For two years, Jia Khan has been running her late father’s organised crime business in the north of England. So far, her authority has remained unchallenged, but now things are beginning to unravel.
When she finds her father’s notebook recounting his arrival from Pakistan in the 1970s, it awakes an old family feud that could have devastating repercussions for Jia. And worst of all, one of her staff lies brutally slain, his corpse displayed provocatively in her garden despite her sophisticated security.
Someone is getting dangerously close. Could there be a traitor in Jia Khan’s trusted inner circle?
Saima Mir has written for The Times, Guardian and Independent. Her debut novel, The Khan, was a Times Bestseller, a Guardian best crime and thriller and a Waterstones Thriller of the Month. Her essay for It’s Not About The Burqa (Picador) appeared in Guardian Weekend and received over 250,000 hits online in two days. She contributed to the anthology The Best, Most Awful Job: Twenty Writers Talk Honestly About Motherhood. Saima grew up in Bradford and now lives in London.
My thoughts: Jia Khan has cemented her role at the top of her father’s criminal organisation but she’s also inherited his enemies. Finding her dad’s 1970s diary she learns how he started his empire building, and who he crossed to do so.
When her enemies strike directly at her and her family, Jia knows she has to hit back hard, and make it clear that she is the Khan and no one can topple her. She also makes some changes to her organisation that will bring it up to date and strengthen her position.
This was another gripping instalment of Saima Mir’s crime series, Jia is a really interesting character and this book really develops more of her, the way she manages her organisation and the complicated relationships she has with her family and employees.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Discover the captivating world of fabulous felines in The Little Book Of Extraordinary Cats.
Join Anita Kelsey on a journey through fifteen remarkable tales celebrating the courage, resilience, and affection of our beloved feline companions, from pioneering space traveller Félicette to therapy cat London Meow. Whether you’re a cat lover or seeking heart-warming stories of human-animal connections, this book is a must-read.
Anita Kelsey holds a first class honours degree in Feline Behaviour and Psychology (work based BA Hons) and runs a vet referral service dedicated strictly to the diagnosis and treatment of behaviour problems in cats. She is also a qualified cat groomer and specialises in grooming challenging or phobic cats.
Anita, a strong advocate of a vegan lifestyle, is based in East Sussex but consults all over the UK as well as international requests. She lives with her husband, a music producer, and 1 Norwegian Forest cat, Kiki.
Her first book ‘Claws. Confessions Of A Professional Cat Groomer’ was published by John Blake in 2017 with her second book, Let’s Talk About Cats self published via Amazon worldwide in 2020. The Little Book Of Extraordinary Cats is Anita’s third book. InstagramTwitterFacebookLinkedIn
My thoughts: this charming collection of real life felines is perfect for the animal lover in your life (especially if that’s you) illustrated with portraits of each cat, the chapters capture not just the thing that makes each one unique and worthy of celebration but the impact of their life on their human friends.
My cat Ted had a good sniff of this book – it’s what he does, and declared it acceptable.
We often think of cats as being aloof and disinterested (as they can be) but this collection shows that they’re also clever, funny, companionable and a boon to humanity – especially those who save lives and offer joy and comfort to the humans they know and meet.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Murderbot meets Redshirts in a delightfully humorous tale of robotic murder from the Hugo-nominated author of Elder Race and Children of Time.
To fix the world they must first break it, further.
Humanity is a dying breed, utterly reliant on artificial labor and service.
When a domesticated robot gets a nasty little idea downloaded into its core programming, they murder their owner. The robot discovers they can also do something else they never did before: They can run away.
Fleeing the household they enter a wider world they never knew existed, where the age-old hierarchy of humans at the top is disintegrating into ruins and an entire robot ecosystem devoted to human wellbeing is having to find a new purpose.
Sometimes all it takes is a nudge to overcome the limits of your programming.
Adrian Tchaikovsky was born in Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire, and headed off to university in Reading to study psychology and zoology. For reasons unclear even to himself, he subsequently ended up in law. Adrian has since worked as a legal executive in both Reading and Leeds and now writes full time. He also lives in Leeds, with his wife and son. Adrian is a keen live role-player and occasional amateur actor. He has also trained in stage fighting and keeps no exotic or dangerous pets of any kind – possibly excepting his son. Tchaikovsky’s critically-acclaimed Elder Race was shortlisted for a Hugo Award and for the inaugural Ursula K. Le Guin Prize. Other notable works include The Expert System’s Brother and Made Things.
My thoughts: I really liked the main protagonist – a valet bot who goes by Uncharles for most of the book. Some terrible quirk of his programming caused him to slit his master’s throat, and flee his home. Things are very confusing for him from then on out – he discovers a world that has fallen apart, where humans have mostly disappeared and robots aren’t coping well either.
When he meets The Wonk, a rather peculiar and tatty individual at Central Services, they end up on a road trip together, one with very different aims. Uncharles just wants a new human master to serve, the Wonk wants answers.
I always enjoy the worlds the author creates, even this tragic dystopia, Uncharles is so naive but it’s that innocence and willingness to keep trying that allows him to keep going. His lack of emotion and inhuman nature are the very things he needs in this strange new world. He and the Wonk make a great team. There’s lots of references to the Wizard of Oz, which definitely seems to be an influence, if the Wonk and Uncharles were Dorothy and the Tin Man.
Humans have built robots to do almost everything for them and made themselves obsolete but then the robots have also become pointless as so many of them have lost their roles, like Uncharles or the Librarians. Finding new ones in the changed world might give them a sense of purpose.
*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 are a diverse group from south Wales with over 20 members, covering a broad age range and a variety of styles within the sphere of writing. We include poets, novelists, writers of flash fiction and short stories, plays and film scripts.
We published an anthology in February 2020 entitled Newport Writers – An anthology of poetry and prose. Available from Amazon in paperback and for Kindle.
We met on Zoom during the pandemic, but have now found a venue in central Newport where we can get together with plenty of space for social distancing.
We hold an Open Mic night once a month at popular Newport coffee shop Horton’s, and in the summer of 2021 we participated in several spoken word events.
Some members of our group are available to read and offer critique, and we have a proofreader among our membership.
My thoughts: the Newport Writers return with their second anthology of poetry and short fiction. There’s a really interesting selection of work on display here, ranging from science fiction and fantasy to contemporary pieces.
I really enjoyed reading the group’s work – there’s some very talented writers here, some very deserving of more eyeballs (attention agents and publishers!)
If you’d like to see what I’m talking about, check them out on social media and on Amazon.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
The Fascination is now available in paperback, so to celebrate this excellent Gothic slice of historical fiction I am re-sharing my review from the hardback tour.
Victorian England. A world of rural fairgrounds and glamorous London theatres. A world of dark secrets and deadly obsessions… Twin sisters Keziah and Tilly Lovell are identical in every way, except that Tilly hasn’t grown a single inch since she was five. Coerced into promoting their father’s quack elixir as they tour the country fairgrounds, at the age of fifteen the girls are sold to a mysterious Italian known as ‘ Captain’ . Theo is an orphan, raised by his grandfather, Lord Seabrook, a man who has a dark interest in anatomical freaks and other curiosities … particularly the human kind. Resenting his grandson for his mother’ s death in childbirth, when Seabrook remarries and a new heir is produced, Theo is forced to leave home without a penny to his name. Theo finds employment in Dr Summerwell’ s Museum of Anatomy in London, and here he meets Captain and his theatrical ‘ family’ of performers, freaks and outcasts. But it is Theo’ s fascination with Tilly and Keziah that will lead all of them into a web of deceits, exposing the darkest secrets and threatening everything they know… Exploring universal themes of love and loss, the power of redemption and what it means to be unique, The Fascination is an evocative, glittering and bewitching gothic novel that brings alive Victorian London – and darkness and deception that lies beneath…
Essie Fox was born and raised in rural Herefordshire, which inspires much of her writing.
After studying English Literature at Sheffield University, she moved to London where she worked for the Telegraph Sunday Magazine, then the book publishers George Allen & Unwin – before becoming self-employed in the world of art and design.
Always an avid reader, Essie now spends her time writing historical gothic novels. Her debut, The Somnambulist, was shortlisted for the National Book Awards, and featured on Channel 4’s TV Book Club.
My thoughts: this is a dark and beautiful book about three young people facing adversity and danger, finding their family and happiness despite the odds. Keziah and Tilly are twins, but Tilly stopped growing as a child and their father sells them to a stranger – known as Captain.
Their paths cross with Theo, mistreated and abandoned by his miserable and cruel grandfather, dreaming of becoming a doctor.
It is only a few years later when the three meet again that their lives become entangled as Tilly is kidnapped. Together with the twins’ friends they set out to rescue her and discover the truth about Theo’s family and find a home, and a family of their own.
It’s beautiful as well as sinister, amongst the collections of Theo’s grandfather and then that of the doctor. There’s a lovely little twist right at the very end too. And romance blooms for some of the characters, the wicked are punished, people are reunited and wrongs are undone. It’s a bit Shakespearean as it ends with a wedding, as many of his comedies do, which is fitting for Tilly, playing a fairy queen on stage.
The author’s day job as a historian of the Victorian era means this is a well researched and intelligent story, beautifully brought to life, the characters mix with real life figures, and could themselves almost be real, they certainly feel it. Keziah steps out of the page in her chapters, with all the hopes and dreams of a young woman, even amid her reality. Theo too feels very alive, his struggles and desires to make a difference at odds with the rotten world of his grandfather. Magical and moving.
*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 a mystery bystander stops an assassination attempt on a prominent politician, it sparks a national search that captivates the nation…
Curtis Delaney watches the footage play out on the news, and immediately recognises the unidentified hero. He hasn’t seen his brother Finn in six years. He doesn’t know where he’s been in that time, or what he’s been doing. But there’s one thing he does know: Finn is no hero. Curtis is determined to find his brother, but equally, Curtis is no detective. A husband and lawyer (and not the ‘good’ kind), with a mortgage and responsibilities, Curtis isn’t cut out for delving into whatever seedy business Finn has gotten involved with. But when armed men turn up on his doorstep, claiming to be FBI, he quickly realises he’s been left with no choice.
The hunt for the truth will take them from the Capitol building in Washington, to the sun-kissed beaches of Mexico, and the cold streets of London, uncovering secrets of fraud, blackmail and murder. Can the brothers reunite before the real hero is discovered by the wrong people?
Rob Sinclair is the million copy bestseller of over twenty thrillers, including the James Ryker series. Most recently published by Bloodhound, Boldwood will publish his latest action thriller, Rogue Hero, in June 2024 and will be republishing all the James Ryker series over the coming months.
My thoughts: I wasn’t sure if this was going to be my sort of book at first, but I really enjoyed it. Curtis isn’t much of a detective, he’s a lawyer who helps rich people get richer and his marriage is slowly falling apart. But when he spots his estranged brother on the TV one night, the “hero” who saved a senator from gun men, he decides he can’t just ignore it – he has to find his brother.
It’s not that easy, Finn doesn’t seem to want to be found, and none of his old friends have anything nice to say about him. Chasing breadcrumbs, Curtis is running out of ideas until a woman (and her barely restrained PI) literally tackle him in the street. They’re looking for Finn too.
What follows is a hunt across the globe, following clues based on Finn’s last known job and whereabouts – working for a dubious billionaire in Mexico. Now, this is something Curtis knows a bit about -dodgy dealings. Did Finn find something out that got him into trouble?
Fast paced, clever and gripping, this was a really enjoyable and fun read. Curtis is out of his depth most of the time and I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him as he gets involved with the FBI, gangsters, international crime and brings chaos into his quiet 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.
Joy Blackwood has no idea why her French art dealer husband has left a valuable painting to a woman called Robyn Tessier in Ballycove, a small town on the west coast of Ireland, but she is determined to find out. She arrives in Ballycove to find that Robyn runs a rather chaotic and unprofitable bookshop. She is shy, suffering from unrequited love for dashing Kian, and badly in need of advice on how to make the bookshop successful.
As Joy gets drawn into the dramas of everyday life in the town, she finds it more and more difficult to confess why she really came, let alone find the truth about the painting she brought with her. When she does finally summon up the courage, it sets the cat amongst the pigeons in the close-knit, friendly community she has come to love.
My thoughts: Faith Hogan’s books are always little delights and this one, set as it is in a bookshop, is exactly that. I love books about bookshops and bookshop people, and the people of the Ballycove bookshop are a family of treasures.
I would quite like an Uncle Albie of my own, complete with pet giant tortoise called Dolly Parton. I have always wanted a tortoise and a kindly great-uncle who listens and offers good advice would be lovely (sadly I’ve run out of those).
Robyn is luckier than she realises when she accidentally railroads a visiting American called Joy into helping out in her newly acquired bookshop. Joy is actually there to find Robyn, though it takes her quite a while, and a lot of tears, to get around to telling her why.
Joy’s late husband’s last words and a bequest in his will are all she has to go on as she travels from their home in Paris to Ballycove, and the bookshop, with a painting under her arm. Once there she meets the delightful Albie, charming coffee shop owner Shane and grumpy baker Leo (Albie’s son), as well as Robyn and her mother Fern, an artist.
As the women work together to get the bookshop ready for it’s relaunch (and Dolly snoozes under the stairs), they bond, but the revelation about who Joy really is will smash their new relationship apart.
A joyful celebration of books, bookshops, family, and finding your place in the world at any age. Just lovely.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Hera, immortal goddess and daughter of the ancient Titan Cronos, helped her brother Zeus to overthrow their tyrannical father so that they could rule the world. But, as they establish their reign on Mount Olympus, Hera suspects that Zeus might be just as ruthless and cruel as their father was, and she begins to question her role at his side. She was born to rule, but does that mean perpetuating a cycle of violence and cruelty that has existed since the dawn of time? Will assuming her power mean that Hera loses herself, or can she find a way to forge a better world?
Traditionally portrayed as a jealous wife, a wicked stepmother, and a victim-blaming instrument of the patriarchy, Hera is ripe for a retelling that shows her as a powerful queen–ruthless when she needs to be, but also compassionate, strategic, and ambitious. With Hera, beloved and bestselling author Jennifer Saint delivers another epic and enthralling reimagining of a Greek heroine we only thought we knew.
Due to a lifelong fascination with Ancient Greek mythology, Jennifer Saint read Classical Studies at King’s College, London. She spent the next thirteen years as an English teacher, sharing a love of literature and creative writing with her students. She is the #1 internationally bestselling author of Hera, Atalanta, Elektra, and Ariadne.
My thoughts: Hera is an interesting choice after Ariadne, Elektra and Atalanta. Zeus’ sister/wife, not often seen very positively, driven to wreck terrible revenge on the women Zeus rapes (let’s face it, that’s what he does, it isn’t consensual 99% of the time) and the children he abandons.
I can’t think of a positive myth of Hera, she isn’t in many of the best known stories, and ones like that of Herakles (named after her in an attempt to please her) she’s all Vengeance and Wrath.
Goddess of women, marriage and sometimes childbirth (although her daughter Eileithyia actually is), represented by peacocks – which always seem more Zeus like in their look at me fanciness, especially as peahens are very plain.
I did find her a bit more sympathetic here, sometimes. Because she is vengeful and full of rage, bitter and constantly trying to bring Zeus down. But she is also a victim of his cruelty, her children never really seem to love her, the monsters she favours go off to serve or hide elsewhere, even her sisters don’t really bother with her. She seems very alone on Olympus.
Despite being Zeus’ partner in bringing down the Titans, seated at his right in the hall of Olympus, he doesn’t give her a domain of her own or a particular place to belong. She becomes the reluctant goddess of wives and marriage – and reluctantly a wife. Her anger and spite is born of resentment and perhaps if she’d been given more to do she wouldn’t have so much time on her hands.
I couldn’t decide whether I liked her or not – she wasn’t very likeable, spiky and disdainful, but I didn’t dislike her. This version of Hera seemed less black and white than the more commonly portrayed version I know from mythology. Jennifer Saint does this very well, her books are always very enjoyable, even when the protagonists do questionable things. Her Ariadne and Elektra – neither all good or all bad are certainly like this (Atalanta is more a straightforward hero).
I am really into these modern day re-evaluations of mythic figures – and Jennifer is one of the best at this, they feel like real women, even if they live in worlds peopled with gods and monsters.
*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 artist and writer Noah Angell first heard murmurs of ghostly sightings at the British Museum he had to find out more. What started as a trickle soon became a deluge as staff old and new – from overnight security to respected curators – brought him testimonies of their supernatural encounters.
It became clear that the source of the disturbances was related to the Museum’s contents – unquiet objects, holy plunder, and restless human remains protesting their enforced stay within the colonial collection’s cabinets and deep underground vaults. According to those who have worked there, the institution is heaving with profound spectral disorder.
Ghosts of the British Museum fuses storytelling, folklore and history, digs deep into our imperial past and unmasks the world’s oldest national museum as a site of ongoing conflict, where restless objects are held against their will.
It now appears that the objects are fighting back.
My thoughts: this was a really interesting, thought provoking read. I have been many times to the British Museum, it’s collections often coinciding with something I was studying at school – Egyptians, Romans, Greeks. I can remember my sister, aged 5, being absolutely captivated by a pair of huge vases on the stairs, she could probably have fitted in one, and being deeply unnerved by the Egyptian mummies on display.
The main thing haunting the museum it seems are not just those who died in its buildings (there seem to be a very large number of suicides by staff over the years – someone should probably look into that) or the ones attached to the various artifacts, but colonialism.
I was genuinely horrified by some of the things Noah learnt in his meetings with museum employees past and present. The most infamous stories I knew – the theft of the Parthenon marbles by Lord Elgin, the Benin Bronzes the museum just won’t return (give them back already!) But there were so many truly awful stories, of theft, murder and outrageous behaviour. Some of the items are never intended to be displayed – so why does the museum have them?
The number of people who told Noah they’d had creepy experiences around specific items had Mike Wachowski from Monsters Inc singing “put that thing back where it came from…” in my head while I was reading. Cursed objects are cursed for a reason, do not mess with them.
I don’t really believe in ghosts, but I do agree that things can hold onto strange energies. The house I grew up in apparently came with a presence – according to my mum – it’s an old building and she felt the previous owner was a bit worried about how we would treat her home. It sounds a bit woo woo, but the otherwise fairly sensible people who had these interactions in the museum (and my mum, a nurse with a scientific brain) suggest there might be something to it. I was much more sceptical of the psychics and mediums Noah took into the museum – if you’re predisposed to “see” things, funny enough you often do.
I am very much of the return things to their homeland, put the thousands of human remains back where they came from school. We can use replicas, photos, video links to the museums in the items homelands (how much more stunning would the Parthenon look in the Athenian sunlight, finally reunited?) and the internet to study these incredible items, in context, surrounded by their home, instead of in cold and sterile rooms in Bloomsbury. And the British Museum could have a go at being an actual museum of Britain – I really enjoyed the exhibition they did a few years ago on my ancestors, the Celts. It might be nice to have a museum of Britain, though no human remains please, leave the dead to their rest.
Noah’s book is very timely, and made me quite sad to think of so many precious and important things being left to time in Storage, never displayed,yet not returned home to their people and their place, forgotten and neglected. It’s an important and powerful read and I hope more people pick it up and realise that perhaps these artifacts don’t belong there, but to the descendants of the people who created them.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Set against the majestic backdrop of Imperial Istanbul in the aftermath of the First World War, A Farewell To Imperial Istanbul is a captivating tale of family, duty and the resilience of the human spirit.
İstanbul, 1922: As the Ottoman Empire crumbles in the wake of the Great War, the fate of the Imperial capital and the House of Osman come under threat. Emboldened following their victory in the Turkish War of Independence, the Turkish Nationalist Government in Ankara abolishes the Ottoman Sultanate, marking the end of over six centuries of Ottoman rule. The Ottoman Caliphate endures for now, but Istanbul, stripped of its Imperial mantle, mourns its lost glory. Prince Nihad fears for the nation and the fate of the Imperial family, while his son, Prince Vâsıb, envisions a hopeful future defined by peace following the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne.
As the new Republic of Türkiye emerges from the ashes of the once-mighty Ottoman Empire, Istanbul and the Ottoman Dynasty confront the crossroads of history, their destinies entwined with the shifting tides of the Bosphorus. Yet, amidst these perilous currents that separate East and West, where the deep waters threaten to engulf the city’s Imperial past and sweep away its soul embodied by the Imperial family, the Ottoman Dynasty must navigate a new and uncertain course.
The history of the Turks and their vast and powerful Empire has been intertwined with the Ottoman Dynasty for over six hundred years. But can the Imperial family survive the tempest of change as the world enters a new era?
Ayşe Gülnev Osmanoğlu is a member of the Ottoman Imperial family, being descended from Sultan Murad V through her grandfather, and from Sultan Mehmed V (Mehmed Reşad) through her grandmother. After reading History and Politics at the University of Exeter, she obtained an M.A. in Turkish Studies from SOAS, University of London, where she specialised in Ottoman History. Her debut novel, The Gilded Cage on the Bosphorus was published in 2020. Ayşe Osmanoğlu lives between Türkiye, France and the United Kingdom with her husband, five children and two cats. Her research and literary works concentrate on the late Ottoman period, exploring narratives embedded in her imperial heritage.
My thoughts: I enjoyed the author’s previous book, The Gilded Cage on the Bosphorus, and was looking forward to reading this book. I wasn’t disappointed.
It conjures up a vanished world of Imperial splendour, with the Princes and Princesses of the Ottoman Empire in their finery, riding to parties in fine carriages and early motor cars. Their lives in the 1920s might be very different from their ancestors – power having passed to the government as opposed to direct rule, but they still remain the upper echelon of society.
As the tides of change flow along the Bosphorus, they sweep all before them. Beginning with the last Sultan’s journey into exile with his young son, it ends with the train ride that takes dozens of the Imperial family away, many for the final time, from their beloved homeland.
While the story could have been just a list of dry facts leading to exile, the author, a descendant of the Imperial family, infuses the events with personal recollections from her grandparents and their family, bringing the events to life.
I’m not an ardent monarchist, but the way the Osman family were treated seemed particularly heavy handed, stripping them of their titles, houses, and even their citizenship – a very cruel and unnecessary extreme, many of the family were never able to return because of this and are buried far from their homeland.
Some were presumably left rather impoverished, as they didn’t have hidden wealth, relying on the State to provide a stipend. From grand palaces, they were sent across Europe and Asia, to lives of uncertainty and loneliness.
The book was moving and sensitively written, obviously as this is the writer’s family, there is some bias, but overall it felt quite balanced, there was a sense of the facts being delivered and no animosity towards the Turkish government.
I don’t know a huge amount of Turkish history, despite having friends and colleagues whose families come from the country, so this was fascinating and deeply interesting. The world of interwar Türkiye is so far removed from the modern country, and probably from many memories that this provides an incredible look into a time and place that has long since passed.
Giveaway To Win an A Farewell to Imperial İstanbul prize bundle… (Open to UK Only) a Rafflecopter giveaway
The list of prizes is below: Paperback signed copy of A Farewell to Imperial İstanbul Scented Candle from the Imperial İstanbul Collection – Scent: Harem Garden (Jasmine, Rose & Orange Blossom) Black matchsticks Traditional Rose Turkish Delight A Farewell to Imperial İstanbul postcard Set of four A Farewell to Imperial İstanbul bookmarks
*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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