Today I’m on the book tour for The Younglings by Helena M Craggs, thank you to Kelly at Love Books Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part & thank you to the author for my copy.
Pages: 393
Synopsis: Humans have no idea what lurks in the shadows.
Mortals don’t expect to see supernaturals. Their minds rarely consider the possibility, even when it’s staring them right in the face. I was one such person … until I met my estranged father.
Let me introduce myself. The name is Carter. Quinn Carter. A witty, laid-back, regular guy, who just happens to be half-demon.
Finding out Dad is a demon king was like a sucker punch to the gut. Seriously, I’m a total biological freak. Meeting him was the catalyst for my life tail-spinning into a new world—a world where things of legend are real.
The one positive about this whole situation is the friends I have made. Good friends. But they too have secrets … big secrets. They’re not exactly your average individuals. Turns out demons aren’t the only paranormal creatures out there.
I also need to mention a Vampire Ministry, evil stab-worthy demons, and troubled spirits stranded on the spectral plane. As a consequence, life for my friends and me became a tad problematic.
Being heroes in the mortal realm hadn’t been on anybody’s to-do list, but we had no choice in the matter, and things were about to get very interesting.
My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧
My Thoughts: I’m a real fantasy geek, and fantasy set in the real world is a real favourite of mine so I LOVED this!
Poor Quinn has just learnt he’s a half demon & if that wasn’t enough his best friend Eve is half angel.. there goes his chance at love, he can’t possibly tell her how he feels now, can he?
I loved the introduction of the rest of the ‘team’ I was slightly worried that it would get overwhelming at some point with so many names to remember, but there were all introduced at just the right time and it all seemed quite seamless!
Obviously they are thrown into their new roles quite quickly & I was so impressed with how well they worked together as a team! – it made it so easy for me to get behind them and support them!
Quinn’s inner dialogue made me laugh on several occasions, he was just such a typical 16 year old 😂
The book gave me real feels for Charmed (my favourite show ever) & not just because Millies book of spells was called the Book of Shadows, but the fact that all of these fantastical creatures (demons, angels, witches, angels, ghosts, mortals) all came together for the greater good!
I was totally invested in this story and really struggled to put it down. I cannot wait to see what happens in the next instalment!
Today I’m on the blogtour for Safe At Home by Lauren North, 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: 400
Synopsis: What if you left your child alone, and something terrible happened?
Anna James is an anxious mother. So when she has to leave eleven-year-old Harrie home alone one evening, she can’t stop worrying about her daughter. But nothing bad ever happens in the sleepy village of Barton St Martin.
Except something goes wrong that night, and Anna returns to find Harrie with bruises she won’t explain. The next morning a local businessman is reported missing and the village is sparking with gossip.
Anna is convinced there’s a connection and that Harrie is in trouble. But how can she protect her daughter if she doesn’t know where the danger is coming from?
My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧
My Thoughts: this is the first book I’ve read my Lauren North but I can promise you it won’t be the last, I devoured this in one sitting, it was incredible, fast paced, full of twists and turns, and the creepiest thriller I’ve read in a long time!
This is a really hard one to review because I don’t want to give anything away, part of the enjoyment was not knowing ANYTHING that was going to happen!
We’re following Anna, a mother of 3 girls 11 year old twins Harrie and Elise and 7 year old Molly. She’s not a single mum, but she might as well be because her husband works away for 3 months at a time!
Anna leave her daughter Harrie alone for the first time whilst she goes to pick Elise up from her club, she’ll only be 20 minutes, nothing could go wrong. right?
Unfortunately it doesn’t quite work like that and Harrie ends up being left alone for 3 hours, but when Anna checks on her she’s asleep so all is good…
Until it’s not, Harrie isn’t herself the next day, she’s quiet and withdrawn and won’t talk to anyone not even Elise!
I loved this so much, I loved the use of mixed media, the way nothing was straight forward and you found yourself being tied in knots trying to work out what’s happened, who to and why!
The worst part about thrillers is that they are predominantly stand alone and after that ending I NEED to know at happened next 😂😭
Go and pick it up, then come back and share your thoughts with me. I need to discuss this book with people!
Today I’m on the Blog Tour for Starstruck by Beth Miller, 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 304
Synopsis: Sally Marshall is just your ordinary suburban woman, who gets by performing as a tribute act to a pop star (Epiphanie, even more famous than Beyonce). She, along with dozens of others.
Until one day she is asked by the real Epiphanie to do a life swap for a couple of weeks. Epiphanie trades Madison Square Garden for doing gigs in pubs. Sally is catapulted from suburban semi life to double for a mega-star, her life turned upside down.
But which life will they each choose in the end? Laugh-out-loud and unputdownable, Starstruck will leave you feeling warmer about all the different lives we choose.
My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧
My Thoughts: this was a story that grew on me the more I read, to start with I didn’t like Sally at all, I didn’t find her humour funny, she was more annoying, but I powered through and I’m so glad I did!
Sally is a tribute act for Epiphanie ( the worlds biggest superstar singer) she loves what she does but she’s always wanted more, she wants to hear her own songs being sung rather than singing someone else’s!
Imagine her shock when she gets home from her latest gig and finds THE Epiphanie sitting in her kitchen, sat on a second hand chair talking to her fiancé!
She soon finds out that the reason she’s here is because Epiphanie needs a break, and considers Sally to be the best tribute act she’s in, she wants to swap places with her for 2 weeks, is offering to pay her a lot of money for the privilege! – that will help her and her fiancé achieve a dream that has so far not been possible!
Sally jumps at the chance and is thrown into the spotlight and no matter what she expected NOTHING could’ve prepared her for this, will she be able to last the full 2 weeks?
I ended up absolutely loving this even though it took me a while to be invested, a whole host of characters that I loved all for different reasons, although my favourites were Leo, Abraham and Indigo, they were the ones that made me smile the most and even made me laugh out loud whilst reading a couple of times.
This was a really fun read that shows you that the high life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be and maybe sometimes on the way to realising your dreams you might find that it’s not actually what you want after all.
Today I’m here to reveal the stunning cover for this book.. BUT I’m going to leave you all hanging a little longer whilst I tell you a little about the book and the author first 😉
Synopsis: When struggling college student and aspiring music teacher Sharleen Vega lands a seasonal position with a local Parks and Recreation Department, she’s not expecting to find her destiny and true love. Assigned to direct a holiday variety show at an elementary school the city has given up on (the same school she once attended as a child), Sharleen must come to terms with the grief of her past while bringing hope to a community she feels compelled to fight for.
About the Author: David-Matthew Barnes is the bestselling author of fifteen novels, three collections of poetry, seven short stories, and more than sixty stage plays that have been performed in three languages in twelve countries. He writes in multiple genres, primarily young adult, romance, thriller, and horror. His literary work has appeared in over one hundred publications including The Best Stage Scenes, The Best Women’s Stage Monologues, The Best Men’s Stage Monologues, The Best 10-Minute Plays, 105 Five-Minute Plays for Study and Performance, and several collections in the Chicken Soup for the Soul book series. He graduated with honors from Oglethorpe University in Atlanta with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications and English. He earned a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at Queens University of Charlotte in North Carolina. He is a graduate of the Professional Program in Screenwriting at UCLA. To date, he has written five produced screenplays, including the award-winning Dutch film Wagon.
Are you ready to see the cover now?!
Isn’t it stunning?! it’s making me feel all Christmassy!
Today is my stop on the blog tour for How To Be An Olympian by Harry Reardon and o have an extract for you, thank you to Anne at Random Things Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part.
Before I post the extract let me tell you a little about the book and the author! 😍
Synopsis: Hannah Dines and Jess Leyden are two perfectly normal, brilliant women. One, a world record-holding athlete and a Paralympian on the trike. The other, a multiple age-group world champion and one of the most promising rowers Great Britain has to offer.
In the five years (yes, that’s right) between Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, they will face cancer scares, crushing defeats, and the biggest global health crisis in a century. They will get dropped, they will get injured, and they will win medals. They will spend the best years of their lives knowing that at any moment, it could all come crashing down. That all the training, all the sacrifice could be in vain, wasted effort as a pandemic raged. That maybe these could be the years that will shape their finest hour – or that maybe, after everything that they’ve been through, it could all still be snatched away at the last…
About the Author: Harry Reardon is a qualified lawyer who, at the age of thirty-one, left the law completely to train as a sports journalist. He now works in the civil service. He lives in a small village outside Winchester with his wife and their two young children.
Extract: If you ever find yourself booking a room at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Reading – and the Rough Guide to Berkshire this isn’t, but one never knows when the urge may take hold – make sure you ask for one round the back. This is important. Otherwise, when your alarm goes off too early of a morning, and you lever yourself out of bed, grumble your way to the kettle and then potter across to the window to open the curtains and take in the day, if you’re lucky there’s going to be a tree in your face. If not, reading from right to left, it’s petrol station, greasy spoon, redbrick office, roundabout. A greasy spoon with a solid set of TripAdvisor reviews it may be, and doubtless plenty of the employees of the Reading branch of Peter Brett Associates are more than content with their life choices, but none of that changes the fact that this is not the view they advertise on the hotel website. So drink your tea. Head downstairs, pick your way past the spreadsheet printouts and meal time notices pinned to the whiteboard in the foyer, and press on through the café, because once you make it out of the glass doors at the back and onto the terrace, suddenly there is late summer sunlight twinkling off the Thames. The birds are singing, the sky is an impudent blue, and it’s a different world. It’s all so serene, so far removed from the hammering heart of built-up Britain that’s beating no more than a hundred yards away, so gently perfect, that if this weren’t August 2016, you’d expect Jess Leyden to be feeling pretty well-disposed towards it. But it is, and so she isn’t. She perches uncomfortably on a rickety metal chair, her knees hunched up to her chest. “You look at some of them,” she says. “And you say, well, why can’t I do that?”
Jess has been watching a lot of telly recently. Team mates, room mates, former crew mates, friends and rivals have been out in Rio de Janeiro over the last couple of weeks, competing at an Olympic Games. They’ve been breaking records and they’ve been winning medals, and she could have been there too. She’s got the talent. Everyone at British Rowing knows that, and has done for a few years now, since she won the country’s first ever international gold medal in the women’s single scull[1], at the 2013 World Junior Championships out in Lithuania. But the quadruple scull she’s been in for her two seasons in the senior squad missed out on Olympic qualification, and so here she is. Everyone else, it seems, is over in Brazil, and she’s sitting outside a hotel in the Home Counties and reliving the moment, three months earlier at the final qualification regatta, when a crew made up of her, Holly Nixon, Ro Bradbury and Tina Stiller finished behind China, Ukraine and New Zealand and fell five seconds short of Rio. “After we missed out, I didn’t know what to do,” she says. “I knew we would have to do something quite special at that regatta, but in that moment I really believed we could. We had a good platform, we knew the way we were going to get faster, and it was slowly getting there. But if you’re a crew like we were, who were really fighting for the places, you’re affected more. You change your tactics more than an established crew would. Maybe that’s wrong.” There was one thing for certain – she wasn’t going to leave the sport. She might still be so new to the national team set-up that she doesn’t even think of herself as a rower – “I don’t really feel like I’ve grown up. I feel like I’m still doing my hobby” – and she might only have turned down a place at Newcastle University two years ago because she’d just made it into the Great Britain senior squad, and it’s easier for an international rower to become an engineer than it is for an engineer to become a rower. But unlike in 2012, when Jess was still splashing about in the junior ranks and the team that dominated at Dorney was becoming the stuff of legend – now, she knows she’s good enough. She’s got the numbers on the rowing machines, and she’s proving herself on the water. Now, she needs to keep sharpening up her technique, she needs to stay fit, and she needs to find the boat that will take her to Tokyo, because she’s not going to miss out again.
If you love the kind of this as much as I do then it can be bought here…. How To Be An Olympian
Today I’m on the blog tour for A Perfect Harvest by Bill Fitzhugh and I’m coming at you with a spotlight, thank you to Anne at Random Things Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part.
Synopsis: Given a terminal diagnosis (actually two of them) thirty-five year old Miguel Padilla decides he must accomplish something meaningful before death. He seizes on the idea of donating a kidney to save someone’s life.
Then he decides: why stop there? Why not donate… everything?
Why not indeed?
About the author: Bill Fitzhugh is the author of eleven satiric novels, including Pest Control which has been translated into half a dozen languages, produced as a stage musical, and a German radio show; Warner Brothers owns the film rights. He lives in Los Angeles.
Today is my stop on the Book Tour for Instincts by Catherine Haworth, 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: 244
Synopsis: They say the devil’s in the details… And I say, I most certainly am.
After a near miss with a serial killer on a night out with her best friend Holly, Fae Wright found herself with a starring role in Holly’s subsequent bestselling memoir.
Now Fae has been unexpectedly hired by the Metropolitan Police to help solve the unsolvable. A string of murders across England are linked but what is the common thread?
With bodies piling up and constantly more questions than answers, Fae strives to connect the dots. Holly wrote all about Fae’s psychic instincts, so maybe she really does have the best chance of catching the killer.
But someone is watching Fae very closely, and there may be more to this than Fae could ever have imagined…
My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧.5
My Thoughts: This was a fairly fast paced read, one that gave you just enough information to follow the story easily but not enough to work out who the culprit was! – not only that but it hinted towards it being plenty of others, lots of red herrings in this one and all were equally plausible!
We’re following Fae who is a psychology graduate, but is better known for getting a ‘feeling’ one night and saving her best friend from being murdered!
Because of this success she is drafted in by her local police force to help them solve a string of murders, the only problem is that no one really seems to be happy that she’s there and honestly she’d rather be anywhere else BUT it has her intrigued so she stays & it soon becomes clear that she is thinking the opposite to her peers, they all think it’s a male behind the attacks where as for some reason she is convinced it’s female, and with the victims stacking up can she convince them of that before it’s too late?
Just as she feels she’s getting somewhere the killer throws a spanner into the works and makes it personal, now she really feels that everything is on the line!
I loved this so much it had everything I loved in a thriller and more, I would highly recommend everyone picks this one up!
Today I’m on the book tour for Dirty Little Secret by Jonathan Peace, 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: 305
Synopsis: Ossett, West Yorkshire. March, 1987.
A town of flower shows, Maypole parades and Sunday football games. But behind all the closed doors and drawn curtains are hidden truths and shameful lies.
Discovering the body of a young girl dumped into a phone box at a local beauty spot, WDC Louise Miller’s first case as detective in her hometown is made harder by the sexism and misogyny of small-town policing. But her four years on the force in Manchester have prepared her for this and along with ally WPC Elizabeth Hines, the pair work the case together.
As their inquiries uncover the town’s hidden secrets, psychologist Karla Hayes offers insights into the troubled psychological problems of the victim, revealing dark truths that could lead to the identity of the killer.
But when a second girl goes missing, Louise realises that some secrets should stay hidden.
Including hers.
My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧
My Thoughts: a crime novel with a strong female lead is my favourite type of crime novel, and as far as female leads go Louise Miller is a strong contender for being one of my favourites EVER, she’s comfortable enough in her role to stand up for herself when her male colleagues start to try and assert their dominance and I was definitely here for that!
As far as the crime itself, it was eerie, creepy, something of nightmares but something that you could also see happening in real life which is also a very scary thought!
Louise is enjoying a weekend off before starting her new job on the Monday, unfortunately things don’t quite go to plan because she finds the body of a young girl in a phone box!
What follows is intense fast paced and honestly just doesn’t stop, you’re left feeling like you just don’t know who to trust and like you can’t even trust the people who are supposed to protect you!
Another girl goes missing, Louise is convinced their linked, how can they not be? but all of her colleagues are telling her she’s looking too much into it! – can she convince them she’s right before they have another death on their hands?
I read this so quickly that I was a little disappointed when it was over but I am so, so excited for the next instalment in the series!
Today I’m on the blog tour for Catch Your Breath by Ed Patrick, 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: 288
Synopsis: A gut punch of a memoir by a doctor – and comedian – whose job is to keep people alive by putting them to sleep.
Ed Patrick is an anaesthetist.
Strong drugs for his patients, strong coffee for him. But it’s not just sleep-giving for this anaesthetist, as he navigates emergencies, patients not breathing for themselves and living with a terrifying sense of responsibility. It’s enough to leave anyone feeling numb.
But don’t worry, there’s plenty of laughing gas to be had.
My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧
My Thoughts: I have SO MANY feelings about this book!
Long story short, I loved it, so much so that if it could give it more than 5 stars I would!
It made me cry more than once, but there were several moments where it made me laugh, like actually laugh out loud whilst reading (luckily I was on my own so no one thought I was crazy)
It gave me a real insight to behind the scenes in a hospital, a place where I’ve spent a lot of time in my life with having cerebral palsy and Multiple Sclerosis, it gave me new found respect for NHS staff at all levels, we are very lucky to have such a fantastic health care system in the UK!
The last few chapters were a hard read, they were all about Covid-19 and it reminded me how difficult the last 18 months have been and really brought home that we’re still living it, we’re not at the end yet!
Thank you Ed for writing this book, being so honest, but also trying to put a lighthearted spin on it to make it accessible to everyone!
Also… nothing to do with the book or my review, but my phone autocorrected Patrick to Patrice EVERY SINGLE TIME 😂 I’m so used to it being the other way around!
Today I’m on the blog tour for In The Silence Long Forgotten Almond Trees Blossom by David B P Mayne, 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: 425
Synopsis:
The 1980s. Jack, a geologist in Libya is rescued from jail by Bushra, daughter of wealthy Greek/Libyan parents. Their ten-year affair is fraught with difficulties, her political activism, his loveless marriage. They have twins, born in Athens and separated at birth against their parents’ will; Stavros is taken to Benghazi by Bushra’s parents, Emma to London with Jack.
The 2020s. After Russia sweeps through the Balkans, Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean, the UN creates two mandates in Libya; Cyrenaica in the east governed by the Russians, Tripolitania and Fezzan in the west led by the European Defence Alliance (EDA). Tensions in the region are further compounded by an increasingly unstable climate and overwhelming refugee crisis.
2031. Emma’s daughter Isabel joins EDA. After surviving a life-threatening incident on the border, she is forcibly taken into Cyrenaica. Bushra, barely existing in occupied Greece, unexpectedly contacts Jack, who struggles to come to terms with their past. They are shocked to hear from Stavros, long-thought dead, who leads the resistance against the Russians in Cyrenaica and is responsible for Isabel’s abduction.
The effects of history bind family members together as they and Cyrenaica move towards a new future in this thought provoking-novel of love, tragedy and reconciliation.
My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧
My Thoughts: let me tell you, when I signed up to this blog tour I wasn’t expecting to love this book, it seemed out of my comfort zone but the synopsis intrigued me and I though the cover was stunning, so I just thought why not, y’know?
I did find some parts very information heavy and a little difficult to understand and sort of glossed over those bits if I’m honest.
But wow this book just came out of nowhere and stole my heart. I loved Jack so much, I admired him for stepping up in a situation where a lot of other men would have walked away!
Bushra was a woman who knew what she wanted and wasn’t afraid to go after it despite what other people thought, she was determined to make it happen and make it work , some of the things she goes through I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy BUT she never let it get to her and always made the best out of a bad situation.
Emma and Isabel were very strong characters in their own right, I did feel that Emma’s role was a small one compared to others but it was an important one, she was kind of the glue that held everyone together! Whereas Isabels role was a big one, arguably the biggest, she took the most risks even putting her life on the line on more than one occasion!
There were so many more characters, too many for me to mention, the story didn’t go the way I expected it to at all, it was heartwarming, heartbreaking, full of secrets that were left to discover and went in directions that I never thought it would!
I know my review hasn’t done it justice at all, but please give it a go, I promise you’ll love it!
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