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Today I am on the tour for Chasing A Dream by Alison J Barley, thank you to Hannah at Hygge Book Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part and thank you to the author and the publisher for my copy.

Pages: 353

Synopsis:Kilburn, Derbyshire 1950. Stella has her heart set on becoming a writer. However, living in a small mining village with an aggressive father somewhat limits her aspirations.
After the death of her grandpa – the only person to recognise and encourage her ability, Stella is lost and about to give up on her dream altogether. Then Stella meets Will, and they soon become very close. He is very supportive and keen to help her succeed in her quest. 
When Stella’s teacher, Miss Hutton, offers to be her mentor, Stella’s dreams of becoming an author seem to be within her grasp. But then a cruel twist of fate, once again, shatters her ambition.
Thankfully she can rely on Will’s support, that is until they find that their relationship has suddenly become the centre of a long-since uncovered secret.
Can their relationship survive, and will Stella find enough strength to triumph above the constant setbacks she faces?

Chasing the Dream is a story of heartbreak, love and tragedy. It follows the journey of a young girl’s determination to overcome life’s challenges to achieve her goal.

My Thoughts: I wasn’t sure what I’d think to this one as I really struggle to read books that deal with grief as a main topic since losing my dad in 2022 but I found myself totally engrossed and swept up in the story!

I wanted nothing but the best for Stella but didn’t have the highest hopes with everything that she had to deal with, the parts that featured her dad made me so angry I wanted to cry, no one deserves a parent like that.

I did panic when her little hiding place got found out but it turned out Will was a shining light in her life and made my heart happy.

A story that will play with all your emotions, give you the warm and fuzzies, break your heart & repeat the cycle over and over again.

I thoroughly enjoyed it & will look out for more from Alison in the future!

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Today I am on the tour for Swiped by Paula Rogers, thank you to Zoé at Zooloos Book Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part & thank you to the author and the publisher for my copy.

Pages: 297

Synopsis: Two rivals. One bet. First to fall in love wins . . .

For Nat Lane love is predictable. Controlled. Scientific. As the founder of a high-profile dating app, she is far more comfortable working on the data behind the dates than finding love herself.

Until her infuriating, but charming, business rival, Rami, publicly challenges her data.

To prove him wrong, Nat makes a bet: she’ll find her perfect match using her own app. Rami must find a date the old-fashioned way.

First to find ‘the one’ wins.

But as the competition heats up, so does their chemistry. Until the lines between rivalry and romance begin to blur.

Nat set out to prove love is a science. But with Rami, it might just be something far more unpredictable . . .

My Thoughts: I really enjoyed this one, it has all the elements of a typical romcom that we all love but it was executed in a way that I’d never read before & I just ate it up!

I loved Nat and Rami as main characters equally, they were fantastic separately but together their banter was off the charts and at times laugh out loud funny.

I’ll be honest, I was all for Nats way of finding love as that’s how I found my boyfriend and I’m far too awkward to meet someone off the cuff in a public setting 😅 that being said though I did enjoy reading about Ramis experiences, you could feel the awkwardness through the page and at times it made me cringe.

Being honest I just wanted them both to sack it off and get together & I wasn’t convinced we’d ever get there.

I would definitely recommend this one & can’t want to read more from Paula in the future.

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Today I am on the tour for Crime In The Garden by Catherine Moloney, thank you to Zoé at Zooloos Book Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part.

Pages: 265

Synopsis: Two brutal murders. One glass house with a sinister past. And a ruthless killer who’s ready to throw the first stone . . .

To step into Hollingrove Palm House is to step into another world, filled with tropical blooms, lush foliage and six ancient stones. Flash tycoon Tony Pardoe, the house’s owner, doesn’t believe the old wives’ tales that swirl around these stones. A mistake he won’t live to regret.

Pardoe’s body is found, sprawled across the stones like a sacrificial offering. Now it’s up to Detective Markham and his team to solve the twisted puzzle of Pardoe’s killing.

The only clue? Another mysterious death, under the same roof. Thirty years ago, little Mary Priddy suffered a fatal fall among the stones. Markham doesn’t believe in that kind of coincidence.

But the roots of these murders are buried deeper than he could ever imagine . . .

While Markham’s grappling with his own, more personal demons, a third body falls.

Can he unravel the mystery — more tangled than the palm house foliage — before the killer escapes into the shadows a second time?

About the Author:

Catherine Moloney is a Liverpool writer of Irish-American heritage. After graduating in Jurisprudence from Jesus College (University of Oxford), she was called to the Bar at Gray’s Inn. Despite qualifying as a barrister, her first love was English; this led to a PhD in English Literature at Birkbeck College (University of London). 

In her academic career, she lectured and published widely on the subject of tuberculosis and nineteenth-century literature, but somehow managed to avoid contracting galloping hypochondria and turned her attention to crime fiction.

If you like the sound of this book it can be bought here!

It is also available on Kindle Unlimited along with the other books in the series!

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Today I am on the tour for Things We Need To Say by Linda Middleton, 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: 338

Synopsis: Don’t let The One become The One Who Got Away.

Emma thought she had her life figured out — the career, the love, the future.

But her career feels like it’s going nowhere, and her once-perfect relationship with Jay is beginning to unravel. The life she’s always envisioned feels like it’s slipping away.

Jay has always dreamed of running his own restaurant.

But he never imagined that in chasing success, each step forward would pull him further away from Emma.

As cracks in their relationship deepen, Emma and Jay realise that their love story wasn’t as perfect as they once believed.

They must learn that finding where your heart truly lies means letting go of everything you thought you knew about love . . . and yourself.

My Thoughts: ahh I loved this one, I loved all of the characters.

This is book 2 in the Second Chance Love Stories series and although it would read as a standalone it has overlapping characters from book one so I would highly recommend reading Things They Never Said first, I promise it will add a lot of feeling to the experience.

This isn’t your typical romance as the characters are already in a relationship so you miss the initial getting to know each other stage, but I appreciated that it felt like an insight into what happens after & the relationship in this one wasn’t perfect which gave it a more realistic feel!

We’re following Jay who is currently a partner in a catering business although he has aspirations to open his own restaurant! & Emma who is enrolled in a management training role learning the hospitality industry, both very full on jobs with crazy hours so they’re not getting to spend the time together that they used to so obviously the cracks begin to show.

As I said earlier I adored both characters, I found Jay was quite selfish at times though, it’s like he was walking round with blinkers on and couldn’t see past his aims and goals, I know this was probably on purpose so we could appreciate the redemption arc more when it came, but I found myself shaking my head at him & swearing under my breath regularly. 😂

Emma was just lovely, a little too insecure at times & her inner monologue sometimes read like a teenager rather than a lady in her 20’s but I guess with a partner like Jay who was making her feel unwanted at times we can’t blame her.

This story made my heart happy in the end, thoroughly enjoyable but with a lot of layers that stopped the story from being predictable.

I’m now left wondering if there will be more books in this series either way I can’t wait to read more from Linda in the future.

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Today I am on the tour for When The Ice Melts Away by B.L. Brady, 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: 275

Synopsis:

Sometimes the loss of love can lead to the cruellest of desires, the pain can even penetrate a cold, lifeless vampire heart.

Blake is 23. He dreams of a better life as he works at a job he sees no future in until he sees an ad calling for assistance at a local bookstore, Crimson Tale Books, and to his luck lands the job.

But as Blake starts his new job, he falls ill with haunting visions that paralyse him, thrusting him into a blinding world of ice and pain. All he can do is suffer as the daily world around him revolves.

With the help of Lowen, the owner of Crimson Tale Books and Gabriel, sent to guide and protect, Blake is introduced into a world of Vampires and all things that intrigue and terrify him at once.

He soon learns that his immobilising visions are a call for something much more sinister than he ever expected.

My Thoughts: this book did a fantastic job of setting up what promises to be a fantastic series, part fantasy, part horror, full of suspense and I’m assuming there will be some romance along the way too.

When I started this I didn’t really know what I was letting myself in for, it was a slow start whilst we get introduced the characters and a little about their back story. The world building was fantastic, so good that reading was making me feel physically uncomfortable.

Blake can’t wait to start his new job, he sees it as a fresh start, a way to get his life back on track, all seems to be going well.. he’s made new friends in Lowen and Lisa but little does he know he’s going to be introduced to a whole new world very soon.

It’s creepy, just the right amount of eerie with enough action and unknown elements to keep you turning the pages.

I thoroughly enjoyed this and can’t wait to dive into book 2.

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Today I am on the tour for The Silent Sister by Jan Baynham, 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: 391

Synopsis: A woman searching for somewhere to belong.
A child rescued from the rubble of a ruined island.
A secret buried in the heart of Kefalonia.

Greece, 1953. When a catastrophic earthquake reduces the beautiful island of Kefalonia to ruins, Cassia Makris risks everything to save a young girl buried beneath the rubble that was once her home.

In that moment, Cassia makes a life-changing decision that will bind their fates forever but force her to carry a devastating secret . . .

Wales, 1973. Eléni Davies has always felt there was something unspoken in her past — a silence at the heart of her childhood. When she discovers a hidden journal among her mother’s belongings, it unravels an untold story of love and loss on a faraway island.

Drawn to the place where her story really began, Eléni travels to the now-rebuilt Kefalonia. Among the lemon groves and sun-bleached chapels, she begins retracing her mother’s footsteps to piece together a story that was never meant to be told.

But in doing so, Eléni must decide whether some secrets are better left buried — or whether confronting them is the only way to finally heal.

My Thoughts: I think it’s time I admitted I now enjoy historical fiction, although it’s still not a genre I reach for often it’s unfair to say it’s not for me, because the last few I’ve read have been 4/5 stars.

This book was an absolute delight, it started sad & very intense, but as the book goes on it becomes a more positive story and one that was just a delight to get lost in.

It is emotional and feels genuine, you can really feel what the main characters are feeling.

Cassia and Tom were just the loveliest people & yeah what they did was wrong, but they did it for the right reasons. I found myself encouraging them to give Eléni a better life, to make her feel loved and safe in the hopes that she would open up.

The story was dual timeline so in the earlier timeline we follow Cassia and in the later one we are following Eléni, but the parallels between the two were eerie yet weirdly poetic.

I laughed, I cried & just completely devoured this book, the setting was beautiful and the writing was immersive. One I would definitely recommend.

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Today I am on the tour for Suddenly Desired by Katie Evergreen, 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: 265

Synopsis: He’s fighting for his reputation. She’s risking her heart.

Blake Fielding built the world’s biggest social media empire — until a scandalous hack turns his company, Heartbook, into headline-hell and Blake into public enemy number one.

Ellie Mae Woodward thought she was walking into her dream job interview at Heartbook. Instead, she walks straight into corporate chaos, a building in lockdown and — literally — the brooding CEO at the centre of the scandal.

Blake’s guarded and entirely off-limits. Ellie’s quirky, creative and not remotely impressed by billionaires. But he needs someone who sees past the headlines. Ellie — with her dress covered in nerdy-hearts and a pink notebook of dreams — might just be the wildcard he needs.

Teaming up to uncover the truth could save them both. But when it’s finally revealed, they’ll have to choose between clearing Blake’s name . . . Or risking it all for something neither of them saw coming.

My Thoughts: I adored this! – it’s book 2 in a series but can easily be read as a standalone as we are following different characters.

Blake is the face behind Heartbook, the most popular social media platform they have but he has found himself in the middle of a scandal.. things have been posted on his profile saying derogatory things about women, he is adamant it’s not him, but without the proof to back it up he’s going to lose his job.

Ellie is there for a. Interview & obviously turns up when the last thing they’re thinking about doing is hiring & gets turned away..

They both have a chance meeting, a meeting that could end up changing both their lives more than they could’ve dreamed.

A lot of fun, flirty, spicy and the characters banter was second to none, but what really shine through was that they both just wanted to help each other and the romance just sort of happened naturally.

Definitely the epitome of a romcom and I can’t wait for the next one!

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Today I am on the tour for The Baby Group by Jade Lee Wright, 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: 291

Synopsis: ‘My baby’s been taken,’ I sob into the phone. Blood is everywhere.

My fiancé, Alex, is slumped beside the birthing pool, his head gashed open. The baby? Gone.

I cradle my empty stomach, my empty arms. And then Alex looks at me — not with love, but with blame.

This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. The move. The fresh start. The antenatal classes. The new friends. But nothing about this feels right.

And as the sirens wail closer, I realize something terrible — someone planned this. Someone in our new life wanted our baby.

And I think they’re in the baby group.

My Thoughts: I’m not sure I even have the words to explain how this book made me feel.. I’m not a parent nor have I ever been pregnant but this book actually terrified me because it just seemed so plausible and so real.. books like this are the reason I have trust issues and struggle to make new friends.

Darcy assumed moving to Rock would be the change she needed, that she could forget several things that happened in her past & start again, all seems to be going well.. her and Alex are happy and they are expecting a baby.. but we all know running from your past never works.

This was a very cleverly written thriller, it opens with a bang, so you know what happens right from the very beginning & with every new character and ever seemingly small event I found myself wondering if this would be the reason that would lead to that.. it had me on the edge of my seat and helped to build the suspense slowly.

Did I work out who the culprit was? Yes.. did it take away from the overall feeling of the book, absolutely not!

If I didn’t start this in the early evening on a day that I’d been working this would 100% have been a one sitting read.. instead when I woke up at 5am instead of going back to sleep I made a coffee and got back into bed to finish it.

Highly recommend and I will be looking out for more from Jade in the future.

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Today I am on the tour for The Whistle of Revenge by KD Sherrinford, thank you to Zoé at Zooloos Book Tours for organising it and inviting me to take part.

Pages: 327

Synopsis: Sometimes, our deepest fear is not the darkness but the light that blinds.

If you loved Conan Doyle’s, The Hound of the Baskerville, prepare to be enthralled by KD Sherrinford’s captivating follow-up, The Whistle of Revenge.

The deadly antagonist, Jack Stapleton, makes a spectacular return to the city of Milan in pursuit of his old nemesis, the celebrated Detective Sherlock Holmes.

Adopting the enigmatic persona of Janus, a vengeful Stapleton, along with the Italian mafia, wreak havoc on the Italian horse racing fraternity and fledgling car manufacturing industry, and kidnapping Holmes’s beloved son as part of their evil and well-executed master plan—Operation Whistle.

Will Holmes, Irene Adler, and their trusted ally, Inspector Romano, crack the code, rescue the boy, and unmask the deadly Janus?

Set against the backdrop of modern Milan, mind games and misdeeds of the highest order play out as the story reaches its thrilling and memorable conclusion.

About The Author:

KD Sherrinford is a multi-award-winning International author. She was born and raised in Preston, Lancashire, and now lives on the Fylde Coast with her husband, John and their two children—an avid reader from an early age. KD loved the mystery writers Conan Doyle, and Agatha Christie was her favourite. She read the entire Conan Doyle canon by age 13.

KD had a varied career, working with thoroughbred horses and racing greyhounds. To mix things up, she joined Countrywide and became a Fellow of The National Association of Estate Agents. Retirement finally allowed KD the time to write her multi-award-winning debut novel, ” Song for Someone.” KD got the idea for the story after a visit to The Sherlock Holmes Museum on Baker Street in 2019; KD has always wanted to write about the iconic character Irene Adler. A talented pianist from age six, the music from some of KD’s favourite composers, Beethoven, Wagner, and Stephen Foster, all feature strongly in her writing. .” Song for Someone “was awarded The Editors Choice Gold Seal Medal in 2022 and received critical acclaim from Book Viral, Readers Favorite, Literary Titan and The Historical Fiction Company, which described” Song for Someone” as an evocative masterpiece and a book that stands out in contemporary literature. The novel was a recent Finalist at The Chanticleers International Book Awards- The Chatelaine. ” Christmas at The Saporis” was published last December. The third book, ” Meet Me In Milan”, went live on the 29th of September 2023. This thrilling Trilogy was Shortlisted for The CIBA’s Series Book Awards in Genre Fiction.KD Sherrinford is a member of The CWA, the RNA and the LWA. Her short, cosy mystery ” A Bit of a Do” was published in Marla Breeden’s Limited Edition Anthology, entitled ” Malice Matrimony and Murder “On the 13th of November 2023. Twenty-five original short, cosy mysteries from international authors, including Deringer and Agatha Finalists, CWA members, and recipients of The Editors Gold Seal, KD is very proud to be a part of this fabulous collection. Book four of the Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler Mysters, the much anticipated ” The Whistle of Revenge” will be released in 2025. You can reach KD on her Facebook author page.

If you like the sound of this it can be bought Here!

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Today I am on the tour for Heretic Cypher by Murray Bailey, thank you to Murray for organising it, inviting me to take part & for providing me with a copy of the book.

Pages: 319

Synopsis: When Egyptologist Alex MacLure’s friend and mentor dies he’s stunned to discover she’s left a message—hidden, encoded, and meant only for him.

With a mysterious artifact and a trail of cryptic symbols, Alex is thrust into a deadly race against time. What begins as a quest to finish her research quickly spirals into a chilling conclusion: her death was no accident. She was murdered for what she discovered.

Now he’s the next target.

Hunted by a ruthless adversary, Alex finds himself swept from the academic halls of London to the heart of Egypt’s oldest sites.

As he races to decode a forgotten truth buried beneath centuries of deception, powerful enemies close in—willing to kill to protect a secret—a revelation so explosive, it could rewrite everything we know about ancient Egypt and religion.

My Thoughts: now it’s no secret that I absolutely love Murrays writing & this one was no exception, with it being the start of a new series though I didn’t really know what to expect.

I’ll be honest, I know nothing about Egyptology so I was expecting to be confused from the start, but instead I was instantly drawn into the story.

Alex was a likeable determined character who would do anything to get to the bottom of the secrets his friend has been keeping & find out why she died.. was she killed, was it a freak accident.. is he safe?!

The story was so intricate that you really had to focus on what you were reading or you would lose the train of thought and had to go back a couple of paragraphs and start again.

This was the perfect mix of intrigue and thrill, the characters and the storyline held my attention throughout but the red herrings and the twists kept me on my toes.

I was constantly second guessing myself and cannot wait for book 2

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