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Today I’m on the tour for The Second Marriage by Jess Ryder, thank you to Sarah at Bookouture for organising it and inviting me to take part and thank you to the author for my copy.

Pages: 342

Synopsis: They’re lying,’ my little stepson whispers, his blue eyes shining with tears as I tuck him into bed for the first time. ‘They think I’ve forgotten, but I remember everything. I know my mummy is still alive.’

My best friend warned me that it was too soon to marry Edward, a widower with an adorable but troubled little boy. She said we were moving too fast. But all I could see was a kind, loving man, struggling with grief, who needed my help.

Yet as storm clouds gather above our small wedding ceremony, my hopes and dreams fall apart. None of my husband’s family turn up to support us. Instead of a honeymoon, we have a quiet night in. My wedding bouquet is placed on his first wife’s grave. And then my new stepson tells me he’s sure his mother is still alive.

What does Noah remember and why is his father trying to make him forget? Have I been completely wrong about my husband? What happened to the woman who came before me, and how far will he go to stop me finding out the truth?

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: it can sometimes put me off when a tag line for a book says it’s “Utterly Gripping” because it kind of makes me want to roll my eyes because that’s what any psychological thriller is supposed to be right?

But this one really didn’t let me down! – sooo many twists and turns that I just didn’t know where it was going.

What is Edward hiding & why?

Is Noah telling the truth, or is he creating a reality that he wants to believe in? & How far is Lily willing to go to find out?

There were some really strong characters in this book and my favourite was Marsha, she stood up for what she thought was right and even after Lily asked her to back off she kept digging behind the scenes because she really strongly believed that something was off.

When the truth starts being unravelled who should Lily believe? The friend who has always been there for her or the husband that has promised her that it’s all a big misunderstanding?

Turns out the lies go deeper than anyone could’ve ever imagined and involved so many people.

I definitely didn’t work out the ending & didn’t expect half the twists that happened!

I cannot recommend this one enough

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Today I’m on the tour for Double Pursuit by Alison Morton, 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: 320

Synopsis: She’s hunting arms smugglers. But who is hunting her?

One dead body, two badly injured operatives and five crates of hijacked rifles.
In Rome, former French special forces intelligence analyst Mélisende des Pittones is frustrated by obnoxious local cops and ruthless thugs. Despite the backing of the powerful European Investigation and Regulation Service, her case is going nowhere. Then an unknown woman tries to blow her head off.

As Mel and fellow investigator Jeff McCracken attempt to get a grip on the criminal network as well as on their own unpredictable relationship, all roads point to the place she dreads – the arid and remote African Sahel – where she was once betrayed and nearly died. Can Mel conquer her fear as she races to smash the network and save her colleague’s life?

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: this is the second book in the Mèlisende Thrillers series, so if you haven’t read the first one Double Identity then go and pick that one up first!

Book 2 is still following the same story line as the first one Mel is still trying to get to the bottom of the arms smuggling network they encountered, they stopped one part of it but they are more than aware that it goes a hell of a lot deeper!

It’s fast paced and exciting, Mel tries her hardest to leave no stone unturned but anyone that comes forward with info seems to end up dead before they can pass it on!

Who’s doing this and what exactly are they hiding to make it worth killing for?

The size of her team is dwindling as they all seem to get caught in the crossfire!

This story takes place in many different locations as they travel to follow the leads. But how far will Mel have to travel to get to the bottom of it, and how much is she willing to risk when she realises that an old friend is involved?

I loved this so so much and cannot wait for the next one!

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Today I’m on the blog tour for Forgotten Heroes of Comedy by Robert Ross, 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: 608

Synopsis: In this long overdue and affectionate salute, celebrated comedy historian Robert Ross pays tribute to some of the finest, funniest and most fascinating names in comedy from both sides of the Atlantic.

Delving into the careers of the beguiling Avril Angers, the Clitheroe Kid himself, the forgotten Stooge Shemp Howard, Hollywood golden girl Thelma Todd, Italian film-maker Mario Zampi and many more between, Ross honours these legends of humour who, for a variety of reasons, didn’t quite reach the heady heights of stardom – or, once they did, they couldn’t cope with the pressures.

Whether it is a favourite from the distant smoke and ale-stained world of the Music Hall like the great George Robey, or the downbeat poetry of Hovis Presley, who dropped disenchanted bombs on the late 1990s, the Forgotten Heroes of Comedy will finally elevate them to the Hall of Fame where they belong. Forgotten, no longer.

My Thoughts: firstly you’ll notice that I haven’t put a rating for this book, purely because it feels wrong, I’d feel like I was judging the lives of the comedians who have been forever encapsulated in this book.. who am I to judge wether their lives were interesting? 🤣

The book itself was very well thought out and very well put together, I appreciated the fact that throughout the pages of people’s lives there were photos thrown in which really helped to envisage the people we were reading about!

I don’t often read non fiction because it doesn’t tend to grip me in the way that fiction does, but I actually found this really interesting, learning about how these forgotten heroes of comedy started out, what they achieved within their personal lives and their working lives.

I will be totally honest here and say I haven’t actually finished the book yet as I want to take the time to read it properly and take in all the information, but I’ve read about half of it & will be carrying on even after my stop.

I was born in 1991 so so far haven’t really known any of the comedians mentioned although there have been a few faces I’ve recognised. It’s really struck up conversations within my family as I’ve been asking my dad and stepmum if they know them.

The little bits of info at the end of each part telling you where you can still find work associated with the comedians was a nice touch and I will be looking a few of them up in the future when I get the chance!

I recommend this book to all fans of comedy new or old, well done Robert for ensuring that these ‘Forgotten Heroes’ will never truly be forgotten.

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Today I’m on the book tour for The Broken Pane by Charlie Roy, thank you to Kelly at Love Books Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part and thank you to the author and the publisher for my copy.

Pages: 325

Synopsis: The Broken Pane is about loss and family, when families are broken. Finding yourself in the pieces of memory. About a young woman and her search for answers.

In her early twenties, Tam rushes to her childhood flat only to be confronted by a tragic discovery. Anchored by the weight of family lore, she struggles to come to terms with her loss. As her life spirals, she sets off to find the one person who may hold the answers: her mother.

Tam’s travels take her far from a home which was more broken than she had ever realised.

Walking the line between reliable memory and unreliable narrator, Charlie Roy’s debut novel invites you to consider whether you are shaped by your past ― or if you shape your past yourself?

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: now I’ve read some pretty fantastic books this year, but this one just hit different, it has to be in my top 3 if not my favourite.

There are some pretty heavy themes so please consider these as trigger warnings suicide, self harm, child abuse/neglect.

This book gave me all the feelings, I laughed, I cried, I reminisced on past events and even got a little lost in my own head for a while.

There was a particular line that resonated with me very deeply..

“Tam, some people are meant to burn bright. They don’t burn for long.”

I have lost people in my life to suicide, one of them many years ago when we were only 15 and the impact he left on all of us, is still with us now 15 years later.

So thank you Charlie, for showing the impact on families/friends that suicide can have but also that life does carry on for those of us left behind.

This isn’t my longest review and I apologise for that, but please please if you are able to deal with the difficult subjects mentions pick it up and give it a go.

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Today I’m on the book tour for No Child of Mine by Olga Gibbs, thank you to Zoé at Zooloos Book Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part, and thank you to the author for my copy.

Pages: 377

Synopsis:

57th Year of the true leadership of The Ordained Liberating Party; or Year 2273 by the old calendar.
“The Collapse” took millions of lives and most of the country’s farming lands, bringing the surviving population of the island to the brink of starvation.

Out of the aftermath of the chaos and anarchy, a new state had emerged, known as The Federation Britannia, run by the single and unopposed Ordained Liberating Party.
The division of the country’s orphanages for children of “the true citizens” and children of “the enemies of the state” began the clearance of the questionable element, and bloody years of the Age of Cleansing had finished the purge, leaving behind a perfectly obedient electorate that marched every year in the Liberation Day parades, praising the Party’s leadership and following the Party’s every directive.

The rule of the Party is absolute. Its tool of compliance, the State Security Unit, is feared.

Tom isn’t a frightened follower, he is a true believer. He loves the Party with all his heart. He trusts in the Party’s wisdom. The Party had raised him, rewarding his devotion and love with a lucrative engineering job, and after the approval for the Procreation licence, it also granted him a family.

But the unexpected midnight visit by the State Security to his flat, questions asked and blood samples collected, unsettles Tom more than he likes to admit, and the following day, whilst investigating the “black uniforms” interest, Tom witnesses the State Security troops, led by the familiar officer, marshalling the children from his daughter’s nursery, packing them into trucks and taking them into the unknown.

At that moment Tom is forced to make a decision: either to follow the Party directive and to surrender his child into its plenary care or to protect what he loves and run.

But there’s nowhere to run. There’s no escape from the island or from the complete control of the Ordained Liberating Party.

“No Child of Mine” is a story of a father’s journey to save his child from a totalitarian regime, who is in order to bury the truth prepared to exterminate an entire generation.

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: Wow this story was intricate and detailed, the world building was amazing!

Everything they do is controlled, even down to when the telly comes on, what they are allowed to watch and even the volume!

When it starts we’re following Judy who is talking to her husband Tom about how much she misses their daughter, she hasn’t seen her for a while and so she’s going to help the nursery with the parade just to spend a bit of extra time with Tilly!

It soon becomes clear that Tilly doesn’t feel comfortable around her mum and dad almost like she doesn’t really know who they are, which opens you up to a lot more questions..

Whilst at the parade Judy notices that the children are acting strangely and that they seem to be covered in little lumps similar to blisters, what’s going on, why has no one noticed this?

From there things go down hill quite quickly, children are being taken & people are dying!

When the unthinkable happens Tom really steps up and takes charge, can he hide his daughter and keep her safe before it’s too late?

This was fast paced and the twists and turns just kept coming! – I didn’t know what to expect from this story but I’m glad I gave it a chance!

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Today I’m on the blog tour for Heaven on Earth by Sara Madderson, 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: 244

Synopsis: TWO GUYS. ONE CHOICE. IT’S OBVIOUS, RIGHT?

Sadie has one job: to court the press and put Sorrel Farm on the map.

She doesn’t suffer fools. She knows what she wants—in work and in love. And she always gets what she wants.

Ned is the farm’s quiet, intellectual Finance Director. And he’s smitten.

He’s got so much to give. If only Sadie could be bothered to look below the surface…

Danny is everything Ned is not: overtly sexy, overtly flirtatious and extremely self-assured. But there’s something off about him…

It’s obvious who the more attractive proposition is. Well, it’s obvious to everyone but Sadie.

Join Sadie’s messy love triangle and reunite with your favourite characters from Food for Thought: Evelyn, Angus, Zoe and more!

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: I’ve read a few of Sara’s books and she very quickly became a favourite author of mine, her books are always fun, flirty and sometimes hot and heavy, but in a subtle way of that makes sense? 🤣 and this one was definitely no exception!

This is Book 2 in the Sorrel Farm series the first one being Food For Thought so if you haven’t yet read it then go read that first before reading my review so I don’t accidentally spoil you!

This book picks up where the first one finishes, Evelyn and Angus are making a go of things in their new house and everything is going well!

They’ve added extra staff to the team at Sorrel farm to ease the burden on the existing staff and one of them is Sadie, Evelyn hired her to help her get Sorrel farms name out there in media and work on their PR.

Another new staff member is Danny, he is to be Angus’s right hand man & the reason he no longer has to get up at 4am for work – an added bonus when he now has a gorgeous woman to keep his bed warm.

Sadie instantly has the hots for Danny to which the feeling is mutual, and the sexual tension between them at the beginning jumps off the pages, kind of making you want to force them together, but what we’re not aware or is that Danny is keeping more than one secret that could have devastating consequences for Sadie!

Then there’s Ned, he’s Sorrel Farms finance director and your typical geek, at least that’s what Sadie thinks but is she just judging him on the way he looks?

As much as Sadie is trying to focus on her new job and not be distracted by men, her body seems to be having other ideas & she finds that once she actually gets to know Ned, or rather sees him in his Speedo’s she’s realised she actually has the hots for him too, but it seems like he is already taken?

One of these men will win Sadie’s heart, turn her world upside down and then right way up again, they’ll change her life and make her realise why things have never worked out for her before… the question is which one?

I won’t spoil it for you, but I loved it so much, I couldn’t turn the pages quick enough and was a little sad when it was over!

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Today I’m on the book tour for Vows of Gold and Laughter by Edith Pawlicki, thank you to Kelly at Love Books Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part and thank you to the author and the publisher for my copy.

Synopsis: The meeting of four lonely immortals will change them – and the world.

High in the Heavens, an immortal court celebrates the betrothal of Jin, Goddess of Beauty, and Xiao, God of Pleasure. But as soon as the vows are made, the Sun Emperor collapses from a death curse.

Raised away from the Sun Court after her mother’s murder, Jin is called a useless goddess, but she is now the emperor’s only hope. The curse’s cure is locked in the Underworld, and even though the court dismisses him as a hopeless alcoholic, Xiao vows to help his betrothed find the lost key.

They hire a thief who is more interested in stealing the groom than recovering the key, and begin their search at the legendary grave of the Great Warrior – only it turns out he never died. Tens of millennia old, he is a master of everything but his own heart.

Their journey takes them from the icy peaks of the White Mountain and the lush banks of the Kuanbai River to the palace of the Sea Dragon and the halls of the Moon Deer, through court intrigue and bloody battles, power struggles and magical traps. Heaven, Earth, and the Underworld will forever celebrate their triumphs – and mourn their mistakes.

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: The writing in this book was magical and whimsical, the audiobook flowed well though parts were really difficult to keep up with purely because there was so many characters and tangents to keep track of 😂 I found myself reading the ebook along with the audiobook that helped me keep track.

Both The world building and the character descriptions were incredible, it was really easy to picture it in my head where as normally with audiobooks I find it really difficult to visualise the words!

We’re following Jin and Xiao who are to be betrothed, whilst neither of them are really sure it’s what they want, it has been arranged so they go ahead with it, only for the sun emperor to be struck down with a death curse as soon as the vows have been exchanged.. on starts a journey for the newly betrothed couple to try and find a cure!

What follows is an adventure full of love, anguish, betrayal and certain characters discovering the truths about their past!

I loved it so much and after that cliffhanger I cannot wait to see what happens in book 2!

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Today I’m on the book tour for Migration Event by K.C. Gillis, 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: 426

Synopsis: Environmental destruction. Tax evasion. When reporter Jordan Reed uncovers a link, will she meet a fatal deadline?

Jordan Reed lives to expose criminals who believe they’ll never get caught. So after receiving a tip about a high-profile company dodging tariffs, the relentless journalist digs into the case. But though her lead turns out to be a red herring, a possible connection to the mysterious death of long-distance migratory birds pulls her into a byzantine maze of corruption and pollution.

Joining forces with a rogue conservationist, Jordan infiltrates the inner circle of one of Boston’s top corporate citizens. But when she and her new teammate find themselves surrounded by high-powered enemies, her hunt for the truth could force the coverup of their own murders.

Will the tenacious reporter live long enough to write the ultimate exposé?

Migration Event is the third book in the thrilling Jordan Reed mystery series. If you like powerful female protagonists, threats around every corner, and unexpected twists, then you’ll love K.C. Gillis’s edge-of-your-seat tale.

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: I think Jordan Reed may now be my new favourite female protagonist, she was bad ass, sassy and not afraid to take the path you least expect to get the results she needed!

We’re following Jordan who had stumbled upon a possible tax evasion case on one of the biggest business men in her area, little does she know that investigating it will lead to something a hell of a lot bigger!

This was gripping and really hard to put down, had more than one very strong female character, I loved Maggie just as much as I loved Jordan!

It was full of twists and turns, I honestly didn’t know where the story was going!

This is the third book in the Jordan Reed story and although I haven’t read the first two (yet) I didn’t feel lost or like I was missing anything.

I honestly cannot recommend this enough!

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Today I’m on the blog tour for Clandestine by James Quinn, 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: 248

Synopsis: James Quinn, author of the Gorilla Grant spy novels, will take you on a new adventure with his first short story anthology based around espionage, deception and intrigue.

A former spy investigates the murder of an old colleague – and uncovers a conspiracy that takes him back to the horrors of the Second World War.

A Close Protection Driver runs the gauntlet against assassins in the heart of Mexico City and is determined to keep his VIP alive… no matter the cost.

A Russian spymaster tells the tale of his nefarious plan to get an agent inside the Oval Office and to bring down American democracy, with devastating results for the future.

Enter a world of masterful suspense, action-packed adventures and thrilling twists with James Quinn’s ‘Clandestine’.

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: this serves me right for not reading the synopsis properly before agreeing to the tour but I didn’t realise this was a collection of short stories, they’re not normally my go to because I always feel like I’m left wanting more.

That being said I loved this, and although I was left wanting more it was more stories, rather than more detail in the stories that were already there! – the short snappy part reallly worked here, it made the stories gripping and believable!

I’m all for a bit of undercover spy stores, or stories where someone who is seen as ‘just the driver’ is the one to save the day! – I love it when the underdog comes our on top or when the hero is the person you’re least expecting!

Thank you for giving me the chance to read this, I couldn’t put it down and will be recommending it to all my reader friends.

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Today I’m on the book tour for Vacant by S Graham, thank you to Kelly at Love Books Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part and thank you to the author and the publisher for my copy

Pages: 127

Synopsis: For Becca, moving around with her two children and husband is nothing new. Relocating to new cities and viewing new houses is a normal way of life. Finding the perfect home is the hard part, but what comes with their new home was unexpected. As Becca begins to settle in the new house, she starts to experience chilling supernatural occurrences only witnessed by her. Unexplained and horrifying events start to unfold and in due time, the haunting face of a small child appears. The boy takes joy in seeing Becca squirm in terror and his obsession with her grows. They never anticipated what laid ahead, but one thing they did know was that this house was never VACANT.

My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧

My Thoughts: well… I’m not really sure what to say about this one, I really loved it but also wish I hadn’t read it at the same time because I will never look at a child balloon the same way again 🤣

Right from the off this gave me the heebie jeebies but in the best way possible, I was hooked!

It gave me paranormal activity vibes ( my total guilty pleasure) I felt so sorry for Becca, she started off doubting herself and trying to ignore everything that made her gut feelings real!

This was chilling, gripping and just impossible to put down, certain parts made me actually feel cold & to know this is based on real life events made this all the more shocking yet enjoyable..

I couldn’t help out feel like this was left open, not on a cliffhanger exactly, but it feels like there could be more in the future!

The last week of October was definitely the perfect time to read this, it got me all ready for the spooky season!

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