prdgreads

Today I am on the tour for Once Upon A Crown by Leané Giliomee, 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: 375

Synopsis: A fallen king. A hunted queen. Bound by fate, divided by war.

I’d never really had anything in my life worth dying for . . . Until now.

As an enemy sweeps through the mountains in search of a legendary power, Queen Elara of Everness rules a fractured realm. Her grip on power is fragile, and her heart is caught between duty and the haunted king who once vowed to fight by her side.

Once the proud king of Norrandale, Cai is now an exile. He has lost everything . . . except her.

Elara and Cai’s only hope is a lost diary, said to have belonged to the first king of Everness. Within its pages are answers buried in ancient magic, cursed relics and a war that never truly ended. If they can find it, it could mean the difference between life and death.

In a world where legend and truth collide, the fate of two kingdoms — and one forbidden love — hangs in the balance.

And the crown will demand the greatest sacrifice of all.

My Thoughts: the 3rd instalment in this series was everything I wanted and more, the perfect romantasy story with enough action and betrayal to keep you on your toes & all the will they won’t they tension you’ve been used to, it just gets taken up a notch 🥵

You absolutely have to read the first 2 books to truly appreciate all the second guessing and the heartbreak that Cai especially goes through in this book because the ending of book 2 really did turn everything we thought we knew on to its head, don’t get me wrong I love a good cliffhanger but waiting for this book was awful 🤣

That being said it did mean that I devoured it in one sitting, I was totally engrossed in the story & refused to put it down until I’d finished.

Elara and Cai are at a crossroads, they can either fight against everything they’ve been brought up to believe & work together to save both kingdoms and unite or they can just let it all ‘go to the dogs’

You could cut the atmosphere in this book with a knife, but in the best way possible, it had me feeling like I couldn’t sit still.

I don’t want to give too much away but this whole series has reminded me why fantasy has always been a go to genre of mine, it’s my safe place & makes me feel at home.

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Today I am on the tour for Secrets At The Ambrose Cafe by Carryl Church, thank you to Zoé at Zooloos Book Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part and thank you to the publisher and the author for my copy.

Pages: 327

Synopsis:Two women. Two different worlds. One secret that could ruin them both.

Exeter, 1925. Della Wilde has set aside her dream of moving to Paris to study at the renowned Le Cordon Bleu, choosing instead to support her family torn apart by war. By night, she works at the prestigious Ambrose Café, serving the city’s elite — she feels utterly invisible.

Until a chance encounter with rebellious Alice Winters, the daughter of a powerful MP, upends Della’s world.

Alice is a woman caught between duty and desire. She secretly yearns to be an artist but is expected to marry a respectable suitor and raise a family. Della, with her sharp wit and quiet strength, is unlike anyone she has ever known. She makes Alice feel alive.

So she draws Della into her orbit — first as a muse for her secret art, then as something infinitely more intimate. But in a world where reputations are easily shattered, their growing bond is a danger that threatens not only their futures, but those around them.

As Alice risks scandal and Della faces the consequences of following her heart, they must decide: will they allow others to choose their path, or dare to forge their own?

My Thoughts: now I’ll be honest, historical romance isn’t a genre that I enjoy very often, but something about this one pulled me in and made me give it a go.. and this book is the reason I never completely write a genre off, I LOVED it!!

I was so invested in Della and Alice, I wanted nothing but the best for them, I was literally on the edge of my seat when the first signs of attraction appeared it turned me into a giggly teenager 🤭

And don’t get me started on Gillespie what a gent he was, I want him to always have my back too!

The descriptions of places in this book were so cleverly done that I found it so easy to picture everything in my mind whilst I was reading & the cakes oh my word, my mouth was watering & my tummy was rumbling.

The perfect book to sit and get lost in! – I just wish it was longer. I wasn’t ready to say good bye to them, I needed more.

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Today I am on the tour for Robin In Winter by Carol Kerry-Green, thank you to Hannah at Hygge Book Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part and thank you to the author and the publisher for my copy.

Pages: 352

Synopsis: Mysteries still surround the discovery of a sleeping vampire under the streets of York.

Malik needs to learn to navigate the 21st century. No easy task for a 3000 year old vampire. After 150 years in an enforced coma, he must discover who put him there, and why.

Robin Byrde runs the wool Emporium in York, and was there when Malik woke up. When he is attacked by another vampire, he turns to his family of foster brothers for help.

Malik and Robin are tracking an old enemy to confirm he was responsible for his imprisonment. Friends and family offer help, and as more discoveries are made their support is essential to their survival.

Finding the time for their changing relationship and fledgling family provides a challenger. New facts and problems abound as they try to track down their enemy.

My Thoughts: I absolutely devoured this book! I fell in love with the characters in book one flight of the falcon and I was so excited to have a book from Robins perspective.

As someone with a disability I really appreciated the disability rep in this book and the fact that it doesn’t hold Robin back, he owns a business and finds love too, who’d have thought it eh? 🤣

This book picks up directly after the first one which I appreciated because the action didn’t stop and I wasn’t happy, I needed answers!

In this one we follow Robin and the rest of the crew still trying to get to the bottom of the Eagle and Vasilys involvement & they somehow find themselves tangled with 2 young lads who my heart went out too!

I don’t want to give too much away, but I loved learning more about Maliks history and meeting his children.

This series has my heart & I’m secretly hoping there will be more. I’m not ready to say goodbye to these characters.

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Today I am on the tour for The Third Girl by S.C. Shannon, 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: 316

Synopsis: Twenty-five years ago, I escaped. One of us didn’t.

We were best friends — Penelope, Emily and me — growing up in the picture-perfect town of Tranquility Ridge. Pine-lined streets, quaint diners, creaky porch swings. The kind of place nothing bad is supposed to happen.

But the night before my seventeenth birthday, everything changed.

Emily invited us to a party.

That’s when we were taken.

I woke up shackled to a rusted metal bed. My wrists bled. My ankles bruised. Music blared around the clock — too loud, too cruel. I never saw who did it. I was trained not to look.

I escaped.

Penelope didn’t.

And Emily? She’s been lying ever since.

Now, twenty-five years later, a stranger appears with a message, scrawled in Emily’s handwriting — a message I never expected to read:

Penelope’s alive — find her!

My Thoughts: can we just take a moment to appreciate the cover?! Now I know you’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover but whoever designed this one really understood the assignment! – it’s eye catching, it’s eerily beautiful and actually has some relevance to the story!

I felt this book was very cleverly done, we have 3 best friends.. 2 get kidnapped, 1 escapes, 1 doesn’t. And the 3rd seemingly uninvolved but she was meant to be at the party too?

We’re getting 2 timelines the before and after which we all know is my favourite kind of thriller so i just ate it up, this was a one day read for me, would have been a one sitting read if it was acceptable to cancel plans 🤣

My heart went out to Christina from the start, you could tell how much trauma she still held on to from the events of 25 years ago.. the guilt she still felt from leaving Penelope behind could honestly be felt through the story so cue her utter shock when Emily’s husband drops a note in Emily’s handwriting saying that Penelope is still alive.

Can she find her before it’s too late?

I loved this, it was such an easy read, it never got overwhelming or over complicated but it was engaging & left you feeling like you just needed to get to the bottom of the mystery.

This was my first read by this author but definitely won’t be my last.

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Today I am on the tour for Owen by VH Nicolson, thank you to Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources for organising it and inviting me to take part and thank you to the author and the publisher for my copy.

Pages: 378

Synopsis: A runaway groom strangers to lovers unforgettable steamy romance from VH Nicolson. Perfect for fans of Ana Huang, Catharina Maura and Meghan Quinn
Don’t play the game, change it…

I was born into privilege. I had it all; the house, the car, more money than I knew what to do with. But it came at a price. Duty. An arranged marriage for the sake of the family empire to a woman who couldn’t bear to look at me. As I stood at the altar, the weight of that burden became too much. So, I did the only thing I could. I ran.

To another country and unintentionally straight into the arms of another woman. Jade is strong, independent, and a single mom. And brick by broken brick she dismantles the wall I’ve built up around my heart. But where once I had everything, now I have nothing. No home, no job and no idea what the future holds. All I do know is, Jade makes me feel more alive than I’ve ever felt before.

But there is always the risk my past could catch up with me. Because the weight of my family’s expectation is likely to cause me to crash land and send my world up in flames. Can I save myself and Jade before that happens?

My Thoughts: oh my heart, I think there will always be a place for Owen in mine!

Now this book 3 in the Billionaire Boys series and although it will read as a standalone I highly recommend you start from book one to truly appreciate the character growth in Owen because I think it’s one of the biggest turnarounds I’ve read in a long time & I was here for it!

Owen ran away from his fiancé on his wedding day, it was an arranged marriage, neither of them wanted it and neither of them were happy… however he kneel it would have disastrous consequences with his parents so he fled to his cousin in Cyprus.. where he meets Jade & believe me when I tell him she is a force to be reckoned with and isn’t afraid to give him a run for his money and ask for exactly what she wants 🥵

Seeing Owen go from an arsehole in previous books to a total golden retriever with Jade and Poppy to then giving total touch her and die vibes at one point had me just wanting more and more from the pair of them.

This book is hot & steamy but also has a lot of heart and vulnerability too, I’m almost sad to let the characters go.

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Pages: 478

Synopsis: 𝗜 𝗽𝗿𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮 𝗺𝗶𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗹𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗺𝘆 𝗱𝗮𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝗲𝗿, 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝗚𝗼𝗱 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗹 𝗶𝗻 𝗮 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗲-𝗽𝗶𝗲𝗰𝗲 𝘀𝘂𝗶𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗱. 𝗛𝗶𝘀 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗲? 𝗠𝘆 𝗯𝗼𝗱𝘆, 𝗺𝘆 𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗹, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝗺𝘆 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘁.

My little girl has a life-threatening heart condition, and I’d like to think I’d do anything to save her.

Anything at all.

But it’s not until the most lucrative, shameful opportunity falls into my lap that I learn just how far I’ll go to protect her.

The opportunity? A “full-service” executive assistant role through the discreet agency Seraph, putting my body and my soul at the mercy of a ruthless billionaire who has a reputation for eating women like me for breakfast:

Brendan Sullivan.

He’s disarmingly handsome, disgustingly wealthy, and disturbingly depraved. The things he has me do are beyond sinful, and I’m way out of my depth.

He can never know that I’m just a desperate, duplicitous single mother and not the professional sexpot he thinks he’s hired.

He can never know just how terrified I am every time he and his debauched friends lay their hands on me.

And he can definitely never know that, the more he corrupts me, the more he affects me.

I’m falling hard. Against all odds, this role seems less like a means to an end and more like a glimpse of the Happy Ever After I know he and I can never have.

My Thoughts: I’m not sure how she does it but with every book Elodie writes she makes me fall in love with the characters just a little bit more than the last.

Brendan and Marlowe’s story was everything I wanted and more.

I found this book to be less about the spice, which is a strange thing to say given the premise of the series – don’t worry, it’s still there and it’s perfect as always!

But I found this one was more character focussed & that really helped me become invested in the story.

Marlowe is a single mum to Tabs, an 8 year old girl with a heart condition, she’s doing everything she can to stay afloat but life is just hard, made worse when she loses her job after yet another unavoidable hospital visit!

She needs money & fast, her daughter can’t wait for the NHS to be able to fit Tabs in, but the procedure in America is an eye watering amount of money! This is when she decided to follow in her best friend Athena’s footsteps and become a full service EA for the disgustingly rich Brendan Sullivan!

Both characters are equally flawed and I really enjoyed watching them both not only come to terms with that but also slowly allow the other in to their world & actually deal with it together. Although I’ll be honest their communication skills left a lot to be desired at the start, starting a relationship (even a working one) based on a lie is never a good idea we all know the truth comes out eventually and normally with disastrous consequences!

That however is where this book differs, the truth coming out was actually the making of them 😍

I honestly could waffle on forever about these two, so many cute moments that I want to share but my reviews have always been spoiler free!

Just know that I laughed, I full on sobbed, I swooned.

This book is literally everything & I think they may just stay my favourite Elodie Hart couple forever.

If only I could go back in time and experience the whole thing for the first time again *sighs*

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Today I am on the tour for Happy Is The One by Katie Allen, thank you to Anne at Random Things Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part & thank you to the author and the publisher for my copy.

Pages: 385

Synopsis: What if halfway through your life was just the beginning?

Robin Edmund Blake is halfway through his life.

Born in 1986, when Halley’s Comet crossed the sky, he is destined to go out with it, when it returns in 2061. Until that day, he can’t die. He has proof.

With his future mapped out in minute detail, a lucrative but increasingly dull job in the City of London, and Gemma to share his life with, Robin has a plan to be remembered forever.

But when Robin’s sick father has one accident too many, the plan starts to unravel. Robin must return home to the tiny seaside town of Eastgate, learn to care for the man who never really cared for him, and face the childhood ghosts he fled decades ago.

Desperate to get his life back on schedule, he connects with fellow outsider Astrid. Brutally direct, sharp-witted and a professor at a nearby university, she’s unlike anyone he’s ever met. But Astrid is hiding something and someone from Robin.

And he’s hiding even more from her…

My Thoughts: what an incredible book this was, thought provoking and incredibly emotional, I laughed, I cried I shook my head in disbelief.

Robin thought he had is whole life planned out until the last minute, but one thing changes and it all unravels, instead of his high end job in London with the woman he loves, he ends up moving in with his I’ll father, losing his job and Gemma and essentially starting over.

Watching him essentially starting over whilst also confronting parts of his past was strangely addictive, it felt like we were prying but also like we were meant to be there?

I love it when’s book just blows your expectations out of the water & this one definitely did that for me.

Settle in, make sure you have drinks and snacks ready because this is one because you’re not going to want to put down.

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Today I am on the tour for Cordial Convictions by Kateri Stanley, 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: 314

Synopsis: The truth cannot be hidden.

Greg Weaving took a gun to his workplace and killed several of his colleagues, before turning the weapon on himself.

A year on, plagued by guilt and humiliation, Marcus Weaving has been nursing a serious case of amnesia at The Barbary hospital. His son’s crimes caused a ripple effect in the local community and the media pointed fingers in his direction. As a former mental health professional, how could he not know that his own flesh and blood was planning on committing mass murder?

Determined to recover from his public scars and resume civilian life, Marcus is notably distracted by another patient at The Barbary. Lily is a traumatised young veteran suffering from depression and severe PTSD. She is just as intriguing as her beauty is unsettling for him.

Marcus observes questionable things happening at the hospital. Being a man of principle, he runs to the most logical possibilities, but even they are failing to alleviate his worries. Lily seems to be a conduit for these bizarre events and they are pulling at a familiar string in his spirit.

What should he do? What does this all mean?

My Thoughts: this book took some getting into, partly because it follows on from the last book & it had been so long since I read it, but then it all started falling back into place!

This is such a fun read, it has fantastical elements like demon who spend a lot of their time trying to influence the humans and get a reaction out of them.

Then on the other hand we have Lily and Marcus in the Barbary hospital recovering from the events in the last book.

I love Lily and Marcus as characters, they had a lot of depth and a lot of honesty when interacting with each other! – I loved the mental health rep in this book too.

Once I’d got to the point where I understood what was happening I was that invested that I finished the book in practically one sitting.

I really enjoyed the multiple POV’s in this story, it meant I was never really left ‘wondering’

I can’t wait for the next book in the series (assuming there will be one)

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Today I am on the tour for Room 21 by Jessica Huntley and I have a review for you, thank you to Zoé at Zooloos Book Tours for organising it and thank you to the author and the publisher for my copy.

Pages: 282

Synopsis: They say blood is thicker than water. I say blood is just harder to wash off your hands.

My name’s Kimberley. I’m twenty-five. I have epilepsy, a seizure alert dog named Muffin, and a job I love as a senior housekeeper in one of London’s top hotels. I’m used to being invisible. Overlooked. Safe.

But that was before Jennifer Clifton checked in. She’s rich, powerful, terrifyingly calm — and she asks for me by name.

She offers me my dream job, working in her exclusive hotel in the Scottish Highlands. It’s more money than I ever imagined.

There’s just one catch: Don’t open the door to Room 21.

How hard can that be?

But something is wrong in this hotel. The guests give me the creeps. The staff whisper behind closed doors. And that room — the one I promised not to enter — calls to me.

I took this job for a better life. Now I’m trapped in a nightmare.

Warning: This book contains dark and disturbing themes.

My Thoughts: Jessica is just an incredible author, most of her thrillers you know the premise and you have a rough idea where the story is going.. with Room 21 all of that logic goes out of the window!

The pacing of the story is weird out starts off slow which really builds the suspense but when the twists hit boy do they pack a punch and just keep coming.

You’re almost left feeling like you’re in limbo.. it’s a psychological thriller so you know damn well that the story isn’t going to be straight forward but you also have no idea who the bad guy is, what’s actually happening or why there are so many bloody secrets.. it all just comes out of left field but at the same time it all makes sense 🤯🤯

So much depth and so may levels I think I had to pick my jaw up several times along the way 🤣

Yes I’m being vague, but that’s because I’m not really sure how to articulate my thoughts, just honestly go pick this up!

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Today I am on the tour for The Last Wife by Matt McGregor, 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: 283

Synopsis: The perfect husband. The perfect house. The perfect lie.

When waitress Olivia meets charming, wealthy Lachlan Gibson, it seems too good to be true. A fairytale wedding. A magnificent house in the beautiful town of Rosford. Freedom to pursue her passion for painting.

Everything she ever wanted.

But beneath the surface, something isn’t right. Lachlan has some strange rules for his new wife. There are unsettling accidents which don’t seem random. And disquieting whispers about what happened to Lachlan’s previous wife, now deceased.

Olivia begins to suspect that her dream man may have a sinister agenda, that her perfect new life might actually be a carefully designed cage.

But it’s so much worse than that. As Olivia digs deeper into her husband’s past and discovers the terrible secret he has been hiding, she finally understands she may lose everything – her freedom, her sanity, even her life.

My Thoughts: I have not stopped thinking about this book and I finished it over 24 hours ago!

This is the first book in a long time that creeped me out so much that I had to space it out, I couldn’t read it all in one go because it felt so real and I was genuinely worried it would give me nightmares!

I was so invested in the book though I couldn’t wait to pick it back up, I adored Olivia right from the start I was rooting for her and just wished I could climb into the book and pull her out of the situation she found herself in!

Lachlan had my back up from the beginning.. he was the epitome of “if something seems too good to be true it probably is” but I can’t lie his charm and charisma probably would have won me over too!

As we get snippets of what happened to “the last wife” my heart was honestly in my throat, it made me sad & angry, I promise I knew it was fiction but this just hit me right in the feels.

I cannot recommend this enough, definitely one of my favourite books so far this year!

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