Tag: blog tour

blog tour, books

Blog Tour: Grounders – Leonard Love Matlick

ramblingmads

Grounder copy

Welcome to the tour for Grounders by Leonard Love Matlick. Read on for more details!

lf

Grounders

Publication Date: April 30th, 2022

Genre: Police Procedural/ Crime Fiction

Grounders is cop slang for easy open and solved cases. A husband kills his wife, a bar-fight with a knife or a gun, cases quickly solved in two or three days. Cops love this and get credit for promotion for easily solving cases. In Grounders the NYPD cops find that this murder of a cook is much more than a simple grounder. It involves the Chinese Tong gangs in NYC, Peruvian rebels who want to overthrow their government by using “magic rocks” that were left from an alien civilization like Stargate in Machu-Picchu, and a love story between a detective and a Tong leader’s granddaughter. Grounders combines everything; murder, love, greed, drugs, and rebels amid the backdrop of detectives trying to solve a murder mystery.

Get your copy from Barnes & Noble or on Amazon!

About the Author

IG Graphic

Leonard Love Matlick is an engineer, writer, and life coach. He works designing and maintaining NYPD police precincts. He has previously published Cops lie! and The success and confidence manual.

Book Tour Schedule

July 25th

R&R Book Tour (Kick-Off) http://rrbooktours.com

Reads & Reels (Spotlight) http://readsandreels.com

@itsabookthing2021 (Spotlight) http://www.instagram.com/itsabookthing2021

July 26th

Bunny’s Reviews (Review) https://bookwormbunnyreviews.blogspot.com/

Nesie’s Place (Spotlight) https://nesiesplace.wordpress.com

@bookswithstacie (Spotlight) https://www.instagram.com/bookswithstacie/

July 27th

@elinasbookstagram (Spotlight) https://www.instagram.com/elinasbookstagram/

Latisha’s Low-Key Life (Spotlight) https://latishaslowkeylife.com/

Rambling Mads (Spotlight) http://ramblingmads.com

July 28th

@readwithemstar (Spotlight) https://www.instagram.com/readwithemstar/

Freelance Writer, Janny C (Spotlight) https://freelancewriterjannyc.com/

@gryffindorbookishnerd (Spotlight) https://www.instagram.com/gryffindorbookishnerd/

July 29th

Liliyana Shadowlyn (Review) https://lshadowlynauthor.com/

Haddie’s Haven (Spotlight) https://haddieshaven.blogspot.com

Just 4 My Books (Spotlight) http://www.just4mybooks.wordpress.com

@mels_booksandhooks (Spotlight) https://www.instagram.com/mels_booksandhooks/

Book Tour Organized By:

R&R Button

R&R Book Tours

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: After Paris – Nicole Kennedy

ramblingmads

Three women take the same Eurostar to Paris for a girls’ trip, but take separate trains back. What happened that weekend? A thought-provoking and gripping novel about trying to hold on to friendships when you start to grow apart.
Three best friends. A weekend away. And a whole lot of baggage.
Alice, Nina and Jules have been best friends for twenty years. They met in Paris and return there once a year, to relive their youth, leave the troubles of home behind, and indulge in each other’s friendship and warmth. But this year, aged thirty-nine, the cracks in their
relationships are starting to show…
After their weekend together in Paris, the three women never speak again. Each claims the other two ghosted them. But is there more to the story?

Waterstones Amazon

Nicole Kennedy grew up in Essex. She was the first person in her family to go to university, and won a place to study Law at Bristol. During Nicole’s second maternity leave she began writing poems and rhymes on motherhood and family life, which she posted to her blog ‘The
Brightness Of These Days’. She completed her first novel during her third maternity leave (because by then it was easier than leaving the house). Nicole lives in Kent with her husband and three sons.

Instagram Twitter

My thoughts: I’ve been thinking a lot about friendships recently, so this book was the perfect read for me right now. Jules, Alice and Nina meet as young women and become instant BFFs. But as the years go by, and their lives change (marriage, careers, children, successes and failures) their friendship is slightly off kilter. They no longer talk about everything, they’re all holding back.

As they each leave Paris suddenly, without speaking, their relationship flounders and it’s months before they reconnect. Months in which they all go through big changes in their lives. Mostly for the better in the end.

When they do reconnect – it’s time to tell the truth and bare their souls to one another. Whatever happens next.

Friendship can be sustaining, it can last lifetimes or it can be fleeting, as we all age and move on with our lives, very few people can say they’re still friends with people they knew as children. We have different friends at different points in our lives – school, uni, work, through hobbies and clubs.

But you do have to work on your friendships – like any connection, you have to nurture it. Alice, Jules and Nina have fallen into bad habits and when other things in their lives take centre stage, their friendship struggles. I can relate and so will many other readers. Which is why this is such an enjoyable book. Your life might not look exactly like any of theirs, but you might just find yourself reflecting on your own friends as you read it.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Come True – Brindi Quinn

ramblingmads

ComeTrue copy

I’m so excited to share this amazing book with you today! Read on for more details about Come True: A Bomb-Ass Genie Romance by Brindi Quinn! You’re going to want to read this one!

COMETRUEgoodreads

Come True: A Bomb-Ass Genie Romance

Publication Date: April 27th, 2022

Genre: New Adult/ Paranormal Romance/ Comedy

Publisher: Midnight Tide Publishing

★A jaded girl. A persistent genie. A contest of souls.★

Recent college graduate Dolly Jones has spent the last year stubbornly trying to atone for a mistake that cost her everything. She doesn’t go out, she doesn’t make new friends and she sure as hell doesn’t treat herself to things she hasn’t earned, but when her most recent thrift store purchase proves home to a hot, magical genie determined to draw out her darkest desires in exchange for a taste of her soul, Dolly’s restraint, and patience, will be put to the test.

Newbie genie Velis Reilhander will do anything to beat his older half-brothers in a soul-collecting contest that will determine the next heir to their family estate, even if it means coaxing desire out of the least palatable human he’s ever contracted. As a djinn from a ‘polluted’ bloodline, Velis knows what it’s like to work twice as hard as everyone else, and he won’t let anyone—not even Dolly f*cking Jones—stand in the way of his birthright. He just needs to figure out her heart’s greatest desire before his asshole brothers can get to her first.

COME TRUE: A BOMB-ASS GENIE ROMANCE is the romantic, fantastic second-coming-of-age story of two flawed twenty-somethings from different realms battling their inner demons, and each other, one wish at a time.

Add to Goodreads

Excerpt

I’ve been poisoned? I’ve had an allergic reaction? There are toxins held within that ancient turquoise glass?

These are the thoughts racing through me as I blink open my eyes and find my face planted on the kitchen floor. Never a good idea to get eye-level with your kitchen floor. One finds all sorts of treasures hiding out under crannies and betwixt nooks. I see an eraser, a spill mark, a hair cluster and . . . feet.

FEET?

There are most certainly bare feet standing on the other side of my open fridge door! At least I got my wish. A burglar came for me instead of fire. I reach for a gun, but I have no gun. I don’t even like guns. So what do I grab? A fucking glue gun from the craft bin beside my kitchen table. And I hold it with all the confidence it hasn’t earned.

“L-Larry?” I venture. “Is that you?”

Larry’s the name of the super. The only one that should have keys to my apartment.

The fridge door slams, and feet much too tan to be Larry’s begin closing in on me. Not to mention, Larry always, always, always wears socks. One time, I saw him wear them under flip-flops. That toe-separator was working overtime.

I digress, and the feet are nearly upon me, soon accompanied by a head dropping into frame; the intruder has just crouched. Definitely not Larry. Larry’s incapable of smirking like that.

WHAT THE FUCK?

It’s a guy and, let’s be real, it’s a guy of higher than average features, with dusk-blue hair tossed effortlessly with product and eyes a paler shade of blue than I thought possible on a person. Sharp, the centers pierce like turrets through a blizzard while the corners taper with smug amusement.

Oh, yeah, and did I mention he’s NAKED? All but for a pair of gray sweatpants low around his waist and rolled up at the ankles.

“Hello, Master,” he says with undue familiarity. “Sorry for invading your refrigerator. You were taking your time, and I was getting hungry.” He makes a chomping noise with his teeth.

“Stay back!” I scamper into a sitting position and steadily crab crawl away from him, holding the glue gun like it might fool him into thinking I’m armed.

“No use pulling the trigger,” he counters, straightening to reveal a body that’s lean. “Your bullets will miss me every time.”

He . . . thinks it’s a real gun?

But it has a cord!

No matter.

“I have a very steady hand,” I assert, knowing my hand is anything but. “You have three seconds to get out of here or I’ll shoot!” It sounds like something someone would say in a movie—from what I remember of movies.

“I don’t doubt your hand, Master,” he says and takes a step closer. “But you’re incapable of hurting me physically. It won’t work, even if you try.”

Again, this is clearly a glue gun.

“How did you get in here?” I demand. “We’re on the third floor, and I know I locked the door.”

He tips his head. “Really? You’re the one that brought me in. You said I could spend the night. And then you sealed it with a kiss.”

Blinks befall me—One. Two. Three.

“You were in my apartment the whole time?!” I jab the glue gun in his direction and notice for the first time that it has a half-used stick of glue butting out the ass of it. “You were watching when I kissed that—that vase?!”

And, oh, dear lord, now we’ve admitted to another living person that we kissed a vase.

“Vase?” He shakes his head comically as though this is all a big misunderstanding. “No, no. That’s not a vase. It is my holding vessel. I’d invite you in for a tour, but it’s a bit cramped.”

“Your holding vessel? As in something that contains you?” I look between the shirtless, blue-haired guy, eyes trailing over the tight chest of him before flicking to the bottle on the counter in all its arcane wonder. “As in, you expect me to believe you came out of it? Like you’re a . . . a genie or something?”

“To be honest, genie is kind of a derogatory term where I come from, but—”

“Get out.” I prod the glue gun at him with new vigor. “Get out, get out, get out!”

For a moment, it’s as if a shadow settles over his brow as a shimmer from some nonexistent light source catches his eye. “Is that a wish?”

Purchase a copy here!

About the Author

20220108_145943

Brindi Quinn is a fangirling fantasy author from Minnesota specializing in world-building and romance. She is an advocate of quirky love and firmly believes that banter makes the heart grow fonder. Her main ingredients for a great read are spice, sparkle, and SWOON.

Since 2011, Brindi has written over a dozen young adult and new adult novels beginning with her debut epic fantasy series, Heart of Farellah. Her works often blur the lines between paranormal romance, science fiction, and fantasy, and her series have been hailed as unique, addictive reads by reviewers.

Brindi is an IT Project Manager by day and has a bachelor’s in communication-based studies from Southern New Hampshire University. She lives in suburban Minnesota where she likes to bike, indulge in video game lore, and spend time with her life partner, Kent, the world’s cutest pup, Burton, and the fluffle of cantankerous rabbits that hop around her house.

Brindi is published through Never & Ever Publishing and Midnight Tide Publishing.

Brindi Quinn | Instagram | Facebook | TikTok | Goodreads

Click the link below for a chance to win a signed paperback copy of the book!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

My thoughts: this was a funny, entertaining read, I liked Dolly and her sarcastic, slightly hostile world view, and how naive Velis was about humans and the world we live in. Not everyone wants to be an influencer!

Their adventures take in other worlds, time travel, obnoxious siblings, falling in love with the wrong person and a lot more kissing than I Dream of Jeannie would dare.

Are genies, genii, djinn, about to be the next big thing in fantasy romance after vampires, werewolves and fairies? I don’t know but this a fun start.

Book Tour Schedule

July 25th

R&R Book Tours (Kick-Off) http://rrbooktours.com

Nesie’s Place (Spotlight) https://nesiesplace.wordpress.com

Riss Reviews (Review) https://rissreviewsx.wixsite.com/website

@rissreviews_xx – https://www.instagram.com/rissreviews_xx/

@the_pageling (Review) https://www.instagram.com/the_pageling/

Rambling Mads (Review) http://ramblingmads.com

@junk.journal.librarian (Review) https://www.instagram.com/junk.journal.librarian

I Smell Sheep (Spotlight) http://www.ismellsheep.com/

July 26th

@dany.alvy (Review) https://www.instagram.com/dany.alvy/

@wraithreads (Review) https://www.instagram.com/wraithreads/

Jessica Belmont (Review) https://jessicabelmont.com/

Ecce.Libri (Review) https://eccelibri702630676.wordpress.com/

@ecce.libri – https://www.instagram.com/ecce.libri/

Liliyana Shadowlyn (Review) https://lshadowlynauthor.com/

July 27th

@aliciareviewsbook (Review) https://www.instagram.com/Aliciareviewsbooks/

Cheryl’s Book Nook (Review) https://cherylsbooknook.blogspot.com/

@beastreader – https://www.instagram.com/beastreader/

@by_hckilgour (Review) https://www.instagram.com/by_hckilgour/

@stepintothepages (Review) www.instagram.com/stepintothepages

@bhaneereads_ (Review) https://www.instagram.com/bhaneereads_/

I Love Books & Stuff (Spotlight) https://ilovebooksandstuffblog.wordpress.com

July 28th

Balancing Books and Beauties (Review) https://balancingbooksandbeauties.wordpress.com/

@balancing_books_and_beauties – https://www.instagram.com/balancing_books_and_beauties/

Misty’s Book Space (Review) http://mistysbookspace.wordpress.com

@gryffindorbookishnerd (Review) https://www.instagram.com/gryffindorbookishnerd/

See Sadie Read (Review) http://sadieforsythe.com/wp/

Bunny’s Reviews (Review) https://bookwormbunnyreviews.blogspot.com/

July 29th

@itsabookthing2021 (Spotlight) http://www.instagram.com/itsabookthing2021

Reads & Reels (Spotlight) http://readsandreels.com

@amber.bunch_author (Review) https://www.instagram.com/amber.bunch_author/

@tm_ghent (Review) https://www.instagram.com/tm_ghent/

Book Tour Organized By:

R&R Button

R&R Book Tours

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Shape of a Boy – Kate Wickers

ramblingmads

The perfect beach read, Shape of a Boy is a laugh-out-loud travel memoir featured in National Geographic Traveller’s best travel books of 2022

‘Have kids, will travel’ is veteran travel journalist Kate’s mantra. Her intrepid spirit is infectious in this warm, engaging account of her family’s adventures and misadventures. She shares the life lessons learnt on their travels, from overcoming disappointment in Thailand to saying sorry in Japan, discovering perseverance in Borneo and learning about conservation in Malaysia. Kate’s vivid evocation of the highs and lows of family time make you belly-laugh and bring a lump to your throat.

From the plains of the Serengeti to the cowboy towns of Cuba to the rainforests of Borneo, Shape of a Boy captures the essence of being a parent in the thick of it and learning on the hoof. Inspirational for anyone who has dreaded travelling with a baby, toddler or teen, it is life-affirming read for every wannabe-traveller.

My thoughts: as someone who went on their first long haul flight at 8 months old, I think my parents had similar ideas to Kate’s, at least to begin with, I really enjoyed this lovely, joyful book about wonderful holidays all over the world, with her husband and three boys at all stages of their lives.

Even when all her sons want to do is play in the pool and eat pizza, Kate plans excursions to some incredible places, exposing the boys to things some people will never experience. What a truly wonderful childhood.

Their adventures are often very funny, moving and heartwarming. Kate’s sons are kind, engaged boys and each reacts to new things differently, leading to some interesting conversations. And being boys, a lot of rude comments mostly about poo and animals extraordinary genitals!

Kate started taking the boys with them as a way to fit her travel writing assignments around her family, but in the end, all five family members are embracing the opportunity to see the world and explore. Having been starved of travel in the last few years, this was like a lovely burst of sunshine as I vicariously explored sights from Thailand to Cuba with the Wickers family through the years. Delightful.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Total Control – Alex Shaw

ramblingmads

When cyber terrorist Fang Bao abruptly reappears after years in hiding, MI6 agent and former SAS trooper Jack Tate is sent to bring him in – but when Fang is assassinated by an unknown assailant, Tate realises he was only a pawn in a plot that threatens to put the whole world in danger.

The mission is impossible

Now Tate has to uncover a lethal conspiracy that stretches all the way from Germany through the United States and into the dark heart of the jungle in Myanmar. As the enemy hunt down the owners of military secrets that would make them indestructible, Tate must race to identify not only their next target, but the enemy themselves.

The war is about to begin…

Soon he learns the dark truth at the heart of the global conspiracy. The enemy doesn’t want to just assassinate a world leader; they want to make war – and Tate is the only one who can stop them.

My thoughts: from the German countryside to California, Singapore and beyond, there’s a conspiracy to destabilise the North Korean regime and replace the current despot with, well, another one essentially.

But a UK/US task force in enroute to stop them, rescue a scientist in hiding, end a rogue soldier’s run of murders and try to keep the world from falling apart. Easy.

With a rip roaring pace and a blend of cyber terrorism and old fashioned blowing stuff up, this is a gripping, high octane and intelligent thriller.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Lifesaving For Beginners – Josie Lloyd

ramblingmads

In life’s stormy waters, it’s your friends who keep you afloat…

Maddy Wolfe’s life has just capsized. After her twenty-year marriage suddenly implodes, she heads to Brighton to search for her estranged son, Jamie. But he’s nowhere to be found and for the first time, she’s totally alone. That is, until she meets the Salty Sea-Gals, a group of feisty sea-swimmers.

Seventy-two-year old Helga is determined not to slow down, while thirty-something Tor is still figuring out who she is. Bereaved Dominica is trying to find a reason to carry on, and busy mum Claire is learning to put herself first for a change.

As their regular cold-water plunges become a lifeline for them all, Maddy starts to realise that these brave women might just help her find both Jamie and herself. Together, will they turn the tide?

My thoughts: this is a lovely heartwarming book that leaves you with the warm fuzzies. All the women are at different, complicated, points in their lives, struggling with their marriages, families, aging, themselves. But when they come together for a swim in the sea off Brighton beach, it all melts away. By talking to each other and helping one another out, they begin to be a bit happier, more confident, resolved.

Their intergenerational friendship – from thirties to seventies, is lovely to see. All of their life experiences shape them and enable them to help their friends with advice and experience. It’s a bit of a hug in a book.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Blast: Anything Could Happen – Lucy Diamond

ramblingmads

A chance encounter in New York City. 

A great love story on the cusp of beginning. And then he was gone.

For Lara and her daughter Eliza, it has always been just the two of them. But when Eliza turns eighteen and wants to connect with her father, Lara is forced to admit a secret that she has been keeping from her daughter her whole life. Eliza needs answers – and so does Lara. Their journey to the truth will take them on a road trip across England and eventually to New York, where it all began. Dreams might have been broken and opportunities missed, but there are still surprises in store… 

Anything Could Happen is a warm, wise, funny and uplifting novel about love, second chances and the unexpected and extraordinary paths life can take us down.

My thoughts: this is a rather lovely story. All about second chances, family and finding where you’re meant to be.

After a brief romance in New York, Lara and Ben are separated by an unfortunate turn of events. 18 years later they are reunited. Is that spark still there?

I loved Lara and her kind but firm driving instructor ways, the way she worried about her clients, and her daughter. She had such a good heart. Ben was also rather sweet, with his map shop and a million (ok, three) sisters.

But Eliza was my favourite character – I wasn’t a particularly happy 18 year old but if I could do it again, I’d want to be as hopeful and sunny as Eliza was. Her one magical night in New York was funny and uplifting.

A fun, will they, won’t they, rom com with lots of heart.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Night Shadows – Eva Björg Ægisdottir, translated by Victoria Cribb

ramblingmads

The small community of Akranes is devastated when a young man dies in a mysterious house fire, and when Detective Elma and her colleagues from West Iceland CID discover the fire was arson, they become embroiled in an increasingly perplexing case involving multiple suspects. What’s more, the dead man’s final online search raises fears that they could be investigating not one murder, but two.

A few months before the fire, a young Dutch woman takes a job as an au pair in Iceland, desperate to make a new life for herself after the death of her father. But the seemingly perfect family who employs her turns out to have problems of its own and she soon discovers she is running out of people to turn to.

As the police begin to home in on the truth, Elma, already struggling to come to terms with a life-changing event, finds herself in mortal danger as it becomes clear that someone has secrets they’ll do anything to hide…

Born in Akranes in 1988, Eva moved to Trondheim, Norway to study my MSc in Globalisation when she was 25. After moving back home having completed her MSc, she knew it was time to start working on her novel. Eva has wanted to write books since she was 15 years old, having won a short story contest in Iceland.

Eva worked as a stewardess to make ends meet while she wrote her first novel, The Creak on the Stairs. The book went on to win the CWA Debut Dagger, the Blackbird Award, was shortlisted (twice) for the Capital Crime Readers’ Awards, and became a number one bestseller in Iceland. The critically acclaimed Girls Who Lie (book two in the Forbidden Iceland series) soon followed, with Night Shadows (book three) following suit in July 2022. Eva lives with her husband and three children in Reykjavík.

My thoughts: so we return to the unluckiest town in Iceland where a teenage boy’s body is found locked in his house after a fire. Was it arson? And why would anyone want to kill him?

It’s up to Elma to find out, and when she finds a missing young au pair might be linked to the dead boy, she breaks open the secrets of his friends and their families. Someone here knows a lot more than they’re willing to share.

It’s actually quite sad as all these young lives are shattered, two dead teenagers, families devastated, and more young people implicated in a horrid plot to cover up an accident that becomes a crime.

Elma is a sympathetic figure, she wants the truth and is also dealing with her own personal issues. She doesn’t open up much, even to her family – her sister seems a much bigger personality, but it keeps the suspects from guessing what she’s thinking. She puts herself in harms way, refusing to accept the explanation she’s been given – it doesn’t quite fit.

Clever, suspenseful and with at least one disturbed mind at play here, this is very enjoyable crime writing.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Dead Money – Keith Nixon

ramblingmads

With a reputation for solving bizarre murders Detective Inspector Jonah Pennance, recently transferred to the National Crime Agency, is brought in to investigate the mysterious death of celebrity fund manager, Grady Carnegie – choked to death, then his body arranged and ready for a wake.

Then a second corpse turns up under identical circumstances – that of washed-up investigative reporter, Stan Thewlis. But how are the two men connected?

Soon, Pennance’s partner, Sergeant Simone Smithson, comes under suspicion for the deaths – the evidence seems overwhelming. To save her Pennance must determine what role the shadowy organisation Blackthorn plays and who is in the background, pulling all the strings…Buy

Keith Nixon is the best-selling author of sixteen novels and one million words in print, including the Margate based Solomon Gray series of over 250,000 copies in circulation and reached no.1 on Amazon in the UK, US, Canada and Australia.

Keith lived near the gritty seaside town of Margate, where many of his novels are based, for 17 years before relocating to the edge of the Peak District with his family where he lives today. Keith works in a senior sales role within a high-tech industry and has regularly travelled all over the globe.

His novels are published by Gladius Press and Bastei Lubbe (German)

Facebook Instagram Twitter Website

My thoughts: financial crimes can be a bit boring, so I’m glad this had several weird murders to liven things up. A man choked to death on cheap white bread forced down his throat, no one quite gets the symbolism, but then it turns out, after another victim is killed the same way and two more are almost poisoned to death with salt, that it’s all smoke and mirrors. Something has prompted the killer or killers to carry out these very specific crimes. Can DI Pennance put the pieces together, work out how the victims are connected, sort out his love life, and prevent any more tragedies?

Racing back and forth across London from crime scenes to interview witnesses, sometimes on the tube and sometimes on foot (someone get this man a car!), going into strange old buildings you might walk past every day and huge glass towers where the wealth management play brings Pennance into contact with an interesting cast of characters. And somewhere in amongst them could be the killer.

I’m not entirely sure many of the characters, especially the cops, have anything approaching normal lives – no one seems to sleep much or eat proper food – certainly vegetables don’t play a role. I do sometimes wonder how fictional detectives don’t all fall down at their desks. The adrenaline alone must come crashing down – Pennance seems to do everything at breakneck pace. But then again lives are at stake, plus the British economy and his romantic future. I suppose he doesn’t want to slow down.

Intelligent and enjoyable, with some very quirky characters, this was a nice introduction to a series I’d not yet come across but will certainly be searching out the back list for.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Ginger & Me – Elissa Soave

ramblingmads

Wendy is lonely but coping.
All nineteen-year-old Wendy wants is to drive the 255 bus around Uddingston with her regulars on board, remember to buy milk when it runs out and just to be okay. After her mum died, there’s nobody to remind her to eat and what to do each day.

And Wendy is ready to step out of her comfort zone.
Each week she shows her social worker the progress she’s made, like the coasters she bought to spruce up the place, even if she forgets to make tea. And she even joins a writers’ group to share the stories she writes, like the one about a bullied boy who goes to Mars.

But everything changes when Wendy meets Ginger.
A teenager with flaming orange hair, Ginger’s so brave she’s wearing a coat that isn’t even waterproof. For the first time, Wendy has a real best friend. But as they begin the summer of their lives, Wendy wonders if things were simpler before. And that’s before she realizes just how much trouble Ginger is about to get them in…

My thoughts: I liked Wendy, she’s a simple soul a bit adrift in the world. She misses her mum, who took care of her, and likes seeing her regular passengers on the bus route she drives every day. She’s lonely, and doesn’t have the social skills to easily make new friends, so when she meets Ginger, and Diane, she latches onto them.

Ginger is fourteen, never in school, lives with her uncle and has not had a very nice life. She and Wendy find a friend in each other, but Wendy’s innocence means she doesn’t really understand Ginger’s world and that leads to trouble.

I felt for both girls, Wendy’s young for her age and naive, she gets easily obsessed with things – in this case Diane, a writer who lives nearby. She doesn’t understand the difference between being polite to a fan and friendship. Which is sad.

This was a bittersweet book and I know there are quite a few Wendys and Gingers out there who need someone to look out for them, to make sure they’re OK and safe.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.