prdgreads

Today I am on the tour for In Gods Hands by Ritu Bhathal, 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: 423

Synopsis: They kept hearing, “When will we celebrate your good news?” 

The perfect partner, the perfect job, mostly perfect in-laws.

Bali and Kiran had it all.
Except for that baby.

After a few years of marriage, the natural step of starting a family beckoned, but nothing was simple or natural.

Constant whispers, superstitions, and rumours cause havoc in what was a solid relationship, and Kiran struggles to face the possibility that her dream may not come true.

Pregnancies and babies all around her. Why not hers? 
All she can say is, “It’s in God’s Hands.”

My Thoughts: this book 🥺🩷

This is book 3 in a companion series but unfortunately I didn’t have time to read the first two, this did however read really well as a stand alone! – well enough to give me all the feels! – it broke my heart, it made me cry.. it made me want to jump in the pages & give Kiran a cuddle or at least join the online forum and be a pillar of support for her!

The writing is so immersive that I genuinely felt like part of the family, there’s a lot of hard hitting topics dealt with in this book, done in a very sensitive way.

It shows the depths of the gossip mill within the culture that Kiran and Bali have grown up in and really shows the reasons why they hid their struggles from anyone including their closest family and friends.

At times I could feel the shame through the pages and it genuinely made me feel uncomfortable and uneasy that they could feel shame for something that was completely out of their control!

I definitely wasn’t ready for this book, but it’s one of my favourites of the year.

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Today I am on the tour for Don’t You Want Me Baby? by Rachel Dove, 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: 242

Synopsis: Amber Fitzpatrick is about to hit thirty and has achieved none of the things she hoped to have done by now. Her dreams of owning her own business seem out of reach. Her boyfriend has just dumped her and now her biological clock is clanging in her head.

But maybe Amber doesn’t need a man for the next stage of her life? Maybe as an independent woman she can have a baby all by herself?

There’s only one problem. Handsome but excruciatingly annoying best friend Tyler Williams. Tyler thinks Amber’s motherhood plans are plain crazy! She just needs to wait for Mr. Right to come along…and maybe he’s closer than she thinks?

But with Amber hellbent on doing it alone, Tyler sets out to prove to her that being her best friend could also come with excellent benefits…if only she’s brave enough to take the chance.

My Thoughts: this book was utter perfection! – as much as I’d love to leave my review there because nothing I say will do it justice, I can’t so I’ll give it my best shot.

We’re following Amber, she’s almost 30 & she’s starting to realise that her life isn’t going as planned, she’s just been dumped, so she starts spiralling.. she wants to run the pub that belonged to her gran, but doesn’t yet have the funds to make it happen yet, she wants a baby but now doesn’t have the boyfriend.. but there are ways around that!

I love how organised she was, lists for everything and bookmarks on her browsers, she was a girl after my own heart ❤️

Then there’s Tyler, he’s grumpy but protective & it comes across instantly to the reader that he is absolutely besotted with Amber, but he’s kept his feelings to himself, after all he’s just the best friend and he doesn’t want to risk losing that..

The slow burn in this book was everything, now I normally hate slow burn, I just want them to realise the inevitable and then we can enjoy the rest of the book with them in their happy little bubble… this book changed that for me, I was here for it.

The will they won’t they, the tension, the angst it all almost had me holding my breath & when they finally get together believe me it’s worth it 🥵🌶️

I need more Amber and Tyler, I wasn’t ready to leave them behind.

I personally didn’t think the cover fitted the book, but only because I assume it’s Tyler on the cover and he didn’t fit how I pictured him in my head 😂 (don’t get me wrong the cover is eye catching!)

You absolutely need to add this one to your TBR, you will not be disappointed.

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Today I am on the tour for What The Nanny Saw by Kaira Rouda, thank you to Sarah at Bookouture for organising it and inviting me to take part and thank you to the author and the publisher for my copy.

Pages: 311

Synopsis: I keep all her secrets. She thinks she can trust me… 

Cecilia has it all. The house on the beach. The cute figure. The beautiful baby. But she’s a long way from perfect.

She’s let me into her gorgeous house as her nanny because now she’s on her own, she needs a little help with her baby daughter Peyton. She barely notices me. But I see everything.

While Peyton naps, I rifle through her drawers and discover the dark secrets in her past, the threatening letter from her ex-husband.

It’s a shame that Cecilia doesn’t have my powers of observation. If she took some time, she might just recognise me. I’ve been following her for a while, after all.

If she knew who I was then I don’t think I’d be so invisible. And she wouldn’t be so surprised one morning when little Peyton’s cot is found empty…

My Thoughts: i went into this not knowing it was a sequel. 🫣 so I obviously didn’t get the back story of Mr Strom, hut that didn’t take away from the enjoyment of the story!

We’re following Cecelia, after everything she went through with Paul, she’s now settled with Evan and their daughter Peyton, she soon realises though that Evan isn’t interested in her or Peyton, she’s left to do everything and feels like a single mum, so she asks him to leave..

She very quickly decides she needs a nanny to help & and by magic she meets Lizzie at a coffee shop, who wants a new job, but what is it they say if something seems to good to be true it normally is!

Lots of small things add up to the bigger picture with this book, you have to be patient, it drip feeds you things slowly which helps build the suspense and leaves you feeling totally unable to put the book down!

I thoroughly enjoyed it & I’ll be looking forward to more Kaira in the future!

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Today I am Joining the Blog Blitz for The Little Christmas Library by David M Barnett, thank you to Tracy at Compulsive Readers for organising it and inviting me to take part and thank you to the author and the publisher for my copy.

Pages: 280

Synopsis: Molly McGinley has had enough of London and, feeling like a failure, heads home to the unremarkable Northern town of Merry-le-Moors, to move back in with dad Jack for Christmas.

Jack, still mourning the loss of his wife and Molly’s mum ten years ago, nevertheless maintains a positive outlook on life, and to lift Molly from her slump insists she goes out with him on his daily rounds driving the town’s mobile library.

When an elderly man, Cliff, starts coming into the library for warmth and companionship, Jack and Molly provide tea and sympathy… and begin to attract the lost, lonely and jaded people of Merry-le-Moors, who gather each day at the mobile library to talk about books, life and love. Each of them is searching for something in life, and Jack and Molly know just how to find it in the library.

As friendships – and more – begin to form, Christmas approaches… and so does a dark cloud on the horizon. The library is under threat, and so too the fragile friendships that have been formed.

But this is Christmas, after all, and magic – like love – can be found in the most unlikely places.

My Thoughts: you’re definitely going to get more than you think from this book, is it Christmassy? absolutely. Does it have a romance? Yes.. some of which you won’t see coming! but it’s also so much more than that!

It’s about a community coming together, and the determination of one man and his daughter to just make sure no one feels alone when life does everything to prove the opposite.

And it’s all centred around books, which for me is just the best message, books became my escape from life and my happy place, so it was lovely to read a book about how the magic of books did the same for the characters in here.

It’s not all warm and fuzzy, the book details with some really hard subjects which some may feel don’t have a place in a book like this, but for me personally I thought they were an important element of the story & helped you understand some of the characters on a deeper level.

Every now and again you read a book that when you finish you instantly wish you could experience it again for the first time & this is one of those books for me.

It gets you ready for Christmas whilst also helping you remember what’a actually important at this time of year.

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Today I am on the tour for Breaking The Ice by Amy Andrews, 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: 284

Synopsis: A SPICY sports romance from USA Today Bestseller Amy Andrews. Perfect for fans of Hannah Grace and Liz Tomforde
A bookshop face off!

NHL hot shot, Nick Hawkeye Hawke has 4 months to recuperate from a potentially career ending injury. All he has to do is take it easy and keep things low key. So, looking after his grandmother’s beloved second hand romance bookshop and working very closely with the ruthlessly efficient Samantha Evans is just what he needs right? Wrong!

Career driven Sam has impulsively decided to swap her highly stressful corporate job for a slower pace in her favourite bookshop at the exact time her biological clock has started to tick. And she wants absolutely none of that. But when your boss is a hot hockey superstar and you can’t stop daydreaming of him being your baby daddy, forced proximity takes on a whole new meaning.

With temptation around every book shelf, Nick and Sam find themselves skating on thin ice until they put themselves firmly in the friend zone. But the more they try to resist their slow burn, the more they want each other. How long can they stay in the zone until one of them breaks the ice?

My Thoughts: a curvy female main character, a male main character who reads and the main setting being a second hand book store?! yes please!

This was such an easy read, it was fun and flirty, the banter between the characters was perfect and you’d have been hard pressed to wipe the smile off my face throughout!

Sam and Nick were like the perfect couple and the only 2 people that couldn’t see what was staring them both in the face was them!

Some of the scenes in this book had me laughing so much, but then made me a little sad because you could feel Sam’s insecurities coming through the pages!

I really enjoy Amy’s writing, the characters feel so real and genuine, they know how to communicate and the spice was chefs kiss 👌🏼

I am eagerly awaiting her next release!!

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Today I am on the tour for Born of Bloodshed by A.D. Jones, 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 got my copy.

Pages: 94

Synopsis: Death truly had come to the village…

Nothing exciting ever happens in the border towns of Scotland, and the village of Newcastleton, with a population in the hundreds, is no exception to the rule. That is until kids start going missing and turning up dead, and violently mutilated, in the surrounding forests.

A group of teens will be forced to put down their NES controllers, walk away from their VHS collections, and try to figure out what has descended upon their quaint, little village.

Born of Bloodshed from A.D Jones, author of Sacrificial Waters, will transport you to 1990 Scotland for this terror-filled, coming of age story which promises nostalgia, stomach-churning violence, and a group of teens that you will fall in love with. Perhaps don’t get too attached!

My Thoughts: this book freaked me right out, young kids, killer gnomes, blood, gore, guts, it had the lot!

Very cleverly written and very descriptive this one is definitely not for the faint hearted.

It’s a fairly short book coming in at just under 100 pages, so the action starts pretty quickly & doesn’t have time to let up at all, you don’t even have chance to catch your breath.

I thoroughly enjoyed it l, even if I was reading it whilst looking between my fingers at times.

I will never be able to look at a garden gnome in the same way again 😂

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Today I am on the tour for The Price of Dormice by Steve Lunn and I have a spotlight for you, thank you to Zoé at Zooloos Book Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part.

Pages: 440

Synopsis: When Mick’s life is almost ended by Oxford’s influential chief planner Conrad, the near-miss and ensuing violence awaken his sense of justice.

Conrad, deeply embedded in Oxford’s elite, colludes with venerable St Mark’s College in their sale of a 650-acre farm for development. Strategically located in the OxCam Growth Arc, the development will involve bulldozing a nature reserve and its dormice.

Mick joins fellow ordinary people in protest. Meanwhile Conrad’s wife Kimberley demands a divorce and extends a helping hand to Mick.

Tragedy strikes when two people, believed to be Conrad and Kimberly, die in a suspected arson attack on their home.

Mick becomes prime suspect. Unable to prove his innocence, he realises truth hardly matters in this game of privileged versus powerless. The privileged set the rules, forcing Mick and friends to resort to blackmail and guerrilla tactics. Amidst murders, romance blooms, yet the fate of the dormice hangs in the balance.

About the Author:

Raised in a mining village in Derbyshire, Steve Lunn has lived in South Germany, Durham, Bristol, British Columbia and South Wales. He now spends time in Inverness-shire and Brittany while living in Oxford, where his debut novel The Price of Dormice is set.

He has worked in education (research fellow and lecturer at The Open University; elementary school teacher), software (Softlink, National Express, Telecomputing, BAe, Morganite), farming (Tideswell, Degenhausen), and catering (Bognor Regis). He studied at Durham, Oxford, Oxford Brookes and The Open universities, Shirebrook and Whaley Thorns schools; and co-founded Westmill, southern England’s first community-owned wind farm.

Steve is a hands-on conservationist and re-wilder, and an occasional guitar, banjo and ukelele player. In the past he has written about science, design, electronics and health education, AI in business, and fish. These days he focuses on short and long form fiction. He shares home, family and a young dog with artist Imogen Rigden.

If you’re interested in this it can be bought here!

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Today I am on the tour for If the Crown Fits 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: 288

Synopsis: A thief has three rules: 
#1: Never get caught
#2: Never trust anyone
#3: Never, ever, forget to guard your heart

In the kingdom of Everness, the memory of magic only lives on through whispered stories.

Lara, an elusive bandit raised in a clan of thieves, makes the mistake of stealing from the tyrannical royal family . . . and getting caught.

She has no idea how high the price for her freedom will be.

Forced to choose between forfeiting her life or offering her services to the prince regent, Lara is blackmailed into retrieving a stolen heirloom from Cai, the infuriatingly charming crown prince of the enemy kingdom. Lara must pose as his betrothed — a princess of Everness he is yet to set eyes on.

Bound by a deadly secret and driven by a desperate need to protect those she loves most, Lara’s path to freedom is filled with deceit and desire. But it can only lead her to becoming an enemy of the crown, or an enemy of her own heart.

If the Crown Fits follows an uncommon thief’s struggle to survive among ruthless princes while fighting against forbidden desire, injustice and a kingdom of secrets.

My Thoughts: i will always admire the skill of an author who can create these fantasy worlds, because what an imagination it takes!

I went into this one blind, the cover sucked me in completely and it’s been a while since I read a romantasy book and they are a favourite of mine, but with authors like Sarah J Maas it’s a hard genre to compete in, in my opinion Leané has cracked it!

The main character is likeable despite being a thief, she’s strong, independent and tbh a force to be reckoned with.

I couldn’t make my mind up about Lance, I really wanted to like him, but there was something about him that made me feel uneasy.

And then there’s Cai, oh Cai, I don’t really know what to say about him but I just loved him straight away, he was a little bit of arrogant and a bit of an arse to begin with, but he had a soft centre 🩷

This book literally has all the best elements of a romance book, with a fantasy element and I just ate it up completely.

I can’t wait to see where the story goes next, because that ending!

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Today I am on the tour for The Married Man by K.L. Slater, as you can see I am a few days late, I’m sorry! but thank you to Sarah at Bookouture for organising it and inviting me to take part and thank you to the author and the publisher for my copy.

Pages: 419

Synopsis: Everyone thinks my husband is dead. Just like we planned…

Eleven years ago, my husband disappeared. Eleven long hard years I waited, my heart breaking for our son, who didn’t know his father was coming back.

Today, my hands shake as I try to understand what I’ve just learned: my husband has a new wife. This wasn’t part of our plan.

Eleven years ago, my husband made a terrible mistake. I sacrificed everything to help him fix it. But now he’s put our son and me in danger again.

We had a plan. He broke the rules. But who will pay the price?

My Thoughts: this one is definitely a book that will have you hooked instantly, Rich goes missing after doing out with his 3 year old son Maddox, who is later found by the police but he has no recollection of where his daddy went..

We quickly learn that the disappearance was planned, rich was in trouble and had to disappear but he’s coming back, Liv just has to wait it out… it will be worth it in the end, won’t it?

Fast forward 11 years, Liv had changed her name and moved away and Maddox is now 14 & getting into all sorts of trouble, he lands himself a job with the local drug dealer and finds out that everything he’s been told growing up may be a lie which then in turn causes him to lash out!

We’re also following Kait and her husband Daniel, who are conveniently both keeping secrets from each other that could bring their whole world crashing down if it’s revealed.

This was so cleverly done, 2 seemingly separate storylines both thoroughly gripping on their own become tangled together so intricately that you’re left doubting everything you’ve believed so far!

I didn’t see half the twists coming, this book honestly kept me guessing and on my toes the whole way through.

Definitely one that needs to be added to everyone’s TBR.

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Today I am on the tour for Killer Delivery by Calum France, 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: 69

Synopsis: On a snow-covered Halloween night in the town of Aberlea, Jonathan Harker, a reclusive and wildly successful novelist, lives in an eerie Victorian mansion where the eyes in the paintings seem to watch your every move. Known for his chilling horror novels, Jonathan hides more than just dark tales within the walls of his grand but decaying home — there’s a secret buried in these walls that he’s desperate to keep hidden.

Karlee Monroe, filling in for the local takeaway driver, arrives at Harker’s mansion with a tale of a broken-down car. But nothing about her arrival is accidental. A devoted fan of Jonathan’s work, Karlee has meticulously planned her visit, bringing with her ulterior motives and a hidden agenda. The mansion, with all its secrets, is her true destination, but Karlee isn’t the only one with plans for the night.

As Jonathan and Karlee engage in a tense and uneasy dance of deception, the mansion’s doors are forced open by an even more dangerous threat. A group of three strangers invades the home, turning the night into a living nightmare.

When the lights go out, the real horror begins.

My Thoughts: oh my gosh this book had me in its clutches and absolutely would not let me go..

We start off thinking Harker is just a lonely old author, living in his mansion that everyone thinks is haunted, its Halloween and it’s snowing so he orders a Chinese but gets a little confused when instead of his usual delivery driver he gets Karlee instead.

Very quickly he starts to feel that there is an ulterior motive to her being there, but before he can think too deeply about it the mansion is broken into my 3 people!

For such a short book this one packed one hell of a punch, it’s dark, it’s gruesome and almost read like an episode of Dexter!

I absolutely loved this!

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