We’re thrilled to announce the release of Sage Haven by Paige Alexandria! This is the first book in The Black Sigil of Naphal series!
Sage Haven (The Black Sigil of Naphal)
Release Date: November 19, 2025
Genre: Dark Romance
• Dual-POV
• First in a Series
• Forced Proximity
• Forbidden Love
• Secret Pasts/Secret Society
• Trauma Recovery/Mental Health Rep
• Morally Gray MMC
• Captor/Captive Dynamic/Kidnapping
• Dark Romance
• Slow Burn
• BDSM
• Music as a Healing Element
• Redemption Arc
• He Calls Her “Wildflower”
SAGE
I ran to disappear. Providence was supposed to be a quiet and untouched place. A fresh start. But then I met Reich Davidian.
Nothing escapes his gaze. Every word from his lips is a blade. And even as instinct begs me to turn away, something in me keeps finding its way back to him.
But I know that every storm hides a calm at its core. And I think I’ve found his.
The only question is if it will be the end of me.
REICH
I was made to destroy monsters. But she isn’t one of them. Instead, she’s the complication that could ruin everything.
Sage Holquinn is untamed, broken, and reckless enough to trespass on my property without realizing whose territory she’s stepped into. I should’ve turned her away. But distance is no longer an option.
She thinks she’s escaping the darkness.
She doesn’t realize she’s running straight into mine.
A sweeping tale of secrets and survival set against the mystical backdrop of Nepal, and the tropical heat of 1940s Malaya.
In the heart of bustling Kathmandu, Chloe Rai’s quaint bookshop is a sanctuary for those seeking solace within the pages of timeworn stories. But when she discovers a collection of letters hidden within the crumbling walls of a forgotten Rana palace, her world begins to intertwine with a narrative from a different time and place.
Penned in the 1940s by a woman named Alice Lacey, the letters tell the story of the Malayan Emergency, a time of turmoil and conflict. As Alice’s life becomes intertwined with that of Anil, a Gurkha officer, their bond is tested by the chaos and violence surrounding them. Chloe’s discoveries not only reveal family secrets, but also mirror her own struggles in the present. As she delves deeper into Alice’s story, she begins to understand the power of the past in shaping the present.
With a rich cultural backdrop and a poignant exploration of friendship, resilience, and truth, ‘The Bookseller of Kathmandu’ is a beautifully woven tale that showcases the enduring power of storytelling. Join Chloe on a journey through time as she uncovers the truth and learns to navigate the complexities of her own life.
If you enjoy captivating storytelling, then you won’t want to miss ‘The Bookseller of Kathmandu.’ And if you loved ‘The Fortune Teller of Kathmandu,’ then you will be enthralled by Chloe and Alice’s intertwined stories…
Ann Bennett is a British author of historical fiction. Her first book, Bamboo Heart: A Daughter’s Quest, was inspired by researching her father’s experience as a prisoner of war on the Thai-Burma Railway and by her own journey to uncover his story. It won the Asian Books Blog prize for fiction published in Asia in 2015, and was shortlisted for the best fiction title in the Singapore Book Awards 2016.
That initial inspiration led her to write more books about WWII in Southeast Asia – Bamboo Island: The Planter’s Wife, A Daughter’s Promise, Bamboo Road: The Homecoming, The Tea Planter’s Club, The Amulet, and The Fortune Teller of Kathmandu. Along with The Lotus House, published in October 2024, they make up the Echoes of Empire Collection.
Ann is also the author of The Oriental Lake Collection – The Lake Pavilion and The Lake Palace, both set in British India during the 1930s and WWII, and The Lake Pagoda and The Lake Villa, set in French Indochina.
The Runaway Sisters, USA Today bestselling The Orphan House, The Child Without a Home and The Forgotten Children are set in Europe during the same era and are published by Bookouture.
Her latest book, The Stolen Sisters, published on 29th November 2024 is the follow-up to The Orphan List (published by Bookouture in August this year) and is set in Poland and Germany during WWII.
A former lawyer, Ann is married with three grown up sons and a granddaughter and lives in Surrey, UK. For more details, please visit her website.
Giveaway to Win a Paperback copy of Fortune Teller of Kathmandu (Open to UK and Europe only)
My thoughts: I really enjoyed this story of love told through letters and a diary, hidden inside a beautiful old palace in Kathmandu. Chloe runs a bookshop, and her husband’s second cousin Rajesh comes to see her, asking if she would take his late father’s books. Inside one of these volumes is a letter from a British woman, Alice, to Anil, Rajesh’s father, a former Gurkha who had been stationed in what was then British Malaya, now Malaysia.
As Chloe looks through the books, she finds more letters, and when Rajesh finds his father’s diary, they piece together a love story set against the backdrop of the Malayan Emergency.
Reflecting on Alice’s life, Chloe works through some of the issues of her own, and as they unravel the secrets of the past, forms a friendship with Rajesh, helping him learn more about his often distant father.
Enjoyable, moving and with a rather lovely ending, this was an interesting love story that illuminated a time not taught in history lessons, at least not in mine, and brings both modern Kathmandu and 1950s Malaysia to life.
*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 and Europe 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.**
We’re thrilled to announce the release of Viridian by Ashley R. O’Donovan! Get your copy today!
Viridian: The Demon and the Savior Book Two
Release Date: November 18, 2025
Genre: Dystopian Romantasy
Forbidden love
Russian mob vibes
Reluctant heroine
Ghost puppy sidekick
Supernatural abilities
Shatter Me meets Divergent but with ghosts
The dead don’t scare me.
But seeing my first love alive? That terrifies me.
The plan was simple. Kill Marco, rescue the Avids, and disappear with Malachi forever. Then Cade stepped back into my life and shattered everything I thought I knew.
He’s been part of Solace all along, working for the Syndicate, searching for me for years. But I’m not the girl he once loved. Marco’s pretty prison turned me into something darker, something that speaks to ghosts and has a hunger for revenge.
The Volkovs are planning something big, the Syndicate is crumbling from betrayal, and someone is playing both sides. With Aurora at my side and the Avids rising in rebellion, we have one chance to strike back.
Then a century-old secret surfaces that changes everything and has me questioning who to trust, what I’m fighting for, and who I even am. What if every choice brings me closer to becoming exactly what Marco wanted me to be—the demon they all fear?
Now I need help from the dead … before I end up joining them.
We’re celebrating the release of Midnightsong by C.W. Rose this week! This is a complete duet and we can’t recommend it enough!
Midnightsong (Oceansong Duet #2)
Release Date: November 18, 2025
Genre: Romantasy
Forbidden Romance
Who Did This to You?
Reluctant Hero & Heroine
Undersea Politics
Fairytale & Mythology Retelling
Mer-Queen Serapha has been murdered. The already fragile human-merfolk truce is shattered. And as Angie and Kaden find themselves on opposite sides of a rapidly escalating conflict, their loyalties to their families, their people, and each other will be tested.
When news of the merfolk becomes widespread in Angie’s Pacific Northwest town, she fights to protect the mer from those who wish them harm. But as vicious seas consume coastal cities and tragedy strikes her town and her family, she’ll need to decide whether to save her family and her people, or her relationship with Kaden and the mer.
In Mer-Prince Kaden’s queendom, an unlikely family member takes the throne, sowing dissent among the already fractured queendom and further straining their deteriorating relationship with humans. Branded a traitor for loving a human, he must make a choice between plunging the mer into all-out war, or fighting for the throne to unite his people, but leave Angie behind, as he can never take a human queen.
A cataclysmic war between humans and mer looms, and if Angie and Kaden cannot find a way to bring peace between their people, they’ll find the fragile mer-human truce shattered beyond repair, and the sea-crossed lovers will find themselves separated forever.
Join them in this romance and action-soaked sequel to Oceansong as they fight to save their relationship and their people while tensions between humans and merfolk reach a breaking point. That is, if the mer don’t drown the world in their rage and sorrow first.
Triggers: Violence, Blood, Emotional Abuse (directed at MMC, but not between main couple), Racist Comment (directed at FMC, but not between main couple)
We’re thrilled to announce the release of Thankful in Thistle County by author Christine Miles, on sale for only $2.99 from now through November 27th!
Thankful in Thistle County
Release Date: November 17, 2025
Genre: Romance/ Holiday Romance
She’s an influencer with secrets
He’s a widower trying to move forward
Retelling of a classic holiday movie (Christmas in Connecticut)
Age gap
Silver fox
Adorable meet cute
Forced proximity
Slow burn
She’s determined to save her career, but he could end up saving her.
On the outside, millennial influencer Eliza Merritt has it all—a popular vlog hosted by an online publication, a successful husband, baby, and even a loyal dog. But she has secrets. Big ones. When her boss decides Eliza must host her and her brother for Thanksgiving and participate in a live video, her career and personal relationships are thrown into chaos. Worse, her boss’s brother turns out to be a man who briefly crossed her path. Crazy twist of fate? Definitely. The fact he’s the definition of a sexy silver fox isn’t helping.
Eighteen months after losing his wife, Richard Jones is still trying to move forward. Losing himself in his career as an airline pilot is no longer filling the void, and all work with almost no play isn’t a life. When his sister insists that he join her at influencer Eliza Merritt’s mountain home for Thanksgiving, it sounds better than being alone. But when he discovers Eliza is a woman he happened to meet by chance…and flirted with…his interest heightens since something about her online persona isn’t quite matching what’s behind the camera.
Secrets, truths, and modern-day mass media meet under one roof for Thanksgiving in this contemporary twist on the holiday film, Christmas in Connecticut!
After one toxic relationship too many and more failed jobs than she can count, spirited Scarlett Finch has lost her sparkle and doesn’t think she can face this year’s festive season. The last thing she expects is to land a Christmas job at Glenbriar’s Little Station Bookshop, especially not thanks to a slightly unhinged older woman with a parrot, a pug, a wild imagination, and some crackpot ideas for displays – not to mention a flair for making unexpected decisions, like hiring Scarlett without telling the owner.
Widowed dad-of-three Lloyd Miller is just trying to keep life on track. Between moving house, juggling his day job, and preparing to take over the bookshop from his retired mum, the chaos inside the shop is the last thing he needs, particularly when it includes Scarlett, the woman he shared a no-strings summer fling with… and hasn’t stopped thinking about since.
While Glenbriar twinkles with Christmas lights, both Scarlett and Lloyd are haunted by their pasts, drawn together in their present, and uncertain of their future. A bookshop full of anonymous wishes might just give them the courage to make their own – but with neither convinced they deserve a second chance, it’ll take more than festive magic to open the book on a new romance. They can’t change the past – but they can still choose how the story goes.
Margaret Amatt is a bestselling Scottish author, professional daydreamer, and certified chocolate addict. She’s been making up stories for as long as she can remember – some of them even made it onto paper (and, tragically, onto floppy disks that no computer can read anymore).
After two decades of writing in secret, she finally unleashed her first novel on the world in 2021, kicking off a ten-book series set on the stunning Isle of Mull. But why stop there? She’s also the creator of The Glenbriar Series, where romance, small-town drama, and a pinch of spice keep readers coming back for more. This series is still going strong, with more books planned!
Margaret has spent her whole life in Scotland’s breath-taking Highland Perthshire, despite her entire extended family coming from the Glasgow area. Her books are romantic and emotional, sweet and funny, and each one can be read as a standalone, but long-time readers know the joy of familiar faces popping up, adding to the chaos.
So, if you love relatable characters, sizzling chemistry, and plenty of banter, you’re in the right place – just don’t blame Margaret when you stay up way too late reading just one more chapter.
My thoughts: If you’re looking for a fun romance with a bit of Christmas sparkle, you can stop now. Set in Scotland, in a small town called Glenbriar, this is a funny, charming love story with plenty of festive fun. Scarlett gets a job at the bookshop, after accidentally accepting one from Eunice, who works there, with her pug and parrot (the pug makes another appearance later, thankfully the sweary parrot doesn’t). Hired properly, Scarlett starts to make the shop more appealing, with new displays and decorations.
The owner, Lloyd, has taken over from his mum and isn’t really thrilled to do so. He’s got a lot on his plate – three bereaved children, a new house, his other job, and an interfering mother. He needs plenty of help, and even though his past fling with Scarlett makes things a bit awkward, he’s actually really pleased she’s happy to stick around and keep the shop running.
As Christmas comes to town, the pair realise they still have a lot of feelings for each other, but Lloyd’s kids aren’t so sure, and his mum still doesn’t really like Scarlett. Can they all be reassured and won over before the 25th or is love not allowed this year?
It’s cute, fun, jolly and funny, what more could you ask for? Some hot chocolate? Definitely get that going for reading time!
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Of the Stars and Sea is a bingeable rivals-to-lovers Romantasy with sharp-witted banter, page-turning adventure and delectable spicy romance, and we’re touring all week! Read now on Kindle Unlimited!
Of the Stars and Sea (A Divine Trinity Book 1)
🏴☠️Rivals to lovers
🏴☠️Morally grey MMC
🏴☠️Stäbby FMC
🏴☠️Slow burn
🏴☠️“I’ll be your villain”
🏴☠️Touch her and dïe
🏴☠️All the banter
🏴☠️He’s her awakening
🏴☠️“She’s mine”
🏴☠️”Who did this to you?”
🏴☠️Allies forged in darkness
🏴☠️Haunted pasts
🏴☠️Gothic world
🏴☠️Found family
🏴☠️Race to escape enemies
Of the Stars and Sea is a bingeable rivals-to-lovers Romantasy with sharp-witted banter, page-turning adventure and delectable spicy romance.
A traitorous pirate lord. A bounty hunter with a score to settle. And an epic treasure that will grant them both the freedom they desire…unless they destroy each other first.
Rowenya Stone is captain of the once fearsome pirate ship, the Trinity. Bound to her father’s old debts, Rowenya has been forced to break the Pirates’ Code by capturing her own kind in exchange for money. Tired of being shackled to her father’s past, Rowenya hatches a plan to steal an ancient artifact, said to unveil a map to the greatest treasure ever known to man.
But the plan goes awry when Grayson Tyde, the most ruthless and feared pirate lord in the Southern Realm, intercepts them. When Grayson discovers Rowenya has one thing he does not—knowledge of the old gods’ language inscribed upon the artifact—he forces her onto his ship.
However, they are not the only ones in search of the artifact, and as the threat of their enemies looms, Rowenya must trust the one person she’s always feared. But what terrifies her more is her perilous attraction to Grayson.
In a world where love is a traitorous thing and danger lurks around every corner, Rowenya must decide if finding the treasure is worth losing her heart.
This book contains content only suitable for adults. Such content includes explicit depictions of violence and sexual encounters. Additional content includes mentions of sex trafficking, child abuse and loss of parents.
Bored with life as a teacher in an Edinburgh girls’ school, artist Rosie recognises Alex Kuznetsov from her previous life as a decoder at Bletchley Park.
Alex, a war hero and anti-Soviet intelligence officer, is running a Russian language school for National Servicemen to put Britain’s best and brightest young men through intensive training as translators and intelligence operators in the event of a third world war.
During an ardent courtship, Rosie joins the JSSL as an art teacher, but she soon finds out that there is more to her role as Alex gains her confidence and persuades her to take on a daring undercover espionage mission in a Highland country house.
Rosie discovers that the world of spies is full of treachery, manipulation and deceit, and that what started out as a thrilling game can have deadly consequences. Faced with a choice between duty and love, and between stability and adventure, Rosie must decide where her loyalties lie.
Maggie Ritchie’s novel, Looking for Evelyn, was shortlisted for the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize for Best Published Novel 2018. Her debut novel, Paris Kiss (2015), won the Curtis Brown Prize, was runner up for the Sceptre Prize, and longlisted for the Mslexia First Novel Competition. Daisy Chain was published by Two Roads/ Hachette in 2021 following a Society of Authors funded research trip to Shanghai. Maggie graduated with Distinction rom the University of Glasgow’s MLitt in Creative Writing. A journalist, she lives in Scotland with her husband and son.
My thoughts: I really enjoyed this 1950s set novel about the beginnings of the Cold War. Rosie, an artist, previously worked at Bletchley Park during the Second World War, and is bored teaching at a girls’ school in Edinburgh.
When handsome Alex Kuznetsov arrives back in her life with an intriguing offer, to teach art to the men learning Russian (including Dennis Potter, Michael Frayn and Alan Bennett) as their national service near Crail in Fife.
While there, she and Alex fall in love and he convinces her that an old family friend is secretly spying for the Soviets, with her help he can prove this and stop the plans for a nuclear submarine getting into Russian hands. But is he telling her the truth?
Rosie, for all her wartime experience and obvious intelligence is hoodwinked by the oldest trick in the book – love. As events overtake her, she loses her heart and is threatened with treason. Unsure who to trust as people are revealed to be in the pay of various governments, she struggles to extricate herself from the mess she’s in.
An intelligent, intriguing and enjoyable read about a somewhat forgotten period in history, that is having something of a revival due to current political and military posturing. I liked Rosie a lot and felt for her, torn between what she knows is right and her love for the White Raven.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
We’re celebrating the release of the highly anticipated sequel in the Never Never duet, Never Mine by Monique Shepherd!
Never Mine: A Forbidden Age-Gap College Romance
Series: The Never Never Duet Book 2
Release Date: November 10, 2025
Forbidden age-gap
Gothic Academia
K!nk exploration
Touch her & 💀
A big F-U to the University President
Revenge
Feminine Rage
HEA
Kieran: They tried to take her from me. And I wasn’t there to stop him. I’ve walked through hell. But nothing—nothing—prepared me for the terror of almost losing her.
Now, she’s fighting to recover, and I’m battling the darkness inside of me, the need for revenge. I’ve killed for her once. I’ll do it again. This time, with her by my side.
I am no longer just her professor and she is more than just my student. We’ve crossed every line, broken every rule. But none of it matters now because all I care about is keeping her safe…even if it means becoming a man I don’t even recognize.
Deirdre: He saved me, but I don’t know how to save him from the rage burning in his eyes. He’s angry. Haunted. Ready to burn the world down to find the man who hurt me.
We’re thrilled to announce the audio release of The Curse of the Siren by S.E. Nielsen, narrated by Stefanie Kay!
The Curse of the Siren
Release Date: November 11, 2025
Genre: Dark Romantasy
Narrator: @stefaniekaysays
Dark, gritty fantasy
Fast pace
Love triangle
Meddling deities
Anti-hero FMC
One tent
She’s still learning her powers
There is but one lesson humans are slow to learn and quick to forget: the fae lie . . .
When half-fae Bronwyn is caught fleeing the scene of a robbery, a Crusader arrow finds its mark. But as her roguish partner-in-crime Eoin tends to her wounds, a spark between them replenishes Bronwyn’s magic—revealing her as part-Siren. And quite possibly cursed.
Meanwhile, word is spreading of the two thieves and the illegal magic they left behind them. To escape discovery, Bronwyn and Eoin accept a dangerous yet tempting job: a wedding heist that leads them into the depths of the fae realm.
But August, the merciless vampire lord of the Selene Court, is used to getting what—and who—he wants.
In a land of deception, seduction, and meddling gods, Bronwyn puts her life on the line, only to discover temptation may be her undoing. And time is running out for her to make a choice, before she’s stuck on the wrong side of a looming war.
The Curse of the Siren is a steamy, plot-driven romantasy with magic, political intrigue, and two tempting MMCs.
ramblingmads 