Tag: blog tour

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: A Burning Sea – Theodore Brun*

ramblingmads

Doomed to wander. Destined for glory.

Erlan Aurvandil has turned his back on the past and his native Northern lands, taking a perilous journey to the greatest city in the world, Byzantium.

But as his voyage ends, Erlan is brutally betrayed, captured and enslaved by a powerful Byzantine general.

Meanwhile, Lilla Sviggarsdottír, Queen of Svealand, has lost her husband and with him, her kingdom. Leaving her lands and people behind, Lilla journeys east on a new quest: to find Erlan and raise an army mighty enough to defeat her usurper.

But when she reaches the great city of Byzantium, she discovers a place in turmoil. A dark tide is rising against the Emperor from within his own court.

As the shadows darken and whispers of war begin to strengthen, Erlan’s fate becomes intertwined with that of the city. Are they both doomed to fall, or can freedom be won in the blood of battle?

Theodore Brun studied Dark Age archaeology at Cambridge. In 2010, he quit his job as an arbitration lawyer in Hong Kong and cycled 10,000 miles across Asia and Europe to his home in Norfolk. A Burning Sea is his third novel.

My thoughts:

I haven’t read the previous novels in this series, but that didn’t seem to make a huge difference to enjoying this epic saga of Vikings in Byzantium. Erlan is seeking the King of Kings, a cure for the curse placed on him, and is told to head south.

Lilla is looking for Erlan and a way to claim back her queendom, stolen from her by a cruel and vicious thug of a man, who happens to be her late husband’s brother.

Both of them arrive in Byzantium (now Istanbul) just as an army arrives on its doorstep, determined to claim the city and its empire for the caliph Suleyman. They find themselves in the Emperor’s palace as war breaks out.

I really liked both Erlan and Lilla, but Einar (not so) Fat-Belly was easily my favourite character, a jolly, axe wielding Norseman, he comes with Lilla to protect her, and ends up serving Emperor Leo alongside Erlan.

A lot happens and is given plenty of room to happen in this chunky book, in between battles there’s romance and betrayal, feasts and hardship. There’s also religion and its many faces – Byzantium was a Christian city crowned by the Hagia Sophia, named for God’s female side and wisdom.

I found this interesting as I don’t know a huge amount about this period of history, being more familiar with the religious Crusades of the medieval period, which also saw Muslims and Christians clash over land for many years, and involved to the violent sacking of Constantinople (another of Byzantium’s names) in the 13th century.

This was a really interesting book and I really enjoyed it. Somewhere in my family history are some Vikings of some nation and I’ve always been fascinated by the history of the northern reaches of Europe.

If you like big historical epics, with lots of detail thrown in (although the author admits moving some things around historically speaking) and enjoy battles, plots and long journeys that don’t go to plan, then this is for you. Enjoy!


*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: The Fallen Persimmon – Gigi Karagoz*

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Japan 1985 – a young English woman battles her conscience.

A page-turning suspense novel…

Money blows across a field, the notes slapping against the stubble of dry rice stalks. Mr Ito walks towards the irrigation ditch at the end of his field, his rubber boots kicking up dust.

Standing at the ditch, he remembers the rumour; the one about the missing English woman.

But this is Mari’s story. She knows it’s her fault that her sister died, and trying to move on, she takes a dream job teaching English in small-town Japan. It turns into a nightmare when Mari learns that she’s employed by the yakuza (Japanese mafia), and that the man she loves has his own dark secrets. When the yakuza play their final hand, Mari believes that once again, it’s all her fault.

If you like a novel that builds suspense, is set in an exotic location, has a strong female lead, and a pinch of romance; then this book is for you.


Gigi has spent most of her life living and working in countries all over the world. Her big passion is travel, especially in Asia, and India is a favourite destination. Giving up a career in tourism, she qualified as a holistic therapist and worked in yoga retreats in the Mediterranean for twelve years. Currently, Gigi lives in Wiltshire with Isabella, the cat she rescued from the streets of Fethiye, in southern Turkey.

My thoughts:

Inspired by the author’s own time in Japan, although hopefully hers wasn’t quite as traumatic, this tale of English woman getting mixed up with the yakuza and paying the price for crossing them is gripping and shocking.

Hired to teach English in a language school in the 80s, Mari meets Kate at the airport and they become fast friends. Given a set of rules, which they immediately set about breaking, they see their chance to have fun and flirt.

But their employers are not happy, the contracts they signed turn out to belong to some pretty nasty customers and insulting them has deadly consequences.

The plot darkens the further the girls go into the nightlife and romance of their adventure. Mari falls in love with Ryu, who is engaged to another and despite warnings, they carry on their affair. Kate defies their boss at a night club and insults the wrong man.

Things turn very bleak and as outsiders they have nowhere to turn, who can they trust when everyone tells them to keep quiet?

When I trained as a TEFL teacher (teaching English as a foreign language) Japan was one of the more highly recommended places to go, although that was a lot later than the setting of this novel, but we were advised to stick to larger cities, unlike the one Mari and Kate end up in.

It made me think of stories of the Mafia in Sicily and other parts of Italy, dangerous places where dangerous men really run things, despite what the police and politicians say. That subtle darkness that suddenly flares into violence when people break the unwritten rules, though both women are given plenty of warnings, friendly and less so.

The switch from light hearted ‘two young women abroad’ to dark thriller exposing the rotten underbelly is slow and done skillfully and cleverly. You’re drawn into their world and carried along by their youth and enthusiasm, the violence is sudden and shocking, jolting the plot into something far grimmer – replete with dark deeds.

*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: Altered Helix – Stephanie Hansen*

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“I didn’t want to take the traditional path. First, I wasn’t ready for college. Second, I was going to live with my best friend, Tiff, and work at the Haunted House. Third, did I mention the hot guy Josh that works there too?“

The most exciting thing about Austria’s new job, at a local haunted house, was the fact that the toughest looking people screamed the loudest. But when she meets the boy without a home, Josh, Austria’s life takes intriguing and eventful turns. Up until now, Josh has managed to hang with his Street crowd, but they’re in danger, and so is Austria, the girl Josh recently fell for. The group finds themselves joining forces with previously considered enemies who also now find themselves in danger.

Deeply compassionate and full of twists, Altered Helix captures the struggle of polarized people that must work together for the greater

Goodreads

Win a copy here

Stephanie Hansen’s short story, Break Time, and poetry has been featured in Mind’s Eye literary magazine. The Kansas Writers Association published her short story, Existing Forces, appointing her as a noted author. She has held a deep passion for writing since early childhood, but a brush with death caused her to allow it to grow. She’s part of an SCBWI critique group in Lawrence, KS and two local book clubs. She attends many writers’ conferences including the Writing Day Workshops, New York Pitch, Penned Con, New Letters, All Write Now, Show Me Writers Master Class, BEA, and Nebraska Writers Guild conference as well as Book Fairs and Comic-Cons. She is a member of the deaf and hard of hearing community.

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My thoughts:

This novella is set in a slightly dystopian future where the national government has collapsed and things seem uncertain.

Austria and her friends meet as they all become employees of a local haunted house, prepping for Halloween.

But they also become enbroiled in a far more sinister plot – human trafficking to order. Austria’s DNA holds unusual properties and someone is willing to pay a high price for it.

Lots of twists, some romance and the beginning of what I imagine will be an intense series of thrillers as Austria and her friends seek to put a stop to the people kidnapping innocents and find out what happened to her long missing father.

*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: Fearless – Allen Stroud*

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AD 2118. Humanity has colonised the Moon, Mars, Ceres and Europa. Captain Elisa Shann commands Khidr, a search and rescue ship with a crew of twenty-five, tasked to assist the vast commercial freighters that supply the different solar system colonies.

Shann has no legs and has taken to life in zero-g partly as a result. She is a talented tactician who has a tendency to take too much on her own shoulders.

Now, while on a regular six-month patrol through the solar system, Khidr picks up a distress call from the freighter Hercules…

Allen Stroud is a lecturer at Coventry University, where he teaches BA (Hons) Media and Communications. Stroud completed a Ph. D. at the University of Winchester entitled An Investigation and Application of Writing Structures and World Development Techniques in Science Fiction and Fantasy. This thesis covered his work on the computer games, Elite Dangerous (2014) and Chaos Reborn (2016).

For Elite: Dangerous, Stroud wrote six guidebooks that inform the game’s fictional narrative and also served to help other writers with their novelisations set in the game world. He was a founding host of Lave Radio, an Elite: Dangerous fan podcast that started in February 2013 and runs the annual convention Lavecon. His novel set in the Elite: Dangerous game world, called Elite: Lave Revolution was successfully funded on Kickstarter and published in late 2014, with a second edition published in 2015. Stroud then supported Spidermind Games in developing the Elite Dangerous Roleplaying Game.

Stroud worked on Chaos Reborn with Snapshot Games and is working on Phoenix Point, due for release in 2019. Stroud was the 2017 and 2018 chair of Fantasycon, the annual convention of the British Fantasy Society, which hosts the British Fantasy Awards. In June 2019, he became Chair of the British Science Fiction Association, taking over from Donna Bond.

Stroud continues to write academic papers, reviews, articles and fiction in science fiction, fantasy and horror. He lives in a messy house with two cats and his partner, Karen.

My thoughts:

This was a good, enjoyable sci-fi, with lots of action and strong characters. I was behind Shann, the captain, from the start. She’s the central figure that the events revolve around, I also like Johannson, another key figure in the unfolding drama.

There’s battles, strange new tech, conspiracies abound and the crew have to scrabble to stay alive, fighting an unknown enemy without knowing why they’ve come under attack.

I’ve passed my copy onto the two sci-fi fans in my family (my husband and my dad) to read next. I think they will really enjoy it too.


*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: Ransomed – M.A. Hunter*

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Investigative journalist Emma Hunter never thought she’d be a bestselling author. Especially not for
a blistering exposé of the brutal horrors committed at a children’s home.
Some secrets breed in the dark…

All she wants is to return home to the anchoring salt air and solitude of Weymouth where questions
still fester unanswered and a twenty-year-old secret binds her to the beach.
And some of them always escape…

But then she finds herself sucked into the chaos of another cold case and soon realises the search for
the missing girl will not only unearth the rot ravaging the safety of children across the south of England, but could even solve the mystery that has tortured her since she was seven years old…

Ransomed marks the beginning of a nerve-shredding new crime series of feral reckonings and found
family in the face of harrowing inhumanity, perfect for fans of Angela Marsons and Ann Cleeves.

Amazon UK

Amazon US

About the Author

Hi, I’m M.A. Hunter and have been a huge fan of crime fiction since a young age, and always fancied
the idea of trying to write some myself. That dream became a reality when One More Chapter
signed The Missing Children Case Files series.

Born in Darlington in the north-east of England, I grew up in West London, and moved to Southampton to study law at university. It’s here I fell in love and have been married for fifteen
years. We are now raising our two children, on the border of The New Forest where we enjoy going for walks amongst the wildlife. We regularly holiday across England, but have a particular affinity for
the south coast, which formed the setting for the series, spanning from Devon to Brighton, and with
a particular focus on Weymouth, one of our favourite towns.

When not writing, I regularly binge-watch the latest shows from streaming services, or have my head
buried in the latest story from Angela Marsons, Simon Kernick, or Ann Cleeves.

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My thoughts:

This was a really good read, with Emma investigating a missing child case even though she starts off not keen at all.

She wants to write about her own sister’s disappearance, but her publisher isn’t interested. So she reluctantly agrees to meet the girl’s grandfather.

As she and copper Jack delve deeper into the case, convinced it’s not as open and shut as the police believe, uncovering secrets and lies.

This was a knotty thriller, with plenty of twists and some characters who inspire strong feelings, I was suspicious of some of the family members from the start.

*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: Ravishment – James Walker*

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A 17th-century whodunnit – It’s 1653 and Lady Jane Tremayne has inherited the estate of her late husband.
When a young woman is raped, as Lady of the Manor she decides to investigate, assisted by her closest friend, Lady Olivia Courtney.
Then the stakes are raised when the rapist strikes again.
More than just a whodunnit, this is an absorbing tale of a brave woman living in dangerous and unique times.

Retired lawyer, and still active charity worker, living in Kent,with a keen interest in European history, who’s published six novels including Aliza, my love and Ravishment.

My first book, Ellen’s Gold is a historical drama set in the early nineteenth century.

This was followed by My Enemy, my love set in the First World War and I think he was George, a drama also set in that era.

I then published Shamila, a story of forbidden love between a Moslem and a non-Moslem, set in the near future, beforein the last year publishing Ravishment, which is whodunnit, set in 17th century England.

Finally, this was followed by Aliza, my love, which is set in Nazi Germany.

My thoughts:

This was an interesting take on the crime novel, set in Puritan England in the 17th century, a troubled time when families were divided along political lines and people suspected their friends and neighbours of either being or harbouring dangerous royalists.

Lady Jane and her late husband were indeed loyal to the Crown, something that makes her relationships with her brother-in-law and with some local dignitaries, like the local Justice of the Peace and the vicar.

She’s also involved in a small way in hiding royalists trying to raise an army on behalf of Charles II, risking confiscation of all of her property and imprisonment if caught.

Despite all this, Lady Jane remains determined to find the culprit after a series of rapes and a murder in her community. She takes her role of Lady of the Manor seriously, and even when it seems hopeless, keeps fighting for justice.

I find this enjoyable and a fun romp through a familiar landscape (my grandmother was from Devon and some of my family still live there). It’s also a reminder that before we had properly established police forces and laws, it was often up to one man to decide whether or not to investigate a crime.

*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: The Heights – Parker Bilal*

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What starts with the gruesome discovery of a severed head on the Tube soon becomes personal for former DI Cal Drake.

After one betrayal too many, Drake has abandoned the police force to become a private detective.He’s teamed up with enigmatic forensic pathologist Dr Rayhgana Crane and it’s not long before the case leads them to the darkest corners of the nation’s capital and in dangerously close contact with an international crime circuit, a brutal local rivalry and a very personal quest for retribution. With the murder victim tied to Drake’s past, his new future is about to come under threat.

Parker Bilal is the pseudonym of Jamal Mahjoub, the critically acclgaimed literary novelist. He is the author of the Makana Investigations series, the third of which, The Ghost Runner, was longlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award. The Divinities, the first in his Crane and Drake London crime series, was published in 2019. Born in London, he has lived in a number of places, including the UK, Denmark, Spain and, currently, the Netherlands.

Twitter Website

My thoughts:

A gruesome discovery on the Tube, of a woman’s head in an IKEA bag, kicks off several investigations. Who was she? Is she connected with the case that derailed former DI Drake’s career?

Meanwhile Crane and Drake have been hired to find a missing young woman, but all is not as it seems. Did she really get abducted by her uncle and taken back to the Middle East or is her aristocratic author boyfriend hiding something?

As the pair hurtle around London following various clues and red herrings, they deal with suspicious coppers and dodgy gangsters, uncovering more than they planned.

This was a really fast paced, gripping thriller, complete with untrustworthy and unsavoury figures, both criminals and police. A few innocent people get entangled along the way, but justice is served as the former police detective and criminal psychologist run the guilty parties to ground.

*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: Fifty Fifty – Steve Cavanagh*

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Alexandra Avellino has just found her father’s mutilated body, and needs the police right away. She believes her sister killed him, and that she is still in the house with a knife.

Sofia Avellino has just found her father’s mutilated body and needs the police right away. She believes her sister, Alexandra did it, and that she is still in the house, locked in the bathroom.

Both women are to go on trial at the same time. A joint trial in front of one jury.

But one of these women is lying. One of them is a murderer. Sitting in a jail cell, about to go on trial with her sister for murder, you might think that this is the last place she expected to be.

You’d be wrong.

My thoughts:

Eddie Flynn is back and with his most complicated case yet. Two sisters accuse each other of murdering their father, but who is the real killer?

Flynn represents one in a court case, there’s evidence that could go each way, and DNA’s no help – they’re identical twins.

As always Steve Cavanagh keeps us guessing right up till the last page and then throws in a few extra twists, just to completely fox his readers.

Brilliant as always, gripping and suspenseful, with a dash of humour for good measure.

*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: The Riven Realm Vol 1 – Deck Matthews*

ramblingmads


How do you kill a shadow?

As a raging storm descends on the Blasted Coast, the crippled young rigger, Caleb Rusk, meets a stranger on the road. Little does he know that the encounter will pull him into a conflict that threatens everything he holds dear—and change the course of his life forever.

Meanwhile, in the Capital of Taralius, a string of inexplicable deaths have captured the attention of the Ember Throne. Second Corporal Avendor Tarcoth is tasked with uncovering the truth behind a danger that could threaten the very fabric of the Realm

Goodreads

About the Author
Deck Matthews is a pseudonym for one particular Matthew Ward. He is a life-long reader who fell in love with writing and fantasy in middle school.

He remains an avid reader, a casual gamer and a dabbler in the visual arts. He has worked as a designer and currently spends his days neck-deep in code as a front-end web developer.
He also holds a Master’s degree in English Literature and currently resides in Ottawa, Canada with his wife, two daughters and one little fluff ball of a dog named Wicket.

My thoughts:

The three novellas that make up volume one of the Riven Realm cover a lot of ground, literally in terms of the distance the characters cover, and in terms of the plot.

Shadow monsters are attacking people, seeking a source of power once in the the ownership of the royal family. Caleb, our hero, now has it and is now a target.

Meanwhile in the capital there are signs of other trouble brewing and the Queen brings together a team to investigate.

The two plot lines slowly begin to coalesce, could there be a connection between the shadow monsters and the disturbances in the capital?

Although the two groups don’t meet up in this collection of stories, I imagine they will eventually and pool their experiences.

I preferred Caleb’s story line, I found his family and friends more engaging than the other plots. He’s an interesting protagonist, full of doubts and in awe of his companions, but with his own gifts.

Overall I really enjoyed this volume of stories and I can imagine as all the plots come together that they grow into a complex and interesting conclusion.

*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: Truth Be Told – Kia Abdullah*

ramblingmads

ARE YOU READY TO START THIS CONVERSATION?

Kamran Hadid feels invincible. He attends Hampton school, an elite all-boys boarding school in London, he comes from a wealthy family, and he has a place at Oxford next year. The world is at his feet. And then a night of revelry leads to a drunken encounter and he must ask himself a horrific question.

With the help of assault counsellor, Zara Kaleel, Kamran reports the incident in the hopes that will be the end of it. But it’s only the beginning…

Powerful, explosive and important, Truth Be Told is a contemporary courtroom drama that vividly captures today’s society. You will not stop thinking about it for a long time to come.

My thoughts:

This author seems to specialise in plots where secular society and the criminal justice system butt the Muslim community. She examines not only the crime and its impact, but the shame and anger that accompany it, the sometimes toxic masculinity that families see as traditional.

Her previous book, Take It Back, was shocking and this one is too.

Following lawyer turned ISVA Zara Kaleel as she supports vulnerable victims of horrific crimes, in this case a teenage boy assaulted at school, you see the process of reporting and then the secondary trauma of a court case through both Zara and the victim’s eyes.

Dealing with sex crimes is heavy stuff (I used to work for a victims support service) and Zara has to battle her own demons to stay strong enough to support her clients. It makes her a more interesting, rounded character.

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