We’re celebrating the release of Broken are the Believers this week. This is the exciting follow-up to Fractured are the Pieces!
Broken Are the Believers (The Fractured Realm Book 2)
Publication Date: August 15, 2024
Genre: NA Dark Fantasy
Dark High Fantasy
Unhinged Morally Gray FMC
Dark Cinnamon Roll MMC
Mythical Creatures
Fade-to-Black Spice
Found Family
The world stands still.
Broken are the believers, for they ignored the lies. Kerath continues to fracture and break, reigniting long forgotten dangers, as monsters from within and without slowly take control.
Everything is changing.
Caet begrudgingly left behind her solitude to return to her old life. But her mind is fractured, and secrets locked from within threaten to force themselves through. With each step she takes, reality falls further from her grasp. Can she stop herself from eliminating everything and everyone around her, or will her fears be realized?
A cloud of destruction has cast its shadow.
Wraith has hidden so much of his past from himself and those around him—believing those memories were forgotten forever. However, he now realizes his mind has been tampered with by another. While he skirts between his obligations and his desires, he risks lives, even his own. Can he avoid previous mistakes, or is he destined to always fail?
As the sky darkens and reality crashes, what will be left of them all?
Broken Are the Believers follows two-time award-winning Fractured Are the Pieces and is the second book in the Fractured Realm series. The series is a new adult (NA) dark high fantasy with a subplot of romance and fade-to-black spice featuring an unhinged morally gray female main character and a dark cinnamon roll male main character. Rounding out the series are a diverse cast, mythical creatures portrayed in new and creative ways, found family, engaging action scenes, and much more!
Beloved bestselling author Gail Tsukiyama returns with a rich historical novel based on the life of the luminous, groundbreaking actress Anna May Wong—the first and only Asian American woman to gain movie stardom in the early days of Hollywood.
“A writer of astonishing grace, delicacy, and feeling.”—Michael Chabon, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
“A beautiful, haunting book.”—Karen Joy Fowler, New York Times bestselling author of Booth and We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
At the dawn of a new century, America is falling in love with silent movies, including young Wong Liu Tsong. The daughter of poor Chinese immigrants, Wong Liu goes to the local nickelodeons to escape the schoolmates her bully her for her Chinese heritage.
By sixteen, Wong Liu has already chosen a stage name, Anna May, and leaves high school to pursue her Hollywood dreams, defying her disapproving father and her traditional Chinese upbringing—a choice that will hold emotional and physical consequences. Anna May gets her big break—and her first taste of Hollywood fame— starring opposite Douglas Fairbanks in The Thief of Bagdad.
Yet her beauty and talent aren’t enough to overcome the racism that relegates her to supporting roles as a helpless, exotic butterfly or a vicious, murderous dragon lady, while Caucasian actresses in “yellowface” are given starring roles portraying Asian women.
Though she suffers professionally and personally, Anna May fights to become a star, financially support her family, and keep her illicit love affairs hidden—even as she finds freedom and glittering success abroad, and receives glowing reviews across the globe.
Gail Tsukiyama was born in San Francisco, California, to a Chinese mother from Hong Kong and a Japanese father from Hawaii. She attended San Francisco State University where she earned her Bachelor of Arts Degree and a Master of Arts Degree in English. She is the bestselling author of several novels, including Women of the Silk and The Samurai’s Garden, as well as the recipient of the Academy of American Poets Prize and the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award. She divides her time between El Cerrito and Napa Valley, California.
My thoughts: I knew a little about Anna May Wong before I read this book, but not much, as her life and career had basically been forgotten by Hollywood – I think her story would make an incredible biopic.
Born in LA to a Chinese-American couple running a laundry, she wasn’t the son her father wanted, and some part of her knew that growing up – she and her father fought constantly.
Desperate to be an actress, not an approved of career by her father or community, she started out as an extra, before garnering small parts in several films. Always cast as a stereotype, she desperately wanted to break the mould of what a Chinese-American woman was, but the anti-misceganation laws that banned interracial relationships, even on screen, made it next to impossible.
But she never gave up, sending several years in Europe making films, appearing on stage, and finding herself a community of friends. She also undertook a trip to China, which she recorded on an early video camera, with the aim of showing America the real China and its people. She was pretty amazing.
She was also a silent screen crossover star, featuring in the “talkies” and even giving musical theatre a go. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, but never achieved the success she deserved.
The story of her life is bittersweet – she never married and suffered from cirrhosis of the liver, which tragically eventually killed her, just as her career seemed to be on a comeback with the advent of television and new film roles being offered to her.
I thoroughly enjoyed this fictionalised version of the life of Anna May Wong, a passionate and talented woman who deserved so much more and lived an at times, very tragic 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.
For fans of Diana Gabaldon and Philippa Gregory, courtly rivalry and intrigue…
He is tasked with the most dangerous of missions. She is only there from duty. But in the face of treachery and injustice, might they need each other more than they could know…?
1613: Scotland and England, unified under one crown, are reeling from the sudden death of King James’ popular eldest son, Henry, as rumours swirl that the prince was poisoned. Andrew Logan, one of the King’s Messengers, is sent north with secret orders to find and arrest the man the king suspects.
Phoebe Westaway cannot abide Andrew Logan. But when her ageing father is tasked with helping Logan, Phoebe finds herself with no choice but to join them in their quest to capture Sir David Moray, once Prince Henry’s trusted courtier, and carry him to London to stand trial for the prince’s murder. It’s a journey rife with complications.
Sir David has no intention of allowing himself to be delivered to London, and as he draws them deeper into the dark web of court alliances and rivalries, Phoebe realises she might have more need of Logan than she believes. A story of justice, honour, truth and love – and survival against impossible odds…
New York Times bestselling author Susanna Kearsley is a former museum curator who loves restoring the lost voices of real people to the page, interweaving romance and historical intrigue with modern adventure. Over 1.5 million copies of her books have been sold and have been translated into over 25 languages.
Her writing career began in 1993 when her then-unpublished novel Mariana won the Catherine Cookson Fiction Prize. Since then she has writen twelve novels and won various awards, and has twice made the final of Romantic Novel of the Year awards. She lives near Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
My thoughts: This was so good, Susanna Kearsley brings the past vibrantly and vividly to life, the characters are well written and their lives are recognisable even though they lived so long ago and in a situation so unlike anything most of us would live.
Andrew Logan is a King’s Messenger at the court of King James I & VI and his Queen, Anna. He has been charged with travelling to Scotland and collecting Sir David Moray – who the King suspects had something to do with his son and heir’s death. Prince Henry has been somewhat relegated to a footnote in history – the drama of his younger brother’s reign (Charles I) overshadows his very existence in history books.
But the terrible period after his death, suspicion and mourning, the Royal couple estranged and the fact theirs may well have been a rather unhappy marriage, is brought to life here.
The story of the long journey back from Scotland, which now takes hours, took days on horseback, stopping at inns and houses along the way to spend the night, bring the travellers together. There’s not just Andrew and David, but also Phoebe and her father, a scribe, and a young boy who was definitely my favourite character, Hector. They survive being chased by David’s cousin and his men, the risk of robbery, the threat from other members of the King’s court, and tragedy.
There’s also a sweet love story, as Phoebe gets to know Andrew better, and realises he isn’t the person she thought he was. Andrew’s kindness, bravery and sense of justice shine through as he leads the small group from Scotland down through the body of England to the court in London, balancing his duty to the king with his growing admiration of Sir David Moray.
This was a truly fascinating, interesting book and I was totally drawn into the world of Andrew and Phoebe.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Utterly gripping timeslip historical fiction, perfect for fans of The Witch’s Tree, The Essex Serpent and Weyward.
Now: When Adrianna arrives at the small, run-down cottage, near the sea in rural Norfolk, she can’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. Here she can forget her life in the city, and the problems she’s left behind there, at least for a while. But – like Adrianna herself – the cottage holds secrets. And when Adrianna finds a mysterious bundle of notes hidden under a floorboard, she can’t shake the idea that they’ve been waiting for her. Especially when – in the rambling, overgrown garden – she then finds a strangely-carved stone, drawing her into a centuries-old mystery…
1646: Between her work as the village midwife and the medicines she sells from her cottage, Ursula has no need for a man. But this ideal leaves her unprotected in a world where just one accusation of witchcraft can mean certain death. So when she catches the eye of a powerful new local doctor, she must use every part of her cunning, or risk becoming his prisoner…
Can the two women – their paths bound by place and history – each find the keys to their own destiny?
Clare Marchant is the author of dual timeline historical fiction. Her books have been translated into seven languages, and she is a USA Today bestseller. Clare spends her time writing and exploring local castles, or visiting the nearby coast.
My thoughts: Having a break from her stressful career, Adrianna rents a quiet Norfolk cottage for six months, leaving her boyfriend (who I disliked immediately) in her Canary Wharf flat, with promises to see each other every weekend.
The cottage has been unoccupied for a while and the current owner lives abroad, so she has free run of the place and starts with a deep clean. In doing so she discovers some of its secrets, secrets relating to the first occupant some four hundred years ago.
Ursula Bain lives quietly in the shadow of the village church, she sells herbal remedies and helps tend the sick, delivers babies and nurses the dying. She’s lived in the village all her life and is known in her community as a kind and gentle person. But when a new doctor arrives and makes unpleasant demands of her (while dressed as a Puritan – creep and hypocrite) things turn sour.
As Adrianna deciphers the handwriting in the book she’s found, and makes a macabre discovery in the garden, we are drawn into the lives of these two women, centuries apart.
This isn’t a light hearted book, it explores themes of domestic abuse modern and ancient, coercive control, accusations of witchcraft during the dark period of the Witchfinder General, and handles these well, with a deftness of touch that mean it’s not too upsetting to the reader. I enjoyed this book, with the two very different women’s lives reflecting across time, things haven’t changed for us enough yet, that the treatment of a woman in the 1600s feels relevant in 2024. It’s a clever thing to do and the unravelling mystery across the centuries has more twists than you might expect.
*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’re thrilled to present the cover for A Corporate Arrangement by Shar Khan. Pre-order today!
A Corporate Arrangement
Expected Publication Date: February 14, 2024
Genre: Romance/ Second Chance
Second chance romance
Fake dating
Golden retriever mmc
Black cat FMC
“It was always you”
Love contracts
William Chu hates his job though he worked hard for his title. He didn’t think all his years of studying would leave him as an entry level journalist who does the work for ten people at the New York Times. He can’t complain…but does anyway. Especially when he’s finally allowed to write a piece for the paper only for it to be overshadowed by something bigger.
An overnight TikTok sensation known as “Billionaire Babe” has flooded every corner of the internet. Tasteful pictures of her Forbes 30 under 30 debut falling into the hands of YouTubers, influencers, reactors and even gossip columns has completely stolen the heart of every single person in the Newsroom. But not William. Not when he realizes that Billionaire Babe is, in fact, the girl he left behind when he sought bigger things.
Harper Lahiri.
When fate brings their paths together, the two find themselves leaning on each other again. Not as estranged friends who mutually seem to dislike each other, but two people in love. With a corporate arrangement settled between the both of them, William and Harper agree to the terms of a fake dating scheme bound to make them look every bit of America’s most treasured sweethearts while also humbling their families in the process.
Tasked by Ben, an old friend, to locate a man in Turkey, private investigator Matt Quillan soon finds himself out of his depth when he has a flash drive thrust on him by a stranger who is arrested by armed officers shortly afterwards.
When Ben reveals that his mission is to avenge the murder of his sister, the conjunction of this assignment along with the flash drive burning a hole in Matt’s pocket puts them both – along with holidaymaker Amber – in mortal danger.
As the case lands Matt in the crosshairs of a local mobster, it is not only Ben’s search for vengeance which is left hanging in the balance.
A native of Exeter, A.B. Decker studied at Newcastle, London and Bristol. He worked briefly as a teacher of English in Germany and a translator in the UK. On receiving an offer that he couldn’t refuse, he moved with his young family to work for a multinational company in Switzerland, where he eventually set up his own business. Flowers from the Black Sea is his second novel, having published his first, The Dark Frontier, in 2021.
My thoughts: agreeing to go to Türkiye for a friend to look for someone as a favour might just be the worst idea Matt Quillan ever had. From the moment he arrives in the country he’s dealing with the police, accidentally getting caught up in something political when a stranger asks him to deliver a USB to someone in the resort town he’s heading to.
Then he starts looking for the man he’s seeking – and uncovering a whole lot of skeletons in the cupboard. It’s a lot more complicated than he’s been lead to believe – there’s a probable murder, a connection to a gangster, corruption and some old spies playing games too.
Then there’s the woman he meets, on holiday, staying with her sister, who gets herself far too involved for her own good and once his furious, vengeful friend Ben arrives, all hell breaks loose.
There’s a Wild West feel to the story – the police can’t be trusted as the local mob boss has them in his pocket and Ahmet (Matt’s quarry) seems to be in bed with him. The various residents of the town are all a bit odd, and all of them have their opinions of Susie’s death, and each other.
Somehow Matt has to make sense of all of this and keep himself, Amber and Ben from ending up dead or arrested by the local jendarmerie. A lot happens very quickly and there’s lots of racing around, trying to stay one step ahead of those looking for them.
The ending is a shock twist and I really hope there’s a sequel so we can find out what happens next – and what becomes of Matt and his friends.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
In a world that long lost its moral axis, free will was the chain that tied a God’s vengeance to his entertainment.
With nothing but hope to keep her dark thoughts afloat, Tiadola waited for centuries for the preordained trials that would end her life to begin. But nothing could have prepared her for the moment they were set in motion by encountering the dragon compelled to hunt her.
When the stranger she thought the dragon had sent after her quickly becomes her friend instead, the lines between want and need become a blur as they embark together on a journey towards her imminent trials.
Caught between her desire to continue living in order to save the human realms and the mental warfare that the trials would entail, would she be able to become the first of her kind to win?
Triggers/CW:
Violence, existential angst, loss, death and sexually explicit content.
I write about existential angst in steamy fantasy novels.
Even though I started writing in high school, I never thought I’d get here and start an entire trilogy but here we are.
I’m a bookworm at heart and enjoy reading various genres from classics to pitch black horror romances.
I live in Romania and when I’m not working my full time job as a software engineer, I spend my days off on road trips through Europe with my husband and overprotective pug, reading and/or writing.
From the renowned, award-winning author Zen Cho comes a delightfully funny romance about family, class, and love in modern London.
From the outside, Renee Goh’s life looks perfect. She’s thirty and beautiful, runs a glamorous—and profitable—women’s clothing company in London, and is dating a hot Taiwanese pop star. But Renee is lonely. Estranged from her family in Singapore, she practically lives at the office, and now she’s just been dumped by her supposed boyfriend. Who she never saw anyway, so why is she ruining her Instagram-ready makeup by crying?
Before she can curl up on the couch with a pint of Ben & Jerry’s, Renee’s father calls. He’s retiring, and, thanks to the screw-ups of her wastrel brothers, he is considering her as the next CEO of the family business: Chahaya Group, one of the largest conglomerates in Southeast Asia. That stamp of her father’s approval would mean everything to Renee, but can she cooperate with the brothers who drove her out of Singapore?
But fate isn’t done with her. That same night, Renee bumps into her first love, Yap Ket Siong, who broke her heart during university. They spend a wonderful night together, but Ket Siong is pursuing a dangerous vengeance for his family. In the light of day is there any hope for the two of them?
Zen Cho was born and raised in Malaysia and now lives in Birmingham. She was a finalist for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer for her short fiction and won the Crawford Award. Her debut novel, Sorcerer to the Crown, won the 2016 British Fantasy Society Award for Best Newcomer. She is also the author of The True Queen, Black Water Sister and Spirits Abroad.
My thoughts: I was really excited to read this, Zen Cho is an excellent writer and this is her first rom com and first non-fantasy book.
It’s a really fun read, Renee is a fantastic protagonist, for all her material comforts, the luxury apartment, the wealthy background, the fashion brand she owns, she’s just like every other thirty-something trying to have it all – and love is the elusive thing.
She’s also got a very strained relationship with her family, back in Singapore. And despite her father’s new scheme to pit his children against each other to see who he should put in charge of his company, that isn’t going to change – and it’s a pretty crappy thing to do anyway.
Renee is juggling her business, Virtu, and now she’s trying to get along with her older brother (who’s a bit of a prat), her ex-boyfriend (a total piece of work) is back in her life because of the business deal she’s attempting to put together for her dad, her best friend’s busy with her own life so she doesn’t have a consistent shoulder to lean on.
Then she runs into the one that got away. And everything gets turned upside down.
Ket Siong pretty much vanished on Renee when they were students, and now they’re both in London, and maybe it’s time to see where this might go. Unless they choose to be just friends….
Funny, smart and with some sharp edges in amongst the rom com froth, this is a lot of fun to read. I recommend getting snacks as they go out to eat a lot, and Renee never seems to actually manage to eat any of the delicious dishes she orders.
I need a sequel, I need more of this witty, intelligent writing. Loved it!
*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 touring Deceiving the Cursed Beast by Jen Lynning this week and highly recommend it for fans of Beauty and the Beast, magic, and romance!
Deceiving the Cursed Beast: A Beauty and the Beast Retelling (Once Upon an Enchantment #1)
Publication Date: June 27, 2024
Genre: Romantic Fantasy/Fairy Tales
Beauty and the Beast retelling
Banter
He falls first
Enchanted castle
Magically binding contract
Magical mystery
Slow burn
In this enchanted castle, only the truth can break his curse.
Felix is the Duke of Truthhold, tied to the most powerful magical node on the continent. But when he is transformed into a beast, he needs help to break the curse. He will do whatever it takes to regain his true form, even if it means using magic to trap a woman in his castle.
Isabel understands exactly why someone would resort to cursing the duke. He is selfish, contrary, and deceitful. She can’t afford to spend her days attempting to reverse his curse, not with her chance to become a full-fledged constable on the line. But the mysteries of Rose Castle are more compelling than she expected. As is the duke.
The duke’s enemies won’t stop with just a curse, though, and time is running short. But how can Felix and Isabel triumph if victory requires them to admit their growing feelings for each other?
Jen Lynning never outgrew her love of fairy tales. (She may have studied German just so she could read the Brothers Grimm in the original.) When she wasn’t reading about life in a magical world, she was imagining it. Eventually she decided to start writing her own stories where magic and romance meet.
Jen lives in Northern Virginia with her two cats, who make their own contributions to her writing by walking across the keyboard, and her bird, who offers commentary on the whole process.
This one ticks all the boxes for readers who love dystopian tales about cryogenics, killer viruses, and radical invaders! Check out Rise, Tomorrow Girl by Cara Martin!
Rise, Tomorrow Girl
Genre: Science Fiction/ Dystopian
Publication Date: June 21, 2024
In the near future seventeen-year-old Canadian Leanne Khoury watches a second twenty-first century global pandemic—this one highly fatal in young adults—steal the life of her best friend. When Leanne is stricken ill too her affluent parents have her cryogenically frozen in a facility performing experimental procedures. Reanimated and cured of virus years later, Leanne isn’t the same. Her awareness intermittently ‘disconnects’, stalling her body and mind. But it’s more than that. Snatches of memories from evolutionary ancestors bleed through her consciousness, leaving her feeling as unnatural as Frankenstein’s monster on the inside.
Over a billion people perished during the pandemic, decimating a generation, and when Leanne’s released from the cryo facility she struggles to integrate into a Canada and world that has technologically and socially moved on without her. Although the virus is no longer a threat, Leanne is far from safe. In the United States organized extremists threaten legitimate government, regularly committing attacks on U.S. soil. Then radical American expansionist soldiers invade parts of Canada and Leanne, along with others not accepted by the radical invaders, must fight for her survival.
Cara Martin is the author of several acclaimed novels for young people published under the name C. K. Kelly Martin, including a middle grade sci-fi, multiple contemporary YAs, a sci-fi duology set in 2063 and the 1980s, and an emotionally-charged ghost story. Four of these books received starred reviews and two were shortlisted for the Canadian Library Association’s Young Adult Book Award. Her young adult horror, Shantallow, published under the name Cara Martin, was long-listed for the 2020 Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic and was an Ottawa Book Awards fiction finalist. Booklist described Shantallow as “serious, literary and very scary” and Kirkus called it “gut-wrenching on various levels.”
A graduate of the Film Studies program at York University, Cara has lived in the Greater Toronto Area and Dublin, Ireland. Within the space of 3500 miles she’s worked a collection of quirky jobs at multiple pubs and video stores, an electricity company, a division of the Irish post office, a London toyshop, and an advertising analytics company. She’s also been an image editor for a dot-com startup that didn’t survive the 90s, and a credit note clerk for Canada’s largest national distributor of General Merchandise.
These days Cara’s busy writing fiction about malicious hauntings and the mysterious future, wondering what if . . . She currently resides in Ottawa with her husband and is still afraid of the Child Catcher from the film adaptation of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
ramblingmads 