Today is my stop on the Book Tour for Familiar by T.J. Blake, thank you to Kelly at Love Books Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part and thank you the author and the publisher for my copy.
Synopsis:
For as long as she can remember, Arabella has communicated with those who exist only in memory.
Being the centre of attention growing up was uncomfortable, and now, as a renowned psychic medium, it is becoming more of a struggle. Arabella’s ability and reputation always made it impossible to hold onto lasting relationships, but with those who no longer walk this earth, that’s not the case.
Arabella returns to where it all began fifteen-years before – on the very same stage. After an evening reconnecting loved ones and exposing untold stories, Arabella can’t help but wonder about the one unclaimed ‘friend’, and their cryptic message.
In an unexpected turn of events, Arabella finds herself the subject of morning headlines and at the centre of Detective Barnes’ investigation.
Can Arabella use her ability to prove her innocence and uncover the truth about the past?
My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧
My Thoughts: I love a good audiobook and this one did not disappoint
It’s starts of as a slow burn, Arabella is talking to a friend of her, what we don’t know at the time is that this friend of hers is dead, and that Arabella is a medium!
She gets approached by the dead on a regular basis with unfinished business and trying to make things right with the living. Unfortunately with no physical proof of her abilities, she soon finds herself in the middle of a police investigation and with no one else to look at it seems she is the prime suspect!
Arabella has built her career on her abilities and it’s all hanging in the balance so it’s important that she gets to the bottom of it and clears her name, the only problem is that it all seems to point to her!
The further she gets into discovering the truth she realised that it’s taking her on a trip down memory Lane and may have to confront a traumatic event from her early teenage years, something she’s tone do well to forget and leave behind!
I definitely did not see the ending coming and would highly recommend this read!
The audiobook added a whole different feeling to it, but I’m sure it would be just as enjoyable no matter how you read it!
Today I’m on the blog tour for The Olive Grove by Eva Glyn, and I’m delighted to be closing it! 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: A woman searching for a different future
A man desperate to escape his past
Can these two find what they are looking for on the beautiful Croatian island of Korčula?
Antonia Butler is on the brink of a life-changing decision and a job advert looking for a multilingual housekeeper at a beautifully renovated Croatian farmhouse, Vila Maslina, is one she can’t ignore.
Arriving on the tiny picturesque island of Korčula, Antonia feels a spark of hope for the first time in a long time. This is a chance to leave the past behind.
But this island, and its inhabitants, have secrets of their own and a not-too-distant past steeped in tragedy and war. None more so than Vila Maslina’s enigmatic owner Damir Maric. A young man with nothing to lose but everything to gain
My rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧
My Thoughts: this book was not at all what I expected, I was thinking a woman escaping to a secluded spot and finding the romance she least expected whilst there. And whilst that was part of it, the biggest part was a man discovering the truth about his life and his family!
Antonia is having an affair with her boss, she’s been holding out hope that he would leave his wife but a tear down the line they’re still together and she’s decided she needs a clean break, so when adding a new listing to their holiday home company she discovers that they’re looking for a new housekeeper, so she takes a chance and applies anonymously!
When Damir rings to let her know that she has been successful her whole life changes, mostly for the better but it does mean she has to leave her 22 year old daughter behind.
When she arrives in Croatia she soon learns that her new place of work is full of hidden secrets and so it seems is her new boss, or at least she feels like he’s hiding how he really is.
Can she get to the bottom of it, whilst holding down a full time job and helping her daughter fix her relationship whilst she’s at it?
Although this story wasn’t what I expected as I said at the beginning it was so so good and full of so many layers!
I did find Damir a little whiny and annoying at times, but the further you got into the story the more you understand why and I actually felt myself feeling for him.
This was an absolutely delightful read which made me feel all warm and fuzzy by the end!
Today I’m on the tour for Blavk Reed Bay by Rod Reynolds, thank you to Anne at Random Things Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part, thank you to the author and the publisher for my copy.
Pages: 300
Synopsis: Don’t trust ANYONE…
When a young woman makes a distressing middle-of-the-night call to 911, apparently running for her life in a quiet, exclusive beachside neighbourhood, miles from her home, everything suggests a domestic incident.
Except no one has seen her since, and something doesn’t sit right with the officers at Hampstead County PD. With multiple suspects and witnesses throwing up startling inconsistencies, and interference from the top threatening the integrity of the investigation, lead detective Casey Wray is thrust into an increasingly puzzling case that looks like it’s going to have only one ending…
And then the first body appears…
My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧
My Thoughts: Welll.. this book is a rollercoaster ride and a half.
Casey Wray, is funny, smart and one hell of a person to contend with, I loved her so much and had all the faith that no matter what the mystery was she would get to the bottom of it! – one other thing I knew for sure because of read a book of Rods before was that I knew the getting to the conclusion wouldn’t be easy or straightforward, but it would be tense, gripping and exciting as well as maybe a little confusing!
I was not disappointed on any of those points!
The book was a bit of a slow burner and took a while for me to get into and become totally invested, but once it had me in its grip it just refused to let me go!
Casey is trying to get to the bottom of the disappearance of a local girl, she’s convinced there is more to it than what is on the surface and is trying to convince everyone else that they need to dig deeper, but no one is prepared for the discovery of more bodies! All young girls.
There’s anonymous tip offs, secrets and lies everywhere.
Will Casey figure out what happened to Tina before things get out of hand?
I am SO excited to hear that this is the start of a new series, I personally cannot wait to see which direction it goes in next!
Today I’m on the blog tour for Targets of Treachery by Griff Hosker, thank you to Anne at Random Things Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part.
I’m here to tell you all about this book! – it sounds great!
Synopsis:
Captain Gerald has proven himself an unrivalled archer, but now he is married, he longs to enjoy life’s simpler pursuits, raising a family and tending his land.
But life on the borderlands brings complications, and King Edward has different ideas for Gerald. Prince Llywelyn of Wales will not toe the line, and once more, Gerald is chosen as royal envoy. He must cross the treacherous Welsh Marches to make strategic allegiances and request Llywelyn bend the knee to the English crown.
When those allegiances fail to protect England from Welsh rebellion, King Edward abandons diplomacy and seizes Welsh land to erect and capture castles, imbuing the landscape with intimidation.
As Gerald assists in this military tug-of-war, his thoughts are back home with his family, where personal vendettas threaten his own fortifications. Can he help wrest power back into English hands before the Welsh mob descends on all he holds dear?
If you like the sound of this, the first book in the series can be bought here! – it’s also on Kindle Unlimited!
About the Author: Griff Hosker was born in 1950 in Lancashire and attended a boy’s grammar school. After qualifying as an English and Drama teacher in 1972, he worked in the North East of England for the next 35 years. During that time he did write, mainly plays, pantos and musicals for the students at the three schools in which I worked. When he stopped teaching he set up his own consultancy firm and worked as an adviser in schools and colleges in the North East of England. The new Conservative Government ended that avenue of work and in 2010 he found that he had time on his hands; having started work at the age of 15 he found the lack of work not to my liking and used the time to research the Roman invasion of Britain and begin to create a novel. The result was The Sword of Cartimandua.
Today I’m on the blog tour for Lies Like Wildfire by Jennifer Lynn Alvarez, thank you to Dave at The Write Reads for organising it and inviting me to take part and thank you to the author and the publisher for my copy.
Pages: 384
Synopsis: The monsters have known each other their whole lives. This is their final summer before college – time to hang out, fall in love and dream about the future.
Until they accidentally start a forest fire which destroys their hometown and leaves death in its wake.
Desperate for the truth to remain hidden, the group make a pact of silence.
But the twisted secret begins to spin out of control and when one of the friends disappears they all become suspects.
We know how it starts but where does it end?
My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧
My Thoughts: CAN WE JUST APPRECIATE HOW STUNNJNG THIS COVER IS?! 😍🔥
The “monsters” are a group of friends who have grown up together, this is their final summer before college and quite possibly their final summer together so they’ve filled it with loads of fun things to do together.
Unfortunately that doesn’t at all go to plan when in their first trip out together they get drunk & accidentally start a forest fire which very quickly engulfed the whole area and people had to be evacuated!
What follows is a story full of secrets, lies and the fracture of friendships!
This was so hard to put down and was just absolutely incredible. If you love a mystery thriller with about a million layers then this is definitely the one for you!
Today is my stop on the blog tour for Tinker, Tailor, Schoolmum, Spy by Faye Brann. 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: Vicky Turnbull has never regretted giving up her career for family life in the suburbs. And apart from being outstandingly good at paintball, no one would ever know that in a past life she was an undercover spy and has been trained to kill a man with her bare hands. Not even her husband, and certainly not the other mums at the school gate. But beneath the school runs and bake sales, Vicky had never quite said goodbye to the past. So, when a newcomer on the PTA sets alarms bells ringing and MI5 comes calling, she’s determined to prove that despite her expanding waistline and love of pink gin, she’s still every bit the cold-eyed special operative. When the assignment gets uncomfortably close to home, Vicky must decide if she has got what the job takes after all, and if home is really where her heart is…
My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧
My Thoughts: this was a really fun read, although not what I expected at all, for some reason I expected this to be a comedy & it wasn’t, now that’s not a bad thing at all I thoroughly enjoyed this the way it was!
It did make me wonder if any of the unsuspecting ladies is there 40’s that I see in my job as a checkout girl could be hiding similar secrets, because if there’s anything I learnt from this book it’s that it really is the ones you’d least expect 😂
Vicky comes out of the toilet to an envelope containing a piece of paper telling her to “WAKE UP!” and she knows then that someone from her past is back, will she take the job that’s been offered and if she does, will she be able to leave again for her family?
I loved the fact that the main character was not only a woman, but a busy mum, but also a total badass when the situation requires, the only problem is that she’s determined to go further than she was asked, will she be able to get out unscathed & keep everyone safe?
I loved this so much that I really wish it was the start of a new series, pick this up and give it a go. I promise you’ll love it.
Today I’m on the blog tour for Life According To Brian by B.M. Dawes, thank you to Anne at Random Things Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part.
I have an extract for you today, but first let me tell you a little about the book!
Synopsis Life According to Brian chronicles forty-four stories of mishap and misadventure of a scale unparalleled in modern man. Disguised in comedy to protect the seriously guilty, the story follows Brian’s escapades traversing the world and captures not only the lunacy of life but the luck involved in avoiding one’s own death.
The guidebook for the mentally impaired includes: poaching, drugs, imprisonment, kidnapping, poisonings, alien hunters, crocodile suicide and much, much more…
The sorry episodes are being played out via a game of chess. God and Charles Darwin, seeking to save mankind, are plotting Brian’s untimely demise. The winner of each play gets to choose the method of death. Constantly interrupted by visiting deities, kings, queens and E.T., the two main players are frustrated in their attempts to have some peace and play the game, with a nice cup of tea and some Mr Kipling cake.
Send the kids away, euthanise the cat, find a comfy chair, pour a pint of the finest whisky…have a reliable psychiatrist on speed dial.
Come inside and enjoy the ride…
Extract: Family Living, Zambia, 1970s My earliest memory, Zambia, Ndola, 1976. We wake up Shirley (8), Daniel (2) and my good self (5). Dad is in a rage, screaming down the corridor with his famous white Y-fronts on. We have been robbed, they had cut through the bars on the window entered our bedroom, stole Dad’s keys and made a break for it. Three hours earlier, my mother, ‘Tony, I’m sick of those bloody dogs barking all night, go and lock them up.’ Dad gets out of bed, ‘Yes dear.’ Dad now has a problem, Zambia is dangerous and he knows this. They have his keys, they can steal the car, gain entry to the house; the rest doesn’t bear thinking about. However, Tony is an electronics expert and doesn’t suffer fools or extremely dangerous robbers lightly. Dad was no average man or father, for that matter. He was much more than the sum of his organic parts. His old Cumbrian nickname “The Firecracker” had been tested and proven many times. Dad wires the car up to the mains electrics, a shrill scream a couple of nights later, the car still in situ, problem solved. It’s Africa in the ’70s. That’s the way it was, you couldn’t take any chances or you wouldn’t survive. Many years later in Bahrain, over a few beers, Dad tells me… ‘One time, we had just finished a tough mission. They were a team of six raiding an arms cache, which turned out to be a bush hut occupied by three goats and a chicken that was evidently lost.’ Dad continues explaining, ‘I was exhausted and had fallen asleep on a makeshift chair. I woke up to one of the crew whispering, “Tony, do not fucking move! Look down but stay still.” I looked down and joining me for my afternoon siesta was one of the fastest and deadliest snakes, a Black Mamba, coiled fast asleep between my legs. Eventually, my colleague managed to coax the snake away with a stick. On the trip back with bollocks intact, I was ruthlessly mocked with innuendoes that could only be expected by having a large black serpent between your legs. So having scared three goats half to death and repatriated the chicken back to the local village, I thought to myself, Tony…only in Africa.’ However, I reassured him the snake infestation was just as prevalent in Queensland and that I was never falling asleep ever again. Before Africa, we were living in Western Australia, where I was born. One of Dad’s jobs was the installation of ground satellite technology that could monitor Chinese Atomic weapon testing. Dad was at Aldermaston, at the AWE. The Atomic Weapons Establishment, responsible for the design, manufacture and support of warheads for the UK’s nuclear deterrent. So there had always been a suspicion that Dad’s postings had been a front for many “other” jobs. But he quite rightly would never reveal anything. He wore many hats. Shirley screams, ‘C’mon Brian, you can climb it, it’s easy.’ My beloved sister is about 10 feet up the tree. I’m struggling to get up the trunk, suddenly Shirl has shaken a branch and a massive snake has dropped not one foot away from my feet. Fortunately, the Zambian gardener, Samuel had seen my sibling’s attempt on my life, comes sprinting over and with a rake held overhead and after several strikes later, kills the venomous beast. I look up and realised that Shirl must have taken a life insurance policy out on me. The ink hadn’t even dried and the first attempt had been made. Do the deed, make the claim, and buy lots of sweeties. Her addiction was getting out of control. I would have to be on my guard from now on. Not accept free ice cream, unless it has been tested on Daniel first.
About the author: B. M. Dawes was born in Perth, Australia, in 1971, where he first discovered his fear of venomous snakes. This legitimate threat to life would then follow Brian to Zambia from the age of three to six. Escaping not only the marauding bandits and numerous attempts by his loving sister to shorten his already young years, Brian would then flee to Bahrain where he would misadventure throughout his teens. He attended university in Queensland, Australia, where he learnt his trade as a professional drinker and erred on the side of erring. He currently lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, with his long-suffering partner and two loving children, who have a pending life policy on their benevolent dad.
If you like the sound of this, it can be boughtHere!
Today is my stop on the blogtour for Small Forgotten Moments by Annalisa Crawford, 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: 222
Synopsis: Is Zenna a muse, a sleep-deprived apparition, or something much more sinister?
Suffering long-term amnesia, artist Jo Mckye is ready to start a fresh, new project after the success of her debut exhibition. But the fictional subject of the collection, Zenna, won’t let go so easily. Infiltrating Jo’s dreams—and increasingly, her waking hours—Zenna is fast becoming a dangerous obsession.
Jo is confident the answers lie at her childhood home, an idyllic Cornish village on the south-east coast; she just doesn’t know why. Only when she walks into the sea and almost drowns does the past start to unravel.
Haunting and melodic, fans of Daphne du Maurier and Daisy Johnson will adore this.
My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧🐧
My Thoughts: I knew I’d enjoy this, but I didn’t expect to love it as much as I did!
I devoured it in a couple of hours, I almost couldn’t turn the pages quick enough everything was just perfect.
We’re following Jo, an artist with amnesia who has just had success at her first exhibition! – the only problem being that all her paintings have the same subject Zenna, who she believes to be her childhood imaginary friend, but obviously she can’t remember! – the memories are there she just can’t grasp them!
When Zenna starts infiltrating her dreams and effecting her waking hours, she starts getting an uneasy feeling that the people in her life know more than they are letting on, so she sets out on a journey of discovery to see if she can find out the truth!
It’s eerie, creepy, chilling and totally all consuming! – I can’t say too much because it will ruin the reading experience for you but please please give it a go!
Today I have a review for you as part of the blog tour for The Cruellest Gift in The World by Ed Pauley, thank you to Kelly at Love Books Tours for Inviting me to take part and thank you to the author for my copy.
Pages: 37
Synopsis: When a man lies awake at night, contemplating the complexities of life, the universe, and his place within it, what if something in the dark heard his restless mind, and answered his questions?
A renowned professor recounts his expedition into the western desert, following a letter sent to him regarding the discovery of an unusual ruin, in which he discovers the truth of what lies beyond.
My Rating: 🐧🐧🐧🐧
My Thoughts: well, I have to say for such a short book this one packs quite a punch, it’s definitely thought provoking.
Regardless of your religious views or how you feel about death, or rather life after death this book will have you wondering and possibly doubting yourself like it for me. After all there are no right or wrong answers, we’re all entitled own opinions.
For me, the idea of there being life after death brings me a little bit of comfort, I don’t like the idea of death being IT, being the end. but I don’t consider myself to be religious in any way.
The story itself was set in 1919 and was about an English professor travelling to Egypt after receiving a letter and the journey he and a friend went on, it got a little confusing at times, but I enjoyed it, it challenged my own thinking which doesn’t happen often within 37 pages 😂
I urge everyone to read it and make up their own minds! 😊
It can be bought Here! And is only 99p on kindle right now!
Today I have a Book Blitz for you and I’m here to tell you all about Tsalix Silveryhorn and the Malestrom of tears by Richard Siddoway!
Synopsis: With two of the talismans recovered and returned to the King, Tsalix and his friends face a challenge that will take them to the brink of death. Mount Litso is completely surrounded by the Sea of Tabass, which has a whirlpool that travels across its surface. Not only is the water formidable, but the mountain itself is guarded by giants who have pledged themselves to Abadon.The successful completion of this task will bring them closer to the completion of the mission they were sent on by the King. They will have delivered to him the three talismans that lead the way to the Scepter of Destiny.
About the Author: Having retrieved the first talisman from the top of Mount Jinee, Tsalix and his friends are faced with another daunting task.They must cross Shayeksten, the Desert of Desolation to reach Mount Tsood and find the second talisman. Shayeksten is formidable, dry, hot, and covered with drifting sand. Compounding their problem is their nemesis, Captain Nash Doitsoh and his band of soldiers, who are patrolling the desert and are determined to capture Tsalix and bring him to Prince Abadon. If they are successful in crossing Shayeksten and reaching Mount Tsood they must find where the talisman is hidden and then return to Mount Deschee to deliver it to the King.
If you love the sound of this it can be bought here…
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