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.
Friendships – fantastic. Family – getting better. Career – promotion on the cards. Romance – seriously delayed Sade Sodipo is ready to meet ‘the one’ and finally fulfil the Nigerian Dream. So far God hasn’t performed that little miracle quite yet, but it’ll happen this year for sure. Especially if her mother, two best friends, younger sister and all those in the unofficial Marriage Monitoring Aunties Association, have anything to say about it. She might love her job, have great friends, and even own her own home, but according to the meddling aunties, this is why she’s still single at 50. Not wanting to turn into a bitter aunty herself, Sade knows it’s time to get serious, but the options aren’t looking great – zero potential at church, work or in her social life. What if her prayers for the perfect man have got lost? Or maybe Sade’s happy-ever-after is right on time…
Author Bio – Ola Awonubi is an award-winning author, creative writing tutor, and speaker, known for her compelling storytelling that bridges cultures and histories. Born in London to Nigerian parents, she spent part of her childhood in Nigeria before returning to the UK, where she pursued her passion for writing.
Ola has authored eight books, including Love’s Persuasion, Love Me Unconditionally, and the anthology Naija Love Stories. Her historical fiction novel, A Nurse’s Tale, published by One More Chapter Books (HarperCollins) in July 2023, became a bestseller in Canada, earning a spot on The Globe and Mail’s historical fiction chart. It was also recognized by the Brown Girl Collective as a favourite historical fiction book of 2024. Her upcoming romantic comedy, The Marriage Monitoring Aunties’ Association, is set for release in Summer 2025, as part of a two-book deal. She is also working on a Jane Austen adaptation set in Lagos, currently under consideration by publishers and agents.
Beyond her writing, Ola is a creative writing tutor and speaker, sharing her expertise at prestigious events such as the Black British Book Festival, Meet-Cute Romance Festival, and London Festival ofWriting. She will also be speaking at The London Writers Festival, Jericho Writers Conference, inspiring aspiring authors with her insights on storytelling, publishing, and book marketing. Ola’s work has been featured in Afreada, Brittle Paper, Story Time, Woven Tale Press, and NaijaStories.com, with over 15 short stories published across various literary platforms.
Through her Substack newsletter, “The Resilient Writer,” she provides actionable writing guidance, digital resources, and industry insights, helping fellow creatives refine their craft and build their author brands.
Giveaway to Win a Paperback copy of The Marriage Monitoring Aunties Association (Open to UK only)
My thoughts: I really like Sade, she’s a successful woman, owns her own home, has a nice group of friends, is an active member of her church and a loving daughter, sister and auntie. She’s also single at almost fifty.
And while she’s not especially worried, it seems to be causing concern for her mum, and the infamous Marriage Monitoring Aunties Association, who always have plenty to say on the matter.
When she does meet the rather nice Jimi Taylor, there’s an instant attraction, but she wants to keep things professional and her mum isn’t too keen as he has an ex-wife and son. But Sade is a woman who knows her own mind and after a series of dates involving some very delicious sounding food (I wasn’t hungry before I read this book, I was after), things start hotting up, but can Sade keep things secret from the MMAA or will they be sticking their oars in?
Funny, wry and with a lot of heart, this is a great later in life love story.
Terms and Conditions –UK entries welcome. Please enter using the Rafflecopter box below. 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.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Adam Conlan has made a new life for himself in Morrow-on-Sea. After a wild youth, the goldsmith had settled down, determined to be around for his young son.
But now Ophelia Richards appears at his studio door, asking if he will buy her gold. The writer entices and unsettles him; he sees she is adrift in the same cold pain and loneliness as he is. At the same time, faces begin appearing at the studio window, an unwelcome gift arrives in the post, gold goes missing.
Then comes death, then comes Detective Inspector William Kent.
Woven through with Morrow’s fairy tales, Dead as Gold is a modern gothic crime novel veined with love, violence, family, and desire. Humans still use fairy tales to explore their deepest truths. So who is a wolf, and who is a sparrow?
Born and raised in South Gloucestershire, Bonnie Burke-Patel studied History at Oxford. After working for half a decade in politics and policy, she changed careers and became a preschool teacher, before beginning to write full time. She lives with her husband, son, and dog in south east London.
My thoughts: The use and retelling of fairy tales and folklore is actually my academic catnip (and the focus of my current PhD research) but I won’t bore you with theory, this is a really good book.
Interwoven with the story of goldsmith Adam and writer Ophelia, both very interesting names to choose, and the crimes that bring DI Kent into their lives, is a fairy tale featuring gold, chosen family, fathers and a child with a silver tongue and a heart of gold, deep in the forest.
Adam’s small shop is robbed and Ophelia is the first on the scene, there’s blood but no body, that comes later, pulled from the sea. Adam is alarmed, more about the safety of his son in the flat above the shop than the actual robbery. His slow-burn relationship with Ophelia feels almost secondary to the other ones he has – with his agent, his brother, his son, his son’s mother.
The police interview all of the adults around him, unravelling some other concerns that Adam isn’t entirely aware of, circling him, is this an insurance job?
The writing is lush and the small coastal town of Morrow feels ripe with its own stories, both dark and light. Ophelia visited as a child and it has drawn her back, despite the events of her last visit. Her Own familial relationships are strained, she’s not close to her parents and her first meeting with Adam was to sell him gold jewellery they gave her, devoid of the sentiment they imagine she will feel for it (being previously owned by her mother and grandmother).
A fascinating, dark and enjoyable book about stories, family and the ripples small events cause in our lives.
*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 threat of nuclear war is no longer scary. This is much worse. It’s invisible. It works quickly. And it’s coming…
The scourge has already infected and killed half the population in China and it is heading towards the UK. There is no time to escape. The British government sees no way out other than to distribute ‘Dignity Pills’ to its citizens: One last night with family or loved ones before going to sleep forever … together.
Because the contagion will kill you and the horrifying news footage shows that it will be better to go quietly.
Dr Haruto Ikeda, a Japanese scientist working at a Chinese research facility, wants to save the world. He has discovered a way to mutate a virus. Instead of making people sick, instead of causing death, it’s going to make them… nice. Instead of attacking the lungs, it will work into the brain and increase the host’s ability to feel and show compassion. It will make people kind.
But governments don’t want a population in agreement. They want conflict and outrage and fear. Reasonable people are harder to control. Ikeda’s quest is thoughtful and noble, and it just might work. Maybe humanity can be saved. Maybe it doesn’t have to be the end. But kindness may also be the biggest killer of all…
Will Carver is the international bestselling author of the January David series and the critically acclaimed, mind-blowingly original Detective Pace series, which includes Good Samaritans (2018), Nothing Important Happened Today (2019) and Hinton Hollow Death Trip (2020), all of which were ebook bestsellers and selected as books of the year in the mainstream international press.
Nothing Important Happened Today was longlisted for both the Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award 2020 and the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award. Hinton Hollow Death Trip was longlisted for the Guardian’s Not the Booker Prize, and was followed by the literary thrillers, The Beresford, Psychopaths Anonymous, The Daves Next Door, Suicide Thursday and Upstairs at the Beresford.
Will spent his early years in Germany, but returned to the UK at age eleven, when his sporting career took off. He and his partner run their own fitness and nutrition company, and live in Reading with five children and a tortoise.
My thoughts: This was suitably weird and intense for a Will Carver book. There’s a genius scientist in Dr Ikeda, who just wants people to be a bit nicer to each other, and a complete idiot in the British Prime Minister who cares more about getting away with all his indiscretions than the country.
Dr Ikeda finds a secret file that suggests someone, but not the Chinese government, plans to release a deadly virus, Tau, on the world. His team have developed a vaccine for this virus, but millions will still die. So being a brilliant scientist and a genuinely nice person, he engineers an alternative – a virus that behaves a bit like the flu but leaves the sufferer kinder, nicer, and hopefully makes the world a bit better.
He secretly releases his virus, watching it slowly spread from China to the rest of the world. Sadly there are some deaths, but nowhere near what Tau would have done.
Unfortunately for the British people, one of the people who was involved in the plot to release that virus was the PM. He’s a nasty, slimy man (I imagine him with a thatch of blonde hair that needs a good brush for some reason) who can’t seem to stop cheating on his wife and getting caught.
Despite being the perfect person for Ikeda’s virus, he doesn’t contract it, instead pretending he has been hospitalised. He really is the worst.
Then a deadly cloud of some sort is seen over China, it appears to be acidic in nature, melting flesh from bone and leaving behind millions of dead. Now it’s on a collision course for the UK. So of course the government issue suicide pills to the populace and tell everyone to say goodbye. As the world watches, what will happen to us?
I’m a bit torn as having lived through the delights of Covid-19, lockdown and the horrors of 2020, I don’t really like any sort of pandemic fiction, and there’s a lot of it about. But I really like Carver’s darkly funny, macabre and peculiar books. There were certainly bits of this book I enjoyed, and even found very funny, but I just don’t know if we need more books about pandemics and corrupt politicians doing dodgy deals behind our backs.
It wasn’t my favourite Will Carver book but it was enjoyable and clever, and I did really like Dr Ikeda and his wife, two truly good souls in a Sisyphean struggle. If you read it, let me know what you think, I’d love some different perspectives.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Meet Celia. Life hasn’t worked out quite how she’d planned. Since her son left for university, Celia has felt stuck at home – battling with her husband Geoff over control of the thermostat, and without the merest glint of a social life. Her only joy comes from the plants she nurtures in her makeshift plant hospital in their Glasgow flat.
Then three unexpected things happen:
She catches Geoff in bed with a secretary from his sausage factory (no pun intended).
Her high-flying best friend Amanda arrives on her doorstep without warning (but with a very large suitcase).
A tall handsome French teacher asks her to tend his daughter’s cactus back to health.
Suddenly, Celia finds her life in freefall, but she makes a decision: she won’t let this be the end of her. She’ll bring herself back to life, just like the plants she works her magic on. But just how do you change the habits of a lifetime?
My thoughts: I really liked Celia, and I love the idea of a plant hospital, as someone who is only able to grow succulents and cacti successfully but loves plants, I need a plant doctor on standby to help me keep the silly things alive.
She’s surrounded by people who love her, despite her deeply rubbish husband in his mouldy caravan. Even though things get a bit chaotic with Amanda crash landing in her spare room, her son home from uni, her mad neighbour bringing cake over and trying to get herself in gear, she’s a good person who deserves to be happy.
The book made me laugh out loud at times and I really liked Enzo and Mathilde too. Geoff the rubbish husband can get in the bin, along with his haggis en croute (yuk). This is feel good fiction at its best.
*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 Yorkshire village of Beddingfield is home to the wonderful women of the Allen family: teacher Robyn, wannabe chef Jess, teenage tearaway Sorrel and matriarch Lisa, who holds the whole family together. But underneath her warmth and brilliance, Lisa has a secret – she longs to know who she really is.
In Hudson House, the grand manor on the edge of Beddingfield which is now a care home, lives seventy-something Eloise Howard. With film star beauty but memories fading fast, Eloise is slowly taking one foot at a time back into her past. Born into a prestigious family, her father the owner of the local Hudson’s Mill, Eloise’s life was destined to be one of finishing schools and balls. But when her path crossed Junayd Sattar’s, the most striking and kindest man she had ever met, nothing would ever be the same again.
When Lisa begins to spend time at Hudson House and befriends Eloise, the two women form an unbreakable bond. But unbeknownst to them both, they share secrets that, once uncovered, will change everything they believed about their own lives.
In her unmatched warm and uplifting voice, Julie Houston’s funny and profoundly moving tale of forbidden love, friendship and family ties will stay with you long after you’ve turned the last page…
Perfect for fans of Jenny Colgan, Fiona Gibson and Cathy Kelly.
My thoughts: Yay! We’re back in Beddingfield in another fun, heart warming, enjoyable book from Julie Houston. Picking up a short while after the last book, we find Robyn still teaching at the worst school in Yorkshire, and all loved up with former barrister turned hopeful restauranteur Fabian.
Her mum, Lisa, is doing much better now under the care of her doctors and at a bit of a loose end volunteers at the care home where eldest daughter Jess works. There she meets Eloise, who used to live in Hudson House when it was a private home. Lisa is also wondering about looking into her biological parents, even if that means tackling her awful adoptive ones.
With the help of her girls, and a few friends, she starts to piece the past together, but what she uncovers is not what she was expecting at all. A love story across class and racial lines, heartbreak and tragedy, but in piecing it all together, she might just find happiness of her own. As long as none of her daughters have a crisis…
Funny, warm, witty and wise, this is a great book to curl up with of an evening, or out in the sun. Whatever the weather feels like doing really!
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Imagine you knew exactly when you were going to die…
Robin Edmund Blake is halfway through his life. Born in 1986, when Halley’s Comet crossed the sky, he is destined to go out with it, when it returns in 2061. Until that day, he can’t die. He has proof. With his future mapped out in minute detail, a lucrative but increasingly dull job in the City of London, and Gemma to share his life with, Robin has a plan to be remembered forever.
But when Robin’s sick father has one accident too many, the plan starts to unravel. Robin must return home to the tiny seaside town of Eastgate, learn to care for the man who never really cared for him, and face the childhood ghosts he fled decades ago.
Desperate to get his life back on schedule, he connects with fellow outsider Astrid. Brutally direct, sharp-witted and a professor at a nearby university, she’s unlike anyone he’s ever met. But Astrid is hiding something and someone from Robin and he’s hiding even more from her.
Katie Allen was a journalist and columnist at Guardian and Observer, starting her career as a Reuters correspondent in Berlin and London. Her warmly funny, immensely moving literary debut novel, Everything Happens for a Reason, was based on her own devastating experience of stillbirth and was a number-one digital bestseller, with wide critical acclaim. Katie grew up in Warwickshire and now lives in South London with her family.
My thoughts: I am the same age as Robin, we’re both 1986 babies, but the comet didn’t cross the sky on my birthday. Robin believes he is destined to live until Halley’s Comet returns in 2061. It’s very specific, and Mark Twain-ish. He’s got spreadsheets and everything.
But then his plans are knocked off course by his father requiring more care than the local council can provide, and he returns home to the small town he couldn’t wait to leave. His best friend Danny is still there, and as the two men reconnect, Robin has a lot to think about.
He also meets Astrid, who teaches German literature at the university, and who he forms a connection with, from rude garden gnomes to Kafka. She’s got a few secrets and doesn’t believe in pre-destination. So it’s not all smooth sailing.
Robin starts asking people what they’d do if they knew exactly when they were going to die. The answers range from the obvious – holiday of a lifetime, splurge, quit my job, to the more insightful. As he explores ideas around death and living, Robin stops keeping his spreadsheets and perhaps finally starts living in the moment.
Moving (there are some very sad bits), thought provoking, challenging but also very readable and enjoyable, this was an interesting and engaging book.
*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 