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Thank you to Laury herself for a copy of Jenny Kidd in exchange for a review. I am so sorry in the delay in getting it up.

Pages: 183

Synopsis: While spending autumn in Venice, a young American artist, Jenny Kidd, hopes to create a portfolio of paintings to launch her career and establish her independence from her tyrannical father. At the Guggenheim Collection, she encounters Randi, a colorful British woman, who invites her to a masked ball at the Palazzo Barbon. There, she meets the seductive Caterina Barbon and her brother, Sebastiano, who entice Jenny into a world of glittering façades that cloak sexual perversion, art forgery, and murder. As Jenny struggles between her attraction to Caterina and her growing awareness that she is in danger, Jenny discovers an inner strength and spirit worthy of her infamous pirate ancestor.

My Thoughts: this book was strangely beautiful, the setting was gorgeous and the idea of Jenny gaining some freedom from her father whilst also enjoying creating her own work was really very intriguing.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t actually read the blurb of the book when Laury contacted me, I’d already enjoyed 2 of her books so it was one of the easiest yes’s I’ve given, so the fact that this turned out to be dark & twisted shocked me, I was expecting a nice almost literary fiction story of a young lady escaping and finding herself but it was so much more than that.

Jenny meets several people all who change her story in some way, all of them equally important.

As always the writing is beautiful, Laury really has a way with words that leaves you completely unable to put the book down until it’s finished.

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Today I am on the tour for Taken From Her Home by C.J. Grayson, 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: 374

Synopsis: Mary’s in the shower after a long day’s work when the lights go out. Her phone screen flashes in the dark. The text is from an unknown number:

‘You’re not alone in this room.’

When she wakes, her head is pounding and there’s a churning in the pit of her stomach. She’s lying naked on the cold hard floor of a room she’s never seen before. The door is locked.

There’s a deep cut across her thigh. The key to the door is sewn into her flesh. It’s the only way out of this room.

Detective April Fisher must race against time to catch a killer in a sick game of cat and mouse.

My Thoughts: C.J. Grayson is fast becoming one of my favourite thriller authors, o have read quite a few of his books now and every time he keeps me guessing.

Taken from her home definitely felt like things had been stepped up a bit, it was fast paced and the action never let up, it was very dark and twisted it even had me cringing at times and I’ve read a lot of dark books!

I love April as a character, she is strong willed, knows what she wants and is always willing to go the extra mile to get it, but also isn’t afraid to lean on her colleagues for support when needed.

This case is a sensitive one, it deals with a lot of tough topics, but with heads turning up in local libraries she’s needs to find the connection fast.

I think I enjoyed the goriness a little too much, I was so caught up in the story that I definitely sided with the “bad guy” for a lot of this one, as a disabled person the chapters set in the best almost took me back to my school days.

I can’t wait to read more in this series!

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Today I am on the tour for The Cut Up by Louise Welsh, thank you to Anne at Random Things Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part and thank you to the author and the publisher for my copy.

Pages: 321

Synopsis: It’s hard to be good when living is expensive. And times are tough on the streets these days. Luckily for Rilke at Bowery Auctions the demand for no-questions-asked cash is at an all-time high, and business is booming. 

When Rilke hears his old acquaintance Les is fresh out of prison, his inclination is to stay well out of his way. Letting sleeping dogs lie is one thing – but when one of Bowery’s customers winds up dead on their tarmac, Rilke needs a bit of help from his friends to tidy things up. If only his friends didn’t have such a habit of making things worse.

My Thoughts: I feel like maybe this is the wrong word to use for a crime thriller but I found this one to be a lot of fun! – I loved Rilke as a character, I found his personality changed depending on who he was around and what he was dealing with, he could be warm and kind but then on the other hand sassy and sarcastic, he really kept me on my toes!

This is the first book I have read in the series and although at times I felt like I’d missed out on a little of the back story I did find that it read absolutely fine as a stand alone!

Rilke is just shutting up the auction house when he finds a long term customer of theirs dead with a hat pin through his eye, the same hat pin that he knew his boss/best friend was wearing earlier in the day, so he does the unthinkable and gets rid of the evidence, not knowing that it will select off a whole new chain reaction that he will find himself in the middle of!

This was fast paced, with a bunch of characters that all took the story in a different direction but could have been equally culpable.

It had my head not knowing what direction the story was going in but having Rilkes constant presence almost helped to ground us so we didn’t lose the story!

Thoroughly enjoyed it & it’s made me want to read the rest of the series!

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Today I am on the tour for The Secretary by Deborah Lawrenson, thank you to Anne at Random Things Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part and thank you to the author and the publisher for my copy.

Pages: 322

Synopsis: Moscow, 1958. At the height of the Cold War, secretary Lois Vale is on a deep-cover MI6 mission to identify a diplomatic traitor. She can trust only one man: Johann, a German journalist also working covertly for the British secret service. As the trail leads to Vienna and the Black Sea, Lois and Johann begin an affair but as love grows, so does the danger to Lois.

A tense Cold War spy story told from the perspective of a bright, young, working-class woman recruited to MI6 at a time when men were in charge of making history and women were expendable.

My Thoughts: I thoroughly enjoyed this one, I always thought I wasn’t a fan of historical fiction, but I have since learnt that it depends entirely on how it’s told and the perspective it’s told from.

In this one we’re following Lois who has joined the MI6 to try and flush out a security leak that they have noticed in their ranks, she is sent to Moscow & is told to be careful but to get information in any way possible.

She’s young, she’s beautiful and appears quite innocent so quickly believes that she’ll be fine, she knows it won’t be easy but that it’ll be with the hard work.

She soon realises that things aren’t as they seem & finds herself not sure which side she is on, shes a double agent unable to tell who the bad guy is!

This book is full of characters, many of them strong women who are secretly keeping things going behind the scenes, one of my favourites was Nan, she was more observant than anyone else gave her credit for, but she was subtle too.

It did take me a while to get into this one, but once it hooked me it was really hard to put down, it’s full of secrets and lies and a little but of love too.

A beautiful story that is definitely with a read.

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Today I am on the tour for Six Weeks In January by Alan Pearson, 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: 246

Synopsis: Picture a man, a grown-up child, alone in a boat, surrounded by so many people, in his car, swimming through a stream, looking down on Oceans, fighting his way through swamps, whilst laying in his hospital bed, kidnapped by out of work, eastern European actors, choosing which door, waiting for a red can of coke cola while the hearse returns his mobile.
Holding your hand, he will sit you down and lead you through a vast array of different time zones and parts of the world, none of the scenarios will remain the same, but all have a common theme, none of which are of his own doing, but all come from deep down in the depths of his own sub-consciousness.
There is light and dark, up and down, confusion and mayhem, there is no chance of survival but everything to fight for. He will transport you from the first cough to the last stand via the wards, the morgue, the woods, the roads, the streams and seas, the bays and rays of the sun.
Each experience is a battle to survive just a bit longer, against an unseen foe, that we all came to loathe and fear, but you will join in the achievement of taking everything on and trying for the win, despite having the odds stacked greatly against us.
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This is the story of one persons unwanted, unrequested journey once induced into a medical coma, due to Covid19, and instead of his brain shutting down, as expected by the sedatives, it sprang immediately into an unending nightmare of experiences, yes, experiences, as that is exactly what he did, he believed he really was in each of these scenarios that he was plunged into.
The ‘dreams’, not an accurate description of them, but that is truly what they were, were weird beyond belief, horrific beyond compare, long and tedious, the boredom could be unrelenting but interspersed with the highs and lows of a full gambit of emotions.
These tales will remain front and centre of his memory for the rest of his days.

My Thoughts: this is such a hard book to review, because who am I to have an opinion on what Alan went through. That being said what I can say is what a brave thing for him to do to document it for everyone else to read, I can’t imagine the emotions he must have gone through to almost experience it all again for a second time.

Some of his visions and experiences almost read like very vivid stories, sometimes being incredibly dark, which must have been terrifying.

I was absolutely fascinated though & I couldn’t put the book down.

At times this is a really hard read, but one that is absolutely worth the time to read it if you’re able to.

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Today I am on the tour for Ruthless Heart by Eve L. Mitchell, 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: 282

Synopsis: I wake up naked. Hungover. And in the wrong bed.

Jett Santo’s bed.

Cardinal Saints’ star quarterback.
Arrogant. Untouchable. Dangerous.

He doesn’t even remember my name.

I should be grateful. Pretend it never happened.
But I can’t.

Because my body already belongs to him.
And he knows it.

Now his future is on the line — and I’m no longer a mistake.
I’m his alibi.
His weakness.
His obsession.

Jett Santo doesn’t lose.

But I’m hiding a secret that could destroy us both.

Because that night wasn’t the ending.
It was the beginning.

And when the truth comes out, neither of us will walk away unscathed.

My Thoughts: dark romance is quickly becoming one of my favourite genres and this book cemented for me why.

Jett and Ava find themselves in a compromising position when they wake up the morning after a party in bed together, with no memory of why/how it happened! When Jett then fails a drugs test and gets temporarily suspended from his football team he sees red, he doesn’t do drugs, never has done and is utterly convinced that the girl he found in his bed is the cause.. but with no idea who she is he is in deep trouble.

Ava suddenly finds herself getting trouble from the Santo’s, she knows she should keep her head down, stay out of their way but there’s just something that keeps pulling them together, they fight, they argue but yet they always find themselves in bed together, what she doesn’t know is that Jett is using her, or at least he thinks he is!

When I first started reading this I was worried that the college age characters would be too young for me, as a 35 year old woman I’m pretty sure I am not the target audience! – but once I looked past that I got so caught up in the story, I love an MMC who isn’t afraid to put himself out there in front of his friends, and although it took him a while Jett was possessive and protective 🥵 but Ava wasn’t afraid to give as good as she got!

Highly recommend!

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Today I am on the tour for Solo by Caroline Swinburne, thank you to Anne at Random Things Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part and thank you to the author and the publisher for my copy.

Pages: 272

Synopsis: You’ve heard of ‘girl meets boy’? This isn’t that. It’s ‘girl meets horn’.

Cate was a top musician in a leading orchestra—until a disastrous solo humiliated her on the world stage. Traumatised, she abandons her instrument, retrains as a language teacher, reinvents herself online, and travels the world.

Ten years later, after her mother’s death, Cate returns to her bleak Midlands hometown, where she’s drawn into mentoring Sarah, a talented teenage horn player with no professional training. Sarah dreams of making music her career, but her family can’t afford a decent instrument or lessons. She learns by ear, her talent undeniable but her future uncertain.

Cate is the only one who can help.

When a local amateur orchestra announces a concert featuring the piece that once destroyed Cate’s career, Sarah’s big break is at stake. For Cate, helping her succeed could mean redemption—if she can finally face her own past.

My Thoughts: now I’ll be honest I don’t often reach for Literary Fiction, I often find that as a genre it deals with tough topics & can sometimes go a bit deep meaning that the experience isn’t much of an escape, that being said I thoroughly enjoyed this one!

The opening was a bit of an emotional start, but for me I think that was good, it endeared me to Cate and made me want things to get better for her even if it devastated me that everything she’d worked for was gone & she was left with no choice but to rebuild her life from the ground up.

She really took it as a fresh start and was happy in her life for 10 years until tragic circumstances brought her back to her home town.

This story was really beautiful, it’s about starting again when you’re knocked down, but then not being afraid to realise later in life that you still might not be on the right path. It’s about realising your worth, finding friends who really care and rediscovering the love for your passion in a different way.

I am so glad I gave this book a chance it made my heart happy!

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Today I am on the tour for Out Daughter is Missing by Darren O’Sullivan, thank you to Zoé at Zooloos Book Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part and thank you to author and the publisher for my copy.

Pages: 303

Synopsis: My daughter left for school this morning. She didn’t come home.

Someone’s snatched my little girl.

I have to find her. I have to save her.

But how can I, when I can’t leave the house?

My husband tries to be the perfect stepdad. But I’m not the mother Faye deserves. Ever since the night everything changed, I’ve been too scared to go outside.

I knew it was a dangerous world out there — I was right.

My Thoughts: another thriller that was utterly impossible to put down.

Faye is 13, and struggles with how protective her mum Jo has got in the last 2 years she was attacked, she had no freedom, feels like her mum is constantly breathing down her neck, she’s thinking about running away, has her bag packed and everything..almost changed her mind until she finds the tracker in her bag & now all bets are off!

Little does Faye know that choosing to leave the house that day would change her life forever, she gets abducted and her whole world is turned upside down.

At home Jo and Mark are frantic their girl is missing, they can’t get hold of her, none of her friends have seen her, secrets are coming out, things that Faye hasn’t told them & now they realise she could be anywhere.

It’s fast paced and absolutely brilliant, I really felt everything, when it was Jos chapters my heart was going 10 to the dozen because she was always on edge and anxious I felt that too, I just wanted to put my arm around her and reassure her!

Faye’s chapters had me feeling absolutely terrified, it was almost enough to give me nightmares!

Definitely one worth adding to your tbr!

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Today I am on the tour for The First Sin by Cheyenne Brammah, 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: 613

Synopsis: In the sweeping expanse of the Årdrakin Empire, the people fight and die for honor as elite warriors of the galaxy. But long ago, a prophecy was spoken that presaged the apocalypse. Everyone knows and fears the truth: one day, the empire will fall.

Tårik is a guard for small, independent Clan Tsinna. Instead of pondering the end of his civilization, Tårik’s greatest concern is maintaining his honor while escorting a group of impertinent dignitaries across the treacherous Barren Gale. When the Mother Goddess speaks a passage from the prophecy to him, he has the good sense to be frightened, but he doesn’t heed the significance of Her visit.

Then disaster strikes, and Tårik is branded as an exile, leaving him with no home, no honor, and no future. Forced into a desperate struggle for survival, all Tårik can focus on is living just one more day until luck—or maybe fate—gives him the opportunity to join a new clan. But even this is fraught with danger and uncertainty, and it takes him to an inhospitable world far from the empire where survival seems all but impossible.

Faced with new challenges, including trying to navigate first contact with the low-tech locals, Tårik believes the prophecy can’t reach him. Yet it continues to loom, signaling that his fate and the fate of the empire are irrevocably entwined.

This is a dark, spicy, adult science fantasy set in a world that includes war, violence, and other mature themes that some readers may find disturbing. Reading guidance can be found at the beginning of the book or on the author’s website.

My Thoughts: I really really enjoyed this, it’s a hard one to review though!

At over 600 pages this book is a commitment but one where the pay off is absolutely worth it! It has everything you want from a high fantasy novel, there’s war, there’s battles, you get creatures of different species, there’s magic of sorts, I was hooked, I’ll be honest I struggled reading with my eyes because despite given a pronunciation guide I just couldn’t get it right and I got frustrated 😂 so I bought the kindle version and got Alexa to read it to me! – that way I was really able to immerse myself in it & enjoy the story for what it was instead of getting annoyed with myself!

It’s dark, in places it’s very twisted and makes you want to stop reading, but if I’m honest I just couldn’t stop, I finished the book in 2 days.

A lot happens in this story, there is love, but there’s also politics, deception and dishonesty!

The world building was fantastic, I was able to picture the surroundings which fascinated and made me feel uncomfortable in equal measure.

This was a brilliant start to a what is likely to be a fantastic series!

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Today I am on the tour for What We Did by Brian O’Rourke, thank you to Zoé at Zooloos Book Tours for organising it and inviting me to the part and thank you to the author and the publisher for my copy.

Pages: 324

Synopsis:

She can’t remember what happened that night. But someone else does.

After years of struggle, Raven Kendrick is giving up on her dream of a theater career in New York. Returning to her hometown, she moves back in with her parents and resigns herself to a quiet life.

But that humble dream is shattered when her tyrannical father is murdered. Even worse, Raven is convinced her beloved mother killed him while sleepwalking. So instead of calling the police, she decides to cover up the crime.

But as detectives close in, Raven’s carefully constructed lies begin to crumble. Her alibi isn’t holding up and her father’s business partner is asking way too many questions. And she’s pretty sure her mother knows more than she’s saying.

With the police circling, Raven is shocked to find that she herself has become suspect number one. She needs to get to the truth of what happened that night—and fast.

But as she digs, Raven uncovers a tangled web of buried resentments and festering revenge. And behind that web, a horrifying secret that will change her life forever.

My Thoughts: yet another thriller that had me in a chokehold the whole way through.. I don’t know what’s happened in 2026, but it feels like everything has been stepped up a notch!

In this one we’re following Raven and her mum Robyn, they’re hiding a secret, Ravens dad is dead but the who, the why and the how is a mystery to them both, they choose to hide it because they both sleepwalk, they both have a reason to have killed Zane and they want to protect each other.

As the story goes on we learn that there is more to all of this that what we originally thought, told in 2 timelines from the perspective of both our main female characters which gives us a well rounded look at the story as a whole & a better insight into Zane’s character and the real reason why neither of them were happy to call the police to report his death.

As the book goes on we’re introduced to other characters, who all would have a reason to be involved.

The tension in this story never let it up, I was so tense that even my dog brushing against my leg made me jump at one point!

Didn’t work out who the culprit was, yes but literally seconds before it was revealed, I thoroughly enjoyed this I’m still thinking about it days after finishing it!

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