prdgreads

Today I’m taking part in the International Women’s Day Festival run by Spell Bound Books. I’m on the book tour for Dig Your Own Grave by Carmen Radtke.

Pages: 274

Synopsis: Marie Ingram is kind, generous, and lately, a killer …

When her childhood friend takes her own life to escape marital hell, Marie is devastated. But when the widower sets his eyes on a new wife, she knows what she has to do:

Make sure no other woman suffers the same fate.

Knowing she may not have long to live due to a serious illness, Marie considers this her parting gift to the world.

But doing good by breaking bad is a very easy habit to fall into, and there are plenty more evil people who seem to be untouchable by the law.

The question is, is Marie fast becoming irredeemable herself?

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: this is a mystery book with a bit of a twist, we know who’s killing people, we know how and we know why, all things that we normally expect to be a big reveal, but somehow this book was addictive.

The writing flowed so easily that it was a quick read and I just couldn’t put it down!

I was behind Marie the whole time, I understood why she was doing what she was doing and I actually found myself agreeing with her reasons and feeling like she was definitely doing the right thing.. (don’t worry, I’m not about to start killing people, I just kind of ‘got it’)

Not that this makes it right, but she’s dying.. she was just trying to right some wrongs and rid the world of bad people 😂

I loved Dash so much, he quickly became one of my favourite parts of the book, he just had so much character!

This was such an enjoyable read without being too heavy despite the subject matter.. I would say it’s more of a cosy mystery but without the huge element of humour that normally comes with that specific genre.

I would definitely recommend picking it up when it’s released on 11th March 2022. And it can be bought here! – it’s also included on Kindle Unlimited.

🐧❤️

Today I’m on the blog tour for Princess Ever After by Connie Glynn, I’m coming at you with a spotlight! – thank you to The Write Reads Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part.

Pages: 304

Synopsis: Return to the magical world of The Rosewood Chronicles in the fifth and final instalment of this gorgeous series for fans of The Princess Diaries and Harry Potter.

Ellie is a rebellious princess who is no longer hiding her real identity.

Lottie is her Portman, wishing that she could shield Ellie from the threat of Leviathan.

Jamie is Ellie’s Partizan, a lifelong bodyguard sworn to protect the princess at any cost – but has mysteriously disappeared.

Not all of the trio have made it back to Rosewood Hall. Can they be reunited? And at what cost?

With the crown at risk, the stakes have never been higher . . .

About the Author: Connie Glynn has always loved writing and wrote her first story when she was six, with her mum at a typewriter acting as her scribe. She had a love for performing stories from a young age and attended Guildhall drama classes as a teenager. This passion for stories has never left her, and Connie recently finished a degree in film theory.

It was at university that Connie started her hugely successful YouTube channel Noodlerella (named after her favourite food and favourite Disney princess). After five years of publicly documenting her life and hobbies to an audience of 900,000 subscribers on YouTube, Connie closed the book on the Noodlerella project in a bid for more privacy and to pursue her original passions in the performing arts. Connie now writes music and fiction full- time.

If you like the sound of this the book can be bought here! – but remember it’s book 5 in the series!

🐧❤️

Today I’m on the blog tour for Killer Looks: The Forgotten of History of Plastic Surgery in Prison by Zara Stone, 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: 360

Synopsis:Killer Looks is the definitive story about the long-forgotten practice of providing free nose jobs, face-lifts, breast implants, and other physical alterations to prisoners, the idea being that by remodeling the face you remake the man. From the 1920s up to the mid-1990s, half a million prison inmates across America, Canada, and the U.K willingly went under the knife, their tab picked up by the government.

In the beginning, this was a haphazard affair — applied inconsistently and unfairly to inmates, but entering the 1960s, a movement to scientifically quantify the long-term effect of such programs took hold. And, strange as it may sound, the criminologists were right: recidivism rates plummeted. 

In 1967, a three-year cosmetic surgery program set on Rikers Island saw recidivism rates drop 36% for surgically altered offenders. The program, funded by a $240,000 grant from the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, was led by Dr. Michael Lewin, who ran a similar program at Sing-Sing prison in 1953.

Killer Looks draws on the intersectionality of socioeconomic success, racial bias, the prison industry complex and the fallacy of attractiveness to get to the heart of how appearance and societal approval creates self-worth, and uncovers deeper truths of beauty bias, inherited racism, effective recidivism programs, and inequality.

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: this was a very interesting and intriguing look into something that happen behind the closed doors of a prison that no one ever really thinks about.

Plastic surgery to make prisoners look more ‘normal’ to hopefully make things easier for them on the outside once they are released.

Procedures such as nose jobs and facelifts were performed as early as the 1920’s which just shows that people have always consider their looks to be very important.

The way this stories were told almost made it seem like fiction which made it really easy to get lost in.

You could tell by the amount of detail that was in this book that Zara had been very thorough in her research.

It almost makes it hard to believe that it’s all true!

There were pictures throughout which as well as breaking up the story made visualising everything that was being talked about so much easier.

I’d recommend this story to everyone, it was absolutely fascinating.

If you’d like to dig a little deeper into it then have a look at this Instagram! – @prisonplasticsurgery

🐧❤️

Today I’m on the blog tour for Undercover Princess by Connie Glynn and I’m coming at you with a spotlight to tell you all about the book ☺️

Pages: 376

Synopsis: Loved The Princess Diaries, Once Upon a Time and Girl Online? Then you’ll love Undercover Princess!

Lottie Pumpkin is an ordinary girl who longs to be a princess, attending Rosewood Hall on a scholarship.

Ellie Wolf is a princess who longs to be ordinary, attending Rosewood Hall to avoid her royal duties in the kingdom of Maradova.

When fate puts the two fourteen-year-olds in the same dorm, it seems like a natural solution to swap identities: after all, everyone mistakenly believes Lottie to be the princess anyway.

But someone’s on to their secret, and at Rosewood nothing is ever as it seems…

From YouTube personality Connie Glynn, AKA Nooderella, comes her debut novel, the first in The Rosewood Chronicles series. The perfect book for teenage girls, join Lottie and Ellie at the mystical and magical Rosewood Hall.

About the Author: Connie Glynn has always loved writing. She wrote her first story when she was six, with her mum at a typewriter acting as her scribe. This passion for stories has never left her, and Connie recently finished her degree in film theory. It was at university that Connie started her hugely successful YouTube channel, Noodlerella. There Connie vlogs about her passions, which include comics, cartoons, impressions, video games, cosplay, and all things cute. Connie’s channel has nearly one million subscribers and over 88 million views.

If you like the sound of this you can buy it here.

🐧❤️

Today I’m on the blog tour for The Killing Kind by Jane Casey. 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: 474

Synopsis: Ingrid will never forget what John did.
The people he hurt. The way he lied about it so easily. The way she defended him.

Now he’s back.
He says a murderer is after her. He says only he can protect her.

Would you trust him?
The clock is ticking for Ingrid to decide. Because the killer is ready to strike…

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: I am a Jane Casey virgin, this is my first dive into her work & right from the first chapter I was hooked! This is a relatively long book for the genre but it was so fast paced that it didn’t feel long, I honestly struggled to put it down.

The story is told from the perspective of Ingrid Lewis, a barrister who defended the wrong person in the past and since then her life has been a nightmare, she’s had a 2 year reprieve because she had a restraining order put on John which didn’t allow him to contact her or come near her, but that’s just run out… her colleague has been killed in a car accident, but she was carrying Ingrid’s umbrella… is she the wrong victim?

There were so many layers to this story that just when you think you know where its going something happens to make you doubt yourself.

I started doubting the ‘good guys’ and trusting the ‘bad guys’ this story really messed with my mind but in the best way possible.

It was told in different timelines and online conversations with anonymous people.

I’m really struggling to put my thoughts into words in a way that won’t ruin the story for you, all I can say is pick it up, but remember that you don’t know who is telling the truth and who has Ingrid’s best interests at heart.

This is one of the best psychological thrillers I’ve read in a long long time.

Part of me wishes I could forget all about it and experience it for the first time again.

🐧❤️

Today is my stop on the blog tour for The Farmhouse of Second Chances by Helen Rolfe, 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: 368

Synopsis:

Home is where the heart is…

Joy has made a family for herself. She’s turned her beautiful old farmhouse into a safe haven for anyone who is looking for a new beginning. She’s always ready with a kind word, a nugget of advice and believes that anyone can change their life for the better, if they really want to.

Libby has exchanged her high-flying job in New York for a break in the quiet Somerset countryside. She’s soon drawn into Joy’s world and into her family of waifs and strays – including Drew, whom Joy once helped get back on his feet.

So when a secret from Joy’s past threatens everything, can the unlikely group come together to give Joy a second chance of her own?

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: now if I’m being completely honest, it’s not often books like this get higher than 3 stars from me, not because I don’t enjoy them because I do, but they’re all a bit samey and you tend to know where the story is going to go.

But this one hit different, so different that it wouldn’t be fair to give it anything less than 5 stars.

Joy lives at the Old Dairy farm and has always taken in the ‘waifs and strays’ that need a little extra love, the ones that have lost their way, maybe even lost themselves & she helps them back onto the right path – she’s done that since the old owners did the same for her, as a way of carrying on their legacy and a thank you to them for leaving her the farm when they died.

We know quite early on that Joy has a dark past, we don’t know any of the details though, just small hints until the full story is revealed near the end of the book in a shockingly brilliant twist that I did not see coming.

I really, really enjoyed this book, and I read it at just the right time, it almost felt like it knew what I was going through & it gave me the big warm hug I needed and didn’t let go.

This story will really make you think about wether it’s nature or nurture that makes you the person you are destined to be.

It’s full of heartwarming moments, sad moments, secrets, lies & love.

I would absolutely recommend this to everyone, just pick it up and read it I promise you won’t be disappointed ☺️

🐧❤️

Today I’m on the book tour for the Alex Cohen box set, the 3rd and final one from me as part of this!

Pages: 261

Synopsis: Is building another casino worth dying for?

Jewish gangster, Alex Cohen returns to America and settles in 1960s California to build a drug and prostitution empire in LA. When he gets a call from the mob to help the CIA invade Cuba, Alex must decide between family and his business associates.

If he helps Uncle Sam and the Mafia then he puts his life on the line fighting for freedom and the chance to rebuild his Havana casinos. If he refuses the favor then death will call on him, his ex-wife and their sons. Once he agrees to one accommodation then others are sure to follow, in a decade where even presidents, assassins and presidential candidates were whacked at a terrifying rate.

The sixth book in the Alex Cohen series is an historical thriller novel, which rips open Jewish organized crime involvement in Lee Harvey Oswald’s death and the assassination of Bobby Kennedy. Leopold Borstinski’s searing crime fiction lays bare the making of today’s USA.

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: This is the 6th instalment in the Alex Cohen series and I have to say this is my favourite so far! 

This one was more character driven than plot driven which I appreciated, it was less heavy on the action which meant that we got to know the characters in a whole different way and it made me feel more empathy for them and everything they’ve been through, Alex especially! 

In this one Alex is trying to reinstate his previous drugs and prostitution business after having to leave Cuba in a rush! 

We meet characters like Kennedy, Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe and it’s done so seamlessly and fits in quite well with what we know about them and they’re real lives that Alex could’ve actually been a real person in those times! 

Then something happens that Alex can’t physically say no too & it makes him realise how old he is and how much he’s missing out on his families lives, could now be the time to say goodbye and let it all go? 

I love this series so so much, and I cannot wait to see where it goes next time!

Today I’m on the book tour for Leopold Borstinski’s Alex Cohen box set books 4-6, this is the second of 3 posts you’ll see from me for this 🙂 this one is all about Cuban Heel so let’s dive right in!

Pages: 228

Synopsis: Would you work with the devil to build a paradise on Earth?

Jewish gangster, Alex Cohen joins long-time friend and business partner, Meyer Lansky to recreate Las Vegas in 1950s Havana. When dictator President Batista gives them the opportunity to build their dream casino complexes, Alex must choose between dancing with this devil or being in debt to the Italian mob.

If he takes the mafia money then he will be tied to the men who planned his earlier downfall and removed his mentor, Lucky Luciano from the syndicate. If he refuses their investment then he will be beholden to the tinpot generalissimo and his bloated ego. But Alex knows that there is more at stake than mere gelt–now he has his family surrounding him and they will suffer the ultimate price if he makes a bad decision.

The fifth book in the Alex Cohen series is an historical thriller novel, which tears at the heart of the Jewish mob’s role in pre-revolution Cuba. Leopold Borstinski’s piercing crime fiction gives each reader the shocking skinny into the building of modern America.

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: I have to be really careful what I say here because it’s obviously book 5 in a series, so I won’t go into the plot like I normally would. 

This book was just as action packed as the others, There was fighting and disputes between some long standing characters which I didn’t see coming, it really brought the common phrase in the book “we live together, we love together, but we die alone” into perspective it really showed that these kind of people only see someone as useful whilst they have something to gain from them! 

I loved that this book was more family oriented than the others and we got to see more of a couple of Alex’s children (although they’re fully grown adults now) and ready to join the “family business” although both Alex and Sarah are reluctant for that to happen! 

I devoured this book in one sitting was totally hooked and thoroughly enjoyed it. I cannot wait to see what the gang get up to next time! 

🐧❤️

Today I’m on the book tour for Leopold Borstinski’s Alex Cohen box set books 4-6, this is one of 3 posts you’ll see from me for this 🙂 the first one is all about Casino Chiseler so let’s dive right in!

Pages: 255 

Synopsis: Would you gamble everything you possess to win more than you can imagine?

Jewish gangster, Alex Cohen leaves jail to find salvation from the 1940s mob in the hotels of Las Vegas. When Bugsy Siegel invites him to take over sports betting in Nevada, Alex must figure out how to get back to the top table in New York without attracting the Feds’ attention.

If he succeeds then he will regain his self respect, but if he fails then the last members of the national crime syndicate will cut him dead and he will be left a nobody or wind up a corpse. And after he bumps into his childhood sweetheart, he has a once in a lifetime opportunity to win her heart. But Alex knows the criminal underworld has the habit of spilling over into his personal life and when Meyer Lansky asks him to murder Siegel, Alex must choose what is truly important to him.

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: Casino Chiseler is the 4th book in the Alex Cohen series! on the outside, the series itself seems like a fairly easy read but one that intrigued me instantly, – in reality it was complex and utterly gripping but still an easy story to follow.

In book 4 Alex has just been released from prison and makes his way Las Vegas to help a friend run his betting business, because obviously that’s where the money is now..however we are all aware that his end game is to get back in with the Murder Corp with the Mob Bosses. 

As always with the series nothing is ever simple and Alex finds himself in a lot of situations that I’m sure he would rather avoid – one of them even including carrying out a hit that he never thought he’d have to do. 

The story is action packed and just doesn’t stop but yet never seems to be confusing, we are reintroduced to an old character who i loved more this time round! 

There was a lot of emotion in the story too, some parts really upset me whilst others really made me smile. 

I cannot wait to dive back into the series and see what Alex gets up to next time! 

🐧❤️

Today I’m on the blog tour for A Wedding at The Jane Austen Dating Agency by Fiona Woodfield, thank you to Anne at Random Things Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part and thank you to the author for my copy.

Pages: 360

Synopsis: A modern-day matchmaker’s happily-ever-after bubble is about to burst in the second novel in this charming series of love and all its misadventures.

Sophie Johnson appears to be living the perfect life. She has landed her dream job as managing director of The Jane Austen Dating Agency and is dating the world’s most desirable man, Darcy Drummond.

But all is not as it seems. The relationship with Darcy is failing to live up to expectations and his awful mother is determined to cause trouble. To add to Sophie’s problems, the agency is struggling to attract enough eligible men, she has a Regency wedding to plan, and then there’s the amusing and disturbingly cute Henry Baxter who is making it hard for her to concentrate.

The problem is Sophie wants it all, but in trying to manage everything, she’s in danger of losing what matters most.

Can she keep the dating agency afloat and find her own happy ever after? Or is business and romance an impossible combination?

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧.5

My Thoughts: I really enjoyed this one, this is the follow up to ‘The Jane Austen Dating Agency’ and it was exactly what I was hoping for in terms of character development for Sophie, but I couldn’t help but feel that it fell short on the romance and wedding vibes, the wedding was a very small part of the story!

As a main character Sophie is very relatable and since the end of the first book she’s become stronger and able to stand her ground a little more.

I didn’t like Darcy at all, there was just something about him that rubbed me up the wrong way. I was in Henry’s corner from the beginning and wish he had featured in it a little more heavily.

There was a lot of regency events within the book that I loved, I’ve never really been interested in classics but this duology makes me want to pick up a Jane Austen novel!

The mystery element of this story is what carried it & kept me hooked, I was all for Sophie sticking to her guns and doing whatever it took to get to the bottom of it and save the agency and her job!

Friendship was a strong theme within this book women supporting women and I was here for it!

I really enjoyed being back with the characters from the first book and meeting the new ones.

I would recommend this book, but I will say that if you’re going to read it then please pick up the first one before you do.

They’re on kindle unlimited!

🐧❤️