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Showing posts from October, 2023

Blog tour: The Priest's Wife

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Welcome to the blog tour for The Priest’s Wife  by AG Rivett ! More about the book… The Priest’s Wife is set on an imaginary island, somewhere between Scotland and Ireland, a thousand years ago and a world away. When her husband the priest dies, Morag loses more than her life partner. With him goes her home and her place in the community. In addition to these misfortunes, in a society that sets great store by lineage, she is challenged about the mysterious identity of her mother, and it is this that sets her on a quest of discovery that comes, at first, upon a blank, but in time leads her to the circle of the island's 'Guardians', who mediate her discovery of her mother's identity, and, step by step, her own deeper self-knowing and self-acceptance. When Aidan, the new priest, undertakes a campaign to upturn the township's spirituality, which has accommodated older druidical forms alongside the Christ story, both he, and the community, are set on a collision course....

Blog tour: The Almanac 2024

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Welcome to the blog tour for The Almanac A Seasonal Guide to 2024 by Lia Leendertz ! More about the book… The highly anticipated original and bestselling  almanac is here, now in its seventh instalment. Reconnect with the seasons in Britain and Ireland with this month-by-month guide to the world around us - including tide tables, sunrises and moon phases; garden feasts, wildlife and folklore; seasonal recipes, snacks and more. The Almanac: A Seasonal Guide to 2024 gives you the tools and inspiration you need to celebrate, mark and appreciate each month of the year in your own particular way. Divided into the 12 months, a set of tables each month gives it the feel and weight of a traditional almanac, providing practical information that gives access to the outdoors and the seasons, perfect for expeditions, meteor-spotting nights and beach holidays. This year’s edition focuses on the natural wonders of the garden, celebrating the beautiful flora and fauna at you...

Blog tour: The Sardinian Story

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Welcome to the blog tour for The Sardinian Story by Francesca Scanacapra! More about the book… Apennine Mountains, Italy, 1965 Leonora Bacchetti was once a happy child. But at the age of seventeen she has become a wild and rebellious young woman who leaves her parents in despair when she runs away from home with a group of itinerant travellers. In the eyes of their friends and neighbours in the tight-knit village of Montacciolo, her parents’ good name is ruined. At first, Leonora keeps in touch with her mother and father, sending letters and postcards from different countries until, very abruptly, her correspondence stops. The girl has vanished. Vague, unreliable rumours of her fate abound, but newspaper appeals, police and private investigations reveal nothing. Until, eighteen years later, in the midst of a snowstorm, a stranger from Sardinia knocks on the door of Leonora’s father’s little mountain house. Now a widower, he has come to terms with never knowing what happened t...

Blog tour: Song of the Sun God

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Welcome to the blog tour for Song of the Sun God  by Shankari Chadran! More about the book… Nala and Rajan, a young couple, begin their married life in 1946, on the eve of Ceylon’s independence from Britain. Arranged in marriage, they learn to love each other and protect their growing family, against the backdrop of increasing ethnic tension. As the country descends into a bloody civil war, Nala and Rajan must decide which path is best for their family; and live with the consequences of their mistakes. Over time, Nala and Rajan teach their family why some parts of their history and heritage are worth holding onto; and why some parts and people have to be left behind. Song of the Sun God  spans three continents and three generations of a family that remains dedicated to its homeland, whilst learning to embrace its new home. Funny, warm and tender, we see Nala and Rajan’s family navigate war, migration, old loyalties and new beginnings, relying on the philoso...

Blog tour: So Now Go Tell

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Welcome to the blog tour for So Now Go Tell  by Susan Sachon! More about the book… After reaching a crisis point at 40, Jenny Watson is offered her dream job running a Shakespeare festival at a Tudor pub. She can hardly believe her luck at this brilliant new start, and chance to escape her unhappy past. The job isn't all it seems, however. The pub is remote and her mysterious boss is permanently absent; there's a 400 year old skull residing in the cellar; and the local actors are less than enthusiastic over her boss's choice of play. Then there's the growing conviction that someone's watching her. Strange messages, withheld calls and shadows on the windows spike temporary attacks of stress-related blindness as she clings to her last chance to live her dream. But as the dark play she's directing starts to unravel the secrets she'd sworn never to tell, Jenny realises she's not at the pub by chance... and soon she finds herself the leading lady in a nightma...

Blog tour: Your Rainbow

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Welcome to the blog tour for Your Rainbow  by Lynn How! More about the book… Join Erin and Rowan as their bedtime is transformed into a multicoloured rhyming journey, where they are magically transported to each colour of the  rainbow in turn. In this colourful adventure, Erin and Rowan are provided with the wisdom and unconditional love they need to face any of life's challenges. This inspirational bedtime tale both nurtures and grows the strong bond between parents and children. With mesmerising pictures and a powerful message, it is sure to become a firm favourite for this and the next generation of your family. More about the author… Lynn How loved to write poems from a young age and was encouraged by both her parents and teachers. After fostering a love of literacy, Lynn became a primary school teacher and stayed in the profession for twenty years. Within this time, she taught across the primary age range and gained her Masters degree, SENCO and headteachers' qu...

Blog tour: The Keeper of Hidden Books

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Welcome to the blog tour for The Keeper of Hidden Books by Madeline Martin! More about the book… It is 1939, and nothing could prepare Marta and Janina for the Nazi occupation of their homes and families in Warsaw. Friends since childhood, the two women couldn’t be more different – Marta is Polish and a stubborn, practical planner; Janina is half-Jewish with fanciful ideas of war and heroism. But as the bombs rain down on Warsaw and Hitler’s forces surround the city, a series of tragedies spur them to action. Both avid readers, they find ways to join the war efforts using one of the only weapons that still feel safe to them: literature. While Marta and her father become active in the underground and work to salvage books in danger of being destroyed, Janina aids a secret library in the ghetto, lending and delivering books to orphans. As the round ups and executions intensify, these books become a life preserver for members of their community. But the close...

In conversation with... Fran Clark

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Happy publication day to Lovers by Fran Clark! Please head over to Instagram for a review of this gorgeous novel, but first enjoy hearing from the author herself… Hi Fran! First of all, I would like to congratulate you on the publication of  Lovers ! Can you please briefly tell us what it is about? A: Lovers charts the dramatic love affair between Charlie and Brenda who meet in a club in London’s Soho in the 1980s. He’s a married man and the love affair is doomed and their story never quite ends. In the same area of London that Charlie and Brenda used to live, a group of people, who didn’t know each other at first, find that their paths cross. These people are all searching for a new life and when they meet their lives change. While they find love and friendship they also find out the ending to Charlie and Brenda’s story. What inspired you to write this novel? A: It was an idea that came to me in lockdown. There is a theory that everyone in the world is somehow connected to every ...

Blog tour: Blackmail in Bloomsbury

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Welcome to the blog tour for Blackmail in Bloomsbury by Anna Sayburn Lane! More about the book… London, October 1922. When Marjorie Swallow attends her first Bloomsbury party, she worries the conversation will be over her head. But when the night ends in murder, she has more pressing concerns. Was the culprit really the handsome young artist she danced the night away with? And why did so many people want Betty Norris dead? From the garden squares of Bloomsbury to the smart restaurants of Piccadilly and the seedy backstreets of Soho, apprentice detective Marjorie goes on a perilous hunt for the killer. Blackmail in Bloomsbury brings 1920s London to life in a classic murder mystery. More about the author… Anna is a writer and journalist, living by the sea on the Kent coast. Blackmail In Bloomsbury marks a new direction for Anna’s writing, switching from contemporary thrillers with a historical back-story into cosy historical mysteries. Anna is fascinated by the 1920s, a period of enor...

Blog tour: Cotton Cloud Refuses to Rain

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Welcome to the blog tour for Cotton Cloud Refuses to Rain , written by Elizabeth F. Hill and illustrated by Hannah George ! More about the book… Cotton Cloud wants to be the best cloud ever! She will never rain, she says, because rain makes people SAD. But the endless sunshine dries up the lake, withers the plants and cracks the soil. Sun and Wind tell Cotton Cloud it is time for her to rain! But stubborn Cotton Cloud refuses to listen. Until one day she looks down on the hot, tired people and sees they are no longer happy. Her heart swells with sorrow, and as her tears turn into rain, the dry earth turns green again. The people laugh and dance happily in the rain, and Cotton Cloud realises the importance of her true purpose. This beautifully illustrated, gentle story provides plenty of opportunities to discuss the importance of working together and how our actions can affect other people. Cotton Cloud is a character that both children and adults will relate to; she thinks she’s doing ...