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Showing posts from April, 2023

Blog tour: The Power of Trees

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Welcome to the blog tour for The Power of Trees: How Ancient Forests Can Save Us If We Let Them by Peter Wohlleben! More about the book… Trees can survive without humans, but we can’t live without  trees. Even if human-caused climate change devastates our planet, trees will return—as they do, always and everywhere, even after ice ages, catastrophic fires, destructive storms, and deforestation. It would just be nice if we were around to see them flourish.  The Power of Trees  is forester Peter Wohlleben’s follow-up to The Hidden Life of Trees , a Sunday Times bestseller that sold millions of copies worldwide. In his latest book, he is dismissive of token gestures in terms of tree planting. Just as he compared forest trees to ‘families’ and urban trees to ‘street urchins’ in his first book, in The  Power of Trees  he uses equally powerful metaphors to compare tree planting to battery farming ('Switching to fast-growing species and breeding trees for desired traits brought results li

Blog tour: Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens

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Welcome to the blog tour for Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens by Shankari Chandran! More about the book… Cinnamon Gardens Nursing Home is nestled in the quiet suburb of Westgrove, Sydney – populated with residents with colourful histories, each with their own secrets, triumphs and failings. This is their safe place, an oasis of familiar delights – a beautiful garden, a busy kitchen and a bountiful recreation schedule. But this ordinary neighbourhood is not without its prejudices. The serenity of Cinnamon Gardens is threatened by malignant forces more interested in what makes this refuge different rather than embracing the calm companionship that makes this place home to so many. As those who challenge the residents’ existence make their stand against the nursing home with devastating consequences, our characters are forced to reckon with a country divided. Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens  is about family and memory, community and race, but is ultimately a love letter to storytelling and how

Blog tour: Atalanta

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Welcome to the blog tour for Atalanta  by Jennifer Saint ! More about the book… Exposed on a mountainside, the defenceless infant Atalanta is left to the mercy of a passing mother bear and raised alongside her cubs under the protective eye of the goddess Artemis. Swearing that she will prove her worth alongside the famed heroes of Greece, Atalanta leaves her forest to join Jason’s band of Argonauts. But can she carve out her own place of legend in a world made for men? More about the author… Thanks to a lifelong fascination with Ancient Greek mythology, Jennifer Saint read Classical Studies at King's College, London. Since September 2022, she has been a Visiting Research Fellow in the Classics Department there. In between, she spent thirteen years as an English teacher, sharing a love of literature and creative writing with her students.  Ariadne  is her first novel,  Elektra  is her second, and  Atalanta  is her latest mesmerising mythological retelling. My impressions… I love ret

Blog tour: Small Joys

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Welcome to the blog tour for Small  Joys  by Elvin James Mensah ! More about the book… Harley is a young queer Black man struggling to find his way in mid-noughties Britain. Returning home to Dartford, having just dropped out of an undergraduate course in music journalism, he is wracked by feelings of failure and inadequacy. Standing in the local woods one day, on the verge of doing something drastic and irreversible, his hand is stayed by a stranger: a tall husky guy who emerges from the bushes holding a pair of binoculars. Muddy is an ebullient Mancunian whose lust for his own life makes others feel better by association. A keen birdwatcher, rugby fanatic and Oasis obsessive, he quickly becomes a devoted and loyal friend to Harley who finds his enthusiasm infectious and his dimples irresistible. In no time at all, they become inseparable. Harley starts to think that life may be worth living after all, while Muddy discovers things about himself that the lads down the rugby club may st

Blog tour: Keepers

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Welcome to the blog tour for Keepers   by Cheryl Burman! More about the book… In 1950 Australia, Raine believes her unplanned marriage to the volatile Teddy is working out fine. They have their own place, humble though it is. Their baby thrives. But when Teddy abandons his young family, a grieving and furious Raine faces hard choices – made harder when she discovers she’s bearing their second child. Are the words of the telegram the real reason behind Teddy’s desertion? Was there ever a future for them, or had his harridan mother been right all along? And what about the faithful, devoted Alf? He’s always looked out for Raine. He’d love to do so forever. With her baby nearly due, Raine sets out on a punishing journey to face the truth. And make the most important decision of her life. More about the author… When Cheryl Burman moved to the Forest of Dean in SW England she, like Tolkien and Rowling, was inspired to write. She started with middle grade fantasy, discovered a taste for histo

Blog tour: The Perfumist of Paris

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Welcome to the blog tour for The Perfumist of Paris by Alka Joshi! More about the book… Paris, 1974. Radha is now living in Paris with her husband, Pierre, and their two daughters. She still grieves for the baby boy she gave up years ago, when she was only a child herself, but she loves being a mother to her daughters, and she’s finally found her passion—the treasure trove of scents. She has an exciting and challenging position working for a master perfumer, helping to design completely new fragrances for clients and building her career one scent at a time. She only wishes Pierre could understand her need to work. She feels his frustration, but she can’t give up this thing that drives her. Tasked with her first major project, Radha travels to India, where she enlists the help of her sister, Lakshmi, and the courtesans of Agra—women who use the power of fragrance to seduce, tease and entice. She’s on the cusp of a breakthrough when she finds out the son she never told her husband about

Blog tour: Thanks For Sharing

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Welcome to the blog tour for Thanks For Sharing by Eleanor Tucker ! More about the book… What is the Sharing Economy? How can it help us live more affordable, more sustainable, and ultimately more fulfilling lives?  What would happen if for one year a family pledged to share as much as they possibly can? Instead of owning more and more stuff, what it’s like to stop owning things and borrow, lend, rent and swap instead? These are big questions, but features writer Eleanor Tucker sets out to answer them in this thoroughly absorbing and entertaining guide to sustainable sharing, or as it is also known, 'collaborative consumption'. In this engrossing study, Eleanor straps us into on her year-long experiment along with her somewhat reluctant family. Over the course of the year, with the aid of various sharing apps, they will pledge to buy as few new things as possible, instead relying on the power of sharing, lending, renting and borrowing to supply their needs. Each chapter introd

Blog tour: The Theory of (Not Quite) Everything

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Welcome to the blog tour for The Theory of (Not Quite) Everything by Kara Gnodde! More about the book… Like circles of a Venn diagram, Mimi and Art Brotherton have always come as a pair. Devoted siblings, they're bound together in their childhood home by the tragic death of their parents. Art believes that people - including his sister - are incapable of making sensible decisions when it comes to love. That’s what algorithms are for. Mimi knows that her brother is a mathematical genius. But she believes that maths isn’t the answer to everything. Not quite. Especially when it comes to love. Still, when Mimi begins her search for a soulmate, Art's insistence that she follow a strict mathematical plan seems reasonable. The arrival of Frank, however - a romantic stargazer who is definitely not algorithm-approved - challenges the siblings' relationship to breaking point. As their equilibrium falters, Art's mistrust of Frank grows, but so do Mimi's feelings. Something ab

Blog tour: The Little Venice Bookshop

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Welcome to the blog tour for The Little Venice Bookshop by Rebecca Raisin! More about the book… When Luna loses her beloved mother, she’s bereft: her mother was her only family, and without her Luna feels rootless. Then the chance discovery of a collection of letters in her mother’s belongings sends her on an unexpected journey. Following a clue in the letters, Luna packs her bags and heads to Venice, to a gorgeous but faded bookshop overlooking the canals, hoping to uncover the truth about her mother’s mysterious past. Will Luna find the answers she’s looking for – and finally find the place she belongs? More about the author… Rebecca Raisin writes heartwarming romance from her home in sunny Perth, Australia. Her heroines tend to be on the quirky side and her books are usually set in exotic locations so her readers can armchair travel any day of the week. The only downfall about writing about gorgeous heroes who have brains as well as brawn, is falling in love with them – just as wel