Tag: reviews

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Bob and Shirley’s Guide to Murder – Suzy K Quinn

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Bob and Shirley run a lovely country pub. They also solve murders …

A warmly funny, gloriously British cozy crime and murder mystery series that can be read as standalones or part of a series. Set in a village where the pub is the heart of country life and served with warmth, wit and a very good Sunday roast.

“Murder? In our quiet, little English village?
Great Oakley is a place of hanging baskets, tearooms and riverside walks. We’ve won ‘Britain’s safest village’ 10 years running. I keep three pound coins, a box of toffees and a bottle of Pepto-Bismol on my dashboard at all times, and I’ve never needed to lock my car.
Certainly, Bevvy Hogg was disliked. She ran the local Waist Watchers group, yet came to our pub for fish and chips, treacle tart and a bottle of Chardonnay every Friday. But I don’t think she was murdered …”

When Bevvy Hogg is found dead in the Goose and Gander pub garden, with an empty treacle tart plate beside her and several dress sizes slimmer than anyone remembers, Great Oakley’s winning
streak as Britain’s safest village comes to an abrupt end.

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Suzy K Quinn (hello – it’s me!) is writing this bio in the third person. Which feels duplicitous and also a little egotistical. But here goes …

Suzy K Quinn writes book club books and murder mystery series, and has sold over 1 million copies worldwide. She’s a bestselling author in the US, UK and Germany and will soon, very possibly, have written more books than she’s read.

Suzy lives in Wivenhoe, Essex, with her husband and two daughters. She is a twin, an incompetent parent of two and now fully decaffeinated. Her twin sister, Cate Quinn, is also a bestseller author.
When Suzy isn’t writing in cafes, she is walking around woods dictating like a lunatic.

Suzy loves her readers and is ALWAYS happy to chat on facebook
You can also get a free book at her website

Facebook  Author Group
Tiktok @suzykquinn
Instagram @suzykquinn
Twitter @suzykquinn
Threads @suzykquinn

My thoughts: This is very funny, Bob and Shirley alternate in telling you their theories, suspicions and personal vendettas (mostly Shirley).

Pub regular Bevvy Hogg is found by Bob one morning as he goes to check on his tomatoes, dead on the patio he lovingly power washes every week. There’s a suspicious yellow stain next to her and she’s removed her ever present cardigan.

Bevvy was in the pub the night before, downing jugs of water and acting a bit strange. Was she poisoned by John Boy’s cooking? Bob and Shirley are sure their nephew is innocent and are determined to prove it so he can enter the village bake off, but who killed Bevvy Hogg and why? 

It’s a convoluted tale of bitter people and long held grudges (many of them Shirley’s) with cake, fish and chips, a Sunday roast and a brand new uncorruptible police constable working on solving the case with some help from Bob’s spreadsheets, a fox called Cyril and Shirley’s unique way with words.   

Giveaway to Win an e-copy of Bob and Shirley’s Killer Cuppa Puzzle (Open INT)**


One of Great Oakley’s five open gardens served poisoned tea. Can you work out which one before  Bob does?

‘Like Murdle and a cozy mystery rolled into one.’

Murder mystery logic puzzle stories for fans of The Killer Isn’t Alice, Murdle and Can You Solve the  Murder?

These are ‘Puzzlories’. Read them like stories, solve them like puzzles. Each one takes about an hour  to read and solve.

It’s Open Gardens weekend in Great Oakley. Five gardeners have opened their gardens to the public,  and each is offering a unique drink, cake, flower and interesting garden feature to their fellow
villagers.

Unfortunately, one garden owner poured poisoned tea. Probably not on purpose. But you never  know. There are more murders in Britain’s safest village than you might imagine.

Village pub landlady Shirley Duffy visited all five open gardens before returning to the Goose and Gander for a much-needed beer and a sit down. One of those five gardens was the scene of the  crime.
The trouble is, Shirley’s memory is known to be … selective. She can remember every cake she’s  eaten since 1987, but not necessarily when and where she ate it. And she can’t remember which
garden served tea on Saturday afternoon.

Shirley’s husband, Bob, is frustrated that Shirley can’t remember one garden from another. But he finds many things about his wife frustrating, and loves her anyway.
As Bob presses Shirley for details, the clues pile up. Your job is to note them down and work out who served the tea before Bob does.

Twenty clues, one in every short chapter. Fill in your detective’s grid, cross off your suspects and  name the poisoner.Grab your notebook, put the kettle on (carefully) and see if you can beat Bob to the answer.

*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 –Worldwide 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.**

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Last Tenant – Eva Björg, Ægisdottir, translated by Victoria Cribb

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When the skeletons of a young woman and a baby are uncovered on a long-abandoned farm in Hvalfjörður, it is clear they were buried years apart. West Iceland CID begins to investigate the disturbing discovery, aware that someone has gone to great lengths to keep the past hidden.

In Akranes, Karitas, a young single mother seeking a new start, settles in with her four-year-old son and rents a basement flat from an eccentric landlord. A cautious sense of happiness returns when she meets the boy next door.

But when news breaks that a local girl has been murdered, Karitas must decide who she can trust, knowing that one wrong choice could place her and her child in danger. Detective Elma is drawn into the case, forced to navigate long-hidden family secrets to understand a killer’s motive, while struggling to hold together her increasingly troubled relationship with Sævar.

Born in Akranes, Eva Björg Ægisdóttir studied for an MSc in Globalisation in Norway before returning to Iceland and deciding to write a novel.

Her debut, The Creak on the Stairs, was published in 2018, becoming a bestseller in Iceland and going on to win the Blackbird Award and the Storytel Award for Best Crime Novel of the Year. It was published in English by Orenda Books in 2020, and became a number-one bestseller in ebook, shortlisting for Capital Crime’s Amazon Publishing Awards in two categories, and winning the CWA John Creasey New Blood Dagger.

Girls Who Lie, Night Shadows, You Can’t See Me and Boys Who Hurt soon followed suit, shortlisting for the CWA Crime in Translation Dagger, the Capital Crime Awards, and the Petrona Award for Best Scandinavian Crime Novel. You Can’t See Me won the Storyteller Award for Best Crime Novel of the Year in Iceland in 2023. In 2024, Eva won Iceland’s prestigious Crime Fiction Award, the Blood Drop, for Home before Dark and was shortlisted for the coveted Glass Key.

The Forbidden Iceland series, due to hit streaming services in Autumn 2026 via GlassRiver, has established Eva as one of Iceland’s bestselling and most distinguished crime writers, and her books are published in twenty-nine languages with more than a million copies sold.

My thoughts: This creeped me out a bit, especially when Karitas thinks someone has been in her flat while she’s out but she can’t prove it, and feels paranoid – that’s something I would not cope with, too many TV shows and books about someone living in your house without you knowing.

But it is a creepy story – the missing woman who spent time in the basement flat, the slightly weird (but ultimately quite sweet) old man upstairs, the next door neighbours who are definitely not right, the baby found buried in the old barn not far from the missing woman.

And it’s complicated, no one has lived at the farm in years, the people who worked there are hard to trace as there’s only nicknames to go on in some cases, the trace DNA evidence that throws uncertainty on the identities of the remains.

However, it is so well written, so compelling it completely hooks you and draws you in. I felt for Karitas and her little son, and for their landlord, who was clearly still mourning his lost family, both lost souls in need of support and found family.

This series is so, so good, you need to get into it if you love crime fiction, smart, but really human, detectives and cases that make you go 😮

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

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Book Review: A Calamity of Waters – Chloe Turner

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Habren has never quite forgiven herself. Her father only sings bawdy carols for farthings these days, none of the sweet songs he used to sing their mother, and perhaps it’s no wonder her sisters Syble and Margret have put many leagues between themselves and their old home.

But then Syble summons her to Gloucester, and if Habren can keep on the right side of their pin merchant master, perhaps it’s the chance she needs to make up for the past.

Then the river rises. In a single January morning, the Severn floods the vale and upends every life in it. And somewhere down that swollen estuary is Ambrose, the man Habren loves.

With Syble and new friend Raynould beside her, Habren sets out for Bristol to find him, through a city the flood has torn apart. And as they search, secrets they have kept close to their hearts begin, one by one, to surface.

My thoughts: This was an interesting read, as we follow Habren, her sister Syble and their friend Raynould escaping their master’s repressive household in Gloucester and heading to Bristol to find Ambrose – the young man Habren loves.

A terrible flood has them fearing the worst on their journey, where they will encounter thieves, a woman giving birth, a hanging, and violence. They stop at their older sister’s house first and then their father’s, as Habren examines the past, their mother’s death, and tries to use the strange gifts her mother gave her to divine the future.

It’s a moving and beguiling story, as the trio follow the path of the river in search of new possibilities and redemption from the past.

I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review, all opinions remain my own.

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Hidden Library – Sharon Gosling

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Sometimes the right story leads you home . . .

When bestselling author Helen finds herself at the centre of a scandal, she escapes to Rathbrooke Hall on a remote island off the Northumberland coast.

Tasked with cataloguing the books of a reclusive collector she’s relieved to be out of the glare of publicity, even if the locals are less than welcoming. But as she spends more time among the dusty bookshelves and rare first editions, she uncovers clues to a secret collection of books that could save the island – and the community that she’s begun to feel part of.

Can she unravel the mystery of the hidden library and can she trust Thiago, a charming librarian with secrets of his own?

Sharon started her career as an entertainment journalist, writing non-fiction books about film and television. She is also the author of multiple children’s books. Sharon and her husband live in a small village in northern Cumbria where they run a second-hand bookshop, Withnail Books in Penrith. She can be found on Twitter @sharongosling.

My thoughts: I loved this, a huge house, a magnificent library, secrets and a lost Shakespeare manuscript – this could not be more me. It’s the stuff literary nerds dream of. 

On an island off the Northumberland coast, where a reclusive collector has built a library of rare and precious books (the smell must be heavenly, all those old books) Helen has been sent to catalogue and also try to find the late owner’s will.

When a man who looks like a pirate turns up claiming to be a librarian who had been in contact with Cyril, Helen is swept into a quest for a missing Shakespeare manuscript that might just be hidden in the library.

There’s danger, intrigue, possibly ghosts, definitely a grumpy teenage girl, storms, possible romance, giant cats and if this house was real I’d be campaigning to move in as the resident librarian.

It’s an enchanting and very enjoyable read, and if like me you like books about books and bookish people – you’ll love this.

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

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Other Life of Mary English – GD Harper

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Two Different Women. One Shared Destiny.

Mary English, a dockworker’s daughter from Faversham, England, travels to South America to escape a scandal from her past. She ends up running a cacao plantation in Colombia, at a time when women were not legally allowed to own businesses there.

Manuela Sáenz, tempestuous lover of Venezuelan revolutionary Simón Bolívar, serves as a colonel in his army. She joins him in battle to fight the Spanish and twice saves his life from assassination attempts.

This is the story of two real-life remarkable women, both fighting oppression, hardship and danger in 1820s Colombia, who come together to change the course of a nation’s history.

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GD Harper became a full-time author in 2016. He has written three psychological thrillers, Love’s Long Road, A Friend in Deed and Silent Money, and two historical novels, The Maids of Biddenden and Arden.

The Maids of Biddenden was the winner in the historical fiction category of the 2024 Next Generation Indie Book Awards, the largest international awards program for indie authors and independent publishers, and was shortlisted for the 2023 Selfies Award at the London Book Fair.

Arden was placed third in the 2024 Yeovil International Literary Prize. The Other Life of Mary English was a finalist in the Eyelands Book Awards. He has also been longlisted or shortlisted for fourteen
other awards.

His books have had over one million page reads on Kindle Unlimited, been number one most downloaded e-book on Amazon UK, number three on Amazon worldwide, and garnered over two thousand reviews and ratings on Amazon and Goodreads, with an average rating score of 4.4.

He lives in East Sussex and, when not writing, can be found wild camping in the Scottish mountains or in the mosh pit at live music events.

Website  Instagram: gdharperauthor

My thoughts: I love learning about women from the past, especially those who defied convention and forged their own paths as both Mary English and Manuela Sàenz did at a time and in a place that did not encourage them at all. 

Mary returns to Colombia as a widow, and as the agent of a bank aiming to establish themselves as the go to for all the material comforts of Britain in the newly established republic. She’s attempting to outrun a scandal too. Her first husband was a bigamist and is still alive, unfortunately in South America, and while her marriage to General English was legitimate, her daughter Eliza isn’t.

She becomes the Belle of Bogota, a society hostess, popular with the locals of high society and the British military types. She plans to marry Colonel Campbell but the threat of scandal destroys that, although he remains both Britain’s chief envoy and a loyal friend. Instead she marries William Greenup and together they buy a cacao plantation, with dreams of making their fortune from chocolate. 

When William must return to England, Mary runs the plantation with the help of her foreman. But this is unheard of and adds more challenges to her ambitious plan. 

At the same time Simòn Bolívar is fighting against the Spanish to liberate and hopefully unite South America. His lover, Manuela Sáenz, is by his side, even traversing the mountains of Peru to be with him in battle. She’s incredibly brave and resourceful, risking scandal and her life to accompany the Liberator as he fights for a new future.

The two women form an alliance and share information in an attempt to prevent Bolívar from being assassinated.

While some parts of the story are fictionalised, GD Harper draws on the letters and diaries from the time and from both women to bring their world, of revolution and struggle, to life.

An absolutely fascinating 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.

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Paper Over It – Ruth Gresty

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Jennifer Jones is in control.

Jen is confident she has complete control over the things that are trying to control her. Until she isn’t. Until she hasn’t. Until she realises she has never been in control at all. She’s been papering over it for years.

It’s the start of the year 2000. A new millennium has arrived. For Jen and her three friends, university life in Manchester is full of possibility and endless fun. Sassiness, spontaneity, marvellous mayhem and youthful optimism reign in the Manchester rain.

But beneath the sometimes brash bravado sometimes even the most resilient, carefree, fun-loving characters who, on the surface look like they are living their best lives, are perilously close to falling
apart. Over the course of one unforgettable year, the young women confront their own realities and
truths. Some make foolish mistakes and others life changing choices.
Sometimes heartwarming and other times heartbreaking, but always brutally honest.

This is a story of friendship, mistakes, self-discovery and acceptance; identity, love and the messy reality of becoming an adult. It’s about the masks we wear, the mistakes and choices we make, and the
courage it takes to stop papering over it and face ourselves when everything feels like it’s falling apart.

It’s real, raw, raunchy, sometimes random and frankly rude at times. Just like Jen and her friends.

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Ruth has worked in Marketing for twenty-seven years and has always loved writing and storytelling.
Understanding people and their behaviour, creating stories that resonate and developing engaging and enduring narratives have all been key to success in her professional background.

From a personal perspective, Ruth is a Manchester born, bred and based menopausal mum of three boys (twelve, fifteen and twenty seven). She spends most of her weekends trying to manage the
family mayhem with her partner Simon and watching their younger boys on the sideline of various sports pitches hunting for a loo (occasionally having to resort to a wild wee), a sausage sandwich and a brew while trying to keep warm in doubled-up big socks (mainly stolen from the males in her house) and multiple layers (having had it drilled into her since childhood that it is the number of layers that count, not the thickness of each layer – the complete opposite of friendships).

A nasty accident on Good (Bad) Friday in 2024 meant she spent several months sat on her arse with one leg having to be perpetually higher than said arse. As an energetic, self-confessed curator of chaos, she needed something to focus on and keep her from going frankly crazy. And keep her family from going crazy too. She found that you can’t do much when you’re in acute pain with one leg in the air (including the jigsaws and ‘paint by numbers’ well-wishers had kindly gifted her). But you can read, reflect, think and you can definitely reminisce and daydream. And you can write. Which is what she did.

Her debut novel, Paper Over It, combines her sometimes over-enthusiastic imagination with insights gained from growing up in the 80s and becoming a young mum in the late 90s, her silent struggle with eating disorders in her earlier years, the power of some relationships and the destructive nature
of others, and the joy of family, friendship, loyalty, hope and laughter.

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My thoughts: I’m a bit younger than the characters in this book, but I do remember the early 2000s, I was a teenager and the music the girls listen to was the soundtrack to my year back then too.

Jen, Em, Lou and Kate are all at Manchester uni, with their final year (except for Kate who’s on a 4 year course) and their futures all ahead of them.

Over the course of a tumultuous year, they’ll fall in love, figure out their next steps, party hard and deal with heartbreak, unexpected surprises and learn how to be adults. 

I really enjoyed the book, I liked the four young women at the heart of the story, their adventures, mistakes, and the bond they share. It was funny, life affirming and enjoyable, a book with real heart. 

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

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Crooked Medium’s Guide to Murder – Stephen Cox

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London 1881.

Can two crooked women stop a murder?

Extravagant medium Mrs Ashton and her lover, blunt working-class Mrs Bradshaw, run a spiritualist  scam. Mrs Ashton secretly reads minds.

Believing that Mrs Ashton is genuine, grieving Lady Violet craves the truth behind her mother’s untimely death. But Lady Violet’s powerful husband Sir Charles hates spiritualists. Has he killed before?

Uncovering this MP’s wicked crimes will put all three women in terrible danger…
To solve a shocking murder, look both sides of the grave.

“I loved this book! Victorian murder mystery meets “ghost” story, with delicious sprinklings of compassion and mischief…”
Caroline Day, author of Sunday Times Bestseller Hope Nicely’s Lessons for Life

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Exciting News: Book 2 in the Crooked Medium series is now available for pre-order!!

My grandmother told me I read too much. I remember walking in the garden when I
was small, telling myself stories. It was over thirty years of wanting to be a novelist before I tried…  and succeeded.

The Crooked Medium’s Guide to Murder arose because I wanted to write about Britishness and  specifically about Englishness; about our complex relationship with the past; I wanted leads who  were morally grayer but still capable of kindness. It was time for a novel with queer leads. And in quite desperate times, I needed to write something with some uplift. It’s the first book intended to
start a series.

My first books, Our Child of the Stars and Our Child of Two Worlds are set in the 1960s USA. It’s about Gene and Molly, a childless couple, and Cory, the little boy from the stars that they adopt, under such
challenging circumstances. The books got lovely reviews and are available on both sides of the Atlantic.

I spent nearly all my childhood in Bristol, and I’m now an adoptive Londoner. I live with my partner, and it’s the best thing our two adult children come back from time to time. Our garden rages wild.


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Giveaway to Win 4 x Signed Books by Stephen Cox (Open to UK Only)
Prize includes – Our Child of the Stars, Our Child of Two Worlds, The Crooked Medium’s Guide to Murder and the Crooked Medium’s Guide to Terror.

Win 4 x Signed Books by Stephen Cox (Open to UK Only)

My thoughts: This was really good, Mrs Ashton, a spiritualist, and her companion/partner Mrs Bradshaw (Braddie) are often in trouble, having to leave places at short notice but they’re trying to settle, although Braddie wants a cottage somewhere quiet and not in London.

Unfortunately they’ve got themselves involved with a truly unpleasant man. He’s an MP and violent. His wife wants their help, but he threatens them, and worse. As they get more and more mired in the relationship between Lady Violet and Sir Charles, and end up at the country estate, things get worse.

I loved Maisie, the leader of their Baker Street Irregulars, she’s fiery, smart as a whip and could be a brilliant detective. She also looks after her younger siblings and her Pa, making sure they have what they need.

The case is knotty and clearly Mrs Ashton has form, with the police, creditors and trouble. But she also knows how to read people – both with and without her mysterious powers. Her relationship with Braddie is delightful, although faltering at times as Braddie wants to stop running and settle down while Mrs A enjoys her work and the people she meets.

I’m looking forward to book two – keen to see how much trouble they get themselves into.

*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.

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Blog Tour: Dungeons & Dimwits – James Mascia

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Dungeons & Dimwits is a fantasy comedy series about a group of gamers trapped inside their own tabletop role-playing campaign. This first volume begins their journey as they discover that their imaginary world is now very real―and very dangerous. The series follows the party as they face monsters, magic, rival adventurers, impossible quests, and the consequences of their own chaotic

storytelling. Readers should begin with Volume 1, which introduces the characters, the world, and the hilarious disaster that launches the adventure.


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James Mascia is the founder and publisher of Dren Productions, where he creates sci-fi, horror, and fantasy comics and novels packed with imagination, humor, and thrills. He is the author of titles including Flesh-Eating Cheerleaders, Dungeons & Dimwits, The Poe Murders, and High School Heroes. When he’s not writing strange and exciting stories, James works as a high school English teacher in Maryland. A lifelong fan of Comic Cons, cheesy sci-fi and horror movies, and Dungeons & Dragons, he brings his love of genre storytelling into everything he writes.

Facebook/Instagram – @DrenProductions

My thoughts: Sucked into the role playing tabletop game (rptg) that shares it’s initials with this book’s title, a group of friends discover that things have just got very real. And that two of them are apparently girls now.

Trying to find a way out of the fantasy world where everything is trying to kill them only seems to make things worse. They’re not powerful to escape and they need to level up and also defeat a sorceress who seems to be the reason they’re stuck. So side quests it is. Once they escape the dwarf dungeons they’re currently stuck in and stay alive long enough to get home.

It’s funny, silly and perfect for anyone you know who likes D&D or other role playing games. You don’t need to know all the ins and outs of the games to enjoy it though, I have beginner’s knowledge gleaned from having friends who play these games, and I found it very entertaining.

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

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Blog Tour: The Mothers of SW19 – Catherine Yardley

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Unassuming Emma, a blogger turned wannabe social media influencer, moves to an exclusive enclave in SW19 to get her son into the best school in the area. On the first day of school, she bumps into Annabel, a gregarious journalist who is head of the PTA.

An unfortunate misunderstanding leads to a clash, and the school gate mothers taking sides. Emma’s world has been blown apart by motherhood. As she struggles to find her new identity, she has to defend herself against Annabel and her clique. The mean girls with mortgages.

Emma learns a devastating secret about Annabel that could destroy her entire life. Will Emma play dirty to win, and what lengths will Annabel go to protect what she has?

There can only be one winner. But what will be the cost?

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Catherine Yardley is a freelance journalist and author. She writes for The Sunday
Times, Stylist, The Times, Telegraph, Metro, Huffpost and the i paper. She’s the editor-in-chief of Frost Magazine. The Mothers of SW19 is her third novel. Her two other books published are Ember
and Where The Light is Hottest. Both did well and got fantastic reviews. She has been on numerous podcasts, including The Conversation with Nadine Matheson and Confessions of a Debut Novelist with Chloe Timms. She lives in SW19 with her husband and children.

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My thoughts: Emma is hoping to make friends with the other mums at the school gate, but after a brief encounter with Queen Bee Annabel and her Mean Girls with Mortgages (MGwM), she’s left feeling a bit deflated, and when they start a campaign to discredit her and destroy her fledgling social media career, because Annabel says so, she’s totally thrown. It doesn’t help that her son and her nemesis’ son are now best friends, thrusting the two women constantly into each other’s lives.

However, a brief indiscretion on Annabel’s part, caught on Emma’s phone, gives her potential leverage. Will she utilise it as they go head to head for the vacant governor’s position at the school? And when things spiral out of control and lead to tragedy, can either woman come back from that?

What starts as a silly Mean Girls feud rapidly overwhelms both of their lives, threatening to destroy everything. Can they de-escalate and back down in time? Or will SW19 be gossiping about them forever?

Clever, funny and with a truly shocking twist, this is what happens when mean girls get older but don’t really grow up.

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

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Blog Tour: Split Second – R.C. Bridgestock

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What if one moment – one split second – changed everything? 

When a firearms officer shoots a suspect dead and wounds another, who later dies in hospital, the official line is that the sun was in her eyes. Her body cam failed.

Known only as Officer X, her anonymity is meant to protect her – until a judge releases her name and a media storm erupts. Detective Superintendent Jack Dylan and DI Charley Mann are called in to determine whether it was a justifiable use of force – or something darker. And when it’s revealed that Officer X knew the victim, and her brother died of a drug overdose linked to the same woman, the case becomes charged with personal and political tension.

As pressure mounts, a vulnerable witness dies and a lost phone surfaces with a photograph and a message that could unravel everything – and reveal the truth about what happened that day.

Split Second brings Dylan and Mann together for the first time, in an investigation that will test their instincts, their loyalties and the limits of justice itself, as both detectives must decide how far they’ll go – and what they’re willing to sacrifice – to uncover the truth.

Former Head of CID Bob Bridgestock is now an international best-selling author, along with his wife Carol, who also worked for West Yorkshire Police. The couple, who write under the pen name of R.C. Bridgestock, were voted the eight best crime writers of all me by WHSmith Readers.

The writing duo created the character DI Jack Dylan, a detective from Harrowfield, with nine books in the Dylan series. In 2020, they launched a new series featuring a strong Yorkshire female, Detective Inspector Charley Mann. The couple were the storyline consultants/police procedural on BAFTA winning BBC1 police drama Happy Valley, Scott & Bailey and The Beast Must Die, as well as other police dramas.

My thoughts: I can’t imagine having to make the split second decision the story revolves around, knowing you might be about to end someone’s life, but the officer in this case does make that decision and then everything changes.

The decision is made to charge the officer with murder – because she has a link to one of the deceased pair of criminals, and it looks a bit convenient that she was the one who took the shot. But things are a lot more complicated than that.

As the case progresses, as the barristers present their versions of events, hoping to sway the jury, we spend time with Officer X, her nerves and her fears. It’s intense and the confines of the dock add to the feeling of pressure building. Juries can be hard to predict and if one barrister is more persuasive than the other, that could be all it takes.

There’s a couple of killer twists and a few things not followed up by either the police or the lawyers that leave unanswered questions and a nagging suspicion of something else going on. It’s very clever and subtle. 

I really enjoyed this, it’s got excellent plotting, paced out beautifully, and interesting characters, I wanted to know more about so many of them. A really good read. 

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