Author: Patricegotting

Elodie Hart is Sara Madderson’s pen name for her decidedly dirtier books and I was lucky enough to be a part of her ARC team for Unfurl. ❤️

Pages: 364

Synopsis: BELLE
When you’ve been told your whole life that something is sinful, you have two options.

Avoid it like the plague. Like it has the power to destroy all that is good and pure.

Or become as fixated upon it as Eve was upon that apple.

I’m sick of the push-pull of terror and temptation. It’s tearing me apart. I just want a bite of the apple.

More than a bite. I want to devour it. Have its juices spill from my lips.

And by apple I, of course, mean sex.

RAFE
My new neighbour is the kind of beautiful that could bring a man to his knees. But she’s twenty-two. Fourteen years younger than me.

That’s too young. I’ve vowed to stay away. Until she comes to me for help.

It seems she has something to dispose of. Her chastity.

And it seems I have something she wants. The club I run for discerning adults. More specifically, the programme we’ve created for women just like Belle.

A programme that will transform her from innocent to damned.

Unfurl the parts of her she’s denied until now.

It seems I may not be the only one falling to my knees, after all.

God help us both.

Unfurl is a steamy age-gap contemporary romance featuring multiple partner play and a monogamous HEA.

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: before we start I have to be honest and say my penguin rating system seems far too tame for this book 🤣

The synopsis gives a pretty good run down of the plot so I’ll try not to include too much of that in my review and get straight into the nitty gritty..

Belle is desperate to be more like her friend Maddy, they both attended the same catholic boarding school, they both had the same teachings drummed into them every day about sins of the flesh and such but unlike Maddy, Belle is 22 and still a virgin and she can’t get past her morals to change that although she realllly wants to.

Whilst attending a party at her mum and dads she meets their upstairs neighbour Rafe who instantly has her feeling hot under the collar.. what she doesn’t yet know is that he owns a sex club!

This book was off the charts steam level and you could feel the anticipation and the attraction dripping from the pages before anything physical had even happened.

I personally really appreciated that there was no shame in the fact that Belle was still a virgin in her 20’s, there is always a lot of stigma to it, but in this book nothing was forced, Rafe and Gen made sure that she knew all the details (details that she’d picked) it was all on her terms and they only encouraged her when she showed interest, they didn’t push her.

The steamy scenes were utter perfection I won’t go into too much detail here as I have family that read my blog 🤣 but the men worshipped her (pun maybe intended) but only to her limits and boy was it good. 🥵🥵

I definitely wouldn’t go for the things Belle chose, I’m all about just the one man but I definitely loved reading about it, several times I had to look up and make sure no one could see what I was reading 🫣

I’m sat here hoping there will be an Alchemy book 2!

The paperback is Available now and can be bought here! it will be out on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited on the 10th Feb.

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Today I’m on the tour for Remember My Name by Erkut Sogut, thank you to Jaime at Inked Editorial for organising it and inviting me to take part, I have a spotlight for you today!

Pages: 209

Synopsis: From the slums to the stands. They’ll always want a piece of you.

A desperate boy holds a dark secret.
His only option is to leave home and face the treacherous journey to Europe in the hope of a better life.
A young journalist is determined to bring down the system that creates such desperation.
Two lives intertwined, hunted for nothing more than wanting to create a better world.

***
Afam is a promising young footballer, but he’s not set for stardom. Working on the streets of AJ City in Lagos, Nigeria, he’s grafts hard so he can support his sister through school. When Sam, a Christian missionary, promises him the world — a trial at a top club – Afam leaps at the chance. But things soon turn sour, and it becomes clear that Sam has ulterior motives. When he confesses to his friend, Leye, about Sam’s unwanted advances, he finds a surprising comrade.

The boys hatch a plan for revenge, but things don’t go according to plan and soon they are on the run. Leye goes into hiding with some questionable friends of his cousin and Afam has nothing else to cling to but the shaky promises of human traffickers who assure him they can get him safely into Europe, where a trial at a Paris club awaits him.

At the same time, Annabel, a British investigative journalist has had a tip-off that in addition to facilitating the shady academies making false promises to young African boys in order to part them with their cash, someone at the top level of football, and maybe government, is clearing the path for ruthless human traffickers to bring these young men into Europe and make modern-day slaves out of them.

Very soon, Annabel finds herself too close to the truth, and some very powerful people want to silence her.

About The Author: Dr Erkut Sogut was born in Hanover, Germany and in addition to being an author, is a sports lawyer, sports agent and a professor for sports law & sports management. He holds a doctorate in sports law. His debut novel, DEADLINE, is the first in a planned series of thrillers which aim to shine a light onto the darker side of international football.

He is the founder of the international sports agency “GROW – Rising Talents”, the CEO of the educational company “Football Agent Institute”, board member of the charity “BigShoe” and has co-founded “Unity” – a cosmetic company with a focus on sustainability and environmental awareness.

He lives in Orange County, California.

If you like the sound of this it can be bought here! And it’s also available on Kindle Unlimited.

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Today I’m closing the tour for The Reprobation Series by Catherine Fearn by sharing my review for the third and final book Sound, thank you to Zoé at Zooloos Book Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part and thank you to the author and the publisher for my copy.

Pages: 221

Synopsis: Can you hear it?

A professor of psychoacoustics is found dead in his office. It appears to be a heart attack, until a second acoustician dies a few days later in similar circumstances.

Meanwhile, there’s an outbreak of mysterious illnesses on a council estate, and outbursts of unexplained violence in a city centre nightclub. Not to mention strange noises coming from the tunnels underneath Liverpool. Can it really be a coincidence that death metal band Total Depravity are back in the city, waging their own form of sonic warfare?

Detective Inspector Darren Swift is convinced there are connections. Still grieving his fiancé’s death and sworn to revenge, he is thrown back into action on the trail of a murderer with a terrifying and undetectable weapon. 

But this case cannot be solved using conventional detective work, and D.I. Swift will need to put the rulebook aside and seek the occult expertise of Dr. Helen Hope and her unlikely sidekick, guitarist Mikko Kristensen.

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: I am genuinely sad that this trilogy is over, I have loved it so much!

The third book saw the return of all our favourite characters including Mikko and his band, Knut had a bigger part to play this time.. he was their way into see the Messiah!

This one is based on psychoacoustics and the things it does to the body that we have no idea about, I found it fascinating!

This book as with the others has an undercurrent of religion and mythology that had me utterly gripped as it’s not something I have any prior knowledge of, it was done in a really subtle way and was interwoven within the story.

I found this book a lot more gruesome than the others with more intricate details of the victims which really showed Catherine’s development and confidence as an author.

I absolutely loved this series, it’s one that I wouldn’t necessarily have picked up on my own but what a gem I would’ve missed out on if I hadn’t.

Will really miss this off bunch of friends & will secretly keep everything crossed that we see them again in the future.

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Today I have my review for Virtual Strangers by Sam Canning, 2 days late so I apologise!

Pages: 384

Synopsis: Do you believe in love at first type?

When Ada set up her own PR firm from a coffee shop, she didn’t expect to meet journalist Fraser. Also working there daily, he soon becomes a friend. Reporting on interesting things to do around Edinburgh, Fraser ropes Ada into accompanying him on his assignments.

As they work side-by-side Ada can’t help but notice how attractive Fraser is, and how well they get along. But, Ada has been chatting to a guy she met on an Agatha Christie fan fiction site, and she can’t stop wondering about him. His interests are the same as hers, and the anonymity helps them both be more honest and open. As Ada’s messages with the mystery man become deeper, she thinks she’s falling for him.

Ada is torn between Fraser and Myster-E – but can you have real feelings for someone when you’re virtual strangers?

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: I bloody loved this, it had everything you would want from a rom com!

Ada as a main character seems confident despite the devastating shock she gets at the beginning.. she’s just returned home to Edinburgh so she is around her best friend again and has her mum for support too!

She’s setting up her own PR company so hires a table at the local cafe to give her the space she needs to work without getting under her mums feet at home.. it’s here she meets Fraser, they hit it off immediately as friends the humour and the banter is on point.

Ada believes that Fraser has a girlfriend and she’s currently talking to a Myster-E online, so as far as she’s concerned it’s purely platonic and therefore easy and uncomplicated!

They find themselves in situations regularly that made me laugh out loud multiple times.. watching them discover the truth had me utterly hooked and I couldn’t put it down.

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Today I’m on the tour for Hell Hath No Fury by Geoff Major thank you to Zoé at Zooloos Book Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part and thank you to the author and the publisher for my copy.

Pages: 393

Synopsis: They changed her life forever. Did they really think they could get away with it?

Evie Perry was a high-class escort whose way of life was abruptly and cruelly shattered by two drunken men. Stella Kendrick’s husband committed suicide and left her with a legal battle and a debt of £6m, but he leaves her a message with the names of three men on it. Daniella Maddox is a world-class barrister, assigned to an indefensible case for a corrupt client, but one she must win to save her own life. Unbeknownst to them, fate has woven their lives into a twisted web.

Detective Sergeant Alan Armitage is mystified when he attends the scene of a triple murder, but he is very quickly joined in his hunt for the killer by Detective Sergeant Steve Denton from The Met, and Detective Sergeant Bob Williams from North Yorkshire CID. Along with Detective Constable Rachael Jones, they have to uncover who the murderer is and why they are killing people across the country. Their task is made even more difficult because a criminal known to most simply as The Broker gets closer to banking millions every time his team commits another murder.

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: I have been eagerly awaiting the release of Geoffs next book since reading deadline as part of the blog tour in 2020 & let me tell you this one is absolutely worth the wait!

The tension is oozing from the page from the start and absolutely impossible to put down!

Twists and turns everywhere and absolutely full of red herrings, I thought I had it worked out multiple times just to be proved wrong at every turn.

We’re following a group of friends who have agreed to always be there for each other in whatever way any of them needs.. pooling resources and money where necessary.. one by one these friends and their families all turn up dead & seemingly the only thing linking the murders is the lottery ticket left in each of their mouths.

Full of secrets, lies and some badass female masterminds, this goes down as one of the most complex thrillers I’ve ever read but it honestly kept me on my toes throughout.

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Today I’m on the tour for Consuming Fire by Catherine Fearns, thank you to Zoé at Zooloos Book Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part and thank you to the author and the publisher for my copy.

Pages: 201

Synopsis: Liverpool is in the grip of an intense heatwave, and strange things are happening.

A woman dies in an apparent case of Spontaneous Human Combustion; a truck explodes on the dock road; the charred corpses of pets litter the city; forest fires ravage the pinewoods…and there are birds everywhere, silent flocks drawing in ominously.

Detective Inspector Darren Swift thinks there are connections, and his investigation delves into the worlds of football, nightclubs and organised crime. But is he imagining things?

Dr. Helen Hope doesn’t think so. And she believes the key lies in a mysterious seventeenth-century occult book which has gone missing from Liverpool Library.

In the blistering sequel to Reprobation, DI Swift is forced to confront some inconvenient ghosts from his past, as a terrifying shadow lies over his city’s future….

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: were back with DI Darren Swift as he’s thrown into another case which yet again is weird and seemingly has no explanation… spontaneous human combustion is just something you read about in novels isn’t it? Whilst he tries his hardest to find the rational explanation that must be there, no matter how deep it’s buried, more weird things keep happening.. with one link.. fire!

As more things come to light he realises there is only one person he knows with the expertise to help him wade his way through the confusion.. Dr Helen Hope.

I loved the fact that this one focussed more on Darren, his past and getting to know him better whilst Helen took more of a back seat!

I’ll be honest and say I missed Mikko though!

This one was just as eery and gripping as the first book, tied up some loose ends and left some looser than before!

Look out for my review of book 3 tomorrow!

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I’m hosting a spotlight for Virtual Strangers by Sam Canning today, I apologise to the author & the publisher for missing my spot, it wasn’t in my calendar! – I have started the book today and will have a review up for you ASAP.

Pages: 337

Synopsis: Do you believe in love at first type?

When Ada set up her own PR firm from a coffee shop, she didn’t expect to meet journalist Fraser. Also working there daily, he soon becomes a friend. Reporting on interesting things to do around Edinburgh, Fraser ropes Ada into accompanying him on his assignments.

As they work side-by-side Ada can’t help but notice how attractive Fraser is, and how well they get along. But, Ada has been chatting to a guy she met on an Agatha Christie fan fiction site, and she can’t stop wondering about him. His interests are the same as hers, and the anonymity helps them both be more honest and open. As Ada’s messages with the mystery man become deeper, she thinks she’s falling for him.

Ada is torn between Fraser and Myster-E – but can you have real feelings for someone when you’re virtual strangers?

About The Author:

Sam Canning is a Northern Irish born writer based in Edinburgh. Virtual Strangers is her debut novel. In her spare time, she can be found roaming the city to find the weirdest things she can and desperately trying to keep her one and only plant Stanley alive.

If you like the sound of this is can be bought here!

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Today I’m on the tour for Oscar Of The Bismarck by Frances Y Evan, thank you to Zoé at Zooloos Book Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part and thank you to the author and the publisher for my copy.

Synopsis: Oscar the cat served on the German warship, Bismarck, as well as several British ships during World War II.
When the new battleship Bismarck is built, launched and commissioned, Oscar is there to witness it all. He is soon accepted by the crew and becomes the ship’s mascot as they embark on their mission.

Narrated from Oscar the cat’s point of view, he describes life at sea, the battles and the fate of his shipmates, as well as his own personal challenge to outwit, hunt and capture an elusive, sneaky, grey cat with little black ears!

A wonderfully emotional and uplifting story, told from a very different perspective!

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: this one was a lot of fun, as a cat owner myself I found myself reading Oscar’s story and looking at Bella 🤣 I weirdly enjoyed being in the mind of a cat!

Experiencing the war from the perspective of a cat was quite unsettling at times so to learn this was based on a real story was incredible and eye opening. And seeing the way having Oscar on the boat seemed to lift everyone’s spirits was heartwarming.

A short read but one that I thoroughly enjoyed and would urge everyone to pick it up ☺️ 🐈‍⬛

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Today I’m on the tour for Reprobation by Catherine Fearns, thank you to Zoé at Zooloos Book Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part & thank you to the author and the publisher for my copy.

Pages: 211

Synopsis: Are you one of the elect?

Dr. Helen Hope is a lecturer in eschatology – the study of death, judgement, and the destiny of humankind. She is also a Calvinist nun, her life devoted to atoning for a secret crime.

When a body is found crucified on a Liverpool beach, she forms an unlikely alliance with suspect Mikko Kristensen, lead guitarist in death metal band Total Depravity. Together, they go on the trail of a rogue geneticist who they believe holds the key – not just to the murder, but to something much darker.

Also on the trail is cynical Scouse detective Darren Swift. In his first murder case, he must confront his own lack of faith as a series of horrific crimes drag the city of two cathedrals to the gates of hell.

Science meets religious belief in this gripping murder mystery.

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: 2023 is obviously the year for me to discover brilliant new authors, who would have thought a nun and the star of a death metal band would work as a duo trying to get to the bottom of some weird goings on.

This really was bloody brilliant and another one that was impossible to put down.

I’m struggling to get my thoughts together because I don’t want to spoil anything, but this is more than just a crime story, it’s also about a woman figuring out her path in life & being torn for wanting different things than what’s expected of her.

There were moments where my heart was in my throat and I wanted to stop reading incase something awful happened to the characters I had grown to love.

I can’t wait to carry on with the series, look out for my reviews later in the week ☺️

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I was on the tour for this book earlier in January, but there was a delay in my review for personal reasons, thank you so much to Hannah ah Hygge book Tours and Brendan James for their understanding.

Synopsis: ‘Could there be a world of interest and adventure beyond the Midlands? A world of confidence and excitement? A better life – a better me?’ These are the questions Gerard Philey grapples with over New Year, 1995. Sitting in his rented Black Country room, reflecting on his thankless teaching job and miserable love life, he courageously decides to abandon his humdrum existence and embark on a quest for Euro-fulfilment, fun and fitness on the Continent.

After a shaky start in Brussels, events manoeuvre him to Amsterdam where chance encounters shift his world well and truly into fifth gear. He samples the trials and tribulations of new relationships, alongside managing an adult store in the city’s Red Light Area – on top of the challenges of fat-free living and international travel!

Through his bittersweet diary, we see how Gerard steers a laugh-out-loud course through farcical episodes and fanciful characters…and how entanglements from past and present draw him unwittingly into an underworld where events ultimately take their toll.

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: I’m not sure what I expected from this, I think I thought it was more of a memoir, so I was very pleasantly surprised when I realised it was a work of fiction.

Written in diary entries this was a like a blast from the past and took me right back to my teenage years of reading Adrian Mole books!

Gerard finds himself in some right predicaments, I found myself laughing, cringing and shaking my head at him multiple times.

A thoroughly enjoyable read that almost gave me the travelling bug.

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