Category: reviews

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Blog Tour: Christmas at the Cabin – Rebecca Boxall

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A festive, coming-of-age tale about an Oxbridge candidate and a young homeless man who find themselves in the bittersweet predicament of falling in love with exactly the right person at exactly
the wrong time.
Well-to-do Jed never imagined he’d end up homeless, but family circumstances have made it his only option. Local vicar, Ben, tries to help him but there’s an element of self-punishment to the homelessness that makes Jed continue to put up with his situation – until disaster leads him to re-
consider the vicar’s offer of a place to stay.
Hattie is on the cusp of adulthood, frantically trying to persuade her mum that she doesn’t want to attend an elite university, preferring the idea of pursuing her love of art and textiles. When she
meets Jed, she badly wants to understand his circumstances and why, when she has everything at her fingertips, he doesn’t.
Hattie’s mum, Christine, has had a hard life and is desperate for more for her only child. When she meets Ben, the vicar who’s trying to help Jed, she finds an unlikely ally, and the two heartbroken souls find themselves drawn to each other. Until they find their relationship suddenly tested to the limit.
One thing’s for certain: none of these characters is looking forward to Christmas. It’s the worst time of year for each of them, for different reasons. But perhaps this year, the festive season could defy all expectations.

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Rebecca Boxall was born in East Sussex in 1977 and grew up in a bustling vicarage always filled with family, friends and parishioners. She now lives by the sea in Jersey with her family and Rodney the
cat. She read English at the University of Warwick before she trained as a lawyer and more recently worked at a psychiatric unit.
She is the No. 1 bestselling author of Christmas at the Vicarage and Christmas on the Coast as well as the bestselling writer of Home for Winter, The Christmas Forest and Christmas by the Lighthouse, in
respect of which she was nominated for the Romantic Novel Awards in 2020. She is also the author of Christmas at the Farmhouse and her popular short story, A Winter’s Day.
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My thoughts: this was a lovely, charming book full of friendship, love and hope.

Ben, Jed, Hattie and Christine are four lonely people brought together and who slowly find new ways to be through their relationships with each other.

Ben is grieving and his well meaning sister doesn’t really see it, but his friendship with Jed gives him a way to help another person and open his horizons a little. Jed is punishing himself and struggling on the streets, becoming friends with Ben and Hattie helps him realise he doesn’t need to keep punishing himself for others’ mistakes. Hattie and Christine are a mother and daughter at loggerheads. When Hattie gets to know Jed and Ben, her mother sees red. But as she herself starts to fall for Ben, can Christine let go of the past?

With Christmas approaching, will the festive season work on these four people and bring them together? Can they be happily ever after? Well, you’ll have to read it and see!

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

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Blog Tour: Upstairs at the Beresford – Will Carver

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THERE ARE WORSE PLACES THAN HELL…

Hotel Beresford is a grand, old building, just outside the city. And any soul is welcome.

Danielle Ortega works nights, singing at whatever dive bar will offer her a gig. She gets by, keeping to herself. Sam Walker gambles and drinks, and can’t keep his hands to himself. Now he’s tied up in a shoe closet with a dent in his head that matches Danielle’s broken ashtray.

The man in 731 has been dead for two days and his dog has not stopped barking. Two doors down, the couple who always smokes on the window ledge will mysteriously fall.

Upstairs, in the penthouse, Mr Balliol sees it all. He can peer into every crevice of every floor of the hotel from his screen-filled suite. He witnesses humanity and inhumanity in all its forms: loneliness, passion and desperation in equal measure.

All the ingredients he needs to make a deal. When Danielle returns home one night to find Sam gone, a series of sinister events begins to unfold. But strange things often occur at Hotel Beresford, and many are only a distraction to hide something much darker…

Will Carver is the international bestselling author of the January David series and the critically acclaimed, mind-blowingly original Detective Pace series, which includes Good Samaritans (2018), Nothing Important Happened Today (2019) and Hinton Hollow Death Trip (2020), all of which were ebook bestsellers and selected as books of the year in the mainstream international press.

Nothing Important Happened Today was longlisted for both the Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award 2020 and the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award. Hinton Hollow Death Trip was longlisted for Guardian’s Not the Booker Prize, and was followed by four standalone literary thrillers, The Beresford, Psychopaths Anonymous, The Daves Next Door and Suicide Thursday.

Will spent his early years in Germany, but returned to the UK at age eleven, when his sporting career took off. He currently runs his own fitness and nutrition company, and lives in Reading with his children. children.

My thoughts: it won’t be a surprise to anyone else in the cult of Carver that this is very, very good. Set before The Beresford, this takes place in the hotel next door, where Mr Balliol watches everyone and everything that goes on.

Carol, the best manager of a hotel ever, ensures the smooth running of the building, making certain that nothing interrupts the guests day. Including a dead body or two.

There’s a conference taking place in the hotel and everything must be perfect, Mr Balliol expects nothing less. But an old friend of his has checked in, and he wonders why now.

Obviously nothing important happened today and the Beresford has its own unique way of ensuring that nothing ever will. The detective asking about the dead man in 731 gets distracted by a long term guest, so doesn’t notice anything else going on, which is probably a good thing.

It’s a brilliant, twisted and utterly engaging read, defying an easily defined genre – is it a crime novel, a thriller, something fantastical? I don’t know. I just know I was totally hooked.

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

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Blog Tour: The Hunting Moon – Susan Dennard

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In this heart-racing, jaw-dropping sequel to the New York Times instant bestseller The Luminaries, Winnie continues her fight against the monstrous nightmares of Hemlock Falls.

Winnie Wednesday has gotten everything she thought she wanted. She passed the deadly hunter trials, her family has been welcomed back into the Luminaries, and overnight, she has become a local celebrity.

The Girl Who Jumped. The Girl Who Got Bitten.

Unfortunately, it all feels wrong. For one, nobody will believe her about the new nightmare called the Whisperer that’s killing hunters each night. Everyone blames the werewolf, even though Winnie is certain the wolf is innocent.

On top of that, following her dad’s convoluted clues about the Dianas, their magic, and what happened in Hemlock Falls four years ago is leaving her with more questions than answers.

Then to complicate it all, there is still only one person who can help her: Jay Friday, the boy with plenty of problems all his own.

As bodies and secrets pile up around town, Winnie finds herself questioning what it means to be a true Wednesday and a true Luminary―and also where her fierce-hearted loyalties might ultimately have to lie.

My thoughts: This definitely felt more exciting than The Luminaries – probably because all the world building and lore explaining was done in that book, and in this one there’s just lots more room for adventure and Winnie’s mission, to redeem her family, prove her dad was framed and stop the Dianas who have something to do with the Whisperer in the woods.

Winnie’s relationship with Jay is still rocky, and now he’s Senior Hunter for the Fridays, it’s harder to get through to him.

Someone might be watching her, especially when all her notes get stolen and she makes a discovery that changes everything, but put someone she cares about at risk, she now has more secrets than ever, doesn’t know who to trust and still has a lot to unravel. The adventure really ramps up and there’s a lot more tension and peril.

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

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Blog Tour: Merde at the Paris Olympics – Stephen Clarke

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Englishman Paul West is living in Paris (where he arrived long before Emily, by the way) and he’s gearing up for the 2024 Olympics.
Paul accepts a job with a French group who are campaigning to get pétanque adopted as an official Olympic event. In Paul’s opinion, lobbing lumps of lead around while drinking pastis is barely a sport – it’s more an excuse for Provençal men to avoid cooking dinner. But he needs the cash.
Meanwhile Paul falls in love with a French tech genius – who thinks he’s an idiot – and tangles with his treacherous ex, Elodie.
Paul also applies for French nationality and has to embark on a war of attrition with France’s Napoleonic bureaucrats.
In the background, Paul’s friend Jake the grunge poet decides that the Olympics and Paralympics discriminate against the lazy, and invents the “Nolympics”.
Let the fun and games begin.

Stephen Clarke is a British writer who writes mainly about France. He has published six novels featuring a British protagonist named Paul West.

My thoughts: this was very funny, I’ve played petanque in the beach in France as a kid, my family are all Francophiles and my great-grandmother was French. I have also been to Paris, which is very different to other parts of France, so I appreciated Paul’s constant bewilderment despite having lived there for some time.

French bureaucracy is infamous and he encounters it both in attempting to get citizenship and in trying to get petanque (sometimes known as boules) registered as an Olympic sport for the Paris Olympics in 2024. Although Olympic bureaucracy might actually be even more impressively labyrinthine than the French.

For Paul, it means tangling with ex-girlfriend Eloise, while attempting to impress solar panel entrepreneur Ambre, translate for a rather rude Provencàl petanque association president, in an attempt to not offend every Olympic official, and avoid being associated too closely with Eloise’s right wing politician and dodgy businessman father.

Paul is a bit hopeless and his friends are rather strange, see Jake the poet, but he’s well meaning and never intends to cause harm or offence. He has a very British take on the French (which is the author’s I imagine) and it comes through in the humour and gently teasing nature, much as we always do when talking about our closest frenemy. It’s been almost 1000 years since the Norman invasion and we will never stop ribbing the French and their strange ways!

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

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Book Review: The Sisters – Ruth O’Neill

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In a web of deceit, escape is just the beginning.

Ava Cressman’s life takes a twisted turn after her divorce from Spencer. Seeking comfort, she falls into the arms of a mysterious man named Joel Carney, a former college acquaintance. However, when Joel meets Ava’s sister, Tanya, an unsettling connection sparks between them.

Tanya, seemingly innocent, invites Ava and her twin sister, Belle, on a secluded trip to a remote lodge. From the moment they arrive, an ominous atmosphere hangs in the air, hinting at a hidden darkness beneath the surface.

As shocking truths emerge, will Ava find a way to expose the tangled labyrinth of secrets before it’s too late?

The Sisters is a gripping psychological thriller that delves into the depths of manipulation, betrayal, and the darkest corners of the human mind. As Ava fights for her freedom and tries to untangle the lies, she also must face her own demons and find the strength to outsmart those who want to control her life.

My thoughts: I was kindly sent a copy of this book by the author in exchange for an honest review.

I have a sister, and while we do have our moments, our relationship is thankfully nothing like the one Ava has with Tanya. Both see themselves as the protagonist of their families – main character energy if you will. And they both remember their childhood very differently.

Ava starts a new relationship with Joel, and they’re taking it slowly, but Tanya just keeps showing up, flirting and chatting with Joel, driving Ava mad. Then Tanya arranges for their mother, who isn’t well, to have a home nurse while the sisters are away, without talking to Ava, who takes it personally. Her twin, Bella, seems to have been cast as peace maker in the family, trying to get her sisters to get along better.

Joel invites himself to the sisters’ trip, causing another row. But is there something more sinister going on? Do Tanya and Joel know each other? Ava has so many questions and as the holiday takes a sinister turn, she’s desperate to get some answers and save herself, Bella and their mum from danger.

Twisting, shocking and with some slightly bewildering moments (mimicking Ava’s experiences), this is the dark side of sisterhood.

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Blog Tour: A Power Unbound – Freya Marske

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Jack Alston – Lord Hawthorn – would love a nice, safe, comfortable life. He renounced magic after the death of his twin sister. But with the threat of a dangerous ritual risking every magician in Britain, he’s drawn reluctantly back into that world.

Now Jack is living in a bizarre puzzle-box of a magical London townhouse, helping its owner Violet track down the final piece of the Last Contract before their enemies can do the same. And to make matters worse, they need the help of writer and thief Alan Ross. Cagey and argumentative, Alan is only in this for the money. He’s loud in his hatred of the aristocracy and their unearned power . . . and unfortunately, he happens to be everything that Jack wants in one gorgeous, infuriating package.

When a plot to seize unimaginable magic power comes to a head on Jack’s own family estate, Jack, Alan and their allies will become entangled in a night of champagne, secrets and bloody sacrifice – and the foundations of magic in Britain might be torn up by the roots before the end.

Filled with magic, murder and romance, A Power Unbound is the thrilling third book in The Last Binding trilogy by Freya Marske. Start the series with A Marvellous Light and A Restless Truth.

My thoughts: all good things must come to an end, and so we come to the final book in the The Last Binding trilogy. The gang is all here, and all trying desperately to stop their enemies from finding the last piece of the Contract – the knife, and stealing magic from the magicians.

Jack, Lord Hawthorn, has seen what can happen when you do just that, but he can’t tell anyone, thanks to a fiendish spell. But having to return to his ancestral home, the scene of his sister’s death, might change things.

As events begin to get worse – and they’re all threatened with arrest, Jack must stop his evil cousin George, and Edwin’s horrible brother Walter, on home turf.

But he’s distracted by the journalist Alan Ross, aka Alonzo Rossi, who infuriates but also bewitches him. Could this man, with the ability to negate magic, be the love he’s needed for so long? And can they stop the scheme and save magic?

Delightful, very spicy, full of the humour and adventure this trilogy is known for, as the gang attempt to out-think and out-scheme their enemies with some disguises and misdirection. A fitting end to a series I have thoroughly enjoyed.

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

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Blog Tour: The Legionnaire – Samantha Traunfield

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TheLegionaire copy

Discover the epic military fantasy where magic determines your place in life. “This grim, passionate tale will scorch readers.” – Kirkus recommended review

We’re celebrating the release of The Legionnaire by Samantha Traunfeld! Read on for more details!

9781958607183

The Legionnaire

Publication Date: November 14, 2023

Genre: NA Epic Fantasy

Saiden, a Blood-Cursed legionnaire—blessed by both the God of Life and Goddess of Death—is a paradox. Called both “death-bringer” and “world-ender,” she is surprisingly careful about taking lives and proving herself to be a monster. Torn between her loyalty to her queen and the need to protect her people, Saiden struggles to decide who she is going to be in a world that has already cast her aside.

Queen Loralei is hiding the fact that she’s been blessed by the God of Life while navigating the manipulative and dangerous landscape of ruling a kingdom. When she discovers a mysterious prisoner in her dungeons, she begins to unravel a complicated plot that shadows her reign and would change the course of history.

Mozare, gifted by the Goddess of Death with the powers to control shadows, is hiding lots of secrets in the dark. As Saiden’s legionnaire partner, he would do everything to protect her—even if that means killing the queen she swore to protect to save her from a fate worse than death.

With friends and enemies becoming indistinguishable from each other, can these three individuals survive long enough to fulfill their destinies without losing those closest to them, or will their missions irreparably ruin them—and possibly the entire kingdom?

Available on Amazon

About the Author

Samantha’s love of stories began when she was about 12—could read a whole book in a day and wrote lots of stories featuring cute ghosts. Now she writes stories about badass women, sharp weapons, and banter-y relationships.

When she isn’t writing she’s usually cuddling her dog, starting a new craft project she might not finish, or trying to figure out how video games work.

There’s a 94.6% chance you can find her curled up in a bookstore somewhere (math is not her strong suit), but if you don’t, you can find more information on her website.

Samantha Traunfeld

My thoughts: I really liked Saiden, she’s the ultimate soldier but also kind and protective of her friends. She hides because of the undeserved reputation and the rumours about her gift, something she never uses and was born with.

Assigned to guard the Queen, Lorelai, as she’s crowned, the two women bond and Saiden gives Lorelai self-defence lessons. There’s a growing anti-monarchy movement, one that involves people close to both Lorelai and Saiden, but they’re unaware. Saiden gets drawn into the movement and is horrified by their plans, but it’s too late to stop them.

With some really shocking twists, and characters you want to root for, this is intelligent and interesting fantasy examining power, how it’s given and how it’s used.

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

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Blog Tour: Pass The Cyanide – Karmen Špiljak

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A deadly feast, a mobster restaurant and a family get-together with fatal results.
Savour the spicy tang of dark and twisted tales in Pass the Cyanide, a follow-up to the award-winning collection of culinary mysteries, Add Cyanide to Taste.
From an old friend hiding a deadly secret to a ravenous house with an appetite for friends, Špiljak masterfully blends the allure of food and the thrill of mystery. Each story is a rich and satisfying
serving of crime, with a twist that will leave you wanting more.
A must-read for fans of culinary noir and foodies who love a pinch of danger with their suspense. All recipes included are cyanide-free.
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Karmen Špiljak is a Slovenian-Belgian writer of suspense, horror and speculative fiction.Her short fiction has been awarded and anthologised. Her short story collection, Add Cyanide to Taste, won the
2022 IndieReader Discovery award for best short stories/Fiction. She lives in Belgrade with her husband, two mischievous cats and an undefined number of literary characters.Find out more – Website

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My thoughts: a series of food related darkly comic short stories, ranging from a chef whose sous chef has had enough, to one that uses a secret ingredient no one must find out about, a mobster who wants only good reviews and a mother who drugs the PTA. Each one is amusing and entertaining, I like when supposedly ordinary people snap and do terrible things. There are also recipes for some of the dishes included but all thankfully poison free!

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

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Blog Tour: The Canterbury Tails – Trudie Pabor

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Carol Flynn and Jack Wallis are living and working in the same square mile, eighty years apart. In the twenty-first century, Carol is afraid of potential dangers lurking in the outside world and locks herself away safely at home. Longing to improve her mental health she keeps a diary and rehomes a dog to help her go outside and meet other people.

When out walking Biddy, her Bichon Frise, she sees a poster protesting the closure of the local social club and unwillingly finds herself co-opted onto the committee to save it.

In the twentieth century, Jack is on the home front as the first line of defence for the aeroplane factory, fighting the dangers that invade his world. He has made a special human connection and wants to explore it before time runs out.

When Covid 19 threatens the closure of the social club on their housing estate, saving it could acknowledge Jack’s affections and provide the community Carol is trying to find.

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Trudie Pabor lives on the outskirts of Coventry. Having worked as a secondary school teacher in various schools for twenty-four years, she now helps university students to achieve their goals. Whilst obtaining a master’s in creative writing, she made several contributions to a university anthology and has continued to write since.

Trudie enjoys cycling to work and takes inspiration from the world around her. ‘You never know what you are going to see that will spark your imagination!’ A background in secondary education shaped her first novel ‘The Malady of Miss Maybely’, and her experiences of living in Coventry have heavily influenced her second novel ‘The Canterbury Tails.’

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My thoughts: so a book with lots of dogs was always going to appeal to me, and I love history too, which added to the appeal of this book with its dual timelines.

Carol is a recovering agoraphobe (with good reason) who gets a dog, Biddy, to help her go outside and even meet people. And she does; Arthur, who is almost 100 years old and his dog George, Jackie and her excitable pup too. These people are her first friends, and they help her come out of her shell and get involved with saving the local social club. Until the pandemic forces them to cancel their plans.

Jack is living through WW2, working in an aeroplane factory and drinking a quick pint at the pub before catching his train home to Rugby. That’s where he meets Billy. Drawn to one another, they become friends, sharing a shift as night watchmen on the factory roof, and a meal in the pub.

As lockdown lifts, Carol starts looking into the area’s history, drawn into Jack and Billy’s story by a chance discovery. Jackie does some digging too, and Arthur offers up his memories of the war years. Can they piece together the story?

A sweet and charming story of friendship and community at challenging times in recent and not so recent history.

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

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Blog Tour: Sedona – Kerry Fryar Freeman

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Sedona copy

Welcome to the launch tour for Sedona by Kerry Fryar Freeman! Read on for more details!

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Sedona

Publication Date: November 15, 2023

Genre: Mystery/ Small Town Mystery

Sedona, AZ is a tourist town that lures people from around the world who believe there is more beyond the veil of reality. They come for the whispering pines, Hopi legends, vortices, magic crystals, and healing springs. Enter Cal Novak, a spunky editor from Atlanta, Georgia, who gives up the city life because she is searching for more: more time, more adventure, more meaning. The magic of her new hometown does not disappoint. Behind the curtain of every window there are secrets waiting to be uncovered. For those searching for more, there’s no place like Sedona.

GET IT HERE!

This is about legacy; this is about the legacy that was left before us. It’s about the land, the trees, the water, the buttes, the canyons, the tribes, the people…you can’t just appear and understand it all. Once you’re rooted, it flows through you; it speaks to you; it lives in you. You will never get that because you’re not part of that. You work up there on that butte with someone who couldn’t care less about what we are, who we are, and you think you have it all figured out. I feel bad for you, Cal, tumbleweeding along. You’re just dry roots, rot, dust in the wind. We don’t need you anymore. Get out!” Tommy yelled.

The bar was silent, every face turned toward Tommy and Cal. He could see Cal’s eyes starting to water, red flushing her cheeks, a slight shake of her hands as she removed them from her glass. Noise returned to the bar, but Tommy’s eyes were once again unmoving.

“If it’s really more than that,” Cal said, her voice quivering, “then you deal with your own mess. I’m out.” Cal stood up and walked away.

“Hey, Cal!” Des shouted. “Wait up.”

The words fell hard on Tommy, much harder than he anticipated. There was a weight that he hadn’t felt in a long time: responsibility. It was time to take matters into his own hands.

About the Author

A native of North Carolina, Kerry Fryar Freeman crafts fiction as if it were a new puzzle. The settings are real and well researched, the details are rich and layered, and the stories absorb and propel readers one piece at a time. Kerry’s debut novel, SEDONA, was long-listed for the Santa Fe Writers Project Literary Award and is set for publication with the Wild Rose Press. In addition to fiction, Kerry writes in academic and professional settings. She worked as an editor for N2 publishing. Currently, she writes English Language Arts curriculum for the North Carolina Virtual Academy serving high school students across the state of North Carolina. She also writes a blog called “Books and Bevies” where she features an array of authors from New York Times and Amazon bestsellers to debut Indie gems. Books and Bevies can be found on her website KerryFryarFreeman.com or by following her on Twitter @KerryFFreeman and Instagram @Books_and_Bevies.

Kerry Fryar Freeman

My thoughts: at first I struggled to like Cal, she seemed to be letting life pass her by. Yes, she was taking care of her grandmother, but all she seemed to do was go to the bar in town and drink, then microwave a meal.

Thankfully once she got a job at the new tourist attraction Belle Butte (pronounced “beaut”), things got a lot more interesting. Something is getting the locals stirred up – the new business has only hired out of towners, or recent incomers like Cal. And in a tourist reliant area, that’s not helpful, plus the boss isn’t building links with other businesses, and he seems to be keeping secrets.

Jack, Cal’s journalist pal, asks her to have a look around, maybe write something he can pass on to the big newspapers in Phoenix. So she does. But it’s a whole lot more complicated, and dangerous, than she thought.

Clever and with some lovely dark humour, this is an enjoyable small town thriller, with more dodgy dealings and villains (some of whom have redeeming qualities) than you might expect.

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