a way of finding her. When Ruby is forced to deliver a box of books to a folk healer living deep in the Cornish countryside, she is brought back to the one place she swore she’d never return. A more sensible soul would have delivered the package and left without rehashing old wounds. But no one has ever accused Ruby of being sensible. Thus begins her visit to Penryth Hall.

A foreboding fortress, Penryth Hall is home to Ruby’s once dearest friend, Tamsyn, and her husband, Sir Edward Chenowyth. It’s an unsettling place, and after a more unsettling evening, Ruby is eager to depart. But her plans change when Penryth’s bells ring for the first time in thirty years. Edward is dead; he met a gruesome end in the orchard, and with his death brings whispers of a returned curse. It also brings Ruan Kivell, the person whose books brought her to Cornwall, the one the locals call a Pellar, the man they believe can break the curse. Ruby doesn’t believe in curses—or Pellars—but this is Cornwall and to these villagers the curse is anything but lore, and they believe it will soon claim its next victim: Tamsyn.

To protect her friend, Ruby must work alongside the Pellar to find out what really happened in the orchard that night.

JESS ARMSTRONG is the USA Today best selling author of the Ruby Vaughn Mysteries. Her debut novel, The Curse of Penryth Hall, won the Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Competition. She has a masters degree in American History but prefers writing about imaginary people to the real thing. Jess lives in New Orleans with her historian husband, two sons, yellow cat, speckled dog, and the world’s most pampered school-fair goldfish. And when she’s not working on her next project, she’s probably thinking about cheese, baking, on social media or some combination of the above.

My thoughts: Cornwall is a place steeped in magic and mystery – long thought the land of Arthur and his knights, there’s many stories about piskies and spells in England’s southernmost county.

Ruby Vaughn is tasked to deliver a chest of books, despite not wanting to go anywhere near the home of her former close friend Tamsyn Chenowyth. But of course she visits Tamsyn and something terrible happens – Edward Chenowyth is murdered.

The Pellar, a sort of wise man, is called to inspect the body – as well as the constable, as there’s a curse on the family, or so they and the village believe. Ruby, being a modern scientific minded woman, doesn’t believe in curses or magic, she believes a human hand is behind all of it, and she will prove it. Even as she and Ruan Kivell (the Pellar) are drawn together.

The atmosphere does start to get to Ruby, but she’s determined to help Tamsyn, who is terrified her young son will be next. The answers lie in secrets from the past, things kept hidden, in grief and rumour.

I was gripped by this clever, sinister and compelling story, I really liked Ruby, her bookseller employer/surrogate father, the pompous house cat who keeps turning up everywhere, the housekeeper who over feeds everyone, they’re a delightful crew and there’s a hint at the end that there will be more to come….

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

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Blog Tour: Redemption – Jack Jordan

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THE LATEST PULSE-POUNDING THRILLER FROM THE MASTER OF THE MORAL DILEMMA AND SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER, JACK JORDAN.

Aaron Alexander has just been released from jail after serving eleven years for causing the death of Joshua Moore in a hit-and-run. Now a free man, all he wants to do is stay on the straight and narrow and leave his troubled past behind him.
But for Joshua’s mother Evelyn, eleven years in jail isn’t nearly enough. Consumed by grief and rage, she has been waiting for Aaron’s release, counting down the days until she can exact the revenge he deserves. And now that time has come.
But as Evelyn and her husband Tobias embark on a road trip to track Aaron down, they find themselves caught on two different sides of a gripping game of cat-and-mouse. Because Tobias knows what Evelyn is planning, and he will do anything to save her from herself.
Even if it means protecting the man who killed their son.

Locked in a collision course set in motion eleven years ago, Aaron, Evelyn and Tobias are about to find out whether the road they have chosen leads to redemption . . . or to retribution.

Jack Jordan is the global bestselling author of Anything for Her, My Girl, A Woman Scorned, Before Her Eyes, Night by Night, Do No Harm and Conviction, and an Amazon No. 1 bestseller in the UK, Canada and Australia. Do No Harm was described as ‘chilling’ by Sarah Pearse, ‘brilliant’ by Lesley Kara and ‘pulse-racing’ by Louise Candlish. It was an instant Times bestseller on first publication and a Waterstones Thriller of the Month pick. To find out more, follow Jack on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok: @JackJordanBooks @jackjordan_author @jackjordan_author

My thoughts: this is a rollercoaster of a revenge road trip from hell. Ordinary couple Evelyn and Tobias had their lives turned upside down by the death of their son, and now, instead of returning to the UK and working through their grief, Evelyn has decided to track down the recently released Aaron and kill him. 

She abandons Tobias in a motel and heads off on her own with a gun and no real plan. Tobias has to commit several crimes to chase after her, trying to stop her killing anyone, especially Aaron. Unfortunately it’s a bit late as Evelyn’ rage is blinding her to anything and she’s trigger happy.

As Tobias chases Evelyn and Aaron has to go on the run to avoid her, truths come to the surface and all three are forced to reevaluate their lives.

Twisty, intelligent and cinematic, thus thriller has a real punch.

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

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Blog Tour: The Plot Twist – Victoria Walters

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One new boss, one ex-boyfriend, one big dilemma…

Stevie Phillips has just landed her dream job working for a publishing company and it seems like this is page one of her new, improved life.

But her first day throws more curveballs than she thinks she can handle: there’s been a takeover and the whole publicity team has been fired. And her new boss is the last face she expected to see.
Because Noah Anderson also happens to be her ex-boyfriend.

Thrown together on a campaign for a book the rest of the staff don’t want to touch with a barge-pole, Stevie resolves to make the best of a bad situation. This is her chance to prove herself, and she’s not going to let the man who broke her heart ruin it for her.

When Noah starts hinting that there was more to their break up than him just not loving her, Stevie’s resolution starts to wobble. Getting back with your ex is never a good idea, is it? Especially not when
your ex is also your boss…

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Victoria Walters is the author of both cosy crime and romantic novels, including the bestselling Glendale Hall series. She has been chosen for WHSmith Fresh Talent, shortlisted for two RNA novels and was picked as an Amazon Rising Star. Previously published by Hera, she is now writing romantic comedies for Boldwood.

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My thoughts: I really liked Stevie and her friends, she’s so enthusiastic about her new job, despite the nightmare that is having her ex as her new boss. She’s really excited about the new book she has to promote and even though her grand-boss doesn’t support them, she knows she can make it happen.

As she and Noah work together and finally start talking about what happened to them, the real reason he’d run off to New York, things start to improve. And get steamy as they both realise they still have feelings for one another.

This was a fun and enjoyable book, it made me laugh and smile and as a reader, it was excellently bookish.

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

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Blogathon: Home Coming – Isabel Ashdown

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Welcome to The Starlings… sun, sea and neighbours to die for.

Security, a sparkling sea view and the best kind of neighbours – The Starlings gated community has it all. Here, doors are left open, children run free, and at the heart of it all is the entrepreneurial Gold Family, who first dreamed up this aspirational vision of ‘Dorset’s Safest Community’. To the outside world the popular family appears glitteringly blessed… until an idyllic party takes a dark turn and one of their number is found slumped at the foot of the clocktower. Who knows what really happened? And what answers are harboured within the old building, the former Highcap Mother and Baby Home?’

PREORDER ONE GIRL, ONE SUMMER NOW – A BRAND NEW EMOTIONAL PAGETURNER SET IN THE BEAUTIFUL COASTAL TOWN OF HIGHCAP, DORSET.

My thoughts: The Starlings was built as a workhouse, the became a mother and baby home and finally an asylum before finally being abandoned. Purchased by the Golds and developed into a beautiful new complex of homes, but it’s ghosts still haunt the buildings and the residents.

Katrin Gold was probably the last baby born in the mother and baby home, and despite a childhood in care, she isn’t interested in finding her birth parents. But other residents, like Anne, also born in the home, feel differently. Digging into The Starlings’ past brings up tensions among the new neighbours.

Katrin is also dealing with family issues, her husband is cheating on her, her sister-in-law is a mess, her young niece needs her support. Things seem to have deteriorated since they all moved in.

Frida, Katrin’s teenage niece, needs her mother, but she’s permanently out for the count, she’s been suspended from her boarding school, and no one seems to care what happened to her.

When a terrible accident happens at The Starlings, the police start to dig in to the tangled lives of its residents and find all sorts of secrets. Clever and gripping, this is a really enjoyable thriller about secrets and family.

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

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Blog Tour: Boys Who Hurt – Eva Björg Ægisdottir, translated by Victoria Cribb

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Fresh from maternity leave, Detective Elma finds herself confronted with a complex case, when a man is found murdered in a holiday cottage in the depths of the Icelandic countryside – the victim of a frenzied knife attack, with a shocking message scrawled on the wall above him.

At home with their baby daughter, Sævar is finding it hard to let go of work, until the chance discovery in a discarded box provides him with a distraction. Could the diary of a young boy, detailing the events of a long-ago summer have a bearing on Elma’s case?

Once again, the team at West Iceland CID have to contend with local secrets in the small town of Akranes, where someone has a vested interest in preventing the truth from coming to light. And Sævar has secrets of his own that threaten to destroy his and Elma’s newfound happiness.

Tense, twisty and shocking, Boys Who Hurt is the next, addictive installment in the award-winning Forbidden Iceland series, as dark events from the past endanger everything…

Born in Akranes in 1988, Eva moved to Trondheim, Norway to study for an MSc in Globalisation when she was 25. After moving back home having completed her MSc, she knew it was time to start working on her novel. Eva has wanted to write books since she was 15 years old, having won a short story contest in Iceland.

Eva worked as a stewardess to make ends meet while she wrote her first novel. The book went on to win the Blackbird Award and became an Icelandic bestseller. Eva now lives with her husband and three children in ReykjavÍk.

Victoria Cribb studied and worked in Iceland for many years. She has translated more than 25 novels from the Icelandic and, in 2017, she received the OrðstÍr honourary translation award for services to Icelandic literature.

My thoughts: returning to Iceland’s dark side as Elma returns to work after maternity leave, with a man’s body in a holiday cottage, a violent murder that at first seems to make no sense. The victim doesn’t have any enemies, or close friends. His mother happens to be Elma’s rather odd neighbour, and stuck on paternity leave Sævar has been watching her, curious about her behaviour.

A box found in the attic of Elma’s old place, that has moved with them, contains a diary from the 90s, and possibly an answer to Elma’s case.

I really like this series, the cases have been so clever and twisty  – and this is no different. Elma’s case is all about secrets and a terrible tragedy from years before, some people never forget and never forgive. The writing is so good, I was totally gripped and couldn’t put it down.

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

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Blog Tour: The Secret Life of a Lady – Darcy McGuire

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Never Underestimate a wallflower!

Lady Hannah Simmons is a quintessential wallflower, unassuming, dowdy yet ignored by most. But underneath her plain exterior, Hannah is hiding a thrilling secret!

Unbeknownst to the rest of the
ton, she is Queen Victoria’s leading femme fatale, slipping unnoticed through the streets of London and listening to scandalous whispers from lords and ladies. But with daggers in her stockings and pistols in her pockets, Hannah’s mission is to apprehend a deadly killer.

Private Investigator to the Prime Minister, damaged, yet devastatingly handsome ex-war hero Duke Robert Killian always puts duty first. However, when he finds himself competing with the intriguing
Lady Hannah on the same daring task, his blood boils with frustration – and desire! Is it possible to seduce this vexing woman whose not afraid to put herself in danger and achieve the upper hand?

Hannah enjoys Killian’s attempts to distract and tempt her, but she has never faced an adversary she couldn’t overthrow. And Killian has never met a challenge he couldn’t conquer…until now. The gauntlet has been thrown. Can they finish their jobs and resist the temptation?

Keep your friends close…and your enemies even closer!

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Darcy McGuire is an award-winning New Zealand-born writer now living in the Pacific Northwest. She will write a five-part Victorian romance series for Boldwood, focused on a group of ‘Deadly Damsels’.

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My thoughts: I really liked Hannah, she’s a pretty kickass Victorian heroine, with her sensible boots hidden under her skirts, along with several knives and at least one gun.

Duke Killian, former Lieutenant General, turned Government agent, is on the same case as Hannah – that of a murdered maid, who was buried alive. But he’s distracted by Hannah, and then some.

It goes from a bit flirty to very spicy as they agree to trade secrets for “favours” and start falling for one another. But they don’t forget the case, and getting justice for Sarah Bright. But there’s more to the case than one death – and hopefully there’s more stories to come with Hannah and Killian.

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

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Blog Post: A Body in the Henhouse – Kate Wells

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The time for celebrations is over…

Jude Gray’s farm is going from strength to strength, and even though her grumpy neighbour has concerns about the new campsite in the lower field, she is undeterred.

When a hen party arrives for a weekend away, she does her best to cater for their celebrations. But with a sheep needing urgent care – an accidental mishap or something more nefarious? – she finds
herself consulting the group, which coincidentally contains four vets.
When one of the hens goes missing, it becomes clear there are more sinister forces at play, and someone is targeting her farm. With the help of close friend Detective Inspector Binnie Khatri, Jude
once again dons her amateur sleuthing hat.

They uncover a web of deceit, affairs and rivalries, but will they find the perpetrator before events turn murderous?

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Kate Wells is the author of a number of well-reviewed books for children, and is now writing a new cosy crime series set in the Malvern hills, inspired by the farm where she grew up.

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My thoughts: this series goes from strength to strength, with another clever crime for Jude and police pal Binnie to unravel. Jude has set up a campsite in one of her fields and is hosting a hen party of vets for a long weekend of walks and barbecues.

One of the hens goes missing and has left her phone and purse behind, the other women suspect foul play as there’s no sign of her and her car’s still parked in front of the field. 

Is Jude’s grumpy neighbour involved? Especially after some of her sheep are poisoned, he’s always complaining about her business and interfering. Or is something more sinister going on?

It’s also Sebbie’s fourth birthday and Jude is adding more animals to the farm, thinking that she can turn a paddock into a petting zoo to encourage more customers. Or just because animals are super cute and Sebbie gives them all excellent names.

It’s another enjoyable and clever read, with twists and turns. I didn’t see the truth about the missing hen coming at all, it’s so well done and shocking. Can’t wait for the next one.

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