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blog tour, books

Blog Tour: Those We Trust – Marie Jones

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Thesewetrust copyRomance, suspense and secrets? What more could you ask for? Check out Marie Jones’ novel, Those We Trust. Now available on Amazon!

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Those We Trust

Publication Date: May 18, 2021

Genre: Contemporary Romance/ Suspense

Broken and humiliated by her husband of ten years leaving her unexpectedly, Sophia Meadows muddles through her daily routine—writing computer programs and rarely leaving the house. That is, until an old friend from university shows up on her door with an offer she can’t refuse: a chance to get away and heal in the Scottish Highlands of Inverness by flat-sitting. Yet once she arrives, she soon discovers the offer is not what she bargained for: A police surveillance team is watching her every move and a mysterious man is after the contents of a safe hidden in a wall. After a break-in at the apartment, her path collides with DI Marcus Armstrong, the man in charge of the apartment surveillance. Sophia is swept into an investigation of fraud involving her university friend and into a sudden attraction with the handsome DI who finds himself drawn to her even though she’s a suspect in his case. With evidence piling up against her and her friend and the attraction between her and Marcus growing stronger, Sophia is forced to confront her broken heart and find a way to clear her name. In a tangled web of secrets and clues, can she and the DI work through their attraction and learn to trust each other in time to stop a criminal and possibly save a life?

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About the Author

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Marie Jones, British Writer has been writing and telling stories since she was a young child. Perhaps it was inevitable that she would call grappling with words and language a career—and loving every moment. She feels privileged to share her work with a large and welcoming audience. Get in touch to discover more about her work, writing process and future endeavours.

Marie Jones, British Writer | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook

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Blog Tour: Finn & Fred’s Arctic Adventure – Jocelyn Porter, illustrated by Leo Brown

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“My bus takes off with a sonic boom, straight through the wall and out of my room…”
Finn and Fred Octopus are off on a magical adventure to the Arctic. They meet a kindly seal, a hungry polar bear and an angry walrus. The whales sing to Finn, and Finn arrives home with an important message to share…

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Jocelyn’s writing career began when she was asked to write a story for a preschool
magazine. That story was the first of many. Jocelyn became the writer/editor of several preschool magazines and continued in that role for 15 years. Writing one new story every month, plus rhymes
and activities was a tough gig, but very exhilarating. Time is the big difference between writing for a magazine and writing a book. You see your work on the supermarket shelves within a few weeks of completion. A book takes longer – a lot longer. Jocelyn has to be patient now – not something she’s good at. Before becoming a writer, Jocelyn worked in higher education as International Students
Officer. It was a rewarding and interesting job even though she was on call 24/7. Jocelyn also trained as a counsellor and volunteered at drop-in centres. She never knew who would arrive for counselling
and had to be prepared for anything. This work gave her insight into some of the darker corners of life. Motor sport was one of Jocelyn’s early loves, she had the spine-tingling thrill of taking part in a
24-hour national rally as navigator – those were the days when rallies were held on public roads!
Jocelyn worked as an au pair in Paris in her teens. Having visited the city on a school trip, she fell in love with it, and always wanted to return. Jocelyn’s first book published by Full Media is The King
Who Didn’t Like Snow, illustrated by Michael S Kane. Finn and Fred’s Arctic Adventure is her second book under Full Media and is illustrated by Leo Brown.
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My thoughts: this is a lovely colourful adventure story with a serious message about caring for the planet. Finn and his cuddly octopus pal Fred go on a magical trip to meet the animals of the Arctic. As well as making new friends they learn about the melting polar ice and the fact that there’s less food available for their new pals. Finn heads home and the next day at school talks to all his classmates about how to do more for the environment.

As well as being a lovely book for young readers, this also raises money for the Cornish Seal Sanctuary – 100% if bought direct from the sanctuary and 10% when purchased anywhere else.

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

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Blog Tour: Guilt Edged – Leigh Russell

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THE NEW NOVEL IN THE MILLION-COPY SELLING DETECTIVE GERALDINE STEEL SERIES

An inoffensive man is murdered in a seemingly motiveless attack. Detective Inspector Geraldine Steel and her team are baffled, until DNA from an apparent stranger is discovered on the victim’s body.

Geraldine is not convinced the suspect is guilty. When a witness comes forward to offer the suspect an alibi, Geraldine lets him go. That night, a second murder is committed. The evidence points to the suspect who has just been released.

As Geraldine attempts to make sense of the suspect’s complex history, he goes on the run. Even his wife appears to condemn him. Only Geraldine still doubts that he is to blame for the murders, but is she prompted by her own guilt for having released him to kill again?

As the story races towards a breathtaking twist, Geraldine is tormented by self-doubt, and struggles to focus all her attention on the case. Someone is lying and the police must uncover the truth before anyone else is killed…

My thoughts: this was a really gripping read, I couldn’t work out what was going on. The first victim, George, seemed like such a harmless, boring man, there was no real reason to kill him. But then really that was the point I think. Even after the police finally connected the dots (or at least Geraldine did) and went off to celebrate Ariadne’s much discussed wedding, I was still going “but why George?” It just seemed mean.

The reasoning behind the murders is twisted and terrible, and a good reminder that justice doesn’t always feel like it’s right.

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

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Blog Tour: The Actuality – Paul Braddon

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She belongs to me – property rights will prevail.
Evie is a near-perfect bioengineered human. In a broken-down future England where her kind has been outlawed, her ‘husband’ Matthew keeps her safe but hidden. When her existence is revealed, she must take her chances on the dark and hostile streets where more than one predator is on the hunt.
The Actuality is a gripping, atmospheric speculative thriller from a powerful new voice.

My thoughts: I loved Evie and wanted her to succeed in outrunning those chasing her after everything goes wrong. She might not be human but she felt very human, if that makes sense. She could think and feel and was very afraid but also incredibly brave. I liked Daniels, his kindness and determination to help her as Matthew (who was a bit creepy) would want. I also really like Sola and Toto.

This book is incredibly moving and sad, Evie just wants to be left alone, allowed to live as she always has. A powerful meditation on what it is to be human.

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

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Blog Tour: The Long Weekend – Gilly Macmillan

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In an isolated retreat, deep in the Northumbria moors, three women arrive for a weekend getaway.

Their husbands will be joining them in the morning. Or so they think.

But when they get to Dark Fell Barn, the women find a devastating note that claims one of their husbands has been murdered. Their phones are out of range. There’s no internet. They’re stranded. And a storm’s coming in.

Friendships fracture and the situation spins out of control as each wife tries to find out what’s going on, who is responsible and which husband has been targeted.

This was a tight-knit group. They’ve survived a lot. But they won’t weather this. Because someone has decided that enough is enough.

That it’s time for a reckoning.

My thoughts: this was an interesting read, the heightened fears of the the three women in an isolated place, the nameless narrator of alternating chapters (who isn’t who I thought it was) and the sinister nature of the threat left with a bottle of champagne all slowly reveal someone very disturbed at the heart of this supposedly close knit group.

Ruth, Emily and Jayne are woefully unprepared for the remoteness of the Northumbrian farm they’re staying on, especially as the weather worsens and they can’t reach their husbands. Wandering about in the dark is a stupid thing to do and it pulls the farming family who own the land into their mess, ending in tragedy.

Meanwhile our villain is back home carrying out their increasingly unhinged plan, unaware of how sloppy they’ve been and of the various loose ends left everywhere. As morning arrives and people finally reconnect, their plan starts to unravel and they become more volatile.

Shocking and brutally violent, everyone is forced to deal with some pretty serious home truths about themselves and each other. But resolution is needed to continue, even if nothing will ever be the same.

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

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Blog Tour: The Thirteenth Hour – Trudie Skies

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Cover Artist – James T. Egan of Bookfly Design
 

When the saints fail, the sinners step up.

Cruel gods rule the steam-powered city of Chime, demanding worship and tribute from their mortal subjects. Kayl lost her faith in them long ago, and now seeks to protect vulnerable and downtrodden mortals from their gods’ whims. But when Kayl discovers powers that she didn’t know she had—and destroys a mortal’s soul by accident—she becomes Chime’s most wanted.

Quen’s job was to pursue sinners, until the visions started. Haunted by foreboding images of his beloved city’s destruction, Quen hunts soul-sucking creatures made of aether who prey on its citizens—and Kayl is his number one target.

To ensure Chime’s future, Kayl and Quen must discover the truth of Kayl’s divine abilities before the gods take matters into their own hands.

For a city that bows to cruel gods, it’ll take godless heathens to save it.

The Thirteenth Hour is the first book in The Cruel Gods series—a gaslamp fantasy featuring magical portals, gothic cosmic deities, quaint Britishisms, and steampunk vibes. This is an adult book containing strong language and mature themes that some readers may find disturbing. For a full list of content warnings, visit Trudie Skies’s website.

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Trudie Skies has been living inside fantasy worlds ever since she discovered that reality doesn’t quite live up to the hype. Through the magic of books, she wishes to share these worlds of hope and heroes with other weary souls. Living in North East England, Trudie spends most of her free time daydreaming about clouds, devouring whatever fantasy books or video games she can get her hands on, and chasing after her troublesome dogs, who would like to reassure you they are very good boys.

Her debut YA fantasy series, Sand Dancer, was published through Uproar Books. Trudie is now writing adult gaslamp fantasy with her new series, The Cruel Gods.

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Domain map designed by Soraya Cocoran
 
Character Art by Seraphim
 

My thoughts: this was an interesting new fantasy, I liked the way all the different races had unique abilities and Kayl’s gift of being able to become each one. It got a bit convoluted as there were lots of parts to the plot and the evil schemes Quen and Kayl uncovered. I wanted to know more about the Godless and their histories, and less about Quen’s deeply weird relationship with Eli.

The premise of the different gods’ domains and the magical clock face that allows entry was really clever and I think it was utilised well when things started to fall apart and Chime began to give into chaos. There were echoes of various world myths, for example the gods rising up against their Titan parents (Ancient Greece) and the way the gods meddle directly in mortal lives, which was interesting.

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

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Blog Tour: Blood Games – Liz Mistry

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THREE MURDERS. ONE MISSING BOY. THE GAME IS JUST BEGINNING…
When a body is found at the edge of Chellow Dene reservoir Detective Nikki Parekh and DC Sajid Malik are quick to arrive.
This is the third murder in the space of a few weeks. Each murder has a completely different MO, but there is one common theme… all the victims are teenagers. The dead boy reminds Nikki of her nephew, and she feels more helpless than ever.
But then another boy goes missing. And this time his parents have been sent a threatening package too. The pattern is different again – is the killer just playing a game? Can Nikki find the strength to
uncover the shocking truth before the killer strikes again?

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Born in Scotland, Made in Bradford sums up Liz Mistry’s life. Over thirty years ago she moved from a small village in West Lothian to Yorkshire to get her teaching degree. Once here, Liz fell in love with
three things; curries, the rich cultural diversity of the city … and her Indian husband (not necessarily in this order). Now thirty years, three children, two cats and a huge extended family later, Liz uses
her experiences of living and working in the inner city to flavour her writing. Her gritty crime fiction police procedural novels set in Bradford embrace the city she describes as ‘Warm, Rich and Fearless’
whilst exploring the darkness that lurks beneath.
Being a debut novelist in her fifties was something Liz had only dreamed of and she counts herself lucky, whilst pinching herself regularly to make sure it’s all real. One of the nicest things about being
a published author is chatting with and responding to readers’ feedback and Liz regularly does events at local libraries, universities, literature festivals and open mics. She also teaches creative writing too.
In her spare time, Liz loves pub quizzes (although she admits to being rubbish at them), dancing (she does a mean jig to Proud Mary – her opinion, not ratified by her family), visiting the varied Yorkshire
landscape, with Robin Hoods Bay being one of her favourite coastal destinations, listening to music, reading and blogging about all things crime fiction on her blog, The Crime Warp.

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Giveaway to Win a signed copy of Dark Memories and a relaxation bundle (Open INT)
The contents are :
A signed copy of Dark Memories (Nikki Parekh book 3)
A Weekly Planner pad
A fruit infuser water bottle
Planet Spa face mask
Avon Footworks
Pomegranate and rhubarb bath salts
A Candle Bag

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My thoughts: this series just gets better and better. Tackling the complex and secretive world of “honour” killings in Bradford’s Muslim community. The “Eyes” are teenagers and men recruited by a mysterious online mastermind. Causing chaos and sowing dissent between the different communities through a violent series of attacks and brutal machete murders.

Nikki’s struggling with her recent bereavement and overreacts to one crime scene and is signed off, but that doesn’t stop her investigating when her friend’s son goes missing.

It’s an intense, almost claustrophobic world where everyone feels policed by people they thought they knew, serious crimes are being committed but no one’s speaking and there’s too many suspects. But Nikki and her team won’t give up.

Gripping, intelligent crime writing at its best.

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

*Terms and Conditions –Worldwide entries welcome. Please enter using the Rafflecopter box. The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over. Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will
not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random
Resources will delete the data. I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.

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Blog Tour: Winter Dawn – Alex Callister

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It is darkest before the dawn..

A hunt to the death. An all-seeing executioner. An unlikely hero.

From the author of the #1 best selling Audible Thriller of the Year comes a totally gripping crime thriller with heart-pounding suspense.

A New York Senator is being hunted.

With the world watching, she has been chosen as Colosseum’s next victim. No one can look away from the chilling new reality show, which awards a huge cash prize to the first person to assassinate its target. No-where is safe. No-one can be trusted. But just when her brutal death seems inevitable, an arrogant 21-year-old arrives from London to protect her. Now Winter is all that stands between the Senator and Colosseum. As dawn creeps in, time is running out for Winter to unravel the riddle at the heart of this sinister game: who is the shadowy Adjudicator of Colosseum, and what is his ultimate purpose?

Meet Winter: she’s the audacious, hyper-intelligent GCHQ agent with more notches on her bed post than James Bond and more hacking cred than Lisbeth Salander. Winter Dawn is the beginning of the Winter series, journeying back to the start of her story. This time, she’s grappling with Colosseum: a sinister online phenomenon that has gripped the world. It promises a massive cash prize to the successful hunter of its victims, unleashing an unstoppable tide of violence – and the world’s authorities are powerless to prevent it.

When a New York Senator is targeted, Winter is called in to protect her. But with all the world watching, there’s nowhere to hide. No one has ever survived Colosseum. It’s the winter solstice, and as they journey together into the dark heart of the longest night, they soon discover that nothing about Colosseum is what it seems. There are rules, and there is a purpose, if only they can solve the riddle in time. Colosseum is more than a hunt: it’s a challenge. Targets must face their darkest fear or die at dawn.

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Alex has spent her career charting the rise of the internet and is fascinated by the dark web and its potential to facilitate crime. An action movie fan, her books are full of cult references. Her kick-ass heroine, Winter, was inspired by Bond, Bourne, John Wick, Vin Diesel, Jack Reacher and many others.

Alex has a history degree, a certificate in creative writing and a murderous imagination. She writes when she gets a chance, which is mainly at night between 10pm and 2am at home in London, with her three Bengal tigers.

WINTER DARK was the Audible Thriller of the Year 2019.

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Winter Series

Giveaway: Click the link for a chance to win a $25 Amazon e-gift card and some cool book swag! (International)

My thoughts: I hadn’t read the previous books in the series, but I don’t think it mattered when it came to reading this one, you get enough info about Winter as the story unfolds on a cold December night in New York.

As Winter and the Senator try to stay one step ahead of the black clad Hunters on their tail, Winter is also trying to unravel the mystery of who is behind this new violent game – who is the Adjudicator and how do they know so much about her and her charge?

Fast paced and full of jeopardy this is a thrill ride of 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.

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Blog Tour: Bitter Flowers – Gunnar Staalesen, translated by Don Bartlett

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Fresh from rehab, PI Varg Veum faces his most complex investigation yet, when a man is found drowned, a young woman disappears, and the case of a missing child is revived. The classic Nordic Noir series continues…

PI Varg Veum has returned to duty following a stint in rehab, but his new composure and resolution are soon threatened when three complex crimes land on his desk. A man is found dead in an elite swimming pool. A young woman has gone missing. Most chillingly, Veum is asked to investigate the ‘Camilla Case’: an eight-year-old cold case involving the disappearance of a little girl, who was never found. As the threads of these three apparently unrelated cases come together, against the backdrop of a series of shocking environmental crimes, Veum faces the most challenging, traumatic investigation of his career.

A stunning, sophisticated, tension-packed thriller – the darkest of hardboiled Nordic Noir – from one of Norway’s most acclaimed crime writers.

One of the fathers of Nordic Noir, Gunnar Staalesen was born in Bergen, Norway, in 1947. He made his debut at the age of twenty-two with Seasons of Innocence and in 1977 he published the first book in the Varg Veum series. He is the author of over twenty titles, which have been published in twenty-four countries and sold over four million copies. Twelve film adaptations of his Varg Veum crime novels have appeared since 2007, starring the popular Norwegian actor Trond Espen Seim. Staalesen has won three Golden Pistols (including the Prize of Honour); Where Roses Never Die won the 2017 Petrona Award for Nordic Crime Fiction, and Big Sister was shortlisted in 2019. He lives with his wife in Bergen.

My thoughts: this was really good. After a stint in rehab Varg Veum is back on form and tracking down a killer after literally finding a dead body. This case seems to be connected to several tragedies from some years before – a missing child and the accident that returned a young woman to a childlike state.

As he digs in, more and more details come to light, and could these tragic events be connected by more than just the date?

Gritty, clever and with echoes of today’s climate crisis, this is a compelling and gripping read and one where for once I couldn’t figure out whodunit in the first few pages. Masterly work.

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

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Blog Tour: After Agatha – Sally Cline

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After Agatha: Women Write Crime is the first book to examine how British, American, and Canadian female crime writers pursue their craft and what they think about crime writing. Hundreds of women who identified as lesbian, bisexual, heterosexual, able-bodied, disabled, feminist, left or right wing, who were black or white, who had experienced violence, sexism, homophobia or racism, and who came from big cities or small country villages had one thing in common: they read crime novels.

The book explores why so many women who face fear and violence in their daily lives, should be so addicted to crime fiction, many of which feature extreme violence. The book analyzes why criminal justice professionals including police officers, forensic scientists, probation officers, and lawyers have joined traditional detective writers in writing crime. It examines the explosions of crime writing by women between 1930 and today. It highlights the UK Golden Age women writers, the 1950s American women novelists, the 80s experimental trio, Marcia Muller, Sara Paretsky, and Sue Grafton, who created the first female American private Investigators, and the important emergence of female police protagonists, as well as those central characters who for the first time were lesbian, disabled, black, or ethnic minority. After Agatha also examines the significant explosions of domestic noir thrillers and forensic science writers.

Most have taken to crime in order to reflect and comment on the social and political landscape around them. Many are creatively exploring the significant issues facing women today.

Agatha Christie – photo via BBC

Sally Cline, author of 13 books, is an award-winning biographer and fiction writer. She is Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Research Fellow at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, and former Advisory Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund. Her biography on Radclyffe Hall, now a classic, was shortlisted for the LAMBDA prize; Lifting the Taboo: Women, Death and Dying won the Arts Council Prize for nonfiction; and she wrote landmark biographies on Zelda Fitzgerald and Dashiell Hammett. She is co-Series Editor for Bloomsbury’s 9 volume Writers and Artists Companions. Formerly lecturing at Cambridge University, she has degrees and masters from Durham and Lancaster Universities and was awarded a D.Litt in International Writing.

My thoughts: I am a huge crime fiction fan and adore Agatha Christie. I also studied English Literature at uni, including a module where we looked at crime fiction – all of the books on the reading list were written by men. Women writers were shunted off into their own module and focused on the Brontës, Austen and other 18th and 19th century writers. No crime fiction, no Golden Age.

Considering the immense popularity of crime novels, many written by women, and the history – which this book explores, that’s rather frustrating and I really hope that things have changed since the early to mid 00s, when I was studying.

This fascinating book has left me with an immense reading list (I’ve read many of the authors mentioned but not all and not enough as far as I’m concerned) and lots to think about. Digging deep into the legacy of Christie and her compatriots (Dorothy L. Sayers, Josephine Tey, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allington – aka The Golden Age writers) and following the growth, expansion and creation of the women who wrote and starred in hundreds of crime novels since then.

It looks at the sub-genres, like PIs, the psychological, forensic and others, as well as the fact that readers of crime fiction are overwhelmingly women and why.

Absolutely fascinating and crammed full of interesting information, this is a must read for anyone interested in the genre, in women’s writing and literary history.

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