An emotional, atmospheric summer read about family secrets and loyalty from the author of Kindle bestseller A Bookshop Christmas. The secrets of Summer House are about to come out at last…
Rushing out of the University Library, undergraduate Alice Kenzie bumps straight into PhD student Tristan Somers. There begins a whirlwind romance, and Alice falls pregnant and gives birth to a baby girl. Then Tristan is killed in a car accident. Unable to cope, Alice takes her baby to Summer House, Tristan’s family home in Suffolk, leaves her there and disappears.
Olivia Somers has always been told that her mother died in the same accident as her father. But when she finds a bundle of old letters in Summer House, everything she ever believed about her mother is called into question. Can she find her – and even more importantly, forgive her?
Rachel has a degree in Classics and another in English Literature, and fell into a career in law by mistake. She has spent most of her life between Cambridge and London but now lives in Yorkshire with her husband and their three cats. She loves yoga, ice hockey, tea, The Beatles, dresses with pockets and very tall romantic heroes. Find her on Twitter & Instagram as @RachelBWriter or follow her blog at rachelburtonwrites.com
My thoughts: families are complicated, messy beasts, often people do things that they feel are “for the best” even when that’s not necessarily the case. When Olivia’s grandmother, who raised her, dies, things once best thought hidden surface. An envelope of photos, a drunken comment from her father-in-law and Olivia is convinced the story about her parents’ deaths was a lie. Her mother is still alive, but where is she and why did she leave?
Moving back and forth from Olivia’s present and the 1970s love story of her parents, Tristan and Alice, this is a bittersweet, moving and evocative story of love, secrets and truth. The author also includes a playlist (on Spotify) to help you get into the characters story and personalities too, a lovely touch.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
The glittering RMS Queen Mary. A nightclub singer on the run. An aristocratic family with secrets worth killing for.
London, 1936. Lena Aldridge wonders if life has passed her by. The dazzling theatre career she hoped for hasn’t worked out. Instead, she’s stuck singing in a sticky-floored basement club in Soho, and her married lover has just left her. But Lena has always had a complicated life, one shrouded in mystery as a mixed-race girl passing for white in a city unforgiving of her true racial heritage.
She’s feeling utterly hopeless until a stranger offers her the chance of a lifetime: a starring role on Broadway and a first-class ticket on the Queen Mary bound for New York. After a murder at the club, the timing couldn’t be better, and Lena jumps at the chance to escape England. But death follows her onboard when an obscenely wealthy family draws her into their fold just as one among them is killed in a chillingly familiar way. As Lena navigates the Abernathy’s increasingly bizarre family dynamic, she realizes that her greatest performance won’t be for an audience, but for her life.
My thoughts: This Lovely City was a great debut, but Miss Aldridge Regrets is even better. Such a great book, I was hooked from the get go. With its mix of Soho grime and first class ocean bound glamour, murder, music and family secrets, this is an assured classic in the making.
Lena is a bit naive, and clearly a sucker for a story, happy to jump on a ship with a virtual stranger to a supposed starring role in a show that doesn’t even have a title or a script. She’s also on the run, even though she’s not really done anything wrong, and caught up in something she doesn’t understand, trapped in all the luxury and glamour of an ocean liner.
Lena’s also battling with concepts of race and class, light skinned enough to pass among the Abernathy family as one of their own, but meeting musician Will (who reminds her of her father) brings her back down to reality – she has to pick a side. If they realise she’s not “one of them”, then she won’t be so welcome at the table. She can’t be both, not in America.
The Abernathy/Parker family and their attendants have a lot of secrets, bitterness, feuds, lies and a serious collective alcohol problem. Lena is thrown into their world and has no idea about any of them. She’s not at home in their world, despite being able to switch up her accent from East End to Mayfair, she is an actress after all. It’s only with Will, in the “pub” the crew hang out in that she’s able to be herself. Which should tell her something.
As things go from bad to worse onboard, she doesn’t know who to trust or what to do. Maybe she should have stayed in London after all. She has secrets too, and they’re at risk of spilling out the longer she’s mixing with first class and slipping below decks at night. Will she even make it to New York?
There’s suspense, terrible crimes at sea, but there’s also jazz under the moon and a little romance too. I want a sequel – a What Miss Aldridge Did Next.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own
Check out the trailer for the final book in the award-winning trilogy, Descendants by Janet Post and Gabe Thompson!
The Descendants (The Vagrant Chronicles #3)
Genre: YA Sci-Fi
From the award-winning authors of Vagrant and Mutant comes the long-awaited finish to the Vagrant Chronicles, Descendants!
Book III begins on Gliese where Shayna, Mai Li and Cain Hollyroad have taken over the leadership of the new colony. Shayna is worried because they’ve heard nothing from Declan and Logan. She decides to contact Earth using the equipment Eddie set up before he left. Unfortunately, when she succeeds and contacts someone she’s never heard of with the New LA Vagrants, she gets bad news. War has broken out in New LA and the Vagrant she’s contacted, a mole person named Reek running a small, solar-powered computer hacked into the Company’s com systems, he tells her most of the Vagrants are gone, hiding and shipped off to mining worlds. Reek doesn’t know Logan or Declan or any of the group from Gliese, and tells her the Vagrant space ship was destroyed. When she uses the equipment to piggyback off the Company’s Interstellar communication waves, they are alerted and come to find the colony.
Razor Tsang and his father are at the Gliese spaceport. They have an interview with the CEO. Razor’s father is the head of the Tong that has been the one sanctioned smuggling operation affiliated with the Company for decades. But the CEO, an alien who is a member of the ancestor race, laughs in their faces, denies them a new contract and give them twenty-four hours to clear off Gliese. Unfortunately for Razor’s father Big Lou Tsang, a group from the Smugglers guild meets him at his ship and kills him. Razor escapes and runs for the hills. He meets up with Shayna and her group and tells them what happened.
Cain Hollyroad leads colony members out of their valley and into the badlands of Gliese where there is no water and little hope of survival. Some of the colony gets caught by the Company and sent to the mines. Shayna, Cain, Razor, Mai Li, her daughter escape and begin a terrible trek into badlands searching for water. When all appears lost, Cain finds some caverns in a canyon which lead to an underground chamber with a spring. They need to get to a spaceport. Shayna is so worried about Logan, he concerns drive them away from their temporary shelter in the cavern and onward. They find the newest mining settlement. It has a rudimentary spaceport and a gigantic interstellar ship on the ground. It’s the ship they stole off the moon. Raj thinks he might be able to fly it. He has Helga. Knock reluctantly surrendered her control cube to him when he fell for Fenfang.
On Earth, Logan, Knock, Eddie and Fenfang are trying to fight their way, with the aid of the remaining Vagrants on Earth, to the Denver Spaceport where they hope to steal a ship to the moon where they can grab an interstellar ship and get home to Gliese. Logan is devastated by his father’s death. To find him and then lose him so suddenly was a huge blow.
The remaining population of Vagrants is wily and motivated to escape Earth. When they can’t contact Shayna, Logan becomes frantic. He lost his father and needs to know Shayna is safe and sound. Hounded by the Company and its new leader, a Company drone, frantic Logan, turns its eyes to smaller target, the spaceport in New Salt Lake City.
When Logan tries to contact Shayna again, he is stunned to discover she is traveling back to Earth on the Far Horizon. With the Company after them, the Guild discovers they are hiding close to their secret spaceport and moves in. Logan and his group hunker down and pray Cain, Shayna and Raj will arrive in time to save them.
I’m the daughter of a Marine Corps colonel. I lived the military life until I got out of high school. At that point I was a wild child. I got married and moved to Canada where I lived up the Sechelt Inlet, the scene for Spellcast Waters. I lived in a log cabin, with wood heat and a wood cook stove fifteen miles by boat from the nearest town. I’ve moved a lot. Between the military upbringing and just rambling around the country, I’ve moved 40 times.
I lived in Hawaii and worked as a polo groom for fifteen years. I love horses and I paint, and I write. Now I live in the swampland of Florida with too many dogs and my fifteen-year old granddaughter. Life is beautiful. Live in the moment.
Gabe Thompson
My mother and I started writing young adult and action novels together about five years ago. We work well together because we share many of the same interests. I have a degree in journalism and currently teach middle school in Jacksonville, Florida where I live with my wife and twelve-year old son.
Rhona is a faithful servant of the country Jémoon and a woman in love. Everything changes when her beloved sets the ravenous Vulture goddess loose upon the land. Forced to execute the woman she loves for committing treason, Rhona discovers a profound correlation between morality and truth. A connection that might save her people or annihilate them all.
You are a lie…
Varésh Lúm-talé is many things, most of all a genocidal liar. A falsity searching for the Phoenix goddess whom he believes can help him rectify his atrocities. Such an undertaking is an arduous one for a man with missing memories and a conscience set on rending him from inside out. A man whose journey leads to Hang-Dead Forest and a meeting with a Vulture goddess who is not entirely as she seems.
Avaria Norrith is the adopted heir to the Ariathan throne. But that means little to a man who, for the better part of fifteen years, has sought and failed to earn his mother’s love. Fueled by pride and envy, Avaria seeks the means to prove himself and cast away his mental chains. When he’s tasked with the recreation of The Raven’s Rage he sees his chance, for with the infamous blade he can rewrite history and start anew.
Daughter of the Mountain…
Erath has not felt sunlight for a century. Not since Ariath condemned her people to a life of darkness with their misuse of The Raven’s Rage. But when an old friend comes seeking the remnants of the ancient sword, Erath cannot contain her curiosity and resolves to lend her aid. Is it true—can history be revised? Can her people be reclaimed?
Luke Tarzian was born in Bucharest, Romania. His parents made the extremely poor choice of adopting him less than six months into his life. As such, he’s resided primarily in the United States and currently lives in California with his wife and their twin daughters. Somehow, they tolerate him.
Unfortunately, he can also be found online and, to the dismay of his clients, also functions as a cover artist for independent authors.
My thoughts: there is a strange dreamlike/nightmare quality to these two novellas, both consider themes of destiny, reincarnation, gods, revenge and failure. Failure to fix the mistakes of those who came before, failure to prevent the same mistakes happening again.
Parable features characters who live lives over and over again, under different names, but making the same mistakes. Characters who are sometimes gods or kings, other times merely carrying out the orders of others, but still carrying on the legacy of who they were before and their failures. Trapped it seems in an endless cycle.
Requiem almost seems to pick up afterthese events, showing the repercussions and the ripples of endless mistakes, with new people to make them. Recreating an ancient weapon in order to forge a new path might just be making more mistakes and condemning the future all over again.
Luke Tarzian’s writing has a woozy, hypnotic feel to it, drawing you in to the diseased and broken world he’s created, the nightmares of gods turned monsters, or monsters become gods. These may be short tales but they’re dizzying and at times disorientating reads which leave you wanting to believe next time the characters will do better but the evidence suggests it’s unlikely.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Only Rae knows how deep the corruption at the heart of her kingdom runs. Imprisoned on a slave ship, she effects a harrowing escape – but her freedom comes with the weight of dangerous debts and terrifying magic. Now, to free her land from the growing darkness, Rae will need every ally she can find, including Bren, the thief who may have stolen her heart. But Bren is hiding his own bloody secrets, and the curses that encircle Rae have sunk their claws into her mind.
While the truth could save Rae’s kingdom, it might destroy her first.
The water ripples as the girl’s body escapes the reeds and floats silently upwards. Her beautiful face—blue eyes frozen open, skin as white as snow—breaks the surface. But it’s too late, this innocent soul has taken her final breath…
When camp counselor Carolyn Sable’s body is found floating in a lake beside Eagle Ridge Summer Camp, Detective Katie Scott must dig deep to stay focused. As a child, Katie spent many happy weeks at that camp toasting marshmallows on the fire with her best friend Jenny… until the day Jenny disappeared. The loss will always haunt Katie, but Carolyn’s inconsolable family need answers.
Searching the area, the devastating discovery of two more bodies sends the case into a tailspin. Suddenly on the hunt for a serial killer, Katie’s blood turns to ice when she finds newspaper clippings about her own past cases planted near one of the bodies. Was this twisted killer banking on Katie taking the lead? And why?
Carolyn was adored by children and staff at the camp, so Katie thinks her sudden resignation is key to cracking the case. Uncovering a tragic accident involving a group of children the weeks before Carolyn left, Katie knows she’s getting close.
But when the carefully laid trap Katie sets to catch Carolyn’s killer backfires, Katie finds herself in unthinkable danger and unable to even trust her own team. Can she stay alive long enough to crack the toughest case of her career, and how many more innocent lives will be lost before she does?
Jennifer Chase is a multi award-winning and best-selling crime fiction author, as well as a consulting criminologist. Jennifer holds a bachelor degree in police forensics and a master’s degree in criminology & criminal justice. These academic pursuits developed out of her curiosity about the criminal mind as well as from her own experience with a violent psychopath, providing Jennifer with deep personal investment in every story she tells.
In addition, she holds certifications in serial crime and criminal profiling. She is an affiliate member of the International Association of Forensic Criminologists, and member of the International Thriller Writers.
My thoughts: this was really good, as with the rest of the series, it’s action packed and the case is really compelling. Bodies found mutilated on an old campground, related to a terrible accident twenty years before.
Katie and McGaven are on the case, but in danger as the killer seems to be happy to set off explosives and start fires to stop them from finding him. Katie’s K9 Cisco is the real hero in the book though, with an action scene perfect for Hollywood. What a good boy.
There’s several suspicious characters and the trail seems cold when they find out their chief suspect is dead, but could someone be carrying out these horrific crimes on their behalf? And Katie keeps seeing the ghost of her childhood friend Jenny, abducted from the same campsite when they were children. Is her PTSD going to stop her from solving this one?
As always the writing and research is meticulous and hooks you instantly into the story, though I’m glad we don’t have summer camps in the UK, nothing good seems to happen at them. The detectives risk their lives a fair amount and the sheriff, who’s also Katie’s uncle, must have a lot of grey hair from all the worrying he does.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour
Escape with a feel-good romance that will warm your heart this summer!
Emily Hendrickson is tired of being the wedding guest and never the bride. Working at her local paper as a wedding columnist, she can’t wait to write her own happy-ever-after.
When she bumps into her childhood sweetheart Calvin Albright, her world is knocked off balance. Calvin has returned to the quiet town of Hebblestone desperate for a fresh start. After his wife tragically died two years ago, he wants nothing more than to find a new home and settle down with his son, Isaac.
Isaac can see how lonely his dad is – he’s determined to help him find love again and complete their family…
Uploading a video to his blog in search of a new girlfriend for his dad, he convinces Emily to use the local paper to make the video viral and sift through the potential candidates.
But as the letters to Calvin begin to flood in, could the promise of love be closer to home than they think?
My thoughts: this is a sweet story about love and friendship. Isaac wants to find his dad someone to love after his mother’s death, and now they’re back in Calvin’s home town, where his childhood best friend Emily lives.
After Isaac convinces Emily to run the story about his hunt for a girlfriend for his dad, and some wires get crossed and then untangled, love prevails. And Emily doesn’t have to cover any more weddings for the local paper either, which sounds like a depressing job. The characters are all rather nice people and deserve love and happiness. A pleasure to read.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
In the year 2444, two noble sisters, Sasha (15) and Adrianne (11), have survived a nuclear fallout, only to be torn apart.
The ground splits open and Adrianne is thrown from her horse, plummeting into the ravine. Spurned on by the hope that Adrianne lives, Sasha embarks on a journey through the desert to face the ravine that claimed her only sister. Meanwhile, deep within the earth, Adrianne is running for her life. She took something that did not belong to her.
In The Intra-Earth Chronicles; Book I: The Two Sisters by Kara Jacobson we experience a fast-paced fantasy adventure woven within the earth, and the unshakeable bond between two sisters.
Kara Jacobson resides in the beautiful, rolling hills of Red Wing, MN with her husband and young son, Logan. She and her husband both work at the local hospital, where they first met. Born with an insatiable appetite for science fiction, Kara has always been intrigued with the notion of entire civilizations existing within the earth. She was a New Media Film Festival (2021) nominee for The Intra-Earth Chronicles, Book I: The Two Sisters.
Giveaway: 5 signed copies of The Intra-Earth Chronicles; Book I: The Two Sisters to give away, and two $25 Visa Gift Cards!
My thoughts: this is a fun adventure for 8-12 year old readers, featuring two sisters fighting against the odds to find one another in a post-apocalyptic future.
Adrienne has fallen into a world beneath the Earth’s crust and is held prisoner, things are very different where she’s ended up and she struggles to escape their hold.
Her sister Sasha is racing towards her, confronted with dangers at every turn but determined to save the only person she has left. Sparky and brave, these sisters share a strong bond. Both will learn a lot about themselves in their adventures.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Cassie swore she’d never fall for another rich guy. Her heart has other ideas.
After a whirlwind holiday romance with hot billionaire Frenchman Nico, personal assistant Cassie receives an invitation to visit him in Paris.
Although she’d love a fairy-tale reunion, Cassie cannot fall for Nico. They live in different countries, come from different worlds, plus he’s more loaded than a bank vault. And after her rich ex and his snooty family left her feeling heartbroken and worthless, Cassie swore off dating wealthy guys. If she’d known Nico was France’s most eligible bachelor when they met, she’d never have got involved.
But their connection is undeniable and she’d be crazy not to see him again. If Cassie suppresses her feelings and just goes for the experience, she can avoid getting hurt, right?
Except when Nico sweeps her off her feet with a string of sexy, romantic dates around Paris, her plan not to fall in love unravels. She hopes he feels the same, but then a shocking revelation turns her world upside down…
Can they overcome their obstacles? And will Cassie get the happily-ever-after she’s been dreaming of?
Order this fun, steamy, fish-out-of-water, billionaire romantic comedy now and join Cassie in Paris to find out!
Read as a standalone novel or as book three in the My Ten-Year Crush series.
Olivia Spring is a British, London-based writer of contemporary women’s fiction, sexy chick lit and romantic comedy. Her uplifting debut novel The Middle-Aged Virgin, which was released in 2018, deals with being newly single in your thirties and beyond, dating, relationships, love, sex and living life to the full.
In addition to The Middle-Aged Virgin, Olivia has published The Middle-Aged Virgin in Italy, Love Offline, Losing My Inhibitions, Only When It’s Love and the sequel When’s The Wedding?
Olivia’s seventh novel, My Ten-Year Crush, was published in September 2021. Book two in the series, My Lucky Night followed in November 2021 and book three, My Paris Romance will be published in summer 2022.
When she’s not writing, Olivia can be found enjoying cupcakes and cocktails and of course, seeking inspiration for her next book!
Jenna is trying to rebuild her life after a series of disastrous relationships. Luke is struggling to provide a safe, loving home for his deceased partner’s young son, following a devastating tragedy. When Jenna and Luke meet and fall in love, they are certain they can achieve the stability and happiness they both desperately need. And yet, someone is watching. Someone who has been scarred by past events. Someone who will stop at nothing to get revenge… Dark, unsettling and immensely moving, Quicksand of Memory is a chilling reminder that we are not only punished for our sins, but by them, and that memories left to blacken and sharpen over time are the perfect breeding ground for obsession, and murder…
Michael Malone is a prize-winning poet and author who was born and brought up in the heart of Burns’ country. He has published over 200 poems in literary magazines throughout the UK, including New Writing Scotland, Poetry Scotland and Markings. Blood Tears, his bestselling debut novel won the Pitlochry Prize from the Scottish Association of Writers. His psychological thriller, A Suitable Lie, was a number-one bestseller, and the critically acclaimed House of Spines, After He Died, In the Absence of Miracles and A Song of Isolation soon followed suit. A former Regional Sales Manager (Faber & Faber) he has also worked as an IFA and a bookseller. Michael lives in Ayr.
My thoughts: this was a brilliantly clever tale of the past, how we interpret our memories, those we choose to preserve, and redemption. Both Luke and Jenna are trying to build new lives, falling in love could be part of it, but there share a connection in the past and someone is determined to drag it all into the light and seek revenge.
It’s so subtly done – you feel sorry for the characters but then a new piece of information might change that, even Jamie, who isn’t a good person in this book, my opinion of him changed a few times, although not his sister, pulling his strings, she was a bit less multi-faceted. She refused to face up to reality, cherry picking her memories and believing everyone else to be lying. Her idol couldn’t slip from his pedestal, her warped view of the past caused a lot of harm.
Luke and Jenna were complicated people, Luke in particular had a pretty dark past and some things he wasn’t proud of, but in training as a therapist and in raising Nathan, he was trying to be a better man – to be someone his son could be proud of. Being dragged back into the messy history of his life before could destroy that. When he and Jenna realise what’s going on, they don’t seek to take revenge and cause more harm, because some things need to stay safely in the past.
Really interesting and compelling, I was rooting for them and for Nathan to have a happier time of it, losing his mum so young must have been awful. Thankfully it ends on a positive swing for him, and some of the other characters. After the repercussions of past events, you need the knowledge that things can change.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
