Young baronet Robin Blyth thought he was taking up a minor governmental post. However, he’s actually been appointed parliamentary liaison to a secret magical society. If it weren’t for this administrative error, he’d never have discovered the incredible magic underlying his world.
Cursed by mysterious attackers and plagued by visions, Robin becomes determined to drag answers from his missing predecessor – but he’ll need the help of Edwin Courcey, his hostile magical-society counterpart. Unwillingly thrown together, Robin and Edwin will discover a plot that threatens every magician in the British Isles.
The Binding meets Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell in debut author Freya Marske’s A Marvellous Light.
My thoughts: does anyone else get crushes on books? I have a crush on this book.
Magic exists and a department at the Home Office keeps an eye on it, it’s undercover in some ways, those with abilities keep them quiet and the general populace hasn’t a clue. Robin, Sir Robert Blyth if we’re being fancy, ends up in a job he’s not exactly equipped for, gets cursed and ends up on a quest for magical artefacts along with the rather lovely Edwin Courcy.
I’m not sure if magic is a metaphor for homosexuality in some way, both Robin and Edwin are gay, and it’s illegal and they mention Oscar Wilde’s trial. But despite this, and the secrecy needed, they fall in love. The descriptions of the way they observe each other are beautiful, the sex hot and the passion between them moving and tender.
As Edwin draws Robin further into the world of magic and they almost get murdered by a hedge, searching for magical artefacts, to keep them from the wrong hands, he realises that the arrogant toff he thought he’d need to get rid of swiftly is actually a kind, noble and brave person, who’d happily sacrifice himself for those he cares about.
When they discover their enemy and Edwin faces up to betrayal, it’s the bond they’ve slowly built that sustains him, the fact that Robin is by his side that convinces him to fight on and stop the rest of the Contract from falling into the wrong hands. I can’t wait for book two.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Welcome to the book tour for genre-blurring novel, The Blue Pendant by Rob James! This will be the first book in a new series called When Gods Clash. Read on for more info and enter the giveaway for a chance to win a $25 Amazon e-gift card!
The Blue Pendant (When Gods Clash #1)
Publication Date: November 15th, 2021
Genre: Paranormal Thriller/ Greek Mythology
Debilitated in Afghanistan, Angus MacDonald struggles to find peace and escape his nightmares. He visits Culloden Battlefield, Scotland, where ancient voices traumatize him. They reveal a shocking connection to his ancestors who died in 1746 where he now stands. They compel him to fight again, but this time against an unworldly enemy. Inexplicable and uncanny changes wrack his mind and body.
To protect humankind from slavery Angus must face the past, but more troubling, his future while unraveling the mystery of his heritage. He strives to discover millennia-old truths from Olympus, Greece, and the violent history that produced them. The truth of who bred him to die saving humanity. The most crucial battle of Angus’s story begins on the same infamous field of his clan’s decimation, but worse, when he returns to Washington, D.C., war follows.
Rob James’ WHEN GODS CLASH includes a fascinating take on Greek mythology through vivid world-building; a work of supernatural fantasy. Olympians are not what books describe. Here, they are real. The book is a searing, unique makeover of loved themes.
Rob James is a student of history and geopolitics and writing novels with historical themes is his passion. Dramatic events and tales from history help to create thrills and suspense. They also color flawed but compelling protagonists.
Since childhood, stories of Rob Roy MacGregor, and the ancient Greek heroes heightened Rob’s passion for reading. He knows them and the history of their times intimately, lighting the richly layered backstory of his novels.
When referencing ancient characters, tradition can become repetitive so Rob takes care to provide unique takes on the often-repeated tales. As his plots are set in the present day, intertwining the old with the new demands respect for the old, while giving them a modern punch; a lift to provide relevance and resonate with readers.
We are so excited to share the next installment of the Order’s Last Play series, The Third Gambit! Read on for more info and a chance to win a $50 Amazon gift card!
The Third Gambit
Publication Date: November 2nd, 2021
Genre: YA Fantasy/ Sci-Fi
Publisher: 48Fourteen Publishing
Lines about ‘prophecy’ and ‘destiny’ are best used in epic fantasies about heroes who like to wear capes. Too bad the living gods rolling the dice in this game forgot to include those characters.
After saving their older brother, Evan, and being forced to leave the lives they knew on Earth, Devon, Lyle, and Lawrence train to become the leaders of Rema—a planet they’ve never even heard of. And if that isn’t enough, they also have to rebuild a relationship with the brother they haven’t seen in over a decade as they struggle to control powers they didn’t hone on Earth. All so they can become the prophesied Four of Rema—whose choices will decide the outcome of an intergalactic war.
Separated and sent on quests to find power-magnifying gifts from a goddess, the Lauduethe brothers uncover devastating truths behind the war that lock the existence of everything they love in a deadly game of divine jeopardy. As they watch entire planets and their populations get eradicated, Devon, Lyle, Lawrence, and Evan must choose to either play the roles assigned to them by Order or be erased from existence with everything else.
WINNER OF THE READERS’ FAVORITE BOOK AWARDS 2017 YA FICTION, BRONZE MEDAL
Admitting what you are will end everything you know. Embracing who you are will start a war…
Life is great when you’re good-looking and popular…so long as no one knows you’re a vulatto. Being half-alien gets you labeled “loser” quicker than being a full vader. So it’s a good thing Devon, Lyle, and Lawrence can easily pass for human—until the night of the party. Nothing kills a good time faster than three brothers sharing a psychic vision of a fourth brother who’s off-world and going to die unless they do something. But when your brother’s emergency happens off-planet, calling 9-1-1 really isn’t an option. In their attempt to save a brother they barely remember, Devon, Lyle and Lawrence expose themselves to mortal danger and inherit a destiny that killed the last four guys cursed with it.
In 2022, there are humans and aliens, heroes and monsters, choices and prophecies—and four brothers with the power to choose what’s left when the gods decide they’re through playing games.
Ardell spent her childhood in Houston, Texas, obsessed with anything science fiction, fantastic, paranormal or just plain weird. She loves to write stories that feature young people with extraordinary talents thrown into strange and dangerous situations. She took her obsession to the next level, earning a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Southern Maine where she specialized in young adult genre fiction. She’s a big kid at heart and loves her job as a librarian. When she’s not working, she’s reading, writing, running writers critique groups, producing a web-show, and even writing fan fiction as her guilty pleasure. Her first YA science fiction novel, THE FOURTH PIECE (Book One, in the ORDER’S LAST PLAY series), was released by 48fourteen Publishing in July of 2016. THE FOURTH PIECE went on to win the bronze medal for YA Science Fiction in The Readers’ Favorite Book Awards 2017, Most Promising Series in the Red City Review Book Awards 2017, and to be a finalist for the 2017 RONE Awards for YA Science Fiction/Paranormal. THE THIRD GAMBIT is the second book in the ORDER’S LAST PLAY series and has an eBook release date of November 2, 2021.
Treacherous. Evil. Dark. Dorcha Wood is all of these things. And none of them.
The people of Felmore talk of Dorcha Wood in whispers, if they speak of it at all, fearing the wrath of the Cú-Síth should their words be carried on the wind. Those murdering beasts still roam the darkness of the forest, the last remnants of the cursed Aos Sí, a race of elves, long since vanished from the world.
But to Fiadh, it is home. Haven. A forest whose secrets become known only when it chooses to reveal them. Her life is one of balance until the outside world shatters it.
From the moment Fiadh set eyes on Gideon, the peaceful rhythm of her life was lost. As a new path unfolds, Fiadh confronts the reality of old hatreds, the consequences of things hidden, and the truth of who she really is.
Kristin Ward is an award-winning young adult author living in Connecticut. A science and math teacher for over twenty years, she infuses her geeky passions into stories that meld realism and fantasy. Kristin embraces her inner nerd regularly, often quoting 80s movies while expecting those around her to chime in with appropriate rejoinders. As a nature freak, she can be found wandering the woods – she may be lost, so please stop and ask if you see her – or chilling in her yard with all manner of furry and feathered friends. Often referred to as a unicorn by colleagues who remain in awe of her ability to create or find various and sundry things in mere moments. In reality, the horn was removed years ago, leaving only a mild imprint that can be seen if she tilts her head just right. A lifelong lover of books and writing, she dreamed of becoming an author for thirty years before publishing her award-winning debut in 2018. Her first novel, After the Green Withered, is one of many things you should probably read. Social Media & other links are all in one link: https://bit.ly/KWardAuthor
My thoughts: this is the beginning of a magical fairy tale, inspired by Irish mythology (and the author’s heritage) set in a wood full of creatures that most dismiss as folk tales to scare children. But at its heart is Fiadh, the girl of Dorcha Wood. She’s a healer like her mother and can communicate with the animals of the woods. Something very special. But she doesn’t belong in the world of men with their swords and violence and the wood protects its own.
Intriguing and mystical, the wood and Fiadh raise a lot of questions and it seems all the men in the story, from Gideon who wants to help and protect her, to the awful local lord who wants her captive, see nothing wrong with using force to get their way. Fiadh is alone and unused to this and puts herself at risk. Hopefully the second book in the series, Blood of the Lost Kingdom, will answer some questions.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
How gorgeous is this cover? I’m thrilled to share the cover for Insidious Scars by Natalie J. Reddy! Coming next Spring!
Insidious Scars
Expected Publication Date: Spring 2021
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy/ Paranormal Romance
This is what she’s been training for…
Jyoti has felt like an outcast all her life. Living among Psi with extraordinary power can be isolating and dangerous when you have no power of your own. But in weakness there is strength, a strength Jyoti’s mother has been training her to use to her advantage. When rumors of war begin circulating, Jyoti is offered an opportunity to help protect her people. However, it would mean giving up what she loves most. But when she finds out about a weapon that could cause the destruction of all mankind, she begins to question everything, even her own heart.
What do you do when protecting the greater good means you’ll lose everything you love?
Natalie J. Reddy is a Canadian Author who spends her days trying to escape reality by making up stories about the characters in her head.
Natalie realized at an early age that she had a passion for storytelling and that passion followed her into adulthood. There is nothing she loves more than to be pulled into a fictional world whether it’s in her own writing or the writing of others. Natalie is the author of the Scar of Days Forgotten series, a New Adult Urban Fantasy series with characters who have supernatural abilities and dark and sometimes unknown pasts to overcome.
When she’s not writing, Natalie can be found having all sorts of real-life adventures with her husband and daughter or curled up with a good book and a cup of tea.
To keep up to date on upcoming books, subscribe to Natalie’s newsletter at nataliejreddy.com
Danger. Darkness. Insatiable romance. Get ready for your new obsession.
Their union is his revenge. Isolde de Lara considers her wedding day to be her death day. To end a years-long war, she is to marry vampire king Adrian Aleksandr Vasiliev, and kill him. But her assassination attempt is thwarted, and Adrian threatens that if Isolde tries kill him again, he will raise her as the undead. Faced with the possibility of becoming the thing she hates most, Isolde seeks other ways to defy him and survive the brutal vampire court. Except it isn’t the court she fears most―it’s Adrian. Despite their undeniable chemistry, she wonders why the king―fierce, savage, merciless―chose her as consort. . . The answer will shatter her world.
Scarlett St Clair is the author of the Hades x Persephone saga, the Hades saga, King of Battle and Blood, and When Stars Come Out. A former librarian, she also has a master’s degree in Library Science and Information Studies and a Bachelors in English Writing. She is obsessed with Greek Mythology, murder mysteries, and the afterlife. You can find pictures of her adorable dog Adelaide on her Instagram (@authorscarlettstclair) and updates about her books at http://www.authorscarlettstclair.
My thoughts: Isolde agrees to marry the vampire king Adrian to save her father’s kingdom, a sort of Beauty & the Beast with royalty, she doesn’t intend on falling heavily in lust and then in love with him. But she does. The sex is quite graphic, and a reminder that not all fantasy is YA. As well as that, there’s an evil witch hellbent on destroying everything, monsters keep attacking people and even Isolde’s dear old dad can’t be trusted.
Isolde realises that she can only rely on a handful of people, and most of them drink blood. But she is loyal and fierce, a warrior before a queen. She will fight and she will get answers to what is happening in Revekka. The things she learns change everything. There’s lots of fighting and blood everywhere, nothing ever seems peaceful in the vampire kingdom, some of your enemies are your own council, and it’s getting worse. The undead seem to live at a faster, more frenetic pace and few mortals can keep up. Can Isolde hold the kingdom together and help Adrian deal with the evil in his past that’s determined to destroy it?
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Orphaned science nerd and maths prodigy Alice Valentine wants to ace her studies. She’s spent all her life struggling to make friends, passed between foster families and care homes, isolated and lonely. Losing herself in academia from an early age, she becomes the first sixteen-year-old at her local university. Her whole world changes, but nothing can prepare Alice for the night she’s attacked by a werewolf. But even that isn’t as strange as discovering she has an identical twin sister, Cassie. And Cassie kills werewolves. And all the other monsters Alice didn’t believe existed. Alice and Cassie set off to discover what happened to their parents, a journey that takes them from northern England to the edge of the apocalypse, unsure if they will save the world or destroy it.
Andrew French is a man of no wealth and little taste. He lives amongst faded seaside glamour on the North East coast of England. He likes gin and cats but not together, new music and old movies, curry
and ice cream. Slow bike rides and long walks to the pub are his usual exercise, as well as flicking through the pages of good books and the memoirs of bad people.
My thoughts: this was a fun supernatural novel about sisters, monsters and finding out who you are.
After being raised in the foster system, Alice is sent to university at 16, she’s super intelligent and the organisation that has looked after her since childhood has sponsored her early admission. Having possibly made her first friend, she’s attacked by a werewolf and rescued by a girl who looks just like her. And that isn’t the strangest thing that happens to her.
Cassie, Alice’s doppelganger, fights monsters. She’s very aware that they exist and some aren’t human. Her experience of foster care isn’t quite like Alice’s, and she’s a lot more worldly wise. And now the two girls want to find out who they really are, and why all of monster-dom is after them.
Alice is a scientist, and keeps trying to rationalise everything, even a vampire, while Cassie just accepts that these things are real, and kills them. But as they travel to Whitby and beyond in search of answers, even Cassie is in for a few surprises.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Lin Sukai finally sits on the throne she won at so much cost, but her struggles are only just beginning. Her people don’t trust her. Her political alliances are weak. And in the north-east of the Empire, a rebel army of constructs is gathering, its leader determined to take the throne by force.
Yet an even greater threat is on the horizon, for the Alanga–the powerful magicians of legend–have returned to the Empire. They claim they come in peace, and Lin will need their help in order to defeat the rebels and restore peace.
But can she trust them?
My thoughts: Lin is now emperor, she’s stopped the cruel practices of her father, she’s trying to keep the empire together, find out her father’s secrets, rule fairly and not fall victim to her inherited enemies. As she plans a tour of the islands, an army of constructs is gathering and other threats are coming too.
I like Lin, I feel a bit sorry for her, she’s up against an awful lot and doesn’t have many people she can trust to have her back. Even her Captain of the Guard, Jovis, has reasons to betray her. But they have to work together to solve the Alanga mystery – are they both possessed of the powers of the ancient magicians?
I also really like Jovis, and his companion Mephi, I like their relationship and the way Jovis wants to trust Lin but isn’t sure he should. I also really liked Phalue and Ranami, I think they were really interesting as they tried to govern their island and support Lin from afar. Up against their own challenges, it’s a bit like the empire in miniature.
This series just gets better and better, it’s a really enjoyable fantasy world, there’s a lot of clever, interesting things going on, the magic system is really intriguing and I enjoyed all the politics and intrigue.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
A lush historical adventure that’s equal parts Gothic horror as it is tale of lost love, The Gift: Eleanor is the first in an exhilarating new trilogy that takes you from the Titanic to the trenches of WWI, and Honduran shipwrecks to ancient crypts in the heart of London.
The North Atlantic, 14 April 1912. Amid the chaos of the sinking Titanic, a young Eleanor Annenberg meets the eyes of a stranger and is immediately captivated. As the ship buckles around them, she follows him down into the hold and finds him leaning over an open sarcophagus, surrounded by mutilated bodies. She catches but a glimpse of what lies within before she’s sucked into a maelstrom of freezing brine and half-devoured corpses.
Elle is pulled out of the water, but the stranger – and the secrets she stumbled upon – are lost. Unintentionally, however, he leaves her a gift; one so compelling that Elle embarks on a journey that pulls her into a world of ancient evils, vicious hunters and human prey to find the man who saved her that fateful night. From trench warfare at Cape Helles in 1915 to a shipwreck in the tropical shallows off the Honduran coast, from a lost mine beneath the towering Externsteine in a Germany on the verge of war to the gothic crypts of Highgate Cemetery in London, Elle gets closer to a truth she has sought for most of her life. But at what cost? Gifts, after all, are seldom free.
An immersive gothic story spanning decades, The Gift is a compelling read that weaves the supernatural of Dracula with the adventure of Indiana Jones.
My thoughts: this was a fun, adventurous romp through early twentieth century history, a lot of it terrible, following in the footsteps of a monster who kills his own kind and recruits others to his cause. Elle spends her life in pursuit of the mysterious Balthazar, hunting him across the globe, from Michigan to Folkestone, the Caribbean to German forests, she won’t stop looking.
Hidden in the relics and artifacts of ancient civilizations are clues to the creatures known as Crimen – the Guilty. Vampiric monsters who want only to feed on the flesh of the living, they wiped whole societies out, and few references to them remain. As a ethnologist, Elle has studied these traces, putting forward a theory about them that she slowly discovers might just be right.
She risks her life to find out more, especially as Germany edges towards the Second World War, her being American doesn’t stop her being Jewish making the increasingly violent state suspicious of her. But in being sent to Britain, a place she left in 1912, she might just finally get her answers.
Elle is a sort of scientific proto-Buffy. In love with a monster, and in need of her own Scooby gang (yes I spent my teens obsessively watching the show, yes I can still quote bits of it.) She’s incredibly smart and doesn’t care much about her personal safety. Balthazar has left clues all over the world as he wades through the trenches at Gallipoli, or hunts in the Belgian Congo, for the banshee Siobhan, carving a legend along the way. Setting everything up for an incredible series of exciting and hair raising adventures.
Who wants to win a book?
Fancy winning a copy of this fantastic tale? Then simply follow me on Twitter and tweet me this password: #TheGiftisGiving you have between right now and publication day on December the 9th.
UK/Ireland only, book will be provided by the publisher. ramblingmads is not responsible for safe delivery of your prize.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Set in modern India in a dimension where time and space are fluid, Monica Bhide’s The Soul Catcher, a novel in stories, is a mosaic narrative about destiny, grief, loss, faith, love, and sisterhood. It takes us on a magical journey that begins with an unspeakable tragedy, and concludes with a surprising resolution. It chronicles the life of Yamini Goins — the Soul Catcher — a woman who transports souls from one body to another to keep people alive. In Yamini’s India, one set in harsh realities and far removed from tourist traps and movie cliches, anguish and death battle second opportunities and powerful prayers in an eternal dance in which magic and the impossible are mere elements of everyday life. Is death the end? What are the consequences of prolonging life by supernatural means? How does pain shape our identity?
A violent, touching, unique narrative with a great sense of place, The Soul Catchers features a diverse cast of complex characters – pain healers and lovers, parents and broken souls – that bring life and death to the page. The Soul Catcher explores that which makes us human—the desire to live, the fear of death, the longing for love and the release that comes with the acceptance of fate. Throughout the dark overtones of the interwoven tales of this book, an electric current of transcendence echoes from every page as each character attempts to shift his or her destiny to the whims of their hearts.
Monica Bhide is an award-winning writer, accomplished literary coach, gifted poet, storyteller, and educator with a lyrical voice and universal appeal. As a bestselling fiction and internationally renowned cookbook author, Monica is known for sharing food, culture, mystery, and love in her writing.
A respected writing authority, Monica appears regularly on NPR and conducts sold-out workshops on writing, food, culture, and scheduled speaking events at prestigious venues as the Smithsonian Institution, Sackler Gallery, Les Dames d’Escoffier, Georgetown University, and Yale University. She has taught all over the world including conferences in London, Dubai, US etc. She has also been the “Writing Coach in Residence” for the annual conference of the Association of Food Journalists.
Monica’s short story collection, The Devil in Us, topped the list on Kindle as a bestseller in its category of Literary Short Fiction. Her memoir, A Life of Spice, was picked by Eat Your Books as one of the top five food memoirs of 2015.
Top Chef’s Padma Lakshmi picked Bhide’s Modern Spice (Simon & Schuster, 2009), as one of the “Best Books Ever” for Newsweek in 2009.
The Chicago Tribune named Monica “one of the seven food writers to watch in 2012”.
In April 2012, Mashable.com picked her as one of “the top ten food writers” on Twitter.
Her work has garnered numerous accolades and has been included in four Best Food Writing anthologies (2005, 2009, 2010, and 2014).
As a noted international food writer, Monica has built a diverse and solid audience through her books and articles in top-tier media such as: The New York Times, The Washington Post, Ladies Home Journal, AARP-the Magazine, Parents Chicago Tribune , Christian Science Monitor, Bon Appétit, Town and Country Travel, Food and Wine, Cooking Light, Coastal Living, Health, Better Nutrition, and many others.
My thoughts: this was a lyrical and beautiful book about love, pain, and saving lives. A magical realist novel featuring people with special gifts, from the titular soul catcher, her healer sister, a little girl who can summon the rain, another who can see the truth. Each story builds into a larger narrative connecting the soul catcher to each character along the way, as she returns to India in time to save the life of someone important to her.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 