Posts

Showing posts from March, 2023

Blog tour: The Walled Garden

Image
Welcome to the blog tour for The Walled Garden by Sarah Hardy! More about the book… It is 1946 and in the village of Oakbourne the men are home from the war. Their bodies are healing but their psychological wounds run deep. Everyone is scarred - those who fought and those left behind. Alice Rayne is married to Stephen, heir to crumbling Oakbourne Hall. Once a sweet, gentle man, he has returned a bitter and angry stranger, destroyed by what he has seen and done, tormented by secrets Alice can only guess at. Lonely and increasingly afraid of the man her husband has become, Alice must try to pick up the pieces of her marriage and save Oakbourne Hall from total collapse. She begins with the walled garden and, as it starts to bear fruit, she finds herself drawn into a new, forbidden love. More about the author… Sarah Hardy has lived for the last 10 years on the Suffolk coast which is where her novel is set. Before that she lived in London, Dublin and the Hebrides. She has worked on nationa

Blog tour: Forgotten Women

Image
Welcome to the blog tour for Forgotten Women by Zing Tsjeng! More about the book…  A compendium of women who shaped and were erased from our history. Forgotten Women  reaches around the world and its history to rediscover, retell and reinstate the lives of over 190 important and significant women. From Neolithic times to modernity, Zing Tsjeng has traced the women who have shaped their age and revolutionised society. In this book lies the strength, lives and sacrifices of women who have refused to accept the hand they’ve been dealt and have changed the course of our futures accordingly. More about the author… Zing Tsjeng is the editor in chief of VICE UK and the author of the Forgotten Women book series. She specialises in women’s and LGBTQ rights, politics, culture and lifestyle. She is also a documentary host and podcaster, her recent podcast for the BBC was entitled Forgotten Zingdom and she interviews for publications such as Vogue, Dazed, and The Guardian. My impressions… What a

Blog tour: The Ugly Truth

Image
Welcome to the blog tour for The Ugly Truth by L.C. North! More about the book… Melanie Lange has disappeared. Her father, Sir Peter Lange, says she is a danger to herself and has been admitted to a private mental health clinic. Her ex-husband, Finn, and best friend, Nell, say she has been kidnapped. The media will say whichever gets them the most views. But whose side are  you  on? #SaveMelanie #HelpPeter Told via interviews, transcripts and diary entries, The Ugly Truth is a shocking and addictive thriller about fame, power and the truth behind the headlines. More about the author… L.C. North studied psychology at university before pursuing a career in Public Relations. Her first book club thriller - The Ugly Truth - combines her love of psychology and her fascination with the celebrities in the public eye. L.C. North is currently working on her second novel, and when she’s not writing, she co-hosts the crime thriller podcast, In Suspense. L.C. North lives on the Suffolk borders w

Blog tour: Murder at Waldenmere Lake

Image
Welcome to the blog tour for Murder at  Waldenmere Lake by Michelle Salter! More about the book… Walden, 1921. Local reporter Iris Woodmore is determined to save her beloved lake, Waldenmere, from destruction. After a bloody and expensive war, the British Army can’t afford to keep the lake and build a convalescent home on its shores yet they still battle with Walden Council and a railway company for ownership. But an old mansion used as an officer training academy stands where the railway company plans to build a lakeside hotel. It belongs to General Cheverton – and he won’t leave his home. When the General is found murdered, it appears someone will stop at nothing to win the fight for Waldenmere. Iris thinks she can take on the might of the railway company and find the killer. But nothing prepares her for the devastation that’s to come… More about the author… Michelle Salter is a historical crime fiction writer based in northeast Hampshire. Many local locations appear in her mystery

Blog tour: The Venice Secret

Image
W elcome to the blog tour for The Venice Secret by Anita Chapman! More about the book… In 2019, Rachel is stuck in a rut when she discovers what appears to be a Canaletto painting in her grandmother's loft along with a note addressed to Philippa in 1782. With help from Jake at the local art gallery, Rachel endeavours to find out if the painting is an original and uncovers a  secret from the past. In 1780, governess at Chipford Hall, Philippa is offered the role of mistress by Earl Rupert. She escapes to Venice as companion to bluestocking, Lady Cordelia who reveals a secret that changes both their lives. They do their best to keep the secret from Lady Cordelia's social circle, but their nemesis is determined to reveal all and ruin them. More about the author… Anita Chapman enjoyed writing stories from a young age, and won a local writing competition when she was nine years old. Encouraged by this, she typed up a series of stories about a mouse on her mum’s typewriter and sent

Blog tour: All the Little Bird-Hearts

Image
Welcome to the blog tour for All the Little Bird-Hearts by Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow! More about the book… Sunday Forrester lives with her sixteen-year-old daughter, Dolly, in the house she grew up in. She does things more carefully than most people. On quiet days, she must eat only white foods. Her etiquette handbook guides her through confusing social situations, and to escape, she turns to her treasury of Sicilian folklore. The one thing very much out of her control is Dolly - her clever, headstrong daughter, now on the cusp of leaving home. Into this carefully ordered world step Vita and Rollo, a couple who move in next door, disarm Sunday with their charm, and proceed to deliciously break just about every rule in Sunday's book. Soon they are in and out of each other’s homes, and Sunday feels loved and accepted like never before. But beneath Vita and Rollo's polish lies something else, something darker. For Sunday has precisely what Vita has always wanted for herself: a daught

Blog tour: Mother's Day

Image
Welcome to the blog tour for Mother’s Day by Abigail Burdess! More about the book… The last thing Anna needs is a baby. Abandoned, adopted and living hand to mouth, she never dreamt of having a real family. But when she meets her birth mother, everything changes - because the same day, she learns she's going to be a mother too. Marlene is eccentric, generous with her considerable fortune and overjoyed to become a grandmother. Anna's living the dream. But is it her dream, or someone else's? Now she will have to decide what she's willing to sacrifice for a real family - her future, her freedom, even her unborn child. More about the author… Abigail Burdess is a writer-performer from London. Abigail has written for TV comedies including the Emmy-nominated Tracey Ullman’s Show (BBC1), Watson and Oliver (BBC2), and the BAFTA-winning That Mitchell and Webb Look (BBC2). She’s appeared in TV and radio comedies including Fresh Meat (C4), Cuckoo (BBC3) and Lobbyland(Radio 4). Abi

Blog tour: Daughters of Victory

Image
Welcome to the blog tour for Daughters of Victory by Gabriella Saab! More about the book… Russia 1917: Beautiful, educated Svetlana Petrova defied her stifling aristocratic family to join a revolution promising freedom. Now, released after years of imprisonment, she discovers her socialist party vying for power against the dictatorial Bolsheviks and her beloved uncle, a champion of her cause, was murdered by a mysterious assassin named Orlova. Her signature? Blinding her victims before she kills them. Svetlana resolves to avenge his death by destroying this vicious opponent, even as she longs to reunite with the daughter she has not seen in years. USSR 1941: Now living in obscurity in a remote village, Svetlana opens her home to Mila Rozovskaya, the eighteen-year-old granddaughter from Leningrad she has never met. She hopes to protect Mila from the oncoming Nazi invasion, but when the enemy occupies the village, Svetlana sees the young woman fall under the spell of the resistance—echo

Blog tour: One Moment

Image
Welcome to the blog tour for One Moment by Becky Hunter! More about the book… The day Scarlett dies should have been one of the most important of her life. It doesn't feel fair that she'll never have the chance to fulfil her dreams. And now, she's still ... here - wherever here is - watching the ripple effect of her death on the lives of those she loved the most. Evie cannot contemplate her life without Scarlett, and she certainly cannot forgive Nate, the man she blames for her best friend's death. But Nate keeps popping up when she least expects him to, catapulting Evie's life in directions she'd never let herself imagine possible. Ways, perhaps, even those closest to her had long since given up on. If you could go back, knowing everything that happens after, everything that happens because of that one moment in time, would you change the course of history or would you do it all again? More about the author… Becky Hunter lived and worked in London for several

Blog tour: Maid of Steel

Image
Welcome to the blog tour for Maid of Steel by Kate Baker! More about the book… It’s 1911 and, against her mother’s wishes, quiet New Yorker Emma dreams of winning the right to vote. She is sent away by her parents in the hope distance will curb her desire to be involved with the growing suffrage movement and told to spend time learning about where her grandparents came from. Across the Atlantic – Queenstown, southern Ireland – hotelier Thomas dreams of being loved, even noticed, by his actress wife, Alice. On their wedding day, Alice’s father had assured him that adoration comes with time. It’s been eight years. But Alice has plans of her own and they certainly don’t include the fight for equality or her dull husband. Emma’s arrival in Ireland leads her to discover family secrets and become involved in the Irish Women’s Suffrage Society in Cork. However, Emma’s path to suffrage was never meant to lead to a forbidden love affair… More about the author… Kate Baker wrote terrible holiday

Blog tour: The Garnett Girls

Image
Welcome to the blog tour for The Garnett Girls by Georgina Moore! More about the book… Forbidden, passionate and all-encompassing, Margo and Richard’s love affair was the stuff of legends – but, ultimately, doomed. When Richard walked out, Margo locked herself away, leaving her three daughters, Rachel, Imogen and Sasha, to run wild. Years later, charismatic Margo entertains lovers and friends in her cottage on the Isle of Wight, refusing to ever speak of Richard and her painful past. But her silence is keeping each of the Garnett girls from finding true happiness. Rachel is desperate to return to London, but is held hostage by responsibility for Sandcove, their beloved but crumbling family home. Dreamy Imogen feels the pressure to marry her kind, considerate fiancĆ©, even when life is taking an unexpected turn. And wild, passionate Sasha, trapped between her fractured family and controlling husband, is weighed down by a secret that could shake the family to its core… More about the aut

Blog tour: Within You, Without You

Image
Welcome to the blog tour for Within You, Without You by Sara O'Donovan! More about the book… Kathryn Johnson’s life is at a standstill. Stuck in a lacklustre marriage, the spark that once burned so brightly  within her has since been snuffed out by the monotony of the everyday. Returning to England after many years of living in Ireland, she is shocked to discover a familiar face on the side of the road one dark and stormy night. But a person can’t just reappear like that. Not when they’ve been dead for twenty years. Uncovering long-buried memories of first love and its devastating loss, Kathryn returns to the past to see if she can rewrite her present. But love divided by time is a complicated equation to solve. More about the author… Sara O'Donovan spent her early years in England, brought up in the worlds of horse racing and show jumping. She moved to Ireland in her late 20s and now lives in County Cork with her husband and young family. A former equestrian journalist, she n

Blog tour: Independence

Image
Welcome to the blog tour for Independence by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni! More about the book… India, 1947. In a rural village in Bengal live three sisters, daughters of a well-respected doctor. Priya: intelligent and idealistic, resolved to follow in her father’s footsteps and become a doctor, though society frowns on it. Deepa: the beauty, determined to make a marriage that will bring her family joy and status. Jamini: devout, sharp-eyed, and a talented quiltmaker, with deeper passions than she reveals. Theirs is a home of love and safety, a refuge from the violent events taking shape in the nation. Then their father is killed during a riot, and even their neighbours turn against them, bringing the events of their country closer to home. As Priya determinedly pursues her career goal, Deepa falls deeply in love with a Muslim, causing her to break with her family. And Jamini attempts to hold her family together, even as she secretly longs for her sister’s fiancĆ©. When the partition of