We’re celebrating the release of Reese Sherron’s brand-new dystopian fantasy, The Trials of the Elysian! Read on for more details and visit our Instagram for a chance to win a copy of the book PLUS character art!
The Trials of the Elysian (The Elysian Series #1)
Publication Date: November 30, 2024
Genre: Fantasy/Dystopian Fantasy
Hunger Games meets Divergent meets The 100
🔥 Slow slow burn
🔥 Lovers to enemies
🔥 Enemies to lovers / friends to lovers
🔥 Dystopian vibes
🔥 Family obsession
🔥 Lies + betrayals
🔥 Naïve FMC turns fierce
🔥 Deadly battle games
🔥 Mind tricks
🔥 Turns & twists
🔥 Touch her & die by both men
Disobey the City & die – Obey the City & live
Welcome to the six trials of the Elysian.
Will you live a life that is predestined and controlled from your first breath of air?
A life full of darkness, destruction, and pain. Where your existence is owed to the survival of humanity.
Welcome to the Six Trials of The Elysian.
In a futuristic world founded to cope with the effects of a famine that altered the course of humanity, there are certain commandments to follow to live a prosperous life. Faye steps into the City with unanswered questions. All she has is a mysterious symbol to find her soulmate, who was predestined at birth. Not knowing who her symbol will light up for, she must trust her judgment or her destiny. What will she choose?
Not understanding the truth of the wickedness of the City walls, Faye is pushed to uncover the truth. The Trials push them to their limits and only those strong enough to make their City better will survive the tests. Either succeed in their trials or perish outside of the walls.
Her rebelliousness leads her to uncover a disturbing truth about the City. Along with her mentor, Faye is determined to find the missing pieces and bring justice to herself and her family. She becomes fearless and not afraid to challenge those who are in power. But has her whole life been a lie? Will she uncover the truth of why she was born?
Does she fight to be with the love of her life or follow the City, and let the City guide her to her symbols pair?
Faye must decide.
Your mentor falls. So do you.
He’s the eyes. The ears of the City. Disobey him. You’re disobeying the City.
DCS Kat Frank knows all about loss. A widowed single mother, Kat is a cop who trusts her instincts. Picked to lead a pilot programme that has her paired with AIDE (Artificially Intelligent Detective Entity) Lock, Kat’s instincts come up against Lock’s logic.
But when the two missing person’s cold cases they are reviewing suddenly become active, Lock is the only one who can help Kat when the case gets personal. AI versus human experience. Logic versus instinct. With lives on the line can the pair work together before someone else becomes another statistic?
My thoughts: The premise of this book is really interesting – a brilliant scientist has developed an AI program to assist the police in solving crimes. It removes the emotions from the investigation but does that make it foolproof?
Paired with DCS Kat Frank, herself and excellent detective, can AIDE Lock help her find out who is abducting people, cases that have gone cold, before anyone else goes missing?
The case becomes very personal to Kat and Lock has a lot to learn from the human investigators in the team. Can their unique blend of cutting edge science and emotional intelligence create a crime solving team better than anything that’s come before?
I really enjoyed this, Kat and her team are great, and Lock is really intriguing, both as a concept and as a character, he’s designed to learn and expand his knowledge, but will it make him more human?
The case itself is shocking and disturbing, which adds to the sense that this is something new. It’s a science based case in many ways as well as being deeply human. Absolutely cracking stuff. I dived straight into book two from here, I couldn’t resist.
*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 this blogathon I’m re-sharing my review of Jack Jordan’s thrilling Redemption.
THE LATEST PULSE-POUNDING THRILLER FROM MASTER OF THE MORAL DILEMMA AND SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER JACK JORDAN
Aaron Alexander has just been released from jail after serving eleven years for causing the death of Joshua Moore in a hit-and-run. Now a free man, all he wants to do is stay on the straight and narrow and leave his troubled past behind him. But for Joshua’s mother Evelyn, eleven years in jail isn’t nearly enough. Consumed by grief and rage, she has been waiting for Aaron’s release, counting down the days until she can exact the revenge he deserves. And now that time has come. But as Evelyn and her husband Tobias embark on a road trip to track Aaron down, they find themselves caught on two different sides of a gripping game of cat-and-mouse. Because Tobias knows what Evelyn is planning, and he will do anything to save her from herself. Even if it means protecting the man who killed their son.
Locked in a collision course set in motion eleven years ago, Aaron, Evelyn and Tobias are about to find out whether the road they have chosen leads to redemption . . . or to retribution.
My thoughts: this is a rollercoaster of a revenge road trip from hell. Ordinary couple Evelyn and Tobias had their lives turned upside down by the death of their son, and now, instead of returning to the UK and working through their grief, Evelyn has decided to track down the recently released Aaron and kill him.
She abandons Tobias in a motel and heads off on her own with a gun and no real plan. Tobias has to commit several crimes to chase after her, trying to stop her killing anyone, especially Aaron. Unfortunately it’s a bit late as Evelyn’ rage is blinding her to anything and she’s trigger happy.
As Tobias chases Evelyn and Aaron has to go on the run to avoid her, truths come to the surface and all three are forced to reevaluate their lives.
Twisty, intelligent and cinematic, thus thriller has a real punch..
We’re thrilled to present the cover for When the Stars Were Devoured by Stephanie Blair! Seriously, how gorgeous is this?!
When the Stars Were Devoured
Expected Publication Date: Feb 18, 2025
Genre: Romantasy
Enemies to lovers
He falls first
Captor becomes the Captive
Forced Proximity
Shadow Daddy
Anxiety Rep
Star Crossed Lovers
Touch her and die
“Darcy Hand Clench”
The skies are darkening with rebellion in Noxia. A tyrannical king rules with madness and the only thing stopping him?
A Rebellion Leader
Civil war left everyone in the kingdom of Noxia both destitute and dejected, but Alora refuses to watch her people continue to suffer. Magic comes with a price, and with her power of illusion considered a rarity, she joins with the cause to assassinate the ruthless king. Alora quickly finds her plans derailed when she unexpectedly captures the king’s favored warrior and it becomes apparent that more than her freedom is on the line.
The Royal Executioner
With the power to destroy souls, The Devourer is as ruthless as his magic. As the king’s right hand killer, The Devourer must hunt down and eliminate every threat to the king’s reign. But when he finds himself captured by the very group he hunts, Kassiel will begin to question if his fate to be alone is truly set, or if his hardened heart could actually begin to feel again.
When the Stars were Devoured is the first book in an adult fantasy romance series following a broody, morally grey warrior who loses more than just his freedom to the fierce woman who ensnares him.
“My name is Phyllis Ada Latour, known to many in my later years as Pippa, and I am 102 years old. I am also known by other names — code names and alias names — because I was a World War II secret operative agent. This is my memoir, which finally tells the story of my life working behind enemy lines in France 80 years ago. It is a part of my life that, until now, I have intentionally never revealed to anybody. Not my husband (when I had one), nor my children — even when they became adults. This book tells the truth about my war. I’m the last living female special operative from F Section and I need to record what happened before I die. I would like to leave my story behind so that, perhaps, young women in particular might know what it was like for me back then”. – Pippa Latour
‘Vivid, honest, inspiring and sometimes shocking, Pippa Latour’s memoir shows how right the SOE were to assess her as having ‘”tons of guts”‘ – CLARE MULLEY, author of Agent Zo
The Last Secret Agent, by Pippa Latour is the extraordinary untold story of Latour, who parachuted into occupied France in 1944 as an undercover agent and sent secret messages back to Britain.
In June 1940, a covert new force – the Special Operations Executive (SOE) – was set up to wage a secret war. Its agents were tasked with sabotage and subversion behind enemy lines, and over the course of the next five years, 470 special agents would be sent into France. Only 26 female SOE agents, including Pippa, would return. Pippa had an extraordinary life – born in 1921 she lived in Congo, Kenya and France before eventually landing in London. In 1943, aged 23, she was parachuted into France, where she travelled around the occupied countryside, concealing her codes in a hair tie and her Morse key underneath her bicycle seat, and sending crucial information back to Britain in the lead-up to D-Day. More than once, she came frighteningly close to being discovered. For decades, Pippa told no one – not even her family – of her incredible feats.
Now for the first time, her story can be told in full. It is an incredibly rare first-person story. Although there are several biographies of female WW2 spies, there are no other first-person memoirs of this kind. And as the last female WW2 SOE agent to die, Pippa’s story will be the first and last to be told in this way. It is a rare and privileged glimpse into her life, and in many ways, it is Pippa’s last public service, her last contribution to freedom. It is a remarkable testament to a remarkable and brave woman.
THE AUTHOR PIPPA LATOUR – following the war, Pippa settled in New Zealand where she raised four children. For decades, Pippa told no one – not even her family – of her incredible feats during WWII. For seventy years, Pippa’s contributions to the war effort were largely unheralded, but she was finally given her due in 2014 when she was awarded France’s highest order of merit, the Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. Pippa was the last surviving F (France) Section Special Operations (SOE) agent from World War II. In the final months of her life, Pippa finally decided to tell her remarkable story, written with the assistance of award-winning historical documentary producer and writer Jude Dobson. Pippa died in 2023, at the age of 102.
My thoughts: This was incredible, Pippa Latour lived a heck of a life, born in South Africa, raised in the Congo, orphaned but with a wonderful extended family who love her, sent to finishing school in Paris just before the war and then after joining the WAAF, she’s recruited by SOE to go to France undercover as a spy.
Her life behind enemy lines is incredibly dangerous, terrifying and yet there’s something a little bit magical about it. Pretending to be a teenage girl selling her French grandparents soap, she snoops around the Normandy countryside, relaying troop movements and locations by radio, in Morse code, to London, as D-Day preparations ramp up.
Shocking, terrible things happen, some of them because of her intel, and her own life is on the line several times. She mentions the other female SOE operatives in France, many of whom sadly did not survive, incredibly brave women all.
Pippa lived to be 102, having lived and extraordinary life, but her war years were largely unknown, even to her family, for a long time. This memoir is full of brave, courageous, ordinary men and women opposing the massed forces of the Nazis and fighting for freedom. It stands as a wonderful tribute to those people and also to the magnificent Pippa herself, who did something few could and help influence the course of the Second World War. Genuinely inspiring, heart pounding, mind boggling stuff.
*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 this swoon-worthy conclusion to the New York Times instant bestselling Luminaries trilogy, Winnie continues her fight against the monstrous nightmares of Hemlock Falls and finds answers about her past.
Winnie Wednesday’s future is looking bright. Hemlock Falls is no longer hunting the werewolf, she and Erica Thursday are tentative friends, and Winnie finally knows exactly where she stands with Jay Friday.
With everything finally on track, Winnie is looking forward to the Nightmare Masquerade, a week-long celebration of all things Luminary. But as Luminaries from across the world flock to the small town, uninvited guests also arrive.
Winnie is confronted by a masked Diana and charged with an impossible task–one that threatens everything and everyone Winnie loves.
As Winnie fights to stop new enemies before time runs out, old mysteries won’t stop intruding. Her missing father is somehow entangled with her search for hidden witches, and as Winnie digs deeper into the long-standing war between the Luminaries and the Dianas, she discovers rifts within her own family she never could have imagined.
What does loyalty mean when family and enemies look the same?
The forest is more dangerous than ever as secrets are revealed in this highly-anticipated, swoon-worthy conclusion to the bestselling Luminaries trilogy.
My thoughts: I don’t agree with the above blurb writer, I don’t think this book is “swoon-worthy” whatever that means. It is however, very good.
Winnie and her friends finally start to unravel all the secrets and mysteries in Hemlock Falls, they might finally unmask the Dianas and find out what happened to Winnie’s dad.
But first they have to get through the Nightmare Masquerade, for reasons she never understand Winnie is made the sort of mascot, like a prom queen, for the event, which is her worst nightmare. She hates the attention, she can’t be off the cuff funny, and it makes sneaking around looking for clues really tricky, oh and she can’t wear her beloved Save the Whales hoodie.
Erica has to do a lot more snooping, and Jay is in trouble, Winnie needs to get away from the spotlight to solve this thing once and hopefully, for all.
There’s lots of action and racing against the clock craziness, the Dianas launch their own plan, Winnie gets put under a spell that means she can’t tell anyone what’s going on, Jay gets kidnapped (don’t you love it when the macho stereotype is the damsel in distress) and Winnie breaks out of jail.
This was a lot of fun, with lots of plot, lots of tying up loose ends, answers finally about what happened to Erica’s sister and Winnie’s dad, and the door left open for more in the Luminaries’ world…
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Anarchist Underground is a stand-alone romantic fantasy political intrigue following a strong and tortured heroine drawn into a sinister world of criminal gangs, warring kingdoms, betrayal and revenge. Aela Rinn embarks on a dangerous journey to foil a treasonous plot, confront her demons and battle against her heart as she falls for a man she knows she shouldn’t love.
Anarchist Underground: A Romantic Fantasy Political Intrigue
Publication Date: November 25, 2024 (Physical Edition)
Genre: Romantasy
Fantasy action adventure
Political intrigue
Warring kingdoms
Enemies to lovers romance (+ spice)
Found family
Betrayal and revenge
Criminal gangs
Sword fighting
Tension and banter
Vivid world building
Standalone
Tension, twists, betrayal and revenge. Anarchist Underground is a fast-paced fantasy with political intrigue, enemies to lovers romance and perilous adventures that will grip you from beginning to end.
King Saban of Dunwyn is dead. They say his son Bryn is the one who killed him. They say Prince Bryn is an anarchist.
Commander Aela Rinn is the hero of a war she wishes had never ended. She no longer recognises the country she gave up everything for. Driven into exile, she discovers a man with blood on his hands.
Across Dunwyn’s border, Nielle is stirring, on the cusp of re-igniting two centuries of hostility between enemy nations. But the rules of the game are changing. If Aela wants to bring Dunwyn back from the brink of destruction, she will have to overcome the impossible: trusting a person whose treachery has destroyed everything she loves.
With Aela’s life unravelling and the fate of a nation at stake, all roads seem to lead to the same place, the insidious criminal underbelly of Dunwyn. Anarchist Underground.
We’re thrilled to reveal the cover of the final book in The Dark Reflection Series! Pre-order Her Cruel Redemption by Hailey Jade today!
Her Cruel Redemption (The Dark Reflection Series Book 3)
Expected Publication Date: June 2, 2025
Genre: Dark Fantasy
“When you’ve known love to slip through gentle hands, you’ll grip it with teeth and claws.”
Now a queen in hiding, Rhiandra has taken refuge in the Yawn with Gwinellyn, tolerated but never truly welcomed by the princess’s new friends. Driven by a thirst for vengeance against the man who betrayed her, Rhiandra struggles to master a dangerous power that no one wants her to wield. But she must learn control, for Draven is hunting her.
When word of war between Brimordia and Oceatold reaches them, Gwinellyn can no longer stand idly by as her people suffer. Determined to reclaim her birthright, she needs Rhiandra’s help to retake the throne. But as they journey through a battle-scarred land, both women are haunted by secrets—Gwinellyn wonders if she can trust her stepmother, while Rhiandra hides truths that could shatter their fragile alliance. Many of those secrets centre on her tumultuous relationship with the man now calling himself king.
If they want to win this fight, blood and lives will not be the only price.
The epic finale of The Dark Reflection series tests the boundaries of love, power, and destiny. When lovers turn enemies and vengeance becomes obsession, the lines begin to blur between justice and tyranny. Loyalties will be tested and kingdoms will tremble as Rhiandra treads the path of redemption—but whose? And what will it cost them all?
I am accused of the worst of crimes – murdering my baby – and I have hours before this passenger ferry docks in Spain to find him, alive. Someone knows about my difficult past and darkest secrets, and now I think they’ve taken my baby. But who would do this to me and why? I know the answer. Or least I think I do…
The police want to know why I have fled my home and husband. How do I tell them that I had a breakdown after my first baby died? That today is the anniversary of his death? That my husband is planning on having me sectioned? Despite what my husband says, I’m not ill. Am I? For I have discovered he has an agenda…
So how could I have been so wrong about him?
And how do I convince the police I’m innocent, when everyone believes I’m guilty, and get my baby back before he disappears forever?
Daniele Ramsay is the author of the DI Jack Brady crime novels and other dark thrillers. She is a Scot living in the North-East of England and was previously published by Hodder & Stoughton and Avon.
My thoughts: Losing a child is every parent’s worse nightmare, and after her son dies of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome), Alice becomes ill with depression. After spending some time in a psychiatric unit getting better, and discovering she’s pregnant once more, Alice vows that she will do everything in her power to protect her next child.
Tom, her surgeon husband, hires a nanny to help out, but Alice’s troubled mind is increasingly paranoid and she starts to imagine that he’s planning to have her committed and take off for his native US with their son.
It all comes to a head on a ferry to Spain, where her brother Oli is staying, when someone takes baby Eli from her, and she can’t remember what happened.
But Alice’s paranoia and fears aren’t entirely unfounded, someone is targeting her and her family, but she’s looking in the wrong direction.
Full of twists, I wasn’t sure who was trustworthy and I really felt for Alice as she struggled to grieve for Noah and then bond with Eli while it was all so raw. People grieve in different ways, and she gets upset that Tom seems less affected than her. It all builds up in her head and she reacts instinctively, but it puts her and Eli into further danger.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Hattie Gilby has not been back to her family home since the devastating events that took place there years ago. Events that changed Hattie and which continue to haunt her today. But one phone call changes everything.
Now Hattie is going back to her family home to face her brothers, Adam and Luke and to hear the last words of her dying mother.
Imogen Gilby hasn’t spoken a word since the night she was beaten almost to death and her husband was murdered. But now it’s time to reveal the truth about what happened that night and the secrets that almost destroyed her.
Hattie isn’t sure she wants to know the truth. And it seems someone close to them will do anything to make sure the secrets stay hidden forever…
Another chilling read from bestselling author L H Stacey guaranteed to keep you up all night!
Perfect for fans of Valerie Keogh, J.A. Baker and Diana Wilkinson.
L. H. Stacey is the bestselling psychological suspense author of over seven novels. Alongside her writing she is a full-time sales director for an office furniture company and has been a nurse, an emergency first response instructor and a PADI Staff Instructor. She lives near Doncaster with her husband.
My thoughts: Hattie doesn’t return to her parents’ house, she can’t move on from the terrible events of the night her father was killed and her mother brutally beaten. They still don’t know who did it, and Hattie worries she might have been responsible. She and her cousin Louisa were involved in something that went awry and she’s always wondered if that was what led to the tragedy.
But now, as her mother is dying, she has returned and as she and her brothers Luke and Adam look through all the paperwork in their mother’s old office, a terrible, truly shocking secret emerges. It seems their parents were involved in something very dark, and that certainly led to their father’s death.
I was genuinely shocked, the secrets that the house holds are horrific and terrible. Somehow Hattie manages not to completely spin out, I’m not sure I could be as cool as she is. As the siblings unearth their parents’ past, we’re shown the events that led to the assault and murder.
It seems there was a lot more to what happened that night than any of the siblings are aware. And someone close to them knows a lot more than they’ve ever said.
Full of shocking moments and twists, this was utterly gripping and a compelling read.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 