The annual celebration of publisher Clink Street is back and full of great books. Check out the poster below my review to see all the fab bloggers taking part.
If you found an unsigned lottery ticket, what would you do if it turned out to be worth millions? Hand it in or claim the prize? Follow the twisting path of Maggie and Greg when faced with this dilemma. Who are the winners and who are the real losers? What is the price of honesty and does winning bring happiness? Can you do more good in the world if you are rich or poor? Find out in this intriguing tale of an ordinary family.
My thoughts: this was an entertaining and enjoyable read about what happens to an ordinary family whose whole world is turned upside down when they find a winning lottery ticket in the park. Suddenly insanely wealthy, Greg and Maggie decide to keep it quiet while also doing things they’ve always wanted to do.
Greg starts investing and growing his hospitality recruitment business, splashing out on a fancy car once he feels he can justify it to friends with his business successes, meanwhile Maggie wants to donate to wildlife charities, specifically ones that save African elephants (something my sister, who is obsessed with pachyderms, could definitely get behind).
Of course their plan to do all this but not let their sudden and obscene wealth change them doesn’t quite work and over the next few years things change massively for them and their children. Maggie becomes an international environmental champion and Greg becomes one of the wealthiest businessmen around. Things in their personal lives change dramatically too. Can their family survive all of this?
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Before Baker Street, there was Montague. Before partnership with a former army doctor recently returned from Afghanistan, Sherlock Holmes had but the quiet company of his own great intellect. Solitary he might be but, living as he did for the thrill of the chase, it was enough. For a little while, at the least, it was enough. That is, until a client arrives at his door with a desperate plea and an invitation into a world of societal scandal and stage door dandies. Thrust deep in an all-consuming role and charged with the safe-keeping of another, Holmes must own to his limits or risk danger to others besides himself in this the case of the aluminium crutch.
M. K. Wiseman has degrees in Interarts & Technology and Library & Information Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her office, therefore, is a curious mix of storyboards and reference materials. Both help immensely in the writing of historical novels. She currently resides in Cedarburg, Wisconsin.
My thoughts: I enjoyed the previous one of these (here) and was pleased to be reading another of M.K Wiseman’s Sherlock stories, this one set before Dr Watson entered Holmes’ life.
This was quite a complicated case involving false identities, gangsters, land deeds in America, a jilted lover, and a rich uncle keeping secrets. Hired to solve a missing person case, that is slightly more complex due to another person impersonating the missing man, Holmes soon finds himself drawn into the complex lies of Price family. Trying to figure out the whereabouts of the real Tobias-Henry Price, he comes across a safe cracker who is happily in custody and Price’s uncle insists the foppish dandy using his nephew’s name is the real Tobias, but his fianceè insists her Toby is someone else entirely.
Eventually Holmes resorts to disguise and goes undercover in society, where he feels intensely uncomfortable, as well as keeping track of a gang of criminals he thinks are involved. And why is everyone so interested in Price’s aluminium cane?
Obviously Sherlock Holmes is Sherlock Holmes and he solves the case, probably a lot sooner that he says he has, through deduction and his acute understanding of how humans think.
A fiendishly clever case and at times very confusing but all is revealed in the end.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Someone’s playing tricks on Karen at home and at work. When two cold case files about missing girls turn up on her desk, she’s fuming. When a third file arrives…she blows a fuse.
Her boss demands she takes holiday leave just as Karen discovers her late father was involved in one of the cases. Now she’s compelled to investigate them.
Karen’s accompanied by sometime boyfriend John – but can she trust him or his friend and mapkeeper Mr Binks?
She has formidable detective skills but will they work in places where old-world magic is still powerful?
Karen’s life is in serious danger… but from whom…. or what?
Jane writes novels, short stories and poems, usually with a good dose of humour in them. She’s probably owes it all to her late grandmother who, she’s just found out, also wrote short stories and poems. She tends to get an idea and then run with it whether it be a 100 word short story or an 80 thousand word novel. It all depends on the voices in her head at the time…
My thoughts: this was a quirky blend of crime fiction and supernatural shenanigans. As Karen digs into the cases of 3 missing girls from 50 years ago, she finds a strange link to her father’s death and some seriously spooky goings on. With boyfriend John and partner Macy in tow, she sets off to unravel this mystery.
Then there’s Mr Binks, owner of a curious bookshop, he knows a lot more than he’s willing to share but he also has answers to a few things about the case. But can he be trusted and is he acting in the best interests of himself or the case?
With the team racing across the country and even up into Scotland, this case stretches inter-force cooperation and nearly makes Karen’s boss blow his top (she’s supposed to be holiday, not having around solving cold cases).
A clever and occasionally very peculiar addition to supernatural police procedural novels, a bit like Rivers of London or The King’s Watch.
Click the poster to find the other stops on the tour
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Congratulations to author LindaAnn LoSchiavo for winning the prestigious Elgin award for her speculative poetry collection, A Route Obscure and Lonely!
A Route Obscure and Lonely: Poetrylandia 2
Publication Date: December 30th, 2019
Genre: Speculative Poetry
Haunting and harrowing in its portrayal of supernatural creatures, “A Route Obscure and Lonely” explores the road less traveled by restless ghosts, sexually curious aliens, cunning vampires, transgressive angels, regretful mermaids, defiant witches, surly goddesses, mysterious phantoms, fearless fortune tellers, and “goth’s Mr. Goodbar” himself — — Edgar Allan Poe. The boroughs of the dead invite you to approach the gate guarding their abyss.
Come look inside.
House Guest
With measured strokes, I brushed defiant hair, Cascading waves that cancer left untouched. You’d had enough of hospitals, that lack Of privacy, imagining your home Serene, secure, free from intrusive pests.
It would shock you to learn we’re not alone.
At dawn, the presence by the sills crispens, Emerges as the drapes inhale into A phantom shape. Infernal company, Omniscient brakeman, timer in cold hands, Poised, waiting, exhalations nearly through.
Lost in the territory of morphine, Deciding to eject your breathing tubes, You tossed away the life-saving device.
Asleep, I’m unaware — — till ghost commands Arouse me full awake. There’s no choice but To go rescue you, reconnect the air.
Long shadows darken the stairs, that peek-a-boo Behind the hooded cloak. I startle you, Attaching oxygen’s feed properly, Removing you tonight from danger’s ledge.
A grimace rises from the bedding’s edge As if to say, “Not now! I’ll tell you when.”
Native New Yorker LindaAnn LoSchiavo, recently Poetry SuperHighway’s Poet of the Week, is a member of SFPA and The Dramatists Guild. Elgin Award winner “A Route Obscure and Lonely” and “Concupiscent Consumption” are her latest poetry titles.
Forthcoming is “Dark and Airy Spirits” (a paranormal collection of ghost poems), “Messengers of the Macabre” (a collaborative chapbook), and an Italian-centric book, “Flirting with the Fire Gods,” inspired by her Aeolian Island heritage.
She has been leading an SFPA poetry critique group for two years.
We are so excited to share the next installment of the Order’s Last Play series, The Third Gambit! Read on for more info and a chance to win a $50 Amazon gift card!
The Third Gambit
Publication Date: November 2nd, 2021
Genre: YA Fantasy/ Sci-Fi
Publisher: 48Fourteen Publishing
Lines about ‘prophecy’ and ‘destiny’ are best used in epic fantasies about heroes who like to wear capes. Too bad the living gods rolling the dice in this game forgot to include those characters.
After saving their older brother, Evan, and being forced to leave the lives they knew on Earth, Devon, Lyle, and Lawrence train to become the leaders of Rema—a planet they’ve never even heard of. And if that isn’t enough, they also have to rebuild a relationship with the brother they haven’t seen in over a decade as they struggle to control powers they didn’t hone on Earth. All so they can become the prophesied Four of Rema—whose choices will decide the outcome of an intergalactic war.
Separated and sent on quests to find power-magnifying gifts from a goddess, the Lauduethe brothers uncover devastating truths behind the war that lock the existence of everything they love in a deadly game of divine jeopardy. As they watch entire planets and their populations get eradicated, Devon, Lyle, Lawrence, and Evan must choose to either play the roles assigned to them by Order or be erased from existence with everything else.
WINNER OF THE READERS’ FAVORITE BOOK AWARDS 2017 YA FICTION, BRONZE MEDAL
Admitting what you are will end everything you know. Embracing who you are will start a war…
Life is great when you’re good-looking and popular…so long as no one knows you’re a vulatto. Being half-alien gets you labeled “loser” quicker than being a full vader. So it’s a good thing Devon, Lyle, and Lawrence can easily pass for human—until the night of the party. Nothing kills a good time faster than three brothers sharing a psychic vision of a fourth brother who’s off-world and going to die unless they do something. But when your brother’s emergency happens off-planet, calling 9-1-1 really isn’t an option. In their attempt to save a brother they barely remember, Devon, Lyle and Lawrence expose themselves to mortal danger and inherit a destiny that killed the last four guys cursed with it.
In 2022, there are humans and aliens, heroes and monsters, choices and prophecies—and four brothers with the power to choose what’s left when the gods decide they’re through playing games.
Ardell spent her childhood in Houston, Texas, obsessed with anything science fiction, fantastic, paranormal or just plain weird. She loves to write stories that feature young people with extraordinary talents thrown into strange and dangerous situations. She took her obsession to the next level, earning a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Southern Maine where she specialized in young adult genre fiction. She’s a big kid at heart and loves her job as a librarian. When she’s not working, she’s reading, writing, running writers critique groups, producing a web-show, and even writing fan fiction as her guilty pleasure. Her first YA science fiction novel, THE FOURTH PIECE (Book One, in the ORDER’S LAST PLAY series), was released by 48fourteen Publishing in July of 2016. THE FOURTH PIECE went on to win the bronze medal for YA Science Fiction in The Readers’ Favorite Book Awards 2017, Most Promising Series in the Red City Review Book Awards 2017, and to be a finalist for the 2017 RONE Awards for YA Science Fiction/Paranormal. THE THIRD GAMBIT is the second book in the ORDER’S LAST PLAY series and has an eBook release date of November 2, 2021.
A haunting Anglo-Saxon time-slip of mystery and romance. Can echoes of the past threaten the present? They are 1500 years apart, but can they reach out to each other across the centuries? One woman faces a traumatic truth in the present day. The other is forced to marry the man she hates as the ‘dark ages’ unfold. How can Dr Viv DuLac, medievalist and academic, unlock the secrets of the past? Traumatised by betrayal, she slips into 499 AD and into the body of Lady Vivianne, who is also battling treachery. Viv must uncover the mystery of the key that she unwittingly brings back with her to the present day, as echoes of the past resonate through time. But little does Viv realise just how much both their lives across the centuries will become so intertwined. And in the end, how can they help each other across the ages without changing the course of history?
For fans of Barbara Erskine, Pamela Hartshorne, Susanna Kearsley, Christina Courtenay. “In the best Barbara Erskine tradition …I would highly recommend this novel” -Historical Novel Society “Amazing …a really great book …I just couldn’t put it down” -Hazel Morgan “Well-rounded characters and a wealth of historical research make this a real page-turner” – Amazon review “Enthralling” -Amazon review “Julia does an incredible job of setting up the idea of time-shift so that it’s believable and makes sense” – Amazon review “Viv/Lady Vivianne … lovely identifiable heroine in both time periods….I love her strength and vulnerability. And Rory/Roland is simply gorgeous!” – Melissa Morgan “gripping … a very real sense of threat and danger, an enthralling mystery … a wholly convincing romance, across both timelines” – Anne Williams
Julia Ibbotson is fascinated by the medieval world and the concept of time. She sees her author brand as a historical fiction writer of romantic mysteries that are evocative of time and place, well- researched and uplifting page-turners. Her current series focuses on early medieval time-slip/dual- time mysteries. Julia read English at Keele University, England, specialising in medieval language/ literature/ history, and has a PhD in socio-linguistics. After a turbulent time in Ghana, West Africa, she became a school teacher, then a university academic and researcher. Her break as an author came soon after she joined the RNA’s New Writers’ Scheme in 2015, with a three-book deal from Lume Books (Endeavour) for a trilogy (Drumbeats) set in Ghana in the 1960s. She has published three other books, including A Shape on the Air, an Anglo-Saxon timeslip mystery, and its two sequels The Dragon Tree and The Rune Stone. Her work in progress is the first of a new series of Anglo-Saxon mysteries (Daughter of Mercia) where echoes of the past resonate across the centuries. Her books will appeal to fans of Barbara Erskine, Pamela Hartshorne, Susanna Kearsley, and Christina Courtenay. Her readers say: ‘Julia’s books captured my imagination’, ‘beautiful story-telling’, ‘evocative and well-paced storylines’, ‘brilliant and fascinating’ and ‘I just couldn’t put it down’.
I love Jodi Picoult’s books, they always make you think and question, which I feel is pretty important in the world we live in. I took part in the Tandem Collective’s readalong over on Instagram but as my talents do not lie in creating reels or stories (is it just me that can’t seem to get half the functions to work properly?) There was also a DM chat group but I won’t be sharing anyone else’s thoughts.
This is a book set in the very recent past and dealing with 2020’s Covid-19 outbreak, lockdowns etc. I wasn’t sure how well I’d do reading about something that’s still ongoing and very raw. This is how I got on.
Diana O’Toole’s life is going perfectly to plan. At twenty-nine, she’s up for promotion to her dream job as an art specialist at Sotheby’s and she’s about to fly to the Galápagos where she’s convinced her surgeon boyfriend, Finn, is going to propose.
But then the virus hits New York City and Finn breaks the news: the hospital needs him, he has to stay. But you should still go, he insists. And reluctantly, she agrees.
Once she’s in the Galápagos, the world shuts down around her, leaving Diana stranded – albeit in paradise. Completely isolated, with only intermittent news from the outside world, Diana finds herself examining everything that has brought her to this point and wondering if there’s a better way to live.
But not everything is as it seems . . .
I was quite cross with the cavalier attitude on display here and my first instinct was to shout “don’t be so bloody stupid and irresponsible!” Going to a tiny island in the Pacific with limited health care resources is incredibly selfish. Diana should stay in New York and support Finn. But then they don’t know how absolutely devastatingly terrible things will get.
I like Abuela, she rescued a very stupid Diana, who didn’t appreciate that the hotel would be shut, even though she was warned about the lockdown before she got on the ferry. Gabriel is probably right to be upset, the world has just turned upside down and he’s worried about his family and his home. He shouldn’t be yelling at his grandmother though. Have some respect.
I can understand his motivations a bit more, he just wants to keep his family safe and he’s been through a lot. I think he and Diana will get to know each other better and explore the island.
I know that Darwin came up with The Origin of the Species and his theory of natural selection (although not the first to do so or unique) after visiting the Galapagos Islands and seeing the distinct differences in species between different islands. Gabriel is paraphrasing “history is written by the victors”, attributed to Winston Churchill. It means we don’t hear the losing sides version of events, only the successes.
I know a lot of people clapped for carers and volunteered for mutual aid things. I did the shopping for one neighbour who was quarantined and fed another’s cat when she was hospitalised (not with covid). I just wish it had lasted longer and been more permanent, we seem to have gone right back to being selfish even though it’s not over (I still shop for my neighbour and feed cats for those in hospital).
I think Diana is starting to feel very comfortable with Gabriel and he seems lonely, so it’s perhaps inevitable that something might happen.
Nina Simone’s version is one of my favourite pieces of music, a real Desert Island Disc choice.
OK, didn’t see this coming. I couldn’t get my stupid Stories to work and is this a huh? face – 😕 cos that’s how I felt.
I think Finn is dealing with a lot, and something that feels huge, and new, to Diana isn’t to him. He’s been living with the new realities of lockdown and working on the front line for a while now.
Wait! What? Please explain. I’m so confused. 🥴
So, I didn’t really do any of these because I can’t work those functions (my brain can’t cope with technology, also my phone hates me) so that was that then. I don’t know enough South American actors to cast anyone, because it would need to be accurate. I did do a flatlay, photo thing, you can see it here.
My overall thoughts: I immediately thought of my friend telling me about her sister who was working on coral reefs on another tiny island when covid hit. She had to leave her dream job and fly home when they closed the island – and the project is on hold so she’s stuck at home with no job, hard to be a marine biologist in London, and no idea if she can ever go back. Millions of people had their lives turned upside down in the last two years and with no end in sight, this will keep happening.
As the book progressed I got seduced by the idyllic island life Diana was leading, which then gets thrown into chaos by what happens next. Which I won’t spoil but will say that the second half of the book was very, very different to the first.
Once Diana is back in New York, dealing with events, working out if her relationship, job, life, is even what she wants anymore, I struggled a bit. Like many people I lost loved ones last year and it has been really hard. My mum is a nurse, and while she was covering for her colleagues who were drafted into hospitals (she retires next year and my dad is high risk so she was doing other duties behind the scenes), I saw some of what medical professionals were going through.
Last year was just horrible and maybe this book is just a bit too soon, and as things are starting to crack again with new variants and restrictions and the future is so uncertain, I just don’t quite know how I feel about this book.
Have you read this book? Maybe you were in a book group like I was for the readalong, let me know your thoughts in the comments. Is it too soon for literature about 2020? When is the right time? I’d really love to hear other people’s thoughts.
When a girl disappears, long-buried secrets resurface…
Coco is missing. Her room’s a mess, and her phone is left behind in her dorm at Lainsbury Hall School
Ella, Coco’s childhood best friend, is desperate for her to return, although she knows that if she ever sees Coco again, there’ll be a lot of explaining to do.
Bea knows that her new group of friends attracts drama, and she thinks she has the last shred of common sense between them all. Only, if that was true, she would leave Genevieve, her toxic ex, well alone.
Conrad is confident that Coco will return safe and well. Only, the way his secrets are unravelling, he’s worried he won’t be when this is all over.
Harrison and Coco are the perfect couple. Everyone knows that. But looks can be misleading. Even the smartest boy in school can make a terrible mistake.
In order to navigate the web of secrets and lies that Coco leaves behind, her circle of friends needs to unravel a few of their own.
VB Furlong is a trainee lawyer and writer of young adult novels living in Berkshire, UK. She wrote her first “novel” at ten years old and has not stopped writing since then. As a teenager, VB Furlong wrote for her local paper and an online magazine whilst devouring any book she could find, and in writing for an older teen demographic hopes to instil the same love of books as she had, and still has to this day.
Through her writing she aims to explore many of the issues she faced herself growing up, in the hopes that others facing the same issues feel some solidarity. Her friendships are a huge part of her life and consequently is a major theme in her writing, exploring the way in which we interact with each other, especially in difficult times.
Originally from Mumbles, Swansea, VB Furlong enjoys the sun and the sea, and walking her three dogs across the cliffs. These walks have offered her inspiration for many pieces of writing, including What Happened to Coco.
My thoughts: this was a good YA thriller, revolving around a small group of friends who, when one of their own goes missing, start to ask questions about their relationships with her and what might have happened.
Coco isn’t there in the morning, at the exclusive boarding school she attends, she’s left her mobile behind and the necklace she never takes off, her best friend Ella can’t understand where she’s gone, and her boyfriend Harrison is convinced something sinister has happened.
Turns out Coco has secrets, they all do, and now they’re coming to light. As they start to think back over the last few year, and notice that things have changed, the group fractures and the blame game begins.
Clever and enjoyable, despite being missing from the first page, Coco feels very present, she’s there in everyone’s memories and conversations. None of her inner circle can reconcile the person they thought they knew with what’s happened. The final pages are shocking as the truth comes out about what happened to Coco.
*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 new Republic of Texas, guns are compulsory and nothing is forgiven. Blue Running is a gripping coming-of-age thriller for fans of Station Eleven and Thelma and Louise.
Fourteen-year-old Bluebonnet Andrews is on the run across the Republic of Texas. An accident with a gun killed her best friend but everyone in the town of Blessing thinks it was murder. Even her father – the town’s drunken deputy – believes she did it. Now, she has no choice but to run. In Texas, murder is punishable by death.
There’s no one to help her. Her father is incapable and her mother left the state on the last flight to America before the secession. Blue doesn’t know where she is but she’s determined to track her down. First she has to get across the lawless Republic and over the wall that keeps everyone in.
On the road she meets Jet, a pregnant young woman of Latin American heritage. Jet is secretive about her past but she’s just as determined as Blue to get out of Texas before she’s caught and arrested. Together, the two form an unlikely kinship as they make their way past marauding motorcycle gangs, the ever watchful Texas Rangers, and armed strangers intent on abducting them – or worse. When Blue and Jet finally reach the wall, will they be able to cross the border, or will they be shot down in cold blood like the thousands who have gone before them?
Some things are worth dying for.
Blue Running pulls no punches. A fast-paced, page-turning, chilling book which looks unflinchingly at what the future could hold.
A novel for both adults and young adults, Blue Running is gripping and addictive from the first page. Readers will cheer for Blue and Jet in their pell-mell rush for freedom.
My thoughts: in the dystopian Texas Republic guns rule everything, even children are armed. Blue is involved in a horrifying accident and framed as a killer. She leaves to save her own life. Jet is also on the run, but because her uncle is an abusive, rapist gangster and she needs to save her own life too.
As they travel across the vast state to the border wall and freedom, their newly forged bond keeps them together and safe in the face of threats of violence and the Ranger in pursuit of them.
A powerful and moving story about friendship, found family and why we have to continue to stand against this sort of terrible future.
*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 challenged eight Eerie River authors to imagine life AFTER the world we know is destroyed by a cataclysmic event, leaving our species on the brink and struggling to survive. In each of these stories you will find a new world, years after the old one was ravaged by war, disease, invasion, climate change or mythological event.
In the caves and on the roads, through transformation and violence, and in the empty spaces left by the vanishing sea, discover the fate of the humanity that remains, both familiar and alien. Where survival is a struggle and the future lives in the ruins of the past.
This is not a collection of stories about how the world ends.
These are stories of how humanity survives.
Fans of “Love, Death + Robots” will love this collection!
Derelict by T.M. Brown A Place Beyond the Storm by David Green Quantum Rule by Jay Sandlin The Creeping Void by Tim Mendees Heart of Thorns by Chris Hewitt Fading Echoes by Joel R. Hunt Carry On by Holley Cornetto Sin Chaser by S.O. Green
ramblingmads 