Julia and Frankie visit their friend in Cornwall. When the body of a local property developer washes up on the beach, the police believe the death was accidental, but the sisters have other ideas.
My thoughts: In a quiet Cornish village, Julia and Frankie stumble, or should I say, swim across the body of an unpopular property developer. The local police constable says it’s an accidental drowning, but that doesn’t explain the head injury or the boat.
Problem is, he has almost too many enemies, so they need to narrow it down. Was it the possibly smuggling brother fishermen? The local builder? Or someone else in the village?
Cue a lot of creeping about, trying to find out who was where and when, running into the eccentric neighbour who rescues local wildlife, and wondering whether Julia’s old friend might be involved.
Julia and Frankie’s relationship is a lot better than in the last book, living together and working out what jobs they’re best at and dividing the labour has meant less bickering. There’s still some friction during the case between Frankie’s dive right into it and Julia’s more cautious approach.
Another funny, clever escapade for the sisters, who might never leave home again!
We’re touring April release, Brake Me by Athena & Marluxia Bliss. Guaranteed to rev engines and curl toes!
Brake Me
Release Date: April 24, 2026
Genre: Very Spicy MM Paranormal Romance
Possessive Love Interest
Only One Who Understands Me
Slow Burn to Obsession
Forbidden Love
Found Family (Garage Edition)
Touch-Starved Meets Touch-Hungry
Machine With A Soul
Love from the first Vroom
“Fucking Fox was unlike anything I’d ever experienced. The shadows of the car wrapped around me, through me, surrounding every nerve with heat and motion.
I knew how to drive him, and Fox clearly knew how to drive me crazy.”
Buying a 1992 Mustang was a stupid idea, and Al knew it, but he had loved that car from the very first moment he’d laid eyes on him. He’d never expected that the car would love him back, until a dark, shadowy figure appeared in the passenger seat beside him, eager to show Al his gratitude. Al’s new car, Fox is a jealous, possessive, powerful machine that adores his new owner and will happily distract Al from his driving, but when the two are forced apart, both will have to make sacrifices before they can be reunited.
Please be sure to read the content warning carefully!
We’re touring April release, Brake Me by Athena & Marluxia Bliss. Guaranteed to rev engines and curl toes!
Brake Me
Release Date: April 24, 2026
Genre: Very Spicy MM Paranormal Romance
Possessive Love Interest
Only One Who Understands Me
Slow Burn to Obsession
Forbidden Love
Found Family (Garage Edition)
Touch-Starved Meets Touch-Hungry
Machine With A Soul
Love from the first Vroom
“Fucking Fox was unlike anything I’d ever experienced. The shadows of the car wrapped around me, through me, surrounding every nerve with heat and motion.
I knew how to drive him, and Fox clearly knew how to drive me crazy.”
Buying a 1992 Mustang was a stupid idea, and Al knew it, but he had loved that car from the very first moment he’d laid eyes on him. He’d never expected that the car would love him back, until a dark, shadowy figure appeared in the passenger seat beside him, eager to show Al his gratitude. Al’s new car, Fox is a jealous, possessive, powerful machine that adores his new owner and will happily distract Al from his driving, but when the two are forced apart, both will have to make sacrifices before they can be reunited.
Please be sure to read the content warning carefully!
We’re celebrating the release of epic fantasy Immortal Connections by Tao Wong! Now available in all formats including audio!
Immortal Connections (Celestial Cataclysms Book 1)
Release Date: May 1, 2026
Genre: Epic Asian Fantasy
Demons, dragons and immortals
Multiple dimensions
Celestial hierarchy
Reunited lovers
Multi-realm war
Multiple POVs
A new Immortal has risen… and with him, the fate of all the realms hangs in the balance.
Long Wu Ying has ascended to the Heavens, fulfilling the ultimate dream of all cultivators. However, the heavens are not all that it seems, and his vow to raise his lover to the realms of immortality conflicts with the Jade Palace’s rules.
In the Middle Kingdom, the fracturing of an empire echoes across the kingdoms. As states rush to fill the power vacuum, war-weary armies march with little food, weakened by years of drought. Wu Ying’s mortal friends are caught in the middle of the conflict. As leaders among cultivators and within their sect, they must do what they can to hold the world together and carry on without their closest ally.
When chaos consumes the realms above and below, even the greatest cultivators must surrender to the winds of fate.
Immortal Connections is the first book in Celestial Cataclysms, the new epic xianxia fantasy series by Tao Wong. Taking place in the same world as A Thousand Li, it delves into realms old and new, making it perfect for longtime fans and first-time readers alike.
Congratulations and happy release day to author M.K. Deoradhán!
Fans of The Mummy and Indiana Jones are going to love this one. Grab your copy of Bloodstone today!
Bloodstone (The Mythic Artifacts Book 1)
Release Date: May 5, 2026
Genre: Romantic Historical Adventure
Ancient magic amulet
Hot-headed archaeologist FMC
Tall, dark, and handsome brooding MMC
Forced proximity
Slow burn
Punching fascists
Hidden society
Banter
Chaotic good trio
Scientia potentia est. Knowledge is power.
The year is 1936, and twenty-two-year-old history student Amelia “Mel”Hawkins—who’s been tagging along on artifact-finding expeditions with her nonna since she could walk—can’t pass up the opportunity to retrieve the priceless Amulet of Amun, hidden inside the Temple of Seti the First. Especially when she’s getting paid to do it.
Armed only with her wits and her absentee-father’s switchblade, she finds out the hard way that the man claiming to be the emissary from the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities is actually a member of the Thule Society, known as the God Men, sent to kill her and take the amulet for the growing German Third Reich. When he fails, she’s forced to rely on the brilliant, brooding museum employee, Bes Belzoni, and his visually impaired cousin, Cecilio Giudice, to protect her and the amulet from the swarm of fascists hunting them down. Because it’s no coincidence her guide was one of the God Men, or that more are after her.
Thrown into a deadly world of secrets and spy games, the three of them travel to the Italian Alps, where they run into trouble from the God Men and Mussolini’s Blackshirts at every turn. But even her companions aren’t what they seem: she quickly discovers that they’re keeping secrets from her. Secrets so powerful they could change everything she thought she knew about her family, and uncover an ancient magic she never could’ve imagined.
With evil rising to power, Mel must make a choice: ignore the growing threat in the world and save herself, or take a stand against it before she loses everything she’s come to love.
Looking out at the crystal clear waters of Sorrento, my heart aches at the loss of the future I’d allowed myself to dream. But Tom’s lie is bigger than I could have imagined. How can we survive it? My decision will shatter more than just my own heart. Am I really ready to say the words that will change everything?
It was supposed to be a week of bliss leading to our dream wedding on the Italian coast. But it’s obvious our families are against it. My mother questions why Tom has controlled so much of the planning, twisting his generous surprise into something sinister. Tom’s daughter, Lily, makes it known she’ll never see me as her mother.
Trying to focus on our dream day, I can’t help but notice a woman who spends every day at the pool, alone. She seems fascinated by Lily in a way that worries me. When Tom finally locks eyes with her, he immediately pales.
This week should have been the best time of our lives but before our future can begin, Tom will confess a secret that could destroy everything. But he’s not the only one who kept a past lie hidden for the sake of happily-ever-after. By the end of the week with both our secrets laid bare, will we really say, ‘I do’?
A totally addictive novel about family secrets which will have you turning the pages long into the night. Perfect for fans of Jodi Picoult, Liane Moriarty and Diane Chamberlain.
Emma Robinson is a USA Today Bestseller with a passion for stories which explore the power of family and friendship in the most challenging circumstances. Focusing on emotional themes, her novels are both heart-breaking and life affirming.
My thoughts: Carrie has been whisked off to Sorrento by her fiancé Tom along with her mother and his daughter, to get married. They’ve only known each other eighteen months, and been a couple for eleven, but surely that’s long enough to know what you want?
However, it appears Tom hasn’t been a hundred percent honest, with either Carrie or Lily, and now, in the brilliant sunshine and with days before they tie the knot, the truth is about to come out.
Carrie has to make a lot of decisions in a short space of time – and not just about her future spouse, as it turns out her overprotective mum might also have a few things to come clean about.
I felt for Carrie, she’s struggling a bit with everything, part of her things have gone a bit fast, and she wants to be a good step-mum to Lily, who at twelve, is pushing back. When she finds out the secrets the people she trusted so much were keeping – she’s furious and has to stand up for herself.
The secrets aren’t life threatening, but they do change things for Carrie, and make her decide to take charge for a change. A really interesting and enjoyable 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.
A wandering black hole is approaching Earth, and soon, everything will be gone. For husbands Don and Rodney, forty years of marriage suddenly feels like no time at all.
One last road trip. One final chance to say goodbye.
From the Sunday Times bestselling author of The House in the Cerulean Sea comes a story about what we owe the people we love when time runs out. Don and Rodney are in a race against the clock, driving from Maine to Washington State to settle unfinished business before the sky breaks.
Is it enough to burn bright, even if nothing remains of the ashes?
Along the way, they encounter a world choosing how to spend its final moments―from impromptu weddings and bright bonfires to those simply sharing a final meal. Under a kaleidoscope sky and a cracked moon, Don and Rodney must look back on a lifetime of highs and lows and ask the ultimate question: was our best good enough?
A bittersweet, life-affirming masterpiece about love, legacy, and the beauty of a life well-lived.
My thoughts: As the end of the world approaches, married couple Don and Rodney decide to carry out a promise they made to someone they both loved. They hope there’s enough time to carry out this final journey, driving from their home in Maine across the country to Washington state.
It’s not a long book, but it is a bittersweet one as Don and Rodney encounter people all trying to get through the last week before the world ends in their own ways. As they go, the two remember their long years together, some happy, some full of pain. They still have a great love and affection for one another, and there’s no one else they’d rather spend the end of the world together.
Some of the people they meet are struggling with the future, others are embracing their last few days, getting married, spending it with their loved ones (human or otherwise). It’s quite a heartwarming, life affirming book, despite the impending apocalypse.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
The BRAND NEW instalment in the bestselling, beloved Armstrong & Oscar Cozy Mystery series!
A road leading to Rome
Former DCI Dan Armstrong has been living and working in Florence for nearly three years—yet somehow, Rome has always eluded him. That is, until glamorous TV celebrity Tamsin Goodfaith turns up with a request he can’t refuse: investigate her uncle’s suspicious death in the Eternal City.
Murder at the castle
Philip Hastings was a billionaire financier, found dead at his magnificent—if slightly spooky—medieval castle in the Roman hills. Dan and his faithful canine companion, Oscar, soon find themselves surrounded by luxury, secrets and more suspects than sightseeing opportunities.
This time it’s personal
But when a second murder follows close behind, the case turns dangerously personal. With whispers of ghosts and crumbling alibis, Dan and Oscar must sniff out the truth before he becomes the next victim. Harder to crack than castle walls—and harder still than stopping Oscar from stealing snacks—this Roman holiday is anything but relaxing.
I’m a man. And a pretty old man as well. I studied languages at Nottingham University a long time ago and then lived and worked in France and Switzerland before going to work in Italy for seven years. My Italian wife and I then came back to the UK with our little daughter (now long-since grown up) where I ran a big English language school for many years. We now live in a sleepy little village in Devonshire.
I’ve been writing almost all my life but it was only thirteen years ago that I finally managed to find a publisher who liked my work enough to offer me my first contract. I started off writing romances but after 28 of them, I knew I wanted to try something different, and so the first of the Armstrong and Oscar cozy mysteries, Murder in Tuscany, was born three years ago.
I’ve been having a lot of fun ever since getting to know the dynamic duo (and introducing them to people all over the world). These books are cosy crime [a genre I didn’t even know existed when I started writing them). They are murder mysteries, but not gory, over-violent stuff, but stories designed to exercise the brain of the reader and to put a smile on their face.
Maybe it’s because there are so many horrible things happening in the world today that I feel I need to do my best to provide something to cheer my readers up. My books provide escapism to some gorgeous locations all over my beloved Italy.
My thoughts: As you might know by now, I love this series, especially the excellent K9 Detective Oscar, who always finds something vital to the case.
In this installment Dan and Oscar are off to Rome, the Eternal City and somewhere I’d love to visit (I’ve only been to the airport on my way to Venice).
British celeb Tamsin Goodfaith has asked Dan for his help. Her uncle has recently died and she doesn’t agree that it was a tragic accident – she thinks he was murdered. Posing as her friend, and there on a writing break, he gently probes the various family members and staff at the family’s medieval castle outside Rome.
But then two more members of the family die, and the killer must be somewhere in the castle – there’s only the family and three employees, as well as Dan and Oscar. Is there a ghost? Old buildings do attract them and Oscar really hates the suit of armour.
It’s another clever case for Dan and the local police detective inspector, one that has deep roots and will change the family forever. I really enjoyed trying to unravel the clues and solve it before Dan (I failed).
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
When Caroline Alleyn inherits Wickham Grange, all she wants to do is sell up. There are bad memories there, linked to her childhood as the daughter of a single mother – and to all the other mothers she knew in that house.
But her grandmother Frances’s will means that it can’t be sold without the consent of five elderly women, and they all refuse. None of them will tell her why she has to keep a house she doesn’t want. Instead, she is given a stark warning: don’t look for Lizzie Sixpence.
Though Caroline has other worries. Someone is watching her; the house’s elderly tenants are lying to her; and an old man is hoarding mementoes of her past. Then she finds the bones. And Caroline is left with a choice: keep silent, or betray everything her grandmother stood for. Because there is one final secret to be revealed…
Zoe has worked in education services for nearly 25 years, but her heart has always been in writing. When she’s not working, she enjoys baking, collecting antiques, and gardening. She is also slowly decorating and furnishing a large dolls’ house. Originally from Medway, she has a grown-up son and now lives in London with her husband and their enormous dog.
My thoughts: Wickham Grange has been a place of refuge over the years, but now her grandmother has died, for Caroline it is a place of secrets. Planning to sell the building, she has to locate five women who her grandma’s will says she has to get the consent with before she can sell.
As Caroline attempts to unravel the past, she keeps being told to stay out of things, and not to look for the mysterious Lizzie Sixpence.
Caroline, however, is determined to get to the bottom of the secrets and mysteries of the past.
What she finds is shocking, a little heartbreaking and answers both her own and Caroline’s mother’s questions about their family.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
From USA Today bestselling author, and Bram Stoker nominee, Philip Fracassi, comes a historical horror novel where three brothers go AWOL during one of the most violent battles of the Civil War, but find something much worse waiting in the woods.
Choosing to risk execution rather than be killed in a losing war, three brothers desert their posts and begin a long, arduous journey back home. After weeks of dealing with rough terrain while evading bandits and home guard soldiers–starving, injured, and exhausted–the brothers find a miracle deep in the dark woods. A home.
Living in a remote cabin is a beautiful woman, Sarafina, and her young son, Titus. Sarafina takes the soldiers in, cares for them, feeds them, offers them a place to rest. But the youngest of the brothers is wary–something is not what it seems. After discovering a mysterious creek and a strange underground cavern, he gets a strong sense that the cabin, and the fertile land surrounding it, might be harboring something nefarious, terrifying, and dangerous.
What ensues is a nightmare beyond imagination, an escalation of horrors that the brothers must somehow fight to survive. With tensions high, the country divided, and loyalties put to the test, Sarafina will take readers on an epic journey of modern horror.
My thoughts: Three brothers flee the battlefield of the American Civil War, heading south to home and their sister Ellie. After several near misses, hungry and one of them injured, they stumble across what seems like paradise – a farm, home to Sarafina and her son Titus.
Unfortunately for them, Sarafina isn’t the kind farm wife she appears, she’s something much older and more terrifying. The youngest brother, Ethan, manages to escape and make it home to tell his twin everything that happened. With some help from the family’s priest, they prepare to return and rescue their brothers.
Things don’t go the way that Ethan hoped, and what happens will change the twins’ lives forever.
Creepy and chilling, with Biblical echoes, Sarafina is a dark fairytale (the brothers’ last name is Belle) full of horrors deep in the woods.
*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 