Category: reviews

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: You’d Look Better as a Ghost – Joanna Wallace

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I have a gift. I see people as ghosts before they die. Of course, it helps that I’m the one killing them.

The night after her father’s funeral, Claire meets Lucas in a bar. Lucas doesn’t know it, but it’s not a chance meeting. One thoughtless mistyped email has put him in the crosshairs of an extremely put-out serial killer. But before they make eye contact, before Claire lets him buy her a drink, even before she takes him home and carves him up into little pieces, something about that night is very wrong. Because someone is watching Claire. Someone who is about to discover her murderous little hobby.

The thing is, it’s not sensible to tangle with a part-time serial killer, even one who is distracted by attending a weekly bereavement support group and trying to get her art career off the ground. Let the games begin…

Dexter meets Killing Eve in this superb thriller, perfect for fans of How To Kill Your Family and My Sister the Serial Killer.

Joanna Wallace worked as a solicitor until an autoimmune condition took away some of her sight. She now volunteers at a charity helpline and runs a family business with her husband. She was partly inspired to write You’d Look Better as A Ghost following her father’s diagnosis of early onset dementia. Joanna lives near London with her husband, four children and two dogs.

My thoughts: there’s a particular sub-genre of pitch black humour that really appeals to me, and this book has plenty of that. Is it the serial killer narrator? Is it the fact that her killings have no real overarching reasons? I don’t really know. I think I just enjoy the twisted darkness of these books a lot.

Claire kills people, people who annoy her, people who get in her way, there’s a man’s head in her fish tank, there’s probably several bodies in her garden. And the thing is, I get it. I have often become irrationally annoyed with people and wanted to kill them. I just haven’t acted on that impulse. Claire however, has no such qualms.

Unfortunately someone has been watching her, and so now they must die. And anyone involved in their scheme. Claire can’t have the police popping round.

Dark as Marmite and very much a book some people will hate, but I loved it. Yum.

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

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Time of Cherries – Michael S. Hollington

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Burgundy, 1861.

Christine ‘Kiki’ Vellay, the daughter of vineyard workers, is forced to marry an older man in exchange for a piece of land. He abuses her. Seduced by a young naval cadet she plots to run away. When her husband is killed during the attempt, she finds herself wrongly accused of his murder.

Kiki is on the run.

On reaching Paris in disguise, Kiki discovers she is pregnant and takes on various jobs to survive. When her child is stolen from her, she begins a desperate attempt to find him. Her story takes her from imprisonment in the infamous Conciergerie, to a chateau in the Loire, back to Paris under siege – as a spy – during the Franco­Prussian war, culminating in a dramatic conclusion in the final bloody week of the Paris Commune.

A story of resilience in the face of immense hardship, The Time of Cherriesis a gripping account of a woman’s instinct and longing for her child.

Michael S Hollington qualified as a chartered surveyor. After spells in the City, Belgium and North America he spent the bulk of his career in Hong Kong, selling buildings on behalf of clients. He lives in London with his wife, Sarah. The Time of Cherries is his first published novel.

My thoughts: this was a really interesting, well written and researched historical novel with a delightful and compelling protagonist in Christine “Kiki” Vellay, who sometimes uses a lot of different names as she works her way through the 19th Century and Paris at the height of the Commune.

A resourceful and brave young woman, after the death of her horrible husband, she flees to the capital and using her wits and the skills she’s accrued as an educated seamstress, she takes on a variety of jobs, from chambermaid to accountant for a mining firm, eventually becoming a Baroness and a vintner.

Her son is kidnapped and she puts much of her efforts into rescuing him and building her finances so she can provide for him. She makes genuine friends along the way, as well as some false ones. Becoming a spy, she is double crossed but rescued once again by a face from her past.

I really enjoyed this book, it brings a period of time that doesn’t get covered much, to life and in the figure of Kiki, the hidden and often forgotten lives of ordinary women (even though she is pretty extraordinary).

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

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: I Spy With My Little Die – Helen Golden

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Uncovering a web of conspiracy that intertwines past and present, can Lady Beatrice and DCI Richard Fitzwilliam catch a killer and unveil the truth of her husband’s death at long last?

BREAKING NEWS

Second Senior Police Officer Dies Within a Week
A senior officer from the Protection and Investigations (Royal) Services died unexpectedly yesterday.
His death comes hot on the heels of Detective Inspector Ethan Preece (43) from City Police, who died of a suspected heart attack last week. Although he’s not yet been named, the dead officer was a
greatly respected public figure, who had served in policing for over thirty years. A PaIRS spokesperson has confirmed that ‘neither men’s death is being treated as suspicious at this time’.

With the senior PaIRS officer dead, so is any hope of reopening the inquiry into Lady Beatrice’s husband’s accident fifteen years ago. Unless, of course, there is something that links the two men to
the earl’s fatal car crash?
Can she and Fitzwilliam, along with their friends, work together to unravel the mystery and catch a killer before the truth is buried forever?


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Hello. I’m Helen Golden. I write British contemporary cozy whodunnits with a hint of humour. I live in a small village in Lincolnshire in the UK with my husband, my step-daughter, her two cats, our two
dogs, sometimes my step-son, and our tortoise.
I used to work in senior management, but after my recent job came to a natural end I had the opportunity to follow my dreams and start writing. It’s very early in my life as an author, but so far I’m loving it.
It’s crazy busy at our house, so when I’m writing I retreat to our caravan (an impulsive lockdown purchase) which is mostly parked on our drive. When I really need total peace and quiet, I take it to a
lovely site about 15 minutes away and hide there until my family runs out of food or clean clothes

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My thoughts: this series just gets better and better, and finally Lady Bea might just get some answers to the mysterious death of her husband fifteen years ago – or not. As two of the police officers with links to the case die one another the other – of suspected sudden heart attacks but DCI Fitzwilliam doesn’t believe in coincidences.

Digging into the deaths, and armed with some interesting ideas from the autopsy, he’s pretty sure there’s foul play afoot. But does it have to do with the investigation into the past or is it something else?

Bea is also dealing with moving back into the Dower House, the home she left pregnant and widowed, for her parents’, but now, with her son away during the week at school, it’s time. Or so she thinks, she just needs a spot of redecorating with Perry’s assistance and hopefully it will feel like home again, but minus any bad memories.

Another brilliant book and the title made me laugh. Intelligent and enjoyable, I can’t wait for the next one.

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

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Confession of Hemingway Jones – Kathleen Hannon

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Another fantastic book to curl up with! Read more about The Confession of Hemingway Jones below and be sure to grab a copy on September 26th!

Hannon_THE-CONFESSION-OF-HEMINGWAY-JONES_FC - Copy

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The Confession of Hemingway Jones

Publication Date: September 26, 2023

Genre: YA Sci-Fi
It’s time to raise the dead.

Moments after a devastating car accident kills his father, 17-year-old Hemingway Jones takes his father’s body to Lifebank, the cryogenic preservation research center where he interns. Hijacking the lab in a desperate attempt to reverse the natural order, Hemingway holds police and medics at bay as he works to revive his father. As dawn breaks, the heart monitor beeps, and his father slowly creeps back to life.

Days later, Hemingway arrives at the hospital to learn that his father’s skin has turned ashen gray, he can’t exist in temperatures above 55 degrees Fahrenheit, and hydrogen sulfide has become his only source of food. Facing arrest for his reckless actions, Hemingway is offered a proposal by the billionaire owner of the lab: recreate the experiment he swore he’d never do again, or go to prison, leaving his father to die a second time.

Excerpt

It’s been a few months, but sour memories of the day I killed my father still burp back up, and my gut clenches every time. Todd and I were absolutely blazed, sitting on the front steps of his family’s double-wide when Dad pulled up, the tires on his Ford F250 skidding to a stop about three inches from my sneakers, while the Jones Construction and Restoration lettering was practically shoved up my nose. Dad hiked himself out the driver’s-side door with a slam and I knew I had about fifteen seconds to sober up.

We hadn’t planned on doing this—skipping school and getting baked. Or at least I hadn’t. But Todd had found this brick of hash in his parents’ barn, and well, it was the first spring day where temps were due to hit 65 degrees. We cut out fourth period, rode our bikes back to his place, and got rocked. Seemed like a good idea at the time, and we’d had fun tormenting the chickens, but now I was going to pay for it.

I wasn’t the only one who was nervous either. Todd tucked his drink behind his back while my dad crunched gravel. Todd had obviously forgotten that all he had was a Yoo-hoo. He nodded and called out, “Hey there, Mr. Jones.”

Dad murmured, “Todd,” in his general direction, but kept his eyes focused on me.

He was just standing there, directly in front of the late-afternoon sun. I squinted, but all I could see was this ominous black silhouette of rippling muscle.

I realize I’m making him sound scary, but he’s not. Everybody likes my dad, even Todd. Even me. He’s this pretty cool, off-the-grid kind of guy. He can build or fix just about anything, and I’m not just talking about when you’ve had a kitchen fire or a burst pipe—that’s just what he does for work. He’s also the guy who pulls over when you’ve got a flat and the one who starts applying the Heimlich on some choker in Kentucky Fried. (It’s happened.) He’s smart too. He doesn’t have a college degree or anything, but he can talk about black holes and relativity. He can take any online Mensa or IQ test and come up genius, every time. He even beats my scores, and I’m not easy to beat.

The point is stand-up guy Bill Jones can be a little scary when he’s mad. And I was about to get reamed.

He turned his face profile before he spoke, so I could see just how much air he was furiously pumping through his shadowy nostrils. “Got a call from the school. And another one from Cass.”

My first impulse was to cringe, make excuses, and get up, knowing I was busted. But over the last year or so I’d learned that if I waited long enough in these fights, my pangs of guilt would pass and I’d turn into a cocky asshole, someone far more capable of fighting with Bill Jones. So I waited until I saw Dad as a thunderstorm, rudely blocking out my sun. And I shrugged. I mean, big deal. So I skipped school again. I knew the real problem was the call from Cass. I’d never skipped the Tuesday/Friday afternoon internship before, and that was what he was really pissed about. He’d filled out all the paperwork for that internship himself—he’d even written the essay when I refused—all so that I would have “the future” he never did.

“Hem, I’ll uh—” Todd looked around quickly, hoping some excuse for his desertion would magically appear. “I think maybe I gotta help with dinner. See ya, Mr. Jones.” He practically ran inside.

“Do you have any idea what you’re doing?” Dad exhorted. “You have this gift. My God, you want to end up like that?” He gestured at Todd’s disappearing form.

“Dad, that’s low. Leave him alone.”

He didn’t even pause. He just growled, “Hemingway Jones,” in that low, throaty way that he always does before lecturing. And he knows I hate my name. But he rarely calls me Hem—he says it sounds like a pronoun.

“You have absolutely no idea what you’re risking. NONE!” And with that crack of thunder came the rain. He blasted on, salting his sentences liberally with words like responsibility and commitment.

I rolled my eyes. The lecture was so generic I didn’t taste anything close to regret. I could recite a variation of this speech as easily as I could the periodic table. Anyway, due to some really good dope, the tweaks and nuances of this particular version are lost forever.

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About the Author

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Having worked as a Hollywood development executive for many years, Kathleen Hannon’s career got turned upside down by the Writer’s Strike of 2007. With nothing to edit, she turned her desk from west to north, and her editing skills to writing. Her Middle-Grade novel Bye for Now was published by Egmont in late 2011. After a couple screenplays for Hollywood, she has returned to books. The Confession of Hemingway Jones is her first YA novel. Hannon lives in Charlotte, N.C., and is the single mom of two daughters.

My thoughts: tackling grief, life after death, this sci fi tale fuses ideas from Frankenstein to Walt Disney’s chryogenically frozen head and creates a creepy but fascinating story. Hemingway Jones might only be a teenage intern but the experiment he conducted to save his dying father, turning him into another lifeform almost, brings him to the attention of his wealthy and possibly evil boss.

But Hemingway doesn’t want to recreate the terrifying moments before his arrest, can he prevent the billionaire from doing this again and can he help his father?

Clever, sinister and enjoyable, this is a mystery unlike any other.

Book Tour Schedule

September 25th

http://rrbooktours.com – Kick-Off

https://www.ladyhawkeye.com/ – Feature

https://www.instagram.com/kellyatx/ – Feature

https://www.instagram.com/dreaminginpages/ – Feature

September 26th

https://www.instagram.com/amanda_coffee_books/ – Review

https://www.instagram.com/read.em.if.you.got.em/ – Feature

http://ramblingmads.com – Review

September 27th

https://www.instagram.com/ameliaveganreader/ – Review

https://www.instagram.com/fathomsamidstthelines/ – Review

https://www.instagram.com/authormariereed/ – Feature

September 28th

https://www.instagram.com/anta_syllaaa/?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA%3D%3D – Review

https://www.instagram.com/copyrightxcasey/ – Review

https://www.instagram.com/id_ratherbereading_247/ – Review

https://breakevenbooks.com – Feature

September 29th

https://www.instagram.com/calhoun.crew/ – Review

https://www.instagram.com/hmylek/ – Review

https://www.instagram.com/mommyandherbooks/ – Review

https://lshadowlynauthor.com/ – Review

https://www.instagram.com/sassymamareads/ – Review

Book Tour Organized by R&R Book Tours

*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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#TeamDaniels Blog Tour: Double Review – Deadly Deceit & Monument to Murder – Mari Hannah

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A gripping thriller starring Kate Daniels, who must make the connection between two seemingly unrelated grisly accidents…which may not be accidents at all.

Four a.m. on a wet stretch of the highway: a driver skids out of control. Quickly arriving on the scene, detective Kate Daniels and her partner, Hank Gormley, witness a horrifying display of carnage and mayhem that proves to be one of the worst traffic accidents in Northumberland’s history. But as the casualties mount, they soon realize that not all of the deaths occurred as a result of the accident …

At the same time, on the other side of town, a house goes up in flames and its two inhabitants become charred corpses. Except for the timing, there is no evidence to connect this incident with the traffic accident. But it soon becomes apparent that all is not what it seems, and that Kate and her colleagues are always one step behind a ruthless killer who will stop at nothing to get what they want.

My thoughts: a terrible accident on a wet road, a fire ripping through a family home, a man dropping dead of a heart attack. How can these be connected? DCI Kate Daniels and her team have their work cut out for them as the killer starts targeting the one witness who can link them to at least one or possibly more of these terrible crimes.

They’re looking for a chameleon – someone who can change their appearance at will, with dozens of aliases and absolutely no concern for other people. Totally ruthless, willing to kill an old lady in a car accident to steal a lottery ticket, manipulative and cruel. And worse of all, they wear a uniform – they could be a cop, a paramedic or in the fire service, one of their own.

It’s a race against time to find their suspect and bring them to justice, before they disappear and possibly to somewhere with no extradition treaty. They are happy to kill anyone that stands in their way. But Kate has to do this by the book. Will her one witness tell her who to look for?

Another heartpoundingly good case for the MIT as a series of apparently unconnected crimes all start to come together and bring the team to focus on one person, if they can get the evidence together to prove it.

Plus Kate’s messy personal life comes to the fore, as Jo issues an ultimatum and prepares to move on in her job if Kate can’t come out and be with her publicly. Then there’s the glamorous, no strings, artist she’s been flirting with. Can Kate choose love or will she loiter in the closet?

The next gripping novel by Mari Hannah. When the body of what appears to be an adult female is found on the Northumberland coastline, it is DCI Kate Daniels and her murder investigation team that are first on the scene. Then another body is discovered sitting side by side with the first, and suddenly everything changes. Why have they been placed together in such a desolate area beneath the walls of an imposing castle? Meanwhile prison psychologist Emily McCann is just returning to work after the death of her husband only to find herself the fixation of convicted sex offender Walter Fearon. As his mind games become more and more intense could it be possible what’s happening on the outside has something to do with his murderous past, and as his parole approaches what exactly does he plan for Emily? As Daniels’ investigation runs down dead end after dead end it becomes apparent that nothing is quite as it seems, and someone is hiding more than one deadly secret…

My thoughts: this starts with a strange discovery on a quiet beach, and requires a delve into the past for Kate and the team to find some answers, do the outfits the victims are wearing have anything to do with why they were killed?

Meanwhile Emily, a psychologist colleague of Jo’s at the prison is having something of a crisis, an inmate is due for release, and he’s obsessed with her, sending her into a tailspin. Does she have reason to be afraid?

As the two cases unfold and become more complicated, can the team solve them and continue their run or successes in keeping killers off the streets?

Another intelligent and complex crime thriller, with lots of twists and turns that hooked me and drew me back into Kate’s world.

*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: New Dreams at Polkerran Point – Cass Grafton

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A surprise inheritance will open the doors to her future, and also the past…
When Aunt Meg leaves her cottage to Anna Redding in her will, Anna immediately packs up and heads to Polkerran, the Cornish fishing village where she was so happy as a child.
With ambitions to turn the cottage into a B&B, a job working for the enigmatic historian, Oliver Seymour, and the return of her childhood crush, Alex Tremayne, it seems the stars have all aligned for Anna.
But Aunt Meg left behind a mystery for her to solve, and a shock discovery reveals she may be living a dream that isn’t really hers to hold. Can Anna rescue the new life she’s made for herself? Who in Polkerran can she really count on in her time of need?
A charming and cosy romance for fans of Trisha Ashley, Cressida McLaughlin and Suzanne Snow.
Previously published as The Cottage in the Cornish Cove.

Praise for New Dreams at Polkerran Point:
‘What a fabulous start to a new series! A gorgeous setting, fantastic characters and a wonderfully romantic story’ Jessica Redland
‘A gorgeous read, infused with love, a true sense of community and delightful characters finding their way into the future as they come to terms with the past.’ Suzanne Snow
‘The perfect read to curl up with and escape to Cornwall. Cass’s descriptions of the county made me feel as if I were there, I could see Polkerran beautifully in my mind and hear the characters calling to
each other as they made their way around the village.’ Kitty Wilson

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Cass began her writing life in Regency England, enlisted Jane Austen’s help to time-travel between then and the present day and is now happily ensconced in 21st century Cornwall.
Well, in her imagination and soul; her heart and physical presence reside in northern England with her ever-patient husband and Tig and Tag, their cute but exceptionally demanding moggies.
A bit of a nomad, Cass has called three countries home, as well as six different English counties, but her aspiration is to one day reunite with her beloved West Country.
In the meantime, she writes feel-good contemporary romances set in Cornwall and, in doing so, manages to live there vicariously through her characters and settings.

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My thoughts: the author isn’t alone in being somewhat in love with Cornwall, I too have fallen for its charms. And transported to the fictional village of Polkerran with Anna, as she inherits a charming but cluttered cottage, this is a sweet and uplifting tale of love and kittens. There’s a tiny one hiding in the cottage.

Working for locally based historian, as his typist and general dogsbody, with locals dropping round for a chat at all hours, Anna soon settles into the village and decides to turn the cottage into a B&B, making her love of cooking and baking work for her.

She reconnects with her old crush Alex Tremayne too, things seem to be perfect. Maybe too perfect. Discovering that there might be another will, one that leaves Anna out completely, throws all her plans into disarray, and then there’s her attraction to her grumpy boss Oliver…

Charming, funny and enjoyable, this is a lovely read on a chilly evening, it always seems to be summer in Cornwall, and you’ll fall for Polkerran and its residents too.

*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 Reunion – Kit Frick

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Thereunion copy

We are thrilled to share Kit Frick’s latest release with you all. It’s called The Reunion and it sounds amazing!

the-reunion_CV

The Reunion

Publication Date: August 29, 2023

Genre: YA Thriller

Publisher:  Margaret K. McElderry Books/ Simon & Schuster

From the author of I Killed Zoe Spanos comes a YA thriller in the vein of The White Lotus and Karen M. McManus’s The Cousins following a doomed family reunion at a posh Caribbean resort, where old grudges and dangerous secrets culminate in murder.

Eleven Mayweathers went on vacation. Ten came home.

It’s been years since the fragmented Mayweather clan was all in one place, but the engagement of Addison and Mason’s mom to the dad of their future stepbrother, Theo, brings the whole family to sunny Cancún, Mexico, for winter break. Add cousin Natalia to the mix, and it doesn’t take long for tempers to fray and tensions to rise. A week of forced family “fun” reveals that everyone has something to hide, and as secrets bubble to the surface, no one is safe from the fallout. By the end of the week, one member of the reunion party will be dead—and everyone’s a suspect:
The peacekeeper: Addison needs a better hiding place.
The outsider: Theo just wants to mend fences.
The romantic: Natalia doesn’t want to talk about the past.
The hothead: Mason needs to keep his temper under control.

It started as a week in paradise meant to bring them together. But the Mayweathers are about to learn the hard way that family bonding can be deadly.

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About the Author

Kit Frick_Author Photo

Kit Frick is a MacDowell Fellow and International Thriller Writers Award finalist from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She studied creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College and received her MFA from Syracuse University. The author of The Split, the young adult thrillers Before We Were Sorry (originally published as See All the Stars), All Eyes on Us, I Killed Zoe Spanos, Very Bad People, and The Reunion, as well as the poetry collection A Small Rising Up in the Lungs, Kit loves a good mystery but has only ever killed her characters. Honest. Visit Kit online at KitFrick.com and on Twitter and Instagram @KitFrick.

Book Tour Organized by R&R Book Tours!

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Blog Tour: Clarionettes – Ruth Enright

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When mill owner’s daughter, Ellen Rastrick, dares to borrow her brother’s bicycle to join the Clarion Cycling Club in secret, she discovers an exciting new world. It is 1896 in the industrial town of Halifax, West Yorkshire. Ellen’s fellow Clarionettes are young men and women from all walks of life, liberated by the movement to mix socially for the first time.

Naïve or worldly, rich or poor, they all seek freedom, happiness and love. But they soon discover that these can mean very different things to one another. Dynamic relationships and a single drastic act create an unstoppable momentum in the lives of those both inside and outside their group.

They meet as rebels, workers and artists, full of their own hopes and dreams. They become conflicted allies, enjoying new times as friends and lovers while braving danger, risk, heartbreak and loss. Together, they find futures they could never have imagined.

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Ruth Enright is from Halifax, West Yorkshire.  She enjoys holidays in Whitby, Scarborough and the surrounding area; with  Robin Hood’s Bay and Whitby being the inspiration for her debut novel ‘Seahaven.’  Her second book, ‘Button Box’ is for children and young adults. A young girl finds herself living in two worlds – the modern day and a dangerous Victorian past in 1850s London.

Ruth studied English Language and Literature at Reading University and has always had the ambition to write herself. She lives in Manchester with her family and works for local government, where she has held a number of posts. She  is now an Information Governance Officer. Ruth came to Manchester as a graduate trainee in Librarianship with Manchester Polytechnic before changing career paths and training for a certificate in teaching lipreading to adults with acquired deafness in Adult Education. Ruth then had her daughter and later became a local government officer.

Ruth has always kept on writing and started a blog a few years ago for her poems, stories and other items.  Encouraged by readers, she has recently succeeded in having five short stories published by ‘Yours Fiction’ special short story quarterly magazine.

Ruth loves to read and enjoys writing in both historic and modern settings, experimenting with different genres. Ideas for her writing come from many sources, for instance the name of Robin’s uncle Jorfant in ‘Seahaven’ came from researching her partner’s family tree!

Ruth lives with her partner Jack, and a cat called Margot. Ruth is delighted to be a published author and is looking forward very much to writing more novels.

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My thoughts: set at a time of great social change, this is an interesting read about class, love and improving the lives of ordinary people. The Clarionettes are a cycling club with a difference – whether from the mill owners side of society or the mill workers, they are united in wanting social change and improved conditions for all. The Clarion is a newspaper promoting these ideas, and the group meet to discuss their plans.

However some take direct action too far and put people’s livelihoods at risk. It’s one thing to push for change, another to force matters with arson.

Amidst the intrigue and exploration of the moors, there is time for romance, as several couples meet and fall in love. Ellen and Peter cross the social divide. Her father owns a factory, he works in one. Can they overcome the mores of the time and stay together?

There are other storyline that intertwine with theirs, that of Jane, the vicar’s daughter, in love with a rake, who doesn’t agree with his free love ideals and loses her heart. Ellen’s brother and sister both find themselves in somewhat unusual marriages, radically different to what they imagined, but somehow make it work.

Each member of the club gets a story, as the new century rolls on and change is coming. Ellen’s sister-in-law is involved in the work of the suffragettes of Manchester, who pushed for the women’s right to vote, and as the book reaches its conclusion, change is not only in the air but taking place within the mills and factories of the Yorkshire moors and in the homes around them too.

An interesting and enjoyable read, full of historical references and lively characters.

*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: Under a Gilded Sky – Imogen Martin

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In this epic and unforgettable love story, set in the wilds of Missouri and the glamour of high society Boston at the dawn of the Gilded Age, one woman’s life changes forever the day that a stranger turns up on her doorstep.
Missouri, February 1874: The last thing struggling homesteader Ginny needs is a scandal on her hands. But when a badly injured drifter arrives at Snow Farm in desperate need of medical attention,
Ginny’s kind nature and good upbringing means she has no choice but to treat his wounds and care for him until he’s back on his feet, no matter the danger he might pose.
Ginny’s been running the farm and looking after her fourteen-year-old sister Mary-Lou since their papa died two years ago, each morning pulling on his old leather coat and pushing her feet into stout boots that come up to her knees, before heading out to tend to the cattle. She’s determined to hold onto the one thing that connects them to memories of their parents – whatever the cost. And when their uninvited guest – Lex – is well enough he offers his help, and she surprises herself by accepting it.
But not long after Lex moves on, Ginny realises that her heart has gone with him. And when the farm’s fortunes take a turn for the worse, she faces her hardest test yet. Can she save the only home she’s ever known, and everything she holds dear? And what if doing so means risking a chance at love and happiness she never expected to come her way?
An utterly spellbinding story perfect for fans of Amy Harmon, Olivia Hawker and Kristin Hannah.
Readers will love this breathtaking and vivid historical novel of passion, destiny and divided family loyalties.
“Captivating…will leave an indelible mark on your heart.” Rachel Wesson

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Imogen writes sweeping, historical fiction. Her first two novels are set in nineteenth century America.
As a teenager, she took the Greyhound bus from San Francisco to New York. Over those three days of staring out of the window at the majestic mountains and endless flat plains, stories wound themselves into her head: tales of brooding, charismatic men captivated by independent women. Since then, she has worked in a coffee-shop in Piccadilly, a famous bookstore, and a children’s home.
She has run festivals, and turned a derelict housing block on one of the poorest estates in the UK into an award-winning arts centre.
During 2020 Imogen was selected by Kate Nash Literary Agency as one of their BookCamp mentees, a mentorship programme designed to accelerate the careers of promising new writers.
Married with two children, Imogen divides her time between Wales and Sardinia.
She hopes her books will bring you the tingle of a new love affair whilst immersed in a different time and place.

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My thoughts: it has never been easy to be a woman in a man’s world, but what else was Ginny supposed to do when her father died? Taking on the burden of running their family’s farm with only her younger sister to help wasn’t easy. And Ginny doesn’t like asking for help.

When a stranger, Lex, winds up on their doorstep with a broken ankle after being thrown from his horse, the sisters nurse him back to health, and he repays them in ways they’d never imagine. He has secrets, but not ones that aim to hurt. The fiercely proud Ginny might just have to accept help for a change.

Falling hard for this handsome stranger comes with complications – but can love conquer all and will Ginny and Lex return to the farm or wind up in high society?

A moving and sweet story about love and learning to let someone in, set against the vistas of Missouri and the bustling streets of Boston. Ginny is a wonderful protagonist, strong, fierce and brave. Her decision to keep the farm going, against sometimes impossible seeming odds, to fulfil her parents’ dreams is inspiring, and the bond she shares with her sister and cousin is lovely. When she meets Lex, new possibilities appear and she has to decide whether to follow her heart.

*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 Opposite of Lonely – Doug Johnstone

ramblingmads

EVEN DEATH NEEDS COMPANY…

The Skelf women are recovering from the cataclysmic events that nearly claimed their lives. Their funeral-director and privateinvestigation businesses are back on track, and their cases are as perplexing as ever.

Matriarch Dorothy looks into a suspicious fire at a travellers’ site, and takes a grieving, homeless man under her wing. Daughter Jenny is searching for her missing sister-in-law, who disappeared in tragic circumstances, while grand-daughter Hannah is asked to investigate increasingly dangerous conspiracy theorists, who are targeting a retired female astronaut … putting her own life at risk.

With a body lost at sea, funerals for those with no one to mourn them, reports of strange happenings in outer space, a funeral crasher with a painful secret, and a violent attack on one of the family, The Skelfs face their most personal – and perilous – cases yet. Doing things their way may cost them everything…

Doug Johnstone is the author of sixteen novels, many of which have been bestsellers. The Space Between Us was chosen for BBC Two’s Between the Covers, while Black Hearts and The Big Chill were longlisted for the Theakston Crime Novel of the Year. Three of his books – A Dark Matter, Breakers and The Jump – have been shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize. Doug has taught creative writing or been writer in residence at universities, schools, writing retreats, festivals, prisons and a funeral home. He’s also been an arts journalist for 25 years. He is a songwriter and musician with six albums and three EPs released, and he plays drums for the Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers, a band of crime writers. He’s also co-founder of the Scotland Writers Football Club and lives in Edinburgh with his family.

My thoughts: Skelfs, Skelfs, Skelfs, they’re back!!

OK, so this is one of my favourite series and I get super excited to read each installment. And this one is excellent.

Each Skelf is on a case of their own, and still running the funeral home, which is going green under Indy’s lead. Buying a plot of land for green burials and using a water based process to break down remains.

Dorothy is looking into the arson attack on a local travelling community, is it simply a local who hates them or is there something more sinister going on?

Jenny is still dealing with her ex-husband Craig’s trail of chaos and looking for his sister, who was last seen making off with Craig’s body. Her former mother-in-law is dying and wants to say her farewells.

Finally Hannah has come up against the old adage about never meeting your heroes, when she gets drawn into the lives of a female astronaut and her wife. Indy is a bit worried, and not without reason.

There’s also a potential new employee at the funeral home, some fab gigs for Dorothy’s band, Jenny and Archie’s friend dates, while Schrodinger the cat gets plenty of love from everyone.

It’s another brilliant, funny, clever book about these incredible women and their work. The ghost phone in the garden is proving popular, helping the grieving to deal with their feelings and share what they need to say to their loved ones.

Can’t wait to see what happens to them next, have they finally reached a good place as a family and as a business?

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