Tag: previews

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Always by Your Side – Julie Haworth

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WINNER OF THE ROMANTIC NOVELISTS’ ASSOCIATION KATIE FFORDE DEBUT NOVEL OF THE YEAR 2023.

‘A warm, romantic story about community, friendship and following your heart, Always By Your Side is a feel-good delight, I adored it!’ HOLLY MARTIN

‘Always By Your Side engages the reader from the very first page, and immerses you into the lives of Rose and her aunt, in the delightful setting of Blossom Heath. I loved it’ PATRICIA SCANLAN

When school teacher Rose loses her dream job at a London primary school, her self-confidence takes a knock. Worse still, her stockbroker fiancé, Ollie, sees it as the perfect opportunity for her to join his firm, which only adds to the feelings Rose has that their relationship might be coming to an end.

An unexpected phone call, and an elderly aunt who’s taken a fall, means Rose must drop everything – including Ollie – and return to Blossom Heath, the Sussex village she grew up in.

With no job to rush home to, Rose decides to stay in Blossom Heath for the Summer, trading London for the idyllic countryside. Here Rose finds herself reconnecting to the village life of her childhood in more ways than one, including falling head-over-heels for local farmer, Jake.

So when her London life comes calling, Rose is faced with an impossible choice… to return to the high-pressure life of her past, or embrace the joy of a new life in the country.

Bursting with romance and charm, Always By Your Side is the perfect uplifting Summer read for fans of The Switch and Rescue Me, from an exciting new voice in women’s fiction.

My thoughts: I loved this, Rose rediscovers herself and the things that bring her joy while staying in her great-aunt’s cottage in Sussex. With Auntie Jean in hospital, Rose sets about sorting out the cottage, making new friends, meeting hunky farmers (just one really) and adopting a little dog called Scout.

She even gets a job at the local primary school, providing cover for a teacher off sick. It’s a massive change to her last teaching job and prompts her to think about what she wants from her career and her life. There’s always time to start over and she and fiancé Ollie definitely aren’t the same people they used to be.

A really delightful, uplifting and charming read. Just lovely.

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

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: An Ear For Trouble – K.T. Lee

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Elise Butler is a wildlife biologist who enjoys her stable (if somewhat predictable) job in finance at the World Wildlife Trust. However, when the veterinarian at Riverbend Animal Conservation Center goes missing, Elise offers to help the unlucky wildlife Conservation Center get back on its feet. Not only will the job in Riverbend, Indiana let her get back to her roots of working with animals, but it’s also a short drive from her sister’s workplace at Riverbend K-9 Academy, a training center for some
of the FBI’s best explosive detection dogs.
FBI Special Agent Finn Cooper and his canine partner, Sedona, are chasing a well-funded animal trafficking ring. After an injury sidelines Finn from official FBI undercover work, he goes to work at
Riverbend K-9 Academy to stay busy while he recovers…and to investigate his only remaining lead in the animal trafficking case.
Just as Elise begins to settle into life in Riverbend, her sister asks her to help the K-9 Academy by fostering one of their puppies. Finn is eager to keep Elise focused on training Zeke, the enthusiastic German shepherd puppy earmarked to become Riverbend’s first wildlife detection K-9, and keep her well away from his quiet animal trafficking investigation. Zeke quickly proves himself an expert both
at chewing shoes and sniffing out clouded leopards. When Zeke starts finding scents where they don’t belong, Elise and Finn begin to realize that the Conservation Center may be more criminal than
unlucky. And if Elise doesn’t keep her nose out of it, she might be the next target.
An Ear for Trouble is Book 2 in the Riverbend K-9 Series. All books in the Riverbend K-9 Series may be enjoyed as standalone novels or as a series.

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K.T. Lee is a writer, mom, and engineer who grew up on a steady diet of books from a wide variety of genres. She’s the author of multiple books, including those in the Riverbend K-9 Series and The
Calculated Series.

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Giveaway to Win 10 x e-copies of An Ear For Trouble (Open INT)

My thoughts: back to Riverbend K9 training school we go! This time we’re with Elise, a wildlife charity’s accountant and biologist who’s trying to help out a struggling zoo, that might be at the heart of an exotic animal smuggling ring.

Determined to help the FBI stop the trafficking, as well as teaching puppy Zeke to stop eating her shoes, she’s quietly digging into the accounts and every day activity of the conservation centre, even though FBI agent Finn worries she’ll get caught.

Obviously any book with animals is automatically better (frequent followers will know my theory) and this one has a lot of them, from K9 trainees to clouded leopards and lots of other creatures. Animals in danger bothers me, as it should anyone, so I’m glad, in fiction at least, there’s lots of people like Elise and Finn looking out for them. A fun and entertaining crime story with a twist of romance and of course lots of puppy kisses.

*Terms and Conditions –Worldwide entries welcome. 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 the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

books, reviews

Book Preview: The Lustre of Lost Things – Sophie Chen Keller

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Walter has trouble with communicating but a knack for finding things in the neighbourhood around his mother’s bakery – The Lavenders. But when this magical place is threatened, can Walter save the day or will his speech impediment stop him? 
This book is genuinely a delight to read. Walter comes alive on the page as do the characters he meets on his adventures. I wish The Lavenders was a real place you could visit. 

Chen Killer’s debut is a lovely, mug of hot chocolate of a read. It’s been compared to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night time but only in having a teen protagonist who’s a little different. 

The book will be published on the 8th of August so off you pop to place an order. 

books, reviews, upcoming

Book Preview: I Know My Name – C.J Cooke

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Eloise wakes up on a Greek island surrounded by strangers and with no memory of who she is and how she got there. 
Meanwhile in London Lachlan is frantically trying to find his wife, who’s disappeared without a trace. 

As both frantically spiral into their fears, secrets are revealed and things thought left in the past resurface. 

What starts out like a fairly typical thriller soon becomes something else. The exploration of mental illness and people’s choices is thought provoking without feeling exploitative and the characters, while definitely privileged, are flawed and relatable. 

Due for publication on 15th June 2017, I really enjoyed this book. I like a good psychological thriller and this is definitely a good one.