Book after Book

Welcome to the blog tour for The Immigrant Queen by Peter Taylor-Gooby! More about the book… Hated as a foreigner, despised as a woman, I became First Lady of Athens Aspasia falls passionately in love with Pericles, the leading statesman of Fifth Century Athens. Artists, writers and thinkers frequent her salon. She hides her past as a sex-worker, trafficked to the city, and becomes Pericles’ lover. Her writings attract the attention of Socrates, and she becomes the only woman to join his circle. She is known throughout the city for her beauty and wit and strives to become recognised as an intellectual alongside men. Pericles’ enemies attack him through Aspasia and charge her with blasphemy. As a foreigner she faces execution, but her impassioned address to the jury shames the city and saves her. Pericles is spellbound, they marry, and she becomes First Lady of Athens. Sparta besieges the city; plague breaks out and Pericles is once again in danger. The Immigrant Que...

Welcome to the blog tour for The Lion Women of Tehran  by Marjan Kamali! More about the book… In 1950s Tehran, seven-year-old Ellie lives in grand comfort until the untimely death of her father, forcing Ellie and her mother to move to a tiny home downtown. Lonely and bearing the brunt of her mother’s endless grievances, Ellie dreams of a friend to alleviate her isolation. Luckily, on the first day of school, she meets Homa, a kind, passionate girl with a brave and irrepressible spirit. Together, the two girls play games, learn to cook in the stone kitchen of Homa’s warm home, wander through the colorful stalls of the Grand Bazaar, and share their ambitions for becoming 'lion women.' But their happiness is disrupted when Ellie and her mother are afforded the opportunity to return to their previous bourgeois life. Now a popular student at the best girls’ high school in Iran, Ellie’s memories of Homa begin to fade. Years later, however, her sudden reappearance in Ellie’s pri...

Welcome to the blog tour for People Collide  by Isle McElroy! More about the book… When Eli leaves the cramped Bulgarian apartment he shares with Elizabeth, his more organized and successful wife, he discovers that he now inhabits her body. Not only have he and his wife traded bodies, but Elizabeth, living as Eli, has disappeared without a trace. What follows is Eli’s search across Europe and to America for his missing wife—and a roving, no-holds-barred exploration of gender and embodied experience. As Eli comes closer to finding Elizabeth—while learning to exist in her body—he begins to wonder what effect this metamorphosis will have on their relationship and how long he can maintain the illusion of living as someone he isn’t. Will their new marriage wither completely? Or is this transformation the very thing Eli and Elizabeth need for their marriage to thrive? A rich, rewarding exploration of ambition and sacrifice, desire and loss,  People Collide  is a portr...

Welcome to the blog tour for Estella’s Revenge by Barbara Havelocke! More about the book… You know Miss Havisham. The world's most famous jilted bride. This is her daughter’s story. Raised in the darkness of Satis House where the clocks never tick, the beautiful Estella is bred to hate men and to keep her heart cold as the grave. She knows she doesn’t feel things quite like other people do but is this just the result of her strange upbringing? As she watches the brutal treatment of women around her, hatred hardens into a core of vengeance and when she finds herself married to the abusive Drummle, she is forced to make a deadly choice: Should she embrace the darkness within her and exact her revenge? More about the author… Barbara is an international bestselling author, whose psychological thrillers have topped Amazon and Kobo. Her writing career started in journalism, interviewing the real victims of crime - and the perpetrators. The realistic, complex characters who populat...

Welcome to the blog tour for The Booklover's Library by Madeline Martin! More about the book… In Nottingham, England, widow Emma Taylor finds herself in desperate need of a job. She and her beloved daughter Olivia have always managed just fine on their own, but with the legal restrictions prohibiting widows with children from most employment opportunities, she's left with only one option: persuading the manageress at Boots' Booklover's Library to take a chance on her with a job. When the threat of war in England becomes a reality, Olivia must be evacuated to the countryside. In the wake of being separated from her daughter, Emma seeks solace in the unlikely friendships she forms with her neighbours and coworkers, and a renewed sense of purpose through the recommendations she provides to the library's quirky regulars. But the job doesn't come without its difficulties. Books are mysteriously misshelved and disappearing and the work at the lending library forces h...

Welcome to the blog tour for Earthly Creatures  by Stevie Davies! More about the book… For all her life, idealistic 20-year-old bookworm Magdalena Arber has been split down the middle: veering wildly between fidelity to indoctrinated Nazi beliefs, and her father's humanist values. Then comes the summons–the Nazi War Labour Service is conscripting her into a teaching position in East Prussia. Magda is elated. It's a release from the cosy cage of childhood, and a chance to form young minds. She enters a lush rural world of forests, lakes, and meadows where order prevails. Yet there are monstrous hands out to shape the whole continuum of earthly creatures. The Gestapo are a lurking darkness. There is bombing further East, and news of a moving Russian front. Will Alt Schönbek burn as well? Can Magda survive? More about the author… Stevie Davies, who comes from Morriston, Swansea, is a novelist, literary critic, biographer and historian. She is a Fellow of the Royal Socie...

Welcome to the blog tour for Unravelling by Preethi Nair! More about the book… To the outside world, Bhanu seems to have a perfect life: a beautiful home and a wonderful husband and family... No one knows that each superficial layer has been carefully constructed to hide the dark secrets of her past and to bury the utter disappointment that what was written in the stars did not come to pass. Then, on the eve of her fortieth wedding anniversary and vow renewal ceremony, a chance encounter shatters Bhanu's pretence, when a face from her past reappears. Deep, her first love who was etched into her heart, the man who lingered in her dreams throughout her married life, reappears, asking her to abandon everything for a second chance at love. Forced to confront the consequences of choices made long ago, Bhanu begins to unravel as her life is thrust into chaos. But by reaching for a different future, can she heal the wounds of her past? More about the author… Preethi worked as a management...

Welcome to the blog tour for The Last Bookshop in Prague by Helen Parusel! More about the book… The banned books club was only the beginning; a place for the women of Prague to come together and share the tales the Germans wanted to silence. For bookshop owner, Jana, doing the right thing was never a question. So when opportunity comes to help the resistance, she offers herself – and her bookshop. Using her window displays as covert signals and hiding secret codes in bookmarks, she’ll do all in her power to help. But the arrival of two people in her bookshop will change everything: a young Jewish boy with nowhere else to turn, and a fascist police captain Jana can’t read at all. In a time where secrets are currency and stories can be fatal, will she know who to trust? More about the author… Helen Parusel is a historical novelist, having been a teacher and a clothes buyer for M&S. She currently lives in Hamburg. My impressions… From the same author of The Austrian Bride , which I h...

Welcome to the blog tour for The Beforelife of Eliza Valentine by Laura Pearson! More about the book… There are four of us: Samuel, Lucy, Thomas, and me – Eliza. We came into being the day Becca Valentine was born. We’ve been by her side ever since. What she doesn’t know yet, is that one day she might become our mother. Then two men come into her life. Both seeking her heart. And then we realise: everything rests on Becca’s love story. Because one of the men is Lucy and Thomas’s father. And the other is mine and Samuel’s. And there’s simply no way we can all be born. We all want her to make the right choice. We all want to be born. To hold her hand one day. To feel her stroke our hair. To call her our mother. Then we discover there is something we can do. We can change Fate. But we only have a single chance each. How would you make sure you were born? And what if doing that isn’t what’s best for the person you already love the most in the world – your mother? More about the author...

Welcome to the blog tour for Diva  by Daisy Goodwin! More about the book… In the glittering and ruthlessly competitive world of opera, Maria Callas is known simply as la divina : the divine one. With her glorious voice, instinctive flair for the dramatic and striking beauty, she's the toast of the grandest opera houses in the world. Yet her fame has been hard won: raised in Nazi-occupied Greece by a mother who mercilessly exploited her, Maria learned early in life how to protect herself. When she meets the fabulously rich shipping magnate, Aristotle Onassis, her isolation melts away. For the first time in her life, she believes she's found a man who sees the woman rather than the legendary soprano. Desperately in love, Onassis introduces her to a life of unbelievable luxury, mixing with celebrities like Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. And then, suddenly, it's over. The international press announce that Onassis will marry the most famous...

Welcome to the blog tour for Vagabond  by Mark Eveleigh! More about the book… This incredible true story of one man's 1,225-km hike across the Iberian Peninsula is a celebration of rural Spain along the road less travelled. Inspired by a nomadic "vagabundo" he met decades ago, travel writer Mark Eveleigh eschews the fast pace of modern life and sets off on a solo hike 1,225 km across the Iberian Peninsula - from Gibraltar in the far south to Estaca de Bares, Spain's most northerly tip - carrying just a backpack and a hammock. Hiking through sleepy siesta-hour plazas, shady cork forests and heat-shimmering plains, the hours would be long, dusty and hot. But, as Mark passes through the many small villages and communities en route, his trek comes to be characterized most of all by the sharing of stories, the true kindness of strangers, and the unbridled freedom of the open road. Recounting Mark's fascinating nomadic journey through Spain's least-visited region, E...

Welcome to the blog tour for Murder at Midwinter Manor by Anita Davison! More about the book… 1916, Midwinter Manor: Desperate for a Christmas weekend break from war-torn London, Hannah Merrill and her Aunt Violet take Bartleby the cat and themselves off to visit Hannah’s sister, in her beautiful country estate, deep in the English countryside. The huge house is full of relatives, friends and merrymakers, and everyone’s excited to have a Christmas to remember. But then, when a fellow-guest’s body is found in the library – apparently bludgeoned to death – and a precious ruby is stolen from another guest, it appears that it’s going to be memorable for all the wrong reasons. With the house snowed in, and the rural police force completely incapable of finding a single credible suspect, Hannah and Aunt Violet realise that once again it’s going to be down to them to get to the bottom of it. Because whoever’s behind the crimes must be at Midwinter Manor… And if they’re not found, wh...

Welcome to the blog tour for Poison in Piccadilly by Kelly Oliver! More about the book… Fiona is set to tie the knot with her dashing captain, Archie Somersby. But, while Fiona is busy planning her happily ever after, side-kick Kitty Lane and a group of judo-chopping suffragettes are kicking up trouble at the Piccadilly Jujitsu Club. When Kitty is found unconscious in the locker room during a high-stakes competition, Fiona must forsake her bouquets and bridal gown to investigate. Her sleuthing leads to a posh lady’s luncheon where a mysterious death crashes Fiona’s wedding plans. To make matters worse, the arch-nemesis of all things matrimonial Fredrick Fredricks is up to his old tricks, attempting to put the brakes on Fiona’s journey down the aisle. Will he succeed in tripping up Fiona’s wedding vows? Or will she finally say “I don’t” to the charming devil? More about the author… Kelly Oliver is the award-winning, bestselling author of three mysteries series: The Jessica James Myster...

Welcome to the blog tour for The Almanac : A Seasonal Guide to 2025 by Lia Leendertz! More about the book… 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; wildlife and folklore; seasonal recipes and more. The Almanac: A Seasonal Guide to 2025 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. And it's the ideal gift! You will find yourself referring to The Almanac all year long, revisiting it again and again, and looking forward to the next edition as the year draws to a close. More about the author… Lia Leendertz's ...

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 insta...

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 muc...

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...

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 ea...

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 ...

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 Bir...

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 drama...

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 booksellin...

Welcome to the blog tour for One Wrong Turn  by C M Ewan! More about the book… Abi and Ben are driving home down foggy country roads, arguing about having had to cut short their weekend away when they take a wrong turn. Abi’s driving, but her eyes leave the road for a moment as she says something to Ben – just as he gasps. A man is in front of the car, waving a torch. Abi swerves to avoid him. Ben tells her they should stop and go back, but Abi refuses. It’s dark, the roads are isolated and they don’t know this stranger. But, as Abi continues on, they see a broken-down car. Every instinct is still telling Abi to drive by, but then she notices the woman holding a car seat with a baby in it. For a moment, Abi hesitates, but they can’t leave a mother and baby on the side of the road. Agreeing to give the family a lift, they set off again. But now these strangers are inside their car and it might be the worst mistake they have ever made ... More about the author… C....