Category: Book tour

Blog Tour: Body Breaker by Mike Craven @MWCravenUK @caffeinenights

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Goodreads|Amazon US|Amazon UK
Release date: May 25, 2017

Publisher: Caffeine Nights

Genre: Crime Fiction 

Blurb: 

From Debut Dagger Shortlisted Novelist Mike Craven

“Among the many fictional police detectives beset by grave personal and professional stresses, Fluke and his team standout.” PUBLISHERS WEEKLY


Investigating a severed hand found on the 3rd green of a Cumbrian golf course was not how Detective Inspector Avison Fluke had planned to spend his Saturday. So when a secretive unit from London swoop in quoting national security, he’s secretly pleased.


But trouble is never far away. A young woman arrives at his lakeside cabin with a cryptic message: a code known to only a handful of people and it forces Fluke back into the investigation he’s just been barred from.


In a case that will change his life forever, Fluke immerses himself in a world of new age travellers, corrupt cops and domestic extremists. Before long he’s alienated his entire team, made a pact with the devil and been arrested under the terrorism act.


But Fluke is only getting started. A voice has called out to him from beyond the grave and he has no intention of ignoring it.


“Everything you want in a British procedural: a dark world, a tangled case, a clear and logical solution, and a deeply flawed hero who’s still well worth rooting for.” KIRKUS REVIEWS 


“A forceful new voice in British crime fiction.” CARO RAMSAY (author of the Anderson and Costello novels) 


“Fluke is my favourite fictional detective.” MICHAEL J. MALONE (author of the Ray McBain novels)


I’m thrilled to welcome you to my stop on the blog tour for Body Breaker today!


Review: 

I have a thing for flawed fictional detectives, I think it’s the rawness and vulnerability that’s usually hiding underneath a tough exterior, but by the time I had finished the first chapter of Body Breaker I knew that I had another favorite to add to my list after being introduced to Avison Fluke. This was so much more than an average police procedural, it had multilayered depth that made it truly memorable. 

It opens with a bang, Fluke gets called out to a golf course when a hand is discovered, so yes this is grisly at times. There was nothing added just for shock value though, there was a meaning behind every gory crime scene. As he starts to dig into the case, he’s shocked when there is a very personal connection between his own past and he’s even more bound and determined to find the killer.

Fluke and his partner and longtime friend, Towler have such a fantastic and well crafted relationship, it really feels genuine and their bond is wholly believable. In fact, the whole book is brilliant in the same type of way as it rings true throughout. The characterization is so deep and rich, I had such an honest sense of truly knowing who Fluke is and got a very insightful and in depth look at a man who is deeply and woefully endearing.

This book really kept me on my toes, there were red herrings galore and turns that knocked the breath out of me. I never could’ve pieced things together the way Fluke and his team did, it was very cleverly plotted and the ending was tidy, yet left wide open for a follow up book. 

Overall rating: 5/5

Thanks to Noelle at CrimeBookJunkie and the publisher for my review copy. 

About the Author: 


Although he was born in Cumbria, Mike Craven grew up in the North East before running away to join the army as soon as he was sixteen. After training as an armourer for two and a half years (that’s an army gunsmith to you and I), he spent the next ten travelling the world having fun. In 1995 he left the army, and after a brief flirtation with close protection and bodyguarding, decided on a degree in social work with specialisms in criminology and substance misuse. In 1999 he joined Cumbria Probation Service as a probation officer, working his way up to chief officer grade. Sixteen years later, he took the plunge and accepted redundancy to concentrate on writing full-time, and now has entirely different motivations for trying to get inside the minds of criminals.

 

Mike’s first DI Avison Fluke novel, Born in a Burial Gown, was shortlisted for the Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger Award and was published on 11th June 2015 by Caffeine Nights. Also available is his award winning collection of short stories featuring Fluke and his colleagues from the Cumbrian Force Major Incident Team, Assume Nothing, Believe Nobody, Challenge Everything. Body Breaker, the hotly anticipated follow up to Born in a Burial Gown, is out on May 25th.

 

In March 2017, Mike signed a two book contract with the Little, Brown imprint, Constable, for his new series starring the National Crime Agency’s Washington Poe, an expert in serial killers and seemingly motiveless crimes. The first Poe book – as yet untitled – will be published in hardback in spring 2018.

 

Between leaving the army and securing his first publishing deal, Mike found time to keep a pet crocodile, breed snakes, get married, and buy a springer spaniel named Bracken. He lives in Carlisle with his wife, Joanne, where he tries to leave the house as little as possible. Mike is also one third of Crime Ink-Corporated, a trio of northern writers who take writing out for the community and host events such as England’s first Noir at the Bar.

 

Mike’s first DI Avison Fluke novel, Born in a Burial Gown, was shortlisted for the Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger Award. He is a member of both the Crime Writers’ Association and the International Thriller Writers’ Association.

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Blog Tour: The Revelation Room by Mark Tilbury @MTilburyAuthor @Bloodhoundbook

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Release date: May 25, 2017

Publisher: Bloodhound Books

Genre: Crime Fiction 

Blurb: 

Ben Whittle’s father, a private investigator, has been taken captive by a cult whilst investigating the case of a missing girl. When Ben receives a desperate call from his father asking for help he is drawn into a dark underground world.


As Ben retraces the last known steps of the missing girl he discovers his only option left is to join the cult and rescue his father from the inside.


The leader of the cult, Edward Ebb, is a psychopathic egocentric who uses his position to control his small group of followers in The Sons and Daughters of Salvation. When he initiates Ben into the group it soon becomes apparent how sick and twisted Ebb is.


Ben must find his father and the missing girl, but the odds are stacked against him and time is running out.


Can Ben rescue his father and the girl and escape with his life?

And what is the gruesome secret concealed in the Revelation Room?


The Revelation Room is the first in a new series of psychological mystery thrillers.

I’m thrilled to be helping to kick off the blog tour for The Revelation Room today. I want to wish Mark Tilbury a very happy relaunch day as well. 


Review: 

I have a somewhat sick fascination with the idea of cults, they just intrigue me so when I read the blurb for this one, I just knew I had to read it. Having previously loved Tilbury’s The Abbatoir of Dreams I was eager to read some more of his work and this book had some of the great qualities that I enjoyed the first time around. 

Ben is a reluctant PI, his father Geoff is the one who does the real investigating and he normally just helps him around the office. When Geoff gets captured by a cult, the only way to save him is to join himself, but thankfully for Ben, his friend Maddie insists on joining with him. These two are pretty opposite as far as personalities are concerned, but somehow they work well together. He lacks self confidence and is terrified at the prospect of infiltrating the cult, while Maddie is more outgoing and confident, she’s ready for anything. Poor Ben really tugged at my heart strings, he has a stutter and was just the sweetest kid, I wanted to hug him and keep him safe. 

The leader of the cult, Ebb was the personification of evil, Tilbury sure knows how to craft some sadistic characters. How he managed to manipulate the members of The Sons and Daughters of Salvation is beyond me, but the things he says and does are both delusional and horrifying. There are definitely some gruesome and gory scenes, but there’s also plenty of witty black humor to lighten the mood. This was a quick read with steady pacing and a good flow along with great characterization and an interesting storyline. 

Overall rating: 4/5

Thanks to the publisher for my review copy. 

About the Author: 


Mark lives in a small village in the lovely county of Cumbria, although his books are set in Oxfordshire where he was born and raised.


After serving in the Royal Navy and raising his two daughters after being widowed, Mark finally took the plunge and self-published two books on Amazon, The Revelation Room and The Eyes of the Accused.


He’s always had a keen interest in writing, and is extremely proud to have his third novel, The Abattoir of Dreams, published, and The Revelation Room and The Eyes of the Accused re-launched, by Bloodhound Books.


When he’s not writing, Mark can be found trying and failing to master blues guitar,and taking walks around the beautiful county of Cumbria.

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Blog Tour: Ella’s Ice Cream Summer by Sue Watson @suewatsonwriter @bookouture

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Release date: May 11, 2017

Publisher: Bookouture 

Genre: Romantic Comedy 

Blurb: 

Ella’s life just hit rock-bottom, but can a summer by the sea mend her broken heart? When life gives you lemons… make ice-cream!


Life hasn’t always been easy for single mum Ella, but she has just hit an all-time low; she’s jobless, loveless, very nearly homeless and, to make matters worse, now the owner of a pocket-sized pooch with a better wardrobe than her.


Packing her bags (and a bigger one for the dog), Ella sets off for the seaside town of Appledore in Devon to re-live the magical summers of her youth and claim her portion of the family ice-cream business: a clapped-out ice-cream van and a complicated mess of secrets.


There she meets gorgeous and free-spirited solicitor, Ben, who sees things differently: with a little bit of TLC he has a plan to get the van – and Ella – back up and running in no time.


Ella’s Ice-Cream Summer is a heart-warming and hilarious romance that will scoop you off your feet and prove it’s never too late for a fresh start. The ideal holiday read for fans of Lucy Diamond, Abby Clements and Debbie Johnson.

I’m so excited to welcome you to my stop on the blog tour for Ella’s Ice Cream Summer today! I’m sharing the day with my buddy Sam at Clues and Reviews so make sure you check in with her too. 


Review: 

Oh my gosh you guys this book had me literally laughing out loud during the first chapter! Before long I had tears streaming down my face, it was THAT funny. Let me give you just a few examples of what had me giggling uncontrollably. Ella’s mom, Roberta is inappropriately hilarious, she thinks sexting is regular old texting and there was something about a sexting a vicar, then there’s her best friend Sue who mixes up words all the time, she said erotic in place of erratic, and  THEN she gets saddled with her son’s girlfriends dog, Delilah, who is the definition of high maintenance and has more outfits than Kim Kardashian. Even the chapter titles were hilarious, one of my favorites was entitled, Strawberry Shakes and Sex on the Stairs. Are you convinced yet?!

Besides being wickedly funny, there was warmth and sweetness as well. Ella meets Ben when she heads to Appledore and I loved how their relationship was relatively easy and drama free yet far from perfect, it was realistic. Ben was a lovable goof, very clumsy but that made him so endearing to me. Things for Ella weren’t quite so drama free in terms of her working life, but I also appreciated that a fabulous opportunity at a new life wasn’t just handed to her, she had to struggle to get where she wanted to be. 

I just have a feeling that Sue is the type of person who would be fun to have a drink with, anyone who writes such warm, funny and charming books must be a blast to hang out with! She even included a scrumptious looking recipe for ice cream in the end that I’m absolutely dying to try. If you’re looking for a sweet escape this summer, look no further. This book was heartwarming, hip, colorful, sassy and sweet and even had a bit of family drama and secrets, what more could you want?!

Overall rating: 5/5

Thanks to Bookouture for my review copy. 

About the Author: 



Sue Watson was a journalist on women’s magazines and national newspapers before leaving it all behind for a career in TV. As a producer with the BBC she worked on garden makeovers, kitchen takeovers and daytime sofas – all the time making copious notes so that one day she might escape to the country and turn it all into a book.
After much deliberation and copious consumption of cake, Sue eventually left her life in TV to write. After a very successful debut novel, Fat Girls and Fairy Cakes Sue signed with Bookouture.

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Blog Tour: Watching the Bodies by Graham Smith @GrahamSmith1972 @Bloodhoundbook

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Goodreads|Amazon US|Amazon UK
Release date: April 18, 2017

Publisher: Bloodhound Books 

Genre: Mystery/Thriller 

Blurb: 

When Jake Boulder is asked by his PI friend to help investigate the vicious murder of Kira Niemeyer, he soon finds himself tracking a serial killer who selects his next victim in a most unusual manner.


As the body count rises, Boulder has to work with the police to identify the heinous killer before more lives are taken. What ensues is a twisted game of cat and mouse, that only Boulder or the Watcher can survive. But who will it be? 

I’m so pleased to be closing down the North American leg of the Watching the Bodies tour! 


Review: 

I’ve seen Smith’s work highly praised by my U.K. blogger buddies many times in the past, so when I heard he was releasing the first book in a new series set in the US, I knew I had to get involved! Jake Boulder is one hell of a lead character and he has such a strong, distinct voice along with a unique viewpoint that really intrigues me. 

Jake isn’t a detective or a PI nor does he have any real connection to law enforcement, he’s a bouncer with a temper that he tries to control, try being the key word. His best friend is a PI and asks for his help when he’s hired by the father of a young woman who was murdered as he has little faith in the local police, which is totally justified. I always like a fresh POV in any crime novel and this provided that totally. It kind of reminded me of Owen Mullen’s Charlie Cameron series in a way. They both have an easy writing style that absorbs me, yet they still manage to create tension and pulse pounding moments. 

The case itself was so interesting, a serial killer is escalating and the bodies are piling up way faster than the incompetent detectives in town can handle. His methods and motivations are so complex, I wish I could say more, but half the fun of this book was discovering all the plot intricacies. Smith inserts chapters from the killers perspective and those never fail to chill me to the bone. I’m very impressed by the direction this series seems to be heading and I can’t wait for book two!

Overall rating: 4/5

About the Author: 


Graham Smith is married with a young son. A time served joiner he has built bridges, houses, dug drains and slated roofs to make ends meet. Since Christmas 2000 he has been manager of a busy hotel and wedding venue near Gretna Green, Scotland. 




An avid fan of crime fiction since being given one of Enid Blyton’s Famous Five books at the age of eight, he has also been a regular reviewer and interviewer for the well-respected website Crimesquad.com since 2009




He is the author of four books featuring DI Harry Evans and the Cumbrian Major Crimes Team and one book, WATCHING THE BODIES in a new series featuring Utah doorman, Jake Boulder.

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Blog Tour: Rocks Beat Paper by Mike Knowles @Mike_Knowles @ecwpress

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Release date: May 9, 2017

Blurb: 

“Merciless but honest about being monstrous, Wilson is worthy to stand next to Loren Estleman’s Peter Macklin and Donald Westlake’s Parker.” — Publishers Weekly


A phone call brought Wilson and nine other men to a job in New York. At first, he couldn’t see a way to make the heist work, but the score — millions of dollars in diamonds — kept him looking. Wilson came up with a plan he knew would work . . . until the inside man got killed and took the job with him.


With no way inside, the crew walks away without the diamonds. Alone, Wilson is free to execute the job his way. Wilson sets a con in motion that should run as predictably as a trail of dominoes — except the con doesn’t rely on inanimate tiles, it relies on people.


Wilson pushes all of the pieces across the board only to find out that there are other players making their own moves against him. Everyone is playing to win and no one is willing to walk away because the job is about more than money, the job is about diamonds. And in this game, rocks beat paper every time.

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for Rocks Beat Paper! I have an exclusive excerpt to share with you, make sure you check out Clues and Reviews who shared the previous section and also Do Some Damage who will have the next excerpt on May 11. 


Excerpt:  

From Chapter 1

I circled the table and took a seat that allowed me to keep my back to the wall.

“You’re late,” Miles said. 

I looked over the bowls of chips that surrounded a warm shrimp ring. I had never been to a meeting with a shrimp ring before. “A lot of people here,” I said.

. . .[Miles] smirked and then his face lost all trace of expression. “You have a problem with the numbers?”

I nodded. “Every man you add to a job adds more than just a pair of hands. It adds baggage. All the personalities and ideas create variables, layers of unexpected consequences that will need to be dealt with. Every job has something, and you deal with them as they come. Most times you can because an isolated problem isn’t usually enough to sink a job. But every number you add expands the potential fuckups and makes them exponentially harder to solve because you have to work out a solution that makes the whole group happy. I see eight men walk through a door and I get a headache just thinking about the homework.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

The pool player wasn’t playing pool anymore. He was standing beside the table with the cue in two hands. Seeing the man bent over the table didn’t give me a real impression of his size. I had pegged him as big. Standing at full height suddenly made the word feel weak — the man was huge. His white T-shirt hugged his barrel-shaped torso; the logo on the old shirt had faded into an indecipherable smear that matched the grey streaks running through his tangled hair. His heavy hands wrung the cue, and the motion revealed prison ink on the inside of his forearms. The tattoo was faded and poorly done, likely from his first fall a long way back. Based on his eagerness to fight in order to cement his position as the alpha in the room, I guessed he did more than one stretch.

I nodded my head towards Miles while keeping my eyes on the man holding the cue. “I’m talking to him,” I said.

“Your talking is fucking up my game.”

. . .Miles opened his mouth to say something and then gave up on it. He turned his head towards me. “You said you watched eight men walk through the door. I just caught that. You weren’t late, you were just on the fence.”

“Not so much on the fence now that I see the workload,” I said.

“Too much homework?”

I nodded. “A nine-man job is worse than calculus.”

 

Find the previous excerpt on Clues & Reviews.

Find the next excerpt on Do Some Damage on May 10.

 

Excerpt adapted from Rocks Beat Paper by Mike Knowles. © 2017 by Mike Knowles. All rights reserved. Published by ECW Press Ltd. http://www.ecwpress.com

About the Author: 


Mike Knowles lives in Hamilton with his wife, children, and dog. His Wilson mystery In Plain Sight was shortlisted for the Arthur Ellis Award for best crime novel.

 

Blog Tour: Disenchanted by Heide Goody and Iain Grant 

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Release date: May 5, 2017

Publisher: Pigeon Park Press

Genre: Chick Lit

Blurb: 

Ella Hannaford has a small business to run, an overworked father to look after and a future stepmother who wants a perfect wedding. 


Can she avoid a girly night out with her clueless stepsister? Can she side-step lovesick suitors at every turn? Not if it’s up to that team of foul-mouthed dwarfs who want to forcibly drag her into her happily ever after.


Gingerbread cottages, dodgy European gangsters, gun-toting grannies, wisecracking wolves, stubborn fairy godmothers, ogres, beanstalks and flying carpets abound in a tale about what happens when you refuse to accept your Happy Ending. 

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for Disenchanted. I have a funny guest post to share with you today.


Heide and Iain’s latest novel, Disenchanted, is out this month. The fairy tale fantasy comedy was written with no small assistance from Dr Epiphany Alexander of Sheffield University’s Department for Folklore and Oral History. As an insight into the research material used to create Disenchanted, we present another of Dr Alexander’s letters to the author duo.


 

My Dear Friends,

 

Apologies for the state of this letter and the quality of my handwriting. I am having to write it in peculiar circumstances.

 

I have surprising news. I am currently in Arizona! This is, as they say, a turn up for the books. Quite apt as I have literally turned up for the book, namely Lang’s Black Fairy Book, his missing thirteenth volume of fairy tales.

 

When I last wrote to you, I had just heard that the book was perhaps with the domunculus reliquary in Cleveland, Ohio. A few phone calls later and I was speaking to a Professor Raposa of the University of Arizona where the reliquary is on loan. Professor Raposa, I am embarrassed to say, is a fan of my work and both an invitation to visit and plane tickets were soon sent my way! I was naturally thrilled but Pak Choi, my faithful companion, was less pleased. He had heard rumours about the questioning some people are put through at US border control and was worried that the officials might give one of the Fair Folk a tough time. I said he should simply not say anything to annoy them and just keep them happy.

 

To distract him from worry on the flight, I told him my favourite Arizonan story. It concerns Grey Fox, hero of the Yuman-speaking Native Americans. Giants had come out of the east and from their camp atop a mesa attacked the people of the land, eating those that they could catch. The king rode out to meet the giants and he too was eaten. After that, no one wanted to be king. Grey Fox, who was a reluctant hero at best, knew he had to face the giants. As he walked towards the mesa, he met a horned toad, who offered his help in defeating the giants. He gave Grey Fox his ‘horned helmet’, his ‘horny breastplate’ and his ‘scaly wings’ and told him that he should fight the giants so that the giants had their backs to a cliff edge. Grey Fox went to the mesa and, using the toad’s wings, flew up to meet the giants. They threw spears at him but they broke against his breastplate. They fired arrows at him but they bounced off his helmet. The giants, fearing that Grey Fox was a spirit, dared not take their eyes off him. As the toad had instructed, Grey Fox fought them so they had their backs to the cliff edge so when he leapt at them, they stepped back and fell down to their doom. The last of them to fall reached out and ripped the wings from Grey Fox’s back. Grey Fox returned to the horned toad and gave back the helmet and breastplate. But, seeing that his beautiful wings had been destroyed, the toad was overcome with sadness and anger which is why, to this day, the wingless horned toad cries bitter tears of blood whenever the fox comes near.


 

 

The man at the immigration desk had clearly not seen a passport from the Fair Lands before. They are rare after all and composed primarily of pressed leaves and petals. I suspect Pak Choi might have taken my earlier words too literally. He whispered certain words to the man and the man started laughing. He did not stop laughing, even when they had wrestled him from the booth and taken him away on an ambulance stretcher. We hotfooted it out of the airport as quickly as possible.

 

Professor Raposa was a delightful host who put me up in his Tucson home. Of late, all the men I meet seem to either be suspiciously monobrowed or have some sort of romantic interest in me. It appeared that Professor Raposa was one of the latter. At dinner, with an honesty and charm that British men simply don’t have, Professor Raposa explained that he had first seen me delivering a speech at a symposium in Illinois some years earlier and had ‘taken a shine’ to me. I recall delivering a paper at the event entitled “People in Glass Slippers shouldn’t own Thrones: Why Cinderella would have been a Rubbish Queen” but I had no recollection of meeting the professor.

 

I rebuffed the professor’s gentle advances and we spent a perfectly pleasant evening over a bowl of chili, a plate of something called cheese crisp and a glass of Sonoita Malvasia, an American wine that was far more pleasant than certain European wine-snobs of my acquaintance might have me believe. The following day, we went to the Arizona State Museum in the grounds of the university and to the domunculus I had come all this way to see.

 

However, I was distracted by the sight of the infamous Silverbell Road Crosses that the museum also has on display. The crudely cast lead crosses are perhaps evidence of a mythical colony of religious exiles who fled from Rome over twelve hundred years ago and settled in Arizona centuries before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors. The badly-formed Latin inscriptions and the carved imagery (including a dinosaur, no less!) offer hints of a marvellous story of great adventure, remarkable encounters in the Arizona desert and possibly even dinosaurs. Or, they all form part of an elaborate hoax, created for unknown reasons by a local Mexican sculptor. If only I had the time to study them further and draw my own conclusions! Pak Choi’s own conclusions are evidenced in this delightful drawing he has rendered.

 

 

Professor Raposa took me to a gallery attended by two young men and there he presented to me, wrapped in a protective sheet, the Uttoxeter Casket. The reliquary was both smaller and more intricately carved than I had imagined. The boxwood carvings show various scenes from the life of Christ, including the nativity and the crucifixion. I told Professor Raposa that it was beautiful but, in all honest truth, I wanted to look within. Professor Raposa obliged and lifted the lid.

 

Oh, dear friends, did I expect to see Lang’s missing book of fairy tales just sitting there? Did I foolishly think that it had remained hidden for decades because no one had thought to look inside the box? The answer, sadly, is yes. But, naturally, the reliquary box was empty. Well, almost.

 

At the bottom of the box was a black and white photograph. I inspected it and saw that it was a photograph of a section of medieval manuscript, featuring an image of a fair queen upon her throne.

 

Professor Raposa was keen for my interpretation of the photograph which had arrived with the box. I was not quick to come to any judgement. Jumping to hasty conclusions will have people believing in cowboys riding dinosaurs and wotnot. Professor Raposa became unaccountably impatient and then angry and he demanded that I tell him where the Black Fairy Book was. He made a passing remark about ‘the cheese-dangling witch!’ but I was suddenly and acutely distracted by the guns that the gallery attendants now pointed at me. I was struck by two almost instantaneous thoughts: one was that the two gallery attendants had rather thick eyebrows, the other was that it seemed something of a cliché for my current adventure to only feature firearms when I travelled to the United States. Oh well, such is life.

 

Unable to answer Professor Raposa’s demands for the location of the Black Fairy Book, even at gunpoint, I soon found myself in an unusual position. In short, I am currently writing this from the confines of the boot of what I understand to be a Lincoln Continental (you might have been curious as to why I have been forced to write this letter on end papers torn from your latest novel. It is no reflection of the regard in which I hold your book; it was simply the only paper to hand). It’s not the ideal space in which to write a missive but it could be worse. I will say this for our American friends, they do build cars with plenty of trunk space. I am not sure where the malicious Professor Raposa and his accomplices are taking me but I hope to post this letter to you as soon as I am let out.  

 

I am deeply conscious that I said I would be at your book event in four days’ time. Be assured I very much intend to be there and to have read your book in full by that time. I am sure all this nasty business will be wrapped up long before then.

 

Yours,

 

Dr E. Alexander

 

Dr Epiphany Alexander’s latest book, “High Ho, High Ho: Drug Use and Prostitution in Fairy Tales” is currently available from Sheffield Academic Press.

Heide Goody and Iain Grant’s novel, Disenchanted, is available now from Amazon.

 

Blog Tour: The Butlins Girls by Elaine Everest @ElaineEverest

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Goodreads|Amazon
Release date: May 4, 2017

Publisher: Pan

Genre: Historical fiction 

Blurb: 

They escaped their pasts, for the adventure of a lifetime . . .


‘Molly Missons gazed around in awe. So this was Butlin’s. Whitewashed buildings, bordered by rhododendrons, gave a cheerful feeling to a world still recovering from six years of war. The Skegness holiday camp covered a vast area, much larger than Molly expected to see.’


Molly Missons hasn’t had the best of times recently. Having lost her parents, now some dubious long-lost family have darkened her door – attempting to steal her home and livelihood…


After a horrendous ordeal, Molly applies for a job as a Butlin’s Aunty. When she receives news that she has got the job, she immediately leaves her small home town – in search of a new life in Skegness.


Molly finds true friendship in Freda, Bunty and Plum. But the biggest shock is discovering that star of the silver screen, Johnny Johnson, is working at Butlin’s as head of the entertainment team. Johnny takes an instant liking to Molly and she begins to shed the shackles of her recent traumas. Will Johnny be just the distraction Molly needs – or is he too good be to be true?


I’m so pleased to welcome you to my stop on the blog tour for The Butlins Girls. 


Review: 

I had no prior knowledge of holiday camps before reading this book so I had no idea exactly what to expect, but I’m so glad that I read this, it was such a delightful read. You know those books that just leave you feeling happy and warm when you’re done? This is that type of book, it was adorable. 

After discovering that Butlins holiday camps are  indeed real, (excuse me, my American is showing)  I spent some time doing good old Google research as I was reading because I was so taken with the concept. The first camp opened in 1936 and though they closed during the war, they are still running today! I had a blast looking through their website and am now trying to figure out how to convince my husband we need to take a vacation there. The book is set when Butlins opens after the war is over and Molly Missons gets a job there. 

The characterization is fantastic, Molly is such a dear, sweet, innocent girl, I took to her right away. Her parents passed away in a car accident and she has no family left. She does, however have some wonderful friends and that’s who she turns too when times are hard. When her friend, Freda encourages her to apply for a job at Butlins she takes a chance and meets some lifelong friends in her roommates Bunty and Plum, both of whom are also well drawn, though all three are vastly different. She also meets Johnny, a movie star who is in the entertainment part of the camp. 

This had a little something for everyone, it has a deep history, some light romance, and even some mystery, a cozy one at that. It was about friendship and family and had a saga feel to it with some drama added. Freda is apparently from Everest’s first novel, The Woolworths Girls and now I’m eager to go back and read more about her. I’m also holding out hope that maybe there will be a sequel to this book, it was such a truly lovely, warm read. 

Overall rating: 4/5

Thanks to the author for my review copy. 

Blog Tour: Block 46 by Johana Gustawsson @JoGustawsson @OrendaBooks

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Goodreads|Amazon US|Amazon UK
Release date: May 1, 2017

Publisher: Orenda Books

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Blurb: 

In Falkenberg, Sweden, the mutilated body of talented young jewelry designer Linnea Blix is found in a snow-swept marina. In Hampstead Heath, London, the body of a young boy is discovered with similar wounds to Linnea’s. Buchenwald Concentration Camp, 1944. In the midst of the hell of the Holocaust, Erich Ebner will do anything to see himself as a human again. Are the two murders the work of a serial killer, and how are they connected to shocking events at Buchenwald? Emily Roy, a profiler on loan to Scotland Yard from the Canadian Royal Mounted Police, joins up with Linnea’s friend, French true-crime writer Alexis Castells, to investigate the puzzling case. They travel between Sweden and London, and then deep into the past, as a startling and terrifying connection comes to light. 

I’m so delighted to welcome you to my stop on the blog tour for Block 46 today. 


Review: 

It’s only the first week of May but I’m already betting that Block 46 is going to be my favorite read this month, I’m that confident. I’ll even go so far as to say that it will have a firm spot on my list of top reads for the entire year. While I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect before I read this, I certainly wasn’t expecting to be so blown away. 

There are two timelines here, the first is in 2014 where Emily Roy and Alexis Castells are trying to catch a serial killer who has hunting grounds in both London and Sweden, then there is a historical element that follows Erich, a prisoner in a concentration camp in 1944. I equally loved both timelines and wondered how they would eventually merge together, I congratulated myself (prematurely) on figuring out how everything would fit together only to be completely wrong, Gustawsson flipped the script and blindsided me totally with a killer twist. 

Emily is a profiler while Alexis is a true crime writer and telling the story from their points of view brought a fresh insight that I didn’t even realize was missing from this genre until now. Erich’s chapters were heartbreakingly harrowing and invoked so many emotions in me. The author is unflinchingly honest in her portrayal of the horrors of Nazi camps and while parts were extremely difficult to stomach, they were beautifully and sensitively depicted at the same time, a rare combination that she pulls off absolutely flawlessly. 
The writing is crisp, taut and intelligent, the plotting is tight, bold and skilled, and had a profound effect on me as a reader. It’s one of those books that linger well after you finish and challenged me to think in a deep way. Gustawsson is not afraid to take the reader to dark places but it’s not just for shock value, it’s purposeful, meaningful even. This is a stunning beginning to a new series from a formidable author that I couldn’t be more excited about. 

Overall rating: 5/5

Thanks to Orenda Books for my review copy. 

Blog Tour: The Note by Andrew Barrett @AndrewBarrettUK

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Goodreads|

Release date: May 5, 2017

Publisher: The Ink Foundry

Genre: Crime Fiction 

Blurb: 

I’m Eddie Collins, a CSI.

Ever had that feeling of being watched but when you turn around no one’s there?

I have. 

It was raining, and I was working a murder scene around midnight when that prickle ran up my spine. If I’d listened to that feeling, if I’d thought back to my past, maybe I could have prevented the terror that was to come.

Back at the office, I found a death threat on my desk.

I had no idea who sent it or why they wanted to kill me.

But I was about to find out.

I’m so pleased to be a stop on the blog tour for The Note today! 


Review: 

This is the second book I’ve read by Andrew Barrett, I read Ledston Luck a few months ago and was really impressed. That was the fourth in a series featuring CSI Eddie Collins and I loved his character and the fact that the story was told from a fresh perspective. Andrew Barrett is a CAI himself so the authenticity is outstanding and you know you’re getting a true look at the life of a CSI. The Note is a short story featuring Eddie and it was fun to check in on him again, albeit briefly. 

Barrett sure knows how to set a creepy stage, it opens late one evening when Eddie is processing a crime scene and gets that uneasy feeling of being watched, unawares. Then, he finds a note that says he’ll be dead tonight. The atmosphere was really fantastic, late at night, alone in an office then at home, I was paranoid for Eddie’s safety just as much as he was! The chilling cover certainly matched what was inside and had the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end. 

As it’s such a short story I don’t want to say anything more about what happens, but Barrett manages to include a few shocking plot twists in a short amount of time. Even though Eddie is scared for most of the story his sarcasm and wit is still there, maybe even more so than usual. Defensive mechanism perhaps? I don’t know, but it always works for me! This is a perfect introduction to a great character, so if you haven’t read any of the books in this series, why not start here? 

Overall rating: 5/5

Thanks to the author for my review copy. 

Blog Tour: Dead Souls by Angela Marsons @WriteAngie @bookouture

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Goodreads|Amazon US|Amazon UK
Release date: April 28, 2017

Publisher: Bookouture 

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Blurb: 
The truth was dead and buried…until now. 

When a collection of human bones is unearthed during a routine archaeological dig, a Black Country field suddenly becomes a complex crime scene for Detective Kim Stone. 


As the bones are sorted, it becomes clear that the grave contains more than one victim. The bodies hint at unimaginable horror, bearing the markings of bullet holes and animal traps. 


Forced to work alongside Detective Travis, with whom she shares a troubled past, Kim begins to uncover a dark secretive relationship between the families who own the land in which the bodies were found. 


But while Kim is immersed in one of the most complicated investigations she’s ever led, her team are caught up in a spate of sickening hate crimes. Kim is close to revealing the truth behind the murders, yet soon finds one of her own is in jeopardy – and the clock is ticking. Can she solve the case and save them from grave danger – before it’s too late? 

I am absolutely THRILLED to be one of the stops on the blog tour for Dead Souls today! Angela Marsons is one of my favorite authors and her Kim Stone series is flawless. 


Review: 

I know that I’m a huge book pusher, but if you ever take one of my many recommendations seriously, please choose this one. Marsons Kim Stone series is amazing and it’s one where you really need to read all of the books in order to fully appreciate the talent of the author. This is book six, but fear not! These are such gripping reads that you will power through them in record time, go ahead, have a binge. I don’t think you will regret it for one second.

I think these books need to come with a prescription for Xanax, I swear every time I finish one my anxiety levels are through the roof! I do mean that as a compliment, any book that can get my heart racing is a winner in my book. This time around Kim is facing her biggest challenge yet, she’s separated from her team and is forced to work with her rival, Tom Travis. This is a struggle not only for her, but also for her team. Bryant and Dawson are now partnered up and Stacey is alone as usual, but something about not having Kim at the helm makes them all uneasy and shaken up. 

There are three different cases here, Kim is looking into bones that were unearthed during an archeological dig, Bryant and Dawson are looking into a string of hate crimes, and Stacey is going rogue looking into the suicide of a young man. With so much going on, one would think things would be confusing or disjointed, but that’s not the case here. Instead, the way the  narratives change almost every chapter really kept me on my toes and had the pages flying by.

I don’t want to delve too deep into the plot, but Marsons handled an extremely sensitive issue with grace and humility. Hate crimes are terribly prevalent at the moment and tackling such a timely issue was smart. It was certainly thought provoking for me, and while parts were difficult to read, it’s important that things like this aren’t ignored any longer. 

This is a first rate, brilliant series and no one does tension quite like Marsons. There are plenty of nail biting, heart stopping moments, but there are also so many deep, emotional moments as well. With every book you find out more about Kim, but you also find out more about the rest of the team, making the connection to them so deep and strong. Each book has a fresh, unique viewpoint and things never falter or feel stale. Bravo, Angela Marsons, bravo! 

Overall rating: 5/5

Thanks to Bookouture for my review copy. 

About the Author: 


Angela lives in the heart of the Black Country with her partner, bouncy puppy and potty mouthed parrot.
It has taken many novels to find that one character who just refused to go away. And so D.I. Kim Stone was born. The D.I. Kim Stone series has now sold over 2 million copies.

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