Her lists are life or death. “If it’s on the list, I have to do it.”
Milli Morgan lives by her lists. Groceries, goals, organising her boss – nothing escapes being ticked off her ever-growing to-do lists. Order brings her comfort; control keeps the chaos at bay. Everyone can rely on Milli.
Until the day new items start appearing on her list in red ink.
At first, she blames stress. A prank. Someone playing mind-games. But one instruction on the list refuses to be erased and demands to be completed.
A command so terrible she would have to be crazy to tick it off.
Don’t Forget the Crazy is a dark psychological suspense short story about obsession, perfection, and the dangerous pressure of always being “the good girl.” Fans of Gillian Flynn, Lisa Jewell, Patricia Highsmith, and Shirley Jackson will devour this chilling portrait of order unravelling into darkness.
Lucy Kaufman is an award-winning author, playwright, audio dramatist and poet. 40 of her plays have been performed professionally around the UK and Australia, to critical acclaim. She has lectured in Playwriting and Screenwriting for Pen to Print and Canterbury Christ Church University and is a mentor at The Writing Coach. Originally from London, she now lives by the sea with her husband, sons, dogs and cats.
In the spirit of Practical Magic and First Frost, a modern-day magic folk tale weaves a fantasy of love, secrets, spellbooks, and family bonds into evocative prose ….
It’s common knowledge in Duran Hill that some women in the Kinley family have certain gifts … and certain curses … running through their bloodlines. But for three sisters in all but name — Rachel, Juliette, and their cousin Sylvia — the ties that bind them close as ivy throughout their childhood are pulled apart in adolescence when both the gift and curse of that power is revealed between them.
Since that fateful incident, sensible Juliette has tailored a perfect and perfectly ordinary life which unravels after she marries — and loses — the love of her life. Sylvia, drawn to the dark side, sets up a shop that caters to all the mystical powers the latter generations of the Kinley family shunned. And Rachel, the wild child, in whom its magic seems to create a charmed life, is a carefree wanderer who finds herself suddenly drawn home again. Her arrival will stir old rivalries and test forgotten bonds in the brief span of a few weeks.
But when an old friend in desperate trouble seeks her out, she will impulsively unleash the dangerous secret behind their power: one which has lain forgotten in the Kinley house for two generations. From the Siren’s song of a dead man’s violin to a jar full of harmless-looking buttons, nothing under the shadow of the family’s roof is what it seems — nothing in their bloodline is safe from the dangerous past.
For Juliette, it brings a test of whether love that has withered can bloom again. For Sylvia, a question of whether a dangerous mistake can only be endured until it destroys you. And for Rachel, the choice is the price between the future of the souls she loves most in life and a powerful force that both makes her the enigma she is — and makes to destroy her like embers caught in a firewind.
Against the backdrop of Southern charm, Scottish superstitions, and bewitching romance, ABRACADABRA casts a spell which cannot be undone, from the ache of lost love to the familial links between souls which go as deep as blood and bone.
Evanne Hardin Gray has spent most of her adulthood (and part of her childhood) writing novels, short stories, and screenplays. She has family roots in both New England and the South, which is where she currently writes (sometimes as a ‘ghost’), gardens, and collects books and ideas for them.
Twitter: Evanne Hardin Gray (@Abracadabrabook) / X Facebook
My thoughts: As a child I was terrified of Baba Yaga travelling in her pestle and mortar with her house on chicken legs surrounded by a fence of bones. As a teenager I loved Practical Magic (still do) so this book really felt like it was written for me.
Juliette, Rachel, and their cousin Sylvia were close as children but had grown apart as teenagers and adults. When Rachel returns to their hometown, where Juliette now lives in the family’s old house and Sylvia runs a magic shop selling charms and tarot readings, trouble follows.
An old friend, Angela, asks for help, and Rachel and Sylvia oblige, but their help backfires and draws the spirit of an angry, half-forgotten ancestor back into the world. Their great-great-grandmother Ana is not a kindly ghost, she’s a vengeful, rage-filled monster. The three women must find a way to contain and stop her before she wrecks too much havoc and destroys the three of them.
Dark, filled with tragedy but also tinged with the hope of a brighter future, this is a story of sisterhood, the ties of the past, inherited chaos and redemption. I loved it.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Gordon Slee fears he was never meant to be born. Anxious since childhood after hearing he was an accident, the forty-two-year-old is still struggling to escape the shadow of his high-achieving family.
But a glimmer of hope is on the horizon – a huge promotion within his hotel group is up for grabs, and he is sure that his time has come to make a mark on the world.
However, within his own department, redundancies are afoot. He may lose his job before he gets the chance. Until he learns of a historic covenant that preserves the right for sheep to run through the company’s top London hotel. Could he convince his boss that he’s the man to save the hotel from catastrophe?
Up in Bryn Nefyn, North Wales, live the descendants of the covenant owner. The elderly sheep farmer and his aging hippy brother could use the money the hotel might offer. But along with their strong-willed American shepherdess, they laugh at Gordon’s attempts to negotiate a deal. Surely, they couldn’t use a covenant that’s been forgotten about for over a hundred years. Or could they?
For lovers of upmarket commercial fiction with a touch of romance and comedy, The Approval of Sheep is an uplifting story about family and love, overcoming adversity and discovering our reason for our place in this world.
Karen Storey is an award winning fiction writer and has been featured on the acclaimed book podcast, The Bestseller Experiment. As well as a novelist, she is a prolific short story writer. Her stories have been published in various anthologies and placed in several international competitions. Her memoir pieces have also been published within the New York Times bestselling book series, Chicken Soup for the Soul.
Originally from New York City, Karen lives in Warwickshire, England and has written articles for American in Britain magazine. She lives with her husband, whose surname Storey was the perfect wedding gift. They share their home with a snarky cat who writes Karen’s monthly author newsletters and a crazy little Bichon Frise dog who barks at his own reflection. You can visit her website and subscribe to her newsletter at http://www.karenstoreyauthor.com
Win a signed copy of The Approval of Sheep and a luxury Welsh chocolate bar featuring a sheep by the award winning Welsh chocolatier, Sarah Bunton. (Open to UK Only) Enter Here
Karen Storey is also running more giveaways over on her Instagram / Newsletter – take a look here for more details
My thoughts: This was very entertaining, and features lots of sheep. Gordon wants to impress his boss and secure a promotion by buying off a Welsh sheep farmer whose family own an ancient right to drive sheep through the hotel where he works. Obviously this is a bit of a peculiar thing, and Gordon heads off to Wales to attempt to do a deal that will satisfy his boss, stop the farmer complaining and secure his future.
While in Wales he gets to know the family, the sheep and the land. He discovers that some things are more important than money and job titles, and that perhaps that world isn’t for him anymore.
I liked Gordon, he’s a pretty nice man and just a bit lost in his own life, his relationships with the Priddys and their sheep, and especially his growing love affair with shepherdess Jenna is a delight and the moment when he bonds with sheep Molly and solves the issue of her head butting is sweet.
It’s a funny, heartwarming book with a sweet romance and a protagonist that deserves nice things.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
*Terms and Conditions –UK entries welcome. Please enter using the Gleam box below. The winner will be selected at random via Gleam 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.*
The most famous necklace in the world has finally been found…
Bryher Finch’s life isn’t just a disaster, it’s a catastrophe, until a chance invitation to chart her family tree changes everything. As Bryher uncovers the ancestry she never knew about, she stumbles on the find of the century – Anne Boleyn’s ‘B’ necklace, as enigmatic as Henry VIII’s most notorious Queen herself. But Bryher isn’t the only one who wants the necklace…
Adrienne Chinn was born in Grand Falls, Newfoundland, grew up in Quebec, and eventually made her way to London, England after a career as a journalist. In England she worked as a TV and film researcher before embarking on a career as an interior designer, lecturer, and writer. When not up a ladder or at the computer writing, she often can be found rummaging through flea markets or haggling in the Marrakech souk.
Her debut novel, The Lost Letter, was published in 2019. Her second novel, the international bestseller, The English Wife, was published in 2020. Her third novel, Love in a Time of War, the first in a series of four books in The Three Fry Sisters series, was published in 2022. The second book in the series, The Paris Sister, was published in 2023, and the third book, In the Shadow of War, was published in March 2024.
Her next book, a historical timeslip novel, The Queen’s Necklace, will be published in September 2025, followed by the fourth book in The Three Fry Sisters series, set during WWII, in 2026.
My thoughts: Bryher is a bit of a miserable cow at the beginning, she’s clearly been set up but acts enough like a spoilt brat that it’s hard to empathise with her, at first. As she adjusts to her new reality in a version of the UK that seems to be a blend of actual modern Britain and the 1950s (especially when it comes to cousin Betty, who hasn’t joined the 21st century) and the role as Anne Boleyn in a new mini series, she stops being quite so stroppy and brattish. Thankfully.
The dual timeline narrative where sisters Anne and Mary Boleyn live is interesting although they seem very cruel to each other, especially Anne to Mary, which might have been how they were, considering their father constantly compared them to one another (he was such a great dad).
The link is the infamous Boleyn B necklace, worn in several portraits of Anne, lost somewhere in time (probably dismantled and fashioned into other jewellery) and somehow amongst the gems and trinkets hidden in cousin Betty’s mother’s jewellery box.
Betty and Bryher are distant cousins, both descendants of Mary Boleyn’s line (Anne has no direct descendants of course, her daughter Elizabeth I famously the Virgin Queen), whose children had lots of children themselves and whose eldest daughter might have been Henry VIII’s.
But the necklace is desired both in Tudor times and in Bryher’s. Anne takes it from Mary before eventually giving it to her niece, Catherine shortly before her execution (in this story) and Bryher tries to stop two rather unscrupulous men taking it, although she trusts the wrong one. Thank heavens for cousin Betty.
Speaking of cousin Betty, her constant refrain about being family shifts Bryher’s view of her own past, the difficult relationships she had with her mother and sister, the hardships and struggles they had. It softens her as a person and makes her less heartless, more sympathetic, her life has been mostly struggle and just as she thought things were getting better, it’s all been ripped away. I liked her more by this point.
It’s an interesting take on the Boleyn narrative, Anne’s family was pretty awful, her father always scheming to get wealth and power, using his children as pawns. Which ended with two of them executed and the surviving one estranged. The name of Boleyn besmirched for centuries.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Saskia is building a home for herself out of the ruins of an old castle. Surrounded by forest, hidden away from everyone and everything, the place is special – it’s the only connection she has left to her father and it’s a hard-won chance to escape from her difficult past and create a new future. She’s spent her whole life trying to find a way to make this project work and finding someone to help her realise her dream has been almost impossible.
When local builder Owen finally signs up to manage the construction, things get off to a very bad start. But forced to find a way to work together, both realise that first impressions aren’t always the right ones, and when Owen discovers the forest is hiding a secret that could bring work to a halt, he realises he’s much more invested in the project – and Saskia – than he thought . . .
My thoughts: This was a really lovely book, about home and family and what that means to you. Saskia thinks her dad would have wanted her to build a new home inside the ruins of castle at Gair, but comes to realise she’s already home, in her tiny house in the woods. She’s not the only one who finds sanctuary amid the ancient trees and ruins.
Owen is her project manager, unhappy and struggling. His wife wants a divorce, and his priority is his young daughter. He needs steady work and a home, not something Gair offers with all the challenges set against it. He also finds Saskia annoying at first, seeing her as a spoilt rich kid with foolish plans.
As they both try to keep the development on track, against opposition that comes from suspiciously high up as well as local, they get to know each other better and realise they might have rushed to judgement – of each other, and of Gair.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
On a cold winter’s day, a storm is brewing in the village of Weirbridge…
Georgie Dern has the chance to swap her empty nest for the job of a lifetime in Los Angeles. Can she chase her dream if it means letting down the woman who has given her the world?
Jessie McLean should be counting down the hours until she jets off to spend her retirement years in the sun. But when a devastating betrayal resurfaces, she has to choose between a fresh start and staying behind to settle old scores.
Alyssa Canavan has spent years building the business she adores. Now a legal letter has threatened her home and livelihood, but how does she fight a family that doesn’t give a damn?
Lachlan Morden is forced to return to Scotland to face the people who almost destroyed him. Will coming home reopen old wounds, or will a memory from the past lead him to the perfect revenge?
One snowy day, four lives, but who will have a bright new future when the snow is gone?
Shari Low is the multi-million copy bestselling author of over 30 novels, including the #1 bestsellers One Day with You, One Midnight with You and One Day and Forever.
My thoughts: Those of you who read my reviews regularly will know I love Shari’s books, and this one, filled with some familiar faces, is another charming, hug in a book.
Jessie and her husband Stan are due to jet off to a retirement in the sun, or are they? It’s Jessie’s birthday and there’s a party to get ready for, but a few things need sorting out before the cast of characters can dance the night away. An unwelcome reminder of past indiscretions, a rubbish ex-husband, a job offer, an eviction and other distractions mean before Jessie, her pals Val and Cathy, and her family, can don their gladrags, there’s some tough conversations to have, some decisions to make and before midnight strikes, everyone’s lives might be a bit different.
Loved it, of course I did, there are some very naughty triplets, lots of snow, cake, cups of tea, glasses of wine, confessions, heart-to-hearts and hugs doled out by the various members of Jessie’s family and friends, some of it while Shania Twain is being given a remix on the dance floor!
Shari’s books always have lots of twists and turns, but there’s a HEA not far away, so you know you’re in safe hands, it might currently be August outside, but in here it’s December, the snow is falling, and we’re getting cosy.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own
Where books are borrowed, and friendships are forged…
When her beloved grandfather dies, Ana Meštrović buys a catamaran in his memory, which she names Dida Krila – Grandad’s Wings.
For the summer months, it will be transformed into a travelling library, delivering books to children living across the Croatian islands.
Joined by crew members Natali, a young mechanic afraid of her own shadow, and Lloyd, an older widower who needs a fresh start, the newly-formed trio all have their own reasons for needing the floating library to be a success.
Embarking on an adventure that will change them for good, they each discover that a new chapter is only a boat ride away…
Publication Dates – 16th January 2026 (ebook) 29th January 2026 (paperback)
Eva Glyn writes escapist relationship-driven fiction with a kernel of truth at its heart. She loves to travel and finds inspiration in beautiful places and the stories they hide.
Set mainly in Croatia, her contemporary stories are more about friendship than romance, the coming together of people through shared interests, and the opportunity to make fresh starts in their lives. A love of books is a common theme too, so her publisher, One More Chapter, has christened them the Bookish Escapes collection which currently includes The Dubrovnik Book Club, and The Santorini Writing Retreat, with The Croatian Island Library to be published in January 2026.
In addition Eva has written two Second World War dual timeline romances, An Island of Secrets and The Collaborator’s Daughter, and a new beginnings novel entitled The Olive Grove. All are set in Croatian, a country she loves.
Although she considers herself Welsh, Eva lives in Cornwall with the man she met and fell in love with more than thirty years ago. She also writes as Jane Cable.
We have a fantastic book rec for you all today and a HUGE box of goodies for one lucky person! Check out The Seer by Liliyana Shadowlyn!
The Seer by Liliyana Shadowlyn (Tales Vs Time Book 1)
Release Date: May 28, 2025
Genre: NA Contemporary Fantasy
LGBTQIA+ Rep
Non-Binary BFF
Witch
Prophecy
Chosen Duo
You can’t outrun your family curse.
I thought high school was hard enough. At least I had my BFF Andy by my side, and we’d be attending the same college in the fall. What started with a family reunion has turned into the adventure from hell.
I didn’t ask for this. The prophecies. The magic. The obsession. The dragons. The warring deities. I just wanted to be a normal teenager. But because of who I am, the family I was born into, I’ve been caught up in a story that began centuries before I was born. It’s up to me to break the family curse, and I will let no one, man nor god, stop me.
Frank Armstrong, a successful but self-important portrait painter, is horrified to discover that Martin, a former student, has painted them together in an exposing scene as past lovers.
Despite his efforts, he is unsuccessful in persuading Martin not to exhibit the painting named ‘The Art Lovers.’ The matter escalates further when Martin has an accident and ends up in hospital in a coma, and the police investigate Frank as a suspect.
Once free from the police and their questioning, Frank is commissioned to paint a series of murals for the nuclear industry and rents a flat in Cumbria. But he soon finds himself amidst protesters and living in an environment very different to the one he grew up in as a child in Kendal.
Things are spiralling out of control when the building to house the murals he painted is burnt to the ground. However, thanks to his resourceful wife, Louise, and the efforts of two crafty art dealers, Frank muddles his way through the setbacks and is surprised to realise a newfound fame which leads to an unexpected reconciliation with Martin.
Apart from three years studying History of Art and Philosophy at University College London, I have lived my entire life in the North West – born in Warrington, lived and worked in Manchester, and fourteen years ago moved to north Cumbria.
After several years of freelance arts journalism, I ran a NW-based public relations agency called Lawson Leah in the 1990s, then worked for various organisations in the construction industry, as CEO of Construction for Merseyside Ltd and then Director of the Civil Engineering Contractors’ Association. I have been a guest lecturer on urban regeneration and chaired a housing association for three years, and now work part-time as a consultant.
I have had articles on a range of topics, including the arts, construction, engineering, housing and economic development published in numerous magazines, as well as poetry and a guidebook to waterway walks in the NW.
My approach to writing tends to involve identifying a problematic situation and then finding a means of resolving it. I derive particular pleasure from finding the right words to achieve that.
I was first inspired to write, as a teenager, after reading The Catcher in the Rye, and latterly find inspiration in the daunting novels of Bellow, Nabokov and Pynchon.
My thoughts: A group of grumpy old artists are stirred up when one of their former students paints a portrait implying that he, Martin, and his former tutor, Frank, had a relationship back when they were younger. Frank is horrified by this and confronts Martin, but his wife Louise is unbothered. When Martin suffers an accident and ends up in hospital in a coma, the police think Frank is involved, but thankfully the evidence points elsewhere. Another member of their group decides to put the cat among the pigeons and then mysteriously disappears.
Meanwhile Frank is commissioned to paint a series of landscapes, despite normally being a portrait artist, to encourage people to think positively about nuclear power. He is required to return to Cumbria, where he grew up, but finds a very different place to the one he knew. Then the building planned to house his work is burnt down and stuck with a series of paintings he doesn’t want, his agent conspires to include him in an art exhibition of queer artists, despite Frank not being one – because of the slightly infamous “Art Lovers”.
Filled with dry humour, grumpy old men and their much smarter wives and daughters, this was an interesting read, all about complex relationships.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
In the sleepy seaside sleepy town of Waverly, Rosie and Seb Kent are happily married. Now that Seb has achieved his dream of becoming headmaster of the local school, their lives couldn’t be any better.
Then Abi arrives. Abi, a young, single mother, has come to Waverly for a fresh start. She plans to reinvent herself and give her children a new life. Then she sees Seb.
As their complicated hidden past threatens to destroy them both, they try their hardest to keep it contained. But in a small town, secrets don’t stay hidden for long and soon, what should be their private business becomes a very public scandal.
How far will everyone – them, their families and the whole community – go to protect everything they hold dearest?
After studying at Edinburgh University, Emily Edwards worked for a think tank in New York before returning to London where she worked as a support worker for vulnerable women at a large charity. She now lives in Lewes, East Sussex with her endlessly patient husband and her two endlessly energetic young sons. Her previous novel, The Herd, was a number one bestseller.
My thoughts: I went to school before the internet, if there was gossip about teachers it was confined to our theories on the playground, and to parents at the school gates, you didn’t really believe they had private lives and you certainly didn’t know anything about them.
Now of course that isn’t the case, quite a few of my friends are teachers and they work hard to separate their professional and private selves. Occasionally bumping into your students in the supermarket is one thing, but the kind of drama in this book is something else entirely.
Seb might have done something that will harm his marriage, but is it really anyone else’s business? The scandal that follows comes from his best friend’s wife, Anna. She’s the one that decides it should be everyone’s business and in doing so ruins relationships and lives, including her own.
The repercussions from her decision to tell everyone what Seb did are shocking and violent, her inability to keep things to herself lead to some very nasty reactions. But what emerges from the rubble are in some cases, stronger relationships, healthier ones with no secrets. Maybe small town living isn’t for everyone, in a larger place, where people don’t know you quite so well, you can keep your past private.
*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 