Book after Book

Welcome to the blog tour for A Corpse in Christmas Close by Michelle Salter! More about the book… Christmas, 1923.  When reporter Iris Woodmore is sent to cover the Prince of Wales’ visit to historic Winchester, she discovers more than just royal gossip. The leading lady in Winchester Cathedral’s charity pantomime is found dead in mysterious circumstances. And the chief suspect is Cinderella’s handsome prince, played by Percy Baverstock’s younger brother, Freddie. For the sake of the Baverstocks, Iris must investigate the murder, even though it means confronting an old enemy. And as the line between friend and foe blurs dangerously, she’s ensnared by someone she hoped she’d never see again… More about the author… Michelle Salter writes historical cosy crime set in Hampshire, where she lives, and inspired by real-life events in 1920s Britain. Her Iris Woodmore series draws on an interest in the aftermath of the Great War and the suffragette movement. My impressions… This new instalmen

Welcome to the blog tour for A Hate Crime in Brooklyn by David G Secular! More about the book… Can justice prevail in a city torn by hate? When Sofia Hushemi, a sheltered Albanian immigrant, carelessly collides with Sylvester Stanley on her way home from Prospect Park, both escape injury. But upon discovering the loss of a precious ring, gifted to her by her brother-in-law, Victor, the feared kingpin of the Albanian Mafia, she frantically presumes Stanley, a black man, was not a jogger, but a culprit. Hours after the ring is lost, Sylvester is attacked in broad daylight by Victor's henchmen but it is Sofia, not Victor, who faces life behind bars for allegedly ordering the attack. The trial is a rollercoaster of surprises, penned by an author intimately familiar with the courtroom. Can Sofia escape conviction for the racially motivated crime which has polarized New York? Gripping, thought-provoking and moving, A Hate Crime in Brooklyn, is much more than a story of yet another presu

Welcome to the blog tour for Eddie Winston Is Looking For Love by Marianne Cronin! More about the book… Eddie Winston is ninety years old. He has lived and he has loved, but he has never been kissed. A true gentleman and incurable romantic, Eddie spends his days volunteering at a charity shop, where he sorts through the donations of the living and the dead, preserving letters and tokens of love along the way. It is here that he meets Bella, a troubled young woman who, aged twenty-four, has just lost the love of her life. When Bella learns that Eddie is yet to have his first kiss, she resolves to help him finally find love, sparking an adventure that will take them to unexpected places and, they hope, bring Eddie to the moment he has waited for all his life. As Bella helps Eddie and Eddie helps, well, everyone, a soul-stirring story of friendship and kindness unfolds as we see how those we love are never forgotten and it is never too late to try again. More about the author… Marianne C

Welcome to the blog tour for Too Many Moose by Kathy Sherman & Torey Butner! More about the book… A rip-roaring moose family reunion songbook starring one extremely surprised host and exactly 256 moose (no more, no less). How many moose is too many moose? Two? Four? Eight? Sixteen? What happens when a herd of moose invites themselves over? In Too Many Moose, a herd of moose have a rip-roaring family reunion full of dancing, cartwheels, pillow fights and more! My impressions… This book is so entertaining! Told in an engaging and fun rhyme, it tells the story of a young girl who can’t believe her eyes when she sees a constantly growing family of moose take over her garden and then her house, getting up to all sorts of mischief. With the numbers getting bigger and bigger, her patience starts wearing thinner and thinner until… Mesmerised by the colourful illustrations, my children love describing what the moose are doing on each page. So many opportunities for vocabulary building and

Welcome to the blog tour for The Brightest Star  by Gail Tsukiyama! More about the book… The beloved bestselling author of The Color of Air, Women of the Silk, and The Samurai's Garden returns with this magnificent historical novel based on the life of the luminous, groundbreaking actress Anna May Wong—the first and only Asian American woman to gain movie stardom in the early days of Hollywood. At the dawn of a new century, America is falling in love with silent movies, including young Wong Liu Tsong. The daughter of Chinese immigrants who own a laundry, Wong Liu and her older sister Lew Ying (Lulu) are taunted and bullied for their Chinese heritage. But while Lulu diligently obeys her parents and learns to speak Chinese, Wong Liu sneaks away to the local nickelodeons, buying a ticket with her lunch money and tips saved from laundry deliveries. By eleven Wong Liu is determined to become an actress and has already chosen a stage name: Anna May Wong. At sixteen, Anna May leaves hig

Welcome to the blog tour for Costanza  by Rachel Blackmore! More about the book… It’s 1636 and Rome hums with gossip and sin. Costanza Piccolomini is a respectable young wife - until she meets world-famous sculptor Gianlorenzo Bernini, whose jet-black gaze matches his dark temper. From the second they set eyes upon each other, a fatal attraction is born. Their secret love burns with a passion that consumes them. But with every stolen kiss and illicit tryst, Costanza's reputation is at stake. And Bernini has a more dangerous desire: he wants to immortalise Costanza in marble. When Bernini unveils his sculpture of Costanza it marks the beginning of a scandal which will rock Roman society. For Bernini would rather destroy Costanza than let her go. Betrayed. Abandoned. Banished. This was meant to be the end of Costanza’s story. But Costanza is no ordinary woman: from the ashes, she will rise… More about the author… Born in Birmingham, Rachel spent her childhood in the Northeast, then t

Welcome to the blog tour for Teatime at Peggy's: A Glimpse of Anglo-India by Clare Jenkins and Stephen McClarence! More about the book… For 15 years, award-winning travel writer Stephen McClarence and his BBC Radio journalist wife Clare Jenkins regularly visited Jhansi, the railway town in Uttar Pradesh that inspired Bhowani Junction, John Masters' classic 1954 tale of Anglo-Indian life during Partition. There they spent hours ‘down the rabbit hole’ with Peggy Cantem - ‘Aunty Peggy’ as she was known throughout the town, daughter and widow of railwaymen, overseer of the European cemetery with its 66 Mutiny graves and ‘dancing and prancing peacocks’ - and with her great friend Captain Royston (Roy) Abbott, ‘The Rajah of Jhansi’, possibly India’s last British landowner and ‘more British than the Brits’. In Peggy’s tiny, crowded ground-floor flat, she and her friends would reflect on Anglo-Indian life then and now: the dances (waltzes, foxtrot, jive), amateur dramatics, May Queen

Welcome to the blog tour for A Girl's Guide To Winning The War  by Annie Lyons! More about the book… 1940. Whip-smart librarian Peggy Sparks is determined to make sure that her brother Joe returns from the frontline to their London home, which they share with their beloved mother and grandmother. So when she is offered a once-in-a-lifetime job at the heart of the war effort, Peggy jumps at the prospect of making a real contribution to her country. But when she finds herself working under the fanciful socialite Lady Marigold Cecily, Peggy discovers that those around her are more keen on dancing at the Café de Paris than on ending the war. Writing accounts of her daily life is the only thing keeping Peggy's hopes alive. But when she finds her inner-most thoughts accidentally published by the Ministry of Information, Peggy realises she needs Marigold's help to save her job, and to bring her brother home… More about the author… After a career in bookselling and publishing, Anni