This year, the Book Bloggers’ Novel of the Year Award (BBNYA) is celebrating the books that made it into Round Two with a mini spotlight blitz tour for each title. BBNYA is a yearly competition where book bloggers from all over the world read and score books written by indie authors, ending with 15 finalists and one overall winner.
If you want some more information about BBNYA, check out the BBNYA Website https://www.bbnya.com/ or take a peek over on Twitter @BBNYA_Official. BBNYA is brought to you in association with the @Foliosociety (if you love beautiful books, you NEED to check out their website!) and the book blogger support group @The_WriteReads.
The Kingdom of Septima is ruled in all but name by the Commune, a ruthless cult that seeks control of an ancient power that has taken root in unsuspecting children in Septima. To maintain their hold on the kingdom, the Commune will stop at nothing to capture children who show signs of this power, to be weaponised or eliminated. Eighteen-year-old Evelyn Folksman is in hiding. Taken in by a tavern-owner, she is haunted by the horrific events that drove her from her home years before.
Evelyn is forced to face her past when two wayward children, Raif and Rose Huntsman, arrive at the tavern, pursued by Commune soldiers. The children fall under Evelyn’s reluctant care as the trio narrowly escape a raid. Relentlessly hunted by Commander Jonah Sulemon and Commune agent Lord Eirik Torrant, Evelyn and Raif cannot fathom why they pose such a threat to the Commune, until six-year-old Rose unwittingly reveals a terrible secret: she possesses powers more fearsome than any the Commune has unearthed in decades. There are only two options: to be captured and imprisoned, or to run for the rest of their lives.
On the morning after his thirtieth wedding anniversary Stewart Harding is found dead. He was an arrogant and thoroughly unpleasant man and there is no shortage of suspects, but all of them have firm alibis. In any case, everything points towards it being an opportunistic killing linked to a robbery. Newly promoted DI Mark Webber is assigned as the SIO with Gillian Marsh overseeing the investigation. However, when her mother dies, she takes leave of absence and lets Webber continue on his own. Webber is making good progress until his colleague – and secret lover – DC Erin Macfadyen disappears without trace. Webber’s world falls apart. DCI Marsh cuts her bereavement leave short to take over the investigation into Stewart Harding’s death and to track down her missing officer. There is no doubt that she will find Harding’s killer, but will she find Erin and are the two cases connected?
Anna Legat is a Wiltshire-based author, best known for her DI Gillian Marsh murder mysteries. Murder isn’t the only thing on her mind. She dabbles in a wide variety of genres, ranging from dark humour, through magic realism to dystopia. A globe-trotter and Jack-of-all-trades, Anna has been an attorney, legal adviser, a silver-service waitress, a school teacher and a librarian. She has lived in far-flung places all over the world where she delighted in people-watching and collecting precious life experiences for her stories. Anna writes, reads, lives and breathes books and can no longer tell the difference between fact and fiction. BlogTwitterFacebookInstagram
My thoughts: another gripping case for DI (now DCI) Gillian Marsh and her team. When a man is found dead in somewhat strange circumstances the day after celebrating his thirtieth wedding anniversary, the team start to dig. His family don’t seem too upset, especially his wife.
But with two likely suspects first on the scene – was it a burglary gone wrong or something else?
Then Erin goes missing and the team set aside everything else, the case, Gillian’s mother’s sudden death, to look for her. Is it connected to their case or something personal? As time runs down, will they find the DC alive?
I was hooked from the start, although it can be hard to feel sorry for such an unpleasant victim, especially when he behaves so awfully just before he’s killed.
There was a lot going on in the team’s personal lives too – Webber finally got custody of his children, Gillian’s mother dies very suddenly, not that she seems too emotional to the upset of her family, Erin has a secret. This really moved the story along, and it was interesting to see how they juggle their professional and personal situations, especially when one of their own is at risk.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
We have something smart, and cute to share with you all today! Check out the book trailer for Finney and the Secret Tunnel by Jamie Lane Barber!
Finney and the Secret Tunner (A Finney and the Mathmysterians Adventure)
Expected Publication Date: November 14, 2023
Genre: MG Mystery/ STEM
Booby-trapped tunnels. Secret societies. Puzzles. A buried secret.
Finney’s sixth-grade math teacher might hand out too many worksheets and have a weird hang-toothed smile, but there’s something sincere about her that nudges Finney to follow her trail when she goes missing. Making her way through secret tunnels beneath the school, Finney’s now wrapped up in a secret society rivalry. In a race to solve puzzles and dodge dangerous boobytraps, can Finney uncover a world-changing secret left by one of the world’s greatest geniuses?
Jamie Lane Barber grew up in the southern California sun but enjoysher days now on the east coast in Virginia Beach. On top of writing and running a digital marketing agency, Jamie fills her time with shuttling her children between activities. Her kids and two crazy dogs help keep Jamie on her toes and always busy. Jamie enjoys karaoke nights with her husband, musical theatre, escape rooms, a tasty red wine, and, of course, reading.
Alisha Jones, or Princess Christmas as she is affectionately known, is joint heir to her Grandpa Frost’s family fortune, but being third behind an older sister and brother means she has to work three times as hard to prove herself. Marsha Underwood, her Grandpa’s PA and ever-present thorn in her side, is determined to undermine her at every turn and Alisha finds herself powerless to prevent this. An encounter with a fortune teller at the Frost Christmas Ball leads to a bewildering dream of the future; and the added complication of Tom Walker, the son of Frost’s new business partner leads to a tumultuous year. With her friends by her side, will she be able to turn things around? And what exactly does the strange dream mean? A story of family, friendship and love at first sight with a sprinkle of Christmas magic. Purchase Follow Charlie Dean on Twitter
A twenty-year-old cold case unearths dark secrets in the scorching-hot destination thriller from Emily Freud.
Twenty years ago, Mari vanished while backpacking through Thailand with her boyfriend, Luke. He was accused of murder, but has always insisted he’s innocent. Besides, her body was never found.
Now, he’s finally ready to talk. And filmmaker Cassidy Chambers wants to be the one to uncover what really happened, back then, in the dark of the jungle.
But as she delves deeper into the past, Cassidy begins to fear what lies ahead, and the secrets buried along the way.
Emily Freud is the author of My Best Friend’s Secret and What She Left Behind. She has worked on Emmy and BAFTA award winning television series including Educating Yorkshire and First Dates. Emily lives in North London, with her husband and two children. She is currently working on her next novel.
This year, the Book Bloggers’ Novel of the Year Award (BBNYA) is celebrating the books that made it into Round Two with a mini spotlight blitz tour for each title. BBNYA is a yearly competition where book bloggers from all over the world read and score books written by indie authors, ending with 15 finalists and one overall winner. If you want some more information about BBNYA, check out the BBNYA Website https://www.bbnya.com/ or take a peek over on Twitter @BBNYA_Official. BBNYA is brought to you in association with the @Foliosociety (if you love beautiful books, you NEED to check out their website!) and the book blogger support group @The_WriteReads.
You keep it on the inside because it’s the safest place to hide.
Fifteen-year-old Elliot ‘Matchstick’ Hart spends his days caring for his mum and hiding from the school bully.
Fifteen-year-old Josh McBride spends his days tormenting Elliot and avoiding his abusive stepdad.
Inspired by a picture in an old newspaper, Elliot embarks on an adventure to the city. Little does he know that Josh has decided to join him. On their journey, strangers and surprises force them to look at each other in a different light.
As secrets are uncovered, can the boys bury their differences or will it tear them further apart?
Kate S. Martin is a high school English teacher and Young Adult author. She likes to write ‘gritty’ stories that tackle tough issues whilst also encouraging empathy and hope. When she isn’t spending time her family, she can often be found going on long dog walks with Jessie, the miniature schnauzer. She can be found on Twitter @katemartin100 and Instagram @katemartin100.
We’re thrilled to present the cover of Expanded Roster by Aimee Rivkin! Coming January 2024!
Expanded Roster: A Why Choose Sports Romance
Expected Publication Date: January 25, 2024
Genre: Sports Romance/ Why Choose
⚾ Baseball Romance
⚾ Black Cat/ Golden Retriever
⚾ Doing it for the Fans
⚾ He Falls First x 3
⚾ MMMF
⚾ Bi-Awakening
⚾ Step-brother Romance
⚾ Spice
An overachiever who needs the money, two members of the college baseball team she works for—and her jerk ex-stepbrother—get down for the cameras in this steamy, angsty why choose romance.
In retrospect, putting up a flier advertising that I was planning to lose my v-card on camera—and was looking for a partner—isn’t the best idea I’ve ever had. I’m the Type A one, the person who does all the work on the group project. I’ve never even thought about doing something like this, but I don’t have a choice: I need fast cash so my sister can achieve her dreams.
No one even answers my ad…until I’m sitting at an off-campus café, looking over the questions I prepared like this is a job interview—
And he shows up.
I can’t do this. We shouldn’t do this. He’s on the college baseball team that I work for. I could lose my job. He could get cut from the team.
We shouldn’t do this… until we do. And we definitely shouldn’t get his best friend—who might have a crush on me, who might have a crush on him—involved. Or my ex-stepbrother, who’s threatening to take custody of my sister.
And I shouldn’t get involved with them all at once. Suddenly, I’m involved in a group project of an entirely different kind, one that definitely can’t last. I said yes on camera—a lot of yes—but do I have the courage to say yes to my happily ever after?
Aimee Rivkin is a writer living on the East Coast. She writes steamy, angsty why choose romances including EXPANDED ROSTER, her debut in the genre. She can be found drinking coffee, herding cats, and hollering at sports on TV.
It’s 1965, and 18 year old Jess escapes her stifling English home for a gap year in Ghana, West Africa. But it’s a time of political turbulence across the region. Fighting to keep her young love who waits back in England, she’s thrown into the physical and emotional dangers of civil war, tragedy and the conflict of a disturbing new relationship. And why do the drumbeats haunt her dreams? This is a rite of passage story which takes the reader hand in hand with Jess on her journey towards the complexities and mysteries of a disconcerting adult world. This is the first novel in the acclaimed Drumbeats trilogy: Drumbeats, Walking in the Rain, Finding Jess. For fans of Dinah Jefferies, Kate Morton, Rachel Hore, Jenny Ashcroft Purchase
Award-winning author Julia Ibbotson herself spent an exciting time in Ghana, West Africa, teaching and nursing (like Jess in her books), and always vowed to write about the country and its past. And so, the Drumbeats Trilogy was born.
She’s also fascinated by history, especially by the medieval world, and concepts of time travel, and has written haunting time-slips of romance and mystery partly set in the Anglo-Saxon period. She studied English at Keele University, England, specialising in medieval language, literature and history, and has a PhD in linguistics. She wrote her first novel at age 10, but became a school teacher, then university lecturer and researcher. Her love of writing never left her and to date she’s written 9 books, with a 10th on the way. She’s a member of the Romantic Novelists Association, Society of Authors and the Historical Novel Society.
My thoughts: I found Jess’ adventures in 1960s Ghana utterly fascinating, I will admit it’s a period I don’t know a lot about, so it was really interesting to learn some history, as well as join Jess in her personal voyage of discovery. Breaking free of her mother’s restrictive rules and seeing the world for the first time, Jess is a lively, fun and intelligent protagonist.
She’s trying to forget some of the unpleasant things that happened to her when she was younger and discover who she is now she’s an adult with her whole future ahead of her. Teaching in a school outside Accra, she’s delighted by her pupils and wants to help the impoverished villagers she meets. She also meets a somewhat mysterious American, who hints at being involved in the politics of the time, but never outright says he’s a spy.
Full of life and adventure, this is a great book, I can’t wait to read the next installment of Jess’ life.
**Terms and Conditions –UK entries welcome. Please enter using the Rafflecopter box below. The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over. Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data. I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.**
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
“I don’t know what to say” and “I don’t know what to do” are common responses to a life-threatening diagnosis. Voices of Cancer is here to help. Every cancer story is different, but there is one commonality: both patients and the people supporting them often struggle to properly articulate their wants and needs through particularly challenging and in many cases, uncharted territory. Lynda Wolters knows firsthand: she was diagnosed with stage 4 terminal mantle cell lymphoma in August of 2016. Voices of Cancer offers a candid look into the world of a cancer patient, informed by Lynda’s own story and conversations had with dozens of patients weighing in on their needs, wants, and dislikes as they navigate the complex world of diagnosis, treatment, and beyond. With comprehensive and accessible insight from people who’ve been there, Voices of Cancer helps educate, dispel fears, and start positive conversations about what a cancer diagnosis truly means, while shining a light on how best to support a loved one on their own terms.
Lynda was born and raised in a tiny farming community of 400 in northern Idaho. She worked on the family farm, with her first job being picking rocks out of the fields and ultimately graduating up the ladder to driving a grain truck and combine during harvest. Following high school, Lynda continued her education in Las Vegas before she moved back home to Idaho to raise her three sons. Lynda still resides in Idaho with her husband and their peekapoo, Max. Lynda has worked in the legal field for 30+ years and enjoys ballroom and swing dancing, horseback riding, kayaking, and river rafting. She has a heart for people and enjoys regularly volunteering. She spends the bulk of her spare time reading and writing. Lynda was diagnosed with terminal stage 4 Mantle Cell Lymphoma (MCL) in August 2016. She touts herself as being a thriving warrior of the disease. Lynda has completed two books of nonfiction: Voices of Cancer, released in October 2019, and Voices of LGBTQ+, released in August 2020. The Placeholder, Lynda’s debut novel, was released in November 2022. Lynda has published the following articles: Navigating the Workplace with Chemo Brain, February 23, 2020, Elephants and Tea. and When Masks Weren’t Popular, March 24, 2020, Patient Power. She has spoken on several podcasts, been a guest on a local talk show regarding Voices of Cancer, and given interviews for other outlets and print.
Jane Brody wrote up Voices of Cancer in the New York Times, her article entitled What to Say to Someone with Cancer, on January 13, 2020, with a follow-up on January 20, 2020, entitled, When Life Throws You a Curveball, Embrace the New Normal. The Chinese translation rights of Voices of Cancer have been purchased by a grant to offer the book to medical students in Tawain. Lynda donates Voices of Cancer books and a portion of its proceeds to Epic Experience, a nonprofit camp for adult survivors and thrivers of cancer located in Colorado.
“A strange thing occurred when I was diagnosed with my cancer, which I need to point out for this post, is incurable and I have currently outlived “predictions” by two plus years and counting. I say this because what that means is that I wait daily for that proverbial shoe to drop, for the cancer to flare back up and set my life and health back into a tailspin. So, given this type of life sentence, people are not really sure what to make of my dark humor about the matter. I too, am unsure what to make of it at times, but, as the saying goes, it is what it is. Examples – If my youngest son, who along with my husband was my primary caregiver, hasn’t heard from me within what he considers a prescribed amount of time, he will send me a text: Are you dead? Usually followed by a skull and crossbones emoji. Now, I think this is hysterical; others, including my husband, are mortified. I guess my son and I figure one of these days my usual response, “Not yet,” isn’t going to come, but at least we had some good laughs in the meantime. Recently, I was asked by a young man at a beauty clinic if I would like to consider putting money into a savings fund for my future beauty treatments. (Of note, my medical history is in bold letters on my chart – no missing it.) “Now, at just $75 per month, in 18 months almost anything you would like will be significantly reduced or free.” I agreed with him it would be a really good deal for most people but not for me. Undeterred he continued with the benefits and how much I could have saved on this day had I had the savings plan. He then tried to close me, “So, what do you think?” I shot him down again as politely as I could by saying, “No, thank you. I may well be dead by then.” And in his sweet, innocent way, he gasped and said, “You’re not that old!” I nearly felt bad when I had to drop the joke and explain, “No, really, I may not be here,” pointing to my chart. Poor kid. Writing Voices of Cancer I learned from many patients that they too suffer from macabre humor, and find the dark jokes hilarious and as a way of wrapping their minds around their circumstance. I also learned that like me, most of these people would prefer for those on the outside of our diagnosis to continue to poke fun at us and treat us just as they once did. Sensitivity is great until it turns into coddling.”
Amazing news! From now until October 18th this beauty will be on sale for ONLY $0.99 on Amazon! I can’t think of anything better to read at this time of year!
Echo of the Evercry
Genre: NA Dark Fantasy/ Dark Academia/ Dark Fantasy Horror
The cost of magic has never been clearer.
✨ Friends-to-Enemies-to-Allies
✨ Found Family
✨ Secret Order
✨ Secret Magic
✨ Everything You Thought You Knew was a Lie
Larissa’s inability to kill is a disgrace to her absent mother, Sword Matriarch of the Fair Lady’s order, a sisterhood whose purpose is to hunt down sorcerers corrupted by the Evercry and slay them. But Larissa hides an even more sinful secret: she is drawn toward magic, and it grows stronger in her every day.
Larissa keeps a stranglehold on her gift until the day of her graduation test, when her misuse of magic leads her to failure. Prepared to be cast out of the sisterhood, she is instead brought into the scorned caste of the darkkins, those who study and wield magic in the fight against the Evercry. In their halls she discovers that her proclivity for magic makes her powerful, and a little dangerous.
Gone for years, her mother suddenly sends word that she needs help to defeat a formidable sorcerer, help only Larissa can give. Larissa will do anything to save her mother, even travel with the girl who bullied her all through school. But as they battle monsters and mercenaries, Larissa must grapple with dark truths about the sisterhood and her heritage, and decide who she can really trust with her mother’s fate…and her own.
Ejay writes scifi, fantasy, and horror, with a dash of the paranormal. She has two books with Literary Wanderlust, gothic noir Behind the Veil and all female cast fantasy Echo of the Evercry. She also has a nonfic story with Seaside Gothic, a dark paranormal with Grendel Press, and hopeful scifi with Savage Planets. She is devoted to writing and the community, as a mentor for Write Hive, Futurescapes Alum, a previous SPSFC judge, Flights of Fancy volunteer, in the Australian Writers Centre Write Your Novel Program, and studying a post-grad diploma in creative writing. When not writing she’s walking her rescue dogs, or becoming obsessed with a new computer game.
ramblingmads 