Today I have a cover reveal for you and it’s adorable! – but before I show you, let me tell you a little about the book and the author!
Synopsis: What would you do if you found the world’s smallest dog?
When Ernie and his family leave the countryside to move to the city. Ernie feels like he’ll never settle into their new home.
Yet on his very first night, a surprising new friend introduces himself – Swop is a very tiny dog. A dog that just happens to be the size of a satsuma.
Ernie vows to keep Swop a secret, but Swop has other ideas and he’s determined to make Ernie’s first day at his new school a memorable one!
About The Author: An ex-primary school teacher and Teacher of the Deaf. I now run a small educational company, specialising in arranging book projects and theatre events for schools and families. I live with my husband, our three children and our three dogs in Ealing, London. Yet the one in charge is our little ex-street dog, even though he has no eyes and three legs. He also happens to be called Swop!
Are you ready to see the cover?!
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Isn’t it cute?! – I don’t have children myself but I do think all the children I have in my life would love this!
If you like the look of the cover and the sound of the book it can be bought here… don’t forget to come back and tell me what you and your little ones thought!
Today is my stop on the audio blog tour for Mimic by Daniel Cole, thank you to Tracy at Compulsive readers for organising it and inviting me to take part & thank you to the author and the publisher for my copy
Before I start, let me just say that after experiencing 2 family bereavements in a very short space of time, one still less than 2 weeks ago I am still struggling to get my thoughts in order, so please forgive me if this review seems ranty or falls flat in any way.
Synopsis:
1989 DS Benjamin Chambers and DC Adam Winter are on the trail of a twisted serial killer with a passion for recreating the world’s greatest works of art through the bodies of his victims. But after Chambers almost loses his life, the case goes cold – their killer lying dormant, his collection unfinished.
1996 Jordan Marshall has excelled within the Metropolitan Police Service, fuelled by a loss that defined her teenage years. Obsessed, she manages to obtain new evidence, convincing both Chambers and Winter to revisit the case. However, their resurrected investigation brings about a fresh reign of terror, the team treading a fine line between police officers and vigilantes in their pursuit of a monster far more dangerous and intelligent than any of them had anticipated…
Pages: 311
My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧
My Thoughts: I really enjoyed this story, it drew me in quite quickly, the writing flowed easily and I really enjoyed the humour of the story with the very serious undertone!
I’ve never read a book with a story line quite like this, murders are being committed and the bodies are being left looking like famous sculptures, so death has become art, it gave me the creeps and fascinated me at the same time.
It seems like DS Chambers and DC Winters just keep hitting brick walls when it comes to trying to solve the case, they’re both getting frustrated and give it one last ditch attempt which ends up with dire consequences for one of them?
The case is ‘forgotten’ for 7 years before being picked up by new blood Jordan who manages to convince both Chambers and Winters to help her solve the case despite them both having new jobs! – they’re reluctant at first out soon the pull of the new evidence and the possibility of finally getting to the bottom of it proves too much!
Unfortunately in reopening the case they seem to have reawakened the murderer, can they get to the bottom of who started this awful new collection of art before it’s too late?
I thoroughly enjoyed the story and felt the audiobook added a whole new level too it making it feel more real, or had me laughing in places, whilst cringing and on the edge of my seat in others, this is my first dive into Daniels work and it’s left me eager to discover his previous books!
Today is my stop on the blogtour for Delivery by Emanuela Barasch-Rubinstein, thank you to Zoé at Zooloo’s book tours for organising it and inviting me to take part and thank you to the author and the publisher for my copy
Pages: 205
Synopsis: When Daphne becomes pregnant, it isn’t only her life that changes… For her husband Amir, for their parents, and for their friends Guy and Abigail, the pregnancy and birth force them all to look at their own lives, at what they want, at their pasts and their futures. Each person has a different perspective of the delivery, and of the complexity of having a child: the difference between men and women, a changing self-perception of parents, conflicts between work and parenthood. Lives are changed, and the equilibrium each of them has achieved is fundamentally disturbed until, after the delivery, they can find a new balance for the future
About the Author:
Emanuela Barasch Rubinstein is a writer and a scholar in the Humanities. This is her second work of fiction, following Five Selves, published in 2015 by Holland House Books. Her non-fiction work includes The Devil, the Saints, and the Church, Nazi Devil, and Mephisto in the Third Reich: Literary representations of Evil in Nazi Germany. Emanuela also translated Evans-Prichards’ Theories of Primitive Religion and Dodd’s The Greek and the Irrational from English into Hebrew.
Today is my stop on the blogtour for The BeachHouse by Beverley Jones, thank you to Emma at Damp pebbles Blog tours for organising it and inviting me to take part and thank you to the author and the publisher for my copy.
if you click the photo, you will be taken to Amazon where you can buy your own copy.
Pages: 181
Synopsis: The perfect place to hide. Or so she thought . . .
When Grace Jensen returns to her home in the ocean-front town of Lookout Beach one day, she finds a body in a pool of blood and a menacing gift left for her: a knife, a coil of rope and handcuffs.
The community of Lookout Beach are shocked by such a brutal intrusion in their safe, close-knit community – particularly to a family as successful and well-liked as the Jensens – and a police investigation begins to find the trespasser.
But Grace knows who’s after her. She might have changed her name and moved across the world, deciding to hide on the Oregon coast, but she’s been waiting seventeen years for what happened in the small Welsh town where she grew up to catch-up with her.
Grace might seem like the model neighbour and mother, but nobody in Lookout Beach – not even her devoted husband Elias – knows the real her. Or how much blood is on her hands.
My Rating:🐧🐧🐧.5
My Thoughts: When I realised that this book was only 181 pages I did worry that it would feel rushed in places, and although it didn’t I also felt that some parts could have been fleshed out a little more, but that is just a preference of mine, I don’t like to feel like I don’t knw the whole story!
the story was fast paced and had lots of different elements that left you constantly on your toes and second guessing who Grace could trust and who she was going to turn to next.
I found myself very mistrusting of ALL the main characters at some point within the book and felt it could’ve been any one of them trying to spook Grace, or maybe even Grace herself trying to get attention, possibly as a way to reveal her past because keeping a secret was now proving just too difficult for her because she has now found a place she belonged..
Even now after reading the book and knowing the conclusion i don’t feel like there were any hints within the writing that would’ve led me in the direction it took… that could just be me but there you are.
This is my first dive into Beverley’s work and after looking on Goodreads I can see that this is definitely not her first book and it makes me want to go through her back catalogue and give them all a read! So if you have ever read anything else by Beverley then please let me know which ones you would recommend i pick up next!
The Beach House was solid psychological thriller that I will be recommending to my friends and urge you all to pick up if that is a genre that you enjoy!
Today is my stop on the blog tour for The Keeper of Songs by Fiona Mountain, thank you to Anne at Tandkm Things Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part & thank you to the Author for my copy!
Click the picture to be taken to amazon where you can buy your own copy
Pages: 453
Synopsis:
A missing singer
A doomed love story
A family split by secrets & lies
1967: Enigmatic young folk singer Molly Marrison disappears on the cusp of fame.2002: Silva is working as a housemaid at Chatsworth House when her father suddenly dies, leaving her with one instruction – find Molly.
The only clue is a haunting song, centuries old, that Molly recorded before she vanished. Silva needs the help of song collector, Robbie Nightingale. Silva and Robbie were teenage sweethearts, but they’ve not spoken for decades. If they try to find Molly, what else will they discover? For Molly is not the only girl to have disappeared. Silva’s mother, Sukey, vanished when Silva was a child, leaving her with scars that Robbie once tried but failed to heal.
My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧
My Thoughts: oh, I loved this, like really loved it!
Imagine being obsessed with a song from a young age, and then on his death bed his dad tells you to find Molly, which coincidentally is the name of the lady who sings the song you were obsessed with, not only that but you also discover that it was her record that your dad was listening to, is it all toed together or just a very strange coincidence?
What follows is Silva trying her best to honour her dads dying wish, but it means that she has to confront some demons from her past along the way.
The story is a very slow burn, which is something that I don’t normally enjoy, but this story just did everything right, because it gave you chance to really devour the story! – I can’t tell you anything about the story because I just don’t want to ruin it for you, if I could go back and read it again for the first time I would! 😍
Just go pick it up, you won’t be disappointed.
^^^ incase you wanted to see the full finished cover, isn’t it beautiful 😍😍
Today is my stop on the blog tour for a cut for a cut by Carol Wyer, thank you to Emma at Damp Pebbles for organising it and inviting me to take part and thank you to the author and the publisher for my copy.
Click the photo to be taken to amazon where you can but your own copy 🙂
Pages: 365
Synopsis: DI Kate Young can’t trust anybody. Not even herself.
In the bleak countryside around Blithfield Reservoir, a serial murderer and rapist is leaving a trail of bloodshed. His savage calling card: the word ‘MINE’ carved into each of his victims.
DI Kate Young struggles to get the case moving—even when one of the team’s own investigators is found dead in a dumpster. But Kate is battling her own demons. Obsessed with exposing Superintendent John Dickson and convinced there’s a conspiracy running deep in the force, she no longer knows who to trust. Kate’s crusade has already cost her dearly. What will she lose next?
When her stepsister spills a long-buried secret, Kate realises she’s found the missing link—now she must prove it before the killer strikes again. With enemies closing in on all sides, she’s prepared to do whatever it takes to bring them down. But time is running out, and Kate’s past has pushed her to the very edge. Can she stop herself from falling?
My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧
My Thoughts: firstly this is the second book in the series and although I won’t be putting anything that I consider to be spoilers for this book, I may put spoilers for the first book, so if you haven’t read it stop reading now and go buy a copy of An Eye for an Eye btw it’s only £1 on kindle at the moment and is totally worth the read!
As with the first one I found the writing style flowed nicely and was easy to follow, before I knew it I was a few chapters in and I’d only intended to read a few pages before work!
I did find this story and investigation a little slower paced and not quite as gripping as the first one but I appreciated that and at times felt like it may have been intentional because it meant that I had more time to take in the smaller details which ended up being important!
I enjoyed getting to know Kate and her team a little better & found myself still very much mistrusting or certain characters (I won’t spoil which ones, but let me just say they are the ones you should be able to trust the most!
I really don’t want to give even the smallest detail about the story away, I feel like it’s important that you go into this one knowing as little as possible!
I love how not everything has a conclusion yet which has left the series wide open for a third instalment which I CANNOT WAIT to devour when it’s ready!
Today is my stop on the blog tour for Mirrorland by Carole Johnstone thank you to Dave at Write Reads Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part.
If you click the photo you will be taken to amazon where you can buy your own copy.
I have a spotlight for you today to let you know about about the book & the author!
Synopsis: With the startling twists of Gone Girl and the haunting emotional power of Room, Mirrorland is a thrilling work of psychological suspense about twin sisters, the man they both love, and the dark childhood they can’t leave behind.
Cat lives in Los Angeles, far away from 36 Westeryk Road, the imposing gothic house in Edinburgh where she and her estranged twin sister, El, grew up. As girls, they invented Mirrorland, a dark, imaginary place under the pantry stairs full of pirates, witches, and clowns. These days Cat rarely thinks about their childhood home, or the fact that El now lives there with her husband Ross.
But when El mysteriously disappears after going out on her sailboat, Cat is forced to return to 36 Westeryk Road, which has scarcely changed in twenty years. The grand old house is still full of shadowy corners, and at every turn Cat finds herself stumbling on long-held secrets and terrifying ghosts from the past. Because someone—El?—has left Cat clues in almost every room: a treasure hunt that leads right back to Mirrorland, where she knows the truth lies crouched and waiting…
A twisty, dark, and brilliantly crafted thriller about love and betrayal, redemption and revenge, Mirrorland is a propulsive, page-turning debut about the power of imagination and the price of freedom.
About the author: Carole Johnstone’s award-winning short fiction has appeared in annual “Best of” anthologies in the US and UK. Her debut novel, Mirrorland, will be published in spring 2021 by Borough Press/HarperCollins in the UK and Commonwealth and by Scribner/Simon & Schuster in North America. She lives in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. More information can be found at carolejohnstone.com
Today is my stop on the blog tour for When Twilight Breaks by Sarah Sundin, and I’m coming at you with a spotlight where I tell you all about the book, the author 🙂 Thank you to Kelly at Love Books Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part.
If you click the photo you will be taken to amazon where you can buy your own copy!
Synopsis: Evelyn Brand is an American foreign correspondent determined to prove her worth in a male-dominated profession and to expose the growing tyranny in Nazi Germany. To do so, she must walk a thin line. If she offends the government, she could be expelled from the country–or worse. If she does not report truthfully, she’ll betray the oppressed and fail to wake up the folks back home.
Peter Lang is an American graduate student working on his PhD in German. Disillusioned with the chaos in the world due to the Great Depression, he is impressed with the prosperity and order of German society. But when the brutality of the regime hits close, he discovers a far better way to use his contacts within the Nazi party–to feed information to the shrewd reporter he can’t get off his mind.
As the world marches relentlessly toward war, Evelyn and Peter are on a collision course with destiny.
About The Author: Sarah Sundin is the bestselling author of several popular WWII series, including Sunrise at Normandy, Waves of Freedom, Wings of the Nightingale, and Wings of Glory. Her novels have received starred reviews from Booklist, Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly. Her novel Through Waters Deep was a Carol Award finalist, and both Through Waters Deep and When Tides Turn were named on Booklist’s ‘101 Best Romance Novels of the Last 10 Years.’ Sarah lives in Northern California. Visit www.sarahsundin.com for more information.
Today is my stop on the blog tour for The Darlings by Angela Jackson, thank you to Emma at Damppebbles for organising it and inviting me to take part and thank you to the author and the publisher for my copy.
Ihave an extract for you today!
Pages: 288
Synopsis: When Mark Darling is fifteen years old, he is the golden boy, captain of the school football team, admired by all who know him. Until he kills his best friend in a freak accident. He spends the next decade drifting between the therapy couch and dead-end pursuits. Then along comes Sadie. A mender by nature, she tries her best to fix him, and has enough energy to carry them both through the next few years. One evening, Mark bumps into an old schoolfriend, Ruby. She saw the accident first hand. He is pulled towards her by a force stronger than logic: the universal need to reconcile one’s childhood wounds. This is his chance to, once again, feel the enveloping warmth of unconditional love. But can he leave behind the woman who rescued him from the pit of despair, the wife he loves? His unborn child? This is a story about how childhood experience can profoundly impact how we behave as adults. It’s a story about betrayal, infidelity and how we often blinker ourselves to see a version of the truth that is more palatable to us.
Extract: Mark and Sadie’s wedding anniversary fell on a Tuesday, and they had tickets for that evening’s preview of an exhibition of silica-preserved body parts. It wasn’t a traditional way to spend an anniversary, but the gallery owner was a friend of Sadie’s.
‘We can zip in, then go on somewhere nice for something to eat,’ she said.
She had developed a habit of speaking with her right hand splayed across her bump. Sometimes, usually when contemplating, she would rhythmically rub the bump in such a way that made him think she might, at any moment, start patting her head with her other hand. It wouldn’t have surprised Mark in the least to discover that Sadie was, in addition to everything else, effortlessly ambidextrous.
She decided to give the dead babies section of the exhibition a miss. ‘Gruesome. I’m going to sit here and read through the catalogue,’ she said, hand on bump. Mark kissed her cheek before walking towards the signs that warned visitors they may experience distress at the contents of the next room.
It was silent in there. He crouched in the half-light, drawn to the tiny fingernails of a sixteen-week-old miscarried foetus. He read the blurb but it offered no clue as to why this particular exhibit came to be here, and he suddenly felt sorry for the poor sod who would have been charged with the task of asking the grieving mother if she would give permission for her child to be drained of blood and injected with silica gel before being sealed in a tube and put on display. A flat, uniform nap of down covered its almost transparent skin. He peered at the perfect pink fingernails again. Smaller than shirt buttons, thin as rose petals.
It was then he caught sight of someone familiar. He stared at her: Ruby Suddula. He skidded back two decades. Thwack. She adjusted her skirt, and his mouth remembered a snog of the end-of-term school disco, when she had twirled his hair and his heart around her forefinger. He could almost feel acne re-pustulating his chin and brace wires threading around his teeth. Ruby murmured to a couple standing next to one of the large exhibits. She moved around, pointing out various bones, joints and muscles of interest. Eventually, the couple moved on, and Mark walked towards her. She smiled at him, ready to answer his questions. ‘Ruby.’ She looked intently at the face of the man who knew her name. ‘Mark,’ he said. ‘Darling,’ she said. She stifled a wow and half-hugged him. As they separated from the awkward tangle, Ruby held onto his arms and leaned back, as if to take in the full Mark Darlingness of him. ‘I didn’t recognise you without your rugby kit.’ ‘Football,’ he corrected her. ‘Captain.’ ‘Oh, yeah, football.’ A smile. No mention of cricket. But he heard it. The thwack, the scream, the sirens. ‘You still play?’ ‘Sometimes.’ She arched a brow. ‘Are you still doing the art?’ Doing the art. Jesus. ‘I am still doing the art. Yes. Third floor. All me,’ she said, pointing upstairs. ‘Really?’ ‘There is no third floor.’ She was always sharper than him. At school, she had run quiet rings around most people. ‘So what are you doing?’ ‘I’m a stand-up.’ ‘A comedian?’ ‘On a good night, yeah.’ ‘Impressive. Brave.’ ‘Only if you’re not funny.’ A cagoule approached her, checked her name badge through his unfeasibly smeared glasses, and launched into a question that was more of a comment. Ruby handled it expertly, answered politely, and turned her beam back to Mark. ‘Someone said you were a writer.’ He let out a loud nervous laugh. A woman nearby shot him a filthy look. ‘Well, not really writing writing,’ he said, using air quotes for the first time in his life. ‘No great novel yet.’ He checked to make sure she wasn’t smirking. She wasn’t. ‘I do a bit of daytime work for an interior design company. Promotional stuff about reclining sofas and chairs, mainly.’ ‘I have one of those reclining chairs.’
He would, one day, come to realise that he should have walked away then, that he should have said: ‘Look, it’s been lovely seeing you again, and I am impressed and delighted to discover that you have clearly maintained your level of superiority over me in every way, but I am going to say goodbye and scoot back into the other room to my pregnant wife. I’ll doubtless take a moment later this evening to think of you in that reclining chair of yours, but I really do have to go.’ But he did not say any of those things.
I really love the sound of this book and if you click the photo of the cover it will take you to amazon where you can buy your own copy!
Today is my stop on the blog tour for Embers by Josephine Greenland, 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.
Firstly, I just want to say this is the first review I’ve tried to write since my Uncle died on Thursday and I’m still struggling to get my thoughts together properly, so I’m sorry if this review isn’t as good as previous ones!
Pages: 336
Synopsis: Two siblings, one crime. One long-buried secret.
17-year-old Ellen never wanted a holiday. What is there to do in Svartjokk, a mining town in the northernmost corner of Sweden, with no one but her brother Simon – a boy with Asperger’s and obsessed with detective stories – for company?
Nothing, until they stumble upon a horrifying crime scene that brings them into a generations-long conflict between the townspeople and the native Sami. When the police dismiss Simon’s findings, he decides to track down the perpetrator himself. Ellen reluctantly helps, drawn in by a link between the crime and the siblings’ own past. What started off as a tedious holiday soon escalates into a dangerous journey through hatred, lies and self-discovery that makes Ellen question not only the relationship to her parents, but also her own identity.
Embers is a chilling and haunting who-dunnit with a Scandi-Noir twist, set against the backdrop of the deep, Swedish forests and the mysticism of Sami folklore.
My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧
My Thoughts: I really enjoyed this one, I have a step brother with autism so the fact that one of the main characters had Aspergers really made me smile, he was definitely my favourite character.
Emily and her brother Simon are sent away on holiday to the place where their dad grew up, when they get there they stumble upon a crime scene that was disturbing and completely horrific but yet seemed to have some order to it, which totally fascinates Simon and he is desperate to get to bottom of it!
His sister tries her best to put him off because she knows that the police will get frustrated with any interference, and it doesn’t take long for the police to get involved and caution him, but it doesn’t put him off 😂
What follows is a totally gripping story of 4 young people trying to get to the bottom of what happened with the help of a couple of adults, but they can’t help but feel that the people who should care the most about the crime are the ones blocking them at every turn! – is everyone who they claim to be?
I loved this and devoured it in a couple of sittings. I’d definitely recommend it to fans of the crime genre!
prdgreads 